by Photo Credit Kenny Wilson of North Ridgeville Ohio.
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For only the third time since returning to the NFL in 1999, and the second time in four years, the Cleveland Browns are headed for postseason football. The clinching victory came tonight 37-20 over the visiting New York Jets. The dominant win improved their season record to 11-5 and also 8-1 at home. At the very least, the Browns will compete as a wildcard team this postseason, with a solid shot at the fifth overall seed.
Joe Flacco continues to look like the best thing to happen to the Cleveland Browns since they drafted Tim Couch and Baker Mayfield both with the overall picks in 1999 and 2018, as Flacco, appears to be the real deal! Tonight, the former Jet went 19 of 29 for 309 yards and 3 touchdowns, with the bulk of that coming in the first half.
Flacco has been nothing short of sensational since joining the Browns midseason. Flacco is now 4-1 as a starter with 13 touchdowns and 8 interceptions while throwing for over 1,600 yards in just those 5 games. Had the Browns had him since week one, it is safe to say they would be competing for the number one overall seed right now as well.
One week after breaking the Cleveland Browns receiving record, Flacco didn’t have Amari Cooper tonight, and had to make best with what he had. That meant a focused effort to get the ball to David Njoku once again, and they did that as “The Chief” had 134 yards on 6 catches with a touchdown. Jerome Ford also had a big night out of the backfield, catching 2 balls for 57 yards and 2 touchdowns. Ford also ran the ball 12 times for 64 yards.
The Browns received some nice efforts by another former Jet, Elijiah Moore before getting hurt and leaving the game with a possible concussion. Moore finished with 61 yards on 5 catches with a 8 yard touchdown catch.
Kareem Hunt scored his career high, 9th touchdown of the season as he rushed the ball 10 times for 31 yards with the score. Pierre Strong added 29 yards to the rushing game as well, on 4 carries.
The Jets decided to focus a lot of their game plan around Breece Hall who had 9 catches out of the backfield for 42 yards with a score. Hall also rushed the ball 13 times for 84 yards as well. Their other leading receive tonight was Garrett Wilson who had 5 catches for 50 yards. Tight End Tyler Conklin had 5 catches for 45 yards.
It was a wild first quarter that saw the Browns build a 20-7 lead on the strength of a Flacco touchdown pass to Jerome Ford of 7 yards, a 7 yard touchdown run by Hunt and then a Ronnie Hickman 30 yard pick six of New York Jets quarterback Trevor Sieman.
Cleveland put things away for good in the second quarter when Flacco found Moore on an 8 yard touchdown pass and then later in the quarter, hooked up with Jerome Ford on a 50 yard pass and catch to score. All of this, wrapped around a New York Jets pick six, led the Browns to a commanding 34-17 lead at the break.
The teams went scoreless in the third, before exchanging field goals in the fourth quarter.
