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The Kevin Stefanski: Two-Time Coach of the Year Thread

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Grade the signing

  • A+ -Awesome Analytics Alignment!

    Votes: 55 30.9%
  • A - Good choice moving forward

    Votes: 53 29.8%
  • B - Better than the other options

    Votes: 20 11.2%
  • C - Could work out I guess

    Votes: 30 16.9%
  • D - Browns done put their foot in it again, but at least he looks good on TV

    Votes: 9 5.1%
  • F - A failure on every level

    Votes: 11 6.2%

  • Total voters
    178
I think people are being a bit hard on Stefanski. There were a few dice rolls that did not go out way.. But you don't tell Jarvis not to reach for the goal line.. that play alone was a ten point swing.. There were a lot of dropped passes.. But we also got lucky on the mahomes concussion..

I think the punt was a mistake, but hindsight is 2020.. it's the kind of hard lesson you learn playing a top team.. you can't bank on thier failure.. Still, it was close enough to be reasonable..

I think we will be back for more.. Nobody is going to want to play this team next year..

The Browns ran for 5.1 yards a carry yesterday. And they only ran the ball 22 times. They only had one time out on the last drive because they wasted one on a bad challenge and another trying to get a play called. They averaged something like 2.5 yards per play on first down, mainly because of his aversion to running the ball.

He had a shitty game. I don't want him fired or anything. He's proven to be a good coach. But he sucked yesterday as much as any part of the team did.
 
The awareness of Sendejo and Goodson is really troubling on that play. Both of them turn upfield, away from Henne, after he's taken off already.

Sendejo is playing deep over the top and is way too far away to get there regardless, so I give him a pass on that one. Goodson and Mitchell, who are double teaming Tyreek, are in a particularly tough spot because they just can't know for sure that Henne is definitely going to scramble. They both turn upfield (and away from Henne) when Henne is still on the 30 yard line.

The problem is Henne is can still throw the football all the way up to the 35 yard line. So if they break off their coverages early to try and meet him on a potential scramble, Henne could stop and throw the ball or throw the ball on the run. If he completes a pass to their man, the game is over too, ya know?
 
The Browns ran for 5.1 yards a carry yesterday. And they only ran the ball 22 times. They only had one time out on the last drive because they wasted one on a bad challenge and another trying to get a play called. They averaged something like 2.5 yards per play on first down, mainly because of his aversion to running the ball.

He had a shitty game. I don't want him fired or anything. He's proven to be a good coach. But he sucked yesterday as much as any part of the team did.
Agreed.

I was begging for us to do more run plays. We were down 2 possessions and an entire half - we seemed to abandon it all too quickly.

I also thought we should've run more hurry-up offense in the 2nd half.
 
Sendejo is playing deep over the top and is way too far away to get there regardless, so I give him a pass on that one. Goodson and Mitchell, who are double teaming Tyreek, are in a particularly tough spot because they just can't know for sure that Henne is definitely going to scramble. They both turn upfield (and away from Henne) when Henne is still on the 30 yard line.

The problem is Henne is can still throw the football all the way up to the 35 yard line. So if they break off their coverages early to try and meet him on a potential scramble, Henne could stop and throw the ball or throw the ball on the run. If he completes a pass to their man, the game is over too, ya know?
I definitely meant Mitchell in my previous post, not Sendejo. Whoops.
 
Sendejo is playing deep over the top and is way too far away to get there regardless, so I give him a pass on that one. Goodson and Mitchell, who are double teaming Tyreek, are in a particularly tough spot because they just can't know for sure that Henne is definitely going to scramble. They both turn upfield (and away from Henne) when Henne is still on the 30 yard line.

The problem is Henne is can still throw the football all the way up to the 35 yard line. So if they break off their coverages early to try and meet him on a potential scramble, Henne could stop and throw the ball or throw the ball on the run. If he completes a pass to their man, the game is over too, ya know?
I think Ogunjobi (unless he was held) took a really bad angle on the play and too easily gave up the edge.

I'd also have liked to see Stewart fight harder to break away from the hold, but meh. It's all water under the bridge now.
 
I would have sent some kind of zone blitz to pressure Henne into a mistake. But our gap integrity on that play was non-existent, which was also a huge problem.

Actually my issues with Stef weren't about the defense, it was the offense which he controls and his impotent play selection especially on the final drive where we could have sealed a win with a TD. Then the punt after that. By punting he set up a situation where if KC got 1 first down the game was over on a day where our defense was as porous as hell and Garrett was nursing a pulled oblique.
 
In terms of strategy, the only thing that really disappointed me was the way we approached the run game in the first half. I just do not understand Chubb getting...5 carries, was it?...and Hunt a big zero. We never saw them both lined up in the backfield (correct me if I'm wrong) and it seemed to me that we played out the tosses to Chubb in pretty much the same way as Pitt, which seems like...not a great idea.

