Cleveland, OH (92.3 The Fan) – As Browns safety Damarious Randall hauled Cam Newton’s pass with a minute remaining, FirstEnergy Stadium erupted while Cleveland’s sideline exhaled.
Baker Mayfield out-played Newton Sunday afternoon completing 18 of 22 passes for 238 yards and a touchdown. His quarterback rating was 126.9 as the Browns overcame a comedy of errors to beat the Panthers 26-20.
Newton dinked and dunked his way to a 26 of 42 for 265 yards with an interception afternoon.
Despite a multitude of missed tackles, a couple of critical drops, 2 fumbles, 7 penalties and a missed PAT, Cleveland won their fifth of the year marking the most victories in a season since a 7-9 finish in 2014. They also clinched their first winning record at FirstEnergy Stadium since going 7-1 at home in 2007.
The Browns are now 3-2 under Gregg Williams as interim head coach, and with 3 games left on the schedule, are in the AFC Playoff hunt.
Jarvis Landry scored a pair of touchdowns – a 3-yard run and 51-yard catch to finish with 111 combined scrimmage yards. He is the first Brown since Leroy Hoard (Nov. 24, 1991) to tally a 50-yard rush and a 50-yard catch in the same game.
“I guess waking up feeling dangerous is contagious,” Landry joked. “We pulled together as a team. We had a couple of turnovers obviously in the first half and mine, which was a big one, on the first play of the second half, but the defense went out there and got a stop.
“We found ways to play as a team. I think that is the biggest thing that everybody should take from this game. We found ways to make more plays than they did. Regardless of the situation, turnovers or not, we had each other’s back.”
Panthers running back Christian McCaffery scored 2 touchdowns and totaled 101 scrimmage yards and linebacker Luke Kuechly forced a pair of fumbles in the loss for Carolina, who fell below .500 to 6-7.
The win was hardly pretty for the Browns, but they’ll take it.
Newton showed the shoulder is fine with a 25-yard completion to Curtis Samuel right out of the gate and McCaffery totaled 45 yards before walking into the end zone untouched from the four for a 7-0 lead on their opening possession.
Mayfield responded by unloading a 66-yard bomb to Breshad Perriman, who had he stayed on his feet would've scored, right out of the gate on the first play.
“They just told me to run and haul ass so that’s what I did,” Perriman said. “I’m thankful I made that catch.”
Landry scored two plays later as he went in motion to the right and took the handoff before scoring from three yards out to tie the game at 7.
Landry ripped off a 51-yard run early in the fourth quarter on the same play he scored on which set up Nick Chubb’s 4-yard touchdown run that gave the Browns a 23-20 lead with 13:05 left in regulation.
“have been working on that play for a while now,” Landry said. “It has been in the plan. This is one of those weeks that [offensive coordinator] Freddie [Kitchens] really felt good about it. It was two big plays for us.”
After Carolina was called for offsides and the officials blew the PAT try dead, Greg Joseph shanked the ensuing kick off the left upright to keep the Browns in front by 3 instead of 4.
Joel Bitonio being flagged illegal down field cost the Browns an 18-yard completion to Landry. On the very next play Rashard Higgins caught a 4-yard screen pass but Kuechly stripped him and linebacker Thomas Davis recovered the loose ball at the Cleveland 12. McCaffery ran it in from 1-yard out five plays later for a 14-7 lead.
Mayfield unloaded a deep ball into double coverage on third-and-17 to Landry for a 51-yard touchdown to tie the game at 14 with 8:27 left in the first half. Landry, who also jumped into the dawg pound, gathered with the rest of the offense at the back pylon for an around the campfire celebration in the 25 degree cold.
“The whole plan of that play was honest, just simple and just get the first down,” Landry said. “The middle opened up. Baker got out of the pocket. I just kind of kept running, and he made a hell of a throw.”
That TD toss from Mayfield made him just the third quarterback in the Super Bowl era to throw touchdowns in each of his first 10 starts joining Brad Johnson and Hall of Famer Kurt Warner.
Just before the half receiver Higgins dropped a bullet from Mayfield that would've gone for a 31-yard touchdown on third-and-10. Instead of 7, Joseph kicked a 49-yard field goal to tie the game at 17 with 0:59 left in the half. The only two incompletions for Mayfield in the first 30 minutes was a ball that went off Chubb’s facemask and the drop by Higgins.
Cornerback T.J. Carrie had an interception nullified in the third quarter because he was called for holding. Carolina eventually kicked a 34-yard field goal for a 20-17 lead. Carrie was also called for a pass interference on the ensuing drive that came on a third-and-8 and extended it.
Joseph also made a 41-yard field goal with 8:46 remaining to provide the final score.
The defense, which gave up 393 yards of offense, put the game away with a goal line stand that saw Newton misfire on third and fourth downs.
“We’re pretty good at it,” Myles Garrett said. “We’ve been doing it a while now. Every time we get down there, we find a way to make a play.”
Then Randall’s interception sealed the victory and sent fans home happy for the fourth time in 2018.
