No defense in ‘Big D’
Beckham scores 3 TDs; Cleveland’s 307 rushing yards set Dallas record
ARLINGTON — Baker Mayfield and Myles Garrett enjoyed their homecoming.
It was easy to forget the surroundings were familiar for Odell Beckham Jr., too.
Mayfield threw for two touchdowns, including one set up when Garrett had a strip sack in a third straight game, and Beckham scored three times and the Cleveland Browns held on to beat the Dallas Cowboys 49-38 on Sunday.
The Cleveland quarterback was playing at the home of the Cowboys for the first time since winning a Big 12 championship with Oklahoma there three years ago. Now the Austin native has the Browns at 3-1 for the first time since 2001.
“No, and I don’t really care,” Mayfield said when asked if he knew it had been 19 years since Cleveland won three of its first four games. “It’s 2020 and we’re moving on to the next one.”
Garrett played just a few miles from where he grew up and played high school football, on a field he visited several times at Texas A&M before becoming the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2017.
Beckham Jr.? He spent his first six seasons with the New York Giants, a once-a-year visitor for the
Cowboys as NFC East rivals. So there were plenty of people, even with the pandemic-reduced crowd of 25,021, who had seen him celebrating in an AT&T Stadium end zone before.
Beckham capped his big day with a 50-yard scoring run on a reverse after the Cowboys had cut a 41-14 deficit to three late in the fourth quarter with three straight touchdowns and 2point conversions.
“It’s funny, Kareem (Hunt) before the play was like, ‘We just need 5 yards,’ ” said Beckham, who had 81 yards receiving and two scores with 73 yards rushing on two reverses in his first threescore game in nearly five years.
“And Harrison Bryant, the rookie is giving me advice and coaching me up and telling me to stay inbounds. I said, ‘Thanks, rook.’ And I turned the corner and everybody was blocking and I just turned the jets on and found the end zone.”
Dak Prescott had his first 500-yard game, throwing for 502 yards and four touchdowns while becoming the first NFL quarterback with at least 450 yards passing in three straight games.
Prescott set that record because the Cowboys (1-3) have played from way behind three straight weeks, in part because of turnovers by him. He has five the past two games.
And now Dallas has lost the first of three straight home games in what could prove to be a critical stretch if coach Mike McCarthy wants to get Dallas to the playoffs in his first season. Cleveland’s Kevin Stefanski is in his first season as well.
“We keep hurting ourselves on offense, putting our defense in bad spot,” said Prescott, whose interception on his career-high 58th and final attempt ended any comeback hopes in the final twominutes. “And not starting fast enough, that’s what’s been killing us over the past few games.”
The Browns ran for 307 yards and three touchdowns despite losing lead back Nick Chubb to a knee injury in the first quarter. Stefanski said Chubb would have an MRI exam.
Cleveland’s 307 yards rushing were the most the Cowboys have ever allowed. Dallas is the first team since Oakland in 2012 to allow at least 38 points in three straight games in the same season. The only other time the Cowboys did it was their inaugural season in 1960, when they went 011-1.
Hunt, who has been battling a groin injury, had 71 yards and two touchdowns, and D’Ernest Johnson doubled his career yardage of 26 yards in the first half alone, going on to finish with a team-high 95 yards.
Beckham’s first TD of the game was also Jarvis Landry’s first touchdown pass in his 100th career game, a 37-yard score on a trick play. It was the longest TD toss by a receiver since Beckham’s 49-yarder with the Giants in 2018.