5 biggest Cleveland Browns ‘what if’ moments since 2013
By Greg Newland
Cleveland Browns “what if” moment No. 1: The referees get it right
The most tragic “what if” moment for the Cleveland Browns since 1999, let alone 2013, is the ending to the first half of the playoff game vs. the Kansas City Chiefs.
After getting down early, Mayfield and the offensive cast finally got the ball moving after a couple of big passes completed to David Njoku and Rashard Higgins. With just under two minutes in the half, the Browns were on the Chief’s 26-yard line and trailed 16-3.
On a first down pass, Higgins broke free and dived for the corner of the endzone. Just before breaking the plane, Daniel Sorensen shook the ball free and it went through the endzone resulting in a touchback, and Kansas City took over at the 20-yard line.
After watching the replay, it was easy to see that Sorensen clearly hit Higgins with head-to-head contact. A flag should have been thrown and the Browns should have gotten the ball back at the half-yard line, and likely would have scored before the half making the game 16-10 in favor of the Chiefs.
Instead, Patrick Mahomes went down the field and got a field goal before halftime. At the moment, it didn’t seem like it was going to make a huge difference in the outcome of the game, but we didn’t know Mahomes would exit in the second half with an injury.
What if the Browns would have gone into the half only down six, and when they scored in the third quarter it would have been 17-16 Cleveland instead of 19-10 Kansas City?
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Had the referees got that call right, the Browns very easily could have found themselves in the AFC Championship game.