LAS VEGAS — Lots of trips to Las Vegas end with tourists asking themselves, “What went wrong?”
It’s no different with the Cleveland Browns defense, following their 20-16 loss to the Raiders on Sunday.
“I’ll say that we need to get better, and we need to get better fast,” edge rusher Ogbo Okoronkwo said. “Luckily we have a week of practice to correct those things, get ourselves in better position to make those plays. That’s unacceptable. And we put that on us.”
It was another week in which the defense failed to put together a full game; that was the story in their previous two losses as well, when they gave up 20 points in the first half to the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1, and 21 first-half points to the New York Giants in Week 3.
Now at 1-3, the Browns are far removed from their No. 1 overall ranking last year, and from the boombox toting and attitude that helped define them.
Or at least, they have yet to show it this year when the bright lights are on and when it actually matters.
“We have the mentality for sure — we just need to go get it done on Sunday,” Okoronkwo continued “It’s cool to draw it up and to execute and practice, but we need to go ahead and execute on Sunday.”
This Sunday, it was an abject failure in that regard.
The Raiders entered this week as the worst rushing team in the NFL, gaining just 51 yards per game. They had just 153 rushing yards through their first three games combined.
Against the Browns on Sunday, they ended with 152 rushing yards on 29 attempts. They surpassed their single-game high (71 yards) in the first half, going for 95 yards on 16 carries.
“It allowed them to control the game, get them in favorable downs, stay ahead of the chains,” Browns veteran safety Rodney McLeod said. “We talked about them trying to establish the run. Felt like that was something that (Raiders head coach) Antonio Pierce put out there. He wants that to be their identity, a physical, tough team, just really embodying everything that he stands for.”
The Raiders did in fact rise to the challenge their head coach set last week.
Pierce called out his players after their Week 3 loss to the previously winless Carolina Panthers, suggesting some players were making “business decisions” and saying that coaches would have to do the same thing.
The Raiders were also without star receiver Davante Adams (who has been a subject of trade rumors) and three-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby.
Even still, they got to work on the ground early, and didn’t give up even as the Browns got out to a 10-0 lead. The game was tied at the break, after the Raiders scored on a 3-yard reverse by Akron-area-native Tre Tucker, and a 52-yard field goal from Daniel Carlson.
“I feel like the majority of it was tackling,” Myles Garrett said after the game. “I feel like we had too many missed tackles and we just got to wrap up. A lot of guys going in with their shoulder trying to lay that big hit and it came in clutch down the stretch with that forced fumble. But for the majority of the plays, the second man’s got to be the one to force the ball out. The first guy’s got to wrap up and slow runner down or stop his momentum. So that’s something to take from it when we watch the film.”
Tackling has been a theme that keeps coming back for this defense.
Coming into Sunday afternoon, Pro Football Focus ranked the Browns 28th in the NFL with a 38.8 team tackling grade. Against the Giants last week, PFF tracking data had the Browns with 11 missed tackles.
Those bad tendencies shone bright in the third quarter Sunday as the Raiders took a 20-10 lead.
On third-and-9 from the Cleveland 34, running back Alexander Mattison ripped off a 16-yard run, racing through a gaggle of Browns D-linemen near the line of scrimmage.
The next play, receiver DJ Turner took it home with an 18-yard running score. Cleveland appeared to have at least three missed tackles on the play by safeties Ronnie Hickman and Grant Delpit, and linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah.
On top of missed tackles, these plays were also examples of how the Raiders schemed the game up.
“We got to lean back on the identity we had last year,” Garrett said. “Stopping the run, forcing teams to pass, and to some extent we have. They definitely run to different schemes to take advantage of the perimeter and making our guys on the back end tackle, trying to get away from the front seven. We’ve got to shore that up as best as we can and we’ve got to lean back on that identity we had last year.”
Through four games, the Browns haven’t been able to lean into that identity of rush and coverage working together, and they’ve paid the price.
They may not be themselves, but just how deep does the identity crisis go? And how much more will these same issues continue to impact them and their record?
“We’re going to address it as best as we can tomorrow and the day after and make sure we get back to our old ways as far as stopping the run, forcing teams to go quick and then once we get a lead, pin our ears back and rushing the hell out the ball,” Garrett said.
The recipe is there. The standard has been set.
Now, it’s up to the Cleveland defense to figure out how to meet their own expectations.
