CLEVELAND, Ohio — If you think the Cleveland Browns should easily handle the struggling Las Vegas Raiders this Sunday, the team’s beat reporters have a sobering reality check for you: this game is far from a guaranteed win. In fact, history suggests it’s precisely the type of matchup where the Browns have repeatedly faltered.
The Browns are riding a 13-game road losing streak dating back to last season’s Week 2 victory in Jacksonville. Even more concerning, they’ve never won a West Coast game under head coach Kevin Stefanski. This troubling pattern has Browns beat reporter Ashley Bastock viewing Sunday’s contest through a lens of healthy skepticism.
“So 13 straight on the road. They haven’t won since Week 2 in Jacksonville last year on the road. But if I have all the games here correctly, they also haven’t won on one of these West Coast trips. So throughout Kevin Stefanski’s tenure, this team has not been able to win when they’ve had to go on one of these long road trips, even games where it looks like they should win,” Bastock explained on the Orange and Brown Talk podcast.
The timing couldn’t be more precarious. Rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders is set to make his first NFL start after a shaky relief appearance against Baltimore. He’ll face a Raiders defense featuring star edge rusher Maxx Crosby, who could pose significant problems for a young quarterback still learning to navigate NFL pressure.
What’s particularly telling is how the Browns’ loss to the Jets has fundamentally altered expectations for the remainder of the season. What once looked like a favorable matchup now feels laden with potential pitfalls.
“It’s kind of coloring my view of this game because I think heading into this week, a lot of Browns fans are like, well, at least it’s the Raiders. But maybe not. Because I think people were thinking that with the Jets game and they couldn’t get it done,” Bastock added.
Orange and Brown Talk host Dan Labbe echoed this sentiment, emphasizing how the Jets game changed perspectives for many observers. “I think coming out of that bye week, I was at least thinking, look, this team can beat a team like the Jets, right? That they’ll beat the Titans, they can beat the Raiders. But then they go to the Jets and they lose that game and it’s like, I don’t know anymore.”
Perhaps most concerning is Labbe’s observation that while the Browns defense remains elite, their performance noticeably drops on the road. “This defense is good on the road. They aren’t as good on the road as they are at home, though. They don’t play with quite as much fire. There are no gimmes for this football team at this point, especially with this offense and especially with Shedeur Sanders making his first start.”
This creates a particularly frustrating dynamic for Browns fans. The defense, led by Myles Garrett’s historic pace of 15 sacks through 10 games, has the talent to dominate. Yet the team’s road struggles and offensive limitations make even games against struggling opponents feel like toss-ups.
“It’s just so ironic and weird because when I watch a game like I watched (Monday) night, I’m sitting there watching that and thinking, Myles Garrett is going to cook on Sunday and Geno Smith is going to have a really, really long afternoon and a difficult day,” Browns beat reporter Mary Kay Cabot said. “It’s just so hard to imagine that they can’t go out and win some football games just on the strength of this completely dominant defense alone.”
For a team with elite defensive talent, the inability to secure road wins has become a defining characteristic of the Stefanski era. Sunday’s game against the Raiders isn’t just another contest — it’s a test of whether the Browns can finally overcome their West Coast curse.
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