For the first time since 1995, a Cleveland Browns rookie starting quarterback has won his debut with the team.
Shedeur Sanders, best known for being Cleveland’s side of the trade with the Seattle Seahawks that effectively sent Tory Horton to Seattle, threw for 209 yards, a touchdown, and an interception in his first career start. His screen pass touchdown to running back Dylan Sampson on 3rd and long sealed an eventual 24-10 win over none other than Pete Carroll, Geno Smith, and the abject garbage
fire that is the Las Vegas Raiders.
Sanders’ advanced stats are not great but I doubt he cares. He’s the first rookie Browns QB since Eric Zeier in 1995 to get a W in start number one. Want to know how ancient that history is? Bill Belichick was the head coach and neither the Carolina Panthers nor Jacksonville Jaguars existed yet.
Geno Smith was sacked not one, not two, not three, but TEN times by the Browns’ ferocious pass rush. Left tackle Stone Forsythe, whom Pete Carroll praised as playing the best he’s ever played, got to face Myles Garrett. The results will shock you.
While many of these sacks and pressures were the product of terrible line play on a backup-filled unit, Geno not getting the ball out led to a few sacks. I think just about any other team in the league would’ve benched him at this point, but at least he didn’t throw an interception this week. He also reunited nicely with Tyler Lockett, who had a team-high 62 yards on four catches, but several inaccurate throws compounded the problem for a dysfunctional Raiders offense.
The Raiders are 2-9, which is the same record they had last year under Antonio Pierce through 11 games, and it’s the worst mark Pete Carroll has ever had in-season. He only needs two more losses to solidify his first 11-loss season, and this is obviously the earliest he’s ever clinched a losing record in either college or the NFL. Twice this season he’s been blown out so badly that the other team kneeled the ball on the plus side of the two-minute warning. Sunday was the fifth time they’ve scored 10 points or fewer, and at the moment the Raiders are on pace for its worst points per game average since 2009.
This is a team that is stacked with Seahawks castaways on the coaching staff and the roster, and the results couldn’t have looked much worse. It may be validating to some to see Geno and/or Carroll fail this hard, but I don’t know if many had pegged the Raiders are potentially vying for the No. 1 overall pick. If the Tennessee Titans keep showing some respectability like they have over the past few weeks, it’s possible they get another win or two. Outside of maybe the New York Giants, there looks to be no path to a Raiders win the rest of this season.
The immediate results of the Russell Wilson trade were jarring to watch but exhilarating in a twisted way because of the downfall of the Denver Broncos and the upside of a first-round pick. There is not that same incentive at stake with the Raiders; the immediate results for Geno and Pete are substantially worse to watch even if the expectations were not as high. Smith never had a sterling reputation to begin with outside of his career revival in Seattle, Carroll is the one who’s surely ending his college and NFL championship-winning coaching career on the lowest of notes.
