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Brian Hoyer has impressed national analysts such as CBS Phil Simms with his gamewinning touchdown drive against the Vikings.

(John Kuntz, The Plain Dealer)

BEREA, Ohio -- CBS analyst Phil Simms, a former Super Bowl MVP quarterback, thinks the Browns have a starter in Brian Hoyer and compared his moxie to Andrew Luck of the Colts.

"I think it was really a disgrace (Hoyer) wasn’t in the NFL once the New England Patriots let him go (in the final cuts last year)," Simms said on CBS Sports Network's NFL Monday QB show. "Why wasn’t he in the league? Well, because he didn’t have the name. He wasn’t a high draft pick. All the political stuff that is wrong.

"But he can play. He has good presence on the field. (When he) played in preseason games for the Patriots, most of the time he was spectacular. I’ve watched him practice probably 50 times over the years. I’ve always been impressed."

Simms was equally impressed with Hoyer's game-winning 11-play drive that ended with a 7-yard TD pass to tight end Jordan Cameron with 51 seconds left Sunday in the deafening Metrodome. In just his second career start, Hoyer completed six of 11 attempts for 55 yards. It overcame three interceptions, including two in a shaky third quarter.

"When you watch him on the field, yeah he made some mistakes, but he’s not afraid to take chances," said Simms. "That’s one thing I like about him. And he just has a presence. What I said about Andrew Luck, I say about Brian Hoyer… He's got chutzpah. It’s a great trait that he has and he brought some personality to that football team yesterday.''

Hoyer, who threw for 321 yards with three touchdowns, also made former Browns quarterback Trent Dilfer's "Dime of the Day'' on ESPN with his game-winning score, and was featured on ESPN's biggest moments from Sunday. CBS' Boomer Esiason compared his throwing motion to that of Hoyer's former mentor Tom Brady of the Patriots.

"I thought it was a gutsy performance," coach Rob Chudzinski said. "He had some turnovers in the second half and made some throws I know that he'd like to have back, but that didn't faze him, and when we needed to rise up to the occasion on the last drive, he was able to do that and make the play ultimately that helped us win the game."

Despite that, Chudzinski wasn't ready Monday to name Hoyer the starter for Sunday's home game against the Bengals, saying he'll wait to find out about Brandon Weeden's sprained right thumb assess the challenges the 2-1 Bengals present. He said Weeden's thumb is better but he hasn't thrown. He stressed that he'll play whoever gives the best chance to win.

Chudzinski said he could tell in his players' eyes on the sidelines that he was onto something special with Hoyer, originally signed as an undrafted free agent by the Patriots out of Michigan State.

"All of them, the whole offense and the group, they believed,'' said Chudzinski. "I looked at them and talked to them about how much we would enjoy this after the series was over. When we scored the touchdown, the looks I got back from those guys, I knew we had a great shot at doing that."

Cameron, who caught three touchdown passes, marveled at his QB's demeanor, especially his abiity to bounce back from a third quarter in which he threw two picks and earned a 9.6 rating.

"He was very poised,'' said Cameron. "That’s a great word to describe the way he played. He had a rough third quarter but he bounced back and led our team to a touchdown winning drive and it shows a lot about him and the opportunities he had and he took advantage of them.”

What's more, Hoyer displayed an impressive accuracy despite only one week of work with the starters.

"Guys being accurate is one thing," said Chudzinski. "Putting the ball in a place where receivers can catch it and be able to do things with it after the catch is another. I think all of the guys have grown and gotten better in that area. When you get a quarterback to the elite level, that’s the thing that they’re able to do better than the guys who are just good guys.”

Cameron experienced that pinpoint precision firsthand.

“Definitely," Cameron said. "Both the touchdowns he threw to me were in perfect spots, right over my shoulder where no one else could get it in an area that it’s hard to throw those balls -- right on the sideline. He put it in the right spot. He definitely showed his accuracy.”

Hoyer lamented the three picks, even though the last one came when his arm was hit.

"They were just decisions that I know he'd like to have back,'' said Chudzinski. "From a coverage standpoint, he would want to be somewhere else on one of them. Then the other one, he was just thinking the guy was going to be open and he wasn’t, and just being able to see that and get to a secondary option.”

On the third one, "he knew right coming off of the field what happened and understood it. You move on and Brian did a great job overall of moving on, and that’s how you have to handle it at the time.”

Chudzinski said he expects Hoyer to correct those mistakes.

"We'll coach him a little harder,'' he said. "He’ll see it and that’s where you expect guys to grow and get better.”

Hoyer admitted the mistakes were hard to shake off.

"You get angry at yourself,'' he said. "It is not like it was a bad throw, but it was just two bad decisions and that's what gets me angry. If you get hit while you're throwing, there's only so much you can do. But when they're bad decisions, that's not my game, and that really gets me going.''

Fortunately for the Browns, the Vikings scored only seven points off the interceptions.

"The defense did a great job of bailing me out,'' he said. "The Vikings didn't score off two of the picks, and that's huge. If they scored off of those, that probably would've been a different ball game.''

Linebacker D'Qwell Jackson stressed that Hoyer's interceptions "didn't deflate the defense at all because we knew we could move the ball. It was up to us to give them more attempts.''

Linebacker Craig Robertson couldn't help but peek at the Hoyer show from the sidelines.

“He gets the ball out quick,'' said Robertson. "And when you get the ball out quick, you give the guys a chance to make plays. He definitely does that.”

Barring some unforeseen circumstance, he'll get a chance to keep on doing it.