(Late) Mid-week thoughts

It is assumed Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski has 20/20 vision. If that, indeed, is the case, then I wonder why he allowed Baker Mayfield to continue and then finish the 13-10 victory against the Detroit Lions last Sunday.

He had an up-close-and -personal look at the beating his quarterback was absorbing en route to the club's must-win game. It wasn't bad enough Mayfield was aching and feeling miserable in too many areas to enumerate.

He couldn't see his best quarterback was badly missing wide-open targets at critical junctures of the game, targets he probably would have been connecting with easily with a reasonable state of health? One of the major reasons the Browns escaped with the narrow victory against the worst team in the National Football was the inability of his quarterback to make plays.

That quarterback was limping half the time and no doubt simultaneously lobbying to stay in the game. At one point, Case Keenum began warming up late in the third quarter. Astoundingly, Stefanski said after the game he did not know his backup quarterback had started throwing. Where is the communication? It looks bad when the boss has no idea what is going on behind his back.

One of Stefanski's main roles, he maintains, is "to make sure players are always placed in the best position to succeed." He failed miserably to do that with the most important player on the offensive side of the football against the Lions.

The Browns barely won because of the solid defense against a quarterback making his NFL starting debut, a running back who was "placed in the best position to succeed" and did, but it definitely was not the quarterback, who would have been better off watching the finish from the bench.

Mayfield should not have played this one. If it had been anyone in the AFC North, that's another matter. These were the Lions, for goodness sakes. The Browns would have been much better off with Keenum controlling the huddle. It's not as though doing so would have been foreign to him. He did it in the Denver victory several weeks ago.

Isn't this the main reason Keenum was signed? To be available to take over in the event Mayfield if needed -- and this was one of those times -- to take a game off to heal? Especially with back-to-back games with Baltimore on deck?

Mayfield now is admittedly in the worst shape of his career -- he didn't get any healthier against the Lions -- and preparing for a team that has pounded him with regularity in the past. Right now, I wouldn't be surprised if the Ravens have a chart locating his numerous injured areas and using it for target practice.

What are the odds he finishes either -- or neither -- of the next two games? Rhetorical question.

There have been times this season when Stefanski postgame admitted mistakes in his playcalling, once saying he "felt sick to my stomach" with a critical call that backfired. It's obvious he does not regret using Mayfield against the Lions. But there's a good chance he might do so retroactively depending on the outcome of the Ravens doubleheader.

Right now, Stefanski and the team's physicians (practicing medicine without a license alert) erred in placing Mayfield in harm's way in a collision sport and playing fast and loose with  his career (end alert). They should have rebuffed his lobbying to continue at well under 100% efficiency -- and it showed -- and simply said. NO!! In no way did they place Mayfield "in the best place to succeed" against Detroit.

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Stefanski said it best after the game with regard to the flood of penalties this season. "They are getting in our own way," he correctly declared after they committed another 10 penalties (that were accepted) and another 82 yards against the Lions.

They were dumb, ill-timed and slammed the brakes on whatever progress both sides of the ball was making. Penalties are a sign of undisciplined teams, teams that more often than not mess up positive results.

The Browns lead the NFL in pre-snap penalties, the most egregious kind because they are just plain unacceptable, especially when they stagger momentum. The Browns have accumulated 33 penalties pre-snap (in 11 games) with 10 others declined and three offsetting. Overall, they have been penalized 80 times (39 on offense, 35 on defense, six on special teams) with 10 more declined.

And just how is Stefanski planning on handling it? "We have to get it cleaned up and we will," he said. To which I say, "No, he won't." It's not as though this just cropped up. He has had nearly three months to "get it cleaned up"and failed miserably and yet is vowing to get it right.

When? By week 18? 

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With the expected return of offensive tackle Jack Conklin and running back Kareem Hunt this weekend, this is a good time to determine just how good the Browns night have been with their presence. It's a hypothetical that can be effectively used in arguments,

How much their prolonged absences were contributing factors to the mediocre record thus far can be argued. At the top of their games. the offense is definitely better. If nothing else, it will add two more bullets to Stefanski's arsenal against a pretty good Ravens defense.

It will also afford Mayfield more protection in the pocket and enable Stefanski to counter the strong Baltimore pass rush with screens, traps, counters and quick-developing passes. Now all the head coach and playcaller has to worry about is straightening out his quarterback's accuracy problems.

Finally . . .  The defense shouldn't too full of itself with the stats from the Lions game. It's the Lions with a third-string quarterback making his first start. Lamar Jackson is an entirely different animal who thrives against the Browns. . . . Besides, the offense controlling the football for 35 minutes didn't hurt. . . . Mayfield has thrown only 50 passes in the last two games, completing just 26 (52%) for 249 yards (124.5 per game), two touchdowns and three interceptions. Only eight of those completions were to wide receivers. . . . The Cleveland defense has given up six touchdowns to tight ends, allowing a 67% completion rate. That needs to be fixed, especially with Ravens tight end Mark Andrews up next. One of Mayfield's favorite targets at Oklahoma, Andrews has caught 26 passes for 330 yards and five touchdowns against the Browns in six career games.