Cleveland, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Following an embarrassing 31-3 beating administered by the 49ers, the Browns are back in Cleveland battered and bruised.
The list of what ails the disappointing Browns is long yet distinguished.
The inconsistencies are baffling. The result Monday night was the last thing many expected to follow the most complete game of the year the week before at Baltimore, a sound 40-25 drubbing of John Harbaugh and the Ravens.
“We do not want to be an up and down, rollercoaster football team if we want to get to where we want to get to,” Kitchens said Monday afternoon. “We just need to find consistency on how we prepare, how we approach the games and how we approach the play.”
During training camp head coach Freddie Kitchens facetiously asked what a bullseye is. He and the Browns are getting a weekly lesson. They’re a marked team and they’ve yet to prove they know how to respond to it.
It starts with the quarterback.
Baker Mayfield has more commercials and twice as many interceptions than touchdown passes this season. His completion percentage has taken a nosedive too, and it’s not because he’s throwing a bunch of footballs away either.
In our build them up to tear them down society, and with critics dying to pounce and take victory laps at Mayfield’s expense, that is the price that’s paid for overpromising and underdelivering on the big stage.
Monday night Richard Sherman concocted a controversy over a handshake during the coin toss. Nick Bosa dropped Mayfield multiple times, forced a fumble, recovered another then planted a flag to mock Mayfield’s 2017 celebration in Columbus.
A lesson learned for Mayfield – college grudges translate to the NFL.
“I think different people find motivation from different things,” Kitchens said. “I think ultimately, it is what we do on the field not off the field in that type of setting that matters. Ultimately, we go to the game with the plan, and if we execute the plan, we are usually successful. If it is a good plan and we execute it, we are usually successful with it. It has nothing to do with things off the field like that. It is all about how you play the game.”
Mayfield had his worst night as a pro in Santa Clara – 8 of 22 for 100 yards with 2 interceptions and he was mercifully benched for the final 5 minutes.
So what gives?
“Some of it has to do with the lack of protection. Some if it had to do with a couple bad throws, a couple bad decisions,” Kitchens said. “Overall, we had some drops. You can’t do those things and play the quarterback position at an elite level. If you just want the honest answer, you have to have consistency around you, you have to be consistent yourself and none of that happened last night.”
Odell Beckham Jr. was limited to five touches for a combined 62 yards Monday night, including his 20-yard completion to Jarvis Landry to open the game. Kitchens was so desperate for something, anything to spark his team he sent Beckham out to field a punt in the fourth quarter down 25.
It produced disastrous results. Beckham fumbled.
“If he returned it for a touchdown, it would be the best move since I don’t know when, but it would have been a great move at that point,” Kitchens said. “That was hindsight.”
Landry has played well through five games. Nick Chubb too. But they can’t carry the team themselves.
For as good as Myles Garrett has been early in his career, he has never had as dominating game as Bosa did Monday night for the 49ers, and Garrett has 7.0 sacks this season, 27.5 of them already in just 32 games.
Olivier Vernon, who cost the Browns right guard Kevin Zeitler in the offseason, barely shows up in a box score. He’s making $15.5 million this year and the Browns desperately could use Zeitler right now while Mayfield takes a beating.
Kitchens dipped into the bag of coach speak to explain away the many problems and solution to them all.
“Everybody has to do their job,” Kitchens said. “If everybody does their job – me included – we will be successful. It is as simple as that. I know you guys are looking for some kind of state-of-the-art answer, but it is as simple as just doing your job. Everybody has to do their job on every play.
“We can’t take turns with mental errors. We can’t take turns with bad technique. We can’t take turns of everybody getting their mess up. We have to be on the same page and have got to do our job.”
Mike Vrabel, Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan coached circles around Kitchens in victories over the Browns with Seattle’s Pete Carroll and with New England’s Bill Belichick in the offing over the next 3 weeks things don’t get any easier or prettier.
Kitchens bristles at the notion he’s been outcoached.
“I would not say that at all,” Kitchens said. “I think you get into the situation it is about the result and the narrative changes from the different results that you have. Of course, that can be the narrative. That is the easy thing to say. Just look at the tape.”
We did.
31-3. 446-180. 275-102.
Chalk it up to a bad night at the office for everyone. It happens. There are 11 games to play and everything the Browns hope to accomplish is still in front of them.
It's on Kitchens to get them on track before they dig a hole they can't climb out of, no matter how easy the schedule gets in a few weeks.
