Cleveland Browns: Baltimore Ravens were crowned too early

As the national outlets were crowing the Baltimore Ravens as AFC North champs, the Cleveland Browns flexed their muscle to take over first place.

In a league where there’s a scarcity of games, it’s easy to form opinions based off one or two contests. No one knows this better than fans of the Cleveland Browns.

Sure things can be learned, but often times, people can look downright dumb.

How else do you explain the Baltimore Ravens being corned AFC North champs by the national media after being doormats like the Dolphins and Cardinals?

Meanwhile, the Browns were being left for dead, yet it was Cleveland that hung up a 40-spot on the Ravens in their home stadium.

1. Jackson can run and when it’s working, it’s hard to stop, but what happens when you have to lean on him to make throws, especially downfield?

He lacked decisiveness and look horribly inaccurate. I’m sure someone can @ me a link of some analytics study that says Lamar Jackson is elite. OK, great. You take him, I”ll keep Baker.

2. It was absurd to hear Rex Ryan critique Baker Mayfield as being a “one-read” quarterback leading up to Week 4. If there was a “one-read” QB in this game, it was Jackson.

3. While we’re hammering Jackson, and why not, it’s fun. How about that wide open throw he and Chris Moore botched? Moore might as well have been sitting in a recliner he was so wide open. Yet Jackson put the throw ridiculously close to the side.

His receiver didn’t bail him out, as Moore stepped out of bounds on the catch. Moore is taking a beating for this misstep, but an accurate throw would’ve put his receiver in a better position.

4. Baltimore’s secondary really is an issue. I wrote how the unit could be exposed and Baker and the gang exposed them for the second straight week as the Browns racked up over 500 yards of offense.

5. Additionally, there’s always a “game within the game” when playing a team like the Ravens. It’s true of the Steelers, as well. Who wins the battle of physicality. This time, it was the Browns, evidenced by the 165 yards Nick Chubb racked up.

To see Ravens’ players giving up as Chubb legs turned into a jet propulsion engine, well I got chills. I’ve seen the Browns smacked around too often, and it was so sweet to the agony defeat on the other team.

6. Entering the game, I heard a lot about how Eric DeCosta was the next genius GM, taking over seamlessly for Ozzie Newsome.

Well, his 5-foot-9 first-round pick, receiver Marquese Brown had four catches for 22 yards. He also had a drop on seven targets.

There’s still a lot of games to play, but with 25 percent of the schedule in the history books, it’s the Browns, and not the Ravens, that are in first place.