Episode Transcript
[00:00:25] Speaker A: Cast. It was a tale of two halves. On Sunday, Deshaun looked about as lost and bad in a Browns uniform as he has all year, followed by a very impressive three touchdown second half finish. With the Steelers looming at eight and eight, the Browns do find themselves in a unique position to give Mike Tomlin and the Shitty Steel City their first sub 500 season under his stewardship. As the season draws to those, and the narrative comes closer into focus, do we have more questions or answers heading into next season? We'll break it all down for you. Next on the Burning River Sportscast.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Dude scrambled around and through to an offensive lineman on purpose.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: I think he has.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Are you okay?
[00:01:12] Speaker A: I had a stroke.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: Juices are like assholes. And Kevin Stefanski's got a bunch of them.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: He's got a big one.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Sentence didn't make any sense.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: What if I do a whole show totally naked?
[00:01:24] Speaker B: All right, I take it back. I am not going to slander Kyrie Irving. He's got a lot more money than me. I've got a lot more to lose. Bonus fact. Kenny is a complete degenerate.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: Welcome into the Burning river sportscast, presented by Tapping media. I'm Kenny Thunder alongside Dolly Parton's former lover, the man who puts the IE in Weenie. Red hot Ronnie jams.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: Thanks, Kenny.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Ronnie, let our friends know where they can find the podcast, but do it in your best Sean Connery voice.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: You can find the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. I'm talking Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Pocketcast, Castro, and Bad.
[00:02:09] Speaker A: Not bad.
B minus.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: All right, fair. I don't do the best Sean Connery, but that's where you can find the podcast. So, Kenny, how was your weekend?
[00:02:19] Speaker A: Oh, man. Let me start by saying New Year's Eve actually is my favorite holiday. I know we talked about Christmas and thanksgiving the last couple of shows.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: New Year's Eve is your favorite holiday.
[00:02:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I get that a lot. Christine's always like, I don't really understand why. Me neither.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: But you're going to tell us, so let's go.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: I don't really understand why either, but it just makes me happy. The New Year's Eve, all the countdown shows. But I will say that this year I was totally thrown off my normal, just content mood of getting ready for New Year's Eve, watching the ball drop.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Shows, because the Buckeyes were.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: The Buckeyes were on. And of course, they couldn't have been.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: One of the playing well most of.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: The game, and they couldn't have been one of the early games. They had to start at eight.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: The Buckeyes in Georgia. We're not that team up north in TCU. Nobody wants to watch that.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: True, true. So in the middle of primetime, and of course that game dragged on literally until the ball dropped. And it just felt like, truthfully, that Ohio State matched up well against them, that they were every bit as good or better than Georgia.
Go ahead. So it was just a super disappointing way to ring in the new year because literally the shank on the long field goal happened as we hit midnight.
[00:03:37] Speaker B: It feels bad because Noah Ruggles is one of the better kickers in college.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: He's tremendous.
[00:03:41] Speaker B: I'm going to be honest, though, when I saw him line up for the kick, you could see the fear in his eyes.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. The whole time. I mean, obviously he couldn't hear what was happening in my living room, but Christine was like, wait, so he has to make this really long kick for them to go to the national championship? And he's just like a college kid, man, that's a lot of pressure.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: And in his know, there's a lot of Ryan Day haters out there. And I don't like the fact that he hasn't beat Michigan in two years or ever, but he didn't do him any favors.
We had three plays. They had a first and ten.
They could have thrown some sideline routes, whatever, try and get 510 more yards before he had to kick the field goal, and we did nothing.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: And that's what was frustrating, because the offense, up until that point, we pulled.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: The old Cleveland Browns and we said we're content with a 50 yard field goal to win this thing.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: They thought Cade York was out there. Yeah, it was frustrating because up until that point, the offense had played so well. CJ Stroud had a tremendous game.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: I will tell you this. The moment Marvin Harrison Jr. Got knocked out, I actually turned to Emily, I said, this is really bad.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: That was a big.
[00:04:48] Speaker B: This is when the game will turn. Because up to that point, if you noticed, Marvin Harrison came out hot. Yeah. And then they started double teaming him. And then Ekbuka picked up a whole bunch of catches and was doing really well because he was the beneficiary of. They're double teaming him now. I'm wide open. Well, as soon as Marvin Harrison goes down, now you double team Ekbuca and everybody else is backups. They're all average players.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: Yeah. At that point, you missed some of the guys that are like, declaring.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: Yeah, our explosiveness was completely gone after that know, CJ Stroud did his best to keep them in the game or keep them ahead, I should say they were ahead the entire game until the very end.
But I mean, in the end, it was just too much to overcome. We didn't have that extra piece.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: The offense just played so well up until that point. But you're right. I mean, the momentum totally shifted when he went out of the game. And look, that probably was a controversial call in the game. There's been a lot been.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: The only thing I will say is.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: Since the targeting, I would agree with.
[00:05:47] Speaker B: The fact that it definitely wasn't helmet to helmet contact, but the way the rule is written in college football is if you make contact in the head or neck area. And that definitely happened. So I just was unsure why they didn't keep it and the fact that it was called targeting on the field.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: Right.
[00:06:04] Speaker B: I was like, how do you not keep it targeting when he definitely hit him in the head and neck area?
[00:06:08] Speaker A: And I think the bottom line is, we both probably agree is like, targeting is probably the worst. I hate targeting penalty. It's the worst foul in all sports.
It is worse than the old NBA. I can jump into you while I'm shooting and get a foul. Like draw a foul. It's the worst rule in all of sport.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: So stupid. Especially in college football. These kids are kids and they're playing their hearts out and you're going to suspend them for another game after that or another half after that.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: And we talk all the time about, like, it doesn't matter how good of an athlete you are, there's times where you've compromised your body to make a play and you don't always have control over exactly where you're going to land. No.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: I will say I wasn't disappointed with Ohio State at all. I mean, I was disappointed with the outcome, but I was very happy with how Ohio State played. I thought they came out, they played great, and it was. I think those were the two best teams in the nation.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: Yeah, 100%.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Because I think Georgia is going to blow out TCU. I think they're going to win by at least three touchdowns.
[00:07:09] Speaker A: Yeah. I think it could be a really boring national championship game. But I agree, man. I think I watched that game and going into the game, there was so much made of Georgia's the best team in the country, nobody can really hang with.
You know, Ohio State kind of backed their way into the playoff in any way. So for them to put up the fight that they did, it was. It makes you proud to be a Buckeyes fan, but I was happy with it. But outside of that, it ruined my New Year's Eve.
[00:07:35] Speaker B: Well, yeah, I don't know if you saw the clock actually struck midnight as the ball was landing for the missed field goal.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, that's what I mean.
[00:07:42] Speaker B: The most ridiculous. Ruined my horror scene ever.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: Everything. Like, I was flipping back and forth because I was trying to catch it, but I was also like, I don't want to miss this kick. So I go back and I turn on and I see it immediately. He shanks it left and I was like, oh, God, flip it back. And we are literally on the two count of the ball coming down.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: You texted me right after that and you said, you know, they say that whatever you're doing ringing in the new year is what you're going to be doing all year long. So does this mean we're going to be losing all year?
[00:08:09] Speaker A: We're going to be doing a lot of losing.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Anyways, this opening segment went pretty long. So again, welcome to the end of the Brown season where adversity is made up and the games don't matter.
Let's just go ahead and jump into this thing and get into the Week 17 recap.
All right, so we'll start with the Washington Commanders, the commandos, if you will.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: Damn commandos.
[00:08:37] Speaker B: On the offensive side of the ball. Carson Wentz got the start in this one. Went 16 of 28 for 143 yards and three interceptions and a cascade of calls for Heineckey the entire game.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: This move didn't make a whole lot of sense to begin with.
[00:08:53] Speaker B: Well, it does when we get into what we're going to talk about later, which is Ron Rivera had no idea.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: Where they were in playoff standings. I mean, Taylor Heineken, I know, isn't the next coming of like Joe Montana, but I think the team was, what, five, three and one under his leadership this year.
[00:09:08] Speaker B: And they were two and four under.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: Carson Wentz earlier played well enough to win them in game and they beat the Philadelphia Eagles. They had moments this year under Heineken under center. And so this was just weird that they went back with Carson Wentz. And I know that a lot of the pregame shows were talking about Carson Wentz's arm, talent and experience and all fine and dandy. But let's be honest, Carson Wentz at this point in his career is a shell of what he came into the league as well.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: And Carson Wentz, it's kind of always been his MO. I actually said it in one of our shows earlier this year, is he puts up a ton of yards usually, but he also throws so many interceptions. Like, that's what he does. He's like, I take every chance that you, it kind of reminds me of Ben Roethlisberger kind of like mid career for him when he would just sling it everywhere and like, yeah, you're going to get a bunch of yards, but you're probably going to throw some picks, too, so what can you do?
[00:09:59] Speaker A: True.
[00:10:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:00] Speaker A: I mean, I think at this point, though, Carson Wentz, he's not as good as Ben Roethlisberger, isn't even good at putting up a bunch of yards at this point because he's just trash. I mean, I think if nothing else, I don't want to spend a bunch of time belaboring Carson Wentz, but I.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: Think we get long winded.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: I think Carson's done as a start.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: I would agree with you.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: In the league.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: I'd agree with you. So let's move on. Brian Robinson Jr. 24 carries for 87 yards.
Imagine if Nick Chubb got 24 carries, Jonathan Williams nine rushes for 30 yards and their wide receivers not much going on all day because Carson Wentz through for 143 yards and three picks.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: Yeah. The only thing I would point out there is that Brian Robinson is pretty impressive.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: He's a good running back.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: When you consider he got shot this year and he runs strong and he.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: Runs angry, it's a pretty compelling story, too. He did an interview a while back about the night of the incident when he got shot, and it's a pretty scary read. Like he goes into detail about how he was feeling and what was going. It's pretty intense.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: I would imagine anybody that has a story about getting shot probably is a little bit scary.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: Yeah, but it was fair point. Yeah, I'm just saying if you get a chance, just go read it because it's pretty impactful.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: But anyways, their defense, commando's defense, five sacks and five QB hits.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
This defense was thin in the secondary with the injuries coming in. But I'll tell you what, that defensive.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: Line, offensive line that played on the.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: Defensive side of the ball, that defensive line is better than I gave them credit for.
[00:11:39] Speaker B: I'd agree with that.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: I know that they have chase young, but they have a bunch of other guys that are big and lanky and can get after the quarterback.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: How much of that, though, was them being better than you thought or our offensive line being worse than everybody touts them to be?
[00:11:54] Speaker A: Well, that's probably also mean.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: And then I mentioned it just a little bit ago, Ron Rivera after the game, a reporter said to him you'd stated that all options are on the table at QB and you'd evaluate that before next week's game. If you are eliminated by what happens in the 04:00 game, then would you consider starting Sam Howe? And in case anyone didn't know, the packers, if they won, would eliminate the commanders.
Ron Rivera's answer, he took a long pause, looked very confused, looks straight at the reporter and says, we could be eliminated today.
What? Like, you're the head coach of a National Football League team and you have no idea that you could be eliminated from the playoffs the day that you're playing?
[00:12:40] Speaker A: Especially when you think about mapping out the end of the season and where you can get wins, right? I mean, you're playing the Cleveland Browns. If there was ever a chance for you to win a game, to try and get into the playoffs, who have.
[00:12:53] Speaker B: Wildly underperformed this season. Yeah, it's just a real bad look, and I know a good, he is a good coach.
Mean, that's just, that's like a fireable offense. You can't just not know where you are in the standings. Like, what was the pregame speech? Hey, guys, if we don't win this one, we have another chance next week.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know what to make of that. That was bizarre, just weird.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: But we'll get over to the Cleveland side of things. Coaching. I have Joe woods and Kevin Stefanski here. I decided to give them somewhat of a reprieve this week.
We did win. I want to enjoy that. I will say this, though.
Our fan base is wild at times because just like the Baker Bros. Yelling and screaming every time Baker has a good game and then mysteriously going silent when he has a bad game. Kind of like this week, Kevin Stefanski lovers come out of the woodwork in droves the minute we win a game to say, see, he's the best coach. So good at play calling.
I don't understand it. We beat the Commanders and we looked awful in the first half. So I don't really know where all the support for Kevin Stefanski comes from when we win a game.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: Well, yeah, I mean, look, the Commandos have overperformed this year, but by nature of the fact that they've exceeded expectations means that the expectations were low for them.
[00:14:13] Speaker B: Well, and you talked about it, they've had, like 500 quarterbacks this year. It's an exaggeration, but it's been a revolving carousel for sure.
