Mayfield, Garrett know what’s at stake at 3-3 on short week
With expectations CLEVELAND — through the roof, the Browns weren’t supposed to be 3-3, but reality has a cruel way of slapping NFL teams in the face.
Super Bowl dreams? Not so fast.
Sobering thoughts sunk in after Sunday’s 37-14 loss to the unbeaten Arizona Cardinals at FirstEnergy Stadium not only because the Browns had been blown out, but also because they’re dealing with injuries to several key players with a Thursday night home game against the Denver Broncos (3-3) on deck.
“We’re going to see what we are made of,” Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield said. “Our backs are up against the wall right now, and I like our chances.”
It’s not an exaggeration, even though this is only Week 7.
The health of the team is a major factor.
Mayfield’s left, non-throwing shoulder is in worse shape than it already had been, though he insisted he still expects to face the Broncos after Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt’s third-quarter sack left the quarterback wearing a sling in his postgame news conference and headed for an MRI on Monday.
Running back Kareem Hunt is not expected to play Thursday after a calf injury suffered in the fourth quarter kept him from putting weight on his right leg and prompted the Browns to cart him off the sideline and to the locker room.
Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. returned to the game after leaving with a shoulder injury. Rookie linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah left in the fourth quarter with a right ankle injury.
Two-time Pro Bowl running back Nick Chubb (calf ) and starting offensive tackles Jack Conklin (knee) and Jedrick Wills Jr. (ankle) were inactive against the Cardinals. Fivetime Pro Bowl wide receiver Jarvis Landry (knee) missed his fourth consecutive game on injured reserve. It’s not an ideal spot for the Browns.
With last week’s 47-42 defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Chargers and Sunday’s beatdown versus the Cardinals (6-0), the Browns have lost back-to-back games in the same season for the first time in the coach Kevin Stefanski era.
“It’s a huge challenge,” Mayfield said. “Short week. Obviously, we’ve got a lot of guys banged up now. But it’s an AFC opponent coming in, and we have to be able to bounce back and respond. It’s the first time we’ve lost two in a row since Kevin’s been here, so that hurts more than anything because you want to be able to fix those corrections and not make the same mistakes over again . ...
“You could ask anybody in our building, ‘Have we played to our potential?’ Absolutely not. Yeah, I can speak from a leadership standpoint — we expect to be better [on both sides of the ball]. That’s plain and simple. That’s what we’re going to have to do.
We’re going to have to come out with a sense of urgency. We’re not panicking by any means. We’re 3-3. That’s not where we wanted to be right now, but the pure genius of the NFL, we have 11 more games instead of 10 now. We have 11 more games to go show who we are, play for each other and get better as each week goes on because nobody makes the playoffs right now. You have to not let up, and you have to peak at the right time. We’ll handle this correctly. We’ll do that, and I know that because of the guys we have in the locker room.”
Yes, the NFL shifted from 16 regular-season games to 17 for the first time this year, and the Cardinals were actually the opponent added to the Browns’ schedule as a result of the change. If anyone thought it would be a good bonus matchup for the Browns, quarterback Kyler Murray and Watt, whom Cleveland pursued as a free agent in the offseason, disabused them of the notion.
The Cardinals remained the NFL’s only undefeated team while the Browns stumbled upon a crossroads. The schedule softens for a five-game stretch beginning with the Broncos, losers of their last three, but injury woes and communication issues plaguing the defense make a substantial Browns winning streak far from a certainty.
“What, 11 games left? So we’ve got time to be 14-3,” Browns All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett said. “I’m not too worried. I know we can go to the drawing board, get better on defense and find our groove. We were there for two games. We were in the zone, and then we had the wind knocked out of our sails [by the Chargers]. Same thing this week [versus the Cardinals]. It doesn’t define us. It’s like a boxing match. You may lose a couple rounds and then you come back with some flurries and get the momentum on your side.”