Week 15 Game Recap: Cleveland Browns 17, Baltimore Ravens 27

What you need to know

Cleveland Browns

Derek Anderson played a spirited game in bringing the Browns back from a 17-3 deficit to tie the game up, but couldn’t maintain the momentum to score an upset victory on the road versus the rival Ravens. Anderson completed 23 of 32 passes for 223 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions in the loss. Anderson looked down the field to his receivers more in this game than in previous games, with Braylon Edwards leading the team in targets. Edwards finished with five catches for 68 yards and a touchdown. Fellow wide receiver Joe Jurevicius saw nearly as many targets, and caught five balls for 46 yards and Anderson’s other touchdown. From the tight end spot, Kellen Winslow contributed 61 yards while hauling in five balls, while Steve Heiden caught three passes for twenty yards.

The Browns split time fairly evenly down the middle in the backfield, with Jason Wright receiving the official start, with eight carries for 37 yards and one reception for three yards. Reuben Droughns also had eight carries, going for 31 yards and adding one catch for no yards.

Baltimore Ravens

While the division leading Ravens opened the game with Steve McNair, he had his hand stepped on, and despite reports of negative x-rays and observed warming up on the sideline, McNair did not return to this game after opening with four straight incompletions. Kyle Boller entered the game and completed 13 of 21 passes for 238 yards with two touchdowns and one interception in the game. Boller spent much of the afternoon keying in on tight end Todd Heap, who caught five balls for 58 yards. Starting wide receivers Derrick Mason and Mark Clayton were quiet, only seeing eight balls between the two of them. Mason finished the game with two catches for twenty yards, while Clayton made his first catch of the game in the waning moments, a 42 yards grab to help put the Ravens up by two scores. The third wide receiver, Demetrius Williams, had the biggest game of anyone catching two balls for 100 yards, including a 77 yarder which he ran under than made a move to find the end zone.

In the running game, Jamal Lewis kept grinding to the tune of 109 yards on 22 carries, with a touchdown from seven yards out. Lewis added a five yard reception in the receiving game. With Musa Smith placed on injured reserve, Mike Anderson saw all of the reserve duty in this game, carrying the ball three times for 22 yards. Fullback Ovie Mughelli caught two passes for thirteen yards, including a nine yard touchdown reception. Kyle Boller was active in scrambling out of the pocket, and finished with twelve yards on nine attempts.

What you ought to know

QB Derek Anderson, Pass: 23 - 32 - 223 - 2 TD / 2 INT

Anderson finished with an 85.8 passer rating by 72 percent of his passes while averaging 7.0 yards per passing attempt. Anderson showed good poise and confidence in throwing the ball downfield, developing a rhythm especially with Braylon Edwards throughout this game.

RB Reuben Droughns, Rush: 8 - 31 - 0, Rec: 1 - 0 - 0 (1 targets)

Droughns split time with Jason Wright in this game, but failed to reach the four yard per carry mark again, having done so only once all season when he did so in Week 13 against Kansas City. With his Week 15 output, Droughns has just 583 rushing yards and 750 total yards combined.

RB Jason Wright, Rush: 8 - 37 - 0, Rec: 1 - 3 - 0 (2 targets)

Wright opened the game on the field as the starter, but saw his most extensive action in the second half, when he broke off an 18 yard run to follow up a 12 yard run in setting up the game tying touchdown. Unfortunately though, three of his eight runs went for negative or zero yards.

WR Braylon Edwards, Rec: 5 - 68 - 1 (10 targets)

Edwards had his best game in weeks, and was actively involved in the game plan. In addition to his touchdown reception, he took the ball down to the three yard line on the play just prior to the touchdown by Joe Jurevicius. Edwards had a one yard reception called back due to pass interference called on teammate Kellen Winslow.

WR Joe Jurevicius, Rec: 5 - 46 - 1 (9 targets)

Jurevicius was actively involved in this game, and though his longest catch against the Ravens was for eighteen yards, he was targeted deep down the left side on multiple occasions throughout the game, though was unable to come up with any of these passes.

