Browns Defeat Ravens in Deshaun Watson's Home Debut

The Cleveland Browns defeated the Baltimore Ravens because of their defense and special teams allowing an improving Deshaun Watson led offense to get enough opportunities to win the game, 13-3.

Coming off of the Cincinnati Bengals loss, it seemed as though the Browns had a good chance to win their final four games. The Bengals were a buzz saw for Watson as he's still acclimating to the speed of the game, but the defense and special teams for the Browns were solid. Young players are growing up in front of our eyes and it's resulting in better football.

The Ravens came into this game with Tyler Huntley at quarterback and an offense that had been struggling to score points. A combination of puzzling choices by the Ravens on offense and some timely defense allowed to Browns yield just three points in the matchup. It helped that Justin Tucker missed one field goal attempt and had another blocked.

The biggest upset in this game was the Browns special teams outperforming the Ravens. That unit has been a massive liability for the majority of the year and the Ravens routinely are among the best in the league. The past month, that group has gotten the better of teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Houston Texans and Cincinnati Bengals. Including this one, the Browns are 3-1 in those games in no small part because of those contributions.

Unfortunately, for all the good things the Browns did in that realm, Cade York was two of four on field goal attempts, missing opportunities to give the Browns a 13-point lead twice.

Defensively, fans needed a program to identify a number of the Browns players on the field, especially at linebacker. Jermaine Carter Jr., Jordan Kunaszyk and Tony Fields II played alongside Deion Jones at various points in the game. A veritable who's that? of NFL linebackers.

The Browns also lost Jadeveon Clowney, who was ruled out with a head injury at the end of the first half. Rookie Alex Wright had to play a ton of snaps in his place, occasionally replaced by Chase Winovich to give him a breather. Fellow rookie Perrion Winfrey chipped in half a sack.

On their first offensive drive of the game, the Ravens trampled the Browns. They were able to run the ball effectively and take advantage of their size advantage between a hulking offensive line, tight ends and backs. It seemed as though they would carry that all the way into the end zone.

The Ravens clearly felt that way too as they attempted to run the ball with their 290 lb fullback Patrick Ricard on 4th-and-1 from the Browns 7-yard line only to be hit and turned sideways by safety John Johnson III and linebacker Deion Jones. That would be the closest the Ravens would come to the end zone in the game.

One of the more confusing aspects of the Ravens gameplan was how often they threw the ball. Later in the game when they were down, it made more sense. Still, it was surprising that Huntley had more pass attempts in this game (30) than Deshaun Watson did (28).

A large part of that was trying to get the ball to tight end Mark Andrews, someone who has routinely thrived against the Browns. The past two seasons, Andrews averaged 78.5 yards receiving and a touchdown per game. But for the second time this season, Andrews was held largely in check, catching three passes for 31 yards.

The Ravens continued to have success running the football, but in addition to their own unforced errors, the Browns made key stops and forced two critical turnovers. Denzel Ward intercepted a pass in the red zone and John Johnson III punched out a fumble that he was able to recover.

The offense capitalized on Ward's interception with the lone touchdown drive of the game. That drive took 12 plays and went 91 yards which included a fourth down conversion and required a facemask to even get started.

Watson may not be fully back, but he took another step forward and showcased some of the talent the Browns gave up so much to acquire in this game. With an extra lease on the drive, Nick Chubb took a handoff 11 yards on the proceeding play. From there, Watson connected with Amari Cooper on back to back play, first for 16 on a cross field throw and then again wide open in the middle of the field for another 28 yards.

Watson has shown far more comfort between the 20's as he's played, but the red zone remains a challenge. The speed of the game plus the amount of bodies in a tight area ramp up the difficulty and the Watson-led Browns have a lot of work to do. On this drive, they broke through.

From the Ravens 18-yard line, Watson hit Harrison Bryant for five yards and then rookie Michael Woods II for four. On 3rd-and-1, Watson rolled out of the pocket and catching a defender between he and Woods, Watson tried to throw Woods toward the end zone. Unfortunately, Woods was running an arrow route with his hips pointed toward the line of scrimmage and was unable to get flipped around to go get the ball, falling incomplete.

On 4th-and-1 with Watson under center, the Browns ran power with Nick Chubb. Joel Bitonio pulled around and with a fullback in front, Chubb was able to get the first down with room to spare. With a new set of downs, the Browns ran Chubb to the left for four, then attempted an end zone fade to Cooper that was contested, falling incomplete.

On 3rd-and-goal from the three, the Browns lined up Donovan Peoples-Jones in the backfield. When Watson dropped back to pass, DPJ started working outside then came back in where Watson found him and DPJ was able to run in uncontested for the touchdown, his second receiving touchdown of the season. Up 6-3, it gave the Browns a two-score lead and put pressure on the Ravens offense.

The Ravens gained yards and created chunk plays, but the Browns were able to respond. Slowly, over the course of the game, the Browns took control of the line of scrimmage. Defensively, that yielded pressure including back to back sacks from Myles Garrett even if he had to split the second one with Perrion Winfrey.

Offensively, that enabled the Browns to get Chubb going. He rushed for 99 yards in all on 21 carries, which included a number of big runs that the Browns have been missing in recent weeks. The pressure Watson can put on a defense with his legs as well as his arm aided the Browns efforts to run the ball.

The Ravens played almost exclusively in 2-high safety looks to discourage the Browns from attacking down the field. So the Browns excelled on underneath passes on mesh routes as well as opportunities where Watson forced a defender to attack him only to throw past him. Even if Watson might not be where he wants to be, defenses are now playing him as if he is.

Watson completed 18 of his 28 passes for a pedestrian 161 yards, but the three scoring drives he led were enough to secure the victory. He chipped in 22 yards rushing, which mostly came off of a 17-yard run when he caught the Ravens in a man free look with no one in the middle of the field.

The Browns want to capitalize on more offensive opportunities, building on the progress Watson is making. One down, three to go, the Browns will host the New Orleans Saints with an extra day of rest and preparation.

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