Browns vs. Colts: Highlights, game tracker and more

The Cleveland Browns faced the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, Sept. 24 in Week 3 of the 2017 NFL season. Here are the highlights from the game.

It’s not every day that you see the Cleveland Browns favored in an NFL game. An even rarer occurrence is to see them favored on the road. That, in fact, hadn’t happened in some five years. Yet on Sunday in Week 3, the 0-2 Browns were favored to win by the oddsmakers. Of course, the reason is that they were heading to take on the Indianapolis Colts, also coming into the game at 0-2.

Seeing how things got underway in this matchup, though, you’d have never guessed that the Colts had looked as bad as they had in the first two weeks. Jacoby Brissett, in only his second start for Indianapolis, put on his running shoes early. With DeShone Kizer and the Browns offense ailing, Brissett moved the ball well in the middle of the field and rushed for two first-half scores, one in the fist quarter and another in the second.

In between the two Brissett scores, though, the Browns did show a little life. Leaning on the run — as they should be doing — Cleveland moved the ball well. From 19 yards out, Duke Johnson dashed into the end zone, but the tie was short-lived. After the Colts went up 14-7, the Browns offense couldn’t do anything on the next drive. They pinned Indy deep, but on five plays, they were able to go 97 yards, capped off by a monster 61-yard catch and run by T.Y. Hilton.

Another fruitless Browns drive gave the Colts the ball back again. Thanks to a pass interference call, they moved down field quickly again and found the end zone via a short Frank Gore run. Kizer and Cleveland finally found life before the half, ending with a one-yard touchdown pass to David Njoku to make it 28-14 at the break.

The third quarter made both of these teams look quite dismal. Both struggled to find anything going offensively, Kizer throwing a pair of interceptions and Jack Doyle fumbling for the Colts. Thus, the score stayed the same. Off the second pick by Kizer, though, Indianapolis was able to get a field goal early in the fourth quarter. But then Chuck Pagano and Co. almost blew another comfortable lead as they did in Week 2.

Midway through the period, Kizer put together a big drive anchored by a big Johnson reception and then the use of the quarterback’s legs. He found paydirt from 11 yards out to make it 31-21. The Browns then forced a three-and-out and had another shot. They went a miraculous 70 yards in 11 plays to find another touchdown, pulling them within a field goal.

Cleveland couldn’t recover the ensuing onside kick and had no timeouts just before the two-minute warning. However, three big stops gave them 23 seconds to try and drive an improbable 91 yards. After a penalty and incompletion, though, Kizer was picked off again to seal the home win for Indy.

Even when favored, the Browns couldn’t get the job done.

Highlights

https://twitter.com/Browns/status/912022041624113153

Next: NFL Week 3: One burning question for each team

The Browns aren’t exactly a team accustomed to winning, doing so once last year and starting 2017 with an 0-2 record. With that being said, few opponents are as bad as the Colts without Andrew Luck. There’s a reason Cleveland was favored on the road coming into this game. Now they just have to capitalize.