Cleveland Browns: Baker Mayfield only beats Cincy and other fake news

It’s okay to criticize the Cleveland Browns, but get the facts straight

Hey, did you hear from Fox Sports and ESPN that Baker Mayfield of the Cleveland Browns only beats Cincinnati and can’t play against good teams like Baltimore and Pittsburgh? He always loses, and he never throws a good game against them.

This writer is not an expert talent evaluator and is not claiming to supersede expert opinion from media superstars including Colin Cowherd and Stephen A. Smith about Mayfield’s arm strength accuracy, 40 yard dash time, SAT scores, fashion sense, hairstyle, or choice of beverage.

However, the national experts are passing around narratives that are factually incorrect. Let us see what the numbers say about the narrative that Mayfield cannot beat Baltimore or Pittsburgh and never has good games against them.

We can start with the Baltimore Ravens.

Mayfield made his second NFL start against that team on October 7, 2018. Cleveland won that game, final score: Cleveland 12, Baltimore 9 on a low level knuckleball kick by Greg Joseph in overtime. In fact, it was rumored that the Browns contrived to fill the football with helium so that it could float over the goalpost. But it did float over. Mayfield completed 25 of 43 passes for 342 yards, one touchdown and one interception. So what do they mean that Mayfield cannot beat Baltimore?

In the regular season finale, December 30, 2018, Mayfield completed 23 of 42 passes  for 376 yards with three touchdowns (and an unfortunate three picks) as the Browns came up short versus the playoff-bound Ravens, 26-24 for the Browns. Fellow rookie Lamar Jackson became the first NFL quarterback to ever to go six games over .500 as a 21 year old.

Jackson is also the first 21 year old quarterback to go to games over .500. Fans will post letter contradicting this assertion by naming several 22 and 23 year old quarterbacks that had good years, but it is in fact true. Nevertheless, like Mayfield, Jackson gets trashed in the national media, though not necessarily the same people who dislike Mayfield. Jackson’s supposed sin is not winning playoff games, and they cut him no slack despite the fact that he is still only 23 years old, the same age as Joe Burrow.

Let’s move ahead to the 2019 season. The first confrontation between Baltimore and Cleveland game was not nearly as close. Cowherd and Smith would no doubt give each other high fives to learn that this one ended 40-25, the highest scoring affair of the past three years. However, wait just a minute. Baltimore didn’t win this one, Cleveland did.

Mayfield once again threw for over 300 yards on 20-of-30 and 342 yards and a touchdown. Again, what do you mean that Mayfield cannot beat Baltimore and does not have good games except against Cincinnati. Isn’t 342 yards and a touchdown reasonably good? Hello, Cleveland won the game, and Mayfield beat Jackson, and he threw for over 300 yards and they scored 40 points. How many points do you actually want your team to score against a top team like Baltimore?

The rematch versus the Ravens last year was not very pleasant. Newsflash — the 2019 Cleveland Browns were not very good. Now perhaps Freddie Kitchens is a tremendous head coach and it was the fault of Mayfield that he didn’t win, but not many people in Cleveland are buying that narrative. Nevertheless, on December 22, 2019, it was Baltimore 31, Cleveland 15. Lamar Jackson and Baltimore got their revenge on Mayfield and the Browns, holding Mayfield to 20 completions  from 33 attempts, 192 yards,  two touchdowns  and a pick, salvaging a split for the season.

Then the Ravens dominated the opener in 2020, crushing the new Stefanski offense 38-6, in which Mayfield went  21-of-39  for 189 yards with a one-to-one touchdown-to-interception ratio. One game is enough time to install the offense, isn’t it? In any case, Mayfield is now 2-3 lifetime versus the Ravens.

Now, let us talk about the Steelers. Frankly, they have been the superior organization most of the time since 1999. It’s a bit of a stretch to blame that on the current quarterback.Is there anybody who thinks the Browns were doing great against the Steelers until Mayfield came along? Let’s review the rivalry since 2018.

In 2018, Tyrod Taylor led the Browns to a 21-21 tie in the season opener despite being sacked seven times. Mayfield did not play.

The rematch was in Pittsburgh on October 28th, 2018. Pittsburgh won decisively 33-18. Mayfield was not spectacular, going 22 for 36 for 180 yards with two scores and an interception. The Steelers had a huge edge on the ground, rolling up 168 yards to 74 yards for the Browns. Again, it’s hard to imagine that quarterback was the problem, when the Steelers are able to run for nearly 100 more yards than the Browns.

In 2019,  Could anyone possibly forget the Myles Garrett versus Mason Rudolph fight? The Cleveland Browns won that game, 21-7 and in fact dominated on the field. Mayfield was a workmanlike 17 completions out of 32 attempts for 193 yards two touchdowns with no picks. If you are going to say that this win does not count because Roethlisberger was out getting his bionic elbow worked on, fine, but then I am going to say the next Pittsburgh rematch does not count because the Browns were without their best player also.

