CLEVELAND — Despite their 1-2 record following a 20-13 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday Night Football last week, the Cleveland Browns find themselves one game out of a first-place tie with the Baltimore Ravens within the AFC North Division and the teams are preparing to face off at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore this weekend.
Although there will be plenty to play for in Baltimore, Browns coach Freddie Kitchens is focused on bettering his team during their practices leading up to the game.
“I just want to see constant improvement,” Kitchens said. “If we are better next week than we were last week, then that is improvement. I want to be playing our best football at the end of the year. That is the way all good teams do it. Every good team I have been on was like that, so that is what I want to see.”
The Browns opened Ravens week with no shortage of things to work on during practice and meetings.
The Browns put up a valiant fight, but in the end, an inability to cover slot receiver Cooper Kupp, down-the-field threat Brandin Cooks and four straight incompletions inside the five-yard line in the waning seconds proved to be their undoing against the Rams.
Kupp, a third-year receiver out of Eastern Washington, caught 11 passes from quarterback Jared Goff, gained 102 yards on those receptions and scored two touchdowns in leading the Rams (3-0) to the victory over the Browns.
Although the Browns defense forced two Goff interceptions, the offense sputtered for much of the game, totaling just 270 yards compared to 346 for the Rams.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield completed 18 of his 36 attempts (50 percent) for 195 yards and one touchdown with an interception on the Browns’ last offensive play of the game on fourth-and-goal from the Rams’ four-yard line that was caught off of a deflection.
Running back Nick Chubb accounted for 131 total yards (96 rushing, 35 receiving) in the loss to the Rams.
“I think we have guys that can do the things that we need to do in our offense,” Kitchens said. “We just need to do them better. I need call better plays. We need to be more efficient on how we go about our business.”
Under Kitchens’ direction when he served as the interim offensive coordinator for the second half of the 2018 season, Mayfield completed 180 of his 263 attempts (68.4 percent) for 2,254 yards and 19 touchdowns against eight interceptions.
A second-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft out of the University of Georgia, Chubb rushed for 788 of his 996 yards and five of his eight touchdowns on 140 carries with Kitchens calling the plays. After the changes in the coaching staff, Chubb averaged 5.63 yards per carry and became a contributing player in the passing game as well.
Although Mayfield and Chubb experienced success in 2018, so much so that they were AP Offensive Rookie of the Year finalists, Kitchens knew there would be some growing pains and is determined to work through them in every meeting, each practice and on game days.
“Nobody is panicking,” Kitchens said.
“We are not panicking, but we also understand the shortcomings we have had. I understand the shortcomings that I have had. I am going to get better. Our team is going to get better. We started training camp with this mantra that we want to get better every day. We just want to live in the moment and be in the moment.”