Josh McCown did finish with 341 yards with two touchdowns and the game clinching interception was the only one that the veteran threw.
Gary Barnidge caught six passes for over 100 yards and a touchdown to pace the Cleveland pass catching bunch.
The Browns fall to 1-2 and will spend the next two weeks on the road against San Diego and then Baltimore.
The schedule gets tough,folks-it's about to get worse...
Brownie Bits
1) Josh McCown was not so swift for three quarters and managed to salvage some stats in the fourth quarter.
McCown still should have done better early on as he overthrew receivers on multiple occasions,but he wasn't awful enough to change things at quarterback.
I still think that Johnny Manziel needs to play,but if the decision was made for this game to go with Josh McCown,then I see no reason to reverse course based on this game.
2) Huge game by Gary Barnidge,who is most known for his blocking, with six catches,100 plus yards and a score,but keep in mind this -Oakland has made tight ends look like Kellen Winslow Sr.
Tyler Eifert (Bengals) and Crockett Gilmore (Ravens) each had huge games vs the Raiders this year and Barnidge was added to the list.
Something must be amiss in the Oakland defensive scheme that tight ends are killing them so much...
3) Brian Hartline had a nice game with five catches for 96 yards with one amazing catch as well.
Nice to see Hartline getting targeted a bit and perhaps his chemistry is better with Josh McCown than Johnny Manziel.
4) Travis Benjamin grabbed another touchdown and completed it with a nifty dive to break the plane of the end zone.
Benjamin also fumbled a punt that could have given the Browns more time to tie the game,but instead allowed the Raiders to run time off the clock.
Benjamin also was the intended receiver on the Charles Woodson interception and he didn't make a great effort to come back to the ball..
5) Mike Pettine's whole philosophy is to run the football and stop the run and the Browns get a huge fail on both.
39 yards rushing (36 of them to Isaiah Crowell) on 14 tries.
That isn't going to wear anyone down and you aren't going to win many games with Josh McCown or Johnny Manziel throwing 49 passes to these receivers.
Complete failure and shows the Browns failure in evaluating talent and tailoring it to fit what they want to do.
6) As for stopping the run-good luck as the Raiders continued the run (no pun intended) of team slamming the ball down the throat of this supposedly improved run defense.
This time,it was Latavius Murray that scorched the Browns for 139 yards and generally did whatever he wanted against the this sorry excuse for a run defense.
I see zero amount of improvement and this was supposed to be a major upgrade for 2015.
7) Joe Haden has had a rough three game start to the season and he suffered a rib injury early in the game in which Raider rookie Amari Cooper had his way with Haden.
To their credit,neither Haden or Mike Pettine used the rib injury as an excuse,but still it's starting to be apparent that Browns fans and the media may have overrated Haden as an elite shutdown level corner.
Haden just gets beaten far too often for that to be the case...
8) The Browns also play really dumb football for a team that wants to play smart,physical football (part of that play like a Brown garbage).
How about these two gems-After three cracks at the end zone on fourth and goal,Joel Bitonio (who has taken a step back thus far this season) false starts to eliminate that option and then Barkevious Mingo roughs the punter (although to be fair,the penalty could also have been called on three other guys as well) to give the ball back to Oakland.
Result-The Raiders drive the ball down the field with the possession gift for their first touchdown of the day....
9) This defense was supposed to dominate,remember? Well,in order to dominate,you need to tackle!
I watched too many tackles to count,be broken and result in huge gains over well of over 30 yards.
The most memorable of which was fullback Marcel Reece accounting for all 55 of his yards of the day on a screen pass that should have gained five yards,if not for poor tackling.
Donte Whitner appears to be a step slow and more interested in giving big hits than wrapping up.
Play like a Brown indeed.
10) If you liked Derek Carr and Khalil Mack's performances yesterday and you should have,remember that both could have been Browns.
I liked both coming out of college,but the Browns passed on both for Justin Gilbert and Johnny Manziel.
That's why they are the Browns.
11) Speaking of Justin Gilbert,he did dress for the game,but did not play.
As for the biggest Browns "addition" in the off-season,Dwayne Bowe was inactive.
Dwayne Bowe was Ray Farmer's guy and Farmer can return from his suspension right after the Chargers game.
It's clear that there is a difference on Dwayne Bowe between the coaches and front office as far as their opinions on the veteran wideout.
Watch for something to happen on that front as soon as it does.
12) The Raiders believe in getting a young quarterback weapons and investing in playmakers.
Which is why the Raiders gave Derek Carr a young star in Amari Cooper to throw to and while the Browns were guaranteeing Ray Farmer's buddy from Kansas City nine million dollars,the Raiders signed Michael Crabtree for help for their young passer.
A young passer that plays by the way and doesn't sit behind a 36 year UFL veteran.
Amazing how you can rebuild when you draft impact players when the ball is in their hands.
The Browns? Well,they wait until round four to pick a guy with the dropsies and then release him.
That's the Cleveland M.O.
13) Today's uniform update-All Brown.
I generally like the colored jerseys,but on this team-I think the best look with these substandard uniforms would be white jersey,orange pants...
14) The schedule now becomes brutal with only one game over the last 13 that I see the Browns possibly being favored in-maybe the home game vs the 49ers,maybe.
I spoke on the preview podcast that the Browns had to be a minimum of 2-1 after these first three games (two at home) and they've came up with 1-2..
I'm sure they'll win one or two (at best) games that you don't expect them to and maybe they get the Niners,but that still is 4-12 at the top end.
I'd rather take 2-14 and the top pick,if those are my selections.
I predicted that the Browns would have that pick for 2016,let's see...
It's about to get brutal in Cleveland....
15) Cavalier camp opens soon at least.
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