Sports Headlines podcast with Jessica Kwong: Mayfield expected in line up on Thursday Night Football; Once a Yankee a Yankee once again for Aaron Judge; plus more

Former Carolina Panther quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) walks off the field against the Baltimore Ravens on Sun Nov 20, 2022 in Baltimore (AP News photo)

On Headline Sports podcast with Jessica Kwong:

#1 Jessica, the big news was the Los Angeles Rams acquiring quarterback Baker Mayfield who can very well make his start on Thursday Night Football against the Las Vegas. Mayfield is expected to be in the line up Thursday night.

#2 Mayfield who wanted out at the Carolina Panthers was released by the team last Monday with mutual agreement by Panthers head coach Steve Wilks. Mayfield wanted to be released by Carolina after finding out that he would no longer be the starting or back up quarterback.

#3 Switching over to Major League Baseball New York Yankees Aaron Judge gets a big pay day with a nine year $360 million deal with the Yankees. Judge has spoken with three MLB clubs who sought interest the San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers before concluding that he will stay with the Yankees.

#4 The San Francisco Giants signed outfielder Mitch Haniger signed for three years worth $43.5 million . Haniger turns 32 this month comes over to the Giants from the Seattle Mariners after hitting .246, 11 home runs, 34 RBI in 37 games. Did the Giants make the right move signing Haniger.

#5 The Golden State Warriors had tried to develop center James Wiseman during the last four years. During the 2019-20 season Wiseman played only three games. Wiseman tore his meniscus during the 2019-20 season. The Warriors have recalled Wiseman after his playing just seven games in the G league.

Join Jessica for Headline Sports every other Wednesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

San Francisco 49ers podcast with Joe Lami: 49ers-Browns could be the primetime show of the season on Monday Night Football

Photo credit: nbcsports.com

On the 49ers podcast with Joe:

#1 The Cleveland Browns (2-2) are the 49ers (3-0) next opponents at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. The Browns are noted for having the most aggressive offense in the NFL.

#2 In their last game, the Browns made handy work of the Baltimore Ravens and head coach John Harbaugh with a 40-25 win. Can the 49ers defense do anything against this wide-open offense that Cleveland brings on Monday Night Football?

#3 Talk about the Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield. He was 20-30 for 342 yards one touchdown and one interception. He was a force under center last Sunday against Baltimore.

#4 The Browns are not too shabby on defense. Will the 49ers’ line be able to buy quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo some time in the pocket against a quick rushing Browns defense?

#5 Finally, Joe tells us about the match up between the Cleveland Browns and the San Francisco 49ers on America’s number one primetime show Monday Night Football. Where Joe asks only one question: “Are you ready for some football?”

Joe Lami does the 49ers podcasts each Friday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Oakland Raiders podcast with Joe Hawkes Beamon: Carr getting some time to throw with good line protection

Photo credit: raiderswire.usatoday.com

On the Raiders podcast with Joe Hawkes:

#1 In a huge win against the Indianapolis Colts, Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr threw for two touchdowns, which was just enough to get by the Colts in Week 4 of the NFL season.

#2 Carr went 21-31 for 189 yards for one of his best games of the season.

#3 Talk about the line and how much time Carr was allowed to throw. He doesn’t spend a lot in the pocket, but just enough time to do some damage.

#4 The Raiders made it important to strike first with a 14-0 lead, and in the fourth quarter, it was the Colts who scored two touchdowns but were able to get by with a touchdown in the 31-24 win.

#5 So it’s game three of this six-game out of town schedule. This time in London and the Raiders will play home team this Sunday against the Chicago Bears. Joe tells us about this matchup.

Joe Hawkes does the Raiders podcasts each Friday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Raiders three-point stance: Three takeaways from Raiders’ OT win over Browns

Photo credit: @theorganicfrost

By Joe Hawkes-Beamon
SRS Contributor

OAKLAND, Calif — The Raiders can finally breathe a little bit after picking up win No. 1, defeating the visiting Cleveland Browns 45-42 in overtime in front of an announced crowd of 53,387 at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on Sunday.

It was a roller-coaster fourth quarter for the Silver and Black, who held a six-point lead with 10 minutes to go, but managed to let it slip away.

Cleveland scored two unanswered touchdowns, but the Raiders (1-3) managed to tie the game with 30 seconds remaining and force overtime where they won the game behind rookie kicker Matt McCrane’s 29-yard field goal.

McCrane missed a 50-yard field goal attempt on the Raiders’ first possession of overtime, but Oakland’s defense forced the Browns to punt and quarterback Derek Carr drove the Raiders into position to kick the eventual game-winning field goal.

