Browns move QB Johnny Manziel back to starting role

The Browns ended the week the same way they started it – feeling humiliated, dejected and embarrassed. Foles was benched just after the midway point in the season and was forced to play the last two weeks because of a concussion to backup turned starter Case Keenum. And there are still four games left.

“We haven’t had those discussions”, Pettine said. It was the seven-game losing streak, the 2-10 record and the way the season has disintegrated. Former S.F. defender Donte Whitner leads the Browns secondary with 66 tackles this season.

The blowout raised more questions about the franchise’s direction, and Pettine, who is just 2-15 in his last 17 games, said there’s not complete agreement on what should be done to fix things. He struggled against the Bengals but threw for 372 yards against the Steelers. This was a slow, methodical pummeling.

“Now it depends on how those games go”, he said. “We just have to keep fighting”.

Browns coach Mike Pettine said after Sunday’s game that he would make a decision about the quarterback position on Monday. He won the second game of the season over Tennessee, but lost badly to Cincinnati and Pittsburgh in November.

But Manziel’s move back to first-string comes a day after the Browns were soundly beaten at home by the Bengals, 37-3.

The Heisman Trophy victor and first-round pick has been more effective this season (5 TD passes, 2 INTs), however his 59.4 percent completion percentage is nothing to rave about. It was a commendable performance, but not enough for Pettine to guarantee giving him another start next week against San Francisco. It’s a near certainty that Pettine won’t be back with the team next year.

Manziel got the nod over Austin Davis, who tried to hold the injury-riddled offense together during Sunday’s 37-3 rout by the Bengals.

“When things aren’t well and you have losses like this, the questions come up”, said Pettine, who defended his team’s effort Sunday. It’s going to come down to a brutal self-assessment and to be able to have the strength to make tough decisions and trust them and move forward. He was not the reason his team lost.

“You’re probably at a point to now where it gets hard to stay motivated to an extent”, Hartline said on December 7. That is a big part of it. That is where the plan starts. Then Josh McCown got hurt.

“I think we already have a sense of where he is from a football standpoint. But at the end of the day, you’re only as good as the final score”.

Browns left guard Joel Bitonio has been taken to the locker room with a left ankle injury. They signed Terrell Pryor as a QB/WR last week and labeled him a “security blanket” but declined to make him active for yesterday’s game. Jeff Garcia (2004) and Brian Hoyer (2013) are the only Browns QBs to win their first start with the team…. Eifert has 46 catches for 522 yards. Four receivers – Dwayne Bowe, Terrelle Pryor, Taylor Gabriel (concussion) and Andrew Hawkins (concussion) – were inactive.