Shedeur Sanders made his first start of the 2026 campaign in Week 9 and delivered some memorable moments despite the fact that his late game heroics came up short in the Cleveland Browns' 23-22 overtime loss to the New Orleans Saints. 

Despite the outcome, there were plenty of notable plays that told the story of Cleveland's valiant effort to take a late lead, then lose it and force overtime and nearly pull off a win in OT. 

Here are the three key plays that defined the game. 

It was only a matter of time until KC Concepcion found the end zone and he showcased all the reasons why the Browns used a first-round pick on him on this play, while Sanders did a nice job throwing in rhythm to push the ball downfield 

- Per usual, the Browns are in 11 personnel, it's two-by-two with two pass catchers on each side of the formation with a condensed split from the right side of the formation with Denzel Boston and Concepcion

- Concepcion then goes in motion from the slot to an outside position, revealing that it's man coverage, specifically cover 1 with a safety over the top, and former Browns CB Martin Emerson Jr. slides out to cover Concepcion and Sanker slides over to pick up Boston

- At the snap, Concepcion runs a tremendous route, attacking Emerson's outside shoulder then putting his foot in the ground to cut back inside and get vertical 

- Emerson gets crossed up, and Concepcion separates on the go ball, stacking Emerson to make sure he's in a trailing position where he's totally vulnerable 

- As Concepcion leaves Emerson behind him, Sanders drops, hitches and throws this ball in rhythm to the rookie WR and while the pass does force him to slow his route and come back to the ball, it' was actually put in a good spot to keep Concepcion from running into the safety where he could take a big hit or it could be intercepted

- Concepcion does the rest, showing off his elite YAC ability that the Browns loved pre-draft

This is the throw heard round social media, and for good reason. It's an elite throw, without question in a key spot with the Browns driving to try and tie the game. Now for some added context, though, Sanders did make his life a little harder than he needed to here, but that doesn't take away from how great the final throw was. 

-  Browns are in 11 personnel, with the Saints showing a simulated pressure with six guys up near the line of scrimmage

- Harold Fannin Jr. comes in motion revealing that it's zone coverage cause nobody travels with him 

- When the ball is snapped, two of the rushers up near the line of scrimmage drop off into their respective zones, the Saints appear to be in cover 3 here

- As Sanders drops, most of the routes are covered, including Fannin in the flat, KC Concepcion on the in and Boston working the curl, but if Jeudy at the top of the screen actually creates some separation on his curl that he's actually open if Sanders throws this ball in rhythm after his first hitch into the pocket 

- Instead, Sanders senses he's running out of time to right and rolls left out of the pocket, which actually makes his life a little harder because he invites Chase Young up field and into his face

- Anticipating a massive hit from Young, Sanders uncorks a seed to Jeudy, who does a nice job stopping his route after turning upfield on the scramble drill and makes a nice catch in his own right, to put the Browns in FG range

This is a classic case of the defense gets paid too. Sometimes the defense simply has a perfect call/coverage in place for what the offense is trying to run. 

- The Browns are in 11 personnel here with a two-by-two look presnap, meaning there are two pass catchers on each side of the o-line 

- Jeudy is lined up in the slot left and comes in motion from to the right, which reveals that the Saints are playing man coverage as S Justin Reid follows him across the formation

- Reid does a nice job communicating with nickel CB Jonas Sanker and actually passes off Jeudy off to him as he clears to the other side of the formation, picking up Harold Fannin Jr. instead

- The ball is snapped, and the Browns are running matching slant, flat combo routes with the hope of being able to pick the defenders and create an easy throw

- On the right side, Sanker isn't caught in a trailing position the way Cleveland wants to execute the rub and so he's able to get around Concepcion on the slant and stay with Jeudy, as both of those routes are covered 

- Sanders appears to look left first anyway, where Denzel Boston is in tight coverage and Dylan Sampson runs the flat out of the backfield, which is picked up by the linebacker

- Sensing everything is covered, Sanders opts to scramble to his right, a holding is called on Tytus Howard as he escapes the pocket which would have negated the play if it had been successful

- As Sanders scrambles, Concepcion does come open as he streaks across the end zone, but it's a tough throw for Sanders across his body 

- There's actually a small window for Sanders to hit Boston near the pylon but they couldn't quite connect