Moving forward, Browns must clean up penalties

If the Browns are ever going to get to where they want to go, they must clean up the penalties

Sunday’s win against the Bengals was undoubtedly their most complete game of the season so far for the Cleveland Browns. From creating turnovers and scoring touchdowns on defense to taking advantage of their opportunities on offense, they played a very good game.

That being said, a negative trend continued in this game that has been hurting them all season long. What trend might it be? Penalties.

One of former head coach Freddie Kitchens’ biggest issues as a head coach was coaching a team that was disciplined. Having your guys in the right spots at the right time and not committing self-inflicted errors such as penalties is a category that most of the time falls back on the head coach.

For Kevin Stefanski, he got plenty of praise last year in his first year as a head coach, as it seemed as if he had changed the culture in Cleveland and made sure the Browns cut down on dumb mistakes and penalties. So far this season, that narrative seems to have completely flipped.

I won’t sit here and blame a head coach for their team being undisciplined if one player is making mistake after mistake. For example, it seems like safety Ronnie Harrison makes multiple mental errors way more often than one should, hurting the team on multiple occasions.

In this case, as I mentioned, you blame the player and not the coach. Where do you blame the coach? Categories such as penalties.

The Browns rank 2nd in the entire NFL in being penalized, as they have had the laundry thrown on them a whopping 64 times through nine games. A stat that seems even worse than that? They are first in the NFL in pre-snap penalties, having 27 of them so far this season.

In terms of Sunday’s game, seeing the defense come out with the drive and fire they were able to maintain from start to finish was impressive, but you don’t want to be over-excited and have things like penalties occur and wipe out a good game you have going.

Cornerback Denzel Ward wiped out what could have been a score after a bad penalty with his pick-6, as the Browns committed a penalty on third down on the opening drive, taking away a sack and a drive-wrecking play, as the Bengals marched right down the field on that opening drive.

The Browns are a good football team. Being great and taking the next step requires a team that is both great and disciplined. The Browns have time to turn it around and clean it up but must do so soon before it costs them an important game down the stretch.