Monday leftovers

Just two items today . . . 

Given the importance of the moment, one has to wonder just what Kevin Stefanski was thinking Sunday when his Browns were one successful play away from upsetting the Seattle Seahawks and improving to 5-2.

It was third and three at the Cleveland 41with 2:03 left in regulation and a 20-17 lead. The ground game had been churning and grinding throughout the game. Every screen play had worked beautifully. 

What to do, what to do. A no-brainer you thought. I did, too. The last play on the list of possibilities had to be a forward pass. And for good reason.

The quarterback was P. J. Walker, fresh off the practice squad and filling a void created by Deshaun Watson's mysterious shoulder injury and the not-nearly-ready-for-prime-time rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson. 

Walker has shown enough in the brief time he has had the huddle that he cannot be trusted. Quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes II, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts can be trusted. Walker, a National Football League journeyman, is barely hanging on.

Stefanski comes from the coaching school that preaches to always give your men the best chance to make a play. "We had options there," Stefanski said Sunday of the play choice. "Certainly you can run and certainly you can pass it." Thinking that second certainly was not thinking clearly.

All he had to do was run the damn ball. If that fails to get the first down, force the Seahawks to take a timeout. Then summon punter Corey Bojorquez to bury them within a few yards of their end zone. It's called field position and Stefanski thumbed his nose at it.

Kareem Hunt, a grinder who thrives on situations like this and converted two previous short-yardage third downs earlier, was not in the huddle on the play choice. In fact, he didn't touch the football at all in the fourth quarter. He, like so many others, was puzzled by his benching. 

Asked Monday why Hunt wasn't used at all in the fourth quarter, Stefanski, replied, "Just a balancing of using all of our guys is really what it was." Huh? That's the reason? Once again, Stefanski word salad. 

He dialed up 14 plays in the fourth quarter before the eventual fateful play. All but three were runs with Jerome Ford carrying seven times for 35 yards, Pierre Strong Jr. twice for 14 yards and Walker gaining eight on a pair of RPO keepers. That's balancing among four men, one a quarterback? Really?

In thinking the situation through, Stefanski failed to take into consideration Walker had been taking a frightful beating when he dropped back to throw and had already thrown one interception and been strip-sacked. Protecting him had become extraordinarily difficult. Ball security was priority one, two and three.

Stefanski needed to reward his team, which had overcome first-quarter deficits of 14-0 and 17-7 and grabbed the lead midway through the final quarter. These guys needed to feel good about themselves. A comeback victory like this would sustain the momentum with a three-game win streak.

So when Walker dropped back and quickly drilled a throw toward a slanting Amari Cooper, Browns Nation held its breath. (Think Browns is Browns and Murphy's Law -- look it up -- about to bite the Browns once again.) 

The football ricocheted high off the' helmet of blitzing safety Jamal Adams as he tried to leap over right guard Wyatt Teller and landed in the arms of fellow safety Julian Love roughly 20 yards downfield. Stefanski labeled the result "tough." Tough? That's it? You have 17 precious chances in the regular season to win as many games as you can. Gagging this is inexcusable.

"Tough" is a rather casual approach to a heartbreaking loss especially when smarter coaching could have prevented it. This is not in the nature of a second guess. I genuinely believed Stefanski, an Ivy League graduate, was smart enough to ultimately do the right thing there.

I guess book smart does not translate well at all to the game of football.

As for whom to blame? This one's easy. This one's clearly on both the head coach and the playcaller.. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory isn't easy.

* * * 

The NFL trading deadline is Tuesday afternoon at 4. Guessing here the Browns will take a pass, although General Manager Andrew Berry has a few things to fix and has to be overwhelmed to complete a deal. 

Reportedly, Berry and his head coach like this roster. But there are holes on offense that need to be addressed, most notably the offensive side of the football where Cleveland quarterbacks seem to have forgotten Donovan People-Jones was the second-leading wide receiver last season.

Asked about why DPJ seems to have disappeared this season -- he has been targeted only 18 times in seven games with eight receptions for 97 yards, and didn't get one look against Seattle -- Stefanski replied,  "Yeah, nothing. He continues to be dependable for us. Balls sometimes find ways to other guys. . . . That's all it is." 

More Stefanski word salad. Don't have to read between the lines on that one. Look for DPJ to be on the move.

* * * 

Finally . . . Judging from fans' reaction on social media over Sunday's outcome, they are practically begging for Berry to relieve Stefanski of his play-calling duties and hand them over to Alex Van Pelt, the Browns' titled offensive coordinator. The guess is he won't. A call like that probably has to come from someone much higher in the hierarchy. The Haslams had to be seething in Seattle Sunday.