During the 2016 and 2017 seasons, the Cleveland Browns struggled to convert plays down the field, but with a strong-willed, strong-armed quarterback and receivers with the speed necessary to get behind the coverage, that has proven not to be a problem in recent weeks.
Rookie Baker Mayfield became the first Browns signal-caller since Brandon Weeden in 2012 to throw 60-yard passes in back-to-back games. Along with the 66-yard throw to Breshad Perriman on the first play of the game, Mayfield connected with Jarvis Landry on a 51-yard touchdown in last week’s 26-20 win over the Carolina Panthers at FirstEnergy Stadium.
“We have taken turns with several different people having chunk plays,” Browns interim coach Gregg Williams said. “Last week, there were quite a few guys that had those chunk plays, and that is when your offense becomes tougher to defend.
“You can’t maybe roll coverage to a certain person, slide a front a certain way or slide a blitz a certain way because there is more than one person that you are having to take care of. I think our offense has done a really good job in how we are taking a look at ourselves and our self-scouting week by week by week, but it was pretty cool to see him jump out there last week, too.”
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 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.
“A guy with that kind of size and that kind of speed of course has an impact when he has the ball in his hands, but really, what I saw there was a play that went for like a two-yard gain earlier in the year when we handed a speed sweep to him,” offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens said.
“He was not afraid. He took on the tacklers on the edge. It ended up being a two-yard play, but when he had the ball in his hands, he brought it. I like physical, big guys like that, that can play and that seem to enjoy playing the game. It is all about playing the game with those guys. When you have a guy that loves the game of football, of course that is an advantage.”
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.
“That was great,” Kitchens said. “He split the coverage, and he caught a contested ball. Good receivers in this league catch contested footballs. He made a good play on the ball. It was where it was supposed to be. He made a good play on the ball and a big play for us.
“Anytime you make big plays, whoever is making them, it energizes the team as a whole. Jarvis is definitely an electric kind of personality and player. Anytime that you can get the ball into Jarvis’ hands, it is good.”
