Monday leftovers, Part Deux

It didn’t take long for Freddie Kitchens to realize his comments regarding his job status with the Browns in the news conference following Sunday’s loss in Arizona could be misconstrued.

“I don’t care about my future as Browns coach,” he said at the time, perhaps stinging from the 38-24 shellacking the Cardinals administered to his team. “I’m going to do the best job I can do Monday. That’s the only thing I can control.”

Well, Monday rolled around and Kitchens took the opportunity to walk back those remarks, which exploded on line, prompting ESPN talking heads Rex Ryan and Dan Orlovsky to seize the opportunity and call for him to step down.

“Let me clarify,” said the beleaguered coach, who talked about “getting this team to play to the best of their ability today . . . Dee and Jimmy Haslam and John Dorsey would rather me be worried about getting our team ready to play than be worried about my job security.”

Later on, he said, “I care about my job. . . . Of course, I want to be back.”

That probably doesn’t sit well with the constituency that follows the Browns zealously, more than a few fed up with the job Kitchens has done this season. That much was reflected in a new poll conducted by Cleveland.com.

More than 12,000 responded to the following question: Should Freddie Kitchens return as Browns head coach in 2020? Nearly 80% overwhelmingly indicated he is either “not ready to be a head coach” (50%) or “shouldn’t have been hired in the first place” (29%).

That’s a stinging indictment on the team’s performances this season, which filter  down from the head coach. It will be interesting to see whether Dorsey and/or the Haslams take note of the fans’ anger and move in another direction with next season in mind.

No matter what happens in the final two games, this has been a deeply disappointing season for a team many, obviously incorrectly, believed was ready to take the next step and move up to at least a competitive level.

The fact the words Super and Bowl worked their way into conversations as far back as training camp in August looks ridiculous now. How can anyone ever think that would be the case?

What they did not factor in was a head coach who had no experience at that level and proved it on a weekly basis beginning with an opening-game thrashing by the Tennessee Titans. And then it got worse.

The worse it got, the worse the team played. It snowballed into a 2-6 start and Kitchens, no matter how hard he tried, had no idea how to stem the flow of losses. Only the safety of a relatively soft second-half schedule has saved him.

Or has it? He needs to win out against Baltimore – good luck with that – and Cincinnati to finish at .500. Not exactly the kind of record Dorsey and the Haslams expected when this all began back on Sept. 8.

He might “want to be back” next season, but the notion that if he was allowed to return it still wouldn’t be any different seeps into thoughts off the future. Bringing back a coach who talks at times without thinking is asking for it. What this team does not need right now is a head coach who is a work in progress.

*       *       *

There is something about the shovel pass that seems to intrigue Kitchens. He has called plays with a shovel pass somewhere in the execution and they almost always fail.

It happened again in the Cardinals loss, shortly after rookie linebacker Mack Wilson intercepted a Kyle Murray pass midway through the second quarter and gave the offense great field position at the Arizona 28-yard line with the Browns down, 14-7. Short field and momentum.

They had scored their first touchdown of the afternoon on the previous possession when Nick Chubb singlehandedly accounted for 69 yards of an 83-yard drive, romping the final 33 yards for the score.

So where was Chubb on third-and-2 at the 20 two plays into the drive? On the bench watching the offense fail again on a shovel pass, this one from Baker Mayfield to wide receiver Jarvis Landry, motioning on what was to be an inside run.

One problem. The Cardinals’ defensive line blew up the play and Landry had nowhere to run. He stopped, spotted Mayfield all alone several yards away and left-handed the football back to him. The quarterback was dropped for a six-yard loss.Austin Seibert’s 44-yard field goal trimmed the deficit to four.

All Chubb could do was look on hopelessly as his hapless coach made yet another stupid play call, left to wonder what would have happened had that coach called his number instead of a dialing up a high risk play that should be ripped out of the playbook and shredded.

*       *       *

It doesn’t take much of an imagination to figure out what will happen in Sunday’s home finale against the Baltimore Ravens.

The runaway champions of the AFC North shredded the Cleveland defense with 173 yards in the first meeting in a losing effort in week four. And that was when everyone along the Browns’ front line was healthy.

Now with Myles Garrett suspended for the rest of the season and Olivier Vernon hobbling around, only Sheldon Richardson and Larry Ogunjobi report for duty on a weekly basis with a bunch of relative strangers manning the edges.

If the Ravens don’t blast past the 200-yard mark on the ground alone – maybe in the first half – against that line, consider that a victory for the defense. Running backs Mark Ingram (963 yards and 10 touchdowns) and lesser-used Gus Edwards (515 and two scores) are worrisome enough.

Then there’s quarterback Lamar Jackson with 1,103 yards on the ground and seven touchdowns, not to mention almost 2,900 yards through the air and 33 more touchdowns to deal with.

That offense has averaged 37 points a game in the last six games and surrendered 13½ a contest. A long Sunday looms. For the Browns, that is.

*       *       *

From the department of things you rarely, if ever, see at a football game comes this little gem from Sunday’s loss in the desert:

Early second quarter: Cardinals running back Kenyan Drake scores the second of his four touchdowns on the afternoon to give his team a 14-0 lead. Dontrell Hilliard returns ex-Brown Zane Gonzalez’ kickoff to the Cleveland 17-yard line. So far, so good. And then things got a little weird.

Mayfield lines up in the shotgun on the first play from scrimmage. But before center JC Tretter snaps the football, a flag comes flying in from the back judge.

False start? No. Illegal motion? No again. Illegal shift? Uh uh.

Referee Bernie Allen intones the verdict: Delay of game, offense, five-yard penalty, still first down.

Delay of game. On the first play of a possession. What!! Just another breakdown in communication from a head coach/playcaller who in game 14 still has occasional problems communicating with his quarterback.

No harm came of it, though. That’s the possession during which Chubb led the Browns to their first touchdown of the game. Still, a delay call on the first play is embarrassing.

*       *       *

Finally . . . Mayfield’s season interception total rose to 17 against the Cardinals, counterbalancing his touchdown total of 17. . . . It took the Browns 19 plays and almost four minutes to travel 91 yards for a last-minute score to make the final score  a little more respectable. . . . . During that drive, Mayfield attempted 18 of his 43 passes and connected on 11 of his 30 completions. . . . Odell Beckham Jr. caught five of those passes for 36 yards, swelling his game total to eight receptions and 66 yards. He was targeted 13 times overall.  . . . The possession culminated with tight end Ricky Seals-Jones scoring his second touchdown of the afternoon on a one-yard toss. . . . Kareem Hunt caught eight of his nine targets for 62 yards. . . . Tight ends have caught eight of Mayfield’s 17 scoring throws. . . . There were only four punts in the game, two by each team.