End of First Half Against Ravens May Spell End of Freddie Kitchens

With 2:09 left in the first half, the Cleveland Browns had a 6-0 lead over the Baltimore Ravens with a 3rd-and-1 situation. From that point on, everything that could go wrong did, fueled by the inept decision making of head coach Freddie Kitchens. The Browns players were hardly perfect, but they fought to be in a position to compete against a 12-2 Ravens team trying to clinch homefield advantage throughout the playoff. Every move Kitchens made from that point proved to be a bigger disaster than the previous one, enabling the Ravens to take a 14-6 lead into the half.

Instead of handing the ball to the league's leading rusher Nick Chubb on 3rd-and-1, Kitchens opted to run a halfback pass, giving the ball to Kareem Hunt running laterally with the intent to throw it as he was swallowed up by Ravens defenders. After punting the ball away, the Browns gave up a two play, 63-yard touchdown drive made possible by a massive defensive breakdown in the secondary.

The Browns got the ball back down 7-6, then tried to be aggressive to respond and score, opting to throw the ball three times in a row, unable to connect on any of them, forcing another punt. The Ravens, despite not having any timeouts, had more than enough time to mount another touchdown drive; this time in seven plays covering 75 yards in just 46 seconds.

A team that needed most everything to go right to win this game had the right formula for 27:51, had a chance to go into the half not only winning the game, but having done a better job containing the Ravens offense than any team in the league. They had an opportunity to make everyone ask if the Browns had some formula that made them uniquely equipped to compete with the Ravens. Instead, the questions surround the sheer level of incompetence needed for a head coach allow the Ravens to score twice within the two minute despite not having any timeouts.

With everything that the Browns needed to have happen to beat the Ravens, their head coach put them in a position to get killed. A first time head coach in his first year, the hope was that he would grow into the job over the course of his season and give enough reason to believe that he would be far better in a second season.

The 2:09 that ended the first half against the Ravens leaves an indelible image that will leave even the most resistant to this quick of a hook for a head coach with little if any argument. There's a list of criticisms that can be levied against Kitchens this year, but that series of events perfectly crystallized so many of them as well as the disaster this season as a whole that it's impossible to imagine they won't encompass the epitaph on Kitchens' head coaching tenure for the Cleveland Browns.