Week 4 kicks off tonight with Thursday Night Football and that means that we are just a couple of days away from the Cleveland Browns and Las Vegas Raiders facing off.
For the Browns, it is as much of a must-win game early in the season as it gets. Cleveland is coming off of a very disappointing 21-15 loss to the New York Giants that dropped them to 1-2 on the season. The Browns firmly expect to be in the playoffs this season and dropping to 1-3 would be a tough start to that quest.
When facing the Raiders, the Browns are taking on another team that is 1-2 and coming off of a disappointing loss to the Carolina Panthers. To learn a bit more about this Las Vegas team, I decided to catch up with A to Z Sports’ Justin Churchill, who covers the Raiders beat.
There were rumors that the Raiders could make a QB change, and then it was said they would be sticking with Gardner Minshew for the time being. Who gives the Raiders the best chance to win at this point?
Justin: “It’s Minshew, and it really just boils down to his legs. The offensive line is terrible, and maybe the biggest reason, outside of Luke Getsy’s woes, that the offense is struggling. Minshew still gives you the ability to extend plays, whereas O’Connell does not. Now, O’Connell did make some very nice and quick throws when he came in during garbage time last week. He was getting the ball out quickly and delivering accurate passes, besides one dropped interception. Minshew definitely needs to work on not holding the ball as long.”
The run game has been pretty much non-existent for the Raiders. Is this a scheme thing, an offensive line thing, or are the running backs playing poorly?
Justin: “It’s a mix of scheme and offensive line. They run an outside zone scheme and that’s just not something White is good at. He struggles to make quick jump cuts, which is why he saw the least amount of snaps last game between their three RBs. So, really, I’d say it’s a mix of it all.”
Las Vegas appears to have some injuries in the secondary. What is the feeling about that unit and is it somewhere the Browns should look to take advantage of?
Justin: “The secondary will always be a unit that teams should look to take advantage of. They are young, as Marcus Epps was the oldest guy with five years of experience, and now he’s out. He was their vocal leader. They are banged up there and just super young. And, Antonio Pierce called out some players last game for making “business decisions,” in that their effort wasn’t good enough. I think he was referring to the secondary mostly.”
