Baker Mayfield played well enough to lead the Cleveland Browns to a 34-20 victory over the visiting Washington Football Team. But Mayfield knows he should have done a lot more to help his team, which needed five takeaways from the defense to prevail on a picture-perfect Sunday afternoon in FirstEnergy Stadium.
Mayfield’s stat line — 16-for-23, 156 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs — looks a lot better on paper than it did in real-time. In his postgame Zoom with reporters, Mayfield admitted as much.
“I could have played way better,” he said. “I could’ve gotten the ball out and saved a couple of those sacks. The protection was great. I could’ve re-ID’d the play where the intentional grounding happened and the first play coming out where I got sacked. Some things that I can be a lot better on.”
It’s a good sense of self-awareness from Mayfield. Odell Beckham Jr. bailed him out with a fantastic defensive play to break up a would-be interception by safety Troy Apke. The intentional grounding penalty was an embarrassing decision, but also the second week in a row he’s made it.
He also missed a wide-open Kareem Hunt on a play that should have been an easy touchdown. Instead, it required a truly spectacular one-handed grab by Hunt.
Mayfield’s recognition that he needs to play better if the Browns are to keep winning is a good sign. Yet it’s also a sign of how good the team around him can be that it doesn’t need Mayfield to be perfect to claim a win.
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