Baker Mayfield became the first Browns quarterback since Otto Graham to throw four touchdowns in the first half in Browns' 41-35 win over Tennessee. (Frederick Breedon/Getty Images)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
It goes hand-in-hand that when a football team needs a culture-changing win, it’s probably going to take great games from the head coach and the quarterback.
And that’s exactly what happened in Nissan Stadium in Nashville, TN, where the Browns exorcised more ghosts from their expansion past and announced to the football world that they indeed are for real.
They outslugged Mike Vrabel’s playoff-tough Tennessee Titans, 41-35, not with their dynamic running duo but with uber-aggressive play-calling and a quarterback who revels in it.
The victory pushed the Browns to 9-3, assuring only the third winning season in the expansion era, and kept pace ahead of the other wild-card combatants with the No. 5 AFC playoff seed.
But it meant so much more because it came on the road against an 8-4 Tennessee team that had higher hopes than last year’s runner-up finish to Kansas City in the AFC Championship Game.
This was the Browns’ first road win against a winning team this year, only Baker Mayfield’s second in his career, and only the franchise’s third in 10 years. After beating losing teams for seven of its previous eight wins, the Browns legitimized themselves as capable of winning on the road in the playoffs – which is what they’ll have to do to avoid a one-and-done post-season appearance.
That’s how much the bar has been raised this year – just making the playoffs might not be enough for their suffering fans.
“They should be [excited],” said receiver Jarvis Landry, whose busy day (eight catches on 10 targets) included a pass completion to Mayfield to extend the first touchdown drive. “They have every right to be [excited]. It is definitely a special, special time in Cleveland right now. We are excited to be part of that excitement.”
The final score was deceptive. Behind Stefanski’s relentless assault on a defense pre-occupied with backs Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, the Browns poleaxed Tennessee with a 38-7 halftime lead. It was the most prolific half of scoring in Browns history – yes, including the Paul Brown era – and it left a scowl on Vrabel’s face.
Mayfield was at his best, completing 20 of 25 to eight different receivers for 290 yards and four touchdowns. The TDs were spread around, too, to Landry (two yards), Donovan Peoples-Jones (75), Rashard Higgins (17) and offensive lineman Kendall Lamm (one) on a tackle-eligible play.
“Baker was on fire,” said Chubb (80 yards and one touchdown run on 18 carries). “That is the guy that I know, and that is the guy that the Cleveland Browns know who he is.”
Like in the season’s previous road wins in Dallas (49-38) and Cincinnati (37-34), Mayfield flourished in Stefanski’s determination to let him wing it rather than rely solely on the magnificent Chubb and Hunt.
“The fact that he trusts me that much makes me more confident,” Mayfield said.
Stefanski was aggressive from the moment Vrabel deferred the opening kickoff. A drop by Peoples-Jones inside the 5 and then a false start – one of 13 Cleveland penalties – resulted only in a chip-shot field goal. But the 3-0 lead was important.
The momentum-changer came on the Browns’ first defensive series.
Vrabel made more mistakes. On third-and-1 at the Browns’ 42, he called a tackle-eligible pass to rookie backup center Aaron Brewer in the middle of the field. Linebacker B.J. Goodson broke it up.
Everyone knew Vrabel would go for it on fourth down, but the second effort of NFL leading rusher Derrick Henry (60 yards on 15 attempts) during Sheldon Richardson’s tackle was spotted inches short. Vrabel challenge the spot and lost.
Stefanski then schooled Vrabel on a few offensive tricks of his own.
On the ensuing drive, he pulled off the Landry pass to Mayfield for a third-down conversion leading to Landry’s second touchdown catch in two games.
After Richardson stripped Henry of his first fumble in 375 touches of the ball, and safety Karl Joseph recovered, Stefanski kept dialing up Mayfield passes. The coup de grace came with the Browns facing third-and-goal at the Titans’ 1. With Chubb and Hunt together in the backfield, Mayfield play-faked and floated the ball to Lamm in the end zone for a 17-0 lead.
Stefanski said the play was put in just this week in practice, but he denied Vrabel’s ill-fated tackle-eligible play-call inspired him to call it.
“It just felt like that was a good play versus that scheme,” Stefanski said.
Stefanski’s aggressive calls weren’t done.
On the first play of the next offensive series, the Browns showed three tight ends with Hunt in the backfield and Peoples-Jones the lone wideout. Stefanski has used the formation to plow for short yards all season. But Mayfield faked to Hunt and connected with Peoples-Jones for a 75-yard touchdown.
“He is aware of his tendencies and the things he likes to call,” Landry said. “We run plays sometimes and I am not on the field, but I can’t give you words for what happened, like the Kendall Lamm, thing. We have been practicing it, but we had no idea that it was going to get called today.”
It was also a big day for coordinator Joe Woods’ defense.
Besides the breakup of the pass to the tackle-eligible, the fourth-down stop of Henry and the strip of Henry, reserve cornerback M.J. Stewart had an interception of Ryan Tannehill – only the fifth of the year for the quarterback. There was also a fumble of receiver A.J. Brown forced by linebacker Malcolm Smithand recovered by Kevin Johnson at the end of the first half.
So, three turnovers against an offense leading the league in stinginess with only five through 11 games. In his first game back from a bout with coronavirus, Myles Garrett had one of the defense's three sacks.
Tannehill put up four touchdowns in the second half to make it a deceiving final score.
A Mayfield fumble on a quarterback sneak crazily led to Tennessee’s last points with 28 seconds to go. It was his only turnover on a day Stefanski handed him the controls.
“It is tricky when you get up by that much of staying aggressive or calling the dogs off type mentality,” Mayfield said. “You want to run the ball to take the clock away to give them less opportunities, but at the same time, you don’t want to go away from what is working.
“Obviously, if I hold on to the dang football, then it is not going to be close or as close as it should have been.”
Nothing has come easy for the Browns this year, but at least it’s coming. The post-season is in sight, getting closer a game at a time.