That had not happened in the first 29 games and in this season, Peppers had not notched an interception or a sack, yet twice it was Jabrill Peppers making a big play at the end of a half or the game to save the Cleveland Browns and allow the tiny playoff hopes of the Browns to live another week in a 17-16 win over the Denver Broncos in Denver.
Peppers made a leaping interception in the end zone late in the first half to foil a Bronco drive, but the play that ended the game was after Peppers blitzed from his safety position almost untouched to drive Case Keenum to the turf on a fourth down attempt.
Nick Chubb rushed for 100 yards and Baker Mayfield threw for both of the Browns touchdowns to lead the Cleveland offense in the victory that was the Browns first win over the Broncos since 1990.
The Browns improve to 6-7-1 and will host Cincinnati next week.
Brownie Bits
1) In the first half when Jabrill Peppers made his interception, a Mr. Ramon Malpica made sure to tag me in a tweet that simply said "Peppers!".
I was critical of drafting Peppers and I've critical of him at times since, although that's been far more frequent towards his punt returning than his play on the defense, where he's been decent, if not spectacular since being moved closer to the line of scrimmage this season
On this night, Peppers resembled the player that he was in college, finishing the game with six tackles, two for loss and the two impact plays.
Perhaps it's motivation, playoff contention as limited as it is or even a player beginning to mature, but if the Browns are going to receive this version of Jabrill Peppers, they might just be a very fortunate team.
2) Baker Mayfield had an inconsistent evening.
The Browns marched down the field for a touchdown on their first possession that ended in a 31-yard strike to Breshad Perriman, but Mayfield struggled for a bit thereafter with an interception, a fumble and some less than on the money passing before his 4th quarter drive where he regained his touch including his dart to Antonio Callaway for what proved to be a game-winning score.
Still, getting a win in a tough place such as Denver in your rookie season shows moxie, which is something young Mr.Mayfield has plenty of.
3) Gregg Williams made a fourth-quarter decision that could have cost him on fourth and one from the Denver 10, by deciding to go for it.
Nick Chubb was swarmed over and gave the Broncos one final chance.
It's one of those calls that define coaches because it is so difficult- kick the field goal with the occasionally inaccurate rookie Greg Joseph and a touchdown still beats you.
Go for it and fall short, a field goal beats you and yet gain that yard, the game is over with Denver out of timeouts.
I think I would have gone for it as well, although I won't criticize the actual play call.
Sometimes coaches cannot win for losing.
4) Take Denver's Vance Joseph for example, down four with a four and one at the Cleveland six.
Go for it and take your chances or kick the field goal, trim the lead to one and hope for the best.
In either situation (Unless you get the first down), the Denver defense is going to have make a stand to get you the ball back.
Joseph kicks the field goal.
5) The Browns entered the game with major problems stopping the run, but the defense closed the Denver ground game to just 32 yards.
Pretty strong evening against Phillip Lindsay, who entered the game with 965 yards on the season and still finished it short of the one thousand mark.
6) The defense bent but didn't break, but Case Keenum showed that the Browns do have some distance to go and some talent upgrades are still needed.
The Broncos attacked with the short pass constantly and Keenum was effective (31 of 48) in completing passes, but wasn't as successful downfield with a long of 24 yards for the night.
7) That strategy worked because Keenum doesn't have a big arm, but it also works because the Browns lack speed at linebacker.
Joe Schobert will (and is ) a fine middle linebacker when he has speedy linebackers from the outside that are able to chase down ballcarriers or funnel them inside where Schobert can make the tackle.
If you put Schobert or the injured Christian Kirksey for that matter in the position of running down ball carriers or receivers in space, their lack of speed is exposed quickly.
With the likely departure of Jamie Collins, look for the Browns to take a linebacker in the first two days of the draft and another on the draft's final day.
8) The return of Terrence Mitchell to the lineup after being activated from the injured reserve list was a help to the beaten up secondary which was without Denzel Ward for the second straight game.
Add to that the fourth quarter interception by E.J. Carrie that led to the game-winning drive and despite giving up yardage, they didn't allow a score through the air and that's a pretty strong night all things considered.
9) Nick Chubb's night looks impressive (20 carries for 100 yards) and when you consider that was bulked up by the late run for 40 yards, I can see where some might say that's an artificially high number.
I disagree, that run shows me that committing to the run with Chubb allows those late-game runs to occur because a big and physical runner is wearing down defenses and more of those breakaway scampers are going to happen.
10 ) The defensive play of the game that may have fallen into the shadows with the two plays by Jabrill Peppers and the E.J. Carrie interception is the stop by Trevon Coley on Denver running back Phillip Lindsey on 3rd and one from the Cleveland six, which led to Denver kicking a field goal when a touchdown would have given the Broncos the lead.
That play happens at 5:29 to go in the game and the Brandon McManus field goal was kicked at 4;35.
Not only does Denver have four plays to attempt to take the lead, if Lindsey gets to the marker for the first down, but they would also have possibly taken the clock to between two to three minutes unless the Browns used timeouts.
I know there are a lot of "If's" involved, but Coley's play took that off the board to worry about.
11) I know it is easy to allow fans to get excited about playoff chances, as distant as they are.
I'm not getting to that point yet.
Let's see what happens today, take care of business next week against the Bengals in a game that the Browns will be favored to win, see what has to happen after that and then I'll start worrying about scoreboard watching.
Back later with the Canelo Alvarez mismatch from Madison Square Garden.
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