Freddie Kitchens ‘Working’ To Solve Cleveland Browns’ Issues

In what is threatening to become a weekly occurrence, Browns coach Freddie Kitchens has resolved to fix the team’s issues. 

This time, Freddie Kitchens was talking about Cleveland’s shocking penalty record. The Browns have committed more penalties for more yards than any team in the NFL this year. They are 2 – 5 on the season, and a long way away from the September optimism they began with.

Freddie Kitchens took responsibility for the problem, and explained one of his calls during the 27 – 13 Patriots defeat.

The play in question occurred during the fourth quarter on Sunday, with the Browns down 17 points. Kitchens had the team intentionally false start with a punt on a fourth-and-11 on their own 24. The idea was that the offense would try to convert fourth-and-16.

However, Baker Mayfield was sacked on the next play. It’s not the first time that Kitchens, in his first year as a coach, has called a bad play.

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“Sometimes in the course of action with punt teams, sometimes they’re used to, when you’re at your own 25 or whatever we were, just fourth-and-11, they’re running on the field,” Kitchens said. 

“The buck stops with me. I should not have let that happened. But once the punt team was out there, there were two choices: Use your last timeout or take a penalty. And I decided to take a penalty.”

The Browns  have lost three games by at least 14 points and two by a possession.

“Expect to clean up a bunch of that this week,” he said. 

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“Been focused and trying to clean those up and it hasn’t gotten done yet. So we’ve got to continue to harp on it. Each individual has to make a commitment to doing that on an every-day basis. That’s where it’s going to start because you have no chance to win the game if you do those things which is very evident.

“It’s a commitment that they have to have to each other and accountability to each other because it’s very evident that it’s costing us football games. So when they decide that it will change. We’re going to do things to speed up that process, which we have been doing. Everybody understands the problems, we’re going to work to fix the problems.”