Mid-week thoughts

After rallying around their head coach with strong support in the wake of yet another loss that should have been a victory, is there any question whether Kevin Stefanski is solid with his locker room?

It sure looked as though Deshaun Watson, David Njoku and David Bell almost immediately stepped forward in an attempt to support their head coach, rendering him with what looked like absolution for the loss to New Orleans in the home finale last Saturday.

It wasn't Stefanski's fault Watson completed less than 50% of his passes. Nor was it his fault Njoku failed to hold on to a well-thrown pass at the goal line, trailing by seven with less than a minute left. And Bell blamed himself for what was, in reality, a crucial pass he didn't have a chance to catch.

Njoku felt so bad, he personally apologized to Watson, who forgave him and said there will be other chances. Not taken into consideration were the conditions under which the play evolved. Frigid at minus-12 wind chill, the football had turned solid like a brick.

Watson's strong, accurate throw, one of his few on the afternoon, roared through the tight end's hands. The hands were ready, but the velocity of the throw proved way too hard to hold on to. Thus the apology. Unnecessary, of course, but well-intentioned. 

Bell blamed himself for deflecting a Watson pass that was intercepted by Saints safety Daniel Sorensen, setting up what turned out to be the winning touchdown in the third quarter. The rookie wide receiver has terrific hands -- 24 receptions on 33 targets with zero drops --  and believes he should catch anything.

He claimed it was his fault he didn't catch it. No it wasn't. Truth is getting just one hand on the poorly-thrown ball as he was stretching for it was somewhat remarkable. So much so, in fact, he was not credited with a drop. He definitely needs to be targeted more.

Watson, meanwhile, came out Thursday and attempted to cool off the hot seat Stefanski currently occupies with some segments of the media and a growing segment of fans after a pair of extremely mediocre seasons with no apparent solutions in sight.

"That hot-seat stuff and all that as far as the media and the talk and stuff like that, people who make those decisions are doing the right thing for this organization," he said. "We all trust Kevin. We love Kevin. We support Kevin and everything he's about the Cleveland Browns. So yeah, we're going to continue to build that trust and build that chemistry and look for the future."

Perhaps that's in response for the praise his coach  lavished on him, hyperbolically, following the New Orleans loss. Stefanski pointed to some "really, really unbelievable throws" on the Browns' long final possession that died at the Saints' 15   

Unbelievable? Not really. He probably thought of nice -- not "really, really unbelievable" -- late throws to Amari Cooper and Bell that gained 32 valuable yards. He conveniently did not mention the iffy holding call on Saints cornerback Paulson Adebo on a third-and-13 that sustained the possession.

That Stefanski needed to throw the ball at that stage of the game could have been avoided by doing something Saints head coach Dennis Allen did and was quite successful with: Run the football.

In some circles, what Watson said of his head coach would be called a ringing endorsement. From this view, though, and considering the many overall problems encountered this season, he is merely saying the right things at the right time to chill the warming landscape. He has 230 million reasons to feel this way. 

He has played only four games under Stefanski, barely scratching the surface in his relationship with his new head coach and his rather interesting playcalling. Let's leave it at this: Watson has plenty of time to change his mind.

Stefanski adamantly insists his goal is to put his players in a position to win games. And yet, he has failed to find the correct position in 18 of the last 32 games. There seems to be a pattern here that needs to be addressed.

Chances are with just a couple of games left this season, fans will have to wait until next summer before getting a chance to see the Deshaun Watson who dazzled in his first four National Football League seasons in Houston and became a Pro Bowler.