Episode Transcript
[00:00:25] Speaker A: Cast. Oh, baby, it was cold outside. Winter Storm Elliot tore through the Midwest like Red hot Ronnie through a fast cash burrito. And just like Ronnie Gullet, shoveling down that big bean barbacoa and chorizo meat pocket. In the end, we were left with nothing but a big, hot, wet, steamy dump, highlighted with even more absurd play calling than usual by the man too handsome to fire. It may be up to your knees out there, but he really must go. The answer is no. Baby, it's cold outside, but don't worry, your seat in Berea is getting warmer. Or is it? We'll break it all down for you. Next on the Burning River Sportscast.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: Why did we pass it 31 times? The wind chill was negative 16.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: E-L-I-M-I-N-A-T-E-D.
Go home, Kevin.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: You're drunk.
I like that you dropped an F bomb there.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: I was born in Afghanistan. I'd be a Muslim, but I was born in Cleveland. I'm a Browns fan.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: But, yeah, I don't know. The Browns have pretty much given up on the season, so why don't we do the same?
[00:01:42] Speaker A: Welcome into the Burning river sports cast presented by tapping media. I'm Kenny Thunder alongside my agile and delightful colleague, the only person ever to circumnavigate the contiguous U. S. In a hot air balloon using only a sextant made of macaroni and cake batter for direction, the man who puts the Ronnie in erroneous red hot Ronnie jams.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: Listen, for once, I can confidently tell you I did not do that because I am terrified of heights and I would never be caught dead in a hot air balloon.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: That's okay. I did it anyways. Where's the best place to find the most immature 8th grade phallic references, fart jokes and innuendos inside of a Browns podcast?
[00:02:16] Speaker B: You can find our podcast wherever you get your podcasts. That's Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Pocketcast, Castro, and so many more. So with that being said. Kenneth. Kenneth Thunder. How was your weekend?
Your Christmas weekend?
[00:02:36] Speaker A: Look, can I be a Grinch here?
[00:02:38] Speaker B: Yes. Are you talking about the Browns?
[00:02:41] Speaker A: I'm not there yet.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: Oh, well, go on.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: Anyway, not ready for that.
Just Christmas time in general, the holidays. This used to be my favorite time of year. I used to love Christmas, look forward to Christmas. And as I've gotten older, man, it just becomes an obligation. Sure, it's nice to see family. Everybody gets together and you eat.
But, man, just the whole time I'm thinking I got to go here, I got to go there. You got to do the in laws, you got to do the not laws.
And it's just so much like I used to look forward to. I used to stand Christmas carols starting on November 1. And all the way through Christmas, I looked forward to shopping and all this. And it's like last year our tree box made it up to the living room and we never put the tree out. It just sat there. So we put all the presents around.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: This year, the tree box didn't even make it up.
[00:03:38] Speaker A: Tree box didn't even make it upstairs. This year. In fact, wife and I sold your tree wife and I said, are we going to buy each other a bunch of stuff that we don't really need? And so we just kind of skipped Christmas altogether.
We were like, every year we spend a bunch of money on things that neither one of us wants or needs and we just buy whatever we need anyway, so why wait for Christmas? Like, if you need something, just buy it. So then this whole thing just becomes literally an obligation to go see family and eat their mean.
[00:04:16] Speaker B: I still like Christmas time. I'm not going to be as big a grinch as, I mean, I get what you're saying. It's definitely know. Obviously, it's no secret. We've talked at length about me and Emily having a new child, and it was difficult, like trying to go do everything and kind of adjusting to life with a and luckily we didn't get too much backlash if we weren't able to make something or whatever the case was. But it was just like, there's a lot of stress. It's like, how do I fit this in? How do I do this? And that comes even without having a newborn.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: It's just a stressful time of year. And maybe we're just in that in between period. Like you just had your first, so maybe as our kids get older, the magic will be back. It'll be fun again.
[00:05:08] Speaker B: I will say Emily and I had a long discussion the other day about how we can't wait to watch Nori opening presents and things like that on.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: Yeah, like, maybe I'll look forward to it again as I have kids that are old enough to understand Christmas and getting presents and opening them. But just what you're saying, just drag. And I'll tell you, like, the thing that I look forward to for Christmas now, though, is just like the two days off.
I'll tell you, we were so busy running all weekend long and I was off. Monday was the observed holiday at work.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Yeah, we actually took that day off the podcast, too, and recorded a day late.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: I mean, we did, like basically nothing things around the house and that, but that's what we did.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: It was awesome.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: Loafed around.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: I think I took three naps.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: No, I mean, like I said, I get where you're coming from and it's funny. It's actually the main reason why for at least the last, like five to ten years, I've said Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Because to me, Thanksgiving is everything Christmas is supposed to be. There's none of the gifts, none of the obligations to get together with family. Literally just get together with family, have good food and watch football. Yeah, there's no fantastic, there's no build.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Up or having to.
[00:06:22] Speaker B: Just the obligation of having is adult Christmas.
We just want to be with each other. We don't want to worry about any of that other stuff.
[00:06:32] Speaker A: I kind of get that now because it really is just you're going to get together and maybe watch a football and eat great.
But yeah, it's fine. It was fine. Christmas was good. We saw everyone. My sister has nine kids, so it's always fun to get together with them.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: To your point about having children and being able to appreciate it more, I will say with it being Nori's first Christmas and her getting gifts from the family and things, it was pretty cool to see, even though she obviously doesn't understand it. She's a month old right now. It was cool because it was just like a whole different level of Christmas that not being a parent, I had never experienced, so it was cool.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: I think I look forward to shopping and stuff more, too.
[00:07:17] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: I was always into, like, I wanted to have the coolest toys and I would go through the catalog and pick all the stuff out of my. So, like, I would imagine we'll do the same when we have a kid and that probably will add some fun to it. But for right now, I'm just a Grinch.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: He should have dressed up as the Grinch. Like what's his name did for the Browns holiday Hooby.
[00:07:38] Speaker A: What?
[00:07:41] Speaker B: That's it. I'm not going. That's my favorite part. Anyways, Kenny had to DVR the game this week and come back to it for research purposes. Just with the holiday. All the holiday stuff that he loves, know he had to come back to it for research purposes and just go ahead and read that caption for the Browns game on CBS.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: This was just so bad because I didn't even see this until after the game was over. And so obviously I knew the outcome of the game. But I'm getting ready to delete it from the DVR and I look up and I go caption for New Orleans Saints at Cleveland Browns this is good. The Saints try to solve their road woes by playing the Browns. New Orleans has dropped five straight road games after week one, haven't won a road game since week one, and also the Saints are owing three this year against the AFC North.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: Not anymore.
All right, let's just go ahead and rip this bandage off and get into the Week 16 recap.
As always, let's start with the New Orleans Saints. Our opponents this week on offense. Andy Dalton, the Red Rocket, was their quarterback. He came into Cleveland slinging it eight of 15 for 92 yards, an interception and two fumbles.
Wow.
[00:09:09] Speaker A: I don't even have words to describe.
How do you lose to that?
[00:09:13] Speaker B: I don't know. I will say he didn't lose either of those fumbles, but he still fumbled it twice and threw an interception.
[00:09:18] Speaker A: Yeah, like the first one on their first drive. I don't even know. He still got a pass off after that.
Where's Miles Garrett when the ball's on the ground?
[00:09:27] Speaker B: He wasn't in on the opening drive.
Let's get into that here in a minute. We will, don't worry. That's a topic of discussion later. But he was not in on the opening drive, man. Alvin Kamara, 20 carries, 76 yards, one touchdown, two catches for 34 yards. He probably had their best game out of anybody on offense, but it wasn't even like that. Crazy Taysom Hill, nine rushes, 56 yards, a touchdown.
How is Taysom Hill still playing football? How has nobody figured the him out?
[00:09:58] Speaker A: I don't know.
He's thrift store Tim Tebow, but he's found a way to make it work. So I don't know.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: He doesn't love God as much so.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: People, I guess, shit, if he was healing after touchdowns, that would be a problem.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: Yeah, and then they're wide receivers. I just put them all in one group and said they didn't do much because the Red Rocket threw for 92.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: Yards, 92 yards and it was cold. So I guess there's that. It was, what, the third coldest game in Browns history?
And it was blustery. But to be honest, watching the game, I didn't see a lot of times where the weather truly was a factor. Outside of it was just cold.
[00:10:42] Speaker B: The weather outside is.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: Weather outside is just. Then people were just miserable being outside, but just watching the ball in the air on passes and things like, obviously there weren't a lot of deep shots, but I didn't think that the intermediate to short passing game looked like, wow, this is disruptive. I mean, we've seen some games in Cleveland and in Buffalo the last couple of years where I remember the one, the kicker was like, kicking warm ups and the ball was just making it halfway there.
It wasn't quite like that. So the lack of a passing game was a little OD. Just. Yeah. Didn't make a lot of sense to me.
[00:11:16] Speaker B: Yeah. So, I mean, that was their entire offense, like I said, total. They had 92 yards passing and like, what does that come out to? Like 120 yards rushing or something like that?
[00:11:26] Speaker A: And I'll say this, I guess we'll talk about the defense in a second.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: Yeah, the Texans defense. We'll start with them. Two sacks, four QB hits and one iNterception. So once again, which we'll get to, but our offensive line didn't look mean, but overall, their defense really didn't do anything. I mean, two sacks isn't a lot.
One interception, there's kind of a turnover. Usually just about every wasn't. They didn't really do anything with the numbers that they put up on offense. They should have been blown out every game they played like that.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: There's a reason they're owing three against the AFC North.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: Yeah, because this game was a down game for their offense, but an up game doesn't look a whole lot different.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: No, it looks pretty much exactly the same, but, yeah, I mean, that's it for the Texans. They didn't do anything.
That's it for the Saints. They didn't do anything of note.
[00:12:22] Speaker A: They didn't do anything that was deserving of a win.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: No.
That's what hurts the worst about just about every loss that we've covered in the last few weeks for the Browns is like. It's just like we shouldn't lose, but we shouldn't lose.
[00:12:37] Speaker A: They were up ten to three at halftime.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: Yeah, they were.
Let's get over to the Cleveland side. Do we want to start with coaching or save them for the.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: Let's save coaching for the.
[00:12:46] Speaker B: All right, we'll come back to that. I do have a long list there, mostly for one guy. What an idiot he is. The offense, we'll start with them. Deshaun Watson, our $230,000,000 quarterback. 15 of 31, 135 yards, zero touchdowns, one interception, three rushes for 24 yards. And I say that a little bit tongue in cheek, but also a little.
[00:13:09] Speaker A: Bit not tongue in cheek.
[00:13:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
Don't get me wrong. It's like you said, I understand the game was kind of what we expected.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: It to be, right?
[00:13:16] Speaker B: It was super cold, it was windy, and nobody expected there to be a ton of offense, and that's exactly what we got. But at the same time, I didn't see anything happening that was just like, we should be absolutely terrible like this. And Deshaun Watson, one of our questions going into this game is, how are you going to handle the weather? And he handled it pretty poorly.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Wasn't great. It wasn't the kind of linear progression that we had seen over the last couple of weeks to make you feel better about where.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: Correct me if I'm wrong, I didn't really see any flashes in this one like we have in the last couple of weeks where I was like, oh, there's an elite quarterback in there. No, he's still coming back. Look, I'm not bashing him or anything like that.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: I get where you're coming from. But to me it's the same thing we talked about last week, which is when do the excuses stop? Right? Because next year it was cold, it was windy. He's knocking the rust off. Okay, all those things are reasonable, but when do they stop?
Because next year, I don't know. He's played in four games now. I feel like he should be hitting game form and starting to hit his stride.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: To be honest with you, this is about the time. So if you go back to the beginning of the year, the people that have had the offseason to kind of work with the team and do things, week four or five is about when they say, like, okay, we should be good to go.
