DENVER — Jerry Jeudy almost got to be homecoming king.
He only slowed down Monday night to soak up the jeers of fans who once rooted for him, but the Jameis Winston roller coaster fell off the tracks with two picks in the final two minutes.
The Cleveland Browns rewrote some records but not the overall story of their disappointing season, as Winston threw for a franchise-best 497 yards and four touchdowns but also had a pair of interceptions that the host Denver Broncos returned for scores.
The Browns, no longer boring but still bad, couldn’t overcome their sloppiness and Winston’s three turnovers. Broncos cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian’s 44-yard interception return with 1:48 remaining came when the Browns were driving to set up a potential go-ahead field goal attempt.
But that Winston whiplash only led to more disappointment as the Broncos scored the final 10 points to secure a 41-32 win in a game that featured five lead changes and 163 yards worth of touchdown passes in 11 seconds in the third quarter.
The Broncos improved to 8-5 and moved a step closer to securing a playoff berth. The Browns suffered their fifth straight road loss and fell to 3-9.
“I messed it up for us in front of the whole wide world,” Winston said.
MCMILLIAN PICK-SIX TO POSSIBLY ICE IT.
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Jeudy had nine receptions for 235 yards, the most yards by a receiver facing his former team in NFL history. He repeatedly sprinted past the Broncos’ secondary and also blew past his previous career-best game of 154 receiving yards in the 2022 season finale.
Winston and Jeudy connected on a 70-yard touchdown early in the third quarter to get Cleveland within three. In the fourth quarter, Jeudy joined Cincinnati Bengals star Ja’Marr Chase as the only players to post 200-yard receiving games this season. Winston bested his single-game record of 458 passing yards in 2019 and Josh McCown’s Browns record of 457 in 2015. But after the Broncos settled for a field goal and a two-point lead inside the final three minutes, the McMillian interception on a sideline route essentially ended the chances of Winston leading a comeback on his big night.
“Bad throw,” Winston said, making it clear he didn’t want to get into further details.
Despite Jeudy’s domination of multiple Denver coverages, Cleveland didn’t have him on the field when McMillian made the interception. Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said Jeudy was taking a play to rest. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered, but that’s the kind of strange decision — the pick occurred on the first play out of the two-minute warning — that’s been tied to this Browns team all year. In early October, Stefanski said multiple times that Deshaun Watson gave them the best chance to win, and he stuck with Watson despite the quarterback never throwing for 200 yards in a game and Cleveland never reaching 20 points in his seven starts.
Watson only threw for 421 total yards over his last three starts and only had five touchdown passes all season. Winston was a couple of decisions away from surpassing that touchdown total in one game Monday night.
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Jeudy backed up his previous statement that he’s “been open my entire career” with another explosive performance against the team that traded him to Cleveland in March.
He had just one reception in each of Watson’s last three starts. Elijah Moore and Cedric Tillman have become playmakers in the Winston-led offense, too. It’s clear that the hesitance to change quarterbacks ended any chance of the Browns salvaging this season, and what was a joyless and relatively hopeless offensive operation had its best showing Monday night with 552 yards and 28 first downs before the fun ended with Winston’s late interceptions.
The Browns got to the 2-yard line while trailing by two scores with 44 seconds remaining before Winston threw into traffic and was intercepted a third time by Cody Barton.
“I think we played our butts off all around,” Jeudy said. “We just couldn’t finish how we were supposed to. That was a great team we faced. We just got to find a way to finish.”
Moore, the intended receiver on the McMillian interception, said the Broncos cornerback undercut the route. Moore blamed himself for hesitating and not making sure he touched McMillian immediately afterward, which allowed McMillian to return to his feet and sprint for the touchdown.
Late in the first half, Nik Bonitto read Winston’s eyes on a pass that he stepped in front of and returned for a 71-yard score.
BRONCOS PICK SIX
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“I’m just praying for the Lord to deliver me from pick sixes,” Winston said.
Yes, he really said that. He really did all that, too, releasing six passes that resulted in touchdowns — four to his team and two to the Broncos. He went to Jeudy on the Browns’ first play of the night for a gain of 44 and wisely kept going back. Jeudy encouraged the home crowd to boo louder after his first reception, and after his touchdown and ensuing two-point conversion, he posed and invited the hate.
“They only boo when they know there’s something great in you,” Jeudy said.
Entering Monday night, Jeudy was 29th in the NFL with 645 receiving yards and tied for 25th at 14.3 yards per reception. Now, he’s tied with CeeDee Lamb of the Dallas Cowboys for fifth with 880 receiving yards and ninth at 16.3 yards per reception.
For much of the night, it looked like Winston would also take a leap — and maybe even into Cleveland’s future plans. He carried a perfect passer rating into the second quarter. On his first two touchdowns, he showed some touch in placing the ball to different parts of the end zone where only David Njoku could get it. The second one to Njoku came late in the first half and followed Bonitto’s interception, allowing the Browns to keep it a one-score game.
Early in the third quarter, Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix threw a 93-yard touchdown strike to Marvin Mims Jr. The Browns answered on the next play with the 70-yarder from Winston to Jeudy.
Ultimately, though, keeping it close — and Winston being close to a night for the ages — ended with Cleveland doing the best it could. Even with the defense twice forcing the Broncos into second-half field goals and twice intercepting Nix, Denver got its defenders into the right places at the most crucial times.
“The team doesn’t deserve that,” Winston said. “Bad throws. I have to be better.”
(Photo: David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
