Another Kitchens failure 

If Freddie Kitchens is the head coach of the Cleveland Browns next season, I will be stunned almost beyond belief, especially after what I –and Browns Nation – witnessed Sunday afternoon in sunny Glendale, Arizona. And I do not stun easily.

Jay Feely, who partnered with Tom McCarthy in the CBS television booth, provided the best commentary on what the Arizona Cardinals did to the Browns all day long.

“The Browns are getting punched in the mouth,” the ex-National Football League placekicker said halfway through the fourth quarter of the Cardinals’ decisive and overwhelming 38-24 victory over the listless Browns, who fall to 6-8.

Anything resembling hopes for the playoffs were completely extinguished by yet another game where the Browns were not nearly prepared well enough to even think about winning. Once again, they were outcoached, as well as outplayed.

It was a football game that could – and should – signal the end of the Kitchens era in Cleveland. The best the Browns can finish this season is 8-8 and with the Baltimore Ravens coming to town next Sunday to help the Browns finish the home part of the schedule, the outcome of that one looks doubtful, too.

The Ravens are unbeaten since falling to the Browns, 40-25, in week four and playing the best football in the league on both sides of the ball. Count on them arriving with one thing in mind – retribution.

It sure looks as though 7-9 might be the best Kitchens can hope for. Even that might be wishful thinking. The season finale in Cincinnati will not be an automatic victory. The Browns did not exactly overwhelm the Bengals last Sunday in Cleveland.

It was a struggle all afternoon for the Browns Sunday against a team they should have beaten. They made the Cardinals actually look good, which is hard to do this season. It was one major fail.

With one notable exception, the Browns were listless on both sides of the football. Only Nick Chubb arrived in the mood to play a football game. The defense was offensive and the offense, outside of Chubb, was defensive.

Chubb, who is having a special season, ran for 127 yards and a touchdown and caught three passes for another 21 yards. He was the heart and soul of an offense that stumbled when he didn’t have his hands on the ball. The defense had neither heart nor soul as the 3-9-1 Cards rang up 445 total yards, including a ridiculous 299 in the first half.

Kenyan Drake, who joined the Cards in a mid-season trade, was even better than Chubb with 137 yards on the ground and four – yep, four – touchdowns as the Arizona infantry attack ran around, through and past the Cleveland defense so smoothly, it looked as though the Browns were playing in quicksand.

The Cardinals, who lugged a six-game losing streak into this one, reached the red zone six times and scored touchdowns on the first five, leading 38-17 at one point. The overall performance prompted Feely to really lambaste the Browns' effort much better than I can.

“Outside of Nick Chubb,” he began, “(the Browns) look uninspired; they haven’t played hard; they haven’t played physical; they lack the sense of urgency they need to have right now; and they are getting beat up by the Arizona Cardinals. That last drive (when the Browns all but gave up late in the game) by the defense was atrocious.”

Ding, ding, ding and furthermore, DING.

You can lay the blame for every word of that diatribe on the desk of the head coach. Not his staff. The head coach’s job is to coach his coaches and emotionally and mentally prepare his team to play.

The result was an absolutely abysmal performance by a team with enough talent to avoid losing like that to team that is still trying to figure out how to win. It looked at times as though they were going through the motions.

Wonder what John Dorsey and the Haslams are thinking right about now. It should be more about next season than this season because this season has been an abject failure.

The Cards Sunday were faster, quicker and beat the Cleveland defense off the snap all afternoon. The maligned Cardinals offensive line, which had surrendered 47 sacks this season, permitted zero Sunday. Not one member of the Browns was awarded a quarterback hit. Embarrassing.

Kyler Murray looked infinitely better than Baker Mayfield in the battle of Oklahoma Heisman Trophy winners and overall No. 1 college draft picks. The rookie threw for 219 yards, added 56 yards on the ground and was in complete command with massive help from the ground game, which piled up 226 yards.

Mayfield was a pedestrian 30-of-43 for 247 yards and a pair of touchdowns to tight end Ricky Seals-Jones, but most of that yardage came in garbage time when the Arizona defense was content to play soft.

The Cleveland defense, meanwhile, gave up plenty of chunk yardage throughout the afternoon. One play in particular served as a microcosm of arguably their worst defensive effort of the season considering the opponent.

Late second quarter, Browns down, 14-10, after an Austin Seibert field goal. Arizona wide receiver Damiere Byrd caught a short slant for seven yards at his 21 on a second-and-9 and was triangulated by three Cleveland defenders – linebacker Joe Schobert, cornerback Greedy Williams and safety Sheldrick Redwine.

Schobert spun Byrd around but not down, while Williams and Redwine flailed at him and whiffed. Byrd regained his balance and raced 44 more yards into Cleveland territory. It was the signature play of a drive that produced a third touchdown and gave the Cardinals a 21-10 halftime lead.

Arizona coach Kliff Kingsbury was so comfortable with the way his offense controlled the game, he called only 10 pass plays in the second half. They gained just 65 yards, but with the offensive line in such firm control of the situation, he stayed conservative.

It sure looked as though the Cardinals toyed with the Browns for a major portion of the long day. That’s not the way it should have been for a team with a mathematical chance of playing in January for the first time since 2003.

As Feely so aptly put it: “They lack the sense of urgency they need to have right now.” And for that, only one person is to blame.

The Browns need change at the top.