The final play of the Browns loss Sunday at the Las Vegas Raiders was the summation of four games' worth of opportunities squandered.

Cleveland had a fourth-and-3 from the Las Vegas 9 with 41 seconds remaining, trailing 20-16. Tight end Jordan Akins was open off the snap as he ran toward the end zone, as was wide receiver Jerry Jeudy on a slant in the middle.

The problem was quarterback Deshaun Watson wasn't able to get either of them the ball. He didn't get anyone the ball, actually, as he was swarmed by the Raiders and sacked to seal the loss.

"Yeah, not good enough," Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said on a Monday Zoom call. "We can be better. We can be better across the board, but we can be better."

A day later, Jeudy said neither he nor Akins were the No. 1 option on the play. He said Amari Cooper, who had motioned from the right side of the formation to the left, was the one who was going to get the ball on a corner route.

Cooper was jammed off the snap by Raiders safety Tre'von Moehrig. By the time he was able to get free, Watson was already swarmed

"They played man coverage," Jeudy said on a Zoom call Monday. "I think the [defensive backs] kind of messed up the coverage on the left side of the field. That was the read. It was Coop to the corner, but the DB kind of messed up the look, so it kind of messed up our play in a way, kind of. And Deshaun had to scramble and try to make a play, couldn't get the ball off. That's what I seen."

The question, of course, is, why not throw to either Akins or Jeudy? The replays showed Watson trying to cock his arm to throw the ball, with Akins the likely target based upon where he was looking, but the Raiders had collapsed the pocket by the time he started, which forced him to scramble.

Watson after the game acknowledged the Raiders got to him "before anything happened." However, neither he nor Stefanski went into any further details on the play's specifics after the game, although the head coach did talk a little more about it a day later.

"Yeah, listen, that play, we did not execute exactly how we should on that play," Stefanski said. "Obviously, the quarterback understands it's a fourth-down play, so you want to give somebody a chance. He did not have the opportunity going to his left. We can be better in protection. We can be better, we can be more precise in our routes. All those things contribute to that."

For the second week in a row, though, the Browns had a fourth-down play on which the opportunity to convert at least appeared to be there, but Watson was unable to release the ball. It's similar to what happened the previous week when he was stopped short on a fourth-and-1 scramble against the New York Giants when Akins had come off the line open and it seemed like Watson had at least considered throwing him the ball.

Because of the nature of the moments in the game's flow, those plays have taken on a magnified status in the subsequent conversations about the games. Look at any of the Browns' first four games, even the win at the Jacksonville Jaguars, and there were other more under-the-radar plays on which the offense hasn't executed in large part because of one or two things being out of whack.

"We, I think collectively as a unit, just all got to be at the same page at the same time," Jeudy said. "That's the biggest thing. I think all 11 of us have just got to be on the same page. I think that's the biggest thing. Because as an offense, as a group, if one person messed up, the whole play messed up. So I think I just do better collectively and just being on the same page."

That's been especially true when the Browns have moved off the initial script with which they've opened games. They've scored touchdowns on their opening possession the last three games, and a field goal on their opening drive of the opener.

Cleveland's offense has only scored three non-opening drive touchdowns in the first four games, two of those coming in the fourth quarter against the Dallas Cowboys in the season-opener. Safety Rodney McLeod had a defensive touchdown on a fumble return in Sunday's loss to the Raiders.

"Yeah, it's something we need to get better at," Stefanski said. "Certainly, you watch the tape of yesterday's game and as you're watching it, I can't say — I give them credit; obviously, the Raiders, give them credit — but it's not like something changed from drive one to drive two or drive three.

"It really is about us and making sure that we're on top of what we're doing. … We just have to take a long hard look of finding a way to score points, whether it's — I don't care when it is in the drive — it's just we got to go find a way to score more points."

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns' failed 4th-down play epitomizes lack of offense on 'same page'