Soldier Field (Chicago) — Shedeur Sanders’ NFL body of work is small enough that nothing should be surprising, but the Browns rookie quarterback followed up his best game with his worst on Sunday, struggling with three interceptions in a lopsided loss at the Bears.
After the Cleveland Browns’ 31-3 loss to the Chicago Bears on Sunday, Sanders is 1-3 as a starter. Despite that, this was the first game where he threw more interceptions than touchdowns.
He has three games left this season to show that Cleveland, which will have a top-five pick in next year’s draft, doesn’t have to address the quarterback position again in the offseason. Despite some promise in past weeks, the Browns drafted Dillon Gabriel in the third round last year and still owe Deshaun Watson a lot of money over the next two seasons.
“There’s going to be ups and downs to young players, in particular at the quarterback position,” Kevin Stefanski said from the podium after the game. “So, we’ll learn from it and be better next week.”
(Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
There hasn’t been anything conclusive over the past two weeks from Sanders, who suffered a late, heartbreaking defeat last week before getting blown out in Week 15.
If the loss to the Titans was a potential breakout – 364 passing yards, three passing touchdowns and another on the ground – Sunday at Soldier Field was a reminder of not only the inconsistency of young quarterbacks, but that Sanders’ strong showing had come in a loss against a one-win Titans team with the worst defense in the league.
Sanders faced a Chicago defense that led the NFL with 27 takeaways coming in, and his three turnovers in the second half helped the Bears pull away to an easy victory.
Sanders had kept his turnovers in check with only three interceptions in 103 career passes entering the Bears game. Then, he had three in 10 attempts on Sunday that turned a 14-3 deficit into a 31-3 rout.
“I’m the same person, regardless. I’ve still got the same belief in myself,” Sanders said at the podium after the loss. “I’m in the learning and understanding phase of this game and how things are … It’s definitely like it is any week, you have to get out there, learn from it, play better and that’s it.”
After the strong outing against the Titans, Stefanski had declared that Sanders would be Cleveland’s starter the rest of the way, essentially saying it’s more important to evaluate him than Gabriel, who was drafted two rounds before him. Stefanski reiterated after Sunday’s loss that they’ll stick with Sanders the rest of the way, though the former University of Colorado star wasn’t taking his job for granted.
“Do you know what league we’re in?” Sanders asked. “You can lose your job at any point and time. So you don’t play with fear. If you live and play in fear, you’ll never be yourself. So I don’t … whatever happens, it happens.”
In addition to playing a better team this week, there were other mitigating circumstances on Sunday. The temperature at kickoff was just 8 degrees in Chicago, though Sanders dismissed that as a limitation, saying it was cold in his college days in Colorado and even Mississippi.
Also, the Browns’ offensive line took another hit, with guard Teven Jenkins leaving the game with an injury. But Cleveland struggled to move the ball in the first half, totaling 57 yards of offense, with 42 coming on one downfield pass to receiver Isaiah Bond.
Even with that, they were only down 14-3 in the third quarter when Bears linebacker D’Marco Jackson made a leaping interception, setting up a 22-yard touchdown on the next play. The next drive ended with another interception, though it wasn’t Sanders’ fault, with Bears corner Jaylon Johnson pulling the ball away from receiver Jerry Jeudy in the end zone.
Sanders added one more interception in the fourth quarter, and he finished the day 18-for-35 for 177 yards, with a passer rating of 30.3. Out of 400-plus games with 15 or more passes this season, Sanders now has two of the five worst passer ratings of the year.
“The main thing is decompress, chill and be able to learn from it,” Sanders said after the loss.
(Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Sanders has had a long year, going from a prospect some projected as a high first-round pick to falling all the way to the fifth round. He started the season as Cleveland’s No. 3 quarterback, still the backup behind Dillon Gabriel after Joe Flacco was traded to the Bengals. He’s a month into life as a starting quarterback, dealing with a depleted line and limited weapons around him.
The Browns are now 3-14, and Sunday’s loss was their most lopsided in a regular-season game in four years. Sanders’ completion percentage for the season is just 52%, the lowest out of 44 quarterbacks with at least 100 passes. Stefanski was careful not to be overly critical of Sanders, saying it would be “incomplete” to say much without looking closely at game tape.
“I know there’s things that we can do better, and I know there’s things he can do better, so we’ll look at that,” he said.
Cleveland has three games left and will do well to avoid matching last year’s 3-14 record — they have home games against the Bills and Steelers, both battling for playoff spots, then finish the year in Cincinnati. Veteran pass rusher Myles Garrett, who had 1.5 sacks on Sunday to give him 22 for the season, said his message to the young players on the roster is to keep playing at full intensity every week.
“You have to build a stable foundation with the young guys, showing them it doesn’t matter what the record is or what the score is,” Garrett said. “There’s still time on the clock, for the season, and for life. Don’t shy away from obstacles or struggle. That’s going to be there. The test of a man is really who you are when those come.”
Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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