[00:14:22] Speaker A: And no one expected them to be a leader in their division or in the playoff hunt necessarily. So the fact that you beat that team. Yeah, I mean, it's a good win. Look, I never want to begrudge a win like you win, you celebrate in a win. But here's the thing, you couldn't often win in spite of a performance of a player or in spite of a performance of a coach. And look, I think the good thing is that Joe woods, who still deserves to be fired at the end of the year because.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: You can join him.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: His defense takes too long to get to form each year. Look, they've been playing better. They've played a lot better the last couple of weeks. You're playing a really bad quarterback here.
[00:15:05] Speaker B: Joe woods, old enough because, I mean, is he just used to, like when they used to have longer preseason and stuff and he's like, I got to get my defense up to speed. He needs an extra six weeks.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: There's no excuses for Joe woods at this point. He's bad, but the defense, to give them credit, the unit has played better over the last few weeks and it was against, granted, Carson Wentz, who is not very good and gifted, three turnovers and they just really don't have a lot of things that scare you on and Stefanik. Look, I think there was plenty to take away from.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: Yes, we're still calling him Stefanik.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: Yeah, he didn't earn his name back yet, but there was plenty to take away from this game. And go, why? I mean, that offense in the first half was as dreadful as we've seen.
[00:15:55] Speaker B: Here's a question all year. Here's a question. Nick Chubb has like seven carries for like 70 yards.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: Oh, don't give him that much credit. He had five carries. I think he finished the first half with four carries for like 65 yards.
[00:16:06] Speaker B: And for some reason we're just throwing bombs.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: Yeah, we're going to continue to roast the ball down the field. When you have a running back that's averaging 13 and a half yards of carry, and this isn't 13 and a half yards of carry on. A bunch of, this is on four carries. So this is a pretty, like he's good to go. He's good to go. He's pounding the rock.
[00:16:24] Speaker B: Is Kevin Stefanik literally allergic to the run at this point?
[00:16:29] Speaker A: Look, I think he is.
[00:16:32] Speaker B: Does he think he's Mike Leach? Rip like he's just doing air raid?
What, is that what he, and we'll.
[00:16:39] Speaker A: Talk about the podesta thing later on the show, but honestly, if this is the offense, Kevin Stefanski wants to run and they want to run this full on air raid system. I don't know why you have Nick Chubb, right?
[00:16:52] Speaker B: Trade him.
[00:16:52] Speaker A: I mean, trade him. Look, I love Nick Chubb.
[00:16:54] Speaker B: Come out of my mouth. Don't trade him. I'm not advocating.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: He's my favorite brown right now.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: He's my favorite brown of all time.
[00:17:00] Speaker A: I'm not going to lie. He's the most impressive football player I've ever seen in my life. But if you're going to give him 14 team carries a game and you don't really want to leverage his talent, even though week in and week out, we say the strength of this offense is the running game. That's what the personnel is built for. If you don't want to run that offense, I don't know why you have an all time talent at running back.
[00:17:21] Speaker B: Also, it's just wild to me that we threw 18 passes in this game. It felt like we threw like 40 because the ball was consistently just flying all over.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: We weren't completing any passes.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: The hell were we doing? It was insane.
[00:17:35] Speaker A: It was. Every drive was give the ball to Nick Chubb once or twice and you get a first down and then you throw the ball two or three times and you punt. That was the entire game. So bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for him. So there was plenty to pick apart of the Stefanski effort in this game. I'm not going to give him a full reprieve, man.
[00:17:55] Speaker B: Look at me. I said we're going to give him a reprieve. And then we just had a full.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: Discussion about Kevin Stefani, but he still sucks. The locker room still has issues. None of those things are going to go away. You're going to continue to, I promise you, there's going to be more stories all season long about players that are disgruntled or something. That was weird. Somebody's going to get in trouble.
[00:18:13] Speaker B: Miles may have come out and after the whole dust up last week said, no, I like Kevin. I respect him. He's my coach. He's just going to say what he has to.
I don't buy that. That's actually how he feels just based on actions.
[00:18:26] Speaker A: I mean, the bottom line is, yes, you beat the Commandos yesterday, but every game that you've lost this year was lost on the play sheet of Kevin Stefanski.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: At least 80% of the games we lost this year. So the reason 100% tied to him.
[00:18:40] Speaker A: The reason that game on Sunday didn't mean anything was because of Kevin Stefanski to begin with. So still no reprieve yeah.
[00:18:47] Speaker B: Anyways, let's get into the offense here. Deshaun Watson, nine of 18, 169 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, eight rushes for 31 yards.
[00:18:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:57] Speaker B: I mean, you said it. A tale of two halves. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: The worst of times. Early.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: Yeah. And it was bad in the first half. I mean, dude, dude scrambled around and threw to an offensive lineman on purpose.
[00:19:10] Speaker A: And that's like Brandon Whedon bad, right?
[00:19:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: That's getting caught under the flag.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: It reminded me of, it wasn't the same, but for some reason it reminded me of that time Brandon weed was like falling down, just threw it backwards, and then it was an interception for.
[00:19:23] Speaker A: A touchdown that might have been to the Carson Wentz Eagles when he was drafted. That, yeah. So I think going into this game, everybody looked at it and said, the weather's as good. It's going to be warm, unseasonably warm in Washington. And this should be, Deshaun's got a month under his belt. This should be the first kind of vintage Deshaun effort if we're going to see one.
[00:19:49] Speaker B: This going into cold Pittsburgh next, going.
[00:19:52] Speaker A: To next week's stat line should look similar to this week's because the weather's not going to be great. But I think there was a lot of expectation on this week because the weather was going to be good. You had pretty much a full boat of healthy guys on offense, and now.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: We'Re down to one more chance for him to give us that big Deshaun Watson game that we've all been waiting for before the season ends. And you said it back when he first started playing that you didn't think we were going to see it this year.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Well, yeah, even so. Right? He started that game really poorly.
You had the offensive line pass, whatever that was.
[00:20:26] Speaker B: I just like that our offensive lineman caught it and dropped it immediately. I was like, I'm not allowed to.
[00:20:30] Speaker A: I can't do this.
[00:20:33] Speaker B: He just looked at him like, that's not okay.
[00:20:35] Speaker A: I'm pretty sure that was Conklin.
So good on him.
But then he played well in the second half, right? At that point.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: Yeah. I want to acknowledge that at least, because I did feel like as he was playing, too, you saw some of the swagger come back where he was like, yeah, I'm playing well and I'm feeling it and I'm completing passes, I'm throwing touchdowns to Amari Cooper. Like, this is great.
[00:20:58] Speaker A: I'll be like, at halftime. That was the first time I was legitimately concerned that we were in a Russell Wilson scenario where maybe this game.
[00:21:07] Speaker B: Nobody'S in a Russell Wilson.
[00:21:09] Speaker A: Maybe the game has passed this guy by after being off for two years because he looked bad.
[00:21:14] Speaker B: He's five years younger than Russell Wilson, though.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: He was so bad. Jason Lockin four came out and tweeted that he was a thief, that he was stealing money and all kinds of other stuff.
Yeah, I mean, it was a rough tweet. He all but called him a sexual predator.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: Tell us how you really feel.
[00:21:33] Speaker A: But he did have a better second half. He came in and rallied the troops a little bit. And Kevin Stefanski still doesn't like to run the ball. So it was all on Deshaun.
[00:21:41] Speaker B: Yeah. At the end of the day, he's going to have every opportunity to succeed.
[00:21:44] Speaker A: Well, yeah. And that being said, he still only finished with 169 yards on the day. But you got a clean turnover sheet and you got three touchdowns.
[00:21:52] Speaker B: QVR was 122 point something.
[00:21:54] Speaker A: Yeah. So the second half, you felt better coming out of the second half because it was really concerning before that. Yeah.
[00:22:02] Speaker B: And we'll probably talk a little bit more about Watson and even Stefanic as this goes on. But Nick Chubb, 14 carries for 104 yards. So again, he didn't get 20 Carries. Luckily we still won. But, I mean, he's just 14 carries for 104 yards.
He didn't get more.
[00:22:22] Speaker A: It almost seems like Stefanik is calling plays just to put him in. They're just inside runs over and over and over again just to be like, I'm going to give the ball to Nick Chubb and we're going to get our one or two yards just so that I could tell everybody justify, this is why we throw the ball so much. But Nick Chubb is just such a freaking man that he's just pounding through guys and then he just walks. Yeah, give me another defensive linemen and backers to the tune of eight and nine yards of carry. It's ridiculous, but I digress.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Right after that, our other running back, Kareem Hunt. Two carries, no yards, one catch for negative 1 yd. Again, I say this every week, but I just don't know. So, like, at this point, usually we say, okay, well, Chubb got 14. That usually means Kareem Hunt probably had like eight or nine. No, actually, Kareem Hunt was literally a detriment to the team this week. He totaled negative one yards. We would have had below zero yards if he was the only guy starting.
It's not his fault. Like, that's all on Kevin Stefanik, how do you not know how to use this? The. And I would say this. I know obviously Nick Chubb is the best running back in football.
Kareem Hunt is one of the more explosive running backs in the entire NFL. And we have no idea how to use him. Absolutely none. Not even a little. We got him negative one yards in a game.
He has less yards now than he did last week.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: That's never good.
Look, it is time.
It was before this game was time that cream Hunt should have been in a backup role. Jerome Ford got a couple of opportunities to flash on Sunday. This should be Jerome Ford. I'm hoping we see some more Jerome Ford on Sunday.
[00:24:19] Speaker B: With the history of the players on this team, nobody should be flashing anybody.
[00:24:24] Speaker A: Who was the guy that was flashing in the offseason? The defensive end. Who was it for? The Falcons tack McKinley when he was naked in the parking lot.
Yeah, you're right. We should not flash anyone. But anyway, look, Kareem Hunt needs sat down.
[00:24:38] Speaker B: Not because even the low hanging fruit.
[00:24:40] Speaker A: No pun intended, not because he sucks or we don't like Kareem, but because he's not going to be a part of this team in the future.
[00:24:47] Speaker B: And I think that's what this is. I think that they are just kind of like, well, we couldn't find a trade partner for you, so we're just writing you out of the offense so we can start practicing our offense.
[00:24:54] Speaker A: But why put him in the game at all at this point?
[00:24:56] Speaker B: I agree.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: Why not put Jerome Ford in and let him and see what you have?
[00:25:00] Speaker B: I agree with you, but apparently the brain trust there in Cleveland doesn't understand the analytics.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: Don't point to. Just look, here's the thing, too. You don't have a lot of draft picks, so it's not like you can go. Just replace a guy like Jerome Ford. If you go, he's not good, so he needs the time to develop. You've got to work with this guy and figure out what's his skill set.
[00:25:18] Speaker B: And what can he do for your team developing players? Never heard of her.
Anyway, so we got Mari Cooper. Next. Three catches, 105 yards, two touchdowns. Big game from him. He made the most of all of his catches.
[00:25:30] Speaker A: Well, yeah, when 66% of your catches are touchdowns. Pretty good day. Big stat line from a number standpoint, but only three catches on the day. So it was kind of just a weird. It wasn't even like this was Amari Cooper's best game. It was kind of like right place, right time.
[00:25:47] Speaker B: Yeah. All the other receivers combined basically did nothing. DPJ did have a 13 yard touchdown, but it was his only catch on the day.
So let's do the offensive line here real quick. Gave up five sacks, paved the way for 146 yards rushing.
Five sacks. That's terrible.
I will say this, four sacks in the first half.
[00:26:07] Speaker A: About the offensive line, the offensive line pass to Sean through. If you watch that playback.
Jed Wills was facing two guys, basically came in, and instead of blocking one of them, he just blocked none of them. So that's when you have your choice. The play got off.
[00:26:23] Speaker B: I'm going to go with no one.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: To a bad start because Jed Wills just blocked. He looked at two guys and he said, why don't one go to the left of me and one go to the right of me and I'll see you guys later.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: And then he just turned around and.
[00:26:34] Speaker A: Watched Deshaun run around.
[00:26:35] Speaker B: That's never a good plan. I actually said multiple times this game, I saw Jed Wills looking at Deshaun Watts, and I told my wife, I said, it's never good when you see an offensive line staring at your back at the end of a play.
[00:26:45] Speaker A: Always bad.
[00:26:46] Speaker B: But, yeah, I mean, they didn't look good. Again, we've said it before, we'll say it again. We're not going to continue to beat this dead horse, but they need more pieces and it's going to be hard to do without cap space or draft picks.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: Well, and I think Deshaun plays such a different game, too. So I think that's a big part of this, is that, like I said at the top of the show, the personnel that is here is built for a scheme, is built for a zone run scheme, and they had 150 rushing yards this week. They can do that piece, they can run block.
