CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Browns started the 2019 regular season with plenty of expectations of breaking the National Football League’s longest active playoff drought, but consistent struggles throughout the year have reduced those hopes to less than one percent.
Following Sunday’s 38-24 loss to the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, Freddie Kitchens was asked if he is worried about his job after the Browns’ fourth double-digit setback of the season, and the first-year head coach said “I don’t care about my future.”
On Monday, Kitchens clarified those statements.
“I care about my job,” Kitchens said. “I only care though about getting better today. That is what I was trying to illustrate is I am only focused on today, on getting this football team to play the best of their ability today and to increase those chances of us getting to that point on Sunday, of playing the best that we can on Sunday.
“Everybody here is focused on that. Dee and Jimmy Haslam and (General Manager) John Dorsey would much rather me be worried about getting our team to play better than be worried about my job security. The only thing I was trying to illustrate is the fact that I am only concerned about what we are doing as a football team today, and that is it.”
With questions about potential changes in direction for the team, which has a 6-8 record after a three-game home losing streak to start the year, Kitchens further stated his desire to retain his position at season’s end.
“Of course, I want to be back,” Kitchens said. “Listen, we can make it all bad all we want, but we have done some good things this year. We have the leading rusher in the league. We have two receivers over [900 yards]. I do not even know where they rank now, but nobody has a 1,000-yard rusher, a 1,000-yard receiver and another receiving almost 900 yards.
“Defensively, up until yesterday, we were second in the league in third downs and getting off the field. We were ranked pretty high in the red zone and making guys kick field goals. We just need to execute better when we get to the critical moments in a game.”
The Browns headed west looking for a much-needed road win to remain in realistic contention for a playoff spot, but an inability to stop the run and generate scoring plays when they possessed the ball reduced those chances further Sunday.
Cardinals running back Kenyan Drake scored four rushing touchdowns and rookie quarterback Kyler Murray added a fifth with a passing score in the third quarter on the way to a 14-point win over the Browns.
The loss was the Browns’ second away from home in the last three weeks and extended their road losing streak to five straight after they started with wins at the New York Jets and Baltimore Ravens in the first month of the year.
“There is a lot of good here,” Kitchens said. “It is just we get so swept up in the negative that we can’t see the positives. That is what we need to continue to try and focus on in our building, and that is the main reason you try to block out the noise and just concentrate on getting better.
“That is what I want to do as a coach, and that is what I want my players to do as players. I think that they have done a good job of that during the course of the year.”
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