Busters
QB Derek Carr
I’d love to just give him credit for his couple of nice completions to Zay Jones on the final drive. But that would be ignoring all the mistakes he made to put the Raiders in the position where they needed a final drive to pull it out. First and foremost the interception he threw on the previous drive trying to connect with Jones.
That pick threatened to seal it and have the Browns celebrating a 14-13 win. All the Browns needed to do was pick up one first down on their ensuing possession and it would be over. Carr was lucky the defense stiffened up to stop them so he could have another chance.
Carr also had two fumbles in the game, tying him for the league lead in fumbles on the season (11). The first one was on a sneak that resulted in a punt. The second the Browns recovered at the Vegas 47 and led to their first touchdown.
Perhaps Carr’s biggest missed opportunity came in the second quarter. With the team in first and goal at the six-yard-line after a drive largely on Josh Jacobs’s running, Carr couldn’t finish it off.
On first down, he threw wide and incomplete of Hunter Renfrow on first and goal. Second down he passed up open field in front of him to break out left and threw incomplete to a double-covered Hunter Renfrow.
With third down upcoming, he was flagged for delay of game, backing them up to the 11. And from there he decided to try and run it and was easily taken down five yards short of the goal line.
Keep in mind the Browns had 17 players on reserve/COVID-19 for this game including 10 defenders. And it took a defensive stand and a last-second field goal for the Raiders to put up 16 points and escape with a win. Not much to celebrate here other than complete embarrassment.
RT Brandon Parker, RG Alex Leatherwood, C Andre James
The right side of the Raiders line was in rare form again. Meaning rare for most lines. Not rare for them in the slightest.
Parker and Leatherwood each gave up run stuffs on the Raiders’ first drive to start Josh Jacobs’s day with zero yards on two carries. Then Parker gave up another run stuff on Jacobs for no gain on a play that was negated in favor of a holding penalty that actually wasn’t on Parker.
I said actually because Parker was called for holding on the first play of the next drive.
Come the third quarter, Andre James gave up a sack on Derek Carr which he fumbled away to give the Browns the ball in Vegas territory. They would score off that field position.
Leatherwood gave up another run stuff on the next drive. And a few plays later James simply didn’t snap the ball despite Carr clapping, jumping, and yelling for it, and ultimately having to call timeout.
Next drive James gave up a tackle for loss. Then on the play Carr threw the interception, Parker gave up pressure.
I wish I could say the weekly struggles these guys have wasn’t 100% predictable before the season even started.
LB Cory Littleton
The usual starting linebacker saw just five snaps in this game. And they were costly ones for the Raiders. In the third quarter, Nick Chubb broke off what at that point was the biggest play of the game when he broke out left for 24 yards. Littleton had the best shot at stopping him and he missed the tackle.
Two plays later, it looked for a moment like Browns tight end David Njoku had posterized Littleton for a touchdown in the back of the end zone. If not for Njoku’s left heel landing on the end line. But on the next play the Browns just went back to the ground, handing it to Chubb who ran for the score with Littleton getting blown through along the way.
CB Brandon Facyson
To Facyson’s credit, he had three pass breakups in this game. All of them came in the first half and Mullen had just 12 completions for 72 yards.
The lily started to wilt late in the second quarter when Facyson committed a pass interference that put the Browns in field goal range. The kick was missed to keep it a 10-0 game at the half.
It was a 13-7 game midway through the fourth quarter meaning the Browns needed a touchdown drive to have a shot. They would get that touchdown drive and convert three third downs along the way. All of those third-down conversions went through Facyson. The final third-down conversion was an 11-yard catch on third-and-eight to put the Browns on the 11-yard-line. The only big catch on the drive he didn’t give up was the touchdown. Casey Hayward gave that up.
All told, he gave up five catches for 55 yards plus 14 yards on the pass interference penalty.
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