Walking tall

Browns rookie QB inspires in another narrow loss

Associated Press

NASHVILLE

Cleveland quarterback Cody Kessler stood at the podium talking about the best game of his very short NFL career and started tearing up.

It’s been an emotional couple of weeks for the rookie.

Kessler’s younger brother wound up hospitalized with a racing heartbeat days before the quarterback was knocked out of last week’s 33-13 loss to the New England Patriots with an injured chest. Then Kessler learned his great-grandmother had died, a woman he considered a second mother.

The third-round pick out of Southern California got a break Sunday on the football field where he threw for a career-high 336 yards in his fourth start, nearly rallying the Browns before losing 28-26 to the Tennessee Titans.

Kessler became only the third Browns rookie to throw for at least 300 yards, second only to Brandon Weeden’s 364 yards passing Dec. 2, 2012, at Oakland.

Tennessee sacked Kessler six times and hit him five other times, but Kessler never flinched as he kept trying to rally the winless Browns (0-6).

“Unless they force me to stay out like they did last week, I’m not coming out,” Kessler said. “It was a little painful, but at the same time you want to do it for the guys as well. It’s not for myself, it’s for the guys around me.”

Talking to reporters after the game, Kessler said he couldn’t come out of a game, not with his brother, Dylan, dealing with a heart condition that hospitalized him before the Patriots game.

The condition will keep his brother from playing high school football or much of anything for two months and he’ll be wearing a heart monitor.

Kessler’s great-grandmother died a week ago, a woman he was so close with that the quarterback considered her as another mother.

“It’s stuff that you can’t control and you’ve just got to move on,” Kessler said as he choked up and then walked out of the interview room.

Marcus Mariota threw for 284 yards and three touchdowns as the Titans captured their second straight victory — the first time they’ve won consecutive games since the end of the 2013 season.

“I’m not sure in the last couple years that we win that game,” Titans coach Mike Mularkey said. “This year we found a way to win the game. Obviously, we don’t want to make it that close. We did a lot of good things in that game.”

The Titans (3-3) matched their win total for all of last season when they went 3-13 and wound up with the No. 1 draft pick overall.

They also beat a team other than Jacksonville on their own field for the first time since the 2013 season finale.

The Browns trailed 28-13 when Kessler hit Terrelle Pryor Sr. for a 5-yard TD with 2:07 left, but his pass on the 2-point conversion failed.

Browns head coach Hue Jackson defended his decision to go for 2 so early.

“I knew at some point I was going to have to take a whack at it,” Jackson said. “Obviously, we didn’t make it, then had to kick and try to get the onside. Gave ourselves a chance at that time. That was what we needed to do.”

The Browns recovered their first onside kick, and Duke Johnson Jr. scored nine plays later.

On their second onside kick, the Titans’ Andre Johnson got his hands on the ball as it went out of bounds for Tennessee.

The Browns are off to their worst start since 1999 when they lost their first seven as an expansion franchise.

Kessler, their third quarterback to start and among five to play already, gave them a chance late at an improbable rally.

He threw two touchdown passes to Pryor.

“He’s battling his butt off out there,” Browns left tackle Joe Thomas said. “There were a couple times where he took some really big hits scrambling on fourth down trying to make plays and you’re thinking, ‘Wow,’ he won’t be able to get up from that,’ and [he] pops right back up and gets right back in the huddle like nothing happened.

“And that’s really admirable.”

Kessler had a 105.3 passer rating while driving the Browns on a 75-yard drive and a 62-yard drive to rally Cleveland after trailing 28-13. Under pressure, Kessler threw incomplete on the 2-point conversion attempt.

Jackson said the rookie played hard.

“He gave us a chance to win, to be in the game,” Jackson said.

Pryor made it clear he loves playing with Kessler and the rookie’s passion, especially with all the hits the quarterback took.

“He’s a warrior,” Pryor said. “That’s what pushes us all. I took a little hit as well and it makes you just keep pushing. He was getting creamed, man, and he just got up and kept fighting. The kid has unbelievable heart. I’m a big fan of his.”