Drought over: Browns win first game since December 2016

Baker Mayfield and the Cleveland Browns had plenty to cheer about Thursday night.

Credit: Joe Robbins

Credit: Joe Robbins

Baker Mayfield and the Cleveland Browns had plenty to cheer about Thursday night.

Here are two words that haven’t been back to back in the same sentence since Dec. 24, 2016: Browns win.

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Rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield rallied Cleveland from a two-touchdown deficit in his NFL debut Thursday night to lead the Browns to a 21-17 victory against the New York Jets, ESPN reported.

The victory snapped a 19-game winless streak and ended a 635-day victory drought.

Joe Schobert's interception of Jets rookie quarterback Sam Darnold with 1:21 to play and a Terrance Mitchell pick with 11 seconds left sealed the victory, sending Browns fans into a frenzy, ESPN reported.

"We finally put the pieces together a little bit," Mayfield said. "This crowd deserved to see that first win here at home."

Only 10 players on Cleveland's roster were with the team the last time the Browns (1-1-1) won a game, ESPN reported. The Jets fell to 1-2.

Mayfield led the Browns on their winning rally by completing six of eight passes in a 15-play, 75-yard drive that ended with Carlos Hyde’s second touchdown with 2:04 to play.

Cleveland’s 19-game winless streak was the NFL’s second-longest since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. The 1976-1977 Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost their first 26 games.