3 takeaways from Raiders’ loss: Pass protection fails against Browns — PHOTOS

The Raiders have hit some big-time lows over the years. They might have fallen as far as ever Sunday in a 24-10 loss to a Browns team that arrived in Las Vegas with a 2-8 record.

The Raiders’ fifth straight loss saw quarterback Geno Smith get sacked 10 times, five in each half, and was marked by a cascade of boos from their frustrated fans on multiple occasions at Allegiant Stadium.

Who could blame them after watching the Raiders trip all over themselves for the ninth time in 11 games? Or how they allowed Shedeur Sanders to become the first Browns quarterback to win in his starting debut since 1999?

“We’re pretty disappointed about this one,” coach Pete Carroll said. “But if you don’t score, you can’t win, and we couldn’t score.”

The Raiders’ only touchdown came on Smith’s 5-yard pass to Ashton Jeanty with 5:11 to play.

The Raiders have scored 33 points in their past three games.

Sanders directed Cleveland (3-8) on two first-quarter scoring drives, both of them capped by touchdown runs from Quinshon Judkins.

The rookie quarterback threw his first NFL touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, a 66-yard screen pass to running back Dylan Sampson.

Sanders’ father, Colorado coach and former NFL great Deion Sanders, attended the game.

Here are three takeaways from the loss:

1. Rolling out the same offensive line

It almost defied logic, but the same offensive line group that massively struggled last week against the Cowboys was back at it against the Browns.

That meant Jordan Meredith, who played the first nine games at center before Jackson Powers-Johnson went down with an injury, was back at right guard, and Will Putnam was at center.

The results were predictable.

Smith had little time to set up and throw, as evidenced by the five sacks in the first half. That grew to seven after the Raiders’ first drive of the second half. At that point, Alex Cappa replaced Putnam at center. Not that it made any difference.

Smith has been sacked 18 times in the past three games.

“We’ve got to be way better,” Meredith said. “We’ve got to get Geno time. He’s a great player. He knows how to play football. I know that if we give him time, he’ll make the right throw, and we’ll move the ball up and down the field.”

When Smith wasn’t being sacked, he was getting pressured.

On the rare occasions he had time, he wasn’t very good. He completed 30 of 44 passes for 285 yards and a touchdown. He missed two opportunities to hook up with wide receiver Tre Tucker on long completions.

What makes it so perplexing is the two third-round picks the Raiders invested in offensive linemen Caleb Rogers and Charles Grant. At this point in the season, it would seem to behoove the Raiders to get their young linemen playing time.

Carroll and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly obviously see it differently.

“That’s one way to look at it … just try something else,” Carroll said. “But we watch practice every day, and we watch the film, and we do our work to make our evaluations. Those guys are going to have their day. Maybe sooner than later. But based on what we’ve seen and what we know, we’re giving it the best shot we can.”

Maybe. But the amount of time they have wasted sacrificing important development time while playing a clearly inferior line group is incalculable.

2. Defense was mostly solid

Things were set up perfectly for the Raiders’ defense to play a good game. The Browns’ offense is among the NFL’s worst.

It’s not as if the defense played poorly, but with the offense continuing to struggle, it needed to play close to perfect football.

That was far from the case.

A bad first-quarter special teams sequence led to a 44-yard punt return by the Browns, and a tripping call by punter AJ Cole set Cleveland up at the Raiders’ 13-yard line. It took the Browns two plays to score a touchdown.

Hard to blame the defense for that one. But a massive breakdown by the secondary was the culprit on the Browns’ second touchdown. Cornerback Darnay Holmes let Browns wide receiver Isaiah Bond get a step on him, and Sanders found Bond for a 52-yard completion to the Raiders’ 2.

Judkins scored on the next play for a 14-0 lead.

Then came the dagger when Sanders found Sampson on a simple screen pass. Sampson never got touched as he raced to the end zone.

“We just screwed it up in terms of the way we contain the thing,” Carroll said.

Defensive end Maxx Crosby agreed.

“That’s a play that can’t happen,” he said.

3. Bad in the margins again

The Raiders are bad in all the obvious ways. But they exacerbate things by being utter failures within the margins.

They converted just 4 of 17 third downs and were 1 of 3 on fourth downs.

They were penalized 13 times for 109 yards, including Jamal Adams’ unsportsmanlike conduct infraction. It negated a 7-yard loss that would have set up a third and 17 from the Browns’ 41. Instead, the Browns got an automatic first down at the Raiders’ 44.

That led to Andre Szmyt’s 53-yard field goal and a 17-3 lead.

“We’ve got to do better, and we’ve got to execute better as an offense,” Smith said.

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal. com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on X.