Looking at the offensive numbers put up against the Browns by the Jets in Week 10, there is no conceivable reason that Cleveland should have come away with a loss. New York had a measly 54 yards passing, just 127 yards on the ground, had quarterback Justin Fields sacked three times for a loss of 12 yards, and committed the game’s lone turnover.
The Browns offense was not great by any measure, but it was certainly better than what the Jets put forth. The difference, however, was on special teams, where the Browns gave up a 99-yard kickoff return to Kene Nwangwu for a touchdown, and followed that up by yielding a 74-yard punt return to Isaiah Williams.
The two plays were separated by just a little more than 30 seconds, and put the Browns in a catch-up mode that the offense is just not prepared to handle. There were other reasons the game was lost, but special teams was a firm No. 1 on the list.
Browns’ Stefanski Weighed in on Bubba Ventrone Job Security
In the wake of that disaster, there were the natural knee-jerk reactions that called for the firing of special teams coach Bubba Ventrone. On the whole, the Browns’ special teams have not been bad this season, but a missed field goal in Week 1 did cost a win against the Bengals–though the special teams deserves ample credit for the impressive Week 3 win over the Packers.
Still, coach Kevin Stefanski was asked about the job security of Ventrone last week, and Stefanski essentially shrugged off any notion of firing him. “I have a ton of faith in Bubba, I have a ton of faith in our special teams,” Stefanski said.
Bubba Ventrone: ‘I Respect Kev a Lot’
On Thursday, Ventrone–who played for eight NFL seasons and coached 11 more–met with the media and was asked about the vote of confidence from the head coach.
“Thatâs good to hear,” Ventrone said. “I respect Kev a lot, and Iâll say this â Iâve been in the NFL a long time. Iâve played, Iâve coached for a long time. You know, thereâs times when stuff does not go your way, and the game comes down to playing with great fundamentals and techniques. So, if youâre not doing those things, youâre going to get beat.
“Unfortunately, weâre learning the hard way right now.”
Browns Rookies to Blame?
The Browns are a young team, and that’s been an overriding factor for the group–special teams has been manned by more rookies than most teams would like. Ventrone cited that as a reason for the struggles.
“Itâs definitely contributed to it,” Ventrone said. “Itâs not the only underlying factor. But like I said, we, just as a unit, as a collective group, we have to do a better job of playing our technique, and playing into the scheme, and just trusting that just do your job and that the guy next to you is going to do his job.
“Thatâs the best way to do it. The best way to play coverage is play complementary to one another, leverage, tackling. We just havenât done a good enough job of that.”
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Embattled Browns Coach Responds to Stefanski Backing Before Week 11 appeared first on Heavy Sports.