The Cleveland Browns suffered a 21-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in England to fall to 1-4.
The Browns had the lead late into the fourth quarter, but with 25 seconds left, Carson Wentz found Jordan Addison for a game-winning touchdown. Following the game, star cornerback Denzel Ward took full blame for the loss as he said he took a bad route on the play.
“Yeah, we were in Cover 2 and I got to reroute the guy inside and not put it so wide for the safety,” Ward said to the media. “So I take full accountability for that. And yeah, just got to finish and execute better once it gets down to the last seconds.”
Ward finished the game, recording 3 tackles, but his misread on Addison’s route ended up being costly.
The star cornerback, meanwhile, was also on Justin Jefferson at times. The star receiver recorded 7 receptions for 128 yards in a dominant game, and Ward knows it’s hard to defend him.
“He was straight,” Ward said of Jefferson. “He caught some balls in the zones, he showed up when it counted in the last minutes of the game and we’ve just got to finish and get the ball out.”
The Browns will go on the road to play the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday in Week 6.
Greg Newsome II Puts Blame on Browns Defense
Although Ward took accountability for the loss, the defense was shouldering the blame.
Cornerback Greg Newsome II said the loss was on the defense for not being able to stop the Vikings on their final possession.
“Yeah, that’s on us as a defense,” Newsome II said in the locker room. “We got the lead, last drive, that’s what we asked for and we didn’t hold up our end of the bargain. So definitely sucks to play such a good game to not finish it at the end.”
Browns defensive end Alex Wright, meanwhile, says the defense needs to be better if Cleveland is going to win games.
“We did a lot of talking about losses and stuff like that, but now we just got show because we done took L after L,” Wright said. “So it’s like people talk about, we got to do that now. It’s like the talking is going, we got to actually do something. But other than that, I feel like we did have good spurts. We had bad spurts, and that’s just the flow of the game. But overall, that too many, we just got to do better. We just got to finish.”
The Browns‘ defense recorded two fumbles and two sacks in a solid effort against the Vikings.
Coach Says Team Needs to be Better
Cleveland fell just short in England and fell to 1-4 on the season.
Following the game, Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said the team needed to be better in every phase of the game.
“We need to do a better job closing out and that’s an offensive thing, defensive, special teams, coaches, players, you name it,” Stefanski said. “We’ve got to come away and be at our best in those moments and we were not and that’s the frustrating part for me.”
The Browns are now on a two-game losing streak.
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