Shedeur Sanders, the Cleveland Browns’ rookie quarterback, had just orchestrated back-to-back touchdown drives in the final five minutes of Week 14 against the Tennessee Titans. With 1:03 remaining and the Browns trailing 31-29, all that stood between overtime and defeat was a single two-point conversion. And then head coach Kevin Stefanski pulled Shedeur off the field.

What happened next wasn’t just a failed play. It was a coaching decision so baffling that it ignited a firestorm across the Dawg Pound and raised legitimate questions about whether the Browns’ head coach had sabotaged his own team’s comeback.

“I want to know what’s going on with Kevin Stefanski,” demanded Josh Aul in a heated edition of The Dawgs podcast. “Why do you take Shedeur Sanders off the field for that two-point conversion? He is playing out of his mind for the last four and a half minutes, scored two touchdowns, brought you back into a chance to tie this game up, a game that you have blown from the beginning, and you take him off the field.”

“And not only do you take him off the field for that two-point conversion play, but the play you called instead was one of the worst plays I have ever watched,” added Aul furiously. “This team is a joke. It is a clown show. Kevin Stefanski, Jim Schwartz, Tommy Rees, Bubba Ventrone, everybody has got to go. Get out of here.”

Here’s why it stung the most. Sanders delivered the kind of performance the Dawg Pound has been starved for. Accounting for 393 total yards and four touchdowns in just his third career start, Sanders made history. He became just the second rookie in NFL history with at least 350 passing yards, three passing touchdowns, and a rushing touchdown in the same game, joining Joe Burrow in that exclusive club.

But those stats only tell part of the story. With 4:27 left and the Browns trailing 31-17, Sanders scrambled for a seven-yard touchdown to spark the comeback. After a failed two-point attempt left Cleveland down eight points, the rookie immediately marched back down the field, hitting Harold Fannin for a seven-yard touchdown strike with 1:03 left.

The stage was set for Sanders to cap his breakout performance with a game-tying conversion. But Stefanski had other ideas.

Instead of banking on his rookie quarterback, Stefanski pulled Sanders and inserted running back Quinshon Judkins in a formation that the Browns had used near the goal line throughout the season. Judkins took the snap, swept right, and had the option to pitch to receiver Gage Larvadain, but didn’t. His attempt to salvage the play by throwing across the field to Larvadain fell incomplete.

Game over, season essentially over, and Stefanski’s job security now in question once again.

“Obviously, it did not go as we thought it would,” Stefanski offered cryptically after the game. “We didn’t come through. That’s on me.”

The immediate aftermath on social media revealed a fanbase that had reached its limit. The Dawg Pound now demands an immediate change.

The dam breaks against Kevin Stefanski

As Josh Aul shared his angry verdict, comments flooded in demanding Kevin Stefanski’s termination, with several fans suggesting the decision on the two-point conversion appeared intentional. “It’s clear sabotage we’ve been saying it all season, man, it’s clear as day,” one viewer wrote. But that was just the beginning.

Another looked at the spectacular performance Shedeur Sanders put up, and drove the point home. They wrote, “Shedeur was balling, and Stefanski continues to sabotage him, get Stefanski out of town.” The breakout numbers from Shedeur also had people wondering what would have happened if Shedeur had gotten first-team reps and a chance to start from the beginning of the season. “Imagine if Stefanski started Sanders from the beginning. I don’t understand why he keeps getting a pass. This was embarrassing. Every week we find a different way to lose,” one person wrote.

The sentiment wasn’t limited to hot takes. Multiple fans pointed to organizational accountability. “If he doesn’t get fired, I blame ownership!! @clevelandbrowns,” one wrote. Some fans also suggested not attending any Browns game from now on, and one floated the idea of boycotting the franchise: “The Fans should boycott against the owner and demand the firing of the head coach…”

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Some reactions also hinted at a way out. “Hire Coach Prime,” one user commented, asking for Shedeur’s father, the legendary Deion Sanders, to take over as head coach.

The Week 14 loss has now dropped Cleveland to 3-10. Meanwhile, Sanders showed he might be the franchise quarterback this organization desperately needs. Whether Stefanski will be around to develop him now remains Cleveland’s most pressing question.