Browns Win Despite Putrid Performance from Baker Mayfield

The Cleveland Browns were able to get a victory on the road against the Minnesota Vikings, but it was largely in spite of the play of quarterback Baker Mayfield, who was awful.

Baker Mayfield's left shoulder hurts, his offensive line wasn't great and his receivers weren't always able to create separation, but the Cleveland Browns endured an awful performance from their franchise quarterback and still defeated the Minnesota Vikings, 14-7.

Mayfield made a share of important throws including a 12-yard throw from the 15-yard line to Rashard Higgins, which set up their lone touchdown of the day, but there were countless throws Mayfield should have made and didn't. The most notable was the final offensive play of the game where Mayfield missed a wheel to Odell Beckham that would have closed out the game with a touchdown and finished off the Vikings.

Maybe Mayfield's shoulder is really causing him some problems, but his feet and weight transition were nightmarish and he made some terrible decisions with the ball in his hand, including betting on his athleticism when he shouldn't.

The saving grace from Mayfield was that he never put the ball in jeopardy. Some of that may have been caused by the fact he was missing so high on passes, even defensive backs couldn't make a play on them.

Mayfield had been among league leaders in both completion percentage and yards per attempt, but completed just 45.4 percent of his passes at 4.7 yards per attempt in this game.

As with the game against the Chicago Bears, there were throws that Mayfield missed high on that could've caused that game to be a blow out. In this one, the Vikings forced the game into Mayfield's hands and he was unable to deliver a finishing blow, which gave their offense every chance to come back and win.

The good news is the Browns won the game and head coach Kevin Stefanski never shied away from Mayfield, allowing him to throw to the very end. The bad news is the Browns must turn around and go back on the road to face the Los Angeles Chargers, so he needs to get right in a hurry.

It's better to need to fix issues after wins than losses, but this performance by Mayfield will cause the Browns to face a lot of questions about the quarterback position they didn't think they'd be facing in the month of October after a 3-1 start.

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