Don’t let the door . . .

Let the record show the Cleveland Browns, the most hyped National Football League team in 2019 by far, finished the season with a 6-10 record after Sunday’s 33-23 loss in Cincinnati.

In what clearly classifies as one of the most disappointing seasons since the NFL graciously permitted Cleveland back into the league in 1999, this iteration of Browns football underachieved for a major portion of the season.

Why disappointing when so many other campaigns in the last two decades concluded on numerous occasions with records far worse than 6-10? Because this is not a 6-10 team from a talent standpoint.

Yes, I know what they say about that – that you are what your record says you are. There are exceptions to that notion and the 2019 Browns are the poster boys for that exception.

The team many pundits and veteran NFL observers had winning the AFC North championship at the very least and advancing as far as – seems extremely silly to even type this – the Super Bowl must have bought all that love.

What in the world were they thinking?

What they did not factor into the equation was a coaching staff incapable of handling and maximizing all that talent on both sides of the football, most notably the offense.

And that, in the end, should be good enough to usher Freddie Kitchens out of town and on to a coordinator job somewhere else on the NFL landscape.

A more experienced, savvy and well-prepared head coach, someone who knows how to handle difficult personalities, would not have compiled such a record. That one falls on the shoulders of General Manager John Dorsey, who stunned everyone by elevating Kitchens to head whistle.

A combination of not-even-close-to-being-ready-for-prime-time and some bizarre play calling on offense by the head coach himself is what ultimately caused the short circuit on that side of the football. It was hit and miss all season long.

The loss Sunday to the 1-14 Bengals serves as a microcosm. Baker Mayfield was alternately spectacular and puzzling with some of his throws. He completed only 12 of 27 passes, but for 279 yards and touchdowns to Damion Ratley, Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr.

He spoiled that with three more interceptions – that’s 21 on the season, five against the Bengals – and six more sacks (40 for the year). He experienced far more than a sophomore jinx. He experienced a sophomore nightmare and a frightful beating in the process.

He threw picks in every game except back-to-back victories over Pittsburgh and Buffalo; touchdown passes (22) in every game except two; and was sacked in all but two games, surviving games of at least four sacks on five occasions.

He was a season-long victim of shoddy coaching, unlike his rookie season in 2018 when he was spectacular and anointed the right choice by Dorsey as the overall No. 1 selection in the college draft.

My how quickly things change in the NFL. The brash golden boy of 2018, who carried the hopes of Browns Nation that the bright future they longed for had finally arrived to save this moribund franchise, was humbled week after week by the opposition.

The passes that sped through tight windows and resulted in completions last season, the ones that helped win five of the last eight games, found opponents’ hands instead this season. The loss Sunday exposed Mayfield for his flaws, many of which are connected to his inability to read defenses correctly.

The Cleveland defense was another major contributing factor in the club losing its final three games and four of the last five to drop out of sight. Ever since losing Myles Garrett for the season, coordinator Steve Wilks’ men haven’t stopped anyone.

In the final five games, that horrible defense permitted 412 yards a game, 222 yards through the air, an inexcusable 190 yards on the ground, 25 first downs a game, 28 points a game (34 per in the last three) and dropped quarterbacks four times. That's FOUR TIMES!!!! IN FIVE GAMES!!!! Few offenses, let alone the Browns’, can overcome such underachieving.

It moved Fox commentator Robert Smith, the former Euclid High School, Ohio State and Minnesota Vikings standout, to call them out after Joe Mixon scored his second touchdown of the game with ridiculous ease from the two-yard line in the fourth quarter to give the Bengals a 30-16 lead on the second play of the fourth quarter.

Mixon, who tacked on another 162 yards and a couple of touchdowns to his 146-yard performance in the first-game loss earlier this month in Cleveland, met no resistance whatsoever, prompting Smith to decry, “You have to play defense with attitude. They certainly didn’t have it right there.”

Another microcosm in a season loaded with them. 

The Browns’ came back to make a game of it, so to speak, Mayfield leading them to the Cincinnati five in nine plays on the subsequent drive. At that point, however, the offense slammed it into reverse on the next three plays – two sacks and an incompletion.

It was reminiscent – here comes another microcosm – of the red-zone problems that plagued the offense all season. Except this time, Mayfield hooked up with Beckham deep in the right corner near the sideline on a fourth and goal from the 20.

The wide receiver, who caught three passes for 81 yards, leaped high above cornerback Darius Phillips, secured the football with both hands and toe-tapped both feet in bounds in balletic fashion to complete the amazing play.

That was as close as the Browns got as the Bengals stopped a three-game losing streak in this intra-division series. The loss extended to 17 season the Browns’ and NFL’s longest active streak of failing to make the postseason.

Now all that remains is determining which direction the front office decides is the best for the future, Unlike other seasons, however, there is a core of talent on this team on both sides of the football that portends brightness for that future.

A major portion of that depends largely in the direction it chooses. It paid the price for one major mistake this season. The current ownership can ill afford to make it two in a row. Those who make the critical decisions owe it to their faithful constituency to do it the right way this time.