But Deshaun plays such a different game than Baker played, than Jacoby played, because he's a hold the ball guy, because he's athletic and can buy time in the backfield, that this offensive line hasn't really had a guy like that that has played behind them. So they have to adjust now thinking about how do we account for those blocks to keep know clean when he's running around back there and also not hold anyone, right?
[00:27:49] Speaker B: And you're talking about, like, Jed Wills, who can't block normal time frame, so he has to block for longer. It's going be even worse. And then Jack Conklin did get hurt again in this one, so that's never good. Hopefully he's all right, but at this point, just shut him down for the year.
[00:28:01] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, he came back in, in that game, but the same thing, right?
[00:28:05] Speaker B: You just gave him an extension, shut him down, make sure he's healthy for next year.
[00:28:08] Speaker A: Man, that's not good.
Hopefully a full season will do him well to get healthy and he'll be a different player next year, but this has just not been his year.
[00:28:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
All right, so let's take it over to the defensive side of the ball. Miles Garrett, one and a half sacks, two QB hits, eight tackles from a defensive end, which is super high for the way that he plays because he's always just pinning his ears back and rushing the passer, trying to get in the backfield. So he played pretty well. This is a great bounce back game compared to what he had last week after being pissed off at the coach.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: Yeah. And he continues to just rack up sack numbers for the season. I think he's at what, 14 and a half now and all time sack leader. I was just actually just looking at this list because the sacks weren't included up until. I don't even remember what year. But our statistician. What?
[00:29:09] Speaker B: Where is our statistician?
[00:29:10] Speaker A: We don't tell you that. We don't have one. But they weren't included for most of Matthews's career.
The next closest person on the all time sack list is, I think, Cameron Wimbley at like 23 and a half sacks. So there's like, Miles at like 75, Cameron Wembley at like 23 and a half.
[00:29:28] Speaker B: I think he's leading.
[00:29:29] Speaker A: And then Jabal sheared at like 22.
[00:29:31] Speaker B: Jabal sheared.
[00:29:33] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:29:35] Speaker B: Yeah. So good game for Miles Garrett. Hopefully he gets a few more in the last game against the Steelers and we can pull out a win there and finishes the season strong.
[00:29:45] Speaker A: But sack.
[00:29:46] Speaker B: Kenny Pickets, Tony Fields, nine tackles. Chase Winovich, one sack. Taven Bryan, a half sack. Grant Delpit. We'll talk about him in just a minute. And Denzel Ward, one pass breakup, one interception.
[00:30:01] Speaker A: Taven Bryan was one of two browns that graded in the elite category this week on defense.
[00:30:06] Speaker B: Way to go, buddy.
So the defense, you mentioned it. They've looked better of late. They looked pretty good in this one, but they're playing.
Not saying. I'm not trying to take away from how they saying, I'm just stating facts. I mean, we played.
[00:30:25] Speaker A: I mean, my look, my first thought when they said that Carson Wentz was starting this week over Taylor Heinecke was like, that's an advantage for the.
[00:30:34] Speaker B: And here's my. Like, a lot of people be like, oh, you're Just hating on the defense, blah. They're playing better. You need to give them their credit. Well, here's the deal. The reason we're not in the playoff hunt is because the defense played so poorly and Kevin Stefanik coached so poorly to start the season that we have no chance to get into the playoffs.
I don't understand this whole. Like you said, it takes the entire season almost for Joe woods defense to get going and then we're great at the end of the season. But what does that do for you if we're not making the playoffs? We don't need to be good at the end of the season.
[00:31:06] Speaker A: And here's the thing. I wouldn't even say like, they're playing better, but they're not playing at an elite level.
[00:31:11] Speaker B: Oh, we're still probably ranked right there in the middle. Probably around 13, would say 14. Somewhere around there.
[00:31:16] Speaker A: Yeah. So the thing is, can you be mediocre all year?
[00:31:20] Speaker B: If we would have been, we would have won about six more games.
[00:31:22] Speaker A: You were mediocre to above average. This team would be in the playoff hunt. But you were so bad for the first eleven games that you couldn't win more than four games behind really solid quarterbacks.
[00:31:35] Speaker B: No exaggeration. We might not just be in the playoff hunt, we might be having a home game.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
You're in the talk for we are a division leader.
[00:31:43] Speaker B: Here. We are, though.
Special teams. Kate York, one of one field goals, three of three extra points. So the KD York Confidence meter is.
[00:31:51] Speaker A: Back up, going up.
[00:31:53] Speaker B: And Corey Bajoriquiz got to put him in here because two more inside the 20 this week. Good job, buddy.
[00:31:58] Speaker A: He's our favorite dog.
That first punty hit, too, was a bomb.
[00:32:03] Speaker B: He's a man.
[00:32:04] Speaker A: Yeah. I wish punters did something besides punt because it could be like, he's a cool guy.
[00:32:09] Speaker B: One time we had the Scottish hammer, he would hit people every once in a while.
[00:32:13] Speaker A: He was fun. But Jorquez might be the best punter we've had in Cleveland since.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: They've actually had some decent punters, too, since Chris Gardaki. Remember Reggie Hodges?
[00:32:23] Speaker A: Was he decent or was he just Reggie Hodges?
[00:32:27] Speaker B: He was decent the one season. And then I Think we had him again and we cut him.
[00:32:31] Speaker A: I don't know that he was great. I think he one time ran.
[00:32:35] Speaker B: I was going to say he had the best fake punt that ever happened.
He ran it like 80 yards.
[00:32:40] Speaker A: That's what he's remembered for. I don't know that he was a very good punter, but here we are.
[00:32:46] Speaker B: That'll take us. Actually, I'm moving this up this week. It's going to take us to the Burning River Sports Cas, dog of the week.
[00:32:52] Speaker A: I'm a dog noodle.
[00:33:06] Speaker B: What, with Reggie Hodges?
[00:33:07] Speaker A: No, just moving things around.
[00:33:08] Speaker B: Oh, me for you or them?
[00:33:11] Speaker A: For everyone.
[00:33:12] Speaker B: For everyone. Yeah. But. Yeah. Grant Delpit, the Burning River Sportscast Dog of the Week. This week he had seven tackles, two pass breakups, two interceptions, and he graded out at a whopping 92.3 by PFF, which, as Kenny mentioned earlier, is in.
[00:33:27] Speaker A: The elite category and one of only two Browns to do so. So. Heck of a week for him. Impressive.
I think he has.
[00:33:39] Speaker B: Are you okay?
[00:33:41] Speaker A: I had a stroke.
He had one interception, I think, last week and two this week, and I think he had maybe one all season before that, so just good to see him kind of come on strong at the end of the year.
[00:33:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, he's been playing well of late. There was a stretch there in the middle of the season where I was just like. He was just kind of all over the place and I think he was just trying to make plays and I wasn't sure what was going on. But he's played a lot better. He has four interceptions.
[00:34:06] Speaker A: I think he has turned with the Joe woods defense. Right. Like, as the defense began to gel and look better, he was a part of that. He's played better. So it's important, though, that a guy like that continues to play well because we don't have any draft picks. No. And he is a good athlete and has a high ceiling, and we haven't seen him achieve that to this point. So for him to have a game like this, hopefully this starts to be more consistent for him.
[00:34:33] Speaker B: I agree. So the overall for this game, total yards Browns 301, commandos 260. Time of possession Browns 26 28 Commanders 33 32 did get beaten time of possession. That's interesting.
The BrowNS did. They look good for the most part in this one, but it's kind of like you said, it was a tale of two halves, and there are several things that still concern me. The fact that we gave up five sacks is bad. The line is kind of a mess right now with injuries, and they just seem like they're not really gelling at the moment. Like there's just something off almost.
You mentioned it pretty quickly earlier, and we'll talk about a little bit more now. What does that have to do with. Is that Deshaun Watson and maybe some decision making, or lack thereof, as far as getting back into things being rusty, hanging onto the ball too much or maybe even his mobility and the fact that he holds onto the ball because he has that mobility, he can run around and try and open up bigger plays.
[00:35:33] Speaker A: Yeah, there was a scramble drill a little early on that really didn't need to be one that he just missed a wide open in Joku in the back corner of the end zone and ended up, I think, as an incomplete pass.
But yeah, I think his decision making is still not there yet, but I think it's more to do with his mobility and just the fact that this offensive line, he might not settle for that short pass.
[00:35:54] Speaker B: He might scramble a little bit and try and open up something bigger.
[00:35:57] Speaker A: And I would expound on that to say it's not even just the offensive line. I think these backs and these receivers have to also adjust because they're not used to having scramble drill around.
[00:36:06] Speaker B: Besides, I would say I think Amari Cooper's done the best with it from what I've seen, but when there's like broken plays and he's scrambling around, we're not the best at trying to find open.
[00:36:16] Speaker A: No, no. These guys stand around covered if you're not going to get open and Deshaun's running in circles back for. It's a recipe for something bad to happen.
[00:36:27] Speaker B: Yeah. So I think it's just something as a team that they need to work. Don't. Again, I say I'm concerned about it. I think it's something that can fairly easily be ironed out. But he's different than anybody we've had.
[00:36:38] Speaker A: Here's the other thing, thougH, is that as a coach, wouldn't you look at this and start to say when Deshaun came back, what are the big differences between Deshaun's skill set and Jacoby's skill set in the offense we were running.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: The first thing you would have told your team is he's going to scramble. Make sure you get. Yeah.
[00:36:57] Speaker A: Wouldn't that be one of the first.
[00:36:58] Speaker B: Things that offensive line, make sure you hold your block.
[00:37:00] Speaker A: That becomes an every week thing when you practice your fundamentals at practice and your keys to success is like, we know we're going to have to do this over and over and over again, so let's practice it. And seriously, though, they still look lost.
[00:37:13] Speaker B: You went from Jacoby Brissette and Jacoby Percet played well. We gave him his props, but it was basically like a West coast style offense where it's all timing routes and the guy gets open, you fire the ball in there, there's not a lot of quick release improv. Seeing what's going on to now we have a dude that can literally scramble with the best of them and has a laser rocket arm, and somehow we just think we're going to play the just they're, like you said, they're completely different. You'd think the coach would point that out and say, hey, guys, we've been.
[00:37:43] Speaker A: Working on the other stuff all year long. I already know you can do that. Let's practice the stuff that's new.
[00:37:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. The other thing that concerns me a little bit for Deshaun is his completion percentage is still very, I mean, we mentioned it before. He has one more game to give us, a big Deshaun Watson game before the season's over. So I guess we'll see if it I he could send a message with this one. It's a division rival going into next year. Like, hey, we had some missteps this year, but coming into next year, you better watch out.
[00:38:15] Speaker A: Well, I'll definitely say this. When you think about Deshaun Watson and how he can kind of endear himself to this fan base, you put up 40 on the Steelers, everybody feels good.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: All we're going to be talking about all offseason is how we're going to be undefeated next year because We're Browns fans. That's what we do.
[00:38:32] Speaker A: So we do. But this would go a long way to healing.
[00:38:35] Speaker B: Some of that happens. Literally all of Browns Nation is going to be on cloud nine and we're going to be talking every single BrownS fan, regardless of what stance you took throughout the season, is going to be like, well, we knew this year was a lost year and Deshaun Watson's the guy. And next year we're coming out and we're going to a Super Bowl.
Everybody's going to be saying it.
[00:38:55] Speaker A: Yeah, so it is a big week for Deshaun. If he can play really well this week and make something happen. I don't know exactly what the weather is going to do yet, but it's Pittsburgh, so it'll probably look a lot like it is here. So we'll just keep an eye on that forecast. But right now I think it's supposed to be relatively clear, he says it.
[00:39:12] Speaker B: Could be a lot like it is here. So if you go by the last week, it could be 62 and raining or two degrees, or it could be wind chill of negative 16 and winds of 30 miles an hour. I don't know.
[00:39:26] Speaker A: We'll see. That's fair.
[00:39:29] Speaker B: Other Brown's notes here right now it's.
[00:39:31] Speaker A: Scheduled to be 36 here and clear.
[00:39:33] Speaker B: Okay, well, so that's a pretty normal game. So I don't think 36 is cold, but it's not to the point where it should be a detriment to the passing game. No. But anyways, other Browns notes for this one, not really for the game, but there was a depodesta leak this week and I'm actually going to let you run with this. Do you have the leak and kind of what was talked about?
[00:39:55] Speaker A: Yeah, so I think this came from a Tony Grossi article.
This was kind of an Alzheimer like Browns conspiracy weirdness, right?
[00:40:06] Speaker B: Because the timing was impeccable.
