CLEVELAND -- The year of the rookies continued for the Cleveland Browns on Sunday at First Energy Stadium.
Baker Mayfield threw for 238 yards and a touchdown, while Nick Chubb provided the go-ahead score early in the fourth quarter to lead the Browns to a 26-20 win over the Carolina Panthers.
Mayfield has a touchdown pass in 10 consecutive starts, making him the first Browns quarterback to do that since Bernie Kosar in 1987, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
“One of the things if you are close enough, if you are ever down there close enough, you can hear the ball come out of the quarterback’s hand with a ‘sst’ and you can hear how tight the ball was coming out of his hand,” interim head coach Gregg Williams said. “It was bringing a smile to my face when I saw him warm up, and really the entire game he was zipping it.”
With his 4-yard touchdown run, Chubb now has a TD in five consecutive games, the longest streak by a Browns player since Greg Pruitt in 1975 (also per ESPN Stats & Information research).
The win kept the Browns' barely flickering playoff hopes alive, as they improve to 5-7-1 with games left at Denver, against Cincinnati and at Baltimore. Those hopes remain a long shot, but Mayfield and Chubb are still providing the Browns and their fans plenty of hope for 2019.
“I just feel like if we win out, everything else will take care of itself,” safety Damarious Randall said. “I mean, if it takes care of itself and we end up the sixth seed, somebody is going to be in trouble.”
“Like we said earlier this week, we still are in that hunt,” Mayfield said, “but if we do not take it one game at a time, none of that matters. We have to take care of business one week at a time, and we did that today against a veteran defense and a good team. I do not care what anybody says, there are a lot of guys on that team that can make plays and play well. We are at a point right now that we have been building for this moment and we need to continue to build.”
Those hopes remain a long shot, but Mayfield and Chubb are still providing the Browns and their fans plenty of hope for 2019.
Mayfield completed 18 of 22 against the Panthers -- and three of his passes fell incomplete after bouncing off receivers’ hands. In his past six quarters, including the second half at Houston last Sunday, Mayfield has thrown for 589 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions.
Williams is now 3-2 as interim coach and with Freddie Kitchens running the offense.
Kitchens had one interesting play ready for the Panthers that had the flow of the offense go left and Mayfield hand off inside to receiver Jarvis Landry. The first time Kitchens called it, Landry scored from the 3. The second time he called it, Landry scampered for 51 yards, setting up Chubb’s go-ahead score.
Landry even threw an incomplete pass after taking a swing pass-lateral from Mayfield.
“I’m sure he will be begging to kick it now,” Williams said.
Five wins are a modest total, but for the Browns, they’re a benchmark of sorts. Cleveland has not won five games in a season since 2014.
Mayfield is now 4-6 as the starting quarterback, giving him as many wins as the Browns had in total in 2015, '16 and '17. He started with a 66-yard completion on the Browns' first play, then threw a 51-yard laser of a touchdown pass to Landry, who became the first Browns player since Leroy Hoard in 1991 to have a 50-yard catch and a 50-yard run in the same game.
“I guess waking up feeling dangerous is contagious, you know?” Landry said a reference to Mayfield’s statement during and after the win over Atlanta.
The Browns improved to 4-2-1 at home this season, guaranteeing them a winning record at FirstEnergy Stadium. No matter what happens in the home finale Dec. 23 against the Bengals, the Browns will finish with second-best home record since 1999 and their best since they went 7-1 in 2007.