[00:14:42] Speaker A: You kind of throw out that first month of the season, but then you're in game shape. And I know we're going to talk coaching in a second, but I also don't know that Kevin Stefanski is doing a whole lot for Deshaun right now.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: Because he's doing nothing for Deshaun right.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: Now because I go back to the last drive that the Browns had, where they pretty much had burned their timeouts, and they weren't able to run the ball anymore because they couldn't stop the clock and so they had to throw.
And that was for the first time all day long, we saw routes that were happening that were high percentage. Underneath throws, guys on drags, guys underneath.
Why couldn't we have done that a little earlier? They were able to move the ball.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: All game, every game.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: They were able to move the ball down to the 15 or whatever don't get me wrong.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: Yeah, take a shot every now and then, but why don't we do that every game? That's why they have really good passing attacks. The Chiefs of the NFL, the Buffalo Bills of the NFL, they run a ton of drag routes, a ton of things underneath because they have a couple guys, which we do, too. Amari Cooper and DPJ have enough speed that they could stretch the field. Sure. And they have guys that take the top off and then you just fit them in underneath, everybody else in underneath. It's just a matter of high percentage.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: Plays, of getting playmakers in space. But you can't do that by throwing.
[00:16:07] Speaker B: By running Kevin Stefanski's offense.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: By running Kevin Stefanski's offense.
[00:16:10] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll get into that. Don't worry. There's a whole segment for that.
Nick Chubb, 24 carries, 92 yards, 20 carries and no win. So we'll get into that with Stefanski as well. But congratulations, you found a way to not win after giving Nick Chubb 20 carries.
[00:16:28] Speaker A: And let's be honest, a lot of those carries came at the end of the game when there was no other choice because, and just the way the game was, because it was cold and windy.
[00:16:38] Speaker B: I have a breakdown of the carries because a lot of those carries were, by default, 20 carries. But it wasn't like it was a normal game worth of 20 carries.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: And I don't even know who was on the call this week. I don't know who was commenting the game for CBS. But, man, when the commentators are continually going, I heard it. I don't like that play call. I don't know why you're not running the ball here. Nick Chubbs, your workhorse, he gets better as the game goes on. He wears down the defense. Why aren't they running the ball here?
[00:17:05] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: This is not an enigma.
Everybody around you can see what to.
[00:17:11] Speaker B: Do when the entire nation is starting to question what you're doing. You're probably not doing the right thing. Cream hunt, seven carries, eight yards, three catches, 14 yards. I don't know. Once again, this is at least six of the last seven games that I just write. I don't know because I literally don't know what to make of this.
Why did you bring him back if this is what we were going to get from him every week?
[00:17:36] Speaker A: True.
[00:17:36] Speaker B: And I don't put this on Kareem again. We say this every week. I don't put this on Kareem Hunt at all. I put this 100% on Kevin Stefanski.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: Sure. It's just like Deshaun.
[00:17:44] Speaker B: Meow.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: You're not.
[00:17:45] Speaker B: Find a way to use Kareem Hunt. He's one of the most dynamic running backs in the entire league and we are fortunate enough to have him as a backup and we can't figure out how to use him. You're just not on the offense.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: It's just not putting players in a position to be successful. That's what it boils down to.
[00:18:01] Speaker B: Amari Cooper, six catches, 72 yards, solid game. All the other receivers put them in one caption here. Basically nothing out of everybody else.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: That was bad.
[00:18:10] Speaker B: And again, I don't know that that's their fault or the play calling or Deshaun is just not as.
Not Rusty as we want him to be. I don't know. But he only threw for 135 yards and when Amari Cooper has 72 of them, there's not many more to go around.
[00:18:26] Speaker A: Yeah. To be fair, though, we threw the ball 31 times again. So let's go back to coaching and say it's the third coldest game in Cleveland's history. We're going to throw the ball 31 times seems like a great idea, but I think it was a little bit of gut check time.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Sorry, real quick. Since you mentioned that throwing a 31 times when it's the third coldest game in Browns history, it's almost like we're like Kevin Stefanski. You want to have a successful game plan? No, I'll pass.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, everything played into. Do you get it your hands for that?
[00:18:57] Speaker B: I'll pass.
[00:18:58] Speaker A: I'll pass. Yeah.
I don't know. I think he has a vendetta against Nick Chubb.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: It really seems that way.
[00:19:06] Speaker A: But everything in this game is set up to be run the ball 30 or 40 times in this game because.
[00:19:12] Speaker B: It'S probably the only time all year that we're like, it was windy. We've been begging for him to give Nick Chubb 20 carries. This is probably the only game all year where you should have given him like 40 carries. It just been a Nick Chubb game. What do we give it to him every play?
[00:19:23] Speaker A: What are we saving him for? You're playing the 23rd ranked rush defense in the NFL. It's cold and it's blustery and you can't throw the ball. You don't want to throw the ball. We did. We're going to throw It 30 plus times.
[00:19:34] Speaker B: Not successfully, but we did it.
[00:19:36] Speaker A: I mean, the guys on the other side of the field have Taysom Hill running the ball. That's their offense. That was their offense? Taysom Hill in the Wildcat and Alvin Kamara in the Wildcat.
[00:19:48] Speaker B: Way better plan than what we had, apparently offensively.
[00:19:51] Speaker A: Wait, I didn't even finish on the receivers. I do think it was a little bit of gut check time for these wide receivers because they came out of this game to me, looking very soft. I saw a lot of alligator hands and the balls coming in hot and it's cold. JPJ had a chance to win the game in the corner of the end zone. That was actually a really good throw considering the elements that day.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: So back to flashes. I guess there was that flash, like he made a perfect throw.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, it was in the only place where his guy could get it in the back corner of the end zone and Joku, same thing on the same drive, hit the guy in the hands on a catch that you would normally make, but it was cold.
[00:20:26] Speaker B: I'm pretty happy with Njoku's season overall, but I will say he needs to. What I hope he gets figured out in the offseason is the drops because he is so prone to he drops a lot of the easy ones and he catches a lot of the really.
[00:20:37] Speaker A: Hard ones well, and I think we've seen improvement there even this year for him. But it's still, I just think the elements, I think, got to these guys and it was the end of the game in a spot where it couldn't, you got to man up, you got to sack up and play.
So there's that.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. Let's just move on. Offensive line gave up two sacks in this 124 rushing yards for the Brown. So, I mean, they did okay there, but they should have feasted on the defensive line for the Saints, especially since the announcers were once again talking about how the Browns have one of the best offensive lines in the NFL. I don't see that at this point, but who am I? Instead? They looked overwhelmingly pedestrian and look, they need more pieces on this line in the offseason, but it's going to be pretty hard to come by when you don't have much cap space or draft picks to do it with.
[00:21:32] Speaker A: I watched some of the all 22 today, and literally the very first play, the first run that the Browns had, Jed Wills, I don't even know what he was doing. He just put his arms out like, did one of these and just kind of like Twinkle toed down the sideline and blocked no one. And I'm just like, what are we doing here? I never know what he's doing over there.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: I don't.
[00:21:59] Speaker A: So bizarre.
[00:22:00] Speaker B: Yeah. So let's go ahead and head over to the defensive side here. Miles Garrett, no sacks, no QB hits, three tackles. Looked disinterested at times, but you think that had anything to do with. We mentioned he didn't play the first series. I have more about it when we get into coaching, but long story short, he was disciplined because he didn't give a good enough or didn't communicate well enough when he missed a practice earlier in the week due to an illness.
Look, there's three games left in the season. He's your defensive captain, and he was sick and missed practice and maybe didn't call in time or mean, I don't know. Do you think this is like a power trip for Kevin Stefanski? He's like, I'm losing the locker room. I'm going to really show one of these big guys and I'm going to say you're sitting a series because I'm Kevin Stefanski and I have the power.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: Well, yeah, I've got the power. This is a really interesting one because I think there's so many facets to this. I think what you said is true, that there is some of that where he feels like he may be losing the locker room. It's certainly written about all over. I mean, there's still plenty of Stefanic defenders out there, but people are fewer and fewer every. There's a lot of starting to catch on that all may not be good in Berea. And so I think there was some of that, there was some of the making example, like you said, out of one of the big names because we want to make sure we treat everybody the same.
And some of it is, I don't know what's in Miles Garrett's contract, but I would assume there's a component that refers to how many games you've started. So it's probably something that when they.
[00:23:36] Speaker B: Don'T start, these guys, as far as coaches go, hit him in the pocketbook or any of your players, really. And for something minor like that, these guys are grown men. They're not kids.
[00:23:51] Speaker A: And the last thing I would say, though, is, like, Miles Garrett is by all accounts the face of your franchise.
[00:23:59] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:24:00] Speaker A: He is your defensive captain, beloved around the city.
Why is that even an issue to begin with?
Why is there not a communication loop that all of the players, especially those that are leading your team, why is there not one that's respected and utilized on a regular basis?
[00:24:22] Speaker B: I mean, that tells me that even before the incident, right, there was respect or whatever. Lost.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: Yeah. There was some kind of feeling of like, I don't even owe it to these guys to tell them I'm sick.
[00:24:34] Speaker B: Right. So to me, that's the Miles Garrett, for example. I mean, he hasn't been shy. There's been quite a few times in the last like six weeks where he's kind of called out coaches and, you know, we aren't in a position to win, so I don't know what you want me to.
[00:24:48] Speaker A: So. And we, obviously, we don't know all of the details surrounding we, but that's what we do know, is that there was a communication gap between Miles and the team when he wasn't feeling well and unable to practice. I think he missed two days of practice this week.
But why, like, that shouldn't be an issue.
Good teams don't have that kind of problem. Right. Like Tom Brady.
[00:25:08] Speaker B: When's the last time you heard Bill Belichick's team just out there?
[00:25:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Those guys aren't goofing off, and if they have a problem, they're letting somebody know.
These are the things that are table stakes, fundamentals to discipline and positive relationships in your organization, and they don't exist here.
[00:25:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree with that, though. Like I said, no sacks, no QB hits. Only three tackles in this one. Pretty much out of the Defensive Player of the Year consideration, in my opinion. When you couple this game that he had with some of us losing and being eliminated from the playoffs with some of the other games that other contenders for Defensive Player of the Year had around the mean, I think he's pretty much done with that.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: Yeah, you're just not good enough to be in that mean. Miles is good enough. The team isn't good.
[00:25:55] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a slim chance even before that because the Browns aren't very good, but I think that really killed.
[00:26:02] Speaker A: And if he was going to have any chance, he needed like three sacks a game like Sun Saturdays may have been a perfect opportunity for him to knock down two or three sacks because playing a bad team, playing a red that likes to hold onto the ball and we still couldn't come up with anything, we ain't want it.
[00:26:23] Speaker B: Next up, Reggie Ragland and Tony Fields. The second ten tackles each.
[00:26:29] Speaker A: You know what's good this time of year as a Browns fan, when you start seeing.
[00:26:34] Speaker B: I just saw it come up and I was like, who's this guy?
[00:26:36] Speaker A: You start seeing games that you know are practice squad names, show up on the box score.
[00:26:41] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I was just like, okay, I guess that guy's leading our team in tackles this week, Grant Del Pitt, he actually had an okay game. Seven tackles, one interception in this one, so good job there. Everyone else was kind of just there. I mean, let's be honest, the defenses for both teams looked good because the offenses were so mean.
[00:27:03] Speaker A: Yeah, look, I think statistically, you start looking at just the pure, unadulterated numbers, and you start to look at some of these games, and you would be led to believe that the Browns defense is improving some, and maybe it is, but I would say let's not get carried away because some of these games were bad weather games and against just bad teams anyway. So I don't know that the defensive numbers are a lot more impressive now. I will say that I don't remember if it was the last four weeks or last five weeks. I think we have seven turnovers on defense, and prior to that we had seven all year. So that is improvement, I guess. But here's the thing. I think this has become a staple of the Joe Woods Defense, which is the defense gets better as the year goes on, but it doesn't get better until it's too late to do anything.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: About it hand in hand with Kevin Stefanski teams.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: Yeah, it's just one more nail in the coffin for a guy like Joe woods because we can't afford to not play good defense until Week 13.
