Episode Transcript
[00:00:25] Speaker A: Sports cast Sunday in the heart of the ATL, Kevin Stefanski looking to start three and one for the third consecutive year. However, some unlikely heroes showed up for the dirty birds and spoiled the party. A solid day by Nick Chubb. Wasted much like the rest of Cleveland after watching yet another victory slide through the weary grasp of our favorite sports team's hands, staring down the barrel of a harrowing stretch of death, the gauntlet awaits as the Browns find themselves two and two. And we break it all down for you. Next on the Burning River Sportscast.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: He's just such a load.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: FM, FM, FM.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: In the dump so bad he couldn't.
[00:01:12] Speaker A: Walk why are there so many dongs?
Burning River, Burning River Burning Rivers podcast.
Welcome to the Burning River Sportscast, presented by tap in media. I'm Kenny Thunder alongside my cohort and former Intercontinental champion, Red Hot Ronnie Jams. Ronnie, do you know where I can find this podcast?
[00:01:41] Speaker B: You can find this podcast wherever you get your podcasts. And by that I mean Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Podcast, Castro, and more.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Nice. Very nice. Did you know that? I do now.
[00:01:55] Speaker B: Well, there you go.
[00:01:57] Speaker A: Yeah. How was your weekend?
[00:01:59] Speaker B: Weekend was good, except for the know the Browns are the Browns, but we'll get to that. But my weekend was solid. We're just doing. It's just baby stuff. Every weekend. We're getting ready for the baby. There's way too many projects, not enough time.
Diaper party coming up, though. You gonna be there?
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Is that this weekend?
[00:02:17] Speaker B: That's this week.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: Friday, right?
[00:02:18] Speaker B: Friday, yeah.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: What time does that start?
[00:02:21] Speaker B: As soon as you get off work.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: Everybody listening?
[00:02:24] Speaker B: Shit, man. You come over, we'll drink some beers.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: Everybody listening to the podcast. You're invited to Red Hot Ronnie Jams Diaper party. You at home, come on out.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: We'll have so many diapers.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: We put the boat.
[00:02:36] Speaker B: At least a couple.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: We put the boat away this weekend. That wasn't very fun. Kind of the end of summer.
Feels bad.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: Do you scrub it again?
[00:02:49] Speaker A: No, not yet. That's coming, thOugh.
We got the power washer out. Got a whole new.
[00:02:55] Speaker B: What day are you cleaning the boat? Because I'm not available.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: Fair.
The previous weekend, I spent some time in a couple of different urgent cares. This weekend, I was visited by the fine folks at the Akron Fire Department.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Yeah?
Did they give you any new information?
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Apparently I'm overly stressed.
That's the word on the street.
[00:03:21] Speaker B: Aren't we all?
[00:03:22] Speaker A: I've got too much going on. I don't know, but hey, I'm still here. I just feel like I can't breathe.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: Last week, you speculated it might be because you're working with me and you were working on things for the Burning river sports. That's true. When you had your latest episode.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: That's true. It's weird. It almost always happens while I'm looking at a screen, which is like 80% of my life. I mean, at my job, my day job, I stare at a computer all day, and then I come home and stare at a computer some more. And when I'm done doing that, then I'll watch TV with my wife.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: You watch TV, you look at your phone.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Look at my phone before bed. So basically, I have, like, 20 hours of screen time a day. So there's that.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Who doesn't?
[00:04:05] Speaker A: I don't know, but I can tell you that this week feels bad.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. So let's just get into it. The week four recap.
All right, so nothing kills the buz that we had from beating the Steelers like losing to an inferior opponent.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: Bunch of scrubs.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: This feels a lot like losing to the jets, man.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:36] Speaker B: It'S just bad.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: Quite honestly, I've been dreading doing this podcast all day.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: Oh, me too.
My whole day was kind of ruined. I've just been like, I'm putting the show together, doing our outline, and I'm just getting more and more depressed and everything that's happening around me, my normal job is calling me to do normal job things. And I'm like, I don't want to do normal job things because I'm so mad about the Browns and losing to the jets.
[00:05:03] Speaker A: I was mad, I was angry. There was just the breakdowns and everything. It was embarrassing.
This isn't the same level of embarrassment. It just makes me sad. It just hurts Inside.
[00:05:17] Speaker B: I agree. Well, let's go ahead and dive into the game a little bit here. Before we get to the teams, a couple of notes before the game started. Those white uniforms are clean, but they're kind of boring.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: The light coming through. Mercedes Benz, the Mercedes Benz Dome. Not a paid sponsor, but the dome down there.
It put like a weird tint on the jerseys. They almost looked like a pale orange. And I wasn't loving just the white.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: Uniform when they go all white like that. Like I said, it's clean, but it's just so boring.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: It is boring.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: That stadium, though. That'sick, nasty, bro.
[00:05:55] Speaker A: Only because the dome corkscrews out.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I hope we get something like that. They're talking about putting a new stadium up in Cleveland in the next few years.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:06:04] Speaker B: Something cool.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: We can do a whole podcast on stadiums.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Is Nick Chubb's homecoming?
[00:06:08] Speaker A: It was. He had the whole bleachers full of all of his friends and family in high school.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: And I'll touch on that a little bit more later. Miles Garrett, we're going to quick update on that. We mentioned in our last show that he was in the car accident. We weren't really sure what was going on at that point because we recorded it on a Monday a couple hours after it happened. He's fine. Everything's good.
Shoulder sprain, bicep strain, but he should not miss a lot of time.
[00:06:37] Speaker A: Get well soon, Miles.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: Yep, get well soon. We're happy you're okay.
But yeah, for this game. Too many injuries, too many stupid coaching mistakes, and the Browns can't get out of their own way. We get beat.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: It was just another.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: It was the Browns.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: Man watching the Browns.
[00:06:53] Speaker B: Let's go ahead and start with the Falcons here, Marcus Mariota, because he needs an introduction.
Even if you tried to give him an introduction, what would you say?
[00:07:05] Speaker A: I would say he completed seven passes on Sunday.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: Seven of 19 for 139 yards, zero touchdowns, one interception, five rushes for three yards.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: I need the Elias Sports Bureau people to pull for me. Like, who was the last quarterback to complete seven passes in a win?
[00:07:25] Speaker B: Has it ever happeneD?
[00:07:27] Speaker A: I'm sure it has, but it's on the very low end.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
I did write down, though, Marcus Mariota must have listened to the Burning River Sports cast last week, because if you noticed, he came out the gates that first drive. He completed four of his seven passes, came out hot, and then basically almost instantaneously remembered that his name was Marcus Mariota and he is indeed hot garbage. Jumped back into the dumpster and remained there for the rest of the game.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: The only thing that kind of gave me fits about Mariota on Sunday was his mobility was frustrating because of our defensive line.
Mean, we just couldn't get to him. But I'm just like, man, you're trash.
[00:08:13] Speaker B: Nothing about him is impressive.
[00:08:15] Speaker A: No, he was exactly what we had expected.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: Trash. He was trash. He earned his trash bin title.
[00:08:24] Speaker A: Yeah, he's still trick. 139 yards, seven completions.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: I'm not real sure how it's even possible to lose to that stat line.
Cordero Patterson, nine carries, 38 yards and a touchdown. Pretty much held him in check all day.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: Yeah, had the touchdown, but he didn't do much after that. Banged up a little.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: Yeah, we held him in check, but there are other running backs that's a different story. Second string running back scrubs. Tyler. Was it Algier?
[00:08:50] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: You don't even know how to pronounce his name because nobody knows who he is.
[00:08:54] Speaker A: No.
[00:08:55] Speaker B: Ten rushes, 84 yards averaged, 8.4 yards of carry against us. Is that good?
[00:09:00] Speaker A: No.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: Well, not good for us.
[00:09:02] Speaker A: Not good.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: Good for him, I guess. And then Caleb Huntley just came out of nowhere. Scrub guy that nobody's ever heard of, including the college he went to. And ten rushes, 56 yards, one touchdown. Almost all of it was on a single drive. And on that drive, they ran twelve, I believe it was twelve running plays in a row. That's how bad we were against the run.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: Really bad. I mean, 202 rushing yards for the day, for the Falcons, bad.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: Kyle Pitts, he's just a Pits, man. Pits. One reception for 25 yards, pretty much a non factor. Drake London, Kenny's player to watch. Two receptions, 17 yards.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: I mean, when your quarterback completes seven.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: Passes, nobody has any.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: The receivers were just absolutely.
They don't have receivers in Atlanta. They have run blockers, receivers. They're extensions of offensive linemen.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: What's a receiver?
[00:09:55] Speaker A: That's an offensive lineman that can go downfield.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: It's a small offensive line.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: A small offensive. Yeah, I like that. The Sol, the small offensive lineman.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: And then Carolina's defense. I mean, they really.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: Carolina, what game are you covering?
[00:10:13] Speaker B: I forgot to change my note.
Atlanta's defense changed it. Now it's good. It's good. They got one sack, forced two turnovers, but, I mean, they couldn't stop the run either. No, they didn't really do anything particularly well. They did force a couple turnovers, but they didn't do anything particularly well.
[00:10:33] Speaker A: I mean, this was, by all accounts, they're not a very good football team, and we didn't have our best day. Cleveland didn't play superb, but it did feel like during the entire game that Cleveland was in control and probably should win or would win that game until it mattered. Until it mattered. Yeah, sure. And when clock at zero.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: Then we were the Browns.
[00:10:57] Speaker A: And then we were the Browns. But they didn't do anything. I mean, they had a bunch of scrub, no name running backs show up and ball out, but outside of a bunch of scrubs, they didn't do anything that you go. That box score was embarrassing to lose to.
[00:11:14] Speaker B: So this should tell you how well or not well Atlanta played. I'm done with Atlanta. That's done. That's all I had to cover.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: Game recap, half the game.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: So we're going to go over to the Cleveland side and I actually added a new segment inside Cleveland's breakdown here for the coaches because I thought we needed to shine some spotlight on these fine gentlemen.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: They're a part of the team.
[00:11:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: So they should share the blame.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: So let's start with Mike Prefer he's trash.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: Trash.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: I'm adding him to the trash bin. Mike Prefer, you're in the trash bin. You're hot.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: Garbage. We need a trash bin here.
[00:11:56] Speaker B: Just start putting names on it. Just a dumpster with names.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: I'm going to put fatheads in it. Faces.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: Nice. I like it.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: Mike Prefer he's the first one in the trash.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: Don't understand. I just don't understand.
I can't even say Woods.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: I mean, his seat's getting hot.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's on fire. We put people on the hot seat all the time here at the Burning river sportscast. But I mean, that's what we.
I mean, it's getting hot in Cleveland in general.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: The breakdowns got to stop. Look, I know every week there are breakdowns across the NFL, but this is getting consistent. And the problem is these breakdowns really only occur when it absolutely matters.
[00:12:45] Speaker B: Like the game's on the line.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: I mean, Atlanta had the ball at what, the eight or the nine in one play.
Whatever that throw was by Marcus Mariota. It was a punt, a dime.
