Welcome in to the full recap of the Raiders' Week 4 matchup vs. the Cleveland Browns where the Raiders pull off an improbable come-from-behind victory over Baker Mayfield and the new-look Browns 42-45 in OT, giving Jon Gruden his first win as a head coach in a decade.
Finish, finish, finish. That was the point of emphasis that the Raiders had to work on after blowing three games where they built a pretty good lead in the first half. But, they couldn't finish. This scenario was little different. They were down in the first half. You'd think in a parallel universe, the Raiders would come from behind and win. Nope, it happened here in this universe and this was great win. Now, now, yes it took the Raiders until overtime to win against the Cleveland Browns. But, keep in mind this is a Browns team that is not as pitiful as their 0-16 counterpart last season. They finally have a quarterback that could drive the offense down the field. Their defense is full of young playmakers. No team should sleep on them. This was a hard fought victory.
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Takeaways. I believe this was the biggest key that the Raiders won this game. They were especially important in the 2nd half. Baker Mayfield as much of a stud he was, made a lot of rookie mistakes with the turnovers. Most of it, he had trouble with snap from his center and the Raiders D-line was able to fall on it to put the Raiders in great field position. Johnathan Hankins recovered those fumbles. Right place, right time. They helped shift the momentum as the Raiders were able to capitalize on both fumbles for TDs. Gareon Conley was also at the right place, right time for the first turnover and he took that in for the Raiders' 1st score of the game. Reggie Nelson had an INT. That was big since Mayfield was going for the "kill shot" on that deep throw and Nelson just cut in front of it and was able to pick it off and send this game into OT.
Coop-Cook-Nelson. Week 1, it was Cook. Week 2, it was Cooper, Week 3, it was Nelson. Week 4? It was a little bit of everything from this trio. Amari Cooper had 8 receptions for 128 yards and 1 TD. Jared Cook, 8 receptions, 110 yards, 2 TDs. Jordy Nelson, 5 receptions, 48 yards, 1 TD and the clutch 2-pt conversion to tie up the game. This is what needed to be done. Just mix this trio up and put them in mismatch situations. It finally took this week for Gruden to get that right. Coupled with Martavis Bryant who had 3 receptions for 51 yards today, this is a very good receiving corps. And it's finally great to see that the ball is getting distributed around and not just on one particular receiver.
Marquel Lee, 10 total tackles (4 solo, 6 assists), 2 pass defensed. Defense was okay, but the one defender that stood out on that unit was Marquel Lee. He played more snaps than Derrick Johnson today and he was all over the field making plays. I was really impressed with his pass defense today, deflecting a pair of passes from Baker Mayfield that had potential to be big plays for the Browns had Lee not put his hands up. He made a couple of good stops on the goal line. He had a lot of potential when the Raiders took him last year and he blossomed as the "Mike" today.
Derek Carr, 35 of 58 passes, 437 yards, 4 TDs, 2 INTs. It's never pretty whenever Derek Carr is under center. But, this was the first time in a long time where he looked mentally challenged. That's the Derek Carr I knew. Whenever he makes mistakes, he rises to the occasion to be better. He doesn't talk it, he shows it and that showed today. Especially, rallying the Raiders to game-tying drive at the end of regulation and eventually the game-winning drive that ended in Matt McCrane's 29-yard field goal.
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Run defense. Last week, this was on point. Then again, the Dolphins rushing attack is non-existent. Look at what happened to them earlier today against the Patriots. The Browns' backfield combined for 208 rushing yards. Cleveland's backfield duo of Nick Chubb and Carlos Hyde accounted for a majority of the rushing yards. Nick Chubb in particular ripped some pretty explosive runs. Just bad overall effort from the defense to set the edge and shoot the gaps. Chubb was able to exploit that for his big runs.
MVP
Derek Carr, 35 of 58 passes, 437 yards, 4 TDs, 2 INTs
Like I said, it ain't always pretty with Carr. But, today he played like his contract of $125 million year. Some early turnovers? Shake it off and will this team to win.
Conclusion
Finally, that first win is in the books. It was three weeks overdue for Jon Gruden and he finally got a win in his return. But, there's still a lot of work to do for the coming weeks. A win against an improving Browns team is not something that'll spark a run for the Raiders, but it is a step in the right direction. This team is still not good enough to make a run to the playoffs, let's be realistic. It's just a matter of stringing together some wins here and there and this one was one of them. Next week, tough division battle ahead against the Chargers. But if anything, the Raiders have finally found out to play more than 60 minutes of football. I'll see you guys next week for that game.
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