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Week 3 Game Recap: Cleveland Browns 24, Oakland Raiders 26
What you need to know
| Cleveland Browns |
Despite falling behind early by a score of 16-0, the Browns rallied to take the lead before falling down by two scores again and nearly rallying to beat the Raiders on the road in a defining game for both teams. Derek Anderson had an up and down afternoon, finishing 18 of 37 for 248 yards with one touchdown pass and two interceptions on passes where he failed to see the roving linebacker underneath his intended tight end.
With a flurry of activity on the final two drives, Kellen Winslow led the team in targets, receptions and yards on the day with six catches for 88 yards. Early in the game, Anderson's favorite target appeared to be Braylon Edwards, who likewise had a roller coaster afternoon, finishing the day with four receptions for 83 yards and a touchdown. Joe Jurevicius came on late to catch three balls for 33 yards, with Tim Carter adding a fourteen yard reception. Out of the backfield, Jamal Lewis and Jason Wright each caught two balls, going for 22 and eight yards respectively.
A key difference in the Browns offense versus the week prior when they scored 51 points versus the Bengals was a relative lack of running game. Jamal Lewis was only given fifteen carries, gaining 56 yards on the afternoon, with his long of fifteen yards coming early in the game. Jason Wright added thirteen yards on one carry. Late in the game when Jamal Lewis was unable to score from the two yard line, the Browns followed up with a bootleg by Derek Anderson, who went in for the score on a day where he officially received two carries for twelve yards.
| Oakland Raiders |
The Raiders opened the day at quarterback with Josh McCown, but saw him forced out of action after coming up limping on multiple occasions throughout the first half. Daunte Culpepper came in to replace McCown during the first half, and took over for good in the second half. Neither was especially productive, and as such it is unclear who the starting quarterback shall remain moving forward if both are healthy.
McCown finished six of twelve for 108 yards and one touchdown, while Culpepper completed eight of fourteen passes for 118 yards and no touchdowns. Ronald Curry led Raiders receivers with three catches for 62 yards and a touchdown reception from Josh McCown. Both Jerry Porter and Mike Williams failed to get untracked in this game, hauling in just one ball each, going for 20 and 24 yards respectively, though Williams was stripped of the ball on his only catch of the day. Both quarterbacks looked to their tight ends on deep outs, with John Madsen the recipient of three balls for 61 yards and Zach Miller contributing one catch for thirteen yards. Oakland also saw contribution from their running backs, with LaMont Jordan adding two catches for 32 yards, while fullback Justin Griffith caught two balls for seven yards and Justin Fargas hauled in one pass for seven yards.
After seeing a 16-0 lead evaporate, the Raiders dedicated themselves to a heavy dose of the running game in an effort to wear down the Browns defense. With a balanced attack from LaMont Jordan and Justin Fargas, they were able to successfully move the chains on the ground most of the day this way. Jordan carried the ball 29 times for 121 yards on the afternoon with one score, while Fargas added 50 yards on eight carries. Though hobbled most of the first quarter, McCown showed more mobility in the pocket than Culpepper, running the ball four times for fifteen yards.
What you ought to know
| QB Derek Anderson, Pass: 18 - 37 - 248 - 1 TD / 2 INT, Rush: 2 - 12 - 1 |
Though Anderson did a decent job of going through his progressions and finding the open receiver at various points throughout the game, he was also guilty at points of fixating on getting the ball to Braylon Edwards or Kellen Winslow when there were other receivers clearly more open. On his touchdown pass to Edwards, and at times throughout the game, Anderson showed good accuracy in his passes. Although at various points throughout the game, he was missing his receivers badly, and gave them no chance to catch the ball. Anderson threw two interceptions in this game on virtually identical plays, while trying to hit his tight end deep across the middle of the field, but failing to see the linebacker sneak underneath and intercept his pass. When he was good, he looked pretty good. But when he was bad, he was awful.
| RB Jamal Lewis, Rush: 15 - 56 - 0, Rec: 2 - 22 - 0 (3 targets) |
Lewis was unable to get untracked in this game as the Browns trailed by scores of 16-0 and 26-17 throughout the game and were committed to throwing the ball. Lewis broke off a fifteen yard run early in the game when he was able to get outside, but failed to show a great deal when trying to run up the middle in this game. This included a carry from the two yard line in the fourth quarter where he failed to score, and subsequently the Browns followed up with a Derek Anderson bootleg.
| RB Jason Wright, Rush: 1 - 13 - 0, Rec: 2 - 8 - 0 (3 targets) |
Wright spelled Lewis primarily on third downs and late in the game in clear passing situations.
| WR Braylon Edwards, Rec: 4 - 83 - 1 (7 targets) |
Edwards began the afternoon with a nice catch down the sidelines over the shoulder where he tipped the ball to himself to avoid the defender, but later dropped an easy pass over the middle which would have gone for a first down. Edwards was blanketed much of the afternoon, but came free across the middle of the end zone to catch a 21 yard touchdown on a perfect pass from Derek Anderson in the third quarter of this game to temporarily put the Browns ahead.
| WR Joe Jurevicius, Rec: 3 - 33 - 0 (6 targets) |
Jurevicius was quiet most of the afternoon until catching a few balls late, but also was wide open at various points throughout the game where Anderson either failed to throw the ball his way or completely missed his intended target.
