Raiders will host Baker Mayfield in town for week 4

The Oakland Raiders need a tough win, and they'll welcome Baker Mayfield and the Browns to the Black Hole on Sunday.

The Oakland Raiders are 0-3, but they have a half-time lead in all three games and have a fourth quarter lead in each of the last two editions. This is a must in Week 4, as the Cleveland Browns arrive in town.

The Browns ended a long, drought-free drought with a 21-17 victory over the New York Jets in the third week as Baker Mayfield came in and made a comeback. Tyrod Taylor left the game with a concussion, but he was playing pretty badly against the Jets (4 for 14 for 19 yards) as the door was open to Mayfield, no matter the injury. Mayfield will make his first career start at Oakland on Sunday.

Derek Carr, on the other hand, has been productive, but sometimes a bit too irregular. He is sixth in the league in yards (936), with two games of 300 yards and at least 288 in all three games. But his five interceptions are tied for the league, and head coach Jon Gruden has criticized Carr for fleeing the throws (after week 1) and be too aggressive (after week 3).

Even when the Raiders are bad, as they have been for almost fifteen years, Oakland Coliseum turns into a "black hole" and becomes a difficult environment for opponents. Mayfield anticipates an outside ability not to be affected by things like that, but he let the children of a Kansas Jayhawks 1-11 team distract him to an embarrassing level at the end of last season in Oklahoma .

We all know Hue Jackson's record as head coach of the Browns over the past two seasons (2-32-1). But given most of their recent history, his record of 8-8 in his only season as the Raiders head coach in 2011 is a big feat. So Jackson makes a comeback in Oakland, where he was also offensive coordinator in 2010, with the most talented team that will be on the field on Sunday.

The Raiders lost to two currently undefeated teams. The Rams overwhelmed them with a superior talent in the second half, while the Dolphins rallied in the fourth quarter and a late interception of Carr lost a game. A late case led by Case Keenum led them against the Broncos in the second week, while Brandon McManus posted a 36-yard posting inside the right post within seconds.

The Raiders and Browns are moving in opposite directions after last week, and Cleveland has had a little more time to refocus at the high of last week. Oakland could at least be 2-1 right now, if they could just close the games better.

The pressure will be clearly on the sidelines of the weekend in Oakland. A record of 0-4 with a loss to the Browns, although it seems better, has a chance to reduce the left of the hype surrounding the arrival of Gruden, even before the calendar returns in October.