Browns Josh McCown will undergo an MRI Monday on his left shoulder, just like RG3 did last week. NFL Network says the team fears it could be serious.
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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Browns quarterback Josh McCown is such a tough guy that he's not afraid to well up with tears in a post-game press conference.
He got emotional Sunday when talking about why he refused to come out the 25-20 loss to the Ravens Sunday despite a horribly painful left shoulder injury that happened early in the game and kept getting aggravated.
In the locker room after the game, he had to have help putting his shirt on. He grimaced at times and in was in obvious distress.
He plans to play in Miami next week -- of course -- but will undergo an MRI on Monday, just like Robert Griffin III did last week. Griffin, of course, discovered he had a fractured left shoulder and is out at least 8-12 weeks, which is why McCown was starting the home opener in the first place.
NFL Network reported the team feels it could be serious, which would mean rookie Cody Kessler would be in line to start. Later in the evening, the Browns announced that center Cam Erving suffered a bruised lung during the game and will be held overnight at University Hospitals for observation. Erving will likely miss at least three or four games.
"It's just not wanting to not be out there with your guys,'' McCown said, his eyes red and ready to brim over. "I have a dad and an older brother who get up and go to work and sometimes they don't feel great and they go. They go and they grind. I have two little boys that are playing football now. They get hit and they get banged up, and I am trying to teach them what toughness means.
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"For me, it's those things and just knowing the window for me right now and understanding that I don't want to miss snaps. I don't want to be out there without my guys. Unless it is going to fall off, let's try to make it work and make it go. That's my mentality.''
McCown's two young sons, Aiden and Owen, both quarterbacks in sixth and seventh grade respectively, came up from Charlotte Sunday with the rest of the family and watched their dad put on one of the most heroic games Browns fans have seen in years.
He delivered one of the most exciting quarters in Browns history when he threw two touchdowns passes to Corey Coleman, and Isaiah Crowell broke free for an 85-yard touchdown run on the Browns' three drives for a 20-0 lead in the first quarter -- all on the first three drives. By the end of the quarter, he had completed 5-of-7 attempts for 91 yards, with two TDs for a 153.3 rating.
McCown can't hold off Ravens in 25-20 loss after blowing 20-point lead
Unfortunately for McCown (20-of-33, 260 yards, 2 TDs, 2 picks, 80.4 rating), it all began to unravel after the second touchdown pass to Coleman, set up by Joe Haden's interception, when the extra point attempt was blocked and the Ravens returned it for two points. It set off a string of 25 straight unanswered point for the Ravens, and it marked the third biggest blown lead in Browns history.
McCown, who had already absorbed several vicious hits by the Ravens including one by particularly hard blast by Michael Pierce on the opening drive, headed to the locker room to have the shoulder examined.
Cody Kessler began warming up on the sidelines, and Hue Jackson later admitted he came "very close'' to putting the rookie in.
But McCown, who argued to come back in the opener last year after he helicoptered into the end zone, never contemplated hitting the showers. He jogged back out at the start of the second quarter and gave the thumbs up to fans.
"It wasn't in my mind,'' he said.
Neither is sitting out next week's game in Miami. McCown, who spent the last five games of last season on injured reserve with a broken collarbone, would have to be dragged out by a team of wild offensive linemen.
"We will see,'' he said. "My mindset is that everything will be alright and we'll move ahead business as usual. It's just a matter of letting the doctors and trainers do their job, and my expectations are to play some ball."
McCown, who was sacked three times and hit eight, wasn't the only one close to tears discussing just why he stayed in the game. Right guard John Greco also got emotional about his new fearless leader and how sacrifices his body for his teammates.
"I'd go to war with that guy anytime,'' said Greco. "That guy gets the shit knocked out of him seven, eight times a game, keeps getting up and making throws. Credit to him. He's proven himself as a leader, each day, every year, every guy that plays with him. Keep fighting with that guy."
Greco lamented letting McCown get hit as much as he did.
"We've got to give him more time,'' said Greco. "He wants to stand in there and make plays because he can do that and we have guys that can get open. We have to do everything we can to give him an extra second, an extra two seconds, strain, fight a little bit more to where he's not getting hit, not taking those unnecessary shots.
"There were a lot of plays where the ball got off, may have been a completion or incompletion, and then he's getting whacked. You guys saw it. The guy's arm is hanging and he's in there. I mean that's awesome."
The Ravens swarmed McCown from the start, and hit him relentlessly after the throw. When he came back from he locker room in the second quarter, he gave himself after recovering a fumbled snap, but three Ravens still dove on him, including linebacker C.J. Mosley. Hue Jackson argued, to no avail.
"I just know in that moment that I thought I had given myself up,'' McCown said. "I thought that was clear. I just thought there would be a little bit more protection there from the refs, but they make their calls and we trust their calls and we move forward. I can't speak for what their defense was doing. They're a hard-nosed defense. They play hard and they play physical. They did that today.''
McCown went to the bench again midway through the third quarter for an exam by the team doctors after another crushing blow by Mosley, but trotted back in again on the next drive. He threw a 47-yard pass down the deep middle to Coleman, but an unsportmanlke call against Coleman put him in third and 26. Pat Murray missed a 52-yard goal to spoil the long completion with the Browns trailing 20-19.
"Everybody kind of did something,'' said McCown. "For me, I'm focused on the interception before half. I'm really disappointed in that. I think Corey will look at that and go, 'Man, that is something that I have to clean up.' It can't happen because it bumps us back out of field goal range. You get three there, and we are driving with a different mentality at the end.''
Almost as painful as the shoulder was the taunting penalty against Terrelle Pryor on the Browns second-last play of the game. McCown drove the Browns from his 36 to the Ravens in the two-minute drills and had a chance to pull out the victory.
But Pryor was flagged for taunting after he tried to flip the ball to the ref and it slipped and hit Lardarius Webb in the shoulder pad. Webb held on the play and the two penalties offset, wiping out the 20-yard catch at the 10 with 20 seconds left and no timeouts remaining.
On their final play, McCown was picked off the middle by Mosley at the 1 on a pass for Pryor.
"I didn't see what he did (on the taunting),'' said McCown. "All of these things are part of the growing curve with a young team. It's just disappointing because we were standing right there with a chance to win the ball game against a good team.''
Now, the Browns might also be without their new starting quarterback for awhile, and down to a rookie.
Two weeks two losses, two left shoulder injuries to the starting quarterback.
It's enough to make a grown man cry.
