Browns Disastrous Season Finishes in Appropriate Fashion
The Cleveland Browns entered the 2019 season with a boom and went out with a whimper. With all of the promise in the world entering the year, the Browns scored a touchdown on the first drive of the season in seven plays. Since that moment, the Browns have been a disaster with occasional blips of competence mixed in one of the more disappointing seasons in team history. Whether the expectations for this season were realistic or not, finishing the season with a 33-23 loss to the 1-14 Cincinnati Bengals, securing a 6-10 record and third place in the AFC North is inexcusably bad.
Like most every game this season, the game had moments where the Browns looked great, including a couple long passes from Baker Mayfield that ended in touchdowns to Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham, but the vast majority of the day on offense was disjointed and frustrating. Defensively, they were outmanned and overpowered by Joe Mixon for the second time this season.
The Browns dealt with a long list of injuries this season, but their head coach proved unprepared for the job and their holes on the roster were far bigger than most anticipated. The fate of head coach Freddie Kitchens hasn't been determined to this point, but it's difficult to argue that the Browns got better, despite all of the talent they added. They appear to have more holes than last year as well.
They have talent, but they don't appear to have a team and that has consistently dogged them all season. The coaching question will require an answer and the roster has all kinds of issues to be resolved, but the problems for this team appear to go deeper. The Cleveland Browns lack a unified sense of purpose and that is on everyone from ownership on down. Their coaching can get better and their players can improve, but until this organization runs like a professional one, it's difficult to see how this team will play to its capability.
