Undisciplined. Mistake-prone. Just downright awful.
These Cleveland Browns looked a lot like THOSE Cleveland Browns — the ones the fast-growing bandwagon of Browns fans thought, or at least hoped, had been left far back in the rearview mirror.
The most hyped team over the NFL offseason racked up 18 penalties for 182 yards in Sunday's season opener, while star-in-the-making quarterback Baker Mayfield threw three interceptions in the fourth quarter.
The Browns lost 43-13 to Tennessee to drop to 1-19-1 in openers since 1999.
"You all can crown them if you want to crown them," Titans tight end Delanie Walker said. "We still have to play football."
With Mayfield entering his second season, and with newly acquired receiver Odell Beckham Jr., and with a new coach (Freddie Kitchens) and the momentum from a strong finish to 2018, Cleveland became the trendy pick to buck decades of awfulness and win its division, and maybe even more.
Instead, the first game ended in front of a mostly empty home stadium, with the deficit swelling to more than four touchdowns; it was the first Cleveland loss of 30-plus points since 2015.
Nothing went right.
"We lost our discipline and we lost our composure, but it is one game ... ." Kitchens said.
And that is about all Browns fans had to be thankful for after Week 1.
In case you missed it, here are some other topics people were talking about on the opening Sunday of the 2019 season:
