The short-handed lineup. The brutally cold conditions. The tough (and hungry) opponent on the road. Sunday’s game at Soldier Field was always going to be a tough one for rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders and the Cleveland Browns to manage.
That doesn’t entirely excuse Sanders’ final stat line in Sunday’s 31-3 loss to the Chicago Bears. It was ugly, much like this entire Browns season has become.
Sanders’ playmaking ability wasn't nearly enough to offset Cleveland’s rash of injuries on offense. He only completed 51.4 percent of his 35 pass attempts, and three of them were picked off by a Bears defense that led the NFL in takeaways coming in.
Sanders sounded like a man who knew his future as the Browns’ QB1 was far from guaranteed this week, when he said: "You don’t know what could happen. I just go in here, enjoy my day, work hard, do everything I can — and if I’m here, I’m here. If I’m not, I’m not. It’s nothing that’s in my control, so I try to control what I can control, and that’s going out there, making the right reads, doing the right things, being the person I am, and things will fall how they’re supposed to.”
Sunday’s game was obviously deflating, but given the circumstances, it shouldn’t carry as much weight as the final statistics make it seem.
Sunday’s game was ugly for Shedeur Sanders, but he should be graded on a curve
It was almost poetic that Sanders’ best throw from this game was a 47-yard dart to undrafted rookie Isaiah Bond.
It’s hard to accurately evaluate a player who’s throwing to fringe NFL starting wide receivers.
Jerry Jeudy, the Browns’ No. 1 wide out by default thanks to the roster built by general manager Andrew Berry, had another forgettable game with two catches on four targets for 22 yards. He let cornerback Jaylon Johnson steal away a would-be touchdown on what looked like a well-placed ball by Sanders late in the third quarter.
As expected from a well-coached team led by Ben Johnson, the Bears did a nice job limiting tight end Harold Fannin Jr. Sanders’ favorite target caught seven balls, but he was limited to just 6.9 yards per reception.
The biggest story from this game was the Browns’ patchwork offensive line that included backups such as Luke Wypler at center and KT Leveston at right tackle. Cleveland’s running game with Quinshon Judkins spun its wheels for the second straight game, averaging less than 2 yards per carry. Sanders was also sacked five times, with the negative game script not helping in that regard.
It was all a recipe for disaster, and that's how it played out. Sanders didn’t flash as much as Browns fans would've hoped in this one, but all hope shouldn’t be lost for the 23-year-old. He didn’t have much of a chance on Sunday.