CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Outside the Browns locker room Sunday in Baltimore reporters could hear players yelling at each other following a 23-20 loss to the Ravens.
Since then, everyone has been trying to “no big deal” this, but make no mistake about it, the shouting is yet another sign of a season crumbling before our very eyes.
“That is the environment you have in sports with locker rooms,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said Monday. “You are pushing each other. It is frustrating when you are losing, and it is an amazing feeling when you are winning. That is all it is. Just have to continue to push each other.”
The loss was the fourth straight for the Browns and the ship is taking on water, but Stefanski doesn’t feel like the locker room is at a breaking point.
“No. I don’t. That is the short answer,” Stefanski said. “The long answer is losing is frustrating. I would hope everybody gets that. Nobody likes it. It is a horrible feeling. You look around the league, and I know there are buildings that feel like we do right now. It is not fun, but I know this, these guys work hard, they play hard and they are going to continue to prepare. That is what we have to do, and that is why this opportunity right in front of us starting with this Monday night game is so important.”
Since Stefanski arrived, the Browns have been trying to shake their perennial losing ways and they seemingly exercised those demons by coming within a play or two of the AFC Championship game his first season that won him Coach of Year.
But the team continues to regress under Stefanski, and the results bear that out. Cleveland finished 2021 losing four of six and they’ve picked up where they left off and are 2-5 this year.
The good ole days appear to be back again but left guard Joel Bitonio believes this time it is a little different.
“It feels different in the sense that some of those bare seasons we just didn’t have enough to compete at a high level,” Bitonio said. “I think every game this year, maybe minus the Patriots, we have really competed well and been there in the end. It comes down to executing in those big moments, and it is little things. Little things add up to big things, but it is those little things that you have to execute and find a way to get a win down the stretch in some of these games.”
Bitonio has pretty much seen it all since he was drafted in the second round in 2014, and once again he finds himself in the position of trying to keep the faith.
“Top-down, I really do have faith in those guys and have faith in my teammates,” Bitonio said. “I know there is a win out there for us. You get one, and it can turn to two. You see teams recently – maybe the Eagles have done it and the Titans have done it – where they have been not great early in the season – I think the Colts maybe even and the Dolphins won like eight or nine in a row; they didn’t end up making the playoffs I don’t think – but there have been teams in recent years that have turned it around. I think we have the right guys to do that.”
Against the Jets the Browns blew a 30-17 lead with 1:55 remaining and lost 31-30. They lost by 3 at Atlanta and Baltimore, 2 points to the Chargers and got blown out 38-15 by the Patriots.
They’ve lost two games without opposing quarterbacks completing more than nine passes. Now that is really hard to do, yet somehow they did.
“Losing is hard and it is no fun, but it is a test for us,” Stefanski said. “I do believe in those players. I do believe in those coaches. I do believe in our identity to your point. We just have to go do it. I do believe that everything is in front of us, and you get to really test your resolve right now.”
This team talks more about leadership than exhibiting leadership. We’ve already heard about will and want to from players, and last week it was a lack of commitment from guys who have tried to toe the line of not pointing fingers.
“Our last week motto was being 100 percent committed,” linebacker Sione Takitaki said. “That is going to be the case this week again. Just watching a lot more film as a group and calling out certain motions and checks.
“Again, we have a tough opponent coming up ahead. We are going to have to do the same thing and even put in a lot more effort because we have to get a win.”
Up next, the Cincinnati Bengals stroll up I-71 for Halloween on Monday Night Football, which at this point doesn’t figure to be much of a treat for Browns fans.
Forget treading water until Deshaun Watson is allowed to play in December, the ship will likely be at the bottom of the ocean by then.
You name it, the Browns have blown it big through seven games from leads to assignments, situational awareness, fundamentals, execution, play calling. They have failed at it all in one way or another almost weekly.
Even when the defense shows up and shows out and Jacoby Brissett completes 22 of 27 passes and throws for over 250 yards, they still lose when they absolutely have to win.
“We know these are close games. That is just how the NFL is,” Stefanski said. “We welcome that. That is part of the excitement of being a competitor in those moments. We have to come through. You really never know when that one play that is going to swing the tide matters. There are plays in the first quarter that you don’t want to lose the ability to go make big play that can affect the game. It just will go back to making sure we are sound in everything we are doing – offense, defense and special teams.”
In 2020, it didn’t matter what was thrown at the Browns. Stefanski was able to keep everyone focused leading them to their most successful campaign in a quarter century.
This year hasn’t been easy but even the most minute adversity sends things spiraling out of control and Stefanski appears helpless to stop any of it.
“I really can’t compare the years,” Stefanski said. “I just think where we are right now, we have to find a way to win. I have said it and you have heard me say there are the little things in football that you have to do to win on the margins, and we have to start doing them because these games are close. That is the NFL. That is why the product is so great and so exciting because these games are close.
“We have won close games before, and we have to find ways to close these out. That is something that we are working really hard on.”