DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Josh McCown continued

I don't disagree with you at all, but if they muster defensive forces to stop the pass, something else will open up, like the running game. it takes a special defense to stop everything all the time.

Those swing passes and dump down screens to the backs are part of the run game. just a different way of getting the ball in the hands of the backs. those plays were huge this week.

Yikes... an Attack sighting!

Keep posting Bro.

I wish more people understood that. Well said!

Usually don't listen to those NFL fantasy shows on the radio but did last Sunday morning. The guy was explaining how he was starting a RB that was playing the Giants. the Giants have the best run defense in the NFL (statistically) giving up only about 70 rushing yards a game... but they get torched by RBs in the passing game... so yea, there is more than one way to use your RBs to beat a defense.

That is all Duke Johnson can do.

Josh McCown has 'validated' Mike Pettine returning to him over Johnny Manziel

Mary Kay Cabot,on October 13, 2015 at 5:07 PM, updated October 13, 2015 at 5:09 PM link

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Browns quarterback Josh McCown is making Mike Pettine look brilliant for going back to him over over Johnny Manziel when McCown was cleared from his concussion.

"I didn't get caught up in the external debate about it,'' Pettine said Monday. "It was a decision that we thought was best for our football team and the way Josh has played -- and the guys have played around him -- certainly looks to have validated it.''

No one would've blamed Pettine for sticking with Manziel after his thrilling 28-14 victory over the Titans, one in which he zipped around and threw touchdown passes of 50 and 60 yards Travis Benjamin. The victory electrified the FirstEnergy Stadium crowd and had fans excited about the future.

What's more, McCown, who's battling a sore ankle heading into Sunday's game against the 5-0 Broncos and might even need to sit out a day of practice, looked rusty in his first half back after the concussion, completing only 7-of-15 attempts against the Raiders en route to a 69.9 rating and a lusty chorus of "John-ny! John-ny!'' chants.

But since that ragged first half, McCown has been on fire, setting the Browns three-game record with 1,154 yards and throwing for a franchise record 457 yards in a 33-30 overtime victory over the Ravens Sunday.

The victory improved the Browns to 2-3 and kept them from going into the tank. It also gave them a 1-0 mark in the division for the first time since 2004. Immediately afterwards, NFL experts from all over the country jumped on the McCown bandwagon and gave him his just dues.

"Praise and recognition to Josh McCown,'' CBS Sports analyst Pat Kirwan said on SiriusXM NFL radio. "He's playing better than any quarterback in the league right now.''

SiriusXM NFL radio also interviewed McCown about his franchise-record 457 yards and about hos his ankle feels heading into the practice week. (He said he'll see how he feels in the morning but is still optimistic about facing Denver).

Peter King of Monday Morning Quarterback reached McCown by phone on Sunday night and featured him in his widely-read column on Monday.

Pete Prisco of CBS Sports admitted he was wrong for blasting the Browns for starting McCown over their 2014 first-round pick, whom they're still not sure can cut it at this level.

"I didn't make that decision alone,'' said Pettine. "I talked to a lot of people about it and specifically the guys that I would rely on for that position the most are Flip (offensive coordinator John DeFilippo) and (quarterbacks coach) Kevin (O'Connell). We make the (decisions) and we move on.''

McCown has rewarded the trio handsomely for the faith they've shown in him since the moment they signed him Feb. 27th. The Browns always knew McCown was going to be their starter this season and they never wavered, not during the offseason, not during training camp and not after McCown made like Harold the Helicopter against the Jets and had to sit out the Titans game with a concussion.

Pettine heard the same "Johnny!" chants during the Raiders game and the hue and cry for Manziel by the media in a season when the Browns aren't expected to make the playoffs.

And now, McCown is rewarding him for blocking out the noise. Heading into Sunday's game against the undefeated Broncos, he's eighth in the NFL with a 102.8 rating, behind a star-studded top seven that features Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Andy Dalton, Carson Palmer, Ben Roethlisberger, Philip Rivers and Tyrod Taylor. He's thrown six touchdowns against only one interception and he's 10th in the league with a 67.8 completion percentage.

