A somber Kevin Stefanski greeted the media via a remote Zoom session following his NFL coaching debut, a 38-6 beatdown at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens. Stefanski didn’t try to duck and hide from the embarrassing display from his team in the Week 1 debacle.
After properly crediting the Ravens, Stefanski looked in the mirror about his team.
“We did a lot of things that losing teams do,” Stefanski said. “We turned it over three times. Eight penalties, three of which I think were personal foul facemasks, which were killer. We didn’t play good complementary football, put our defense in a tough spot a bunch.”
Stefanski shouldered the blame for the awful display.
“That’s my responsibility. That’s on me,” Stefanski said.
He also took the blame for the botched fake punt early in the game.
“Listen, that’s my responsibility. That’s on me,” Stefanski said of the ill-fated attempt on the team’s second drive. Punter Jamie Gillan got drilled and fumbled while the blocking in front of him completely failed to execute. It set up the Ravens at the Browns 23 and led to an easy field goal.
“It didn’t work out and you can put that right on me.”
As he later noted, he gets precious little time to regroup. The Browns host the rival Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday night.