Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Tarning sportscast. What a weekend in Cleveland. Shane Bieber and Tristan MacKenzie were nearly flawless. Jose Ramirez and Oscar Gonzalez. I can't say his name. Oscar Gonzalez came in clutch for the Cleveland Guardians, and they were able to punch their ticket to New York and the ALDS and like Miles Garrett, driving a Porsche. Everything cool I just said about the guard begins. The Browns went and wrecked, and we break it all down for you next on the Burning river sportscast.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Speaking of the Yankees. F the Yankees.
Hashtag Fire Joe woods trending on Twitter.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: Wow, they're bad.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: Did you see the video of the trainer giving the Giants wide receiver a.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Massage on the sideline, like pants down?
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, that thing went viral. And this just in. Deshaun Watson has demanded a trade to the New York Giants, effective immediately.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Welcome to the Burning River Sportscast, presented by Tapin Media. I'm Kenny Thunder alongside the original Soggy Bottom Boy, Red Hot Ronnie Jams. Ronnie, where can our friends find the podcast?
[00:01:45] Speaker B: They can find the podcast wherever they get their podcasts. Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Podcast Castro, and more.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: Now, why don't you just say wherever you get your podcasts?
[00:01:57] Speaker B: I've said that. I was going to say that. You told me I wasn't allowed. All right, this is your fault. Listen, as you mentioned in the opening there, the Browns wrecked everything. So I want to put the Browns off as much as possible. I don't want to talk about them just yet. So we're going to postpone the Browns.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: For a few minutes rain delay.
[00:02:17] Speaker B: We're going to get into something else.
Let's do this instead for the.
Okay, so the Cleveland Guardians. The Guardians are Guardians.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: Still a stupid name, and the logo.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: Is still stupid, but it's growing on.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: Me because they're winning.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: They beat Tampa Bay Rays to nothing in the wild card series this past weekend. The second game was pretty wild for 15 innings.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: They were both wild. I mean, game one.
[00:02:58] Speaker B: Well, Jose Ramirez did big things in game one.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: Bieber was dealing. Yeah.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: He only gave up one run, which by all accounts, I mean, that's a fantastic day if you pitch eight innings and give up one run.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Eight strikeouts and seven and two thirds and three hits in a walk.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Luckily in game one there, Jose Ramirez.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: Jose. Jose. Jose. Jose.
[00:03:21] Speaker B: Yes. He came in, saved the day. I saved the day.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Saved the day, I guess.
[00:03:26] Speaker B: Two run homer. That put us up two one. And that's what the final score ended up being.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: And that was a fast game.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: That game was fast.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: They were preparing us so fast.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: They were preparing us for the next game. That went, like I said, 15 innings.
[00:03:38] Speaker A: So long.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: Zero. Zero. Through 15 innings, hardly any hits, just nothing. I think the Guardians had literally three runners in scoring position the entire night.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: Just a pitching clinic.
[00:03:52] Speaker B: Yeah, it was pretty crazy.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: As that game went on, I kept thinking there were moments where I was like, this is it. This is where the game gets blown open in the 6th inning. We had them jammed up.
Then that guy had no feeling in his fingers.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Switch pitcher.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: The new pitcher comes in and beans.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: A guy, you're like, this is it. This is the moment. And then double play out of it. And just like that, it's back to zero zero, and we're just a duel.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: And then, Jose, I will tell you this.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: Once it got into extra innings, I was like, the only way this thing ends is with a bomb. That's the only way this thing's going to end. Somebody's hitting a bomb.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: I didn't mean like an actual bomb. Like somebody's going to hit a bomb. A dinger, if you will.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: And one did come. But again, different parts of that game. Jose grabbing the dribbler down the third baseline and just. What a throw. And the stretch to catch.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: Know, we're pretty lucky with Jose Ramirez. One, he took less money to be here, which is fantastic. Small market team. We'll get into a couple cool facts about us being a small market team, but he took less money to be here. He said, look, I've got a compound back home in my home country, where my whole family lives. Got all the money I'll ever need.
And I just love Cleveland. I like playing here. The city likes me. I want to keep it going. So he took less money. I mean, he still got a lot. Don't get me wrong. He got paid, but he.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: 141 mil.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: But that's still way less than he could have got.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: That throw was $141,000,000. Throw.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
Every time you think he can't impress you more, he does.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: I mean, that was just dirty.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: Yeah. So, like you said, Oscar Gonzalez, walk off in the bottom of the 15th, played the SpongeBob song.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: He is SpongeBob. He comes out as his walk up.
[00:05:39] Speaker B: Music, and I think they played five different renditions of it that night before he finally hit the bomb.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: Every time he comes at the bat. What about Kluber, being the pitcher that he hit it off of?
[00:05:50] Speaker B: Has feelings about that.
I mean, Kluber, obviously, he did great things for us.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: Yeah, but he's 14 to 18, like he was.
[00:06:00] Speaker B: Yeah, he was part of the World Series team, right?
[00:06:02] Speaker A: He was tremendous.
[00:06:04] Speaker B: I mean, they didn't win the World Series, but he was part of the team that went to the World Series.
But, I mean, Kluber, he's had a great career. He is starting to show signs of age. He's losing some off of his pitches, and he's not quite the guy he.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: I love the commentators talking about. They called him a dinosaur because his fastball is like 90.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: You just can't get away with that anymore.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Oh, how baseball has changed.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: But you know what's Wild is Kluber's got like six different pitches he can throw, whereas a lot of these other pitchers that do throw that heat, they've only got a.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: So, yeah, he can still move the ball pretty well.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: It does move, but like I said, Oscar found it. He's not quite what he once was. And Oscar Gonzalez wins it for us. SpongeBob plays all around, and we are on to the Yankees, baby.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: Just a huge, huge.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: Speaking of the Yankees. F the Yankees. F them all.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: Fmr.
Sorry, I had to get that. I wasn't ready for that. I was going to talk real quick just about what an accomplishment this season is in a weird season. The rebranding, a lot of things going on, a lot of just talk around.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: We talked about this earlier in the season. One of the analysts in the preseason picked us as a 0% chance to make the playoffs, and here we are moving on.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: In April, their ODs to win the division were like ten to one or worse. I mean, bottom three in payroll, youngest team in baseball, 17 rookies, 29th in home runs. AL Central champs.
[00:07:35] Speaker B: You know what I say to all those analysts?
FML, FML, man, we did that together, and it really clipped. But no. Yeah, so far it's been a great season. It's still going. Just so everybody knows, we are officially eleven wins from a championship.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: And I think no matter what happens at this point, like success on the season, right?
[00:07:59] Speaker B: Yeah, that's why we started with them.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: The Guardians front office has proven once again that they can put a competitor out on the field regardless of the circumstances, and they're fun to watch. And if they don't get past the Yankees, they don't get past the Yankees. But I think there's serious questions now around the way this team plays baseball. Are they potentially built for a long.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, they're super young, like.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: You said, just in this year's playoffs. I mean, could they be poised for a deep run?
[00:08:30] Speaker B: Well, it's kind of funny because they do play such a different style than everybody else that's left. So to me, they're like that wild card.
Everybody can say what they want to say about them, but they just do it different.
[00:08:42] Speaker A: I mean, elite defense.
[00:08:44] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And they pick their spots on offense.
So here's just a little bit about the Yankees here. They were on a tear to start the year. After the first half of the season, they were on pace to win 120 games, and then they significantly cooled off in the second half, and they ended up with 99 wins, so well below that 120 game pace.
And also, fun fact about this series. You mentioned the payrolls earlier and the Guardians being bottom three. Well, the Yankees payroll is 264.9 million.
The Guardians payroll is 82.1 million.
So, I mean, do some quick math. That's more than three times as much.
[00:09:25] Speaker A: Jose Ramirez's entire cOntract.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: They spend at least three times as much money as we do.
[00:09:31] Speaker A: Jose Ramirez's entire contract is more than blown in this year.
[00:09:36] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. And then more about the Guardians payroll. They have the lowest payroll of the remaining playoff teams by over $45 million.
So again, like you said, it speaks to the front office how good they are at their jobs. Everybody likes to complain about the Guardians, but here's the facts. Their front office is phenomenal. It may legitimately, and this is not an exaggeration, because I'm a Cleveland fan, they may legitimately be the best run organization in all of sports.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: All of sports. Agreed.
[00:10:06] Speaker B: Nobody does more with less, and they.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: Had less, and they did more.
[00:10:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:11] Speaker A: I mean, think about the Indian or the Indians. I don't even know what I'm talking about. I was talking about the Yankees, and I said, the Indians, and they're not even a thing.
Yankees win 99 games. How many games did the Guardians win?
[00:10:23] Speaker B: 92.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: So it cost them $160,000,000 more to win seven baseball games.
[00:10:30] Speaker B: What's the math on that? That's more than 20 million a game. That's like 24. 24 million a game.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: $20 million a game for the better record.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: Wow. So kind of tying them into the rest of the show here. Tristan McKenzie and Austin Hedges smashed the guitar for the Browns game.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: He kind of did a poor job of it. He left, like, half the guitar.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
I think he forgot to put his safety goggles on. Then he was scared of the flying shards, and so he's like, I'm just done. We got games.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: Didn't want to have another Trevor Bauer situation.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: Not to mention you're giving our ace pitcher the guitar to smash it just seems like a bad idea to me. But anyways, it got me pumped up. I was excited.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Like, they probably should have had Austin Hetches smash it.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: He could have just came out in his gear.
[00:11:14] Speaker B: Yeah, probably.
And while they were at the game, know, there was a few rough spots in the game, to say the least. We'll get into the Browns game. Yeah. In the Browns game.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: And they used. The Browns used the video of Oscar Gonzalez'S walk off home run to pump up the crowd at one point. Yeah.
[00:11:34] Speaker A: It's the one thing we had to feel good about in Cleveland.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Yeah. So you mentioned Austin Hedges. That dude's the man, by the way. Did you see the picture of him? Just no shirt, walking out into the stadium with his cigar? Just like, living the dream.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: Dude's a legend.