[00:40:09] Speaker A: Things were looking so bad for.
[00:40:13] Speaker B: They were looking bleak.
[00:40:14] Speaker A: Kevin Stefanski, people have already been on the fire. Joe woods and Mike prefer Bandwagon.
[00:40:20] Speaker B: This is the first time all season where it was like swung to like, it felt like the majority of the fan base was like, no, get rid of Kevin. We're done with this.
[00:40:28] Speaker A: And conveniently, very conveniently, a story comes out about Deepadesta having the ear of ownership and essentially exerting control over the entire building, and that Kevin Stefanski, the only reason he still is there and employed is because he's agreed in part to play.
[00:40:59] Speaker B: Hashtag Podesta.
[00:41:01] Speaker A: They're all the podesta patsies.
So it just was very bizarre timing and seemed to shift a lot of the blame over to analytics. That analytics has gone hogwild across the organization. None of the football guys opinions matter anymore. It's all based on analytics and this whole idea that four and five yard runs aren't as valuable as the chunk plays that you can get in an air raid style passing game. And for example, that's why Buffalo is successful. That's why Kansas City is successful, because they don't care about a running back that can average four and a half or five yards of carry.
So that's at least the idea.
So anyway, again, just convenient that as the tide starts to turn first ofanski and you already have most people on board with the idea that they need to replace Joe woods and they need to replace Mike Prefer. It's hard to make that argument that two thirds of your coaching staff needs to go, but your head coach should stay for some reason.
Unless you have.
[00:42:07] Speaker B: Unless you have a fall guy.
[00:42:08] Speaker A: Unless you have a fall guy. So that begs the question like, is Dipidesta now the fall guy? Because are we in a position where.
[00:42:17] Speaker B: We can say, talk about just the most convenient fall guy?
I know he helps make decisions, but he's just behind the scenes. Nobody actually sees him. And they're like, no. This guy, that guy over there, he's the one that's messing everything up.
[00:42:31] Speaker A: We've spent the entire time that Deepesta has been here saying, what exactly does this guy do? Does anybody know exactly what he does? We know in, like, he provides information for decision making, right? He can look at all the numbers, make sense of the numbers, and say, these are the things that, statistically, I would tell you, are higher probabilities than not. But outside of, like, what is his role? I mean, he's chief strategy officer of the Cleveland Browns. WhAt is his role in that big title, in that strategy?
And so it's an interesting question now to say, is D Podesta the fall guy?
Because it's just who owns the accountability and the responsibility here?
If Deepesta and analytics is the problem, do we get rid of Deep Podesta? Or if Deep Podesta is so entrenched in this system and has the ear of Jimmy and D, then how can you be happy with the execution of this analytic strategy driven by Dee Podesta and Kevin Stefanski? Because Kevin's not even playing good patsy at this point.
[00:43:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. Here's the other part of this, too, is, lest we forget, does nobody remember his early press conferences talking about Kevin Stefanski? I'm talking about right now, talking about how he embraces analytics and thinks they play a huge part in today's game and you need to listen to the analytics and they will drive the game as a whole. And does nobody remember that?
[00:44:12] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Look.
[00:44:14] Speaker B: And you're telling me that all of a sudden, now it comes out that he's the patsy and now he's decided to play ball regardless of if Deep Podesta was here or not. He's an analytics?
[00:44:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Look, I think we've talked a lot about, over the last couple of weeks, the excuses coming from this organization, so many of them at all levels, from Jimmy, from D, from Podesta, from earlier this year.
[00:44:45] Speaker B: Excuses are like assholes. And Kevin Stefanski's got a bunch of them.
[00:44:47] Speaker A: He's got a big one.
So to now have this whole thing rolling around that Podesta might be the way the story is framed is. I kind of don't even know. Is Deep Podesta the villain in this story, or is Kevin the villain because he's not doing analytics? Right.
[00:45:06] Speaker B: I didn't really understand the whole at.
[00:45:10] Speaker A: The very minimum, but leaks come out for a reason.
[00:45:13] Speaker B: If you haven't been around the NFL long enough, leaks come out for a reason. It wasn't intentionally like it was somebody happened to tell Tony Grossi this. No, this came out on purpose.
[00:45:24] Speaker A: It's absolutely intentional because of the timing, because things were looking so bad and.
[00:45:29] Speaker B: Look how well it worked. EverYbody was talking about how bad Kevin Stefanski was, and all of a sudden, at least for the second half of this past week, all the attention was shifted to deep Odesta. And now we won a game and now it's all back to everything's sunshine and rainbows.
[00:45:46] Speaker A: Because D Podesta is the guy that's kind of behind the curtain. They don't even necessarily have to fire him. They can run their own PR campaign to pull.
[00:45:57] Speaker B: We've worked things out.
[00:45:58] Speaker A: We're going to pull back a little bit. We're going to let Kevin make some more football based decisions and try to balance the two. They don't even have to fire him to make an example out of it. They can say we're making adjustments internally.
So I don't know if anything, I just think this buys Kevin more time with Deshaun because things were pretty bleak.
[00:46:16] Speaker B: Speaking of this whole situation, though, I'll send this meme to you. Throw it up here.
There's a pretty good meme out there right now for everybody listening to the podcast that can't see that meme on our video version, which check that out on YouTube because it'll be out eventually.
It's on the top half you got Jonah Hill from Moneyball, and it says Deep podesta with the Athletics. And on the bottom half you got George Costanza. It says deep Podesta with the Browns.
[00:46:41] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, that's a good one.
[00:46:43] Speaker B: My favorite meme to come out.
[00:46:44] Speaker A: This, um.
I don't know, was just a bizarre story to leak at this.
[00:46:53] Speaker B: I mean, that's the right.
[00:46:54] Speaker A: That's. It was so Browns y.
[00:46:56] Speaker B: We love the Browns, but this is kind of like our. It's right on into the. That's it for this week's game. Let's get into the division roundup.
[00:47:15] Speaker A: Had in a while.
[00:47:17] Speaker B: Are you deflecting because you hate this part of the show?
[00:47:21] Speaker A: Oh, no. What part of the show is that? I wasn't even paying attention.
[00:47:23] Speaker B: Division roundup.
[00:47:24] Speaker A: Oh, great. Yeah. Look, I don't care.
[00:47:26] Speaker B: What have you not had in a while?
[00:47:27] Speaker A: This is a good old fashioned, like, ramen noodle.
[00:47:30] Speaker B: It sounds good, but then you have it and it's not good.
But anyway, so Pittsburgh defeated Baltimore this week 16 to 13.
[00:47:41] Speaker A: Did not see that coming.
[00:47:42] Speaker B: Ronnie was right, which is me, and Kenny was wrong, which is you.
How does that feel?
[00:47:50] Speaker A: Here's what I would say.
I'm starting to grow concerned that Kenny Pickett might be okay.
If he is, I don't know that.
[00:48:04] Speaker B: He'S like not good.
[00:48:05] Speaker A: I don't think he's the next Aaron Rogers. But if he's the next Derek Carr and plays in Pittsburgh for the next ten years, it's enough to give us trouble.
[00:48:16] Speaker B: It's enough to give the whole division trouble because they're very well coached. Assuming they don't get rid of Mike Tomlin.
[00:48:21] Speaker A: I consider this year as your prime example. This year, when everyone thought they were absolute trash, and they are trash.
[00:48:27] Speaker B: And if they beat the Browns on Sunday, they officially finish nine and eight. And Mike Tomlin remains never being underneath 500 to finish a season. And sentence didn't make any sense. But he does it again.
[00:48:43] Speaker A: Under no circumstance, even if the Browns win this week, can the Browns finish with a better record than the Pittsburgh Steelers this year?
[00:48:49] Speaker B: No, but if we did beat them, then we finished ahead of, well, we.
[00:48:51] Speaker A: Have the Tide breaker, but the record is no different. And this is in a year where we thought where the Browns. Browns are ascending.
[00:49:00] Speaker B: They were one of the best teams in the NFL.
[00:49:02] Speaker A: The Browns are ascending and the Steelers are descending and in a total rebuild. And they're going to finish with, at bare minimum, the same record as you this year.
[00:49:11] Speaker B: Pittsburgh. If anybody from Pittsburgh is listening to this, continue to enjoy it. You guys have one of the best coaches in the NFL. You somehow find a way to be competitive year after year, even when your team has got off.
[00:49:23] Speaker A: And you know what? That's what pisses me off, is we have all these talk about Stefanik and we don't even give him his name because he's an asshole.
You got a guy in Pittsburgh that for whatever reason, every year there's boobirds and stuff about, let's fire Mike Tomlin. He's not enough to get it done.
[00:49:38] Speaker B: Well, this year they were out en.
[00:49:40] Speaker A: Masse early in the year, a lot.
[00:49:43] Speaker B: Early to middle part of the year, when they were struggling to find their footing. And everybody's calling for Mike Tomlin's job and just settle down and give him some time.
[00:49:50] Speaker A: And for what? It's the last week of the season and you guys can still make the playoffs.
[00:49:55] Speaker B: It kind of lends itself to the argument we have against Stefanski. Against Stefanik is people like to give us crap because they're like, you got to give the coach time. You got to let him establish himself.
Look, we were, on paper, supposed to be one of the best teams in the NFL, even with Deshaun Watson's suspension, and we're probably going to be under 500.
[00:50:19] Speaker A: What's the point?
[00:50:20] Speaker B: Tomlin took a team that was considered in complete rebuild mode, like, when the Browns are in complete rebuild mode, we go one in 31. In case anyone was wondering, when the Steelers are in complete rebuild mode, they might finish above 500.
[00:50:33] Speaker A: You're competitive.
[00:50:36] Speaker B: Don't give us shit about giving Stefanic shit. When you got Mike Tomlin over here, that proves that you just need good coaching to be able to stay in every game.
[00:50:46] Speaker A: What's Mike Tomlin's record this year? If you swapped rosters with the Cleveland Browns and Holy hell, the Steelers are.
[00:50:54] Speaker B: Probably going to the Super Bowl. No joke. They're probably going to the.
[00:50:59] Speaker A: Probably.
[00:51:00] Speaker B: They probably started out, like, just fine with Brissette, and then Deshaun Watson came in, and I guarantee you Mike Tomlin's getting more out of him than we're getting.
[00:51:08] Speaker A: Lit it up.
[00:51:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, man. But anyways, let's move on. I don't want to spend all our time talking about how much better the Pittsburgh Steelers are on a yearly basis than the Browns. F the Steelers. F them all.
Cincinnati. They play Buffalo tonight. We always record on Monday. So Cincinnati plays Buffalo tonight. We'll add that score in next week. And then the Browns game we already discussed, and Kenny was right on the Browns game. He picked the Browns. I did not.
[00:51:36] Speaker A: I only picked him because you picked against him.
[00:51:37] Speaker B: You were going to pick against him, but you didn't. So, so far, both of us are one and one this week, and we'll add that to our records later when we get into King of the North. So for now, let's take a trip around the NFL.
All right, so let's just take a look at the playoff picture right now. We'll start with the AFC as it stands at this very moment. I'll run down the five spots that are locked up in order. Number one seed at this moment, the Chiefs. Number two seed, the Bills. Number three seed, the Bengals. Number four seed, the Chargers. Number five seed, the Ravens. Those are all the teams that have locked up a playoff spot in the AFC, and there are two spots remaining. These are the teams that are still in it. The Jaguars are playing the Titans. The winner of that game basically goes to the playoffs.
The Jaguars actually will still get in if it's a tie, but the winner of that game goes to the playoffs. The Patriots control their own destiny. If they beat the, I don't know who they're playing this week. If they win this week, they're in. But they can also get in with a Dolphins loss.
The Dolphins are still in it. If they win and the Patriots lose.
[00:52:52] Speaker A: The Patriots play the Bills, by the way.
[00:52:54] Speaker B: Yeah. So the Dolphins still have a pretty good shot. If they win and the Patriots lose, then the Dolphins are in and the Steelers still hanging on here. If the Steelers beat the Browns and the Patriots and the Dolphins both lose, who are the Dolphins playing, by the way?
[00:53:11] Speaker A: The Dolphins play the.
[00:53:15] Speaker B: Mean the jets are out of the playoffs. Talk about it in just a second. But the jets have been decent this year. So the Steelers still have a chance to make the playoffs here.
[00:53:25] Speaker A: Absolutely they do.
[00:53:26] Speaker B: Yeah. So the jets and the Raiders were eliminated this week. Those were the latest two teams eliminated, and that kind of rounds out the AFC playoff picture right now.
But yeah, I mean, they're going to be playing hard against us because they have an outside chance to make playoffs still. And the first thing that needs to be done is they need to take care of business against Cleveland.
[00:53:48] Speaker A: Yes. So let me ask you this. Out of the teams that haven't clinched, there's two spots left in the AFC, what two teams do you see winning this weEkend?
[00:54:00] Speaker B: The two teams that will be in. Two remaining teams that I see making it in are the Jaguars and the Dolphins. Titans just announced their starting DOBBs this week, which does not bode well. Basically, ever since they don't have their starting quarterback, they've been pretty much ass.
So I don't see the Titans winning. Jaguars get in there. And on the flip side of that, Trevor Lawrence has been playing really well to close the season out. And then I don't like the Patriots chances against the. Unless, unless I'll caveat this, the Bills sit everybody, but I don't see that happening because they have a chance for the number one seed.
So I like the Jaguars and the Dolphins because I think the Dolphins are going to beat the Jets. I still think the jets are trash.
[00:54:46] Speaker A: Fair.
[00:54:47] Speaker B: What about you?
[00:54:49] Speaker A: It's just wild that we're living in an NFL where the Jaguars are going to make the playoffs and we're not considering a year ago they were being coached by Urban Meyer.
[00:54:58] Speaker B: Oh, man, what a dark time for them. As much as we like Urban Meyer as a coach of the Buckeyes, not as a person, he was out there kicking kickers. Holy hell, man, what a dark time for that franchise.
[00:55:13] Speaker A: Look, I think you're right on the Jaguars. I think the Jaguars get in.
I don't think the Titans win that game because whether Dobbs starts or whether Malik Willis comes in and plays because Dobbs isn't playing that well, I don't think that they're going to be able to get it done against that team.
And as much as it pains me to say this, like, deep down in my insides, I think the Steelers probably sneak their way in.
[00:55:41] Speaker B: No way you're going with the Steelers, which means you're going to pick them, which so am I, but it doesn't matter anymore.
Spoiler alert.
All right. And on the NFC side of things, we have in order again, the number one seed, as it stands right this second, is the Eagles, number two seed, 49 Ers, number three seed, Vikings, number four seed Buccaneers, who clinched this week, which we'll get it into that game here in a minute. Number five seed, cowboys, number six seed, giants, who also clinched this week. And that leaves us with one spot left, and the teams that are still in it are the packers, who control their own destiny out of nowhere, winning therein.
There's also the Lions. They need a win and a Seahawks loss.
And I think the packers play the Lions, right. So the packers win, they're in, and then obviously if the Lions beat the packers and then the Seahawks lose, then the Lions are in. The Seahawks need a win and a Packers loss and then the other three teams that were in it. But no longer are the Commanders, Panthers and Saints all eliminated this week. That's right. Ron Rivera. The Commanders were indeed eliminated from the playoffs.
[00:56:47] Speaker A: Well, he knows now, but yeah, I.
[00:56:50] Speaker B: Mean, the NFL has just been wild this year, man. You mentioned it just a second ago. And the teams that the, the freaking Jaguars are going to the playoffs and the Browns aren't with the rosters that we started the year with, and it's just been wide open.
[00:57:04] Speaker A: Who's your final NFC team that gets in?
[00:57:07] Speaker B: The Packers.
[00:57:08] Speaker A: Yeah, agreed.
[00:57:09] Speaker B: Aaron Rodgers somehow finds a way to get there. Don't worry, they'll lose in the divisional round, though.
[00:57:13] Speaker A: They just jailed at the right time. I mean, they started playing really good football at the last possible minute.
[00:57:19] Speaker B: It's because it's Aaron Rodgers, his halo.
[00:57:21] Speaker A: Usco kicked in well and they found that kid.
[00:57:24] Speaker B: Yeah, he just, he plays so well down the stretch. It's insane.
As much as he doesn't play well in the playoffs, he plays so well down the stretch in the regular season.
[00:57:34] Speaker A: He's a good quarterback. But it's funny because at the beginning of the season, there was so much made of Rogers Brady being kind of washed up. Certainly Russell is washed up, but these guys are like the old, you've accepted it now.
[00:57:48] Speaker B: I've been saying it for weeks. And you finally accepted that Russell is washed.
[00:57:51] Speaker A: These guys are, that are the old heads of the league. People were like, yeah, Brady should have just retired and Aaron Rodgers has passed his prime.
[00:57:57] Speaker B: Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers found the Magic again.
[00:58:00] Speaker A: All of a sudden here these guys are banging on the door.
[00:58:02] Speaker B: Don't worry, we'll talk about it.
Speaking of the packers, though, Jair Alexander, we were talking about them getting back into the playoff picture and they had a tall order this week, having to play the Vikings. I mean, that's a big game. And chances are most people thought they were going to lose that one. But Jair Alexander calls out Justin Jefferson this week. The DB for the packers calls out the receiver from the Vikings. And basically not just the receiver, the best receiver in the league.
[00:58:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I was going to say he's about to set. Going into this week, they thought he.
[00:58:37] Speaker B: Might hit 2000 yards.
[00:58:39] Speaker A: Yeah, he might be the first to hit 2000 yards.
[00:58:41] Speaker B: And basically Alexander came out and was like, absolutely not. He's not getting there. Not on me. Well, Jair Alexander backed it up this week. Justin Jefferson was held to one catch for 15 yards and Jair Alexander proceeded to hit the gritty on him after breaking up yet another pass late in that game and just embarrassing Justin Jefferson all day long.
[00:59:05] Speaker A: Yeah, it was one of the first.
[00:59:07] Speaker B: Part is that, did you see the post game press conference? He's like, I mean, I told you I was going to do that. I don't know why everybody's surprised. That's what I said was going to happen. You guys should probably pay attention.
[00:59:17] Speaker A: Yeah, it's going to be awful hard for Justin Jefferson to get that 2000.
[00:59:20] Speaker B: Now he needs like 180 yards or something.
And then let's move on here. Patrick Mahomes hits 5000 yards again. That dude's so good.
[00:59:32] Speaker A: Yeah, he's really good.
[00:59:34] Speaker B: Nothing to add there. He sounds like Kermit the Frog, though.
[00:59:37] Speaker A: He does sound like Kermit the Frog. He has an annoying brother.
[00:59:40] Speaker B: His brother's the worst.
[00:59:42] Speaker A: But man can put like the most.
[00:59:43] Speaker B: Embarrassing picture you can find up of his brother.
[00:59:45] Speaker A: He sucks about this one. Guy's an idiot about this one.
[00:59:48] Speaker B: That guy.
[00:59:51] Speaker A: Know, I try to leave spouses out of it at all times, but she kind of jumps into his wife. You don't like just the two of them together?
[01:00:01] Speaker B: The brother, sister, stupid on social media.
[01:00:05] Speaker A: Whether it'S pouring champagne on fans, I.
[01:00:08] Speaker B: Don'T just, how does Patrick Mahomes stay so clean when he's so closely tied to these people that are doing dumb things all the time?
[01:00:17] Speaker A: They're everything that people don't like. About the millennial Gen Z. Oh, his.
[01:00:22] Speaker B: Little brother is like the epitome of that. Him.
[01:00:25] Speaker A: And we mentioned TikTok culture, influencer culture.
[01:00:28] Speaker B: Yeah, it's bad. But anyways, moving on. We already mentioned them once, actually twice, and we'll mention them again. Packers have won four in a row now. Aaron Rogers with the late season magic just found his groove. I mean, the dude's like 48 years old.
All right, he's like 40. But still, when you thought it was time to write off Aaron Rogers, he just finds it again and just dominates.
[01:00:55] Speaker A: Do you think maybe he's rekindled the romance and that's secretly behind the scenes? Him and Shailene have been.
[01:01:02] Speaker B: I know that's been your theory. The reason that was graphic.
I know behind the, you've been saying behind the scenes that's the reason for all of his.
Maybe that's what happened.
[01:01:18] Speaker A: It's going to come out after they win the Super Bowl. Watch.
[01:01:19] Speaker B: Shailene Woodley, would you give us a call and let us know if you're banging Aaron Rogers again?
[01:01:24] Speaker A: She'll be at the Super bowl party.
[01:01:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Speaking of old quarterbacks, Tom Brady and the Buccaneers win again to clinch their division.
The Bucks were down 21 to ten early in the fourth quarter of this one. It looked like they were on their way to a loss. It was going to come down to the final week for Tom Brady.
[01:01:43] Speaker A: Luckily, they were playing the Broncos. What an idiot.
What a loser.
[01:01:49] Speaker B: The Chiefs played the Broncos.
[01:01:50] Speaker A: Sorry.
[01:01:50] Speaker B: What an idiot. I don't know how this guy is.
[01:01:52] Speaker A: Look, I thought we were still talking about Patrick Mahomes.
[01:01:54] Speaker B: Yeah, no good.
Luckily, after being down 21 to ten and looking like they were out of it, Tom Brady was Tom Brady and just had a monster fourth quarter on the day. He finished 34 of 45 for 432 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.
[01:02:11] Speaker A: Okay, he was playing the Panthers.
[01:02:13] Speaker B: They're trash.
[01:02:14] Speaker A: They're trash.
[01:02:15] Speaker B: But still, it was insane. They were down 21. Yeah, it's a division game and they won. Now they clinched and he's.
The Panthers were probably feeling good because they were actually fighting for a playoff spot because that division is wide open.
[01:02:30] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. They were like, we're going to do it.
[01:02:32] Speaker B: We're going to make it. We're just as trash as the Steelers are and we're somehow going to make the playoffs.
[01:02:36] Speaker A: They absolutely had a shot to make it, but Tom Brady said no. Says me.
[01:02:43] Speaker B: So flipping this thing over, going from good quarterbacks to trash quarterbacks, Russell Wilson, Denver loses again, and I will give him some credit. They were actually up on the Chiefs and he was playing okay for a while, but in the end, they could not pull this one out. And Shannon Sharp came out this week, kind of called out Russell Wilson and said, well, the reason why he's so bad is because all he wants to do is be famous. He doesn't want to be a good football player. He just wants to be famous. And that locker room hates him.
Yeah, that's not good coming from a Broncos legend.
[01:03:17] Speaker A: No, not at all. Yeah, I mean, to say that he thinks he's better than that locker room and that there's no respect for him there.
[01:03:24] Speaker B: Well, in that same piece, I think Shannon Sharp went into detail about how he's got his own office in the facility, all this stuff. And I will give the Broncos players credit. Some of them came out in support of Russell Wilson and said, well, the reason he has an office is because he's 100% dedicated his life to this game.
I don't know how much of that is lip service and just trying to have their quarterbacks back in public, but it really feels like that locker room hates him.
[01:03:54] Speaker A: If he dedicates his life to being better, why is he so bad?
[01:03:58] Speaker B: That's a good question.
Probably the question of the day. Broncos country. Let's ride.
[01:04:04] Speaker A: Let's ride.
[01:04:05] Speaker B: Which takes us to another terrible quarterback.
[01:04:08] Speaker A: Oh, boy, here we go.
[01:04:09] Speaker B: Baker Mayfield and the Rams. That's the Baker we know and know coming out on fire last week. Who did they torch last week? Was it the Chargers?
I think it was the ChargErs last week. He came out and just torched them. And all the Baker Bros. Were out in force telling everybody how he's so good and we shouldn't have got rid of him and da da da da. Look, he came out this week and he was eleven of 19 for 132 yards and no touchdowns.
[01:04:39] Speaker A: It was the Broncos that he torched. The Chargers beat him this week.
[01:04:42] Speaker B: That's who beat him this week. So they scored ten points and he looked terrible.
[01:04:48] Speaker A: Yeah, he was eleven and 19 for 130 yards.
[01:04:50] Speaker B: Yeah. So seriously, though, this is the problem with Baker Mayfield. I've said it before, I actually don't hate Baker. I think it's kind of fun to just rag on him just because we're.
[01:04:59] Speaker A: Always going to have a tie to him because he was here and all.
[01:05:02] Speaker B: Of his fans get so riled up about it. So it's just kind of fun to me. But know, this is the problem with Baker Mayfield, just on a serious note, is he's so inconsistent.
It's not just a little inconsistent, like he'll go out and he'll have a fire game like he did last week where you're like, oh my God, this guy is phenomenal. But then just as often, if not more often, you get this game. You get the eleven of 19 for 132 yards and no touchdowns. That doesn't win you hardly any games in the NFL. No, that's the knock on him. Don't get me wrong. I'll admit he has big games, but he also has these games.
[01:05:43] Speaker A: It won Andy Dalton a game against us last week.
[01:05:45] Speaker B: Well, that's true. He threw for 92 and still won somehow. But anyways, I digress. Nick Foles was injured in the Colts game this week. And Cave on Thibodeau was making snow Angels right next to him after hitting him and hurting him.
[01:06:02] Speaker A: Not a high level of awareness there.
[01:06:05] Speaker B: Get in your playbook, man. No, but he did apologize afterwards and said that I didn't realize he was injured, but Jeff Saturday, the fighting Jeff Saturday came out after the game and was like, no, that dude's trash.
[01:06:18] Speaker A: Yeah, he called him trash and tasteless and was disappointed in his offensive line for not, quote, taking matters into their own hands.
[01:06:27] Speaker B: Listen, Jeff Saturday, you should just probably be disappointed in the entire team at this point.
[01:06:31] Speaker A: Yeah, they're going to get you.
[01:06:33] Speaker B: They don't care that Nick Foles was hurt because they just don't care about anything right now.
[01:06:38] Speaker A: What a career Nick Foles has.
It's, it's truly been the best of times everywhere, man.
[01:06:45] Speaker B: I've been everywhere.
[01:06:46] Speaker A: It's been the best of times. It's been the worst of times. You were once a Super bowl champion.
[01:06:51] Speaker B: That theme just keeps coming up today.
[01:06:53] Speaker A: You were once having a seizure next to a guy making a snow angel next to you.
[01:06:56] Speaker B: Just talk about his Super bowl years. I mean, he was on the bench the entire year and decided to come in at the end of the season. We have to win four games in a row to make the playoffs. I got it.
[01:07:05] Speaker A: I got it.
[01:07:05] Speaker B: And then he goes on to win every game in the playoffs and play.
[01:07:08] Speaker A: Lights out Philly special in Super Bowl. Yeah, I mean, truly the best of times.
[01:07:12] Speaker B: His is one of the most interesting careers of any quarterback, and I don't know what his career stats are at all. I didn't do any research on Nick Foles. I'm not going to lie, but at this point, honestly, is he one of those guys like a Kurt Warner where you're like, does he make the hall just because he had such a crazy career and he won a couple of Super Bowls, he was MVP of one of the Super Bowls, might have even been MVP of both of them. I don't remember. But is that what you do with Nick Foles at all?
[01:07:41] Speaker A: I don't think he's a Hall of Famer because I think hall of Famer.
[01:07:44] Speaker B: Is at this point, you need way more stats than he's got.
[01:07:46] Speaker A: I think it's sustained excellence.
[01:07:49] Speaker B: That's fair. I'm just saying he feels like that.
[01:07:53] Speaker A: Guy that just absolutely has one of the most fascinating careers in the NFL.
[01:07:58] Speaker B: And then next up here, speaking of quarterbacks not being able to play anymore, Derek Carr got benched by the Raiders for some reason because apparently Jarrett Stidham is the guy.
[01:08:18] Speaker A: Oh, your boy McDaniel didn't.
[01:08:20] Speaker B: He doesn't know, except for he always disappoints.
So he doesn't disappoint at disappointing your boy.
[01:08:29] Speaker A: McDaniels said. Derek Carter is the reason the Raiders are bad. He's a genius, that guy.
To make any sense of it all, I guess. I believe Stidham was a Patriot previously. So I guess they have back from his time in New England, probably some kind of relationship. And he did come in and play well.
[01:08:48] Speaker B: But you know what happened? They proceeded to get eliminated from the playoffs.
[01:08:51] Speaker A: Well, you started Jared Stidham. What did you think was going to happen?
[01:08:55] Speaker B: He did go 23 to 35 for 365, three touchdowns, but he threw two picks and his effort wasn't enough. But it's just crazy. So this actually, do you have anything else to say about the Raiders game in Jarrett Stidham?
[01:09:10] Speaker A: No, we can get into the next one.
[01:09:11] Speaker B: So that takes me to the free agency quarterback class coming up this offseason. It's just going to be just wiggity wild. I mean, let me just rattle off some of the names, and I'm not going to name everybody, but I'm going to go with like top tier guys, next tier. And maybe a couple floaters down there at the bottom. That could be starters for the right team.
You got Tom Brady, Lamar Jackson, Jimmy Garoppolo, Daniel Jones, Gino Smith, Mike White, Cooper Rush, Taylor Heinecke, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold. Both guys were on the same team at one point this year. Teddy Bridgewater, Case Keenum Mason, Rudolph, Jacoby Brissette, Joe Flacco, Andy Dalton and now, possibly Derek Carr and his teammate will be an unrestricted free agent, Jared Stidham.
What?
[01:09:56] Speaker A: Derek Carr is going to make someone very.
[01:10:01] Speaker B: Mean with this quarterback class. I feel like if you pick the guy out of this that's going to end up going on the cheap. That should be paid more than he's going to end up getting paid. It's probably Derek Carr. He's probably going to be the OD man out when all the top tier guys get taken.
[01:10:14] Speaker A: And I mean, you look at this class, right, and like, Tom Brady is a wild card because he's 100 years old.
[01:10:21] Speaker B: Somebody's going to pay him, though.
[01:10:22] Speaker A: You know that, right? Lamar Jackson. I have to imagine Baltimore has to.
[01:10:27] Speaker B: I hope to God, please be stupid.
[01:10:30] Speaker A: Baltimore, please.
[01:10:33] Speaker B: I'm tired of seeing this guy run all over the AFC North.
[01:10:35] Speaker A: Jimmy G is a fascinating one because he's not good, but all he does is win. Daniel Jones isn't good and probably will be in a backup fight with Sam Darnold somewhere next year.
Gino Smith has played well enough, I think, to warrant a contract, probably in Seattle.
[01:10:53] Speaker B: I think Gino Smith actually probably gets a decent contract. It might be a shorter contract, but I think he gets a decent contract.
[01:10:58] Speaker A: He's a little older anyway.
[01:10:59] Speaker B: I think he gets like a three year fair, pretty solid contract.
[01:11:03] Speaker A: Some of these other names on here, I mean, Taylor Heineckey, Mike White, like a lot of these guys are kind of on that backup tier anyway. Bridgewater, Keenum, Rudolph, Jacoby. Brusette's another interesting one because he played so well this year.
[01:11:14] Speaker B: I put him in the same category as Gino Smith, though, where it's like.
[01:11:18] Speaker A: But outside of Lamar and Tom Brady, who are just kind of strange, Derek Carr is probably the most valuable in terms of. He's still young. He's been consistently good his whole career.
[01:11:35] Speaker B: For some reason, he always gets written off, though. People talk about him like he's not one of the better quarterbacks.
[01:11:40] Speaker A: He's not bad.
[01:11:41] Speaker B: Statistically. He is absolutely one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL.
[01:11:44] Speaker A: He's had a really good NFL career. He just hasn't won anything because he's been on the radio, played for a trash organization. So I could see Derek Carr ending up in a place like Pittsburgh and just absolutely just.
[01:11:58] Speaker B: I hope not causing to. I'm going to say this right now, if Baltimore is dumb enough to let Lamar Jackson walk, they should get Derek Carr. I think that's where Derek Carr ends up.
[01:12:10] Speaker A: I don't like either one of those scenarios because I don't want Derek Carr in AFC North. Look, I don't think Derek Carr is the best quarterback of all time, but he's absolutely good enough to beat a lot of teams in this league.
[01:12:20] Speaker B: I agree.
[01:12:20] Speaker A: On a consistent basis.
[01:12:21] Speaker B: Like you said, he's not the reason that they're losing.
[01:12:23] Speaker A: No.
[01:12:25] Speaker B: And then my final note for this week is, apparently Tim Couch is just freaking ripped. Now, did you see the picture that came out on his Instagram this week?
[01:12:35] Speaker A: Tim Couch is Still my favorite Brown of all time.
[01:12:38] Speaker B: OD. All right.
[01:12:41] Speaker A: Besides Johnny Manziel, I don't even know.
[01:12:45] Speaker B: What to do with this information, but I think you've officially lost all credibility as a Cleveland sports pundit.
[01:12:51] Speaker A: Look, here's the thing. I like Tim Couch because of how he played here and the way he carried himself. I like Johnny Manziel.
[01:12:58] Speaker B: You like Johnny Manziel because Johnny Manziel does whatever the fuck he wants.
[01:13:01] Speaker A: Exactly. Why? I don't care about his lackluster career as a Browns player. Just the fact that Johnny Manziel has lived the. You know, when you think about just doing whatever you want, Kenny is a.
[01:13:12] Speaker B: Complete degenerate because his hero is Johnny Manziel.
[01:13:17] Speaker A: Answering to no one, literally doing cocaine and sneaking into casinos, wearing disguises before games.
[01:13:23] Speaker B: I can't hear you. I got too much money in my ear.
[01:13:26] Speaker A: I mean, come on. Who's had it better than that guy? But anyway, Tim Couch, he got paid.
[01:13:30] Speaker B: A lot of money to be really bad ripped up.
[01:13:33] Speaker A: Still one of the best quarterbacks the Browns have seen since.
[01:13:35] Speaker B: Why didn't he look like that when he played for the Browns?
[01:13:39] Speaker A: I mean, you do know that his wife is a playmate, right? And they were married when he was in Cleveland. Like, he's always been pretty studly.
[01:13:48] Speaker B: Yeah, but he kind of looked like this.
[01:13:51] Speaker A: Well, he still has a goofy face. I did get beat up a lot that year.
[01:13:54] Speaker B: I think I got sacked 56 times.
[01:13:57] Speaker A: But he got booted from Green Bay for taking fair.
[01:14:07] Speaker B: I honestly forgot about that. So thank you for reminding me. And now I understand why he's ripped.
[01:14:12] Speaker A: He did the whole. He was riding bicycles to camp with Bret Favre.
[01:14:15] Speaker B: Now he's like, I don't have to follow those rules, so I can look like this all the time.
[01:14:19] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Now he's just like an ESPN commentator and stuff, so he could do whatever he wants.
[01:14:24] Speaker B: Yeah, but anyways, that'll do it for our Week 17 cover.
[01:14:28] Speaker A: Kim Couch is the new Johnny Manzell. He does whatever he wants.
[01:14:31] Speaker B: That's it for Week 17. Let's take a quick revenue break and get into the final week of the regular season. Week 18 Topath Distillery Topath Distillery the newest craft distillery in northeast Ohio, located in Akron and family owned, Topath Distillery focuses on high quality spirits carefully made in small batches. Topath's lineup includes an ultra smooth, award winning premium vodka, a small batch silver rum made from the highest grade molasses, an American craft gin made with nine botanicals and a blended straight bourbon made from corn and rye. Topath Distillery visit Topath distillery.com to find an agency near you where the spirits are available, and make sure to ask your local bartender and restaurant tour. Topath distillery handcrafted, small batch, local and family owned.
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All right, so that takes us into the week eight team preview.
[01:15:38] Speaker A: Three down.
[01:15:44] Speaker B: I don't know what that was, but to close out the season here, we've got the Steelers to finish things up. I got really excited about Week 18. I don't know why we're playing for nothing, but I take that back. We're playing for something. Win and we don't finish last in the division. Lose and we do finish last. The Steelers are playing for potentially a playoff berth somehow. And if the Steelers win, regardless of if they make the playoffs, Mike Tomlin finds a way to get above 500, and we talked about it earlier, he stays above 500 for his career to end every single season.
[01:16:19] Speaker A: If there's one guy in the NFL who knows how to beat the Cleveland.
[01:16:22] Speaker B: Browns, it's that guy.
[01:16:24] Speaker A: It's Mike Tomlin.
[01:16:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I would agree with you. He might bring back just to seal this game. He might bring back Ben Roethlisberg just for one game. Because one night appearance, that guy doesn't lose to the Browns.
So do we have any matchup previews or opposition research in this one?
[01:16:39] Speaker A: Well, I think a lot has changed, obviously, since we played them early on in the season, and we've seen, obviously, when we played them, Mitch Trubisky was the starter. Since then, we've seen the emergence of Kenny Pickett as not like the next coming. But he's had some games and some flashes.
[01:16:59] Speaker B: They've had a lot of success lately. I think theY're up to like five of the last six or five of the last seven or something.
[01:17:04] Speaker A: I mean, he's led them into a position where they could be in the playoffs. So he's played for all the talk about Kenny Pickett and his hands not being big and just being a goofball and not being really an NFL ready quarterback.
[01:17:16] Speaker B: You know who the last rookie quarterback to go on a tear like this for the Pittsburgh Steelers was and they somehow snuck into the was.
[01:17:23] Speaker A: Did he go to Miami of Ohio?
[01:17:25] Speaker B: Yeah, he did.
[01:17:27] Speaker A: So he doesn't Kenny Pickett's.
