He also picked off the distracting, divisive specter off Odell Beckham Jr. and instantly made the talented but selfish receiver a non-factor in a game he could have submarined.
All of a sudden, it was “OBJ Who?”
At 4-4, the Browns had come into Cincinnati with their season on the brink.
Having lost three of their last four games, including 15-10 to Pittsburgh last Sunday, the Browns were further rocked when Beckham, who’s being paid close to $16 million this season, again pressed to be traded to another team.
While rightly ruffled that he was targeted just once in the Steelers game – and finished with one catch for six yards – he made his problem the entire team’s when he and his dad amped up their displeasure with the franchise in general and quarterback Baker Mayfield in particular.
Last Tuesday, Beckham’s father posted a video on Instagram showing various times his son was open this season and was not gotten the ball.
As the Browns tried to prepare for their divisional game with Cincinnati, they were suddenly mired in a high-profile soap opera. Everybody threw their two cents worth into the debate, including LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers star who clings to his northeast Ohio roots and is a Browns fan,
He sent out a tweet that simply said: #FreeOBJ.
Beckham was popular with many of his teammates and that put them in a tough situation since the flip side of his stance was Mayfield, the leader of the team.
Beckham was excused from practice all week and Friday the Browns announced they would release him. That move will be official today.
As this was swirling around the team, the Browns were also dealing with some serious injury issues.
Mayfield is playing with a completely torn labrum and fractured bone in his left shoulder.
Ward had suffered a hamstring injury in a game two weeks ago and hadn’t played against Pittsburgh. He didn’t practice early last week either and no one was sure if he’d be on the field against the Bengals. And free safety John Johnson had left the Pittsburgh game with an injury and it wasn’t certain he’d play either Sunday.
And yet, all three started and starred against the Bengals
Mayfield completed 14 of 21 passes for 218 yards and and 60-yard touchdown pass to Donovan Peoples-Jones. In all, he connected with eight different receivers.
Ward not only had the 99-yard interception return for a TD, but he deflected another pass that Johnson picked off, He also be up a sure TD pass in the end zone.
After the game each of the three talked about being a professional.
“We understand it’s a business,” Johnson said.” A couple of guys were open about (Odell). We miss him. He was a good teammate and we’d love to have him on the team. But at the end of the day we had to lock into being pros. We had a divisional opponent on the road and that’s bigger than the other situation at hand.”
Mayfield, who said he considers Beckham a friend and wished him well, said: “Once it gets to Sunday, we have one job to do and that’s to make plays to win the game. That’s truly all that mattered.”
Several of the Brown players talked about “playing for each other” and a few singled out Mayfield for praise.
“That’s Baker for you,” said running back Nick Chubb, who ran for 137 yards, including a 70 yard touchdown in the third quarter. “He’s not gonna shy away from anything. He loves it when people doubt him. He feeds off that.”
Mayfield said he’s always been like that:
“It’s a type of sick, twisted mindset. I idolized guys like Kobe and Mike Tyson, people who’d have their backs to the wall and the best would come out of them. That’s when you see what somebody is made of.”
Johnson said this game was pivotal:
“Our backs were against the wall. We broke (from) .500. It’s a big turning point of the season.
“At this point you could either tank and start losing games or you can put all that other stuff to the side and come together as a team and start winning .
“This was a first step. Then next week is another. And when we look back from afar on the whole season, we’ll look at this point in the year and say: ‘Oh that’s when things started kicking in…. That’s when we did something.’”
It’s the game where they didn’t just pick off Joe Burrow, but Odell Beckham Jr., too.
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