ENOUGH TALKING, JUST FIX IT

By STEVE KING

Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens said Monday what he has said any number of other times this year.

That is, he knows that all these penalties they are committing are killing the Browns, and although they’ve worked hard to try to correct it, they’re going to work even harder to do it. He added that he knows the responsibility to get this figured out falls on him since he’s the head coach. It comes with the job.

That – the penalties are a death knell, always — was evident to everybody when the Browns, with 13 penalties, too many of which were for false starts, lost 27-13 to the New England Patriots on Sunday. All these penalties, plus three turnovers that led to Patriots touchdowns and took a touchdown away from the Browns, put Cleveland behind by a whopping – and almost insurmountable, considering who they were playing — 17-0 in a veritable blink of an eye as the game began.

It was a joke – a really bad look. It made the Browns appear as if they had never practiced before. In reality, they were coming off nearly two weeks of practices after having had their bye the previous weekend.

And it kept the Browns from possibly springing the upset of the season, for they had excellent plans offensive, defensively and on special teams. That was clear when the penalties and turnovers didn’t get in the way. The game plan was working.

Yikes!

Here’s the deal: The Browns have lost three in a row to fall to 2-5. Their chances to have that special season that everyone envisioned – and predicted — for them are hanging by a thread, and a frayed one at that.

Kitchens needs to quit talking about fixing it, and fix it. What are the Browns doing at practice? Why do these issues persist? They are professionals. High school teams don’t have these kinds of problems.

Enough is enough. For Freddie, the proof will be in the pudding, and it had better be in the pudding by the time the Browns go to Denver to play the Broncos on Sunday.