Cleveland Browns quarterback Brandon Weeden gets sacked by Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh in the second half Sunday, October 13, 2013 at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland. The Browns lost the game 17-31. (Joshua Gunter/ The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Browns fans could see it squeezing the life out of their football team. The pressure. The frustration. The utter feeling of futility.

Yes, Brandon Weeden was a big problem in the Browns' 31-17 loss to Detroit at FirstEnergy Stadium on Sunday. His fourth-quarter interception looked as if it was thrown by Flipper, the dolphin. It was sort of sidearm, very off-balance, and totally panicked. It ended the Browns' only real drive of the second half, Detroit taking over on its own 44.

That one play illustrated The Worst of Weeden, and he knew it.

"It was just a bone-headed play," he said. "I was trying not to take a sack ... it's on me."

But let's start with this fact: Weeden is the quarterback. As coach Rob Chudzinski said the other day after Brian Hoyer went down with the season-ending knee injury -- there is no other choice.

So the Jason Campbell fan club can just sit down and be silent. No changes are coming in the near future.

But let's also ask this question: Just what happened to Ray Horton's No. 4-ranked defense in the second half? The Lions scored 24 points in the final two periods. I repeat, 24 points -- in touchdown possessions of 79, 67 and 49 yards. The field goal came after a 26-yard drive.

So it's not as if the offense was giving up the ball to the Lions in the shadow of the goal posts. Detroit drove the ball right into the heart of the men in the orange helmets.

That attacking defense produced one sack of Matthew Stafford, and two on other quarterback hits. That defense that insisted no one could run on them gave up 96 yards rushing in 17 attempts, a 5.3 average in the second half.

Not once did Detroit punt in the second half. Heading into this game, Detroit tight end Joseph Fauria had four catches -- two for touchdowns. He caught three passes against the Browns -- all for touchdowns.

Chudzinski said dealing with Reggie Bush (135 yards total offense) and receiver Calvin Johnson (only three catches) led to Fauria being open, usually beating linebackers in one-on-one coverage.

But you know it's a bad day when Fauria scores more points (18) than the Browns offense (17).

There is an asterisk as the offense gave the defense no help in the second half. Four punts on their first four possessions, then Weeden's embarrassing interception. The offense was awful.

But so was the defense.

The odd thing was the Browns were so solid in the first half. Two touchdowns. Weeden looked poised and composed. Offensive coordinator Norv Turner was deep into the playbook. They had a 45-yard end around for Travis Benjamin. Weeden delivered two touchdowns when the Browns were in the red zone -- passes of four yards to Chris Ogbonnaya and two to Greg Little. At the half, the Browns had a 17-7 lead.

I kept thinking, "This may be the best half of the year for the Browns." When it was over, I was sure that the second half was the Browns at their worst. Among other things, the Browns were flagged for two Jordan Cameron false starts, one illegal shift and Johnson Bademosi running out-of-bounds to cover a punt. All avoidable mental errors.

Chudzinski called it "disappointing" to lose a 10-point lead and a game like this. I call it scary, because suddenly weaknesses all seemed exposed in two quarters.

A good quarterback (Stafford) with a strong runner (Bush) negated the Browns defense. A shaky quarterback (Weeden) lost his confidence and once again, the offensive line had trouble keeping defenders off his back. Detroit only had two sacks, but Weeden was knocked down four other times and seemed often in a bit of a frenzy.

As for the running game, it disappeared in the second half -- 11 yards in five carries. That ended a three-game winning streak for the 3-3 Browns.

After a second-half collapse like this, it's hard to feel very upbeat about the Browns as they head to Green Bay next week.