CLEVELAND — It's a tough job being a quarterback in Cleveland.

Just ask expected one-time saviors Tim Couch, Trent Dilfer and Jeff Garcia.

With four games left in this season to forget, Browns fans can add the team's top two quarterbacks — youngster Brady Quinn and veteran Derek Anderson — to the pile of potential signal callers that for one reason or another, just haven't been able to get the job done in this blue-collar town.

A finger injury that will probably require surgery did in Quinn last week against Houston.

And when Anderson went down with a potential season-ending knee injury late in the fourth quarter of today's 10-6 loss to Indianapolis, that left the game in the hands of little-used third-stringer Ken Dorsey.

Dorsey threw three passes in his 2008 debut, all of which fell incomplete. His final, a Hail Mary deep into traffic downfield, was intercepted by Colts defensive back Antoine Bethea to seal the Browns' fourth loss in their last five games.

With Anderson limping around with what he described as at least "a strained MCL" that will be evaluated further Monday, it sounds as if the Browns are prepared to let Dorsey play out the string.

When asked whether Dorsey would start at Tennessee on Sunday, embattled Browns coach Romeo Crennel said simply: "Looks like it."

With that ringing endorsement in mind, here's a thought: Why not let return-man extraordinaire Joshua Cribbs get a shot at quarterback?

He was a dual threat passer/runner who rewrote the record book at Kent State University before signing with the Browns as a free agent in 2005. The Browns have looked to take advantage of his athleticism on offense with his patented "Flash" package.

Despite the team's emergency plans quickly becoming more of a reality each week, Cribbs said he didn't expect his preparation this week to change significantly.

"I'll just probably take a few more snaps just in case as an emergency precaution," he said. "But my life won't change much."

Sure, Cribbs is undersized for a quarterback at 6-foot-1. But he's already proven naysayers wrong by making it in the NFL and being voted to the Pro Bowl last season in just his third year.

Perhaps more importantly, Cribbs' leadership has increased as he's become one of the team's go-to voices. And unlike some of the Browns' former high-profile quarterbacks, Cribbs gets Cleveland and its passionate fans.

"It's a tough job being a quarterback in Cleveland," Cribbs said. "You count how many quarterbacks we had come through here in the past 10 years. Derek's a great quarterback and we rallied behind him. Anybody who's at the helm, we trusted to get the job done. It's unfortunate things happen. But we're professionals and we have to pick up where we left off and keep on going."

But Cribbs doesn't have much of a chance to affect the game in his current role, where he handles the ball only a handful of times, mostly on kick returns. Still, it was the Browns' lack of offense that was on his mind most after Sunday's loss.

"It's something we're going to hop on coming up this week," Cribbs said. "We have to score points. When your defense holds a great powerhouse and future hall of fame quarterback to three points, you gotta put up numbers."

When asked about the possibility of turning to Cribbs to run the offense, Anderson was surprised by such a notion.

"I don't think we're going to bring anybody else in," he said. "We're not putting Josh in. You guys must be on crack, smoking crack. Just because we're playing bad doesn't mean we're going to put a receiver at quarterback."

But at this point in the season, why not? Even Crennel admitted the team would "have to talk about it and try to make some determination."

At this point, what do the Browns have to lose? Even Dorsey realizes when it comes to Cleveland and football, anything can happen. Asked whether he expected to have to fight off Cribbs for some playing time, he said with a grin: "Oh, man, it's going to be interesting."

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