[00:28:06] Speaker B: Yeah. All in all, though, I mean, like we had already mentioned, the game was pretty much what we expected with it being negative. 16 degree wind chill on a windy day. Windy day, yeah. Special teams Cade York, one of one for field goals, one of one for extra points. Must see TV, baby, in the cold. Kenny is wearing the Cade York jersey.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:28:24] Speaker B: The Cade York confidence meter is back up a little bit.
[00:28:27] Speaker A: Back up, baby.
[00:28:29] Speaker B: And then we've got Corey. Major quiz, which we'll talk about, actually, in a few minutes here.
[00:28:34] Speaker A: Ronnie loves talking about the punter.
[00:28:36] Speaker B: Who doesn't? Overall, the Browns, 249. Total yards, the Saints, 244. Time of possession, the Browns, 30 46. The Saints, 20 914. And look, here's the deal. Kevin Stefanski strikes again.
That dude snatches defeat from the jaws of victory more often than I even know what to make of. It. Just feels like as I was watching this game, it just felt like the team is just ready for the offseason, didn't it?
[00:29:05] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I mean, these guys look like they've mailed it in and they've looked like they've mailed it in on a couple of occasions this year, which isn't good. That's not a good reflection of your coaching staff, but maybe they'll surprise us this week. But on Saturday, the last two Saturdays, I mean, this team has looked mean.
[00:29:24] Speaker B: You know, I mentioned Kevin Stefanski striking again, so let's go ahead and take it back to the coaches. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, we'll start with Joe woods before we get to Kevin Stefanski. So I've got so much more to say about Stefanski. Joe woods defense looked fine, but it was against a bad team in terrible conditions. And you kind of touched on are they getting better or is it just a product of.
[00:29:47] Speaker A: Yeah, I've said my Joe woods bit. I mean, my biggest thing is, like, this is now a pattern we've seen with Joe woods football teams, and it's not a pattern we can afford going into 2023.
[00:29:57] Speaker B: I would be shocked if he was still the defensive coordinator next year.
[00:30:01] Speaker A: If he's the defensive coordinator next year, I'm going to do something stupid.
[00:30:07] Speaker B: I don't know what it is, but it's going to be what it's going.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: To be, but I don't even know.
[00:30:12] Speaker B: Which takes us to Kevin Stefanski, the king of unaccountability Stefanik, as we like to call him here, because we don't respect him enough to give him his real name.
[00:30:23] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:30:24] Speaker B: I don't even know what this dude anymore. I'm just completely baffled that this guy still has major supporters.
Let's start with the fact that we talked about it already, but let's just start with the fact that he benched Miles Garrett for that series for disciplinary reasons, and it probably cost us a turnover. Like, you just, just why?
[00:30:45] Speaker A: Look, and again, I think the fact that there was a problem is emblematic of a bigger problem, that there shouldn't have been a problem in the first place. Miles Garrett not communicating properly is a result of you not setting clear expectations with him. If players don't know the expectations, how can they achieve?
[00:31:02] Speaker B: There's only two reasons. It's either exactly what you just said, or two, he literally just doesn't respect you enough.
[00:31:07] Speaker A: Right. He just doesn't care anymore to call. Yeah. Which are both bad.
[00:31:11] Speaker B: Yeah, but either way, I mean, by all accounts, Miles Garrett is. Is loved in that locker room by everybody, and you're going to bench him for a series.
[00:31:21] Speaker A: I mean, go back to Kevin Stefanski's play, Stefanik's play calling at the end of that game, it was just piss poor, no matter how you wrote, like, could we maybe bench Kevin Stefanski for the first series of next week's game.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: I know I would.
[00:31:35] Speaker A: Somebody else call the play.
[00:31:36] Speaker B: I just don't get. So that's actually one of my next points. Third and fourth in short plays were just consistently throwing the ball deep. Like, what the shit is that? Why this time it's in sub zero temperatures where the total passing yardage between both teams was just over 200 yards and the QBs combined for exactly 50% completion rate. And we're throwing deep passes on third and fourth and short.
[00:32:03] Speaker A: I mean, what was that?
[00:32:06] Speaker B: It happened at least three or four times that I saw where they threw more than ten yard passes.
[00:32:11] Speaker A: It was that second to last drive, right? There was nine or so minutes left in the game. You still had a chance to have all your timeouts, had a chance to work the clock and run your normal offense, and you go, what was that play on fourth and two? A flag. A deep flag. That's what they came up with in the huddle. Stefanic was like, I got this deep flag, run 25 yards and then cut it off there. This will work.
[00:32:40] Speaker B: I don't know. You know what the worst part is?
He's done it consistently this year. Third or fourth in short, and he throws a deep pass. The reason why we see those plays and it happens the same way almost every time the receiver is open, but it's missed. That's because the other team gives it up on purpose. They know that it's a very low percentage play and you run it anyways because apparently that's what your damn analytics are telling you, is that that's the way to go.
[00:33:07] Speaker A: Well, and here's the other thing. These teams, like you said, they're prepared for a run. So what do they do? They stack the box, they're blitzing gaps. And so there's an enormous pass rush that your team's not prepared for because they're thinking we have to stop two yards. So all of a sudden there's three men penetrating your backfield, staring down your.
[00:33:25] Speaker B: Quarterback and, okay, so you want to pass the ball, that's fine. We talked about a little bit earlier, why aren't we running some sort of crossing route or something shallow and underneath? No, we run a flag for 25 yards, we're going to try and pass it downfield. Like, what the hell is wrong with you? And then again, I mentioned it earlier, but I'm going to say it again, Kevin, you did get Nick Chubb 20 carries and we lost this one. So I'm just going to say good job to you for breaking that streak. You found a way to lose while giving Nick Chubb 20 carries. But I will say this, he had 14 carries in the first half. Thought we started off good. And we did. We were up ten points. I think it was ten nothing. Ten three at halftime. You know how many carries Nick Chubb had in the third quarter?
[00:34:07] Speaker A: Not enough.
[00:34:08] Speaker B: Two.
[00:34:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:09] Speaker B: You know where we were at the end of the third quarter? We were down 17 to ten.
[00:34:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:16] Speaker B: On top of that, why did we pass it 31 times? The wind chill was negative 16.
Negative 16. And it was windy all day long, so they felt every degree of that negative 16.
[00:34:30] Speaker A: I just never want to hear that Kevin Stefanski is a gifted play caller ever again.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: Me neither.
[00:34:37] Speaker A: He might be the worst play caller that we've had in Cleveland in years.
[00:34:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I 100% agree.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: And Hugh Jackson was our coach once.
[00:34:49] Speaker B: Yeah, and I just don't. Back to the passes on third and fourth and short and we're throwing deep passes. Are the analytics telling you to throw it deep every time there? I can understand maybe every once in a while, like we're going to catch them sleeping here and we're going to throw it deep. I get it. But every time, every single time we're going to throw it deep. No.
[00:35:11] Speaker A: And I even go back to the goal line tries at the end of this game where you're on the 15 or so and there's only. Granted there's 30 or 40 seconds left and you don't have any timeouts, but why was there not? It wasn't even an attempt to throw a sideline route to maybe get the first down. It was, we're going to chuck it in the end zone every time.
[00:35:33] Speaker B: We ain't want it.
[00:35:36] Speaker A: Why not try to make it a little shorter? Buy yourself some extra time? You said no. We got four throws, we're throwing them all in and we're going to lose. You lost.
[00:35:46] Speaker B: We talked about him having supporters somehow. I don't know how they don't see that he lose is far more often than he wins.
[00:35:51] Speaker A: How about the last play of the game? I don't know if you saw this. I'm going to put this up here. Why are there on the last play of the game, you have one guy in that corner of the end ZOne and all three of these guys right here together, they're in a bunch. Three guys. This isn't a Hail Mary from 55 yards away.
Run your playbook.
[00:36:11] Speaker B: If you just show me that screenshot, I would tell you that play was definitely successful.
[00:36:16] Speaker A: No. You know what happened at a play Deshaun Watson got sacked because no one was open, because all your receivers are right there.
[00:36:23] Speaker B: They're in the same spot.
Damn it. Go home, Kevin. You're drunk.
Listen, being the Christmas season, I was watching home alone this week, and I realized as I was watching home alone that I just feel like I'm watching home alone every time I watch Kevin Stefanski coach the Browns. Here's just some quotes that apply to both the movie home Alone and the Browns. Kevin Stefanski coaching the Browns.
Look what you did, you little jerk.
You're what the French call les E incompetent. Kevin, you're such a disease, Kevin.
God, I just can't stand him. Like, what is wrong with him?
[00:37:12] Speaker A: He is a disease, man. He is the cancer that ails me.
[00:37:17] Speaker B: I mean, I'm starting to believe. I'm really, really starting to believe it. It's just frustrating seeing it week after week after week. And then the worst part about all this is now they're talking about Kevin Stefanski's. Well, I'll let you get more. I know you have more to say about Kevin Stefanski possibly being the cancer of the team, so I'll let you talk a little bit on that.
[00:37:37] Speaker A: No, I just think, look, I think all of these things, we continue to point out every week they existed last year. So what bothers me so much about this whole damn thing is not even Baker or Deshaun or any of that. It's just that they went into this offseason and said, kevin Stefanski is our guy and we're going to build what he needs. We're going to get him the quarterback.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: Him, everything he needs that he needs. I don't care that he missed however many eleven weeks or whatever. We played well in that stretch. Our quarterback that we had played well in that stretch.
[00:38:10] Speaker A: And you look around the league at teams that don't have are playing with backup quarterbackS.
[00:38:14] Speaker B: The commander's about to make the playoffs.
[00:38:16] Speaker A: I mean, all these guys have more wins than you and it just is not getting any better. And again, I'm a broken record at this point. Like, when do the excuses stop? Because what is it going to be next year? And I guarantee it'll be something next be, you know, Nick Chubb, heaven forbid, will sprain his ankle, get the high ankle sprained at the beginning of the season. Well, we didn't have a running game, so you never could see the Kareem.
[00:38:39] Speaker B: Hunt's not coming back.
[00:38:40] Speaker A: You could never see the full compliment of Deshaun and Chubb together when they were doing whole offseason. The excuses have to stop.
I just. To me, it's the same stuff that we've seen since day and again. Broken record. It was easy to blame all those things on Baker. Deshaun Watson threw all four of those passes in the end zone on Saturday and they all got dropped. When Baker did. It was easy to say he's the problem. We need an upgrade at quarterback. Well, maybe your coach just isn't calling good plays.
[00:39:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, you know me, I'm not a Baker sympathizer at all. At.
I mean, I'm right there with you. I'm starting to wonder, are we going to be able to win? The offense looks the same general with Kevin Stefanski as the.
And what I was going to say is it's getting worse because now they're talking about shutting down. Kevin Stefanski is talking about shutting down Chubb and Garrett for the final two games, which I don't necessarily disagree with that just because we've got nothing to play for at this point, but it still just feels so much worse. It's just. Okay, like we've kind of known just looking at the team, it looks like Kevin Stefanski is terrible. They're giving up. Whatever. And now it's almost like, yeah, we're officially giving.
[00:39:55] Speaker A: Well, and you know what that sounds like to me?
[00:39:58] Speaker B: Excuses.
[00:39:59] Speaker A: More excuses so that when they lose the next two games, you know, those were throwaway games anyway. Miles didn't play. Didn't play.
[00:40:08] Speaker B: When you end up only winning, what is it, six games, seven games on the season? Like you're just. Well, hey, you know what?
[00:40:13] Speaker A: Our quarterback got suspended. Eleven games. It is what it is.
[00:40:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm with you.
I don't know. I look at this season, right? I look back and we just mentioned it, how well Jacoby played while we were waiting for Deshaun Watson to come. I just. We were there. We should be in. And instead the coach can be direct. So many of our wins are directly related to the poor showing by the coach.
