This circus catch by David Njoku forced overtime and gave Jacoby Brissett the chance to beat Tom Brady at his own game. (Cleveland Browns)
Jacoby Brissett’s finest moment came in the nick of time to keep alive the Browns’ season
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
If this was Jacoby Brissett’s farewell appearance as Browns starting quarterback, he left everyone asking for more.
Any encore depends on Deshaun Watson staying healthy. But if there isn’t one, rest assured that Brissett’s final game as Watson’s replacement quarterback serves as the perfect epitaph of his season with the Browns.
It was a storybook finish that saw him lead a tying touchdown drive with 32 seconds left in regulation and then a winning drive with 19 seconds left in overtime.
The final: Browns 23, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 17.
Brissett beat Tom Brady at his own game, with a fantastic finish – something unmistakably missing in his otherwise commendable body of work over his career. There was a flurry of clutch passes in those two drives, plus some clutch catches by David Njoku and Amari Cooper.
And when Brissett finally was able to greet the post-game media with joy for a change instead of frustration, he voiced the right sentiment for the moment.
“I mean this in no disrespect, but in the words of Tom Brady, that was [expletive] awesome. That was [expletive] awesome,” Brissett said, breaking out a wide grin.
That was the line Brady gave after he pulled victory out of the jaws of defeat with a winning drive in 44 seconds against the Rams on Nov. 6. Even at 45 years old, performances like that give Brady the aura of invincibility with a game on the line.
But it was not to be against the embattled, beleaguered, but not quite dead Browns defense.
Cornerback M.J. Emerson and Myles Garrett rose to the occasion to keep Brady from producing his 57th career game-winning drive in 23 seasons.
Brady’s attempt to pull out a miracle at the end of regulation was thwarted when he and his coach forgot to call time after a short completion on first down. They let 17 seconds run off before Brady connected with Julio Jones for 26 yards to the Browns’ 48. The Bucs then called their first timeout with eight seconds left.
Emerson broke up a pass for tight end Cameron Brate on the next play, forcing Brady to try a futile Hail Mary on the last play of regulation. It fell to the ground at the goal line.
When the Bucs won the coin toss to begin overtime, you had to figure Brady would prevail.
But his first possession ended in eight plays when Garrett forced an incompletion on third down at the Browns’ 43. And then his second possession ended in five plays on a Garrett sack. By then, Garrett was playing through an injury to his left shoulder suffered earlier in the fourth quarter.
"This one was really special to me," Garrett said.
Tampa Bay punted with 2:45 left in the 10-minute overtime. Brissett connected with Cooper for 17 yards and then on third-and-4 from the Bucs’ 48, Cooper came open when cornerback Carlton Davis slipped and fell under a light but steady rain. Brissett laid it in and Cooper raced to the Bucs’ 3 before getting knocked out of bounds.
Those two receptions were sweet redemption for Cooper, whose shocking dropped pass on a fourth-down gamble with 8:20 left in regulation looked to seal another Browns loss.
“I felt really weak in that moment,” Cooper said. “I felt I let the team down. I knew I had to persevere after that drop.”
Cooper said he “wanted [the winning touchdown] so bad” that he tried to run through Tampa cornerback Dee Delaney and that’s why he was knocked out of bounds.
Two plays later, Nick Chubb powered in for the 3-yard touchdown to win the game and complete the storybook ending.
If those were the extent of the Browns’ heroics, it would have easily qualified as their best game of the year. But there was more to this story.
The tying touchdown with 19 seconds left in regulation was an insane one-hand grab by Njoku on fourth-and-10 from the Bucs' 12. Njoku leaped and extended his left arm to pull in a high, laser throw by Brissett at the back of the end zone.
Ever hear 60,000-plus people say in unison, "Holy, [expletive].?".
“That was crazy,” said Cooper. “That was amazing.”
“I thought I threw it too high and I was about to start crying,” Brissett said. “I saw him pull it down and … I could have ran up and kissed him.”
There were other histrionics to the win – Anthony Schwartz scoring on the Browns’ first possession on a 31-yard run on a reverse, the Browns’ interior offensive line neutralizing Tampa’s behemoth nose tackle Vita Vea and helping Chubb to a 116-yard rushing day, the special teams producing a 44-yard kick return by Jerome Ford and 75 yards on five punt returns by Donovan Peoples-Jones, Emerson primarily in coverage to limit Mike Evans to two receptions on nine targets.
But it was Brissett’s day to shine when the Browns absolutely needed it. The win halted a two-game losing streak and bequeathed Watson with a 4-7 record with six games to go.
In an emotional post-game scene inside the Browns’ joyful locker room, coach Kevin Stefanski presented Brissett with the game ball for being “a great leader … a great teammate.”
“That was super special,” Brissett said. “I wasn’t expecting it. Like I said, though, this has never been about me. This was our team’s opportunity to step up in a big moment.”
In truth, they stepped up because Brissett stepped up. The job of the quarterback is to inspire teammates to win the game. Brissett did that on Sunday and Brady did not.