That's what we call it. And then get zell jumping up, grabbing people by the head.
[00:13:02] Speaker B: Yeah, fair.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: They went 50 yards in one play.
[00:13:05] Speaker B: Yeah. So, Joe woods, let's just. I mean, I'm talking straight to you, man. You couldn't stop second and third string. Second and third. I can't even talk.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: You can't even talk. He's so mad.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: You couldn't stop second and third string scrubs at running back. Like absolute scrubs. I understand we're missing four or five people in our front seven that are starters, but who are these guys?
[00:13:25] Speaker A: It's not like giving up a bunch of yards to a guy that is past his prime. And you're like, oh, if Meldon Gordon had 200 yards against, you'd be like, okay, he's not great, but at least did something. There's something still there. Like, Tod Gurley could show up and run and run again, and you'd be like, yeah, he hasn't been playing football, but it's Todd Gurley.
[00:13:43] Speaker B: Joe woods, your defense gave up that many yards to basically me.
[00:13:47] Speaker A: And me.
[00:13:48] Speaker B: That's even worse.
Oh, man, we talked about the blown coverage, but hashtag Fire Joe woods was trending on Twitter right after the game. That's how bad Browns fans are already starting to want this guy out of town.
[00:14:03] Speaker A: I have to take a step back, right? You have to take a big, deep breath. Me especially. Because I feel like I can't breathe at all times.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: I'm pretty fired up right now.
[00:14:11] Speaker A: I probably need to take a deep breath, but because I don't know, does that solve anything? If we fire Joe woods tomorrow, does it solve anything?
[00:14:21] Speaker B: I don't got to look at his stupid face anymore.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: I mean, yeah, you don't got to look at his stupid face, but who are we replacing him with midseason? It's just going to be all the same guys that are working for him now.
[00:14:32] Speaker B: It begs the question, is a scarecrow better than Joe Woods?
[00:14:37] Speaker A: Do we just eliminate the defensive side of the ball, just the coaching staff altogether?
[00:14:41] Speaker B: Like, is nobody better than Joe Woods?
[00:14:43] Speaker A: Just go out and play.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: Is nobody better than Joe Woods? I mean, is actually nobody better than Woods? Like, we just put nobody out there.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: Is that good? We have to try to not overreact.
There have been good moments.
We've seen decent play out of the Browns defense, especially the last couple of weeks. They've put some things together, but it's the big plays in the something.
[00:15:11] Speaker B: Something's got to change. Something's got to change. I don't know if it's firing him, but they need to make some adjustments and they need to make him fast changes underwear.
Yeah, because they really shit the bed that time.
Kevin Stefanski.
Kevin Stefanski. Get out of your own way, please.
Why can't we just play just for one week? Just one week.
[00:15:33] Speaker A: Take the points.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: Just take the points. Play fundamental football. Quit trying to get fancy at the goal line. You had first and goal from the four.
I believe it was from the four. And also from the one this week.
[00:15:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: And you couldn't punch in either of those.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: Play action, man.
Yeah, I don't even think they did play action. I think it was just a straight drop back there on fourth down in.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: The first one when it was from the four, and they went forward on fourth down. They only had a couple yards to get, like, whatever it was early in the game. I understand, although I will point this out. If we would have kicked the field goal, guess what? We were tied at the end and going for the.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: So take the points.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: I mean, at this point with the Browns, I would say absolutely. Take the points. Right?
[00:16:08] Speaker A: Here's a question. Does Kevin Stefanski think you get less points from a field goal. If you're closer to the goal.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: Don'T.
I don't know.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: Maybe it's like the closer he gets, the less likely true.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: He's like, to kick it. I don't want to run it anymore. I'm just going to throw it.
I'm going to do things that make us not get in the end zone, and then we're not going to kick the field goal.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: Well, the answer is just to kick the field goal. You don't have to think about throwing it or running it. You just kick the field goal. You take the point.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: I'm just so discombobulated because.
[00:16:48] Speaker A: People love Stefanski. They love his laid back nature, but he just has, and it's growing. This I'm the smartest guy mentality.
[00:16:58] Speaker B: He's starting to. As we lose more and more and he continues to say these things, he comes off smug. Yeah, like, you guys don't know what you're talking about. Let me handle it.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, everybody throws the ball there.
You get the squeaky chair.
[00:17:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: We need to grease this thing up some WD 40. Not a paid advertisement. WD 40. Call us.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: Yeah, take the points. I mean, for God's sake, you drafted a kicker.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: Let him kick the ball. Let him kick. That's what he does.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: Peppermint patties.
[00:17:29] Speaker B: Also not a paid advertising. Advertising for all these people picked York.
[00:17:34] Speaker A: Peppermint Patty. It's a nickname, brah.
[00:17:36] Speaker B: That's true. And what are you doing? Trying to reverse to Njoku.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: Oh, God.
[00:17:40] Speaker B: I mean, don't get me wrong, I like David Njoku, but he's not known for his speed.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: I think that was, like, the singular point in the game. When my phone got. I got, like eight texts that were like, why?
[00:17:53] Speaker B: Like, everybody simultaneously.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: People that I hadn't talked to in years were texting me like, what was that? Play call? Nobody knows what was that?
And I didn't like the flea flicker down on their own side either. Early in the.
[00:18:09] Speaker B: Mean. All of this so far is bad. Nobody can stop the run, but nobody can stop the Browns running attack. But we continue to try to rack up passing yards for some reason, even though, no offense to Joe, Kobe, Brissette, he's played well most of the season, but he basically tops out at 250 yards. You can't try and get any more than that from him.
[00:18:26] Speaker A: That's optimum Jacoby.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: Yeah. So I don't know why we keep trying to rack up passing numbers. It's not working. We had ten points in the first half despite being in the red zone.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: Three times against a team that's not very good.
[00:18:38] Speaker B: It's just bad.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: They're not good.
[00:18:40] Speaker B: And then he pissed me off after the game.
It was today, he came out and he said they asked him about the pass in the fourth quarter that we already mentioned and the breakdown of coverage. And last time it was a communication issue. This time he came out and said there was a, and I quote, technique issue.
What does that even mean? Excuses, coverage. How is there a technique issue?
[00:19:03] Speaker A: Excuses are like assholes.
[00:19:06] Speaker B: Kevin Stefanski's got a bunch of them.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: And on that note, let's just go.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: Ahead and get into our offense. We're done ripping on the coaches.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: Wait 1 second before we finish that.
We're done ripping on the coaches. But this was a coaching loss. Oh, for sure, this was a coaching loss.
We're going to go through the different, the offensive defense, but this was a coaching loss. This was totally on them. If you had better decision making out of your coaches, you're three and one right now and you should have beat the freaking Jets.
[00:19:44] Speaker B: And that one was coaching as well. Even with the breakdowns and whatever, that one was coaching. So we'll start with Jacoby Percette like we do all the time. He's the quarterback. He makes a team run. That was my player to watch last week. I had to pivot when Miles Garrett got into a car accident, wasn't able to play. So that was my player to watch. I predicted a drop off maybe coming here. You asked me about that and I said, yeah, I don't know. He's been playing at a pretty high level.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: He still played good enough to win.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: He didn't play good enough to win.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: He wasn't as efficient.
[00:20:17] Speaker B: 21 of 35 for 234 yards, zero touchdowns. He did throw an interception at a pretty costly time because we were getting close to field goal range and could have kept the ball there and possibly gave Cade York a chance to kick a 70 yarder to really do big things.
[00:20:33] Speaker A: That's not his thing, though.
[00:20:34] Speaker B: I know. And then five rushes for 16 yards and a touchdown and it was the most impressive touchdown you've ever seen.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: That was the single most athletic play Jacoby Brusette has made at any level of any sport.
[00:20:45] Speaker B: He was so elusive. He juked those guys so bad, they ran into each other.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: My jaw hit the floor and stayed there for a good five minutes.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: Texted me right away and you're like, I'm impressed.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: That was the first time Jacoby's athleticism impressed me. I was impressed.
[00:20:59] Speaker B: We were all impressed.
[00:21:01] Speaker A: So impressed. I was engorged.
[00:21:03] Speaker B: So, yeah, I mean, like I said, there was a couple issues there. He did play well enough to win. We mentioned the interception late. He did take a pretty bad sack on that last drive. We were within field goal range and he took a sack that put us well outside of field goal range.
[00:21:18] Speaker A: I just think that's not how the Browns are going to win. Right.
You can't play last possession football, which we presented your quarterback.
[00:21:25] Speaker B: No, you have to control the game.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: And you have to run the clock at the end of the game.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: If we took the points the whole game and we were up, take the points up at that point we're just running clock and we're real good at that.
[00:21:36] Speaker A: We're great at that. Not great at. Come from behind victory with no timeouts in two minutes.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: No. And I think Jacoby's only problem this game was he couldn't find the end zone. If he would have found the end zone, I mean, it's a different story.
And if the coaching was.
[00:21:53] Speaker A: Sad.
[00:21:54] Speaker B: Yep. So let's move on. Nick Chubb.
We're going to cover him twice.
[00:22:01] Speaker A: Mean, I don't know what else we can say about Nick Chubb that hasn't been said.
Another 100 yard game finds the end zone again.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: We'll come back.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Just consistent.
[00:22:12] Speaker B: We'll come back to Nick Chubb.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: And what makes me sad is that we've wasted another great game by Nick Chubb.
[00:22:17] Speaker B: We always do.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: 19 carries just iSn't enough. I mean, give Nick Chubb three more carries, you probably win the football game.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: Kareem Hunt, ten carries, 49 yards, two receptions, 19 yards.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: Productive. We'll take it.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: He was Kareem Hunt.
[00:22:32] Speaker A: If you're going to average close to five yards of carry.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: Yeah, he did well.
[00:22:36] Speaker A: They just need to run the ball more and I need to see Chunt on the field. I need to see both of them on the field together.
What are we doing splitting Nick Chubb out at the wide receiver position?
[00:22:46] Speaker B: Everybody knows we're going to throw him the ball out wide.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: What are we doing? Put Kareem Hunt in the backfield if you're going to do that. Keep him on their toes.
[00:22:53] Speaker B: Kevin Stefanski keeps trying to get cute. Just play football, man.
[00:22:57] Speaker A: So cute.
[00:22:58] Speaker B: Mari Cooper, no show in this one. One reception, nine yards. Kind of OD.
[00:23:02] Speaker A: Bizarre. It was weird.
I don't know if.
Are we worried yet? It was one game.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: His first game wasn't great either. He's about 50% right now, but yeah.
[00:23:14] Speaker A: I mean, he was just an absolute.
[00:23:15] Speaker B: No show, but he's been good most the two games that he showed up in. I mean, he was super impressive, so I'm not really worried about it. I think it was just one of those things that, whether it was game plan or whatever else, I don't know if that's your game plan, you're probably going to lose a lot. But yeah, it's pretty much a no show.
DPJ, he finally got back in the game, showed up.