And somehow there's still some people raving over this guy and what he's supposedly going to do for this team. And I'm just saying, I'm waiting.
[00:40:53] Speaker A: Well, and here's what worries me is that this week the report started to come out that they're really not even going to consider making a change here. Which I get it, right. Like that's what you said. They built the team that Kevin wanted.
I keep hearing this refrain, too, about that was what brought Deshaun to Cleveland. Was he sat down with Kevin Stefanski and they had a good half hour. Let's be real here. 230 guaranteed million dollars.
[00:41:23] Speaker B: Dude was in Atlanta ready to sign because they offered him more than we did. In case anyone. I know there's a lot of Browns haters out there that hate the Browns for signing Deshaun Watson. It was reported that Atlanta was going to give him 250,000,000 plus. The difference was the Browns guaranteed the entire contract.
[00:41:40] Speaker A: Yeah. It wasn't a Pow wow with Kevin Stefan.
[00:41:42] Speaker B: It had nothing to do with him. It was the fact that they called. He's down there in Atlanta with the execs down there, and they're saying, we're going to offer you more. He said, I think I'm going to go to Atlanta. The Browns called his agent back and said, we're going to guarantee your entire contract. He said, see you, Atlanta. I'm out of here.
[00:41:55] Speaker A: And I guarantee that if Jimmy or AB texts Deshaun and says, hey, you're still going to get your 230,000,000, but we're going to bring in our guy Sean Payton or whoever at this point.
[00:42:05] Speaker B: Hey, we're going to bring in any problems.
[00:42:07] Speaker A: He's not going to have any problems with it because he knows he's still going to be there regardless, since he.
[00:42:11] Speaker B: Only lost a portion of his million dollars being suspended this year. Because the way that they structured his contract, he's got 229,000,000 reasons not to be upset.
[00:42:18] Speaker A: And they're all coming. They're all coming.
[00:42:22] Speaker B: Other Browns notes that I had this week, the Browns made a big deal on social media that they signed Jake Paul to a contract. And it turns out it was funny to me. A lot of other Cleveland podcasts, I didn't touch this because I was like, this is just some stupid thing that they're doing that doesn't make any sense. There was a few other podcasts out there that did touch on this, and they're like, oh, is he going to play for us? Seriously? No, he's not playing football for us. It was all a marketing ploy. They signed him as, like, the junior marketing director or some shit, and then he came in and he smashed the guitar. It was so annoying to me. It just felt so desperate and so Brown.
We're the only franchise that would do something stupid like this.
[00:43:04] Speaker A: Yeah, look, I get it. They're trying to be at the forefront of current entertainment and that. But agree, this felt awkward, right? Because at no point in my life after the release came out that Jake Paul was signing a contract. Did I think they're going to put this guy on the field? And the video that he made, that Jake Paul made to be like, I just got signed by the was. I was just felt.
It felt bad inside.
[00:43:37] Speaker B: It just felt so desperate. My thing is, have you have other social media people, right, that have ties to Cleveland and Northeast Ohio that you could have went with. I mean, even Mr. Beast has different ghost kitchens or whatever the case may be. Like, different businesses opened up around Northeast Ohio. You could have went with him and you had Jake Paul, who's just like, I'm a shit stain.
Come on.
[00:44:03] Speaker A: Did you just call Jake Paul a shit stain? Yeah, I did. We're going to get canceled.
[00:44:07] Speaker B: I don't think so. I think I've got enough backing on that one.
[00:44:11] Speaker A: He's got a lot of influence. He's an influencer, bro.
[00:44:14] Speaker B: He is an influencer.
[00:44:15] Speaker A: That's why the Browns signed him.
[00:44:16] Speaker B: They did sign him as the junior marketing director or something.
[00:44:21] Speaker A: We are all now dumber.
[00:44:23] Speaker B: Yes.
That's literally exactly how I felt when that happened. And then the other note that I had was Jack Conklin's extension was finalized this week. Four years, 60 million. Not that I don't like Jack Conklin or that I don't think he's worth it when he's on the field, but it just seemed to me like this is another guy with a history of injuries that we're gambling on investing in.
[00:44:43] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, to me, this is agree with you. I like Jack Conklin. He's been a good player when he's been healthy, and has made that offensive line one of the best in the league. But he has had a really rough year this year.
[00:44:57] Speaker B: Allegedly.
[00:45:00] Speaker A: Allegedly to anyone that doesn't watch them on paper. So it was just a strange move because of the injury history and how much time he's missed this year that they would invest so heavily there.
And I know that the cap is funny money to an extent. They can kind of do some different things, but at some point, when that Deshaun Watson money starts to hit and you've got other big contracts coming, you've got Denzel with a big contract. You've got Nick Chubb with a decent sized contract. You've got Miles with a good contract.
[00:45:31] Speaker B: The other main one that I'm talking about when I say injury history and us gambling.
[00:45:35] Speaker A: Yeah. So you're going to have to pay for this at some point. And to sign a guy that has played 50% of the time this year.
[00:45:46] Speaker B: I just take it back to. Is this what analytics tell you? This is the guy that you're going to invest in? I will say this, though. I do actually really like Jack Conklin.
[00:45:55] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:45:56] Speaker B: He seems to really embrace Cleveland and he loves the city and he seems like a really good dude.
[00:46:00] Speaker A: 100%.
[00:46:02] Speaker B: I'm not mad about it. I just question it a little bit.
[00:46:06] Speaker A: I think it's a part of why they signed him this week because he came out last week, I think, and said he wants to be a Brown and regardless of if he's not a Brown, Cleveland's now his.
He. So he would like to stay here, but regardless, he's not lEaving.
[00:46:25] Speaker B: There's. Again, I don't hate it. I just questioned just.
[00:46:29] Speaker A: It's the timing of it and the value seemed OD.
[00:46:34] Speaker B: But that's it for this week. Besides the last little bit of information we have here, which is the Burning River Sports guest dog of the week.
[00:46:42] Speaker A: Baby, I'm a dog.
[00:46:49] Speaker B: Mentality.
[00:46:50] Speaker A: Come on out. I'm coming in to kill right away.
[00:46:53] Speaker B: All right, so we mentioned it earlier and I'm so excited for this segment. I like to give Corey Bajoraquez.
[00:47:00] Speaker A: We got to get you a BaJoraquez jersey.
[00:47:02] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I would love to have one. I like to give him his due because he has been a phenomenal punter. This mean, we've talked about him, but we don't talk about it enough because punters, they get overlooked all the time in football because punters aren't cool. Yeah, but he's the dog of the week this week because he averaged 42.6 yards per punt. On five punts, his long was 57 and he put three inside the 20. This was all on a day where we had some of the worst conditions, first energy stadium has ever seen. And the only reason that we probably should have won that game was because he controlled the field the entire game.
[00:47:40] Speaker A: Sure. Yeah.
In a game like that, where the elements are what they were, you can't overlook the field position battle because there was so little happening for offenses on both sides that just being on your side of the field was super important.
[00:47:54] Speaker B: Well, I guess the Browns proved that. You can overlook it because we lost again somehow.
[00:47:59] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, that first punt that he hit was a beauty. They downed right at the one, and then Andy Dalton fumbled the ball, but Miles gear couldn't get it because he wasn't in the game.
[00:48:09] Speaker B: He wasn't in the game. Not allowed to play, but, yeah. So, Corey Bajoraquez, I'm so excited to say that the punter for the Cleveland Browns was the Burning river sportscast. Dog, the week.
[00:48:20] Speaker A: To your point, he has had a really good year. I mean, there's been several weeks where we're just running through, what was that contract this year?
[00:48:26] Speaker B: Was he on a one year contract.
[00:48:27] Speaker A: Or is he on a multi year contract? No idea.
[00:48:30] Speaker B: If he's not, I hope we sign him for a few more years.
[00:48:32] Speaker A: I mean, there's been multiple games this year. As we're running through the box score that he's averaged.
[00:48:36] Speaker B: You're just like, holy shit, the dude.
[00:48:37] Speaker A: 50 or more punts.
[00:48:38] Speaker B: I think there's at least three games where he averaged over 52 yards a punt on, like, multiple punts. It's crazy.
[00:48:44] Speaker A: I'm going to teach my kid to punt.
[00:48:47] Speaker B: That would be phenomenal. Inside track to never getting hurt and just having a guaranteed job if you're good at it.
[00:48:53] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:48:54] Speaker B: Anyways, that takes us to the division roundup.
All right.
Are you feeling good about this segment?
You look like you.
[00:49:13] Speaker A: I was going to say I might just go home, but I am home.
[00:49:17] Speaker B: So Baltimore beat Atlanta this week 17 to nine.
I was right. Kenny was wrong.
I'm not even going to spend a lot of time on these games. I'm just going to run through them. Cincinnati beat New England 22 to 18. Kenny was wrong. I was right.
The Steelers beat the Raiders and officially move ahead of the Cleveland Browns in the standings. That's fun.
So we've been calling them trash all year. We're the trashiest trash.
[00:49:42] Speaker A: The starting quarterbacks for the Steelers are Mitch Trubisky and Kenny pickets.
[00:49:46] Speaker B: Yep.
But you had, you reluctantly picked that game, right last week, so you had to pick against me in every game, and I picked wrong. And then the Browns game we discussed, I picked it wrong and Kenny picked it right. And so overall this week, I went two and two. Kenny went two and two. And we will discuss what that means when we get to King of the north later in the show.
For right now, though, let's go ahead and take a quick trip around the NFL.
All right, so let's update everybody on the playoff picture here in the AFC. So far, the Bills, Chiefs, Bengals, Ravens and Chargers have all clinched playoff berths, and there's two spots left. And these teams are the teams that are still in it. We've got the Jaguars and the Dolphins, who both control their own. Destiny went out and they're in. And then behind them, we've got the Patriots, Jets, Titans, Steelers and Raiders.
[00:50:52] Speaker A: The Browns aren't there?
[00:50:53] Speaker B: No, we were officially eliminated this week.
[00:50:56] Speaker A: E-L-I-M-I-N-A-T-E-D eliminated.
[00:51:00] Speaker B: Were you a cheerleader in Pasco? That was fantastic.
[00:51:03] Speaker A: Should have been.
[00:51:05] Speaker B: We go over to the NFC, the Eagles, Vikings, 49 Ers and Cowboys have all clinched. There's three spots left over there, and these teams are the team still in it. The Buccaneers, Giants and commanders all control their own destiny. How about the Giants, by the way, just came crashing back to earth after that fast start at the beginning of the year?
[00:51:25] Speaker A: Well, to be fair, no one expected them to be good because they're not that good and Daniel Jones isn't good.
[00:51:30] Speaker B: Right.
[00:51:30] Speaker A: So they really overachieved early in the year, but not a surprise to see them come crashing down.
[00:51:37] Speaker B: Yeah. And then behind those teams, there's the Seahawks, Lions, Packers, Panthers and the Saints that are still in the playoffs. That NFC south, yes. Panthers, Saints, Raiders all lasted longer than the Browns in the playoff hunt.
[00:51:53] Speaker A: That was a fun conversation to have to have with my nephew this week. They're originally from Dallas. He was born in Dallas.
[00:52:00] Speaker B: Oh, how teams with losing records can somehow like far worse records than the Browns can somehow be in the playoffs.
[00:52:05] Speaker A: I was like, how are the Buccaneers ahead of the Cowboys?
[00:52:10] Speaker B: But yes, like I said, Panthers, Saints, Raiders all lasted longer than the Browns in the playoff hunt. The Commanders and Jaguars both control their own destiny. These are the teams that we're talking about when we say we should have been at least as good as them.
[00:52:23] Speaker A: Those rosters are not better than.
[00:52:25] Speaker B: No, no. And especially this year. This year, the NFL was wide open.
[00:52:29] Speaker A: Wide open.
[00:52:30] Speaker B: More so than I've seen in many, many years. It was just insane. I mean, you just mentioned it, the Buccaneers division. The Buccaneers are going to end up winning that division, most likely with a losing record.
