Cleveland Browns: Preseason Week 1 instant reactions

The Cleveland Browns played their first game of real, actual football for the first time in eight months. It may not have been the regular season, but fans can still grab some takeaways from Cleveland’s first preseason game.

On Thursday night, the Cleveland Browns finally played football again. With the final memory of 2017 being Corey Coleman dropping a pass to seal the team’s 0-16 fate, fans were more than excited to see the Browns start fresh. So, how did they do?

The run game was nothing to really write home about, but the quarterbacks looked as advertised. Tyrod Taylor, immediately, showed why the Browns picked him up in the offseason. With a 100% completion rating during his short playing time, Taylor threw for 99 yards and hit tight end David Njoku for a touchdown to put the Browns up 7-3. Then, Cleveland fans got to see the debut of rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield.

When all was said and done, the Browns defeated the New York Giants by a score of 20-10. This moves them to 1-0 on the preseason, and keeps their preseason winning streak alive at five games, going back to 2017.

With the first preseason contest behind us, what can Browns fans come away with for this game? It may have been the first preseason game, but that doesn’t change the fact that at least some of the real gameplan made it into this one. Let’s take a look at three big instant reactions.