CLEVELAND — The tease of the entire run-up to the Browns season opener against the Dallas Cowboys centered around the offense.

It was supposed to be a new-look Deshaun Watson at quarterback, fresh off the shoulder surgery that ended his 2023 season last November. He was supposed to be in command of a new-look offense that was being installed by an overhauled offensive coaching staff, led by coordinator Ken Dorsey.

The performance of both Watson individually and the Browns offense in general, though, failed to match the hype when the grand unveiling came Sunday afternoon. Instead of running like a sleek sports car, it sputtered like a run-down lemon in what ended up being a 33-17 Cowboys win.

"I mean, a lot of it, well most of it, was self-induced," said wide receiver Amari Cooper, who had two catches on nine targets for 16 yards against his former team. "Obviously we give credit to the team that we played. Like I said, they're a good team. They made some good plays as well."

The problem was, the Browns couldn't match the Cowboys' good plays. A large part of that was because the quarterback wearing No. 4 for Cleveland couldn't match the one wearing that number for Dallas.

Watson was 24-of-45 passing for 169 yards in his first game since last Nov. 12, when he sustained a shoulder injury against the Baltimore Ravens that resulted in season-ending surgery. He did throw a touchdown, but also threw two interceptions/

Beyond that, Watson was running for life for much of the afternoon, trying to stay ahead of the Cowboys chasing after him. That was easier said than done, as the six sacks and 17 quarterback hits Dallas recorded showed.

"We’ll figure it out tomorrow, once we watch the tape," Watson said. "You know, I haven’t had time to see the full tape or anything. So at the end of the day, you know, regardless of what it is, that goes for just me and the whole offense, you know? And I’m the one that’s, you know, outside of the center touching the ball that we play, I gotta control that."

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Watson's counterpart, Dallas' Dak Prescott, was 19-of-32 passing for 179 yards with only one touchdown, a 21-yard pass to Brandin Cooks that gave the Cowboys the lead for good at 7-3. However, he also only was sacked three times and hit just four times.

It wasn't just on Watson, although he did nothing to quell preseason concerns of how he would perform. He looked like a quarterback making just his seventh start since the end of the 2020 season.

Then again, the Browns probably also expected Watson to have his full complement of offensive linemen by the time the season opened. Instead, both left tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. and right tackle Jack Conklin — who some thought might replace Wills against Dallas — were inactive Sunday, still working their way back from season-ending knee injuries from a year ago.

That left James Hudson III to start at left tackle for the first time in his four-year NFL career. Right tackle Dawand Jones, who had double-digit games under his belt from last season, battled his own share of penalties and pressures allowed to add to the issues.

“That’s unacceptable, period,” Hudson said. “I definitely feel like we were prepared, we just have to get better as a whole. I don’t think we weren’t prepared for anything. I feel like we were fully prepared. The coaches did a great job of that. I just feel like we’ve got to do better.”

There's an argument to be made that preseason injuries, beyond just the two tackles, prevented the offense from gelling. Cooper, Jerry Jeudy and/or Elijah Moore — the Browns' top three wide receivers — as well as tight end David Njoku all missed time at various points of training camp.

The quartet all had basically been back together the last two weeks leading into Sunday. Njoku, though, could be gone for another period of time with what is feared to be a high ankle sprain.

Regardless of who's available, the reality is crystal clear. The Browns have a week to get under the hood, fix the transmission, repair the body and turn that lemon into some semblance of what was expected with a trip to Jacksonville to face the Jaguars looming next Sunday.

"It better be quick, with a good team turning around quick," Cooper said. "Obviously it's a long season, but we don't want to get used to losing and we've been working hard. Sometimes it's just the way the cookie crumbles. You go out there and play a good team and you make too many mistakes, it's going to cost you just like in any other sport."

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Deshaun Watson, Browns new-look offense stagger in season debut