The Cleveland Browns have long been the league’s little brother that other teams like to bully, especially in the AFC North.
There have been times over the years when a player has tried to insert that missing level of fight back, with former quarterback Baker Mayfield coming to mind.
Even though Mayfield is five years and three teams removed from the Browns, he has not lost any of his feistiness, which was on full display during Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons.
While attempting to block down
the field on Kenny Gainwell’s fourth-quarter touchdown run, Mayfield was dumped into a mud puddle by Atlanta safety Jessie Bates III. Mayfield popped back up, but more importantly, one of his offensive linemen quickly came to his defense and got after Bates.
Now contrast that with two plays from Sunday as the Browns were once again bullied by the Steelers.
On the game’s opening possession, quarterback Deshaun Watson took a helmet-to-helmet hit from Pittsburgh safety Jaquan Brisker that left Watson lying face down on the field. While he was able to return to the game, Watson suffered a concussion that will likely sideline him for this week’s game against the New Orleans Saints.
Later in the game, defensive end Jared Verse was dangerously dropped on his head by Pittsburgh offensive lineman Mason McCormick during an extra-point attempt. Verse was fortunate that he was not injured in what was clearly a dirty play.
Brisker and McCormick were both penalized for the plays, but did anyone on the Browns stick up for Watson or Verse? Did a lineman let Brisker know that the quarterback is off limits? Or call out McCormick?
If you have watched the Browns for any time, you know the answer to those questions.
Watson has not commented on the hit as he is busy recovering in the league-mandated concussion protocol. But on Thursday, Verse let it be known that he was not happy that no one stepped up when he went down, according to Mary Kay Cabot at cleveland.com:
“The lack of reaction by those around me upset me a lot. Not any aspect of anybody; we’re focused on the game and everything like that. But a similar play happened to Derek Barnett; I think the next field goal and I spazzed. I lost it because it was my brother and my teammate. When you do something like that, it really upsets me very deeply.
“So, I could tell that from that point on, I was like, we have to do better. We have to get better on every aspect of the game of being mentally aware of, these are my brothers and we’re not fighting for each other. We’re just kind of focused on the one aspect of the game.”
Several of Verse’s teammates, including linebackers Carson Schwesinger and Quincy Williams, said they did not see the play, while Barnett said he would have defended Verse if he had seen the play, but cautioned that the Browns can’t let a situation like that get out of hand.
No one is looking for the Browns to turn into the Oakland Raiders of the 1970s, although they were the only team that stood up to the Steelers, so maybe a little bit of that attitude would be nice.
Winning, of course, is the best revenge. But if the Browns are truly committed to changing the culture of the team, which is something that Verse has been vocal about since arriving in town from the Los Angeles Rams, then standing up for a fallen teammate from time to time would not be such a bad idea.
Bring the Dawg Pound with you on the SB Nation app!
Stay connected with Browns fans through every score, stop and game-changing play.
- Join the live game-day chat
- Enjoy fewer ads
- Seamlessly explore communities and conversations
- Comment and post faster
Download the SB Nation app on iOS or Android.
