Rookie quarterback Derek Carr threw for 328 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. It represents a career high in yards for the gunslinger who previously had not surpassed the 300-yard mark. But Carr also had a career high in pass attempts with a whopping 54, which is 12 more than his previous high against the Houston Texans. Not surprisingly, Carr also completed more passes than ever before (34 — his previous high was 27 in that same Texans game).
Unfortunately for Carr and the Raiders, he was only able to produce one touchdown and that score came with seven seconds left in the game, which by that point was well out of hand.
For the first time this year, the Raiders defense looked good on third down as they held the Browns to a 2-for-12 clip, but the offense couldn’t capitalize. The Browns were only able to score three field goals in the first half and were held scoreless in the third quarter. The game was within reach at 9-6 … until the fourth quarter when the Browns scored two touchdowns to take a 17-point lead with just under two and a half minutes left to play.
Meanwhile, the offense continued to experience third down woes, converting just over 31% of their attempts on Sunday. They had seven punts, four of which came after three-and-outs. If you don’t include the 80-yard drive in garbage time, the Raiders had drives of more than six plays on only three out of 12 drives. Eventually, the inability of the offense to stay on the field resulted in the defense giving up some big plays late in the game.
With the next two games being on the road at Seattle and at home with the Broncos, things look to get pretty bad for the Raiders in the immediate future and probably won’t get much better after that. At this point the only real hopes for a win this season come in St. Louis on Nov. 30 or when they host the Bills on Dec. 21.