[00:11:51] Speaker A: Victory cigar.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: Yeah. And he has the best sound bites. If you hear his interviews with the.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: That whole team just has to be having so much fun because everybody's counted.
[00:12:00] Speaker B: I mean, even your own expectations, your.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: Own city is divided on whether or not they even want you to win. And those guys just come out every night and exceed expectations. I think that's why they have a real shot in this year's playoffs, is because they're just so young. They don't know.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: They don't know any better.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: Well, they don't know what they don't know, so they don't even know that they should be feeling a certain way in these playoffs.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: What do you mean?
So besides the Guardians, the Cavs still got Donovan Mitchell.
[00:12:31] Speaker A: Still got him.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: He's here. He actually went to the Guardians game, so. I love that Donovan Mitchell's just out here supporting all the Cleveland teams.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
Look, I just can't wait to see him on the court.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: Nobody can.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: Evan Mobley is nicked up, isn't he?
[00:12:46] Speaker B: Yeah, but they said he should be to. He should be all right and probably be okay to play by the time the season starts. He may at most on this a couple of games.
[00:12:55] Speaker A: Says he's making progress following ankle sprain.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: Yeah, he's fine, but yeah. Opening day, October 19, for the Cavs and their home opener is October 23. Coming up here, which is my wife's birthday, might be going to a Cavs game for her birthday. I don't know.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: Happy birthday, wife.
[00:13:13] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's almost time.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: Almost time for the burning river sports cast to cover the Cavs.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: Yeah, you're right.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: Thanks for that.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: But that was for the land. But I don't really want to talk about the Browns just yet, so let's postpone it some more. How was your weekend?
[00:13:33] Speaker A: Good. Had the diaper party Friday. Yeah. Stayed up way too late.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: My diaper party, not my diaper party. Diaper party for my baby.
[00:13:40] Speaker A: Red out. Ronnie Jams is always wearing diapers.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: I like how they feel.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: Smooth cotton.
Yeah, it was good. We stayed up way too late. I don't know.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: 315 I didn't get when you left my house that I didn't get home till.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: Yeah, almost four. Like, when I laid in bed, just staying up, being bros, just doing literally absolutely nothing.
[00:14:05] Speaker B: I can't tell you one thing we talked about.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: And it rained all night, so our party got moved inside. But, hey, we had a good time.
The Guardians. Crap. The Guardians this weekend were fun.
That was just the longest game on the planet. And I think I ordered Doordash three separate times.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: New record.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: During the Guardian, I was like, I had lunch, and then I was like, I want some snacks. And I'm ordering Doritos and bomb when.
[00:14:34] Speaker B: The game runs for, like, 5 hours, or whatever it mean.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: Yeah, just go back right between meals. Lunch to.
[00:14:40] Speaker B: Yep, here we go. Turn it, uh, for. Yeah. Like you mentioned, the diaper party on Friday, Emily's. She had a second baby shower. Our families are both massive, so we had to do two of.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: Oh, my family is so big.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: So we had the second baby shower for Emily. That went really well. Got to see a lot of her friends.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: Have you been showered? Do you guys have everything you need?
[00:15:06] Speaker B: I don't think you ever have everything you need when it comes to babies, but we've got quite a bit now.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: But you've had, like, four baby showers.
[00:15:12] Speaker B: No, we haven't. We've had two. We do have quite a bit of stuff for the baby, so I feel as prepared as I think we'll ever be.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: Babies don't need stuff. They need love.
That's coming from a man with no kids.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: All right, is it time?
[00:15:33] Speaker A: One other thing happened this weekend.
[00:15:35] Speaker B: Thank you. I was hoping we could wait.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: The Browns lost.
[00:15:40] Speaker B: Oh, you weren't waiting. We were getting right into.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: And that was terrible.
[00:15:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: This team finds new, invents new ways to lose every week.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Let's just go ahead and get into. It's the week five.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: Recapy chair. Oh, man.
[00:16:04] Speaker B: All right, so the brown squeaky chair is back. The Browns, yet again, have an absolutely atrocious showing on defense. Costly mistakes at critical times. Coaching is abhorrent, and something's got to be coming to a boiling point if I'm not mistaken.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: What is going on in Berea?
[00:16:20] Speaker B: I don't even think they know. I think that's the problem. Nobody knows what's going on.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: It's so frustrating because we talked about this just off air a little earlier. It's so frustrating to go back and read the box score after these games. And if you knew nothing else, if I just handed you a box score every week this year, you'd go, yeah, the Browns probably won that game.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: Yeah. I think this was the first week that the other team had more yards than us, and it wasn't by much. It was like, if you look at the box score again, you're like, oh, this is a close game.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: Because if I would have told you that the Browns played Justin Herbert and he went 22 of 34 for 228 yards there.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: Yeah, I'd be like, we definitely.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: You would say, how did you lose?
[00:17:04] Speaker B: I like how you snuck that in there. I read the stats and you stole it from me.
[00:17:08] Speaker A: I got the box score.
[00:17:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Justin Herbert, 22 of 34. I'll read it again. 228 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, five rushes, 13 yards. And he was just kind of efficient. He kind of looked like Jacobi Brissette has all year.
He didn't have this monster game. He just played well.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: He was just solid throughout and efficient. Didn't do too much. But, I mean, he's a guy that can put it on you. He's a guy that can throw for three and 150. He's a guy that can throw for four touchdowns any week.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: He's just always putting it on us.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: He's always putting the moves on.
[00:17:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Like you said, if you gave me.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: The box, he is a goofy looking dude.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: If you gave me the box score and I saw that Justin Herbert, those were his stats, I'd be like, man, I'd like our chances in this. So.
[00:17:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Especially if you knew coming in that this team had.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: Don't spoil it.
[00:18:01] Speaker A: I know. I'm not. I'm just saying, if you knew coming in to this game that that was Justin Herbert's stat line and you knew that this team had 236 rushing yards on the season and was one of the worst rushing attacks in football to this point, you feel great. You'd feel great.
[00:18:18] Speaker B: Lo and behold, though, Austin Eckler, 16 carries, 173 yards, 10.3 yards per carry, one touchdown, four receptions for 26 yards and another touchdown.
Oh. Not to mention the next running back on their roster. Ten rushes, 49 yards and a touchdown himself, with two catches for 33 added on.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: So Austin Eckler averaged almost eleven yards of carry. And Joshua Kelly averaged almost five yards of carry.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:18:52] Speaker A: Both found the end zone.
[00:18:54] Speaker B: Yes. That's pretty much what happened.
Once you read that part of it, then everything starts to make sense.
We'll go through the rest of their team here, and then we'll get into how bad the defense was for us here soon. But Mike Williams, ten receptions, 134 yards. He's played well all year. You kind of expected him to have a game, and you look at the rest of the receivers that we'll talk about.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: Well, and Keenan Allen missed another game.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: Yeah. So he's their clear cut number one.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, he's clearly the best receiver they have out there.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: And to me, honestly, people harp on giving up that much yards to one guy, but it's like, well, they were most of the yards. Yeah, he's their number one guy. You would kind of expect him to do that.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: I mean, he had 134, the rest of the team had 100 between them.
[00:19:40] Speaker B: True. So Gerald Everett, one reception, two yards non factor. Josh Palmer, three receptions, 24 yards non factor. And then everyone else past that basically had one catch for a couple of.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: Yards outside of the running game, which we knew could hurt us. We knew Eckler was a good athlete. We knew that the front of that offensive line was playing well.
Nobody else really did anything that made you. There wasn't, there were no spectacular plays or anything that you'd go, yeah, they dominated the Browns.
[00:20:10] Speaker B: No.
[00:20:11] Speaker A: In any sense of the word, outside the fact that they ran all over us.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: No, I actually think if you're watching the game, there were parts of the game where you're watching and you're thinking, the browns are dominating them.
[00:20:21] Speaker A: Yeah. This was another week. Again, looking at the box score, you look at it and go, the Browns should win. If just the eye test alone, if you just watched the game and just watched random plays, you would say, yeah, the Browns look like they were in control of this football game.
[00:20:34] Speaker B: And again, like I said, we'll get into our team, but our offense played well. The Chargers defense did nothing to help them. They had zero sacks.
They were able to force One turnover, but they couldn't stop the run. Just like everybody else we've played this year, they couldn't stop the run and they didn't really do much against us, but here we are.
I guess with that, I will say.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: Derwin James had 14 tackles.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: Oh, I meant to add that in here. Yeah. He was your player to watch this.
[00:21:04] Speaker A: Yeah. No turnovers, but he was the leading tackler on both teams.
[00:21:07] Speaker B: He played well. He did play well. Let's get into the Cleveland side of things. We'll start with coaching again because once again, big issues. Coaching wise, if there was a coaching.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: Box score, it would look bad.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: Yeah, we need to start coming up with stats like blown calls.
[00:21:25] Speaker A: What are the advanced metrics on coaching?
[00:21:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Joe Woods. For the second straight week, the defense gives up 200 plus rushing yards.
[00:21:35] Speaker A: Not just 200 plus.
Remember I said they had 236 coming into this game? On the season. On the season we gave up 238.
[00:21:51] Speaker B: Sunday, they officially doubled that.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: If your rush offense is struggling, just call Joe Woods. He'll fix it.
[00:22:00] Speaker B: So the calls for his job are getting much, much louder. And his seat isn't just hot right now. That thing's on fire. It's burning. Burning river sportscast.
[00:22:08] Speaker A: Burning River.
[00:22:09] Speaker B: Look, people worried about the Browns wasting another year of Garrett and Chubb's career waiting for Deshaun Watson to come back. But really, we should have all been concerned about wasting another year because Joe woods is your defensive coordinator.
[00:22:24] Speaker A: I mean, we are wasting Garrett and Chubb.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: Yeah, like, what the hell is happening right now?
