The game ended faster than the previous five and the result was essentially clinched well before the final whistle.
The extra time to process Sunday's 38-14 blowout loss didn't make Monday any easier for coach Hue Jackson and the Browns, who spent their day going through a thorough film review of all that went wrong against the Chargers.
"It felt worse," Jackson said. "It felt worse because I think that we were ready to make the next jump. I think that the football team expected that. We expected that. Here is the chance for us, at home, to win a second game in a row. That was the intention. We did not live up to that. We did not do our part.
"I thank our fans. Our fans were there and they were into it. We did not give them back what they gave us. We have to account for that."
Jackson looked back at a couple of moments that could have changed the trajectory of Sunday's game but repeatedly lamented all of the things Cleveland did that enabled the Chargers to lead comfortably through the bulk of three quarters.
Offensively, the Browns never found a rhythm, as rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield battled through an ankle injury while completing less than 50 percent of his passes. Two costly drops prevented the Browns from finding the end zone in the first half. The Browns, who entered Week 6 ranked among the league's best in rushing offense, ran just 21 times for 103 yards.
Defensively, the Browns surrendered 246 rushing yards on an average of nearly 7 yards per attempt. Veteran Philip Rivers completed just 11 passes, but three of them were big, as he connected with Tyrell Williams on passes of 44, 45 and 29, the last two going for touchdowns.
"That is not the football team that I envision us becoming," Jackson said. "We need to continue to work, do the little things at all times that give us a chance to win. We broke down fundamentally in a lot of different places yesterday. We will clean those things up as fast as we can and we will start moving forward."
Wide receiver Jarvis Landry called the loss "an eye-opener" for a rebuilt roster that had played together in five previous games that were decided by an average of 2.6 points. He went as far as to say the Browns "needed it" as the team looks ahead to a four-game stretch before its bye that starts with the Buccaneers and also features matchups against the Steelers and the 5-1 Kansas City Chiefs.
"We really had an opportunity to be challenged in a lot of different ways collectively as a team – in each phase. Offense, defense and special teams, and they made more plays than we did," Landry said. "If we do not nip that in the bud quickly, the score can get out of hand – scores can get out of hand."
It did Sunday. Now the focus shifts to not only keeping it close, but coming away with that winning feeling that was oh so good two other times this season.
"We wanted to come out and stack a couple of wins together," offensive guard Joel Bitonio said.
"Win in front of our home crowd again, put up a good performance and it is not what we wanted. That is one we are going to try to turn the page one, and really try to improve from. We do not want play another game like that."
