Joe Flacco still has a little magic left.
The veteran quarterback had some rough moments in Sunday’s game against the Bears. But Flacco came through when the Browns needed him most to give Cleveland a 20-17 victory over Chicago.
Down 17-7 to start the fourth quarter, the Browns scored 13 in the final period to win. Dustin Hopkins hit a 33-yard field goal to put Cleveland down by 10. Then after a three-and-out, Flacco threw a seed to Amari Coper who caught it deep down the right side of the field with plenty of room to run and ended up with a 51-yard touchdown to tie the score with 3:08 left.
Cleveland’s defense forced its eighth three-and-out of the day, getting the Browns the ball back at their own 21 with 1:50 remaining.
That’s when David Njoku took over, catching a 31-yard pass on the first play to move the ball to Chicago’s 48. And after he committed an offensive offside penalty, Njoku caught a 34-yard pass on third-and-15 to put Cleveland firmly in field goal range. Flacco put up a floating pass for the tight end, who was wide open, and Njoku did the rest.
A few plays later, Dustin Hopkins sent a 34-yard field goal through the uprights to give Cleveland a three-point advantage.
While Chicago had no more timeouts, the club still had a chance to win on the final play. Justin Fields put up a solid Hail Mary pass deep down the middle, which went off of a few players before falling right to receiver Darnell Mooney — who was on the ground. But Mooney couldn’t hang on and D’Anthony Bell ended up with it for a game-ending interception.
Flacco ended the game 28-of-44 for 374 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions — including a pick six early in the third quarter that gave Chicago a 14-7 lead. Each of Chicago’s two touchdowns came off of Flacco picks.
The Browns had two receivers go over 100 yards, with Cooper catching four for 109 and Njoku catching 10 for 104 with a TD in the second quarter.
On the other side, Fields finished 19-of-40 for 166 yards with a touchdown and two picks. Fields also rushed for 30 yards on seven attempts. DJ Moore led with four catches for 52 yards.
Edge rusher Montez Sweat recorded 3.0 sacks, giving him the team lead with two different franchises this season — Chicago and Washington.
The Browns did have to deal with another injury to their offensive line, as guard Joel Bitonio exited with a back issue. Cleveland finished the game with just one of its starting regular starting offensive linemen on the field in guard Wyatt Teller.
With the victory, the Browns are now 9-5 and maintain their hold on the AFC’s No. 5 seed. Kevin Stefanski also became the first Browns head coach with multiple winning seasons since Marty Schottenheimer — who led the club from 1984-1988.
Cleveland will be on the road to play the Texans in Week 16.
While the Bears are 5-9, they have been showing improved play. They’ll host the Cardinals next Sunday afternoon.
