Browns QB Davis to start over Manziel

Unfortunately for the Browns, they’re still going to take some lumps. And in the Browns’ heartbreaking Monday night loss to the Baltimore Ravens, McCown was injured and unable to continue.

Johnny Manziel’s spell on the bench will continue for the time being after the Cleveland Browns coach picked Austin Davis to start at quarterback against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. However, Pettine did not want to further complicate things for himself in case Davis struggles in practice this week. “We’re going to discuss it more and determine our best course of action moving forward”.

A back and forth battle led to the game being tied late in the fourth when Austin Davis relieved Josh McCown, who went down with an injured shoulder, and scored on an impressive 42-yard TD pass to Travis Benjamin.

McCown kept playing despite taking a big hit in the second half, but had to leave the field after throwing an incompletion in the fourth quarter.

“We feel good about what we have gotten”, Pettine said.

“At the end of the day whoever’s out there, remember the game plan, remember what type of quarterback this is and remember the film study and rely on that”, Bengals linebacker Vinny Rey said. But it will take more than the rest of the season to get it healed up. “I can’t emphasize enough the importance of the trust and the accountability piece”.

And while Manziel may (or may not) still be Cleveland’s quarterback of the future, Davis is the quarterback of the moment. He had driven the Browns into position to win the game before the Ravens blocked a field goal attempt and ran it back for a touchdown.

Austin Davis has scaled the Browns depth chart over the past few weeks.

Prior to Week 12, Manziel had been named the season starter, but social media pictures of the quarterback partying in Texas ended that idea. Manziel, the 22nd overall pick in last year’s draft, partied during the brief vacation, then lied to the Browns after a video showing him singing, dancing and holding a large bottle at a nightclub appeared online. Manziel had promised his coaches that he would not be a distraction and then became one anyway. The Browns could easily be preparing to move on from the troubled quarterback by trading or releasing him once the season is over. “He’s relentless in that way, so I think he goes into games with, in his mind, I think processing speed that he’s rehearsed it so many times in his head that I think he gets the ball out and he’s decisive, maybe quicker than some other guys”.