3 Cleveland Browns to blame for inexcusable loss to the Giants in Week 3

Nothing is going to plan for the Cleveland Browns. Deshaun Watson was supposed to be the franchise quarterback. Their defense was supposed to make them a contender. Facing Daniel Jones and the New York Giants was supposed to be an easy win.

So losing to the Giants while Jones balled out (for a bit at least) and Watson flailed around behind a hapless offensive line was a helluva reality check.

There are always a million reasons why one team wins and the other loses in the NFL. We're narrowing it down to just three for the Browns.

3. DC Jim Schwartz won't want to watch this tape back

Daniel Jones completed 70.6 percent of his passes for 236 yards and two touchdowns. His passer rating of 109.4 was his best since the 2022 season.

Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz has some explaining to do.

Schwartz has been in a rough spot coaching opposite an offense that can't consistently put up points. And on Sunday, he would have needed to hold the Giants to 14 points to win...

Is that really an unreasonable ask? The Giants are regularly held below 15 points. The Vikings kept them to six. The Commanders held New York to 18 a week after giving up 37 to the Bucs.

The Browns strength is supposed to be the defense. Letting Jones have his best game in two years would have been inconceivable before the game.

Cleveland just shot themselves in the foot one too many times. A roughing the passer penalty on Greg Newsome negated an interception by Ronnie Hickman. On that same drive, New York overcame two holding penalties to drive for a touchdown.

Another Giants touchdown came on a 14-play, 93-yard drive. That can't happen. Not against Jones. Not against this version of the G-Men.

A defense aspiring to be as strong as Cleveland's can't have performances like this one.

2. Deshaun Watson is a bit of a scapegoat, but still holds blame

I don't care how bad your offensive line is playing (more on that later), a quarterback who takes eight sacks is responsible for at least a few of them. Pocket awareness matters and Deshaun Watson appears devoid of it.

Watson found Amari Cooper for the first score of the game after the Giants fumbled the opening kickoff. The next four drives of the half resulted in 23 total yards, three punts and a fumble.

That sack fumble was one of two from Watson. The second one was particularly costly as the Browns had closed the gap to six points and had just crossed midfield.

Fans were calling for Jameis Winston to take over. Would that have changed anything? Probably not. The offensive line was that bad. But Watson is being paid like one of the best quarterbacks in the league. He's supposed to elevate his team in moments like this.

He had opportunities to get the Browns out of trouble and he couldn't get it done.

I'm going to give a dishonorable mention to Cedric Tillman though. He dropped a perfect fourth-down pass that would have given the Browns a chance. That one wasn't on Watson.

1. Dawand Jones and the offensive line guaranteed the loss

My mother used to say, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." Sorry mom, but my job is to talk about the Cleveland Browns offensive line. There's nothing nice to say at all but I'm going to have to say a whole lot about it.

We'll start here: The Browns offensive line gave up eight sacks to the Giants. That's more sacks than all but four teams in the NFL had managed this season going into Week 3. New York had six going into Sunday.

Injuries certainly played a role. Dawand Jones, James Hudson III, Wyatt Teller and Jedrick Wills all picked up knocks of some sort. By the end, Joel Bitonio had to take over at left tackle forcing more shuffling along the interior line with all but Jones playing out of their original positions.

The problem is Jones could be in line for an award for the worst singular outing by an offensive lineman against the speed rush all season. In his defense, Kevin Stefanski explained that he was dealing with a knee injury during the game. The fact that he couldn't be replaced despite playing so poorly with that injury speaks to the Browns lack of depth.

Poor pass protection was a big enough issue but the run blocking was an issue as well. Jerome Ford and D'Onta Foreman combined for just 42 yards on 12 carries.

No team out there could expect to win with an offensive line performance like that.