Kosar and Moon Sidelined Several Weeks by Injuries

Quarterbacks Bernie Kosar of the Cleveland Browns and Warren Moon of the Houston Oilers, who were expected to lead their teams to big things this season, instead will be on the sidelines for several weeks.

Kosar is expected to be out four to eight weeks with an injury to his passing arm suffered in Sunday’s 6-3 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.

“I’m obviously, from my standpoint, pretty disappointed,” Kosar said shortly after receiving the diagnosis Monday. “The encouraging thing, though, is that the team is solid and has a lot of depth.

“This will be a true test of our team’s character. The team showed a lot of character (Sunday).”

Gary Danielson, who replaced Kosar in Sunday’s game and drove the Browns to two field goals by Matt Bahr, will take over for Kosar, Coach Marty Schottenheimer said. Mike Pagel will be the backup.

Danielson completed 18 of 29 passes for 170 yards against the Chiefs after Kosar suffered a sprained right elbow in the first minute of the second quarter when he was sacked by Lloyd Burruss on a safety blitz.

Danielson, 36, has started only one game since 1985, and that was in a replacement game during last season’s players’ strike. He played eight seasons with Detroit.

Moon will be sidelined four to six weeks with a broken bone in his shoulder suffered in Sunday’s 17-14 victory in over the Indianapolis Colts in overtime.

“Obviously, I’m very disappointed to have this injury at this time,” Moon said. “When it happened, I thought it was a bruise, but the X-rays showed it was fractured.”

Moon suffered a fractured scapula in his right shoulder when he was tackled by linebacker Cliff Odom early in the third quarter. Moon completed 11 of 15 passes for 137 yards before he was sidelined.

Moon will miss Sunday’s home opener against the Raiders and likely will miss games with the New York Jets, New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles.

Cody Carlson, an Oiler rookie last season, played his first NFL game after Moon’s injury and is the probable starter for Sunday’s game in the Astrodome.

Carlson was activated shortly before Sunday’s game instead of the team’s third quarterback, Brent Pease.

“I felt good about the win, no matter how ugly it was or how conservative it was,” Carlson said. “It was still a win.”

After Moon’s injury, the Oilers went to a conservative, ground-oriented offense.

“That had nothing to do with changing quarterbacks,” Oiler Coach Jerry Glanville said. “We had decided to lean on them before Warren got hurt.”

But it was a 21-yard pass from Carlson to Drew Hill in overtime that set up Tony Zendejas’ game-winning field goal.

Glanville said he won’t decide until later in the week who will start at quarterback, but Pease is preparing to be the backup.