HashtaG Fire Joe woods trending on Twitter again after the game ended.
[00:22:34] Speaker A: We tweeted it.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: Oh, I tweeted about 30 times.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: We tweeted it.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: Basically every tweet I could find that said, fire Joe Woods. I retweeted it.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: Look, here's the thing. Everybody wants to be mad at Joe Woods. And I agree. I think there's two things here that are really important. One is, okay, Fire Joe Woods. What next?
Who's walking through that door?
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Hey, I said last week, nobody. Who's walking better than Joe Woods?
[00:22:59] Speaker A: Who's walking through that door to save you? And secondly, who's Joe woods accountable to?
[00:23:06] Speaker B: The guy that we're going to talk about next?
[00:23:08] Speaker A: Yeah, the guy that we're going to talk about next. Look, I know he doesn't want to give up play calling. I'm not even saying he's a bad play caller or I want him to give up play calling. But dude, you got to get involved with the whole team. You can't just be the offensive coordinator. You have to coach the whole team. And this isn't an aberration where it's one week and you had some miscommunications of bad things. This is consistently, every week that defense is bad. You're giving up big plays. You can't stop anybody running the ball. Last week it was scrubs. This week you had good running backs. It doesn't matter who's playing again. You can't stop anyone I know? There's been some injuries. There's been some movement up front. I don't care. It's the NFL. Everyone's good. Figure it out.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: So you touched on a really good point. I think the biggest problem is we have a really good offensive coordinator, but we don't have a head coach.
[00:23:57] Speaker A: Yeah. Stefanski, why don't you just give your resume to the Haslams and tell them you'd be a really good OC?
[00:24:02] Speaker B: Yeah. So, Kevin Stefanski, let's just kind of take it from the top here with him. One. Get out of your own way. We said it last week. We're saying it again this week. Get out of your own way. Play fundamental football and quit trying to get fancy at the freaking goal line.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: Give the ball to Nick Chubb.
[00:24:18] Speaker B: First and goal at the three. And we tried to throw again the first time we did it in the game. We were gifted a roughing call. They gave us a new set of downs on the one and a half yard line, and we were able to punch it in from there. Luckily.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: See, Stefanski is playing 40 chess. He says you can't get a roughing the passer call unless you throw it.
[00:24:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Why would you not run it the first time, though? Literally, it took one rush to get into the end zone.
[00:24:39] Speaker A: Why would you run it the first every time?
[00:24:42] Speaker B: Outside of that? Fourth and one on our own 30 and we ran a slow developing counterplay with two offensive linemen pulling.
Does he know Jacoby Brissette's like 99% in his career with QB sneaks in 1 go, including six of six this year.
What are you doing?
[00:24:59] Speaker A: When's the last time he missed? He has something ridiculous like 32 goal, fourth and one.
[00:25:06] Speaker B: I'm pretty sure he's only missed one in his entire career, and he's made.
[00:25:09] Speaker A: The last 32 in a row.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: Off tackle to Kareem Hunt. Blown up for three yard loss.
Also, nobody can stop the run, but we continue to try and rack up passing numbers unnecessarily. I said it last week, no offense to Jacoby. I actually really like Jacobi. I think he's doing a really nice job for us this year. But he maxes out at about 250 yards. Yes. Don't try and force it. He tops out at 250, which is fine. That can win you games. But I know Kevin Stefanski. I know you like to be the smartest guy in the room, but here's the deal. So smart, you don't have to be smarter than yourself.
You don't have to be.
Keep it simple, stupid. Come on. And then last week on the show, we said, let Cade York kick the ball. Okay, well, we didn't mean rely on him for a game winning field goal from 54 yards after you just got the ball back and you decided to run plays that got you nowhere.
[00:26:07] Speaker A: He is still a rookie.
[00:26:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:09] Speaker A: And to that point. And he's got a lot of flak this week. And we'll talk about Cade, I'm sure, in a minute. But to that point, he was perfect on the year for field goals. He was eight of eight.
[00:26:17] Speaker B: Right? People forget that real fast.
Should he make those field goals? Yeah, and we aren't going to let him off the hook, and we're going to talk about his missed kicks here in a little bit.
But your team was up 14. It shouldn't even have gotten to that point.
I saw on Twitter some Browns fans are out there burning Cade York jerseys. But the problem is not Cade York. The problem is that we have a great offensive coordinator, like we said, and no head coach.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: Absent head coach, and everyone will cry.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: Hashtag fire Joe Woods. But who's he answered to? Like you said, who's he answered to?
[00:26:50] Speaker A: That's the thing.
You have to coach the whole team. I'm about done with Stefanski. Oh, no, I'm about on the hashtag fire Kevin Stefanski train.
[00:27:00] Speaker B: Here we go. Here we go. I mean, honestly, though, if he's the one that has to keep Joe woods accountable, and he's not keeping. If the man who has to keep Joe woods accountable isn't keeping him accountable, then who's going to keep Kevin Stefanski accountable?
[00:27:13] Speaker A: You have to save Joe woods from himself. He's clearly not got it figured out, so you need to figure it out.
[00:27:19] Speaker B: And like you, I'm. I'm actually all for fire Joe Woods. I know you said that might not fix anything, but at least do something. Acknowledge that the defense is really bad. Put Joe woods on notice. If you're Kevin Stefan, let him know that you're coaching for your job, buddy. Like, you got to do something.
And then once know, don't worry, Kevin Stefanski coming out, post game press conference. It's on all of us. We got to get it figured out.
[00:27:49] Speaker A: Got to get it figured out. Won't happen again. Yeah, I've heard that before.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
FMR.
[00:27:57] Speaker A: FMR. Stupid coaches.
[00:28:00] Speaker B: All right, so let's get into the offense here. Jacobi Brissette, once again ultra efficient until late. 21 and 34, 230 yards, one touchdown. The interception came late. Three rushes for 32 yards. The interception was late when we had a chance to take the lead.
But again, to me, this is the third loss of three. That's a coaching loss.
[00:28:25] Speaker A: Yeah. I think you look at Jacoby and Jacoby played well. He was efficient most of the day, took care of the ball most of the day, made plays with his feet all day long. Was doing things that he doesn't normally do, like out of his comfort zone.
He played as well as you could ask him to play. We've said it all year. His game is not game winning. Drive at the end of the game, quarterback, if he was good, he would be a starting quarterback somewhere else.
[00:28:53] Speaker B: He wouldn't be our, I mean, I totally agree with you. And here's the deal. He played well enough to win. And everybody's getting into this week, they're talking about, well, Jacoby Brissette, all of his interceptions have come with the game on the line. Well, here's a news flash for all of you guys. None of those games, not a single one of them should have been on the line. They should have been closed out long before that point. But let's blame Jacoby Brissette because he's the backup quarterback trying to keep our team afloat until our starter comes back.
[00:29:27] Speaker A: Look, everybody knows the reason we lost the game was because Nick Chubb scored too much.
[00:29:31] Speaker B: Gosh, I wish he would just stop scoring touchdowns already. Speaking of him, we're just going to hold off on him for now. Spoiler alert, Nick Chubb is the dog of the week. We'll talk about him soon.
[00:29:39] Speaker A: I mean, who else?
[00:29:40] Speaker B: Yeah, Kareem Hunt. Eleven carries, 49 yards, one touchdown, three receptions, ten yards.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: Look, game, I think this is his comfort zone and his role in this offense. And I'm okay with it because I want to see Nick Chubb with the ball in his hands more.
[00:29:57] Speaker B: I agree. The only thing I would say is I actually want to see them.
Probably work with Kareem Hunt out of the slot a little more.
[00:30:05] Speaker A: Sure, you can put him on the field. I don't have any problem with them on the field together.
[00:30:08] Speaker B: That's my only. We're, we're struggling to. You saw they tried out a bunch of wide receivers this week and you got Kareem Hunt right there and you got another guy on our team that we'll talk about a little bit later and David Bell, that you're underutilizing, in my opinion.
[00:30:22] Speaker A: I thought they should have signed Kenny stills.
[00:30:25] Speaker B: He's old man and he's got history of 30. That's old for a wide receivEr.
[00:30:30] Speaker A: Okay, but we don't have any. But speaking of Kareem Hunt, look, I think they need to settle Kareem more into a role of a spell. I think they're trying to force him carries to keep him involved because he's a good player. I get that he's a good player. But Nick Chubb is the best running back in the NFL right now, and he's in every downback. So every time you put Kareem on the field to try and get him into the offense, he's a step down. You're pulling the best player on the field off.
[00:31:00] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. Amari Cooper, seven receptions, 76 yards, one touchdown. So a good bounce back game from him after being pretty much a no show last week.
[00:31:08] Speaker A: Yeah, a great touchdown catch, too. Just made it look so easy.
[00:31:11] Speaker B: Yeah, he's just so smooth, man.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: He's great.
[00:31:15] Speaker B: DPJ had a solid game. Four receptions, 50 yards at one point.
[00:31:19] Speaker A: Like, three of those catches came right in a row.
[00:31:21] Speaker B: I think they were all on the same drive. Yeah. And Joku, six receptions, 88 yards, continues his high level of production. And he's now. I mean, I think it's official now. He's pretty much a focal point of our offense.
[00:31:32] Speaker A: Yeah. And what I thought was interesting this week was there wasn't a concerted effort to get the tight ends involved, but David and Joku showed up, like on big third downs, just in the natural flow of the game. They weren't trying to force the ball to him. And Harrison Bryant, it was just in the flow of the game, and he came up big in a lot of those scenarios.
[00:31:54] Speaker B: Yep, I agree. And David Bell, like I said, he did get involved again. One catch, six yards, and Venus fly draft. He catches it if it comes his way, didn't drop it.
[00:32:03] Speaker A: He didn't drop it.
