CINCINNATI, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – There is no low the Cleveland Browns cannot stoop to.
Sunday in Cincinnati they added losing to the once 1-14 now 2-14 Cincinnati Bengals to their already impressive resume of embarrassment and futility.
Odell Beckham Jr. got to 1,000 yards Sunday in Cincinnati, but the Browns didn’t get their seventh win. Instead they lost to the worst team in the NFL this season, 33-23 to end the 2019 season 6-10.
It marks the 16th 10-plus loss season for the franchise in 21 years since returning to the NFL in 1999 and was not the type of finish anyone expected.
“Not making the playoffs is disappointing, so whatever the record is after that who really cares,” Beckham said. “It’s about going to the playoffs.
“The season’s been a disappointment. I feel like week to week it’s been a battle to get to Sundays. I can’t wait for 2020.”
Beckham finished with three catches for 81 yards and a touchdown, his fourth of the year.
Chubb ran for 41 yards on just 13 carries to end with the fourth-best rushing season in team history and the most yards in the league on the ground this season – 1,494.
“It sucks. It’s the last game of the season and it happened,” Chubb said.
Bengals running back Joe Mixon, who ran for 146 yards against the Browns Dec. 8, rolled up 162 yards and two scores Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati’s second victory of the season.
“They played well against us last time. They played well last week,” Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens said. “They've played well the last eight, nine weeks probably. As far back as we looked at them, they had been playing well. It's just it's tough to win, and they just came up short a few times. But they were in a lot of games, and my hat's off to them. They kept fighting as well.”
Baker Mayfield threw three touchdowns and three interceptions while throwing for 279 yards in the loss. Mayfield finished with 22 touchdowns and 21 interceptions this season.
“The amount of interceptions I had this year, I think [was] more than I’ve had the past two or three years,” Mayfield said. “So, it’s quite frankly embarrassing for me.”
Cleveland came out of the gate firing, like they have some many times this season but once the scripted plays ran out, they fizzled fast, again.
D’Ernest Johnson peeled off a 47-yard kickoff return to the 44 on the opening kickoff and the Browns took just three plays to claim their first lead of the afternoon. Mayfield unloaded a 46-yard bomb to the end zone where Damion Ratley hauled it in for a 7-0 advantage following a pair of Chubb runs for 10 combined yards.
Mayfield became the ninth player in NFL history to record at least 20 touchdown passes in each of his first two seasons.
Miixon hit 1,000 yards on the season with a 41-yard run that saw cornerback Greedy Williams and safety Damarious Randall whiff on tackles on the Bengals’ opening drive to make him the sixth player in team history to hit the mark in back-to-back seasons. Dalton found tight end C.J. Uzomah on a quick slant for a 15-yard touchdown to tie the game at 7 with 9:53 left in the opening quarter.
Mayfield threw the first of three interceptions after Jarvis Landry fell and Bengals cornerback Darius Phillips returned it 28 yards to the 3. Mixon finished it off with a 3-yard run on third down for a 13-7 lead with just under five minutes left in the first.
The Browns had 10 men on the field on the scoring play.
The lack of defensive intensity continued the next drive that saw Dalton find the corner of the end zone on a scramble for a 20-7 lead.
Mayfield split a pair of Bengals defenders and threw a dime to Landry for a 56-yard score to cut Cincinnati’s lead to 4, 20-16, with just under two minutes to play in the first half. Austin Seibert, who made a 42-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 20-10, missed his fifth PAT of the season.
Randy Bullock made a 47-yard field goal at the end of a 10-play, 46-yard drive to open the second half for a 23-16 Bengals advantage. Bullock also hit from 46 with 1:55 remaining to put the game away for Cincinnati.
Mayfield and Dalton exchanged interceptions on deep balls on back-to-back possessions in the third quarter. Mayfield looked for Beckham deep, but Phillips came away with his second interception of the day, returning it 27 yards to midfield. Dalton gave it right back on a ball into the end zone that Browns cornerback Denzel Ward came up with.
Beckham crossed the 1,000-yard plateau early in the fourth quarter with a 25-yard reception pushing him to 1,015 yards for the season and making him the 10th in NFL history to accomplish the feat at least five times in his first six seasons.
“I came today to accomplish that with Jarvis,” Beckham, who revealed he was dealing with food poisoning and was sick throughout the game, said. “I just thank God I was able to get it done.”
Beckham got the Browns within 30-23 by making an incredible catch on fourth-and-goal from the 20 in the endzone that saw him tap both feet in bounds with 7:16 remaining. Mayfield ran for 11 yards and a first down before he was sacked twice in the next three plays setting up the fourth down throw.
But there would be no late comeback.
Bengals cornerback B.W. Webb intercepted Mayfield with a minute remaining to seal the victory.
