CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Flacco fever is high, but nothing comes easy for the Browns.
Not this year.
Joe Flacco threw three touchdowns – two to tight end David Njoku – while Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence threw three TDs and three interceptions in the Browns 31-27 win over the Jaguars Sunday at Cleveland Browns Stadium.
Here’s our top Brownie Bites from Sunday’s win.
The win pushed the Browns to 8-5 and kept them in the driver’s seat to clinch a Wild Card spot in the AFC “We knew that today was not a playoff game, but it’s going to feel like a playoff game,” Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said. “And it was because that’s a very good football team.” It was the Jaguars first road loss in 2023. The Browns currently hold the top Wild Card seed in the AFC. “It means a lot. Why? Because it's the next game,” cornerback Greg Newsome said. “And that's just our mindset. Our goal was to go one and oh, we don't care what anybody else is doing because we control our destiny. We're not in a place to, if we lose or whatever, we don't think like that. So we control our destiny.” These two teams appear on a collision course for a No. 4 vs. No. 5 playoff rematch on Super Wild Card Weekend in Jacksonville. “It's not a playoff game, but we felt like it was,” left guard Joel Bitonio said.
Last week in Los Angeles the Browns learned Flacco would keep them in games. Sunday, they learned Flacco will help them win and after the game Stefanski acknowledged Flacco is the starter from here on out. “Obviously it feels good when it looks like people have confidence in you,” Flacco said. “I know I’ve been in a bunch of locker rooms, but whenever you walk into a locker room you still want to gain the respect of everybody and you don’t know if you quite have that until you can go out there and get a win and continue to do it day in and day out. You try to carry yourself the right way and you try to do all the right things, but that doesn’t guarantee anything in terms of going out on the field on Sunday. So, it feels awesome to go out there and get the win.”
Flacco is the fourth quarterback to start and win a game this season joining Deshaun Watson, P.J. Walker and Dorian Thompson-Robinson. “You can’t say enough about what this team’s done all year,” Flacco said. “Just losing guys and continuing to succeed, whether it’s the run game or the offensive line, whatever it may be. I think you’ve got to give the coaching staff and all the guys in there a ton of credit for how they’ve been able to maintain their focus and still have the belief.” Cleveland is the seventh team in the Super Bowl era to accomplish the feat. The 2015 Houston Texans were the last team to do it. “We’ve been through so much, man – quarterbacks, injuries,” defensive end Za’Darius Smith said. “Four [quarterbacks]? C’mon man. And we’re still winning.”
The game featured a total of seven turnovers with the Jaguars committing four of them. Both teams turned two of the turnovers into touchdowns. “Those takeaways were absolutely key,” Stefanski said. “I don’t know how many points we scored off of them, but those were key. [Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz] was aggressive. There were a couple of sacks there where we knocked them out of field goal range. So, I thought coach [Schwartz] was outstanding today.”
Flacco started hot for the second straight week by completing all four passes on the opening drive for 66 yards, including finding Njoku wide open for a 34-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead at the 11:39 mark of the opening quarter. Njoku was left open again early in the second quarter inside the 25 and Njoku did the rest for a 30-yard touchdown and a 14-0 Browns lead. ““Ice in his veins, he balled out,” Njoku said. “He had over 300 passing yards and just got here two weeks ago. He is a great player and I am really glad that we have him.” It marked the first multi-touchdown game of Njoku’s career. Flacco became the first Brown to throw three touchdown passes of at least 30 yards in the same game since Brian Sipe on December 21, 1980. “They’re so loaded up to try to stop our play up the middle and we get a guy wide open and then the other one wasn’t necessarily that situation, but it’s a similar thing,” Flacco said. “We do a little play-action. You get guys to kind of get drawn up a little bit. And Dave is an awesome guy to have catch those. That is his strength. Get him the ball while he’s moving down the field, and he’s a tough tackle. You can see his speed. I don’t know what he ran or anything, but you can see his speed and strength, obviously, when he gets the ball in those types of situations, he’s pretty special.” The 38-year-old completed 26 of 45 passes for 311 yards with three touchdowns and one interception to earn a 92.0 rating.
