Shedeur Sanders accounted for four touchdowns and 364 yards passing in his best game yet, though it wasn't enough to beat the lowly Tennessee Titans. (Cleveland Browns)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns and NFL analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
It worked in practice.
That was the company line in the Browns’ locker room after a convoluted 2-point play to tie an unexpectedly wild game blew up and resulted in a 31-29 loss to the Tennessee Titans.
With hot-handed quarterback Shedeur Sanders sent to the sideline after conducting his second scoring drive in the last 3 ½ minutes, the Browns lined up Quinshon Judkins as the Wildcat quarterback at the 2-yard line with the game on the line.
Instead of running with the ball, however, Judkins shuffled to his right and appeared confused as Gage Larvadain ambled behind him expecting a lateral. Judkins held onto the ball, got engulfed by Tennessee’s defense, retreated to the 20 and tried to throw it back to Larvadain across the field.
It was Cleveland Browns Keystone Cops slapstick comedy at its worst.
“Obviously, did not go as we thought it would. I’m responsible for all of it,” said coach Kevin Stefanski.
Sanders, who passed for 364 yards and three touchdowns, recovered from his one interception and made a game of it with his two scoring drives at the end. On them he completed 9 of 11 passes for 109 yards. He scored on a 7-yard run on the first series. But on Stefanski’s first 2-point attempt, Sanders fumbled the exchange from backup center Luke Wypler with the team down by 14 points.
Stefanski said that failure did not factor into why he took Sanders off the field for the possible game-tying try at the end.
Sanders did not disagree with the decision.
“If I’m out there any play, I would wish I would always have the ball in my hand, but that’s not what football is,” he said. “Sometimes you got to run the ball. Sometimes you got to kick a field goal. That’s the game. That’s the most important thing is the ball. So in any situation, of course you want to [handle it].
“But I know we practiced something and we executed in practice, and we just didn’t seem to this day. So I would never go against, you know, kind of what the call was, or anything.”
Guard Joel Bitonio said the Browns ran both plays in the joint practices with the Eagles in training camp, and also repped them both on Friday.
“I don’t think you call plays in the game that didn’t work in practice,” Sanders said.
For the second time in his three starts at quarterback, Sanders was joined at the game by his father, Deion, aka Coach Prime. Deion witnessed Sanders’ NFL winning debut in Las Vegas three weeks ago. Shedeur put on a show for his father this time, accounting for four touchdowns (three passing) and throwing for more yards than any Browns QB since Joe Flacco’s 368 in Game 15 in 2023.
But Sanders’ one grave mistake – a throw-it-up interception from his back foot to the deep middle intended for Larvadain – enabled the Titans to regain the lead, 21-17, in the final minute of the third quarter.
“I feel we were stagnant,” Sanders said. “You know, I’m trying to get a spark. I know my dad [is] mad at me for that. But I would say as time goes on, those decisions and those things will slim down. And we won’t be in situations where I have that feeling, like I got to make something happen.”
Another mistake by a rookie – a fumble after a catch by running back Dylan Sampson – resulted in a 28-17 lead at the 9:29 mark of the fourth quarter. The Titans tacked on a field goal after they blocked a Corey Bojorquez punt at the 8:24 mark.
So the turnovers and blocked punt cost the Browns 17 points. The beleaguered special teams also gave up a 41-yard return on the opening kickoff, setting up Cam Ward’s first of two touchdown passes. Ward (14 of 28, 117 yards, two TD, one interception) was largely outplayed by Sanders throughout the day, but took only one sack, No. 20 on the year by Myles Garrett.
The mistakes by all the rookies might be expected; so many of them are filling key positions in this lost season.
But Stefanski made a point of mentioning right off the top that “we expect more from our run defense.”
Tony Pollard gashed the Browns for a career-high 161 yards on 25 attempts (6.4 average) and two touchdowns. They were most rushing yards allowed to an individual rusher by the Browns this year and the 184 total yards on the ground matched the season-high yielded to the Ravens in Game 10.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Garrett said of the breakdown against the run. “It’s not who we are. It’s hard to tell you right now what it was … but it just wasn’t us.”
Garrett remains three sacks from breaking the official NFL record of 22.5 with four games to go. It’s one of the few things the Browns have to look forward to.
The loss dropped the Browns to 3-10 and drew them within a game of the Giants (2-11), Tennessee (2-11)and Las Vegas (2-11) for the top spot in the 2026 draft. Sanders is making things interesting, though, with this quantum improvement from his second start.
“This is setting us up for the rest of the year and next year,” Garrett said. “How we choose to handle these games is defining not only our team but us as men.”