CLEVELAND — Nothing generates the reactions , good or bad, quite like a season-opening NFL game.
Play a season-opening game like the Browns did on Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys , and the reactions and hot takes come flying from everywhere. That's including here, where we're going to take three reactions to the 33-17 loss to the Cowboys and try to parse them into one of three categories: Overreaction, underreaction and proper reaction.
This may be a difficult chore, not that there's not plenty of reactions to what happen Sunday. It's putting it into a proper context with only one regular-season data point from which to draw, which is why Week 1 is such a hot take gold mine.
The good news will be that, in a week, there'll be a second data point established by the Browns' road game at the Jacksonville Jaguars . That's still a week away, so it does no good now.
Anyway, let's get into looking at three reactions to the Browns' season-opening loss to the Cowboys.
Proper reaction: Deshaun Watson's camp inconsistencies continue to show
At some point, the time away from the game has to catch up with even the best of quarterbacks. You can't expect to have only played 12 games in three seasons — including a season without playing at all — and it not have an impact.
Deshaun Watson looked at times skittish in the pocket against the Cowboys, an understandable reaction to all of the pressure he was facing. Beyond that, many of the throws he was making were either too long or too wide or too low.
This isn't a one-game observation. This was the Watson people saw for much of training camp.
Anyone who saw the joint practices against the Minnesota Vikings saw a quarterback who was constantly struggling with handling the pressure being brought by the defense. He was constantly looking to scramble, often only getting passes off because the play was allowed to continue even though the defender got close.
It was the same thing against the Cowboys — only the defenders could, and did, finish off the hits on the quarterback in the game as opposed to the joint practices.
No one thinks the 2020 version of Watson's coming back. The Browns don't necessarily need that.
What they do need is a Watson whose biggest consistency isn't inconsistency. Whether or not that quarterback comes back, those with vested interests hope there's still plenty of time.
Underreaction: This is still a very good Cleveland Browns defense
It wasn't a good day for the Browns defense on Sunday. They had secondary breakdowns that led to a touchdown and could never quite solve the Cowboys' pace, which prevented them from ramping up the pressure on quarterback Dak Prescott.
At the end of the day, though, the defense was far from the worst part of the Browns' performance. Squint, even, and you can still see the No. 1 defense from a year ago.
For now, it could be easy to chalk Sunday up to circumstance. Prescott, even though his numbers — 19-of-32 passing, 179 yards, a touchdown — weren't great, was still his typical self in the way he can just fit passes into windows where the receiver can get it and the defender can't.
Take the first touchdown drive of the game for Dallas. The 26-yard completion to CeeDee Lamb was just perfectly placed where Lamb was able to out-leap a well-positioned Denzel Ward to make the grab without stepping out of bounds.
The subsequent touchdown was a defensive bust. However, the Lamb catch came on second-and-10 from the Dallas 40, so there's quite the potential for a sliding-doors moment if that pass was an incompletion.
The second Dallas scoring drive — an 11-play, 78-yard march to put it up 14-3 in the second quarter — was certainly one that won't go on the Browns' defensive highlight tape. However, that was the only other offensive touchdown the Cowboys had in the game.
Dallas only managed four field goal after that, none shorter than from 40 yards and two of those being from 50 and 57 yards. It's not great, but considering the lack of complementary football being played by the Browns offense, it could've been worse.
Overreaction: Sunday was a foreshadowing of bad for Cleveland Browns offensive line
Start at the top, which is that not even guards Joel Bitonio and Wyatt Teller — the two Pro Bowlers on the Browns offensive line who played Sunday — would dispute the disaster the performance was for the line. The Cowboys weren't just beating substitute left tackle James Hudson III, or even second-year right tackle Dawand Jones, they were beating everyone up front.
It made for a terrible, no good, very bad day for the line. However, this is where you can see a path to rectifying this to prevent it from being a consistent reality.
Both Jedrick Wills Jr. and Jack Conklin were inactive Sunday after having been practicing for at least a week, and two weeks in Conklin's case. Both seem to be getting closer to finally getting back to playing after knee injuries ended last season for both.
It could just be a case of upgrading the talent at the tackle spots, which doesn't require any kind of trade. It just requires a couple of proven players to be healthy enough to play.
Next Sunday's game at Jacksonville will be a great barometer to gauge just how far the line can come in a week's time, especially if either or both Conklin and Wills can return. The Jaguars defensive line boasts talented players in ends Josh Hines-Allen, Trevon Walker and Trevon Walker, all of whom can make it another long afternoon for an offensive line that's not on top of its game.
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Overreacting, underreacting and properly reacting to Browns' Week 1 loss vs. Cowboys
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