CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Baker Mayfield and the Browns put on an historic offensive display in the first half Sunday and rode it to victory.
Mayfield completed 25 of 33 passes for 334 yards and four touchdowns as the Browns beat the Tennessee Titans, 41-35.
All four scores came in the first half making him the first Browns quarterback in the Super Bowl era to achieve the feat joining Otto Graham, whose birthday is Dec. 6, in 1951 as the only players in franchise history to do it.
Nick Chubb ran for 80 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries as five different Browns scored in the win.
Cleveland outgained Tennessee 458-431 and won the turnover battle 3-1.
Sloppy play defensively in the second half allowed Tennessee to outscore them 28-3 in the final 30 minutes and turn a 31-point route at halftime into a 6-point loss.
Although Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill threw for 389 yards and most of them coming in the second half, Derrick Henry, who leads the NFL in rushing, was limited to just 60 yards rushing.
Although the game started slow for the Browns, it picked up in a hurry.
Donovan Peoples-Jones dropped a wide-open would-be touchdown on a slant and Rashard Higgins got called for a false start on third-and-5 causing the Browns’ opening drive to go up in smoke resulting in a 27-yard field goal from Cody Parkey and a 3-0 lead.
Cleveland caught a break after replay review upheld the spot on Henry’s fourth-and-1 run that saw Sheldon Richardson stop him short to give the Browns the ball at their own 42. Mike Vrabel challenged the spot and lost.
Mayfield capitalized with a 2-yard strike to Landry in the back of the end zone for a 10-0 lead that also saw him catch a 6-yard pass from Landry for a first down during the 9-play drive.
Richardson stripped Henry to give the Browns the ball at the Titan 21 after safety Karl Joseph fell on the loose football. It was Henry’s first fumble in over a year – 375 touches to be exact.
Mayfield turned the turnover into 7 six plays later. On third-and-goal from the 1, Tennessee’s defensive line bit on play action to Chubb and Mayfield found a wide-open tackle eligible Kendall Lamm for a 17-0 lead. It was the first TD caught by a Browns offensive lineman since Shaun O’Hara in 2001 against the Detroit Lions.
Tannehill needed just four plays to answer and get the Titans on the board when he found Corey Davis for a 17-yard score. The play followed a 40-yard toss to A.J. Brown making it a 17-7 game with 13:14 left in the first half. Brown went down on the play with an apparent injury and Davis adjusted in the endzone to give his QB a target.
Mayfield countered with a deep ball to Peoples-Jones up the far sideline that saw the rookie blow by Titans corner Breon Borders for a 75-yard catch-and-run to extend the lead back to 17, 24-7 with 13:04 left in the half.
After a quick three-and-out by Tennessee, Mayfield capped an 11-play, 90-yard drive with a 17-yard TD toss to Higgins for a 31-7 lead. Mayfield joined Otto Graham (Dec. 2, 1951) as the only QBs in franchise history to throw 4 TDs in the first half of a game.
Chubb added a 1-yard run with 55 seconds remaining in the half for a 38-7 lead at intermission. It was the most points scored in the first half in franchise history.
The Maalox came out for fans in the second half.
It took Tennessee three plays to score to begin the second half. Tannehill threw a 20-yard touchdown to MyCole Pruitt, but Henry was denied on the 2-point try by Goodson to keep it 38-13.
Pruitt scored again after he scooped up a fumble by Brown after an 18-yard completion for a touchdown. Terrance Mitchell stripped the ball from Brown, but Pruitt was in the right spot to make the heads-up play. Tannehill’s run on the 2-point conversion made it 38-21 with 9:08 remaining in the third.
The Browns answered with an 8-play drive but Parkey booted a 43-yard field goal to extend the lead back to 20, 41-21, after Mayfield’s pass to Landry on third down had too much heat on it and went off the receiver's hands.
Johnson was called for a personal foul for hitting a defenseless receiver high which wiped out an Andrew Sendejo interception on the ensuing possession allowing Tennessee to march on, but the drive would end when Adam Humphries got hit by cornerback Terrance Mitchell, freeing the ball for cornerback M.J. Stewart to come away with the interception.
Myles Garrett took Tannehill down early in the fourth quarter on third-and-3 to force another punt to give him 10 ½ sacks on the season.
Tennessee was forced to take 4:20 off the clock late in the fourth quarter during a 15-play drive that was capped by a 1-yard TD run to make it a 41-28 game with 1:23 remaining.
On the ensuing possession for the Browns, Mayfield fumbled while reaching on a fourth-and-1, which was scooped up by Titans safety Kenny Vaccaro before Kareem Hunt ran him down inside the 20.
The turnover allowed the Titans to score a late touchdown from Tannehill with 28 seconds left, but Andy Janovich recovered the onside kick to seal the victory.
