Austin Davis will make his first start as a Brown on Sunday against the Bengals at FirstEnergy Stadium, but that’s as far as coach Mike Pettine will look at the position in the wake of Josh McCown’s season-ending clavicle injury.
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Johnny Manziel will remain on the bench this week, as Austin Davis will be the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns.
Pettine said his decision to play Davis and not Manziel – recently demoted for breaking a promise to Cleveland’s coaches to behave during the bye week – had nothing to do with punishing one player but rewarding another.
Quarterback Josh McCown will miss the rest of the season after fracturing his collarbone in a 33-27 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night.
Pettine said he would “take everything into consideration” when deciding which quarterback starts.
Browns cornerback Justin Gilbert sustained a concussion while returning a kickoff in the third quarter of his first start this season. “We play hard on special teams”.
Davis was 7-of-10 passing for 77 yards in relief of McCown including a game-tying touchdown pass to Travis Benjamin.
Arizona has placed Chris Johnson on the injured reserve/designated to return list, a move that means the only way the running back will play again this season is if the Cardinals reach the Super Bowl.
“We feel good about what we have gotten”, Pettine said.
There’s no going back to McCown this year because it was announced Tuesday that he’s out for the season with a broken collarbone. McCown didn’t disappoint, completing 63.7 percent of his passes with 12 touchdowns, four interceptions and a rating of 93.3. Would Pettine go with Manziel or Davis? “Tough for a two-minute drive, made a couple plays, was able to come in on very short notice”. Unless the Browns ignore the performance by Austin Davis or throw Pryor into the fire, it’s Manziel’s turn. “Commendable to him to pay attention to the game plan and when his number was called, answering it”. He said Manziel had violated the organization’s trust and hadn’t lived up to his responsibilities.
Coons’ potential game-winner from 51 yards was deflected by Urban, who was making his National Football League debut after missing his rookie season with a knee injury and then tearing a biceps in training camp.
The switch to Davis then was largely expected based on the depth chart, but the Browns wouldn’t talk at first about who the starter would be when they found out McCown wasn’t coming back.
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But they weren’t up for long as Schaub countered with his second scoring pass, a 15-yarder to Kamar Aiken to put the Ravens ahead 24-20 with 5:30 left in the third quarter.
