Can Browns get their season back on track after falling to undermanned Raiders?

LAS VEGAS — There’s no such thing as a last call in Las Vegas, where the Cleveland Browns played for the first time Sunday. But it’s getting late early for the 1-3 Browns. The most expensive roster in NFL history brought back its core plus the promise of a revamped and explosive offense.

But Cleveland failed in the fourth quarter — again — and the Raiders escaped with a 20-16 victory after the Browns scored the game’s first 10 points. Advertisement The Browns are struggling to score and are sinking themselves with penalties. But for the second straight week, they found themselves in position to steal a win after playing poorly.

With 3:17 to go, they got the ball with the season potentially on the line and a chance to escape September with at least decent vibes. The vibes, however, are not good. Neither is the offense.

And neither for the middle two quarters was a defense that likes to call itself the league’s best but suddenly struggles to tackle. How could the Browns get that last drive inside the Raiders’ 10-yard line but fail on fourth down? What was supposed to happen on that play? When Kevin Stefanski was asked after the game where Deshaun Watson would have ideally gone with the ball on fourth-and-3 from the Raiders’ 9-yard line, the coach said he’d have to go back and look at the play to give a good answer. Stefanski calls the plays.

Either he was protecting a player (or players), or perhaps there are no good answers. You just can’t lose to the New.