CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Browns’ opener couldn’t have gone much worse than the 38-6 beating they took in Baltimore back on Sept.
13.
Fortunately, unlike previous years, it was not an ominous sign of things to come in 2020.
The Browns have regrouped and won 9 of 11 to hold the top spot in the AFC Wild Card standings with four games to play while the Ravens fight for their playoff lives.
“We are a completely different team than we were early on – obviously, for the better,” quarterback baker Mayfield said. “We have learned a lot about ourselves scheme-wise, personnel-wise and what we need to be able to do to have that success. We are a very different team, but they are as well. It is different.”
In the opener Mayfield was an unimpressive 21 of 39 for 189 yards with a touchdown and interception. His passer rating was 65.0. The Browns were outgained by 75 yards and held to 3-12 on third down and 0-3 on fourth down, including a fake punt that got blown up early.
Simply put, the Browns – without making excuses – simply feel they weren’t able to give the Ravens their best shot.
“Obviously, they deserve the credit, but in a lot of ways, we did a lot of things that cost us the game from turnovers to penalties, and we went for it on our first punt [with a failed] fake punt,” receiver Jarvis Landry said. “We gave them more chances than we should have.
“As the year went on, I think we have grown past those points. We [have] 20 takeaways from the defensive standpoint, and I do not think we have turned the ball over [more than once] in the last five or six weeks so that is high priority for us. We want to keep it that way.”
Mayfield has come on of late putting together a solid season overall, completing 62.7% of his passes for 2,442 yards with 21 touchdowns and seven interceptions. His TD-to-interception ratio inside the red zone this year is a perfect 17-0 and his rating is 97.9.
Baltimore and Cleveland have since flipped positions in the standings.
The Browns lead the Ravens by two full games and have won four straight and can set an expansion record with a fifth consecutive victory Monday night.
“This is a very important one,” Mayfield said. “We know they are a great team. They have had a lot of guys out and injured, but they are getting a lot of guys back. We know that just based on our scouting report, but like we have been saying week in and week out, it is about us coming out and executing our game plan and doing it at a very high level.”
Although a victory would not officially clinch a playoff berth for the Browns, it would all but assure them of playing on Wild Card weekend while delivering a blow to the 7-5 Ravens’ bid to make the playoffs for a third straight year and ninth time under coach John Harbaugh.
The Ravens, who have had to overcome a COVID-19 outbreak combined with injuries, have lost four of their last six since Nov. 1 but remain a dangerous team with reigning NFL MVP Lamar Jackson leading their offense.
“He is so slippery,” defensive end Myles Garrett, who has 10.5 sacks and four forced fumbles this season, said. “He is elusive when he is out in the open field, but when he is in the pocket, he never takes one of those shots where he does not see you at all. He is never completely unaware of your presence. He kind of ignores it. He is like, ‘Ah, I can still make a play.’ You really just have to shoot your shot. This guy is going to make you miss on a few and you are going to make those plays, but some of those, he is one of the best for a reason. Last year’s MVP.”
Cleveland is riding high coming off an impressive 41-35 win at Tennessee last week that seemed to have quieted critics of the Browns’ quality of victories this season.
“The next step for us is consistency,” Mayfield said. “Whoever we are playing, we have to be able to go out and do our job. It does not matter who, where or when it is, we have to be able to do our job.”
A tenth of a point separates the Ravens from the Browns in scoring average and Cleveland holds the NFL rushing lead over Baltimore by just two tenths of a point this season led by Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt – the league’s only running back duo with at last 700 yards apiece.
Both teams rank in the top-15 against the run – Cleveland eighth and Baltimore 13th – so something will have to give.
Because of the scoreboard, Chubb and Hunt weren’t really able to get going against the Ravens despite both backs combining for 132 yards and averaging at least 5.5 yards per carry.
“I think that was a great learning experience for us,” Chubb said. “I think we learned that we have to keep working. We were not as good as we wanted to be during that time. We might have thought we were a little better before that, but I think we just learned we have to eliminate all the errors, do not turn the ball over and go out there and play hard every snap.”
Baltimore will finish their season against the Jaguars and Giants at home and then Week 17 at Cincinnati meaning finishing 10-6 or 11-5 is more than plausible.
Conversely the Browns travel to New York the next two weeks to face the Giants on Sunday Night Football and then the Jets before returning home to meet the Steelers Jan. 3.
“We know where we stand right now, but we know to get where we want to go, it is one game at a time,” Mayfield said. “Excitement or not, it would not matter. We have to play the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night, and we have to do our job.”
