Are Haslams Capable Of Continuity?

Sometimes, being a fan of the Cleveland Browns is to have no hope.

That stems straight from the top, owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam.

We believe that they honestly want to win. We also believe there are great players who want to win, but the thing they have in common is neither knows how to accomplish that goal.

Since 2016, the Haslams put Sashi Brown in charge of the team, knowing his strategy was to strip down the team in regards to talent and do a total rebuild. Accumulate a ton of draft choices, open up a ton of salary cap space, and slowly build the Browns back, sort of like an expansion team.

Sashi Brown told everyone there would be a lot of losing, and there was. However, the coach, Hue Jackson, and the ownership, freaked out because of the lack of wins, and they fired Brown, and brought in proven NFL executive John Dorsey.

In less than a year, Dorsey got rid of Jackson, and brought in some talented players through the draft, and some questionable players too. Cleveland went 7-8-1, and then Dorsey tried to accelerate the process, but tried with a rookie head coach in Freddie Kitchens.

Kitchens wasn’t equipped to handle a team that people thought should be a playoff team right away. Could he and the GM had corrected this with a second season? Maybe, but they won’t get that chance.

So, now they will begin again with a new cast of characters. Apparently, Chief Strategy Office Paul DePodesta will be guiding the new coaching search, and that coach will be part of the search for the new general manager.

That would seem to make DePodesta and the coach to be in charge. So, you have to wonder if the Browns start winning, if the coach grabs the ear of the ownership and gets DePodesta erased.

Could this work? Of course, but based on the past, one has to wonder what happens if winning isn’t an instantaneous thing for the 2020 Cleveland Browns. That’s because the Haslams haven’t had the stomach to see any plan through.

We were never part of the hero worship Dorsey received when he came aboard during the 2017 campaign. He spouted things like getting “real football players” when there were clearly some of them (Myles Garrett, Joe Schobert, among others) on the roster.

It was a shot at Sashi Brown’s analytic approach, which DePodesta was part of.

However, Dorsey put talent ahead of everything in terms of player acquisition, and it came back to bite the team because the effort of several players in the last three games of the season were found to be wanting, and you had discipline issues with others.

Those things undermined the rookie head coach that Dorsey selected.

So, now it’s another restart for the Browns, but how long will this front office structure be in place, especially if Cleveland spends another season without a playoff appearance in 2020.

And that’s our biggest issue. Some turnarounds are quick, like the Rams going from 4-12 to 11-5 to 13-3 and a Super Bowl appearance.

Others have some setbacks, like the Bills 6-10 season last year after a playoff berth in 2017. They went 10-6 and back to the post-season this year.

The Browns 6-10 record could have been the same scenario as Buffalo last season, but John Dorsey won’t find that out.

The bigger question is knowing the past of this ownership group, who takes a job knowing they could be jettisoned after a single season.

Can the Haslams change? If they can’t, any success the Browns may have in the future might just be pure luck.

Browns Biggest Problem? Lack Of One Vision.

Well, another year and another coaching change for the Cleveland Browns. Actually, the 2019 season had one less replacement than 2018, so if you are looking for a silver lining, we guess that is it.

Freddie Kitchens is out after one year, the second Cleveland coach to have that short of a tenure within the past ten years (Rob Chudzinski) and if you count Gregg Williams, the organization has given three coaches 16 games or less in the recent past.

And, of course, there are rumors that the firings may not be done in Berea, and perhaps GM John Dorsey’s job is in jeopardy.

People wonder why the Browns can’t win? It’s because of the wash, rinse, repeat cycle that is endless for the team, and in particular, Jimmy and Dee Haslam.

The owners apparently can’t stop listening to anyone and everyone, and the organizational structure, which right now has Dorsey and analytics guru Paul DePodesta both reporting to the Haslams, causes problems, time and again.

Those who don’t learn from the past and doomed to repeat it.

Remember that Sashi Brown and Hue Jackson both reported to the owners, and when the losing started after Brown gutted the roster (which Jackson knew was happening), the coach used his influence to get Brown out of town.

