CLEVELAND, Ohio – He fumbled, so he was right.
“I failed this team,” said Baker Mayfield on Sunday. “Pure and simple, I have to hold the damn ball.”
Perhaps Tim Tebow had said nothing.
Mayfield’s fourth descent in the final 90 seconds, when a conversion would have established the next step towards a touchdown tying the game, ended with a lost ball, a lost cause, a lost game and a lost chance, the Cleveland Browns now probably needing to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers to reach the playoffs, when a victory against the New York Jets would have sounded like a post-season ticket.
“I am aware of what could have happened if we had won today,” continued Mayfield.
Both Mayfield and coach Kevin Stefanski repeated that the absence of their top five recipients (let’s not forget Odell Beckham’s injury, in addition to the COVID-19 contract that knocked out four others) and three of the first six forwards (let’s not forget the top reserve Chris Hubbard, in addition to starters Jedrick Wills and Wyatt Teller) were no excuse for Sunday’s 23-16 defeat.
“We had all the guys we needed and we couldn’t make it,” said Stefanski.
“There is no excuse,” said Mayfield.
They, of course, are wrong. Without a doubt, all of this is a perfectly reasonable excuse, a clear and obvious reason for losing. Learn on Saturday night that Jarvis Landry, Rashard Higgins, Donovan Peoples-Jones and KhaDarel Hodge would be out, and stack that up on top of the need to start their seventh and eighth best striker in Kendall Lamm and Nick Harris, exploded in the attack and in the game plan.
“It was a little late in the week to change anything at wholesale, and it wasn’t necessary,” said Stefanski. “We made some changes, as anyone would do in that situation, but the guys understood what we were doing.”
They just couldn’t do that. Where Mayfield was right was to insist that no one blamed those backups, which combined for six receptions on 13 72-yard targets and whose names will be lost in history.
“These guys didn’t even think they were going to play,” said Mayfield. “Let someone criticize them, what a shame. Put that on me for not doing my job, for not playing at a high level as I should and for not being able to get these guys to continue and finish this game. “
It’s not about them. It’s about the quarterback, just like everything is. Since Mayfield fumbled on that sneak, after fumbling to be hit from behind in two previous sacks, it was not his 28 of 53 passes for 285 yards. It was about what comes next. It was about responsibility and frustration, opportunity and anger.
So, for Mayfield to answer a single question in his post-game press conference, announce that he would answer all the questions at once, three times say there is no excuse, twice say he failed and one minute and 52 seconds later touch on the table, get up and get out …
That felt right.
It looked like the Browns were moving on to what comes next.
This may have seemed like the first step towards victory.
In 2008, while he was the University of Florida quarterback, Tebow entered the postgame interview room after a 31-30 loss to unqualified Ole Miss. Tebow, the winner of the Heisman Trophy, led a team that hoped to follow its 2006 national title with an undefeated season two years later. Instead, they lost to a 2-2 team. Like Mayfield on Sunday, Tebow had been interrupted in a quarterback getaway to fourth and first in the final moments that sealed a defeat.
Tebow was even more pertinent than Mayfield. He spoke for 39 seconds in 98 words, first apologizing to Florida fans, then swearing that he and the team would work harder than anyone in the country. Florida did not lose again, won that national title, and Urban Meyer, then Florida coach, had the speech recorded on a plaque and hung outside the stadium. On the 10th anniversary in 2018, ESPN and everyone else made a story not just about the championship, but the speech, now remembered as “The Promise”.
Mayfield spoke for about three times more than Tebow, so not everything would fit on one plate. Depending on how you use contractions when transcribing the quote, Mayfield was about 380 words. The guy would have to be very small to put everything there. And while Tebow promised what would happen next, Mayfield was more focused on absorbing what had happened at the time.
But absorbing that was the first step in the promise of what will happen next. Florida was trying to add a two-year title. The Browns are trying to reach the playoffs for the first time in 18 years. There is a little bit more built here. So, before the Browns could move forward, they had to get that punch.
Mayfield accepted it, partly deserved it, partly not. This does not make you a hero. It just makes you a quarterback. Sunday was what the Browns needed. There was a lot of anger looking for a home, about test protocols, NFL adjournment rules, a Jets flaw that perhaps should have been a disaster recovered by the Browns, overturned cover and bad luck for a team that was playing so well.
Perhaps ESPN will return to a story in 10 years. Maybe the Browns will beat the Steelers next week, make it to the playoffs, do a postseason race and then, sometime, some year, win it all. Perhaps words don’t matter at all. But sometimes, words matter. Because perhaps words will set the stage for action.
Still … probably no sign. “I Failed” is not much for a plaque headline. But it worked for a disappointed team and a frustrated defender. The end of Mayfield’s speech sums it up very well. The last 95 words, then for the Steelers.
“This is on me. The thing is, this will hurt for a day or two, but we have the Steelers to win and enter. Yes, I am aware of what could have happened if we had won today. I am well aware of that, but it is what it is. So I’m going to have to deal with these scams. Back against the wall and we have to win to enter. You know what, this group fought today, but I didn’t do enough and played well enough to win, and that’s it. “
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