4 Cleveland Browns whose stock are down vs the Indianapolis Colts.
The Cleveland Browns staved off a rally to hold on for a 32-23 victory against the Indianapolis Colts.
The victory could go down as a huge one for the Browns, especially if Cleveland is trying to stave off Indy in December’s playoff seeding.
Indy marked the first true test for the Browns since Week 1, when Cleveland was whooped by the Ravens. At 3-1, the Colts are the only other team on the Browns schedule at this point that had multiple victories.
In victory, the Browns moved to 4-1 for the first time since 1994. The four-game winning streak is longest since 2009, when Eric Mangini and the Browns transformed James Harrison into Jim Brown during the final quarter of the season.
I know it’s been written before, but some of the stats that pop up around Browns’ victories are amazing, yet cringeworthy.
Teams go 4-1 all of the time, yet somehow, it’s taken the Browns 25 seasons to do it again. And winning four in a row? Good teams do it all the time.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot of stink to knock off from the past 20 years, and the odor only gets removed the more the Browns win, so we’ll take it.
There’s plenty of good to go around in victory as these five Browns saw their stocks rise. It wasn’t all roses, though. Here’s five Browns whose stocks dropped as Cleveland staved off Indy’s rally.
1. Second-Half Baker
Baker Mayfield was stellar in the first half, but then turned into the many Browns quarterbacks we’ve seen for the better part of the last 20 years.
After completing 67.9 percent of his passes for 228 yards and two touchdowns in the first two stanzas, Mayfield was 2-of-9 with two interceptions in the second half. Had the Colts gotten decent quarterback play from Phillip Rivers, Indianapolis might’ve overcome the deficit in the fourth quarter, because the magic just wasn’t there for Mayfield.
When it comes to Baker and the Browns, the front office needs to figure out if the former No. 1 overall pick is a game manager, or a franchise quarterback who can lead the Browns to their first ever Super Bowl.
For the fourth consecutive game, Mayfield was not asked to throw at least 10 passes in the second half of play.
It was particularly concerning to see Stefanski dial up a throw with 2:30 remaining and the Browns up six. Mayfield took a vicious hit and the rib injury he suffered because of it will be examined thoroughly throughout the week.
The most important stat is the victory, though, and Mayfield is the first quarterback to have the Browns sitting a 4-1 since Vinny Testaverde in 1994.
2. Andrew Sendejo
You know my rap by now. I really, really, really don’t like putting Andrew Sendejo on this list week after week, yet here he is again.
How can he not be here? If the Browns give up a big play downfield, No. 23 is almost always certainly to be in the camera shot, having arrived too late to make a difference.
That was the case, yet again, against the Colts. He gave up two big plays in coverage, with one coming when Ashton Dulin grabbed a Rivers’ pass for 36 yards running a fly pattern. Sendejo was late in picking it up and frankly, the Browns are lucky that play didn’t go for six.
Sendejo also blew a missed tackle with around four minutes remaining. Had he converted the takedown, it would of put the Colts in a 3rd and long situation.
I don’t like hammering him weekly because he’s a backup who was elevated to starter after Grant Delpit was lost for the season.
That said, the NFL doesn’t take charity cases. The Browns signed the veteran because they thought he could play. He remains the biggest liability and defense.
3. Sione Takitaki
Truth be told, it’s probably unfair to list Sione Takitaki here this week. He had seven tackles, a run stuff and overall, looked aggressive out there, which is what you want from your starting linebacker.
That said, he looked lost on the Colts first touchdown of the game, in which Indy running back Jonathan Taylor scored from 2 yards out.
The Colts successfully confused the Browns with pre-snap motion, and then Takitaki seemed to bite on Rivers’ shimmy, which makes no sense, because there was no chance Old Stone Shoes was going to run with it.
Takitaki got iced of the play and Taylor scored the easy touchdown he’ll ever get.
Bigger picture-wise, the Browns run defense was a major reason the Colts were able to hang around. Cleveland’s inability to stop Taylor, especially on third downs, was brutal to watch.
4. Coverage unit
Allowing a kickoff to be returned for a touchdown is inexcusable. Heck, the league has tried its hardest to eliminate it because of the violent nature of the play.
Leave it to the Browns’ special teams to allow a 101-yard return, which breathed life into an Indy team that was looking for a reason to go into the tank following Ronnie Harrison’s pick-6 of Phillip Rivers.
Fortunately, the Browns were able stay clean in other areas of special teams, as Cody Parkey was 3-of-3 on field goals, although that last one he made tried its hardest not to go in. Fortunately, it took a nice bounce off the post and fell through the upright.
Jamie Gillan was solid as usual, with bot of his punts landing inside the 20. His notable boot, which the Colts caught at the 4 yard line was spectacular. It set up the intentional grounding which gave Cleveland two badly needed points at a time when the momentum had shifted to Indy.
Ultimately, special teams needs to clean up the return coverage, because with the defense as bad as it is, the Browns can’t afford to be surrounding these types of plays.