Mid-week thoughts

Some not-so-idle musings . . . 

Last time I looked, Kevin Stefanski was the head coach of the Cleveland Browns. That means he is totally responsible for how the team plays. On both sides of the football.

He is the sort of semi-boss of the offense with coordinator Alex Van Pelt. Together, they have produced one of the best units in the entire National Football League. At the same time, it appears he has either totally neglected the club's awful defense or at best paid scant attention to it.

That is why the Browns have won games this season by scores of 35-30, 34-20, 49-38, 32-23, 37-34, 27-25 and 41-35 and lost one, 47-42.  Eight games where the Browns have outscored the opposition, 297-252. Gorgeous on the offensive side, embarrassing on the other side. Without that offense, the Browns are making plans for next season and the choice of Stefanski as the head coach is being questioned. 

He needs to somehow, some way insert himself into game plans. Both game plans. He casts covetous eyes on the postseason with Sunday's ultra-important game against the invading Pittsburgh Steelers looming as a roadblock. The defense needs to show up especially with Ben Roethlisberger a spectator.

Defensive coordinator Joe Woods has managed to escape the wrath of the media for the most part, but a growing number of voices in Browns Nation are a somewhat reluctant to give him a pass. This defense is offensive.

If Stefanski has held Woods accountable for the terrible performance by his men, it has not become public. This unit, which lost cornerback Denzel Ward Sunday and perhaps beyond -- should there be a beyond -- with COVID-19, continues to make the kinds of mistakes that should have disappeared at least a month ago.

Blown coverages accounted for all three New York Jets touchdowns several days ago, placing pressure once again on the offense to win games that ordinarily would be lost. They couldn't do that against the Jets, though, not  with the four best Cleveland receivers back home with coronavirus-related complications.

Someone has to take charge. Someone has to be held accountable. Stefanski needs to be the head coach. He needs to pay attention to the defense and determine just why it has trouble preventing the opposition from scoring, relying on the offense to bail them out. r

The Browns are 10-5 heading into the most important game this franchise has played since 2007, when they blew an opportunity to qualify for the playoffs by inexplicably losing the penultimate game of the regular season to Cincinnati.

Stefanski is in a position to dictate how he wants to see the Browns play defense. The immediate future is on the line and he knows his club can ill afford to blow this opportunity. They cannot afford another Jets debacle. 

It helps that the four Cleveland receivers are back and no doubt eager to once and for all put a bow on the club's best season since the return in 1999 and avenge the mid-season drubbing the Steelers inflicted on the defense. 

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Stefanski needs to make up for his enormous brain cramp of abandoning the ground game against the Jets. And now that Jedrick Wills Jr. and Wyatt Teller are back, reuniting the best offensive line in the NFL, that should make a little easier for Baker Mayfield.

With the offense intact, fans can expect to see some rollouts, bootlegs, misdirection and lots of pre-snap motion. with Mayfield abandoning the pocket to get clean looks. It's an offense with which Stefanski is more familiar and comfortable. 

Nick Chubb, who missed the first Steelers game, and Kareem Hunt should get somewhere between 25 and 30 touches between them with Mayfield going up top on occasion to keep the Pittsburgh defense honest, most likely throwing about half as many passes as he threw against the Jets (53).

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It will be interesting to see who lines up at linebacker against the Steelers. B. J. Goodson and Malcolm Smith are out. Sione Takitaki and Tae Davis are nursing ankle injuries and are questionable. As of now, the only healthy backers are Mack Wilson, veteran Elijah Lee and rookie Jacob Phillips, back from COVID-19, and Montrel Meander from the practice squad. 

With Ward out, Kevin Johnson probably moves up with Tavierre Thomas and Robert Jackson alternating in the slot. Looks like another possible repeat ofd the Jets disaster unless the defensive line plays the game of the season. 

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Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin got it right with regard to the chapter two of the Myles Garrett-Mason Rudolph fiasco from last season. Rudolph will start in place of Roethlisberger with what happened the last time these two met still fresh in the minds of a lot of fans.

Garrett conked the quarterback on the head with his helmet and was suspended the rest of the 2019 season. Tomlin was asked about the incident earlier this week and shrugged it off. "It's so far in our rear view mirror, we can't see it," he said "I won't address it. There's no need for that."

Good for him. It's all about the game, not a controversial incident. He correctly put it in perspective.