The Jaguars and Browns are tied 7-7 at the half in Cleveland after a questionable call by referee Terry McAulay helped the Browns get into the end zone.
On a second down play inside the Jacksonville red zone, Jaguars safety Dawan Landry was flagged for interfering with Browns running back Chris Ogbonnaya on a pass into the end zone. Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio challenged the play and argued that the ball was tipped at the line which meant Landry did nothing wrong. Replays appeared to back up Del Rio’s assertion, but McAulay ruled that the call stood and Ogbonnaya broke a streak of 194 Browns carries without a touchdown two plays later.
That capped the most impressive burst of offense from the Browns as Colt McCoy finally hit some passes down the field and moved the team swiftly down the field. Until that point it had been a pretty typical day for the Browns with a lot of short passes and ineffectual runs leading to punts.
The Jaguars offense wasn’t much better, although Blaine Gabbert did put together one long drive of his own to pick up Jacksonville’s only points of the half. The Jags held the ball for nearly 10 minutes on an 18-play, 92-yard march that featured four third-down conversions. Maurice Jones-Drew scored from six yards out and then threw a dagger at the Cleveland crowd by celebrating with an imitation of LeBron James’ pregame chalk toss.
Gabbert has looked better than in previous weeks, but neither he nor McCoy are leading offenses that figure to provide many fireworks the rest of the way.