Monday leftovers (Tuesday edition)

There's a part, a very important part, of coaching that doesn't often come up. Kevin Stefanski faces one as he prepares the Browns for a Christmas Day date in Green Bay against the 11-3 Packers.

The Browns are coming off an extremely difficult last-second loss Monday night at home against the Las Vegas Raiders. It was the kind of loss that gnaws at the sports psyche. Can't imagine many of the Browns had a decent night's sleep after that one.

At the risk of overdramatizing the situation, getting his team to put the 16-14 loss behind them right now could be a monumental task for Stefanski with precious few days to prepare. To make matters worse, he'll have to do it virtually from home, shut down by a positive COVID-19 test.

Trying to reach into the souls of players who rely on raw emotions to play a collision sport is not easy. Attempting to do so with the ache of the loss still in their thoughts makes it that much more difficult. That's what the head coach has to do between now and Saturday in order to get an extreme effort out of them.

He can't look them all in the eye face to face and get them to focus on just the Packers and purge all memories of the Raiders loss. It has to be difficult to mentally and psychologically separate from the aching loss. It's damn near impossible to have a short memory after playing so hard and losing that way.

It's difficult to address the problem when the players are having a tough time reconciling a loss they believed was a victory as late as the final seconds of the game and then suddenly it was gone. 

Special teams coordinator Mike Priefer, standing in for Stefanski Monday night, witnessed the visceral pain after the game. "The locker room right now is hurting," he said. "This is the most I have seen it in that kind of pain.

"When you lose that type of game, that one is tough. . . . We will have our job cut out for us this week in terms of coaches and getting (the players) back up again and getting their spirits back up because they are young people."

Shrugging it off is not a panacea. Defensive end Myles Garrett tried. "It (the opportunity to still make the playoffs) is completely up for grabs," he said. "You've got to keep on working, keep on winning. Destiny is still in our favor if we continue to do the things we need to." Sounded like a self pep talk.

Joel Bitonio, who moved over and played left tackle against the Raiders, was a little more cautious. "I think if we can still handle our business -- obviously we don't control our own destiny -- but if we handle  our business down the stretch, I think good things can still happen for this team," he said.

With only three games left and anything less than a sweep virtually assuring no postseason, that sounds a little like whistling past the graveyard. Optimistic? Absolutely. Realistic? Not so.

Emotion is such a large part of football at most levels. Coaches strive to get their teams to the proper emotional level in hopes of getting them to overachieve; to play beyond their unique talents for 60 minutes. 

The Xs and Os of the game are a completely different category. They have nothing to do with emotion. That's where execution is the most important factor. And that is why Stefanski's job, even if he doesn't clear protocol by game time, becomes that much tougher.

He needs to get their attention pronto and keep it throughout the week. Making it so after Monday night's loss is his greatest challenge.

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Time for the Browns to look for a new placekicker. Chase McLaughlin, who got off to a terrific start this season, seems to have bottomed out and needs to go back out on the market.  Some might argue this point, but his kicking cost the Browns a victory Monday night.

There is an old expression in football regarding kickers. "You are as good as your last kick," it states. And McLaughlin's last kick, in this case a 47-yard field-goal attempt on the final play of the first half, sailed about four feet wide of the right upright and guaranteed a scoreless first half for the Browns.

He makes that kick and the Browns, at least theoretically, have a 17-13 lead heading into the final minutes of the game with the Raiders needing a touchdown to win. His miss gave the Browns only a one-point lead. Raiders quarterback Derek Carr needed just a field goal to drive a stick into the hearts of Browns Nation and Daniel Carlson provided it from 48 yards.

Not certain there is something technique-wise wrong with McLaughlin or just a plain lack of confidence once he started missing. He has connected from 52, 53 and 57 yards this season, so it's not the leg that's the problem.

It's time to see what rookie Chris Naggar can do. Naggar, who has lingered on the practice squad all season as insurance in the event McLaughlin either was hurt or performed poorly, was undrafted out of Southern Methodist and signed with the New York Jets before the Browns picked him in early September.

If General Manager Andrew Berry decides to make a switch, there are plenty of veteran placekickers on the street, including Roberto Augayo, former Ohio State kicker Mike Nugent, Josh Lambo and Stephen Gostkowski.

***

Looking back on the the play dialed up on third-and-3 at the Browns' 30 with 2:30 left in the fourth quarter and a first down needed to wrap up a 14-13 victory. It was basically a dive play over the right side, a play Chubb normally gouges out in clutch situations.

He gained a majority of his yards Monday when he ran left behind Bitonio at tackle and Michael Dunn, who played well in his first start at guard. Clearly in the nature of a second guess, I found it puzzling playcaller Alex Van Pelt went right instead of left.

Chubb was stuffed at the line of scrimmage behind tackle Blake Hance and guard Wyatt Teller, who were submarined by defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins and 6-3, 225-pound rookie safety Divine Deablo for no gain. That was the beginning of an ending that will be remembered for a long time for the wrong reasons.

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Finally . . . While they had a tough time blocking for Chubb, the offensive line protected Nick Mullens well in his 30 dropbacks. The emergency starter completed 20 passes for 147 yards, mostly short tosses, but was not sacked. Most of his incompletions came on medium-range or deep routes, His longest connection was a 25-yarder to Donovan Peoples-Jones on the club's second scoring drive midway through the fourth quarter, , , , The Browns' two sacks of Carr were split among rookie tackle Tommy Togiai, end Joe Jackson, rookie linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and Garrett, , , , The offense was perfect in two red-zone appearances with a pair of touchdowns. . . . Half of the Browns' 10 possessions ended in a three-and-out. . . . The 236 total yards on offense is the second-worst of the season, beaten out by the 217 against New England.