Browns LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah to remain in hospital overnight after neck injury in game against Ravens

CLEVELAND — Cleveland Browns linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah was carted off the field in Sunday's game against the Baltimore Ravens after taking a scary hit.

Owusu-Koramoah took a hit to the helmet during a tackle, falling backwards, appearing to be unconscious on the field.

The linebacker came to on the field but trainers immediately rushed out to evaluate him. A cart was brought out and Owusu-Koramoah was stabilized on a medical board before being loaded onto the cart.

As he was taken off the field, Owusu-Koramoah raised his fists to let fans know he heard them as they chanted, "JOK! JOK! JOK!"

The Browns transported Owusu-Koramoah to a University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center for further evaluation after determining he sustained a neck injury.

Owusu-Koramoah has movement in all of his extremities, the team said.

The team said he will remain in the hospital overnight for observation as a precaution.

Losing Owusu-Koramoah was hard on the team, who call him the "energizer of the defense," but that made them play even harder for him in his absence.

"Jeremiah. he's a warrior. He's really like the energizer of our defense. So when he went down it sort of hurt us for a second, but then we collectively said 'We're going to finish this game for him.' We didn't know what his status was at the moment. We know he's okay now, but we were really scared because we really have a lot of love for him and he's one of our leaders," said defensive end Ogbo Okoronkwo.

Fellow linebacker Mohamoud Diabtate, who had a strong game Sunday—tied for most tackles with Grant Delpit at nine as well as a tackle for loss—said losing Owusu-Koramoah put him in the mindset to "pray and play" for him.

"That's one of my best friends on the team, in life in general. We talk every single day, we're in position meetings every day, so to see him down, it hurt me. That's like seeing my blood brother down. So the only thing I could do is pray for him and go out there and play for him. Both of them, pray and play for him," Diabate said. "I feel like we did both of those things and I'm still praying for him and as soon as I'm able to go see him, I'm going to go see him and make sure he's okay and I know he's going to be back and even better."

For the player who is known for being an alkaline vegan, into herbs and tinctures and other natural remedies, his team knows Owusu-Koramoah will probably have just the thing to whip up to get himself right after he's discharged from the hospital.

"We're going to be checking up on him, going to see him, but he'll be back to us soon," said defensive end Myles Garret. "He's tough as nails and I know he'll have some kind of herbal concoction to get him right back on the field."