Mid-week thoughts

Remember how quickly Kevin Stefanski became the savior of a franchise that had been misbegotten for nearly a generation before his arrival in Cleveland a couple of years ago?

He was young, bright, smart, accountable and definitely ready to become a head coach in the National Football League. It took him exactly nine months to become a star in his rookie season, crafting an 11-5 record and a playoff victory for the Browns in the process. 

He was the toast of Cleveland, bringing the city and its ardent fan base national recognition. He was named the league's coach of the year. Heady stuff for a freshman head coach. He seemed to make all the right moves.

Finally, the fans cried joyfully After all these years of becoming the NFL's punch line, they rejoiced. Took them more than 20 years of trying, but the Browns now had their man. Visions of a first Super Bowl for the franchise danced in their minds.

A pandemic didn't stop the Browns last season. What could go wrong in 2021? Everything seemed in place after General Manager Andrew Berry remodeled a defense that was downright awful the previous season to go along with the productive offense.

So here we are almost exactly one year later and the Browns, with virtually the same personnel on offense as last season, are 7-9 with one game remaining Sunday against the AFC North champion Cincinnati Bengals and a lock to finish yet another season in the cellar.

What in the world went wrong?

Was it the seemingly unending stream of injuries? Can't use that as an excuse. The other 31 NFL teams suffered as much. What about COVID-19 playing havoc weekly with the active rooster? Nope, can't use that, either. Same reason.

The bloom clearly has fallen off Stefanski's rose. As the current season unwound, fans expecting positive results and receiving the opposite gave the head coach some rope, some slack, at first. But the longer the losing continued, he eventually ran of rope and slack.

Week after week, loss after loss, Stefanski threw himself under his own bus. Took the blame. Protected the players who had disappointed him. My fault, he would say. He was speaking mainly about his baby, the offense, often taking blame for their weak performances.

"That's on me," he would say after a loss "We've got to get better. We need to coach better." On and on and on until it reached a point where you begin to think maybe it's not the players. It's the lament of a losing coach.

But what about being a head coach? You know, the guy at whose door all blame and praise lands, the guy most responsible for preparing the team along emotional and motivational levels for a game. What about him? Where was he? Possibly concentrating a little too much on the offense perhaps?

Football is a game played as much from the neck up as the neck down. Talent goes just so far for 60 minutes each week. To be successful, one has to rise above his talent level. That's called overachieving. 

And who is mainly responsible for getting them ready to play -- and I don't mean on just a physical level -- on a weekly basis? Who gets them mentally and emotionally ready to play a collision sport under the team motto -- smart, tough and accountable? Seems to me that falls under the purview of the head coach.

The Browns are 7-9 at this point because they have not played beyond the level of mediocrity all season. Their seven victories were achieved against teams with a combined winning percentage of .396. Their nine losses were against teams with a combined winning percentage of .622. 

How often have we seen the Browns this season totally prepared to play their best? Not so much from an Xs and Os standpoint, but a mental and emotional standpoint. Rarely is the correct answer.

How could this happen to such a talent-laden roster constructed to be a serious contender for the Super Bowl? The offense had been labeled by many pundits as scary, dangerous, lethal.

The defense, for the most part, came through after a rough start. It's the offense, Stefanski's baby, that has been a colossal disappointment.  Since beginning the season 3-1, the Browns' scary, dangerous and lethal offense has been anything but. It has produced just 185 points in the last dozen games (15.5 a game). Subtract the outlier 41-16 victory over the Bengals in week nine and the average dips to 13.

To make matters worse, there definitely seems to be a disconnect between Stefanski and his starting quarterback. Baker Mayfield hasn't come anywhere close to being the quarterback who led Cleveland to the playoffs last season. 

Stefanski tried to turn Mayfield into his type of quarterback instead of tailoring the offense around his talents. Mayfield is not a three tight end kind of quarterback. He's more of a  three wide receiver guy who loves to sling the ball.

Thus, interceptions are up, touchdown passes are way down and sacks are way, way, way up (43 in 14 games). Mayfield, who finally decided offseason shoulder surgery is needed after a nine-sack mauling in the latest Pittsburgh loss, pronounced himself "pretty damn beat up right now." Small wonder.

Actually, he has been beat up throughout most of the season after suffering a torn left labrum in his left shoulder in week two and subsequent fracture of the humerus bone in the same shoulder a few weeks later. It robbed him of his effectiveness. He should have been shut down to heal as much as possible before returning.

Stefanski had a perfectly healthy backup quarterback in Case Keenum, but opted to stick with Mayfield as long as the medical staff gave the green light. As a layman, however, I saw the steady deteriorating quality of Mayfield's play and wondered what the hell the doctors were thinking. 

He kept coming back, though, even after frightful beatings with Stefanski using the reasoning that the medicos approved despite the obvious physical pain that limited him. They robbed him of what he did best. 

Mayfield also became more unsure of himself in the pocket than he has ever been. If, as Stefanski professes, he always want to put his players in the best position to win, then he failed miserably with his quarterback and yet stubbornly stayed with him. No special treatment there.

Know who seems to get special treatment? Nick Chubb. Stefanski sometimes seems to enable and coddle his bruising running back and biggest playmaker at the strangest times. How many times have we seen Chubb on the sideline with the Browns in the red zone or needing a few precious yards? A quick check of the snap counts reveals he's on the field only about 45% of the time. Is he really that fragile?

Now compare that to rookie Pittsburgh running back Najee Harris, who carved up the Browns last Monday and checks in at 86% of the time in the huddle. Jonathan Taylor of the Indianapolis Colts is at 68%; Cincinnati's Joe Mixon logs 67% of the snaps. I sometimes wonder who monitors and controls Chubb's snaps -- Stefanski or Chubb.

It's not difficult to call Stefanski's playcalling into question, either. For example, the Steelers entered Monday night's game against the Browns with the worst run defense in the NFL. Ground game all night, right?  Pound relentlessly. 

After opening up the game with a two-yard loss by  Chubb, Stefanski called four straight pass plays. In the first half, 18 of the 26 plays were passes. 

An argument can also be made he didn't put his quarterback in the best position to win against the Steelers by starting rookie James Hudson III at right offensive tackle against All-Pro outside linebacker -- and likely defensive player of the year -- T. J. Watt with little or no help. That's when he hauled out his "that's on me" excuse. Hudson gave up three sacks and five pressures. 

And then there's the senseless pre-snap penalties like false starts, illegal formations, offisdes ands delays of game. They are drive killers on offense and gifts by the defense that show an alarming lack of discipline. And the man ultimately responsible for it? The head coach.

It's easy to blame players when things go wrong and losing becomes an unwanted habit. It's time to take a close look at the man responsible for calling all the shots. 

Am I suggesting a change at the top? Not at all. I'm suggesting Stefanski take the offseason to self evaluate because what worked in 2020 clearly did not in 2021, He needs to find out why and  come back in 2022 with a stronger understanding of what it takes to become a successful head coach on a consistent basis.

It might be time to seriously consider giving up playcalling duties and devoting all his attention to the real reason he's in Cleveland. Be a head coach and delegate authority. Coach the coaches and let the coaches coach the players.