The Browns Lost at Home to the Texans

J.J. Watt catches a TD pass over Karlos Dansby

The Browns took a major step back today with a 23-7 loss to the Houston Texans in Cleveland. The Texans played without Arian Foster, but still racked up a whopping 214 yards on the ground, as rookie tailback Alfred Blue out of LSU ran for 156 yards on 36 carries.

Thirty-six carries by a rookie running back starting his first game. Fifty-four rushing attempts in all. That is Commitment to the Run. Thirty-six carries by a rookie tailback starting his first game. For the Texans, too, Ryan Mallett made his first start and did okay, throwing two TD passes, including one to J.J. Watt.

Cleveland made too many mistakes. Cleveland gave Houston four first downs on penalties, Paul Kruger dropped an interception, and Brian Hoyer was off his game. He tripped over the feet of his own linemen on more than one occasion, and he missed open receivers multiple times.

The Texans ran for 214 yards against the Browns.

Hoyer threw 50 times -- which was about 25 too many attempts for him. He completed 30 of the 50 attempts and had one interception and one TD pass.

Watt hounded Hoyer all day. As reported on NFL.com, "Watt was all over the field. Along with his TD, he recorded a strip sack, made five tackles - three for a loss - recovered a fumble and hurried Browns quarterback Brian Hoyer into several bad throws. Watt provided more proof he's the NFL's best defensive player."

Adding injury to the insult of the loss, defensive leader Karlos Dansby suffered a knee injury. No word yet on how severe the injury is.