Hue Jackson is now an assistant for the Cincinnati Bengals, and the Cleveland Browns seemed well aware of that in their beatdown of their divisional foe.
On Sunday in Week 12, the Cleveland Browns put their foot on the gas pedal against the Cincinnati Bengals in the Battle for Ohio and immediately pulled away from their AFC North rivals. For a young team seemingly on the precipice of finally turning their franchise around, that enough is big for this team. However, there was clearly an additional motivating factor behind their 35-20 triumph.
Former Browns head coach Hue Jackson stood on the sidelines for the Bengals during Sunday’s clash, a still-fresh hire as an assistant on Marvin Lewis’ staff. Jackson, of course, was fired midseason (along with former Cleveland offensive coordinator Todd Haley) after the team seemed to continually fall short.
With his exit, Jackson was in character for how he behaved as the Browns head coach. He took little blame for the shortcomings and miscues of a talented team currently in Cleveland, pushing that on others (such as Haley and ownership) rather than offering an honest assessment. You know, realizing that he was the constant for the Browns for their run of three wins over 2.5 seasons.
The Browns clearly had a plan to stick it to Jackson and the Bengals on Sunday, and they executed their plight to perfection. Baker Mayfield, who Jackson was subtly critical of after his departure, diced up the Cincinnati defense to the tune of four touchdown passes, and fellow rookie Nick Chubb, who Hue criminally underused in Cleveland, burned his former head coach as well with a two-score outing.
If the drubbing that the Browns put on the Bengals wasn’t indicative enough of this narrative, though, safety Damarious Randall offered concrete proof. After a first-half interception with Cleveland already well in control of the game, Randall ran out of bounds on the Cincy sideline and made sure to hand the ball to one made: Hue Jackson, of course.
DAMARIOUS RANDALL WITH THE TAKEAWAY‼️ https://t.co/YWaYezuNfh
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) November 25, 2018
Even after the game, the animosity between this Browns team and Jackson was evident. When Jackson went in for a post-game embrace with Mayfield, the rookie quarterback shunned the attempt and simply went for a respectful handshake instead.
In his post-game press conference, Mayfield (per Pro Football Talk) wrote off the gesture as being upset with Jackson regarding his move to Cincinnati following his firing. Maybe that was part of it, but you have to believe that Jackson’s post-firing remarks certainly played a part in the quarterback slighting his former coach as well.
More important than any of the pettiness (delightful pettiness, it should be said) shown towards Jackson, though, the Browns hurt their former head coach where it’s felt the most — the scoreboard. Under interim head coach Gregg Williams, the Browns are now 2-1 and appear to have more life than they ever did under Jackson’s tenure. And the former head coach got a front-row seat to that being put on display.