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OU head coach Lincoln Riley congratulates Baker Mayfield, pokes Ohio State with single tweet

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

All of Ohio may have forgiven Baker Mayfield on Thursday night.

Thursday night, Mayfield stepped onto the field for the Cleveland Browns, completed 17-of-23 passes for 201 yards and led the team to its first win in 635 days, beating the Jets 21-17. Now, the former Oklahoma quarterback might be the most popular guy in Ohio.

And that’s a pretty significant accomplishment, considering what he did just 12 months earlier. That is, he planted the Sooners flag at midfield of Ohio Stadium after beating Ohio State in 2017.

Following Cleveland’s big win, Mayfield’s former coach, Lincoln Riley, congratulated the quarterback and took a stab at Ohio State in the process.

“Hey bud,” Riley wrote on Twitter, “Bet they forgive you for planting the flag now. Congrats.”

They say winning fixes everything. Thursday’s win may have fixed Mayfield’s relationship with Ohio.

Cleveland was 1-31 in 2016 and 2017 and brought a 17-game losing streak into the 2018 season. That streak was (kind of) snapped in Week 1 after a 21-21 tie with the Steelers. Last Sunday, the Browns lost to New Orleans. This was the team’s first victory since Dec. 24, 2016.

Mayfield will probably be allowed to plant all the flags he wants all over the city of Cleveland.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB