A Jekyll-Hyde mystery

Will the real Cleveland Browns please stand up?

Are they the team that looked disoriented, penalty-riddled, offense-challenged and in near disarray in the first three games of the 2019 season?

Or is it the marauding offensive powerhouse that just about everyone expected this season finally showing up on the last Sunday of September in Baltimore and delivering a 40-25 beat down of the Ravens, leaving their fans sitting in stunned silence?

Baker Mayfield racked up another 300-yard passing game -- his third -- against the Ravens, hitting on 66% of his throws. Nick Chubb added to the fun, running for three touchdowns and 165 yards, including an 88-yard dazzler after the Ravens had pulled to within 24-18 early in the fourth quarter.

Jarvis Landry, who has been relatively quiet this season, stepped up with eight receptions for 167 yards, including a beautifully executed shovel pass off a fake pitch, a misdirection play that gained 29 yards and set up a Chubb score midway through the third quarter.

The where-did-that-come-from victory just like that elevated the Browns into a tie at the top of the AFC North at 2-2 with the Ravens, who suffered their second straight loss. It also marked the first time since 1994 that the Browns won their first two road games of the season.

In actuality, the Jekyll-Hyde personality of this team is such that the answer to the original question might not be answered for a while since the only consistency fans have noticed this season with this team is its inconsistency.

The distinct possibility the outcome of this game was an aberration cannot be ruled out. It’s going to take a few more games on the schedule to determine whether this was the real thing.

This was more the norm of what fans saw in the second half of last season with Mayfield locking in on what he does best and Chubb showing why he‘s one of the best young runners in the National Football League.

This team is hard to figure out, but one thing was crystal clear Sunday. The Browns manhandled the Ravens in every phase of the game. At no point did the possibility of losing enter their minds.

They were relentless on defense, wonderfully creative and very much in rhythm on offense and kept the Ravens off balance all afternoon as they easily won the battles in the trenches.

Gang tackling must have been the theme of the day for the defense. Of the club’s 73 overall tackles, 51 were awarded with assists. Middle linebacker Joe Schobert led the way with a ridiculous 17 tackles, nine of them solo. He played like a football-seeking missile.

Only when the game was clearly secured did the Browns drop back into prevent mode on defense, allowing the Ravens’ offense to pile up meaningless statistics and make the final score looked more respectable.

The Ravens bellyached, almost jealously, all week that the Browns had received all the hype during the offseason and couldn’t wait to see what all the hype was about. The Browns, it would appear, took that as a challenge and showed them extremely up close and very, very personally.

The defense, in particular, played snarlingly against a Baltimore offense that had averaged 511 yards a game, 230 of them on the ground, and played near flawless football in the first three games odf the season.

But they hadn’t faced a defense like the Browns’ and were schooled by an aggressive and very disciplined performance with a solid game plan choreographed by coordinator Steve Wilks.

Lamar Jackson, the magician quarterback who put up gaudy numbers in the first three games, was relatively throttled early on by a secondary that made it difficult to spot open receivers and a pass rush that gave him little time to be effective.

It was a serviceable combination of one phase of the defense, the line putting enough pressure on Jackson and helping another phase, taking a different kind of pressure off a banged-up secondary that  played mostly zone.

The Baltimore offense, which hadn’t turned the ball over this season, coughed it up three times, thieving Jackson twice – his first of the season – and sacking him four times.

It enabled Wilks to be more creative with an already creative blitz package and kept Jackson guessing all day where the pressure was coming from. It wasn’t unusual to see safeties Damarious Randall and Jermaine Whitehead crashing from the outside.

Most of the pressure came from the middle, which is where Jackson likes to escape when forced from the pocket. He gained most of his ground yards Sunday running on the flanks, several times on the freeze option.

The offense, meanwhile, cooperated by keeping the chains moving – only two three-and-outs – which in effect allowed the defense to log numerous long periods of rest, a luxury they hadn’t enjoyed in the first three games.

Only one turnover – a Mayfield interception that wasn’t his fault and led to a Baltimore touchdown in the second quarter – and just three Jamie Gillan punts helped make it possible.

The offense piled up 530 yards, looking nothing like the struggling unit that showed up for the first three games. The Baltimore defense had no answers for the firepower the Browns brought for this one.

Mayfield displayed a confidence and poise that has been missing since the final game of the 2018 season. He seems to have discovered how to navigate his way in the pocket and stay patient instead of abandoning it prematurely.

His passes were crisp, on time and delivered – it is worth repeating because of its importance – with a confidence that has been absent this season. Several times he was trapped in the pocket, but stepped up and found an open recover.

Chunk plays played a huge part in the victory. In addition to Chubb’s 88-yard effort and Landry’s 29-yarder, Mayfield took advantage of a blown coverage and found tight end Ricky Seals-Jones wide open for a 69-yard catch and run that set up Chubb’s 14-yard touchdown on the next play on the first drive of the second half.

Seals-Jones also caught Mayfield’s only touchdown pass, a nine-yarder on a drag route on the second possession of the game. It climaxed a 13-play, 84-yard journey that took 8:31 off the clock and served as a preview of what was to come.

Landry added to the chunk total with a stumbling 65-yard reception at the tailend of the first half on a 10-play, 81-yard drive in the final two minutes. Austin Seibert broke a 7-7 tie with a 24-yard field goal after the drive stalled at the Baltimore six and the Browns never trailed after that.

So was this a portent of what the future holds for this enigmatic team? They sure needed a game like this, scoring nearly as many points as they had in the first three games (49).

They desperately needed to eliminate the possibility of a 1-3 start with another nationally televised date -- their third in five weeks -- in San Francisco next Monday night followed by a visit by the Seattle Seahawks in two weeks dead ahead.  

If they can hurdle these two tough NFC West teams, fans will have a much better idea of which Cleveland Browns team is real.