Week 9 Instant Reaction: Baker Mayfield, Cleveland Browns defense suffocates Bengals
By John Suchan
The Cleveland Browns takeaways and impressive defense
It started with the Browns Denzel Ward’s impressive 99-yard interception return for a touchdown. Ward has missed a few games this season but he’s had a knack for big plays in his early career and he certainly didn’t disappoint. Cleveland then got a big stop in the first half on downs against the Bengals. The Browns capitalized on that next series as Cleveland hit the big pass play from Mayfield to Peoples-Jones.
After taking a 21-7 lead, safety John Johnson III picked up a fumble and raced down the field putting his offense in great field position. Then in the early stages of the third quarter, Johnson again got into the mix as he took a tipped pass and took that interception back deep into Cincinnati territory where the Browns tacked on three more points.
The secondary in the game was outstanding all game. The cornerbacks like Greg Newsome II and Troy Hill continued to break up passes all afternoon. Hill even got into the sack department recording three of them.
The Browns defensive linemen were tremendous as well as they put constant pressure on the Bengals quarterback. Myles Garrett was everywhere in the backfield and registered another 1.5 sacks. So he now leads the league with 12 sacks on the year.
It was a great team effort by the defense in only giving up 16 points to a Bengals team that was regularly scoring a lot of points. If the Cleveland defense can play like that the rest of the season then this team will be in good shape the rest of the season.