CLEVELAND — The surprise to many outside of the Browns locker room was no surprise to James Hudson III. He knew the answer to the question of who was going to be the starting left tackle in the season opener against the Dallas Cowboys.

How soon did Hudson know he'd be the one getting the start?

“I knew pretty soon," Hudson said. "I’ve been getting those reps throughout the offseason. Just being ready in case those guys weren’t going to be ready. Just go out there and take advantage of my opportunity.”

Hudson may have been as ready as he could be, but it didn't show in the outcome. The Browns suffered a 33-17 opening-day loss to the Cowboys.

Central to that loss was the near-constant pressure quarterback Deshaun Watson found himself under from the new-look Cowboys' defense, coordinated by Mike Zimmer. Dallas sacked Watson six times and hit him 17 times on 70 offensive plays.

The easy target seemed to be Hudson, who got the start at left tackle while two would-be starters were inactive Sunday while continuing to return from knee injuries. Jedrick Wills Jr., the normal left tackle, only returned to practice last Wednesday, while Jack Conklin — who was seen as a left tackle option — wasn't deemed ready despite two weeks of practice.

"I mean, I don't know how many times we dropped back, 50 or something," right guard Wyatt Teller said. "You drop back that many times, you're going to have mistakes. I mean, there's a handful that I want back. Two coverage sacks and I'm like, What the hell?…But no, James fought, man, I mean to see how far he is come, I'm really proud of him as a brother."

All-everything Cowboys edge rusher Micah Parsons was the one who everyone targeted as central to the defense, and he was to a point. He had a sack and a game-high five quarterback hits, constantly living in the Browns' backfield.

Parsons also created havoc without hitting Watson. He came off the right side of the Browns line, against Dawand Jones, and deflected a pass that was intercepted by linebacker Eric Kendricks.

“They moved him around pretty good,” Hudson said of Parsons. “They moved him all around the line of scrimmage. They lined him up everywhere. I think the only place he maybe didn’t line up was over the left guard. But he lined up everywhere. He’s a hell of a player.”

The Browns' line had their own self-created problems. Those would be the four penalties drawn by their offensive tackles, including three by Jones.

Hudson drew an illegal man downfield flag on the opening drive, which put the Browns in a first and 15 situation. Jones, meanwhile, drew an opening-drive false start to negate a potential fourth-and-2 opportunity, then added another false start and an illegal formation flag later.

"I think the legal formations they're looking for that," Teller said. "We had to be smart about that and we weren't. False starts, stuff like that, we have to be better at. A lot of stuff that it’s those first-game jitters, but we played, 95% of us have played all preseason, not all preseason but preseason. You've gotten kind of those jitters out, those pregame stuff. But we have to execute better. We have to be smarter, play better."

Those penalties left the Browns continual behind the chains. The two opening-drive flags forced them to turn spectacular field position into only three points, something from which they never recovered.

The Browns' first 10 third-down tries they faced were of six yards or longer. Six of their first 10 were of at least 10 yards.

“First and 10 is hard enough,” left guard Joel Bitonio said. “First and 15 or first and 20 is not easy. We have to clean those up. I think we had eight on offense and a lot of them were illegal formations and stuff that negated big plays or put us behind the sticks. Against a team that can rush the passer, that’s not what you want to do. So it’s definitely an emphasis that we’ve got to clean it up this week.”

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: James Hudson III, Browns offensive line struggle with pressure, flags