CLEVELAND — The Browns got their usual effort from Braylon Edwards on Sunday — a couple of big catches and plenty of dropped passes.
What was different this time around was the fourth-year receiver’s postgame performance. In what was a rare display for the enigmatic University of Michigan product, Edwards took the blame for what has turned into a disastrous season for him and his team.
“I’ve been very inconsistent this year,” said Edwards, a Pro Bowl receiver in 2007, who caught 80 passes for over 1,200 yards and 16 touchdowns. “I haven’t been what I was last year for this team.
“I don’t know what it is. All I know is that I work hard. I know what I’m supposed to do. I’m healthy. It hasn’t been all bad or all good, but it’s definitely been more of the bad. Last year I was one guy. This year I’m a different guy.”
The Browns and their quarterbacks — Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson — both of whom played in the loss to the Texans, don’t want this one.
According to unofficial statistics, Edwards has dropped between 17-22 passes — any of those numbers accounting for an NFL high. On Sunday, he had five receptions for 85 yards — 42 yards coming on one catch — but was credited with three drops.
Another poor performance from Edwards came on the heels of a somewhat positive one in a victory against the Bills last Monday, in which he caught eight passes for 104 yards, but still had a couple of drops.
“We worked through some things early in the year and thought that he was coming back around and beginning to make some plays,” Browns coach Romeo Crennel said of Edwards. “He caught seven in a row last week (against Buffalo), so we thought that maybe he was over the hump. We reverted back a little bit today. It was unfortunate, but that happened.”
Edwards’ first drop Sunday came in the second quarter on a slant route that was thrown behind him by Quinn. He dropped another on a perfectly thrown pass deep down the middle from Anderson in the fourth quarter. Both plays would’ve resulted in first downs.
The third unofficial drop, which could be disputed, was the one Edwards was most upset with and would have meant the most to the Browns had he made the catch.
Trailing by 10 points with a little more than seven minutes to play, Edwards failed to come up with a jump ball in the end zone on a fade route from Anderson that would have given Cleveland new life. Edwards appeared to have the ball on his finger tips before it was initially broken up by Bills cornerback Jacque Reeves, with Edwards getting his hands on the ball again as he fell to the turf.
Though he didn’t say he dropped the ball, Edwards did claim he should have made the play.
After bristling at the notion that he was being asked to criticize Edwards for a drop, Anderson appeared to defend the receiver, who was not on the same page with him before he lost the starting QB job to Quinn.
“It could’ve been a touchdown. It should’ve been a touchdown,” Anderson said. “It happens. I’m going to keep throwing to him and he’s going to make plays.”
Edwards hasn’t made enough plays this year to appease himself, the organization or Browns fans, who booed him throughout the game, with the volume increasing during the final quarter.
“I know the fans are upset with me right now, and I don’t blame them,” Edwards said. “But I want them to know that I’m trying. I don’t ever drop a ball that I don’t care about.
“Football is my life. That’s all I have. I don’t have kids. I don’t have a wife. I don’t have a fiancée. I love football.”
But not dropping them so often.
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. 

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