The Baltimore Ravens had to listen to the Cleveland Browns’ players talk a lot of smack this past week. Wide receiver Jerry Jeudy was one of those players. He mentioned the Ravens’ secondary offered no challenges, and in Sunday’s pregame introductions, he was seen making gestures towards the Ravens. Come gametime, though, he failed to back up his talk.
Jeudy posted four receptions for 51 yards in a game where the Browns scored 17 points, seven of which came in garbage time. On the other side of things, Baltimore’s defense shut down Cleveland’s offense. They forced two turnovers—an interception from Nate Wiggins that set up a touchdown and a 63-yard fumble return for a touchdown by Roquan Smith.
The Browns could only muster up 208 passing yards, and while they went for 114 yards on the ground, they proved to be meaningless yards. While it was a close game early due to a sluggish Baltimore offense, they found a rhythm in the second half, and big plays by the Ravens’ defense pushed things into a 41-17 blowout.
Ravens make Jerry Jeudy eat his own words with ruthless Week 2 beatdown
Jeudy’s most embarrassing moment of the game came on a crucial fourth down. With a little over six minutes to go and the ball at their own 36-yard line, Jeudy failed to come up with the catch on a pass from Joe Flacco. The culprit in breaking up the pass? Backup cornerback T.J. Tampa.
While the game was already out of reach at that point, the play by Tampa was truly the nail in the coffin. Jeudy being at the center of it all made it all the sweeter. After he gave Baltimore endless bulletin board material coming into the week, he ultimately paid the price.
A win of this magnitude is exactly what people wanted to see from Baltimore. It was a complete win from end to end. The defense locked down in the secondary, pressured Flacco all game long, and forced turnovers. On offense, Jackson and company made countless highlight reel plays en route to dropping 40-plus points for the second straight week.