Tony Grossi
Plain Dealer Reporter

On a sweltering night with the starting quarterback job riding on every play, it was no sweat for Kelly Holcomb.

Cool, unflappable and, most of all, daring, Holcomb emphatically stated his case for the job that has belonged to Tim Couch for four years.

Holcomb supervised touchdown drives on his first two possessions with the Browns' No. 1 offense. For one quarter, he outdueled Green Bay's Brett Favre.

The Packers went on to thrash all the Browns' defensive units — first, second and third teams — in a 38-31 victory.

Coach Butch Davis better make the right call on his quarterback, for the offense is going to have to carry his defense to be competitive early.

"The coaching staff will be in the office probably 7 in the morning and we'll spend five hours grading this film," Davis said. "We'll get ev´ erybody's feelings about how every´ thing's gone in training camp. We'll sit down as an organization, as a coaching staff, and make a decision.

“I’ll get a chance to sleep on it and then we’ll make a decision on Sunday.”

Asked how difficult would be the decision, Davis said, “Not as difficult as trying to get our de´ fense to stop the run.”

The coach praised both quar´ terbacks and his first-team offen´ sive line.

“I think they were both very efficient,” he said. “They both threw the ball well.”

Holcomb was 7-of-10 for 166 yards and two touchdowns in the most important tryout of his journeyman NFL career.

His lone mistake was an un´ derthrown long ball for Quincy Morgan that was intercepted on the first play of his third possession.

Even with the interception, Holcomb’s passer rating com´ puted to 112.5. Favre, who was 9-of-14 for 102 yards and one touchdown, had a rating of 109.8. It would have been enter´ taining to see them duel for four quarters.

“I’m sure it’s going to be a tough decision,” Holcomb said. “Whoever loses this job I don’t think lost the job. We both can play. People know we both can move the football team, both can do what needs to be done.”

Couch relieved Holcomb in the second quarter and countered with a touchdown throw of 20 yards to Kevin Johnson on his first series. His only other possession came with a minute to go in the first half and netted nothing. Couch was 4-of-7 for 51 yards. His rating was 119.6.

But the night belonged to Holcomb.

Holcomb benefited from Wil´ liam Green on the first series. The second-year back energized the crowd and the sideline when he grabbed Holcomb’s short screen pass on the second play and took it to the house.

Green accelerated 82 yards for the touchdown, separating from Green Bay’s defensive backs as if he were in another league. The play was set up by a Holcomb play-fake to Green and then an´ other fake to Dennis Northcutt running an end-around.

Holcomb’s second possession was a masterful display of precision passing downfield.

He connected with Morgan for 39 yards down the left sideline to get things rolling. Morgan could have had more, but his back foot stepped out of bounds when he shook a defender.

After Morgan had a ball knocked out on third down, Holcomb faced fourth down from the Packers’ 37. He converted a perfect sideline out to Johnson for 9 yards. Three plays later, an´ other play-fake sprung tight end Steve Heiden open in the end zone, and Holcomb zinged it to him from 14 yards. The drive was 74 yards in nine plays.

On the series, Green had runs of 8 and 7 yards, and a catch for 15. He left the game with a sore neck after 120 total yards in two series.

The tempo changed when Couch took over. His passes were shorter, and the play-calling seemed bent on running the ball with James Jackson.

But a 16-yard completion to Northcutt on fourth down enliv´ ened things and earned a first down, though a late hit by Andre King brought a 15-yard penalty. Jackson had three good runs, and then Johnson beat cor´ nerback Bhawoh Jue for the touchdown.

“I’m bracing for both possibili´ ties,” Couch said of the pending decision. “I’m ready for whatever’s going to come out of this. If I’m not the starter, I’ll be there supporting Kelly.”

It was another long night de´ fensively for the Browns.

“Defensively, I was disgusted,” Davis said.

Ahman Green chewed them up for 55 yards on nine runs, mostly right up the gut of the defensive tackles. On Green Bay’s second touchdown drive, Green had runs of 9, 13, 5 and 7 yards before blasting through Andra Davis’ tackle attempt for a 1-yard touchdown.

In the third quarter, Green Bay fullback Nick Luchey shoved it down the Browns’ throats on suc´ cessive runs inside the 10 for a touchdown.

Davis, fighting for the starting job at middle linebacker, was one of the few bright spots on de´ fense. He ran about 20 yards downfield to intercept a Doug Pederson pass for tight end Wesley Walls, and then had the pres´ ence of mind during his return to lateral to Anthony Henry, who added another 22 yards.

Safety Michael Jameson also had an active night in place of injured Robert Griffith. And rookie cornerback Michael Lehan con´ tinued to close the gap on the veterans in front of him.

Lehan leaped high to deflect a pass for Karsten Bailey in the end zone to prevent a touchdown. Lehan injured his calf on the play and left the game.

Josh Booty started the second half at quarterback for the Browns, but he left with a bloody right hand after he was knocked to the ground on his third play by tackle Steve Warren.

Rookie Nate Hybl put up 10 points in the second half.

Hybl threw a 7-yard scoring pass to rookie back Billy Blanchard and directed an 11-play drive that ended in a Phil Dawson field goal from 39 yards.

Akili Smith, Couch’s rival from the 1999 draft, finished off the Browns with a 76-yard touch´ down drive in the fourth quarter. Smith was 4-for-4 on the series and shovel-passed 13 yards to Herbert Goodman for the score.