The Browns’ loss to the Giants points to season-threatening deficiencies in Cleveland’s infrastructure – Jimmy Watkins

One game? Try two ugly home defeats in three weeks. Too early to panic? Only if you think September games don’t count in the table. Good teams losing to bad teams? Sometimes, yes. But when the symptoms of defeat are as they were on Sunday, we football doctors have the right to ask ourselves whether our patient is healthy.

Start with the most obvious (and worrying) warning sign:

Cleveland’s offensive line suffered eight sacks on Sunday, two more than New York in two weeks combined (six). Some happened after All-Pro guard Wyatt Teller and former first-round pick Jedrick Wills Jr. left the game with knee injuries, but many happened before then.

Frankly, few (if any) blocking combinations over the last three weeks have inspired confidence in Cleveland’s pass defense or running game. And especially if Teller or Wills are out for an extended period, I don’t see many reasons to show confidence going forward, unless you count “need more time to get into the swing of things.”

Maybe fans didn’t overreact when former offensive line coach Bill Callahan left for Tennessee during the offseason.

Then we examine the defense that bills itself as the best in the world. Jim Schwartz teaches his unit to play with pride and celebration, but Cleveland left no room for either after allowing 21 first-half points to a mediocre quarterback (Daniel Jones) and throwing to a rookie wide receiver (Malik Nabers) in an offense that scored 24 total points in two weeks.

For the second time in three weeks, Schwartz’s defense, which was the best in several key categories last season, looked unprepared and/or outsmarted early in a game. The Cowboys managed 20 points before halftime in a 33-17 loss in Week 1. The Giants managed 21 on Sunday. Both collapses came at home, where Cleveland allowed just 13.8 points per game last season.

Perhaps Cleveland fans had legitimate concerns about their defense after the 45-14 loss to the Texans last postseason.

Or maybe we’re still thinking about it too much. As Browns fans listen to Cleveland’s coaches after Sunday’s loss, they’ll be reminded that a bad finish doesn’t make a bad team. If Cleveland stares at its calendars long enough, they can convince themselves there’s plenty of time to fix their Browns’ problems. If we all do our breathing exercises and say the affirmations, maybe we’ll still believe everything will be OK.

Feeling better yet? Me neither. One game can’t ruin a season. One month can’t reflect a season (especially when that month is September). And good teams suffer ugly losses all the time.

But this one made Browns fans sick. And the symptoms seem to be lingering.