The Cleveland Browns fall to 2-5 after turning the football over at will in the rain in Foxborough. When are the Browns going to fire Freddie Kitchens?
If you can’t stop beating yourself, how on planet Earth are you even going to think about beating the New England Patriots in Foxborough? The Cleveland Browns failed the first critical test in attempting to take down the Evil Empire in their football cathedral on an NFL Sunday. Cleveland turned the football over on three straight offensive plays, defining what not-winning football is.
So the preseason hype machine that was the 2019 Browns are now 2-5 and three games back of the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North race. No doubt that the Browns have talent all over the gridiron, but they need to face the truth that Freddie Kitchens is not an NFL head coach. When are the Browns going to fire their head coach? Will it be in-season?
No, it will probably not be during the regular season, if it happens at all this year. The reasons for this are two-fold: they have already been on their bye week and the back-half of the Browns’ schedule is certainly more navigable than the front. That’s not to say the Browns will win their first AFC North title to date in 2019, but wins will be coming if they can just stop beating themselves.
In their remaining nine games, the Browns have two playoff-caliber teams left on the slate in the Buffalo Bills at home on Nov. 10 and the Ravens at home on Dec. 22. Outside of those two games, it’s a lot of Cincinnati Bengals, Pittsburgh Steelers and Miami Dolphins. Cleveland has a legitimate shot at going 9-7 if the Browns can prove they’re better than teams like Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.
However, there is a chance that the Browns could become toxic and too far gone to reclaim the sunken versus the Steelers at home on Nov. 14. Cleveland has to beat the lousy Denver Broncos at Mile High next week. That is a must-win for Kitchens and the Browns. If Cleveland wins that and doesn’t self-destruct vs. Buffalo in two weeks, then an above-.500 season can still be within reach.
But if the Browns are a dreadful 2-7 by the time they host the Steelers, Cleveland could be on its fourth head coach in the last two seasons. You can smell inherent dysfunction from a mile away. In short, Kitchens has a soft ending to his season coming up. If he can just get the Browns there, he might stick for 2020 and beyond. But if he can’t, then it might be Steve Wilks’ show in the interim.