FOXBORO, Mass. — Freddie Kitchens called for a bizarre move in the fourth quarter of the Browns’ game against the Patriots on Sunday.
Cleveland was faced with a 4th-and-11 with 6:17 remaining in its Week 8 matchup against New England at Gillette Stadium. The Browns’ punting unit came onto the field and were whistled for a false start, pushing the team back to 4th-and-16. But the false start was a deliberate move by Kitchens in order to bring the offense back on the field.
The offense back on the field despite being five further yards out in order to try to get the first down. Quarterback Baker Mayfield was sacked and Cleveland turned the ball over on downs to the Patriots.
So, why did Kitchens decide to deliberately false start?
“I didn’t want to use the timeout and I wanted to go for it,” he said after the game. “We had half of our guys running off, half of our guys running on and I wasn’t giving up right then by punting the ball to them. The only chance that we had was to convert for a (first) down and then we didn’t. The defense’s job is to go out there and stop them and they did, so it gave us a chance. I was still trying to win the game.”
Well, it clearly didn’t work as the Patriots eventually won 27-13 to remain undefeated on the season. The Browns, meanwhile, fell to 2-5 despite having an extra week to prepare for New England.
