The Browns played ugly football and lost the opener to the Cowboys. They played ugly football in the humidity, heat and rain in Jacksonville on Sept. 15 and beat the Jaguars, 18-13, because they made critical plays at critical times. Deshaun Watson led a touchdown drive on the opening possession — a 16-play, 89-yard march that ended with Watson burrowing into the end zone from the 1, but no touchdowns after that. The Browns were 2-of-14 on third down a week after going 2-of-15 on third down. They committed 13 penalties for 100 yards in Jacksonville after committing 11 penalties for 64 yards in the 33-17 loss to Dallas. one heck of a team win @Ticketmaster | #DawgPound pic.twitter.com/e4Beiwo5ot — Cleveland Browns (@Browns) September 15, 2024 In one maddening stretch in the fourth quarter, a 15-yard run to the Jacksonville 9 by D’Onta Foreman was negated because Foreman grabbed the facemask of the Jaguars player trying to tackle him — a 15-yard penalty. Offensive holding by Ethan Pocic and Wyatt Teller on consecutive plays pushed the ball back to the 50 and put the Browns, leading 16-13 with 2:03 remaining, in a third-and-36 situation. They punted one play later. But the Browns are 1-1, which puts them a game ahead of the 0-2 Ravens in the AFC North. “It wasn’t pretty all the time. It doesn’t have to be,” Coach Kevin Stefanski told reporters in Jacksonville. “It just has to be a team committed to getting better.” A week ago, the Cowboys scored on a 60-yard punt return — the first time since 2015 an opponent took a punt to the house. “There was a lot of bad football in that play,” special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone said on Sept. 12. “Gotta have a better punt with location and hang time. The leverage needs to be better. The effort was poor and it was addressed.” Corey Bojorquez made one of the key plays to help the Browns beat Jacksonville when his punt from the Jaguars’ 41 with 1:56 to play landed on the Jacksonville 1 and took a 90-degree right turn out of bounds at the 2. Had the ball bounced into the end zone, the Jaguars’ drive would have started at the 20. That could have led to another week-long autopsy. Instead, Alex Wright sacked Trevor Lawrence for a safety and an 18-13 Browns lead. Watson was sacked six times and hit 11 other times in the loss to the Cowboys. “We have to protect our quarterback better,” Stefanski said after the game and several more times last week. The Jaguars sacked Watson only twice and hit him six more times. Watson was as nimble as a fly evading the pass rush. He was less than spectacular and once again was a victim of dropped passes, but he was better than he was seven days earlier. He completed 22 of 34 passes for 186 yards without a touchdown pass. Nor did he throw an interception. The Browns played turnover-free. They are 15-2 under Stefanski when that happens. Watson’s numbers were better and he looked more comfortable, but he foolishly tried to pass the ball under duress on third-and-6 from the Jacksonville 38 with 1:37 to play and the Browns up, 18-13. The Jaguars were out of timeouts. Had Watson gone to the ground with the ball, the Jags would have started on their 10 with about 50 seconds to play. As it was, 1:27 remained. Victory wasn’t secured until Lawrence’s pass from the Browns 33 on the final play fell incomplete in the end zone. The starting point for making corrections this week as the Browns prepare for the 0-2 Giants will begin from a victory instead of a loss. But everyone in Berea knows there is plenty that still needs correcting. Browns receiver Jerry Jeudy bobbles a pass before eventually catching it in front of Jaguars safety Antonio Johnson on Sept. 15. (John Raoux – The Associated Press)