Freddie Kitchens has a message that resonates with locker room, but makes him an easy target for critics

Cleveland Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens has a style of messaging that is popular within a locker room, but makes him an easy target for critics. In short, anything that goes right with the team is a product of the players and anything wrong is on the coaching staff and specifically him. He's consistent with it and has not wavered. Kitchens, dating back to his days as a quarterback at Alabama, is comfortable taking the slings and arrows that comes with being in such a public position, acting as the team's lightning rod.

The problem is because of the level of expectations that come with this team, losses feel bigger and particularly when the team loses in the manner they did against the San Francisco 49ers, people are looking for where to place blame. And when the head coach is saying blame everything on him, that becomes an increasingly attractive option.

Each time the Browns have lost a game this season, the immediate reaction is to question whether Kitchens is up to the job of being this team's head coach. He's never been a head coach before or even a coordinator, so there's little if any familiarity with him and that breeds skepticism.

Not all of those questions are relevant, such as the notion that Kitchens is dealing with a bunch of personalities in the locker room. So is every team. When anyone says 'personalities' they really just mean Odell Beckham and this contrived notion that he's an impossible player to deal with, when that hasn't been the case.

Many of the questions are fair. There's little doubt he has a locker room that believes in him, listens to him, which was a factor in getting the job in the first place. But when the team gets soundly beaten in a pair of games and the team isn't picking up right where it left off from last year, it's reasonable to ask if the coaching staff is one issue or the issue.

Undoubtedly, Kitchens is learning on the job and has said as much. The issue is he's been handed a team with a ton of talent and no one wants to hear about the real flaws it has. They just want to see the wins to back up the hype, whether they generated it or not.

The Browns should rally in the second half of the season and run off a ton of wins, likely putting themselves in playoffs, but it remains to be seen if that means that Kitchens will have gotten better or if it's simply a product of the schedule.

This an evolving team, coach included and it's a team that could start out 2-5 and make the playoffs. The problem is they can't lose in the manner in which they lost to the 49ers and Tennessee Titans. There's losing tough and seeing reason to believe the team is headed in the right direction and there's getting your doors blown off and looking completely overmatched.

If that doesn't happen and the Browns continue to get blown out in big games, when Kitchens says to blame it on him, not only are critics going to blame it on Kitchens, they are going to be openly looking for his replacement.