[00:32:05] Speaker B: And like I said, they're looking for receiver help right now, but I really think if they would just let him get involved more often. I think you're right in your assessment last week that Kevin Stefanski is trying to slow play him and he's a rookie and he's trying to get him reps before he know, starts trying to utilize him as a receiver, but instead, they need to just get him the ball.
[00:32:27] Speaker A: Agreed.
Need more David Bell.
[00:32:31] Speaker B: Yeah, we definitely do need more David Bell. And then the offensive line, they played well. Zero sacks given up, paved the way for 213 yards rushing for the Browns. Maybe the best line in football. I mean, if you just look at the numbers.
[00:32:48] Speaker A: Yeah, they're good.
Well, we knew that.
[00:32:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
Let's go ahead and take a look at the defense. Why not?
[00:32:58] Speaker A: Because they blow.
[00:33:00] Speaker B: So we got all our guys back from injury, but guess what? Didn't matter.
Miles Garrett, he came back non factor.
[00:33:08] Speaker A: Judavian Clowney, did they even play?
[00:33:10] Speaker B: Judavian Clowney he came back non factor. Taven Brian, he came back non factor. We gave up 200 plus rushing yards for the second consecutive week. They literally doubled their rushing yards for the season.
[00:33:23] Speaker A: I think it sounds worse if you say they give up 400 passing yards rushing yards in the last two weeks.
[00:33:29] Speaker B: It's so bad. Listen, so just a couple of things here. The Chargers have only had 200 yard rush games since 2020.
So in over two years, they've only had 200 yard rush games. Eckler had 100 plus in the first half.
The Chargers, they had their 1st 200 yard rushing game since 2020 as well. And like you said earlier, they came in with the worst rushing attack in the league, averaging just over 64 yards per game.
And by the way, Austin Eckler, career high.
[00:34:05] Speaker A: It's not like you didn't know that guy was over there.
[00:34:08] Speaker B: Our whole show last week was like, watch out for that guy. He's the only one. If you stop him, you're doing pretty.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: Well outside of Justin Herbert. Like he was the next weapon you're worried about.
[00:34:19] Speaker B: And we talked about Justin Herbert, but it was kind of a was. But Austin Eckler's the guy you need to stop. He's the one you need to focus on.
[00:34:26] Speaker A: How do you not game plan for that man.
[00:34:28] Speaker B: No, we don't want it. We ain't want it.
[00:34:31] Speaker A: Especially after getting beat by no names week before.
[00:34:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
Jacob Phillips.
[00:34:39] Speaker A: Look, I think he's a good athlete. He looks a little lost out there, just not in the right places at the right time. So I think that's the biggest drop off you see with losing Anthony Walker.
[00:34:51] Speaker B: Yeah, so he, so he had a sack, but he couldn't stop runners to save his life. I think he missed quite a few tackles.
And then last week we said he handled being thrown into the limelight with tons of weight on his shoulders. Pretty mean now. Now we're hearing in the post game press conferences from all these guys on defense that there's a lot of miscommunication, a lot of, and I think that's where the leadership from Anthony Walker has. You're really seeing it fall off as he really brought.
[00:35:21] Speaker A: They were having communications issues, though, before when Anthony Walker was there.
Doesn't help.
[00:35:31] Speaker B: I think that the communication has to be partially on the defensive signal. If that's, if that's Jacob Phillips, then we need to get that fixed.
And not to mention, I don't think it's a coincidence that we weren't playing great beforehand, but we started playing terribly when Anthony Walker went down well.
[00:35:51] Speaker A: And this is the problem, right. Is that it's not even scheme. A lot of the time you're looking at a coach going, your scheme sucks. The scheme isn't the problem here. It's undisciplined play. It's roughing calls and unsportsman like calls. It's Johnson not being in the right place at the right time. If you're in the right place at the right time, the scheme is fine. It is communication breakdown, this lapse in judgment and decision making, and those are all coaching errors.
[00:36:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I would agree. And the Browns, I will say this. As far as Jacob Phillips goes, the Browns must not have a lot of confidence in him because hours after that game, the trade for Dion Jones was so.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: Yeah, that was quick. And I don't know that he's an immediate fix. Right. I think he's coming off of a surgery and still rehabbing, and maybe it'll be a few weeks, but certainly they recognized the need to upgrade.
[00:36:46] Speaker B: Well, it might not even have been a knee jerk reaction, but it certainly looked that way.
[00:36:50] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. It was right after the game, we signed a linebacker.
[00:36:54] Speaker B: We stayed after so that we could figure out who we were going to go trade for.
[00:36:58] Speaker A: I was like, maybe they saw something they liked last week, and then you realized he didn't even play.
[00:37:03] Speaker B: Yeah. The secondary had a real up and down game in this one, I thought, even though I'll say overall, they played fairly well because Justin Herbert only had 228 yards, so I can't really complain about that. But Denzel Ward, weird roller coaster of a game. He had the deflected pass, which was big early.
He had a couple of other breakups early, and he did have ten tackles, but he got beat bad on that off tackle run where he just didn't keep contained at all on the goal line. He just decided he was going to go across the field.
[00:37:35] Speaker A: Yeah. We talked at length this year about being as deep as the deepest. Your number two rule when you're playing the corner, playing the outside, is to keep contained. That's kind of it. You do those two things and you don't really catch a lot of flak.
He's failing the easy ones.
[00:37:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Up to that point, like I said, he had a kind of a weird roller coaster of a game, and then he ended up with a concussion and there's a chance he's going to miss this.
Call him, say he's made of glass.
[00:38:08] Speaker A: Well, I'm worried about this concussion thing because I think the TUA injury has now put a spotlight for the whole NFL back on head injuries and concussions and concussion protocol. And I think we're going to continue to see guys held out additional time as a precaution.
[00:38:28] Speaker B: Like maybe instead of one week, like normal is two weeks now.
[00:38:31] Speaker A: Yeah, they're just going to go back to being Uber cautious here, and I think that's going to be bad for guys that do get banged up that would have come back.
[00:38:41] Speaker B: Agree. I agree. Grant Delpit and John Johnson, besides the stupid unsportsman like call that you talked about already with, I mean, they, once again, they were flying all over the field. And here's the deal. This is how we talked about the box score. And if you look at the box score, you would say the Browns won. However, I would say if you look at the box score and see that our leading tacklers week after week is our secondary, that tells me that runners are getting to the second level and we are not playing well on defense.
[00:39:11] Speaker A: Three out of your four top tacklers this week, Denzel Delpit Johnson, like the.
[00:39:17] Speaker B: Only one I would probably think would be normal for that would be delpit, right. Playing the strong safety and he's coming.
[00:39:23] Speaker A: Certainly not your corner. When your corner has ten tackles and.
[00:39:26] Speaker B: Even your free safety, like, what the hell is your free safety? Who's like your last line of defense doing, coming up and making all these tackles?
[00:39:35] Speaker A: Yeah, but what's even more telling is like, look at your linebackers. Jacob Phillips had ten tackles, but Jeremiah was a Cormoa with six.
Who else?
Three.
[00:39:50] Speaker B: He had a terrible game.
I can't tell you how many missed tackles he had.
[00:39:55] Speaker A: Yeah. I will say one highlight, though, on the defense, I think right now is what happened?
[00:40:05] Speaker B: Nothing.
[00:40:06] Speaker A: You looked at me funny.
One highlight is Martin Emerson, I think has been coming along really nicely.
[00:40:12] Speaker B: Yeah, he continues to impress me. I mean, he came up big on the fourth downstop at the end of the right.
[00:40:17] Speaker A: Huge, huge. And at the time it was like, that might be the play of the.
[00:40:22] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And he was challenged all day. They put him in some weird positions, especially after Denzel Ward was knocked out of the game, no pun intended.
They relied on Emerson to really step it up and be the corner that was kind of on their top guys. And he did a pretty good job. I mean, we know Mike Williams got his, but yeah, he played well.
[00:40:47] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm really pleased with where he's at right now. I think he's one of the highlights on an otherwise ugly defensive stretch.
[00:40:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I would definitely agree with that. So let's move on to special teams. We'll start with Cade York because, like we said, he's getting all the flak this week. And, I mean, he did go over two on his field goals.
[00:41:05] Speaker A: Not good. No peppermint patties?
[00:41:08] Speaker B: No peppermint patties at all. Four for four. And his extra points.
Do you think it's time to worry about him?
[00:41:16] Speaker A: No, I think he's a rookie kicker. I think we've put him in really bad spots starting in week one.
[00:41:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:23] Speaker A: Hey, go kick a six yard to win.
He was eight. Eight before this. I know he's missed a couple extra points, but extra points aren't what they used to be in the NFL.
[00:41:33] Speaker B: I think they just see the box score a lot of the times and they're like, oh, you missed an extra point. Yeah, but we're not on the three yard line anymore. Yeah.
[00:41:41] Speaker A: So I think that that's not.
I think you look back at coaching, too, on some of these, because sometimes a missed extra point isn't just your kicker sucks. Sometimes it's poor blocking up front. Sometimes it's a bad snap, sometimes it's a bad hold. And I just don't have a lot of faith in Mike prefer. I mean, there you go. You sticking to me? I didn't even back there on kick returns all this time and all that. You have guys that are making bad decisions, that are leading these units. And so I think it's hard to blame a rookie kicker. That kicking is hard. Look, we're not giving him a pass for missing two field goals. It's not good. It's your job. But we see this every year. There's guys that miss a bunch of field goals because it's difficult.
[00:42:27] Speaker B: Yeah, we did give him heavy, heavy praise after the game winning field goal on opening day. I will say the city of Cleveland in general, probably including us, gave him more praise than he deserved. But it's exciting when you make a game winning kick. I mean, especially with a rookie. And here's the deal. He does need to make his kicks. He needs to get it together, start doing whatever it takes to start making those. But, like, you just, we keep putting him in these high pressure situations. It's not the way you want to start your rookie.
But, you know, since it is such a hot topic in Cleveland, is it time to break out the Cade York.
[00:43:03] Speaker A: I do think we need a Cade York confidence.
