There are no moral victories in the NFL, but the Cleveland Browns can at least take solace knowing Dillon Gabriel looked solid in his first career start.
Still, it won’t take the sting out of Sunday’s 21-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. Cleveland is now 1-4 on the season, while Minnesota improved to 3-2 by bouncing back from last week’s loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Ireland.
Carson Wentz directed a 10-play, 80-yard touchdown drive in the final minutes, which he finished with a 12-yard strike to Jordan Addison for the game-winning touchdown.
Wentz overcame an injured offensive line and typically stingy Browns defense to throw for 236 yards, one touchdown and zero interceptions.
As for Gabriel, he went 19-of-33 for 190 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions in a praiseworthy debut that drew plenty of reaction from social media:
This was a battle between two teams playing quarterbacks who started the season as backups with Wentz once again filling in for an injured J.J. McCarthy (ankle) and Gabriel taking over for a struggling Joe Flacco.
The Cleveland quarterback situation was the primary storyline coming in considering Shedeur Sanders draws far more attention than a typical third-string signal-caller. Still, the AFC North team decided to go with Gabriel before Sanders in the battle of rookies, and the Oregon product struck first against Minnesota with a touchdown pass to Harold Fannin Jr. in the opening quarter.
However, Minnesota answered right back with a trick play when running back Cam Akers threw a touchdown pass to Josh Oliver.
Those were the only touchdowns in the first half, although Cleveland didn’t provide a lot of early help for Gabriel. A long Quinshon Judkins touchdown run was overturned by a holding penalty, and Jerry Jeudy dropped a pass on what would have been an impressive third-down conversion.
Minnesota seemed to have bigger issues when Wentz took a hard hit and went to the blue injury tent right before halftime, although he remained in the game and directed a 71-yard touchdown drive to open the second half that Jordan Mason capped off in the end zone.
That forced Gabriel to operate from behind on the scoreboard for the first time, but he responded with a touchdown pass to David Njoku after a lengthy drive that featured Judkins. It was quite the composed answer for the rookie who wasn’t being asked to do too much while keeping the offense ahead of the sticks and away from game-turning mistakes.
Yet Cleveland was unable to take advantage of key Vikings mistakes from there with no points after a Zavier Scott lost fumble and Will Reichard missed field goal. That left the door wide open for the NFC North team, and Wentz kicked it right down on the team’s final drive.
Minnesota now has momentum heading into its bye week, while Gabriel will look to build on his performance with a road game against the rival Steelers.
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