The Browns keep finding new ways to make noise, and Sunday’s 13-10 win over the Lamar Jackson-less Ravens fit right into that pattern. Cleveland opened the game by falling into a 10-0 hole, went to halftime still trailing, and even watched Andre Szmyt miss a 48-yard field goal with 3:44 left that would have given them the lead. On a lot of old Browns teams, that kind of afternoon would have turned into another familiar letdown.
That’s not how Quincy Williams sees this group.
“Man, we number one,” Williams told me. He said it again: “Listen, we number one.
We knew that they were coming in here to take our number one spot. We said, Think about it, somebody trying to run up in your house and take your favorite trophy.
They can’t get it. So that was our mindset going into the game, going in the half, coming out of the half: Hey, man, they in our house and they trying to take something.
So let’s ride.”
The confidence Williams described has been part of the Browns’ identity all summer, and it showed again in the way they handled the game once it got messy. Deshaun Watson had just 70 yards on 8-of-14 passing through three quarters, but he guided a fourth-quarter drive to tie the score and then helped set up two more field goal chances. Between those possessions, the Carson Schwesinger-led defense kept getting the ball back.
That response, Williams said, comes from a young roster that isn’t folding when the moment gets uncomfortable.
“We ain’t the same old Browns anymore,” Williams said. “At the beginning of the season, we said that.”
He pointed to the way younger players are handling their jobs as a big reason the team has settled into that mentality. “They’re taking ownership of their positions,” Williams said of his younger teammates.
“It’s not that they’re not making young mistakes, but they’re actually making what we call vet-mindset plays. They’re anticipating plays, they’re making the play.”
Williams said the group is connected, and that connection is part of why this 4-2 start feels real rather than accidental. It doesn’t guarantee Cleveland will be standing at the end of an AFC North race with three established powers at the top. But it does say something about the Browns’ direction under the new 60-year-old head coach and the vision that has been taking shape around a roster full of young talent.
So no, not everyone missed on Cleveland. As Williams put it, someone believed this was coming.
In Other News...
Browns Keep Winning With A Formula The AFC North Should Fear
The Browns keep finding ways to win games that look anything but comfortable early, and Sunday in Baltimore fit that script again. Clevelands offense started slowly, but the defense kept the team afloat long enough for a 13-10 win over the Ravens, with linebacker Carson Schwesinger forcing a fumble that helped tilt the game back in the Browns favor.
Andre Szmyt finished it off with the game-winning field goal, and the result was even more impressive considering Cleveland had to work through injuries to several starters. At 4-2, the Browns are not just hanging around in the AFC North race, theyre sitting atop it, and the rest of the division has to take notice of how hard they are becoming to put away. [Read more 🡒]
Browns Let A Familiar Corner Slip Away At The Worst Time
Martin Emerson Jr. turned a brief opening into a notable opportunity in Week 6, stepping into a starting role for the New Orleans Saints and making the most of it against the New York Giants. The former Browns cornerback picked off two passes in the win and finished with the kind of disruptive day that reminded everyone why he once looked like a promising piece in Clevelands secondary.
For the Browns, it is another familiar reminder of how quickly a player can move on and find his footing elsewhere when the right chance arrives. Emerson had seen limited action earlier this season before getting the nod because of another players absence, and his performance now leaves Cleveland looking back at a defender who was already gone after injuries and uneven play derailed his time with the team. [Read more 🡒]
Deshaun Watson Just Took A Different Tone With Browns Fans
Deshaun Watsons relationship with Browns fans has been bumpy from the start, from the public friction before the season to the boos that followed in the opening weeks. But after earning the Week 1 job and guiding Cleveland to a 4-2 record, the quarterback has settled into a very different place with the people in the stands, at least publicly, as the results have given the season a steadier footing.
Watsons latest comments came after a rough first half performance, and the tone was noticeably softer. Instead of pushing back on the criticism, he acknowledged the need to play better and made a point to appreciate the fan bases support, a small but meaningful shift for a player whose reception in Cleveland has been under a microscope from the beginning. [Read more 🡒]