How Josh McCown waved off Johnny Manziel - 11/02/15 06:21 PM
http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2015/11/what_mike_pettines_reasons_wer.html
Browns quarterback Josh McCown waved off an eager Johnny Manziel in the third quarter of Sunday's 34-20 loss to the Cardinals and was not about to let a little thing like an excruciating shot to the ribs knock him out of the game.
And he probably won't let it keep him from Thursday night's game in Cincinnati for the 7-0 Bengals.
"We'll see,'' said McCown, who battled back from a shoulder injury suffered in St. Louis to start this game. "I can't predict the future, but unless anything changes, in my mind as long as I can wake up the next few days and do everything I feel like I need to do to feel effective, than I will be ready."
Another game, another post-game trip to the X-ray room for McCown, who wouldn't say whether or not his ribs were broken.
What's more, he was confident that the rib injury did not affect his second-half performance against Cardinals. After throwing three first-half touchdowns to take a 20-7 lead with 4:56 left in the half, McCown was shut out in the second half.
Meanwhile, Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer overcame four turnovers by his team and threw three of his four touchdowns passes in the second half for the come-from-behind victory.
"Didn't affect me – just discomfort,'' said McCown. "Obviously, you desire not to have that if you could choose, but I made the throws I wanted to make so I didn't feel like it affected me."
When pressed, McCown insisted that he didn't hurt the team by staying in the game after he was shaken, rattled and rolled.
"No, I wouldn't go out there if I couldn't do what I felt capable of doing,'' he said.
Was the Browns new Ironman ever close to taking himself out of the game?
"Nope."
Likewise, coach Mike Pettine defended his decision to keep McCown in the game after he took a hard shot to the ribs by linebacker Kevin Minter in the third quarter and then back-to-back crushing blows by former Brown Frostee Rucker on his next two plays.
"We talked about it,'' said Pettine. "We were going to take him out, and he [said he] could continue. We said if he couldn't go, to go ahead and go down, and he stayed in there."
He stressed, "to me, we put it on our players if they're injured and need to come out of the game that they are to go down on the field. He clearly wasn't 100 percent, but I think he bounced back and ended up throwing a completion or two. We ended up having to punt on that drive. I think we dropped a ball on third-and-long that would have kept the drive going."
Pettine said his decision to leave McCown in the game had nothing to do with a lack of faith in Johnny Manziel, who came in with 2:16 remaining in garbage time after the Cardinals tacked on their final field goal to produce the final margin.
"No, none,'' said Pettine.
After a sensational first half by McCown, it all went south in the third quarter from hell. He threw two touchdown passes to Brian Hartline and one to Gary Barnidge -- 20 straight points -- to put the Browns up 20-7 with 4:56 left in the half. Along the way, he completed 11 of 17 attempts for 122 yards, including a nifty 52-yard catch and run by Duke Johnson, against the Cardinals No. 4 defense for a 125.5 first-half rating.
But on the second play of the third quarter, Minter drilled McCown on an incomplete third-down pass to Barnidge, and layed on the quarterback after the hit. McCown went to the bench and was immediately checked by the team doctors.
He said he did not receiver a neurological exam, and that he hurt his ribs.
While the doctors checked him out, Manziel warmed up on the sidelines and then got on the phone with he offensive coaches upstairs in the booth. Before long, the docs left, McCown alone and Manziel joined him on the bench, where they began looking at plays on the iPad.
McCown trotted back out on the next drive, only to be slammed to the turf again by Rucker on an incompletion to Isaiah Crowell. He shook off the hit, stood back and was promptly sacked hard for an 8-yard loss by Rucker, and appeared to have Rucker's helmet jammed into his ribs.
The sack was wiped out by a penalty, but unfortunately for McCown, the pain wasn't erased.
He held his the right side of his body and doubled over in pain. Then, he crouched on his knees and remained like that for a few moments.
"Obviously, just when you get hit and it doesn't feel good, you try to just find a comfortable spot and so I think more than anything, that's what I was trying to do,' said McCown. "The wind kind of got out of me a little bit so just trying to get my bearings and get better."
While McCown struggled to breathe, Manziel popped in his helmet and took a couple of steps onto the field. But the veteran popped up by then and waved his protege back to the sidelines. Manziel snapped his chinstrap back off and resigned himself to the fact that McCown has nine lives.
