Baker Mayfield has chance to, once again, prove everyone wrong Sunday

Sunday is another chance for Baker Mayfield to silence doubters

October 18th was the last time Baker Mayfield played a game in Pittsburgh and it was quite a terrible showing. During that game, he threw two interceptions and completed an abysmal 55 percent of his passing attempts. Mayfield’s poor performance put the Cleveland Browns in such a hole that head coach Kevin Stefanski replaced him with Case Keenum in the fourth quarter.

Many were calling for Stefanski to replace Mayfield with Keenum for the rest of the season but Stefanski decided to stick with Mayfield, and it was the right decision. Mayfield immediately followed the loss in Pittsburgh with one of his best games against Cincinnati.

He threw five touchdowns and tore through the Cincinnati defense at will. He also proved that he can be a leader and someone who can come through in clutch time. Mayfield hit Donovan Peoples-Jones for this game-winning touchdown with only seconds left in the game.

Now into November, Baker Mayfield didn’t put up terrific numbers by any means, but he managed the games well. For the next three games, he had neither a touchdown nor an interception. Most of this was due to the weather during these games. All of these games were played in some mixture of crazy wind, freezing rain, or snow.

Next, Mayfield and the Browns played back to back road games in Jacksonville and Tennessee. He lit up the stat sheet in both of these games by throwing six touchdowns and no interceptions. He also had a quarterback rating of 116.7 and 147.0 in these games.

As Mayfield and the Browns were gaining steam, they prepared for their date with the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night Football. Mayfield and Lamar Jackson went toe to toe with each other all game in the most entertaining game of the entire NFL regular season. Mayfield and Jackson were both unstoppable and whoever had the ball last was going to win the game. Jackson and the Ravens had the ball last and drove down the field for the game-winning field goal, but that does not take away from Mayfield’s brilliant performance and leadership that game.

The Cleveland quarterback didn’t slow down when the Browns went to New York to face the Giants. He lit up the scoreboard once again and leading the Browns to a pivotal win. He threw two touchdowns and had a quarterback rating of 126.2.

Staying in New York, the Browns’ next game was against the Jets. It is hard to put much blame on Mayfield for the loss to the Jets. The Browns were hit hard as COVID-19 began to spread throughout the team. With all of the Browns wide receivers unavailable for the game, it was hard to move the ball at all. However, the loss set up a week 17 rematch with the Steelers for a spot in the playoffs.

With the receivers available again, Mayfield had a great performance against the Steelers. It wasn’t flashy but he got the job done and more importantly got the Browns into the playoffs.

Baker Mayfield has become the quarterback that Browns fans hoped he would be when they took him with the first overall pick back in 2018. His growth has not been without growing pains and mistakes, but he has finally made the leap forward to be a good NFL quarterback.

Proving himself is nothing new as No. 6 has battled doubters his entire career dating back to high school where he was barely noticed by any colleges. He walked on at Texas Tech and proved those doubters wrong by earning playing time and doing fairly well. The next saga in his career began when he transferred to Oklahoma as a walk-on once again. Mayfield again proved everyone wrong by breaking records and ultimately winning the Heisman trophy and becoming the first overall pick in the NFL draft.

Mayfield’s NFL career has been met with the same doubts he’s so familiar with. His competence as an NFL quarterback has been in question time and time again, with Colin Cowherd being the loudest doubter of them all. But Mayfield has again begun the process of proving these doubters wrong.

Now, the third-year gunslinger has more of a chance than ever to prove Cowherd and the army of doubters wrong by winning in the wild card round of the playoffs against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Mayfield has been working and improving his craft since he entered the league. He has made the leap and become an exceptional quarterback in the NFL and there is no better time than Sunday night to punctuate his improvement.

The hallmark of his career has been proving everybody wrong when nobody believes in him. He feeds off of adversity and comes through when the lights are shining the brightest. Sunday night is the perfect opportunity for Mayfield to put the doubters to bed and finally prove to everybody that he is a franchise quarterback.