Kevin Stefanski's game management in Green Bay underscores why he should give up play-calling in 2022. (Cleveland Browns)
Second thoughts: Even at 7-8, the Browns are closer to a division title than any time in their expansion era
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
Second thoughts on the Browns’ 24-22 loss to the Green Bay Packers …
1. I’ve never seen an NFL season like this one. A giant asterisk the size of the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball drop hangs over this 2021 season. Records are skewed because of the addition of a 17th game and hundreds of player games lost due to COVID positives. A very low percentage of players actually are sick with the virus. But positive tests have provided them what amounts to time off with pay. Work concessions granted to the players have led to more practices and games lost to injuries. As a result, rosters are so watered down, the very best teams are not that good and are limping to the finish line with practice squadders filling important roles. The league and the players union are committed to a mutual goal of merely completing the season without a single cancellation. To that end, the NFL season is bordering a farce. Yet, the league is thriving because of an incredibly close playoff chase and the excitement that goes with that. This isn’t the same kind of parity created by former NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle through the league’s inverse draft order and scheduling formula that rewards weaker teams. Great teams would still emerge in that system. This is a unique survival test that will produce a champion in name only. Just imagine a Super Bowl quarterback matchup of Kansas City’s Chad Henne v. Tampa Bay’s Blaine Gabbert, with Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady in COVID quarantine. That would only be fitting. Of course, the NFL would change the rules again at the last moment to avoid such a sham.
2. The Browns are a prime beneficiary of this 2021 spoof – despite their inexplicable and annoying COVID outbreaks. They have fallen to 7-8, the lowest ebb in two seasons of the Kevin Stefanski era. But for weeks, the football gods have smiled on the Browns. This weekend’s game – other than their own – typically fell their way. The Browns are in last place, two games behind the 9-6 Bengals. But, incredibly, they are closer to winning the AFC North title and hosting a first-round playoff game than at any time in their expansion franchise history. They would win the AFC North if: 1. They beat Pittsburgh and Cincinnati in their final two games; 2. Cincinnati loses Sunday to Kansas City; and 3. Baltimore loses Sunday to the Rams or Jan. 9 to the Steelers. It’s all crazily doable. The Bengals have swept the Ravens and Steelers for the first time in the same season since 2009. Yet they would lose the division if they lose to the Chiefs in Week 17 and for a second time to the Browns in Week 18.
3. Baker Mayfield is 6-1 against the Bengals and 3-0 v. Joe Burrow. That’s probably the greatest argument for allowing Mayfield to finish this season as the Browns’ undisputed starting quarterback. If Stefanski isn’t going to pull his quarterback after four interceptions, he never will. One should have been disallowed because of defensive pass interference. But a fifth interception was dropped by the Packers, so they even out. Three of Mayfield’s interceptions resulted in 21 of Green Bay’s 24 points. Two of Mayfield’s five sacks also cost the Browns essentially seven points – one cost them a legit chance for a field goal, another forced them to settle for a field goal instead of proceeding to a touchdown. So you can realistically blame Mayfield for a net loss of 28 points in a 24-22 defeat. And yet, it’s not fair to pin this loss entirely on Mayfield. He didn’t practice for 10 days because of COVID quarantine. He was flown via private jet to Green Bay on the morning of the game. And Stefanski wrote the entire game plan around him? It brings to mind the classic, biting line by Paul Brown after a bus driver got lost transporting the Browns to a game in the 1950s and arrived late, crimping Brown’s unbending, pre-game ritual. Brown told the bus driver, “I am not mad at you. I am mad at the guy who hired you.” Stefanski’s trust in putting the Green Bay game in Mayfield’s hands after two weeks of not practicing was simply insane. Even if Nick Chubb did not exist it would be mind-boggling.
4. The way the game in Green Bay played out underscores Stefanski’s weaknesses as a game manager and furthers the case for him to give up play-calling after this season. He won’t do it now, but it should be Topic A in his 2021 season performance review. Stefanski’s attributes are plenty, but they don’t include game management and situational football. His offensive system is not the problem. His decision-making is borderline awful at crucial times. Like most offensive coordinators, Stefanski is more obsessed with scoring points than winning games. He does not know when to press the brakes on his offense to help his defense. He refuses to do whatever it takes to win a game. He is unable to incorporate field position into game management. He fails to see the benefits of controlling a game and deflating an opponent by running the ball. And he does not accept the fact that a field goal is three points and not minus-4 (meaning a failed touchdown).
5. Stefanski’s comment after the 24-22 loss to Green Bay that he was trying to score a touchdown at the end – rather than play-calling for a game-winning field goal attempt – was disturbing. The Browns had the ball at the 50-yard line with 1:01 to play and all three timeouts available. FOX analyst Troy Aikman interjected, “The way they’ve run the ball, I would expect them to keep it on the ground.” Chubb was clearly gassed after touching the ball 10 times in 22 plays in the fourth quarter and four of the last five plays leading to that point. The clock was stopped for the first-down measurement on Chubb’s 6-yard gain with a pass. What proceeded was so typical of Stefanski’s harried performance under pressure with a game on the line. On first down with D’Ernest Johnson in the backfield in place of the panting Chubb, Mayfield threw wildly for David Njoku open at the Green Bay 35-yard line. On second down, a screen pass for Johnson with guards Michael Dunn and Wyatt Teller in place was blown when Mayfield’s pass was deflected and almost intercepted by linebacker De’Vondre Campbell. On third down, Mayfield was intercepted by Rasul Douglas on a pass for Donovan Peoples-Jones. There was a lot of contact and Aikman was among many who felt Douglas should have been flagged for pass interference. (ESPN analyst Randy Moss opined that Peoples-Jones was at fault for first pushing off Douglas and then failing to fight him off for the catchable ball.) Ultimately, Stefanski play-called those three plays without regard to attempting a field goal because he had no confidence in emergency kicker Chris Naggar. Again, the Browns had the ball at the 50 with 1:01 to play and three timeouts and couldn’t move into field goal position to win the game. Just awful.
6. So now the Browns’ offense has failed with a chance to win games against the Chiefs (33-29 loss), Chargers (47-42), Steelers (15-10), Ravens (16-10) and Packers (24-22). There was also the loss to the Raiders (16-14) when the Browns failed to achieve one last first down to ice the win. Stefanski was home with COVID when coordinator Alex Van Pelt called for three consecutive handoffs to Chubb, which came up 2 yards short of the needed first down. I can live with that. All the others fall on Stefanski and Mayfield.
