The Cleveland Browns had a disastrous start to their season on Sunday with a 33-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys at home. The defense struggled to deal with the Cowboys’ star-powered offense, but the offense also looked uncompetitive for much of the contest.
Cleveland was missing both of its starting tackles, and the Cowboys took advantage of the missing pieces on the Browns’ offensive line. Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson got hit 17 times and was sacked an additional six.
“Yeah, he got hit way too often,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said after the game according to Pro Football Talk. “We can’t let that happen to him. He fought like crazy, and listen, the football team fought like crazy to the end. But bottom line is, we have to protect our quarterback better than that.”
The pressure led to a measly 24-of-49 passing line and two interceptions for the former Pro Bowl quarterback. The offensive line also committed numerous false starts and illegal procedures throughout the game that set the offense back.
The Browns will hope to get the offensive line and the rest of the offense sorted out this week ahead of the next week’s matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The team is paying Watson a record-setting contrack, and protecting him be a top priority moving forward.
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