[00:52:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:45] Speaker B: And they're not the only, like, there's other conference, other divisions that there's bad records out there. It wasn't that difficult to make the playoffs this year.
[00:52:54] Speaker A: I mean, you look at the teams that you had expected in the preseason to be good, and teams like the Buccaneers don't have a great record. The packers don't have a great record. Like the teams the Denver Broncos were a popular AFC pick for the.
[00:53:09] Speaker B: I just, I had a screen grab. Maybe I could find it and send it to you. We might be able to get up here, maybe not. Maybe we'll go with a, maybe we'll look for Colin Cowherd.
[00:53:19] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I got that screen grab, believe me.
[00:53:22] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. And him saying when they said they're going to be Super bowl favorites for the next five years. Yeah. What an idiot.
[00:53:30] Speaker A: Yeah. But to your point, like, the NFL is wide open because even the teams that you thought had great rosters or had elite quarterbacks haven't had great years. So you've got all these middling teams, the Panthers and the Raiders and the Saints and all. What are we doing?
[00:53:44] Speaker B: The Jaguars literally just had to be average this year.
[00:53:47] Speaker A: Just be average. Everything we want is on the other side of hard. No, Kevin, we just want to be average.
[00:53:53] Speaker B: Literally. He just had to be okay and he would have made the playoffs.
[00:53:56] Speaker A: Sometimes it's just about the motion in the ocean, Kevin.
[00:53:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Anyways, we mentioned settle for what you have. Let's stop talking about the playoffs right now and let's talk about a battle of the terrible quarterbacks this week.
[00:54:07] Speaker A: Oh, man.
[00:54:08] Speaker B: We mentioned one of them in Russell Wilson, but him and Baker Mayfield played each other. Baker Mayfield, who was on his third team in less than, what, six months.
Yeah. So the two quarterbacks that we love to hate on the most in the NFL, Baker versus Russell Baker and his boys, go out. They got out to a quick start in this one, up 31 to six at halftime on their way to a 51 to 14 route of the Broncos. Baker had another one of those games that he has every once in a while that made the Baker Bros. Come out in force. And they're just comparing him to Deshaun Watson because he came out hot and he stayed hot the entire game. And he does do that every once in a while. Dominated.
[00:54:48] Speaker A: I think he's the MVP again this week. I think he was getting slimed again. He was 24 of 28 for 230.
[00:54:55] Speaker B: Like I said, I don't think Baker Mayfield is even close to top tier quarterback in the NFL, but he will have a game like this every once in a while. I'll give him that.
[00:55:06] Speaker A: Well, I just think it goes to show you what has Sean McVeigh done with Baker Mayfield in three weeks?
Not that he's putting up gaudy numbers, but they're good numbers and they're winning.
[00:55:18] Speaker B: Way better than they were with the Panthers. And they're just as good as his best games with the Browns.
[00:55:22] Speaker A: Yeah. In the three games with the Rams, he's two and one. I mean, he had, what, ten or eleven games with the Panthers?
[00:55:30] Speaker B: I think he probably only won one.
[00:55:31] Speaker A: He only won one game, I think, there. So I just think it goes to show, like, when you have a coach that has any clue at all, clearly Carolinas didn't because he didn't make it through week in the right system. The right guys can just.
[00:55:48] Speaker B: With Baker, though, it's just so mind blowing to me how polarizing he is. I understand he's.
I don't really care one way or the other, but it's funny to me because it reminds me of, like, Tim Tebow, but worse, because Tim Tebow was like, he didn't even give you the good games.
You could really believe in him, but he was still polarized. But anyways, I just don't understand how people get so attached to a player over, like a. Like, all these people in Cleveland here still talk about, like, they just love Baker. Well, follow him and things.
[00:56:23] Speaker A: I understand that to an extent, but I think the stuff with Baker was so exacerbated by the fact that he went out poorly and then was replaced by Deshaun Watson. If they had made the move for Aaron Rogers and even Aaron Rogers a kook, but somebody without 23 sexual assault allegations, that's fair, then I think people would have been less pissed off about it. But I think there was just that segment of people that were like, you're going to get rid of a quarterback that has won us a playoff game and has been the best quarterback we've had since we came back to the league in 99, and you're Going to replace him with an alleged sexual predator.
[00:57:05] Speaker B: I agree with you to an extent. I think no matter who we would have got, there still would have been a bunch of fans that would have been pissed because he won a playoff game here.
[00:57:12] Speaker A: Yeah. People named their kids after him.
[00:57:14] Speaker B: A lot of people.
But anyway, it's not a bad just. Again, I don't understand. In the NFL, at least, when people get so attached to players over, like, it just makes less sense. Like, in the NBA, that kind of makes sense because there's superstars that can literally take over a game.
[00:57:31] Speaker A: It's just a totally different.
[00:57:33] Speaker B: In the, in the NFL, even at the quarterback position, you need a team in order to do it. Just. It always confuses me when people get so attached to a player.
But then on the Russell Wilson side of things, since we were talking about both of these quarterbacks, let's ride. Yeah, look, backup quarterback Bret rip. Am I saying that right? Ripen.
[00:57:54] Speaker A: Ripping.
[00:57:54] Speaker B: Ripping. He had words for the offensive line. After Wilson was sacked on back to back plays, the offensive line came back at him. There was almost a fight on the sidelines. Where was Russell Wilson, the leader of the football team during all this?
Nowhere to be found.
Just gone. Nowhere to be.
Like at this point, he played terribly. I don't even have a stat line. It was bad.
Is there any way they move on from him after such a bad season? He got a massive contract, but they just fired their head coach. Any chance he follows?
[00:58:29] Speaker A: I would say no. It's just too much investment there.
And I think that kudos to the Broncos for realizing that Nathaniel Hackett wasn't going to be able to hack it and making the move because it's tough to fire a first year head coach. But they've been so bad this year and they should have been better with Russell. So I still find it hard to believe that Russell Wilson's skill level has taken that much of a nosedive. Dude's washed, but I did watch him throw all three of those picks.
[00:59:06] Speaker B: Washed.
[00:59:07] Speaker A: It looked bad and it's just uncharacteristic. But is it possible that Pete Carroll was that good of a coach that he was hiding Russell Wilson this whole time?
[00:59:18] Speaker B: I would say, I mean, look what he's doing with Gino Smith.
[00:59:22] Speaker A: He looks like old Russell Wilson used to.
[00:59:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
I will say this, though, in the same vein that you're talking about with kind of their organization down there in Denver.
The GM came out this week and said that they believe that Wilson is, quote, fixable. So I will give them props. You know what they say, the first step is admitting that there is a.
[00:59:46] Speaker A: Mean, it better be fixable for their.
[00:59:50] Speaker B: I mentioned, you know, is there a chance that they get rid of, um. But I think you're right. I think they're kind of like the Browns and this is.
[00:59:56] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:59:56] Speaker B: Regardless, this is their guy.
[00:59:58] Speaker A: Even if Deshaun blows ass next year, he's still your quarterback for the next two or.
[01:00:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, that's their guy. Ride or die and Broncos Country. Let's ride.
[01:00:07] Speaker A: Let's ride.
[01:00:08] Speaker B: All right. So that takes us over to a quarterback that's not irrelevant.
[01:00:12] Speaker A: Brock Purdy, he once was.
[01:00:14] Speaker B: Yeah, he wins again.
As mentioned, the 49 ers are now in the playoffs. Brock Purdy has taken him to the promised land.
[01:00:21] Speaker A: Another tremendous coaching job. Right. I mean, I think that's when we, when we talk about the NFL being so wide open this year, that's the thing that's kind of come to the light is because the talent level, at least at the quarterback position, isn't what it's been in years past to where literally you could look at games coming up and go, the Patriots are going to win that game. The Colts are going to win this game. Pittsburgh is going to win this game. It's not like that anymore. But what you're seeing now is this elevation of coaching and coaching jobs. To say these guys are schemers now because it's not just Brock Purdy in San Francisco. They lost. Debo both missed time. So it's not like things have been easy in San Francisco.
[01:01:03] Speaker B: They have probably the Defensive player of the Year.
[01:01:05] Speaker A: Yeah, but still, you're on your he.
[01:01:07] Speaker B: Missed time, you're still on your third.
[01:01:09] Speaker A: Quarterback and you lost best offensive weapon and they just continue to win.
[01:01:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree.
[01:01:14] Speaker A: No excuses there, Stefanski.
[01:01:17] Speaker B: On the other side of things, terrible coaching. Jeff's Saturday experiment is most likely going to come to an end after the season is over, after the Colts suffer another ugly loss, this time to the Chargers. And Nick Foles looked awful. My bad, Kenny. My bad. I suggested him in fantasy football. I thought he might find some late season magic once.
[01:01:42] Speaker A: Don't even. I can't even say my team name on the good I missed the draft this year, so I was the Hot Chub time machine, but I was renamed by the group that I was not in the room with.
[01:01:56] Speaker B: Tell the story about draft night for your fantasy football league.
[01:02:00] Speaker A: So real quick, this is a dynasty league and keeper league and we trade draft picks and things.
[01:02:07] Speaker B: Actually, one of my favorite fantasy football.
[01:02:08] Speaker A: Stories of all time and I started last year pretty poor. So I sold out about three quarters of the way through the season and thought if I could win two or three games here, I might squeak into the playoffs. So I just emptied out my coffers and I came into this year's draft with not a single pick until the fifth round.
And so the league pretty much had made bets that, like, anyone that lost to me had to buy a case of beer. So this year, as of now, I'm in the championship game.
[01:02:37] Speaker B: That's not even my favorite part of the story.
[01:02:39] Speaker A: So there's a lot of beer.
[01:02:39] Speaker B: Tell the story about draft night.
[01:02:42] Speaker A: Which story? Draft I did. I said I didn't have any picks till the fifth.
[01:02:45] Speaker B: That's not it. You took off work for that, remember?
[01:02:48] Speaker A: Yeah. So we have like a league calendar. It's like all hosted in this site that we use and it says the draft is on Wednesday. So I took off work on Thursday so that I could go out and stay out late and not have to.
[01:03:02] Speaker B: Be at work, have some fun at the draft.
[01:03:03] Speaker A: And then I text these guys, I'm like, hey, when's the draft? And they're like, it's tomorrow, bud.
[01:03:12] Speaker B: For nothing.
[01:03:12] Speaker A: So I took off work the next day and couldn't make it to because I couldn't drive to where the draft was and stay out till one in the morning drafting. This is the world's Longest draft because there's all these nuanced dynasty rules and things. So, yeah, I was just not going to be able to stay out that late on a work night.
But, hey, it all worked out. Except for Ronnie giving bad advice last week.
[01:03:35] Speaker B: Because here's still one.
[01:03:36] Speaker A: Because here's my thing. Lamar Jackson got hurt. Mike White got hurt. Ryan Tannehill got hurt. So I was quarterbackless. And I go to Ronie and I say, Ronnie, I need some good advice.
[01:03:45] Speaker B: I said, nick Foles really delivers late in the season. Every dick.
[01:03:48] Speaker A: Nick's your guy. He wasn't and he wasn't.
I actually rode with Russell this week and I rode our Broncos country. Let's ride into the Super Bowl.
[01:03:57] Speaker B: You rode with Russell and he rode you hard.
[01:03:59] Speaker A: Luckily, the rest of my team stepped up.
[01:04:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I digress, though. Jerry Edmond was Robert Kraft's guest of honor this week at the Patriots game after being mercilessly harassed by some drunk Raiders fan last week. So that was pretty cool to, I.
[01:04:15] Speaker A: Mean, the video the previous week was one of those just like, he was very.
[01:04:21] Speaker B: You've seen me when people start getting to my face in. Yeah, yeah.
[01:04:27] Speaker A: I've almost seen you deck a homeless man.
[01:04:30] Speaker B: Look where you're standing.
[01:04:33] Speaker A: And so for this guy to keep his composure the way that he did.
[01:04:38] Speaker B: He didn't even flinch at all. He was just like, this lady's yelling in my face, being harassed.
