CINCINNATI -- Freddie Kitchens was supposed to be one of the NFL’s next talented play callers. His eight-game run which concluded the 2018 season and helped the Browns win five of their last seven games was enough for general manager John Dorsey to name Kitchens his 2019 head coach.

Instead, Kitchens is one and done after finishing with a 6-10 record, and Mayfield will experience his third head coach in three seasons when the Browns name Kitchens’ successor in a few weeks.

So what went wrong?

Optically, a lot. The Browns offense never looked quite right. Any average fan could tell that was the case just by watching. But dig a little deeper and the numbers create an indefensible case for Kitchens to return.

Cleveland ranks in the bottom half of nearly every meaningful offensive category. The Browns are 20th in offensive DVOA according to Football Outsiders at -3.0 percent. That means the Browns are 3% worse than an average NFL offense.

(Per Football Outsiders, DVOA measures a team’s efficiency by comparing success on every single play to a league average based on situation and opponent.)

Let that sink in.

Detroit, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Arizona all had better offenses than what Kitchens produced in 2019. The Lions played eight games without Matthew Stafford. Indy lost Andrew Luck before the regular season started. The Eagles are the walking wounded, and Arizona had the worst record in football last year.

How does an offense with a promising young quarterback, Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry, Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt finish 22nd in points per game (20.8), 22nd in touchdowns per game (2.3) and 15th in red-zone touchdown percentage (57 percent)?

Because Kitchens wasn’t ready to be a head coach, as he showed by repeating play calls, being too predictable and repeatedly failing to score red zone touchdowns.

Repeating Plays

It became standard procedure for Kitchens to repeat play calls. Though this happens plenty in football, when great offensive minds like Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay or Josh McDaniels repeat plays, it hardly ever hurts their clubs. Kitchens, on the other hand, put Cleveland in costly situations with his tendencies to call repeated plays.

Back in Week 1, a momentum-swinging play came when quarterback Baker Mayfield was sacked in the end zone by Cameron Wake for a second-quarter safety. On the play before, the Browns were in a 2-by-2 formation, with two receivers to Mayfield’s left and a tight wideout and a tight end to his right. When Cleveland is called for a false start, Kitchens tries to disguise the play by flipping the formation and widening the once bunched receiver on the tight end side.

If you watch this sequence several times, it is clear Kitchens called the same play.

Against the Seahawks in Week 6, Kitchens’ tendencies caused a turnover on downs. After Jarvis Landry was not ruled in on a goal-to-go fourth-quarter reception, the Browns offense lined up to go for it on fourth down. In a heavy formation, Mayfield snapped the ball and Chubb got the ball. However, the play was called dead because the Browns challenged Landry’s near score.

After losing the challenge, Kitchens ran the exact play, out of the same formation and to little surprise, it didn’t work. It’s almost as if the Seahawks knew what was coming.

Red-zone failures

Remember when the Browns made history by becoming the first team in league history to run eight plays from within the 2-yard line and not score a touchdown? That, among Beckham’s alarmingly low number of red-zone touchdowns and targets, has a lot to do with the Browns’ 2019 red-zone shortcomings.

The historic moment came against the Bills in Week 10. Of those eight plays, Kitchens ran Nick Chubb five times and threw three balls Beckham’s way, one which he dropped. With each try, fans watched as a mere yard kept Cleveland from going up two scores, all while Buffalo’s stout defensive front repeatedly denied Chubb, over and over again.

Following this Week 10 disaster, the Browns ranked 26th in red-zone touchdown percentage. Reliving a few plays from that historically poor sequence summarizes the Browns’ red-zone issues.

After throwing to Beckham on first down, Kitchens decided to run Chubb on the next play. However, Cleveland’s chances to score were low based on the Bills initial alignment, as Buffalo had the Browns outnumbered.

By counting the players to the right of Browns center JC Tretter, it is clear the Bills are sending more players than Cleveland can block. For whatever reason, there was no audible and Chubb was stuffed. As the Browns kept not scoring, Kitchens kept trying his same tricks.

Finally, on fourth down, Kitchens came out in a formation he had used seven plays before, and Chubb was once again denied. Notice how the Browns’ formations are identical on the play below as they are to the one above?

That is Kitchens in a nutshell.

What we learned

Too often Kitchens didn’t place his offense in advantageous situations near the end zone. Both the film and numbers back that up. Beckham’s red-zone statistics haunted the Browns all year and few touchdowns ever came easily.

Between the 20-yard lines, Kitchens got his offense moving the ball at times. But when he was in a pinch or didn’t have time to script out a drive, he often fell back on repeating plays, and that proved detrimental.

Mayfield clearly regressed in 2019. He threw three more interceptions on Sunday, increasing his total to 21, second-most in the league.

Kitchens was supposed to save the Browns and push Mayfield to the next level. Instead, he set both the organization and its young quarterback back a year and his playcalling decisions are largely to blame.