Washington Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin beats Cleveland Browns cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. for a catch in the end zone, but dropped the pass as he went out of bounds in the second half of play at Northwest Stadium.They got an interception from linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah at the goal line on the second drive of the game — it was only the second pick rookie phenom Jayden Daniels has thrown all year.
But for most of the afternoon, the bad outweighed the good in Cleveland’s 34-13 loss. These small glimpses just simply weren’t enough.. They had 12 first downs. They converted one of 13 third down attempts. They had just 212 net yards of offense. They didn’t turn either of those takeaways the defense worked so hard to get into touchdowns. They still have yet to score more than 18 points in a game.
Even though the Browns were saved from an early Washington touchdown with the Owusu-Koramoah pick, and even though that forced fumble could have changed the momentum of the game, there’s also just no avoiding the simple fact that the Browns got beat on both sides of the ball. “The end of the day, it’s our side of the ball,” Greg Newsome II said. “Whether we get takeaways, whether they score zero points. If we give up zero points, we have a chance.”
Garrett, the reigning NFL defensive player of the year, was kept out of the box score entirely — something that’s happened only one other time in his career in last year’s loss to the L.A. Rams — and was unable to take advantage of Washington’s rookie left tackle Brandon Coleman. The Browns couldn’t get consistent pressure from anywhere else.