Browns ripped off in Oakland-lose 45-42 in Overtime

In a game marred by officiating that was so poor that social media was on fire with criticism from almost anyone that had ever watched a football game, the Cleveland Browns allowed a late touchdown to the Oakland Raiders, a two-point conversion, moved down the field for a possible game-winning field goal, watched their young quarterback throw an interception into double coverage that forced overtime-all in the final 1;38, after a first down that would have ended the game was somehow overruled by the replay official- Wow.
All of that and then the Browns lost to the Oakland Raiders in overtime 45-42 in the dirt farm that is the Oakland Coliseum.

Baker Mayfield threw for 295 yards and two touchdowns in his first NFL start, but also threw two interceptions and lost two fumbles while Nick Chubb put together one of the strangest lines that you'll see from a rusher three carries. 105 yards and two touchdowns.
The stunned Browns fall to 1-2-1 and will host Baltimore next week.

Brownie Bits

1) One small thing that gives me hope that the Browns are turning the corner?
I'm still mad.
Normally, I'm disgusted after another Browns loss, not mad.
Mad would mean I had emotionally invested in a potential Browns win.
Yes, the officiating was awful as I'll point out shortly, but the fact that I'm still mad makes me wonder if I am truly becoming passionate again.
Damn.

2) OK, here's where we begin with the officiating gripes.
Start with the worst as the Browns have the ball with under two minutes remaining after stopping the Raiders on a fourth down in the end zone.
Two Carlos Hyde runs set up this play on third and a few and the Raiders are out of timeouts.
Remember a first down ends this game and Hyde clearly is over the yellow line (Which is very unofficial), the on-field officials since they have the gift of vision award the Browns the first down and we are a few Baker Mayfield kneel-downs away from a win.
However, it is inside of two minutes, so it's an automatic review and for some unknown reason, the replay official overrules the call and the Browns punt.
Yes, everything that happened thereafter can be blamed on the Browns, but the fact remains that none of those plays are relevant because the game should be over.

3) And then there was this winner of a call in the fourth quarter, that had they gotten this call correct, none of point two would have been a big deal.
Derek Carr is in the act of being sacked by the Browns and the ball comes loose well before he's on the ground.
Larry Ogunjobi picks up the football and there is no one around him- it's going to be an easy Cleveland score that puts the game away.
And it's all for nothing because the referee has already called Carr in the grasp well before the whistle should have been blown,
Unreviewable and seven more points off the scoreboard.

4) Baker Mayfield's first pro start was a mixed bag.
Mayfield did show a good arm in a 58 yard gain to Antonio Callaway and on his 48-yard scoring pass to Darren Fells and threw for another score along with his ability to keep a play alive with his feet.
However, he threw two interceptions (one was off a deflection), lost two fumbles, and had two passes knocked down.
He's not a big QB, (Drew Brees gets his share knocked at the line of scrimmage too), so he'll have to learn to find his lanes faster.

5) I wrote that I wasn't thrilled with Baker Mayfield's pick and I've watched Browns fans likely go bananas over him too soon.
So far, I would say I'm in the middle.
I've seen some things that I've really liked- I think his arm is better than I expected, I love the speed at which the ball gets out of his hand and his enthusiasm hasn't gotten the better of his emotions as they did at times at Oklahoma.
I also have seen some things to still have questions about.
I'm still wondering if he loves his ability to get away from the pass rush more than it actually is.
That will either come with time or it will not, but where he could run away from the rush at OU, he cannot do so at this level.
I also still think he needs work in decision-making as all young quarterbacks do.
The ball that was intercepted at the end of regulation was a ball that needed to be thrown away or elsewhere by Mayfield.
The Browns were only 15 yards out of field goal range and a short pass or a throwaway kept the drive alive.
Baker's still a work in progress and the jury is still out, but I like most of what I've seen so far.

6) Nick Chubb-three carries one hundred and five yards and two scores.
Now normally, one might write about why wasn't Nick Chubb used more?
I'm not going to take that tack.
Now could he have been used more than three times? Absolutely. but what I think helped Chubb on both of the long touchdown runs was Carlos Hyde breaking down the Oakland defense.
Hyde is definitely a runner that wears defenses down and Chubb benefited from the hammer-like runs up the middle by Hyde.
I would give Chubb more carries, but I question whether he should be the number one back quite yet.

7) The receivers didn't give Mayfield a lot of help either.
Anything thrown to David Njoku can either be a spectacular play or a dropped ball,
Antonio Callaway is still inconsistent and Jarvis Landry even dropped two.
Landry was targeted nine times, yet caught only four for thirty-four yards, although one was for a score.

8) One series that the Browns would like to have back from the first half.
1st and goal from the Oakland 1 and they settled for a field goal.
On this drive, they tried Carlos Hyde on just one of the three plays.
Sometimes teams get too cute and try to outsmart the defense with the result being negative.
I'm Ok with one try outside the box, but the other two shots needed to be with the power back.

9) The secondary was erratic in this one.
Jabrill Peppers might as well not even have played, Derrick Kindred wasn't much better, Terrance Mitchell played well before suffering a broken wrist that will keep him out for a while and Damarious Randall is showing some signs of coming into his own, but Briean Boddy-Calhoun has regressed badly and I don't know what to expect from EJ Carrie with his increased playing time with Mitchell out for a while.

10) The Browns hopefully are using today and tomorrow to bring in some people that can return kicks and punts.
Jabrill Peppers has been a non-entity in the return for two years and Antonio Callaway hasn't given the Browns much either.
Callaway has enough on his plate as a rookie in learning to be a starting wide receiver, so a full-time return man makes a lot of sense.

11) Finally, when you score 42 points on the road, you expect to win.
And yes there were two badly missed calls that had one of them not been made, it's a victory for Cleveland, but even still this team is missing some parts and Baker Mayfield will need time to mature, so the high of the win over the Jets might be the high point for a while.
Baltimore and the Los Angeles (Don't call us San Diego) at home over the next two weeks and the Browns should be underdogs in both.
The trip to Tampa is one that we don't know what to expect,
Will we see the Buccaneers that slammed over 40 points on the road against New Orleans?
Or the team that looked awful against Chicago yesterday?
That might be the best chance for an October win before a visit to Pittsburgh to close the month out.

The Browns are better and dare I say it, even entertaining to watch, but there are holes that still need another off-season and draft/free agency to fill.
It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to see improvement and a few wins to take a step forward.