The Cleveland Browns lost a shootout to Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, blowing a 27-13 lead to fall, 47-42, and drop to 3-2 on the season.
After such a tough loss, fans were looking to take their frustrations out on someone and some began to point the finger at the quarterback, Baker Mayfield.
Mayfield, who revealed last week he is playing through a partially torn labrum, did not necessarily have a bad performance, though. He completed nearly 72% of his pass attempts for 305 yards and two touchdowns and did not turn the ball over.
But Mayfield was unable to lead the Browns to a touchdown at the end of the game, turning the ball over on downs in the final drive, which culminated in three consecutive incomplete passes.
On Monday, Mayfield’s wife, Emily, took to social media to rip any fans who were trying to blame her husband for Sunday’s loss.
Instagram/@emilywmayfield
Statistically, Sunday was Mayfield’s best performance of the season. It was the first game he threw for multiple touchdowns and second in which he broke 300 yards passing. Heck, the offense put up 42 points — usually enough to win the game.
Yet, Mayfield still took his portion of accountability after the game.
“I thought we were efficient in the pass game. We just didn’t make the play we needed to,” he said after the game. “So, I mean, I’m not going to be happy about it. We didn’t win the damn game. That’s truly all that matters to me I’m going to be hard on myself, regardless and I didn’t do enough today to win the game.”
There were also some questionable penalty calls, including lots of contact in the end zone on the final Hail Mary that could have arguably been called pass interference.
While Mayfield was critical of the officiating, he was not trying to make excuses.
“We didn’t do our job enough to just take the ballgame away,” he said. “And we left [the game] in the hands of somebody else so we’ve got to be better on that.”
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