Cody Kessler: Thursday night benching ‘motivates you to want to be better’

Cleveland Browns quarterback Cody Kessler found himself benched during Thursday night’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens, and he’s reacting to it as if it were a motivating tool.

Kessler was benched in the fourth quarter, having tallied just 91 passing yards. It was the culmination of going 2-for-15 on third down over the past two games.

“Yeah, it motivates you to want to be better,” Kessler said of the benching, via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. “It motivates you to keep working hard for that to happen. For me, it was ‘if I’m in there I’m going to do everything I can, work as hard as I can and if I come out, I’m going to be the best teammate I can and support the guys.’ It just motivates me to continue to work harder and be that much better.”

Kessler acknowledged that the third down problems are a huge factor in his struggles.

“That’s the biggest thing is be more efficient on third down and do a better job on first and second down,” Kessler said. “It’s something that’s very important in this league and that’s something that I’ve got to put more focus into and that much more attention to to get better.”

Kessler found out rather quickly that he’s still the starter. That will reassure him, but given how willing coach Hue Jackson was to pull the plug on Kessler already, he’ll know he has to be better if he wants to keep the job.