The inclement weather did not prevent Las Vegas from controlling the game offensively as the Raiders outdueled the Browns 16-6 Sunday afternoon. (John Kuntz/cleveland.com)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
Who’s to say how much Odell Beckham Jr. was missed in his first game out with a season-ending knee injury?
Certainly no more than Nick Chubb and Wyatt Teller and Myles Garrett, who was out with a knee injury in the second quarter, then in, and then out for the game with the outcome on the line.
The Browns couldn’t score a touchdown in a 16-6 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on a cold, wet, blustery day. Those conditions rendered it a throwback day of blocking and running. The Browns should have had the edge, but as it turned out, the Raiders were more physical at the point of attack.
“We could not get off the field. They were better and stronger up front,” said Garrett, whose seven-game streak with a sack was stopped.
Sure, Baker Mayfield was victimized by at least four drops – two for sure by Jarvis Landry, one in the end zone and another pass in the end zone jarred loose by a killer shot to his back.
Landry had one apparent TD overturned when replay showed the ball hitting the ground as Landry crashed while he was juggling it. That came on the Browns’ first possession of the second half and resulted in a Cody Parkey field goal to tie the game at 6-6.
The other Landry miss in the end zone came just before the two-minute warning and the Raiders ahead, 16-6. Mayfield hung Landry up between three defenders and cornerback Nevin Lawson jolted him in the lower neck area to pop the ball out.
“That’s a tough one,” said Mayfield (12 of 25, 122 yards, 62.4 passer rating). “He got a shot in the ribs and he was hurting right there. Not many people can make that play. I know Jarvis is going to beat himself up [for it].”
After the two-minute warning break, Parkey missed a 37-yard field goal wide left toward the wavering Dawg Pound goal post that would have made it a one-score game.
But the Browns couldn’t stop the Raiders from playing the kind of game necessary to win in wind gusts up to 50 mph and rain intermittently turning to sleet.
The Raiders pounded the ball with their gargantuan offensive line, netting 208 yards on the ground, counting quarterback Derek Carr’s 41 yards on keepers. They possessed the ball for almost 38 minutes, eating the clock on drives consuming 8 minutes, 18 seconds, 8:54 and 8:47. The Browns, who could not sustain their drives because of a 3-for-10 conversion rate on third downs, had only six offensive possessions.
“We knew the weather was going to be really harsh today, and we kept talking about how we struggled playing on the road last year in bad weather against the Jets and the Chiefs,” said Raiders coach Jon Gruden, who remained undefeated in five games against the Browns in his career.
“We really made a big deal out of it, but we kind of enjoyed it. I think our guys looked forward to the challenge of the weather more than anything. We ran the ball a lot of different ways – from a single-back set, from a two-back set a double tight end set. Derek Carr even got involved. It was a great job of protecting the football, running the ball, and possessing the ball, which was a key ingredient in winning.”
The Raiders didn’t commit a turnover in the bad weather. Garrett just missed a strip of Carr early in the game. Denzel Ward stripped the ball from Carr after a keeper, but the Raiders recovered.
The Browns lost the ball on their first offensive series on a Harrison Bryant fumble after the catch. Landry was targeted 11 times and caught four. The resurgence of Rashard Higgins (one catch for 14 yards on three targets) and Donovan Peoples-Jones (no targets) never materialized. Kareem Hunt rushed for 66 yards on 14 attempts, but the Browns’ rushing total (101 yards) fell way short of the season average for the fourth consecutive game with Chubb and Teller out. Left tackle Jedrick Wills was penalized for holding one and false starts twice.
“We did not do enough of the things that you have to do in those conditions to go win, and I do not think anyone can use that as an excuse,” said Kevin Stefanski, whose team lost for the first time in a game it was favored to win. “They found a way to put 16 points up on the board, and we did not. Credit to them.”
The loss dropped the Browns to 5-3 at their bye week, still good enough to qualify as the seventh AFC seed right now. But the field for three wild cards is a lot closer among the Ravens (5-2), Colts (5-2), Raiders (4-3) and Dolphins (4-3).
“Not anywhere close to where we want to be,” said Mayfield. “We have a 5-3 record. It should be a lot better. We believe that. That is why our locker room is pissed off. We believe in this locker room, and we are going to continue to get better and hopefully going on a streak right after this bye week … be healthy and focus on getting better.”
Chubb (knee) and Teller (calf), along with tight end Austin Hooper (appendectomy), are expected to be back for the next game Nov. 15 against Houston. Whether Garrett will be, too, depends on the results of an MRI on his injured knee on Monday.
“I took a shot [to the knee],” Garrett said. “I took a cut. It was one of the first plays, and from that first shot, it just kind of started just wearing on me.
“As long as I can walk on it or run on it, I am going to try to play on it. No matter how it feels the next two weeks, I will try to be out there unless they make a point of holding me out.”