Kevin Stefanski needs to learn from Brandon Staley about relying too much on analytics

Cleveland Browns HC Kevin Stefanski has to learn from Brandon Staley’s failure.

You have to hope that Cleveland Browns’ head coach Kevin Stefanski was paying attention on Sunday when the Chargers lost to the Raiders. Chargers head coach rightfully so got flack for his gameplan, as he relied heavily on analytics to decide what to do. It killed the team’s chances to win. Especially when you think it makes sense to go for it on fourth and short when you’re inside your own 20-yard line.

Sure, the Raiders settled for a field goal but when you lose in overtime to a field goal, that’s pretty damning of a situation to put your team in. This is the problem with analytics. It encourages coaches to ignore common sense and rely on statistics.

Here’s the truth about statistics; they mean nothing to the individual. Relying on them, and defaulting to them has plagued too many coaches and cost too many men games. Stefanski is no different at the moment. There’s been a few games where he passed on easy points to go for it on fourth-down or try for two when it’s not needed, and it bit them in the butt.

Kevin Stefanski has to be traditional in his planning for the Cleveland Browns

The Cleveland Browns need Stefanski to not be so cute with his play-calling in 2022. The decision to do so in 2021 cost the Browns a lot. There were a few games where doing the normal, expected, common thing would’ve or could’ve worked. Stefanski got too cute too often. Whether it was passing 30+ times against the Packers when they couldn’t stop the run, or deciding to go for it on fourth down in the red zone when a field goal is all you need.

Stefanski had a habit of making boneheaded moves that were steeped in “analytics”. Hopefully for Stefanski, and the Browns’ sakes, he stops doing that in 2022 and relies on conventional football wisdom, because that’s proven to win Super Bowls.