Kevin Stefanski and the Cleveland Browns are now 3-6 on the season following an ugly 39-17 road loss to the Miami Dolpins on Sunday.
Cleveland has lost five of six after a 2-1 start to the season. It just has not gone according to plan as Cleveland awaits Deshaun Watson’s return from suspension. That was magnified with the Browns lacking any sense of competitiveness against the Dolphins in South Beach on Sunday.
It was also much of the same from Stefanski following this latest loss in his Q&A with reporters.
“We tried to get the run game going a few times,” Kevin Stefanski said following the game. “Tried to push the ball down the field a few times, but we didn’t have those opportunities. We just didn’t do enough early to score some points. It’s frustrating, obviously. You want to start fast, but we didn’t do enough as a football team early to score points.”
It’s one thing to understand the issues. It’s a completely different thing to fix them. Cleveland has not been able to do that under the third-year head coach. Meanwhile, his decision to bench star running back Nick Chubb for a bit after an early fumble left Browns fans fuming. Why bench your best player? It made absolutely no sense.
As for the Browns’ talented defense, it gave up 195 rushing yards to the Dolphins on Sunday. Tua Tagovailoa also played a flawless game by completing 25-of-32 passes for 285 yards with three touchdowns and zero interceptions.
For a team as talented as the Browns, it’s unacceptable to put up the performance we saw on Sunday. Simply waiting for Watson to make his regular-season debut isn’t going to help, either. Star pass rusher Myles Garrett made that clear following Cleveland’s latest loss.
“We have to win the next two,” Garrett told reporters. “First, we have to beat the Bills, and then we get onto the next one, but if we’re looking into the future, we have to win both of them.”
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Cleveland Browns are not improving under Kevin Stefanski
Stefanski’s first season as the Browns’ head coach back in 2020 saw the team go 11-5 and earn its first playoff appearance since all the way back in 2002.
It’s been an unmitigated disaster since. Cleveland put up an 8-9 record last season as drama embroiled the locker room. It opted to take the PR hit by acquiring the embattled Watson while handing him an unprecedented fully-guaranteed contract. The team then traded a quarterback in Baker Mayfield who led Cleveland to a rare playoff appearance a couple years back.
All the while, the Browns have built up a talented team. But under Stefanski, it’s been all about underperforming this season. Heck, the Browns are now 4-9 in their past 13 games dating back to last season. That’s just not going to cut it.
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Cleveland Browns fans calling for Kevin Stefanski to be fired
The backdrop here is a frustrated Browns fan base in Ohio. Rightfully so, they are not happy about this iteration of the Browns and their coaching staff. That became obvious on social media following Sunday’s loss to Miami.