Things have gone from bad to worse for the Browns.
Cleveland was dismantled by the Patriots Sunday to drop to 2-5. A bad start, multiple turnovers and poor play-calling led to the Browns’ third straight loss, and frustrations are beginning to boil over as the season continues to slip away.
Many frustrations were directed at coach Freddie Kitchens, who reportedly didn’t know what play he wanted to call on fourth-and-11 on Cleveland’s 24-yard line down 17 points, and his punt team took an intentional false start to avoid burning a timeout. On the ensuing fourth-and-16, Baker Mayfield was sacked.
“We had half of our guys running off, half of our guys running on,” Kitchens told reporters, “and I wasn’t giving up right then by punting the ball to them. The only chance that we had was to convert for a [first] down and then we didn’t.”
Odell Beckham Jr., who was expected to be a spark plug for the Browns when they acquired him from the Giants this past offseason, alluded to feeling like the ball wasn’t thrown to him enough.
“I just felt like we didn’t challenge as much as we could have,” Beckham told reporters. “I think we kind of shied away from it. I was expecting and looking forward to it, but that wasn’t the case today. We had a couple plays, but for whatever reason we didn’t do as much challenging as we talked about.
“Other than that, whatever came my way, pretty much I caught. Whatever opportunities I had, I made the most of them. You can only control what you can control.”
Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore held Beckham to five catches for 52 yards on seven targets, but the three-time Pro Bowl receiver hasn’t been the missing piece Cleveland hoped he’d be. Beckham has 34 catches for 488 yards with one touchdown this season.
After the game, Mayfield was critical of the team and himself, mentioning that everyone needs to take responsibility. And with the second half of the schedule coming up, the Browns will need to win at least seven of their remaining nine games in order to have shot at making the playoffs.
“Non-discipline. Guys not being focused on their job,” Mayfield said. “Starts first and foremost with me. I have to be a leader every single down. Make sure we’re set, make sure we’re paying attention, because if we can’t use cadence, we’re hurting ourselves.
“The consistency, the lack of discipline and the accountability on Sundays right now seems to be a problem.”