Then, Dorsey used the same process to get Jackson fired, even though both reported directly to the Haslams.

Dorsey hired Kitchens and the coach reported to the GM, but it has been reported that DePodesta didn’t want Jackson or Kitchens, instead wanting to hire Sean McDermott (now with Buffalo instead of Jackson) and then Minnesota offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski (not Kitchens).

It appears DePodesta has whispered to the Haslams that he was right on both counts and should have more of a say in the hiring of the new man.

Of course, if the new coach struggles, then Dorsey will be talking to them saying DePodesta doesn’t know anything, and we will start the process again.

The Browns need a director of football operations badly. They need one voice talking to the ownership about the team, so the political “football” (no pun intended) ends. It is obvious the Haslams cannot handle opposing viewpoints from people who talk directly to them.

They are like the kid who is trying to be popular in school, trying to be everyone’s friend.

Our two cents would be that Dorsey stays as the GM, as he’s brought a lot of talent into the organization, with the understanding that he starts taking character of the players into account.

Hopefully, he has learned from the past year, players who have talent but a questionable work ethics will no longer be tolerated.

The next coach should come from a collaborative effort using both men, so they both have a stake in the success or failure in the new head man. That would also mean they would work together to help bring in players.

That’s what the Browns need most, a front office team all pulling in the right direction. Until the ownership realizes that, the football team will be stuck in mediocrity.

If they can’t, then this will all be repeated in 2021, or heaven forbid, at the end of the 2020 season.

Those who don’t learn from the past, are destined to repeat it.

Has Anyone Thought Maybe It’s Not Kitchens?

With the Cleveland Browns dropping the last two games, they now sit at 6-9 on the season, and a season once filled with expectations (before it started) will end next weekend at Cincinnati.

That means no playoffs once again.

And, because we live in Cleveland, Ohio, there is clamoring for head coach Freddie Kitchens to be fired. Because, fans can’t get enough of the revolving door at the position.

Now, we have no idea if Kitchens will ever be a winning NFL coach, but we do think he should get an opportunity to learn from his mistakes in 2019. We say this because we don’t know that all of the Browns’ problems should fall on the head coach.

Look, the time management decision at the end of the half is indefensible, and so was the comment that he was going to go for it on 4th and 1 from his own 28 yard line with a 6-0 lead after the ill-fated Kareem Hunt option pass.

However, what if Kitchens gets the same opportunity next Sunday and runs the ball to run out the half? Then, he learned from his mistake/experience.

We understand the impatience. The Browns returned to the NFL in 1999 and have made the playoffs once. They haven’t had a winning season since 2007. People want to see a winning football team.

Fans and media alike are clamoring for Ron Rivera, recently fired by the Carolina Panthers. But Rivera spent nine seasons in Carolina, and had three winning seasons. Is he the answer for sure?

Based on that record, we would say not. Former Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy is also mentioned, and he at least has nine playoff appearances and a Super Bowl title on his resume.

However, his running attack has never been effective (yes, we know he had Aaron Rodgers), and the Browns’ best offensive weapon is Nick Chubb.

Our main point here is we, as fans, don’t really know who is to blame for this losing season. It is just assumed that it’s the head coach, and that may not be fair.

It could be a disconnect between the offensive coordinator and the head coach. It could be a more complicated offensive attack than some players can handle, and/or that offensive could be something that doesn’t play into the skill set of the quarterback.

Or it could be Mayfield is a passer who wants to know exactly where is receivers will be, and the receivers the Browns have like to free lance.

Of course, it could also be Kitchens trying to be too much of a friend to the players instead of their boss, or being stubborn in not doing what the front office wants to do.

The only people who really know what happened to the 2019 Cleveland Browns are in the building in Berea. John Dorsey has been very quiet as this season progressed, and perhaps he is doing some self reflection as to what he did wrong in the off-season.

Again, we understand the frustration and lack of patience with the 2019 season, every Browns’ fan can’t wait for a playoff spot.

But you have to trust in the front office that was assembled. Dorsey, Alonzo Highsmith, and Elliot Wolf have been around the game a long time. So, if Kitchens is back next season, it’s because that trio wants him to be back.

