Browns win despite Jameis Winston

The Cleveland Browns ended their five-game losing streak on Sunday, defeating the Baltimore Ravens 29-24 in their first game since quarterback Deshaun Watson tore his Achilles tendon. They beat the best team in the division immediately after losing the quarterback and pay $46 million per season – a mega-contract with two more years to run that the Browns signed Watson after 22 massage therapists had already filed sexual assault lawsuits against him – is a strange result for a bad organization, although, as befits the Browns, even the triumph was strange and off-putting. They witnessed the full performance of Jameis Winston as the vet led his team to a big win and almost pulled it back out.

A week ago, it seemed unlikely Winston would see the field this season. The Browns demoted him to emergency QB and listed him as inactive before their Week 7 game against the Cincinnati Bengals, only for the emergency to strike. Not only did Watson hurt his Achilles in that game, but backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson also injured a finger on his throwing hand after playing two terrible quarters in Watson’s place. So the Browns activated Winston and became the first team in 16 years to have three different players attempt double-digit passes in the same game. Winston had earned the start this week and immediately made a strange commercial before the game, looking directly into the broadcast camera and touting his “unwavering faith, his ultimate faith, depending on the Lord.” He expressed similar sentiments in a characteristically tearful pregame hype speech to his team.

In his five total seasons as the starting quarterback with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints, Winston showed that his strength in the rocket arm was matched by his inability to figure out which team to throw to. When the producer of the only 30-interception season of the century (so far) says something like, “I’m sure I’m a great NFL quarterback when I make big decisions play after play,” he’s mostly right, but The word “when” in this sentence is like a single two-by-four beam supporting the weight of a rhinoceros.

In Sunday’s game against the Ravens, Winston was unleashed, to his credit. He really tried hard and set a franchise debut record with 334 yards in his first start in 25 months and first time as a Cleveland Brown. He completed eight passes that traveled at least 15 yards in the air – one fewer than the total number of such passes Watson had combined in his previous seven games – including two for scores.

His best throw was his last, a 38-yard bomb to Cedric Tillman that scored the game-winning touchdown. Of course, his worst throw preceded it when he threw a pass directly to Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton that should have ended the game had Hamilton not inexplicably dropped it. He wasn’t the only Ravens defender to let Winston off the hook.

Winston’s first drive was a great microcosm of his day: He completed four passes of more than 10 yards, but on the Browns’ first play inside the red zone, he took advantage of about five full seconds and 15 yards of open field gained on one play had -fake, standing completely still and throwing a punch to get Ravens to safety. Eddie Jackson – who dropped him – prompted a member of the broadcast’s commentary team to say: “I really have no idea where Jameis threw.” You know something outrageous has happened when the post-game story is on the A team’s official website focuses on a lot of quotes from defensive backs about how they need to get better at catching the ball.

Winston was typically rehearsed and cheesy after the win, quoting Eminem and debuting a new way of saying the word “maybe” in a performance style that The Athletic’s David Ubben correctly described as “shooting a scene he’d rehearsed 100 times for a movie.” has that it is not” describes is made.”

The Browns’ win in the immediate aftermath of Watson’s injury could be something like the opening chapter of a feel-good story — if Winston, with his own history of sexual misconduct allegations, wasn’t a shitty, redeeming figure and the Browns organization wasn’t so thriving and undeserving. The best you can hope for is comedy, and with reason for optimism: After all, not every opposing DB is going to drop these easy picks.