Mayfield rallies Browns-Losing Streak Snapped!

Baker Mayfield made his anticipated debut for a concussed Tyrod Taylor late in the first half and made his first game a winning one as Mayfield rallied a flagging Cleveland offense and snapped a losing streak that seemed to trace back to the Truman administration with a 21-17 win at home over the New York Jets.
Mayfield didn't throw a touchdown pass in his 201-yard passing night, but he did catch a pass from Jarvis Landry for a two-point conversion.
Carlos Hyde slammed through the Jets defense for 98 yards and two touchdowns on the ground for Cleveland in the victory with Jarvis Landry grabbing eight passes for 103 yards.
The Browns take a 1-1-1 record to Oakland next Sunday to visit the Raiders in what is likely to be their last visit ever to the Oakland Coliseum.

Brownie Bits

1) Baker Mayfield's debut.
Mayfield entered the game with the Browns trailing 14-0 and having failed to threaten at all under Tyrod Taylor, things looked less than sunny.
Mayfield instantly brought energy to the field and you could feel that.
I'm a person that doesn't buy a lot of that type of thing, but in this case, it was visible in how the Browns reacted to his entry into the game.
Mayfield moved the Browns downfield and even though the drive resulted in just a field goal, you could again feel that the Browns were not out of this game.

2) After Tyrod Taylor underthrew two passes that could have been big plays and was anemic in completing just four of fourteen passes, Baker Mayfield's passes were sharp, didn't hang in there and were generally accurate.
Take a fumble on his drive, that the Browns fortunately recovered and I don't have a glaring mistake that the Oklahoma rookie made, unless you count his receiver dropping a few passes as his mistakes,
which of course would not be the case.

3) I've been noted as a skeptic on Baker Mayfield and I still am to a degree.
We'll see what happens when the league gets a book on him and for every young quarterback that becomes a star, there is another with immediate success that isn't able to make the required adjustments to defenses that have an idea of what you like to do.
However, what will be will be and let's talk about what I liked last night.
The ball came out quickly, which what you hope to see and what the Browns offense was not getting from Tyrod Taylor.
Every half second that you are able to save by getting rid of the football is a half second that your linemen do not have to hold onto their blocks- you make your offensive line move up a level when you can get rid of the football.

4) The other thing that I liked about Mayfield was the throws.
I still don't think that he has an especially strong arm, but his throws are straight, don't hang in the air (therefore making your receiver jump for them and vulnerable to hits) and get there fast enough that receivers don't have to wait for them.
From what I saw, he'll be fine in the short to intermediate passing game, he didn't make any long throws, so perhaps we'll see some of that in Oakland.

5) Remember that even though I was extremely critical of the Browns for taking Baker Mayfield, that it was more for taking him first rather than in the first round.
I had Mayfield as my third quarterback in the draft (behind Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen) and considered him a first rounder, just not at first in the draft, so while I did (and do) have questions, it was more about draft value than ability,

6) A final note on Baker for today- I keep seeing these comparisons to Brett Favre and as a Favre fan, I'd be fine with getting anything close to that, but watching the game, Mayfield brought to mind another favorite of mine and something that person said in an NFL Network program.
It's Doug Flutie.
Both were not big quarterbacks (although Baker is a few inches taller than Flutie), both are helped by a moving pocket to help them see their passing lanes and both seem to have that "it" factor that no one can describe in tangible terms , but players know if their quarterback possesses it or not.
However, Flutie on "A Football Life" boiled down the pro game as being no different than pickup games in the backyard- "rollout, see a guy is open, you throw it to him, you take your read and throw it to the open guy".(the clip is at the 6:00 mark)
It is simple in how it sounds, but there really is something to that and that is just what Baker Mayfield might have as well.

7) Carlos Hyde ran strong, breaking tackles and moving the pile in his two-score night.
Hyde had been criticized by some entering the game with a low yards per carry average, but as I noted last week, Hyde is the type of back that wears defenses down and what was keeping his average down was his lack of carries.
Hyde ran the ball 23 times and responded with a big night.

8) Former Brown Isaiah Crowell scored both Jet touchdowns but otherwise was quiet in finishing with only 34 yards on 16 runs.
However, Crowell was very classless in "wiping his rear" (yes, really) with the ball before firing it into the stands.
I know Crowell wasn't happy with his use last season with Hue Jackson and I understand his frustration, but it wasn't the fans that didn't give him the ball to run with and yet it was the fans that Crowell decided to slap in the face.
Ridiculous.

