It's hard to protect when you barely have 50% equity. Just check the flop, you'll get a big equity spike on many turns, and can easily fold to any bet on many other turns.

Yeah when you check the flop you give up some money to the weakest draws in his range, but really almost everything that continues to your cbet is flipping with you, and if he decides to semibluff raise with these hands along with his best made hands like twopair/straight/set, you end up being a big dog to his overall range and have to fold. You can exploit parts of this range easier by giving them a free card, IMO.