Somebody saw the missing persons report that the burning river sportscast put out and they returned him to us safely. We're happy you are. Okay.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: We found him.
[00:23:45] Speaker B: Five receptions, 71 yards, and he showed up in some key moments.
[00:23:48] Speaker A: Yeah, not a bad day. Pretty productive day on his end. Glad to see him get back in the mix.
[00:23:52] Speaker B: That was a fantastic diving catch on that.
The one that we should have scored at where we had it. First and goal from the one.
[00:23:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
Good day.
[00:24:02] Speaker B: This is our last time that I'm going to touch on Anthony Schwartz.
[00:24:06] Speaker A: You're going to touch on Schwartz?
[00:24:08] Speaker B: No, no, I'm going to talk about Anthony Schwartz. This is the last time we're talking about Anthony Schwartz because I think they got the message. He's not good.
[00:24:16] Speaker A: No.
[00:24:16] Speaker B: And he was involved.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: Zero, zero catches, zero targets, zero, the hero.
[00:24:22] Speaker B: So I'm just erasing him from here on out. We just wanted to give him shit one more time because Kenny can't stand that guy.
[00:24:27] Speaker A: I don't hate the guy. I just want him to catch the football.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: Almost the entire first episode all you did was talk about how bad Anthony Schwartz is.
[00:24:35] Speaker A: Did I lie? No, I just said he couldn't catch the football.
[00:24:40] Speaker B: Fair.
David and Joku, five receptions, 73 yards. Extremely costly fubble. Early on we were driving. He had a pretty big play and just basically threw the ball to the other team.
I don't know what that was about.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: Two catches, 35 yards. I think that matches his season total, so that's good.
[00:25:03] Speaker B: What are you talking about? Hang on, you're in the wrong section. David and Joko.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: Oh, sorry.
[00:25:07] Speaker B: You said David extreme. Like I said, bad fumble early on. That really cost us on one of the early drives, on the flea flicker. Yeah, but it was a big play, a big gain, and then he decided he was going to throw it to the other team.
But I've noticed these last two games, they definitely are making it a point to get David and Joku the ball.
[00:25:27] Speaker A: And Kevin Stefanski's offense relies on the tight end production. So you have an athlete there, you have to use him.
[00:25:34] Speaker B: Yeah, David Bell Kenny, I got a fever. And the only prescription is more David Bell.
[00:25:44] Speaker A: More David Bell.
[00:25:46] Speaker B: Listen, he had two catches for 35 yards. He just jumped the gun a second ago and said it. It does pretty much match his season production so far. But start giving this guy the rock. I mean, it seems like every time it goes his way, he's just the Venus flytrap out there. He catches everything.
[00:26:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I was glad to see him out there a little more. I hope to see him get more targets as the season goes on. Just real interested to see what we have there in. Don't I don't be. What did I say the first show? He could be really good or he could be Quincy Morgan or Greg Little. I don't know.
[00:26:22] Speaker B: No, that is what you said. Because I said don't put Greg little on him. The offensive line, one sack given up. They paved the way for 177 yards rushing. They continue to play well. I mean, not much more you can say there.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: Yeah, look again, I think you can go over that whole lot. They didn't play bad. They didn't play overly great. Nick Chubb is always consistently good. They did enough to win the game.
They should have won the game.
[00:26:51] Speaker B: They should have, but we didn't.
[00:26:54] Speaker A: Feels bad.
[00:26:55] Speaker B: So that takes us to the defensive side of the ball.
Let's just go ahead and get started there. Miles Garrett out. Judavian Clowney out. Anthony Walker out. Taven Bryan out.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: That's more outs than.
[00:27:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And it really mean we had a God awful time stopping the.
[00:27:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Um, that was just not a mean. It's hard to lose three starters on your defensive line anytime.
[00:27:22] Speaker B: But, like, we mean, I still blame Joe woods and not, I mean, they're all backups that were playing in this game. And even though they did have trouble stopping the run.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: Trouble.
[00:27:33] Speaker B: They didn't stop the run.
[00:27:34] Speaker A: Trouble.
[00:27:35] Speaker B: They didn't stop the run.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: Scrubs ran for 200 yards on you.
[00:27:38] Speaker B: But what I was saying is, I still put that on coaching because it was the scrubs. Like, if you can't stop those guys.
[00:27:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, you got to have help, right? I mean, Marcus Mariota wasn't beating you stack eight guys in the box and tackle someone.
[00:27:51] Speaker B: Seems pretty simple.
[00:27:54] Speaker A: I would let Marcus Mariota throw the ball 40 times.
[00:27:58] Speaker B: Is nobody better than Joe Wood?
[00:28:01] Speaker A: Just like.
[00:28:03] Speaker B: But Jacob Phillips played well. That dude is quick.
[00:28:07] Speaker A: Got some speed for sure.
[00:28:10] Speaker B: I thought he did a really good job of handling kind of being thrown into the limelight. They gave him the green dot before the game earlier this week, and he kind of had a lot of weight on his shoulders to really take over that defense.
[00:28:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it comes with naturally to him because I think he was involved more last year and the plan was to be heavily involved. I mean, up until the injury, I think he'll be fine there.
But it's also hard to replace a guy like Anthony Walker that was just.
[00:28:43] Speaker B: He just had the leadership qualities with him. But they are talking about, I mean, they even mentioned it this week is Jacob Phillips has taken it upon himself to really step up and kind of take it to the next level in the locker room as a leader leading up to this mean, besides that pass. Right. Which was very costly. I'm not trying to downplay that.
[00:29:10] Speaker A: Well, Zillow also got called for Pi early, didn't he? No. Did they not call that when he tackled the guy in the end zone? I don't think they called it.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: They didn't call it. That's true.
I mean, they passed for 139 yards. Yeah, they played fine.
[00:29:23] Speaker A: Yeah. And Zell had the pick.
[00:29:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Denzel had a pretty good game, actually. He had two deflected passes and an interception. And he's kind of starting to play more like the Denzel we're used to rather than the Denzel we saw the first two games where he didn't really look like he knew where he was.
[00:29:37] Speaker A: Mean. That was, that was what, the third mean. He stepped right in front of Drake London on a dig and just, I mean, it was like he was running.
[00:29:46] Speaker B: The was, it was beautiful to watch on TV. I was like, when they showed the replay in slow motion, you just see him undercut it and like you said, he's just running the route for him.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: You just need more of that out of, I mean, he's one of those guys you've invested heavily in and heavily understatement hasn't had a great start to the need. We, we need him to come up big every week.
[00:30:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Grant Delpit and John Johnson once again were.
[00:30:12] Speaker A: Grant Delbet had a really good, just every week.
[00:30:15] Speaker B: It seems like those guys are all over the field making plays.
[00:30:17] Speaker A: He had the big pass breakup early on. Drake London in the end.
Think he, I think he's coming along nicely. I know PFF had some not so nice things to say about him. They wanted him benched, but he's young and he's athletic and he's getting better. And he'll get better.
[00:30:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Sometimes PFF doesn't. It's all stats, so they don't use the eye test at all. And sometimes he may look or be even actually be out of position, but again, not at that level. But having played, sometimes you just kind of go and make a play when you're athletic like that.
[00:30:55] Speaker A: Here's my other concern, is if Joe woods is his coach, what the hell is he telling mean? If that's the guy responsible for your development question marks.
[00:31:06] Speaker B: That's probably why PFF is not happy with him, is because they're like, well, Joe woods is putting you out of position on every play.
[00:31:13] Speaker A: Can't help that.
[00:31:15] Speaker B: Yeah. On to special teams. Cade York, two for two field goals, two for two extra points.
[00:31:20] Speaker A: No missed extra points this week.
[00:31:22] Speaker B: No.
[00:31:22] Speaker A: Big day.
[00:31:24] Speaker B: Big day. It would have been a bigger day if he was allowed to kick the ball. Yeah, but he's not. And then we did have, for the first time this year, DPJ was back there returning punts and he did fine. Nothing really notable.
[00:31:36] Speaker A: There was one that was questionable. He probably should have fair caught it.
[00:31:41] Speaker B: Yeah, but I mean, sometimes those guys, if he's confident in catching the ball, I think he just hopes that that guy falls off of him and then you're open for a bunch of, you know, do I endorse that? No. If the guy's right next to you, you should probably fair catch it.
[00:31:56] Speaker A: Hope is a great strategy.
[00:31:59] Speaker B: Browns have been living on it for years.
Excellent overall total yards. Cleveland Browns 403 that's not the team.
Cleveland Browns 403 the Atlanta Falcons 333 time of possession? Browns 35 44. Falcons 20 416 kind of knowing all that and everything we talked about, if you just tell me the stats, it's hard to imagine a path to defeat this week, but here we are.
[00:32:33] Speaker A: Yeah. One other stat just has stuck out to me, just in general from the game. Browns seven penalties, 51 yards. Falcons only with one penalty.
[00:32:43] Speaker B: That's the teams that we're used to seeing out of Kevin Stefanski.
[00:32:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, you got to clean it up.
[00:32:48] Speaker B: Yeah, but we say that every year, and we're on year three now and they haven't cleaned it.
[00:32:56] Speaker A: Hey, I don't know what to tell you about Kevin Stefanski.
I hope we're the best. Hope is a good strategy.
[00:33:04] Speaker B: Yeah. So the Browns basically, last week we talked about they handled their business against an inferior opponent. This week they did not handle their business against an inferior opponent. And now you've had four inferior opponents on the year and we're two and two.
[00:33:20] Speaker A: Yeah, that's not great.
[00:33:22] Speaker B: And because we're two and two, we're going to have to steal a couple. Probably. We're probably going to have to find a way. If you want to realistically be in the playoff talks at the end of the year here, we're going to have to find a way to go 500 at least through this stretch.
[00:33:34] Speaker A: Yeah, this is a stretch of death. This is a gauntlet, man.
What's the line from 300? You will not like this.
[00:33:45] Speaker B: It's not going to be good.
[00:33:46] Speaker A: Chargers, Patriots, Ravens. Bangles. Dolphins, bills, buccaneers.
That's just tough.
[00:33:54] Speaker B: Yeah. And I mean, if you ask me, based off of what we've seen so far, going 500 through, that is a pretty darn tall order. Like, if you do 500 through that.
[00:34:04] Speaker A: They might win the Super Bowl.
[00:34:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Chances are we're probably winning none. Or one or two of those.
[00:34:12] Speaker A: We might get a little help because Justin Herbert's dinged up Patriots are down to their third string quarterback.
[00:34:23] Speaker B: The Patriots game is the one I look at for the win because I'm hoping that Mac Jones isn't back by then. And we'll talk about the Patriots here in a little bit.
[00:34:32] Speaker A: Tua has.
[00:34:38] Speaker B: Bad.
[00:34:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
So we'll, uh.
[00:34:42] Speaker B: In case anyone's wondering, Kenny and I both picked the game wrong because we thought there was no way we would lose to the Falcons.
[00:34:47] Speaker A: And we did.
