Mission accomplished. That’s the best way to sum up the Cleveland Browns in their business trip to Jacksonville in Week 12.
The Browns prevailed over the 1-win Jaguars, 27-25, in a game that likely won’t be remembered for some of the impressive plays the Browns made.
It wasn’t particularly pretty, as is becoming the custom under Kevin Stefanski. The coach doesn’t worry about style points and his team. That’s good, because Stefanski and his team didn’t earn near enough of them in barely beating a bad Jaguars team.
The Browns made several great plays. Jarvis Landry and Andrew Sendejo in particular had their best games of the season. But rookie mistakes from coach Stefanski, unacceptable misses from Baker Mayfield, two bad plays from rookie TE Harrison Bryant and sloppy execution at some other key junctures nearly cost them the win.
Stefanski bombed in the fourth quarter with a poor decision to challenge Bryant’s drop in the end zone. Eschewing a field goal that would have iced the game and instead option to dive Kareem Hunt–and not Nick Chubb–on a critical fourth down was a glaring error from Stefanski.
Then there was the officiating. Jerome Boger’s crew made several dubious calls that all seemed to go against the Browns. From blown spots to missed holds, the Browns couldn’t get a call. The personal foul call against Olivier Vernon, one that sent social media into a virtual bottle-throwing frenzy, kept the Jaguars alive.
But in the end, the Browns made more plays. Chubb was fantastic in salting away the game. Mayfield was awesome, except when he wasn’t, in another weird outing for the young QB.
The Browns have no need to apologize for a road win, one lifting them to 8-3 on the season. But it’s a win that doesn’t engender a lot of confidence that the team is ready to compete against the few teams above them in the AFC playoff race.
