At the start of the season when the schedule came out, some of the more clear-headed people made statements that we could easily be at 2-5 at this point, based on a number of factors... the number of new players and the fact that it takes time for new players in new systems to gel... the fact that Kitchens is a rookie HC with a completely new staff... that our OLine has some serious holes... among other things.
Now, that has become the case. Some of our losses came because of egregious errors to be sure. Some are totally on Kitchens, but some are on Mayfield, some are on various players, and some are on Dorsey. Kitchens has been a disappointment to be sure but it remains to be seen if he makes some adjustments in his own decision making process to "get better" as he so often says. Mayfield has already shown a lot of improvement over the first few games even though he has a lot of room to improve more. Some guys like Garrett have made some improvements in reducing stupid penalties but our offensive line has been continuing to make some of the same mistakes, and I have to put some of that on Dorsey for relying on guys like Robinson and Hubbard who just may be mental midgets when it comes to focus and discipline, and it's hard to put all of that on the coaching staff.
That pretty much addresses the penalty issue. Now you also have to take some other things into account when evaluating some of our losses. Some of the interceptions have been totally on Baker, and as mentioned I've seen some progress with him making some adjustments and improvements. But some of the interceptions (Calloway for example) were huge and game changing. Some of the fumbles (Chubb/Patriots) were also HUGE factors, who would ever say we could spot the Patriots 17 points and come away with a win? The Titans and 49ers games were debacles and I can put a whole lot of the blame for those losses on Kitchens and his staff. IMO our other losses were a group failure that can't be solely blamed on Kitchens.
Absolutely no team in the NFL can win when they constantly turn the ball over, or when they constantly commit stupid penalties that kill their own drives and extend the drives of the opponent.
To sum it up, yes 2-5 is disappointing but it wasn't completely unforeseen. It was always a good possibility, but conventional wisdom says the remainder of the schedule should produce a lot more wins. What remains to be seen is if this coaching staff can get this team to play like a solid disciplined NFL team should play... fewer penalties, fewer unforced errors, more high level plays made by high level players. It remains to be seen if Kitchens can get on top of calling games instead of always playing from behind, and if he can reduce the questionable decision making. We have 9 games to find out.
