CLEVELAND — There were 59 seconds to play Sunday when the Browns defense, clinging to a five-point lead , took the field for one last stand against the Baltimore Ravens’ league-leading offense . In the moment, it might as well have felt like 59 minutes.
The Browns defense, though, felt something else. They felt opportunity.
“Shoot, we know the situation,” Browns linebacker Mohamoud Diabate said after the Browns held on for a 29-24 win . “You get the stop, you win. So our coaches prepare us for those situations every single day. So we were prepared for the situation when it came and we were able to take advantage of it, get off the field and get the W.”
The victory-clinching defensive stop didn’t come without a few hold-your-breath moments. Then again, any snap when Lamar Jackson is the quarterback is a hold-your-breath moment for a defense.
If you held your breath on the last two plays, third-and-10 and fourth-and-10 from the Cleveland 24, you were likely to turn as purple as the pants the Ravens were wearing. The two plays were both ultimately incompletions, but not without Jackson doing his usual Houdini-like escape act with virtually the entire Browns front seven around him.