[00:43:05] Speaker B: Just put it up back here on the wall back here.
[00:43:09] Speaker A: Something just goes up and down. Even just a post on the social, something that says, hey, where's our cade York confidence this week?
[00:43:17] Speaker B: I'm going to make that up this week.
[00:43:18] Speaker A: I like it.
[00:43:19] Speaker B: Yeah. So right now it's probably going to start out low.
[00:43:23] Speaker A: Yeah, it's probably as low as it's been all season.
[00:43:25] Speaker B: That might be the most engagement we get on any of our content.
[00:43:30] Speaker A: Is he in freezing territory yet?
[00:43:32] Speaker B: I don't think he's quite freezing, but he's low. I mean, he's probably like, if freezing is 32, he's probably 34.
[00:43:37] Speaker A: We go in Celsius or Fahrenheit?
[00:43:39] Speaker B: Fahrenheit. Absolutely. We're in America. America. Chester Rogers back returning punts and kicks this week.
[00:43:44] Speaker A: Yeah, elevated again.
[00:43:45] Speaker B: He looks smooth, man.
[00:43:48] Speaker A: I think he's making a case for being a permanent fixture on the roster.
[00:43:51] Speaker B: He had that one good kick return where he kind of went across the field and for a second I was like, no, you got to get north and south. But he found where they set up the blocking scheme for and he actually got out to like, the 35 yard line. I think he really wants that job.
[00:44:03] Speaker A: Yeah. And I don't know what Chester Rogers is from a skill set perspective. I don't know that he's the fastest, shiftiest, most sure handed guy. He's Chester Rogers, but a try hard can make the team that way.
[00:44:21] Speaker B: That's true. That's true.
And then Bajorquist averaged almost 60 yards of punt this week and he got one down at the 1 yd line.
[00:44:31] Speaker A: That was the best special teams play the Browns have made all year. Outside of the kick to win in Carolina, that was an impressive kick coverage.
[00:44:38] Speaker B: It was the guy, it was kind of heading towards the pile on and he was able to get down there, get behind it and drop it at the one. So good play there.
Overall total yards, the Browns 443 the Chargers 465 time of possession the Browns 32, Chargers 29 58. But this defense just. They have some serious issues. I mean, the offense has played well enough to this point that we should be five and O with how they've played easily.
[00:45:12] Speaker A: There's not one of those games that you look back and go, the other team was clearly better.
[00:45:16] Speaker B: No, I would go as far as to say if our defense was just average, we'd be five and five and.
[00:45:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't disagree with you.
It's crazy to say your team could be five and were even the Chargers game, which I thought the Chargers were a much better organization than the Browns at this point, but just because they have the quarterback in place, mostly. But they didn't outclass us on the field. They didn't out talent us. They didn't even out ass us. I mean, shit, Brandon Staley was making boneheaded calls right up till the end of the game.
[00:45:54] Speaker B: He was trying to outsmart Kevin Stefanski.
[00:45:55] Speaker A: Yeah, he was trying to outsmug and outsmart Stefanski.
[00:45:59] Speaker B: Can't do it.
[00:46:00] Speaker A: You can't do it. You can't do it. Give us the ball back on the 50. Let's not get any yards.
[00:46:05] Speaker B: Speaking of which, the final rundown for the game, the coaching was atrocious. Again, the Browns let another one slip. We've now lost three games that we should have won. And I mean, once again, Kevin Stefanski, I'm just kind of at a loss for words for it. Not just him, the whole coaching staff in general.
[00:46:20] Speaker A: It's just why, it's really, really disappointing. And I think the problem is it doesn't get any easier, right?
[00:46:31] Speaker B: No. Now we're into the actual hard part. Patriots this week, like the Chargers was the first one, but we're into the actual hard part of our Patriots.
[00:46:38] Speaker A: Ravens, bangles, Dolphins, Bills, buccaneers.
[00:46:42] Speaker B: The only saving grace in that whole thing is Miami doesn't have a.
Yeah, so we might get one, maybe.
[00:46:54] Speaker A: But you can't afford to keep letting games like this slip, not when you have that schedule coming up.
[00:46:59] Speaker B: No, the worst part about that is I say that, but I think we're good enough to play with all of those teams. I just don't have a lot of confidence that we're going to close it.
[00:47:07] Speaker A: So what would give you confidence? We blow every lead.
[00:47:10] Speaker B: Yeah, blow every game.
[00:47:12] Speaker A: We blow.
[00:47:13] Speaker B: So for the game, Kenny was right. I was wrong. As far as our picks go, however, I said it would be close and you said it would be a blowout. So you win some, you lose some.
[00:47:22] Speaker A: I want more. True.
[00:47:24] Speaker B: You got the right answer. Since 2019, the Chargers are two and 14 in games. They trailed by at least 14 points. Two and O against the Browns, O and 14 against the rest of the NFL.
[00:47:35] Speaker A: Got problems on offense? Call Joe Woods. He'll fix it.
[00:47:37] Speaker B: And I'll leave everybody with this. I don't think the BrOwns, they are not a bad football team.
The Browns are just bad at winning games.
[00:47:48] Speaker A: They're the worst at winning games.
[00:47:51] Speaker B: That's it, man. So other Browns notes real quick about the game, the alternates I like their alternates. They should have stuck with the stripes on the sleeves, though.
[00:48:00] Speaker A: Yeah, like the 2017, 2018. Those were freaking color.
[00:48:04] Speaker B: Those were some of the sharpest uniforms I've seen the Browns wear since, like, the middle Ages.
[00:48:09] Speaker A: Those were good. I did like the all brown look, though.
I always liked the Brown top and the orange pants.
[00:48:14] Speaker B: But Garrett came into this game one sack away from the Browns. Franchise record. Still there.
[00:48:22] Speaker A: Still there.
[00:48:24] Speaker B: Deshaun Watson back in the building today, which we're recording on Monday. He's back in the building today.
And just one last fun fact for the Browns. They see eight men in the box, more than any other team in the league, and they still have the best rushing attack.
[00:48:42] Speaker A: They do have the best rushing attack after week.
[00:48:45] Speaker B: What week is this?
[00:48:46] Speaker A: Five.
Nick Chubb leads the NFL at 593. Starting to put some space between him and Saquon at 533.
[00:48:55] Speaker B: So good segue there. It's time for the burning River Sportscast. Dog of the Week. I'm a dog now, though.
[00:49:05] Speaker A: Dog mentality.
[00:49:07] Speaker B: Come on now.
[00:49:07] Speaker A: I'm coming in to kill right away.
[00:49:10] Speaker B: Surprise, surprise.
[00:49:13] Speaker A: Who else?
[00:49:14] Speaker B: Nick Chubb, baby. 17 carries, 134 yards, 7.9 yards per carry, two touchdowns. He is now first in the league in carries, first in the league in rushing, first in the league in rushing touchdowns, and second in yards per carry. Look, we say it all the time. We do not deserve this, man.
[00:49:33] Speaker A: I mean, if we would just give him the ball down at the goal line every time, he would get how many touchdowns he would double up in touchdowns.
[00:49:40] Speaker B: Holy shit.
Another big day from Nick Chubb. Wasted, though.
[00:49:44] Speaker A: Feels bad.
[00:49:45] Speaker B: Yeah, it always feels bad. And it seems like I said it last week. I'll say it again this week. It seems like every week we're talking about him getting closer to one of the all time franchise leaders for something. This week he pulled within one game of tying LeroY Kelly for second most 100 yard games in franchise history.
Leroy Kelly is at 27. Nick Chubb is at 26.
[00:50:07] Speaker A: It's an impressive stretch he's been on.
[00:50:11] Speaker B: We're playing the Patriots next, and we'll get into that, but I have a feeling we'll be talking about this again next week.
[00:50:16] Speaker A: Yeah, very possible.
He's just that kind of player. And again, just going back to we talked about earlier with, like, I think it's time that Kareem becomes a true spell and Nick Chubb becomes the every down back because he's clearly the best at his position in the league.
[00:50:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think you're going to find many people that will argue that anymore. The league is starting to take notice.
[00:50:40] Speaker A: Well, Kevin Stefanski would argue it because he's still given Kareem twelve carries a game.
[00:50:44] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:50:45] Speaker A: Six of those could be Nick Chubbs and three of those could be touchdowns.
[00:50:50] Speaker B: All right, so let's get into the division roundup.
So the Ravens beat the Bengals.
[00:51:05] Speaker A: Before we do the division roundup, you cut to Burning River Sports guest Dog of the week before I had one more point on, oh, we're going all.
[00:51:13] Speaker B: The way back to the Browns game.
[00:51:14] Speaker A: Yeah, rewinding.
[00:51:16] Speaker B: What do you got?
[00:51:17] Speaker A: Not even just the Browns game, but just this season in general.
One thing that I have liked about this coaching staff, and it's Stefanski we were talking about. Stefanski needs to pay more attention to the defense and he does.
What I have liked is him putting Froholt in the backfield as a blocker without having a true fullback on the team. That seems to, I mean, they've been blowing holes open on the goal line.
[00:51:43] Speaker B: Fair froholt.
[00:51:45] Speaker A: I mostly just wanted to say his name.
[00:51:47] Speaker B: Why don't they do it more often then?
[00:51:50] Speaker A: Well, that's the question for another day.
[00:51:53] Speaker B: So back to the division roundup. The Ravens beat the Bengals 19 to 17. So that game was close throughout. Burrow and Lamar both looked kind of average for most of the game up until the end of the fourth quarter there, when they did step up and try to win it for their respective teams. And Lamar Jackson is the one that came away with the Dub.
[00:52:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I was surprised that the Ravens defense was able to slow down Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase. That defense had been so bad, but their offense has been equally as know.
[00:52:30] Speaker B: For that matter, I think I was surprised. I know so many people around the league are talking up Cincinnati's defense this year and I don't think it's as good as everybody says it is. So I was actually pretty surprised that Cincinnati was able to agreed to hold down close. Yeah. To hold down the so. But we both picked that game, right?
