The Cleveland Browns have kept their quarterback battle going through nearly a month of training camp and preseason action, so what was an hour delay before gathering their final data points? After Cleveland's Week 2 preseason game against the Buffalo Bills was suspended for roughly an hour due to lightning, Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson got their latest -- and perhaps final -- chances to show they deserve to start Week 1 against the Jacksonville Jaguars. ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported the decision could come as soon as Monday.
Sanders got the start and came out on fire, completing all four of his pass attempts on the opening drive. The final connection was an 8-yard touchdown to Luke Floriea. the second year connection for the TD!#BUFvsCLE on News 5 pic.twitter.com/BntGdJpIAM Overall, Sanders hit on his first eight throws and generally looked comfortable in the pocket and getting through his reads; there appeared to be just one play in which Sanders bailed from a relatively clean pocket, and even then, he managed to turn it into a short gain. When he was asked to execute play-action concepts, Sanders looked smooth and took the easy throws.
It helped that the Bills' pass rush was not particularly active, and Todd Monken gave Sanders lots of easy answers. When the situation wasn't as straightforward -- such as a third-and-15 play -- Sanders was calm, cool and collected ... and accurate. Shedeur + Luke = big-time plays#BUFvsCLE on News 5 and NFL Network pic.twitter.com/fPAPEidymf Arguably Sanders' best play didn't even show up on the stat sheet.
On a third-and-5 -- the play right before the one above, in fact -- Sanders scrambled for 13 yards after getting hit in the helmet. The play came back, though, as Zak Zinter got called for holding, and the contact to the helmet went uncalled. QUESTIONABLE: Refs call a questionable holding call on #Browns G Zak Zinter whilst missing Shedeur Sanders getting smacked in the head, negating this scramble play by Shedeur Sanders. pic.twitter.com/NhoI742KSq Unfortunately for Sanders, his ninth throw was not a good one, either.
The former Colorado star threw behind 2025 undrafted tight end Jermaine Terry II, and the ball deflected up in the air and right to Damar Hamlin. Damar Hamlin comes up with the INT 🙌BUFvsCLE on @nflnetworkStream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/SBow1PXq6x Overall, Sanders was 9-for-11 for 74 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He took one sack (which lost no yardage) and had a 2-yard run.
Sanders got the ball out quickly for the most part and was generally accurate, except for the interception. His passes traveled, on average, 3.2 yards downfield, a very low number, and a couple of completions that went for minimal gains led to drives fizzling out. Overall, it was a better performance than Week 1, but the interception certainly put a damper on it.
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