Baker Mayfield hit Rashard Higgins with a seven-yard strike with 1;42 remaining to take the lead and the Browns then had to hold off the final Bill drive and were then helped by Lake Erie as the wind blew Steven Hauschka's field goal attempt of 53 yards that looked to be centered coming off his foot and steadily blew the ball to left of the goalposts.
Baker Mayfield threw for two touchdowns and 238 yards in his first multiple touchdown game of the season and Jarvis Landry finished with nine catches for ninety-seven yards and a score.
Nick Chubb punished the Buffalo defense for 116 yards on the ground on twenty carries to provide the offense balance.
The now 3-6 Browns have very little time to prepare for the suddenly surging 5-4 Pittsburgh Steelers for a Thursday night game in Cleveland.
Brownie Bits
1) Allow me a little bit of joy here as Rashard Higgins caught the game-winning score.
Higgins has been neglected for weeks, despite being the one receiver that has natural chemistry with Baker Mayfield ( And think about the absence of Higgins from the lineup and correlate that with the decline in Mayfield's play) and yet after rarely playing this season, only hitting the field after what seems to be another issue with Antonio Callaway, it was Higgins that Mayfield was looking for at the end of the game!
Rashard Higgins is my favorite Brown on the offensive side of the football and he'll be a free agent at the end of the season (if any player deserves to walk away from a team, it's Higgins), so if this could be his last stand as a Brown- I feel pretty good for him.
2) Jarvis Landry played well for the second week in a row as the Browns have begun (hopefully) to realize that even attempting to use Odell Beckham downfield (it's even better if the QB can complete these attempts) can be quite effective in giving Landry room to operate in those medium routes that he can thrive in.
Funny how that works out.
3) I do have one issue with Landry, who was flagged for taunting a Bills defensive back after catching a first-quarter touchdown pass.
The penalty would haunt the Browns throughout the game as Buffalo coach Sean McDermott did what I think more coaches should do in that situation, McDermott put the penalty on the extra point, not on the kickoff as most coaches do, and forced Austin Seibert to attempt a 48-yard extra point.
The extra point predictably was missed and the Browns scrambled all during the game from the issues from the missed conversion.
All of which traced back to Jarvis Landry, who couldn't celebrate with his teammates and preferred to stick it to a Buffalo Bill.
4) I did really like the way that the offense used Kareem Hunt in his first game since his suspension.
Hunt didn't have the carries that Nick Chubb did (20 to 4), but he did run for thirty yards on those carries and caught seven passes for forty-four yards along with being a better blocker than I anticipated when he lined up in the backfield with Nick Chubb.
Hopefully, Freddie Kitchens can continue to keep Hunt involved with the offense.
5) Antonio Callaway didn't play due to what Freddie Kitchens termed as a disciplinary issue that he did not elaborate on and had Callaway been active, I'd bet that Rashard Higgins would have never been in the game for his game-winning touchdown.
Honestly, I've had about what I'm going to tolerate from Callaway, who flashes talent on occasional times and even more often shows a lack of discipline, both on and off the field.
I would have no problems with the Browns moving on from Callaway, he's been given more than his share of chances, but I'm not sure that John Dorsey will do that.
Should he make that decision, it would mean that yet another player from his once-prized 2018 draft class would be stamped as a disappointment.
6) The Browns only finished with one sack of Josh Allen on the day (by the oft-criticized by TRS Chad Thomas), but they were in the face of Allen all day and I loved the effort by Sheldon Richardson, who finished with three tackles, but was beaten up by the end of the game and yet Richardson didn't come out of the game and never stopped moving.
Some of the season thus far has been tough to take for fans and the organization, so it's nice to see veterans continuing to bust their rear no matter the record.
7) I was concerned with the eight first-quarter plays inside the two-yard line that the Browns wound up with zero points.
Passes to Odell Beckham drew two pass interferences calls, but all of the eight plays were all either passes to Beckham or runs with Nick Chubb.
I know that I've advocated running short-yardage plays with Chubb rather than Dontrell Hilliard and trying to throw the ball more to Beckham in the end zone, but there can be too much of a good thing.
8) I thought Baker Mayfield was OK in the victory.
Not outstanding, but not terrible either.
Mayfield threw for two touchdowns for the first time all season, didn't throw an interception, and led the final game-winning drive, so there were plenty of positives.
However, Mayfield is still hanging his receivers out trying to catch high passes, is still showing problems with accuracy and when Tremaine Edwards blitzed in the third quarter to sack Mayfield for a safety that tied the game at nine, Mayfield has to get the ball away there.
HAS to get the ball away and even though Mayfield didn't have very much time, he has to try.
The worst thing that happens is the officials call intentional grounding and give up the safety.
9) Maybe the Browns need to scrap the shovel pass from the game plan.
Baker Mayfield floated one that was intercepted for a touchdown against New England and in the fourth quarter, Mayfield fluttered one that was so far behind intended receiver Kareem Hunt that it was ruled a fumble and another touchdown on a scoop and score by Buffalo's Jerry Hughes.
Fortunately, the replay showed that it was actually an awful pass and took what would have been a game-clinching touchdown for the Bills off the board.
Baker either needs to practice this more or scrap the play call because he's not very good at it.
10) I love the way Nick Chubb plays this game.
Chubb never gives up on a run, carries tacklers and doesn't take plays off whether he has the football or not.
If this team voted on an MVP after nine games, It is Nick Chubb and by a large margin.
11) The 3-6 Browns keep those razor-thin playoff hopes alive, but we'll know more after Thursday's game against Pittsburgh.
It sounds cliche', but every game is a must-win game from here on out.
The division title is out, Baltimore is playing too well and the Browns would have to make up four games with seven games remaining.
For the wild-card, the Browns will have to pass seven teams to grab the second wild-card ( Bills, Steelers, Colts, Titans, Chargers, Jaguars, and Broncos) with two of those teams (Titans and Broncos) already holding tie-breaker advantages due to their earlier wins over Cleveland.
It's going to take a lot of good fortune and I think that they will have to win them all to have a chance.
One slip and it is time for draft talk...
No comments:
Post a Comment