Getty Browns QB Baker Mayfield.
If Baker Mayfield was waiting for his Cleveland Browns team to have an underdog role, the time has come.
The Browns sit at 2-6 and there and there is plenty of doubt circulating that the squad can turn things around enough to even contend for the franchise’s first playoff spot since 2002.
Mayfield has had a disappointing sophomore campaign in the NFL. After setting the rookie record for touchdowns, the former Oklahoma standout has not had the same success. He’s passed for 1,963 yards, 7 touchdowns and 12 interceptions — which is tied for the league lead. He has not thrown multiple touchdowns in a game this season.
Asked Freddie Kitchens about significant drop off in Baker Mayfield statistically compared to last year, “Stats don’t tell the full story…” a follow-up question on his accuracy: “I don’t think he’s just wildly missing passes” #Browns
But maybe Mayfield has everyone right where he wants them. His entire career, Mayfield has embraced the underdog role, going from a walk-on to a Heisman winner and eventual No. 1 overall pick. When people doubted he could produce at the NFL level, he did so in record fashion.
So while the tsunami of hype that started the Browns season now gone, Mayfield isn’t backing down they look to turn things around in Cleveland, which he made clear in an Instagram post.
“Never break never fold,” Mayfield wrote. “Never have never will.”
Baker Mayfield Post Turns Into Rallying Cry for Browns
The responses quickly rolled in on Mayfield’s post, many of them coming from his Browns teammates.
“They talkin bout brudda! Legggo,” Odell Beckham Jr. wrote.
“Swingin all 4 qtrs,” added running back Nick Chubb.
Mayfield spoke this week about staying the course despite the 2-6 start and taking it week by week.
“Stay the course. No matter what is going on, I think we have made strides in certain areas that I think we needed to. Now we just have to make the plays when they are there. We have to execute when it is in the red zone. We have to do those obvious things that we lost because of but to continue to stay the course and improve each week. We know right now with eight games left in the season just have a single-week focus coming into it and do our job.”
Browns Favorites Against Bills
GettyBrowns wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.
It’s not often that you see a 2-6 team favored against a 6-2 team, but that’s exactly the case when the Browns host the Bills this weekend.
There’s no doubt the Browns have some of the bigger names in the matchup like Beckham, Jarvis Landry, Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt — who will be making his Browns debut after an eight-game suspension. But the Bills have managed to reel off an impressive start with gritty, defensive football.
Cleveland is installed as an early 3-point favorite against the Bills with a low total of 40.
“They are playing good defense,” Browns head coach Kitchens said of the Bills. “They run the ball very effectively. They play smart. They play tough. They are physical. Their defense keeps them in every game, and then their offense kind of tries to impose the will on you.”
The Bills two losses came to the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots and they carry a defense that has top five in points against and defending the pass. However, Buffalo ranks 19th in defending the run, which may be the secret to the Browns success.
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