And everyone should be okay with that. Obviously, they know a little more about the reasons for another losing season than everyone else.

Is Patience Best Course Of Action For Browns?

The Cleveland Browns had great expectations coming into the 2019 NFL season, and instead they were a huge disappointment, likely finishing the year with a losing record.

Again.

Many folks around northeast Ohio place the blame solely on head coach Freddie Kitchens, demanding his head as soon as the 16th game of the campaign is completed in Cincinnati.

However, it’s not just Kitchens who should be blamed and that’s why we can’t get on board with firing him when the season ends.

This is not to say Kitchens is the next Bill Belichick or John Harbaugh, but rather he should get the opportunity to make changes based on his experience of 2019. Let’s see if he can grow in the position.

We understand everyone’s impatience, but is it worth the risk of starting over…again.

Besides, there are other things we would like to say answered or addressed by the Browns’ front office.

Can John Dorsey change his philosophy of team building? Right now, the Cleveland GM bases everything on talent, and talent alone. He doesn’t seem to worry about character or work ethic.

Sometimes (Kareem Hunt) it works. Other times (Antonio Callaway, Odell Beckham Jr.) it doesn’t.

You have to look beyond the talent. Does the player have a solid work ethic, do they work hard in the off-season, are they a good teammate? Do they want to be great?

Our thought is (and we wrote about this earlier in the season) the Browns need more guys like Nick Chubb and J.C. Tretter, guys who play hard, do their work, and value winning above everything else.

We would like to see two players in particular dedicate their off-season to working toward winning.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Baker Mayfield reached out to say, Drew Brees, a quarterback similar in game and stature, and pick his brain on how to prepare for a season, and how to dedicate yourself to having a successful NFL career.

And what if Beckham, instead of jet setting around the globe, got his body in top condition? After all, he’s battled injuries in each of his last three seasons. We would also like to see him in mini camps, so he can develop chemistry with his quarterback.

We are sure Mayfield and Beckham aren’t the only issues too.

The offensive and defensive coordinators should also be examined.

If Kitchens returns, does his philosophy match Todd Monken’s? We have had the nagging thought all season that the offense run late last season when the Browns were lighting up the scoreboard isn’t the one they ran this season.

Did the defenses adjust, or did the Browns adjust themselves out of success?

Defensively, stopping the running game has to be a priority. The Browns have consistently finished in the bottom half of the NFL in run defense over the past 10 years.

We understand today’s pro football is pass happy, but if you can’t stop the run, it makes it tougher to rush the passer and play press coverage.

Again, the organizations’ philosophy was to pressure the QB, and that’s a sound strategy, but you can’t ignore stopping the ground game either. For the most part, teams that don’t stop the run are bad football teams.

In our opinion, it would be best if everyone took a step back and fix the things that went wrong in 2019, rather than throw it all away and start over in 2020.

The Browns are no longer devoid of talent, but they now need to become a team.

Evaluating Baker So Far.

A certain media member in town consistently refers to Baker Mayfield as “statistically the worst quarterback in the NFL”. While that is true, you have to remember that the statistic he refers to is really called “passer rating”.

The stat measures basically three things: Completion percentage, average yards per attempt, and how many touchdowns and interceptions you throw. You can pile up incredible numbers in those categories while you are losing a game 28-7.

The point is it is not a true measurement of how great a quarterback is, it does measure how efficient you are as a passer.

The current NFL passing leader is Ryan Tannehill, followed by Kirk Cousins, Drew Brees, Lamar Jackson, and Russell Wilson.

Brees is a future Hall of Famer, while Jackson and Wilson are the favorites for league MVP. The other two?

Cousins was also in the top five a year ago, and the QB who was 6th was Case Keenum, who is no longer a starter in the NFL.

As a frame of reference, the others in the top five last season were Ben Roethlisberger, Andrew Luck, Matt Ryan, and Aaron Rodgers. Four excellent signal callers.

Looking at Mayfield, if his interceptions were cut in half, his passer rating would increase from his current 77.6 to 85.3, moving him from 33rd to 24th in the NFL.

