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Baker Mayfield up for Rookie of the Week Award after leading Browns to win over Panthers

Quarterback Baker Mayfield is up for the Pepsi Rookie of the Week Award once again after leading the Cleveland Browns to a 26-20 win over the Carolina Panthers at FirstEnergy Stadium Sunday.
Credit: Scott R. Galvin
Quarterback Baker Mayfield is up for the Pepsi Rookie of the Week Award once again after leading the Cleveland Browns to a 26-20 win over the Carolina Panthers at FirstEnergy Stadium Sunday.

CLEVELAND — Quarterback Baker Mayfield is up for the Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Week Award after leading the Cleveland Browns to a 26-20 victory over the Carolina Panthers at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland Sunday.

Already this season, Mayfield has won the Pepsi Rookie of the Week Award a league-high four times, after Weeks 3, 7, 9 and 12.

Fans can vote at NFL.com, now through Friday morning.

Mayfield led the way to Cleveland’s third victory in their last four games by completing 18 of his 22 throws for 238 yards and one touchdown without a turnover and was sacked only once for a six-yard loss in the win.

Mayfield and the Browns literally came out firing against the Panthers.

On first-and-10 from the Cleveland 25-yard line, Mayfield took a snap under center, faked a handoff to running back Nick Chubb and rocketed the ball down the numbers on the left side of the field, where wide receiver Breshad Perriman had gotten behind the coverage of Panthers cornerback Donte Jackson.

Perriman secured the catch at the Carolina 19-yard line and stumbled his way to another 10 yards before being brought down inside the 10.

Two plays later, wide receiver Jarvis Landry ran in for the touchdown from three yards out.

“There is never any doubt knowing Baker is out there,” running back Nick Chubb said. “You know that he is going to make a play. When he releases the ball from his hand, you know someone is about to catch it because he puts it in a great spot. It all starts from the protection, and then, just letting Baker make a play for us.”

Mayfield was far from done testing the Panthers’ secondary.

With the Browns facing a third-and-17 from the Cleveland 49-yard line midway through the second quarter, Mayfield avoided a rush from the Panthers and muscled a throw deep down the left side of the field for Landry, and despite two defenders closing on him, the veteran pass catcher hauled in his third receiving score of the season.

“He’s a guy that you just believe in,” defensive lineman Larry Ogunjobi said of Mayfield. “I think it was the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth, and they put the camera on him. He was trying to pump the crowd up, even when we were down, 20-17.

“There was no doubt in his mind that we were going to win that game. When the quarterback has that kind of confidence, it just goes throughout the team.”

Credit: Ken Blaze
Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) throws a pass during the first quarter against the Carolina Panthers at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio.

Since taking over the first-team offense in the second quarter of a Week 3 win over the New York Jets, Mayfield has completed 242 of his 376 attempts (64.4 percent) for 2,877 yards and 19 touchdowns against 10 interceptions, which has been good enough for a 93.4 quarterback rating.

“Everything that we saw in college on him and the things that we did, all of the background searches and all of the background studying that we did on him, it does not shock me, no,” interim coach Gregg Williams said of Mayfield’s success.

“He has worked extremely hard for his success. It is not something that has just happened by happenstance. The amount of work that he puts in does not shock us that he also takes it to the ball game because he works extremely hard to have an overall understanding of every aspect of the game. That does not come easy.”

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