Jackson excited by Taylor’s Browns debut
Tyrod Taylor played two series in an exhibition victory over the Giants on Thursday. He hit all five of his passes for 99 yards and a touchdown.
put seven up,” Taylor said. “The main thing is that we go out there and execute — don’t have any mental errors, myself as well as the first unit included. But we were able to go out there and play at a fast tempo, which was good. It’s something we can coach up off of on the film. So I think we did a lot of good things, but it wasn’t a perfect game by any means.”
Taylor completed a 32-yard pass to Jarvis Landry on the offense’s first play. But Landry spun the ball after the catch and was penalized 15 yards for taunting. The opening drive fizzled from there and ended with Taylor scrambling for 2 yards on third-and-7 from the Browns’ 49-yard line.
The Browns had planned earlier in the week to run a no-huddle offense during their second possession of the game, and the strategy
allowed Taylor to get hot in a hurry.
After a 3-yard rush by running back Duke Johnson and a 6-yard reception by receiver Rashard Higgins, Taylor hit Higgins for 21 yards and hooked up with tight end David Njoku for a 36-yard touchdown pass. Njoku beat linebacker Alec Ogletree, caught Taylor’s pass near the 20 and reached the end zone, putting the Browns ahead 7-3 with 2:55 left in the first quarter.
“The receivers did a great job of winning their matchups and beating manto-man, and ultimately we ended it with a big play by David,” Taylor said. “They blitzed the safety off the edge, and the linebacker had to cover David from inside out. And that’s a great matchup for us. He did a good job of getting his eyes around at the right time and making a play and finishing it.”