The Browns converted all three fourth down attempts with the most explosive conversion coming with 12:34 to play in the game when Flacco found David Bell open in the middle of the field and Bell turned it into a 41-yard touchdown to put the Browns up 28-14. “That was outstanding,” Stefanski, who was caught jumping and pumping his fist as he ran down the sideline, said. “Unbelievable play by the quarterback. He’s not hot, he’s hotter than Hades on that play and we did not have that blitz picked up and he drifted to his right. Great feel by David Bell and then an unbelievable play.” Flacco raced Stefanski down field to celebrate with Bell. “Oh, my gosh, that was exciting,” Flacco said. “This was one of those plays, you know, where they’re bringing pressure, and you have to kind of buy a little time and he did a great job feeling a little soft spot and then making it happen from there.” It was Bell’s first career touchdown catch. “Turned around and I just saw nothing but green grass,” Bell said. “I was surprised. Not a little, I was a lot surprised to keep it real.”
Kicker Dustin Hopkins gave the Browns the cushion they needed in the fourth quarter by drilling a 55-yard field goal to make it a two-possession game at 31-21 with 3:10 to play in the game. “We have a guy who is now eight-for-eight from back there,” Stefanski said. “So you always think about players and think about Dustin and him coming through for the football team, that’s what he did.” It was his league-leading 31st made field goal of the season and his eighth from 50 or more yards – both are new franchise records. “We got the best kicker in the NFL, so I would've let him kick it from 60 if he wanted to, honestly,” Newsome said. “So that's just shout out to Dustin for just being there for us the whole entire season and being clutch.”
Myles Garrett dropped Lawrence, who played on a sore right ankle and went 28-of-50 for 257 yards with three picks and three touchdowns for the Jaguars. on a 2-point try with 1:33 remaining but does not get credit for a sack. Following the game Garrett expressed his displeasure with the officials. “The officiating was a travesty today. It was honestly awful,” Garrett said. “And the fact that they’re letting them get away with hands to the face, holding, false starting. I know they called a couple, but damn, they could have called it all game. And the one that cost us down on the two-yard line. I mean, respect to those guys, it’s a hard job, but hell, we have a hard job as well. You can’t make it harder by throwing, holding, and hands to the face out the rulebook. And like I said, I got a lot of respect for those guys, but we get scrutinized for the plays that we don’t make. So someone has to hold them accountable for the plays or the calls they don’t make. And they need to be under the same kind of microscope as we are every single play.” Garrett acknowledged his frustration with the officials had been brewing, and Sunday was the last straw for his patience with the lack of calls. “This hack a Shaq crap got to stop,” Garrett said. “Y’all are dominant, as we’ve seen, and we are going to let him get away with pretty much anything. It’s ridiculous. You can’t just let a guy put his fingers in your face mask and push your head up or grab you around the back of your collar, or he’s out of position, so he’s going to snatch you from the front. All that stuff we see, but we try to promote the offensive game. It’s got to be called fair both ways. I don’t care about any of that offense, defense has to be held to the same standard in more ways than one.”
The sacks returned this week, and so did the turnovers. Four sack sand four turnovers. Grant Delpit, who just got a contract extension, along with Maurice Hurst, Ogbo Okoronkwo, and Za’Darius Smith added to their sack totals. Delpit’s 13-yard sack pushed Jacksonville out of field goal range and forced a punt. Browns cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. had two of the three interceptions thrown by Lawrence. “I think the last two weeks, we didn’t play our best ball, honestly,” Emerson said. “It was definitely motivating. coach Schwartz coming in and telling the d-line that they didn’t have any sacks and things like that, but that also puts stress on the DB’s. Today, they were able to get more pressure with us tighter in coverage. We work hand-in-hand together.” Anthony Walker forced and recovered a fumble. Greg Newsome II came away with the third pick early in the fourth quarter on a deep ball for Ridley that came on third-and-inches.
Punter Corey Bojorquez unleashed a 72-yard bomb in the first quarter that completely flipped the field. Jaguars returner Parker Washington ran back to make an over-the-shoulder catch at his 20, slam on the brakes at the 15 before he was tackled at the 18. “I will say you don't see that every day,” Bojorquez said. “No, but we had some wind at our back, so that definitely helps.” Bojorquez averaged 51.5 yards per punt on eight of them and a 41.1-yard net average.
Denzel Ward was inactive and before kickoff it was announced safety Juan Thornhill was unavailable due to a calf injury he tweaked during warmups. Center Ethan Pocic suffered a stinger with just under nine minutes left in the first quarter and was replaced by Nick Harris. Delpit suffered a groin injury in the second half and did not return.
Linebacker Anthony Walker was the game captain and WWE star Johnny Gargano was the Dawg Pound captain and guitar smasher. Members of the St. Edward, Perry, Glenville and Kirtland football state championship teams held the flag at midfield for the national anthem.