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The Bengals handled their business against the Browns on Sunday. The win helped Cincinnati avoid being swept by Cleveland for the second year in a row. It was hard to forget how last year the Browns played with a little extra motivation due to their former head coach Hue Jackson joining the Bengals staff.
One of the biggest players behind that was quarterback Baker Mayfield repeatedly calling out Jackson every opportunity he got. It was clear that Bengals fans didn’t forget as they got into Mayfield’s head prior to the game with some trash talk.
Baker Mayfield and a few fans get into it before the game.
— uSTADIUM (@uSTADIUM) December 29, 2019
Baker: “Why don’t you come down here and tell me that to my face?”
Fan: “We’re not allowed to, you know that! Why don’t you come up here?”pic.twitter.com/Rt8PqMOR2V
You can hear fans relentlessly heckle the second-year quarterback prior to the game. One of my personal favorites is a guy saying they look like a team that looks like they’re about to lose to a 1-14 team. This has to be something every NFL player gets used to hearing, especially in their second season, but Mayfield couldn’t help but respond to the guy.
In reality, it is understandable to get frustrated as a person, but he is an NFL player who already has shown signs of probably letting his emotions get the better of him too often. This has always been a double edged sword with Mayfield over his time with Cleveland though. It is part of what makes him so endearing as a Browns fans. It is pretty similar to how most Bengals fans were willing to endlessly defend Vontaze Burfict.
At the end of the day, Mayfield would normally get away with this had he not gone out and tossed three interceptions, complete less than half of his passes and lose to a 1-14 team.
In honor of him trying to clap back at Bengals fans I’ll go ahead and list a few more things he looks like.
- A guy who threw five less touchdowns and seven more interceptions in his second season.
- Someone who got his new head coach fired after one season. (That is two coaches for those keeping count)
- A dude who didn’t complete 60 percent of his passes this season.
- A quarterback who threw a combined three touchdowns and five interceptions against the Bengals in two games.
- Someone who got sacked 15 more times this season (seven from Cincinnati).
- Someone who could barely get Odell Beckham Jr. barely over 1,000 receiving yards and four touchdowns, and make him miss Eli Manning.
- A guy who couldn’t live up to hype he helped fuel.
What else does Mayfield look like?