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Raise your hand if you were angry with the Cleveland Browns offensive drops, inability to sustain drives and soft run defense in Sunday’s loss to the visiting Las Vegas Raiders.
Coach Kevin Stefanski raised his hand, too, just like everyone else rooting for the Browns.
Stefanski expressed his disgust for the dropped passes and missed opportunities on offense right away in his postgame press conference. One of his big points was how badly the Raiders dominated the time of possession. Las Vegas held the ball for 37:43, over 15 minutes longer than the Browns offense.
“Yeah, very disappointing,” Stefanski said when asked about the discrepancy between the offenses. “Time of possession is a great team stat. Offensively, you have to possess it by sustaining drives, making first downs on the third down or finding ways to just get first downs. Obviously, we did not do that on offense. Defensively, I do not know the exact numbers, but they were much better than us on third down and the sustained drives.”
The coach was right. The Raiders converted 8-of-14 third-down attempts, while the Browns struggled to make just 3-of-10. Cleveland’s run defense was the primary culprit, incapable of getting stops and allowing Raiders RB Josh Jacobs to reliably churn out yards on the ground.
Stefanski noted they tried some adjustments schematically, but the Raiders were just better at execution.
“You can play some safeties lower or you can move the front, but we were just getting knocked back so that is something we will look at,” Stefanski said. “Ultimately, we have to stop the run, whether we play shell or single high. They late in that game were running it, we knew that they were running it and we were not able to stop it so that is something that we will look at long and hard to find a way to get better.”
