Cleveland Browns’ Voice of the Fan: What the heck happened vs Rams?

Our Voice of the Fan had plenty to rant about following the Cleveland Browns recent loss to the Rams on Sunday Night Football.

The Cleveland Browns were supposed to be at least 2-1 by now. Some thought they’d be undefeated. Instead, the team is lucky to be 1-2. So far, the team’s saving grace has been playing a decimated Jets’ team just a week ago on Monday Night Football.

The growing pains run rampant, not only for Baker Mayfield, the offense or the defense, but for the entire coaching staff, especially Freddie Kitchens.

First things first…

1, Remember Freddie and John Dorsey, you can have all the toys you want and a good quarterback. but they can’t win games without a better than average line!

This unit has been a tremendous disappointment to say the least. But did Dorsey do much to rectify the problems? Failing to replace Joe Thomas at left tackle has been the biggest black eye on his Browns’ career.

He didn’t address the line until the sixth round of last spring’s draft, takingDrew Forbes. The rookie looked good in camp, but he didn’t make it out of the preseason healthy alive as a knee injury will keep him out indefinitely.

Even if healthy, Forbes was vying for a guard spot and the biggest problems are at both tackles spots.

Four months ago, Dorsey drafted for the defense and thought he could piece together a line from cast offs and UFAs. He’s finding out he can’t do that. Especially at the tackles.

The Kansas City Chiefs played with two tackles that were formerly Browns in Mitchell Schwartz and Cam Erving. They were far more adequate than what Cleveland used.

This train has left the station and it’s too late this year to fix the trouble on the line, but Mr.Dorsey better get to work or he’s wasted Jimmy Haslam’’s money on his toys he secured for Baker to play with.

2. Coach Kitchens has some elementary learning to do, also! He admitted to some bad calls. But there were more than a few issues.

His biggest problem was not seeing what the Rams defense was doing and making adjustments. Especially with an offensive line under siege on almost every play!

The long passes down the field were a pipe dream and a lot more shorter routes with quicker releases were in order! When shorter plays were called, Mayfield was much more accurate. Some hurry up offensive looks might have been a good idea as well.

I couldn’t help but get the feeling that if a more experienced coach was wearing the main headphones last night, the Browns would’ve won.

3, The one saving grace was the defense, aside from a few plays and penalties. Several players on the unit saw their stocks rise. Impressive considering the team was using more or less a make-shift crew in the defensive backfield. The unit played well enough to win.

The D-line did put pressure on the Rams’ quarterback. The corners and safety’s did a better than expected job with even a couple interceptions, but the tackling and penalties must improve.