Browns overwhelmed by Texans early, fall 29-13: Five Takeaways

2) Take Backsies

Surprisingly, the most devastating sequence of events in this game wasn’t Mayfield throwing interceptions on three consecutive drives. Nothing was more demoralizing than the Browns had two 76-yard touchdowns wiped off the board in three plays in the third quarter.

The first came on second-and-11 from their own 24-yard line with about five minutes remaining in the quarter. Rookie wideout Antonio Callaway showed off his speed, streaking down the sideline past the everyone on the Texans secondary and Mayfield hit him beautifully in stride as Callaway made the catch and took it in for six. It was all for nothing though as left tackle Greg Robinson was called for a hold and the play came all the way back.

After the penalty backed the Browns up in second-and-long, Mayfield hit Chubb for nine yards to get back to the 23-yard line. On the very next play, Callaway did it again, making a tremendous catch in traffic dee over the middle of the field, breaking a tackle and taking it to the house…well almost. Texans safety Justin Reid came in from behind to strip the ball out at the one, fellow safety Tyrann Mathieu recovered it and the Browns went from the ultimate high to the ultimate low in the matter of seconds. If one of those scores would have stood it would have made things interesting with Cleveland down just 12 points late in the third. It was just not the Browns day today.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6