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When Shedeur Sanders found rookie Harold Fannin Jr. for the touchdown in Cleveland on Sunday to make the game 31-29, Browns fans were elated knowing that a successful two-point talk meant a tied game.
Sanders, who started the final three games for the Browns in his rookie season, showed his craftiness late in the game and kept his team in the contest until the final play.
But confusion and bewilderment for some was the reaction when Sanders was missed on the snap on the two-point attempt. It was rookie running back Quinshon Judkins, who was in the wildcat formation as he does at times this season.
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Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12) watches from the sidelines late in the fourth quarter against the Tennessee Titans at Huntington Bank Field on Dec. 7, 2025. (Ken Blaze/Image Images)
The play ended unsuccessfully and the Browns fell to the Tennessee Titans with many hypothetical responses from experts and fans alike.
Robert Griffin III, the FOX Sports analyst and former NFL quarterback who spent the 2016 season in Cleveland, has expressed his opinion on how the Browns have treated Sanders since drafting him in the fifth round. After seeing head coach Kevin Stefanski’s decision to go with Judkins in the wild game over Sanders, he believed it was pure “coaching failure” on his part.
“You have to be in touch with what’s happening in the game, and the young man who gave you the best chance to win the game should have been on the field at the most crucial point in the game. He wasn’t and that’s a coaching failure on his part,” Griffin told Pak Gazette Digital after helping USAA give away new vehicles to two military veterans ahead of the 126th Army-Navy game this weekend.
SHEDEUR SANDERS ADDRESSES UNDERWEAR RUMORS AFTER VIRAL MOMENT IN BROWNS’ LOSS: ‘IT LOOKED LIKE THIS’
The Browns were in a big hole with about six minutes left in the game, facing a 31-17 deficit after a blocked punt set up a Titans field goal.
Sanders, however, never lost faith and was able to reach the end zone for his first rushing touchdown on the ensuing drive to make the game 31-23. Then, after a Titans three-pointer, he ran seven plays in 1:40 to finally find Fannin to score with 1:03 left in the game.
At that point, Sanders had totaled his fourth touchdown of the game and his third pass. He also completed 23 of 42 passes for 364 yards with one interception.
Griffin said the two-point conversion play that Stefanski and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees had called could have been the error on the call sheet, but he thought they needed to take a deeper look at how they got to that point.
“I think from a coaching standpoint, you look at it and say, ‘What are our best two-point plays? What have we practiced all week?’ “Most coaches come into a game with two or three two-point plays and they were right at the point where that was the next two-point play on the call sheet,” he explained. “At that point, I think you have to tell yourself that this young man has four touchdowns, he led us to this game and he kept us in this game. We shouldn’t take him off the field. That, to me, was where the mistake was.
“Every coach will tell you, ‘You look at your sheet, call the play, and live with it.’ But you have to be able to pull out the analysis and say, ‘Okay, this is the best we can do right now.'”
Shedeur Sanders (12) and Teven Jenkins (74) of the Cleveland Browns celebrate a touchdown in the first half of an NFL football game against the Tennessee Titans in Cleveland, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Stefanski has been criticized for his handling of Sanders since he joined a crowded room of Browns quarterbacks when he arrived in Cleveland. Throughout the season, as the Browns have struggled for consistency at the position with Joe Flacco traded and Dillon Gabriel failing to find consistent results, the call for Sanders grew stronger each week.
Sanders won his first career start in Las Vegas, a 24-10 victory over the Raiders, and Stefanski praised him for improving week by week. He also said what Griffin suggested last weekend, as Sanders will remain the team’s starter the rest of the way.
But Stefanski’s decision Sunday with the two-point conversion only added fuel to those who believe Sanders is destined to fail with the Browns.
Griffin noted that no coach should make game-day decisions based on outside noise, but after taking the plunge, he’s confident Sanders should have been on that crucial play.
Sanders has four more games left in his rookie season, starting with the Chicago Bears on the road in Week 15.
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HELPING THOSE WHO SERVE US
Griffin was back in Baltimore, where he spent the remaining years of his NFL playing career, to show honor through action in the tradition of the annual Army-Navy Game by giving away two recycled vehicles with USAA, the official Salute to Service partner of the NFL.
Cryptologic Technical Petty Officer 1st Class Jamil Lewis, currently serving in the Navy, and veteran Patrick Huber, a specialist with the Army National Guard’s 116th Infantry Regiment, were surprised by Griffin with the new vehicle in Inner Harbor off the USS Constellation.
Griffin, who comes from the military and his mother and father serve in the military, has long enjoyed his association with USAA and couldn’t have been happier to help with this.
(L-R) Mark Steiding of Kenwood Auto Body, NFL legend Robert Griffin III (RGIII), SPC Patrick Huber (U.S. Army National Guard veteran), USAA Senior Vice President Rob Braggs, and Dale Moss of NABC Recycled Rides pose at the USAA Army-Navy Game NABC Recycled Rides Car Gifting in Baltimore, MD, Wednesday, December 10, 2025. (Edwin Remsberg)
“I’m very honored to partner with USAA. We’ve been partnering for the last 13 years and I’m a person who likes to make genuine, authentic partnerships. The military brat, mom and dad served in the military. So, I’m a ‘go army, beat the navy’ guy – 31 years combined between them. Seeing the impact we’ve been able to make over the last 13 years, doing things to let our military members know they’re not forgotten, it does something to me,” he explained. “If you’re doing something for me, you’re doing something for these families that we can impact, to make their lives a little bit easier. It’s not a free car. I say that because, yes, they didn’t have to pay money for it, but there was sacrifice for us and our freedoms to be able to get this kind of treatment. We want them to know that, ‘Hey, we appreciate you.'”
Griffin said Huber, a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan, made sure to talk to him during their time together about the Washington Commanders, who drafted the Baylor product.
And Griffin also loved watching Lewis’ nine-year-old son, one of his five children, “go into a rage” when he realized what was happening.
“They got a free car to the point where, 30 minutes after the event, he’s still sitting in the passenger seat,” Griffin said of Lewis’ son.
