Baker Mayfield and the Browns scored a win Sunday in a matchup you don’t see too often in pro football.
Bengals-Browns is a usual meeting, but Bengals-Browns featuring former Cleveland head coach Hue Jackson now serving on the Cincinnati staff is rare. It provided Jackson with an opportunity to defeat the franchise that booted him last month, or the Browns a chance to take down their old coach.
The latter happened, and it came with a bit of stinginess from Mayfield, who tossed four touchdowns and shook hands with Jackson after the game but appeared to resist the embrace Jackson reached for when he patted the back of Mayfield’s head. It looked stiff, if not downright awkward. Mayfield’s postgame words shed some light on the body language.
"Left Cleveland, goes down to Cincinnati," Mayfield said when asked about his feelings about his former coach. "I don’t know. That’s just somebody that’s in our locker room asking for us to play for him and then goes to a different team we play twice a year. Everybody can have their spin on it, but that’s how I feel."
Mayfield, still new to the league but not to the business of both pro and college football (considering his transfer experience), has a valid point. But Jackson isn’t the first to make such a move; the Bengals were founded by a man who’d been shown the door by the Browns before retreating to the banks of the Ohio River to plot his revenge (his name was Paul Brown). For Mayfield and his teammates, it’s more about the fact Jackson went almost immediately from Cleveland to the team’s AFC North rival in Cincinnati, in the same season.
Well, that and the post-firing media tour.
Mayfield and the Browns got their laugh Sunday, though, jumping out to a 28-0 lead in dominant fashion. And the Browns made it clear this game was personal for them. The scoring blitz included an interception on the part of the outspoken Damarious Randall, who did so near the Bengals‘ sideline and trotted over to Jackson to hand him the interception.
It was the cherry on top for the Browns‘ public dismay at the actions of Jackson after he was unceremoniously fired — and reminded us of this:
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Damarious Randall (@RandallTime)
November 13, 2018