After a blowout loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 8, the Cleveland Browns went down to the Big Easy looking to keep their season on the tracks. They nearly pulled it off.

After forcing overtime and matching a Saints touchdown in the extra period, Cleveland's two-point conversion attempts fell short and the Browns late-gane luck finally ran out. 

Here's what we learned from the Browns 23-22 loss to the Saints.

There was plenty of discourse leading into Week 9 about whether or not this game was Shedeur Sanders' opportunity to steal the starting QB job from Watson and understandably so. Sanders probably didn't do nearly enough today to convince Todd Monken to actually stick with him as the starter, but he certainly had some moments. 

The 2025, fifth-round pick finished 19-of-31, for 297 yards and two touchdowns. He had some help from the Browns two newest weapons as KC Concepcion and Denzel Boston were on the receiving end of his two biggest throws of the game (a 60-yarder in the first half and 64-yarder in the second half).

His most brilliant moment came with 58 second left in regulation, as he executed a perfect 7-play, 41-yard drive to get the Browns in field goal range for Andre Szmyt to nail a game-tying FG with 12 second to go. One throw during the series saw Sanders deliver a strike to Jerry Jeudy along the sidelines right as he took a massive hit. It was a gutsy drive during the biggest moment of the game. He almost pulled it off again in OT, leading the Browns on a TD drive but failing to convert the 2-point conversion. 

The fact that he protected the football was important too, and signs of progress from last season. He pulled a few rabbits out of hats and came up big in some critical spots, but the offense didn't look much different or better for long stretches of this game, so Watson is likely back under center next week. 

All five of the Browns wins this season came on some sort of game-winning drive/scenario. And while the executed two more clutch drives to tie the game at the end of the fourth quarter and another one to match the Saints TD in overtime, eventually they were bound to lose one of these games that came down to a play or two in the critical moments. They were on a heater in Vegas and played the slots one too many times and lost this time. 

'Browns Hurting Browns' has become one of the most prominent Todd-isms of the season and there was plenty of that going on on Sunday. Cleveland picked up a false start penalty on the second play of the game from scrimmage. on their first defensive series, they had back-to-back plays with a neutral zone infraction and encroachment penalties. 

By the end of the first quarter, the Browns had six penalties against them, including illegal formations on a kick return and a kickoff. They cleaned things up a bit to close out the half with just one more penalty, which cost them 38 yards. In the second half they added two more for another 14 yards, which was encouraging, but the point reamins, this is an undisciplined football team. 

The Browns have mastered the famous Peanut Tillman punch. Every week it feels like they're forcing a fumble with it. Two weeks ago in Tennessee, Tyson Campbell used it after getting beaten on a slant by Carnell Tate to get back into the play and force a turnover on a critical third down. 

This week it was Carson Schwesinger doing the honors. With the Saints threatening inside the 10, Saints rookie Jordyn Tyson made his first career catch and tried to extend to the goal line, but as he dove, Schwesinger perfectly times his punch to knock the ball lose and force the first turnover of the game. 

Cleveland couldn't do anything with the turnover backed up in their own end, but after that ensuing series ended in a punt, Adin Huntington made a similar play on Saints returner Barion Brown to get the ball right back to the offense. The Browns turned that drive into a FG. 

Maybe everyone knew this already. But on a day when offense was hard to come by, it was the Browns two rookie WRs who came up with the two biggest plays of the game. 

The first came on their first drive of the second half, where Denzel Boston used a double-move to cook Kool-Aid McKinstry on a go-ball down the sideline. However, McKinstry got back into the play because of a bad underthrow from Sanders, but Boston did what he does and used his 50-50 ball skills to come down with the football over McKinstry and break free for 60 yards. That drive ended in a FG after Cleveland couldn't convert from the three. 

In the second half, it was KC Concepcion's turn as he got man coverage against former Browns CB Martin Emerson Jr. and beat him off the line of scrimmage, stacked to create separation, adjusted nicely to a pass from Sanders to make the catch and added 27 yards of YAC to score the first TD of his career. 

They now lead all rookies in receiving yards this season and we're getting glimpses of what this offense can look like with these two.