So, we were thinking, rating aside, where would the Browns’ quarterback rank in the league based on just our opinion, devoid of any statistics.

AFC East: Tom Brady, Josh Allen, Sam Darnold, Ryan Fitzpatrick. It would be presumptuous to put Mayfield ahead of Brady, but we’d take him over anyone else, including Allen, who is still more dangerous with his legs than his arm.

AFC North: Jackson, Andy Dalton, Duck Hodges. As we said, Jackson is the co-MVP favorite, and until Roethlisberger retires, we would take him as well.

AFC South: Tannehill, DeShaun Watson, Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew. Watson is spectacular, still wish the Browns had taken him in 2017. Otherwise, we’ll take Mayfield over the rest.

AFC West: Patrick Mahomes, Derek Carr, Philip Rivers, Drew Lock? Rivers is a borderline Canton enshrinee, but has been bad this year, Mahomes is last year’s MVP and a top two or three QB in the game today. We would prefer Mayfield to Carr, Rivers, and Lock right now.

NFC East: Dak Prescott, Carson Wentz, Daniel Jones, Dwayne Haskins Jr. Although Wentz has struggled this year, and we aren’t huge fans of Prescott, we acknowledge they should both rank ahead of the Cleveland QB.

NFC North: Rodgers, Cousins, Mitch Trubisky, Matthew Stafford. The first two have to be ahead, white Trubisky is clearly behind. Stafford puts up a lot of stats, but doesn’t win. For the sake of argument, we’ll take him over Baker.

NFC South: Brees, Ryan, Jameis Winston, Kyle Allen. No question here, Brees and Ryan are ahead of Mayfield.

NFC West: Jimmy Garoppolo, Wilson, Jared Goff, Kyler Murray. We would say only Murray would be behind his former teammate at Oklahoma.

That would rank Mayfield 16th among the quarterbacks in the league, and you can make a case he could be a little higher.

That’s why talk of being a draft bust is ridiculous. Some players start off great, then have a learning curve, and then wind up being great players.

If at this time next year, Mayfield has shown more signs of regression, then perhaps his leash will be shorter. But let’s wait until that is seen.

The OBJ Dilemma

You would think the center of the drama world might be in New York City or Hollywood, CA, but they have nothing on what goes on weekly in the Cleveland suburb of Berea, OH, the home of the Cleveland Browns.

Yes, the Browns won Sunday to move their record to 6-7 and keep their flickering playoff hopes alive, but after the contest, all everyone could focus on was the continuing saga of Odell Beckham Jr. and the comments about the medical staff by QB Baker Mayfield.

Beckham seems to love this. There is always some kind of issue swirling around him, whether it be a visor tinted too dark, or what kind of shoes he is wearing, or now, is he injured, and if so, what is the extent of the problem?

The big question is does it affect the rest of the roster?

Look, we don’t want to come off as “get off my lawn” guy. Quite frankly, if Beckham were playing at a level that made him one of the best wide receivers in the NFL he could play barefoot with a crown on his head.

Unfortunately, probably due to the injury, he’s not. He’s not even the best player at his position on the team, that would be Jarvis Landry, who seems likely to set a career high in receiving yards in 2019.

We haven’t forgotten the rumor about him telling Browns’ opponents to come after him in the off-season either. We hope that’s all it is, a rumor. Because there is no way GM John Dorsey is going to recoup what he spent on Beckham during the off-season.

We could argue the organization has bent over backwards to make OBJ happy, from changing an offense that worked in the second half last season, to Mayfield trying his best to make him part of that offense. And we definitely feel the quarterback is forcing the ball to him.

There is no question Beckham is gifted. He has the talent to be the best in the sport, and a bust in Canton to go along with it. We question whether or not that’s what he wants.

As former Cavalier Jarrett Jack once said, some players love the game, others love the lifestyle. Which is Beckham?

This isn’t to say Beckham is a bad teammate. He’s a willing downfield blocker on running plays, and hasn’t complained about his role until the comments came out this past weekend. His average yards per game is at a career low.

