The pre-season in the NFL has become an out and out joke, but that hasn’t stopped fans from overreacting to the Cleveland Browns’ first loss in games that don’t count, last Friday at Tampa Bay.
One of the reasons it shouldn’t be taken too seriously is the intentions of the head coach’s toward these games.
For example, and we have no inside information here, let’s say Freddie Kitchens prepared his team one way and told his friend, Bruce Arians, now the head coach of the Buccaneers, to run some stuff the Browns haven’t seen in order to see how the players would react.
Maybe they agreed to do this to each other’s teams to gauge how the two teams would respond to some adversity.
We just don’t know.
Remember, there were some who were upset in the first game against the Redskins, when the Browns opened the game in the no huddle, hurry up offense.
We speculated then that Kitchens told Washington coach Jay Gruden he was going to do this, and offensive coordinator Todd Monken confirmed it a couple of days later.
This doesn’t mean the Browns don’t have issues on the offensive line or in the kicking game. It does mean the issues aren’t greater than they were before kickoff last Friday night.
It isn’t like it was 10 years ago, when the third pre-season game was the dress rehearsal game. Back then, the starters played pretty much the whole first quarter of the first game, about a half of the second, and three quarters of the third.
That’s not the case anymore.
Baker Mayfield played one series in the opener against Washington. He didn’t play at all in the second contest at Indianapolis. Most of the starters did the same.
Heck, Odell Beckham Jr. nor Jarvis Landry has stepped foot on the field of play through three exhibition (yes, we know the NFL doesn’t like them called that) games.
The preseason has become a series of glorified scrimmages, and many teams, including the Browns, have gone to organized practices against other teams where the action and hitting can be controlled.
Remember 2017 when the Browns went 0-16? They were 4-0 in the preseason. Hue Jackson was trying to win those games.
We heard Kitchens say if they are keeping score then he wants to win, but our guess is he’d be a lot more upset about a loss on September 8th than he is about the Tampa game.
Someone is going to win Thursday night in the game against Detroit, but it is likely no one of any importance to the 2019 Cleveland Browns will play in that game, and the same can be said of most NFL teams.
It’s time for the NFL to cut back to two games, and start playing them off-site, so season ticket holders don’t have to pay full price for them. Or, if you want to play a home game, give season ticket holders an option to buy them at a reduced price, and if they don’t sell them to the public at a lower price.
Maybe someone who can’t afford to go normally can get to see an NFL game in person.
As for the results, don’t get to concerned, because again, we don’t know what the opposing teams are trying to accomplish.
There will be plenty of time for concern when the regular season starts next week.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 