DENVER — At first glance, it’s a fairly cut-and-dry play.
Browns QB Jameis Winston looked for receiver Elijah Moore in the flat, heading towards the left sideline.
But Ja’Quan McMillian saw Moore too. The Denver CB took a chance, and jumped the route.
It was the right bet.
Forty-four yards later, ball in hand, and McMillian sealed the 41-32 win for Denver with a touchdown with only 1:48 remaining.
But how did it come down to that, considering McMillian had to dive on the ground for the ball in the first place?
As McMillian tumbled to the ground, Moore stumbled out of bounds. The Browns receiver hesitated for a moment, still off balance. McMillian darted up and towards the end zone before Moore could change his direction, with Browns coaches behind him on the sideline visibly pointing to chase after him to down the defender.
The problem was, in that split second, Moore thought he had already had.
“I got to have better awareness,” Moore said. “What happened was when he jumped up and got it, I didn’t know if my hand touched him. So that was what had me, like. ‘Did I touch him, did I not?’ And then my coach is like, ‘Touch him again.’ So it was just — I got to do a better job.”
It was an unfortunate stain that cost the Browns the win in an otherwise solid offensive evening.
Jerry Jeudy and Winston both had career evenings. Jeudy had a career-high 235 receiving yards on nine catches going against his former team. Winston finished with a career-high and Browns-record 497 passing yards.
Winston, however, had three total interceptions in the game. His third interception came with 34 seconds left to linebacker Cody Barton. The other pick-six was a 71-yarder by defensive end Nik Bonitto. Winston said after the game that he apologized to his teammates for his performance.
“Bad throws. It was a bad throw. Bad throw,” said Winston when asked about that second pick-six.
Moore had a good game prior to this play, too. His 111 yards on eight of 14 targets gave him his first 100-yard game as a Cleveland Brown. His best catch of the day was a 44-yard grab when the Browns were facing third-and-3 in the first quarter.
But as was the theme throughout postgame interviews on Monday night, the personal stats lose some meaning when you don’t also walk away with a win — and there’s plenty of blame to go around.
“We got to go back to the drawing board,” Moore said. “If we can’t finish games doing what we did, something’s got to change. But we can’t put it all on Jameis or all on one person. It’s not that. So I hope he don’t hold his head too low. We’re going to lift him up. So this is a team game.”
Not much has been very cut-and-dry with the 3-9 Browns this year.
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