FOXBORO, MA — After an embarrassing 27-13 loss on the road to the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, it may be time for the Cleveland Browns to end the Freddie Kitchens experiment at head coach.
Three turnovers in their first three offensive plays to start the game and down 17-0, the game was already over before it started for the now 2-5 Browns.
One would think that a team coming off it’s bye with a full week to prepare–and also see some starters such as WR Rashard Higgins and CB’s Denzel Ward and rookie Greedy Williams–return would have at least given the sad sack Dawgs a barking chance up in Foxboro.
Sadly, all they did was a collective rollover and play dead at the bequest of their masters in the form of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
Whether it was a head-scratching penalty, false start, holding or some other inexcusable penalty, the Browns shot themselves in the foot for three-plus hours in front of a national audience.
How is it that a team with so much potential and talent looks and plays like a bunch of sloppy scatter-brained amateurs? I’ve seen Pop Warner teams with more discipline than this group of jokers?
And sadly, it all falls on Kitchens.
Normally, I don’t call out head coaches this early in the season to be fired–or at least consider a change in play calling–but can someone please explain to me why the Browns were standing around like a bunch of freshman boys at the junior prom waiting to ask the Homecoming Queen to dance during a two-minute drill going into halftime and down by 10?
I could list a litany of issues of what’s wrong with this team–beyond the obvious early alarm that I sounded when I saw them live down in Tampa vs. the Buccaneers in pre-season. No lack of discipline, no offensive line whatsoever.
No chemistry and no cohesiveness. Period.
Cleveland ranks in the top five in penalties, penalty yards and in the near bottom in third down and third and long conversions among all 32 teams this year. Again, that all falls on Kitchens and his lack of getting this team ready to play and instilling a form of discipline on Sunday.
It’s really sad when you know that a flag is on the Browns for either a false start on offense by future UFC hopeful Greg Robinson or an offsides on dinosaur-loving DE Myles Garrett.
The Browns getting flagged during a game is like Old Faithful out at Yosemite. You know it’s going to happen, and you can always count on it.
This Browns team was billed and overhyped up based on talent. While having talent on paper looks and sounds good, clearly this team isn’t ready for the real issues that plaque it.
Again, that falls on Kitchens’ failure to get the team in the best spot to win. He is in way over his head and is not NFL head coach material, let alone even close to being ready to lead a locker room of volatile and outspoken individuals such as Baker Mayfield, Jarvis Landry and OBJ.
Perhaps the Browns front office caught some feels and succumbed to fan pressure to make Kitchens head coach over Gregg Williams–who actually has both head coaching experience and a Super Bowl ring–tow things that Kitchens clearly lacks.
The window to win in the NFL is a small one and Cleveland has perhaps its best team–again, on both talent and paper–since the Kosar era, but right now all of that talent is sitting at 2-5.
As the saying goes, you are what your record says you are.
In the case of Kitchens, he is an abject failure as a head coach in the NFL and whether the Browns choose to ride this out till the end of the season or cut ties immediately is up to them, but clearly, they need to get a real head coach in who knows how to handle players and get them to buy in.
Because, as of right now, the players are not buying into Kitchens and honestly neither should the fans or media anymore as the Browns need a new voice going forward.