If you are a regular reader of this site, you would know we have been a supporter of Browns’ coach Kevin Stefanski. We felt he has had some success, making two playoff appearances during his tenure, but also because the franchise had to end the madness of changing head coaches after two seasons.
And generally, the coach has done a solid job managing the quarterback mess the front office put on him, and in that we are talking about the Deshaun Watson situation.
However, Sunday’s 21-17 loss to Minnesota has made us change our mind. That was a winnable game, and we think Stefanski managed it into a loss.
After the previous game, Cleveland made a quarterback change, going to rookie Dillon Gabriel. The move was made to revive a moribund offense and also because Joe Flacco was turning the ball over. Some of those turnovers were not his fault, but still, he was the guy under center.
Gabriel did not turn the ball over. In fact, the Browns had no turnovers and had Quinshon Judkins run for 110 yards on 23 carries.
They still only scored 17 points. That’s 10 straight games for Cleveland at 17 points or fewer. In fact, in 2024, the only three games in which the Browns scored more than 20 points were with Jameis Winston at the helm.
Stefanski came to the Browns because of the work he did as the offensive coordinator of the Vikings. That’s right, he was the offensive coordinator. And that’s the area of weakness for this football team.
Still, the biggest problem for the Browns in London was that their coach played not to lose. And you know the old adage that says if you are playing not to lose, what generally happens? You lose.
The Browns had a 17-14 lead and got the ball back with just under four minutes to go and called two running plays into the line on first and second downs that combined to gain a yard and then threw an incomplete pass.
We understand Stefanski is taking heat for the clock management, but that’s not our beef. It’s the play choices. They were unbelievably conservative. We didn’t want Gabriel to be firing long passes down the field, but where were some short tosses to gain five or six yards on first down and put the offense in better position to keep the ball and run more time off the clock?
Stefanski made it easy on the Vikings defense. Think about what Minnesota did, look at all the misdirection and motion. That’s not a part of the Cleveland offense.
We understand the talent level isn’t the same, but…
Much like baseball, you have to score points to win in today’s NFL and usually the teams that score the most points like the playoffs. The Browns can’t put points on the board. They average just 14.6 per game, tied for the worst in the league with Tennessee, who by the way, scored 22 in their first win of the season on Sunday.
New Orleans scored 26 this week. In fact, only six teams (out of 26 because of byes) scored fewer than 21 last weekend. So, Stefanski’s plan was to hold the Vikings to 14?
That’s not a real good plan.
It just seems no matter what, the Browns can’t score points. We get the organization has 101 excuses why they can’t win, and they are consistently pushing things ahead to the following year (FREE BEER TOMORROW!), but it’s time for answers.
We said last week the division is really up for grabs with the injury to Joe Burrow in Cincinnati and the Ravens having a down year. But the Browns refuse to win games they should win, like Sunday and the season opener.
Our guess is next week they will go to Pittsburgh and they will do the same tired things on offense. And they won’t get to 20 points.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 