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CLEVELAND, Ohio — Quarterback Baker Mayfield went 29-of-42 for 297 yards and two touchdowns in the Cleveland Browns’ 37-21 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday afternoon at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mayfield was intercepted once and sacked twice. Tyrod Taylor briefly replaced a dinged Mayfield and went 1-of-1 for 11 yards.
Rough start: This was Gregg Williams’ first game as interim coach of the Browns after Hue Jackson was fired earlier in the week.
Williams, who doubles as defensive coordinator, watched the Chiefs (8-1) ambad 499 yards, 8.6 yards per play. All of Kansas City’s touchdowns were scored by Northeast Ohio’s own RB Kareem Hunt (three) and TE Travis Kelce (two).
Oh, by the way: The Browns (2-6-1) have lost four in a row — three by 15+ points.
Mayfield’s day: Rookie Mayfield, under the offensive coordination of Freddie Kitchens for the first time, performed reasonably well. He appeared more comfortable, and played better, than in any of his previous three games.
CBS Sports badysts Trent Green and Bruce Arians liked what they saw from Mayfield, on balance.
It was not Mayfield’s fault that the Chiefs’ high-powered offense toyed with the Browns, or that a Browns punt was blocked. The failures of Cleveland’s defense, admittedly depleted by injuries, forced Mayfield and the offense to play uphill for the vast majority of minutes.
Kitchens obviously tried to get Mayfield outside of the pocket more, and wanted him less reliant on the deep ball. Results were mixed. At the very least, Kitchens and Mayfield dusted off running back Duke Johnson Jr. in the pbad game.
Though the performance was a building block, Mayfield missed several throws by a wide margin. And he made a bad decision/pbad that became an interception when the Browns were driving late in the fourth quarter. The play did not cost the Browns the game — they were going to lose, no matter the score — but it can’t be glossed over.
Final grade: B-
Piece by piece: Here is a breakdown of Browns dropbacks after DVR review of the CBS Sports telecast:
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