Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield had a less-than-stellar showing on Friday night, in the preseason game that used to be the Week One dress rehearsal but that currently is, well, something. Browns coach Freddie Kitchens would have liked to have seen something more from Mayfield.
“I do not think Baker played as well as he would have liked to have played nor how I would have liked him to play,” Kitchens told reporters on Saturday. “Just like we have said before, he has to try and get better, too, each and every day. The way offensive football works is the offensive line has to do their job, the tight ends have to do their job, the receivers have to do their job, the running backs have to do their job and the quarterback has to do his job. If all of that happens, you have a successful offense. If any part of that breaks down, it affects other people’s job. We have to understand that, we do understand that and everybody has to continue to get better and move in the same direction from that standpoint.”
So what bothered Kitchens the most about Cleveland’s offense on Friday night?
“People not being where they are supposed to be when they are supposed to be there with some Day 1 install type things,” Kitchens said.
Kitchens doesn’t seem to be concerned about the possibility that the problem will linger into the regular season, which starts in 15 days with a visit from the Tennessee Titans.
“I think that is part of the learning process,” he said. “I do not know what the disconnect was. It was very clear that we have to figure out what we were doing as a staff and see if we were asking them to do too much or what. I do not know what it is, but some of the stuff that we were not right on we have been doing for several months now. At the end of the day, I know we have left the hotel and have broken camp, but we should still be in the mode of getting better, and this is an opportunity for us to do that.”
Mayfield completed only 10 of 26 passes on the night, and the Browns had a paltry 141 yards of total offense, along with an average gain of 2.6 yards per play.