Browns rattle Baker, defeat Panthers

The Cleveland Browns defeated the Carolina Panthers 26-24 as they won for the first time in Week 1 since 2004.

It was an all too familiar situation, the Browns just gave up a slim lead with just over a minute left after controlling the entire game. For a brief moment it appeared that Baker Mayfield would have his revenge against his former team, even though he played incredibly poorly. Jacoby Brissett was able to move the ball into field goal position thanks to a couple of completions and a roughing the passer penalty to kickstart the game-winning drive. With just eight seconds remaining it was rookie Cade York who was able to exorcise the Browns Week 1 demons when in previous years this kick would miss in a comical fashion (doink) or be simply blocked.

Carolina had just enough time to do nothing as their last ditch effort resulted in nothing more than an explosion of energy. For the first time in a long time it was Cleveland on the winning end of this type of scenario. Many times before it would be the Browns giving up a game-winning drive with a near 60-yard field goal from a rookie kicker.

Browns dominance

The final score indicates a much closer game than it actually was. Cleveland led in first downs (23-15), total plays (74-50), yards (355-261), and time of possession (38:26-21:34). The Browns rushed the ball 39 times for 217 yards, Nick Chubb leading the way with 141 yards on 22 carries. Cleveland was able to bottle up the usually dynamic Christian McCaffrey to just 33 yards on 10 carries.

The dominance carried over to the defensive side of the ball as well, tipped seven of Mayfield’s passes and hitting him six times. Cleveland sacked Mayfield four times including back-to-back sacks by Myles Garrett in the 3rd quarter, the second of which resulted in one of his four fumbles on the day.

While their former signal caller did complete 16 of 27 passes for 235 yards and one touchdown, that stat line looks a lot less impressive when removing the blown coverage touchdown to Robbie Anderson in the 4th quarter. Even though it did happen and it does count, removing that 75 yard touchdown from the mix it is just a very pedestrian 15-26 for 160 yards for Mayfield, a much more accurate representation of his performance Sunday.

Areas of concern

The passing game never got going, but that was to be expected. Jacoby Brissett is a perfectly capable backup/fill-in starter and that was very evident for the duration of the game. Brissett went 18-34 for just 147 yards and one touchdown, a short toss to a wide-open Kareem Hunt on the goal line. The Browns passing attack is not going to be dynamic with Brissett at any point, but it should improve as time goes on. Brissett played in a portion of just one preseason game and some missed throws to wide-open targets showed some rust was still evident.

As mentioned above it was a blown coverage that allowed Carolina to have some hope in the 4th quarter. There were two instances in the game that the Browns defense blew coverage allowing for big plays downfield to an offense quarterbacked by a player who has zero business making those type of completions. Fixing these issues on the backend of the defense will be a focus of the team this week in practice.

Another area that needs a ton of work is the return game. Demetric Felton did not look comfortable at all returning kicks and that needs to be addressed. Felton did calm down after his fumble early on, but this is not a risk that the Browns can afford to take week in and week out.

Final Takeaways

The big picture is that the Browns are 1-0 for the first time in nearly 20 years. Cleveland was able to manufacture a game-winning (penalty assisted) drive in order to do so. It was also quite fitting that this happened moments after Mayfield was able to do seemingly accomplish this after constant reminders during his tenure in Cleveland of not being able to do so himself. Now it is time to put the Baker Wars in the rearview mirror and turn focus to the New York Jets, Cleveland’s Week 2 opponent.