The 2023 NFL season has come to an end with the Cleveland Browns losing to the Houston Texans by a large margin on Saturday.
In their first playoff game since the 2020 season, Cleveland struggled on both sides of the ball from the jump.
The Browns gave up big plays defensively and had two offensive turnovers that Houston capitalized on and set the Texans up to win 45-14.
The Browns have also been plagued with injuries throughout the season and they will be working on how to manage that in the coming season.
QB Joe Flacco had two critical interceptions on back-to-back offensive drives in the third quarter that put the game almost out of reach for Cleveland.
In the third quarter, Flacco’s pass was intercepted by CB Steven Nelson, who ran for 82 yards on the return for the touchdown.
The Texans sealed the win early in the fourth quarter on their first offensive drive of the quarter. On the third play of the fourth quarter, QB C.J. Stroud handed the ball off to RB Devin Singletary, who ran for 19 yards into the end zone, giving the Texans a 45-14.
But the Browns defense gave three touchdowns to their opponents in the first half.
Both times the Browns offense scored, the defense gave up big plays and scoring drives to the Texans. Houston scored on a 76-yard touchdown run in the second quarter following RB Kareem Hunt’s second touchdown of the first half.
Players of the Game:
RB Kareem Hunt
Hunt put the Browns on the board in the first half with two touchdowns. He finished the game with 26 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown, as well as 9 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown.
LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah
Owusu-Koramoah gave the Browns a boost. He had seven tackles in the first half of the game. Owusu-Koramoah finished the game with eight tackles and four tackles for loss.
