BEREA — Myles Garrett came so close to registering a game-changing sack in crunch time Sunday against Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr that he was still shaking his head about it five days later.

"It was killing me," Garrett said Friday as the Browns (1-2-1) prepared for Sunday's home game against the Baltimore Ravens (3-1). "I felt like I was making the hair on the back of his neck stand up. I could have grazed him a couple times.

"I probably grabbed him or put my hand on his shoulder as he was releasing the ball. There were a couple times if he just took another half a second, quarter of a second, I would have had him."

Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams explained there was pretty much nothing more Garrett could have done to complete one of those potential sacks late in the 45-42 overtime loss.

"We had a couple of things in coverage at the end that the ball was supposed to be held a fraction longer," Williams said. "We made two alignment errors on two of those plays that Myles is putting him down."

The good news for Garrett is he's convinced Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco will be easier to sack than Carr.

"Carr's one of the fastest getting it off, and we were split seconds away from getting to him. So we have to make sure we rush as well as we did last week, and we should get there often," said Garrett, who gave himself a grade of B minus or C plus for the first quarter of the season in which he tallied 4.5 of the Browns' 12 sacks.

Rookie linebacker Genard Avery has a similar scouting report on the Ravens.

"They’re a great team," Avery said. "Their offensive line, they’ve got some key players, but it’s a lot of stuff that they do bad on my perspective when I’m rushing. They give up the inside a lot.

"Flacco holds the ball a long time, so ... we’ve just got to do our job and, you know, opportunities will come up for sacks."

The Browns are also expecting opportunities to face Ravens rookie quarterback Lamar Jackson. He's appeared in all four games, completing 1-of-4 passes for 24 yards, rushing 13 times for 62 yards (4.8 average) and taking one sack.

"Get ready to wrap up," Garrett said. "Don’t try to dance with him. He’s quicker and faster than you think.

"He’s not going to have ball security as well as you’d say a running back or a receiver, somebody that has their hand on the ball all the time. Try to take the ball away from him."

Speaking of forced fumbles, on third-and-9 from the Raiders 42-yard line, Garrett and Avery split a sack on Carr with 5:54 left in the fourth quarter, but the Browns were robbed. Carr had the ball knocked away, and defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi picked it up and began running toward the end zone. However, the officials prematurely ruled the play dead.

Al Riveron, the NFL's senior vice president of officiating, admitted the error in a media video distributed Friday.

"We rule [Carr] stopped for forward progress, and we kill the play. This is not forward progress. Obviously, this is a fumble," Riveron said. "We should have not have blown the whistle, but because we ruled forward progress on the play, this play is not reviewable. This play would only be reviewable if it pertains to the line to gain or the goal line."

Garrett said, "For the life of me, I can't understand that call, why they called it down when the ball was floating into Larry's hands."

Four plays later, rookie running back Nick Chubb ripped off a 41-yard touchdown run, and the Browns took a 42-34 lead with 4:20 left in regulation.

Later, the officials ruled running back Carlos Hyde had rushed for a first down on third-and-2 from the Cleveland 17 that would have allowed the Browns to run out the clock and win. But the call was reversed after a replay review with 1:38 left in the fourth quarter. The Raiders got the ball back, forced OT and prevailed.

"Don’t put it in the refs’ hands," Garrett said. "Got to make big plays at the end of the game to take their decision-making out of it."

Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his Browns coverage at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ByNateUlrich and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.