Through 30 minutes, the Browns have looked much better this week than they did in their season opener.
Cleveland leads Jacksonville 13-3 at halftime.
The Browns have scored on all three of their drives, with quarterback Deshaun Watson running in a 1-yard touchdown on the team’s first possession. Dustin Hopkins has hit field goals of 53 and 38 yards to round out the club’s scoring.
Watson is 11-of-15 passing for 108 yards and has four carries for 11 yards with a touchdown. Jerome Ford leads with 62 yards rushing on six carries — including a 36-yard run on fourth-and-1 from the Cleveland 37. That led to Hopkins’ 38-yard field goal late in the second quarter.
The Browns should have more points, as the team forced a fumble on a kick return. But Hopkins was flagged for an illegal formation, as he crossed the 50-yard line before the ball was fielded.
Jaguars returner and running back Tank Bigsby was injured on that play and is questionable to return with a shoulder issue.
Jacksonville’s best play of the half was a 33-yard scramble by quarterback Trevor Lawrence that got the club down to Cleveland’s 2-yard line. But a negative run and two Lawrence incompletions led the Jaguars to settle for a 22-yard field goal just to get some points midway through the second quarter.
Lawrence is 5-of-11 passing for 16 yards. The Jaguars have just four first downs and are 2-of-5 on third down.
Cleveland will receive the second-half kickoff.