Cleveland Browns Baker Mayfield finally got to throw without OBJ in the lineup.
Odell Beckham Jr. hasn’t played in a Browns game in four weeks as he rececovers from ACL surgery, and it was a wonder as to how Baker Mayfield would perform without the star studded receiver.
Baker Theory is pretty simple to follow: Baker’s more relaxed, and therefore, better, without having to force the ball to Beckham.
Unfortunately, prior to the Jaguars contest, the theory was yet to be tested, as Mayfield has basically played under a Lake Erie Monster the past few weeks. Cleveland’s weather thew some of the craziest weather it has to offer in its attempt to stop Cleveland’s passing game.
So, in sunny Florida, in optimal throwing conditions, did Mayfield deliver?
I’d argue he did, although the experiment wasn’t a runaway success. Mayfield went 19-of-29 for 258 yards and two touchdowns and no interceptions. He posted a QB rating of 116.4. He completed receptions to seven different wideouts.
More importantly, the offense never seemed to grow stagnant for an extended period of time.
Now, it wasn’t a perfect game for Mayfield. Nor was it an indictment on Beckham for the perception that some of the offensive funkiness we’ve seen since he arrived in Cleveland is all his fault.
Beckham didn’t make Mayfield miss a wide-open receiver for the second straight week. He also didn’t make Mayfield miss Kareem Hunt on a screen late in the game on a throw you and I could make.
That said, Jarvis Landry had his best game of the season, catching eight balls for 143 yards and a score. Mayfield threw at least two spectacular throws to Landry to extend drives. Mayfield also kept a drive going on an absolute laser to Khadarel Hodge with a sideline throw that the wideout made a stellar play on.
While Baker Theory was a mild success in Mayfield’s first test without Beckham, the truth of the offense remains in the rushing attack. So goes Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, so goes Cleveland’s offense.