1 winner, 6 losers from Bengals Week 1 loss vs. Browns

The Cincinnati Bengals were hoping to begin a win streak of their own against the Cleveland Browns in Week 1 but that didn't happen. The Browns demolished the Stripes 24-3 in Cleveland to drop the Stripes to 0-1 for the second straight year.

The good news? This is only the first game of the season. It's a marathon, not a sprint. The Bengals started last year 0-2 and made it to the AFC Championship Game so there's certainly no reason to panic if you're a fan of the Stripes.

That being said, a game was played and it didn't go well for the Bengals, which is the bad news from this game. Let's take a look at the winners and losers from the 24-3 loss.

All stats courtesy of ESPN

Winner

Bengals Defense (excluding run defense)

There was only one winner this week and I'm just going to be vague and give it to the defense. Yes, they ended up surrendering 24 points but they held the Browns to three points in the first half and the flood gates only opened when they did because the defense was being asked to do too much while the offense sputtered out of control.

The Bengals defense forced two turnovers, neither of which the offense could do anything with. They held the Browns to field goals in key situations, continuing to serve as a bend but don't break unit. In most circumstances, if the defense played this well, the Bengals would be able to cruise to victory. Alas, football is a team sport.

Losers

Joe Burrow

The biggest loser of the game had to be Joe Burrow. The Bengals just made Burrow the highest-paid player in the league on Thursday. Three days later, he completed just 14 passes for 82 yards and was benched with roughly four minutes to go in the game. That's not the kind of performance you want to see from your franchise quarterback.

Tee Higgins

It was a bad day at the office for Burrow but it was an abysmal day for Higgins, who failed to catch a single pass on Sunday afternoon. The former second-round pick out of Clemson was targeted a whopping eight times and he came up with zero receptions. It was unbelievable how out of sync Burrow and Higgins were on Sunday.

Brad Robbins

There was a lot of hype surrounding Robbins after the team spent a sixth-round draft pick on the rookie from Michigan and he did not deliver. It was a brutal debut for Robbins, as the Bengals continued to loss the field position battle due to his poor punts. He'll hopefully get better but this was not a good showing for the Wolverine punter.

Losers

Zac Taylor

At one point during the game, the Bengals were trailing by just three points and had moved the ball to the Browns' 38-yard line. When they didn't convert on third down, they faced a 4th-and-3 on the 38-yard line and opted to punt the ball away. This was a highly-criticized move from the fans and for good reason. The Bengals then punted the ball and it went just 18 yards. This was a bad call from Zac Taylor and cost the team dearly.

Run Defense

Earlier, I praised the Bengals defense for their efforts in this game but one aspect of the Bengals defense that did not play well was their run D. Nick Chubb absolutely ate the Bengals up and spit them out on the ground, tallying 106 yards on 18 carries. Deshaun Watson also rushed for 45 yards and a touchdown. Overall, the run D surrendered 206 yards on the ground. Not ideal.

D.J. Reader is usually the X-factor for Cincinnati when it comes to stopping the run but Chubb had no problem gaining yards on the ground. He finished with an average of 5.9 yards per play. The run D is going to have to be better down the road.

Offensive Line

Burrow was sacked twice but pressured often in this one. The Browns defensive line was going after Burrow all day long and he was getting wrecked. The starting o-line didn't play a single snap together during the preseason so this was their first time working together and well... we saw how that went. It'll take some time for them to gel but when you have the highest-paid player in the league being punished for the lack of protection, it gets a little more frustrating.