Baltimore offense stalls in road division loss.
Cleveland, OH, Sunday, October 7, 2018: Was the hype real? Have the Cleveland Browns, buttressed by high-profile free-agent acquisitions and an energetic rookie quarterback, truly improved to the point of being a contender in the ultra-competitive AFC North Division?
The reality is that the Browns won a game this Sunday for the first time in over 1000 days–not since they had notched a home win over San Francisco late in the 2015 season.
For Cleveland, the streak of Sunday losses had reached 36 straight games. The Browns had not beaten a division foe in three years. Both streaks ended on this first Sunday of October.
And the streaks ended in the most ironic way–against a Baltimore Ravens team that, for two decades, had brought out the worst in these Browns. And that pattern was in place going into this game. The Ravens were tied for the division lead with Cincinnati. The Browns occupied its customary cellar-dwelling spot.
But even with the Ravens’ offense and defense ranked in the top ten–and with more veteran talent on both sides of the ball–it was the penalty-prone Browns that proved its mettle, a 12-9 overtime win before 67,431 delighted Cleveland fans.
Greg Joseph’s 37-yard field attempt went through the uprights as overtime ended, preventing the Browns’ second tie of the year and the Ravens’ first since 1997 (a 10-10 home game with Philadelphia in November of that year).
A win would have been pivotal for Baltimore, pushing its record to 4-1. But, now, the Ravens at 3-2 will face a tough Tennessee Titans team at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium (Sunday, October 14, 4:25 p.m., WJZ-TV, WIYY-FM).
Cleveland (2-2-1), on the other hand, is in a new position, bidding for its first winning season since 2007 and it’s first playoff spot since 1999.
The switching of team roles seemed entirely unlikely at day’s start. The Browns were coming off a 42-point losing effort at Oakland–the Browns’ highest single-game output in 11 years. And Baltimore was nearly at full strength–with four healthy corners, including recently-activated Jimmy Smith, back from a four-game suspension.
The Ravens weren’t having trouble scoring, either. This team was on a 13-game streak scoring 20 or more points.
But the Ravens hit the wall with a four-for-16 performance on third down, a blocked field goal for the second time in two weeks, and a subpar running game (only 25 rushes compared to over 60 passes).
The lack of offensive productivity meant that the Ravens couldn’t beat a Browns team that was flagged for ten penalties and saw rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield (25-for-43, 342 yards, touchdown, interception, 81.7 rating) get sacked five times.
The beginning didn’t suggest the ending, though. Tavon Young picked off a Mayfield pass at the Browns’ 33, ending the hosts’ first drive. But two Michael Crabtree (66 yards, six receptions) drops slowed the offense, even though Justin Tucker’s 44-yard field goal put the Ravens on the board first.
Despite a 28-yard strike to John Brown (58 yards, four catches), quarterback Joe Flacco (29-for-56, 298 yards, interception, two sacks, 60 rating) couldn’t take advantage of a Cleveland team that had scored a co-league-low six first-quarter points. Flacco missed on seven on his first ten passes.
But with a pass to Willie Snead (55 yards, five receptions) for 17 yards, an Alex Collins 16-yard cutback, and Brown’s eight-yard catch from Lamar Jackson, it appeared the Ravens had momentum as the second quarter began. It crashed when Flacco’s intended pass to Nick Boyle was intercepted at the goal line by the Browns’ first-round pick Denzel Ward. It was Ward’s third pick of the year and Flacco’s first red-zone interception in nearly two years.
It was a shocking end to what had been become a Ravens’ trademark, having started the season scoring a league-record 13 straight touchdowns in the red zone. Instead, the team now had failed on five straight trips. And to make matters worse, the Ravens began three straight drives at their own 40 or better–only to have Cleveland’s young and aggressive defense shut the door.
The Browns, on the other hand, were hamstrung with poor field position for most of the first half. That changed at the end of the second when Mayfield completed two mid-range passes to tight end David Njoku to put the ball on the Ravens’ 19. The mostly no-huddle drive ended with a go-ahead 19-yard touchdown toss to Rashard Higgins, who had beaten Marlon Humphrey in the middle of the end zone.
With Joseph’s missed conversion, the Browns’ lead was only 6-3. The game would have been tied had Tucker connected on a 48-yard game-tying field-goal try. It was blocked, though, his first miss in Cleveland after 13 straight attempts.
The Ravens’ offense sputtered all day, missing on the team’s first six third-down attempts. When Baltimore finally converted one (early in the third quarter), the momentum didn’t last. Buck Allen (44 yards, six catches, 34 yards, eight rushes) fumbled away a pass at the Ravens’ 42. It was Allen’s first fumble in nearly three years and Cleveland’s 15th takeaway of the season.
That gaffe set up the Browns for a scoring chance. Higgins beat Young for a catch at the Ravens’ 6. But thanks in part to a Willie Henry sack (Henry was playing in his first game of the year), Joseph’s 30-yard field goal was all that Cleveland could get.
Trailing, 9-3, the Ravens’ offense finally put together its best drive of the day. The team moved 68 yards to the Browns’ 7 and ate up over six minutes in the process. But a third-down end-zone pass to Crabtree missed and the drive ended with Tucker’s 25-yard field goal.
With the Ravens trailing 9-6 late in the third, the Ravens’ defense held. Cornerback Brandon Carr broke up a third-down pass intended for rookie Brandon Callaway, forcing another Browns punt early in the fourth quarter. That play set up Tucker’s third field goal of the game, a 32-yarder with under a minute to go.
But the Browns had one, final chance to win the game in regulation. Joseph attempted a 55-yarder as regulation ended. He missed badly and the Browns would now head into their third overtime game in five weeks.
This time, OT was kind to the Browns. The Ravens helped mightily. Chris Moore’s blocking penalty wiped out his own big gainer that would have put Baltimore in Browns territory. Later, a 34-yard Mayfield pass to Derrick Willies set up the hosts for Joseph’s game-winner–a knuckler that somehow went through.
The bottom line: the Browns won.
For weeks we’ve asked: How good are these Browns? While we may not know the answer quite yet, another question seems reasonable: How good are these Ravens?
