Browns tame Jaguars 31-27

       Joe Flacco threw for 311 yards and three touchdowns in his first home start as a Cleveland Brown as the Browns defeated the visiting Jacksonville Jaguars 31-27.

David Njoku caught two of Flacco's touchdown throws and finished with ninety-one yards from six catches to lead the Browns skill players.

Cleveland improved to 8-5 in breaking a two-game losing streak and will host the Chicago Bears next Sunday.

Brownie Bits

1) Before the game, the Browns announced that they had signed safety Grant Delpit to a three-year contract extension worth thirty-six million dollars.

Delpit is in the middle of a breakout season this year and the Browns needed to keep their playmaking safety.

2) So this being the Browns, Delpit roared out against Jacksonville with five solo tackles and a sack of Trevor Lawrence on a safety blitz before suffering a groin injury when on another blitz of Lawrence, Delpit landed on Myles Garrett and was forced to leave the game.

How much time Delpit will miss is still uncertain but it is "so Browns" to see Delpit injured on the same day that he signed his contract extension.

3) Joe Flacco did turn the ball over twice, once on an interception and the other on a fumble when he was sacked for the only time of the day.

Flacco even avoided a sack or two with some movement in the pocket.

When dealing with a lack of mobility, you are always concerned about blindside hits and fumbles from the quarterback, so the Browns will have to continue to receive solid play from the offensive line.

4) The Browns sacked Trevor Lawrence four times in the game, two of them from defensive tackle Maurice Hurst.

When defensive tackles are getting sacks, either one of two things are happening.

Either the edge rushers are forcing the quarterback to step in the pocket leading them directly to the tackle or the tackle is just blowing up the guards and breaking down the opponent's pass protection.

5) Myles Garrett didn't have any sacks but he did offer some complaints about the officiating.

I know Garrett gets held on every play and it is often not called but it's rarely a good look to gripe unless you have a specific poor call that costs you a game.

6) After the game, Kevin Stefanski named Joe Flacco as the starter for the remainder of the season and I think that was the best choice.

Even with the flaws of the aging Flacco, the ability to open the offense up with downfield tosses combined with the experience that comes with a thirty-eight-year-old quarterback made the selection an easy one.

7) Kevin Stefanski did use Dorian Thompson-Robinson a few times under center in short-yardage situations with DTR running once for a first down.

I like to see these looks but what I especially like is when play callers mix things up and show defenses that DTR (for example) can run, hand the ball off, and eventually show that the Browns can throw out of those situations.

I remember despising the Browns on the Wildcat formations when they had Josh Cribbs (a college quarterback) and never calling a pass play with Cribbs essentially neutered the formation as defenses never had to account for anything other than a Cribbs run of some sort.

The more things that a team can do, the higher the chances of an effective play call.

8) If you rip Kevin Stefanski for play calls that don't work, fairness says to give the man credit for his good ones.

And I LOVED the call that resulted in the final touchdown on a fourth and three.

With Joe Flacco in the shotgun, David Bell gives the appearance of staying in to block or being a desperation checkdown target but after the initial block, Bell moves to the center of the field, wide open with Flacco quickly popping the ball out to Bell, who then ran for forty-one yards with nary a Jaguar around for the score.

9) That play was set up by an over-the-shoulder interception by Greg Newsome, who made an excellent play on the Trevor Lawrence throw.

Martin Emerson grabbed two interceptions and the secondary played very well for most of the game.

10) Give Trevor Lawrence credit as the Jaguars leaned towards the former Clemson Tiger not playing due to an ankle injury in their previous game.

I picked Jacksonville mainly because of the announcement that Lawrence was going to start over C.J. Beathard and I liked the toughness that I saw from Lawrence despite the three picks.

Lawrence was beaten up and harassed all day yet hung in there and gave his team a chance to win a game that they could easily lost by a much larger margin.

11) This was a huge win for several reasons.

It stopped the losing streak at two and took advantage of losses by the three teams that entered the day tied with the Browns in the wild-card hunt (Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, and Houston) to move a full game ahead of all teams in the playoff scramble.

The bad news is that Buffalo, Cincinnati, and Denver all won their games to place a stunning six teams at 7-6 for two spots and only one game behind the Browns.

One slip and the Browns are back in a mass battle and dealing with the headache of tiebreakers.

12) Four games to go with a home game next week vs Chicago, at Houston, who had their quarterback injured yesterday (C.J. Stroud), home against the Jets on a Thursday night, and finishing in Cincinnati against a suddenly resurgent B.ngals team without Joe Burrow.

I think a split of those games gets them into the playoffs, perhaps as high as the fifth seed.

Three out of four definitely get them in, and maybe with some breaks, a shot at the division title.

Baltimore leads Cleveland by two games but has a brutal final four games in road trips to Jacksonville and San Francisco with home games against Miami and Pittsburgh.

I can see a scenario where Cleveland ties for the division title but it will take no less than three wins in the final four weeks to be in that position.