By Lawrence Land Michael Rifkin
This Sunday, we will see a potential postseason match when Baker Mayfield and the Cleveland Browns travel to Kansas City to take on Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in a Sunday afternoon showdown at 4:25 PM EST. This will also be the fifth time that Mayfield and Mahomes face off against each other. This will be their second meeting in the regular season; Mahomes and the Chiefs defeated the Browns 37-21 in November of 2018.
These two teams played in the divisional round of the playoffs last season, which saw the Chiefs win 22-17 and eventually went to play in their second consecutive Super Bowl. In that game, Patrick Mahomes went 21-30 for 255 yards, a passing touchdown, and a rushing touchdown. The bigger story was Mahomes left this game with a concussion, and with the game in the hands of backup Chad Henne, who on a third and long scrambled for 13 yards, and on fourth down and the game on the line, head coach Andy Reid believed in his team that he went for it and had Henne throw a short pass to Tyreek Hill who had eight catches for 110 yards on the day to get the first down and seal the victory for the Chiefs. The Chiefs start their quest for a third straight Super Bowl appearance when they take on the Browns.
For the Browns, they came off a pretty impressive 2020 season with a record 11-5 and finishing third in the AFC North behind the Baltimore Ravens also (11-5) finished 2nd and division winners the Pittsburgh Steelers finished (12-4) after starting 11-0. Mayfield would also have himself a decent season, completing 62.8% of his passes, had 3,563 passing yards and a 26-8 TD-INT ratio. They would face the Steelers in the Playoffs and get a 48-37 victory, then, as stated earlier, would lose to the Chiefs in the Divisional Round. The Browns will try to capture their first division title in 32 years when they won it back in 1989 when they went 12-4.
Besides the game at hand, this will also mark the fifth time that Mahomes and Mayfield face each other. The first time they faced each other was in 2016 when both qbs were still in college. Mahomes (Texas- Tech) and Mayfield (Oklahoma) would put on a show for the ages.
Mahomes went 52/88 734 yards passing for five tds and one int along with 85 yards rushing and two rushing TDS
Mayfield went 27/36, 545 yards passing, and seven tds zero ints.
So what will Sunday bring when they go at it for around five? Are we in for another shootout? We will have to wait and see Sunday.
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