CLEVELAND — CLEVELAND – “Whoop-dee hell.”
Cleveland Browns coach Freddie Kitchens used that exact phrase when questioned about the talent on the roster during the offseason program, and six months later, he still sees a collection of skilled individuals and not a team working in concert to win games.
“I think at 2-4, you are at the crossroads,” Kitchens said Monday. “That is what talent has gotten you. That does not mean that we are going to go win the game. That just means we need to be more consistent on our approach and our preparation.
“We lost that game yesterday because we turned the ball over and we could not get a critical stop. If you get one or the other, you are going to win. If you do not have the turnovers, you do not need the critical stop. You had the turnover, so you need the critical stop. That is how a team operates.”
Kitchens believes the Browns will become a team, only if the players can line up next to each other and trust their teammates to do their jobs and focus on the responsibilities they will be tasked with when the ball is snapped.
For that, Kitchens channeled former Browns coach Bill Belichick with a simple philosophy.
“The motto today is ‘Everybody just do your job and do not worry about anybody else’s job,’” Kitchens said. “Just do your job. At some point, we have to become a team. The difference between a group and a team is significant.
“To be a team, you have to do your job, and then, you bring it together collectively. Then, you become a team and you trust the guy beside you that is going to do their job. That is how you become a team. Until you get to that point, you are a group. The better team beat our group yesterday.”
That message was received by the players, loud and clear.
“There was always the phrase that, ‘Talent wins games, teams win championships,’” wide receiver Jarvis Landry said. “That’s always stuck with me because no matter who’s on paper or whatever, it really doesn’t mean anything when you step out there. You’re going against other players, other men that take pride in what they do as well, and they’re just not going to let you walk over them.”
Cornerback T.J. Carrie added, “You couldn’t tell me with all the talent that we have on this team that we wouldn’t be in a better situation. I feel like Coach Kitchens really hit that in the essence of 1. We can’t keep saying, ‘It’s still early,’ because six games, it’s not still early at that time point and 2. The reality is we are 2-4. The vision is we still have a lot in front of us that we can go get, but he continues to hammer, ‘talent is only going to take us so far.’”
With the Browns taking a 2-4 record into the annual bye week break, Kitchens wants everyone to be honest with themselves in evaluating the video and “focus more on our execution in critical moments.”
“We have to continue to try to do a better job of getting these guys in better situations, and then, hopefully, we execute better in those critical moments during the course of a game and understand that we are in a critical moment in the game and seize that opportunity,” Kitchens said.