No surprise here

 

There are so many ways to deconstruct the Browns’ latest attempt to play a football game. Feeble doesn’t even come close.

 

To label Sunday’s 38-6 season-opening loss to the Ravens in Baltimore as a beatdown would be incorrect. So would whupping. Walloping is more like it. Embarrassment nails it.

 

The Browns arrived in Baltimore for the 2020 National Football League season opener as unprepared as any Cleveland team I’ve seen in recent memory. This team was not ready to play a game of football.

 

Never mind that the loss dropped their opening-game record to 1-20-1 since the resurrection in 1999. Never mind that it was against the team that called itself the Cleveland Browns for 50 years. After what happened Sunday, that’s immaterial.

 

Heading into this game, most of us knew just about everything was new about these Browns. From the head coach to the coaching staff to the front office, most fans knew it was going to be rough at the beginning, especially against not even arguably the best team in the AFC this season.

 

If anything can be gleaned from this game, it should serve as an object lesson in how to not just win football games, but how to dominate them. The major difference there is the talent quotient of each team.

 

The Ravens are so far superior to the Browns in that department, it’s like they are playing in another universe. The Browns are trying to discover who they are.

 

Kevin Stefanski got to see up close and personal just how far his team is from where the Ravens are right now. It’s hard to believe he did not see this coming. It turned out there was nothing he could do about it. He was helpless.

 

The outcome of this game was so lopsided, not even the most ardent Browns fan can even hypothetically see a different result. This one cannot be iffed away.

 

You can point a finger of guilt at kicker Austin Seibert, who came up with the daily double of kicker misery with a missed extra point and missed field goal on his only attempts of the afternoon.

 

Or at Odell Beckham Jr., whose dropped pass (you and I could have caught it) late in the second quarter on a third-and-short would have prolonged a drive well into Ravens territory.

 

How about the ridiculously awful decision to call for a fake punt on the Browns’ second possession of the game? It would still be stupid even if it had worked. Why the second possession of the game? What made it even worse was the call itself. If you’re going to fake a punt, at least have a good play ready from your 32-yard line.

 

Having punter Jamie Gillan try to sprint nearly 20 yards from punt formation and expect to gain the necessary yardage is foolish. At least try snapping the ball to the up man (Andrew Sendejo) for a much shorter run or try throwing a pass. As it turned out, Gillan fumbled, the Ravens recovered and turned it into a field goal.

 

No, this one was lost because a confluence of errors, of self-inflicted wounds. In essence, the Browns wound up beating themselves as much as anything. And that’s taking nothing away from a dangerous Ravens offense that took full advantage of them.

 

The Browns had no answers for the brilliance that is Lamar Jackson. It had no clue on how to stop, let alone neutralize, the Baltimore quarterback, who showed he can be just as destructive with his arm as he can with his feet (20 of 25 for 275 yards and three touchdowns – two to tight end Mark Andrews).

 

His feet picked up 45 of the club’s 107 yards infantry style, but the touchdown glory went to rookie running back J. K. Dobbins, who scored twice, although the former Ohio State star carried just seven times in his NFL debut.

 

Jackson picked apart a porous Cleveland secondary that at times looked as though it had no clue as to what was happening. It seemed as though Ravens’ receivers were wide open a vast majority of the time. They made it look ridiculously easy.

 

The Ravens ‘defense, meanwhile, made life miserable for Baker Mayfield, coming up with big plays when needed by frequently flushing him out of the pocket. Outside of a lone touchdown throw to David Njoku late in the first quarter, the Cleveland offense never again reached the red zone.

 

It surrendered 132 yards to Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, but little mistakes along the way, like a Chubb fumble, prevented any serious damage. Like Calais Campbell’s big paw that kept getting in the way of Mayfield’s passes. The 6-8 veteran defensive lineman even dropped back in coverage once and tipped a pass that was picked off.

 

Starting with Mayfield’s first interception of the season on the opening possession to special teams being very unspecial to a defense that proved overwhelmingly it is the weakest, by far, side of the football, this one was a team effort.

 

It was a jolting wake-up call for Stefanski. This isn’t Minnesota anymore, where the Vikings actually play solid defense and can keep the opposing offense from running away, Can’t say that about his new defense.

 

He also found out his offense – he’s got to take all the blame there since he appointed himself playcaller – is not yet good enough to overcome serious defensive deficiencies and try to outscore opponents to win games. That capability will come eventually.

 

His run-first philosophy might have to wait a little longer, too. When you fall behind by so much because of a mediocre at best defense, that necessitates dialing up the passing game.

 

Case in point: The Browns ran the ball 27 times in 68 plays. Subtract two scrambles by Mayfield and the Gillan disaster and that’s 24 called runs out of 68. That’s less than 35% of the calls, well under Stefanski’s standard.

 

And the tight ends that were supposed to be so important in his offense? Just eight targets in 41 dropbacks with six catches, including Njoku’s touchdown in the first quarter, for 70 yards. For comparative purposes, Beckham was targeted 10 times.  

 

Austin Hooper, for whom the Browns paid a small fortune as a free agent, was perfect on both of his targets for a grand total of 15 yards. Maybe they paid him all that money to block.

 

Is there any question Stefanski has a lot to clean up before Thursday’s night’s invasion of the Cincinnati Bengals on national television, starting with better pass protection from the offense line to smarter calls on special teams to a better pass rush to more targets for the tights.

 

He discovered the hard and painful way Sunday that all phases of this team are not even close to where they need to be. This was truly a team loss.

 

In some ways because it was the first time the Browns faced anyone other than themselves in training camp because a global pandemic wiped out OTAs, minicamps and four exhibition games, this one felt a smidge like an exhibition game.

Only problem was it counted.