The writer just had to say "even though they were making some of the same mistakes yesterday as they made in week 1".
Name them, dumbass! Penalties? Shotgun/spread all vertical passes? 2:1 pass/run ratio?
Obviously none of these. Clock management? What is this nimrod talking about!?!
I guess yeah, the buck stops at Kitchens, so you can blame him for the defense too, but really now:
Both their elite DE's and top passrushers are missing, and Vernon/Garrett were also excellent edge-setters and good vs the run, too.
"Good coaches overcome injuries".
Well, sorta, but Wilks can't compensate for the loss of BOTH of these guys with...Chad Thomas, Sheldon Richardson sometimes, and uhh....?
He used Takitaki a little more, blitzed more, but...
Freddie Kitchens isn't to blame for the Browns' struggles. As I've told those with actual brains, since the bye week the Browns have been one of the least penalized teams in the NFL.
As Freddie himself points out, Nick Chubb leads the NFL in rushing, 2 receivers are at or near 1,000 yards, the defense excelled in some key categories, etc.
The elephant in the room is Baker Mayfield. He has not played well. He was better as a rookie, sans Hunt and OBJ.
This isn't all Baker's fault, but it's not Kitchens', either. Trading Zeitler hurt much more than Dorsey (or I) thought it would, and Olivier Vernon helped a lot less.
I do need to point out that Vernon was injured a lot before he came here, and it's usually his ankles, so...
And Mayfield? OBJ is a great player with guts (I saw him blocking for other guys in earnest: I now love OBJ the person and team player)...but Mayfield needed him like he needed a hole in the head.
OBJ's sports hernia has unquestionably put a dent in his performance. Did Freddie Kitchens tell him not to get surgery? (Sigh: the answer is NO duh).
Mayfield keeps throwing to the wrong shoulder and high to him, but then he's not getting separation, and the windows are microscopic. Is Kitchens telling him to do that?
Now what? Was Jarvis Landry really yelling "come get me!" at the Arizona sidelines? I'm not sure.
But I saw the "confrontation" where he was yelling at Freddie on the sidelines, and it looked like "that was interference!" to me---not a personal attack at all.
I want to give Landry a chance to speak for himself, but for the moment, I'm leaning towards his actually having yelled "come get me", and am pissed off by it.
Under Freddie Kitchens, Landry has been the Browns' top wide receiver, even since OBJ was brought in. What the hell is HE mad about?
Not enough vertical routes? Kareem Hunt infringing on his targets (which would be selfish)?
This Kitchens lynch-mob babbles about players talking about "lack of effort", and implying that this means that Freddie Kitchens has "lost the team".
But have YOU seen a lack of effort? Can we give Kyler Murray and Kenyan Drake a little credit here!?!
Classic: Murray running left, with Drake a little behind and closer to the sidelines, and 2 Browns defenders trying to stop them. Murray feigns a vertical step, and the outside defender slows to seal him off--Murray pitches to Drake, who runs past him to the end zone.
That's not "they suck", or "lack of effort". That's a perfect playcall, Kyler Murray, and perfect execution. And yeah---YOU would have hit the brakes when that hot rod made his move too!!!
Too deep sorry...but anyway Baker Mayfield was one player who mentioned lack of FOCUS, but referred to himself as well as others. I am not aware of any other players asserting a "lack of effort" in 2019.
Do you comprehend that when a guy breaks a tackle, it doesn't mean that the other guy wasn't doing his best to tackle him, right?
You look at Chubb, Hunt, and Landry and see effort, but for many of you, it's only because they get tangible results.
You see a guy miss a shoestring tackle, or lose a ball off his fingertips, or get faked out of his shoes and somehow think they just weren't trying hard enough or...something?
Most of you never played football, or fought. You lack insight (and imagination too).
Freddie Kitchens is NOT the problem here.
In case Jarvis Landry does want to get traded, if I were
John Dorsey wanted to make a big splash here, so he loaded up on high profile veteran free agents. Jarvis Landry was his first big move.
He didn't give up much in the trade, but paid him a LOT in his contract extention. Jarvis is a fiery leader and team player, and instantly became Baker Mayfield's favorite target.
Right now, however, both Landry and Beckham's salaries are highly affordable to potential trade partners, and both are in their primes.
By now, unless he is a total butthead, Dorsey groks that:
1: He needs to upgrade the offensive line.
2: Baker Mayfield doesn't need a "crutch". Naturally a strong running game and play-action helps him a ton, but Mayfield is a "distributor" who thinks fast and should be allowed to make his own decisions amap...
(Sigh) we have seen this. In 2018 who was Mayfield's "go-to" guy (I mean here in reality)?
Landry...but only sorta. Behind Landry, there was Njoku, Johnson, a couple guys no longer with the team, etc., and it worked.
3: Dorsey has overspent. He went for all the marbles early, and he lost. He does have a shot at the Division Title/Superbowl in 2020 now, but has several "balloon payments" to make on the "not football players" he inheritted from
4: I HOPE Dorsey gets that he can trade Landry as well as OBJ and still win the AFC North in 2020:
A: Retain Kareem Hunt (and Kitchens, of course) and preserve that souped up version of Mack/Byner that Freddie has already established.
"Souped up" isn't a throw away line here, as both these guys are proven "bell cow"s, and (my readers know) Nick Chubb is a terrific receiver already himself.
Landry might be pissed about this, but Kareem Hunt is Duke Johnson on steroids, and this "two-back" offense is not far removed from the 2019 Ravens in uniqueness and unpredictability.
Forget "B" I'm with you! Let's fire Freddie, kick Hunt to the curb, keep OBJ and Landry no matter what, then bash Haslam for firing coaches prematurely and revel in our idiohypocracy!
THIS just in: Kareem Hunt says that some unidentified teammates aren't trying hard enough.
If you've seen this guy play, you know HE gives his all, all the time.
...but I can't find a Head Coach (let alone Freddie Kitchens) anywhere in here. Hunt was talking to his teammates. Tomorrow morning, Kareem will wake up to find out that he hates Freddie Kitchens too!
Yeah impeach Kitchens, cuz...he's not Head Coachey enough...and I hate his accent...and Hunt and Landry hate him!
🖕okbye
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