When Baker Mayfield isn’t feeling dangerous, his passes usually sail high.
But the Browns quarterback wasn’t just off in Sunday’s 13-10 …
When Baker Mayfield isn’t feeling dangerous, his passes usually sail high. But the Browns quarterback wasn’t just off in Sunday’s 13-10 win over the Detroit Lions. He was way off. High. Low. Wide. He even inexplicably sprinkled in some pinpoint accurate passes a few times. Go figure. Injuries played a role in Mayfield’s wild inconsistency. The relevant questions are to what extent and what the Browns will do about it with crucial back-to-back AFC North games against the Baltimore Ravens on deck. If Mayfield is healthy, he’s better than backup quarterback Case Keenum, but Mayfield isn’t healthy, and he has struggled mightily the past two games. If the Browns (6-5) were to sit Mayfield on “Sunday Night Football” in Baltimore, it would give him two weeks to heal before the rematch with the AFC North-leading Ravens (7-3) on Dec.12 in Cleveland. A Week 13 bye is sandwiched by the games. Last in the division, the Browns really need to win both games to turn their disappointing season around and position themselves well in the playoff race. “We have a two-game series versus Baltimore with a bye in the middle of that,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said after Sunday’s ugly win, “so we have to be at our best moving forward.” Stefanski can’t possibly believe the Browns can win in Baltimore if he gets the type of quarterback play he did against the winless Lions (0-9-1). The logical approach would be to rest Mayfield. Mayfield should not have even finished the game against the Lions, not after he started limping on the Browns’ final possession of the third quarter. Mayfield finished 15-of-29 passing (51.7%) for 176 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions for a rating of 53.2. He went 11-of-18 passing (61.1%) for 124 yards and a touchdown with an interception for a rating of 77.1 in the first half. He went 4-of-11 passing (36.4%) for 52 yards with an interception for a rating of 14.2 in the second half. Mayfield went 1-of-7 passing for minus-1 yard with an interception on the Browns’ final four possessions of the game. Those possessions unfolded after he started limping. Mayfield had another awful outing in last week’s 45-7 loss to the New England Patriots (7-4), throwing for a career-low 73 yards. Yes, Mayfield played well two weeks ago in a 41-16 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, but his health has significantly changed since then. Mayfield has been playing through an injured, left non-throwing shoulder since the second game of the season on Sept.19. He has been wearing a harness in hopes of preventing the shoulder from repeatedly dislocating. But Mayfield’s newest injuries seem to be his greatest obstacles now. He injured his left heel Nov.7 in Cincinnati and suffered a bruised knee Nov.14 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. He clearly can’t roll out and pass as well on the move, but there are other problems. Can he plant the left foot well enough when he throws? Can he consistently position his feet properly when he delivers the ball. Stefanski initially pointed to the cold, rainy weather on Cleveland’s lakefront as a factor in Mayfield’s ball-location woes. “It was sloppy. It was wet. It wasn’t pristine for the pass game,” Stefanski said. Asked how much Mayfield’s injuries affected his accuracy compared with the conditions, Stefanski said, “You could ask Baker, but as he has talked about and we have talked about, he’s fighting through those things in what was not the greatest conditions to throw the ball.” Correction: Reporters couldn’t ask Mayfield the question because he bailed on his postgame news conference.
