Browns Game Recap: Ugly win still a win in this week’s 3 Good and 3 Bad
By Chad Porto
The Browns were able to defeat the Lions 13-10 in a pretty ugly win.
The Browns’ first series against the Lions stalled out, but we saw early on that Kevin Stefanski would take out players who were causing issues with penalties; namely having Malick McDowell come out after a penalty. Early in the first, Baker Mayfield had some off-target passes that may have been due to the weather in Cleveland. They’re eventually able to get Jarvis Landry in the endzone thanks to the Wild Cat to start the second quarter.
It was also great to see Porter Gustin again, who was rocking a number change.
The second quarter had a big three and out for the Browns’ defense, even though the Browns struggled to find yards. Mayfield continued to miss some passes, which didn’t help him try to recover from his first-half interception. After a huge catch by Rashard Higgins, the Browns were able to get in the endzone after reception to Chubb out of a play-action pass.
Mayfield was in a much better rhythm in the second quarter. Part of that was due to Mayfield either targeting Browns’ receivers who were having penalties committed against them or just simply getting lucky with the flags.
After a Denzel Ward interception, the Browns offensive line started to fall apart with a list of penalties across several series. It wouldn’t be as bad as it was if it wasn’t for D’Andre Swift breaking off a 57-yard-rush for a touchdown. The Browns had a chance to respond, but Rashard Higgins dropped a key third-down reception.
In the fourth, the Browns offensive line negated a few more big plays, with a Chubb rush of near 20-yards getting called back by a bad block from Wyatt Teller. That series, which got backed up by bad o-line play, ended after Mayfield’s second interception of the game. Thankfully for the Browns, Malcolm Smith stepped up huge for the Browns and got Cleveland off the field.