[00:52:49] Speaker A: Sure did.
[00:52:51] Speaker B: And then the Steelers lost bad to the Bills. Real bad.
[00:52:55] Speaker A: I have to apologize for this one.
[00:52:57] Speaker B: Why?
[00:52:59] Speaker A: Because my spread was 34 on the game and I was wrong. It was more they lost by 35.
[00:53:07] Speaker B: The Steelers are trash, man.
[00:53:09] Speaker A: Absolute stinking pile of hot garbage. Wow, they're bad.
[00:53:15] Speaker B: If this year anybody gets depressed about the Browns and specifically how they're losing, just take a look at the Steelers, man. They are hot garbage.
[00:53:23] Speaker A: They are hot ass.
[00:53:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Josh Allen had about 350 yards passing in the first half. It was just ugly for the Steelers.
[00:53:34] Speaker A: Right from the rip, he threw like 100 yard touchdown pass to Gabe Davis.
[00:53:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Right out the gate. Right out the gate. And then he mentioned to hit him again.
If you sat Gabe Davis in your fantasy league this week, I feel bad for you, but it's just beautiful to see for the Browns fans that the Steelers fans have given us. They like to act like they're all nice and whatever. They've given us shit for years. Years.
[00:53:58] Speaker A: Yeah. It's time they get their comeuppance.
[00:54:00] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think it's going to be a couple of years before they get it figured out. Just because it's going to be the same cycle that the Browns were in. You got to find a quarterback.
[00:54:06] Speaker A: Well, what I'm interested to see is I hope that this year continues to go as poorly as humanly possible for them because I would love for them to fire Mike Tomlin. Like, please just fire him.
[00:54:21] Speaker B: It only helps start over.
[00:54:23] Speaker A: And welcome to the carousel of coaches and quarterbacks that we've known for the last two decades, because you've earned it. You guys keep calling for that man'S job, putting him on the hot seat. I don't get it. The guy's never been under 501st time.
[00:54:38] Speaker B: In his career, which has been entirely with the Steelers, that he's been under 500.
[00:54:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And the season is not over yet. He could still get close.
[00:54:47] Speaker B: Yeah. And let's be honest, the AFC north is bad. We're bad. We lose games. We should win all the time.
[00:54:53] Speaker A: They almost beat us a couple weeks ago.
[00:54:55] Speaker B: Yeah. The Ravens have no defense. The Bengals have no idea who they are.
[00:55:00] Speaker A: So they might have three or four more wins on the schedule just in the AFC North.
[00:55:04] Speaker B: Yeah, but, I mean, I'm going to enjoy it while I can.
[00:55:06] Speaker A: Please fire that man.
[00:55:09] Speaker B: Like I said, it only helps the Browns because he's a fantastic coach.
[00:55:12] Speaker A: Especially because we may be looking for a coach at the end of the.
[00:55:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
In case anyone was wondering, by the way, you couldn't gather, we both guessed that game right.
[00:55:23] Speaker A: Except for I was wrong on the spread.
[00:55:25] Speaker B: Well, we both were. You were way wrong.
[00:55:27] Speaker A: You guessed 24.
[00:55:28] Speaker B: Oops.
[00:55:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:55:30] Speaker B: Sorry.
[00:55:30] Speaker A: Amateur.
[00:55:31] Speaker B: So let's take a trip around the NFL.
Let's go ahead and start with Thursday Night Football.
[00:55:45] Speaker A: Oh, no, we got to talk about that. We got to talk about the Browns and Thursday Night Football.
[00:55:50] Speaker B: Yeah. The Broncos lost to the Colts on Thursday Night Football, which may have been the worst game of all time.
[00:55:55] Speaker A: It was really, really boring.
[00:55:57] Speaker B: It was so bad.
[00:55:58] Speaker A: It was terrible.
[00:55:59] Speaker B: It was literally the battle of who Sucks. Like, it was so bad.
[00:56:03] Speaker A: So bad there's a T on the end of it.
[00:56:08] Speaker B: We were wondering aloud last week, what's wrong with Russell Wilson? Well, conveniently, after the game, they announced that he has a partially torn lat. And I think it is just an excuse as to why their 200 million dollar investment has been trash all year.
He's been bad because why else would you say it's the partially torn lat? So he can keep playing and keep playing like trash, and there's a built in excuse for him.
[00:56:37] Speaker A: I mean, imagine. And we haven't seen Deshaun yet, so we're not out of the water yet because he hasn't played football in two years. But there were a lot of people that have been wanting Russell for the last couple of years.
[00:56:46] Speaker B: I agree. I was not one of those people because he's not old, per se, but he's kind of.
He's not on the right side of 30.
[00:56:55] Speaker A: You know what's interesting is, and I heard this locally, is that the finger injury that he had last year was the same one that basically ended Brady Quinn's career. He said that after he had that, he could never now. And Brady Quinn's not Russell Wilson, sure. But Brady Quinn was very open about, like, I heard him call into Cleveland radio, and he was like, I could not grip the football the same. I could not throw the football the same. He admitted he was like, I'm not Russia Wilson. But that injury in that part of his hand, he was never the same.
[00:57:36] Speaker B: You know what Brady Quinn's problem was? Too good a hair and too much time on my arms.
[00:57:44] Speaker A: Too much time on my arms. I think it was also because he drank way too much. Eas myoplex. Now I'm done.
[00:57:53] Speaker B: Now I'm done. Those are the worst commercials ever.
All right, so moving on around the league here, the Texans only team without a win. No more. No more. Just when you thought Jacksonville was getting on track, they remembered their Jacksonville.
[00:58:07] Speaker A: Did you think Jacksonville was getting on track?
[00:58:09] Speaker B: No, but people did.
[00:58:10] Speaker A: They're suck bag.
[00:58:11] Speaker B: Yeah, they are bad. They lost to the Texans. That's how bad they are.
On the other side of things, the Eagles remain the only undefeated team in the NFL.
[00:58:21] Speaker A: Keep playing well.
[00:58:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Second year head coach Nick Sirianni has them playing well.
[00:58:26] Speaker A: I mean, they have some prolific receivers. Now, you look back at the last couple of years, that receiver group with, like, Jalen Rager and who was the other clown they had? Nelson Aguilar. I mean, they had some really bad.
[00:58:41] Speaker B: Names starting receivers names that were, quote unquote big names because they were drafted to be good players and they weren't very good. Whiteside Archega yeah, like I said, nick Sirianni has them playing well. Someone who doesn't have their team playing well is Matt Rule, who doesn't have a team.
[00:58:57] Speaker A: He doesn't have a team.
[00:58:58] Speaker B: He has been fired. FirSt coach fired this year. Panthers started one and four. They also got rid of their defensive coordinator.
How did that guy, how did Joe woods make it longer than that?
What the hell, man?
[00:59:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, Carolina is officially at Dumpster fire status. If we had the thermometer there, it would know broken and Mercury would be all over the floor.
[00:59:25] Speaker B: Oh, it'd be bad.
[00:59:26] Speaker A: Things are getting really ugly there. Baker out now with the high ankle sprain, like you said, could be the last time he plays.
[00:59:33] Speaker B: Oh, that's definitely the last time he plays for the Panthers. Baker Mayfield's tenure with the Panthers as the starting quarterback lasted five games.
[00:59:39] Speaker A: I don't know how good PJ Walker is going to be.
[00:59:42] Speaker B: It doesn't matter. It's a high ankle sprain and you know who they're playing. Once they're both healthy, they're definitely with a new coach coming in, switching over and going a new direction with quarterback, with Darnold.
Is that a new mean?
I'm not saying it's a good plan. I just think it's like with everything that's happened this year, it's just Matt rule being fired after Baker Mayfield started and played historically bad for them, they're going to go somewhere else.
[01:00:12] Speaker A: Speaking of Matt rule, though, interesting connection was I was listening to some of the guys up in Boston radio and they said that he's probably like a stone cold fit now to join the Patriots coaching staff because Bill runs everything, but just hires all these guys that were like ex head coaches to be consultants.
[01:00:38] Speaker B: I buy it. I buy it. But yeah, so just a dumpster fire over there. And the only thing that could make that worse just came out today. Again Monday is when we're recording this. The Bills have reached out to the Panthers and they want Christian McCaffrey.
The only good player that the Panthers have is going to be gone.
[01:01:01] Speaker A: Well, potentially DJ Morissaw. Right?
[01:01:05] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:01:08] Speaker A: Also interesting, Boston radio was lit up with that as well today, thinking Christian McCaffrey now may be on the market and that he would be a perfect fit in New England.
[01:01:18] Speaker B: Ramondre Stevenson Just ran for like 170 yards this week.
[01:01:22] Speaker A: I know.
[01:01:22] Speaker B: And Kristen McCaffrey's hurt all the time.
[01:01:24] Speaker A: I like Ramandre.
[01:01:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. I'm done talking about the Panthers. I don't care about the Panthers. Trash across the country. The Seahawks punter forgot how to kick this week. Did you see that?
[01:01:35] Speaker A: Yeah, that happened to kickalicious or the Irish hammer once.
[01:01:40] Speaker B: Scottish hammer, that guy. But yeah, the Seahawks punter just kind of ran up to the line. I don't know what he was trying to do, but he acted like he was going to kick it. He didn't kick it. And then he got rocked and fumbled the ball. And I don't really know what it.
[01:01:52] Speaker A: Was, but bad job out of him.
[01:01:54] Speaker B: Fun to watch.
Speaking of the Seahawks, Rashad Penny suffered broken fibula. Probably done for the season. It was pretty ugly.
[01:02:03] Speaker A: Can't just be breaking your fibula.
[01:02:05] Speaker B: No, that's a big bone.
[01:02:08] Speaker A: Big bone.
[01:02:10] Speaker B: Luckily, though, Gino Smith just turning back the clocks, man. He's just doing big things out there.
