The Wizard of Moz
Punishing This Air
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- Jan 19, 2015
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Preseason Bliss
This NFL season was probably the most anticipated in the city of Cleveland in a decade. Sure, there were some head fakes with some excitement from the Trent Richardson’s, Brian Hoyer’s, and Johnny Manziel’s of the world. But this was a different kind of feeling. We were the NFL darlings and for the first time in a long time had a legitimate reason for hope and not just that “talking yourself into it” hope that gets you to believe that Mingo having the same weight as Von Miller proves positive that he isn’t too small to play in the NFL.
We were coming off a season in which our #1 overall pick franchise QB threw an NFL record 27 touchdown passes. A season in which his fellow rookie CB Denzel Ward made the pro bowl and Nick Chubb rushed for nearly 1,000 yards in under 200 carries. A season in which Myles Garrett erupted for 13.5 sacks (the second most in Cleveland Browns history) and started to look like he was going to make a run at DPOY sooner rather than later.
And if that wasn’t enough to have the city buzzing, we traded for the guy who has the second most receiving yards per game in NFL history in Odell Beckham.
Top that all off with a head coach who the franchise QB loved and was credited with turning the offense around in the second half of the season which saw us winning 5 of our last 7 games.
The fan base couldn’t wait the whole offseason to see more. Playoff hopes were abundant and we were a popular dark horse contender for bettors and analysts alike.
So now fast forward to week 9, half-way through the NFL season, and things have played out about as poorly as we could have imagined. Let’s take a look at how things have changed.
Cleveland’s Most Wanted
While there has been debate over the role in this season’s terrible start that each position group played, most Browns fans are in agreement that Freddie Kitchens has been bad as a head coach. The disagreement comes in with the extent of “just how bad” and the following “so what do we do?”
At one end of the extreme there are fans that were calling for Freddie to be fired after the Patriots game with some even expecting it to happen. At the other end there are fans who think no matter how the season finished, Freddie is owed at least a start into the next season.
Freddie won over the hearts of many last season and this offseason. His ownership mentality, hard stance on leaking to the media, and avoidance of cliché coach speak was a welcomed breath of fresh air coming from the human/snake hybrid known as Hue Jackson. But the honeymoon phase was very short livedand Freddie has drawn the ire of most fans.
And it’s hard to blame any of the fans that are at their limit for patience with him. It is one thing to lose games because you are out talented or you just come up on the short end of running high probability plays, but that is not what we have seen so far this season. What we have seen are head scratching game day decisions paired with even more confusing explanations. How can a fan not be outraged when his favorite team’s head coach says that he ran out his punting unit to take an intentional false start on 4th and 11 just to send the offense back out on 4th and 16 in order to save a timeout! That isn’t normal logic so it’s very hard to rationalize. Even harder to believe that Freddie would openly admit to it.
There is a laundry list of examples of decisions that have made a portion of the fan base lose faith in Freddie. At this point he may or may not be on the hot seat for his job, but from a fan support point of view his seat is flaming hot. He is 7 games into his head coaching career and he is losing belief fast.
Buyer’s Remorse?
For as angry as fans are with Freddie, that is as surprised/confused as they are with Mayfield’s play this season. Mayfield had fans riding high all offseason with his brilliant rookie campaign in which we saw the best Browns QB play that we have seen since the return of the franchise. But after 7 games and a putrid statline which includes:
• Leading the NFL in interceptions
• Last in the NFL in completion percentage amongst qualifiers
• Second worst quarter back rating in the league narrowly edging out Sam Darnold
There has been some questioning of whether the title of franchise QB was prematurely anointed to Mayfield.
The issue of Freddie has people angry, but I think the issues that Mayfield has been having have people bummed out and confused. How is this the same guy that was picking defenses apart last year? We have had such a long and painful search for a franchise QB, the last thing any of us wanted to do is second guess our QB who played so well last year.
Highs and Lows
So, this article has been a little depressing to write, but just as I believe we were probably too high on the team in the preseason, I think fans are a little too low on them. After 3 straight losses its easy to get frustrated, but I think a lot of fans still see the future potential with this team. I think this team has the talent to dig themselves out of this current trough and have the fan base back to that excited state again soon. It all starts tomorrow afternoon when we go into Denver and can make a statement that these aren’t those “same old Browns.”
