Basic Browns bump Broncos 17-14

   The battered Cleveland Browns may not have said their Thursday night game at home against the Denver Broncos was a must-win game but it really was.

Without severe key players including quarterback Baker Mayfield and running back Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, the Browns came up with a gritty team effort based around the ground game and won a hard-fought 17-14 decision in Cleveland.

Backup quarterback Case Keenum completed twenty-one of thirty-three passes for 199 yards and a touchdown and third-string running back D'Ernest Johnson stepped through the curtain in his opportunity to be the backfield workhorse with 146 yards and a touchdown.

Cleveland improves to 4-3 with the victory and will receive a badly needed ten days off before a Halloween Sunday battle against the Pittsburgh Steelers at home by Lake Erie.

Brownie Bits

1) Case Keenum did exactly what he was signed to back up Baker Mayfield before the 2020 season- win winnable games in the event that Baker Mayfield would be unable to play.

Keenum did what was advertised= don't dazzle, use the running game, and don't make the type of mistake that can cost you a game.

It's simple and it's basic and it doesn't always work against better teams but on this night and against this team (Denver) it was enough to notch a W.

2) The knock on Case Keenum is his arm strength and it's a fair one- Keenum's arm is average at best but honestly I didn't see a lot of difference between Keenum's arm and Baler Mayfield's arm strength.

Now being fair that may be because of Mayfield's injury this season but in his other three seasons, Mayfield was never a mad bomber.

And Keenum did throw the ball to his receivers in stride or where it needed to be, which Mayfield often has been unable to perform.

3) The Browns returned Jarvis Landry to the lineup but Landry left the game with another injury late in the game.

Landry caught five passes for thirty-seven yards in giving Case Keenum a checkdown option and no word on his status for Pittsburgh of this writing.

4) Cleveland played with Donovan Peoples-Jones after the second-year receiver suffered a groin pull in pre-game warmups.

Peoples-Jones had led the Browns receivers in the loss to Arizona and is undergoing an MRI on the injury today.

5) The star of the day was D'Ernest Johnson with 146 rushing yards and a touchdown on twenty-two carries.

Johnson took advantage of the injuries to Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt for his career day and showed better speed than you would expect from a third-string back.

Johnson showed that on a team with fewer outstanding backs that he could be a viable option.

6) Johnson avoided one thing that backup running backs are often tripped up by- too many moves and jukes looking for a bug run rather than putting his head down and running in a straight line.

Johnson was content to move forward and take what he was given instead of showing shiftiness for a breakaway run that never arrived.

7) Big play of the game- In the third quarter with the Browns looking at a fourth and three from the Denver four, Case Keenum scrambled for the three yards and the first down.

Keenum would then hit Johnny Stanton with a one-yard pass for what would prove to be the winning score.

8) While I understand the Browns wanted Jedrick Wills back in the lineup so badly, it might have been a better idea to allow Wills to sit for one more game (after missing the Arizona loss) and hopefully be close to 100 percent against Pittsburgh.

It seemed like Jonathan Cooper and Shelby Harris were having their name called a lot after going up against a weakened Wills and their name won't remind anyone of great Bronco pass rushers like Rich "Tombstone" Jackson or Lyle Alzado.

9) Anthony Walker returned to the lineup and seemed to be all over the field finishing with seven solo tackles and several assisted tackles.

I'm looking forward to a lineup with both Walker and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah playing together to see just how much ground the pair can cover to allow Joe Woods to more of his five defensive backs on the field at all times for more effectiveness.

10)  John Johnson has been a disappointment after signing a contract in the off-season but Johnson made a key play late in the first half when Johnson intercepted a Teddy Bridgewater pass in the end zone.

Hopefully, it is the start of a Johnson that is beginning to make an impact.

11) The difference between 4-3 and 3-4 may not seem like much but considering Baltimore has won five of their first six and the Bengals are four and two, winning a home game against a bad team was a must.

Now with Pittsburgh at 3-3 and off a bye week on Halloween night, a 3-4 record and a loss to the Steelers could mean the season. 

Instead, a win over the Steelers would move the Browns to 5-3 and the ship is sailing well on the playoff seas.