5 things that must change for the Cleveland Browns in 2019
By Randy Gurzi
2. They need to become more disciplined
When discussing special teams, the penalties were already mentioned. The Browns were tied for the eighth-most penalties on this unit in the NFL and that can be a killer. Nothing stalls an offensive drive worse than being pushed back several yards and nothing deflates a defense like giving them an extra 10-15 yards before they even get to step on the field.
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However, special teams weren’t the only area that struggled with penalties in 2018. Cleveland finished 17th overall for most penalties, which isn’t bad — but it also isn’t great. They had 112 on the year which gave their opponents an extra 894 yards on the campaign.
Offensively though, they were eighth in the NFL with 46 penalties. They were bailed out some by the defense who finished 21st, but they also seemed to make their mistakes at the absolute worst time. Where they really struggled was in offensive holding, finishing with 30 on the season.
The NFL is already hard enough without making things more difficult on yourself with these unnecessary flags. The previous regime seemed less concerned with discipline play than they should have been and in order to become a better team, head coach Freddie Kitchens and company need to stress the importance of keeping themselves out of trouble with the refs.