LAS VEGAS — There’s no such thing as a last call in Las Vegas, where the Cleveland Browns played for the first time Sunday.
But it’s getting late early for the 1-3 Browns. The most expensive roster in NFL history brought back its core plus the promise of a revamped and explosive offense. But Cleveland failed in the fourth quarter — again — and the Raiders escaped with a 20-16 victory after the Browns scored the game’s first 10 points.
The Browns are struggling to score and are sinking themselves with penalties. But for the second straight week, they found themselves in position to steal a win after playing poorly. With 3:17 to go, they got the ball with the season potentially on the line and a chance to escape September with at least decent vibes.
The vibes, however, are not good. Neither is the offense. And neither for the middle two quarters was a defense that likes to call itself the league’s best but suddenly struggles to tackle. How could the Browns get that last drive inside the Raiders’ 10-yard line but fail on fourth down? What was supposed to happen on that play?
When Kevin Stefanski was asked after the game where Deshaun Watson would have ideally gone with the ball on fourth-and-3 from the Raiders’ 9-yard line, the coach said he’d have to go back and look at the play to give a good answer.
Stefanski calls the plays. Either he was protecting a player (or players), or perhaps there are no good answers. You just can’t lose to the New York Giants and Raiders in back-to-back weeks. But the Browns have done so, and done it in a particularly low-scoring, highly disappointing fashion.
“We just didn’t execute,” Watson said.
It’s an accurate account of things. The offense has scored 58 points in four games. That’s 14.5 points per game. Even with the defense scoring in both road games, Cleveland has yet to get to 20 points this season. On Sunday, they lost to a Raiders team that entered the game at 1-2 and was without arguably its two best players, wide receiver Davante Adams and edge rusher Maxx Crosby, due to injuries.
Perhaps what’s as maddening as Watson taking a sack on the last play is that the Browns couldn’t just kick a field goal to tie it and try to send the game to overtime. They trailed by four because kicker Dustin Hopkins missed the point-after attempt following a Rodney McLeod fumble return for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter.
The Browns seemed sunk before that game-changing play by McLeod on a Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah forced fumble. But a potentially season-changing (or saving) drive in the last three minutes went sideways after an errant snap on first down, a batted pass on second, then Watson getting sacked on fourth following a third-down completion to Amari Cooper that appeared to settle things down for the offense and give Cleveland a chance to convert after a timeout.
Watson probably played his best game of the season. That says a lot about the state of things given that he threw for just 176 yards. He had a perfectly thrown ball to Cooper in the third quarter go off the receiver’s hands and up into the air for an interception by Raiders safety Tre’von Moehrig. Then in the fourth quarter, Watson thought he’d hit Cooper on an improvised 82-yard touchdown pass. That play was called back as backup center Nick Harris was flagged for holding Raiders defensive tackle Christian Wilkins as Watson bought himself time.
TIP DRILL FOR T’MO‼️#CLEvsLV | 📺 @paramountplus pic.twitter.com/8F6XR8F5EX
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) September 29, 2024
Cooper was an ultra-reliable target for Watson and the Browns’ other quarterbacks over his first two seasons in Cleveland. He had a two-touchdown game last week, but he’s otherwise been somewhere between bad and inconsistent — and it’s not at all a stretch to say his drop Sunday cost the Browns a chance to take the lead in the third quarter and maybe chart a different course for this day and mess of a young season.
When the locker room opened to reporters after the game, Cooper was already gone. Like Stefanski and the discussion of the final play, there was no answer.
Before the Cooper drop and interception, the Browns had picked up two first downs to advance to Las Vegas’ 49-yard line. But instead of sustaining the drive and picking up another first down inside the Raiders’ 30, Las Vegas advanced a turnover near midfield and scored in six plays to go up 20-10. That lead felt insurmountable. And it was.
TURN US UP DJ 🔊#CLEvsLV | 📺 @paramountplus pic.twitter.com/GZIPKgHSYL
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) September 29, 2024
Could the Browns have stolen this game late? Absolutely, because the defense tightened and made its one big play. Cooper crossed the goal line only to see the holding call negate the score. But the Browns were 3-of-10 on third down and didn’t score an offensive point over the final 45 minutes. So while they were in it late because their defense stepped up and Jerome Ford sparked the final drive by escaping traffic on a 35-yard run, the offense again failed to deliver.
Against the Giants in Week 3, the Browns had five fourth-quarter possessions. They scored one touchdown and otherwise went punt, lost fumble, turnover on downs, turnover on downs. On three fourth-quarter possessions versus the Raiders, they went punt, punt and turnover on downs after failing to even get a pass out of Watson’s hand on fourth down in the closing seconds.
When veterans such as Hopkins and Cooper let the Browns down the way they did, they’re likely going to win games only if they get major contributions from other — and less likely — corners of the roster. But even with the defensive touchdown, Cleveland just didn’t get enough of those other contributions. The Raiders rushed for 152 yards in large part because the Browns tackled poorly, and both of the Raiders’ touchdowns came on end around-type runs to wide receivers.
There’s a blueprint on how to attack the Browns’ overaggressive defense, and the tackling issues showed up for a second straight week. For the second straight game, an opponent the Browns were favored to beat left the door open for Cleveland to redeem itself and steal a fourth-quarter win.
Instead, the Browns are left to lament not only the missed chances of the fourth quarter and missed PAT kick, but the blown assignment by right tackle Dawand Jones on a third-down play late in the second quarter that might have been another Watson touchdown if he’d had more time to throw. Despite Hopkins making a 56-yard field goal in the first quarter, Stefanski chose to punt rather than let his kicker attempt a field goal from 57 or 58 yards after that third-down miss.
The pieces just aren’t connecting. The opportunities aren’t leading to conversions. The Browns had a lot of chances, sure, but they again gave more than a few away. This team is too experienced and supposed to be too talented to not be scoring and capitalizing more.
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In the wake of the Giants loss, the Browns had a noisy week. Watson responded to criticism of one of last week’s fourth-quarter misses by telling reporters an open tight end was a “decoy” on that particular play. Cooper responded to a question about that same “who’s open?” discussion by saying players are always under the microscope and telling the group of assembled media that, “Some of y’all don’t ask the best questions but, hey, you don’t hear me criticizing. It’s just the nature of the business. We get scrutinized more than you guys do.”
It wasn’t really either of those two quotes that were most memorable, though. The strongest words from last week’s locker room came from safety Grant Delpit, who called this trip to Las Vegas a “must-win game,” then doubled down on that, repeating that the Browns would treat the work week appropriately ahead of a must-win situation.
They didn’t win. They failed in too many big spots. The defense seems vulnerable, the offense is borderline broken and a three-game road trip has started with an error-filled loss to the Raiders. When you don’t win the must-win games and don’t beat the Giants or Raiders, how do you fix or recover from that?
It’s still only September, but it seems more than fair to wonder if this version of the Browns actually can bounce back.
(Photo: Steve Marcus / Getty Images)
