Here’s how the Browns defied the odds and their own failings to defeat the Ravens in a must-win
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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.
BALTIMORE, MD
How do you explain what happened Sunday in a veritable torture chamber for the Browns for a generation, the Giant Purple Crabcake that Maryland built for Art Modell?
Down by 7 on a Pick 6 on the second play of the game.
Down by 14 in less than five minutes.
Their quarterback limped to the locker room at halftime on a bum ankle after going 6 of 20 for 79 yards and an interception in his biggest game yet for the Browns.
Down by 15 in the third quarter after a touchdown scored by – why, of course – Odell Beckham Jr.
In the fourth quarter alone, the Browns fumbled a punt, erased a defensive takeaway in the end zone with a holding penalty, and missed a PAT.
All of that happened in a game the Browns had to win with their fourth and fifth offensive tackles forced to start against the No. 1-scoring defense in the NFL to stay alive in the torrid AFC North title chase.
And the Browns took their only lead on the last play of the game and won, 33-31, to improve to 6-3.
They crept to one-half game behind Baltimore (7-3) and matched victorious Pittsburgh (6-3) to prevent the Ravens from running away with the division. The Browns can prepare for the Steelers visit to Cleveland on Sunday knowing the physically-battered Ravens, who lost key starters Ronnie Stanley and Marlon Humphrey to injuries, have to reboot quickly and play the Bengals on Thursday night. The race in the toughest division in the NFL is on. In a game the Browns needed to win to stay alive to reach their goal of winning their division, their stars showing up wouldn’t have been enough alone.
It was a signature win for everybody as the Browns overcame three double-digit deficits to beat the Ravens and stay alive in the race for the AFC North title. (Cleveland Browns)
“We all came together as a team,” said receiver Amari Cooper.
That’s probably the simplest explanation of what happened.
Yes, Deshaun Watson (20 of 34 for 213 yards and one touchdown, plus 37 yards rushing) did shake off a bad first half and a left ankle injury by completing all 14 passes he attempted in the second half.And yes, Myles Garrett had his best game ever against Lamar Jackson, chasing down the Ravens MVP-contending quarterback for 1.5 sacks and expending him into near-exhaustion in the deciding fourth quarter when the Browns outscored the Ravens, 16-9.
But the Browns needed everyone on this day – a 107-yard rushing game by Jerome Ford, outstanding efforts by fill-in offensive tackles James Hudson and Geron Christian (in his first game with the Browns), a Pick 6 by Greg Newsome (his first career interception), and four field goals by Dustin Hopkins, avenging his first PAT miss with 8:16 to play.
But the total team effort was best embodied on the winning drive that began at the 20-yard line with 4:55 left and the Ravens faithful squirming in their purple seats.
Ford converted one first down on a 2-yard run and another on a 6-yard rush. Watson pushed the Browns over the 50 on a 16-yard scramble on which linebacker Patrick Queen decked him with a high hit at the Ravens sideline, furthering Watson’s pain. On a new first down from the Ravens’ 39, Ford took a handoff and burrowed through the middle of the exhausted Baltimore defense for about five yards, and then was pushed forward another seven yards by the entire Browns’ offense. They looked like the Philadelphia Eagles on a “tush push.”
“That’s how much we want to win, playing for each other,” said running back Kareem Hunt, who scored the Browns’ first touchdown on a 3-yard run in the third quarter. “Those [Baltimore] boys were tired. We kept leaning on them.”
Hopkins nailed the game-winner from 40 yards four plays later as time expired, ending an exhausting but most rewarding day.
“Our offense scored 30 points. We were supposed to win this game,” said Browns-turned-Ravens pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney.
“They fought the whole game,” said Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton.
That was true from the moment Hamilton Pick 6’d Watson on the second play of the game. That deflating start eerily matched what happened in Pittsburgh in Game 2, when Alex Highsmith Pick 6’d Watson on the first play of that game.
“It’s tough,” Watson said. “I was looking at AVP [offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt], like ‘What the (expletive)? Again, really? Again?’
“We just had to shake through. We pressed a little bit trying to get everything back, trying to hit some go-balls. We came into the second half regrouped. We put a good second half together.”
“It was a fight the whole way,” said Kevin Stefanski, who won for the first time in Baltimore as Browns coach. “At this place, it’s tough to fight back.”
Garrett and the defensive line was relentless in chasing Jackson all over the place. Jackson passed for 223 yards and one touchdown and was intercepted by Newsome and Mike Ford. Jackson ran 8 times for 41 yards. The Browns held franchise-killer tight end Mark Andrews to 2 catches for 44 yards.
“[It was the] defensive line,” Jackson explained to Baltimore media of what happened to the team hailed as the league's best in November. “Hats off to Myles Garrett [and] those guys, Za’Darius [Smith]. Both of those guys were doing a lot of T-stunts and playing good defense.”
After the game, linebacker Anthony Walker, who returned a Baltimore field goal try blocked by Jordan Elliott to set up a field goal in the third quarter, confessed that the entire team knew the Browns had to win this game to have a chance to win the division. “You have to be in the moment,” Walker said. “We can sit here all day and say we want to go 1-0, but you know, forget all that. We knew we had to find a way to win this game.”“Wins like that define you,” Garrett said. “They set the tone for the season, and the team going forward. There’s no game that we’re out of. So, you’ve just got to do what's gotten us here to this point in the season and continue to play the brand of football that we know we can play.”
Sunday is another day. Pittsburgh is another big game that can define the Browns’ season, another chance to avenge a heart-breaking loss in a division game. They don’t get any easier for a team that hasn’t been in this position for a long while.
