Browns 27-24 Titans: a 27-10 run erases a 14-0 hole in Nashville

Twenty-seven points to ten. That is what Cleveland did after stumbling into a 14-0 hole at Nissan Stadium, and it is the number that explains how the Browns left Nashville with a 27-24 win over the Tennessee Titans.

The start belonged entirely to Tony Pollard. The Titans back scored two first-quarter touchdowns and Tennessee owned a 14-0 lead before Cleveland had put a point on the board. Quinshon Judkins then dragged the visitors back into it: a touchdown before the first quarter closed, another in the second, and Andre Szmyt's field goal capped a run of 17 unanswered points that sent Cleveland in front 17-14 at the break. Tennessee's second-quarter total: zero.

Then came a third quarter with nothing on it: 0-0, both offenses stuck. The fourth made up for it. Joey Slye's field goal pulled Tennessee level at 17-17, Deshaun Watson's touchdown put Cleveland back in front, and Pollard scored for the third time on the day to tie it again. Andre Szmyt had the last word — a field goal for 27-24 that held up as the winner.

Pollard did everything but win. Three touchdowns, two of them the foundation of a 14-0 lead that never grew, and his team still walked off second. Judkins answered with two scores of his own, Watson supplied the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth, and Szmyt's second field goal of the game was the one that counted most.

A 14-point head start, a scoreless third quarter, two ties, a winner: Nissan Stadium saw every shape a game can take on Sunday, and Cleveland took the only one that mattered.