Browns lay an egg in conditions they should own
Conditions on the Lake Erie shore during Sunday’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders tested the Cleveland Browns’ old-school skills, whether they could grind it out in a throwback, slugfest affair in a setting more befitting the grunge of Municipal Stadium.
The gray day felt like Otto Graham should have been trotting out of the dugout, not immortalized with a statue outside Firstenergy Stadium.
At kickoff, the wind was blowing at 35 mph from the west. The temperature was 49 degrees. It sleeted briefly before kickoff, and a late-first half squall brought a wintry mix and stronger gusts.
Conditions improved in the second half, but the home team’s performance did not.
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski knows his team has to develop a gritty mentality to persevere in cold and windy Novembers and Decembers. But they didn’t have any semblance of that in a 16-6 loss to the Raiders.
The Raiders were the more poised and efficient team, sustaining drives with the powerful runs of Josh Jacobs and the short- to medium-range passes of quarterback Derek Carr.
Raiders coach Jon Gruden, a Sandusky native and University of Dayton product who knows plenty about Ohio weather, and his staff made the perfect calls virtually every time.
Gruden is in his 14th season as an NFL coach, and he coaxed a consistent performance out of his team.
Stefanski’s Browns did little right. The boys from Las Vegas were steady as the wind whipped around them, the Browns as flighty as the paper and plastic that swirled like birds around the stadium.
David Njoku, Jarvis Landry and Kareem Hunt dropped passes. Cody Parkey's 37-yard field goal try with 1:54 to play sailed wide left. The Browns were outgained on the ground 208 yards to 101 on an afternoon when they most needed “dirty” runs.
There were injury excuses built in, but the Browns have sloughed off those crutches since training camp.
Stefanski said defensive end Myles Garrett suffered a knee injury against the Raiders on top of the ankle injury he battled before and after last week's victory at Cincinnati. Garrett said he took a hit to the knee on one of the first plays of the game and it worsened as the day wore on.
Although no team is healthy midway through an NFL season, running back Hunt and receiver Landry were playing with rib injuries. Quarterback Baker Mayfield battled a cracked rib a week ago in a shootout win over the Bengals. Running back Nick Chubb remains on IR with a knee injury.
So many Browns need the upcoming off week to heal, including center JC Tretter, playing despite an injury to his right knee that underwent surgery Aug. 13.
“We're not going to start now using excuses,” Garrett said of the injuries. “It's a next-man-up league. Whatever happens on whatever team, you try and take advantage of it. They took advantage of me being out and some of the guys we had out. Credit to them, they had a game plan and they succeeding
executing it.”
The Raiders were unfazed by the conditions. They picked up two fourth downs on a 58-yard field goal drive that tied the score 3-3 with 5:17 left in the second quarter. They marched 51 yards without a timeout to take the lead at 6-3 on a 33-yard field goal as the half expired.
The game arguably meant more to the Raiders (4-3), who are chasing the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC West. The Raiders had been up and down, though they have wins over the Chiefs and New Orleans.
The result may not compromise the Browns' chances for an AFC wild-card berth. At 5-3, they have a week to rest and recuperate, with one of the easiest schedules in the league remaining. But those hopes could take a severe hit if they have to move forward without Garrett, who will undergo an MRI on his knee on Monday.
Aside from his injury, most disturbing on Sunday was the fact that the Raiders thrived in the kind of game the Browns should be built to win.
On a day that called for ball control, the Raiders showed the Browns how to play it. The Raiders' scoring drives went for 16, 12, 15 and 13 plays and consumed 8:18, 4:02, 8:54 and 8:47. The Browns lost the time of possession battle 37:4322:17.
“They beat us at our own game,” Hunt said.
More rain and snow and crazy winds and flying paper are surely in store. As the Browns pause during the muchneeded bye, they must rediscover the toughness they so sorely lacked in a winnable game.