The Cleveland Browns severely lack discipline

Throughout the first 10 games of the season, something is painfully obvious about this Cleveland Browns team, they have no discipline whatsoever

Although Myles Garrett is the man who is in the most amount of trouble, the lack of discipline on the Cleveland Browns extends to the entire team. Perhaps the most shocking indictment is that while Myles Garrett and Mason Rudolph were engaged in a horrific battle at the end of Thursday night’s game, the team was cheering from the sidelines.

What is wrong with the mindset of this team?

Things actually went very wrong on the third quarter Damarious Randall hit, on wide receiver Diontae Johnson. Randall was not even covering Johnson, who was successfully defended by Greedy Williams.

Randall came streaking in from out of nowhere and hit Johnson squarely in the side of the helmet, jerking his head and nearly knocking him out. As he got up, it was apparent on TV that he was bleeding from his right ear. That horrific level of unnecessary violence shows a lack of discipline.

That was bad enough, but the cameras caught Greedy Williams laughing as Johnson lay on the ground, barely moving. Randall, for his part, protested his innocence in an almost playful way, jumping up and down. Both men’s actions show a lack of discipline and may be inviting future retribution.

Even worse, Morgan Burnett had gone out with an apparent Achilles injury late in the second quarter. The Browns needed to have Randall on the field to help preserve their lead. This was a most inopportune time to pursue a private agenda. That’s a lack of focus on the team, which is unsurprising given their absence of discipline.

The goal has to be winning the football game and not yielding to other desires, such as the desire to vent frustrations or complain to the league.

Undisciplined means that the players have other goals besides winning a football game. They may be motivated by revenge or the desire to vent frustrations. But when these side agendas start to interfere with the ability to win games, that proves that there is a lack of discipline, and the importance of winning has not been properly communicated to the players.

Williams and fellow rookie Mack Wilson were involved in the hit that knocked out JuJu Smith-Schuster, though from the replays it looks like Burnett might have had the largest hit. That was an egregious play, but what made it worse was Wilson tweeting about it and celebrating after the game.

He took it down after suffering a barrage of criticism. Why would anyone think that you could celebrate or boast about giving an opponent a concussion?

Man, you cannot do that. You might secretly think it, but you cannot openly glorify yourself on national TV or public media for causing a concussion such as that.

That shows that Wilson, like Williams, has grossly misunderstood the expectations of the NFL and the fans. That’s something that the coaching staff evidently did not teach the young players.

Thus, the problem on Thursday night was not simply Myles Garrett. The entire mindset of the defensive unit is wrong. They were motivated to vent their frustrations or get even with the Steelers for past confrontations, but they were not focused on winning. Players who openly pursued alternate agendas on Thursday included more than half the team:

Damarious Randall, blatant helmet to helmet hit followed by comic protest. He was clearly out of control and possibly not sure if he wants to play for the Browns much longer.

Greedy Williams, helmet hit to Schuster and Johnson, caught laughing by TV cameras. Has his attitude been shaped by Randall and some of the others?

Mack Wilson, helmet hit to Johnson and a foolish celebration on Twitter afterward.

Myles Garrett, principal combatant versus Mason Rudolph. We all know what happened. A little restraint might have saved his season.

Larry Ogunjobi also fought on Garrett’s behalf.

Morgan Burnett, helmet-to-helmet hit on Smith Schuster. There wasn’t a good video angle on that play, so it was less clear what happened on the play.

We have to assume that the players are being taught improperly and have unrealistic views of what it is they are supposed to be doing on the football team. Although nobody is saying that they do not want to win, their other side goals took priority on Thursday. They wanted to get their revenge or take out their frustrations and that is what they do.

That has been the situation all season long, and there are any number of articles in Dawg Pound Daily and the rest of the sporting press complaining about needless penalties, wild play calls, and distractions.

Even in Week 1, the team shot itself in the foot when Greg Robinson got thrown out for fighting, crippling the Browns offense when another lineman went out due to injury.

Perhaps Robinson felt better about himself after getting into a fight. But the team lost in no small measure to his lack of focus on the goal of winning the football game.

Many years ago, coach Bill Parcells allowed himself to be miked up for a game. Late in the game, he sensed a player was getting angry and reaching his boiling point, and so he walks up beside the player and says, in a loud voice, slowly and calmly, “I just want you to know.. that if you get into a fight out there and get a penalty called on you….you’re going home for good! I just want to know that.”

To make a long story short, the player did not start the fight and kept his job. That’s the kind of thing that was needed on Thursday. Nip it in the bud rather than watch it play out during the game and then have to do damage control.

Coach Kitchens said many of the right things after the game. He took responsibility, apologized, and did not make excuses. But if he had said some of those things to the team on Wednesday, they might not have had the catastrophe of Thursday. More than that, the mindset of the entire team has been screwed up from the get-go. The lack of discipline is totally unprofessional and once again cost the team.

Does Mason Rudolph have some issues? Yes. But who cares? His personality issues are not the problem with the Cleveland Browns.

This team is undisciplined, and from Week 1 it’s been easy to distract them and get them to commit penalties and get in fights and meaningless disputes.

Kitchens needs to somehow get his team to focus on winning, not one-upmanship on the other team, not revenge and not on venting emotions. These other objectives result in penalties and suspensions which cause you to lose football games.

Also, you talk about salary cap all you want, but what sane free agent is going to want to come to Cleveland now?  Maybe Antonio Brown?  The team has to have new priorities.