CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Ravens’ fourth quarter generosity this season did not extend to the Browns.
Baltimore dialed up the pressure on Jacoby Brissett all afternoon and they got some help from the officials in critical moments that allowed them to hang on for a 23-20 victory on their home field.
Here are our Top Takeaways from another excruciating loss in a quarter century of them.
1. All you can do is ask for a chance. The Browns got one Sunday.
2. This is why you can’t blow games early in the season so that hard losses like Sunday don’t feel like or end up being season killers.
3. Cleveland should be in line for one of those meaningless “oops we missed that one, and that one, and that one, and that one” letters from the league office upon review of the officiating in Baltimore, but that probably won’t happen.
4. It’s really, really hard not to feel like the Browns got royally hosed, but they beat themselves by not executing in key moments and some bad offensive play calling on the part of Kevin Stefanski regardless of the holy you know what, my goodness those were some season-altering calls blown by the officials.
5. To wit: two roughing the passer penalties that weren’t called against the Ravens for hitting Jacoby Brissett – one flag was thrown and picked up too. Then there was the offensive pass interference penalty on Amari Cooper that took a 34-yard touchdown off the board. Late in the fourth quarter. And then finally two Ravens jump into the neutral zone on a 55-yard field goal line up and the Browns get called for a false start.
6. Predictably, Cade York’s 60-yard field goal try was blocked with 1:59 remaining. Game over.
7. Joe Woods’ defense came to play. They sacked Lamar Jackson three times, stopped drives to force a pair of field goals, and forced a critical fumble with 3:21 remaining to give the offense one last shot. Can’t blame him this week.
8. Linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah showed why the Browns drafted him with Jackson and the Ravens in mind. He forced the late fumble that Isaiah Thomas recovered at the 17, broke up two passes and had a tackle for loss.
9. Putting the game constantly in the hands of Jacoby Brissett is quite the strategy and it has yet to work out positively. Yes, argue the phantom OPI on Cooper all you want, but it was third-and-2, and they threw deep instead of giving the ball to their best player – again. Brissett was okay – 22 of 27 for 258 yards with a 106.5 rating. Stefanski opening the second half with three consecutive passes instead of running Nick Chubb on their opening possession of the second half was dumbfounding. So was his management of the end of the first half.
10. Chubb must get gassed in games. That has to be the only explanation for going away from him every single week. Chubb churned out 91 yards and a score on 16 carries. When he was on the field, the offense moved., When he wasn’t, they went nowhere.
11. Once again Stefanski’s opening drive script was on point. Six plays went to Chubb, two to David Njoku, one to Harrison Bryant and Donovan Peoples-Jones plus a QB sneak on fourth-and-1 at the nine. Chubb punched it in from two yards out for a 7-0 lead.
12. Chubb joined Jim Brown, Emmitt Smith, LaDainian Tomlinson and Adrian Peterson as the only players in NFL history to record at least eight rushing touchdowns in each of their first five seasons. That’s some pretty sweet and elite company right there.
13. The Browns special teams continue to be terrible. They had a potential game tying 60-yard field goal blocked; got just 14 yards on two punt returns; allowed Devin Duvernay to rip off a 46-yard punt return; failed to down a 76-yard punt inside the five; instead of taking another touchback on a kickoff return, brought it out and a holding penalty started the offense in another hole. Long snapper Charley Hughlett had a bad snap on a PAT that punter Corey Bojorquez set up perfectly for the hold after Kareem Hunt’s TD run. No harm, no foul there.
14. Brissett and Cooper hooked up for the longest offensive play of the season on the second drive – a 55-yard completion. Unfortunately, Jedrick Wills Jr. got called for a false start on first down and Brissett was sacked on third down forcing them to settle for a Cade York 41-yard field goal and a 10-3 lead with 18 seconds remaining in the quarter.
15. Wills also got called for a holding in the second quarter that set up a second-and-18 from their own 17.
16. Myles Garrett ended the first quarter with his sixth sack of the season. The box score doesn’t do the game Garrett had justice.
17. You could’ve dropped a six-lane interstate highway on Gus Edwards’ 7-yard touchdown run that gave the Ravens the lead for good. It was Edwards’ first score since the 2020 season. Edwards scored again from a yard out and finished with 66 yards on 16 carries.
18. The best defensive series of the season kicked off the second half that saw Martin Emerson Jr. and Taven Bryan come up with sacks on first and third down respectively and an Owusu-Koramoah pass break up on second down.
19. The Browns are now 2-5 and the Bengals come to town on Halloween. Start digging the graves and carving headstones because this season is all but dead.
20. The Ravens honored the Super Bowl XLVII championship team prior to kickoff. Considering the Super Bowl and Vince Lombardi-less Browns were in town, that was just mean.
