Few, if any, thought a Cleveland Browns offense quarterbacked by Shedeur Sanders had a legitimate shot of winning on Sunday. It nearly happened.
From a pure offensive output perspective, the Browns could not have asked for more from Sanders. Completing 19 of 31 pass attempts for nearly 300 yards and two incredibly timed touchdowns. Cleveland’s offense was showing some much-needed explosiveness that it normally has trouble finding consistently.
Completions to Denzel Boston, KC Concepcion, and Harold Fannin Jr., have been going viral and for good reason, they’re impressive plays. At the same time, it is also important to accurately evaluate what is happening in these plays, and that is not always what it gets made out to be.
3rd Quarter 11:15 – Shedeur Sanders 60-yard completion to Denzel Boston
A downfield strike to one of the new faces in Cleveland’s receiver room, this was nearly the first touchdown of the entire game. Sanders was able to find Boston down the right side of the field for what would be his second-longest completion of the entire game.
Boston makes an incredible catch on the play, adjusting to the under thrown pass from Sanders and keeping it away from the defender who was closing in. A properly thrown deep ball, however, would have hit Boston in stride, allowing him to score an easy touchdown. Instead, the Browns would settle for a field goal and thoughts of “what if?”.
4th Quarter 5:21 – Shedeur Sanders 64-yard touchdown pass to KC Concepcion
The longest completion of the game for Sanders also happened to be his first touchdown of the game. This time it would be KC Concepcion the recipient of the pass from Sanders, who would go on to score his first career touchdown on the play.
Like Boston before him, Concepcion had to alter his route to make the play. Coming to a complete stop, Concepcion was able to find some open space between defenders to make the catch before running in for a score.
In all fairness, Sanders was throwing from a rapidly closing pocket. Getting any sort of throw off into the vicinity is sort of a win there, much less a touchdown. With that being said, a throw like this will get intercepted far more often than it produces a long touchdown.
Overtime 1:00 – Shedeur Sanders 39-yard touchdown to Harold Fannin Jr.
Facing a 3rd and long at the New Orleans 39 with a Saints blitz closing in, Sanders was forced to throw the first available target. Luckily, that target was Harold Fannin Jr.
Fannin Jr. would do his best Marshawn Lynch impression as he bullied and tight-rope walked his way to the end zone in overtime. This would set up what would end up being an ill-fated two-point attempt and a 23-22 Browns loss.
Credit where credit is due, Sanders found Fannin Jr. while being seemingly crushed by everyone around him. It’s clear that the star of this play is not the quarterback though right? This play was made by Fannin Jr. as he turned an otherwise short reception into a near game-winning score.
The reality of his performance on Sunday is that Shedeur Sanders was fine. Not good, not terrible, just fine. Sanders will need to rely less on his pass catchers doing the bulk of the heavy lifting and bailing him out if he is going to be anything other than a backup quarterback. The Browns hope he can, whether he does is a different story entirely.
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