The Cleveland Browns suffered a brutal loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday Night Football, with Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson catching a lot of heat for his turnovers, inaccuracy on some throws, along with two facemask penalties that put Cleveland behind the chains. One of the penalties was after a play against Kwon Alexander, resulting in an unsportsmanlike, while the other came against Nick Herbig while Watson was trying to escape a sack. Watson addressed the penalties, and said they were somewhat unavoidable because of defenders grabbing him.

“…As far as the facemask and things like that, I'm stiff-arming just like everyone else,” Deshaun Watson said, according to Josh Carney of Steelers Depot. “And once they grab my arm as I'm running, they keep pushing, [so the] only way I can really let go is to swing across. And once they do that, my hand is stuck in their helmet or in their face mask, so I gotta do a better job of just hitting them with the palm, I guess, and just releasing as much as I can so we don't get those penalties. But as far as just the unsportsmanlike conduct and things like that, no, I'm not trying to do anything like that. I've never been that type of person, never been that type of player. And I spoke with the ref, and we were going back and forth on a good conversation, and he just let me know that it's hard for them to see things like that.”

The Browns were in a position to win the game before Watson was sacked and fumbled, which resulted in TJ Watt running in for a touchdown for the Steelers. The Browns are still 1-1, but blew a golden chance to go 2-0 on the season.