The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Don’t overreact, with flaws exposed
What a letdown.
Fans arrived at FirstEnergy Stadium on Sept. 8 three hours early and more fired up for a season than they have been in a long, long time. The Browns delivered — for almost five minutes.
The Titans won the coin toss and deferred. The Browns took the opening kickoff and effortlessly marched downfield while making first downs on four consecutive plays. The cheering got louder when Dontrell Hilliard finished the drive on a four-yard touchdown run over right guard 4:11 into the game.
Then rookie Austin Seibert missed the extra point and everything — everything — fell apart. Fans who stayed to the bitter end of the 43-13 loss — extending the Browns seasonopener losing streak to 15 — must have felt bamboozled.
“It was one game,” head coach Freddie Kitchens said. “We’ll get it rectified. The world’s not ending today, contrary to popular belief.”
Kitchens is right. It would be easy to overreact. The Browns are not as bad as they played in the opener. But still, the season can get away quickly. Their next four games are at the Jets, home to the Rams, at Baltimore and at San Francisco.
“Everybody is going to throw us in the trash,” quarterback Baker Mayfield said.
“I think that’s good. I know what type of men we have in this locker room. Quite frankly, I don’t give a damn what happens on the outside. I know how we’re going to react. I know what we’re going to do.
“We’re going to bounce back. We have a Monday night game coming up (against the Jets) so we don’t really care. We’re ready to go.”
Mayfield was sacked five times. That equals the number of times he was sacked in the final eight games last year. He said he’s fine after the beating. X-rays were negative, but he wore a wrap on his right wrist as he left the stadium. The wrist is just bruised, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
Of everything that went wrong in the opener, the performance of the offensive line is most alarming. It played as poorly against the Titans as it did in the Tampa Bay preseason game when the starting skill players — Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry, David Njoku and Nick Chubb — did not play.
“We held onto the ball too long today,” Kitchens said. “Sometimes they were back there pretty quickly. Whatever it is, we have to protect better. I have to do a better job calling plays where we can protect better.”
Starting left tackle Greg Robinson was ejected for kicking a Tennessee player with 4:31 left in the second quarter. Robinson’s replacement, Kendall Lamm, suffered a knee injury on the next series when right tackle Chris Hubbard gave up a sack resulting in Mayfield being sacked for a safety. Lamm could not continue. The Browns had no update on his condition.
The ejection and injury forced Kitchens to move
Hubbard to left tackle. Justin McCray came off the bench to play right tackle.
Kitchens should not be faulted for dressing only two extra offensive linemen. That is normal. He described the Robinson ejection as “inexcusable.”
The Browns committed 18 penalties for 182 yards, tying the mark for second most penalties (1951) in one game. Kitchens has been preaching discipline since the first day of training camp. The penalties were the most stunning part of the humiliating loss and the most correctable.
The defense doesn’t get off the hook. Missed tackles by the Browns contributed to the Titans scoring four offensive touchdowns.
As badly as the Browns played, they cut the Tennessee lead to 15-13 when Mayfield threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Njoku with 2:10 left in the third quarter. The crowd came to life, but only briefly.
A screen pass from Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota to running back Derrick Henry went 75 yards for a deflating touchdown on the first Tennessee play after the Njoku touchdown. A holding penalty on tight end Demetrius Harris on the Browns’ ensuing series preceded the first of three interceptions thrown by Mayfield.
“We lost our discipline and we lost our composure. But it’s one game and we’re going to be tested,” Kitchens said. “You either take adversity and run toward each other or you run away. I think we have a bunch of guys who are going to run toward each other and we’re going to be fine.”
Kitchens expected his team would face adversity. He just didn’t expect it would come so early in the season.