Monday leftovers

Freddie Kitchens has a huge decision to make right now. And he better do it quickly before the 2019 season gets away from him.

He must either step down as head coach of the Browns and concentrate on calling plays for the offense or step down as offensive coordinator and concentrate on being a head coach because he is incapable of doing both jobs simultaneously.

He is hurting his football team, one that is talented enough to be at least 2-1 at this juncture of the season. Instead, they are 1-2 and critics are correctly taking dead aim at him and his club.

He is also staring down the barrel of a brutal schedule that conceivably could see the Browns owning a 1-6 record after seven games with the distinct possibility an “ex” being placed in front of his current position.

This just in: Kitchens Monday said giving up his play-calling duties “is not even being considered.” He added he will “get better for this team and the team will get better. . . . We are going to be fine. I promise you that.”

It’s been only three games, but it sure looks right now as though General Manager John Dorsey made a critical mistake in naming Kitchens head coach with a résumé that did not deserve to be rewarded with such a lofty position.

Calling plays is hampering his ability to be a smart head coach. And being a head coach seems to be hampering an offense that looks nothing like it did the final half of last season when Kitchens was the interim offensive coordinator. He is not thinking straight critically.

Several incidents in the 20-13 loss to the Los Angeles Rams Sunday night clearly illustrate why Kitchens is not smart enough or savvy enough to handle both jobs. It’s got to be one or the other because they are interfering with each other and having a deleterious impact on the performance of an entire football team.

Critical thinking is not Kitchens’ strong suit. (That right there should have been a warning sign to Dorsey.) He proved that with three awful decisions that significantly affected the outcome of the game Sunday night and theoretically cost his team a chance to win. He has become a brain cramp factory.

The first occurred early in the fourth quarter with the Browns, down 17-13 and on the march in Rams territory when tight end Ricky Seals-Jones was shoved out of bounds attempting to catch a Baker Mayfield pass on second down.

It was clearly pass interference and could have been challenged under the new rules. But the Browns were flagged for an illegal formation on the play and the penalties would have offset had Kitchens challenged the pass interference.

Asked after the game why he hadn’t challenged, that lack of critical thinking went on full display. “I did,” he said, “and was told (presumably by an official) I would have won and they (the Rams) would have accepted the (illegal shift) penalty. They would have been offsetting. It would have been a repeat of the down.

“I just didn’t know if it was worth it. The way the percentages go with getting that call and not getting that call, to have an offsetting (call) and not getting an automatic first down, I didn’t think it was worth it.”

Reminded it would have saved a down, he replied, “Would have gotten a down back, yeah,” and moved on. Hazarding a guess he was already concentrating more on the next play at that point rather than making a critical decision.

That set the stage for blunder No. 2.

The third-down (instead of what should have been a second-down) play, a screen to Nick Chubb, resulted in no gain, setting up a fourth-and-9 at the Rams’ 40-yard line. Cue a second consecutive brain cramp.

Instead of calling on punter Jamie Gillan to pin the Rams back with poor field position at or near their goal line, he kept Mayfield and the offense on the field – again on fourth-and-9 at the Rams’ 40!) – to the amazement to just about everyone.  Draw the Rams offside? On fourth-and-9? Nah.

And that’s when center JC Tretter snapped the ball to Mayfield, who did not drop back to pass.  Instead he handed the ball off to Chubb on a draw play that gained two yards. Of all the possibilities in the playbook to select on that play, a draw shouldn’t have even been considered.

One can only imagine the look on the faces in the huddle when that was called. “Bad call,” Kitchens admitted, adding he “wanted that play call. It just didn’t work. We were trying to win the game.” He sounded like a coach who needed a clue in the worst way.

He saved his biggest gaffe for what should have been a much more rewarding finish. It was provided by a Juston Burris interception with less than three minutes left in regulation and three timeouts.

The offense matriculated its way to the Los Angeles four-yard line with 53 seconds – and the three timeouts – remaining. Three straight incompletions and an end-zone interception later, it was all over.

And that’s when Kitchens launched his woulda-coulda-shoulda reasoning. “I should have run it once,” he said after the game “Should have run it three times,” he added facetiously.

“I should have run it once. I should have. That’s why I’m kicking myself in the ass for it right now. . . . I should have called more of a direct run. That’s all I will say.”

Playcaller mentality at that point took over for the head coach, whose job would have been to look at the situation more clearly and broadly.  Instead, it left the head coach clearly second-guessing himself.

What Kitchens is trying to do is difficult for any head coach, especially someone who is a novice at both. Very few head coaches around the NFL can do both and excel. Sean Payton at New Orleans, Kansas City’s Andy Reid and Sean McVay with the Rams come immediately to mind.

Kitchens’ adamant refusal to concede he can’t do both and succeed is a situation that ultimately will not end up well.

More leftovers Tuesday.