Cade York gets first taste of December in Cleveland in win over Ravens
CLEVELAND — Cade York finally got a chance to kick in Cleveland in December. It was the full weather experience, no less.
The rookie fourth-round kicker for the Browns had experienced some wind and some rain in previous outings in his home stadium. What York hadn’t gone through was kicking the ball through the swirling snowflakes.
That opportunity finally arrived in Saturday night’s 13-3 win over the Baltimore Ravens.
“I mean, it really wasn’t that bad,” York said. “A little windy, snow came in, had nothing to do with anything that happened. Honestly, I thought I was handling really well and kicking the ball well into that fourth quarter.”
The game kicked off with temperature right at freezing and winds coming in from the northeast at 12 mph. By the time it ended, the snow was flying around FirstEnergy Stadium.
York certainly handled the weather conditions well enough to provide the Browns with their first two scores. That included a 47-yard field goal 50 seconds into the second quarter to give them a 3-0 lead.
It was his 23-yard field goal with 1:52 left in the half that allowed the Browns to grab a 6-3 lead. Thanks to a fairly rare miss by Baltimore’s Justin Tucker on a 48-yard field goal on the last play of the half, it proved to be the halftime margin.
Tucker also had a 50-yard kick in the third quarter blocked by the Browns’ Jordan Elliott.
“I mean, he hit the ball left on the way, the wind blew right,” York said of Tucker. “And he got one blocked that he hit pretty low. So, again, I don’t think any of our missed kicks had anything to do with the weather. I just think they were bad hits.”
Bad hits were what York dealt with in the fourth quarter. Going toward the west end zone, he twice had an opportunity to build on the Browns’ 13-3 lead.
York badly pushed a 38-yard field goal try left with 10:49 remaining. On the next Browns possession, he just missed a 46-yard try to the right.
“I mean, I guess it doesn’t really matter for explanations for y’all because it didn’t go in,” York said. “I haven’t seen the film yet and, obviously, it was a really bad hit. So that’s all I got there.”
York’s teammates, though, had his back after the game. As he was being asked about the misses, linebacker Reggie Ragland spoke up from two lockers over, “S*** happens. He good.”
For the season, York’s now 22-of-30 on field goals, including 9-of-15 at FirstEnergy Stadium. Of his six misses, four have happened while kicking toward the west end of the stadium.
“We will look at it,” coach Kevin Stefanski said. “Those are tough conditions. We certainly get that. He is hard on himself. He wants to make them. We are counting on him. We will come back to him again.”
Compared to the late afternoon/early evening Tucker had Saturday, York’s day certainly was good enough. That’s even after it started with the two kickers seemingly engaged in a pregame kick-off during warmups.
Both kickers appeared to be in such a competition when they lined up next to each other to try multiple 70-yard kicks toward the west end of the stadium during warmups. Neither kicker made any of them, but it certainly had the feel of veteran and rookie in a face-off of sorts.
Even if the rookie denied — sort of — any such competition.
“We just happened to be at that point in our warmup,” York said. “I don’t, maybe a little bit of big ball, but nothing like that.”
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On Twitter: @ceasterlingABJ
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