Raiders QB Geno Smith has new career-high in sacks taken in loss to Browns

Every week it seems the Raiders are doing something that sets some record of futility. And this one you could see coming a mile a way. Or rather Myles away.

The Raiders welcomed the Browns to Las Vegas Sunday with Myles Garrett on a run in which he had ten sacks in the past three games. Add him to the Raiders' pathetic and beat up offensive line and you knew things were going to get messy. And they certainly did. With the Raiders putting up just three points when it actually mattered and losing going away.

The result was a career-high 10 sacks taken for Geno Smith. His previous career-high was seven, which means he had already blown that out of the water early in the fourth quarter.

That number is also the most sacks the Raiders have allowed this millennium.

"The QB was under duress the entire time. Our ability to match up their pass rush didn't work out well," said head coach Pete Carroll. "We have to protect the quarterback an awful lot better than we did. We tried the guys we thought had the best shot to do it. Will turned his ankle, so we had [Cappa] for a little bit. We had a bunch of scheme and a bunch of strategy to slow the thing down, but we couldn't hold up and it was really unfortunate."

The tendency when seeing a quarterback get sacked a lot and an offense unable to move the ball would be the blame the offensive line. There was plenty to blame on that line, there's no doubt about it. And you can toss the man who put this line together (Carroll) along with the man who calls the offensive plays (Chip Kelly), and the quarterback taking those sacks.

Some of those sacks were a product of Geno holding onto the ball too long. He also had several times to get big gains to try and offset those plays, but he simply missed the throw. I counted three missed deep balls and an intermediate route in which he overshot his man. That man each time was the speedy Tre Tucker. Someone who he shouldn't be overthrowing.

"Uncharacteristic misses there because there was like three of them where Tre got behind them and we had some real shots and opportunities and did have the opportunity to get the ball out clean and all that," Carroll continue. "We need to hook those up, there's no doubt about it. Tre ran as hard as he could and he got open. Geno's got to be able to put the ball on him. Those were the plays that could've saved us on a day we were struggling on other downs."

But, oh, those times he didn't have the time he needed. And let's be clear here, this wasn't all about Myles Garrett either. Or even the edge rushers. None of the first four sacks came from edge rushers. It was two defensive tackles and a linebacker on a rush up the gut.

Those fall on not just the line, but the interior line, where the Raiders lost Jackson Powers-Johnson and opted to move Jordan Meredith to right guard and put in Will Putnam at center. That combination has been a travesty the past two games.

Garrett did end up getting his, though. he finished with three sacks in the game and two forced fumbles, getting through Stone Forsythe who is filling in at left tackle for the injured Kolton Miller.

You add all those things together and you have a perfect storm for the kind of game Geno Smith has never experienced and the Raiders haven't seen in more than a quarter century.

This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Raiders QB Geno Smith has new career-high in sacks taken in loss to Browns