CLEVELAND — The Browns loss to the New York Giants on Sunday came with some tough moments as well, including an end-of-game drop from wide receiver Cedric Tillman, who took it pretty hard.
Cleveland's offense was on its third attempt within the last eight minutes of the game, looking to score down just six points. On the first attempt, the Browns fumbled the handoff between quarterback Deshaun Watson and running back Jerome Ford. On the second attempt, the Browns offense stalled on 4th-and-1 with Watson sacked for a turnover on downs.
The third and final attempt saw the Browns on fourth down again, this time with four yards to gain for a first. Watson found Tillman across the middle, hitting him in the numbers with his pass—a pass Tillman dropped. The Giants took over on downs with 2:23 left to play, sealing the game and giving the Browns their second loss of the season.
The second-year wide receiver talked about the play after the game, tough on himself for the play he'd love to have back.
"I let the team down. I make that play most of the time but unfortunately didn't make it today," Tillman said.
That one play may have ended the Browns last offensive effort to reclaim the lead and get the win, but it certainly wasn't the reason the team lost. Multiple efforts were stalled out down the stretch, a banged up offensive line got hit hard with injuries that didn't help pass protection throughout the game, Watson missed some early opportunities of his own and the defense admitted to not starting as fast as they needed to in order to help the team succeed.
No one thing was the reason the Browns lost on Sunday, it was a culmination. Still, Tillman clearly was not happy with himself. As he looks to move past Sunday's game, along with the rest of the team, he has veterans in his ear lifting him up.
“Just keep his head up. I told him I was coming to him on that play, too. I gave him that opportunity. I’m going give him a chance to make a shot. Sometimes it happens like that and the ball just didn’t bounce our way and we didn’t get to capitalize it," Watson said. "But I motivated him, ‘Hey, I’m going to keep coming back to you’. All my guys. It’s a long season, it’s only game three. And we got to fix things ASAP, very, very fast. But at the same time, we can’t get down on each other because we got to make sure we keep this team locked in on the task at hand and we got to keep pushing forward and keep working.”
That sentiment was echoed in Tillman's wide receivers room as well by veteran Amari Cooper.
Cooper, who had tough drops of his own in the first two games of the season, knows a thing or two about moving past them. That's why he made sure to get in Tillman's ear with words of encouragement.
"I just told him never let them see you sweat. Those things happen, it's football. At the end of the day, those guys on the other side of the ball get paid, too," Cooper said. "Any time you're in a situation like that, you just want to be able to learn from it the best way that you could, so that's what I told him."
Having support from veteran players around him will hopefully allow Tillman to move past the moment Sunday and not put too much on himself as he and the rest of the Browns look to bounce back from the loss and prepare for a three-game road stretch starting with the Las Vegas Raiders next Sunday.