He's also a candidate this week for FedEx Air NFL Player of the Week, along with Sam Bradford and Eli Manning.

"It's been tremendous,'' said Pettine. "He's a guy you root for, but a big thing is understanding how we're well we're playing around him. The backs have stepped their game up. The offensive line is improving. The receivers are playing well. Just to have a guy that can be that calming influence. He doesn't get too up. He doesn't get too down. He's always very positive on the sideline. He'll be the first one to criticize himself and say he missed a throw or he missed a read or missed a change in the protection or getting us in the right place.

"His success, while on the outside of the building is surprising, we knew if we played well around him that he was capable of this."

While all the accolades and the interviews and the fantasy football attention have been great, McCown, who's aggressively treating his ankle in hopes of practicing Wednesday, was still smarting Monday over the plays he left out on the field, including an overthrown deep ball down the left sideline for an open Benjamin that could've gone for a TD before the break. Instead, the Browns settled for a field goal that pulled them to within 14-9 as time expired in the half.

"When you're pushing to play at a high level, that's what gives you that edge is because you don't accept those misses,'' he said. "You deal with them when you have them in the game, but you also have to let them fuel you to want to be better. There's a ton of stuff that I'm not pleased with, to be quite honest with you, starting from the way we finished against Oakland and the different spots throughout the San Diego game and yesterday where I just feel like the execution could be better, so that's what we'll keep striving for.''

By Monday afternoon, McCown had stopped reading his congratulatory texts and had already moved onto the Broncos and their top-ranked defense. The Broncos have one of the best pass-rushers in the NFL in Von Miller and a premier safety in former Brown T.J. Ward. They're also first in the NFL with 14 takeaways.

"We have to put that (victory) on the shelf and move forward and get focused on Denver and have that one-game-season mentality, where that's all we're thinking about,'' he said. "I know the veterans and coach Pett will be hammering that home this week so we come out with that mindset.''

But the Browns know they head into the formidable challenge in good hands and with the right quarterback under center.

This is why I didn't quite understand all the grousing after the San Diego game about the pass to run ratio. I think it came almost to exactly 50% of all the plays we ran, a RB touched the ball.

A couple of the regular post game threads hadn't appeared yet this week, so I'll drop a couple thoughts on how McCown played this past weekend here.

I think letting him be mobile in the pocket helps this offense tremendously. Because he CAN run it, I think any time the defense sees him moving around abit, they hesitate a step.

One of the plays I thought was pretty awesome in how he executed it was I think around a 15yrd completion to Benji on the left side (might have been a long 3rd down). Anyway, Josh starts to roll left, sees Benji coming across, then looks like he's going to check down to Duke, even looks at Duke and motions for him to turn up field... split second later he turns and throws it up field to Benji after making the safety bite.

I just thought to myself "Damn that was a vet move!" and the confidence and command of the play to do that I thought was pretty awesome.

I also noticed that after Josh ran the TD in, he was going down the sideline and when he came up to Johnny, it was clear by their body language that Johnny was asking him about the play and what he saw. Moments after that the camera showed them sitting on the bench looking the play over.

It was obviously a learnable/teaching moment. I think it was great Johhny asked him about it and Josh sat down right away to show him.

Anyway, just a couple observations

Fans can vote here for the Clutch Performer of the Week award.

4. Stat of the week

This comes courtesy of Jon Zimmer, the NFL’s AFC Director of Communications


Jon Zimmer
✔
@NFLhistory

. @Browns' Josh McCown is 1st player in @NFL history w/ 450+ pass yds, 2 pass TDs, rush TD & 0 INTs in same game
1:17 PM - 12 Oct 2015

That's painting with a pretty broad brush. "No one?" I can think of a few would have...

