Time to step up

Kevin Stefanski has been a National Football League head coach for just 43 games with decidedly mixed results. There have been a few more downs than ups midway through his five-year contract.

His ups include an 11-5 record as a rookie head coach, coach-of-the-year honors in 2020 and the first playoff victory since the return in 1999. The pinnacle did not last long and the Browns have trended in the opposite direction. They have won just 11 of the last 25 games, falling back into familiar territory.

Suggestions that a hot seat has been placed under Stefanski are premature, especially after General Manager Andrew Berry basically declaring his head coach is going nowhere, pronouncing himself quite pleased with what he has seen.

Not certain I'm watching the same games as Berry. By my count, there are at least three games this season the Browns could have, should have but did not win. If the head coach gets most of the credit for winning games, he should get equal blame for losing them.

How many times this season have we heard Stefanski after losses throw himself under the nearest  Greyhound? There  is only one correct answer here. If this is considered an unselfish move because it absolves his players of any blame, so be it. 

Once is okay. Twice is not. Falling on swords after games needs to stop. The frustration of losing games that are eminently winnable exploded a few weeks ago in a loss to the Baltimore Ravens when shouts of anger in the locker room were heard following the game.

Stefanski dismissed it as normal behavior. If he truly believed that, he is fooling himself. I think it was just another case of protecting his men. That kind of leadership, however, goes only so far if the losses mount.

The big victory over the Cincinnati Bengals leading into the bye week helped restore some sort of self confidence heading into the second half of the season beginning Sunday in Miami against arguably the best offense in the NFL.

That one will be similar in one important way to the situation prior to the Bengals game. The Browns are barely hanging on to hopes for the postseason even at 3-5. All it takes is one loss to all but torpedo any chance to accomplishing one of their goals. Anything less than a victory against the Dolphins is unacceptable.

Beating the Bengals decisively breathed new life into those hopes. But it will take more than one victory to sustain some sort of momentum to give birth to the notion that the best is yet to come. As with the Bengals game, this is another must-win situation.

That's where Stefanski comes in. He must be near perfect not only as a playcaller for the offense, but as a head coach. He needs to identify and then shut down those moments where he doesn't have to step forth after games and absolve his team of any blame in yet another a loss.

Furthermore, there are times I wonder whether he relies so much on analytics while calling games, he harms his team's chances of winning. I come from the old school that it's better to coach with gut instinct rather than what a bunch of statistical analyses say.

Suffice it to say, the Browns need to be no worse than 5-6 by the time Deshaun Watson returns from suspension to finish out the season. Factor in the huge amount of rust he has accumulated in the nearly two years since he has taken a snap and nothing can be assumed.

As stated earlier here, every game from now on will be like a playoff game where achieving zero defects will be the main goal in determining the Browns' fate in 2022. Time to see what Stefanski is made of with the season squarely on the line every week.