3 Issues Cleveland Browns need to clear up during the bye
The record-setting amount of penalties
This could be numbers one, two, and three on this list. The Cleveland Browns are getting penalties called on them at a historically alarming rate. If they continue to rack up penalties at this rate, they will end the season with just over 150. It would be only the fourth time an NFL team was flagged 150 times.
Head coach Freddie Kitchens and his staff have to find a way to curtail this deficiency. This is where self-scouting comes into play. Kitchens’ needs to find a way to eliminate the penalties that can be eliminated with proper preparation and discipline.
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The officiating has been egregious this season, and although it feels like the referees hate Cleveland, to their credit they have been just awful all over the NFL. The refs are the X-factor in this equation. Their inconsistency can’t be accounted for, so Kitchens and his staff need to address what the Browns themselves can control.
The Browns currently have 57 penalties against them for 506 total yards. Both of those numbers are the most in the NFL this season. It’s not just one side of the ball either. The offense has the most in the league at 30, and the defense has the third most with 21. Surprisingly the special teams are 19th in the league with five.
On offense, the Browns have 10 false starts and two illegal shifts on the season. Those are avoidable pre-snap penalties. False starts are a direct result of discipline, and illegal shifts are a direct result of preparation. Those are penalties that can be fixed.
The Browns offensive line is actually in the middle of the pack in regards to the amount of holding calls they have been flagged for. So far this season the offensive line has been called for 10 holding calls. Holding is an infraction that’s hard to mitigate because of the subjectivity of the referee can’t be accounted for. Honestly, if they are looking for it, they are going to find it. It could literally be called on almost every single play.
On the defensive side, Myles Garrett is the most penalized defensive player in the NFL. Garrett has four defensive offsides, two roughing the passer’s, and one unnecessary roughness penalty. Garrett’s penalties are all with the intention to sack the quarterback. For better or for worse, the best that can be hoped for is that Garrett finds a way to limit the number of offside calls against him. But at the end of the day, you have to live with Garrett’s aggressiveness.
The defense’s penalty woes come down to mainly technique issues. Unfortunately, many of those calls will come down to a referee’s subjectivity. All the Browns can do is trust in their technique and avoid mental errors.
If the Browns can limit their mental errors during critical moments of the game, it will go a long way in keeping this team on the correct side of the win column. They have to control what they can control. Let’s just hope Freddie Kitchens is able to find a way to instill that in his players during the bye week.