Again, that could be due to the injury.

His teammates like him as well, much like they did in New York.

If Beckham wants to be here in 2020, we would like to see a renewed emphasis on football. That means more appearances at the off-season programs, not all of them, but enough build a rapport with Mayfield.

It also means running routes with more precision, something his QB prefers to a free lance approach.

We’d also like him to take more of a leadership role, although that may not be in his makeup.

If he can’t or won’t do that, maybe it is better for the Browns to move on from this noble experiment. It was noted earlier in the year that perhaps it was too soon for the Browns to take on a player like Odell Beckham Jr.

We believe you need to have a culture of winning in place before taking on a “diva wide receiver”. That’s something Cleveland is still working on.

Browns Don’t Have Enough Talent, Stop Saying They Do.

All year long, we have been reading about all the talent the Cleveland Browns have.

The Browns have so much talent, they will certainly make the playoffs in 2019. That was an opinion shared by a lot of experts, both nationally and locally.

The fact is although Cleveland has a lot of talent in some areas, they don’t have enough throughout the roster. And that’s a big reason why Freddie Kitchens’ team sits at 5-7 with four games remaining.

GM John Dorsey bears the blame for this. Dorsey put together a roster with a lot of style, but no substance.

Yes, the Browns have great skill players on offense with Nick Chubb, Kareem Hunt, Odell Beckham Jr., and Jarvis Landry. However, their offensive line hasn’t allowed that talent to show through.

Sunday, the Steelers defensive line couldn’t be blocked well enough for Baker Mayfield to use those weapons, particularly his receivers. He simply didn’t have time enough for anything to develop.

Defensively, Dorsey emphasized the front four and the secondary, which is a good place to start in today’s NFL. Rush the passer and cover the wideouts. It’s sound strategy, and they spent a lot of money on it.

Unfortunately, the Browns, as has been the case for most of the last 20 years, can’t stop the run, ranking 7th from the bottom in the league this season. If you can run the ball effectively, it negates a pass rush and puts the entire defense back on their heels.

It’s funny that Dorsey, who seemed to be all over the television, radio and print media when the Browns were the talk to the town in the second half of last season, winning five of their last seven, has vanished this season.

When is the last time he’s been seen on camera?

Shouldn’t he be held accountable for the losing record to date, at least as much as the coach? After all, he’s the architect.

It’s a lot different to take over a team that has won one game over a two year period, and put them on the road to being an average NFL squad. There was nowhere to go but up.

Taking that same team from a 7-8-1 record to a playoff berth is a tougher job.

Dorsey added a lot of shiny trinkets, like Beckham, last spring and summer, but he forgot that football is still a game won in the trenches. We are confident he knows better, because we helped build the Chiefs current roster.

This isn’t to say Dorsey should be fired after the season. You can’t keep having knee-jerk reactions every time someone tries something and it doesn’t work out.

However, we are tired of hearing about all of the talent on the roster. There is in some areas, but in other areas (offensive line, safety) it is lacking, and it needs to be addressed.

Football is a sport that is very symbiotic. All areas have to work in concert with each other. You have Odell Beckham Jr. but he can’t stand out because you don’t have a QB with a strong arm (Eli Manning), or you don’t have good enough protection (Mayfield).

Either way, it’s a waste to have him on your roster because you cannot maximize his talents, unless you have an offensive coordinator who is open to try different things.

We aren’t sure the Browns have that either.

John Dorsey has to take care of these weaknesses before the 2020 season, or he and Kitchens will be on a very hot seat. The Browns ownership has never been known for their patience.

Can the Browns take a leap into contention next season? Absolutely. But you have to have talent spread out throughout the roster, not concentrated in a few areas.

Kitchens Starts Instilling Discipline On Browns

One thing about doing something for the first time is you plan it out in your head, but sometimes the results don’t turn out the way you envisioned.

We believe this is what happened to Browns’ coach Freddie Kitchens.

When the long time assistant got his first head coaching job, he probably figured he’d be like the young college graduate who gets his first teaching job. He’ll be the cool new guy, allowing the students freedom of choice in terms of doing their homework, taking tests, classroom behavior, etc.

