Cleveland Browns Must Regroup And Rebound From Ugly Loss To New York Jets

It was either a total collapse, disastrous miscommunication, or a simple case of a team shutting down for the day thinking victory was assured.

Whatever it was, it’s become Cleveland Browns’ coach Kevin Stefanski’s worst nightmare, and biggest challenge.

Leading the New York Jets 30-17 with 1:55 left in Sunday’s game in Cleveland, the Browns’ defense gave up two touchdowns in the span of 60 seconds and lost 31-30. Following the game, the Browns players themselves admitted the team basically quit.

“We thought we had it in the bag. . . We did not play 60 minutes,” said guard Joel Bitonio following the game.

“We let up on defense and really the whole team let up in the 11^th hour,” said defensive end Myles Garrett.

The day-after autopsy of the defeat offered no clues.

“You’re up 14 points inside two minutes. You should close out that game,” said Stefanski.

The Browns were, but the Browns didn’t, so the Browns lost.

“Guys should be frustrated,” said cornerback Denzel Ward. “It was a tough loss. When you’re in position to win you’ve got to finish the game.”

Asked about the blown coverages that resulted in the Jets’ two late touchdown passes, which decided the game, Ward played the “We’ve got to get on the same page” card.

It’s never a good sign for a football coach when a defeat is chalked up to players not being on the same page. A big part of the coach’s job is to make sure everyone is on the same page. So let’s just say that, in his two-plus seasons as head coach of the Browns, Stefanski has had better days than Sunday’s ugly everyone-is-on-different-pages loss to the Jets.

But for a last-second, game-winning 58-yard field goal by rookie kicker Cade York in Week 1, the Browns would be 0-2, and the boos that were heard in First Energy Stadium in Cleveland on Sunday, after the home team coughed up what should have been a routine win, would have been even louder.

“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” Stefanski said. “The frustration is very real, when you have a game you feel like you can close out, and we didn’t.”

Two years ago, as a rookie head coach, Stefanski was the NFL’s Coach of the Year after leading the Browns to a record of 11-5, and a trip to the playoffs for the first time in 18 years. But it was a short-lived party.

Last year, in a dismal 8-9 season, quarterback Baker Mayfield, who never seemed to mesh with Stefanski, played most of the season injured, and failed to develop any chemistry with his best receiver, Odell Beckham Jr., to the point where the Browns simply released Beckham at midseason, and traded Mayfield to Carolina in July.

This year, in an act of desperation, Cleveland owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam traded for quarterback Deshaun Watson, and his considerable baggage, then signed him to a five-year $230 million contract, which Watson won’t start earning until he serves his 11-game suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.

Until then, the Browns are operating with a backup quarterback, Jacoby Brissett, who has had one good game and one bad game so far, and a defense that on Sunday, against an inferior opponent, was unable to protect a 14-point lead with less than two minutes to play.

“We’ve got to very quickly turn the page, make corrections, and move on,” said Stefanski, who is probably the only person in the team’s building not unhappy that the Browns have a short work week, with a Thursday night home game against the Steelers, their biggest rivals.

If nothing else, Thursday’s game will shift the conversation away from Sunday’s ghastly loss to the Jets.

Stefanski spent most of his regular Monday session with reporters explaining how, with a 14-point lead and less than two minutes to play, so much could go wrong.

In his shot at explaining the train wreck that was the Browns’ late-game defense on Sunday, Ward, also speaking to reporters on Monday, wore out the phrase “we’ve got to get on the same page.”

Those aren’t exactly laudatory, or encouraging words about the man in charge. But, fortunately for Stefanski, there is no better clear-the-air elixir in Cleveland than a rousing victory over the hated Steelers. So Cleveland’s coach has that going for him, but only if the Browns beat Pittsburgh Thursday night.

Indeed, if there’s a silver lining to the black cloud that was the Browns’ sloppy give-away on Sunday, it’s that so far, the AFC North is a smoldering pocket of mediocrity. The Browns, Steelers, and Ravens are all 1-1, and the Bengals are 0-2.