CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Before the Thanksgiving turkey even goes in the oven, this Browns season is already cooked.
Sunday’s 31-23 loss to the Bills was the sixth in their last seven games and dropped Cleveland to a stunning, and disappointing, 3-7 on the season. They are four games plus a tiebreaker behind the Ravens and now have six AFC losses on the ledger.
With the season spiraling out of control and Stefanski’s staunch refusal to make any meaningful changes, could Browns ownership be making their lists and checking them twice once again for January?
“We meet every week with ownership,” Stefanski said. “They are here every day so great conversations throughout the day.
“We are all frustrated – I get that part of it – but again, the focus is on this week and what we can do this week to go 1-0.”
The Browns don’t go 1-0 much these days.
Stefanski is 8-15 since he started off 14-6 as head coach. His team has regressed. Two of the three phases – defense and special teams – have been absolute catastrophes.
Stefanski’s answer to rectifying the problems is let’s just keep doing what we’ve been doing.
“My focus is on us getting better,” Stefanski said. “My focus is on us getting a win versus Tampa and playing good offense, playing good defense and playing good special teams. That is where my focus is.”
Defensively, Joe Woods continues to take fire for a defense that continues to lay eggs faster than chickens. The Bills racked up 171 yards on the ground marking the fifth time in seven games that’s happened.
For weeks players have been dropping subtle hints that Woods is the problem.
It boiled over in Detroit post game when safety Grant Delpit mentioned players can’t trust each other and their assignments if they don’t understand what they are, and defensive end Myles Garrett lamented the lack of emphasis in getting turnovers during practice.
Instead of addressing the heart of the issue – firing Woods, Stefanski’s plan is to speak with the players that spoke up instead.
“When you are 3-7, there is frustration. That is what we are today, 3-7,” Stefanski said. “The bottom line is every person in this building – players, coaching staff and you name it – have to have that attitude of fixing anything that needs to be fixed. That is where our focus is today. I can’t speak to those specific things that those guys said, but those are conversations I will have with our guys.”
To Garrett’s point, the Browns once again lost the turnover battle and are -6 on the season.
“Again, Myles speaks for Myles. I will talk to him about it,” Stefanski said. “I know this, we put a lot of emphasis on takeaways in our building. We haven’t gotten them. That has been our issue. In these games, we have to take the football away, and we will look for ways to do that.”
On Monday, cornerback Denzel Ward defended Woods and doesn’t believe he belongs on the hot seat.
“I think Joe's a great D-coordinator,” Ward said. "We're all in this together. It takes all of us. If something happens out there, it's not just Joe, he called a bad call or this one guy just missed. We're all in this together. Everyone makes mistakes here or there, whether that's a bad call or a bad play or give up a play. I mean, those guys are good on the other side of the ball as well, so we just got to try and find a way to put it all together and get a win.”
Although the Bills only scored two touchdowns against Woods’ defense, Buffalo did score on eight possessions to take control of the game. One of those scores went to a wide-open Stefan Diggs right before halftime to give Buffalo the lead for good after the Browns had just called a defensive timeout.
That sequence was Woods unit in microcosm this season – in constant disarray and disorganized.
“I think it's just everyone just has to lock in on their job and assignment and go from there,” Ward said. “If all could do our job and do it what we're called to do on that one specific play or whatever play it is in the game, I think we'll be able to take care of guys.”
This is now the sixth or seventh time that’s been said this season, which is a problem.
They aren’t locked in, nor have they been all year. Why it is realistic to think that is going to change without significant changes being made remains a mystery.
Clearly Stefanski is going to go down with the ship.
The season may be shot, but as tight end David Njoku pointed out, there’s still a lot of football they have to play.
“We have fighters on this team, and we're not just going to turn our backs out for anybody,” Njoku said. “It doesn’t matter who it is. Our main focus right now is the Buccaneers this week and that's what it is. Next week is whoever we got next week, and it's just that simple.
“I'll be damned to see anybody just be like ‘okay, well that's it.’ Nah, not here. Not right now. So this one hurts, this game hurts. We had the potential to win and we didn't so obviously it hurts, but this season is far from over. We're not just going to give up for anybody.”