Here are my three takeaways from the Raiders’ win over the Browns:

Derek Carr needs to tame the turnovers
Sure, Carr completed 35-of-58 passes for 437 yards and four touchdowns, but he also threw two interceptions. In the four games he’s played this season, Carr has thrown two or more interceptions in three of them.

No other quarterback in the league has more interceptions than Carr, who leads the NFL with seven interceptions. According to ESPN Stats and Info, Carr has thrown four of those interceptions on first down.

I get it, Carr is going to take chances to make the big-play, but not every throw needs to be risky. The pair of interceptions that Carr threw today put the Raiders in tough spots.

With Oakland trailing 17-14 and looking for points late in the first-half, Carr tried to hit tight end Jared Cook that would’ve set Oakland up in field goal range, but the ball bounced of Cook’s hands and landed in Browns cornerback E.J. Gaines’s hands that thwarted any scoring chances for the Silver and Black.

Carr’s second interception came on Oakland’s first possession in the third quarter. Oakland was driving before Carr lofted a pass down the left sideline into double-coverage that was intended for wide receiver Martavis Bryant that would be picked off by cornerback Damarious Randall. Randall would return the interception 50 yards to set up Cleveland for an easy score.

Three plays later, Browns rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield found wide receiver Jarvis Landry for a two-yard score that gave Cleveland a 14-point lead.

Marshawn Lynch should be averaging 20 carries a game
With the NFL turning into a passing league with teams opting for multiple wide receiver formations, it was good to see a running back get 20 carries in a football game.

In the midst of Carr throwing the football 58 times, running back Marshawn Lynch rushed for 130 yards on 20 carries, his most productive game in four years. Lynch’s 52-yard blast down the Browns’ sideline late in the third quarter was vintage ‘Beast Mode’ as he alluded a bevy of Cleveland defenders before being brought down.

The run would setup a 29-yard field goal by Matt McCrane that cut Cleveland’s lead 28-24.

With each game, Lynch’s carries and workload has increased:

• 11 carries for 41 yards and one touchdown in 33-13 loss to the Los Angeles Rams at home in Week 1.
• 18 carries for 65 yards and one touchdown in 20-19 loss to the Broncos in Denver in Week 2.
• 19 carries for 64 yards and one touchdown in 28-20 loss to the Dolphins in Miami in Week 3.
• 20 carries for 130 yards in 45-42 win over the Cleveland Browns in Week 4.

The Raiders need to give the ball to Lynch more as life for Carr will become that much easier. Simply put, feed the beast.

Oakland’s defense deserves a gold star for its efforts
The Raiders have been racked over the hot coals for the trading of premiere pass rusher in defensive end Khalil Mack to the Chicago Bears a week before the start of the regular season, and rightfully so, but the effort and energy the unit played with today has to be recognized.

In the first three games, Oakland’s defense forced just one turnover before recording three on Sunday which kept the Raiders close throughout the game.

Second-year cornerback Gareon Conley delivered the game’s first score, by intercepting a Baker Mayfield pass that bounced off the hands of wide receiver Antonio Callaway and into Conley’s who returned the pass 36 yards for the touchdown.

Oakland forced a pair of second-half fumbles that set up the Raiders for scoring opportunities that kept the game tight. The Raiders did yield 487 yards of total offense to the Browns, including two long touchdowns, but did manage to force four turnovers (two force fumbles and two interceptions) off Mayfield.

Mayfield finished 21-of-41 for 295 yards and two touchdowns in his first-career start.

Linebacker Bruce Irvin and rookie defensive tackle Maurice Hurst each recorded a sack for Oakland.

Up next for Oakland: A trip to Los Angeles to take on AFC West rival the Chargers in Week 5, before flying over to London for a Week 6 matchup with the Seattle Seahawks.

Winless Raiders to host Baker Mayfield and the Browns in Week 4

Photo credit: @Raiders

By Joe Hawkes-Beamon
SRS Contributor

OAKLAND — With the first quarter of the season drawing to a close, the Oakland Raiders are in dire need of their first win…and they hope it’ll be versus the Cleveland Browns.

After playing two of their first three games of the season on the road, the Raiders return home to play two of their next three games beginning this Sunday when they will host the Browns and rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield at the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum.

Week 4’s matchup will mark only the second time since the Browns have traveled to the Black Hole and their most recent game, in 2015 at Cleveland, the Raiders defeated the Browns 27-20 at FirstEnergy Stadium.

Kickoff is set for 1:05 p.m. PT. The Browns are 12-10 all-time versus the Raiders in the regular season.