[01:04:42] Speaker A: And you get some of that in today's NFL, right? If you go into an opposing team stadium, people are drunk. There's still a certain level of, like, I should be able, I should be able to go in. I should be able to go to an away game to root on my team. This lady was not having it. And so she was beating him pretty good. And for Robert Kraft to step up and be like, hey, you know what? You seem like a pretty cool dude. I'm going to invite you to the owner's suite and we'll have some drinks.
He had some kind of pink mint Julep looking thing. Looked pretty.
[01:05:14] Speaker B: Time we talked about me and getting into things in public. The last time that I had another fan at an NFL event try and get in my face, I punted their football.
[01:05:26] Speaker A: Oh, boy.
[01:05:27] Speaker B: Fence into an area where that wasn't great. The train was coming.
[01:05:32] Speaker A: That was the Munilot, actually.
[01:05:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
A couple of guys playing catch right in the middle of the aisle, like hitting people in the face and stuff with their football. I wasn't having it anymore.
[01:05:41] Speaker A: No, that was the year we had season tickets and we almost got arrested that day and couldn't come back.
[01:05:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I ain't scared.
They were rude dudes and I had to let them know.
[01:05:54] Speaker A: Yeah, you've had some run ins in your day with some people.
[01:05:58] Speaker B: What can I say? Speaking of Robert Kraft and inviting that guy, making him the guest of honor and things, you think if Deshaun Watson invites some dudes that get yelled at at Browns games to games to be the guest of honor, you think everyone's going to forgive him? Think he's a good guy? No. I mean, him and Robert Kraft have some similar history.
No. All right.
[01:06:21] Speaker A: I'm not going to go there.
[01:06:22] Speaker B: Anyways. Tom Brady was the GOAT again this week. The Cardinals were up ten on the Buccaneers in the fourth quarter, but Brady rallied the troops and the Bucks won to stay in first place in their division. It was the first game with the Buccaneers that he won where he had more interceptions than touchdowns, one touchdown to two interceptions, but he somehow got it done in the end. Pretty cool.
[01:06:46] Speaker A: Look, this time of year, it's harder and harder to count out Tom Brady. I mean, I think as bad as they've been all year long, I saw even Gronk was like tweeting like he might come back. Now all of a sudden, look, I don't put anything past those guys.
[01:06:59] Speaker B: They're going to make to the playoffs. Gronk's like, I'm in, I'm in. Make a run.
[01:07:02] Speaker A: He's going to pull the OBJ. He's in.
So I just, look, the guy has been around forever. He's seen everything. And it's December, so they may be a sneaky Super bowl pick at this point.
[01:07:17] Speaker B: He's the GOAT for a know. Speaking of other aging quarterbacks that are pretty good, Aaron Rodgers keeps the packers playoff hopes alive with a win over the Dolphins. Alan Lazard in this, I don't know if you saw this, put this up here.
He blocked three guys on one play. They all went down. And then he stood there and counted them as they laid on the ground. It was pretty funny to watch. And then after the game, if you could put that up there, too, one of the Packers DBS proceeded to waddle out of the stadium after the game, just kind of making fun of Jalen Waddle over.
[01:07:50] Speaker A: So, yeah, look, I mean, going back to what we said, the NFL is so wide open. The Dolphins started the year so hot. So hot. And everybody was wow. Like, is this team for real? And we got to the point where we said, yeah, this team is for real.
Tua has a super mushy brain and can't stay in the game. And all of a sudden the packers played like dog shit all year long.
[01:08:16] Speaker B: Somehow, all of a sudden their way.
[01:08:18] Speaker A: Back might sneak into the playoffs and he's another one like Tom Brady. Like, you get him into December in a playoff hunt.
[01:08:27] Speaker B: I would argue his track record isn't real good in the playoffs, but not in the playoffs. But getting to the playoffs is fantastic.
[01:08:33] Speaker A: I mean, he's still that guy with that killer instinct to be able to close out games.
[01:08:38] Speaker B: Yep. On the Dolphins side of things in this one, you mentioned Tua having concussion issues. He's in concussion protocol again. He did play after the play that was suspected to give him a concussion.
And let me just throw this out there. His stats before this play, nine of twelve for 229 yards started out hot after the play where everyone thinks he looks at and thinks that's where he got his concussion in this because the back of his head bounced off of the field.
Seven of 13 for 81 yards and three interceptions. The dude literally forgot how to play football.
[01:09:13] Speaker A: Yeah, he get Dome rocked.
[01:09:14] Speaker B: So people are starting to talk and question whether or not these head injuries are going to completely derail his career. I mean, there's two pretty bad ones.
[01:09:21] Speaker A: We thought that earlier in the season. We thought maybe he won't come back. I mean, doctors were advising him at the time not to come back.
[01:09:30] Speaker B: It's just scary to think about death.
[01:09:32] Speaker A: Smiles at this moment.
All a man can do is smile back.
[01:09:38] Speaker B: And then the Texans won against the Titans. The Texans won against the Titans. And the Bears are now in the driver's seat for the number one pick in the draft here. So that's cool, I guess.
[01:09:51] Speaker A: True, true.
I meant to throw in one other game note. On the Christmas Day packers game, I saw our good friend Rasul Douglas had. I think he had two picks in this game to complement his performance last year against Baker Mayfield, which I think he also had two picks. Just a Christmas Day thing.
[01:10:13] Speaker B: He really likes Christmas.
[01:10:14] Speaker A: You can't beat the packers on Christmas. It's just a thing.
[01:10:16] Speaker B: Merry Christmas and Happy holidays.
Anyways, like I said, the Texans won and now the Bears are in the driver's seat for the number one pick. And speaking of the Texans, longtime Texan and now a member of the Cardinals, JJ Watt announced his retirement this week. At the end of the year, he will be done one of the all time greats. For sure. And happy trails to that guy.
[01:10:42] Speaker A: Speaking of the year, we had TJ.
[01:10:44] Speaker B: Watt's still around though, over there on.
[01:10:45] Speaker A: The Steelers, the year we had season tickets, JJ Watt kind of touchdown pass against the Browns.
[01:10:51] Speaker B: He did. I forgot about that. Son of a bitch.
[01:10:54] Speaker A: Happy trails.
[01:10:55] Speaker B: And then the NFL announced that YouTube TV has signed an exclusive rights deal for NFL Sunday tickets starting next season. So if you needed another reason to cut the cord, Kenny, huge. You got it.
[01:11:07] Speaker A: This is huge.
We talked about this earlier in the year when we talked about the Amazon Games, about streaming's coming, about the different things that they're able to do and the experience, the immersive experience that they can create via digital platforms now outside of standard cable because it's proven at this point, Amazon kind of got screwed with the schedule this year because the games on Thursdays haven't been good.
[01:11:32] Speaker B: But the NFL did that on purpose.
[01:11:34] Speaker A: They're like, but they're still getting ratings. And I think it's proven at this point that no matter what else is on TV, if the NFL is on, you can put it any day of the week, any on Wednesdays, people would find a way to watch it.
[01:11:46] Speaker B: Yeah. As bad as the schedule has been for Thursday Night Football this year, Amazon has put out a decent product.
[01:11:52] Speaker A: It's been a really good product. I think it's been really strong. The broadcast been good. The broadcast package before and the after the game is good.
[01:12:00] Speaker B: I like the after game when they kind of go around and talk about different things in the player interviews. Player interview. I like their post game portion of their show.
[01:12:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Because what do we all want? We want more NFL, right? Like we watch that Thursday night game and the game's over.
[01:12:18] Speaker B: I like how they bring in the players and they talk to them and they actually have a pretty lengthy conversation with. So you get some insight into what the players are thinking and doing during the game and it's just nice to see.
[01:12:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I think some of my favorite moments just of the NFL season have been Thursday Night Football. It's a really clean broadcast package. But this YouTube deal is huge.
[01:12:38] Speaker B: I'm excited.
As we've been mentioning, it's just another nail in the coffin for cable. Their time is cable days are numbered for sure.
[01:12:50] Speaker A: Cable needs to die because it's irrationally expensive. And I get that. Maybe not so much irrationally. Right. I get the justification that they have to pay out their contracts to all these different organizations.
[01:13:04] Speaker B: Don't try and church it up. It's irrationally. I can't even say the word expensive.
[01:13:09] Speaker A: But it is irrationally expensive when you consider the amount of content that you can get just even on a Netflix for twelve.
[01:13:15] Speaker B: You know how I know it's irrationally expensive? Your introductory rate is usually like $70 a month, which isn't bad.
As soon as that's over $275 a month.
[01:13:25] Speaker A: And usually your introductory rate only is good for certain channels.
Yeah, it's time for cable to die because it's so rudimentary.
I agree.
What they can do with a totally immersive digital internet experience is so far greater than what Cable can achieve at this point.
[01:13:51] Speaker B: Streaming train is coming, baby. Get on board.
[01:13:54] Speaker A: It is coming. That being said, I still have cable.
[01:13:56] Speaker B: Yeah. And finally, shout out to hometown boy Charlie Fry. Charlie Fry, named as the offensive coordinator at Florida Atlantic under Tom Herman. We've got a Charlie Fry rook.
[01:14:07] Speaker A: Bobblehead.
[01:14:08] Speaker B: Bobblehead right here. I'm going to bring him up from.
[01:14:10] Speaker A: When he was in the Heisman race.
[01:14:12] Speaker B: I'm going to bring him up. Should we zoom it?
[01:14:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:14:14] Speaker B: Look at Charlie Fry.
[01:14:18] Speaker A: Best Browns quarterback of the decade.
[01:14:21] Speaker B: Anyways. He's the offensive coordinator at Florida Atlantic under Tom Herman. Dude's built a pretty solid coaching resume in a very short period of time, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him get back up into the NFL. He was the QB coach for the Dolphins last season, so wouldn't be surprised to get him back up to the NFL ranks pretty soon.
[01:14:38] Speaker A: This surprised me a little bit that he's having success as a coach because.
[01:14:46] Speaker B: He didn't have success as a quarterback in the NFL.
[01:14:49] Speaker A: No, not so much that.
Just that he was never a guy that was strong in a press conference. Right. Like, you talk about winning and losing the press conference. Charlie Fry lost.
[01:15:01] Speaker B: There's no Kevin Stefanski, no showing up just looking handsome and making everybody swoon.
[01:15:07] Speaker A: He just kind of had a very abrupt way about him.
So it's interesting that that skill set has translated into him being a good coach, but hey, it has good on him.
[01:15:17] Speaker B: Yeah. So again, shout out to Charlie Fry. Good job, buddy.
[01:15:21] Speaker A: Good job, buddy.
[01:15:22] Speaker B: So that's it for our Week 16 coverage. Let's go ahead and take a revenue break and we'll get into Week 17.
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[01:16:13] Speaker A: Have you drank any of your limited editions?
[01:16:16] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. It's almost gone this year. Yeah, it's almost the rum, the holiday spiced rum. Fantastic in a holiday eggnog, in case anyone was wondering.
[01:16:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:16:27] Speaker B: And then, which we'll get to in a little bit here, the red wine barrel bourbon.
I just drink that neat and that's.
[01:16:35] Speaker A: Almost gone straight to the face.
[01:16:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
All righty then. That takes us to the Week 17 preview.
[01:16:46] Speaker A: Ready, down.
[01:16:52] Speaker B: Nice. So we've got the Commanders this week, the Commandos, the dumbest name in football.
The Commanders are fighting for a playoff spot, though. However, they did just bench their starting quarterback this past week. Heineken was benched in the fourth quarter in favor of Carson Wentz.
[01:17:08] Speaker A: I don't even know how we're supposed to preview this week because we don't know who's playing for the Commandos and we don't even know who's playing. Yeah.
[01:17:15] Speaker B: Ron Rivera came out and said he's like, I don't know who's going to start this week.
[01:17:18] Speaker A: So we won't know until game time.
