The Raiders came into this week as the worst team in the NFL, gaining just 51 yards per game. They had just 153 rushing yards through their first three games together.

Against the Browns on Sunday, they finished with 152 rushing yards on 29 attempts. They surpassed their single-game high (71 yards) in the first half, passing for 95 yards on 16 carries.

“It allowed them to control the play, get them on favorable downs and stay ahead of the chains,” Browns veteran safety Rodney McLeod said. “We talked about them trying to set up the run. It felt like that was something that (Raiders head coach) Antonio Pierce brought out there. He wants that to be their identity, a physical, strong team that really embodies everything he stands for.”

The Raiders indeed rose to the challenge posed by their head coach last week.

Pierce called out his players after their Week 3 loss to the previously winless Carolina Panthers, suggesting some players were making “business decisions” and saying coaches should do the same.

The Raiders were also without star receiver Davante Adams (who was the subject of trade rumors) and three-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby.

Still, they got going early and didn’t give up, even though the Browns took a 10-0 lead. The game was tied at halftime after the Raiders scored on a three-yard reverse by Akron-area native Tre Tucker and a 52-yard field goal by Daniel Carlson.

“I feel like most of it was tackling,” Myles Garrett said after the game. “I feel like we’ve had too many missed tackles and we just need to finish. A lot of guys went in with their shoulder and tried to make that big hit, but it ended up with that forced fumble down the stretch. But on the majority of plays, the second man has to be the one to force the ball out. The first man must round and slow the runner or stop his momentum. So that’s something we can learn from it when we watch the film.”

Tackling is a recurring theme in this defense.

On Sunday afternoon, Pro Football Focus ranked the Browns 28th in the NFL with a team tackling grade of 38.8. Against the Giants last week, PFF tracking data had the Browns with 11 missed tackles.

Those bad tendencies shone in the third quarter on Sunday as the Raiders took a 20-10 lead.

On third-and-9 from the Cleveland 34, running back Alexander Mattison ripped off a 16-yard run, racing through a bunch of Browns D-linemen near the line of scrimmage.

On the next play, receiver DJ Turner took it home with an 18-yard running score. Cleveland appeared to have at least three missed tackles on the play by safeties Ronnie Hickman and Grant Delpit, and linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah.

In addition to the missed tackles, these plays were also examples of how the Raiders planned the play.

“We have to go back to the identity we had last year,” Garrett said. “Stopping the run, forcing teams to pass, and to some extent we did that. They definitely have different plans to take advantage of the perimeter and get our guys tackling at the back, trying to get away from the front seven. We have to support that as best as possible and we have to lean on last year’s identity.”

Through four games, the Browns haven’t been able to make that identity of rushing and coverage work together, and they’ve paid the price.

They may not be themselves, but how deep does the identity crisis go? And how much more will these same issues continue to affect them and their record?

“We’re going to tackle it tomorrow and the day after tomorrow as best we can and make sure we get back to our old ways of stopping the run, forcing teams to go fast and once we have a lead, ears back and the running the ball out of the closet,” Garrett said.

The recipe is there. The standard has been set.

Now it’s up to Cleveland’s defense to figure out how to live up to their own expectations.