CLEVELAND — The first half of this Browns season always looked like a free solo scaling of El Capitan.
But it’s totally on Freddie Kitchens and his team that they have apparently decided to take the climb wearing roller skates.
The added degree of difficulty hasn’t yet crippled their postseason chances in a gettable AFC North but the head-scratching breakdowns and crucial mistakes that have become a trend over the past six weeks aren’t simply minor distractions either.
This start isn’t exactly what the head coach transition promised. Or what the preseason magazine covers suggested was possible. Or what John Dorsey’s talent grab in the draft and free agency seemed to dictate.
If you already found the Browns a confusing case study this season, Sunday won’t help clear things up. Not at all.
We’re not sure what happened against Seattle except to say Nick Chubb got the ball enough, Baker Mayfield wasn’t sacked, Odell Beckham had 11 targets and six catches, and the Browns still lost to a team that had one more penalty (10) than they did.
That’s three home games played without a win in front of a fan base desperately wanting to be believers. Four losses in six tries.
Even acknowledging the top-heaviness of the 2019 schedule and the cupcake portion still to come, don’t kid yourself. Nobody dreamed this possible, at least outside of Hue Jackson’s and Gregg Williams’ nightly prayers.
“I do feel like we’re improving,” Kitchens said, before remembering he’s a disciple of Bill Parcells. “But you are what your record says you are. We’re 2-4. That’s what we are.”
While you might want to blame this latest stumble on NFL officiating, truth is the Browns made more mistakes than the refs (and that wasn’t at all easy to accomplish).
We’ll give Baker Mayfield a word on that first.
“The refs are never an excuse,” Mayfield said, warming up to comment on the most curious call of all — a blindside block penalty on Jarvis Landry that negated a short Nick Chubb gain.
“I will probably get fined for saying this but it was pretty bad today. The guy is squared up with (Landry), running at him and he is lowering his head into Jarvis. What is (Landry) supposed to do? Avoid him? This is not bullfighting. I don’t know. It ticks me off.”
And now we move on to all the things the Browns didn’t do to overcome a few extremely curious officiating calls.
Three interceptions of Mayfield might’ve been enough on its own for Seattle to escape from a 20-6 deficit but what made the gift wrap even shinier was a rare Chubb fumble and a blocked punt. And the usual of penalty flags.
The Browns committed their customary array, not all of which required as much imagination by the refs as the blindside block call on Landry. (Whatever the definition, a blindside block should at least require a victim who doesn’t see it coming.)
But a discussion of the refs only muddles the conversation. The Browns overall weren’t very good Sunday, surrendering 170 yards rushing a week after allowing San Francisco 275. They haven’t been very good all season, unless you triple-weight the Baltimore game.
Kitchens was reduced to ranting on the sidelines, some times for good reason.
I know what you’re thinking but I’m not calling for him to give up play calling during the bye week because it’s still what he does best. He was Dorsey’s choice for that very reason.
Despite the mistakes, the Browns ran up 406 yards and 28 points with a quarterback fighting a hip injury. That’s not a play calling problem.
Kitchens didn’t lose track of Chubb Sunday even though the pass-to-run ratio in the first half was off balance. You don’t have to open running the ball in the NFL to win. In fact, it’s usually better if you don’t.
Most often you just have to run it successfully when the opponent has good reason to know it’s coming and when you find yourself in certain spots on the field (like first-and-goal from the 4).
Chubb had 122 yards on 20 carries and was still of use with the Browns trailing 32-28 and 3:30 remaining.
A handoff to Chubb on first down gained seven yards until it didn’t. Holding on left tackle Greg Robinson ruined that gain and put the Browns in a first-and-20 hole at their own 15.
Mayfield got five yards back on a completion. But then a pass thrown slightly behind Dontrell Hilliard was bobbled and intercepted.
When they need to most, the Browns couldn’t stop Russell Wilson and Seattle from picking up a first down. Then another. That was the game.
Rashard Higgins and Antonio Callaway have joined Kitchens offensive in the past two weeks, not that there’s been any benefit. Calloway was a detriment last week. He had two catches for 22 yards Sunday. Higgins was missing in action.
The Browns need to fine tune the offense during the bye week and prepare to match up with Tom Brady and the Patriots when they return in two weeks. They now must beat Brady and Bill Belichick to avoid 2-5.
Are they together enough to come back from that? Based on what we saw against Tennessee and San Francisco — not so much Sunday — their resilience is still suspect.
The second half is littered with less imposing teams after New England but mistakes and dropped passes and bad throws could continue to cost them games regardless of the strength of schedule.
“We have to go on the road now and we have to win some games we are not supposed to win — “supposedly” not supposed to win. That’s what we have to do.”
A starved fan base is counting on it, just not nearly as confidently as it once was.