Browns defeat Raiders - Oct 26, 2014

For the second consecutive week, the Cleveland Browns faced a winless opponent, starting a rookie quarterback.

The previous week, Cleveland lost bad at Jacksonville. This time, Cleveland won ugly at home against Oakland.

In the NFL, the key is simply winning. Style points, regarding how a team wins or loses and the type of competition, play no part in deciding playoff teams.

The exception is with a tiebreaker situation when about the fifth or sixth item down on the tiebreaker list involves total sports scored or something like that. It's rarely needed to determine playoff teams. But it might be needed this year in the AFC where several teams may end up at 9-7.

Here are some stats from the Oct 26 Oak-Cle game.

• Cleveland 3rd-down efficiency: 2-12
• Oakland 3rd-down efficiency: 6-19
• Total plays: Oak 81 - Cle 54
• Hoyer passing: 19-28 for 267 yards
• Carr passing: 34-56 for 316 yards
• Browns rushing: 25 attempts for only 39 yards, averaged 1.6 yards per rush
• Time of possession: Oak 34:52 - Cle 25:08

Against Jacksonville, Cleveland rushed for 69 yards on 30 attempts.

Two weeks in a row, winless teams jammed the line of scrimmage and stalled Cleveland's running game.

In my opinion, Hoyer is a good, but he does not have the pass-catching playmakers

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