Cleveland Browns Week 12 studs and duds from close call in Jacksonville

Dud: Kevin Stefanski

Kevin Stefanski is already the best coach the Cleveland Browns have had since coming back to the NFL in 1999. He has them off to an 8-3 start and he deserves some love as a potential Head Coach of the Year candidate. He’s clearly been an upgrade over Freddie Kitchens and it feels as though the ownership duo of Dee and Jimmy Haslam finally got it right.

All of that is true, but Sunday was not Stefanski’s best outing. He did enough to get the win but there were several play calls that stood out as questionable. One was when he reviewed an incomplete pass from Baker Mayfield to Harrison Bryant. On the play, Bryant had the ball knocked out of his hands and it seemed to be a clear incompletion but Stefanski threw the flag to challenge it.

Later, he made a questionable decision to go for it on fourth down. Ahead by eight, Cleveland was on the Jacksonville 22, facing a fourth-and-one. Not only did he elect to go for it, but he gave the ball to Kareem Hunt instead of Nick Chubb, who was unstoppable in this game. Hunt was stopped (although that was also debatable as the refs made a questionable call to say it was short) and the Jags took over.

More questionable calls from the refs helped the Jaguars on their 11-play, 78-yard drive that made it a two-point game. Mike Glennon missed on the two-point conversion but that final drive was far more nerve-wracking than it should have been. A field goal would have put it out of reach and considering how many things were going wrong for the Browns in this one, that would have been the right call.