Quinn anxious for new challenge

09.17.2009

Ten months ago, Brady Quinn's first NFL start came against the Broncos.

It was also Quinn's best pro game from a statistical standpoint, but a late Broncos rally beat the Browns. And that's just one reason Quinn and the Browns don't put much stock in that game as they prepare for Sunday's trip to Denver.

The biggest reason is that so much is new with Broncos. New head coach Josh McDaniels has a new base defense, the 3-4, and a new coordinator in Mike Nolan making the calls. Five defensive starters were acquired in free agency this spring, and the only one who has any familiarity with Quinn is Andra Davis, who spent his first seven NFL seasons with the Browns.

Quinn is spending plenty of hours this week looking at the Broncos' defense, but he's not looking back.

"I don't want to go back to reverting back to things in the past," Quinn said. "It was my first NFL start.I was excited about it.We didn't have much time to prepare (it was a Thursday night game).

"Looking back on the game, I played alright, but again, we didn't get a win. It was last year, different offense, different circumstances.It really doesn't matter coming into this week for me."

"I don't think this is a situation where you do have a lot of familiarity, because so many pieces have changed," Browns head coach Eric Mangini said. "There are quite a few changes, defensively, in terms of who the personnel is.There are quite a few changes, defensively, in terms of the scheme that they play.Also, there are going to be those game plan defenses that he won't be familiar with, because they're unique to us.The uniform will be the same, but that might be the only familiarity."

The main focus for the Browns' offense remains finding and developing what they do well, regardless of opponent. Twice settling for field goals in the first half of last week's season opener came back to haunt the Browns as two second-half turnovers allowed the Vikings a chance to pull away.

"I would say this offense is still young," Quinn said. "I don't think you necessarily put a label on a young infant when it's first starting out.This is after one game of the season.I wouldn't go too much based off preseason.I'd say we're still growing, still getting better and better."

The Broncos' defense has to be feeling good about itself. The only points it allowed last week in Cincinnati came on the Bengals' final real drive, and Denver won the game on an 87-yard touchdown pass of a deflection in the closing seconds.

The Browns ended up closing well in last week's game as Quinn hit Robert Royal from 26 yards out late in the game for the first offensive touchdown of the season, but the game was out of reach. Quinn finished 21-of-35 for 205 yards, but he was sacked 5 times, threw an interception and lost a fumble.

Quinn has always been his own toughest critic and has no plans to change that now.

"You are never going to hear me say I played well enough, especially when we lose," he said. "Anytime I am going to be playing, I always feel as if the onus is on me. I didn't play well enough for us to win.

"I've got to do a lot of things better across the board in order to put our team in a position to win. That's how I feel it's going to be week in and week out."