By Lynn Saternow

Herald Sports Editor

QUARTERBACK Brady Quinn looked solid in his debut for the Cleveland Browns Thursday night. Now if he could only play defense as well.

As I sat in the Cleveland Dawg Pound Thursday with son Alex, grandson Garrett and brother Paul, there was disgust all around as the defense twice let leads slip away in a loss to Denver. But even though everyone realizes that the season is over for the Browns, the fans — at least those who weren’t comatose from hours of tailgating then drinking at the game — still were somewhat upbeat because they knew they had seen the future.

Quinn actually looks like a quarterback. He feels the rush pressure, he moves around, he can scramble and he doesn’t always lock in on one receiver like his predecessor Derek Anderson. Actually make it several predecessors since the Browns returned to Cleveland.

The only knock was that the coaches didn’t call any deep patterns to let him throw down the field. Of course that may have something to do with the fact that many of the receivers — at least Braylon Edwards — have a tendency to drop passes.

But while Quinn is the future of the Browns, Romeo Crennel isn’t. Cleveland’s coach and his staff seem to be clueless on both offense and defense. And some of the game-time decisions leave fans scratching their heads.

Bill Cowher, are you busy the rest of the season and the next 5 years?

Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Steelers are looking like one of the teams to beat in the AFC. Despite a slew of injuries to key players, the Steelers take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’. (Hey, that might make a good slogan for a watch company.)

However, and this is a big HOWEVER, the offensive line has been so porous that Ben Roethlisberger may have few body parts left after the season. The good news is that Pittsburgh has a solid backup in Byron Leftwich.

The Steelers today are going up against another team hampered by injuries, the Indianapolis Colts. Former Sharon High star Marlon Jackson, the talented young cornerback of the Colts, is out for the rest of the season and other Colts are sidelined.

Pittsburgh owns the Colts. The Colts are unable to run the ball, so all the pressure is on Peyton Manning. And that pressure will be great. He could take a Big Ben-like pounding today.

Watch for the Steelers to roll, 27-13.

My predictions this season are as bad as the Browns defense. Maybe that 10-second study on each game isn’t quite enough. Last week the picks went 5-9 for an overall mark of 64-65. Here are the rest of this week’s pick (betting line in parentheses just for fun):