Browns coach Hue Jackson made clear his team can't succumb to self-inflicted errors after a frustrating afternoon in Oakland.
In addition to four turnovers, Jackson counted nine dropped passes in Sunday's 45-42 overtime loss to the Raiders, a dynamic that (among other things) helped sink the team's chances in a game that came down to the wire.
"We had way too many drops. We had nine drops yesterday. Period," Jackson said. "We had nine drops. Nine. That's not winning football."
Indeed it is not.
The good news, though? Cleveland's weapons — from Jarvis Landry to Duke Johnson to David Njoku — helped power an offensive explosion in which the Browns rolled up nearly 500 yards and their highest scoring output since 2007.
Still, Jackson was miffed by an unusually high number of drops that did no favors for rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield, who made his first NFL start this past weekend.
Part of it, he said, was young players having young moments. Some of it was the slippery field at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, which is home to both the Raiders and MLB's Oakland Athletics.
"I think the footing – I think you guys can say I wanted to take the team there on Saturday and why it was so important," Jackson said. "They needed to know what that felt like. I watched guys changing shoes on the sideline quite a few times because that needed to happen because it is different when you are going full speed like that. They found that out."
In any case, Jackson made clear those kinds of errors — in addition to four turnovers — can't happen going forward.
"That's very uncharacteristic of us," Jackson said. "We got to make those plays."
