Kevin Stefanski took over a 6-10 Browns team from 2019 and won 11 games in his first year as the head coach. He and Paul Brown are the only coaches in the franchise’s history with more than one 11-win season; not even Marty Schottenheimer, from Cleveland’s heyday in the late 1980s, can claim that.

So why is it that so many fans want to run him out on a rail? Coaching lapses, like the one before the end of the first half Sunday in Cincinnati, are bolstering their case, which is becoming more and more difficult to refute.

Rather than calling a timeout which would’ve forced the Bengals to relinquish the ball before halftime, Stefanski allowed the clock to run all the way down to three seconds, when Cincy head coach Zac Taylor used his final timeout to stop it.

Former Browns kicker Cade York then lined up for a 59-yard field goal, at which time Stefanski evidently recognized him, or realized he himself had the ability to stop the clock, or was told that his team had all three timeouts left, and finally called one once it would have no significant effect on the game or what would follow.

York drilled that kick dead center and cleared the crossbar with only about a yard to spare, besting his career long of 58 which he hit to win a game for Stefanski’s Browns two seasons prior. This one took the teams to the break with the Bengals ahead 17-0.

Was the rest of the game enough of a turnaround to save a coach’s job? Let’s discuss that as we head to Part 7.

—@PoisonPill4