Browns expect Baker Mayfield will rebound from one of his worst NFL games. (WKYC.com)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
Takeaways the day after the Browns were trounced in Pittsburgh, 38-7 …
The Baker Mayfield situation gets weirder.
Last week, Mayfield barely practiced for the biggest NFL game of his career because of sore ribs and sore right side of his body.
Then the Browns’ quarterback was brutalized by a punishing Steelers defense and suffered his worst defeat.
On the day after, coach Kevin Stefanski said Mayfield was “nowhere near as sore as how he was last Monday, so that is a positive.”
The Browns turn their attention to recovering from their second shellacking by an AFC North power by preparing for the division doormat in Cincinnati.
The Browns lost Game 1 in Baltimore, 38-6, and then beat the Bengals in FirstEnergy Stadium, 35-30.
They lost Game 6 in Pittsburgh, 38-7, and now get to play the Bengals again.
Mayfield is 4-1 with 12 touchdowns v. six interceptions against the Bengals. He is 12-18 with 47 touchdowns v. 35 interceptions against everybody else.
So the Bengals can be a tonic for what suddenly ails Mayfield, sore ribs aside.
In his last two games, Mayfield is 31 of 55 (56.3 percent) for 366 yards, three touchdowns and four interceptions.
The performance against the Steelers, in which he converted 1 of 9 third downs before being mercy-benched late in the third quarter, intensified conversation about whether Mayfield should even had played against the Steelers, given his light practice schedule.
“I think it is a fair question, but he was cleared,” Stefanski said. “He was obviously sore throughout the week but got better. It was incumbent upon myself, and how we performed, to keep him clean and we did not do that. He answered the bell last week just in terms of how he went through and rehabbed and fought his butt off to get out there with his teammates on Sunday.”
Stefanski committed to starting Mayfield during the practice week even as backup Case Keenum was getting the most work with the No. 1 offense.
This week, Stefanski thinks Mayfield won’t be as limited in the practice week.
“I am confident in our medical staff and confident in Baker that he is going to progress each one of these days and then get better,” he said.
Own it, file it and forget it
Right tackle Jack Conklin said Mayfield’s struggles against the powers of the division are not mounting pressure on him.
“I do not think so,” he said. “I think he has taken it as a positive. We are still 4-2. You can’t forget that. And we are playing well. It is a new team, a new coaching staff, and the strides we have made, we obviously have a lot more ways to go but I do not see him getting down on himself.
“I see him taking the positives and learning, still trying to perfect this scheme and doing a great job keeping his head up. Obviously, you do not want to get beat like that against division opponents at their places, but those are good teams. If we want to be a great team where we have the capability to be, we have to take what we can from these losses and learn from it, and the next shot we get, put it into effect and take it to them.”
Cornerback Denzel Ward said he expects Mayfield to bounce back from the tough outing against the Steelers.
“I have no doubt in my mind that he will bounce back,” Ward said. “Baker, he is a competitor. He is going to work hard. He is going to do what he has to do to make sure he is ready. We have his back. Like I said, we have to do what we have to do to help put him in good positions, as well, but I have no doubt in my mind, he is going to ready.”
Brownie bits
It looked like running back Kareem Hunt suffered blows to both shoulders on a sandwich hit by Steelers linebacker Vince Williams and safety Terrell Edmunds after a catch on the last play of the first quarter. Hunt left the game for a few minutes, but Stefanski said Hunt was OK …
Stefanski said that safety Ronnie Harrison “is working his way through the [concussion] protocol” … right guard Wyatt Teller, who has a calf injury, “is pushing hard to make it this week, but with those type of injuries, you just really do not know.” … and the coach offered no update on the status of safety Karl Joseph (hamstring).