'A lot of food on the plate there': Amari Cooper gets his shot at record-setting day
HOUSTON — Amari Cooper was still hungry.
It didn't matter that the Browns had a four-touchdown lead in the fourth quarter Sunday over the Houston Texans. It didn't matter that Cooper had already surpassed the 250-yard receiving mark.
Cooper wanted to get back in the game. So he was lobbying coach Kevin Stefanski hard to get back in the game.
"There was a lot of time left, man," Cooper said after setting the Browns' single-game receiving record in a 36-22 win at Houston, "a lot of food on the plate there. So, yeah, I was kind of anxious a little bit for sure.”
At the time Cooper was pulled from the game, the Browns held a 36-7 lead. The star wide receiver, rejuvenated by his connection with quarterback Joe Flacco, had already accumulated 252 yards on 10 catches, less than 10 yards behind Josh Gordon's 10-year-old single-game receiving record.
Cooper, who finished with 11 catches for 265 yards and two touchdowns on 15 targets, wasn't lobbying to get in to set a record. He was just lobbying to get back in so he could continue to, as they say, "eat."
"There was 10 minutes left," said Cooper, who broke the record on a 13-yard catch with 3:44 remaining. "Just the rhythm of the game, the way it was flowing, I felt very confident that I could get 300, I'm not going to lie to you. But it was cool, it was cool. I'm glad we got the dub.”
The kind of day it was for Cooper should've been evident on the game's first play. That's when the tone was set, not just for Cooper, but for the Browns offense as a whole.
Flacco dropped back and threw a deep seed to Cooper, who had gotten behind the Texans defense on a post pattern. The 53-yard play set up the Browns at the Houston 6, three plays before Jerome Ford gave them a 7-0 lead they never relinquished.
“Just depends on what they play," Flacco said of whether or not Cooper was the initial read. "They were in quarters there and you want to give him a shot. Not that he's like our biggest burner but, man, he did an awesome job on that route just pushing the corner and then splitting them.”
The story of Cooper's day can't be told, though, without the story of the guy throwing him the football. Flacco continued his storybook season with the Browns that started when he was signed to the practice squad the week of Thanksgiving, and he could add a Christmas week chapter if he helps his new team clinch a playoff berth Thursday night with a win over the New York Jets, his most recent former team.
Flacco was 27-of-42 passing for 368 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions and a passer rating of 96.1. The only two passes he threw after returning to the game after he, too, was taken out up 36-7 went to Cooper.
“Honestly, to be completely candid, I would attribute most of it to Joe," Cooper said. "I mean, he just has an incredible feel for the game. He has an incredible arm. I think obviously with the relationship between a receiver and a quarterback, it's a symbiotic relationship. But the best way to explain it is we mesh well together.”
One of Flacco's last two passes was one of just three incompletions he threw to Cooper. The other was the record.
It's a record, mind you, of which neither Cooper nor Flacco were originally aware when they first went to the bench with less than 13 minutes remaining. That changed, though, as they spent time on the sideline.
"We were done, but when we took the field there, I did realize," Flacco said. "Somebody told me — (offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt) told me — that he needed 10 more yards to have a Browns record. Not that I was probably going to go out of my way. I didn't necessarily want to have to go out of my way to do it, but it just, the situation kind of just made it.”
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: Amari Cooper gets his shot at completing record-setting day in win