"You try to let him know as soon as you can, what's going on,'' said McCown. "Like I said, I just want to be out there fighting with my guys. I just want to play, I want to be out there with my guys. I didn't feel like I was hurting enough that it was going to keep me from doing my job so I'm going to stay out there."
Unfortunately for McCown, he got little help from his teammates after the three hard hits. Hartline, who made two great TD grabs in the first half, dropped four second-half passes, including two on third down to kills drives.
Running back Robert Turbin fumbled the ball away with 7:33 left in the game and the Browns trailing 31-20.
McCown was also strip-sacked by Dwight Freeney in the third quarter and picked off on the first play of the fourth.
"If I could (explain the second half meltdown), it probably wouldn't have happened,'' said McCown. "I have to look at the tape and check it out and see. We flip-flop ourselves sometimes. We get started slow, then come on late, then we start fast today and don't finish. Good football teams, they finish. In order for us to become what we want to become, we have to finish better."
McCown, who was sacked only once, went 7-of-15 for 89 yards after the Minter hit with the one pick. But it would've been 11-for-15 for considerably more yards had Hartline not dropped the four balls. He also led the team with 18 yards rushing and had no running game to take the pressure off.
"I don't think any of us executed the way we needed to,'' said McCown. "That is what it was. We didn't come out and execute the way we did in the first half."
Despite the hits, McCown (18-of-34, 211 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT, 89.2 rating) completed passes of 17 yards to Barnidge and Travis Benjamin before Turbin's fumble -- and took umbrage to suggestions he should've taken himself out.
"Did you guys not watch the end of the game?'' he said. "The throw to Gary in the fourth quarter, threw one on the sideline to Travis, I felt like I could do everything I needed to do."
McCown's teammates marveled at his toughness.
"There was one time today where I was nervous for him,'' said Joel Bitonio. "He's a tough s.o.b., man. Really tough, and we don't protect him enough. When you get blasted by a 300-pound guy or 250-pound guy going full speed, I don't know how he gets up sometimes honestly. It's gut-wrenching.''
Added Joe Thomas: "He's super tough. It's really impressive for a guy that's mid-30s. I know I'm on the other side of 30 now and when I get hit it hurts. For a smaller guy than myself to get hit by bigger guys, that's got to hurt. But he's super tough. There's a perseverance with Josh that's really impressive.''
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Browns quarterback Josh McCown waved off an eager Johnny Manziel in the third quarter of Sunday's 34-20 loss to the Cardinals and was not about to let a little thing like an excruciating shot to the ribs knock him out of the game.
And he probably won't let it keep him from Thursday night's game in Cincinnati for the 7-0 Bengals.
"We'll see,'' said McCown, who battled back from a shoulder injury suffered in St. Louis to start this game. "I can't predict the future, but unless anything changes, in my mind as long as I can wake up the next few days and do everything I feel like I need to do to feel effective, than I will be ready."
Another game, another post-game trip to the X-ray room for McCown, who wouldn't say whether or not his ribs were broken.
What's more, he was confident that the rib injury did not affect his second-half performance against Cardinals. After throwing three first-half touchdowns to take a 20-7 lead with 4:56 left in the half, McCown was shut out in the second half.
Meanwhile, Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer overcame four turnovers by his team and threw three of his four touchdowns passes in the second half for the come-from-behind victory.
"Didn't affect me – just discomfort,'' said McCown. "Obviously, you desire not to have that if you could choose, but I made the throws I wanted to make so I didn't feel like it affected me."
When pressed, McCown insisted that he didn't hurt the team by staying in the game after he was shaken, rattled and rolled.
"No, I wouldn't go out there if I couldn't do what I felt capable of doing,'' he said.
Was the Browns new Ironman ever close to taking himself out of the game?
"Nope."
Likewise, coach Mike Pettine defended his decision to keep McCown in the game after he took a hard shot to the ribs by linebacker Kevin Minter in the third quarter and then back-to-back crushing blows by former Brown Frostee Rucker on his next two plays.
"We talked about it,'' said Pettine. "We were going to take him out, and he [said he] could continue. We said if he couldn't go, to go ahead and go down, and he stayed in there."
He stressed, "to me, we put it on our players if they're injured and need to come out of the game that they are to go down on the field. He clearly wasn't 100 percent, but I think he bounced back and ended up throwing a completion or two. We ended up having to punt on that drive. I think we dropped a ball on third-and-long that would have kept the drive going."
