Tag: kevin stafanski

Kevin Stefanski excited for challenge of containing Pittsburgh’s offense

Stefanski respects the Steelers’ skill position players, and just might have a game plan to get the Browns a win on Thursday night.

After a game where the Cleveland Browns’ defense was effectively obliterated by Joe Flacco and the New York Jets, head coach Kevin Stefanski is excited to turn a new leaf in Week 3. After addressing the communications issues that caused the defensive implosion on Sunday, he told reporters this week that he knows all about the talent that the Pittsburgh Steelers host on offense, and that he is planning multiple strategies to deal with the array of looks they might deploy against him.

Asked specifically about the skill position players that make the Steelers such a formidable opponent, Stefanski explained that there is no single defensive concept that can contain Pittsburgh wholesale and that his squad must be prepared to defend against a variety of different game plans.

“It is an impressive group,”  He said of the Steelers’ offense. “Think about the guys that they have on the outside who can beat you with speed and size. They have guys who can win on the inside with speed and savviness. They really have multiple ways to beat you with their weapons and how they can align them. We have to be ready. We have to be ready for what I think is a really potent attack.”

Whether the defense will be able to pull off a master-class against Pittsburgh remains to be seen, but Stafanski assured the media that every preparation had been made in anticipation of this divisional matchup. The Browns dropped an easy win last week after letting the Jets hang around in the fourth quarter, and the team cannot afford to lose another game so early in their 2022 schedule.

Watch for their approach to the Steelers to be a feeling-out process early as they assess what works and what doesn’t, and for their defense to pin their ears back in the pass rush. With their standing in the AFC North on the line in this matchup, Cleveland needs a win in the worst way in Thursday’s primetime tilt.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbw33aqtym0ft0g player_id=none image=https://brownswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

Why Baker Mayfield and the Browns’ passing game are circling the drain

The Browns’ passing game has imploded in the second half of the season, and Baker Mayfield with it. Is there enough time to turn things around?

Whatever his inconsistencies throughout his NFL career, Baker Mayfield has usually been pretty careful with the football. Before the Browns’ 24-22 loss to the Packers on Christmas Day, Mayfield had never thrown more than three interceptions in a game, he’d only done that five times in his NFL tenure, and never in either 2020 or 2021.

Then, Mayfield threw four interceptions against the Packers, and that disaster marked  the nadir of a disconcerting trend. Since Week 10 of the 2021 season, Mayfield has completed 56.1% of his passes (87 of 155) for 908 yards (5.9 yards per attempt), seven touchdowns, eight interceptions, and a passer rating of 66.8 — the worst in the NFL among starting quarterbacks over that time.

From Weeks 1-9, Mayfield completed 66.7% of his passes (150 of 225) for 1,917 yards (8.5 yards per attempt), eight touchdowns, three interceptions, and a passer rating of 99.4, 10th-best in the league.

Things started to get really weird in Week 11, when the Browns beat the Tim Boyle-led Lions, 13-10, but Mayfield completed just 15 of 29 passes for 176 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. Mayfield, who had been struggling with injuries all season, was clearly limping in the second half, but head coach Kevin Stefanski kept him in the game. Mayfield did not speak to the media after the game, but got back to the podium the next day.

“It is about putting it all together,” he said. “When we do our job and we do it well, we are a really good team. That takes converting on third downs, finishing in the red zone and then not hurting yourselves in the middle of drives to where you have to overcome long-yardage situations. It is being consistent within every single drive and having a singular focus on the task at hand within those drives and knowing that those critical downs we have to convert and we have to do well.”

It hasn’t tracked yet. The Browns have dropped from seventh to 20th in Offensive DVOA since Week 10, and from 11th to 24th in Passing DVOA. They’ve gone from 5-4 to 7-8, they’re currently last in the AFC North, and while that division is wide open for them with upcoming games against the Steelers this Monday night, and against the Bengals on Sunday, January 9. But if this is the passing game the Browns tote into those two games, the playoffs could be nothing but a fever dream.

So… how did things get so bad, and how can they be fixed?