[00:34:50] Speaker B: Other Browns notes here. The Browns fans traveled real well. If you watch the game, you could hear them. The entire game, it seemed like there was more Browns fans than there were Atlanta fans.
[00:34:58] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, Atlanta is one of those transient cities, right? A lot of people move there for the weather and for business. And who wants to root for the Falcons?
[00:35:08] Speaker B: Not me.
[00:35:09] Speaker A: I don't remember. They lost the Super Bowl 28 to three. You don't come back from that. Any fans they did have, they're gone.
[00:35:17] Speaker B: Trash.
[00:35:17] Speaker A: They went with Matt Ryan to Indy.
[00:35:20] Speaker B: And then finally I said it before, and I'll say it again, the Falcons Stadium is Wiggity Wild, and I would like to have something cool like that when we get a new stadium.
[00:35:29] Speaker A: ARe you dome guy?
[00:35:32] Speaker B: I'm a retractable roof guy. Retractable because I want to be able to have events in the winter, like concerts and whatever else there.
[00:35:38] Speaker A: The only thing that concerns me about that is, are they going to make the commitment to leave the dome open during football season?
[00:35:49] Speaker B: I don't know. They're going to tell everybody they are.
That's how it's going to start.
[00:35:54] Speaker A: I don't mind it as long as you keep it.
[00:35:58] Speaker B: You got to let the weather be a factor.
[00:35:59] Speaker A: In Cleveland.
[00:36:02] Speaker B: Especially.
We talk like it's going to happen anytime soon. But if you look at our team. Now, we're 100% built for the run, so you would absolutely do that.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: But if Jacobi is still the quarterback in ten years when we build the.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: Dome, who knows if the Browns let Nick Chubb walk, because that's just. Or trade him or do something stupid and Deshaun Watson's out there slinging it for 400 yards a game. You probably close the roof, right?
[00:36:30] Speaker A: I guess.
[00:36:31] Speaker B: I don't know either. So let's go ahead and get right into the burning River Sportscast dog of the week.
[00:36:39] Speaker A: I'm a dog now, though.
[00:36:45] Speaker B: Dog mentality. Come on now. I'm coming in and kill right away.
[00:36:49] Speaker A: Nick Chubb.
[00:36:51] Speaker B: Nick Chubb.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: This week you're getting pretty good at that bark. Yeah, you sound a lot like Perrion.
[00:36:56] Speaker B: I'm a dog.
[00:36:57] Speaker A: Perion Winfrey.
[00:36:58] Speaker B: I'm a dog now. Nick Chubb is this week's burning River Sportscast dog of the week. 19 Carry this is why we didn't talk about him that much in the offense, even though he was the entire offense.
19 carries, 118 yards, one touchdown, two receptions, nine yards. He did fall to second in the league in rushing, though. He's four yards behind Saquon Sequan Barkley. Now, four yards feels bad, but we say it all the time, we don't deserve this man. It seems like every week we're talking about him getting closer to all of the franchise leaders and something else. Right.
[00:37:31] Speaker A: He's just so mean. I I genuinely get joy just out of watching him run.
[00:37:39] Speaker B: It's kind of wild because I probably feel like they did back when they were watching Jim Brown and they're like, this guy's just special.
[00:37:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:50] Speaker B: Because outside of ClevelaND, because we have Kareem Hunt here and we spell Nick Chubb a lot and let Kareem keep both their legs fresh. Nick Chubb doesn't put up the numbers that he probably could if we didn't have that good of a second string running back.
[00:38:07] Speaker A: He's a guy that would be 1500 yards plus easily every year.
[00:38:12] Speaker B: Every year. Every single year. But as far as for longevity, this is probably better for him.
[00:38:18] Speaker A: Maybe.
[00:38:23] Speaker B: He's just so good.
He's just so good.
[00:38:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: It was no different this week. Like I said, he's getting closer to all these franchise leaders for some sort of stat category, the ones that he's creeping up on this week. Entering Sunday, he has the most rushing attempts.
Well, this is not just our franchise for the NFL. Entering Sunday, he has the most rushing attempts of 20 plus yards since 2018 with 50.
The next closest person to him. Lamar Jackson with 37. So he has 13 more rushes of 20 plus yards since 2018.
[00:39:00] Speaker A: Dude's a home run hitter.
[00:39:02] Speaker B: Yeah, he really is.
And then he has the fourth most rushing. This is the franchise records now that he's getting close to fourth most rushing yards in franchise history through the first four games of the season. First three are all owned by Jim Brown, naturally. But, yeah, I mean, to be on that list is just. That's pretty special.
[00:39:24] Speaker A: Yeah, those aren't bad running backs to be on a LeRoy Kelly.
[00:39:28] Speaker B: Well, so, yeah, that's the next one. Third most 100 yard rushing games in franchise history.
So, I mean, the only two people ahead of him at this point are Leroy Kelly and Jim Brown. Jim Brown has 58. LeRoy Kelly has 27. So he's passing LeRoy Kelly this year. Most likely good company before. Probably in the next few games here, he's going to be up to second on the Browns franchise list for 100 yard games.
Another note for Nick Chubb. His family wore Batman shirts that are just straight, sick, nasty to the game.
[00:39:59] Speaker A: And again, this is why you just feel bad. I mean, it should have been a homecoming for him, right?
[00:40:05] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:40:06] Speaker A: And they just, every time he touched.
[00:40:07] Speaker B: The ball, too, you could hear his high school, his family, everybody was going.
[00:40:11] Speaker A: Nuts, just blew it.
[00:40:13] Speaker B: And then just, we mentioned his family and his high school being there.
He needed over 50 tickets for his family, but he did make a joke to the interviewer when they asked him about getting tickets for his family. He said, I ain't paying for those. He said, I'll get them, but I ain't paying for them.
And then a couple of other things that I noted about Nick Chubb during the game, just some funny things that I caught. His hometown is Cedar Town, Georgia, but the broadcast, accidentally on the graphic, changed it to Chubbtown, which I thought was hilarious. I didn't get there fast enough to get a screenshot of it, but he was from Georgia.
[00:40:49] Speaker A: And then they ought to rename it that now.
[00:40:53] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I would.
And then just real know, for the first time ever, I thought for the first two drives, Nick Chubb actually was getting a little ahead of himself. I think he was excited to play in front of his home crowd.
[00:41:07] Speaker A: Should be excited. He's a great running back, and he.
[00:41:10] Speaker B: Was in his home, which is forgivable. And he ended up still having a monster day like he always does, so it doesn't really matter. And then finally, the announcer at one point during the game actually said, he's just such a load.
What does that even mean, if I called you a load, would you be excited that Kenny, he's just such a load.
[00:41:35] Speaker A: I'm not even gonna go there.
[00:41:38] Speaker B: So that's enough for Nick Chubb, this week's burning river sportscast. Dog of the week.
[00:41:44] Speaker A: Wolf. Wolf.
[00:41:46] Speaker B: All right, let's get into the division roundup.
[00:41:50] Speaker A: Ready, dog?
[00:41:57] Speaker B: So to start it off, the Ravens. The Ravens lost to the Bills. And this was a fun one because we were texting back and forth during the game, and I actually sent you at one point, I said, whoa, the Ravens are really taking it to the bills.
[00:42:11] Speaker A: They were taking it to the Bills.
[00:42:13] Speaker B: They were up 20 to three at one point.
[00:42:14] Speaker A: Yeah. I was like, man, that was a great freaking pick I made last week.
[00:42:20] Speaker B: To no avail.
They could not close that game out. As I mentioned, they did lose to the Bills. They were up 20 to three. They lost 23 to 20. I heard there was a pretty questionable roughing the passer call there at the end of the game. I don't know if you saw it.
[00:42:35] Speaker A: Yeah, look, some of those can go either way.
I didn't think it was egregious.
[00:42:46] Speaker B: It was just one of those calls. It was close.
[00:42:48] Speaker A: It was a call.
[00:42:49] Speaker B: They had their hands up somewhere around his. I mean, it's shoulders and it's a call.
[00:42:53] Speaker A: It's the one part about football, and this is, regardless of game or anything, it's the one part that's still subjective and sometimes you benefit and sometimes you don't.
[00:43:05] Speaker B: Yeah. And I mean, honestly, let's be real. They shouldn't have let them back into the game, so it shouldn't have mattered regardless.
[00:43:12] Speaker A: No, that Ravens defense is not. They don't have a lot of playmakers out there, which is strange to say about a Ravens defense because they're generally known for having a great, stout defense and they could be in trouble. I mean, that offense is really good. Lamar is playing pretty lights out. He didn't have a huge game this week, but he's playing so well. And JK Dobbins coming back looks pretty defense. That defense is not good.
[00:43:44] Speaker B: And I really love when I get to throw out bad stats for any of our division rivals. And so here's one for the Ravens. It's the first time in franchise history that they've lost five straight home games.
That's bad.
[00:43:59] Speaker A: That's bad.
But they've won like 20 straight preseason games.
[00:44:04] Speaker B: Nobody cares about the preseason. Like, we're talking about eliminating the pro ball last week. They should just eliminate the preseason.
[00:44:09] Speaker A: They should eliminate the Ravens Fair FM.
[00:44:17] Speaker B: For the game. I picked that game right.
[00:44:20] Speaker A: I picked that game right.
[00:44:21] Speaker B: And Kenny picked it wrong.
[00:44:22] Speaker A: I'm wrong.
[00:44:25] Speaker B: Cincinnati, it's okay. You made up for it. In the other games this week, Cincinnati beat Miami. So Cincinnati looked much better in this one. And, I mean, they gave to an instant CTE.
[00:44:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that was ugly.
[00:44:39] Speaker B: That looked really.
[00:44:41] Speaker A: We boasted a little bit for the Amazon broadcast team last week. This one was a little weird, generally. And I want to see the gruesome injuries, like when Willis McGee blew out his knee playing Ohio State. I was like, let's see it again. But in today's world, they don't generally.
[00:45:05] Speaker B: Show injuries over and over.
[00:45:07] Speaker A: You see it the first time on the replay and when everybody goes, ooh, they pull it and you just see the camera pan onto the field with everybody waiting for them to carry him off. And they kept going back to him, getting body slammed on the ground with his hands all like Rigamortis style.
[00:45:26] Speaker B: Yeah, it was ugly and honestly, just quite disturbing to watch. And the fact that they showed it over and over again was pretty rough. Yeah, but a note on that, the neurologist from the previous game. So anybody that doesn't know the story, the game before Cincinnati, who were they playing? I don't even remember. Do you remember who Miami was playing?
The Bills. The Bills game. Because they beat the Bills in the Bills game on Sunday, the previous week. Tua got hit in the head, got up to walk back to the huddle and basically fell over and his lineman had to catch him and hold him up. He came out for a couple of plays. They checked on him. A neurologist, independent neurologist, cleared him, and then he went back into the game and played. And then he turned around and played again this week. And now we have this terrible, awful injury. And that's not something to mess around with because concussions, if you get more than one concussion in a short period of time, it could kill you.
