Baker Mayfield's Playoff-Clinching Run Was a Play Named After Something Colin Cowherd Said

Baker Mayfield ran for the game-clinching first down that put the Cleveland Browns back in the playoffs for the first time since 2002. The name of the play was "Maserati." That is a nod to Colin Cowherd who, in one of his many anti-Baker segments, said that Mayfield was more of a Mazda than a Maserati. In one clip Cowherd even said that Baker couldn't outrun a lineman.

Well, how about that? Here's the story behind the final first down. Via MMQB:

"This was the call that put the Browns in the playoffs for the first time since 2002: Maserati. That’s right, a simple, one-word call signifying a quarterback sweep. As it turns out, Cleveland has had the play in its back pocket. But not only had Kevin Stefanski not called it this year, it actually wasn’t even in any of the Browns’ 15 previous game plans. “It was for short yardage this week, and we called it,” said guard Joel Bitonio, the longest-tenured Brown, in his seventh season in Cleveland. “I was kinda giving Baker [Mayfield] a little bit of crap earlier in the week about his speed, having him run the ball. It was a good play getting the extra blocker with Kareem [Hunt] leading the way there. I was on the backside so I just kinda cut my guy off. I saw him get the first down and get down in bounds, and I knew we had the game sealed. "

Perhaps Mayfield and the Browns shouldn't feel so bad about the Maserati analogy. In 2017, Cowherd compared Carson Wentz to a Maserati and said that Dak Prescott was a Corvette.

That has aged about as well as the rest of Cowherd's Mayfield takes. Including this mock draft where he had Sam Darnold going No. 1 and Josh Rosen No. 2 where he and Pat Shurmer would rule New York for a decade. Cowherd has always one of the most vocal Baker haters, especially when compared to his real Maserati, Darnold. Cowherd is like whichever one of those cars has blindspot.