Sometimes, the students (depending on where you teach) have enough self discipline to handle this. They understand their job to get their assignments done, and they want to please the cool new teacher. They want him to be their friend and their teacher.

Other times, the students take advantage of the laissez faire attitude of the head of the class, and then the teacher has a choice. Does he continue with his original plan, and get run over by his classroom, or does he put his foot down.

Kitchens got the head coaching gig in Cleveland because of his relationship with quarterback Baker Mayfield and the way the Browns’ offense performed in the second half of last year.

He figured he could lead the entire team the way he related to Mayfield, and everything we be fine.

Unfortunately, not all players have the internal drive to succeed that Mayfield has, so when Kitchens gave them freedom, and the Browns started 2-6, and did so while committing stupid penalties, and doing questionable things like wearing very expensive watches during games, and taking unnecessary risks with the football.

After the New England game, Kitchens had enough. Three early turnovers took his team out of the contest early, and after the game, he said things had to change. The penalties and turnovers had to end.

The penalties stopped against Denver the following week, but the Browns lost anyway, falling to 2-6 despite the Broncos playing a QB that hadn’t taken a meaningful snap in years.

In that game, Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr. wore cleats in violation of NFL league rules. Kitchens claimed he didn’t notice, but we guess he did and wasn’t happy.

Before the next home game, WR Antonio Callaway showed up late. Kitchens told him he would not dress. A few days later, it was revealed Callaway failed another drug test, and was released.

Then, news came out yesterday that S Damarious Randall missed a practice, and so the coaching staff left him in Cleveland for today’s game.

Fans were upset by this news, but they were the same folks who complained about the lack of a firm hand by the coach. You can’t have it both ways.

Whether this change came from on top or it was Freddie Kitchens realizing being a “players’ coach” wasn’t working, we agree that it was needed.

And kudos to the staff and/or organization for figuring out that the original plan wasn’t working.

Being a leader involves making some tough decisions, and Kitchens figured it out. That’s why unless there is a total collapse by the team, we think Freddie Kitchens will be on the sidelines when the Browns open the 2020 season.

It took a little while, but the toughness we thought we would be getting from Kitchens finally appeared.

Thoughts On Browns’ Fate This Year And Myles Garrett

With all of the fallout from the brawl at the end of the Browns win over the Steelers last Thursday night, people have forgotten Cleveland has won two straight over teams with a winning record, and their playoff hopes are still alive.

We have maintained that 9-7 will likely get the final post-season spot in the AFC so after the loss to Denver, it meant Freddie Kitchens’ squad could only have one more hiccup to have any chance to play an extra contest this season.

The Browns passed the first two tests, although both games were at home, as is this weekend’s game vs. the 2-8 Miami Dolphins.

Cleveland will be shorthanded defensively without the indefinitely suspended Myles Garrett, and Larry Ogunjobi, who will miss one game as a result of the melee at the end of the Pittsburgh game.

The need to continue winning is the most upsetting thing to us, and probably Garrett’s teammates as well. Losing the team’s best defensive player isn’t conducive to reeling off a streak of victories, particularly when the Steelers and Ravens remain on the slate.

Let us state for the record that Garrett obviously deserves the suspension and we believe it will extend into next season, the first two games of 2020, a total of eight games.

One has to wonder, though, how Steelers’ QB Mason Rudolph avoided missing any games. He was no doubt an instigator, and should have had to sit down for one game, at the very least.

We do wonder about the national narrative that says Garrett hit Rudolph late on the Steelers’ penultimate offensive play and that the former first overall pick has a reputation for playing outside the rules of the game.

Pictures have clearly showed the Browns’ DE hitting Rudolph just after the ball was released, it is clearly not a late hit, and the tackle was more of a dragging the guy down, nothing violent about it.

As for being a “dirty” player, Garrett has been in the NFL for two and a half seasons, and has received four roughing the passer penalties and one unnecessary roughness calls according the The Pro Football Database.

