CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – For over two decades the Browns have put on a clinic on how to lose.
Sunday’s 31-30 come from ahead loss to the Jets was pretty special.
You name it, the Browns failed to do it in the closing minutes, but the epic loss goes far deeper than just the coach-speak communication breakdown defensively or Nick Chubb should not have scored that third touchdown.
“It is frustrating, and I do not think anybody who watches that game does not understand the frustration,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said. “Having said that, we have to be problem-solvers. We have to find solutions any which way. There are a bunch of different ways you can do it, but we have to find solutions so that when we are in position like we were [Sunday] and it is an obvious passing situation, we just can’t let that happen.”
Stefanski, his staff and the Browns completely failed at basic football stuff that takes zero coaching acumen to understand and contributed to the growing stack of ‘What the hell just happened’ moments in expansion Browns lore.
We’ll start the autopsy with the Browns offensive possession before the two-minute warning.
Running back Kareem Hunt allowed himself to be shoved out of bounds twice – the first after converting a third-and-7 at the Jets 39 with an 11-yard catch and run stopping the clock at 2:15 and then again on second-and-6 from the Jets 24 in which he ran for 12 yards and stopped the clock at 2:02. As he lay on the ground you could see Hunt realized his mistake.
Stefanski acknowledged that he didn’t call ‘no mas,’ the code used in 2020 when Nick Chubb went out before scoring on a 59-yard run to preserve a 10-7 victory over the Texans, to tell his offense not to score. “That is something that is my responsibility to communicate to that huddle,” Stefanski said Monday. “Putting yourself up potentially 14 points inside of two minutes, you should close out that game. Yes, I wish I had said that to Nick and Nick would have done it, but it does not change the fact that we had plenty of opportunities to win that game.” Fans and some media have been blaming Chubb for not getting down instead of scoring his third touchdown of the afternoon. Easy to say in hindsight, but the problem was Chubb had just slipped through Jets safety Jamarcus Joyner’s arm tackle inside the five before his momentum carried him into the end zone with 1:55 remaining. The first down marker rested at the 2.
Rookie kicker Cade York pushed the PAT wide right, ultimately providing the one-point margin on the scoreboard that prevented overtime.
The blown coverage on Joe Flacco’s 66-yard touchdown was an inexcusable as it gets. “The bottom line is that should never happen,” Stefanski said. “We have to be able to defend the pass in those obvious passing situations. We just have to everybody be on the same page. It is frustrating that we were not in that case, and I know it happened previous in Week 1, as well.” Denzel Ward, criticized by video sleuths on social media for releasing Jets receiver Corey Davis, leaving himself, Grant Delpit and John Johnson III frantically chasing after him as he raced up the far sideline with the ball, explained Monday his assignment was the flat, which likely means it was Delpit who erred. “It was just another miscommunication similar to how we had in the first game,” Ward said. “It is just guys we all have to get on the same page. It was just a blown coverage, and we let a guy run free.” Delpit repeated the same response Monday when asked about the breakdowns saying, “communication error” multiple times.
Mike Priefer’s special teams unit had already been caught sleeping on a fake punt that extended a Jets drive and led to New York’s first touchdown in the first half and they were asleep at the wheel again with the game on the line. They failed to recover the onside kick, which with the new kickoff rules rarely happens in the NFL these days. Amari Cooper appeared to be closest to being able to fall on the football, but he couldn’t get there with a host of Jets converging on it. Safety Will Parks hit Cooper, knocking him out of the way and the ball back in play for New York to recover. “We got beat, and they did a nice job,” Stefanski said. “They executed on a fake punt. They executed on an onside kick. There are things of course that we can do better, and we are just going to have to. We just have to find a way in those situations to make a play, find a way to get the ball out of bounds on a kick and those type of things.”
Now to the final possession which consisted of multiple defensive errors.
With 1:10 on the clock Denzel Ward whiffed on a tackle of Jets receiver Michael Carter and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah allowed Carter to scoot out of bounds at the Cleveland 41 after a 12-yard gain, stopping the clock.
Defensive tackle Jordan Elliott was flagged for being offsides giving the Jets five free yards and moving the ball to the 36.
On the very next play Flacco took advantage of soft coverage and fired a quick four-yard pass to tight end Tyler Conklin, who got out of bounds before rookie corner Martin Emerson could get there to keep him in play which cost New York just five seconds of time. Flacco continued to work the soft coverage with another five-yard completion to Carter as Ward and Owusu-Koramoah once again failed to protect the boundary.
Myles Garrett just missed sacking Flacco from behind with 25 seconds remaining. Him being a half step too late allowed Flacco to throw an incompletion and stop the clock with 25 seconds remaining. Garrett tried to lobby for a holding call after Max Mitchell had his arm under Garrett’s chin but released him.
The final nail in the coffin – Garrett Wilson’s 15-yard touchdown catch from Flacco on a slant behind Owusu-Koramoah to win it. Delpit was moving over to help but he didn’t come close to the streaking Wilson, who ran right by him with the football in the end zone.
That last two and half minutes was a clinic in terrible coaching, a complete lack of attention to detail or urgency and it is the type of thing that gets people fired when the season is over, especially because they are repeated failures from the previous week.