Joe Flacco passed for 368 yards and three touchdowns while Amari Cooper produced a franchise-record 265 receiving yards as the Cleveland Browns cruised to a 36-22 road win over the Houston Texans on Sunday.
Flacco and Cooper powered the Browns (10-5) to their third consecutive victory. Flacco tossed a pair of scoring strikes to Cooper and another to David Njoku that extended the Cleveland lead to 22-7 with 4:16 left in the first half.
Cooper was unstoppable. He had a season-high 11 catches en route to his fourth career game with 200-plus receiving yards, one game behind Calvin Johnson and Lance Alworth for the most such games in NFL history. His yardage total not only surpassed the previous Browns mark of 261 set by Josh Gordon in 2013 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, it was the 17th-highest total in NFL history.
Flacco posted his third consecutive 300-yard game and, at 38 years and 342 days old, is the third-oldest quarterback to accomplish that feat. Only Tom Brady and Warren Moon were older.
Stifled by the Browns’ top-ranked defense, quarterback Case Keenum — starting for the Texans (8-7) in place of standout rookie C.J. Stroud (concussion) — passed for just 62 yards and tossed two interceptions while suffering three sacks, two by Browns defensive end Za’Darius Smith.
Flacco and Cooper hooked up for a 53-yard gain on the first play from scrimmage and didn’t look back. That drive, capped by a 4-yard touchdown run from Jerome Ford, spotted the Browns a 7-0 lead, an advantage doubled at the 12:04 mark of the second quarter when Cooper beat Texans backup cornerback D’Angelo Ross for a 75-yard score.
Dameon Pierce returned the ensuing kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown in what was the lone highlight for the Texans while the outcome was undecided.
The Browns lost kicker Dustin Hopkins to a hamstring injury in the first half. His loss did not hinder their offense, as Cooper added a 7-yard scoring grab in the third quarter before Kareem Hunt capped a 10-play, 51-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown plunge with 12:31 remaining. Cooper snagged the two-point conversion attempt to extend the lead to 36-7.
The Texans did not cross the Cleveland 46-yard line until midway through the fourth quarter. Third-string quarterback Davis Mills engineered a pair of late scoring drives, completing touchdown passes to Nico Collins and Andrew Beck.
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and Duron Harmon recorded interceptions for the Browns.
–Field Level Media
