Only in Cleveland would Johnny Manziel sit at this stage of season

 In most cities, OTB means Off Track Betting.

In Cleveland, it means Only The Browns.

The 33-27 loss to Baltimore gave "Monday Night Football" fans a look at the peculiarly Brownian knack of losing in odds-defying ways on stupid/strange/sado-masochistic plays that rarely, if ever, occur anywhere else.

Not the Cubs or Sixers ...

There actually are longer running and more grisly examples of losing. The Chicago Cubs haven't won the World Series since 1908, although, by their mere presence in the National League Championship Series this past season, they appear to be a bit closer to it than the Super Bowl is to the 2-9 Browns.

The Philadelphia 76ers have tanked for additional NBA draft lottery ping-pong balls for years, without a LeBron James or Kyrie Irving to pop out of the hopper and on to their roster.

... only the Browns

Mike "Bottom Line" Pettine is trying so hard to win every game that he has lost any concept of a future vision.

He has no plan beyond letting a veteran quarterback -- you say "McCown," I say "Hoyer'' -- get the hell beaten out of him in the first case, or get his confidence stomped flat in the second. Only then, presumably, will Pettine play the life of the party, the littlest Heisman Trophy winner, the quarterback born under a neon sign, Johnny Manziel.

And where Manziel was, was on the bench Monday night because Pettine stapled him to it for an amateurish cover-up of his latest off-days bacchanal.

How low can they go?

The Browns are probably the worst professional sports franchise in the country, at least among those (remember the spirit of the 76ers) who are really trying to win.

The Browns are so low in national esteem that they troll the football equivalent of the thermal vents at the bottom of the Marianas Trench in the Pacific. This is the deepest point on the surface of the earth. Strange creatures live there and also in Berea.

Back to the future

In 2002, ironically the restored franchise's only playoff season, Dwayne Rudd's helmet toss, still the all-time palm-to-forehead-slapper to me, cost a game after it should have been won.

Another year (why, this very one!) one of general manager Ray Farmer's free agent gems, Tramon Williams, jumped offside on a last-play missed field goal with the score tied. And -- of course -- San Diego made the do-over.

Or, (why this was just on Monday night!) the Ravens scored on two "kick-sicks."  (Credit where it is due. My friend Ray Ratto of Yahoo Sports Tweeted the term). 

The second one came on the last play and led Ravens coach John Harbaugh to tell "Bottom Line" Mike that he never saw anything like it in his life.

This means Harbaugh never saw the "Fail to the Victors" botched punt by which Michigan "pulled a Browns" and lost in almost impossible fashion to Michigan State this very season. It was on all the highlights shows, though, and it sank his brother Jim Harbaugh's Wolverines.

Maybe the elder Harbaugh has blotted out the memory of it in the same way Browns fans wish they could blot out the names of Farmer's draft picks.

On the blocked field goal, a former Urban Meyer player (in his Florida, not Ohio State coaching incarnation) named Will Hill threaded his way down the sideline while the Browns whiffed on tackles.

The kick was blocked by Brent Urban. It enabled John Harbaugh to win. Brent Urban appeared to beat -- of course -- Browns first-round draft pick Danny Shelton on the play.

It was -- of course -- placekicker Travis Coons' first missed field goal of the year.

McCown also took the hit that finally forced him out of the game after -- of course -- another first-round draft choice who is quite the find, Cam Erving, threw as crunching a block as you or I did while watching the game at home and flinching.

The real "bottom line"

The last play kept the ABM (Anybody But Manziel) pundits in the local media from seeing in Austin Davis, the back-up who threw the game-tying touchdown pass, the anti-Johnny of their dreams.

Although fans had chanted "Johnny! Johnny!" when it was evident, even to Pettine, that McCown was through for the night, no one knows whether Manziel is the long-term answer or not.

Even if you think a one-game benching was appropriate for Manziel, the question is: How long can Pettine delay and obstruct the franchise's future planning under the guise of discipline?

The Browns future might or might not involve Manziel. I'd say at this point, probably not.  But they have to find out. It's a topic of debate only in Cleveland.