<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=18na2t_0vXSL90s00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=18na2t_0vXSL90s00" width="1280" height="774" ><figcaption>Cleveland Browns vs. Jacksonville Jaguars, September 15, 2024</figcaption></figure>JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Browns headed in the <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/browns-schedule/">Jaguars game</a> determined to expunge that Week 1 beatdown by the Cowboys from their minds, and to rally around <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/deshaun-watson/">Deshaun Watson</a>, their embattled quarterback.They accomplished both of those things with an 18-13 victory in rainy, steamy Jacksonville, but first had to sweat out a weird and wild fourth quarter, including the nail-biting, potential game-winning Hail Mary pass by Trevor Lawrence with seconds remaining.When the pass was knocked down in the end zone by safety Ronnie Hickman and cornerback Martin Emerson Jr., Emerson let out a “Woo” and finally let some air into his lungs.“It’s like a gasp,” Emerson said. “You don’t really want to breathe, but you want to make sure you make the play. That was a fun game.”Week 3 NFL Preview: Find everything you need to know with our <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/sports/previews/nfl-week-3/">Week 3 NFL preview.</a>It was also tense as heck for the now 1-1 Browns and their fans, from the moment the Jaguars closed to 16-13 with 7:32 left on a field goal, to a penalty-filled backwards Browns drive, to Corey Bojorquez spinning a 39-yard punt on a hard right turn out of bounds at the 2, to Alex Wright drilling Lawrence out of the back of the end zone for the safety that made it 18-13 with 1:42 left, to Watson making an ill-advised third down throw under pressure at the end instead of taking a sack, to the recovered onside kick and then the Hail Mary.“Yeah, that was one I won’t forget,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said. “Just the different things that came up. A safety, an onside kick after a safety. Just some very strange things, but I thought the team handled them well. Obviously not ideal to be whatever it was, fourth and 27 wasn’t ideal in some of those situations we put ourselves in, but I thought the guys battled like crazy.”The victory came a week after the Browns were embarrassed 33-17 by the Cowboys in the opener, and their quarterback was written off as broken and finished both nationally and locally.“There was such a renewed focus,” left guard Joel Bitonio said. “It sucks. You don’t want to have to get slapped in the face to wake yourself up. But for us, I think it did that this week and hopefully we can build on that.”The Browns also closed ranks and rallied around Watson after he was accused Monday in a civil suit of sexual assault during a date in October of 2020. Watson strongly denied the allegations, and his teammates vowed to have his back. They did just that, with the offense, defense and special teams all pitching in to win an ugly, hard-fought game.“It feels good,” said Watson (22 of 34, 186 yards, 78.8 rating). “The guys see me every day. The work that I put in, the character that I carry myself with. It’s amazing to have a locker room and a coaching staff and an organization have your back and keep you supported and let you know that you’re their leader and you’re their quarterback.”Watson served notice from the jump that he came to win.On his opening drive, he moved the Browns 89 yards in 16 plays, capped by his own 1-yard TD run out of a jumbo formation, with Zak Zinter and Nick Harris both eligible. The key play was a 21-yard bobble-and-catch on the sideline by Jerry Jeudy (5 of 6 targets, team-high 73 yards).The drive kept Lawrence off the field for 9:14, with Watson overcoming a holding call, a sack and a fumble to go 7 of 8 for 83 yards and a 109.9 rating.“He’s a leader for a reason, not only because of the person that he is on the field but off the field, keeping his head held high and always being around the guys in the locker room, encouraging guys, and doing his best and putting his best foot forward,” said defensive end Myles Garrett, who was limited with his foot injury.“You expect great things to happen when people go the extra mile for the people around them. It’s great to see him getting the job done but also excelling and he will continue to.”The Browns had a chance to double their lead to 14-0 on their next drive, but a wide-open Amari Cooper dropped a sure TD pass at the 15. The Browns settled for a 53-yard Dustin Hopkins field goal for a 10-0 lead.It was the second straight dropped would-be TD for Cooper, with the first one coming in garbage time against the Cowboys. Cooper caught only 3 of 8 targets for 11 yards, making for a two-game total of 5 of 17 for 27 yards - not the usual eye-popping production for the Browns WR1.“Sometimes it takes time and it depends on how the defense is going to scheme against certain situations, but when those opportunities come, we’ve got to capitalize and that’s from both of us,” Watson said. “But there’s nothing to get frustrated with. That’s part of the game. Once we find our way, we can be very explosive.”Stefanski also isn’t concerned.“Coop’s a pro,” he said. “He’ll be just fine.”But with tight end David Njoku sidelined with a sprained ankle and Cooper battling, Watson had to find some completions, and Jeudy answered the bell, including on back-to-back catches of 30 and 5 yards in the fourth quarter, the latter a contested catch with only a sliver of real estate near the sideline.