Well, the “tanking” faithful will not be happy about the Cleveland Browns’ 13-6 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, but we don’t care. A win is a win and that’s always a good thing.
The Browns are now 4-12 on the season and if the season ended today (it ends next week of course), they would have the 7th or 8th pick in April’s selection process.
We saw a lot of comments about how the victory showed how Kevin Stefanski has not lost the locker room and used that as a reason to keep the head coach going forward.
That’s great and it is good the team hasn’t quit on their coach, but our criticism of Stefanski has nothing to do with whether or not he has the respect of the players, it’s his offense and that problem was on full display in the win.
The offense got off to a great start, a 41-yard drive leading to an Andre Szmyt field goal and an 86-yard drive capped off by a 28-yard TD pass from Shedeur Sanders to Harold Fannin. That’s 127 yards on the first two drives.
It’s also about half of the yardage gained by Cleveland for the entire game.
How many times does this happen? Frankly, it’s a common occurrence. The “scripted plays” generate solid drives, many times resulting in points. After that? They don’t seem to go back to what was working early nor are any adjustments or counter plays called to address what the opponents did to stop the offense.
For instance, when the Steelers put Alex Highsmith over Cam Robinson in the second half, where were plays rolling Sanders away from the constant pressure? They ran one and of course, Highsmith tracked the QB down from behind.
And they scored 13 points, making this the 25th time in the last two seasons where the Browns scored less than 20 points. This past week, 17 teams scored 20 or more points in the NFL.
Our other issue with Stefanski (and the entire organization for that matter) is this: 7-26, the team’s record over the last two seasons. Only three teams have done worse in the league over this span: New York Giants, Las Vegas Raiders, Tennessee Titans.
None of those teams’ coaches survived both seasons.
The defense was outstanding again on Sunday, holding the Steelers to 251 yards and amazingly Aaron Rodgers threw 39 times for just 168 yards. Myles Garrett alluded to it after the game, and several national analysts said it as well. Pittsburgh looked like they were more intent on keeping Garrett out of the record book that they were in scoring points.
Having Denzel Ward back helps quite a bit and we thought Tyson Campbell was excellent on the other side as well.
We did shake our heads when analyst Tony Romo quoted Stefanski as saying Raheem Sanders looked like a big old-time NFL running back. If the coach thinks that, why was Sanders inactive for most of the season.
Makes you think…
Next week, another disappointing season ends in Cincinnati with Garrett getting one more shot at the single season sack record. What will happen after the game is probably the bigger source of drama.
Is another house cleaning on the agenda for the Browns. By this time next week, we should know.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 