The Morning After: Oakland

Browns 9, Raiders 7
Record: 5-9

It was exactly the game I expected from a pair of 4-9 teams. Low-scoring and full of mistakes.
The Browns continued to bring Charlie Frye along with training wheels, while the Raiders are just spinning their wheels.
It was a game in which the Raiders could not make the Browns pay for a pair of fourth-quarter turnovers, in which the Browns needed a Reuben Droughns fumble call overturned to set up Phil Dawson's game-winning field goal as time expired.
It was a game in which the winning team failed to reach the end zone, a game in which the winning team was probably the losing team in the long run. Five wins might be enough to force the Browns to draft as low as 10th in April. A sixth win almost assuredly would drop Cleveland to 10th or below.
The Browns' lone chance at a touchdown was stuffed in the first quarter. I'd like to credit the Raiders and their defensive front for stopping everything the Browns threw at them, but that would give Cleveland too much credit. Inside the Oakland five yard line, Browns offensive coordinator Maurice Carthon elected to run Droughns up the gut four straight times, and he was stopped all four times.
I recognize the need to keep things simple for the inexperienced Frye, but there is a saying credited to Albert Einstein. It finds its way onto office walls every now and then:
"The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result."
No harm in mixing in a sweep, or even an old-school option play. Lee Suggs, noticeably faster than Droughns, is healthy for his annual December breakout. He is pretty good at turning the corner with a head of steam.
I'd also like to give the Browns defense credit for holding the Raiders to one Kerry Collins-to-Randy Moss touchdown pass, but again, that would paint an inaccurate picture.
Collins' game was in discord after being benched for Marquez Tuiasosopo last week, then being re-inserted as a starter this week. He and Moss were speaking different football languages all afternoon, save for the touchdown pass, which was mostly due to some soft Cleveland coverage in the secondary, and the Moss' height, which allowed him to snare a high over-the-middle pass from Collins.
The Browns allowed another 100-yard rushing game, as preseason fantasy favorite LaMont Jordan racked up 132 yards, mostly inconsequential due to Oakland's impotent passing game.
An assist in the win also goes to Oakland kicker Sebastian Janikowski, possibly the most overrated kicker in the league. The former first-round pick badly missed a second-half field goal that would have pushed Oakland to 10 points.

Up next: Pittsburgh, Saturday, 1 p.m. ET.