Baker Mayfield threw two touchdowns with an interception and 190 yards passing, one each to Jarvis Landry and Austin Hooper but the star play was Myles Garrett's sack, strip, and resulting fifteen-yard fumble recovery and a touchdown in the third quarter for what would prove to be the winning score.
Cleveland improved to 7-6 and will play Saturday games in the next two weeks, hosting Las Vegas before traveling to Green Bay on Christmas Day.
Brownie Bits
1) Myles Garrett's play on Baltimore backup quarterback Tyler Huntley was the type of play that you expect impact players to make and one that only special players make.
Garrett's play was even more difficult than you would think because he had to reach over to hit Huntley's arm and he didn't give Huntley a full pop to cause the fumble.
2) Garretts's sack was his fifteenth of the season and with the sack broke the team record held by Reggie Camp that was set in 1984.
The surprise for me was that it took that long for Garrett to set the record but I think he would have broken it in either 2019 or 20 had goofy things not occurred with 2019 ended with the suspension for whacking Mason Rudolph and 2020 saw him slowed in the second half after contracting Covid-19.
3) I remember Reggie Camp as a Brown defensive end but I have to be honest if you gave me twenty guesses on the single-season Browns sack record holder, I am not sure that I would have said Reggie Camp.
This says two things- One is that Reggie Camp was a better pass rusher than I remembered with thirty-five sacks in his five seasons in Cleveland and the second is that the Browns really haven't had an elite pass rusher over the last thirty to forty seasons.
4) And another glimpse at what Grant Delpit could be bringing to the secondary as soon as next season as Delpit finished the game with eleven solo tackles and a hit on the QB on a blitz.
This season is essentially Delput's rookie year, so he hasn't been perfect but I think next season Grant Delpit is going to be a Pro Bowl contender.
5) As much as I was wincing at the Raven's late comeback, one thing that I liked was the Browns' refusal to allow the Ravens underneath completions to end with the receiver getting out of bounds to stop the clock.
Poor individual tackling has been a scourage for Cleveland for years and it was refreshing to see the Browns wrapping up and watching the clock run in return for allowing those short passes to show improvement in that area.
6) Could the Lamar Jackson injury have made the difference in this game?
Maybe, but I'm not so sure.
The Browns have handled Jackson better in their first encounter despite losing and while Jackson was four of four in the quarter that he played, the total yardage was only seventeen,
I don't want to say that the Jackson problem is solved but I do think that Cleveland adding Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and Grant Delpit to the lineup and patrolling the middle of the field has forced Jackson to perhaps think twice before haunting down the field with big and fast defenders capable on corralling him.
7) Baker Mayfield was okay.
Not great but not awful.
Mayfield's interception to Anthony Averett was a bad throw but while his inaccuracy still remained, it was improved (22 of 32) and the interception was the only ball that you could circle on your card and say "What was he thinking"?
8) The Browns did allow 287 yards, 117 to the noted Browns killer in tight end Mark Andrews but most of that yardage came in desperate comeback time for the Ravens.
I'm not too concerned about the passing yardage but I am concerned about this team's continued ability to ever cover Mark Andrews.
9) I know the analytics numbers etc and I just don't give a damn- If you are in the fourth quarter and you are down by nine-Kick the extra point and make it one possession tie.
Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh went for two and failed, so down by nine points with under nine minutes to play the Ravens are guaranteed to need two possessions rather than one.
Sorry, I believe in numbers as much as the next guy but the biggest numbers were these- Two possessions rather than one.
10) I blame Baker Mayfield a lot for the mediocrity of the Browns offense but I'm starting to be swayed a bit by the argument towards the play calling of Kevin Stefanski.
Stefanski's play-calling was said to be a strength when he was hired by the Browns and for his first season, it appeared to be so.
However, in season two I'm starting to wonder.
While I fully support using the running game, it appears that Stefanski has a tendency to slow things down too quickly and too early, and the things that are working to build a lead are often forgotten in the second half.
11) The Browns finished the second half with only ninety-five total yards and their only score was the defensive touchdown scored by Myles Garrett.
The Browns were so bad as these are their second-half drives: Punt, Chase McLaughlin missed field goal, punt, punt, kneel down.
12) My favorite play was Denzel Ward sticking Rashod Bateman on the final fourth down and taking him down to the turf well short of the first down.
I know I commented on the tackling earlier but hey how many times have we seen broken tackles in the same situation?
13) Finally, the Browns are alive at 7-6, and with the reeling Raiders next at home, the Browns are in a position to likely control their own destiny although that is not one hundred percent guaranteed.
I think it will take at least three wins to get into the playoffs and they need to make the three wins in the three conference games (Raiders and Bengals at home and Steelers on the road) to win some tiebreakers.
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