CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Browns already lost to a backup quarterback and a training camp arm this season.
Now add a loss to a 3-9-1 team riding a six-game losing streak to the resume.
Hours after it was reported that Freddie Kitchens would return barring a catastrophic ending to the season, the Browns laid their biggest egg of the year – even bigger than the 20-13 loss at Pittsburgh or 31-3 at San Francisco – by getting crushed by the Cardinals 38-24.
The Browns entering Sunday’s game having won four of five felt like a false sense of security, and it was.
Receiver Jarvis Landry was caught on camera giving Kitchens a piece of his mind after Kitchens elected not to go for it on fourth-and-2, down 11 in the fourth quarter, opting for a 45-yard field goal, which rookie Austin Seibert promptly missed, instead.
Moments later cameras caught Kitchens by the bench trying to make peace with Landry, who was seated next to Odell Beckham Jr. and didn't even look up at him.
The images spoke volumes.
Another beautiful effort by running back Nick Chubb wasted. 127 yards and 17 carries. He has the fifth-best rushing season in franchise history, and it’ll go for naught.
Another wasted week of having Landry and Beckham to throw to as well.
Beckham was targeted a team-high 13 times. He caught eight of them for 66 yards. Landry caught five of eight targets for just 23 yards to get over 1,000 yards on the season for the first time since 2016.
The Browns surrendered 445 yards of offense – 299 of those by halftime and 226 on the ground – and Cardinals running back Kenyan Drake looked like a Hall of Famer. Drake entered the game with one touchdown this season. He scored four times Sunday.
Four. From 5, 1, 1 and 17 yards out.
In all Drake had 137 yards on 22 carries.
Baker Mayfield, who padded his stats late and finished 30 of 43 for 247 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, has regressed, and with more talent around him too. That’s on Kitchens, who refused to allow Todd Monken to take over play calling this season.
Kitchens spoke in January about collaboration. By October he was all about his control of the offense on game day.
Fellow Sooner Kyler Murray won the duel with Mayfield on this day.
Murray was sensational throwing for 219 yards with a touchdown and interception while adding 56 yards on the ground.
Three things Kitchens has proven himself not to be this season: a tactician, a disciplinarian and a master motivator.
The Browns needed all three qualities in 2019 and he’s delivered on none of them. They needed a seasoned coach with experience and a resume for handling big personalities and navigating adversity. Not someone still learning from the how to be a head coach manual.
Kitchens is outcoached almost weekly. The operation of his team is often sloppy, and slow. They had to burn a timeout early and then had a delay of game on the first play that followed a kickoff, which is beyond inexcusable, against the Cardinals.
Their pass rush vanished when Myles Garrett was suspended indefinitely for smashing Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph in the head with a helmet. Penalties are regular and a plenty along with a lack of composure and discipline. Maybe with some composure and discipline instilled by Kitchens in his team Garrett would be on the field.
Players bark at Kitchens on the sideline regularly. The words spoken to him would get ordinary people fired at regular jobs for insubordination.
The best part of all this? The Browns wanted it known entering Sunday’s game that Kitchens would be back.
They might want to rethink that.
Check that, they should rethink that.
Getting embarrassed in Arizona might be the best thing to happen to the Browns, who now avoid being fooled into thinking that Kitchens turned a disastrous season around and should get another year.
Is Kitchens really going to be better next year with what is expected to be an improved roster and more talent? He couldn’t succeed with what he was given this year, and it was a lot.
Ron Rivera and Mike McCarthy are available, and both are better options than Kitchens. They would instantaneously command respect within the locker room.
Anyone but this nonsense would be an improvement.
And that's what it has been this season.
Inexcusable nonsense led by Kitchens.
