Cleveland Browns Week 8 instant reactions: Defensive line manhandled in ugly loss

The Cleveland Browns fell to 5-3 in a loss to the Raiders

The Las Vegas Raiders absolutely manhandled the Cleveland Browns defensive line on Sunday. There’s simply no way around it.

Cleveland hosted the Raiders at FirstEnergy Stadium on Sunday and the weather was terrible, which led to the game being fought on the ground. And while Cleveland has been great in this respect in 2020, it was the Raiders who dominated in the run game.

Their game plan was clear as they controlled the time of possession and wound up with the win in a game that featured only one touchdown — and a couple of missed field goals, including a 37-yarder from Cody Parkey following the two-minute warning that would have given the Browns a shot at taking one last shot at a tie.

Ugly from the start

This game simply started out ugly as the first drive for each team ended in a painful way. For the Raiders, their’s ended when Myles Garrett got into the backfield and nearly strip-sacked Derek Carr. The Las Vegas quarterback got his throw off but it was nearly a pick-six for Ronnie Harrison who had both hands on the ball but dropped it. The following play was a missed kick from Daniel Carlson as the wind forced the ball left and caused it to hit the upright.

Cleveland then started to move the ball themselves but rookie tight end Harrison Bryant fumbled it as the Browns were threatening in Las Vegas territory. Cleveland did continue to hold on defense and their offense finally did get on the board when Cody Parkey hit a knuckleball from 41 yards out — which capped out a 14-play, 60-yard drive that ate up 7:52 on the clock.

That drive was indicative of how the entire game would go. Each team put together one long drive after another as the clock drained quickly thanks to the focus on the ground game in this nasty weather game.

Las Vegas answered the Browns 14-play drive with a 16-play drive that ended in a field goal. They also had a 12-play 51-yard drive end in three to close out the half, making it 6-3 Raiders at the intermission.

Cleveland then responded with an 11-play drive that covered 55-yards and looked to end with a touchdown from Jarvis Landry. Unfortunately, the refs reviewed that one and decided the ball hit the ground so it shouldn’t count. Then, the ball hit the ground when Hunter Renfrow was targeted in the red zone for the Raiders and that one did count — for some reason.

Renfrow’s touchdown capped off a 15-play, 75-yard drive that killed 8:54 seconds. It also brought back memories of the refs hosing the Browns in 2018 when they reversed a Cleveland first-down run that soiled Baker Mayfield‘s first career start.

Drops plagued Cleveland

Jarvis Landry had the drop in the end zone that hurt the Browns but it wasn’t the only one he had. In addition to his drop, David Njoku also had a killer drop following the Renfrow touchdown.

With Cleveland trailing 13-6, Mayfield hit Njoku in the hands on a third-and-eight, but the tight was unable to haul the pass in. This led to a punt and the Raiders once again drove the length of the field on the ensuing drive, knocking in a field goal to go up 16-6 with just over four minutes to go.

There were also some drops on the Browns ensuing drive as Landry had his hands on a touchdown pass — although he was smoked by the Raiders defenders so it’s hard to be upset at that one. There was also a pass that went through the hands of Kareem Hunt, which is an unusual sight.

Baker Mayfield was a warrior

In Cleveland’s other losses, fans were all over Baker Mayfield but he deserves praise in this one. The ball sailed at times due to the weather but he did everything he needed to in order to give them a shot. He ran for 29 yards and should have had two touchdown passes.

This was a tough loss and the numbers for Mayfield look ugly as he finished with just 122 yards on 12-of-25 passing. But he was one of the few players who did all he could on this day and had it not been for the drops, he might be heading into the bye on a two-game winning streak.

Now at 5-3, the Browns enter their bye week and have a game on the 15th at home against the struggling Houston Texans.