| TE Kellen Winslow Jr, Rec: 6 - 88 - 0 (10 targets) |
The Raiders made every effort to commit a safety over the top and linebacker underneath to cover Winslow, and slowed him down before allowing him to accrue team leading targets and catches on the Browns comeback drives late in the game.
| TE Steve Heiden (4 targets) |
Heiden finished the afternoon with zero catches, despite being wide open in the back of the end zone on an errant throw from Anderson as well as other points during the afternoon.
| PK Phil Dawson 1 - 2 FG, 3 - 3 XP, 6 points |
Dawson and the Browns suffered the same curse the Raiders had one week earlier; believing they had just kicked a field goal to win the game, only to have the referees blow the whistle and acknowledge a late timeout request prior to the attempted kick. After initially connecting from forty yards out to win the game, Dawson's second attempt was blocked. Earlier in the game he had connected from 23 yards out and was successful on both extra points.
| CLE Rush Defense |
The Browns were gashed for 186 yards on the ground, worn down by the pair of LaMont Jordan and Justin Fargas, who averaged over 4.5 yards per carry. The only highlight of the afternoon was a fumble recovery on a botched handoff attempt to LaMont Jordan.
| CLE Pass Defense |
The Browns did not let themselves get beat through the air, though did find difficulty in covering the tight ends throughout the game. Daunte Culpepper and Josh McCown combined for 226 yards and no interceptions. The Browns pass defense picked up two sacks and forced a fumble by Mike Williams in this game.
| QB Josh McCown, Pass: 6 - 12 - 108 - 1 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 4 - 15 - 0 |
McCown gritted his way through the first half, trying to stay out on the field in fear of losing his starting position to Daunte Culpepper, but foot and other injuries finally knocked him out of this game for good. Before exiting, McCown exhibited that grittiness on a couple of nice scrambles and made a couple of nice touch passes, but also missed his receiver badly on a couple of passes as well.
| QB Daunte Culpepper, Pass: 8 - 14 - 118 - 0 TD / 0 INT |
Culpepper was shuffled in and out of the game in the first half before taking over for an injured Josh McCown for good in the second half of this game, but was never really asked to make too many plays, handing the ball off to his effective rushing attack most of the game. Daunte did not turn the ball over in this game, and helped put the Raiders in the win column for the first time this season.
| RB LaMont Jordan, Rush: 29 - 121 - 1, Rec: 2 - 32 - 0 (2 targets) |
With a heavy dose on the ground to grind out this game, Jordan was often spelled and was less involved in the passing game than usual. Jordan's long run of the day for 25 yards came on the Raiders opening drive of the fourth quarter to help extend the lead to two scores. While LaMont Jordan did score one touchdown, it was his third attempt within the two on that drive, though the Raiders did show the commitment to giving him the ball in that situation.
| RB Justin Fargas, Rush: 8 - 50 - 0, Rec: 1 - 7 - 0 (2 targets) |
Fargas was inserted into this game often to give LaMont Jordan a break and to provide an alternative running style to Jordan for the Raiders. The announcers in this game reminded the viewing audience of the USC offense which Raiders coach Lane Kiffin led, with the dynamic duo of Reggie Bush and Lendale White, and compared the current backfield to their individual running styles.
| WR Ronald Curry, Rec: 3 - 62 - 1 (6 targets) |
Curry was targeted successfully a number of times by Josh McCown early in the game, though became less involved with Daunte Culpepper in the game. Curry had an opportunity to add a second touchdown, but was clearly held by the Browns defender to prevent the score.
| WR Jerry Porter, Rec: 1 - 20 - 0 (6 targets) |
Porter was targeted a number of times in the red zone, however errant passes prevented Porter from hauling in a touchdown against the Browns.
| WR Mike Williams, Rec: 1 - 24 - 0 (5 targets) |
Williams found himself open much of the afternoon, but did not help himself out by dropping a potential touchdown reception and losing a fumble to let Cleveland back in the game. After making a nice catch across the middle of the field, Williams was stripped of the ball and was not targeted again in the final 26 minutes of the game.
| TE John Madsen, Rec: 3 - 61 - 0 (3 targets) |
Madsen successfully converted all of his targets, and was open down the seam on multiple other occasions throughout this game as well, a fact teams in the future will have to take notice of if they want to slow down the Raiders tight ends.
| TE Zach Miller, Rec: 1 - 13 - 0 (2 targets) |
Miller combined with fellow tight end John Madsen to give the Browns defense matchup problems for much of the afternoon, though quarterbacks Josh McCown and Daunte Culpepper were not always successful in getting the ball to them downfield.
| PK Sebastian Janikowski 4 - 4 FG, 2 - 2 XP, 14 points |
Janikowski rebounded to connect on all four field goal attempts from 22, 23, 32 and 48 yards out in addition to successfully connecting on both extra point attempts.
| OAK Rush Defense |
The Raiders slowed down a Cleveland Browns rushing offense which had looked very effective the week before in part by limiting Jamal Lewis from getting outside, and secondarily by grinding out the game on offense to keep their own defense fresh and keep Cleveland from gaining the ball.
| OAK Pass Defense |
The Raiders linebackers came up with the biggest plays of the afternoon, getting underneath deep outs intended for the tight end to intercept a pair of passes intended for Derek Anderson. They picked up just one sack on the afternoon, but held the Browns to less than a 50% completion percentage.
