The Cleveland Browns arrived in Pittsburgh looking to prove that it was truly a new era of football in Northeast Ohio by sweeping the Pittsburgh Steelers for the first time since 1988 and winning a game in the Steel City during the regular season for the first time since 2003. 

Those feats will have to wait yet another year, as yet another slow start snowballed into a 27-6 blowout win at the hands of the Steelers. 

What did we learn about Browns? 

Browns players on both sides of the ball have talked for weeks about finding a remedy for the team's slow starts. Entering Sunday, Cleveland was getting outscored by 45 in the first quarter of games. That figure ballooned to 55 after the Steelers shut out the Browns and scored 10 in the first. 

In an effort to spark a quick start, Todd Monken even opted to take the ball after winning the coin toss. The drive almost went three-and-out, before a Jaquan Brisker roughing-the-passer penalty kept it alive for Cleveland.

Watson had to be checked for a concussion, though, so Shedeur Sanders took over under center and completed two passed for two yards, before Harold Fannin Jr. fumbled the latter of those and gave the ball to Pittsburgh with a short field.

Fortunately, the defense held strong to force a long FG attempt, which Chris Boswell missed. But Watson fumbled on the ensuing drive to set up a Steelers TD and they Cleveland was in an early hole once again.

At this point, the slow starts are just part of who this team is and it was bound to come back to bite them eventually. 

Anyone that wondered after Week 7 if Tony Pollard was just the Browns kryptonite after gashing Cleveland's defense for a second straight year in Nashville last weekend, think again. That concerning trend continued on Sunday against the Steelers. 

As Jaylen Warren and Rico Dowdle combined for 199 of Pittsburgh's 200 yards on the ground. 118 of those yards came in the first quarter alone and by halftime, that number had ballooned to 160, which was already the most rushing yards the Browns had allowed all season. 

Pittsburgh used a number of traps to bait one of their aggressive defensive linemen upfield, then had a puller kick him out to open up a hole. Missed tackles were also a problem on so many of the big gashing runs. 

The run defense is officially becoming a problem for this team.

For a team relying on so many young players like the Browns are, this season was bound to come with plenty of growing pains. Starting left tackle Spencer Fano experienced plenty of them in Week 8. 

Fano struggled against the Steelers' aggressive, blitzing defensive front. He was called for three holding penalties in the game (only one wound up being accepted). On a day where the Browns o-line gave up eight sacks in total, Fano had one of his worst outings of the season. Such is life as a rookie tackle. 

Speaking of inconsistencies, the Browns offense has plenty of them on a weekly basis. The run games struggles were back in full force, one week after the team posted its best rushing day in Tennessee. As mentioned, the o-line also struggled to protect Watson. 

On a day when the Browns were outclassed in just about every way, Fannin Jr. was a bright spot. The second-year tight end posted a career day for receptions and yards, going 10 for 154. His chemistry with Watson continues to grow and he continues to the one weapon in this offense that's seemingly getting better as the season progresses. 

The Browns spent the week downplaying the franchise's tortured history in Pittsburgh, where they haven't won a regular-season game since 2003. And while it was probably the right approach not to make the matchup feel any bigger than it already was, now, they're part of that tortured history as they became the 23rd Browns team to lose in Pittsburgh in the regular season. Something about Acrisure Stadium that this team just can't quite overcome.