CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Take a deep breath, and then exhale.
The Browns live to fight again next week, barely.
After allowing the Ravens to climb back in it with 19 unanswered points, the Browns hung on for a 24-22 victory to push them to 7-6, out of the AFC North cellar and into the thick of the muddy AFC Wild Card picture.
Here are our Top Takeaways from a game the Browns did all they could to give away until the very end.
1. Whew. Sigh. That was much closer than it should have been.
2. In any other year Justin Tucker probably kicks a 59-yard field goal at the gun and the Browns see their season go up in flames. The football gods must be smiling on the Browns because they live to see another day, err week.
3. That divine intervention came in the form of Myles Garrett, Jadeveon Clowney and Denzel Ward. All three deserve a standing ovation for their efforts in the closing minutes to seal that victory. Garrett with pressure, Clowney a sack and Ward for the game-sealing fourth down tackle.
4. Baker Mayfield summed it up, “The point is to win a football game. If you have more points than the other team, then you have accomplished your goal.” Box checked. Barely.
5. Lamar Jackson’s departure early in the second quarter due to an ankle injury after linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah caught his ankle after he attempted a pass didn’t alter the trajectory of the game one bit. Clowney joked that he thought about Ravens backup quarterback Tyler Huntley, “Man we need Lamar back out here,” but it sure looked like at times the former MVP was on the field disguised wearing No. 2 instead of 8. Huntley was just as elusive as Jackson, and he threw for 270 yards and a score while completing 27 of 38 passes.
6. Garrett made history and did it in style. Garrett set the Browns single season franchise record for sacks with a strip-sack of Huntley then ran down the loose football at the 15, scooped it up and ran it in for a touchdown, the first of his NFL career. The scoop and score gave the Browns a 24-3 lead with 49 seconds left in the first half. Garrett has 15 sacks this season, trailing Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt by 1 for the NFL lead.
7. Kevin Stefanski finally beat John Harbaugh. It took four tries but give Stefanski credit for doing something many of his predecessors were in capable of and that is beating every team within the division within his first two seasons.
8. Also Credit Stefanski for sticking to the run this time after he raised the white flag November 28 in Baltimore. Nick Chubb carried 17 times for 59 yards and Kareem Hunt twice for 5 before departing with an ankle injury. D’Ernest Johnson stepped in for 4 carries and 22 yards.
9. Hunt will undergo an MRI Monday so cross your fingers the football gods remain on the Browns side. Judging by responses from Hunt’s teammates after the game, there’s optimism that he’ll be fine.
10. Jarvis Landry finally got into the end zone after catching a football. It took until Week 14 but Landry’s 9-yard touchdown reception, that saw him fight to the front corner of the west end zone for the score, gave the Browns a 10-0 lead with 38 seconds remaining in the opening quarter. Mayfield said after the game, “I did not make it easy on him with ball placement. It was left inside to where he had to turn, but he did a little hesitation and made a great play. It is good to see guys like that get in the end zone. He deserves all of that for sure.”
11. Mayfield’s final numbers: 22 of 32 for 190 yards with two touchdowns and an interception with a rating of 91.9. A solid stat line that could’ve and should’ve been even better. Credit to Mayfield for acknowledging they took the foot off the gas in the second half and didn’t finish that game strong enough. Mayfield’s lone physical error came while he was looking for Landry deep up the near sideline, which was picked off by Ravens cornerback Anthony Averett. The pick and 21-yard return to the Cleveland 38 only cost them a Justin Tucker 50-yard field goal that cut the lead to 17-3 with 3:30 left in the first half.
12. Mayfield felt the Browns got conservative which led to them getting shut out in the second half. They have scored just seven points, that’s 7, in the fourth quarter since Week 6. This season opponents are obliterating them in the final 15 minutes 105-52. Sure, be happy the Browns won but offensively they are a train wreck when it comes to putting their foot on the gas and putting away the opposition.
13. Even with 12 men on the field, Ravens running back Latavius Murray still punched it in with ease from a yard out that pulled the Ravens within 24-15 after their 2-point try was intercepted by Grant Delpit.
14. It begs to be asked, did Delpit know he could return that interception and if he managed to take it the distance the Browns got 2 points? The immediate knee right after the catch was interesting.
15. JoJo Natson turned what could have been an epic disaster into the heads up play of the day. Justin Tucker’s kickoff died at the 2 after he made a 50-yard field goal to get on the board down 17-3 in the second quarter. Natson positioned his feet out of bound before touching the ball forcing a kick out of bounds penalty and the ball moved out to the 40. “I bet you all of the guys on our sideline knew that rule,” Stefanski said. “Everybody was aware of what JoJo was doing as the ball was rolling out there. That is a credit to Coach Prief of making sure those guys are situationally aware because those often come up in special teams plays.”
16. Minus Natson’s heads up play, special teams were pretty sloppy. Natson replaced Demetric Felton returning punts in the second quarter after Felton muffed the first two attempts. Dustin Colquitt downed a punt at the 1 but a holding penalty forced a re-kick and the Ravens started at their own 17 instead. Chase McLaughlin missed his fourth field goal in five games. Then there was the freak bounce off of Andy Janovich on the onside kick that the Ravens recovered with 1:15 remaining to give Baltimore one last gasp.
17. Chase McLaughlin is no Justin Tucker. His 41-yard try early in the fourth quarter bounced off the right upright. Meanwhile Tucker pounded through kicks of 50, 42 and 55 yards with ease for the Ravens. McLaughlin has missed four field goals in the last six games after making his first nine field goals of the season. He has also had a PAT blocked.
18. The Browns continue to get all kinds of help and are now second in the AFC North thanks to the 49ers overtime win at Cincinnati that dropped the Bengals to third because of the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Buccaneers beat the Bills in overtime dropping Buffalo to 7-6. In all, five teams in the AFC are 7-6 and Cleveland is in the No. 8 spot, but in control of their own destiny. Keep winning, and they're in.
19. On to Las Vegas. The 6-6 Raiders come to town in what could be an AFC playoff elimination game.
