Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski regurgitated his same go-to lines he has all season long following losses. This time it was in the aftermath of the worst one year, a 34-13 dismantling by the Washington Commanders that dropped his team to 1-4 on the season.
"We need to be better."
"I need to be better."
"Everyone needs to be better."
But with an offense that's averaging 15.8 points per game, and just 3.2 yards per play. And a defense that is a shell of the unit that led the league in total yards allowed in 2023, Stefanski's message clearly isn't getting through.
Browns star defensive tackle Myles Garrett has had enough.
"We've talked enough over the last few weeks," Garrett said after the game. "There's been a lot of conversation – offense, defense, from the defensive meeting room. We've had enough talk. Just go out there and do your job. Individually and as a team."
It's a bold statement from one of the Browns captains, and the anchor of the team's defense. The unit he leads surrendered 434 yards of total offense to the Commanders on Sunday. Rookie QB Jayden Daniels accounted for 238 of those through the air, plus another 82 on the ground. Cleveland's defense had no answers for the young phenom.
Meanwhile, for the better part of five straight weeks the Browns have continued to beat themselves with the same genre of errors, including pre-snap penalties, dropped passes and missed tackles. And while a plethora of players have talked about correcting an expounding list of warts, nothing seems to change.
As veteran guard Joel Bitonio revealed, it's not for lack of effort. However, something isn't translating from the practice field to the actual field.
"I think the practice and stuff has been solid, our work has been good," the six-time Pro Bowler explained. "At the end of the day we gotta win our one-on-ones. Like there's 11 guys on the field going against 11 of their guys and at some point we gotta execute better than they are. And that just has been our problem."
It's one thing for a team to use themes of "do your job" as motivation. It's another for the message to actually register. Through five weeks it still hasn't.
For the weekly corrections to not be translating from practice to the games is a problem. One that no one seems to have an easy answer for. Aside from Garrett being more stern with his messaging, perhaps.
"I agree with the team," quarterback Deshaun Watson said. "The week was really, really good on both sides – really all three phases. But we gotta apply it on Sundays. And right now we just haven't been able to do that the last couple weeks is to apply that good week of work and preparation on Sundays. That's why I don't know if anything needs to change other than just gotta execute the plan that we've been putting in during the week."
