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Cleveland Browns Defense Gashed in Loss to Raiders

By Joe Russo

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Sep 27, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Oakland Raiders running back Latavius Murray (28) runs the ball as Cleveland Browns cornerback Pierre Desir (26) defends during the second half at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

The Cleveland Browns are coming off a big home win led by Johnny Manziel in week two, but week three brought no such luck against the Raiders. We’ve got the highlights, standout players, and numbers you need to know about the Browns loss to the Oakland Raiders at Factory of Sadness

The NFL is a quarterback driven league and as any Browns fan will tell you, that fact is not lost on Cleveland. Josh McCown, who had missed the win over the Titans with a concussion, was back under center to lead the Browns attack. But it was a contrast in quarterbacks for much of the first half against the Raiders.

For the Browns, the offense that had sparked the win last week was nowhere to be found. For the Raiders, they continued to attack and drive the ball downfield through the air the way they did against the Baltimore Ravens. Really, the box score tells the story of how the half went for both teams:

Derek Carr

12/21 for 201 yards, 2 touchdowns, 121.3 rating

Josh McCown

7/15 for 104 yards, 0 touchdowns, 69.9 rating

The biggest factor for Oakland’s success in the early going was Amari Cooper, who seemed to have Joe Haden turned around on multiple occasions. The rookie out of Alabama pulled in 5 catches for 103 yards in the first half alone, including a big 40 yard catch on the Raiders first touchdown drive.

For the most part, the Browns rushing defense had looked improved. Even though the Raiders had 52 yards rushing through the first half, Latavious Murray only broke loose for one big 20 yard run. Throw out that run, and the Browns rushing defense actually held the Raiders to 2.1 yards per carry. That’s a vast improvement on what we have seen out of that unit the last two weeks, at least for the first half.

The key moment of the first half came on a Raiders punt deep in their own territory, when a roughing the kicker penalty on Barkevious Mingo gave the Raiders new life. Four plays later, Cooper broke free for his big 40-yarder, setting up a 3-yard pass from Derek Carr to Andre Holmes for a touchdown.

Continuing the trend was the last Raiders drive of the half, where they covered 70 yards on only 5 plays and a 1:26 of game time. Seth Roberts caught a 13 yard touchdown to cap a drive that saw him also bring in a 36 yarder and Murray rip off a 20 yard run. The Raiders’ big play ability was key to their establishing a 17-3 lead at the half.

The Browns did show some flashes with a late drive in the 2nd quarter immediately after the Holmes touchdown. McCown drove the offense 74 yards on 13 plays, showing the best balance and ball movement of the day. McCown hit tight end Gary Barnidge twice for big gains of 40 and 15 yards to get the Browns 1st and goal at the Raiders one yard line. But the offense ground to a halt. Isaiah Crowell was stopped twice up the middle and Barnidge had a touchdown ripped out of his ends on second down. Mike Pettine even attempted to go for it on 4th and 1, but a false start penalty, which looked like a bad snap from Alex Mack, pushed the Browns back far enough to have to settle for a field goal. Those 74 yards more than doubled the Browns total yardage up to that point and is the only reason they managed 125 total yards in the first half.

It never really got much better for the Browns in the 3rd and no play epitomized the Browns defensive effort like a Marcel Reece catch at the end of the period. Reece caught a bullet from Derek Carr and then rumbled 55 yards, all while throwing multiple Browns defenders off of him. That catch ultimately set up a 6 yard Latavious Murray rushing touchdown on the first play of the 4th quarter. At that point, the Raiders, who had averaged only 80 yards on the ground all season, pushed their total on the day to 146 yards.

But as rough as McCown’s first half was, the second half really showed that he is a capable quarterback in Mike Pettine’s scheme. Despite booos and constant chants for Johnny Manziel, McCown was sharp as the game progressed. He hit Gary Barnidge for a 28 yard score as part of a long drive that saw McCown go 9 of 13 for 70 yards and multiple big third down conversions. He later hit Brian Hartline on a 41 yard deep route that set up a Travis Coons field goal and threw a 4 yard touchdown pass to Travis Benjamin on the next drive to make it a one score game at 27-20.

McCown did everything he could to will this team to a win in the final moments. After forcing a three and out after Travis Benjamin muffed a punt, McCown started the final drive of the game at his own 2 yard line. But after going 63 yards and setting up a potential game tying score, McCown was intercepted by the ageless Charles Woodson trying to hit a streaking Benjamin deep down the sideline. McCown was sacked five times on the day and the Raiders pressure really kept McCown from stepping into the throw, giving Woodson just enough time to seal the first Raiders road win since 2013 with his 61st career interception. McCown, despite the late pick, ended the day 28 of 49 for 341 yards with two touchdowns and the game ending pick.

The loss knocks Cleveland to 1-2 on the season. With at least some semblance of an offense, there was progress on Sunday. The defense, however, is another story. The Browns surrendered 469 total yards with another poor outing against the run, giving up a whopping 155 yards. As mentioned before, this is nearly double what the Raiders had averaged coming into the game.

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