On December 1, 2019 the Steelers and Duck Hodges won the rematch 20-13 without Myles Garrett. Mayfield was 18-of-32 for 196 yards with a score and an interception.

This season, on October 28, 2020, the Steelers administered a butt kicking, Steelers 38, Browns 7.  Pittsburgh played at the level of a Super Bowl  level team. Mayfield had a very poor game, going 10 for 18 for only 119 yards, with one TD and two INTs. Two interceptions represents a career high against Pittsburgh, and there were few mitigating good deeds to compensate for them. Case Keenum came in to finish the game in the second half and fared even worse.  It was a terrible game for the Browns, and no question the Steelers proved they were the superior team.

When the team gets beat by 31 points, it’s difficult to say with a straight face that one player would have made the difference, although the narrative was presented on national television that Mayfield was holding back the team’s development.  A Las Vegas point spread might move by as much as six points if a superstar quarterback (say, on the level of Peyton Manning or Dan Marino) is unable to go. To move the differential by 31? Well, there might be some Old Testament prophets who were worth two touchdowns, but 31 points is just ridiculous.

At this point in time both the Ravens and the Steelers have proven that they are better teams than the Browns, and it’s not just one player. It’s just stupid to hang it on one player. The Browns are several players away from matching the excellence of the Ravens and Steelers. Cleveland is still improving, however, so let’s not be too hasty in assigning the rematches as W’s for Baltimore and Pittsburgh. After all, you know what they say, the NFL is the league where anything can happen and it usually does.

Nevertheless, masterminds at both Fox Sports and ESPN seem to have concluded that the 2020 Browns losses were totally the fault of Baker Mayfield. Colin Cowherd and Stephen A. Smith have been the most vocal Mayfield critics, calling for the Browns to banish Mayfield to Siberia, implying that getting rid of Mayfield would help the Browns become equal to Pittsburgh and Baltimore.  What a laugh.

The fact of the matter is that versus division rivals Baltimore and Pittsburgh, Mayfield is not winless. Rather, he has beaten the Ravens twice and the Steelers once, and he has had three 300 yard games against the Ravens. Understand, Baltimore does not like to lose games. Only two teams have beaten Baltimore in the past two regular seasons: Cleveland (1-1)  and Kansas City (2-0). That’s it. The rest of the NFL  is 0-19 versus the Ravens. So it’s not like it is easy for just any quarterback to step up and beat the Ravens. If you fire every quarterback that loses to Baltimore, there will not be anyone left.

By the way, the Steelers are 6-0 this season. So if it was so easy to beat the Steelers, why hasn’t anyone done it yet?

Baltimore and Pittsburgh will play on Sunday, so one team or the other will lose. Does the loser need to fire their quarterback?

So, is Mayfield the fourth best quarterback in the AFC North? To answer that question, first tell me which of the other three guys is definitely not going to the Hall of Fame, because the quarterback class in this division is that good. If Roethlisberger doesn’t make the Hall of Fame, it is only because of off the field issues early in his career, not on-field production.  This writer has been on record since Jackson’s rookie year predicting he would surpass Michael Vick as the greatest dual threat quarterback in NFL history. Joe Burrow has been hurling lightning bolts for the Bengals after a historically great season for the LSU Tigers. If the Bengals fail to kill him due to lack of protection, he might well develop into a Pro Bowl passer.

There has been no reason this season to disparage the quarterbacks in the AFC North. Jimminy Christmas, they are all good. The whole AFC North is 17-8-1. At some point you have to recognize that the Division is pretty good.

If the media geniuses know for sure that the Browns are going to lose whenever they play someone other than Cincinnati or Dallas, they should just bet all their money so they will not have to work. Perhaps this is so; however, this more timid analyst is just going to watch and see what happens.

The fact is that Baker Mayfield has had big games against Baltimore and Pittsburgh and come away with wins. This idea that the two bad losses this season should be blamed on exclusively or mainly on the quarterback is a matter of opinion. This analyst believes that when the team is 5-2, blaming the quarterback for two losses and giving zero credit for five wins is silly. At least one sportscaster has announced that he is giving up on Baker Mayfield and Cleveland.

Hah! Give up? Go right ahead, because you are not Cleveland fans, so to quote Freddie Kitchens, you don’t matter. Anyway, Cleveland fans should not care what people think on the east and west  coasts because they are fans of other teams. For example, sportscasters in Bristol generally wind up being fans of the Jets or Giants, poor fools, though they try to not admit it. Certainly Cleveland fans can understand their misery and and insanity.

Hey, Cleveland isn’t a perfect city, and we have problems like everyone else. So thanks for the advice, but in Cleveland, there is no giving up in football.