IDK. I'm not much of a Xs and Os guy. I expected us throw more than some thought we would, like in Pitt, but still.
 
I feel like the Browns got out coached on Sunday. One of the few times this season. Team got away from what got them to this point and I don't know why that happened.
 
I'll be damned, Stewart did get held pretty clearly. Shame no refs saw it, but they can't see everything.
 
As for play calling, I don't know for sure, but I suspect that Baker has a two play pre-snap choice, with either pass or run based on his read of the defense. If KC was selling out to stop the run early, it would make sense for Mayfield to check to a pass play frequently.
 
I feel like the Browns got out coached on Sunday. One of the few times this season. Team got away from what got them to this point and I don't know why that happened.

Not surprising considering it was a rookie coach against a hall of fame coach. I think Stefanskis biggest mistake was going away from what we normally do and trying to limit KCs possessions. Seemed to take us out of rhythm. Our last drive was just brutal, we ran 8 plays for 12 yards and took 4 mins off the clock.
 
Not surprising considering it was a rookie coach against a hall of fame coach. I think Stefanskis biggest mistake was going away from what we normally do and trying to limit KCs possessions. Seemed to take us out of rhythm. Our last drive was just brutal, we ran 8 plays for 12 yards and took 4 mins off the clock.

This feels like one of those class “genius if it works, dumb if it doesn’t” things.

I also criticized the pace of the Browns final possession, but I was mainly doing it because if they had ANY inclination that they may punt on the drive, then they needed to go much quicker to give themselves a possible second possession.

But on the other hand, quite literally the drive right before the last one the Browns had their longest drive of the entire season play wise. 18 plays, 75 yards and took 8:17 off the clock while cashing in with a touchdown.

So it’s tough. I’m sure the success of the previous drive was in Stefanski’s thought process.
 
This feels like one of those class “genius if it works, dumb if it doesn’t” things.

I also criticized the pace of the Browns final possession, but I was mainly doing it because if they had ANY inclination that they may punt on the drive, then they needed to go much quicker to give themselves a possible second possession.

But on the other hand, quite literally the drive right before the last one the Browns had their longest drive of the entire season play wise. 18 plays, 75 yards and took 8:17 off the clock while cashing in with a touchdown.

So it’s tough. I’m sure the success of the previous drive was in Stefanski’s thought process.

I just think they should've waited until they cross mid field to really start burning clock, at least then you're in guaranteed 4 down territory. Definitely would've been a genius move had they taken the lead with less than a minute left.
 
I think, over the last 8 weeks or so, the Browns really started transforming their offense due to what teams were doing. And I would expect that Stefanski will keep morphing the offense.

I think this team was powered by their running attack early in the season and slow transitioned. By the end of the year, it was being powered by Baker. Remember what Berry said, he believes that this is a passing league. I don't think what the Browns did at the beginning of the year is their true philosophy on how to score points.

By the end of the year, the Browns offense looked like a mix between the Mike McCarthy passing attack of old and the systems you would see from a Shanahan offense. I think Van Pelt was brought in to help Stefanski develop his passing strategy even more than what he already had.

What I would expect is that this transition continues into the off season. While the Browns will still have a great rushing attack, I think we will continue to see more and more of passing concepts that would resemble WCO style routes and concepts and maybe even more.

It's truly incredible how Stefanski is able to meld all these different systems together into his system and continues to make it work. He took the power run game concepts from Callahan, he's taking concepts from Callahan, Van Pelt, Childress, and maybe even a dash of the Patriots under Brady via O'Shea. It's a brilliant offense that will continue to meld as different coaches come in and out from the Browns.

I believe Stefanski serving under different coaches from his time with the Vikings really helped him understand and adapt to what coaches do best. He's a jack of all trades in a way that few coaches in the NFL really could have ever done, understanding how to adapt his style to other coaches. He's absorbed all these different styles in such a short amount of time, and yet he's able to throw any sort of pitch in any count.

Stefanski is a unicorn of a head coach. The Browns are extremely lucky to have gotten a 2nd chance to hire him. Thank god Dorsey was removed and they got to hire Stefanski. The sky is truly the limit for him, IMO.
 
This feels like one of those class “genius if it works, dumb if it doesn’t” things.

I also criticized the pace of the Browns final possession, but I was mainly doing it because if they had ANY inclination that they may punt on the drive, then they needed to go much quicker to give themselves a possible second possession.

But on the other hand, quite literally the drive right before the last one the Browns had their longest drive of the entire season play wise. 18 plays, 75 yards and took 8:17 off the clock while cashing in with a touchdown.

So it’s tough. I’m sure the success of the previous drive was in Stefanski’s thought process.

I felt the same way with our final drive before the half (when Higgins fumbled). I thought we were leaving WAY too much time on the clock. KC ended up getting a field goal and although it didn't matter in terms of the end result, it still felt very un-Stefanski-like.
 

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