TE Kellen Winslow Jr, Rec: 5 - 61 - 0 (6 targets)

Winslow opened the game with a 36 yard catch on the first drive, but was relatively quiet the rest of the afternoon as the Ravens made a concerted effort to keep him from becoming involved in the passing game with different blitzing schemes and packages to pick up Winslow coming off the line.

PK Phil Dawson 1 - 2 FG, 2 - 2 XP, 5 points

Dawson connected from 51 yards out early in the game, but saw a 47 yard attempt sail wide right later in the half. Dawson connected successfully on both extra point attempts.

CLE Rush Defense

Absent of a 52 yard rush by Jamal Lewis, the Browns gave up only 90 yards on 34 attempts, so were fairly effective in slowing down the rushing game most of the afternoon with the exception of the long run. Ultimately, the Ravens wore down the Browns' defense, who were unable to help Derek Anderson enough in the second half of this game.

CLE Pass Defense

The Browns kept Derrick Mason and Mark Clayton from beating them, and didn’t allow Todd Heap to catch many balls, but were beat on a long ball by Demetrius Williams which defined their afternoon in a 27-17 loss. The unit picked up one interception and had one sack against the Ravens.

QB Kyle Boller, Pass: 13 - 21 - 238 - 2 TD / 1 INT, Rush: 9 - 12 - 0

Filling in for the injured Steve McNair, Boller completed 62 percent of his passes for an average of 11.3 yards per passing attempt to finish with a passer rating of 112.8. Even without the 77 yard touchdown pass to Demetrius Williams, Boller still would have averaged over eight yards per attempt in this game. Despite the high average gains, Boller appeared to favor throwing to Todd Heap over any other receiver in this game.

RB Jamal Lewis, Rush: 22 - 109 - 1, Rec: 1 - 5 - 0 (2 targets)

Lewis broke off a 52 yard run in the second quarter on his way to passing the century mark and averaging nearly five yards per carry. Lewis wore down the Browns defense in this game, though absent of his long run, averaged just 2.7 yards per carry, and less than two yards per carry in the second half with eleven carries for 21 yards. Despite the poor average in the second half, Mike Anderson did not receive a carry in the entire second half.

WR Derrick Mason, Rec: 2 - 20 - 0 (5 targets)

Mason caught just one ball in each half, and was not targeted very often in this game going up against shutdown cornerback Leigh Bodden.

WR Mark Clayton, Rush: 1 - -1 - 0, Rec: 1 - 42 - 0 (3 targets)

Clayton did not catch a pass until the final five minutes of the game, a 42 yard pass down the right sideline to the opponent’s six yard line. The Browns challenged despite no evidence to suggest otherwise, as they were seeking to prevent allowing the game to grow to a two score deficit.

WR Demetrius Williams, Rec: 2 - 100 - 1 (5 targets)

Williams came up with the big play of the game, a 77 yard reception on which he ran under a perfectly thrown ball by Boller, made a defender miss, and galloped the final twenty yards for a touchdown.

TE Todd Heap, Rec: 5 - 58 - 0 (11 targets)

Heap was very active, and targeted once in the red zone on a play which drew a defensive penalty. Despite leading the team in targets, his biggest play of the game was a nineteen yard catch. Heap departed with an apparent knee injury after a collision, where he came up limping and had to be helped off the field late in the game.

PK Matt Stover 2 - 2 FG, 3 - 3 XP, 9 points

Stover connected on field goals of 22 and 38 yards and was successful on all three extra points.

BAL Rush Defense

The rush defense shut down the Browns’ pair of Jason Wright and Reuben Droughns who combined for just 68 yards on sixteen carries. In trailing throughout most of the game, the Browns were unable to truly establish a rushing attack in this game.

BAL Pass Defense

The secondary allowed five catches to Braylon Edwards, Joe Jurevicius and Kellen Winslow each for a total of 175 yards between the three, but finished with six sacks and two interceptions.