CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The scoreboard just didn’t do justice to the pain the Browns inflicted upon the Bears Sunday afternoon at FirstEnergy Stadium.
Cleveland’s defense, which had come under fire for a lack of impact plays the first two weeks of the season, sacked Justin Fields nine times in his NFL debut and Browns running back Kareem Hunt became a one-man wrecking crew for the Browns offense.
Hunt racked up 155 yards from scrimmage and scored on a 29-yard touchdown run while Myles Garrett collected a single-game franchise record 4.5 sacks as the Browns pulled away in the second half to beat the Bears 26-6.
The Browns outgained the Bears 418-47. They racked up 26 first downs to just 6 for Chicago, who finished with just one net yard passing.
Odell Beckham Jr. was targeted a team-high nine times and he caught five of them for 77 yards in his first game since suffering a torn ACL in Week 7 at Cincinnati last year.
Fields finished the day 6 of 20 for 68 yards for Chicago.
Baker Mayfield, nursing a sore left shoulder, completed 19 of 31 passes for 246 yards with a touchdown and a 97.0 rating for the Browns in the win. He was sacked five times.
Backup Case Keenum got to come on late in the fourth quarter to finish off the game for Cleveland.
Mayfield’s 13-yard strike to tight end Austin Hooper with 19 seconds remaining in the half gave the Browns a 10-3 lead at intermission.
The primary reason such a statistically lopsided game was remotely close at halftime was thanks to a pair of fourth down sacks by Chicago to end the Browns’ first two offensive series.
On their opening series, head coach Kevin Stefanski went for it on fourth-and-5 only to see Mayfield sacked for a loss of 9. Robert Quinn came in from the left side untouched to combine with Angelo Blackson for the sack to give Chicago the ball at the Cleveland 47. The next series ended when Mayfield was sacked on fourth-and-1 after he turned to either hand off or work play action and there was nobody there. The busted play lost 11 on Khalil Mack’s sack.
Browns linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah stopped halfback David Montgomery for no gain on third-and-2 to force a 47-yard field goal from Cairo Santos to give the Bears a 3-0 lead. Santos hit from 22 in the third quarter to provide the only points for the visitors.
Browns safety John Johnson III intercepted Fields but was called for pushing off. Chicago was given the ball at the 12 following a 48-yard penalty. Thanks to the seventh sack of the afternoon, the defense forced Santos to kick for a second time.
Early in the second quarter, Chase McLaughlin made a 57-yard field goal to tie the game at 3.
It was the longest make in FirstEnergy Stadium history by a Browns kicker.
McLaughlin hit from 41 to extend the lead to 13-3 with 9:32 left in the third quarter. His 52-yarder with 10:40 left in the fourth made it a 23-6 game and a 28-yarder provided the final score.
McLaughlin joined Phil Dawson (twice in 2011 and once in 2012) as the only Browns kickers to make at least two field goals of 50-plus yards in a single game in the expansion era.