[01:17:20] Speaker B: So I had in here matchup previews or opposition research is what we were going to start with. One of the two. We're not starting with either of those. Honestly, our team's in shambles. We didn't make the playoffs. We don't know who's starting for us. They don't know who's starting for them. So let's just go ahead and go over the keys to victory in this one.
As a team, the Washington Commanders are seven. Seven and one. It's been a complete carousel at quarterback this year for them. They've kind of bounced around from Wentz to Heinecke to forget who else they had. Back to Heineken, now back to Wentz. So who knows?
But their defense has been at least decent and it's kept them in a lot of games. I noticed I was kind of going through box scores and things like that, and they, they regularly hold their opponents to under 20 points, which is in the NFL. That's pretty solid.
[01:18:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Defense has kept them in a lot of games this year.
[01:18:16] Speaker B: They've had a few blowouts where I think their points per game given up is like 20.8 or something like that. But they've had three or four games where they've given up like 40 points. But besides that, they've been pretty solid.
The Browns are going to need to see something out of Deshaun Watson in this one. He's had several bad games in a row. Granted, there have been flashes here and there, but we just got to see more progress.
And I think Kevin Stefanik is going to have to remember how to coach in this one if we have any shot whatsoever.
[01:18:53] Speaker A: Yeah, that would be a good start if Kevin could not real confident it's going to happen how to coach. But Kevin. Yeah, I mean, this Washington team has, frankly, they've overachieved this year.
[01:19:10] Speaker B: It's baffling.
[01:19:12] Speaker A: Carson Wentz started pretty poor. They had a dude get shot.
[01:19:17] Speaker B: Yeah. That running back, by the way, is one of the biggest surprises, I think, in the NFL that he's playing this year. Well, not only that he's playing, but he's like playing very well.
[01:19:27] Speaker A: He's.
[01:19:31] Speaker B: Very well considering, I guess I should say.
Yeah, he's been solid for them.
[01:19:38] Speaker A: He's what, 710 yards this year? Not bad after being shot.
[01:19:41] Speaker B: Yeah. And I know he's had a couple pretty big games as far as complete stat lines go, but I think the.
[01:19:49] Speaker A: Good thing for the Browns, and I don't even know what the weather is really going to be there.
Is it Sunday or Saturday? All these Saturday games have my mind.
[01:19:59] Speaker B: Um, I think we're on Sunday this week.
[01:20:01] Speaker A: Is it a Sunday game this week? So not sure what the weather's gonna be there. It's supposed to warm up.
[01:20:06] Speaker B: You dropped an F bomb there. You have to edit that out, at least on the YouTube cut.
[01:20:14] Speaker A: The weather is supposed to warm up kind of across.
[01:20:17] Speaker B: The weather outside is weather over the.
[01:20:19] Speaker A: Next few days, so we might be able to see some more prolific offense than we saw last weekend and the weekend before that. But this commandos team doesn't really scare you. I mean, when you look at their.
[01:20:35] Speaker B: No, but neither do the Browns lineup of receivers.
[01:20:37] Speaker A: I mean, you got Terry McLaurin's good.
[01:20:43] Speaker B: SO the Browns scare you.
[01:20:45] Speaker A: And they do have Curtis Samuel, but.
[01:20:47] Speaker B: Do the Browns scare you at this point?
[01:20:50] Speaker A: No, they're the worst. The Browns are the worst. If I could pick any other team to be a fan of, I would, but it's too late.
[01:20:55] Speaker B: We actually had this conversation before the, like sometimes. Do you just know if I could go back? Don't get me not. We're Browns fans. We're going to be Browns fans forever. We're always going to support the team. But if you could go back, would you still pick the Browns? No, I don't know that I might pick the Browns as the team that I like to make fun of.
[01:21:14] Speaker A: If I could have chosen for myself, I definitely would not have picked the Browns.
[01:21:19] Speaker B: I would have choosed anybody else.
[01:21:20] Speaker A: I was born into this, and now it's. And now I'm here.
[01:21:25] Speaker B: I always die.
[01:21:26] Speaker A: If I was born in Afghanistan, I'd be a Muslim, but I was born in Cleveland. I'm a Browns fan.
[01:21:32] Speaker B: That's the way, probably. Yeah.
[01:21:35] Speaker A: All right.
[01:21:36] Speaker B: But, yeah, I don't know. The Browns have pretty much given up on the season, so why don't we do the same?
No, I'm kidding. But seriously, at this point early in the week, we don't know who's going to play.
[01:21:52] Speaker A: No.
And their playmakers really aren't super notable anyway. They've played better than their talent this year.
[01:22:00] Speaker B: I guess we'll get into the injury report.
Yeah. So Clowney didn't play this week, so he's probably questionable again next week.
[01:22:15] Speaker A: Yes, Clowny is questionable.
[01:22:17] Speaker B: And then you got any new additions for the Browns?
[01:22:20] Speaker A: For the Browns, the only. No, Clowny's it.
[01:22:26] Speaker B: All right, that's all we got. What about the commanders? You got any, the commandos? You got any injuries over there?
[01:22:31] Speaker A: Commandos right now questionable for this weekend's game? Cameron Curl, safety, has an ankle. Antonio Gibson has a sprain, so he's still being monitored day to day.
[01:22:47] Speaker B: That's the guy that got shot, isn't he?
[01:22:48] Speaker A: No. Brian. Brian Gibson Jr. No, Brian. Brian Song.
Shoot. What's his name?
Brian Robinson.
[01:23:01] Speaker B: Robinson Jr. I knew it was a son.
[01:23:03] Speaker A: Yes, but it wasn't Gibson. No. And Shadik Charles, tackle. So those are the three listed as questionable as of now.
And theY've got a couple of defenders that likely will be on the injury report because they were out last week or on the injury report last week. James Smith Williams. John Bostick at linebacker did not play due to a pectoral injury, so that's actually a big loss for them. And then Benjamin, I don't know. Yeah, but he left Saturday's game with an angle injury, so those six guys all in doubt for this weekend's game.
[01:23:47] Speaker B: All right, so I guess we'll get into the player to watch. Kenny, who's your player to watch in this one?
I'll just go with mine first because it's been the same for the past three weeks, and it's going to continue to be the same for these next two games, because that's all we've got to see and get excited for next year with Deshaun Watson. So Deshaun Watson is my player to watch.
Not only that, we want to continue to see him improve and hopefully get, like I had mentioned last week, at least one big game out of him before the season ends. Might not. There's only two chances left.
He may be the only legitimate starter for the Browns playing. So, yeah, I'm going to go with that guy.
[01:24:23] Speaker A: You go and do something like this. Yeah, that's a good pick because we know he's going to play.
[01:24:31] Speaker B: Yeah, he has to play.
[01:24:34] Speaker A: Look, to your point, it's tough to because we don't know if they're going to shut Nick Chubb down. We don't know if they're going to shut Miles down. Frankly, Miles is the one that I would be interested to see how he comes out this week, if he plays.
[01:24:46] Speaker B: Off and tries to pad some stats.
[01:24:48] Speaker A: Well, not even so much that I'm just interested to see his body language.
[01:24:51] Speaker B: And how he responds to being benched by Stefanik.
[01:24:58] Speaker A: Because he is a leader in the locker room. I think his attitude, the way he comes into the game, the way he plays, will speak volumes about where that locker room is at.
[01:25:07] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. And it's no surprise that throughout the season we've talked about Miles Garrett, and most of the time, if you see that he's got a high motor throughout the game, those are the games we played really well in. Oh, yeah, the games where he's kind of shut down and hasn't done a lot. Those are the games.
[01:25:22] Speaker A: He's an absolute difference maker when he wants to be, but the question is, does he want to be for Kevin Stefanski?
[01:25:27] Speaker B: I don't know that anybody does, but okay, let's go ahead and get into the King of the North.
[01:25:31] Speaker A: King of the North.
[01:25:40] Speaker B: All right, let's go ahead and remind everybody of the tally.
I went two and two this week. Kenny also went two and two. That takes my record to 33 and 18 and Kenny's record to 24 and 27, and I have officially won the King of the North. Should I just get up and start taking laps? Victory lap. Whoo.
[01:26:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Great.
[01:26:07] Speaker B: Yeah. So what are we going to have you do for losing King of the North?
[01:26:11] Speaker A: Still taking suggestions on that?
[01:26:14] Speaker B: Don't know yet.
[01:26:15] Speaker A: Maybe.
[01:26:16] Speaker B: I'm going to make you buy me a bottle of red wine barrel bourbon.
[01:26:22] Speaker A: I would never do that for you.
[01:26:24] Speaker B: You might have to, because this is king of the North.
[01:26:27] Speaker A: I bought my boss a bottle of that for Christmas, but I would not buy it for you.
[01:26:32] Speaker B: You might not have a choice.
[01:26:35] Speaker A: Look, I'm open to suggestions here. It's true that I screwed the pooch with my picks this year in the AFC North.
[01:26:42] Speaker B: Oh, bad. It wasn't even close.
[01:26:44] Speaker A: And I deserve whatever happens to me at this point.
[01:26:49] Speaker B: Maybe we should have you go jump in a pond since it's the middle of December right now.
[01:26:57] Speaker A: Look, whatever may befall me will befall me.
[01:27:02] Speaker B: He's just resigned himself to I suck. All right, so let's go ahead and go over the games this week. I know we don't really have to, but this week coming up, Week 17, we got Pittsburgh at Baltimore. Who do you have in that one?
[01:27:18] Speaker A: Why don't you just go first again?
[01:27:20] Speaker B: All right, look, Pittsburgh, they've been playing really well of late. They've now won five of seven games to close out the season here. Mike Tomlin has never ended a season under 500.
I expect him to find a way to get back to and then ultimately above 500 against the Browns next week. I have the Steelers both of the next two weeks.
[01:27:45] Speaker A: Oh, you're picking all those Steelers. Excellent.
I'm going to go Baltimore because if I can win some of these games, I'll make this respectable.
[01:27:57] Speaker B: Nice. I like your thinking there for the.
[01:27:59] Speaker A: End of the year also.
Look, I don't think Pittsburgh can stop Baltimore's rushing game, and I think Baltimore has the better, so that's fair. I will go Baltimore this week.
[01:28:11] Speaker B: All right. And then the next game we have is the Bills at the Bengals on Monday Night Football. The Bills are my Super bowl pick and I'm sticking with that. They've played well. I think they clinched the number one seed already, or at least first round by.
I'm going to go with the Bills in this one. I think they kind of sent a.
[01:28:29] Speaker A: Statement right before the Bengals getting hot at the right time and it's the opposite of. Ronnie picked Joey B.
[01:28:40] Speaker B: You love him.
Browns at Commanders is the final one. I'm picking the Commanders because the Browns suck.
[01:28:45] Speaker A: Great. I guess I picked the Browns.
Look, this game's a toss up, to be honest. This is kind of a shit show at this point.
[01:28:52] Speaker B: I say the Browns suck. I still love the Browns. I just want to make that clear. I love the Browns. We just wish they aren't very good.
[01:28:58] Speaker A: We just wish they were better.
[01:28:59] Speaker B: We want them to be better. We're not very good.
[01:29:02] Speaker A: Be better, Kevin.
[01:29:03] Speaker B: We're not good.
[01:29:03] Speaker A: Be better.
[01:29:04] Speaker B: I love the Browns. We're not good.
[01:29:06] Speaker A: We're really bad, actually.
[01:29:08] Speaker B: Yeah. So I got the commanders, you've got the Browns. All right, let's take one more revenue break and then get into for the land and close the show out.
[01:29:17] Speaker A: I mean, you can do it.
[01:29:18] Speaker B: You're the guy.
[01:29:19] Speaker A: I don't want to.
Not that I don't like. Just. It's hard.
