CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Trick or Treat.
Treat!
The Browns avoided defeat and blew out the Bengals 32-13 in front of a sold out, well costumed and raucous crowd.
The losing streak is over and, for now, the season resurrected, even if for a night.
Here are our Top Takeaways from a Happy Halloween down on the lakefront after the Browns went Freddie Kruger on the visitors from Cincinnati.
1. Don’t toss that dirt on the casket that is the 2022 season just yet. They might even be able to pull that thing out of the ground if they play like this going forward.
2. The Browns, now 3-5, are Stayin’ Alive, Stayin’ Alive…at least on life support. The obituary is on hold.
3. Where have these guys who showed up in Browns uniforms been all season? Or at least the last four weeks?
4. Give the Browns credit: they had the Bengals seeing ghosts and goblins all night. And they finally have a team within the AFC North they dominate. Monday night’s game was their eighth win in nine games against Cincinnati and Joe Burrow fell to 0-4 against the Cleveland’s Pumpkin Patch.
5. The Bengals got the full Chubb experience Monday night. The Browns’ explosive back carried a season-high 23 times for 101 yards and a pair of touchdowns – a three-yard run and two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead in the second quarter, and in the fourth quarter an 11-yard run that made it 32-6. I asked Stefanski to put Chubb’s effort into words. “You are the wordsmith – I can’t come up with the adjectives,” Stefanski said. “He is a special player, a special person. Great leadership throughout the week. Runs so hard. Again, I think you can point out Nick, but I just think individual efforts across the board, just some of the guys up front that strained and the finish was really impressive.”
6. Short on tight ends, Stefanski may have set an NFL record for tackle eligible plays Monday night. “That was fun. We knew without Dave [Njoku], other guys were going to have to step up – Harry [Harrison Bryant] and Pharaoh [Brown] for sure. Then felt that we could get big at times with Michael [Dunn] and even James Hudson [III]. It is always really gameplan specific with what you do, but those guys gave us some really good reps.” Even the official got tired of calling out Browns numbers saying at one point when announcing their eligibility prior to Cleveland breaking the huddle: “They’re both are eligible, again.”
7. Cincinnati avoided the shutout early in the fourth quarter on Tyer Boyd’s 13-yard touchdown catch but the PAT was wide right. According to ESPN, the Browns haven’t blanked a team in 235 games, the second longest streak behind the Washington Commanders, who have gone 500 games without a shutout.
8. Another solid performance by Jacoby Brissett: 17 of 22 for 278 yards, a touchdown and a season-high 133.7 rating. Brissett to Amari Cooper was hot again with Cooper catching five passes for 131 yards and a 4-yard touchdown that made it 25-0. “Jacoby played fantastic tonight,” Cooper said. “I think he has played good football all year. I think the thing that stood out tonight was the complementary football.” Donovan Peoples Jones also deserves credit for catching all four targets for 81 yards.
9. With the NFL trade deadline less than 18 hours away, this was the “Hey Kareem Hunt is still on the roster” game. Hunt carried 11 times for 42 yards and caught four passes for 30 more. “I mean, I got opportunities to make plays and when I get a chance to make plays, I'm going to try to do the most with it,” Hunt said while wearing a Joker mask after the game. The 15 touches surpassed what he had received in the previous two games combined. As for his immediate future: “I mean, I'm down for whatever. I'm a football player and it's a business,” Hunt said. “I'm ready to do whatever they decide with me.
That's either go somewhere else or here, anything, it don't matter. I love the game of football.”
10. Cleveland’s defense hasn’t produced much in the way of turnovers this season, but they created a pair Monday night. They ended the Bengals opening drive with one. Myles Garrett came to play. He got his hand on Burrow’s pass and it bounced off Bengals receiver Tee Higgins’ hands and landed in the arms of cornerback A.J. Green, who ran it down the field inside the 20 but he was ruled down by contact at his own 16. “That first tipped pass leading to an interception and then that sack, it felt like everyone was like, ‘The bank is open. Everyone grab something,’ Garrett said. “I was rushing to get to the passer to make a big play, but there were a lot of guys playing lights out. It was just beautiful to see.” Sione Takitaki stripped Burrow for a sack that Tommy Togiai fell on and recovered at the Bengals 47 giving the Browns a chance to add to the lead before halftime.
11. Garrett celebrated Halloween by dressing as Vecna from Stanger Things to compliment his front lawn décor then proceeded to pound on Burrow and the Bengals. His final line: 1.5 sacks, a tackle for loss, four QB hits and a pass breakup that led to an interception. he tossed on Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” as he got dressed at his locker for his postgame presser. “Damn it, it felt good,” Garrett said. “To have the crowd behind us fully and have a lot of big plays on offense and defense with some young guys out there making plays, you can’t ask for a better setting to have a great game. Those guys have balled out in all three phases. It is going to be talked about and remembered for a while.”
12. Takitaki led the defense with 13 tackles while adding a sack, tackle for los and forced fumble. A breakout game for the 2019 third round pick.
13. Stefanski dipped into the bag of treats, but it turned into a trick on their second series. With Chubb in motion running left, Brissett handed the ball to him, and Chubb flipped the ball to Amari Cooper who was running right. Cooper's deep ball off the reverse to Michael Woods II was short and intercepted by Bengals safety Von Bell, who returned it 10 yards to the Cincinnati 48. “It was an abomination,” Cooper said. “It just kept running through my mind that if he wasn’t open, I needed to just throw it away. I didn’t realize how hard it was to throw it away. That is what I tried to do. I did not try to throw it to him. I was throwing it back to the line of scrimmage, and I looked up and it was in another guy’s hands. It was terrible. I don’t think they will have me throwing any more passes.” Give Stefanski an ‘A” for creativity. As for execution, he might be in favor of that for the play sheet it came from. “Obviously, when they don’t work, you ask for yourself why you called that,” Stefanski said. “It is what it is. Again, won’t stop us from trying to be aggressive in the future.”
14. Stefanski got creative again when he lined Chubb up at quarterback on second-and-goal from the three and Chubb ran it in for the touchdown.
Cincinnati was flagged for 12 men on the PAT so Cleveland took the ball at the 1 for 2-point try. With three tackles eligible, Chubb plowed in for an 8-0 lead with 5:04 remaining in the opening half.
15. Unfortunately, after the Takitaki strip sack, the Browns gave it right back when they failed to block Von Bell, who blew up Brissett. The ball popped free, and Akeem Davis-Gaither intercepted it at the 47 and went down at the 49. Evan McPherson missed a 47-yard field goal into the Dawg Pound wide right with 40 seconds remaining in the first half to keep it an 8-0 game.
16. The Bengals got Greedy [Williams] with 6:40 left in the fourth quarter on a Burrow to Tee Higgins 41-yard touchdown. It made the score 32-13. Not every piece of candy is a winner but that doesn’t mean the rest of the bag isn’t full of them.
17. Any down-and-1 to gos must be Brissett sneaks from here on out.
18. Brissett made it 18-0 with a scramble and then dive for the pylon with 8:57 remaining in the third quarter. It was his second rushing touchdown of the season and the first TD allowed by the Bengals in the second half this season.
19. It wouldn’t be a Browns game without special teams breakdowns. Cade York had a 53-yard field goal blocked. It was the second straight kick blocked by opponents. A potential game-tying 60-yard try in Baltimore was also swatted away. Corey Bojorquez would have flipped the field with a 57-yard punt but they gave up a 15-yard return. York later drilled a 55 yarder and made all of his PATs. The Browns also didn’t fumble away any returns. Baby steps.
20. Enjoy the candy. And the win, which was needed in the worst way.