Cleveland Browns instant reactions: Freddie Kitchens seals fate in ugly loss to Ravens
By Randy Gurzi
The Cleveland Browns started out strong but then faded quickly as Freddie Kitchens might have sealed his fate in their ugly 31-15 loss to the Ravens
Despite coming into this game with a record of 6-8, the Cleveland Browns had a shot at the playoffs. It was probably about as good of a chance Lloyd Christmas had with Mary Swanson, but it was a chance nonetheless.
They also had a shot at going 5-1 in their division if they could win this game against the Baltimore Ravens as well as their Week 17 contest with the Cincinnati Bengals.
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Of course, before considering either of those scenarios they needed to make sure and do their job. That didn’t happen as they fell to 6-9 with a loss to the Ravens. While losing to the hottest team in the NFL isn’t something to be ashamed of, the way they lost is.
Cleveland came out playing well and with two minutes to go in the first half, they were up 6-0. Then, the bottom fell out as Lamar Jackson and the Ravens scored twice right before the half and then got the ball back to start the third quarter and made it 21-6 with another touchdown drive.
From there, Cleveland was playing catch-up but continued to make errors whenever they would get momentum. Once they made it 21-9, they let the Ravens march 62-yards and match their field goal.
Then they finally got a touchdown from Baker Mayfield to Odell Beckham, Jr. which gave them some momentum. However, that momentum was lost as Freddie Kitchens went for two and the pass fell incomplete to Ricky Seals-Jones.
That was the story of the game and in the end, Baltimore won it by a score of 31-15 and is now 13-2 whereas the Browns now know they will have a losing record yet again.
With all that being said, we look back at the game with a couple of instant reactions to their Week 16 defeat.