THE QUESTION THAT KEEPS BEGGING TO BE ASKED

By STEVE KING

Going into this season, the big question with the Browns – actually one of several big questions by most everybody’s estimation, but when you get right down to it, probably the biggest one because it involves the most important person on the team in terms of administration – was how Freddie Kitchens would do as a first-year head coach not just in the NFL, but at any level.

Five games into the season, and with this much-ballyhooed team having just a 2-3 record and obviously really struggling, especially on offense, where it was not supposed to struggle, what with all the offensive success in the last half of last season and the addition of world-class wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. in the offseason, that question about Kitchens is now even more paramount.

In coming off an embarrassing 31-3 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football, you knew this question was going to be asked again this week. And it was on Thursday. Here is Kitchens’ response, which is about the same way he has always responded to it.

“I think I learned something a long time ago in this league, that it is truly a week-to-week league,” he said. “You win, and you move on to the next week. It is just the next game.

“As far as me personally, I probably had to put that into action a little more being in the position that I am now. We try to put our best foot forward every week and always try to remain constant on how we approach the day. The score does not dictate on how I play. I just try to play the best I can on each and every play, and that is the way I try to coach. I coach the best I can today, and then I wake up in the morning and do it again tomorrow. That is the way I have always approached it.

“Then whatever the result is has to stay there. It can’t move into the next week, and I think our guys have done a good job of not allowing that to happen.”

That is, Kitchens never really answered the question and addressed it directly. So we still don’t know the real answer, which is both expected and, considering this shaky start, troubling.

SO WHERE DO THE BROWNS GO FROM HERE?

10-10-19

At 2-3 and reeling after their humiliating 31-3 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football three days ago, the Browns at a crossroads.

Some may call it a fork in the road.

Whatever the vernacular you choose, they are at the moment of truth of their season, just about one-third of the way through it.

Indeed, with the 4-1 Seattle Seahawks the next foe on Sunday at FirstEnergy Stadium, which way will the Browns go? It is, to be sure. the biggest question in Northeast Ohio right now.

Will they play oh, so poorly once more against the Seahawks and let this spiraling out of control continue, putting them even closer to the point that it will take them and their season out of control, too, and near a fiery crash-landing?

Or will they get themselves – and with it their season – turned around by defeating Seattle with the kind of performance everyone thought they were capable of a little over a month ago when the regular season was just beginning?

Who knows?

Who really knows?

The Browns were horrible in losing by a whopping, stunning 30 points to the Tennessee Titans – a mediocre team at best — in the opener.

They were then much better in manhandling a terrible New York Jets team, one that was all banged-up at quarterback, on Monday Night Football.

They followed that up by losing a close, fitful decision to the defending NFC champion Los Angeles Rams when they made some iffy offensive play calls at the end of the game.

Next they played their best game of the season in pounding the defending AFC champion Ravens – at Baltimore to boot – to take over first place in the division on tie-breakers.

Just as everyone thought, or at least hoped and prayed, the Browns had finally found their mojo, the 49ers ripped their hearts out by ripping them from the get-go.

So in this disappointing, confusing, up-and-down season, what happens next?

I wish I could tell you.

I could make something up – which is what a lot of the so-called experts are doing this week because that’s what the so-called experts are paid the big bucks to do – but I am not going down that road. I am going to be honest and admit that I have absolutely no idea where that road leads from here for the Browns.

IT’S UP TO FREDDIE TO FIX THIS MESS

10-9-19

The Browns did not look prepared to play on Monday night when they got waxed by the San Francisco 49ers, 31-3.

The 49ers are good, but they’re not that good. And the Browns are much better than they showed.

They also did not look prepared to play when they lost by a whopping 43-13 to the average, mediocre Tennessee Titans in the opener.

Why?

Indeed, why? Why? Why?

That should not happen twice in the first five games, especially in the opener and on Monday Night Football. Who is not focused for those kinds of moments?

That’s incredible, ridiculous and totally and completely unacceptable. It really is.

And the person(s) responsible for that?

It’s one person — head coach Freddie Kitchens.

I like Kitchens. I like him a lot. And I maintain that he will be successful here.

But this has been a horrible start, to say the least. He has to get these guys ready to play. He has to get his coaches ready to coach.

He also has to get himself ready to coach, and to call plays.

And he’s not doing a good job of any of that.

Yes, the players have to perform better. That’s obvious.

But it’s up to Kitchens to see that that happens.

I was just absolutely stunned at just how lost, confused, slow and lethargic the Browns looked against San Francisco. They were not in the game in any way, shape or form.

It was nothing short of humiliating. People watching around the country had to be laughing at the Browns.

It was just about as low as a team could go. I thought the Browns were past all that, but that’s apparently not the case.

That’s disheartening. It’s sickening, actually.

The Browns need to nip it in the bud – right now, this moment, this instant.

And the person who has to do it is Kitchens. No one else can.

Are you listening, Coach Freddie?

JUST ONE IN THE STANDINGS, BUT MORE THAN ONE OTHERWISE

10-8-19

As the Browns get ready to play the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium on Monday Night Football, we need to take a look at a few things.

For starters, all games in the NFL count as just one – a win, loss or a tie – in the standings. Nothing more, and nothing less. Just one.

Unlike the rankings to decide what schools make the College Football Playoff, it doesn’t do an NFL team any good to win by a lopsided score to make an impression on the selection committee. There is no selection committee. A 50-49 win is as good as a 3-2 win or a 42-0 win.

At the same time, beating the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots doesn’t benefit a team any more than defeating the Miami Dolphins, who, if they continue on this path of horrible play, may be ex-communicated to the Big Ten.

And likewise, it doesn’t hurt a team to lose to the Dolphins any more than it does to lose to the Patriots.

No, it doesn’t matter who you play. Rather, what’s important is that you win.

As Al Davis, the late, great Oakland Raiders owner, said so famously, “Just win, baby!”

And then there’s Herm Edwards, who put it just as simply by uttering, “You play to win the game!”

With that, then, the Browns got just one win in the standings when they throttled the Baltimore Ravens 40-25 two Sundays ago. But in what it meant to the Browns, well, that’s a different story. It was worth more than just one win in terms of how it lifted the Browns, beating a team they normally don’t beat, especially on the road, and a team that, going into the game, was in front of Cleveland by one game in the AFC North standings.

Tonight in San Francisco, the Browns can gain more than just a victory in terms of emotional and confidence-building rewards if they can continue that momentum from a week ago and beat a 49ers team that’s cruising along at 3-0.