Browns fans had been looking forward to this game for eight months. This season was supposed to be different, but the start was just more of the same for the league’s most hapless franchise. Cleveland is 0-1 once again after being blown out by a Titans team that isn’t expected to do much in 2019.

But let me be a voice of reason, Cleveland. Despite a tough slate of games early, this season is not lost … yet. As bad as the score looked when the final whistle sounded, there is no need to panic. Mostly because the reason the Browns lost this game was the same reason they were so optimistic heading into it: Baker Mayfield.

There’s no way around it: Mayfield was bad. Really bad. And it wasn’t just the three interceptions he tossed — each one worse than the last. It was the sacks he took, including one that resulted in a safety after he hitched three times while standing in his own end zone.

You can’t blame the maligned Cleveland offensive line for that. Mayfield has to know to get rid of the ball sooner in that situation. That wasn’t the only time he held the ball too long and got himself into trouble. On this play, he just runs into a sack.

The Browns’ line, which was supposed to be the team’s major weakness, played OK. Especially when you consider the opponent: A balanced Titans defense led by crafty defensive coordinator Dean Peas, who tormented Baker with shrewdly-designed pressures.

In addition to the poor pocket presence, Mayfield also missed easy throws due to needlessly poor footwork. Here he has a clean pocket bust decides to throw a fadeaway for some reason and skips a pass to an open receiver.

But Mayfield will be better. We’ve seen what he’s capable of, and it’s much more than this. And there were times when he looked like the QB everyone in Cleveland expects him to be. Like a strike to Rashard Higgins on the first drive of the game.

And don’t worry about the penalties. Yes, there were a lot of them, but it means nothing. In 2018, the correlation between how many times a team was flagged in Week 1 and how many times they were flagged the rest of the season was essentially zero. The same is true if you compare penalties in the first half of the season to the second half of the season. In other words, penalties are kind of random.

This embarrassing loss was little more than an illusion. Anyone using it as proof that the Browns were overhyped is overreacting to a ridiculously small sample size. But that sort of thing tends to happen in Week 1, which is exactly why we’re here. Let’s figure out what was real and what wasn’t by playing a game of truth or myth …

TRUTH: Lamar Jackson is going to have a monster year after torching a terrible Dolphins team

Write off that performance all you want. I know the Dolphins are a terrible football team, but no defense would have been able to stop the throws Jackson was making in Miami on Sunday.

NFL Next Gen Stats has a metric called “Expected Completion Percentage,” which factors in how far a throw travels, how close the coverage is, how much pressure is on the quarterback at the time of the throw and determines how often the pass is expected to be completed. So it accounts for a defense that isn’t playing good coverage or getting to the quarterback. Well, Jackson’s Expected Completion Percentage in Week 1 was 60.2%. He completed 85% of his passes. Blame the Dolphins’ crappy roster all you want, but Jackson was throwing dimes all game. He hardly missed a pass. You can see for yourself…

Jackson is a far more accurate passer than he was a year ago. He also appears to be more confident in the pocket. Combine that development with playing in an offense that was designed with his skillset — and not Joe Flacco’s — in mind, and Jackson should have a big year.

MYTH: The Colts aren’t a playoff contender without Andrew Luck

Indianapolis is 0-1, but you can’t blame Jacoby Brissett for that. The Colts’ new starter played at a high level against a talented defense. Brissett completed 77.8% of his passes, and it’s not like he was throwing to wide-open receivers all day. Per Next Gen Stats, 22.2% of his passes were thrown into tight windows, which is defined as less than a yard of separation at the time of the throw. Only four quarterbacks had a higher rate.

Brissett made a number of impressive throws, but the best one of his day was probably the one that didn’t count. It was an absolute strike to the back of the end zone that Eric Ebron failed to secure before going out of bounds.

Adam Vinatieri would miss the ensuing field goal try. If not for an off day from the future Hall-of-Famer — he missed two field goals and an extra point — the Colts would have been 1-0 and Brissett would have been one of the bigger stories. He may not be Andrew Luck, but the guy can play.

TRUTH: The Seahawks haven’t learned from the playoff loss in Dallas

Seattle gave Russell Wilson a record-breaking deal in the offseason and yet the Seahawks still don’t seem to trust him. Or maybe Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer have an outdated view on offense. Whatever the case may be, the Seahawks spent opening week letting an inferior Bengals team stick around until the very end of the game instead of letting Wilson do his thing.

Intent on establishing the run, the Seahawks had Wilson drop back only once during the first quarter of the game. Unsurprisingly, the Bengals got out to an early lead as Seattle’s offense struggled to find its footing. Eventually, Schottenheimer opened things up, and, unsurprisingly, one of the very best quarterbacks in the league played like, well, one of the very best quarterbacks in the league and put the Seahawks back in front.

In the end, the Seahawks survived despite a failed effort to run out the clock. The final numbers were telling: Wilson averaged 9.8 yards over 20 attempts. The Seahawks averaged 3.04 yards-per-carry on non-Wilson runs. This coaching staff can’t get out of its own way.

MYTH: The Rams won’t regret paying Jared Goff

The Rams scored 30 points in a Week 1 road win, so you might be thinking that Goff played well after signing a deal that includes a record $110 million guaranteed. You’d be wrong. Los Angeles may have gone for 50 if its highly-paid quarterback wasn’t missing throws left and right.

According to Next Gen Stats, only two quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes and Philip Rivers, threw into tight windows less often, meaning Sean McVay was scheming receivers open for his young quarterback. Goff had an Expected Completion Percentage of 69%. He completed only 59% of his passes, and that 10% deficit was the largest of the week so far.

This continues a troubling trend. When defenses started to figure out how to better defend the Rams’ passing game last year and did a better job of taking away his first option, Goff struggled. Some pointed to Cooper Kupp’s absence as a possible explanation, but Kupp was back on Sunday and playing well. The Panthers used some of the tactics the Patriots did in the Super Bowl, and Goff still didn’t have an answer. I guess $110 million doesn’t get you what it used to.

TRUTH: The Steelers offense is in trouble without Antonio Brown

So much for addition by subtraction. Brown may be another team’s headache now, but he’s also a playmaker and the Steelers could have used one on Sunday night. The Patriots had no trouble locking down Juju Smith-Schuster early on, and none of the other Steelers were able to step up.

That includes Ben Roethlisberger, who continues to miss downfield throws at a troubling rate. Things will get easier for Pittsburgh when it’s not going up against the best team in the league, but if the Patriots are the standard the Steelers are trying to meet, they have a long way to go. Smith-Schuster does not look like a player capable of carrying a receiving corps and Roethlisberger no longer looks like a quarterback capable of carrying an offense.

Other apps just deliver sports. The USA TODAY Sportswire app lets you pick specific team sites to get only the news that you want to know.

newsletter Get 10 hot stories each day Thanks for signing up.

Please check your email for a confirmation. Thanks for signing up.

Please check your email for a confirmation.