CLEVELAND — The 2019 season started with much hope and excitement for the Cleveland Browns, but after a .500 start over the first month of play, the team has fallen on hard times, losing four straight games and falling to third place in the AFC North Division standings.
The Browns suffered their latest loss, a 24-19 setback to the Denver Broncos at Empower Field in Denver, on Sunday, and now, they have to get ready for back-to-back home games in a five-day span next week, but first-year coach Freddie Kitchens does not see the team folding under the weight of a 2-6 record.
“I don’t think there’s any quit in these guys,” Kitchens said following Sunday’s loss. “They’ll keep fighting.
“I think we’ve got a bunch of guys that won’t let up. They’ll come to work Wednesday. We’ll watch this. They’ll come to work Wednesday wanting to get better.”
The Browns had been the most penalized team in the league and struggled with both interceptions and fumbles through the first seven games of the season, but neither were a problem in Sunday’s loss to the Broncos.
The Browns committed just five penalties for 40 lost yards and did not have a lost fumble or interception. In fact, the Browns finished the game plus-one in turnovers, as they forced and recovered a fumble in the second quarter.
“Those guys, they did better with the pre-snap penalties,” Kitchens said. “We did better with the turnovers, and that’s the only thing that gave us a chance. You’re never going to have a chance if you have the penalties and turnovers. It’s just sad we couldn’t make that play at the end of the game.”
Quarterback Baker Mayfield added, “That’s the frustrating part. We cleaned our problem up that we said we were going to address and still didn’t come out with a win, but that goes to show, we have to be able to do our job, and then, make the plays when they’re there. It’s the little things that have been getting us beat, we have to put those behind us. It should be a no-brainer that we don’t have any pre-snap penalties and things like that so we can go out, play and execute.”
Fortunately for the Browns, after playing the NFL’s most difficult schedule over the first half of the 2019 season, including facing both teams from last year’s Super Bowl, the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams, their final eight games are significantly easier, at least on paper.
The Browns’ second-half opponents have the second-worst combined winning percentage in the NFL, and the team is looking to put several marks in the win column over the stretch run.
“It’s got to be a singular focus,” Mayfield said. “Our preparation the last few games has been unbelievable, and so, we need to continue that. The type of men that we have, I said it a couple weeks ago, or whenever it was, months ago. We’re going to stick together. We’re going to keep pushing forward. Obviously, this is very frustrating, but we’ve got to move forward.”
Kitchens added, “I don’t think we’ve got anybody there that’s going to give up or throw in the towel. We’ve still got eight games left, so we’ve got to do something with those eight games, but it starts with one. It starts with one game. That’s the only thing we can win is one game. I think these guys focused and concentrated this week.”