How good was Browns quarterback Josh McCown’s performance in yesterday’s 33-30 win in overtime over the Baltimore Ravens?
Extremely, extremely good, so much so that he’s in rare air.
He completed 36 of 51 passing attempts for 457 yards, the most in a regular-season game in team history, and the second-most overall. He threw for two touchdowns with no interceptions and ran for a score, and also set a club record by passing for 300 yards for the third game in a row.
Here’s a quick look, in order of the sizes, at the other efforts of 400 yards passing or better that the Browns have ever had:
*Bernie Kosar – 489 yards – vs. New York Jets — Jan. 3, 1987 at Cleveland (1986 AFC divisional playoffs) – En route to setting an NFL record for playoff passing yardage, he connected on 33 of 64 passes for one touchdown with two interceptions as the Browns erased a 10-point deficit late in the fourth quarter and won 23-20 in two overtimes in the third-longest postseason game in league history.
*McCown – 457 yards – yesterday.
*Brian Sipe – 444 yards – vs. Baltimore Colts — Oct. 25, 1981 at Cleveland – The reigning NFL MVP hit on 30 of 41 passes for four touchdowns to four different receivers with two interceptions as the Browns built a 28-7 halftime lead and won 42-28 to even their record at 4-4.
*Kelly Holcomb – 429 yards – vs. Pittsburgh Steelers — Jan. 5, 2003 at Cleveland (2002 AFC wild-card playoffs) – Starting in place of Tim Couch, who had suffered a a broken leg in the regular-season finale against the Atlanta Falcons just six days before, he was 26 of 43 passing for three touchdowns with two interceptions as the Browns built a 24-7 third-quarter lead but couldn’t hold in losing 36-33.
*Kosar – 414 yards – vs. Pittsburgh — Nov. 23, 1986 at Cleveland – In the latter of his two 400-yard performances in a 13-day period, he completed 28 of 46 passes with one interception and two touchdowns, including a 36-yarder to wide receiver Webster Slaughter in overtime to provide a 37-31 victory and the Browns’ first season-sweep of Pittsburgh since 1969.
*Holcomb – 413 yards – vs. Cincinnati Bengals – Nov. 28, 2004 at Cincinnati – He completed 30 of 39 passes with two interceptions and five touchdowns, including three to tight end Steve Heiden and two to wide receiver Antonio Bryant, in a 58-48 loss that set a Browns record with 106 points scored by both teams, causing Cleveland head coach Butch Davis, with his club having lost its fifth straight to fall to 3-8, to resign later that night – but only after his agent had negotiated a deal in which he got every penny coming to him.
*Otto Graham – 401 yards – vs. Pittsburgh – Oct. 4, 1952 at Pittsburgh – He connected on 21 of 49 attempts with four interceptions and three touchdowns, including a 17-yarder to wingback Dub Jones and a 57-yarder to running back Sherman Howard, both in the third quarter, as the Browns rallied from a 20-7 deficit to win 21-20.
*Kosar – 401 yards – vs. Miami Dolphins – Nov. 10, 1986 at Cleveland — In the first of his two 400-yard performances in that aforementioned 13-day period, he hit 32 of 50 attempts with no touchdowns or interceptions as the Browns built a 26-10 fourth-quarter lead in winning 26-16 on Monday Night Football and getting some revenge for their 24-21 loss in Miami in the AFC divisional playoffs just 10 months before.
