Browns vs. Bengals Final Score: Cleveland loses season finale 33-23

The Cleveland Browns’ 2019 season is officially over. With all of the hype entering the season, they lost their season finale to the Cincinnati Bengals by a score of 33-23, improbably finishing the year with a record of 6-10. Who would’ve predicted just six wins for this club? Let’s get to the action.

Cleveland received the ball first and started with a formula that fans wanted to see all season: two runs from RB Nick Chubb that went for 10 yards, followed by a deep shot to WR Damion Ratley for a 46-yard touchdown. That gave the Browns a quick 7-0 lead.

It didn’t take the Bengals to respond either. After a couple first down pickups, RB Joe Mixon broke free for a 41-yard gain. One play later, QB Andy Dalton found TE C.J. Uzomah for a 15-yard touchdown pass to tie things up at 7-7.

Both teams proceeded to go three-and-out on their next drives with ugly displays of offense. When QB Baker Mayfield had the ball again, on third down, he threw an interception to CB Darius Phillips, who returned it 28 yards to the 3 yard line.

On 3rd-and-goal, Mixon punched it in to make it a 13-7 game — but K Randy Bullock missed the extra point. The Browns only had ten players on the field for the touchdown run.

Cincinnati converted a 3rd-and-14 pass play to begin the second quarter, and that sparked Mixon to rip off a few more big runs. On 3rd-and-goal, Dalton didn’t have anywhere to throw the ball and escaped to his left, eventually diving to the pylon for a 5-yard touchdown to give the Bengals a 20-7 lead.

On the Browns’ next drive, Mayfield had pass plays of 26 and 36 yards to WR Jarvis Landry and WR Odell Beckham, but the drive fizzled out after that, forcing Cleveland to settle for a 42-yard field goal from K Austin Seibert to make it a 20-10 game. The Browns got the ball back with a few minutes left in the first half, and a dumpoff to RB Kareem Hunt helped extend the drive leading into the two-minute warning. On the first play after the intermission, Mayfield found Landry deep down the middle, who broke a pair of tackles for a 56-yard touchdown. Seibert’s missed extra point made it a 20-16 game.

The Bengals went three-and-out, including a sack by FS Damarious Randall, and Cleveland burned their final two timeouts to force a punt with 1:33 to go in the half. Cleveland went three-and-out, though, and punted back to Cincinnati, who ran the clock out to end the half.

The Bengals received the ball to begin the second half and were driving effectively again. After getting into the red zone, they had a tight end screen for a loss of 7 yards, a false start, and a muffed handoff for another loss of 7 yards. That led to Bullock kicking a 47-yard field goal to make it a 23-16 game.

The Browns’ first drive of the second half didn’t go well. On 2nd-and-9, Greg Robinson was beat immediately on a spin move, leading to a sack. On 3rd-and-16, Mayfield launched a pass 55 yards, but Phillips was the only player near it and intercepted it with a 29-yard return to midfield.

Dalton came right back and returned the favor two plays later, throwing a touchback to CB Denzel Ward.

The Browns couldn’t capitalize, just going three-and-out again. Cincinnati drove into the red zone heading into the fourth quarter, and then on 2nd-and-goal from the 2 yard line, Mixon punched it in to make it a 30-16 game.

Cleveland’s next drive included a catch by Beckham that put him over 1,000 yards for the season. Mayfield later extended the drive with a scramble on third down, setting up 1st-and-goal from the 5 yard line. Two sacks later, it was 4th-and-goal from the 20 with just over seven minutes to go. The Browns called a timeout, and on fourth down, Mayfield found Beckham in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown to close the gap to 30-23.

The Bengals bled five minutes of clock on their ensuing drive to set up 46-yard field goal at the two-minute warning, which Bullock drilled right down the middle to make it 33-23. Mayfield was intercepted on his following drive, officially ending the season as the Bengals kneeled things out.

Quick Hitters

• QB Baker Mayfield: 12-of-27 for 279 yards, 3 TD, 3 INT. 4 rushes, 29 yards.
• RB Nick Chubb: 13 carries, 41 yards (3.2 YPC).
• WR Odell Beckham: 3 catches, 81 yards (6 targets). 1 TD.
• WR Jarvis Landry: 2 catches, 82 yards (6 targets). 1 TD.
• WR Damion Ratley: 2 catches, 64 yards (3 targets). 1 TD.
• Mayfield sacked 6 times.