Cleveland Browns: Kevin Stefanski suffering sophomore slump

Kevin Stefanski, the Cleveland Browns head coach was amazing last year earning the Coach of the Year Award. But this year he has fallen into a sophomore slump.

The Cleveland Browns left no doubt who was the better team on the field today. The better team was the New England Patriots.

Were they better because they had better players? No. The Browns matched up player for player with New England. The Patriots were the better team because they were better coached team. And New England head coach Bill Belichick outcoached Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski.

Getting outcoached by Bill Belichick is not something to be ashamed of. He’s a Hall of Fame coach. But getting outcoached has been a common occurrence for the Browns this season.

The league is figuring out Cleveland. There was a blueprint for beating the Browns before this week’s game. But now the Belichick has put the blueprint on steroids and then put it on tape for the whole league to see.

So, what is happening to the Cleveland Browns? What is going on with Stefanksi? In short, Stefanski is in a sophomore slump.

He came out last year and transformed the Browns culture. He took a poorly coached team with a bad locker room and turned them into winners. His accomplishments were enormous and accolades well deserved.

But the league always catches up with you. Sadly, the NFL has caught up with Kevin Stefanski. The book is out on him. Today Stefanski and the coaching staff showed just exactly what the league has on them.

On offense, Stefanski coached aggressive. It paid off in the first drive with a touchdown on 4th and goal. This decision to go for it looked as if it might pay off with increased confidence in the red zone and on 4th downs. But alas it did not materialize.

The problem? The problem was the Browns got down by two scores. The league knows that when Stefanski is down by two scores, he will abandon the running game and get pass happy.

This especially hurt today as quarterback Baker Mayfield was inaccurate, his passing sailing high most of the day. Instead of having a good mix of run and pass, Stefanski went five wide and started having your injured quarterback attempt to win the game with his arm. The results of this strategy are typical a loss and an injury to your quarterback.

Some would object that the Browns did not have their starting running backs. It’s true. They didn’t. But Browns running back D’Ernest Johnson was running well before he was put on moth balls. Also, the wide zone system the Browns run is famous for making Hall of Famers out of nobodies. It’s the system that creates the running game, not the running back. Yet, instead of trusting the system, Stefanski gets analytics happy and starts throwing the ball all over the place.

The most fascinating comeback I ever watched was by the Baltimore Ravens about five years ago. Down 21 points, they ran the ball and threw play action passes. Going against all conventional wisdom and analytics, they came back. Maybe its time for Stefanski to follow the lead of Ravens head coach John Harbaugh and trust his system. Play your offense. You might be surprised what you accomplish.

Another problem is the bend but don’t break defense. They bend alright. They bend over and give up every third down they get into. They line up eight yards off the receiver then bail at the snap. A receiver can run for 15 yards before being contested. No wonder they cannot stop anyone on 3rd down.

You may think this is a defensive coordinator Joe Woods issue and not Stefanski. But this has been going on for two seasons. It literally cost them a playoff game last season. At some point, Stefanski has to manage his staff to force a different strategy. If not, we the Browns will keep doing the same things then be shocked when it doesn’t work – that is insanity.

These are two examples. But there are many more tendencies.

For example, the team doesn’t adjust well. There was no answer for Belichick taking defensive ends Myles Garrett and Jadaveon Clowney out of the game schematically. No adjustments seem to be made. Maybe move them around a little bit and give the Patriots a different look?

Don’t get me wrong. Kevin Stefanski is a great coach. Cleveland is lucky to have him.

But it’s time to adjust to league’s adjustment to him. The league has figured him out. It is time for Stefanski to make some adjustments of his own. The players can tell. Defense end Myles Garrett called out the coaches today in his post game presser.

Stefanksi will make those adjustments. He’s still a relatively inexperienced coach. He has been a head coach for one glorious season. He was an offensive coordinator for one season before that. This is the year he is taking his lumps and getting that experience.

But experience only helps when you learn from it. It is time for the Stefanski to show that he is progressing as a coach. The fans don’t need perfection. Stefanski expects progress from his players. It’s time he expects progress from his coaches too. But most important, he needs to expect it from himself.