The wind/chill dropped considerably after the Browns lost to the Las Vegas Raiders.
Myles Garrett has a knee injury that could alter the rest of Cleveland’s season.
The NFL sacks leader injured his knee in the first quarter Sunday and was ineffective the rest of the way as the Browns were beaten 16-6 by the Las Vegas Raiders, who did a far superior job handling the blustery weather than the home team.
Garrett got hurt early, was examined in the medical tent and played sparingly in the second half. The Browns put him in during obvious pass-rushing downs, but the star end lacked his usual explosiveness and didn’t record a sack for the first time in seven games.
“I took a shot. I took a cut,” said Garrett, who missed practice time this week with an unrelated ankle injury. “It was one of the first plays, and from that first shot, it just kind of started just wearing on me.”
He’ll undergo an MRI on Monday, and the Browns (5-3) are hoping it shows nothing serious.
“It is part of the game,” Garrett said. “You get hampered with things like that, and you just try to play through to the best that I can or best that I could. It just started wearing on me. Started going to third downs and then they were driving the field and we were in passing downs.”
Garrett’s injury aside, the Browns failed to build on the momentum from their thrilling win last week at Cincinnati.
Baker Mayfield struggled to throw in the whipping wind, there were dropped passes, costly penalties and kicker Cody Parkey hooked a late 37-yard field goal try that ended Cleveland’s chance at a comeback.
Also, the Browns failed to force a turnover, which has been one of their calling cards all season.
The Raiders controlled time of possession, holding the ball for more than eight minutes on three scoring drives. Las Vegas racked up 208 yards rushing and held the ball for 37:43 to Cleveland’s 22:17. The Browns only had the ball six times.
It wasn’t close to what coach Kevin Stefanski expected from his team.
“I wish we were able to put some drives together there and extend drives, but if you do not possess the ball and you leave the defense on the field that long and they do not get off the field, it is just hard to win,” he said. “They did a nice job. They earned that victory.”
Mayfield was plagued by several big drops, including one by Jarvis Landry, the normally sure-handed receiver being asked to do even more with Odell Beckham Jr. out for the season with a knee injury.
With the Raiders up 6-3 in the third quarter, Landry’s 20-yard TD catch from Mayfield was overturned by a replay review, which showed he bobbled the ball and hit the ground for an incompletion. The Browns settled for a 33-yard field by Parkey.
Landry also got his hands on a potential TD in the final two minutes, but couldn’t hold onto it because of a jarring hit from behind. Landry had four catches while targeted 11 times.
“I have very high expectations for Jarvis,” Stefanski said. “He has tremendous ball skills. I think he will make those plays. I did not have a loss of any faith whatsoever in him. I think he will always tell you every ball that comes his way, he should catch. That is just his mindset.”
Mayfield, who went 12 of 25 for 122 yards but couldn’t get into a rhythm, found no solace in the improved Browns reaching their bye week above .500.
“We have a 5-3 record. It should be a lot better,” Mayfield said. “We believe that. That is why our locker room is (ticked) off. We believe in this locker room, and we are going to continue to get better and hopefully going on a streak right after this bye week, be healthy and focus on getting better.
“We know what we can improve, and after we watch this film, we will do that even more so.”
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