The Browns had a chance to swing their Monday night game against the 49ers in the right direction with an Antonio Callaway touchdown, but the play went horribly wrong for Cleveland.
Late in the first half, the Browns were down 14-3, but had a chance to get back into the game when Baker Mayfield threw a pass to Callaway at the goal line. But he bobbled the pass and it ended up in the hands of 49ers defensive back K'Waun Williams, who charged downfield and finally was stopped at midfield.
This interception shows up on Baker Mayfield's stat line. But Antonio Callaway is the one to fault here. Gotta catch that.pic.twitter.com/y59QX7WJVv
— NFL Update (@MySportsUpdate) October 8, 2019
Browns offensive coordinator Todd Monken was extremely unhappy with the turnover, which seemed to turn the tide against the Browns in their eventual 31-3 loss.
“We didn’t execute the play for God’s sakes. It’s catastrophic. It completely changed the game,” Monken said, via Cleveland.com. “Bad football loses before good football wins.”
Callaway had just been activated to the roster after he was suspended the first four games of the season due to a violation of the league's substance-abuse policy.
Despite the costly mistake, coach Freddie Kitchens called Callaway one of the team's "better players" and said he intends to still play him.
“We move our receivers around a good bit. I would say the same thing I said (Monday night), I felt like Antonio was ready to play so we played him," Kitchens said Tuesday. "He is one of our better players so when our players are healthy and they are eligible to play, they are going to play. In doing that, we move our receivers around. We have always moved our receivers around. Antonio will be better moving forward.”
The 2-3 Browns will try to get their season back on track Sunday against the Seahawks (4-1).