Cleveland Browns: Studs and duds from Week 15 victory in Denver

Dud: Baker Mayfield’s first half

Browns fans are not used to seeing Mayfield struggle as much he did in the first half against the Broncos. Besides his 31-yard touchdown completion to Breshad Perriman on their first drive of the game, Mayfield was not his usual accurate self at the beginning of the game.

Mayfield completed only seven of his 18 passes in the first half, going for 108 yards, one touchdown, and one interception.

One of the biggest problems that Mayfield had in the first half was his overthrows. Mayfield had receivers open on multiple occasions, but missed them multiple times by overthrowing his target. He was not really trying to force the ball into a tight window, he just could not put the ball on his recievers.

Instead of taking what was given to him, Mayfield’s gunslinger mentality did not help him. The Broncos were leaving a bunch of the Browns underneath receivers open, but Mayfield kept trying to push the ball downfield.

That mentality especially hurt Mayfield at the end of the first half. The Browns had an opportunity to get points on the board before halftime, as they were on the plus-side of the field. But Mayfield forced a ball over the middle to Jarvis Landry and the pass was easily intercepted by Broncos safety Dymonte Thomas.

Mayfield was able to bounce back big-time in the second half and led the Browns to a win. But he left a lot of points on the board in the first half, as his inaccuracy killed the Browns offense.