Last week, Oakland (0-3) lost to the first-place AFC East Miami Dolphins 28-20 in South Florida. Wide receiver Jordy Nelson had the biggest day for the Raiders, hauling in six catches for 173 yards (28.8 yards per catch) and a touchdown. In his last two meeting with the Dolphins, Nelson has destroyed Miami catching 15 passes for 280 yards (18.8 yards per catch) and two touchdowns.

Nelson became just the third Raider pass-catcher this season to top 100 yards in a game, joining tight end Jared Cook (180 yards against the Rams in Week 1), and fellow wide receiver Amari Cooper (116 yards against AFC West rival Denver in Week 2), making Oakland one of two teams to accomplish the feat.

Quarterback Derek Carr threw for 345 yards on 27-of-39 attempts with one touchdown and two interceptions. It was Carr’s second 300-yard passing day of the season (Carr threw for 303 yards against the Rams in Week 1). Through the first three games of the season, Carr is sixth in the NFL in passing yards per game (302) and second in completion percentage (76.6).

Oakland held a 17-7 lead midway through the third quarter before the Dolphins scored 21 unanswered points in the second-half to overtake the Raiders. Before kicker Mike Nugent booted a 52-yard field goal, the Raiders didn’t score a single point in the fourth quarter in their previous two games.

Speaking of Nugent, the Raiders placed Nugent on injured reserve with a hip injury and signed kicker Matt McCrane. McCrane is in his first year in the NFL after signing as an undrafted free agent with Arizona at the conclusion of the 2018 NFL Draft.

Strangely, the Raiders have led after three quarters in each of their previous three games but have yet to notch a win this season.

The Browns (1-1-1) are coming off 21-17 victory over the New York Jets in Cleveland on Thursday Night Football. Cleveland head coach Hue Jackson is just 2-32-1 as he enters his third season at the helm. Jackson, who spent 2010 as the Raiders’ offensive coordinator, was promoted to head coach in 2011 where he led the club to an 8-8 finish, but wasn’t retained as the team hired Dennis Allen heading into the 2012 season.

Allen finished 8-28 in his two-plus seasons in Oakland before being fired four games into the 2014 season as the team got off to a 1-10 start.

For Cleveland, quarterback Baker Mayfield will make his first-career NFL start when he leads the Browns into the Black Hole. Mayfield was selected first overall by the Browns in this year’s NFL Draft, but the Browns opted to start the season with Taylor under center and wanted Mayfield to watch and learn.

With Cleveland trailing 14-3 shortly before halftime, the rookie replaced veteran Tyrod Taylor, who was already playing poorly completing just 4-of-14 passes for 19 yards, when Taylor suffered his third concussion in the past 13 months.

In the second half, Mayfield energize that team and the home crowd, helping the Browns outscore the Jets 18-3. Mayfield threw for 201 yards on 17-of-23 attempts and even caught a two-point conversion from wide receiver Jarvis Landry that tied the game 14-14 in the third quarter.

Landry caught a game-high eight catches for 103 yards against the Jets, and leads the Browns with 20 catches for 278 yards. Rookie wide receiver Antonio Callaway has the Browns’ lone touchdown catch this season.

Running back Carlos Hyde rushed for 98 yards on 22 attempts and scored two touchdowns last week and given the Raiders inability to stop the run, (Oakland surrenders 116.3 yards on the ground per game, which ranks 22nd in the NFL), there could be some opportunities for Hyde to have another big game.

Defensively, Cleveland has some good, young players on that side of the ball that new defensive coordinator Gregg Williams can mold into a formidable group.

Second-year defensive end Myles Garrett has become one of the more feared pass rushers in the NFL. Garrett’s four sacks this season are tied for the most in the NFL with New Orleans defensive end Cameron Jordan, Chicago defensive end Khalil Mack (sorry Raider Nation), and Von Miller.

Garrett also has two forced fumbles.

Fellow defensive lineman in second-year defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi is quickly making a name for himself too, pacing second on the Browns with three sacks.

Rookie cornerback Denzel Ward, who the Browns selected fourth in the same draft as Mayfield, has played great for Cleveland so far this season. In his first pro game, Ward intercepted Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger twice.

Ward leads the team with two interceptions and along with fellow cornerback Terrance Mitchell, has solidified Cleveland’s pass defense.

Following Sunday’s game, the Raiders heads south to Los Angeles for a tough matchup in the AFC West against the Chargers in Week 5 before flying to London to take on the Seattle Seahawks in Week 6, while Cleveland will head home to prepare for back-to-back visits from AFC North rival the Baltimore Ravens and Chargers.