Pettine said his decision to leave McCown in the game had nothing to do with a lack of faith in Johnny Manziel, who came in with 2:16 remaining in garbage time after the Cardinals tacked on their final field goal to produce the final margin.
"No, none,'' said Pettine.
After a sensational first half by McCown, it all went south in the third quarter from hell. He threw two touchdown passes to Brian Hartline and one to Gary Barnidge -- 20 straight points -- to put the Browns up 20-7 with 4:56 left in the half. Along the way, he completed 11 of 17 attempts for 122 yards, including a nifty 52-yard catch and run by Duke Johnson, against the Cardinals No. 4 defense for a 125.5 first-half rating.
But on the second play of the third quarter, Minter drilled McCown on an incomplete third-down pass to Barnidge, and layed on the quarterback after the hit. McCown went to the bench and was immediately checked by the team doctors.
He said he did not receiver a neurological exam, and that he hurt his ribs.
While the doctors checked him out, Manziel warmed up on the sidelines and then got on the phone with he offensive coaches upstairs in the booth. Before long, the docs left, McCown alone and Manziel joined him on the bench, where they began looking at plays on the iPad.
McCown trotted back out on the next drive, only to be slammed to the turf again by Rucker on an incompletion to Isaiah Crowell. He shook off the hit, stood back and was promptly sacked hard for an 8-yard loss by Rucker, and appeared to have Rucker's helmet jammed into his ribs.
The sack was wiped out by a penalty, but unfortunately for McCown, the pain wasn't erased.
He held his the right side of his body and doubled over in pain. Then, he crouched on his knees and remained like that for a few moments.
"Obviously, just when you get hit and it doesn't feel good, you try to just find a comfortable spot and so I think more than anything, that's what I was trying to do,' said McCown. "The wind kind of got out of me a little bit so just trying to get my bearings and get better."
While McCown struggled to breathe, Manziel popped in his helmet and took a couple of steps onto the field. But the veteran popped up by then and waved his protege back to the sidelines. Manziel snapped his chinstrap back off and resigned himself to the fact that McCown has nine lives.
"You try to let him know as soon as you can, what's going on,'' said McCown. "Like I said, I just want to be out there fighting with my guys. I just want to play, I want to be out there with my guys. I didn't feel like I was hurting enough that it was going to keep me from doing my job so I'm going to stay out there."
Unfortunately for McCown, he got little help from his teammates after the three hard hits. Hartline, who made two great TD grabs in the first half, dropped four second-half passes, including two on third down to kills drives.
Running back Robert Turbin fumbled the ball away with 7:33 left in the game and the Browns trailing 31-20.
McCown was also strip-sacked by Dwight Freeney in the third quarter and picked off on the first play of the fourth.
"If I could (explain the second half meltdown), it probably wouldn't have happened,'' said McCown. "I have to look at the tape and check it out and see. We flip-flop ourselves sometimes. We get started slow, then come on late, then we start fast today and don't finish. Good football teams, they finish. In order for us to become what we want to become, we have to finish better."
McCown, who was sacked only once, went 7-of-15 for 89 yards after the Minter hit with the one pick. But it would've been 11-for-15 for considerably more yards had Hartline not dropped the four balls. He also led the team with 18 yards rushing and had no running game to take the pressure off.
"I don't think any of us executed the way we needed to,'' said McCown. "That is what it was. We didn't come out and execute the way we did in the first half."
Despite the hits, McCown (18-of-34, 211 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT, 89.2 rating) completed passes of 17 yards to Barnidge and Travis Benjamin before Turbin's fumble -- and took umbrage to suggestions he should've taken himself out.
"Did you guys not watch the end of the game?'' he said. "The throw to Gary in the fourth quarter, threw one on the sideline to Travis, I felt like I could do everything I needed to do."
McCown's teammates marveled at his toughness.
"There was one time today where I was nervous for him,'' said Joel Bitonio. "He's a tough s.o.b., man. Really tough, and we don't protect him enough. When you get blasted by a 300-pound guy or 250-pound guy going full speed, I don't know how he gets up sometimes honestly. It's gut-wrenching.''
Added Joe Thomas: "He's super tough. It's really impressive for a guy that's mid-30s. I know I'm on the other side of 30 now and when I get hit it hurts. For a smaller guy than myself to get hit by bigger guys, that's got to hurt. But he's super tough. There's a perseverance with Josh that's really impressive.''
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