That's pretty freaking amazing!
Hopefully fans will realize that if he throws for *only* 250 yards next Sunday, that's actually still a good day. All of these 300-400+ yard games are going to start setting crazy expectations in some fans' minds.

happens every time...

Josh McCown has three of the top 21 passing yardage performances in the history of our team. How is this happening?

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/pl...der_by=pass_yds

"Josh McCown throws for 299 yards and 3 TDs as Browns lose 42-24"

Fan reaction: Start Johnny! McCown sucks!

Illegal contact rules and the quickest set of receivers in all of football have been the ultimate blessing for Josh. A couple young backs that can catch and have great blocking out in front of them combined with a young stud TE getting it done in the middle.

Josh is playing decent to good but those around him are really making tremendous plays. Josh's ability to go through his progressions and let plays develop combined with these unlikely playmakers are putting up some damn good numbers. It should only get better.

I really think the single biggest reason for the O success for Josh is making the proper read and the guys blocking for each other. Other than Benji this group is outstanding in blocking.

Basically, it is complete vindication for Farmer on what he says regarding the QB position. You build the team to minimize the importance of that position. If you do that, your options at that position increase dramatically.. and then, if you ever do get that "elite" QB, things will REALLY fly.

I'll take "Posts that would cause a huge argument if certain people weren't suspended" for $400 Alex..

He has 4 career starts as a Brown, one lasted one drive.

How is throwing so much minimizing the qb? This is the opposite of that.

Really highlights the crappy QB play we've had for long stretches doesn't it?

I said 'build the team', not 'design the offense'.
Big difference.

Interesting that the Top 4 performances were all against division rivals (2 home, 2 away).

10 of 12 performances are by quarterbacks since our return. 11 of the other 12 are Kosar & Sipe. The last one is Frank Ryan.

Josh McCown is the AFC’s offensive player of the week
link

Good for Josh! I think he earned it!

We can't run the ball, we have an OC whose background is QB and not OL/RB, and we are frequently losing?

'Josh McCown likely limited with ankle, but practiced Wednesday'

http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2015/10/josh_mccown_likely_limited_wit.html

It looks like he'll be startin' on Sunday then, unless we hear otherwise.

"last time I got it I got benched, so I've got my fingers crossed right now"- McCown joking about AFC offensive player if the week honors (reference to Cutler returning in '13)

WTG Josh! I gladly eat my 10 servings of "crow."

Hope you can keep it going against a tough D this Sunday.

Right. But it's Josh McCown. Increasing the frequency of throws should not increase his performance.

Browns offense needs to prove it can be a passing team. Otherwise, defenses will continue loading the box daring Cleveland to throw. Run game will improve and offense balances out when a real threat exist.

Of course. But McCown's performance up until this point is shocking.

Luckily for us, it appears we got the bears version of McCown, that speaks volumes to how bad the Bucs actually are. If McCown had a big target to throw to, he'd be even more solid, theres no coincidence his facorite target is Barnidge, just alot easier to throw to a guy at 6'6 than it is 5'7

With a few exceptions, he's been pretty darn good this year.. Myself, I was wondering which McCown was going to show up. So far so good

yea, got zero complaints toward this guy right now. overall his play is solid.

And I'm reminding myself that, unless he totally lays an egg on Sunday, I shouldn't be too hard on him since the bronco's d is pretty good.

I disagree. No, I can't say I expected. This offense was designed to use many weapons. Note I am not saying elite.

Before the season many were hung up on elite play makers and how Browns had none. A few of us stated having quantity talent is also effective. Going forward Browns add elite with a nice complement surrounding him. No way Beckham duplicates what he is doing in New York if Cleveland drafted.

Remember Farmer's comment about reducing the emphases of QB. He is following what Seattle and Cincy are doing. No reason why Manziel, when he fully understands defenses, cannot be equal, if not better, as McCown.

All I wanted from the Browns this year is an identity. So far, offense is leaning toward playing smart taking what the defense gives. I think the defense is attempting the same, but injuries and playing younger guys making it difficult.