Blown away

The elements, predicted quite accurately by Cleveland-area meteorologists, played a major role in the Browns game against the Oakland/Los Angeles/Oakland again/Las Vegas Raiders Sunday on a windy, sleety, downright ugly Sunday.

Even uglier than the nasty afternoon was the manner in which the Browns dealt with playing a game of football. The 5-2 team was taken to school by a 3-3 team more used to playing in warm weather, not 40 mph winds, temperatures falling into the 30s, wet stuff and a sneak preview of winter.

Possession, it is said, is nine-tenths of the law. The Raiders hammered that home in more ways than one all afternoon as they decisively ended Cleveland's home winning streak at three games with a 16-6 victory, dropping the Browns to 5-3 at the halfway mark of the 2020 season.

Due to the extreme weather conditions, this one was not going to be won by throwing the football. It was going to be won by the team that was willing to slug it out in the trenches. That team was the Raiders, who punished the Browns on both sides of the ball all afternoon long.

It was a war of attrition. A good old-fashioned, slobber-knocking, ground-and-pound football game reminiscent of how they used to play the game in days gone by where the team that wanted it most usually won without resorting to the forward pass. Again, that team Sunday was the Raiders, who bullied the home team.

The visitors all but announced to the Browns prior to the each snap that they were going to run the ball and commenced to slice and dice the Cleveland defense for 208 yards infantry style. The Browns had to know that was going to be the case and still could not stop them. They couldn't get off the field.

On just about every running play, the Raiders' offensive line fired off the ball and pushed the Browns backward in punishing fashion. Raiders second-year running back Josh Jacobs, searching for his first 100-yard day of the season, found it, gaining 128 yards on 31 carries, often finding ample running room at the point of attack. It was sheer dominance.

The Cleveland front seven was overwhelmed play after play after maddening play, On six of their seven possessions, the Raiders put together drives of 10 plays, 16 plays, 17 plays, 15 plays, 13 plays and six plays at the end of the game when the outcome was already determined. 

They played keep away with the Cleveland defense. They methodically put together three of those drives, during which they took 8:18, 8:54 and 8:47 off the clock. Nothing fancy. Just good, fundamental in-your-face football. 

It became readily apparent to the Raiders early on and then more-so in the second half after they held a 6-3 halftime lead that you threw the ball at your own risk, the winds playing havoc with the accuracy of quarterbacks Baker Mayfield and the Raiders' Derek Carr.

Only when Carr dropped back to pass did the Cleveland defense come alive, sacking him twice (both times by Olivier Vernon) more because of good coverage in the secondary than the rush itself. The Raiders realized this and dug in for trench warfare.

It was like a slow drip as they milked the clock while Mayfield and his buds could only watch from the bench. They owned the prolate spheroid for nearly 38 of the 60 minutes, including 19:35 in the second half. The Browns mostly hung on for dear life, clinging to a 6-6 tie after three quarters.

The closest they came to finding the end zone was on the first possession of the second half when Mayfield drove them 55 yards in 11 plays and appeared to connect with Jarvis Landry on his first touchdown pass of the season, a 20-yard throw he bobbled slightly as he fell to the ground.

Because all scoring pays, apparent or otherwise, are reviewed, the Raiders did not challenge. It was determined Landry did not fully control the ball as he fell. Cody Parkey then pulled the Browns even at 6-6 with a 38-yard field goal. 

And that's when the Raiders, sensing the kill, decided enough was enough and turned up the heat with a 15-play drive that spilled over into the fourth quarter. It covered 75 yards, converting three third-down situations along the way, including a third-and-eight, which was converted by an 11-yard Carr scramble.

Wide receiver Hunter Renfrow latched on to a little four-yard touchdown toss from Carr on a short curl to break the tie, pivoting away from Browns cornerback Terrance Mitchell on the second play of the fourth quarter on a third-and-goal. The ball moved, just like Landry's, but Renfrow had firm control of it and the call stood for a 13-6 lead.

The Browns, who owned the ball for a meager 22:17, including just 10:35 in the second half, could not keep pace. After a three-and out, the Raiders reached the Cleveland goal line on the next possession but a staunch goal line stand by the Browns -- their shining moment of the game -- brought out Daniel Carlson for his third field goal of the game. 

The Browns threatened with two minutes left in regulation, but a solid hit on Landry by Lamarcus Joyner in the end zone jarred the ball loose on third down. And then the wind, for the final time of the afternoon, weighed in and grabbed Parkey's 37-yard field-goal attempt to make it a one-score game and steered it wide left. An imperfect end to an imperfect game.

Overall, the defense was awful. (Sort of doesn't make sense, does it, considering the Raiders scored only 16 points.) So was the offense, which was held without a touchdown for the first time this season. 

This was a game where the Cleveland ground game really missed Nick Chubb, who is expected back from injury in a couple of weeks after the bye. This was his kind of game. Kareem Hunt tried his best with 65 yards in 14 attempts, but it wasn't nearly enough with Mayfield unsuccessfully battling the elements.

The Raiders' ground game was so dominating, Carr threw only eight times in the second half, connecting on seven. How dominating overall? They ran 71 plays to just 47 for the Browns.

Mayfield, possibly due to the capricious winds off the lake, never found the kind of stroke that enables him to make solid connections. Drops by Landry (early) and David Njoku didn't help. 

Not the way the Browns had hoped to begin its three-game homestand. They'll try again in a couple of weeks against Houston and a week after that against Philadelphia.