Deshaun Watson, under fire, sacked 8 times, a career high, as the Browns beat the Giants 21-15 and fell to 1-2

They trailed 21-7 at halftime and ended up losing not only the game 21-15 but also some of their best players to injuries, including right guard Wyatt Teller, who was out with a knee injury shortly after entering the locker room in the third quarter. He is one of four players scheduled to undergo MRIs on Monday, including Jed Wills Jr. (knee), James Hudson III (shoulder) and Myles Garrett, who aggravated injuries to both feet and lower legs.

But the Browns' most painful loss came against the Giants they were supposed to beat, dropping them to 1-2 overall and 0-2 at home before embarking on a three-game road trip to Las Vegas, Washington and Philadelphia.

“Obviously very, very disappointed,” Kevin Stefanski said. “I have to fix this. It's really disappointing on a lot of levels. I know we can be better and we will be. This is not good enough from a player's perspective, from a coach's perspective, whatever. Just not good enough and if you play like this, you're not going to win games.”

For the second time this season, Watson was sacked and hit far too often. He was taken down eight times in his career — two more than he was taken down by the Cowboys — and hit 17 times, the same number as in the opener. That's a total of 16 sacks and 42 hits in three games — a recipe for disaster for a player who just had surgery to repair a broken shoulder.

“It's not for lack of effort and obviously Deshaun is giving it everything he's got,” Stefanski said. “He can't get sacked as much, can't get hit as much. That's on me and it's on us to fix that.”

Despite a makeshift offensive line that ended up with left guard Joel Bitonio at left tackle, center Ethan Pocic at left guard, Nick Harris at center, rookie Zak Zinter at right guard and Dawand Jones, who returned to play right tackle after a brief time off on the bench because of his sore knee, Watson (21 of 37, 196 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs, 89.5 rating) cut the Browns to 21-15 with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Cooper and a two-point pass to Jerry Jeudy with 11:33 minutes left in the game.

The crowd, which had booed the Browns off the field at halftime and revived in the second half, came to life again when Watson ran 14 yards to the Giants' 18-yard line on the touchdown drive.

“That's the kind of guy he is,” said Cooper (7 of 12, 86 yards, 2 TDs). “He's a fighter. That's why the Browns were so interested in him from the beginning. Despite all the turmoil in our offense, we still had a chance to go out and win. I gave him a lot of credit for that.”

But after getting within 6 points, Watson was unable to score the game-winning touchdown on any of his three chances in the final 9:53 minutes. After advancing to the halfway line after two Cooper completions, Watson handed the ball off to Jerome Ford on a draw, who dropped it. The Giants recovered and thwarted opportunity No. 1.

“I tried to give him the ball and then I saw that the ball was on the ground,” Watson said.

But he encouraged him after the game.

“I told him, 'Cheer up, man, and we'll keep coming at you. We believe in you,'” Watson said.

The defense that shut down the Giants in the second half forced another punt and Watson took his second chance at the 20 with 5:19 left. On third and 1 at the Browns' 29, Jameis Winston was pushed to the right by Kayvon Thibodeaux and stopped without any gain in ground.

“I just have to get it right on the first try,” said Winston. “That's all. I have to get better.”

On fourth-and-1, Watson had Jordan Akins free on the right side, but ran to the left and was stopped short, which counted as his eighth sack.

“I was just trying to get the ball,” Watson said. “The play was an RPO … Slant wasn't there. I guess they had a collision and I'm not just going to throw the ball covered. I tried to get the first down, but they stopped it too early.”

The Giants took the lead on offense at the Browns' 29-yard line, but kicker Greg Joseph fired a 48-yard field goal wide to the right, giving his former team chance number three.

With 3:00 left, Watson took over at his 38-yard line and threw three times in a row to Cooper, including a long throw on the third and fourth attempts. Cooper, Watson's go-to guy that afternoon, got hit on the play and had to leave.

On fourth-and-four, Watson hit Cooper's backup, Cedric Tillman, on the hands with a pass over the middle, but the ball slipped right through. Tillman struggled with the drop on the bench, put his head in his hands and punched the air as Giants running back Devin Singletary ran for a 43-yard run that sealed the win.

