CLEVELAND, Ohio — Quarterback Shedeur Sanders made his NFL regular-season debut for the Browns during the 23-16 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
There was a lot of hype surrounding Sanders as fans awaited his debut.
However, he met a Ravens defense that was hungry to contain him and kill the hype that surrounds him. They did so, sacking him twice while holding him to a 25.0% completion rate with 47 passing yards and one interception to his name.
Here’s how Baltimore stopped Sanders, from their own words:
After Dillon Gabriel entered concussion protocol at halftime, Sanders got word he would start the second half.
Baltimore started the half with possession first, before succumbing to a three-and-out and a punt.
Sanders and the Browns offense took to the field, and Sanders was met with loud cheers from fans throughout Huntington Bank Field.
Ravens defenders reacted differently.
“I was confused when the crowd was going crazy, but then I saw Shedeur,” safety Kyle Hamilton said.
Cornerback Nate Wiggins witnessed the moment and had good things to say on it, while emphasizing it didn’t change anything for his unit.
“It was a fun moment, just showing him get love,” Wiggins said. “ It wasn’t no change for us, but it was a good thing.”
Despite Gabriel being out, Baltimore felt the offense wouldn’t change much with the backup in.
“It was the same things,” Wiggins said. “Just stop the run and stop the quick (pass) game. We knew they weren’t going to throw nothing deep.”
Cleveland’s offense took part in six series during the second half.
Each of them featured an uncomfortable Sanders in the pocket, continuing his tendency to retreat in the pocket while searching for targets, which produced poor results.
The first series started with a five-yarder from Sanders to Cedric Tillman, a play that brought loud cheers from the fans, which confused Baltimore’s Malaki Starks.
“Everybody was going crazy, and I thought they got the first down, but they were just happy,” Starks said. “It’s crazy. I mean, I’m happy to (Sanders) get his opportunity, but no, that was crazy.”
The tone turned sour when Kyle Hamilton sacked Sanders for an 11-yard loss.
Hamilton, who recorded a team-high nine tackles and two passes defended, celebrated the sack by throwing up his wrist, a celebration notoriously associated with Sanders.
Celebrating with Hamilton was teammate Dre’Mont Jones, who spoke on the moment.
“It was hilarious,” Jones said. “I don’t know if you saw me, but I was directly behind (Hamilton) doing it. It was perfect timing.”
The ending of the very next series was even worse. Sanders took a hard hit from Kyle Van Noy as his pass was intercepted by Nate Wiggins.
Jerry Jeudy was the closest target, but the pass was really headed to no man’s land. And Wiggins played his part to make the play, and position the Ravens in the redzone.
“I was dropping to Cover 2. (Sanders) threw me a good luck charm and I had to catch it,” Wiggins said.
From there, Sanders continued to struggle against Baltimore’s pressure. No matter where he rolled nor turned, a Ravens defender was there to stop him in his tracks.
The following three series ended in punts. It took multiple scrambles from Sanders to really display some kind of production.
After Mark Andrews’ touchdown gave Baltimore the lead, Cleveland had one more series to try and tie the game.
Sanders delivered a 25-yarder to Harold Fannin Jr. and helped position the unit five yards away from the redzone.
But the final play, on a fourth-and-5, came with a pass heading for David Njoku, but was broken up by linebacker Roquan Smith.
Smith finished with four tackles and one pass defended, helping maintain the defensive tone set throughout the half to give Sanders a welcome to the NFL.
“A rookie should never be able to do crazy things on a defense, especially with the amount of guys we have here,” Smith said. “Every defense should feel that way.”
Smith noted his respect for Sanders and his family, even saying the rookie quarterback is a great player, but reminding him of his lack of league experience was pivotal.
“(Sanders’) a rookie. It’s rookie at the end of the day,” Smith said. “When you play a rookie in this league, you have to let them know they are rookies. That’s just what it is.”
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