Cool tidbit from the Columbus regional: Since Fairleigh Dickinson doesn't have a band, Dayton's band has stepped up. The UD band learned FDU's fight song minutes before tip Fri. Today, they're waving around plastic swords they got from Party City as they root for the Knights
Ohio St played 13 FBS opponents, Bama played 11. Ohio St has 2 top 10 wins, Bama has zero. Ohio St won its conference, Bama didn’t win its division. What exactly is the case for the Tide?
Baker on Rex Ryan saying he’s “overrated as hell”: “it’s whatever. ... if you don’t wear orange and brown you don’t matter, and Rex Ryan doesn’t have any colors right now for a reason.”
Big 12 vs. SEC this bowl season
Baylor (Vandy): 45 points/668 yards
OU (Bama): 34/471
OSU (Mizzou): 38/502
Texas (UGA): 28/354
Average: 36.2 points/499 yards
Record: 3-1
Most guaranteed money on a single contract in NFL history:
Deshaun Watson $230 million
Aaron Rodgers: $150.7 million
Josh Allen: $150 million
Patrick Mahomes: $141.5 million
Dak Prescott: $126 million
@ESPNStatsInfo
In the ’99 Red River Showdown, OU offensive coordinator Mike Leach planted a decoy play script during pregame warmups. The Longhorns found it, used it and fell behind 17-0 before realizing they’d been duped. Inside how it all happened:
Just asked Baker Mayfield about Garrett’s allegation that Rudolph used a racial slur and he seemed pretty stunned. Said wasn’t something he’d heard, including from anyone on the team, until I just asked him
I asked Browns DT Sheldon Richardson if Myles Garrett had ever told him what Garrett alleged about Rudolph in the hearing. Richardson said he hadn’t and said my question was the first he’d even heard about it.
Baker, on the competitive advantage of having high vaccine rates within a team. “It’s a competitive advantage, but it’s also way more than that. It’s about safety, just general health and well-being of human life.”
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QB Baker Mayfield is slated to appear on ESPN’s Get Up at 9:30 am ET on Friday. Scheduled to be on with Mike Greenberg, Marcus Spears and… Rex Ryan. Get your popcorn ready.
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confirm that Myles Garrett was involved in a one-car accident this afternoon after leaving the practice facility. Garrett suffered non-life threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital.
Baker Mayfield teared up talking about Julius Jones, who will be executed in Oklahoma tomorrow on a murder conviction unless Gov. Kevin Stitt steps in to stop it. Baker has been a longtime advocate of Jones’ innocence. “Hopefully God can intervene…”
Stefanski says they had a walk-through at 8:15 this morning in parking garage next to the hotel in freezing temperatures for the new starting WRs to try and get them prepared and up to speed. Not something, obviously,
#Browns
regularly do.
BREAKING: The NFL and NFLPA have agreed to a settlement on discipline for
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QB Deshaun Watson, who will serve an 11-game suspension and pay a $5 million fine for violating the league’s personal conduct policy, per league source.
The Browns have basically added Newsome, Greedy Williams, Grant Delpit, John Johnson III, Anthony Walker, Jadeveon Clowney, Andrew Billings, Takk McKinley all to their defense
Congrats to
@Jake_Trotter
. Our veteran Big 12 Conference reporter is joining ESPN’s NFL Nation team to cover the
#Browns
. A perfect fit since he covered Baker Mayfield and other top Cleveland players in college.
Baker Mayfield just broke a
#Browns
record for completion percentage in a game. Mayfield went 27 of 32 tonight (84.3%) besting besting the previous Cleveland record of 82.9% set by Kelly Holcomb in 2003.
@ESPNStatsInfo
Over the last two years, no SEC offense has scored more than 16 points in a first half against Georgia. Oklahoma scored 31 in the Rose Bowl. Texas scored 20 tonight.
The
#Browns
haven’t practiced all week. Their head coach has COVID. Their building remains closed. Their QB hasn’t thrown a pass since Sunday. And they have a half-dozen starters on the virus list. Otherwise...
Am told WR Rashard Higgins’ new one-year deal to resign with the Browns is worth $910K. Higgins really wanted to return to Cleveland, turned down more money from elsewhere. He will compete for the No. 3 WR spot.
Obj says Bill Belichick tells him the same thing in pregame each time they play: “I hope you enjoy today, because there’s not going to be much for you.”
Stefanski, apparently after hitting pause on his TV, was 45 seconds behind on the broadcast from his family upstairs. He realized something good happened when he heard them yelling upstairs after Steelers snapped ball into end zone on first play.
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Jarvis Landry, on the NFL Network report that he was telling Arizona players “come get me” out of Cleveland: “I would never look to another team during a game especially that we’re losing and say ‘come get me’ with a worse record than we have. ... don’t try to slander my name.”
Amari Cooper is still just 27 years old, and a proven No. 1 wide receiver, which the
#Browns
desperately needed on the heels of the OBJ debacle. Andrew Berry makes his first big move this offseason
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Amari Cooper is the first
#Browns
player with 100 receiving yards and a receiving TD in consecutive games since Josh Gordon in 2013, per
@ESPNStatsInfo
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24, Bengals 7 – and Baker Mayfield has a perfect quarterback rating of 158.3 so far (something must have changed with the offense this week, though not sure what)
OBJ: I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here. We’ll figure this thing out. It’s just too special to leave.” Asked him if that meant 2020: “Yeah, we’re going to be here. We’re going to do it again. And we’re going to be what we felt like we should’ve been.”
Joe Burrow, on Ohio traditionally being a
#Browns
state: "If people want to root for them, it is what it is. ... If you want to come on over, you can hop on the bandwagon..."
Baker Mayfield posted a Total QBR of 92.8 Sunday, the 4th-highest rating by a QB making his first playoff start since ESPN debuted the metric in 2006.
#Browns
@ESPNStatsInfo
After each completion, Baker Mayfield is literally sprinting to the pass-catcher, to give him a high five or pat on the shoulder pads before getting the next play call
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The city of Cleveland averaged a 10.9 household rating for the NFL draft, which is the highest host city rating on record since different cities began hosting the draft in 2015, per the NFL
The
#Browns
are the first team in NFL history, including the playoffs, to lose when scoring 40-plus points with 500 yards and zero turnovers, according to Elias
@ESPNStatsInfo
Baker Mayfield took only one question during his postgame Zoom call. Completely owning the loss — “I failed this team” — this is what else he had to say:
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This was the first game in Browns history they had a 300-yard passer (Baker Mayfield), 150-yard rusher (Nick Chubb) and 150-yard receiver (Jarvis Landry), according to Elias Sports Bureau.
Baker Mayfield on whether he cares if extension negotiations linger into the season: “I’m not doing the negotiations so quite frankly I don’t give a damn. I’m worried about winning…”
The
#Browns
defense now leads the NFL in pass rush win rate (58.4%). Myles Garrett, Jadeveon Clowney and Takk McKinley are all ranked in the top 7 individually.