Week 14 instant reactions: Defense leads Cleveland Browns to victory

Once again, Joe Flacco made the Cleveland Browns look wise for signing him on the opening drive. As he did in Los Angeles last week, Flacco carved apart the defense for a quick touchdown. This time, he was able to complete all four of his passing attempts for 66 yards.

The drive ended with a beautiful fake on third-and-one with Flacco under center and two extra offensive linemen on the field. The jumbo formation had all eyes on Kareem Hunt but Flacco kept it on a play fake. He then fired it downfield for David Njoku, who had no one anywhere near him, and walked in for a 34-yard touchdown.

A field position game ensued with Corey Bojorquez putting on a show. He bailed the Browns out with a 75-yard punt from their own 10 and Pierre Strong stuffed Parker Washington on the return to pin them deep. Eventually, the offense got rolling and Flacco had another drive to remember.

This time, he hit Amari Cooper for a 17-yard gain followed by a 20-yarder to Elijah Moore. Eventually, he hit Njoku again, this time for a 30-yard touchdown. This was the first time Njoku ever had a multi-touchdown game and he doubled his total for the season just over a minute into the second quarter.

Jacksonville continued to fight back and heading into the fourth quarter, it was 21-14 with the Jags scoring twice off turnovers. One was when Amari Cooper fumbled the ball in Cleveland territory and the other was when Flacco did the same. Each time they made it close, however, the defense stepped up. They intercepted Trevor Lawrence three times, helping to ensure they improved to 8-5 on the year.

As important as the turnovers were, the game came down to a late fourth-down call. With around 3:30 left to play, the Jaguars needed three yards and Lawrence went to Zay Jones who had rookie Cameron Mitchell covering him. Mitchell, who just returned from an injury made the play and broke up the pass, leading to a field goal that made it 31-21, ending the Jags hopes of winning since they needed two scores with no timeouts.

Jacksonville did get another score (thanks to a bogus pass interference call on Anthony Walker) but couldn't convert on their two-point try. An onside kick was recovered by Cleveland and they ran the clock out, winning 31-27. That was the theme for the day as this defense once again carried the team to victory.

Cleveland Browns defense is elite at home

Whenever this defense takes the field at home, they're unbelievable. They've been relied upon with the quarterback issues and came up big again. This week, Martin Emerson was one of the biggest stars, making a couple of third-down stops in the first quarter. One was a break-up downfield and the other was a huge tackle on third-and-eight to stop Zay Jones in his tracks. He also recorded a pick early in the second quarter.

The defense even bailed the Browns out following an ill-timed turnover of their own. Moving down the field after Emerson's turnover, Flacco was picked off when Cedric Tillman ran into a defender. The ball was given right back to them when Grant Delpit — who just agreed to a three-year extension Sunday morning — sacked Lawrence on a third-down blitz.

Emerson again came up big when the offense started to stall late in the half. Protecting a seven-point lead, the defense was struggling to stop the Jags who moved the ball to the Cleveland 24. Then, Emerson secured his second pick of the day when he took one away that was intended for Calvin Ridley.

Cleveland's offense was unable to score off the first half turnovers but they got another opportunity to kick off the third. Jacksonville came out and made several mistakes to begin the third quarter, and on third-and-21, Parker Washington fumbled the ball away. Anthony Walker stripped it out and the Browns ended up going up 21-7 when Kareem Hunt took the snap from the Wildcat into the end zone.

All day, they made life miserable on the Jacksonville offense. Lawrence was under constant pressure and even without Denzel Ward or Juan Thornhill — plus seeing Delpit leave late in the game — the secondary kept rising to the occasion.

Browns offense still has issues

As good as the offense has been with Joe Flacco under center, they've still had two major issues — penalties and turnovers. There were two turnovers in the first half with Flacco throwing an interception on a play where Cedric Tillman ran into his own man. They also lost a fumble when Amari Cooper was stripped by Andrew Wingard.

The Cooper turnover was in their own territory and led to seven points. They allowed another seven in the third quarter when Flacco fumbled one away. Hit as he was trying to throw, Flacco fumbled the ball and Jacksonville picked it up at the 25-yard line.

Penalties have been the other issue and Geron Christian was hit with two of them on the same drive. If that wasn't enough to deal with, each one resulted in a conversion for a first-down being called back. Eventually, Corey Bojorquez had to come in and punt it away thanks to the self-inflicted wounds.

At this point, it was a tight game once again at 21-14. The frustrating part of this was how dominant the defense was. They might have given up two touchdowns but those were on drives that covered 32 and then 25 yards. They still pulled out a victory thanks to the defense but this offense has to figure out how to stop putting themselves in a hole.

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