Browns win results in Baker Mayfield madness on Twitter

Rookie Baker Mayfield made his NFL debut late in the second quarter and brought the Cleveland Browns back from a 14 point deficit to prevail 21-17, snapping a winless streak dating back to Dec. 24, 2016.

What began as your typical ugly Thursday night game ended up being perhaps the top feel-good story thus far this NFL season.

The Cleveland Browns won a football game. Yes, that’s correct. The hapless Browns earned a regular-season victory for the first time in a whopping 635 days, defeating the New York Jets 21-17 in a sloppy thriller.

Dressed in special all-brown uniforms, the Browns that opened the season a bizarre 0-1-1 couldn’t do anything right in the opening half. Starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor was afforded little protection from his offensive line, getting sacked three times and completing just four of 14 pass attempts for a paltry 19 yards.

Down 14-0 late in the second quarter, as boos echoed throughout FirstEnergy Stadium, Cleveland’s fortunes began to change when Taylor was on the receiving end of a hard tackle and placed into concussion protocol.

Taylor was replaced by 2018 first-overall pick Baker Mayfield and the momentum began to swing immediately. In fact, Mayfield finished the first half with better stats than Taylor. The 2017 Heisman Trophy winner marched the Browns down the field on the team’s final drive of the second quarter, completing three of four passes for 47 yards and putting newly signed kicker Greg Joseph in position to hit a 45-yard field goal to get the Browns on the board before halftime.

Mayfield was back behind centre in the second half and continued to thrive. With less than one minute remaining in the third quarter, with the score now 14-6, running back Carlos Hyde punched it in from a yard out to pull the Browns within two. Instead of attempting a convert to make it a one-point game, the Browns engaged in some trickery on a two-point convert attempt.

They completed a trick play known as “The Philly Special” that was made famous by the Eagles at Super Bowl LII earlier this year.

The Jets pulled ahead 17-14 midway through the final stanza but Mayfield responded with a drive that lasted 6:52 and was capped off by Hyde’s second touchdown of the game with 2:07 remaining.

Cleveland’s defence closed out the show with an interception in the waning seconds and Mayfield returned to the field to take a knee and run out the clock.

Browns fans celebrated like they had won the Super Bowl and social media reaction was plentiful.

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