Nick Bosa had to wait more than two years to get his revenge on Baker Mayfield, but he certainly got it Monday night.
With time winding down in a first half in which Bosa’s San Francisco 49ers hammered Mayfield and the Cleveland Browns, Mayfield scrambled looking to get off a Hail Mary around the Cleveland 35-yard line.
Instead, Bosa tracked Mayfield down and tackled him from behind, with the Browns quarterback getting rid of the ball just before he would have been sacked, with four seconds left.
Bosa immediately ran to the Browns 20-yard line and mimicked waving a flag before emphatically planting into the Levi’s Stadium turf. The move was a throwback to Bosa’s and Mayfield’s college days, when the quarterback famously spiked the Oklahoma flag into the turf at Ohio Stadium after Mayfield’s Sooners beat Bosa’s Buckeyes 31-16 in 2017.
After the game Monday, Bosa made it clear what he meant with his invisible flag spike.
“I was kinda trying to talk. I don’t usually talk,” Bosa told reporters in front of his locker. “But this game, he had it coming. But he didn’t say one word back.”
When asked for an example of what he said to the No. 1 overall pick in 2018, Bosa — the No. 2 overall pick in 2019 — said, “I was just screaming his name. Like, ‘Baaaker. Baaaker. You good? Come on, pick it up. We want a challenge.’ Stuff like that.”
Bosa continued, “He was panicking. He was double-clutching, rolling back and forth. We had him rattled all game.”
When told of Bosa’s celebration after the game, Mayfield told reporters that he did not see the gesture and was only told of it just before he began his postgame news conference.
“Good for him. Good play,” Mayfield said.
Bosa made several good plays Monday night, collecting four tackles, two sacks, two tackles for loss and five quarterback hits while also forcing and recovering a fumble in the 49ers’ 31-3 win.
As for a penalty, Bosa did not get one for the flag dance. But Mayfield did, for intentional grounding.