While Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward trained together in the NFL pre-draft process, it was Ward and the Titans who got the narrow edge over Sanders and the Browns on Sunday, winning 31-29 in the snow in Cleveland.
With the win, Tennessee moves to 2-11 after a season high 31 points, while the Browns drop to 3-10 and are officially eliminated from playoff contention.
Despite the loss, Sanders put together the best game of his young career. He recorded 364 passing yards with four total touchdowns (three passing, one rushing) and one interception, with two 55+ yard passes in the first half. One was a dump off screen to Judkins, but the other was an impressive long throw Sanders ripped over the middle of the field for a 60-yard touchdown to Jerry Jeudy. Sanders became the first rookie quarterback in Browns franchise history with 300-plus passing yards, two-plus touchdown passes and a rushing score. He also recorded Cleveland’s first 300-yard passing game of the season.
Cleveland’s franchise player, Myles Garrett, recorded another sack to bring his season total to 20. He inches closer to the 22.5 NFL single-season sack record held jointly by the Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt and NFL Hall of Fame New York Giants Edge rusher Michael Strahan.
Ward worked through the conditions, throwing for just 117 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Tennessee running back Tony Pollard broke a career-long 65-yard rushing touchdown late in the first quarter and then had a 32-yard score in the third. He ran through the Browns’ defense for 161 yards and two touchdowns.
Sanders shows up
Sanders was sharp in the first half. And then he led a wild rally in the final six minutes that included a beautiful touchdown pass with 1:03 left. But the Browns went for two twice; Sanders fumbled the exchange on the first miss, and on the second, the Browns took Sanders off the field and ran a wildcat play to Quinshon Judkins that never had a chance.
Overall, the feeling has to be that Sanders has a chance going forward. Clearly, he’s not a finished product — and disaster struck late in the third quarter. Sanders went from having found a rhythm in the first half to struggling to complete anything for a long stretch of the third and fourth quarters. His worst throw hurt the Browns in multiple ways as he lofted a pass into traffic down the middle of the field, and Xavier Woods intercepted the pass and returned it to the Browns’ 38-yard line.
Two plays later, the Titans scored and took the lead for good because the Browns’ offense had no late answer. Sanders was 9-of-14 for 180 yards and two touchdowns in the first half, but the Titans ratcheted up the pressure in the second half, and Sanders never found traction until the Browns were down two scores.
With the Browns down 14 in the last five minutes, Sanders ran for a touchdown to cap a drive that kept the home team’s chances alive. And after Cleveland’s defense gave Sanders a final chance, he capped an 80-yard drive with a high-arching pass to Harold Fannin in the back of the end zone. The awful two-point conversion that followed sunk the Browns, but Sanders finished with 364 yards and three touchdowns, one rushing touchdown and the interception. — Zac Jackson, staff writer, Browns