P.J. Walker ‘about bouncing back’ after bad interception to lead Browns to win over 49ers

CLEVELAND — The moment could’ve been an absolutely crushing blow for P.J. Walker and the Browns.

An interception with just over 11 minutes remaining to set up the San Francisco 49ers to take the lead? Just a brutal mistake and the most inopportune time.

Except that, to Walker, it was about the timing, but the time remaining.

“There’s still a lot of time left,” Walker said after the Browns rallied to beat the previously-unbeaten 49ers 19-17 Sunday. “Been in the situation before. I mean, it’s football, man. You’re going to make mistakes, but you can overcome mistakes as well, right after. Because you’ll get another opportunity right after that. So for me, it’s always about bouncing back. I mean, things happen and just keep going.”

A lot of things happened to leave Walker in the position he found himself in on Sunday

Starting quarterback Deshaun Watson needed to sustain a bruise on the rotator cuff on his right throwing shoulder, one which has left his return to the field as cloudy as Sunday’s Cleveland sky. Rookie backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson had to, when thrown to the wolves — or, Baltimore Ravens — less than three hours before kickoff two weeks ago, struggle so much that the Browns looked to their practice squad for the solution this week.

That’s where they found Walker, who had seven previous starts in 15 career NFL games dating back to 2020. Walker brought to the position just what the Browns couldn’t get from a rookie.

Walker finished 18-of-34 for 192 yards with two interceptions and a 45.2 passer rating. However, it was how he handled the difficult moments that drew the Browns to start him Sunday, moments like Deommordore Lenoir’s interception that set up the 49ers to take a 17-13 lead with 10:38 remaining.

“He ran around the sideline and he was saying that’s on him,” tight end David Njoku said of Walker’s demeanor. “But at the end of the day, we’re a team, so if anything’s on him, it’s on me too. It’s on everybody, you know what I mean? So like I said, it was a great team win and it’s onto next week.”

The pick was one of two Walker threw on the day, although the other one didn’t prove costly. That’s because the 49ers’ Jake Moody ended up missing a 54-yard field goal wide left early in the first quarter.

Moody would miss another field goal, this one from 41 yards wide right, with 9 seconds remaining. The reason that miss secured a Browns win was because of the poise Walker showed in leading the Browns on a pair of fourth-quarter scoring drives after that critical pick.

Walker would take the Browns 43 yards on 14 plays immediately after the 49ers took the lead, with Dustin Hopkins kicking a 50-yard field goal to pull them within 17-16 with 3:21 remaining. He was 5-of-7 for 33 yards on the drive, including a clutch 6-yard completion to David Bell to convert a fourth-and-3.

“I saw it quick,” Walker said of the throw to Bell. “I saw them drop out of the cover too. And the minute they dropped, I saw that little void and just tried to fit it in there to him.”

Walker got one more chance to lead the Browns down the field, taking over at his own 26 with 2:56 remaining. It was a chance that started rough, with him twice missing a wide-open Elijah Moore to leave the Browns in third-and-10.

That third-down pass seemed like it, too, was going to be for naught. However, the 49ers’ Tashaun Gipson Sr. was flagged for a personal foul for hitting a defenseless receiver, providing new life — and a new set of downs — at the Browns 41.

Walker would throw just two more passes, neither of which were caught. However, a 49ers holding penalty negated one, while Gipson’s drop in the end zone negated a whole different ending to the story.

“Yeah, that was a terrible mistake by me,” Walker said. “That right there was something that I knew I shouldn’t have did. Came back to the sideline, told (Browns coach Kevin Stefanski), I shouldn’t have made a stupid decision like that.”

Two plays later, all was right. Hopkins came on to give the Browns a 19-17 lead with a 29-yard field goal with 1:40 remaining.

That left just the waiting, the insufferable waiting, before Moody’s second miss sealed the deal.

“I felt proud of him,” Stefanski said. “He battled. He’s going to tell you he wishes he had a couple of plays back like all quarterbacks do. That’s kind of what we talk about. We’re striving for perfection, but it’s hard to attain it. But he made some throws, he made some plays, he ran the show. So that’s what he does. He’s a battler. He’s a tough kid.”

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: P.J. Walker rebounds from bad interception to lead Browns past 49ers