9) The defense forced three more turnovers (2 interceptions and a forced fumble) and the best play was the strip of Robby Anderson by Denzel Ward after a completion.
The Gregg Williams defense is becoming quite adept at ripping the ball loose and the Browns turned that in three points off the foot of Greg Joseph.

10) Greg Joseph drilled both of his field goals (long of 45)and even if they didn't look pretty, they went through the uprights, which is the objective.
We'll see how long Joseph sticks around, but a nice start for Joseph in the victory.

11) Myles Garrett had two sacks of Sam Darnold, but once again it was Larry Ogunjobi starring as well from defensive tackle.
Ogunjobi certainly would win a most improved Brown award and at this rate, might be playing at a Pro Bowl level.

12) The color rush uniforms were a hit in my opinion.
I thought the jerseys were the best that the team has worn since the sad change in togs under the Alec "I'd be surprised if our fans didn't love these uniforms" Scheiner front office, but I still think too much brown was used with the Brown pants.
I'd love to see these jerseys return with either white or especially orange pants.

13) In closing, I'm glad the streak is over and the beer coolers are unlocked and we can all celebrate a win.
Now it's time to start acting like a franchise should- one that doesn't go crazy over a win over a bad team at home.
I tweeted last night that Tyrod Taylor's concussion might have won this game because I doubted Hue Jackson would have made the change otherwise.

I really don't need to hear a bunch of kudos for Hue Jackson though.
If Taylor doesn't get concussed, he is likely to stay in (IMO) and under those conditions, it's an L. Let's not give credit for a move forced by injury..

— R.S (@ThoughtsofRS) September 21, 2018

Let's see if Hue Jackson ( and Baker Mayfield for that matter) can build off this win and with ten days to prepare for a road date against another team of a similar level in the Oakland Raiders, that should be an interesting test to see just how good this Browns team is.

Celebrate this one and hopefully get used to the feeling.

Browns trade for Tyrod Taylor

The wild Friday for the Cleveland Browns and John Dorsey continued even as I was writing my earlier post about the team's trade for Jarvis Landry as the Browns brought in their "Bridge" quarterback from across Lake Erie as veteran Tyrod Taylor was acquired from the Buffalo Bills for the Browns third-round pick (65) in April's draft.

Taylor led Buffalo to their first playoff berth after 17 years of missing the postseason but threw an interception for his only significant passing stat in the Bills 10-3 loss in Jacksonville.
Taylor turns 29 in August and will become a free agent at the end of the 2018 season, so this is essentially a one year showcase for Taylor to play while whoever the Browns draft at quarterback learns the professional game.
Taylor could then re-sign with the Browns as the backup or with a good year in Cleveland, might be able to sign a contract elsewhere and perhaps start for that team.

Here is what the Browns will get from Tyrod Taylor- he's a mobile quarterback (Over 400 yards rushing), he takes care of the football (only four interceptions), he is an accurate passer on short and intermediate passes, but doesn't throw the ball as well deep and the price that is often paid in order to avoid interceptions is holding onto the football and taking the sack which Taylor did 45 times last season with the Bills.

Tyrod Taylor will be what the Browns were unfairly asking of DeShone Kizer (more on him in the next post)- he'll be a smart quarterback that knows his limitations and rarely makes silly mistakes.
In other words, he's a veteran professional that isn't going to win games with spectacular plays but rarely will hand them to the opposition on the flip side of the coin.
Taylor's never been noted as a locker room problem and despite the cost of the first pick of the third round, which I might have thought was a mild overpay normally (If you choose to include this deal with the Jarvis Landry bargain, it seems more palatable), I can understand why John Dorsey acted now.
Perhaps someone had tipped the team off that A.J. McCarron wasn't interested in being a bridge to the drafted QB or the Browns didn't want to gamble on the injury issues with Sam Bradford or Teddy Bridgewater, didn't want to pay a pile of money for the limitations of one-year wonder Case Keenum or settle for career backups like Chase Daniel, so the Browns felt the need to strike now.

All of those things make sense to me and Tyrod Taylor should be able to do for the Browns exactly what he is being brought to Cleveland to do- win a few games, don't make mistakes and keep the team competitive until the drafted player is ready.
If he is able to do that then the third rounder might not be that much of a loss for a team that needs credibility badly.

Back later with the final trade of the day that involved players, flipped picks and the end of the one year reign of DeShone Kizer.