The Cleveland Browns have some significant questions this offseason about their quarterback position going forward. Shedeur Sanders is doing all he can to provide an answer.
Sanders spent the first half against one-win Tennessee cruising, looking comfortable as he threw for two touchdowns and outplayed No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward. After a slow start to the second half, Sanders rallied Cleveland to two clutch touchdowns in the final six-plus minutes of the game to close off a 364-yard effort.
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Alas, Cleveland being Cleveland, the Browns fell apart on a would-be tying 2-point conversion with just over a minute remaining. The result: a 31-29 loss to the Titans, and more data points for the Browns’ future decision-making.
The scenario Sunday was one of those circle-the-calendar days on NFL draft weekend. Generally, when you have rookie quarterbacks facing one another, you’re not seeing two top-flight teams at play. Sometimes that’s because a team in position to draft, and then start, a rookie quarterback is, by definition, not a very good team. And sometimes, that’s because a team is the Cleveland Browns.
The Titans struck first, as Ward found receiver Elic Ayomanor for a 16-yard touchdown on Tennessee’s opening drive. Running back Tony Pollard closed out the first quarter with a monster 65-yard run.
The second quarter might just stand as the best 15 minutes of football Sanders will play all season. He began by threading a perfectly thrown pass to an outstretched David Njoku for a touchdown:
Twelve game minutes later, he found Jerry Jeudy on a beauty of a 60-yard touchdown pass, one of the best throws of Sanders’ career:
There were indications that all was not perfectly well for Sanders — struggles throwing the ball into zone coverage, a panicky desperation scramble that led to an intentional grounding penalty — but on the whole, the half was a positive one for Cleveland as the Browns carried a 17-14 lead into the half.
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The second half began with an ugly duet — six straight combined punts, with neither team able to move the ball, sequence after sequence as ugly as the spitting-snow weather. Sanders broke the streak … but in the worst way possible, with a wounded-duck overthrow that the Titans’ Xavier Woods easily plucked out of the air. Two plays later, Pollard again stomped into the end zone, this time from 32 yards out to retake the lead for Tennessee.
That was enough to knock the Browns to the canvas for good. Ward turned a Cleveland fumble into another touchdown pass, this one a 5-yarder to Chimere Dike to extend Tennessee’s lead to 28-17. Ward would finish with 117 yards on 14-of-28 passing, with two touchdowns and one interception.
With five minutes remaining in the game, following another Tennessee field goal, Sanders once again had the opportunity to write his own legend. Down 31-17, he guided the Browns downfield and managed to scramble his way to a chaotic 7-yard touchdown, his first NFL rushing TD of his career.
Sanders then had the opportunity to tie the Titans with his final drive, and did all he could, leading the Browns on a seven-play, 80-yard touchdown drive. Needing two points to tie the game, the Browns opted to pull Sanders off the field and direct-snap trickeration to Quinshon Judkins, and it went about as well as you’d expect.
Statistically, this was Sanders’ finest game of the season, by far. He threw for 364 yards, passing for three touchdowns and running for another, the first Browns rookie to notch those numbers. But he also had several key miscues, including an interception that led directly to a Tennessee touchdown, a fumbled snap on a 2-point conversion, and a tendency to tip his passes by patting the football as he prepared to throw. Still ahead on the Browns’ slate: the Bears, Bills, Steelers and Bengals, a rugged way to close out a season.
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“I’ve been this way,” Sanders said after the game, reflecting on his performance. “This is God showing a lot of people who I am.”
Tennessee, meanwhile, posted its highest point total of the season — granted, a low bar to clear — in doubling its win total of the season to 2. With games against the 49ers, Chiefs, Saints and Jaguars still remaining, getting to four wins on the season could be tough, so Tennessee and Ward will surely appreciate this one.