1. Your Sunday FreakOut: Saturday Edition, for the Browns-Packers tilt…
Baker Mayfield Is Playing for His Job the Next Two Weeks: The Browns are going to check in on the big-name quarterbacks this offseason, and probably the second-tier names too (certainly, this season, Jimmy Garoppolo has outplayed Mayfield significantly). And if Mayfield plays like he did on Saturday, it’s not even a difficult decision. You could actually take issue with three of the four interceptions—two were blatant penalties (while it was an unwise and late decision on the deep ball for Donovan People-Jones in the second quarter, it’s not markedly different than this play) and one his receiver fell down. But Mayfield was late, with the wrong ball location and velocity on that throw intended for Landry, he was similarly late and too light on his touch on a crosser to Austin Hooper that should have been picked, and throughout the game his ball location just wasn’t there. At this point, the Browns need Sunday and Week 17 to go chalk (Bengals over Ravens and Chiefs over Steelers in Week 16, then Rams over Ravens and Chiefs over Bengals in Week 17), and Cleveland will have to win in Pittsburgh and then beat the Bengals at home to get to the postseason. That’s the only way it becomes a better than 50/50 chance that Mayfield is back in 2022.
An Atrocious Showing from Alex Kemp’s Crew in Green Bay: Which has become something of an evergreen statement, but the bottoming out of a couple other crews in 2021 has generally made Kemp’s group tolerable, in a “bad but not disastrous” way. There are missed calls every game (and there many in this game), and often missed calls are away from the ball, or don’t really affect the play one way or another. But rarely do you see a missed call on a blatant penalty committed on an intended receiver. Almost never do you see a crew miss of them in one game. If we’re suspending disbelief, the game-ending pick was—maybe—subtle enough to evade detection, especially with Donovan People-Jones initiating some contact. But this one, in the second quarter, is simply mind-blowing. Rasul Douglas knows he’s been beat, and follows his false step by just giving the penalty.
This Packers D Is Having Some Rocky Moments: Last week, in failing to adjust to a fairly straightforward offense operated by Tyler Huntley, was a bit of a red flag. On Saturday, it took a hands-off officiating crew, a shaky quarterback and a substitute kicker for Green Bay to escape, and they had two red-zone coverage busts—one was the rookie Eric Stokes getting lost after staring into the backfield, the second was because they didn’t get lined up correctly and Rasul Douglas was caught in no-man’s land—and were completely unable to stop the Browns’ ground game (albeit, a very good ground game). This defense collapsed under Mike Pettine’s guidance each of the past two NFC title games. Joe Barry has done a solid job this year, especially with so many replacement parts in the lineup, but the last two performances have been concerning.
This Red-Zone Zero Blitz: My best guess is that both players weren’t supposed to go here—and judging by the reaction of Richard LeCounte, he felt the same way, because if that was the plan, then the plan was to leave the rookie safety singled up on Davante Adams in the red zone.
Browns Resort to the Blitz: When this team was rolling early in the season, it was the defensive front four making it work, allowing a back-seven that’s a work in progress to have the extra body. On Sunday they had to resort to blitzing Aaron Rodgers a few too many times, which is a bad sign when it comes to how they feel about Myles Garrett’s health, Jadeveon Clowney’s absence, and the ability of the rest of that pass rush.
Aaron Rodgers’s Mangled Left Pinky Toe: Can’t feel too good after getting stepped on twice, by very large men, on Saturday. He’s obviously effective regardless, but it would be nice to get him moving better, and threatening some of those second-reaction plays, by the time the postseason rolls around.
A Crushing Five Days, Even by Cleveland Standards: They would have won the Tuesday game if they had anywhere near a full complement of players. They might have won on Saturday if not for a shaky kicker, a few missed opportunities by the quarterback and a few missed calls by the officials. And, as a result, the Browns need to win out (at Pittsburgh and vs. Cincinnati) and get help to win the AFC North.
Aaron Rodgers Surpasses Brett Favre: In career touchdown passes as a Packer. But Urban Meyer fans have to wait another week for Matt LaFleur to surpass him in career losses as an NFL head coach (including postseason), as the two remain tied at 11.
