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Browns refuse to quit

As losses have piled up, desire to win has remained

BEREA, Ohio — Not for lack of trying, but of talent, the Cleveland Browns aren’t winning.

They aren’t quitting, though.

Faced with the very real possibility of running the table and going winless over 16 games, it would be easy for them to wave the white flag, surrender with two games left, pack it up and be done with this miserable season.

Coach Hue Jackson has experienced that with players elsewhere.

“I know what they look like, feel like, act like and all of it,” Jackson said Tuesday. “I have seen it. I have not seen that in this group.”

The Browns (0-14) are bad, and they may soon go down as one of the worst teams in NFL history, but they plan to do it swinging.

“I think we still have some fight in us, we’re still focusing on finishing this season off strong,” said nose tackle Danny Shelton, whose improvement in his second year has been one of the few positives in an otherwise forgettable season. “There are a lot of guys who still believe.”

Terrelle Pryor leads the list. The team’s top wide receiver intends to play in Cleveland’s final two games — home on Christmas Eve against San Diego and at Pittsburgh on New Year’s Day — with a torn ligament in his right middle finger, an injury that will require surgery, which has been scheduled for the day after the Steelers game.

Pryor got hurt on the first play of the second half in Sunday’s game at Buffalo when he reached down to catch a low pass from quarterback Robert Griffin and jammed his fingers on the artificial turf.

Following Tuesday’s indoor workout, Pryor described the painful mishap.

“Every single time I bent my knuckle, my knuckle felt like it got smashed with a hammer,” he said. “It was flat.”

Pryor tried taping his fingers together during the 33-13 loss, Cleveland’s 17th straight over two seasons, but that didn’t work and he spent time on the sideline trying to get it so his finger would straighten.

He worked with the team’s medical staff over the past two days on fitting him with some protection and he’ll play with a partial cast covering his finger.

Earlier this year, Pryor said he was willing to go to extreme lengths, saying he would even be willing to cut off a finger to help his team win.

“I meant what I said a long time ago about the finger and now I’m here,” he said. “So it’s time to go. It’s time to live up to what I said and I’m excited.”

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