[00:46:28] Speaker A: And it's just so bizarre that it happened because the NFL has put so much effort over the last few years behind concussions and the CTE research and trying to prevent head injuries and head collisions. I mean, they've tried to legislate it.
[00:46:45] Speaker B: Out of the, I mean, you'll hear us occasionally crack the joke of somebody getting hit, and we say they get instant mean. It's a, it's a real thing and it's something that's a huge concern for the NFL. And because of that, I don't know if you saw the NFL Players association did come together with the NFL and they fired that neurologist. They gave me access week.
[00:47:07] Speaker A: There's going to be fallout from that for sure.
[00:47:09] Speaker B: That guy got clipped because it kind.
[00:47:11] Speaker A: Of throws a wrench in the whole independent neurologist.
I'm not affiliated. I don't care about the game.
Something wasn't right there.
[00:47:20] Speaker B: Oh, if you just watched it. Like I said, he couldn't even make it back to the huddle. The fact that they even considered letting him in the game, even if he passes his test. Just again, we go back to there are certain things that they put into place. There are certain statistics or whatever that you can look at but use the eye test sometimes, use common sense. And he was clearly not able to play that.
[00:47:42] Speaker A: And all that aside, I mean the two injury changed the game.
[00:47:46] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely.
[00:47:47] Speaker A: Entirely.
[00:47:48] Speaker B: And because of that, we still don't know how good or bad Cincinnati is. Kenny and I lean towards bad.
[00:47:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, it wasn't like since he came out and was playing great before the injury, but Teddy Bridgewater comes in.
[00:48:02] Speaker B: However, if you're the NFL Today pregame show idiots. Both those guys picked the Bengals as the best team in the AFC North. So it was like unanimous. They basically were like, yeah, nobody else that good.
[00:48:15] Speaker A: I think they're just banking on the fact that because the Bengals were the AFC champion last year that they'll get it together.
[00:48:22] Speaker B: You don't lose your job as an analyst saying the Bengals are going to be good after they just went to.
[00:48:25] Speaker A: A Super bowl, right?
[00:48:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
Both Kenny and I picked that one wrong, though. I think if Tua stayed healthy, we both would have been right.
[00:48:33] Speaker A: If Tua throws six touchdowns this week, then since he loses and looks bad.
[00:48:39] Speaker B: Steelers lost to the Jets.
[00:48:43] Speaker A: Who saw that one coming?
[00:48:44] Speaker B: You did, but it was the toilet bowl. Like you said, it was just garbage. It was a terrible game.
Zach Wilson finally gets his first start for the Jets. Kenny Pickett got in for the Steelers and I mean, I didn't think either of them really played all that great.
[00:49:01] Speaker A: I think he threw three picks, didn't he? He was Kenny Pickett.
[00:49:03] Speaker B: Kenny Pickett. Literally, Kenny Pickham Picket.
[00:49:08] Speaker A: The Steelers are true.
[00:49:08] Speaker B: He lived up to his namesake.
[00:49:10] Speaker A: They're bad.
[00:49:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Zach Wilson did become the first jets quarterback in franchise history to get a receiving touchdown, though.
[00:49:17] Speaker A: This is how I know that.
[00:49:19] Speaker B: And he proceeded to hit the gritty on is how.
[00:49:21] Speaker A: That's how I know that I'm outside of my.
What's a gritty?
[00:49:28] Speaker B: He was dancing, basically.
[00:49:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, I mean, I get that part.
[00:49:31] Speaker B: Justin Jefferson does the gritty all the time.
[00:49:33] Speaker A: Just the fact that that doesn't even resonate with.
[00:49:36] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I have nephews, so they're always hitting the gritty. They think they're real good at it.
[00:49:41] Speaker A: They're always hitting the gritty.
[00:49:43] Speaker B: Can you do the me? No.
[00:49:45] Speaker A: Yeah. No, you can't do it. Just real quick.
[00:49:48] Speaker B: No, I'm not even going to try.
[00:49:50] Speaker A: You attempt it.
[00:49:50] Speaker B: No.
[00:49:52] Speaker A: I feel like you got moves, bro.
[00:49:53] Speaker B: No. It was pretty embarrassing for the Steelers, though. They're starting to kind of look like the browns of old. Minka Fitzpatrick actually came out after the game and said, man, I'm just tired of losing the teams that were better than. Same, bro. Same.
[00:50:08] Speaker A: The Steelers are trash. The jets are trash. I don't know that the jets are going to win a whole lot more the rest of the year, and neither are the Steelers, which is great.
[00:50:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I was wrong on this one, though. And you were right.
[00:50:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Look at that. Yay for me.
[00:50:23] Speaker B: You did it, bro.
All right, so let's go ahead and take a trip around the Russell Wilson really, really earning his money.
Las Vegas gets on the board with their first win against his Broncos.
[00:50:40] Speaker A: I don't know what's going on, Russell.
See? All right.
[00:50:44] Speaker B: Diminishing skills.
[00:50:47] Speaker A: Look, Nathaniel Hackett out there, there's a lot of questions around what he's doing.
There were a lot of questions around the type of control and influence that Russell Wilson wanted to have in the offense.
I don't know if those two are going to figure it out, but if they don't do it quick, it's not going to be good.
[00:51:09] Speaker B: Yeah, that's bad. On top of that, it's not going to get any easier for him. The Broncos lost Giovante Williams for the year. Torn ACL and LCL done for the year. Completely blown out knee.
[00:51:21] Speaker A: Anytime you tear a CL, any CL, don't tear those.
[00:51:28] Speaker B: Moving on here. The Texans only team left without a win last week. We said Vegas was the only owen three team, which was technically true because the Texans have a tie under their belt, but they do not have any wins. Feels bad.
[00:51:40] Speaker A: Their quarterback is Davis Mills.
Did they think that was going to go differently in their head, I saw that they were like, yeah, we could probably win some games.
[00:51:49] Speaker B: The Texans are bad Eagles. On the other side of things, the Eagles remain the only undefeated team.
[00:51:56] Speaker A: They're playing good football.
[00:51:57] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't really understand it.
[00:52:04] Speaker A: No. In a weird way, I 100% understand what you're saying.
[00:52:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
We're only four games in, so it's not like we're sitting at eight and O and they're like, oh, man, this team is fantastic. But they're the Eagles. I don't really understand how they're four and O, but they are.
I'm not saying they're a bad team, I'm just saying I don't understand how the Eagles are the last undefeated team.
[00:52:27] Speaker A: A large part of that is probably just Jalen hurts. He plays an unconventional game. I mean, most quarterbacks that are athletic and can run are more finesse guys. And he's kind of a mean, he's fast and strong, but he doesn't shy away from contact.
But he's also throwing the ball really well.
[00:52:49] Speaker B: Yeah, we mentioned the toilet bowl with the jets and the Steelers this week. Well, DK Metcalf in the Seahawks game. Seahawks game. Yeah, Seahawks game. Was carted off to use the bathroom this week. And after the game he tweeted, man, the clinchwalk just wouldn't have made it.
[00:53:07] Speaker A: That's a bad feeling in the dump.
[00:53:10] Speaker B: So bad he couldn't walk when, you.
[00:53:11] Speaker A: Know, the clinchwalk wouldn't have made it.
[00:53:14] Speaker B: Somebody gave me a card. I got to get out of here.
[00:53:15] Speaker A: I've been there, man. I feel it.
[00:53:17] Speaker B: I feel like you're there on the daily, every day.
The Chiefs dominated Brady and the Bucks.
That game wasn't even close.
[00:53:27] Speaker A: No, Brady doesn't have a lot of help right now. The defense is playing well outside of yesterday, but Brady doesn't have a lot of receivers. I think he misses Gronk a lot.
[00:53:39] Speaker B: EveryboDy misses Gronk.
[00:53:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
He probably will look back at this season and say, should have went out on top.
[00:53:50] Speaker B: Yeah, probably.
Patrick Mchomes. Patrick Mahomes.
A little bit of magic there. That play was pretty nifty towards the goal line. Don't know if you saw the replays of that. That was pretty solid. He always finds a way to score. It's like the opposite of Browns.
[00:54:07] Speaker A: He's like he's playing a different game sometimes.
[00:54:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
He became the fastest quarterback to 20,000 passing yards. That's pretty impressive.
[00:54:16] Speaker A: He's another one. That's just strange because he looks kind of funny and he talks kind of funny, but he's just really athletic and.
[00:54:21] Speaker B: He'S just kind of wiry. He's not like a real big guy.
He's got a good arm, but it's not like if he looked like.
[00:54:30] Speaker A: If he looked like Miles Garrett, I would be like, all right, makes sense.
[00:54:34] Speaker B: Yeah. He doesn't, though.
The Saints lose in London and in case anyone didn't catch it, Alvin Kamara was a last minute scratch from that one. And fantasy owners got royally screwed. Everybody woke up and their guy wasn't playing royally. You get it?
[00:54:51] Speaker A: I like that. You see what we did there?
F London, FMR.
[00:55:00] Speaker B: Next up here. JJ Watt went to Afib on Wednesday.
[00:55:04] Speaker A: Oh, man, I can relate.
[00:55:06] Speaker B: Yeah, you go into Afib about once.
[00:55:07] Speaker A: A week at least.
[00:55:11] Speaker B: He had his heart shocked back into rhythm. These are his words, not mine. On Thursday. And then he played on Sunday. He tweeted about it because he had heard that somebody had leaked the information. And he was like, no, nobody gets the story. I give the story. And so he tweeted it all out and was like, yeah, I had a heart problem.
[00:55:27] Speaker A: It was me. I had the drop.
[00:55:29] Speaker B: Nice. Good job. Burning river sports cast burning River. He proceeded to go out and beat the Panthers.
Speaking of the Panthers, the only thing that makes me feel better after a Browns loss is talking about how bad the Panthers are doing.
The wheels are really falling off there.
[00:55:46] Speaker A: Were the wheels on?
[00:55:47] Speaker B: No, but I mean, it's official. Everybody is turning on Baker 100% like turning on Baker. Did you see DJ Moore's interview this week?
[00:55:57] Speaker A: YEah, I mean, got the whole OBJ dad thing going on again.
[00:56:02] Speaker B: Well, the coach came out, Matt Rule came out and said the wide receivers need to do a better job of getting open.
And they asked DJ Moore about it and he said, I mean, I've never had trouble getting open in my career before.
And then he proceeded to give a pretty lengthy explanation of know opens open in the NFL, whether it's by a foot or 3ft. That's really up to the quarterback to decide if he can fit the ball in there or so.
[00:56:31] Speaker A: Look, here's the mean. We watched the Panthers game in week one. I don't know if you watched a lot of Panthers games after that, but that offensive line is putrid.
I don't know that any quarterback is going to be successful there.
[00:56:47] Speaker B: Probably not. But the fans in the media are calling for Darnold to play. But he's on.
And that's what's the funniest part to me is all these people are calling for Darnold to play, like, now. And a source came out earlier today, actually, and said, guys, just so you know, he's not even close to returning from IR.
[00:57:06] Speaker A: I mean, here's the thing.
Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold could both be scrubs.
[00:57:13] Speaker B: They probably. So even if they're not scrubs, they're about the same level of quarterback, I would say.
[00:57:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:57:20] Speaker B: You're not going to get anything more out of Darnold.
[00:57:22] Speaker A: No.
[00:57:24] Speaker B: Speaking of quarterbacks on IR, though, Dak is still there and Cooper rushes. He wins again.
[00:57:30] Speaker A: Still there, like, still on the roster.
[00:57:32] Speaker B: Well, he's still on.
Yeah.
Cooper Rush won again, though, and there's actually rumblings down in Dallas of a legitimate quarterback competition between Cooper Rush and Dak Prescott.
[00:57:45] Speaker A: They're not like, unfortunately, it feels like Dallas plays in prime time every week. So I've been watching a lot of, I've been watching a lot of Dallas Cowboy football.
[00:57:56] Speaker B: They're America's losing team and they look a lot Cooper Rush.
[00:58:00] Speaker A: Apparently, they look a lot better with Cooper Rush there. I don't know who the hell Cooper Rush is or where he played college ball or if he was any good. I think he went to Carson Wentz.
[00:58:10] Speaker B: The guy that sings the chorus.
[00:58:11] Speaker A: Didn't he go to, like, North Dakota State or something stupid. I don't even know who Cooper Rush is, but they look like a better football team with Rush.
[00:58:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
Patriots lost again this week. They're down to their third string quarterback after Brian Hoyer got a concussion.
[00:58:28] Speaker A: Zappy.
[00:58:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Zappi. And unlike the Dallas Cowboys, there's no quarterback controversy there. Basically, the only quarterback that's worth anything on that roster is think they're good.
[00:58:40] Speaker A: I think there is a quarterback controversy.
[00:58:42] Speaker B: There because they just keep knocking out quarterbacks.
[00:58:46] Speaker A: Have you seen Zappi and have you seen Mac Jones?
[00:58:53] Speaker B: Well, all of them think that Mac Jones is the answer.
[00:58:57] Speaker A: I don't think you're following.
They're the same person. Are they identical twins?
[00:59:04] Speaker B: Elaborate.
[00:59:05] Speaker A: They look identical.
[00:59:07] Speaker B: I'll just get two guys that look exactly the same to play quarterback, and.
[00:59:10] Speaker A: They'Re like the same size. They're clones of each other. Both of them aren't very good quarterbacks.
[00:59:15] Speaker B: There you go. In other Patriots news, Jamie Collins signs for the fourth time in his career with the Patriots.
[00:59:23] Speaker A: He's a New England guy.
[00:59:24] Speaker B: I really like him there.
[00:59:25] Speaker A: I think he likes clam Chowder.
[00:59:28] Speaker B: Is that it? He came back for the clam chowder.
[00:59:33] Speaker A: Got to get me some more of that chowder.
[00:59:36] Speaker B: The Lions, they currently have the best offense in football and the worst defense, which fittingly, they lost 48 to 45 this week to the Seahawks.
[00:59:49] Speaker A: They're fun to watch.
[00:59:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:59:51] Speaker A: And they got that. I'm on Ross St. Brown.
[00:59:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Speaking of this game, though, RG three tweeted out Antonio Brown showed more D than the Lions and Seahawks this week.
[01:00:02] Speaker A: RG three is just out there. Wilding yeah.
[01:00:04] Speaker B: And speaking of Antonio Brown, in case you didn't see that, he was out there showing people his dong in public in pools and stuff. I don't know what that was about. But he also tweeted something about Giselle wanting them.
[01:00:16] Speaker A: Antonio Brown just out there dong flopping in the pool. Yeah, I don't know. What's that? Dude is wild. He's having rap concerts and then canceling them.
[01:00:26] Speaker B: He claims he's fine mentally, but we talk about instant CTe. That guy has it because basically since he got hit by James Harrison, whoever that was. Was it James Harrison or was it.
[01:00:40] Speaker A: Vantez? Burfinked.
[01:00:42] Speaker B: Burfinked. That was the one.
[01:00:43] Speaker A: Burfinked.
[01:00:43] Speaker B: I'm going to call him Burfinked.
[01:00:45] Speaker A: Maybe James Harrison and Vantez Burphed did the old double dong on him.
Double dome. I don't know.
[01:00:56] Speaker B: It was bad either way.
[01:00:58] Speaker A: He definitely way too many dongs in this segment.
[01:01:00] Speaker B: He has some sort of brain injury because he's just not. I don't know what he's doing.
[01:01:04] Speaker A: Why are there so many dongs?
[01:01:09] Speaker B: That's it for our week four coverage. As soon as Kenny stops laughing, we're going to go ahead and jump into a revenue break here.
[01:01:17] Speaker A: Oh, man. There's nothing that I love more than Topath Distillery.
[01:01:22] Speaker B: 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.
[01:02:01] Speaker A: Family owned Topath distillery basically, if you haven't had Topath, you're wrong.
[01:02:08] Speaker B: Topath slaps.
[01:02:09] Speaker A: Slaps. Get some.
[01:02:12] Speaker B: All right, so that'll take us into our week five preview.
All right, so we'll get right into the matchup preview. We'll start with you want to do position matchups first? Do you want to do some opposition research?
What do you want?
What do you want? What do you want?
[01:02:36] Speaker A: Let's just jump into matchups.
[01:02:38] Speaker B: All right, so we'll start with some of the matchups that I thought stuck out to me that we need to watch this week. The Brown secondary versus the Chargers wide receiver, plural. They don't just have one.
[01:02:50] Speaker A: Keenan Allen hasn't played a whole lot.
[01:02:52] Speaker B: Yeah, but he may be coming back this week. It is a hamstring. They say he's day to day.
We'll see. Hamstring injuries are tough with receivers because that's basically their whole game is counting on speed. Yeah, but if he comes back, I mean, that makes it exponentially harder to cover their receivers.
[01:03:08] Speaker A: Yeah, Keenan Allen's one of those guys, too, that just kind of hasn't aged.
[01:03:14] Speaker B: No, he's injured all the time, but he hasn't aged.
[01:03:17] Speaker A: But yeah, I mean, every time he's on the field, he's productive.
[01:03:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Mike Williams is having a pretty good start to the year.
[01:03:23] Speaker A: Good athlete, big target.
[01:03:25] Speaker B: Yeah, he's been doing well for them. Gerald Everett.
[01:03:31] Speaker A: Gerald Everett, just a really athletic tight end.
I think he's somebody that could give the Browns fits similar to what we anticipated seeing out of Kyle Pitts, but just Pitts. Mariota can't throw the football. True. This week we're playing a guy that can.
[01:03:48] Speaker B: Yeah, we are. We'll get into Justin Herbert in a second, but yeah, for receivers. I mean, they also have Joshua Palmer back there, young guy that's really stepped up with Keenan Allen being out. He's had a few pretty big games. And then obviously Austin Eckler, which we're going to kind of talk about him twice here because he's a dual threat, running back, catches a lot of passes out of the backfield, so that's why I have him in with the wide receivers as well.
[01:04:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I think the inside of their offensive line is really strong.
Filer Lindsay, they have a rookie first round draft pick and Zion Johnson that could give the Browns front fits, given the injuries. We'll see if Clowney is any closer to coming back. Miles, don't get in the injury report yet.
[01:04:37] Speaker B: We'll talk about that.
[01:04:38] Speaker A: Miles is there, but that offensive line is decent, and that's going to mean Austin Eckler is a tremendous athlete. Like you said, dual threat, somebody that can catch the ball out of the backfield. And that offensive line is pretty solid up front.
[01:04:55] Speaker B: Yeah, that's why I have him in both categories. So the next matchup was Brown's front seven versus, I actually have it versus Austin Eckler. YoU can also say versus their offensive line, whatever you want to say, but I just put mostly Austin Eckler because their team kind of goes as he goes. Right. I mean, if he gets going, they usually play really well.
[01:05:14] Speaker A: And I think the thing to watch for in this game is what he does. Receiving the ball, catching the ball to the backfield. If he has a big day catching the ball, it's going to be a tough day, a long day for the Browns.
[01:05:25] Speaker B: Yeah. And as far as the front seven versus Austin Eckler, though, as you mentioned, we do have lots of injuries. We'll get into the injury report in a minute. And they let some scrubs run all over them last year. Well, Austin Eckler is no scrub.
[01:05:37] Speaker A: No, not a scrub.
[01:05:39] Speaker B: Not at all. He scored three touchdowns last week and.
[01:05:41] Speaker A: He'S got some talent.
[01:05:43] Speaker B: Yeah, he's pretty solid running back. So if you start letting him, giving him the space that you gave those guys to work with last week, you're going to be in big, big trouble.
[01:05:50] Speaker A: And you have a decent spell over there in Sony.
[01:05:54] Speaker B: Big trouble.
[01:05:55] Speaker A: Sony Michelle.
[01:05:56] Speaker B: Yeah, Sony Michelle is a decent back to rely on. As far as giving Austin Eckler a break, obviously, they have Justin Herbert. Dude's got a huge arm. He can pop off for like 350 plus any day.
[01:06:09] Speaker A: He did on Sunday.
[01:06:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:06:14] Speaker A: My notes are wrong. 340. Just 340.
[01:06:18] Speaker B: Just shy. But he can at any time. He's got that arm and he's got that talent. He spreads the ball all over the field.
So many receivers involved. You look at a Browns box score and there's probably like six receivers for the game, right?
[01:06:33] Speaker A: Probably not even that many.
[01:06:34] Speaker B: Yeah. And you look at, let's put this.
[01:06:36] Speaker A: Theory to the test.
[01:06:38] Speaker B: You look at the Chargers box score and there's legit like 1012 guys that caught passes. It's pretty insane.
[01:06:45] Speaker A: Seven this week for the Browns. Good job, Rophie.
[01:06:47] Speaker B: That was close. What the Chargers have.
[01:06:52] Speaker A: He'S counting ten, including a guy named Trey McKitty.
[01:06:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Like guys you don't even hear about. Somehow Justin Herbert finds a way to get these guys involved with the game.
[01:07:02] Speaker A: To be fair, though, I think two of these guys just dropped the ball because they don't have any catches, but they're on the receiving box score.
[01:07:08] Speaker B: Fair. But I think the biggest thing with him having a big arm and him being able to throw the way he does, we really got to limit those big plays. It's what's killed us all year, even the games that we've won, they were close because we've given up those big plays, right?
[01:07:25] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, this is going to be a tremendous test for the Browns defense, period. Absolutely. It's the best quarterback that we've played all year. And like Ronnie said, he's somebody that can put up a ton of yards and a ton of touchdowns. He threw for 5000 yards last year, 38 touchdowns last year. The kid can play.
[01:07:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
On the other side of the ball, the defense for the Chargers, not great. Not bad, just not great. I mean, they're 15th against the run, 17th against the pass and they're 20th in yards per game, given up at 349.5. But they are towards the back as far as their scoring defense. They give up 27 points a game.
