McCown is heroic, but not good enough to deliver a win.

Josh McCown played his guts out, almost literally, as the Browns fell to the Cardinals 34-20. His stat line looked decent enough; 18 of 34 for 211 yards with 3 TD’s and one INT and he led the team in rushing (18 yards), but the stats don’t tell the whole story. McCown was questionable to play this week because of a shoulder injury and during the game he was virtually a pinata for the Cardinals defense. After a huge shot to the ribs from Minter, McCown looked broken. He got up slower and slower as the game went on and the offense got worse and worse. McCown took such a beating that it was hard to watch at points, but all credit to him, he stayed in a gutted it out. He waved off Manziel more than once and even though the pain was evident he stayed in and kept throwing the ball. It was a gutsy performance that his teammates gushed about after the game. Joel Bitonio said “There was one time today where I was nervous for him. 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.” It was amazing that McCown was able to stay in the game, and it never should have happened. McCown is smart enough to know that starting jobs in the NFL get lost all the time due to injury so as long as he has the right number of fingers and toes he’s not going to take himself out of the game. He’s gonna say he can do it. It is the coaches job to say ‘I know you can do it Josh, you’re a warrior. But right now I have to pull you out, just for a few plays.’ If he insists that he’s going in then you take his helmet and throw it to the Dawg Pound.