When the Browns' coaching staff woke up on Tuesday morning, they realized that Monday night was not a dream, and that later in the day they would still have to sort out an undeniable mess at quarterback.
There is the player they wish they could play, Johnny Manziel, who is still being punished. There is the veteran they had to overpay to hold down the fort, Josh McCown, who is done for the season with a fractured collarbone. And then there is the third-stringer who the team locked up on a three-year deal because of all the mass uncertainty with the other two. That quarterback, Austin Davis, is 26 and played fairly well on Monday.
What does Browns coach Mike Pettine do?
Pettine wasn't prepared to announce a decision Tuesday, saying he would decide Wednesday whether he Davis or Manziel would start Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.
"I'm not prepared to answer that now," Pettine said Tuesday.
Pettine is still punishing Manziel and, for a while Monday night, it seemed to be working. Manziel would have loved the chance to be out there with the game on the line and has nailed a similar pass to Travis Benjamin that Davis did to tie the game late in the fourth quarter.
But then the block happened. Josh Gordon, another example of dreams deferred for Browns fans, began drumming up support for Manziel. If Manziel really took away anything from Monday night's game, it's that he probably should have been playing the whole time.
Pettine can go one of two ways after he digests the film and prepares to name a starting quarterback. Neither is ideal, but then again, with the No. 1 pick in the draft rapidly approaching, does it matter?
