Tyrod Taylor was pulled late in the second quarter and ruled out for the second half after suffering a concussion against the Jets Thursday night. He was having a shitty game, completing just four of 14 passes for 19 yards, and leading the Browns to just four first downs and zero points. Taylor being unavailable could only mean one thing: the first appearance of rookie hotshot Baker Mayfield.
Mayfield has been electrifying! He stepped up and gunned a completion on his first pass, hitting Jarvis Landry for a first down.
It’s been lots and lots of that kind of confident, positive play. Mayfield completed 12 of his first 17 passes for a perfectly respectable 145 yards, and was under center for three unanswered scoring drives, including a 69-yard touchdown drive to tie the game up in the third quarter. The Browns, then down two points, ran the Philly special for a two-point conversion:
The Jets have grabbed back the lead, 17–14, in the fourth quarter, but Mayfield has brought life to the Browns offense, and made Thursday Night Football watchable, and you should tune in now, if only to watch the last few minutes of promise in Mayfield’s career before the Browns curse turns him into Tim Couch.
UPDATE: The Browns are in the lead! This is legitimately stirring stuff.