This Sunday’s trip to Pittsburgh is one of the most hotly anticipated games the Cleveland Browns have played in years. Just two weeks after the ugly brawl between the teams at the end of the Browns’ 21-7 win at FirstEnergy Stadium, the wounds of the Myles Garrett/Mason Rudolph fracas are still fresh.
Freddie Kitchens doesn’t want to hear about any of that noise. The Browns coach has adopted a new mantra.
1-0.
Kitchens wants his team focused on the task at hand – winning an important football game. He talked about the importance of 1-0 in his conference call with reporters on Monday.
“I think the wording of it is to go 1-0 this week because that is what we have to do, but our focus and our preparation, nothing should change,” Kitchens stated. “We just need to have a little more focus on our focus. We have to have a little more focus on the preparation and then our whole goal at the end of each week is just to go 1-0. That is the way it is throughout the whole year. ”
The rookie coach seems wary of discussing the charged environment and anger between the two AFC North rivals. He wants his team focused on playing football, and only playing football.
“I want them to go in with one thing and one thing only on their minds, and that is to do their job, and anything that overshadows that in any way is not acceptable and it is not the best for the team. I want guys to show up ready to do their job. All of that other stuff is just fluff. It is just fluff to give people things to talk about leading up to Sunday.”