Cleveland Browns studs and duds from Week 2 victory over Bengals

Studs and duds from Cleveland Browns Week 2 win

There was a lot going on on Thursday Night Football as Baker Mayfield led the Cleveland Browns as they took on Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals. It was a hyped-up match as two former Heisman winners and No. 1 overall picks were dueling it out in the battle of Ohio.

And neither of them disappointed.

In the end, Mayfield and the Browns got the win but Burrow and the Bengals gutted it out and refused to give up. The fought back from a 28-13 deficit late in the third quarter to make it a 35-30 contest.

For the Browns, there were some concerns as they allowed the Bengals to make it closer than it should have been but they now have 10 days to prepare for their next game against Washington and have officially put the bad taste from their Week 1 disaster out of their mouths.

Now we look back over their home debut victory — the first in the career of head coach Kevin Stefanski — and pick out the studs and duds from the exciting primetime win.

Honorable mention stud: Kevin Stefanski

Week 1 was a terrible debut for Kevin Stefanski, but we can’t be too hard on him. COVID-19 made offseason training obsolete and without any preseason games, the Browns had their first live-action against a team that was 14-2 the prior year and returned not only their entire coaching staff but had nearly an identical roster to the one before.

Thursday was a better example of what we should expect to see out of Stefanski and the Browns. His play-calling was smart and aggressive and he mixed things up nicely. He did a good job putting his players in apposition to succeed and got his first win as an NFL coach in his Cleveland debut.