[01:17:29] Speaker B: In case anyone was wondering, I'm interrupting you again. They won the Super bowl like the next year or two years, so.
[01:17:35] Speaker A: Yeah, and Kenny Pickett doesn't have quite the stature of Big Ben. But did you happen to watch the end of that Ravens game?
[01:17:44] Speaker B: I did not catch it.
[01:17:45] Speaker A: It was very impressive drive that Kenny Pickett let and I knew he had.
[01:17:51] Speaker B: A game winning drive, didn't see how it unfolded.
[01:17:54] Speaker A: Impressive throw to Nachi to win that game.
[01:17:58] Speaker B: That's on my to do list this week is to watch the game so I can kind of get some insight out of.
[01:18:04] Speaker A: Was he wasn't phenomenal throughout the game. He didn't have a ton of gaudy passing numbers, but that last drive he was dialed in and he that killer mentality and nothing was going to stop them. So to me as a Browns fan, it's worrisome because there's actually potentially hope for this guy to be an average to above average starter in the NFL, and I don't want them to have a good quarterback.
Nobody does.
I still think Najee is kind of a very average running back in the NFL.
[01:18:45] Speaker B: Everybody talks him up like he's so good and I'm kind of on the Joe Mixon bandwagon with that guy. Like, yeah, you might have a big game here and there, but he's just kind of. He's.
[01:18:54] Speaker A: But. And then obviously TJ Watt wasn't available the last time we played, so he changes everything. I think that.
[01:19:00] Speaker B: There you go. So our position matchups this week are going to be TJ Watt versus the offensive line. That's been trash on one side. Luckily, we do have Deshaun Watson, who's much better at scrambling and might be able to get away from him a little bit.
[01:19:13] Speaker A: I hope he can get away.
[01:19:15] Speaker B: And then the other matchup that I'm going to highlight is going to be another one that you just mentioned is Kenny Pickett versus the secondary for the Browns. Because Kenny Pickett has come along, he's playing fairly well. But on the flip side for the Browns, the defensive backfield has really come along in the tail end of this season, has played really well lately.
[01:19:36] Speaker A: Yeah, Zell and Grant Albert both had really good games and I don't know.
[01:19:39] Speaker B: Zell's had like three in a row.
[01:19:41] Speaker A: And Newsom and Emerson played fine. They just didn't have big plays on the stat sheet.
[01:19:45] Speaker B: Emerson did have one really big breakup that I was like, yeah, Martin Emerson gets it.
[01:19:50] Speaker A: Yeah. My favorite play for Martin Emerson was on Sunday was there was a play where, gosh, I forget who got tackled, but the ball popped out after he was down. And Martin Emerson dove in like his life depended on. Like, it was clear that he was down. But it's just that young, aggressive mentality. Like, ball out, I'm on it whether it matters or not.
[01:20:12] Speaker B: It's like the mentality that we need everybody to play with every week. Whoopi lappy, swimming, Salmon Simmons, Swanson. Yeah. So, I mean, that's our matchups this week. Let's get into the injury report real quick.
[01:20:27] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:20:28] Speaker B: Hey, let's get into the injury report.
All right, so who do we have on the injury report for the Browns? I'm assuming Clowney's still there.
[01:20:42] Speaker A: Yeah, Clowny's there, but he played this week, so I think it's expected he will play. Jack Conklin with the ankle is on the injury report, and Denzel Ward has a shoulder.
He'll probably play. That's it for the Browns side of things.
I don't know that any of those three are in danger of missing the game.
[01:21:06] Speaker B: So what about the Steelers?
[01:21:08] Speaker A: But we'll monitor those throughout the week. And then the Steelers, they obviously play today, so we won't know about their injuries until a little bit later in the week. For the Browns game.
[01:21:19] Speaker B: You are off this week.
The Steelers played Baltimore yesterday and won.
[01:21:25] Speaker A: Oh my gosh. Why do I think they were playing.
[01:21:28] Speaker B: Monday Night Football and Cincinnati plays tonight against the A.
[01:21:31] Speaker A: You're right. I'm all up. I've had a migraine all day.
[01:21:33] Speaker B: That's a bad week for you.
I shouldn't leave anything up to Kenny on the podcast from now on.
[01:21:40] Speaker A: Trey Norwood is out.
[01:21:43] Speaker B: Just pick up like nothing ever happened.
[01:21:46] Speaker A: James Pierre and Miles Jack also were questionable for the Ravens game. I think both did play, but James Pierce actually got a concussion in the Ravens game, so he'll probably be out. But Miles Jack, questionable trade, Norwood out.
The rest of these would be, are pretty not important injury reserve guys.
[01:22:08] Speaker B: Yeah, we don't care about them. We actually don't care about any of them. From the Steelers.
[01:22:11] Speaker A: No, because they're in Pittsburgh. FM all.
[01:22:15] Speaker B: So to wrap up the preview for this week, who's your player to watch?
I'm going to do mine first because it's boring. Mine is once again to Sean Watson because it's his last chance to give us a big game before the end of the season, and I really hope we have it. Don't know that we're going to get it. I hope we do. But, yeah, like I said earlier, it's a chance for him to send a message to a division rival for next year. Like, hey, I was knocking some rust off, but it's gone now. So just wait.
[01:22:43] Speaker A: So for the 18th week in a row, you picked Deshaun Watson.
[01:22:46] Speaker B: It's like the fourth week in a row.
[01:22:47] Speaker A: I'm going to go TJ Watt this week just for the things we just said. He's the one guy on that defense that can totally disrupt.
[01:22:53] Speaker B: It's insane.
[01:22:54] Speaker A: Everything that we're doing, their record with.
[01:22:57] Speaker B: Him on the field versus with him off the field either.
[01:23:02] Speaker A: And given the fact that Stefanski doesn't like to run the ball and our offense is a little bit banged up and hasn't been great with Deshaun behind them to this point, he's the one guy that could absolutely wreck everything we're trying to do on offense.
[01:23:17] Speaker B: He probably will.
[01:23:19] Speaker A: And he probably will.
[01:23:20] Speaker B: So that gets us into the King of the North.
[01:23:33] Speaker A: Been out of it?
[01:23:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:23:35] Speaker A: I don't know what's happened today.
[01:23:36] Speaker B: You didn't even say King of the North.
So we'll remind everybody of the tally. I know this is your favorite part of the show. Thank you. So far this week, I am one in one. Kenny's one in one. We still have the Bengals game from tonight that we need to add in next week and on the season, 34 and 19. For me, I'm just shitting all over Kenny.
[01:23:57] Speaker A: Thank you.
[01:23:57] Speaker B: Who is 25 and 28?
Unless you win this game tonight and both games next week because there's only two, you will be under 500 for the season.
[01:24:08] Speaker A: Thank you.
[01:24:09] Speaker B: And in case you missed it, I officially win King of the North. I won it last week before last week, so it's just been easy game, baby.
So what are we going to have you do, Kenny?
I did come up with some ideas this week.
[01:24:23] Speaker A: You have some ideas?
[01:24:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:24:24] Speaker A: Let's hear your ideas.
[01:24:25] Speaker B: How about we wax your legs?
How about you dye your hair?
[01:24:32] Speaker A: I mean, my hair is pretty gray, so dye might not be a bad idea.
[01:24:35] Speaker B: Oh, but it'll be like green or purple or something.
[01:24:37] Speaker A: Oh, thank you.
[01:24:38] Speaker B: Or blue. I don't know. We'll see. How about you let me cut your hair?
[01:24:42] Speaker A: Can't do that because I got to grow it out to Halloween next year so that I can be Forrest Gump at the end of his run.
[01:24:47] Speaker B: Nice. Good choice. Spoiler alert. That's two of them. How about you eat a spoonful of cinnamon?
[01:24:54] Speaker A: What if I have to eat a spoonful of cinnamon every time I try to talk on the pod?
[01:25:00] Speaker B: He just upped the Annie for his own punishment. I didn't even say anything. He just did it to himself.
[01:25:06] Speaker A: We'll have to put like a plastic bag on top of the mic or something.
[01:25:09] Speaker B: What about dressing as a clown for the podcast? Better yet. Better yet, how about you dress as a clown for tailgating at the Muni next year and we let people throw eggs at you?
[01:25:18] Speaker A: That sounds dangerous, actually.
[01:25:21] Speaker B: We'll give you goggles. You'll be fine.
[01:25:24] Speaker A: What if I just do a whole.
[01:25:25] Speaker B: Show totally do you know I'm going to hard boil the eggs?
[01:25:29] Speaker A: What if I do a whole show totally naked?
[01:25:32] Speaker B: That does nothing for me. In fact, that is punishment for me, not you. So that is out. That's not happening. But anyways, we'll figure that out.
I think I had some pretty good ideas, so I think we might go with one of those. But we'll figure that out and we'll do some predictions for this week. They don't really matter anymore, but we'll do it anyways. Baltimore at Cincinnati. Who you got, Kenny? Two games this week. Baltimore at Cincinnati. Browns and Steelers. Baltimore, Cincinnati. Who do you got?
You don't have to worry about it anymore.
[01:26:02] Speaker A: Just pick who I know what I.
[01:26:03] Speaker B: Think is going to win.
[01:26:03] Speaker A: I'm still going back and forth on this because I think it's, depending on what Cincinnati does tonight may determine whether or not they play well. If they lose, there's no really reason for them to play like Joe Burrow next week.
And Baltimore, I guess it comes down.
[01:26:27] Speaker B: To what their coach thinks. I mean, some coaches are of the mentality, like, you don't sit players because they just, they no good can come of just sitting out a week.
[01:26:36] Speaker A: It's just so hard to pick games this time of year because of that. I'll go Cincinnati. Assuming all things are equal and all the starters play, I'll pick Cincinnati.
[01:26:44] Speaker B: That's what I'm assuming, too. And I'm going with Cincinnati as they're at this point, especially if Lamar Jackson doesn't play, which they keep flirting with the idea of making him play every week, and he still hasn't. Cincinnati's the much better team if he's not on the field. So I'm going with Cincinnati and then the Browns at the Steelers. The reason for the season, it all comes down to this.
[01:27:03] Speaker A: What's the Browns. What's the Browns record right now?
[01:27:07] Speaker B: The Browns record right now, they're seven and nine. Right?
[01:27:12] Speaker A: Where did I pick them to go at the beginning of the year? Do I have that clip.
[01:27:17] Speaker B: Man? You're going with video and video.
[01:27:19] Speaker A: Nice. Video and videoception. Browns have to lose to be seven and ten.
Steelers win.
[01:27:29] Speaker B: The craziest part about this is I did not pick them to go. That mine was. I had their record much better. I think I had them.
[01:27:35] Speaker A: What did you have? Math?
[01:27:36] Speaker B: I'm pretty sure it was nine and eight.
[01:27:40] Speaker A: That sounds right.
[01:27:42] Speaker B: But anyways, the ironic thing is I'm actually picking the Steelers as well because I have faith in Mike Tomlin to stay above 500. And they will finish, even though you got shit on in King of the north, they will finish with the record that you predicted at seven and ten.
[01:27:57] Speaker A: Yeah. Look, I just think this Steelers team has a lot more to play for, and they will play for their coach. Where the Browns.
[01:28:04] Speaker B: I don't know if that's happening here.
[01:28:06] Speaker A: They won't.
[01:28:07] Speaker B: All right, so let's take one more quick revenue break and then we will come back here and close this thing out.
[01:28:19] Speaker A: Oh, I forgot to pick up the bottle.
[01:28:24] Speaker B: Topath holiday spiced rum. A molasses based limited release rum infused with the spices of the holidays. Ginger, honey, orange, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. Let it warm up your taste buds as you warm up your heart with friends and family. Available only at the distillery while supplies last. And they are running thin.
Listen, I will tell you, I had this all throughout the holiday season, and it makes a banging alcoholic eggnog.
[01:28:52] Speaker A: You're an alcoholic.
[01:28:54] Speaker B: Nobody said that. Nobody said that. I don't know what you were doing over there. Topath holiday spice rum. Go on and get some.
[01:29:02] Speaker A: Delicious.
[01:29:03] Speaker B: All right. For the land.
All right, so the Cavs are still out there playing basketball.
[01:29:16] Speaker A: That's good.
[01:29:18] Speaker B: They are now 23 and 14. They still sit at fourth in the east, second in the Central. One game back in the Central as well.
They continue to play well. They're kind of hanging right there with the top teams in the east, right where we said they would be.
They did have a three game losing skid just recently, but they're back on track now.
[01:29:40] Speaker A: How about Brooklyn's won eleven in a row?
