CLEVELAND — The sample size is small, but here’s what we can say of Freddie Kitchens as head coach:
He used to be a pretty good offensive coordinator.
Back in those care-free days of 2018 when the Browns were just happy to have Hue Jackson behind them, life was a lot simpler and clearly more fun for Kitchens and the Browns.
No longer.
Something’s seriously off. Kitchens' offense has two left feet. It too often looks clumsy and disorganized.
Those flashes of excellence last year with less talent? They appear every now and then only to disappear a series later under a hail of penalty flags or a quarterback running for his life with no one to help him.
It’s three games. In the NFL, we should never be surprised by a rookie head coach looking like a rookie head coach, especially this early in the season.
The more alarming aspect isn’t that or even the 1-2 record. It’s that Baker Mayfield's growth chart is stagnant — his moments of brilliance matching that of his coach in frequency.
“It takes time to develop offensively,” Kitchens said in a sometimes defensive press conference following Sunday night's loss to the Rams. “We kind of hit the ground running last year because we had been through eight games already, so we knew what we were doing.
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“If you are looking to blame somebody, blame me. Do not blame any of our other coaches. Just blame me because I can take it. Just blame me.
“Go write your article and say I messed the game up. Go write your article and say that it is my fault that things are not looking like it did last year because it is.”
We’ve seen coaches make a point of taking the blame here before. Without occasional fixes, it grows tiresome.
Some of them have even meant it when they say what they say (Not you, Hue.) Kitchens clearly didn’t like being second-guessed but that goes with the territory even for head coaches who don’t call the plays.
Kitchens as head coach/play caller had nowhere to escape Sunday night. Kind of like Baker Mayfield.
The only reason those who watched the Browns 20-13 loss to the Rams aren't still talking this morning about the draw play Kitchens called on fourth-and-nine with 9:19 to go is because the Browns final four plays inside the Rams five-yard line meant more and were just as curious.
Nick Chubb, whose work had provided Kitchens offense with the only rhythm it had all night, never touched the ball even though the Browns had three timeouts. Odell Beckham Jr., double teamed, was taken out of the offense.
It’s one thing if Chubb is reduced to pop-up hood ornament on Beckham’s Rolls Royce in critical situations but the Browns ended up rolling with passes intended for Demetrius Harris and Damion Ratley on two of Mayfield’s four misfires.
Mayfield kicked himself for the throw to Harris, saying he’d no doubt have “nightmares” about missing Jarvis Landry underneath.
The final fling, picked off in the endzone, was another instance of Mayfield trying to escape to his right and hoping somebody breaks open.
Mayfield knows this season isn’t about incremental improvements or moral victories. The stakes a year ago were intramural by comparison.
You should win a game at home when your defense does for you what the Browns defense did for him despite missing five starters, four in the secondary.
“The defense played out of their minds tonight,” Mayfield said. “Talk about all the guys that they did not have. They did not use any of it as an excuse.”
The defense couldn’t have played harder. The Browns could've played and coached a lot smarter.
It’s always easier to question play calling in a loss but this time doing so seemed beyond appropriate, unavoidable even.
On a night honoring old favorite Clay Matthews, the throwback vibe unfortunately didn’t end at the halftime Ring of Honor celebration.
The first Sunday night crowd in 11 years was treated instead to Kitchens version of Metcalf-up-the-middle.
Only this was fourth-and-nine.
At the Rams 40.
With 9:19 to go in a four-point game.
The result: here, a two-yard gain and the ball turned over on downs.
Around the country: football fans no longer wondered who Kitchens is, just what he was thinking.
“Bad call,” he said. Even if he didn't mean it, he was getting no arguments.
Did he want that play call or was there confusion?
“Yes, I wanted that play call,” he said. “It just didn’t work. It was a bad call.”
The Rams soon stretched the lead to seven. They won it because of the four failed passes inside the 5-yard line -- a series that was reminiscent of the final chaotic gasp in a season-ending loss to Baltimore last year.
Nobody thought the first half of the schedule would be easy, especially this game. The Browns return to Baltimore Sunday, followed by a Monday night trip to San Francisco, Seattle at home, then a week of rest before traveling to New England.
The Broncos, Dolphins, Steelers, Bengals and Cardinals portion of the schedule can't get here soon enough for Kitchens team.
The second half is so soft I’m not ready to change my 10-6 prediction. But that pick was based on Mayfield and Kitchens making beautiful music together.
That’s happened far too infrequently. And it's not all been due to illegal formations and motion penalties doing them.
Something’s off. About as off key as a kazoo.