[01:02:17] Speaker A: The resurgence of Gino Smith coupled with just the God awful football that Russell Wilson has been playing, I think speaks volumes about how fickle we are with quarterbacks in today's day and age where if you come out and in the first year or two, you don't light the league on fire. They just kind of throw you to the scrap heap. I think with the right coaching, the right system, the right team, any quarterback could probably be good, but we're just so quick to pull the plug on those guys.
[01:02:44] Speaker B: You know what else it speaks to?
Seahawks made a great.
[01:02:51] Speaker A: I mean, I don't know if Gino is the long term answer there, but he's playing really well right now and they have an actual shot in that division now.
[01:02:58] Speaker B: Yeah, we mentioned Rashad Penny's injury, some more serious injuries across the NFL. Lions cornerback had a real scary moment. Savion Smith, he just was trying to jam his guy at the line and basically collapsed.
[01:03:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that was ugly.
[01:03:14] Speaker B: They thought it was a neck injury, but it looks like, you know how, like in boxing, they kind of just hit that spot and. Instant knockout. Yeah, it seems like that's probably what happened to him. They said his neck's okay, no neck injury, but he is in concussion protocol right now.
[01:03:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I think that was the good thing today is they were able to at least come out and confirm that it wasn't anything super serious.
[01:03:34] Speaker B: I mean, that was wild. They brought his family down from the stands and had him ride with him in the ambulance and don't. I don't know if I've ever seen family members come out of the stands to be with somebody for an like, that's. It was scary.
[01:03:51] Speaker A: I mean, I guess I wasn't alive when Joe Theisman's leg fell off, but.
[01:03:55] Speaker B: You were when what's his name.
[01:03:59] Speaker A: Yeah, that guy.
[01:04:00] Speaker B: The one that did the same exact thing.
[01:04:05] Speaker A: Why are we forgetting Alex Smith?
[01:04:07] Speaker B: Alex Smith, yeah.
But anyway, true.
So. Yeah. Savion Smith and concussion protocol. Get well soon. Emmanuel Mosley, cornerback for the 49 ERs, suffered an ACL tear. Tear. And he's done for the year as well.
[01:04:23] Speaker A: Can't tear a CL.
[01:04:24] Speaker B: No. Said it last week. Can't tear a CL. Cooper Rush still doing big things.
[01:04:30] Speaker A: Cooper Rush.
[01:04:31] Speaker B: He wins again, man.
[01:04:32] Speaker A: Is officially, I think, making a case to be the starter in Dallas.
[01:04:38] Speaker B: I'm buying in. Cooper Rush is greater than Dak Prescott. I honestly think this spells the end for Dak Prescott because he's got a big contract. He's underperformed for a long time.
[01:04:49] Speaker A: He's been impressive this year. They look like a different team. They were so bad week one.
[01:04:54] Speaker B: I think it's almost like Dak Prescott got that contract and now they're like, okay, we got to rely all on our quarterback, and now they're playing more of a complete team game because that's what it takes.
[01:05:08] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think you've seen Tony Pollard really step up. He's been great.
[01:05:12] Speaker B: And to what you were saying just a moment ago about us being fickle with quarterbacks sometimes, yeah, being a great quarterback helps, but you have to have the team, you have to have the coaching. It has to be a complete pack.
[01:05:24] Speaker A: And for whatever reason, that team has bought into Cooper Rush.
[01:05:27] Speaker B: Yeah, they're looking good. I hate to say that, because I hate the Cowboys.
[01:05:30] Speaker A: The Cowboys.
[01:05:31] Speaker B: F Dallas FMr Tom Brady got the absolute worst roughing the passer call of all time.
[01:05:41] Speaker A: That was the geriatric penalty.
[01:05:43] Speaker B: Now, I know, I know people are going to say, oh, you didn't see Jacobi flop in your game.
[01:05:48] Speaker A: That was straight LeBron flop.
[01:05:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I saw it, but at least Jacoby did something to earn his. That dude deserves an Oscar.
[01:05:55] Speaker A: Fair.
[01:05:56] Speaker B: Tom Brady got tackled and then tried to kick the defensive lineman as he was getting off of him, and somehow.
[01:06:00] Speaker A: Tom Brady got the A. We were talking about a roughing the passer call last week that I thought was. It was questionable, could go either way. This was the softest roughing call.
[01:06:11] Speaker B: He literally just tackled him and he didn't even land on him. That's like the big thing these days is if you land on him, he.
[01:06:18] Speaker A: Did the whole like, roll. He was trying not to.
[01:06:20] Speaker B: It's what I said. What's he supposed to do, turn in the air and roll off? That's what he did. And he got caught anyways, even though Tom Brady tried to kick him.
[01:06:28] Speaker A: I think the lesson here is you just can't tackle Tom Brady.
[01:06:30] Speaker B: Don't touch him. Don't even look at him.
[01:06:34] Speaker A: Don't smell him, don't hear him, don't look at him.
[01:06:37] Speaker B: The New York Giants beat the Packers.
[01:06:40] Speaker A: I love how you ended that with question Mark, because that was when I saw that.
[01:06:47] Speaker B: Same reaction. Look, I know that the Giants are four and one right now, but they're kind of like the Eagles to me. I don't really understand how.
[01:06:55] Speaker A: I don't get mean, but the Eagles at least have some real talent on that team. That New York Giant team is just.
Man, is Brian Dabel. That is he. The truth.
[01:07:07] Speaker B: I do like that dude gets fired up when they play. Well, like, he's running up and down the sidelines. He's trying to pump the crowd up. I like that. We have the opposite with Kevin Stefanski. He just says, don't worry, we're going.
[01:07:18] Speaker A: To get it figured out in Papa Xanax.
I think my problem with Brian Dayball is he was.
[01:07:26] Speaker B: You don't like bald guys.
[01:07:27] Speaker A: He was a coordinator in Cleveland for a while. So I'm like, I have a hard time buying into a guy that had a putrid offense here, but all of a sudden is, like, the hottest name in the NFL.
[01:07:39] Speaker B: He needed a quarterback.
[01:07:40] Speaker A: Yeah, he's got one there.
[01:07:42] Speaker B: I don't know.
Speaking of the Giants, the Giants are.
[01:07:47] Speaker A: A Cooper rush away or winning the Super Bowl.
[01:07:49] Speaker B: There it is. Did you see the video of the trainer giving the Giants wide receiver a.
[01:07:52] Speaker A: Massage on the sideline, like, pants down?
[01:07:55] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. That thing went viral. And this just in. Deshaun Watson has demanded a trade to the New York Giants, effective immediately. I'm sorry, Deshaun.
[01:08:06] Speaker A: Oh, man. Like, that wasn't even the OTPHJ. That was just.
[01:08:10] Speaker B: No, man, he really had it going.
[01:08:13] Speaker A: He was pants down.
[01:08:16] Speaker B: It just looks so OD from the angle that they took. It was one of those things, like a train wreck you couldn't stop watching.
[01:08:22] Speaker A: I don't have any idea what was going on.
[01:08:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of Dongs, Tony O. Brown still going hard at Tom Brady.
[01:08:30] Speaker A: Why are there so many dongs?
[01:08:32] Speaker B: No pun intended there, but no. Did you see him tweet out, the.
[01:08:37] Speaker A: Daddy'S not coming home?
[01:08:38] Speaker B: What is he doing?
[01:08:40] Speaker A: Picture of him inside the living room with Giselle.
[01:08:43] Speaker B: Did Antonio Brown just realize he was relevant for a week again? And he was like, I got to keep picking on Tom Brady.
[01:08:48] Speaker A: That dude is out there.
[01:08:51] Speaker B: Brain damage.
[01:08:52] Speaker A: Do we have the picture of the book? I'll put that up there.
[01:08:55] Speaker B: All right. Put it up. All right. So that'll do it for our week five coverage. Let's go ahead and take a revenue break and then we'll get into week six.
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[01:09:47] Speaker A: Good people over there.
[01:09:49] Speaker B: There are good people.
[01:09:50] Speaker A: What exactly is a botanical flowers?
[01:09:55] Speaker B: All right, I don't know if that's.
[01:09:57] Speaker A: Is that the technical term?
[01:09:59] Speaker B: That's the technical term, yeah. That's what I'm going to go with. Don't quote me on that. All right, let's get into the week six preview.
[01:10:17] Speaker A: All right.
[01:10:17] Speaker B: I'm almost afraid to preview another game.
[01:10:20] Speaker A: Just because we're going to lose.
[01:10:23] Speaker B: I don't know. We'll see, but just because I'm scared, it's Patriot Day.
[01:10:29] Speaker A: Do we have, is there a good Mark Wahlberg clip from that movie? Probably Patriot Day. Would I be sitting here staring at.
[01:10:35] Speaker B: You two childaheads if I was suspended? All right, so do you have any opposition research for us or you want to start with the position matchups?
[01:10:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I think let's just start with this week's game. 29 and to zero against the Lions.
[01:10:52] Speaker B: Against the Lions.
[01:10:53] Speaker A: I think this game, despite the lopsided.
[01:10:56] Speaker B: Score they played, the Lions, man, was.
[01:10:59] Speaker A: Actually, I don't want to say closer than it looked because they lost 29 to zero.
[01:11:04] Speaker B: But the only team in the NFL that was shut out this week, I believe.
[01:11:08] Speaker A: But Detroit had the ball in field goal range at least seven times. And not like in field goal range where they hit the kicker line where it's like, hey, you're in field goal range, like, deep in, inside the 30 yard field goals. Yeah.
[01:11:26] Speaker B: Stat alone is like, almost as bad as the cringeworthy Browns defense last week.
[01:11:31] Speaker A: Well, yeah, I mean, you figure if they had kicked field goals all seven of those times, that's 21 points, and the defense scored once for New England. So at that point, it's a pretty close game.
[01:11:43] Speaker B: Well, and at that point, if you just score one or two of those.
