It began the first time that the Cleveland Browns touched the ball.

They fumbled and lost it.

And in some ways, they lost the game at that point, too.

Stay with me. Remember the first quarter, when the Browns forced the Baltimore Ravens to punt and took over at their 22-yard line.

On their first play, quarterback Trent Dilfer was about 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage, in the shotgun formation on this wildly windy Sunday in Baltimore.

The crowd was SCREAMING!

Dilfer seemed to be looking around at the Ravens defense, when suddenly the ball was snapped at his ankles. Dilfer couldn't field it, and Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis recovered at the Browns 20.

&#8221I don't care how low the snap is, it's my job to get it,“ Dilfer said. &#8221It hit off my foot. We didn't execute that, but we didn't execute a lot of stuff.“

Center Jeff Faine said he thought Dilfer was ready - and Dilfer agreed. It was just a mess, a chance they really didn't need to take.

Turning the misdemeanor into a felony, four plays later, Baltimore tight end Todd Heap caught a 3-yard pass for what became the only touchdown in the 16-3 loss Sunday.

What were the Browns thinking? Why a shotgun on the first play when you know the crowd will be bellowing? Why take the chance with the wind and crowd noise? Nothing wrong with wanting to pass on the first play, but at least look like you're going to run the ball. Obviously, the Browns could have regrouped and still won. They could have stopped Baltimore, forced a field goal.

Not on this Sunday.

The Browns gave up three more points at the end of the half when Dilfer was sacked and fumbled, coughing up the ball at the Browns 36-yard line - and Faine was called for a holding penalty. So the Browns' line was penalized, and the quarterback still was sacked. That mistake led to a Matt Stover field goal.

This was a game in which the Browns should have tried to establish the running game. Perhaps they wanted to throw early because Baltimore had a lot of defenders on the line, daring Dilfer to beat them with his arm.

Dilfer had a miserable afternoon. He was sacked four times, he lost two fumbles and threw an interception. He was bothered by the Ravens' pass rush, and the Browns were never able to find the right running plays or short passes to combat the aggressive defense.

Nor did they roll Dilfer out of the pocket, making it tougher for the defense to find him. He usually was a stationary target.

The Browns had eight penalties, and many seemed to come at the worst times. This was not a game in which the team was out of control in terms of taunting, personal fouls and other blatant penalties.

But they didn't pay attention to the details. At the end of the game, they were flagged twice on the same play.

&#8221We thought we'd made strides,“ Crennel said. &#8221Now we have to walk that same path again.“

And this time, they better do it more carefully.

Terry Pluto is a sports columnist for the Akron Beacon Journal.