Coaches in the National Football League are expected to be successful from the start. Growing pains are tolerated for first-time coaches, but expected to be short-lived. When Freddie Kitchens was hired in Cleveland, expectations were high. His play-calling to close out the latter half of the 2018 season was impressive and the Browns were playing at a high level – uncharted territory in Cleveland. Although brief, Kitchens has used his time as head coach in 2019 to prove to management, ownership, and fans that he is not fit to be the coach of this team. Though I could look at it past games and find glaring examples of his ineptitude, that would be comparable to a master’s thesis in terms of length. This past Sunday, the Browns’ eighth game of the season, has enough evidence to show he’s not fit to be a head coach.

Preparation

The Browns came into this game sitting at 2-5 and a very easy back half of the schedule. If they were going to have any hope of making the playoffs, they needed to win. Denver traded away their star receiver a few weeks ago, had many good players out with injury, and was starting a quarterback that had never thrown a pass in an NFL game. This should have been a slam-dunk game for a talented Browns team. All they had to do is come ready to play and execute. Instead the Browns had two of their best players show up in shoes that were in violation of the league’s uniform policy.

I know – they’re grown men, capable of making their own decisions, but they are players representing your struggling team that is not even in the same realm of their expectations. At what point does Kitchens take control of the team? If the Browns were 6-2 and performing well, ehh, let it slide. But this is so illustrative of the systemic problems Kitchens has created, or, at the very least, allowed to be created.

Kitchens’ team then bumbled through the game, gave up big plays, and looked disjointed on offense. I know what you’re thinking: ‘But Baker Mayfield and Odell Beckham Jr. didn’t get much off-season work together to develop chemistry.’ Neither did Broncos quarterback Bradon Allen, but his coach made him look pretty good for only getting a few practices with the first-team – in his career. Kitchens remarked this week that his team needed to play with a “sense of urgency.” He keeps saying the right things, but at this point, I’m not sure if he’s not just throwing out cliches without understanding the meaning of them.

In an effort to be fair – the Browns did have less penalties in this game than in previous weeks. Way to go, Freddie!

Game-Management

As the Browns entered the second half trailing 17-12, Kitchens was given the customary three timeouts. Any recollection of past games should have told Kitchens he would more than likely need them for late in the game. Instead he chose to use them at questionable times. The first was taken from him after a failed challenge on a 4th down spot. At first look, sure, it was pretty clear Mayfield made the line to gain. The referees gave him a questionable spot, but after seeing replays, it was clear it wasn’t getting overturned. There were no clear views that the spot was wrong. Maybe this one isn’t on Kitchens, but someone has to be in his ear telling him it’s not going to work.

The second timeout was taken by Jarvis Landry as the play clock was winding down on a rather meaningless play. The Browns’ third timeout was called by Mayfield before a pivotal 4th down play with about 4 minutes left. Again, the play clock was close to expiring and it was clear the ball wouldn’t be snapped in time.

Technically the three timeouts weren’t called by Kitchens, but he was the cause. Seemingly every play, the Browns broke the huddle with about ten seconds left on the play clock. That left very little time for pre-snap adjustments and no help for a sophomore quarterback who played in the defenseless Big 12 and struggles reading coverages. Since Kitchens insists on calling his own plays, he’s the only one to blame for the delay. Since this happens every game, it leads me to believe the lack of time is by design. And if that’s the case, this issue is so much worse.

With no timeouts left, the Browns couldn’t stop the Broncos from running out the clock in the game, on the Browns’ expectations, and seemingly Kitchens’ coaching evaluation window.

Play-calling

It’s no secret that Kitchens wasn’t hired because of his game management ability. He was hired because of his impressive play calling to close out the 2018 season. The offense was humming and that’s what the organization wanted. It’s also no secret that the offensive line is the weak link of this team, especially in pass blocking situations or slow-developing run plays. So why Kitchens continues to call run plays to receivers is baffling. I understand that he wants to get the ball into the hands of his playmakers, but let them do what they do best – catch the ball. Beckham Jr. showed his playmaking ability late in the game when he made two great catches and some impressive open-field moves, yet Kitchens insists on running jet sweeps or reverses to his receivers.

A play caller is not made great by the words he relays into his headset. He is measured by the success of the plays he calls. A large part of this is calling plays that suits your offense, a form of managing to the least common denominator and making adjustments as you go. A great example of this comes from earlier in the season when the Steelers were down to the third string quarterback. They adjusted their game plan to best suit their quarterback’s ability culminating in more than half of his passes were completed behind the line of scrimmage. Kitchens is the complete opposite – he continues to call plays that doesn’t suit his personnel. Let it never be said that Kitchens isn’t persistent.

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