[01:29:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I kind of pray for them to do poorly all the time, because as much as I loved Kyrie Irving when he was on the Cavs, and I'm very thankful for the shot and everything he did for the Cavs, he's.
[01:29:55] Speaker A: A total loser now.
[01:29:56] Speaker B: You are one pathetic loser. I hate Kyrie Irving. Yeah, I can't stand that guy. And now there's all this talk from the Cavs about, like. It's almost like they're trying to forgive him and they want to. Like, Kevin Love's like, you guys need to retire his number and stuff. As much as I love Kevin Love, that's a bad take. Kevin Love.
[01:30:11] Speaker A: I mean, he did Hit the shot, though, on a.
[01:30:14] Speaker B: And to be fair, that was Kevin Love's only argument.
[01:30:18] Speaker A: His number may very well end up retired in the queue someday, but he's just such a goof, man, that guy.
[01:30:26] Speaker B: He's a flat earther. He hates the Jews.
[01:30:32] Speaker A: That's a nice thing to say, but.
[01:30:35] Speaker B: That was his words, not mine.
[01:30:37] Speaker A: I don't think he came out and said, I hate the Jews. But didn't he just post a link to some.
[01:30:43] Speaker B: Yeah, he did. All right, I take it back. I am not going to slander Kyrie Irving. He's got a lot more money than me. I've got a lot more to lose.
[01:30:50] Speaker A: He has the power to end our podcast.
[01:30:53] Speaker B: But he did say a lot of. He inferred a lot of anti Semitic.
[01:30:59] Speaker A: And he has said some not very nice things about Cleveland upon his departure.
[01:31:04] Speaker B: He says all kinds of things about all kinds of things that are just off the wall. I don't even know. He's actually, like the antithesis of Johnny Manziel. Johnny Manziel does whatever he wants and doesn't care what people think. Kyrie Irving does it, too, but he does it in a way more obnoxious and just mean spirited way.
[01:31:23] Speaker A: Did you see all the things that why he wears number eleven?
[01:31:27] Speaker B: No, please.
[01:31:28] Speaker A: Now that he was born at 111, his father's favorite number is eleven. Kyrie Irving has eleven letters in it.
[01:31:36] Speaker B: Basically all to do with himself.
[01:31:39] Speaker A: Just a bunch of stupid. Like, he hit some points milestone on the 11th.
[01:31:49] Speaker B: So why did you wear number two for the first half of your career?
[01:31:52] Speaker A: He's stupid.
[01:31:53] Speaker B: Since you have all kinds of reasons for why you wear number eleven, why'd you wear number two?
[01:31:57] Speaker A: He was the first pick of round one in 2011. He scored his 11,000th point on the 11 March. So he just thinks the universe is eleven.
[01:32:08] Speaker B: Oh, man. Is he Jim Carrey?
Is he Jim Carrey in, what is it? The number 13 or whatever that movie is? Do you know what I'm talking about?
[01:32:19] Speaker A: The Zodiac Killer?
[01:32:24] Speaker B: I don't know where you're going, but put it up there.
[01:32:26] Speaker A: I don't even know what I'm putting up here, but it is up here.
[01:32:28] Speaker B: I'll send you the movie. I think it's either number 13 or the number seven. I think it's number 13.
[01:32:33] Speaker A: Either way, Kyrie Irving is a clown.
[01:32:35] Speaker B: The premise of the movie is Jim Carrey, like, goes nuts because he sees 13 everywhere.
That's Kyrie Irving.
[01:32:43] Speaker A: Now I get it.
[01:32:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
Anyways, so that's the end of the show this week. Kenny, let's close this thing out. What can we expect next week?
[01:32:52] Speaker A: We should start like a Burning river sportscast. Like, movies to watch list.
[01:32:57] Speaker B: This smells like another podcast.
[01:33:01] Speaker A: So we'll recap the Browns Steelers game for this week, and we will look ahead into what the offseason has in store for the Browns, and we will preview all of our playoff matchups as we head into the postseason.
[01:33:17] Speaker B: Yeah, obviously, the Browns are not part of the postseason, but we're still going to run through the official close of season. One of Burning River Sportscast will be after the week of the Super Bowl.
[01:33:30] Speaker A: Yeah. So we will continue to record through the Super bowl just to give updates on the playoffs and bring you postseason or offseason Browns news because there's sure to be a lot of it. Coaching decisions, whether or not deep Podesta stays or goes. Kevin stays or goes.
[01:33:46] Speaker B: Should I stay or should I go?
[01:33:47] Speaker A: Should I stay or should I go?
You know, just player, you know, leaving.
[01:33:55] Speaker B: Does Jimmy Haslam just march all the coaches in front office in front of him in the offseason and basically tinder him? He's just like, swipe, swipe left, swipe right, swipe left, swipe right.
[01:34:03] Speaker A: I think that's how he should do it. Apparently, deep Podesta is the guy. He'll be the one with the Tinder machine.
[01:34:08] Speaker B: Yeah, but, yeah, so check us out on social media. Tap in media is on Facebook and Twitter at the Tap in media and on Instagram at Tapin Media Official and Burning River Sportscast. That's us right here on this podcast. Me and Kenny Thunder. We are on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at Burning River Sportscast and on Twitter at Burning River Pod. And you can find the actual podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Podcast, Castro, and so many more.
[01:34:41] Speaker A: You didn't say it like Sean Connery this time.
[01:34:43] Speaker B: I didn't know. I'm not good at Sean Connery.
[01:34:45] Speaker A: I told you that it was pretty good. It wasn't bad for on the fly off the cuff.
[01:34:50] Speaker B: That's not what your mother said last night.
[01:34:52] Speaker A: Whoa, whoa.
[01:34:55] Speaker B: You haven't seen that skit.
[01:34:56] Speaker A: Don't bring Tina into this.
[01:34:57] Speaker B: You haven't seen that skit.
[01:34:59] Speaker A: I love a good Sean Connery skit.
[01:35:01] Speaker B: Dude, it's jeopardy. With Will Ferrell on Saturday Night Live. And what's his name is Sean Connery. And he says, that's not what your mother said last night. Trebek.
[01:35:12] Speaker A: That is what he said.
[01:35:13] Speaker B: That's a better Sean Connery that I just did.
[01:35:16] Speaker A: Suck at Trebek.
[01:35:18] Speaker B: Same skit.
[01:35:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:35:19] Speaker B: Burt Reynolds. Nah, I'm Turd Ferguson now.
[01:35:25] Speaker A: Turd Ferguson. Before we depart, couple of quick notes. Just because it is my favorite time of year, my favorite holiday is here come and gone. Had this lovely day off of work.
[01:35:41] Speaker B: We used it to record a podcast.
[01:35:43] Speaker A: To celebrate the incoming New Year.
So I just wanted to leave you with a couple of cool, fun Times Square New Year's Eve facts, including, did you know that the first Times Square New Year's Eve party was actually thrown for a newspaper?
The annual tradition of gathering in Times Square for New Year started as a party to celebrate the opening of the New York Times building in 1904.
[01:36:15] Speaker B: Incredible.
[01:36:17] Speaker A: And over 200,000 people attended that first party in Times Square.
And though the parties raged on, there was no ball drop at the original New Year's Eve galas.
[01:36:34] Speaker B: Nobody dropped their balls.
[01:36:36] Speaker A: They instead used fireworks to welcome in the new Year until they had to be banned because of falling embers on the crowd being dangerous.
That is dangerous. Was determined that lowering a ball on a flagpole was immensely more safe for.
[01:36:55] Speaker B: Everyone, immensely less entertaining.
[01:37:01] Speaker A: And then also, I guess not, though.
[01:37:04] Speaker B: People turn up for it every year.
[01:37:05] Speaker A: Because we are the Burning river sports cast. And sometimes we like to point to important environmental initiatives, making sure that we're all taking care of the place that we live. Over 50 tons of trash are left in Times Square after New Year's Eve celebrations, including over 3000 pounds of confetti alone.
That's a lot to Clean up.
[01:37:27] Speaker B: It begs the question, should we just cancel the party in Times Square every year? Is it worth it? They talk about all these environmental initiatives Square.
[01:37:40] Speaker A: We just offset it by having New.
[01:37:41] Speaker B: Year's Eve every year. Yeah, we just get rid of the New Year's Eve party and all of a sudden there's so much less trash in the oceans.
[01:37:47] Speaker A: And you got to think a lot of that trash, too. Goes to the ocean is literally human waste. Because they're wearing diapers, because they don't.
[01:37:58] Speaker B: Put Porta Johns out grossest thing I've ever.
[01:38:01] Speaker A: That there's a million people wearing diapers in the city.
[01:38:03] Speaker B: That's what they do. In case anyone didn't know that. That's what they do when you go to the Times Square party, because once you get your spot, if you leave, you will never get back there.
[01:38:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Restaurants don't just let you in to go pee in Times Square. No. And there's no Porta potties, so it is what it is. There's very limited public restrooms available.
[01:38:24] Speaker B: Get your depends. You're going to need them.
[01:38:25] Speaker A: And there's a million people in Times Square. So, yeah. A lot of that is human excrement. And just diapers. You guess you just shed a diaper and put a new one on.
[01:38:34] Speaker B: Yeah. So before you get into your closing line, don't forget to tell everybody your big news.
[01:38:39] Speaker A: Well, before I get into my big news, I have one more bonus fact.
[01:38:43] Speaker B: Bonus fact.
There's a bonus fact.
[01:38:47] Speaker A: Which is the US army once designed an anti armor grenade.
[01:38:55] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:38:55] Speaker A: Out of a hollowed out Nerf football that was the same size and shape of a football, so that US soldiers inherently would know how to sling it.
[01:39:05] Speaker B: Man, that'd be terrifying. You're coming in in your tank thinking you're untouchable, and all of a sudden all the US troops just slinging footballs at you that blow up your tires and stuff.
[01:39:15] Speaker A: What were those? The balls with the long tails on them? The vortex.
[01:39:18] Speaker B: The Nerf vortex footballs.
Did they build in the whistle noise and everything?
[01:39:24] Speaker A: Right into your tank?
And also, I'm pregnant. I mean, I'm not pregnant.
[01:39:32] Speaker B: You could have fooled.
[01:39:35] Speaker A: I just started showing.
[01:39:39] Speaker B: Our boy Kenny Thunder is going to have A baby.
[01:39:41] Speaker A: New Year, new three.
[01:39:42] Speaker B: He was so excited that my wife and I had a baby this year that he wanted to do it.
[01:39:48] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah.
Now, basically, my wife was going to divorce me if I didn't let her have a kid. When are you due?
We're doing July, so we got a little bit of time here to share.
[01:40:01] Speaker B: A birthday with you to get prepared.
[01:40:03] Speaker A: It very well may.
The official due date, I think, is the eigth of July.
[01:40:09] Speaker B: Probably not sharing a birthday with you.
[01:40:11] Speaker A: Then, but I think my original due date was the eigth of July. Yeah.
[01:40:13] Speaker B: They don't let people go long anymore like they used to.
[01:40:16] Speaker A: I mean, what if I tell them?
[01:40:17] Speaker B: They have to listen, I'm going to keep this baby inside my wife until we get to my birthday.
[01:40:23] Speaker A: I'm actually a fan of having the baby early. What I'm proposing is a July 4 birthday so that I can name my child Benjamin Franklin. Because if my kid's name is Benjamin Franklin and his birthday is July 4, automatic shoe in when he decides to run for office.
[01:40:40] Speaker B: Oh, he's going to be president one day.
[01:40:42] Speaker A: Like, I have absolutely thought this out. I've already predetermined his career choices. He doesn't need to even think about that. He just needs to go to school, get good grades, and Daddy's going to bring you to the White House.
[01:40:50] Speaker B: Or she, by that point.
[01:40:52] Speaker A: Or she will. At that point, if it is a girl, she'll have to be.
[01:40:58] Speaker B: But. Or in the running.
[01:41:00] Speaker A: Or Betsy Ross could.
[01:41:02] Speaker B: Betsy Ross. Nice. Nice.
[01:41:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So I don't know how my wife feels about that, but that's what's going on.
[01:41:07] Speaker B: Sorry about it. Christine. Your kids are named already.
[01:41:11] Speaker A: Yeah. So, I mean, who knows if that'll be a problem. But if you're going to be a problem, don't be just a part of the problem, be the whole damn problem.
[01:41:17] Speaker B: And only you can prevent river fires. Burning Rivers podcast.
Yeah, burning river out.
[01:41:36] Speaker A: Burning river in.
[01:41:40] Speaker B: That.
[01:41:40] Speaker A: John Denver's full of shit, man. Well, that's the sound your mother made last night.
[01:41:47] Speaker B: And totally redeem yourself.