This NFL season was probably the most anticipated in the city of Cleveland in a decade. Sure, there were some head fakes with some excitement from the Trent Richardson’s, Brian Hoyer’s, and Johnny Manziel’s of the world. But this was a different kind of feeling. We were the NFL darlings and for the first time in a long time had a legitimate reason for hope and not just that “talking yourself into it” hope that gets you to believe that Mingo having the same weight as Von Miller proves positive that he isn’t too small to play in the NFL.
We were coming off a season in which our #1 overall pick franchise QB threw an NFL record 27 touchdown passes. A season in which his fellow rookie CB Denzel Ward made the pro bowl and Nick Chubb rushed for nearly 1,000 yards in under 200 carries. A season in which Myles Garrett erupted for 13.5 sacks (the second most in Cleveland Browns history) and started to look like he was going to make a run at DPOY sooner rather than later.
And if that wasn’t enough to have the city buzzing, we traded for the guy who has the second most receiving yards per game in NFL history in Odell Beckham.
Top that all off with a head coach who the franchise QB loved and was credited with turning the offense around in the second half of the season which saw us winning 5 of our last 7 games.
The fan base couldn’t wait the whole offseason to see more. Playoff hopes were abundant and we were a popular dark horse contender for bettors and analysts alike.
So now fast forward to week 9, half-way through the NFL season, and things have played out about as poorly as we could have imagined. Let’s take a look at how things have changed.
Cleveland’s Most Wanted
While there has been debate over the role in this season’s terrible start that each position group played, most Browns fans are in agreement that Freddie Kitchens has been bad as a head coach. The disagreement comes in with the extent of “just how bad” and the following “so what do we do?”
At one end of the extreme there are fans that were calling for Freddie to be fired after the Patriots game with some even expecting it to happen. At the other end there are fans who think no matter how the season finished, Freddie is owed at least a start into the next season.
Freddie won over the hearts of many last season and this offseason. His ownership mentality, hard stance on leaking to the media, and avoidance of cliché coach speak was a welcomed breath of fresh air coming from the human/snake hybrid known as Hue Jackson. But the honeymoon phase was very short livedand Freddie has drawn the ire of most fans.
And it’s hard to blame any of the fans that are at their limit for patience with him. It is one thing to lose games because you are out talented or you just come up on the short end of running high probability plays, but that is not what we have seen so far this season. What we have seen are head scratching game day decisions paired with even more confusing explanations. How can a fan not be outraged when his favorite team’s head coach says that he ran out his punting unit to take an intentional false start on 4th and 11 just to send the offense back out on 4th and 16 in order to save a timeout! That isn’t normal logic so it’s very hard to rationalize. Even harder to believe that Freddie would openly admit to it.
There is a laundry list of examples of decisions that have made a portion of the fan base lose faith in Freddie. At this point he may or may not be on the hot seat for his job, but from a fan support point of view his seat is flaming hot. He is 7 games into his head coaching career and he is losing belief fast.
Buyer’s Remorse?
For as angry as fans are with Freddie, that is as surprised/confused as they are with Mayfield’s play this season. Mayfield had fans riding high all offseason with his brilliant rookie campaign in which we saw the best Browns QB play that we have seen since the return of the franchise. But after 7 games and a putrid statline which includes:
• Leading the NFL in interceptions
• Last in the NFL in completion percentage amongst qualifiers
• Second worst quarter back rating in the league narrowly edging out Sam Darnold
There has been some questioning of whether the title of franchise QB was prematurely anointed to Mayfield.
The issue of Freddie has people angry, but I think the issues that Mayfield has been having have people bummed out and confused. How is this the same guy that was picking defenses apart last year? We have had such a long and painful search for a franchise QB, the last thing any of us wanted to do is second guess our QB who played so well last year.
Highs and Lows
So, this article has been a little depressing to write, but just as I believe we were probably too high on the team in the preseason, I think fans are a little too low on them. After 3 straight losses its easy to get frustrated, but I think a lot of fans still see the future potential with this team. I think this team has the talent to dig themselves out of this current trough and have the fan base back to that excited state again soon. It all starts tomorrow afternoon when we go into Denver and can make a statement that these aren’t those “same old Browns.”