“He’s been to my side a lot lately whenever I do scramble,” Watson said. “I tell all of ‘em whenever I get outside the pocket, the play is never dead until they blow the whistle. So just keep working with me and I’ll find you and if I can, I’m going to get you the ball. And if I can’t then I’ll make something else happen.”With left tackle James Hudson III protecting his blindside again and right tackle Dawand Jones in and out with cramping, Watson slipped out of trouble a lot, and was sacked only twice despite three fearsome edge rushers in Josh Hines-Allen (1 sack), Travon Walker and Arik Armstead.“He’s an escape artist,” Armstead said. “Everyone knows that. There’s a lot of talented guys in the league, and he’s one of them, definitely with his legs and getting out of things and you’ve just got to keep rushing and keep going. You can’t dwell on it too much.”By the end of the first half, the Browns were up 13-3, had dominated time of possession 20:06 to 9:54, had outgained Jacksonville 195 to 81, and had rushed for 92 yards. That included a long of 36 by Jerome Ford (7 for 64) on a fourth and 1 with Jameis Winston in for the apparent QB sneak.The run led to a field goal with 27 seconds left in the half for the 13-3 edge.But Lawrence (14 of 30, 220 yards, 71.5 rating) made some big plays in the second half, in part because Garrett and Denzel Ward (shoulder) were both limited.With Ward on the sideline, Lawrence hit first-round rookie Brian Thomas Jr. with a 66-yard pass over the deep middle, where he was singled up with Greg Newsome II. Two plays later, Travis Etienne scored on a 4-yard run to pull the Jags to within 16-10 with 1:11 left in the third.Lawrence, minus his starting tight end in Evan Engram who pulled a hamstring in pre-game warmups, found Christian Kirk in the end zone for a 2-yard TD in the fourth to tie it at 16, but it was wiped out by an illegal shift against running back D’Ernest Johnson, a former Brown. The Jaguars settled for a field goal to make it 16-13.The Browns then embarked on their backward drive, with a facemask penalty against D’Onta Foreman and two holding calls to bring up a third and 36 at midfield.“I’m sure it was no fun for our fans to watch,” Stefanski said. “It wasn’t fun from my vantage point either, going backwards like that. That was insane.”But Bojorquez pulled out his pitching wedge and sent the ball careening out of bounds at the 2, and Wright blasted Lawrence out of the back of the end zone, with some help from Garrett, who went high and let Wright come underneath to make the play.“It was a crazy, crazy feeling like I’ve never had before,” Wright said. “I put that sack on top of any other sack I ever had just because of the situation and the feeling and especially being on the road, just to get our first win of the season.”After recovering the onside kick, the Browns still made things tense, with Watson throwing incomplete on third down instead of taking a sack and running 40 seconds off the clock with 1:33 left. It gave Lawrence 87 seconds left from his own 10 for the potential gamewinning drive, instead of 47. “He’s not perfect,” Stefanski said. “Got mad at him at the end there, but didn’t stay mad at him. Yeah, he should take a sack, but I’m very, very proud of him.” Fortunately for the Browns, their defense, which held the Jags to 1 of 4 in the red zone, came up big at the end after two big Lawrence completions to the 33, from where he heaved the Hail Mary. “It’s not necessarily nerve-wracking,” linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah said of the Hail Mary. “Those are the times that we group up and we say, ‘Look man, this is what we want. This is what we love.’ We thrive for those Kobe and Jordan moments, where you could show up in the clutch.”Stefanski left the game impressed with how Watson rebounded from his bad game and new allegations to ensure the Browns avoided the dreaded 0-2.“He made some plays and that’s who he is,” Stefanski said. “I thought his pocket movement, making plays off schedule was incredible. A couple of those throws down the field were really, really impressive and he never blinked. That’s a tough crowd that he’s out there with and we’re backing up and there’s penalties and the kid never blinked.”The Browns, who only won three games on the road last year, not only moved into second place in the AFC North behind the 2-0 Steelers, and ahead of the 0-2 Ravens and Bengals, they also have some winnable games coming up against the Giants, Raiders and Commanders.Special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone called out the players going into Sunday’s game for lack of effort vs. the Cowboys, and they scratched and clawed their way to this victory.“We were not perfect, it wasn’t pretty, but we fought,” Stefanski said. “We needed all three phases. We have to continue to get better in a bunch of different areas and we’ll work at that, but I’m very proud of that football team.”The Browns host the New York Giants next Sunday at 1 p.m. at Huntington Bank Field. The Giants lost to Washington on Sunday, 21-18, to fall to 0-2.</div></body>

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Browns rally behind Deshaun Watson to beat the Jaguars, 18-13, and even their record at 1-1

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Browns headed in the Jaguars game determined to expunge that Week 1 beatdown by the Cowboys from their minds, and to rally around Deshaun Watson, their embattled quarterback. They accomplished both of those things with an 18-13 victory in rainy, steamy Jacksonville, but first had...

Browns rally behind Deshaun Watson to beat the Jaguars, 18-13, and even their record at 1-1

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