Game recap

Browns @ Jets

2026 Wk 5 · NYJ 17, CLE 12

Cleveland led 12-10 with four minutes left until a fumbled punt snap set up Braelon Allen's winning run.

FanIQ Research · October 11, 2026 · 6 facts, every one from the play-by-play

A fumbled punt snap while leading late: seven since 1999, and Cleveland is the first to lose

Rare

Cleveland led 12-10 and faced fourth-and-10 at the Jets 43 with 4:01 left. Corey Bojorquez lost the ball before he could kick it, and Trevin Wallace recovered for the Jets at the Cleveland 23. Three plays and 54 seconds later Braelon Allen ran 22 yards for the winning touchdown. Since 1999 a team leading in the fourth quarter has fumbled away a punt snap, with no kick and the defense recovering, seven times. The punting team won the first six. The Jets were the recovering team in three of the seven: 2001, 2021, and this one.

Leading team loses a fumbled punt snap in the 4th quarter, 1999-2026

Season	Wk	Punting team	Score before	Clock (Q4)	Recovered by	Final
2001	16	BUF	BUF 14, NYJ 9	0:52	NYJ	BUF 14, NYJ 9
2007	10	JAX	JAX 28, TEN 13	2:22	TEN	JAX 28, TEN 13
2013	8	NYG	NYG 15, PHI 0	4:19	PHI	NYG 15, PHI 7
2019	14	PIT	PIT 20, ARI 10	8:13	ARI	PIT 23, ARI 17
2021	2	LA	LA 17, IND 14	14:17	IND	LA 27, IND 24
2021	15	MIA	MIA 24, NYJ 17	10:27	NYJ	MIA 31, NYJ 24
2026	5	CLE	CLE 12, NYJ 10	4:01	NYJ	NYJ 17, CLE 12

What followed the fumble

Clock (Q4)	Down and distance	Ball on	Play	Score after
3:52	1st and 10	CLE 23	B.Allen run for 1 yard	CLE 12, NYJ 10
3:10	2nd and 9	CLE 22	G.Smith incomplete to J.Woods	CLE 12, NYJ 10
3:07	3rd and 9	CLE 22	B.Allen 22-yd TD run	NYJ 17, CLE 12

Why it matters. A punt from midfield with a two-point lead and four minutes left is the low-risk choice: it pins the Jets deep and makes them drive. The fumble turned that into a short field, and the play cost Cleveland 34 points of win probability, the second-largest swing of the game. In four of the six earlier cases the lead was seven points or more, so a short field did not flip the game; Cleveland's lead was two points, so one touchdown did.

Sacked eight times, Cleveland still led with four minutes left

Anomaly

Deshaun Watson went down eight times, tying the most sacks he has taken in a regular-season game (also 8, against the Giants in 2024). Cleveland had allowed 11 sacks on 128 pass plays across its first four games; the Jets got 8 on 41. Teams sacked eight or more times in a regular-season game since 1999 are 12-104-2, and Cleveland was two points and one punt away from becoming the 13th winner before losing by five.

Cleveland pass plays and sacks by game, 2026

Week	Opponent	Pass plays (incl. sacks)	Sacks
1	JAX	27	5
2	TB	32	2
3	CAR	34	2
4	PIT	35	2
5	NYJ	41	8

Teams sacked 8+ times in a regular-season game, 1999-2026

Team-games	Wins	Ties	Losses	Losses by 5 or fewer
118	12	2	104	9

Deshaun Watson's regular-season games with 7+ sacks taken

Season	Week	Team	Opponent	Sacks
2024	3	CLE	NYG	8
2026	5	CLE	NYJ	8
2018	4	HOU	IND	7
2018	6	HOU	BUF	7
2022	18	CLE	PIT	7
2024	5	CLE	WAS	7

Why it matters. Eight sacks usually means an offense that cannot stay on schedule, and the league record for such games, 12 wins in 118, reflects that. Cleveland stayed close because its defense held the Jets to 10 points through 56 minutes and recovered two Jets fumbles in the second half. The sacks still shaped the ending: two of them came on the drive after the Jets' 54-yard field goal, forcing a fourth-and-38 punt, and the last one, a strip on fourth down with 57 seconds left, ended the game.

The five biggest win-probability swings all came in the last 7:13

Trend

The game sat at 7-6 Jets from the second quarter until Jason Sanders hit a 54-yard field goal on the first play of the fourth. Every one of the game's five biggest swings came after that. Watson scrambled 20 yards and hit Denzel Boston for a 29-yard touchdown on third-and-10, but Andre Szmyt's extra point hit the right upright, leaving Cleveland ahead 12-10. Carson Schwesinger strip-sacked Geno Smith at the Cleveland 48 and Cleveland recovered, which put its win probability at 79.5% with 4:13 left. Cleveland gained nothing on three plays, lost the punt snap, and Allen scored three plays later.

