A loud cheer rose up from Browns fans at Huntington Bank Field when rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders trotted onto the field to make his NFL debut in the second half of Sunday's mid-November game.
The Ravens defense made sure it didn't last long.
Kyle Hamilton sacked Sanders to end his first drive. Kyle Van Noy clobbered Sanders and Nate Wiggins intercepted him to end his second drive.
The Ravens spoiled Sanders' long-awaited debut, holding him to just 47 passing yards and four completions on 16 attempts in Baltimore's 23-16 win in Cleveland.
"It's a rookie at the end of the day," linebacker Roquan Smith said. "When you play a rookie in this league, you have to let them know that they are rookies. That's just what it is."
Sanders took over for fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel after he suffered a concussion that was diagnosed during halftime. Sanders said he found out he was going to be in the huddle just as he came out onto the field for the second half.
The Ravens gave him a rude welcome with relentless pressure from the start. Though the Ravens finished with three sacks, they also had 10 quarterback hits.
Hamilton spun around a blocker to take down Sanders and force a fumble on his opening third down. Then Hamilton even broke out Sanders' trademark watch celebration.
"We preach nameless, faceless opponents. I was confused when the crowd was going crazy, but then I saw Shedeur come in," Hamilton said. "There weren't really too many adjustments; we're playing our game, [just] trying to get off the field and get turnovers, which guys did today."
As a unit, Baltimore held Cleveland to just 187 total yards on 54 plays. That's a paltry average of 3.5 yards per play. The Browns were 2-of-14 on third down, and the Ravens defense closed out the game with a fourth-down stop.
Cornerback Chidobe Awuzie pried away an end zone shot on third-and-5, and Smith broke up a fourth-down pass in the flats to close it out.
After the game, Sanders told teammates he put the loss on his shoulders. He also said his lack of familiarity with the Browns' starting pass catchers made it challenging.
"I don't think I played good. I don't think I played good at all," he told reporters. "I'm going to give [the Ravens] their props. They were a good football team. But I know this. I know the only way is up for sure."
The Ravens defense heard the cheer that Sanders got when he entered the game. They paid it little attention. Outside linebacker Dre'Mont Jones said Smith brought the defense together to relay the message that everything was the same.
"You want to go out there and just kill," Jones said of the message. "It gave us zero extra momentum. The momentum was already there."
Sanders was widely expected to be a first-round pick. The Ravens were reportedly considering drafting him in the fifth round, but Sanders made it clear he didn't want to back up Lamar Jackson.
Sanders' calculation was that he would have an easier time becoming a starter in Cleveland. He wasn't wrong. The Ravens defense just didn't make him look "right" in his debut either.
"As a defense, a rookie should never be able to do crazy things on a defense, especially with the amount of guys we have here," Smith said.
"That's just how I look at it, with all due respect to him. I think he's a great player; I think he's going to be a great player. Got a lot of respect for his family as well, and Gabriel as well. [But] at the end of the day, they're rookies."
