Browns punter Jamie Gillan usually catches snap then does this (punts ball). But not in Kansas City
Matt Starkey/Cleveland Browns
During the past season plus one game, the Cleveland Browns have cleared many of the hurdles that for years tripped them up and prevented them from becoming respectable. They have made quantum leaps—but only over the lowest hurdles. The last hurdles are high.
They skimmed a few of those at Kansas City on Sunday and fell flat on their faces with the finish line in sight. The ugly spills in the later stages of the game can blot out the good that occurred when they dominated the first half against the powerful Chiefs.
This team this season is supposed to be among the contenders to reach the Super Bowl, long known in Northeast Ohio as The Impossible Dream. If that is a stride too far, the Browns are at least good-to-great, right? The Chiefs’ 33-29 victory should have reminded everyone to tack on the caveat good-to-great “some of the time.”
Quarterback Baker Mayfield is a case in point. He played splendidly in helping his team to a 22-10 halftime lead. His overall statistical line reads similar to that of Patrick Mahomes, who is among the National Football League’s finest QBs and can perform magic that none of his counterparts, including Mayfield, are able to pull out of their hardhats. Mayfield completed 21 of his 28 passes (75 percent) for 321 yards, Mahomes 27 of 36 (also 75 percent) for 337 yards. Of course, important pieces are missing:
For a more complete picture add: touchdowns, interceptions, and timing of same. Mahomes ran for a second-quarter touchdown and threw for three TDs without an interception to spark his team in the decisive second half (23-7), particularly its fourth quarter. That is why he had a passer rating of 131.4 compared with Mayfield’s 97.5. He threw for no touchdowns, ran for none, and an interception ended all Browns’ hope.
Mayfield hurt himself and his team, which his straightforward postgame assessment acknowledged. “You have to execute in those critical moments,” he said. “Nothing else matters before those moments. It comes down to those three or four plays.” Of course, his self-criticism is exaggerated. He and his coach’s aggressive plays and decisions set the tone for a successful first half but the Browns found it impossible to sustain that.
“We didn’t do our best when it mattered, didn’t coach our best when it mattered,” Coach Kevin Stefanski said. “Anytime you go on the road, against a team like this team, you have to play clean football, and we just didn’t do that today.”
The failure did not begin with Baker Mayfield but it ended with him. From pregame, when receiver Odell Beckham Jr. warmed up but decided he could not play for the first time since ACL surgery last November 10 to Mayfield’s last possession much went askew for the Browns in some of the more “critical moments,” as Mayfield pointed out.
He was trying to throw the ball “three rows up (into the stands)” as he was falling forward, with safety Dan Sorenson dangling from his feet like a human anchor. Mayfield was in no position to make the throw he attempted to avoid lost yards. He would have been better served to throw it into the ground near his receiver, if possible. Instead, KC cornerback Mike Hughes intercepted with 1:09 on the clock and hope ticked away.
Mayfield’s decision caused NBC’s Peter King, who writes the blog “Football Morning in America,” to consider awarding Mayfield his prestigious Goat of the Week Award. In this context, GOAT is not the acronym for Greatest of All Time. (That’s Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady, senior division, and Mahomes in a crowded junior division.)
Do not despair, Browns Nation. One of your boys, punter Jamie Gillan, did slink away in the Goat of the Week collar. With Cleveland leading 29-27 and 8:42 to play, center Charley Hughlett’s perfect long snap hit Gillan in a vulnerable place—his hands. Much has been made of the fact that it was to be Gillan’s first punt of the game. Gillan acted as if it were the first of his life. With hands as sure of as he might have been had Dr. Frankenstein sewn them on in the sideline medical tent, Gillan made a spectacle of himself. He tried to run from his 10-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes threw his second TD pass to tight end Travis Kelce, an 8-yarder, and KC had a 4-point lead.
This pattern of tomfoolery began early in the game when with 4:59 left in the first quarter safety Ronnie Harrison committed a retaliatory shove of Chiefs assistant coach Greg Lewis who had laid hands on Harrison to get him off Clyde Edwards-Helaire who had made a catch in front of the KC bench. The misbehavior prompted Harrison’s ejection.
But wait, there’s more . . . much, much more, of which this is only some:
- Nick Chubb, who ran hard and well for two TDs (15 carries for 83 yards), fumbled in the third quarter to set up a 43-yard field goal by Harrison Butker.
- New safety John Johnson III went one way, his eyes went another, and Tyreek Hill went a third for a 75-yard, fourth-quarter TD. And soon Gillan took the stage.
- The Gillan gaffe allowed Mahomes the opportunity to throw a second TD pass to Kelce, whom, like Hill, the Browns could not cover if they had signed 100 new defensive starters, instead of just nine.
These antics made a person forget the nice first impression that speedy rookie receiver Anthony Schwartz made (3 catches for 69 yards), with Mayfield’s on-target passes and Stefanski’s aggressive, clever play-calling. More important, this difficult first-game assignment left the Browns winless in season-openers for 17 years and 1-21-1 in these games since their 1999 reincarnation. Of course, these aren’t the same old Browns
These Browns may be good enough to contend for the Super Bowl, but they did not play in Kansas City, when it most mattered, as if that were true. Maybe the gleam of the Lombardi Trophy blinded them and struck them dumb, because that’s how they played.
NOTE: All of the enumerated Mayfield Memorandums can be found at: https://stevelovewriter.com/blog/