The Browns will miss one of their best players, every team in the NFL would too, but they can’t let the suspension get in the way of the business at hand, which is to continue winning.

They can’t overlook Miami, a team that plays hard for Brian Flores despite their record and their obvious strategy of copying what Cleveland did several years ago.

Then comes the rematch with the Steelers, which will be a huge step because of what happened and that the game is in Pittsburgh.

And of course, the Ravens will arrive in Cleveland with revenge on their mind. Baltimore has the second best record in the AFC and hasn’t lost since the Browns laid a beatdown on them.

Kitchens and defensive coordinator Steve Wilks will need to generate a pass rush someway the rest of the season without Garrett, who has 1/3rd of the team’s sacks this season. A stat the Browns rank 6th in the league in.

Against Miami, Cleveland will have their top two pass rushers out. Will Wilks blitz more to get pressure and depend on corners Denzel Ward and Greedy Williams to defend.

Is it impossible? No. After the Dolphins’ game, Ogunjobi will be back and perhaps so too will Olivier Vernon.

As Kitchens said, everyone will just have to do their job better for the Browns to keep winning. That’s all anyone can do right now.

What Browns Need To Do Tonight. Besides Win

Tonight is another big test for the Cleveland Browns, as they take on Pittsburgh in a nationally televised tilt.

When you start out 2-6, virtually every game is a big test, unless you want your flickering playoff hopes extinguished.

There is no question the Browns’ playoff hopes are slim, but in our opinion, the last team in the post-season in the AFC will likely have a 9-7 record, so if Freddie Kitchens’ squad can go 6-1 here on out, and the schedule is favorable, although it is minimal, Cleveland still has life.

How do they do it?

The simple answer is to continue to play turnover free football, and that depends a lot on Baker Mayfield, who over the past three games has hit on 73 of 111 passes (65.8%) with four TD throws and just one interception.

By the quarterback rating system, two of Mayfield’s three best games have come in the last two weeks. That’s why the growing criticism of the second year pro is puzzling to us.

The Steelers live on turnovers. They rank second in the NFL to New England is causing them, and if you remember when the Browns played the Patriots, the Cleveland turnovers early (three in the first quarter) dug a trench the brown and orange could not get out of.

Pittsburgh ranks 11th in total defense, 10th against the pass and 14th vs. the run. The Browns rank 15th in rushing offense, but second in average yards per attempt, so starting the game showing you can run the ball would be beneficial to Cleveland.

However, what that statistic means is Kitchens and offensive coordinator Todd Monken have been reticent to running the ball, which is another problem altogether, particularly now with both Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt available.

Offensively, the Steelers are challenged without their two time Super Bowl winning quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. They are 6th from the bottom of the NFL in passing yards and 14th in running the ball.

They rank right around the middle in the league in turning the ball over, but the Browns have been woeful in that category ranking fifth worst in the NFL with just nine in the first nine games.

They intercepted just four passes for the season.

Pittsburgh is an opportunistic football team, so not to be redundant, the Browns must limit their opportunities, and that means being careful with the football, which could be difficult on a frigid night.

Unfortunately, these Browns haven’t been the most patient of teams in terms of taking what defenses give them, although they have improved over the past two games.

Mayfield is aggressive by nature, and Kitchens seems to like using exotic motions and plays at seemingly the wrong time. Both tendencies need to be stifled this week, as the conservative approach is needed.

The Steelers are 3rd in the NFL in sacking the QB, and we know the Browns offensive line isn’t the most solid unit on the team. So, a good strategy might be the throw on early downs and set up shorter yardage situations on second and third down.

The good news for the Browns is although the Steelmen have a very good defense, Cleveland has already faced five defense statistically better in New England (1st in total yardage), San Francisco (2nd), Buffalo (3rd), Denver (4th), and the Rams (10th).

That’s right. The Browns have faced the top four defenses in the NFL through the first nine games.

There can be no patting themselves on the back after last Sunday’s win over the Bills. This will be another tough affair for Freddie Kitchens and his football team.

Holding onto the ball and not allowing big plays could be the determining factor tonight.