Browns fall short in 45-42 overtime loss to the Raiders: Five Takeaways

OAKLAND, CALIF – There was plenty of excitement surrounding the Cleveland Browns after the team earned their first win in 635 days and named No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield their starting quarterback. And throughout much of Sunday’s Week Four matchup with the Raiders that excitement continued as fans watched Mayfield and the offense put up 42 points – the most in a game since Week Two of 2007.

Then, as Cleveland Browns history has done time-and-time again,  all the joy came crashing down in the closing minutes or regulation as a controversial video review forced a Browns punt, a squandered eight-point lead and an eventual 45-42 overtime loss.

If you can bear to reflect on this one, here are five takeaways…

1) More Firsts for Baker

Last week, Baker Mayfield made his first-career appearance, led his first-career comeback, earned his first career win and for good measure caught his first-career pass. The firsts continued on Sunday in his first career start. Just like fellow rookie Sam Darnold, Mayfield threw his first career pick-six on the Browns second possession of the game before scoring his first career touchdown. Fortunately, Mayfield rebounded from the early misfortune to throw the first TD of his career in the second quarter, hooking up with Darren Fells for a 49-yard score to put the Browns in front 17-7 at the time. He followed it up with his second career touchdown pass in the third quarter, dropping an absolute dime to Jarvis Landry in the corner of the end zone.  Definitely worth watching that beauty again…

.@bakermayfield finds @God_Son80 for SIX!!#CLEvsOAK pic.twitter.com/BvQgq37GKc

— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) September 30, 2018

Those two scores were the highlights of a 295-yard passing performance for Mayfield, but it was far from perfect as he was semi-responsible for all four Brown turnovers.

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