by Cleveland Browns coverage at KOS is brought to you by these fine sponsors – https://keeonsports.com/sponsors/
CLEVELAND, OH – The Browns improved their home record to 6-1 and their overall record to 8-5 with a commanding 31-27 victory over Jacksonville today. The Browns picked off Trevor Lawrence 3 times and caused 4 total turnovers as they led from start to finish by the lake.
Joe Flacco looked impressive behind center for the Browns for the second straight week as he passed for 311 yards on 26 of 45 passing with 3 touchdowns and a pick. Flacco was strong again and appears to be the man who could lead the Browns on a long playoff run.
His main targets today were David Njoku who had 6 catches for 91 yards and 2 touchdowns, while Amari Cooper had 7 catches for 77 yads as well. Also stepping up in the passing game was Elijah Moore with 3 catches for 42 yards while David Bell only had one catch, but it was a big 41-yard touchdown grab that proved to be the difference.
On the ground Jerome Ford continues to provide Cleveland with a variety of options and did so once again today. Ford went for 51 yards on the ground and also caught 5 passes for 31 yards. Kareem Hunt, scored his seventh touchdown of the season and also ran for 27 yards on 10 total carries.
It wasn’t known until late Friday that the Browns would be facing dinged up Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence, but he did get the call and had an up and down game. Lawrence went 28 of 50 for 257 yard with 3 touchdowns, but also 3 costly interceptions.
The Browns couldn’t ask for a much better start as they went 75 yards in 6 plays and it resulted in 7 points on a Joe Flacco to David Njoku 34-yard touchdown pass. The play came on a third and 1 where it looked as though the Browns would smash it up the middle with Kareem Hunt, instead the Jaguars bit hard on a play action fake and Flacco found his wide-open tight end. Flacco went 4 of 4 on the drive for 66 yards.
The Browns scoring strike turned out to be the only points of the first quarter, as the teams combined for a whopping 7 punts in the quarter alone. All four of the Jaguars possessions in the quarter resulted in punts while 3 of the 4 from Cleveland did as well. Neither team could get the chains moving no matter what they tried after that initial Cleveland drive.
The Browns recaptured a little of the magic to start the second quarter as they flew down the field in no time flat to score again. This time they went 72 yards in just 4 plays, with the big hitter coming on a 30-yard touchdown pass to Njoku. This followed a 17-yard hookup to Cooper and 20-yard strike to Elijah Moore as well. This made it 14-0 Cleveland with 13:46 to go in the half.
From there, both teams were able to survive bad interceptions by Trevor Lawrence and then Joe Flacco as the defenses stood tall not to allow any points up. This was a major win for Cleveland as their defense has been notorious for allowing points off turnovers almost every time this season as they rank dead least in the NFL in that category.
Sadly, for Cleveland, this was never more evident than on their next drive when Amari Cooper, after making a great play to catch the ball and run quite a bit after it, the ball popped out of his grasp and the Jaguars jumped on it, taking over from the Browns 12-yard line. It took two plays for the Jaguars to score on a Lawrence to Evan Engram for a 10-yard touchdown pass to cut into the Cleveland lead at 14-7. The game went to half by that same score.
This time it was the Browns taking advantage of a turnover deep in Jaguar territory as Parker Washington fumbled a caught ball, and the Browns recovered it on the Jacksonville 22. A few plays later the Browns cashed in on a Kareem Hunt 4 yard touchdown run. Hunt has been a touchdown machine for the Browns this year with a nose for the endzone, this was his 7th touchdown of the season, giving the Browns a 21-7 lead with 9:46 to play in the third quarter.
For Cleveland however, that same problem rose up yet again, as it was their turn to give up points off of a turnover. A strip sack of Joe Flacco by Jacksonville gave the Jaguars the ball at the Browns 25-yard line. Lawrence and the Jaguars wasted no time turning it into points as 6 plays later it was Travis Etienne scoring from one yard out, to make it 21-14 Cleveland with 5:02 left in the third quarter.
Up 7, the Browns needed to stay aggressive and did so, following a Greg Newsome interception of Lawrence, converted it into points as David Bell finally had a breakout catch that fans knew he could. Cleveland, facing a fourth and 3 from the Jaguars 41-yard line, decided to go for it. The Browns gamble paid off as Flacco hit Bell in stride who then took it to the house with no one within 20 yards of him. The blast from Bell made it 28-14 in the early moments of the fourth quarter.
The Browns went on to hang on to the lead, and defeat Jacksonville 31-27 after two late Jaguars touchdown passes made it close.
