Perfection and imperfection

The Cleveland Browns their fans have been waiting for the last two decades showed up in the first half of their game Sunday in Nashville against the Tennessee Titans.

Those Browns laid a 38-7 shellacking on one of the best teams in the National Football League the last couple of seasons in the first 30 minutes. That's the most points in one half in club history. .

The Cleveland Browns their fans have witnessed for the better part of those two decades, the ones who became the perennial laughingstock of the NFL, showed up in the second half and were drilled by the comeback Titans.

Those Browns, looking much more like the 2020 Browns whose inability to maintain large leads has been troublesome, generously turned a seeming rout into a slow-motion journey down memory lane in the final 30 minutes by nearly blowing the huge halftime lead and barely escaping, 41-35, in what must be classified, nonetheless, as a signature victory.

The final score obviously does not reflect how dominating the Browns, now 9-3 for the first time since 1994, were in those first 30 minutes, That group played an incredibly amazing first half, bullying the Titans, providing a cushion large enough that they could not overcome it.

But they sure did frighten the hell out of the fans who were enjoying the festivities until then by scoring a pair of touchdowns in the final two minutes of regulation to make the final interesting, but quite misleading.

The Cleveland offense in the first half ran 44 plays, produced 22 first downs, 344 total yards, eight yards a play, 296 passing yards, was seven of eight on third down and owned the football for a little more than 21 minutes, The defense limited the Titans to just six first downs. 15 yards on the ground and 148 total yards.

The same players who dazzled the dazed Titans on both sides of the football in the first half looked like an entirely different group in the second half. The Titans couldn't do anything right in the first half. The Browns couldn't do anything wrong. It was the exact opposite in the second half.

Six first-half possessions yielded five Cleveland touchdowns and a field goal. Are you kidding me? It was downright surreal. It was perfection personified. Everything worked. Even the gimmick plays head coach/playcaller Kevin Stefanski threw in..

Baker Mayfield was brilliant, connecting on 20 of 25 passes for 280 yards in the half with scoring throws to Jarvis Landry in the first quarter and second-quarter connections with Rashard Higgins, rookie Donovan Peoples-Jones on a gorgeous and perfectly-executed 75-yard stop-and-go pattern and Kendall Lamm. 

Yes, Kendall Lamm, the backup offensive tackle who sometimes shows up in goal-line situations as a tackle-eligible. He sneaked into the end zone on the first play of the second quarter after brush-blocking his man on a third-and-goal at the Titans 1 and was wide open after a play fake. Mayfield also hauled in a Landry pass on third down to sustain the second drive of the game.

Mayfield, whose four touchdown passes tied Hall of Famer Otto Graham for most scoring passes in a half. was as scorching as he has ever been as a passer. And that includes the 22 straight he completed in the second Bengals game. It would have been five touchdowns had Peoples-Jones held on to a perfectly thrown ball on the first possession of the game. 

The offense hummed like a well-oiled engine. Mayfield was as sharp with his throws and play fakes as he has ever been as a pro. And Stefanski was not afraid to turn him loose as he registered his fifth straight game without an interception.

The defense, meanwhile, took the cue and rose up, making big play after big play. It was dominance the likes of which Browns Nation hasn't seen -- on both sides of the ball -- in sustained fashion since can't remember when.

The defense neutralized Derrick Henry, the NFL's leading rusher, in the first half, twice making big plays the offense immediately turned into touchdowns. Defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson stopped him on a fourth- down gamble at the Cleveland 42 on the Titans' first possession of the game. On the next possession, Richardson stripped Henry of the ball deep in Tennessee territory.

The onslaught pretty much removed Henry from the game plan, forcing quarterback Ryan Tannehill to throw much more than he normally does. And that is where the Cleveland defense is most vulnerable.

Fortunately, it took so long for the Titans to realize that, they were too far behind to pull off anything resembling a miracle comeback. But they sure came close in the second half against the second group of Browns.

That second group also included an offense that mustered only Cody Parkey's second field goal of the game midway through the fourth quarter. Instead of relying on what produced 38 first-half points, Stefanski backed off, went ultra conservative and played bleed-the-clock.

The offense put only 114 more yards and a field goal on the scoreboard in five more possessions. Mayfield was five of eight through the air for 44 yards. The ground game added 70 yards after a 48-yard first half, Nick Chubb picking up 80 hard yards on 18 carries.

With an injury-riddled Cleveland secondary playing mostly zone, it was like an open invitation for Tannehill to fire at will in the second half. He responded by completing 21 of 32 passes for 256 yards and two touchdowns, finding receivers wide open more often than not.

Titans wide receiver Corey Davis was the main beneficiary. After catching four passes in the first half for 51 yards, he tacked on seven more receptions for 131 more yards in the second half as garbage-time and  stats-padding, in addition to the nervousness that no doubt caused concern around Browns Nation, made the end feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Even after the sensational first half, it still took a successful recovery of an onside kick by fullback Andy Janovich to seal what should have been a a more comfortable victory. 

The biggest revelation that can be gleaned from this one is that Mayfield, when given the opportunity by his head coach to cut it loose, still has it. He made a whole bunch of solid throws -- he did not make a bad one all afternoon -- and seems to be sharpening his accuracy. 

He is stepping into his throws with much more confidence as the season progresses, He's also showing a leadership quality that spawns positive results certain to resonate in the huddle down the stretch. It will be interesting to see if Stefanski continues to tap those qualities as the season winds down and the Browns get closer to the postseason.