“I just couldn't do it,” Tillman said. “I let the team down. I usually can do it, but unfortunately I couldn't do it today.”

Watson, who received a strip sack late in the first half to set up Malik Nabers' second touchdown catch, had told Tillman the ball was coming to him.

“I'm going to give him a chance to make a shot,” Watson said. “The ball just wasn't bouncing our way. But I motivated him: 'Hey, I'm always going to come back to you.' All my guys. It's a long season, it's only game three.”

Cooper also encouraged the second-year professional.

“I just told him, never let them see you sweat,” he said. “It happens. That's football.”

But the game was largely lost in the first half, when the Giants defense dominated with relentless blitzing, stunts and plays and the Browns made Giants QB Daniel Jones look like an All-Pro.

“They changed the game plan,” said Watson, who was sacked three times in the first quarter. “You have to give a lot of credit to their DC Shane (Bowen) for doing something different … they did a good job of trying to create some mismatches and confusion to throw us off sync in the passing game.”

Wills was making his first start at left tackle since tearing his medial ligament last November, and Jones was battling an aggravation of his own medial ligament surgery. The Giants stormed the perimeter and Watson had no chance. Late in the second quarter, Brian Burns was faster than Jones and scored the sack-fumble that the Giants converted into the game-winning Nabers touchdown.

Despite the physical abuse and Fox cameras capturing him twisting his shoulder on the sidelines, Watson emerged unscathed.

“I'll be fine,” he said. “If they don't pull me off the field and I don't need surgery, I'll play until the final whistle.”

The game was also decided on the first play of the Giants' second drive when Greg Newsome II roughed up a Ronnie Hickman interception at the Giants' 24-yard line. Newsome slammed his hands into Jones' helmet, causing his head to snap back.

“Of course, it was always a great play by our guys when you could get the ball into an advantageous field position,” Stefanski said. “From what I saw, the hit to the head was not violent. I know you're not allowed to hit the quarterback in the head, but the referee obviously saw it differently.”

Newsome also regretted the call.

“A lot of decisions are going to be 50/50,” Newsome said. “You can't get everything right. It's tough. At the end of the day, we have to find a way to win and we have to find a way to keep going.”

The Giants covered 81 yards in 13 plays on that drive, finishing with a 1-yard run by Devin Singletary that tied the game at 7-7 with 2:07 left in the first quarter – the first of three consecutive touchdowns in the first half. On their second touchdown drive, Nabers snagged a 28-yard pass from the sideline right out of the hands of Martin Emerson Jr., who also allowed the 3-yard touchdown.

“They were targeting me,” Emerson said. “I have to get better. I have to win these one-on-one duels.”

For the second straight home game, the defense broke down early and then tightened up, allowing Jones to complete 17 of 19 passes in the first half for 178 yards and two touchdowns, both of which went to Nabers (8 of 12, 78 yards, 2 touchdowns), LSU's No. 6 overall draft pick.

“They just did a good job,” said Garrett, who walked slowly to the podium with a noticeable limp. “They made us run forward, made those blocks, those quick swings and just kept us off balance by continuing to play the ball out quickly in different ways … we missed too many tackles as well.”

Cooper, who had overcome his two-game slump, suspected the Giants would provide more firepower.

“There are a lot of things you can blame it on,” he said. “We just have to go out there and want it more. We have to give credit to the team. They were hungry, they wanted to win badly and they came out and outplayed us. That's what I would put it down to.”

What's next for the Browns? They have slipped another game behind the 3-0 Steelers in the AFC North and are tied with the 1-2 Ravens. The 0-2 Bengals play on Monday night.

The Browns will undergo an MRI on Monday and will soon learn the fate of their Pro Bowl right back, Teller, Wills, Hudson and Garrett, who visited the medical tent twice during the game and had to be escorted off the field the second time. Teller's injury appeared to be serious and the Browns will have to make a major reshuffle of their offensive line. But the Super Bowl mission remains the same, even if the three away games are next.

“We never lose confidence,” Newsome said. “We have playmakers. It's the third game of the season. We still have a lot of football ahead of us.”

Next

The Browns play against the Raiders in Las Vegas next Sunday at 4:25 p.m.