There doesnt seem to be any good documentation on a quick way to git clone a module project. I have already read this: https://drupal.org/project/examples/git-instructions

The following format does not work for me:

git clone --branch 7.x-1.x http://git.drupal.org/project/examples.git

I am getting this error:

Is there a way to do a git clone quickly by copying a url without having to put in --branch 7.x-1.x versions... or better yet is there a drush command to do a git clone? All i want to do right now is do a git clone of a project and provide a patch to the maintainer, but im hitting resistance setting this up.