Scoring plays

Qtr	Clock	Team	Play	Score after
1	9:25	NYJ	G.Smith 32-yd TD pass to G.Wilson	NYJ 7, CLE 0
1	3:30	CLE	A.Szmyt 25-yd FG	NYJ 7, CLE 3
2	10:19	CLE	A.Szmyt 41-yd FG	NYJ 7, CLE 6
4	14:42	NYJ	J.Sanders 54-yd FG	NYJ 10, CLE 6
4	6:21	CLE	D.Watson 29-yd TD pass to D.Boston, extra point no good	CLE 12, NYJ 10
4	3:07	NYJ	B.Allen 22-yd TD run	NYJ 17, CLE 12

Largest win-probability swings (for the team with the ball)

Qtr	Clock	Offense	Play	Win prob. change
4	4:20	NYJ	G.Smith strip-sacked by C.Schwesinger, CLE recovers	-36.6
4	4:01	CLE	Punt snap fumbled, NYJ recovers at CLE 23	-34.3
4	6:21	CLE	D.Watson 29-yd TD pass to D.Boston	+21.6
4	3:07	NYJ	B.Allen 22-yd TD run	+19.9
4	7:13	CLE	D.Watson 20-yd scramble	+14.3

Why it matters. For 50 minutes this was a field-position game with one touchdown in it. The last seven minutes held two touchdowns and three takeaways, and the two biggest swings were back-to-back possessions 19 seconds of game clock apart: the strip-sack handed Cleveland the game, and the punt snap handed it back. The missed extra point mattered less than it looked, since Allen's touchdown would have put the Jets ahead of a 13-10 score too.

Watson's 24 short throws gained 72 yards; his eight sacks lost 54

Split

Watson finished 15 of 33 for 155 yards. Nearly all of the value came on nine deep throws: three completions for 83 yards and +0.250 EPA per throw, including a 30-yarder to Isaiah Bond and the touchdown to Boston. The 24 short throws produced 12 completions and 72 yards, 3.0 a throw, at -0.114 EPA. The eight sacks cost 54 yards at -1.498 EPA apiece. His three scrambles, for 36 yards, were Cleveland's most efficient plays.

Cleveland dropbacks by type

Type	Plays	Comp	Yards	EPA/play	First downs
Deep pass	9	3	83	+0.250	3
Short pass	24	12	72	-0.114	4
Scramble	3	0	36	+0.674	2
Sack	8	0	-54	-1.498	0

Jets dropbacks by type

Type	Plays	Comp	Yards	EPA/play	First downs
Deep pass	3	1	21	-0.574	1
Short pass	27	16	161	-0.046	5
Scramble	1	0	5	+1.245	1
Sack	4	0	-40	-2.748	0

Why it matters. Cleveland's offense had one way to move the ball, and it came with the most risk: the deep throws and scrambles worked, while the short game that usually keeps a quarterback out of long-yardage downs produced 3.0 yards a throw. Smith worked the opposite way, living on 27 short throws for 161 yards, more than double Cleveland's short-game output on three more attempts. The Jets' four sacks were more costly per play because one of them was the strip-sack Cleveland recovered at the Cleveland 48 with 4:20 left.

Braelon Allen's first 100-yard game: 24 carries, 116 yards, after a previous best of 59

Comparison

With no Breece Hall carries for a second straight week, Allen carried 24 times for 116 yards and the winning touchdown. His previous career highs were 14 carries and 59 yards, both set the week before against Chicago. The 22-yard score was the longest rushing touchdown of his career, ahead of a 20-yarder in 2024, and 116 yards is more than he gained in the whole 2025 regular season (76 in four games).

Braelon Allen's best regular-season rushing games

Season	Week	Opponent	Carries	Yards	TD
2026	5	CLE	24	116	1
2026	4	CHI	14	59	0
2024	3	NE	11	55	0
2024	14	MIA	11	43	0
2026	1	TEN	10	40	0

Jets lead backs by week, 2026 (carries-yards)

Week	Breece Hall	Braelon Allen
1	22-102	10-40
2	16-29	5-7
3	13-32	4-14
4	0-0	14-59
5	0-0	24-116

Why it matters. Allen has gone from a 4-to-10-carry change-of-pace back in Weeks 1-3 to the entire Jets run game in Weeks 4 and 5, and the per-carry return held up under the bigger load: 4.8 yards a carry on 24 attempts. The closing sequence was all Allen: the touchdown, then three straight runs to drain clock before the final punt.

Garrett Wilson's 11th 100-yard game moves him to third among Jets since 1999

Milestone

Wilson caught 7 of 11 targets for 104 yards, including the 32-yard touchdown that opened the scoring. It was his 11th regular-season 100-yard game for the Jets, one behind Brandon Marshall and two behind Laveranues Coles, and his second of 2026 after 107 at Detroit in Week 3. His first 100-yard game also came against Cleveland, 8 catches for 102 yards in Week 2 of 2022.

Most 100-yard receiving games for the Jets, regular season, 1999-2026

Player	100-yd games	First	Last
Laveranues Coles	13	2000	2008
Brandon Marshall	12	2015	2016
Garrett Wilson	11	2022	2026
Robbie Chosen	8	2017	2019
Jerricho Cotchery	8	2006	2009
Santana Moss	7	2002	2004

Garrett Wilson's 100-yard games

Season	Week	Opponent	Rec	Yards
2022	2	CLE	8	102
2022	8	NE	6	115
2022	13	MIN	8	162
2023	8	NYG	7	100
2023	14	HOU	9	108
2024	5	MIN	13	101
2024	6	BUF	8	107
2024	8	NE	5	113
2024	14	MIA	7	114
2026	3	DET	10	107
2026	5	CLE	7	104

Why it matters. Marshall's 12 came in two seasons; Wilson reached 11 with no 100-yard game in 2025, and two more would tie Coles for the most by a Jet since 1999. In a game where the Jets threw only three deep passes, 83 of his 104 yards came on short throws (6 catches on 9 targets), the part of the field the Jets' offense leaned on all day.

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