The Cleveland Browns stood toe to toe with the two time AFC defending champion Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. In fact, they led most of the game.

However, when you are playing championship teams, you cannot make mistakes and the Browns made three critical ones in the second half and dropped a 33-29 decision at Arrowhead Stadium.

We have seen many site looking for a scapegoat to hang this loss on, but sometimes you can’t blame everything on one person or play.

Is anyone going to put the blame on Nick Chubb, who hadn’t fumbled in a game since the opening game of last year? That doesn’t seem fair. Nor is it to put an onus on Baker Mayfield, who clearly was trying to make the right play and throw the ball out of bounds in the fourth quarter, but was tripped up trying to do so, and threw an interception instead?

Now, Jamie Gillan’s error was inexcusable, and his faux pas gave the Chiefs the ball on the Cleveland 15, and the resulting touchdown finally put Kansas City in front.

Dropping the snap was bad enough, but trying to run with it compounded the error. Even if he shanks the kick, you gain yardage. If you want to place blame somewhere, that play would be the one to pin it on.

We suppose it depends on your viewpoint going into the game. We said it would be a very difficult chore for the Browns to go into KC and win, especially with a rebuilt defensive unit. The fact they almost pulled it off, bodes well for the rest of the season, and quite frankly, makes us feel even more optimistic about Kevin Stefanski’s squad.

We wondered if the offense would be as good in action as it appeared on paper, and it was. If the Browns execute, we imagine the Cleveland offense will look like the team they played yesterday. Meaning, it will be scary for opponents.

Now, comes the tough part. Looking at the schedule, the Browns are going to be the better team at least the next two weeks and probably the next four to five weeks. They can’t have a hiccup, they have to learn to do what good teams do, win games you are supposed to win.

That said, we have every confidence that the team will be prepared to do just that. Stefanski doesn’t strike us as the type to let complacency slip in, and the team getting full of themselves. Especially, because he will remind the players every day this week that they are 0-1.

We also aren’t claiming any moral victories. The Browns are too talented for that. They should win football games, and even though we figured it would be a tough opening game, the players didn’t play that way. They went in knowing they could win.

Two surprises for us in week one. First, we didn’t think rookie Anthony Schwartz would make much of an impact during the first half of the season, but boy did he make one on Sunday. It will interesting to see how he figures in when Odell Beckham Jr. is ready.

The other was David Njoku, who has been criticized and maligned since his rookie season. He looked like a match up problem for defenses with his size and speed at tight end. It is hard to believe it is his fifth year with Cleveland, and he is still just 25 years old.

If he catches the ball like he did vs. KC, it’s just another weapon for Stefanski to exploit.