[01:08:05] Speaker A: Yeah, that defense they invested heavily in their defensive front in the offseason, brought in some free agents on that defensive line, but with Joey Bosa out with the groin injury, had surgery I think on Friday.
[01:08:18] Speaker B: Huge weapon for them gone.
Khalil Mack though.
[01:08:22] Speaker A: Really big loss. But yeah, I think Khalil Mack, they have Kyle Van Noy that will be on the edge. So that'll be an interesting matchup, I think, to see what their edge rushers can do against our offensive line because Khalil Mack's one of those guys that just is a premier run stopper, doesn't waste a lot of energy and can get home on any play.
[01:08:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
So as a team, the Chargers this year are two and two, just like the Browns. The Browns are going to need to play well on brothers. We are saying the Browns are going to need to play well on defense and stop the run. Pretty much the same game plan as every pretty.
[01:08:58] Speaker A: If you score more points than the other team, you win.
[01:09:00] Speaker B: You win. So it's weird because if you look at on paper so far this year, if you look at all the stats and kind of where we're at defense wise, all that stuff on paper, the Browns actually should probably win this game. However, we've talked about it a couple of times already in this episode, the eye test is a big deal and if you look at the eye test, I would probably say it's the other way. The Chargers should win this game.
[01:09:23] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll get to our picks in a minute, but I think the Chargers are pretty stacked on offense and they've got some players on defense. So we'll get there. But you know what they say, everything's better on paper.
[01:09:35] Speaker B: Yeah. For the injury report, Clowney's on there still. He sat the last two. He's looking to return this week. They said he was close last week but didn't quite make it back. So we're hoping to have him back. Miles Garrett, obviously the car accident, he wanted to play on Sunday, but they kept him out as it seemed like more as a precaution, I'm thinking he should play this week. But there was another report that came out today that the shoulder injury and the biceps injury is going to probably slow him down for a few weeks.
[01:10:02] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think a car injury is a little bit like to his thing.
[01:10:08] Speaker B: It's kind of touching.
It's a day by day thing. You got to measure.
[01:10:13] Speaker A: Hard to see what the real impact is. And for somebody whose livelihood is sport, I don't know what kind of, I.
[01:10:21] Speaker B: Think a lot of it is the personal feeling. Right. Like, how do you feel today?
[01:10:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:10:26] Speaker B: Not necessarily something you can measure. Like, I have this brain or I have this done. It's just how does your body feel today?
[01:10:33] Speaker A: And I don't feel good.
[01:10:34] Speaker B: Well, you could never play for anybody, J.
[01:10:37] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:10:38] Speaker B: Still got the groin injury. He still has a. Yeah, yeah, he does. He played last, but. And he should play again. But it's a groin injury, and you mentioned it last week on the show when he relies a lot on his speed to make plays stuff. Yeah. So we'll see. We'll monitor that. I think he's going to play, but we'll see how that goes. Taven Bryan, hamstring injury. Didn't play this last week. I'm thinking he's probably going to miss another one.
Hamstring injuries are tough, man.
[01:11:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Especially for big guys.
I don't know that he's going to play this week. Speaking of Miles, though, thought I had today. Is it time for team. Think, Team Camrys.
[01:11:24] Speaker B: They just leased them out to all the players.
[01:11:26] Speaker A: Yeah. The Orange Camry at the start of the football season. And that's all you're allowed to drive.
[01:11:31] Speaker B: Stick around the Browns helmet on the side.
[01:11:33] Speaker A: Yeah, but seriously, is it time to consider in season Camrys, just something safe, something with maybe a governor, a speed governor. Governor can only go so far.
[01:11:44] Speaker B: You can only go 60 miles an hour. We're sorry. This car is controlled by a governor.
[01:11:49] Speaker A: Maybe it's controlled by GPS.
[01:11:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm in.
[01:11:51] Speaker A: You can only go 5 miles over the speed limit.
[01:11:53] Speaker B: I'm in. Because, let's be honest, was there an animal?
[01:11:58] Speaker A: I don't know.
Yeah, Marcus Mariota probably put that deer there.
[01:12:06] Speaker B: They heard what he did to Rudolph and decided to go after Mason Rudolph.
[01:12:12] Speaker A: Joke.
[01:12:13] Speaker B: No, but that's the injury report. I mean, as far as big names, that's who we're going to be dealing with this week.
Who's your player to watch in this one?
[01:12:28] Speaker A: Who is it?
[01:12:30] Speaker B: Usually you jump the gun and tell me before now, but I know.
[01:12:32] Speaker A: And this week I. This week I saved it. Nice.
[01:12:35] Speaker B: I like it.
[01:12:36] Speaker A: So you go first.
[01:12:37] Speaker B: I got Denzel Ward this week.
Like I had mentioned, they've got good receivers.
He's played better the last few games. He's had a couple of solid games in a row, but he's actually getting a matchup against some real top level talent. This, um, or at least upper level talent. I don't know about top level, but upper level talent. And I'm interested to see if he continues to step up and continues to make plays. So I'm going to go with Denzel Ward.
[01:13:06] Speaker A: Yeah, Denzel's pretty good.
[01:13:10] Speaker B: Who you got?
[01:13:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I think.
[01:13:14] Speaker B: Speaking of which, how did Darryl Hodge do this? He had one target I saw, but he didn't have any.
[01:13:19] Speaker A: Cadero didn't. Didn't get the big revenge game he was after.
[01:13:23] Speaker B: Well, they won, so he got his revenge.
[01:13:24] Speaker A: Well, okay, fine.
That's fair.
[01:13:28] Speaker B: Who's your player to watch?
[01:13:29] Speaker A: My player to watch is Derwin James. And Derwin, here's why.
[01:13:33] Speaker B: Great name, Derwin.
[01:13:34] Speaker A: Derwin James is just tremendous athlete, tremendous defensive back, and we're going to be down in this game.
Jacoby is going to have to be slinging it. Jacoby is going to have to throw the ball. He's going to have to try to exceed Ronnie's max capacity, limited 250 yards because. I hope so. The Chargers are going to be able to put up points and we're going to have to continue to roast the ball down the field if we're going to keep this thing close. So I look for him to probably make his mark on this game in a big way that's not good for the Browns and probably come up with a timely pick.
[01:14:12] Speaker B: I don't like to hear that.
[01:14:14] Speaker A: No, not great.
[01:14:15] Speaker B: So that's it for the match.
[01:14:16] Speaker A: I'd love to sit here and tell you that Anthony Schwartz was going to have a Hall of Fame game, but he's not. He's not.
[01:14:23] Speaker B: He won't ever. That's it for the matchup preview.
So, Kenny, you know what time it is?
[01:14:30] Speaker A: What time is it?
[01:14:32] Speaker B: Time for King of the North.
I'm going to go ahead and remind everybody of the tally beforehand. I'll give you your props. I was one in three last week. And you were two and two.
[01:14:50] Speaker A: Here we go.
[01:14:51] Speaker B: I was one in three and you were two and two last week.
[01:14:54] Speaker A: I'm coming for you, bro.
[01:14:55] Speaker B: But that doesn't change the fact that I'm still eight and six and you're six and eight.
[01:14:59] Speaker A: Look, why was six afraid of seven?
[01:15:04] Speaker B: Because seven had sex with eight mom.
[01:15:07] Speaker A: Whoa. This is a kids show.
[01:15:10] Speaker B: No, it's not. It's marked as explicit.
[01:15:12] Speaker A: Explicit.
[01:15:14] Speaker B: Anyways, let's get right into the predictions for the AFC North.
[01:15:19] Speaker A: There's just so many dongs blopping out.
[01:15:21] Speaker B: Yeah. No, that was Antonio Brown. He doesn't play for the Steelers anymore.
Bengals at Ravens Sunday night in prime time. How about that?
[01:15:31] Speaker A: This is prime time.
[01:15:33] Speaker B: Who you got?
[01:15:34] Speaker A: Bengals at Ravens, Sunday night in prime time.
I still don't think we know enough about the Bengals to know whether or not they're any good.
The Ravens obviously have some challenges on defense. They're limited there, but Lamar just continues to play really well. I think J. K. Dobbins coming back has reinvigorated their running game.
I think the Ravens win this one probably by ten points.
[01:16:05] Speaker B: Fair.
You hit on a lot of good points here. I mean, they're pretty much the same points that I had written down. Baltimore blew a big lead to the Bills, but the Bills are a good team and the fact that they were up 20 to three on them, they had a good day until they didn't.
The Bengals beat the undefeated Dolphins last week, but Tua wasn't playing. So I think, like you said, we still don't know how good the Bengals are.
The Ravens defense is bad. I think this is going to end up being a close game, but I also have the Ravens in this one coming out on top.
[01:16:43] Speaker A: Yep. Ravens get back on track.
[01:16:46] Speaker B: Steelers at Buffalo.
[01:16:49] Speaker A: I don't even think we need to cover this game much. The Steelers are trash.
[01:16:52] Speaker B: Steelers are trash.
[01:16:53] Speaker A: Buffalo wins this game easy.
[01:16:55] Speaker B: I'm going to say by 24.
[01:16:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm going to say by 34.
[01:17:00] Speaker B: Whoa.
[01:17:02] Speaker A: 34 nothing route.
[01:17:03] Speaker B: Whoa. Kenny picks Buffalo by 34.
I wrote that down.
[01:17:11] Speaker A: Kenny Pickett throws five. Pickets.
[01:17:13] Speaker B: Oh, dang. Chargers at the Browns. The one that all of our listeners care about.
[01:17:21] Speaker A: The reason for the season.
[01:17:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Who's going first, me or you?
[01:17:24] Speaker A: I'll go first.
[01:17:25] Speaker B: All right.
[01:17:25] Speaker A: You're not going to like what I have to say.
[01:17:27] Speaker B: Oh, you always pick against the Browns, I think every time except for one this year.
[01:17:31] Speaker A: Well, you always pick the Browns every time for all of times.
[01:17:35] Speaker B: Listen, my strategy, here's the thing.
[01:17:39] Speaker A: You may be winning in the picks, but I'm playing the long game, which is winning.
[01:17:45] Speaker B: You love long things for the season. You love Antonio Brown because while I.
[01:17:51] Speaker A: May have made my picks wrong, I got their record right through the first two weeks, which you definitely did not because you picked them the win every week.
[01:17:59] Speaker B: They should be four and case rested.
[01:18:03] Speaker A: Are we having a technical difficulty? I felt like I heard some feedback there. No good. Okay.
[01:18:08] Speaker B: You're a technical difficulty.
[01:18:11] Speaker A: It's just me. Okay. So, yeah, I think this is the first real quarterback that the Browns have played this year that is any good at all. He's going to put up a lot of yards. He's going to throw for three or more touchdowns. Austin Eckler is going to probably have a big day, most likely just because of the injuries on the Browns offensive front.
