One game.

The Cleveland Browns lost this one game.

That is all that happened Sunday. They played terribly, no doubt. They were road favorites and embarrassed themselves long and hard in Jacksonville. They put the kibosh on all of the optimism that came with defeating the Steelers. They raised every demon that resides within Browns’ fans, uncomfortably familiar ideas of inferiority and self-loathing.

But it was only one game.

Brian Hoyer was flagrantly awful against the Jaguars. He completed 39% of his passes. It was his first full game as Browns starter without a touchdown. He missed open guys. He was unable to lead the Browns to a touchdown despite the Browns’ D thrice intercepting Blake Bortles. Fair or not, Hoyer’s fingerprints were on the botched fourth-down conversion attempts. He made me regret purchasing a Romanburger last week.

But it was only one game.

The offensive line was a shambles, barely a shadow of its former self. The Browns O-line without Alex Mack was like Halloween without candy or Christmas sans cookies: an incomplete institution. Browns runners managed just 69 yards on 30 carries. The offense gained a yard or less on 48 of 74 offensive plays. The line allowed seven tackles for loss, three sacks, and seven more hits on Hoyer. I wish Paul McQuistan the very best, but he inspired a generation of matadors Sunday.

But it was only one game.

The run defense showed precious little progress. Denard Robinson had the day of his professional life, running for 127 yards and a touchdown. The former Michigan quarterback did things that we once wished of Josh Cribbs. Blake Bortles ran for 35 mostly unmolested yards as the defense paid him no mind. Paul Kruger had a solitary tackle on 60 snaps.

But it was only one game.

The special teams continued to disappoint. As the fourth quarter punt bounced off of Jordan Poyer’s facemask, the Browns’ chances of winning bounced away with it. We could see a path to victory but it kept escaping us, a mischievous rabbit always out of reach.

But it was only one game.

There were some bright spots if you squint, sort of how you notice the brightest parts of a cave once your eyes adjust. Joe Haden and Justin Gilbert played borderline well. Tashaun Gipson had two legitimate NFL interceptions, giving him four for the season. Andrew Hawkins was at his slippery best.

But still, it was only one game.

This isn’t to say that we should only try to look on the bright side. Believe me, I get it. Having waxed poetic a week ago about how this team won me over with its hustle and heart, I feel betrayed. It’s dumb and immature, but a football team can make you feel things normally reserved for your parents’ divorce. The things that I thought to be true were not on Sunday. My worldview was shown to be inaccurate.

The Browns were not tough. They were not smart. They were not opportunistic. Au contraire: They were meek. They were boneheaded. They were wasteful. No matter how many times the Jaguars slid the door open, the Browns rammed headlong into the wall.

Any and all worries about falling in a trap game were validated Sunday. The Jaguars defense was described early in the week by Joe Thomas and others as the best the Browns have faced. It certainly looked that way. If the victory over Pittsburgh was a 10, this game was a zero wrapped in putrid Lake Erie perch.

This team is still 3-3. They have at least six winnable games left on the schedule, if you’re silly enough to think that the Browns ever function predictably. We’re in the thick of this season now, and now we will see what the Browns are made of. They probably aren’t as good as we thought last week or as bad as we think now.

We should listen to Joe Thomas.

“It’s the nature of the league. You win one game and you’re crowned as Super Bowl champions. You lose one and you’re announced as the worst team in the league. I hope that we have the perspective on this team to understand that that’s the way it goes in the NFL.”

I hope so, too. After all, it was only one game.