[01:29:26] Speaker B: Topath red wine barrel bourbon this limited release single Barrel Bourbon from Topath Distillery is a four year old minimum straight bourbon whiskey finished in a red wine barrel. And not just any red wine barrel. In order to fully appreciate this truly unique spirit, I want to tell you a quick story. Five years ago, Anthony Piscasi and Joseph Piscazi Sr. Bought a French oak barrel and filled it with Napa Valley Cabernet. Sarah and Malbec, a delicious wine, rested in that barrel for 18 months. And then ten months ago, they filled that barrel with a four year old bourbon. On November 17, they bottled 303 bottles of red wine, Barrel finished, straight bourbon whiskey. This limited release is available only while supplies last and only at the distillery. Make sure to get this while you can. It's a one of a kind offering, and they're going quick.
Topath red wine barrel bourbon.
You reading?
[01:30:27] Speaker A: I like that.
[01:30:29] Speaker B: I want that. You might have to buy me some.
[01:30:32] Speaker A: No?
[01:30:34] Speaker B: All right. For the Lamb.
We're midseason for the Cavs right now. They're just kind of right in the swing of things. I think they have guys coming back from injuries right now. Their current record is 22 and 13. They did drop a spot. They're fourth in the east right now, second in the Central. One game back of the Milwaukee Bucks in the Central, and I think only a couple of games back in the east overall.
[01:31:09] Speaker A: Yeah. 22 and 13. Still in the driver's seat of kind of their own destiny from the playoff standpoint.
[01:31:16] Speaker B: I just love how Donovan Mitchell loves Cleveland.
[01:31:20] Speaker A: Yeah, he's cool.
It was pretty disappointing to watch Darius Garland drop 46 against Brooklyn. We still lost and lose.
I will say one thing that sticks out to me anytime we lose to.
[01:31:33] Speaker B: Kyrie Irving with how crazy he's gone, I don't like that.
[01:31:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
The one thing that sticks out to me this year that, I don't know if it's a cause for concern just yet, but just something that I've observed is Evan Mobley seems to be having a tougher time fitting in.
Not that he's a bad fit. I just think more was expected of him last year because nothing was expected of this team. So he was the team.
And now with Donovan Mitchell here pressure.
[01:32:08] Speaker B: Garland, they're ball dominant players.
[01:32:12] Speaker A: Yeah. So they're playing a different style of offense. And I don't know that he.
[01:32:18] Speaker B: Even though it's slight, it's enough to affect his.
[01:32:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know that he's had the impact on games this year that he had through a lot of last year. So still early in the season, he's still incredibly young. This team has plenty of time to gel. But that's my only kind of red flag at this point in the season is just hopefully they can get him More integrated into the flow of what they're doing because kid's a stud, so he's got all the talent in the world.
[01:32:50] Speaker B: Fair assessment there. Strong words from a strong man, Kenny. Thunder shows no mercy.
[01:32:57] Speaker A: I never show mercy.
[01:32:59] Speaker B: All right, so let's go ahead and close this thing out. Kenny, what can we expect next week?
[01:33:05] Speaker A: We're going to recap the Browns versus the Commandos.
[01:33:07] Speaker B: Don't sound so.
[01:33:12] Speaker A: Don't. I don't even know. Look, I'm just trying to get through the season at this point.
[01:33:17] Speaker B: No words whatsoever.
[01:33:18] Speaker A: Just trying to get through the season at this point.
It stopped being fun about three weeks ago.
[01:33:25] Speaker B: It's just so sad that it gets so hard for us at the end of every year.
[01:33:30] Speaker A: Yeah, it's hard to be upbeat and positive about this team when you don't see a lot of good things happening.
[01:33:35] Speaker B: Now every single week in the future.
[01:33:40] Speaker A: Because the Browns probably will have the same record on December 27, 2023, that they do on December 27, 2022.
[01:33:50] Speaker B: Feels bad.
[01:33:52] Speaker A: I heard it here first.
[01:33:53] Speaker B: Feels bad.
[01:33:54] Speaker A: Hot. Take hot time.
[01:33:56] Speaker B: Hey, while I did destroy you in King of the north, you were much closer on the Browns overall record.
[01:34:01] Speaker A: So kudos. Yes, very much so.
And then we will preview the Browns Steelers matchup, which, according to the NFL schedule, is still TBD. Not sure if that's because they just haven't selected a location or a time or if they're just not even sure if they're going to let these two teams play because they're both so bad.
[01:34:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I mentioned earlier the Steelers are in the playoff hunt, so they might have to maybe. But the Browns, they don't want on TV anymore.
[01:34:26] Speaker A: No, they've had enough of the Browns. Real quick, before we get into the socials, I just want to remind everybody of the hot take hotline that is still open.
[01:34:35] Speaker B: The hot take hotline.
Get your holes in. Just call and bitch about the Browns. I know. I want to.
[01:34:43] Speaker A: I mean, we do. We sit here every week for an hour and a half and bitch about the Browns. So I know that there's people out there that want to bitch about the.
[01:34:48] Speaker B: Browns call and get angry. You can yell, you can scream, you can cry. You can talk about how great Stefanik is, how you think he's hot.
[01:34:55] Speaker A: But, yeah, someone please tell me why.
[01:34:58] Speaker B: You think Stefanski deserves to know. I want a Stefanski supporter to have a legitimate argument for why he's good.
[01:35:08] Speaker A: Somebody call and tell me what you like about Stefanski.
[01:35:10] Speaker B: I dare you. I triple dog dare you.
[01:35:14] Speaker A: All right.
[01:35:14] Speaker B: The coup de gras of all dares. But anyways, yeah, check us out on social media. Tap in media is on Facebook and Twitter at the Tapin Media, and then on Instagram at Tapin Media Official. And then Burning River Sportscast, that's. This podcast is on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at Burning River Sportscast and on Twitter at Burning River Pod. And then you can find our podcast. Wherever you get your podcasts, I'm talking Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, Pandora, iHeartradio, Pocketcast, Castro, and so many more.
[01:35:49] Speaker A: That's a lot of places.
[01:35:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Literally just about anywhere you find your podcast, you'll find it.
[01:35:54] Speaker A: I had some people ask me at Christmas where they could find the podcast.
[01:35:57] Speaker B: Where did they find it?
[01:35:58] Speaker A: And you know what I told them?
[01:35:59] Speaker B: Wherever you get your podcasts.
[01:36:01] Speaker A: Wherever you get your podcasts.
[01:36:02] Speaker B: And did they go to wherever they got their podcast?
[01:36:04] Speaker A: So are you on, like, Spotify? And I said, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, music, Stitcher. Your podcast guests are in more.
[01:36:12] Speaker B: And that's why we say them all.
[01:36:15] Speaker A: So that was fun.
Real quick.
[01:36:18] Speaker B: I never thought that would come in handy.
[01:36:21] Speaker A: It's not a very useful skill otherwise.
A couple of quick things. What do you got for me this week? Close out this.
[01:36:27] Speaker B: I'm excited. I'm excited.
[01:36:29] Speaker A: This time of year, obviously, a lot of gifts being given, at least a few. A lot of families also have started taking trips this time of year. Disney is a popular destination for family Christmas.
A lot of delayed flights this year.
We got that.
Ronnie's the flight conductor.
[01:36:51] Speaker B: Look, we have a friend that was. You mentioned Disney. They had a trip to Disney planned. They were supposed to leave on Tuesday. Their flight got delayed till Friday.
[01:36:58] Speaker A: You missed half the vacation while they.
[01:37:00] Speaker B: Were in the airport. It got delayed to Friday, so they had to rent a car and drive there. Go on.
[01:37:06] Speaker A: Yeah, look, no, here's the thing. I think I was actually just reading about this, about the discount airlines. Discount airlines like Southwest and Spirit have run such low margins for so long because they're just like cattle herders that at the slightest stress, the system kind of collapses on itself. So if you look at the number of cancellations of Southwest over the holidays, I think there was something like 14,000 flights delayed. The flights on airlines that are more expensive, your Americans and Deltas United, that charge a little more and pay their employees a little more. I think there was only like two or 300 per airline that were delayed. Or.
[01:37:54] Speaker B: Detroit, different friends went to Detroit. They texted us and they said, well, this ain't good. And the entire screen went to cancel.
[01:38:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I believe it's, it's a wild times we're living in.
[01:38:05] Speaker B: Anyways, go on. Sorry, I digress.
[01:38:07] Speaker A: Speaking of Disney, I just happened across this, this week. I thought this was interesting because my family, my sister and their nine kids are on their way to Disney right now.
And I found out that the actors who voiced Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Russie Taylor and Wayne Allwine, actually got married in real life.
[01:38:28] Speaker B: Oh, fantastic.
[01:38:29] Speaker A: Tied the knot in 1991.
[01:38:31] Speaker B: A true love story.
[01:38:32] Speaker A: True love story. Also this time of year. Sorry, this time of year, eggnog is a popular drink of choice by many. Ronnie mentioned pouring some topath spirits into an eggnog earlier.
[01:38:46] Speaker B: Spiced rum. It's the perfect mix in an eggnog.
[01:38:49] Speaker A: But did you know that nutmeg is technically a hallucinogen?
[01:38:54] Speaker B: Nice.
[01:38:54] Speaker A: So the spice contains very nice myristicin. I'm probably saying that wrong. If you're a chemist, organic chemistry major, maybe you could correct me on that. Call the hot take hotline. Hot take hotline. But it's a natural compound that has mind altering effects if ingested in large doses. So if you drink enough eggnog, you might trip out.
[01:39:16] Speaker B: Nice.
[01:39:16] Speaker A: Try to drink, liKe, a lot of eggnog.
[01:39:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Especially because it's just kind of drizzled on, like a little bit of it sprinkled on top.
[01:39:22] Speaker A: It's not know, some people mix it in nutmeg.
[01:39:25] Speaker B: I'm just going to eat a whole.
[01:39:27] Speaker A: Thing of nutmeg now just to see what happens.
You'll trip balls.
[01:39:33] Speaker B: You'll trip balls.
[01:39:35] Speaker A: What happened, Ronnie? I tripped. Balls also, stockings were stuffed over the last weekend here. Many with delicious candies.
Let me ask you, did you get any M and MS in your stocking?
[01:39:50] Speaker B: No.
Was I supposed to?
[01:39:54] Speaker A: Do you know what M and MS stands for?
[01:39:57] Speaker B: No.
[01:39:58] Speaker A: M and MS are actually named after the businessmen who created them.
Forced Mars and Murray.
[01:40:06] Speaker B: Oh, Mars. Part of the Mars Candy Company.
[01:40:08] Speaker A: M and M. Yes. And apparently these guys didn't have a great relationship. I imagine it's something kind of like ours, like it's a love hate thing. Professionally, you can work together, but in real life, you're not really friends.
[01:40:21] Speaker B: Yeah, outside of here, I just want.
[01:40:22] Speaker A: To beat your ass. But Mars leveraged Murray out of his 20% share of the business before it became the best selling suite in the US. Feels bad. Feels bad for Murray, which sounds like a problem.
So don't just be a part of the problem. Be the whole damn problem.
[01:40:42] Speaker B: And only you can prevent river fires.
[01:40:47] Speaker A: Burning river sportscast, burning river sportscast, burning river.
Burning river sportscast, burning river.
[01:41:00] Speaker B: It was time. It's time.
[01:41:01] Speaker A: It was time.
[01:41:02] Speaker B: It was time.
[01:41:03] Speaker A: Time is over.
[01:41:04] Speaker B: Time is.
[01:41:04] Speaker A: Time is now.
Burning River Sports guest.
[01:41:10] Speaker B: Let's get out of here.
[01:41:11] Speaker A: Oh, hey, wait.
Great.
[01:41:13] Speaker B: We're going to have to do that all again.
[01:41:14] Speaker A: No. Happy New Year, everyone.
[01:41:16] Speaker B: Happy New Year.
[01:41:20] Speaker A: I don't know that word.
[01:41:21] Speaker B: That song.
[01:41:23] Speaker A: You don't know? On Langside, Dunning River.
[01:41:36] Speaker B: Man, I'm glad I called that guy.
[01:41:38] Speaker A: And totally redeem yourself.
So, bold strategy. It.
[01:41:49] Speaker B: Type in media.
