There’s no moral victories in the NFL, especially after dropping a game at home to the worst team in football.
But the plot might be thickening with the Cleveland Browns quarterback room. They might've stumbled into something special with fifth-round rookie Shedeur Sanders, after all.
Sanders played his best four quarters of the season in Sunday’s 31-29 loss to the previously one-win Tennessee Titans — with emphasis on the fourth. With his mistake-prone team spiraling and down 14 points with 6:17 left in regulation, the rookie led back-to-back scoring drives — including his own 7-yard rushing score that sparked Huntington Bank Stadium back to life.
In the end, a pair of botched two-point conversions wound up robbing Sanders of his potential signature moment.
Sanders became the first rookie QB this season to surpass 300 yards passing. He was good, but far from perfect, and his own back-breaking mistake in the third quarter will ultimately be the play that keeps him up at night this week.
Shedeur Sanders’ accuracy issues came back to bite him against the Titans
Sanders was solid in the first half of the game, especially when you consider the Browns spotted Tennessee an early 14-3 lead. He seemed to settle in after finding tight end David Njoku for a 1-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter. He later dropped another deep ball into the bucket that wide receiver Jerry Jeudy ran under for a 60-yard touchdown.
Cleveland’s lead was 17-14 in the third quarter when Sanders made the back-breaking mistake that ultimately led to the Browns losing the game. After backtracking out of the pocket — a move that’s led to some brutal losses on sacks this season — Sanders decided to uncork an ill-advised throw over the middle, and it was intercepted by safety Xavier Woods.
It was the definition of a back-breaker. The Titans cashed in with a touchdown two plays later for the go-ahead score. The Browns followed with three miserable drives: a three-and-out that netted minus-8 yards, a Dylan Sampson fumble, and another would-be punt that was blocked and led to a Titans field goal.
That kick gave Tennessee a 31-17 lead midway through the fourth quarter and, ultimately, were the points that decided the final outcome.
Sanders attempted a career-high 42 passes in the game, the Browns answering fans’ calls to give him more opportunities to show what he can do. And while he finished with 364 yards and four total touchdowns, he only completed 23 of his throws, a woeful completion percentage of 54.8 percent.
Again, it was imperfect, but it was a major step in the right direction, and certainly gives the team reason to want to see more over these final four games of the regular season.
Sanders’ pocket presence and processing looked miles better than his first two starts, and short of a moral victory, his progress at least gives fans something to cling to going forward.