And I just don't know that Jacoby has it in him to go toe to toe with a prolific offense. And the defense hasn't given me any reason to believe that they're going to stop a good offense at this point because we're getting beat up by guys like Joe Flacco and I don't even know who the guys were that played for Atlanta. So good running back, good quarterback, playmakers on defense, and Cleo Mac and Dermot James. This is a rough one for the Browns. 35 20.
[01:19:02] Speaker B: Whoa, you got Chargers winning big.
Yeah. So I mean, a lot of the points that you talked about there I agree with, but here's what I'll say. The Chargers have been up and down and so have the Browns. They've both been kind of all over the board.
[01:19:18] Speaker A: Like the elevator business.
[01:19:21] Speaker B: That was terrible. The Chargers went toe to toe with the Chiefs, but they also didn't show up against the Jaguars, who blew them out. And Las Vegas, they barely beat Las Vegas.
Two pretty bad teams.
[01:19:35] Speaker A: Fair.
[01:19:36] Speaker B: Although the Jaguars are looking better. They lost to them like 38 to six or something.
[01:19:41] Speaker A: Stupid. Remember when Urban Meyer coached there?
[01:19:47] Speaker B: Anyway, besides that, on the Brown side, they haven't really been able to put it all together. Like even the games they won, they haven't been able to put it all together. But their run game seems to always keep them in every game. The fact that we've got Nick Chubb, we've got Kareem Hunt and we're able to run clock, it always keeps us in the game. And yeah, you're going to call me a homer for this one, but surprise, I think the Browns actually hear the chatter all week. You get Miles Garrett back, you get Judavion Clowney back. I think they both have pretty big games and I have the Browns winning at 24 to 20.
But then it's going to get bad.
[01:20:31] Speaker A: Here's the thing. I win no matter what happens, because either the Browns win, which is good.
[01:20:37] Speaker B: Is that why you pick against them.
[01:20:39] Speaker A: So often, or I get another game in the standings. So win win, for me?
[01:20:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Let's take another revenue break here before we get into the closing of the episode.
[01:20:51] Speaker A: What do we have today?
[01:20:54] Speaker B: Well, Kenny, I'll tell you.
Topath vodka. Topath Vodka is an ultra premium, extremely smooth, high quality vodka. Six times distilled and made from Midwest corn and Ohio fruit. Clean and crisp. Topath vodka is a truly high quality spirit. Made right here in Northeast Ohio. Topath vodka.
[01:21:16] Speaker A: So smooth.
You know my favorite?
[01:21:20] Speaker B: It is the smoothest.
[01:21:21] Speaker A: Whoa.
[01:21:21] Speaker B: Sorry, I got excited. Your favorite what?
[01:21:24] Speaker A: My favorite way to drink Topath vodka.
[01:21:26] Speaker B: Straight to the face.
[01:21:28] Speaker A: The whole bottle at once.
[01:21:29] Speaker B: Oh, nice. Yeah, I like it.
[01:21:30] Speaker A: All of it.
[01:21:31] Speaker B: I like it. It's going to be a good day.
[01:21:33] Speaker A: It won't be a good morning.
[01:21:36] Speaker B: All right. For the land.
The Cleveland Guardians still dominating.
[01:21:49] Speaker A: Playoffs upcoming.
[01:21:51] Speaker B: Still dominating.
[01:21:52] Speaker A: They just keep winning.
[01:21:52] Speaker B: As of right now, their record is now 90 and 69 with three games to go.
In case you weren't keeping tabs, they are the number one team in baseball. In the second half of the season.
[01:22:03] Speaker A: They don't even need to win anymore. But they just keep winning.
[01:22:05] Speaker B: They just keep doing it.
[01:22:07] Speaker A: They don't know how to lose.
[01:22:08] Speaker B: They actually lost one over the weekend. We were like, oh, no, what happened? But it's like something stupid. Like 21 of the last 26 games.
[01:22:14] Speaker A: Well, when you play 160 games, you're bound to lose a couple.
[01:22:17] Speaker B: Well, yeah, you got to.
Nobody's perfect.
Obviously, they're in. Now it's just a matter of who we play. So while we're waiting on that, I'll give you some stats. Stats. Stephen Kwan has now the most hits by a rookie for this franchise since 1934.
Jose Ramirez is the only player in franchise history to have these major milestones in the same season. 120 RBIs, 25 home runs, 40 doubles and 20 stolen bases. Not only is he the first person in franchise history to do that, he's the first player in MLB to do that since 1999. So pretty remarkable season from Jose.
[01:22:58] Speaker A: Pretty impressive.
[01:23:00] Speaker B: They have the third best win percentage in the last hundred seasons when scoring six runs or more. At 51, they're 98% this year when scoring six runs. The only two teams that won that are ahead of them in that stat category over those last hundred seasons won all of their games that they were up six runs.
[01:23:20] Speaker A: That's impressive.
[01:23:21] Speaker B: Yeah. So just a couple of stats for you just to wet your palate.
[01:23:26] Speaker A: Cal Quantrell doesn't lose at home.
[01:23:30] Speaker B: No.
You got anything else for us? That what you got? That's what you bring to the table?
[01:23:36] Speaker A: I'm at the table.
[01:23:38] Speaker B: All right, so we're going to expand the coverage on the Guardians a little bit as the playoffs begin, which should be pretty much next week, right?
[01:23:44] Speaker A: I think it's Friday.
Should be game one. Right.
[01:23:47] Speaker B: All right.
[01:23:48] Speaker A: Who are you hoping for?
[01:23:50] Speaker B: I don't care. I just want to answer. I think the Guardians are playing well enough that we can beat anybody in the MLB right now.
[01:23:59] Speaker A: Baseball is just weird, man.
[01:24:01] Speaker B: It is weird. Out of any sport.
I feel like anybody has a chance once you're in.
[01:24:09] Speaker A: Yeah. And you just get hot at the right time.
[01:24:12] Speaker B: Yep.
Like I said, more coverage as the playoffs begin. The Cavaliers.
You got more?
[01:24:19] Speaker A: I was just going to ask you about Aaron Judge and the home run.
[01:24:21] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Let's go ahead and get into this.
Aaron Judge Subtopic does not.
I know there's a lot of baseball purists out there, but he does not have the home run record. Let's just make that clear. There's like seven other seasons that are ahead of him. Barry Bonds has a record with 73. I don't care what drugs he did to get there. He hit 73 home runs in a season.
[01:24:46] Speaker A: I mean, until the MLB officially removes the records, right?
[01:24:52] Speaker B: That's the record. I don't even. Asterisk or not, that's the record.
[01:24:54] Speaker A: Is there even an asterisk, though?
[01:24:56] Speaker B: I mean, not in the record, technically. Is there an asterisk on the ball that the guy gave to the hall of Fame?
[01:25:02] Speaker A: I think until that happens, how can you be the home run king?
[01:25:05] Speaker B: Well, even Aaron Judge himself said 73 is the record.
[01:25:11] Speaker A: Look, I don't have this on good faith or any kind of factual evidence behind.
[01:25:21] Speaker B: None whatsoever. I'm just going to go ahead and say that now. None.
[01:25:23] Speaker A: Zero, zero. But look at Aaron Judge.
[01:25:28] Speaker B: He's a freaking monster.
[01:25:29] Speaker A: Just look at him.
[01:25:31] Speaker B: He is probably.
I don't know, maybe.
[01:25:34] Speaker A: I don't mean.
[01:25:36] Speaker B: Let's go ahead and get to the Cavs real quick. We still got Donovan Mitchell.
[01:25:40] Speaker A: Still got him.
[01:25:41] Speaker B: He's here. Multiple other all Stars, rising stars, all that stuff. They're gonna start soon. I'm excited, but we got nothing to talk about right now. So the future's Brighton Cleveland preseason basketball.
[01:25:51] Speaker A: Let's go.
[01:25:52] Speaker B: All right, so let's go ahead and close this bitch out.
[01:25:55] Speaker A: Whoa. This is a kids show.
[01:25:57] Speaker B: It is not. Quit telling people that. It will never be a kids show.
[01:26:01] Speaker A: It's family friendly.
[01:26:03] Speaker B: I need to swear as I see fit.
Okay, Kenny, what can we expect next week?
[01:26:10] Speaker A: Are we still playing this game? What do we expect next week? The same thing you can expect every week on the Burning river sportscast presented by Tapin Media. We will recap the Browns Chargers game. Hoping for a big Browns w knowing.
[01:26:25] Speaker B: That we're hoping for big browns, knowing.
[01:26:27] Speaker A: That we're not going to get it. And then we will preview the Cleveland Browns New England Patriots matchup and trying to figure out who's going to be the quarterback. Maybe our old pal Brian Hoyer.
[01:26:38] Speaker B: It's like musical chairs over there.
[01:26:40] Speaker A: Maybe Mac Jones's identical twin.
[01:26:42] Speaker B: I don't know who's going to be the least hurt.
[01:26:46] Speaker A: Great question that we'll answer next. Wow. Sorry. Sorry. Really getting for your ears there.
[01:26:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Check us out on social media. Tap in media. At the Tapin Media. On Instagram. Twitter. No, on Instagram, it's Tapin Media official.
[01:27:03] Speaker A: Official.
[01:27:04] Speaker B: On Facebook and Twitter, it's the tap in media. And then check us out. Burning River Sportscast on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
On Twitter. And.
I'm sorry, on Twitter. And really, do you know what you're saying? I don't know. On Twitter, we are burning River Pod. And on Facebook and Instagram, we're burning River Sportscast. And then you can find us on YouTube as well for the video versions of these podcasts that is also burning river sportscasts. Speaking of the podcast, you know where you can find it?
[01:27:38] Speaker A: Where?
[01:27:38] Speaker B: Do you know yet?
[01:27:39] Speaker A: No, tell me again.
[01:27:40] Speaker B: Wherever you get your podcasts, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Pocketcast, Castro and so many more.
[01:27:50] Speaker A: Wherever you get your podcasts.
[01:27:52] Speaker B: Yeah. So that'll do it.
[01:27:55] Speaker A: That will do it. We didn't talk a whole lot about Justin Herbert's rib. Do we just. Are we thinking. That's not a fact.
[01:28:00] Speaker B: They take it from him. They're going to make Eve now?
[01:28:05] Speaker A: I don't think so.
[01:28:06] Speaker B: Oh, all right. Well, he's still got one, then.
[01:28:09] Speaker A: So we just think it's a non factor. Just because he played so well this weekend.
[01:28:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's a non factor.
[01:28:13] Speaker A: All right. Do you know that wearing headphones for just 1 hour could actually increase the bacteria in your ear by over 700 times?
[01:28:23] Speaker B: I'm going to have dirty ears at the end of the season.
[01:28:26] Speaker A: The dirtiest ears. You got the dirty ears.
[01:28:30] Speaker B: It sounds like my headphones are part of the problem.
[01:28:33] Speaker A: Don't be a part of the problem, be the whole problem.
[01:28:35] Speaker B: And only you can prevent. River fires.
[01:28:39] Speaker A: Burning river sports cast. Burning river sports cast. Burning river.
Burning rivers.
[01:28:46] Speaker B: Burning river spirits cast.
Happy media close.
