4 Browns to Blame for Embarrassing Week 4 Loss

2. Kevin Stefanski

The Browns' offense was a complete mess in Week 4, and that falls on head coach Kevin Stefanski.

Yes, being down your starting quarterback and top running back isn't ideal. But Cleveland still had a chance to beat the Ravens if its offense was better suited to help DTR in his first start.

Just look at the Browns' first drive. Stefanski oddly dialed up 5 passes and just 1 running play, putting a lot of pressure on DTR to right out of the chute rather than letting the run game take some of the pressure off of him.

Not surprisingly, things stalled in a hurry. On the second possession, Jerome Ford had a 7-yard gain on first down, but an incompletion and an interception ended things in a hurry.

I understand wanting to build the rookie's confidence up a little bit, but he should've been allowed to settle in first instead of being the focal point of the game plan over the first two drives.

Once Baltimore saw DTR wasn't exactly ready for the moment, that made things infinitely easier for its defense. They could stack the box, essentially neutralizing the run game and forcing Cleveland to beat them through the air, which they knew wasn't going to happen.

Stefanski set his team up for a difficult day by failing to hide Thompson-Robinson's inexperience. It put extra pressure on the defense to make up for the offense's consistent three-and-outs, which eventually caused the top-rated unit to make mistakes after they were gassed.

If there was any matchup to let Ford and Kareem Hunt loose, this was it, especially against a Ravens defense that just surrendered 122 yards to Zack Moss in Week 3. Stefanski absolutely hamstrung his offense by trying to force DTR into Watson's role.