[01:11:45] Speaker A: Times, a touchdown, it's a much closer game, I think.
[01:11:48] Speaker B: Right.
[01:11:49] Speaker A: And I think it's just turning the ball over. Poor play calling, poor decision making. The Lions were owing six on fourth down.
[01:11:58] Speaker B: You don't win a lot of games.
[01:11:59] Speaker A: If you don't, you don't win a lot of games. I mean, Jared Goff looked like the Jared Goff of old. The reason they traded Jared Goff fair did not play that well, which is.
[01:12:10] Speaker B: Kind of weird because he's had a stellar year, he's been playing well, and.
[01:12:12] Speaker A: That offense has played well. Their defense has just been bad. But I just think it's one of those where you have to kind of step away because you can't just look at the box score and go, oh, 290. Like this was a dominant effort.
[01:12:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's kind of like that outlier game. There's more of a story there than.
[01:12:27] Speaker A: What you would think because I think the consensus in New England is like, okay, we beat a bad team, we should win that game.
But they're very much in the mindset of understanding that this isn't the Patriots team of old that is just going to roll over everyone and anyone that they have their work cut out for them every game. But they trust in Bill Belichick. They trust in that defense. The defense has been decent. It's kept them in games and they've had questions at quarterback, obviously with Mac Jones going down, with Brian Hoyer going down, and Zappy came in and played pretty formidably.
The one pick was on a tipped ball from Nelson Aguilar. Our old friend Nelson Aguilar is still not any good, that guy. Still not any think, you know, Bailey Zappi, we joked about last week there not being a quarterback controversy there. But, man, if you tuned into any Boston radio today, there were callers coming in hot saying, maybe we just roll with Zappy for a while. They were high on this guy, asked.
[01:13:40] Speaker B: For like 170 yards.
[01:13:41] Speaker A: It was zappy hour. Float like a butterfly, sing like a Zappy.
[01:13:47] Speaker B: They want Netflix. Mac Jones there. That's who they want.
[01:13:52] Speaker A: So, yeah, I don't know what the timeline looks like for Mac or for Brian Hoyer coming back. It looks like we're going to get Bailey Zappy this week.
[01:14:01] Speaker B: I did see that they said, even the Patriots organization has said, okay, well, he played well enough that we can give Mac Jones maybe an extra week or so if he needs it to heal.
[01:14:12] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think he was accurate for most of the day. He didn't have to throw the ball. A and no, not at all. That's where I think we probably get into more of the matchups.
[01:14:21] Speaker B: Yeah. So let's go ahead and do that. So the matchups, I'm going to do what I Do every week. I'm going to throw out a few matchups here that I think we need to really pay attention to in this game. And the first one is the Browns front seven against the Patriots offensive line and running backs.
We just talked about it. They didn't have to throw a lot because Ramandre Stevenson had 25 carries for 161 yards last week.
Just that in itself is concerning, given the Browns just gave up 170 something to Austin Eckler.
[01:14:51] Speaker A: Yeah, we've given up 400 rushing yards in the last two weeks.
[01:14:55] Speaker B: Just top notch defense we're talking about here.
[01:14:56] Speaker A: I'll say this about Ramandre Stevenson. I don't want to do any foreshadowing, but I was a year early on Ramandre. I was high on him coming out and think he has all the tools to be a complete back.
[01:15:10] Speaker B: I think I smell a player to watch.
[01:15:12] Speaker A: And obviously in New England, Bill Belichick tends to run the ball by committee there. So he didn't get a lot of opportunities to be the guy that was.
[01:15:23] Speaker B: Actually really oD this past week that he got 25 carries. You almost never see that in New England.
[01:15:27] Speaker A: Well, Damien Harris went down with the hamstring early in the game, but I do think that that was the plan. Right? They knew they had a young quarterback in there, that they needed to take care of the football, and they just ran, ran, ran the.
[01:15:41] Speaker B: So I do have in there, speaking of Damien Harris, if he does play, he's a capable RV, too. So, I mean, it's not like you got a scrub. I wouldn't put him as a scrub. He runs well when he gets in there.
[01:15:50] Speaker A: Well, even if they are scrubs, we can't stop them.
[01:15:53] Speaker B: Well, that's true. We let, I even know that guy's name from last week.
[01:15:57] Speaker A: It doesn't even matter.
[01:15:57] Speaker B: Gone already.
[01:15:58] Speaker A: Trash.
[01:15:59] Speaker B: Nobody will ever hear of him again.
[01:16:00] Speaker A: Trash Algier.
[01:16:01] Speaker B: And then their offensive line, though, this is another reason why it's a matchup to watch because we talked about the running and they had a good rushing attack last week, but the Patriots offensive line has given up 13 sacks this year.
It's a chance for the Browns, specifically the defensive ends, to get home. So they've got to get.
[01:16:22] Speaker A: I mean, we've seen quarterbacks the last two weeks dancing around in the pocket and not being able to come up with frustrating.
[01:16:31] Speaker B: And I know it's frustrating for him, too. I'm not saying it's a bad thing on Miles Garrett, but the kind of thing that I've heard a lot this year is, well, I was half a step away. Half a step away.
[01:16:43] Speaker A: Maybe he's a half a step too slow now since the car accident, just getting older.
[01:16:48] Speaker B: I don't think so.
He's still fine. But that's why I said I don't want to rip on him too much or even really at all, but get home this week.
[01:16:57] Speaker A: This is the week to get, especially with clowning coming. You have, you have the disruptor on the other side. You have the guy that's going to help make the quarterback uncomfortable. You have to squash him.
[01:17:06] Speaker B: I agree. So the next matchup I had is the Browns secondary versus Bailey Zappi. And the reason I put this in here is because of everything that we've talked about. Bailey Zappi is a third string quarterback. He didn't play terrible, but he didn't play well either. He just was there. He was a body that was playing.
[01:17:22] Speaker A: Quarterback, efficient and careful.
[01:17:24] Speaker B: Yeah. And if the, like I just mentioned, if the front seven can get pressure getting past that offensive line and they can get home a couple times, then the secondary really needs to make him pay.
[01:17:35] Speaker A: Well, here's the other thing. I think it's been proven now that you can beat the Browns throwing just seven.
[01:17:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. First and foremost, stop the run.
[01:17:44] Speaker A: And with Zell in the concussion protocol, that secondary could be lighter than usual.
[01:17:51] Speaker B: True.
On the defensive side of the ball for the Patriots, not great middle to back end for all major stat categories. When I was looking it up, I kind of had them right around 20 for everything.
[01:18:02] Speaker A: Yeah, but they got healthier this week. They had safety. Kyle Duggar came back. Matt Judon is a guy that we saw a lot when he was in Baltimore, had two sacks this week. So Duggar had a scoop and score on a Judon strip sack, actually, in that game. So they have some players out there that can cause problems for you. But to be fair, statistically, yeah, not great. But that defense has been the reason that they've been in any of these games so far.
[01:18:34] Speaker B: Right.
And they don't cause a lot of turnover. So that's the other thing mean we should be able to protect the ball again?
[01:18:42] Speaker A: We don't really turn the ball over a lot. We just like to wait until the very end of the game to do.
[01:18:46] Speaker B: Yeah. When. When our coaching has blown the game and we have to find a way to get back into it as a team. The Patriots have a two and three records. They're sitting the same spot as the Browns are. Once again, brother, we are same.
[01:19:02] Speaker A: And the Patriots haven't really beaten anyone.
[01:19:04] Speaker B: No. Here's the deal. This year, the Browns, if you can just play mediocre on defense, we should be okay. I'm not asking you to play well, just play mediocre. Just halfway good play. As good as the Patriots defense is, finish around 20 this week.
[01:19:19] Speaker A: I mean, they beat a bad Steelers team.
And who was their other win against?
Who else did they beat this week?
[01:19:29] Speaker B: The Lions.
[01:19:30] Speaker A: Oh, the. Yeah.
[01:19:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:19:31] Speaker A: So two teams that just aren't very good.
[01:19:33] Speaker B: Here's the deal. Stop the damn run. Just stop the run. Don't even stop. Just slow it down. Just slow it down a little bit.
[01:19:41] Speaker A: Slow it down. Yeah, I think that's a tall order because I think Gramondre Stevenson's a pretty good back, but fair.
[01:19:46] Speaker B: We got a siren going in the background. Don't they know we're recording?
[01:19:50] Speaker A: Um, I do hear a siren pause. That must be right on our street pause. Let's just keep going.
[01:19:57] Speaker B: All right, I'll keep going.
The offense for the Browns, they just need to keep being efficient. They've done well this year. Like we said, the offense has played well enough to be five and just keep doing what you're doing on paper. Once again, and I hate to say this, the Browns should win. However, at this point, I mean, I'm going to be honest with you, I'm on the verge of just assuming we're going to lose every game.
[01:20:21] Speaker A: They haven't given you a reason to believe otherwise.
[01:20:24] Speaker B: They've just given me a reason to be scared every week. Fair for the injury report, we've got Clowney bacK. We've got J-O-K back.
[01:20:33] Speaker A: Never pause for my injury.
[01:20:34] Speaker B: Music for the injury report.
[01:20:40] Speaker A: It's the old tech mobile injury report. They used to run out of the stretcher on the.
[01:20:44] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. But, yeah, Clowney was back this past week. He had ankle injury.
He seemed like he was fine. Didn't seem too slowed down from it or anything. J-O-K was back from the groin injury. David Bryan was back from a hamstring injury. Miles Garrett was back from the car accident.
And so really the only one left on here is Joe Hague, a depth piece for the offensive line. He had a concussion. He could come back this week. They haven't really said much about it yet, but if he does, it's just extra depth on the offensive line. But they're playing well added with the concussion, so hopefully he comes back. But like you said, we never know with the way things are going with the concussion protocol right now. So with that, who's your player to watch this week? You want me to go first? You want to go first? I'll go first.
[01:21:32] Speaker A: Since I kind of already gave mine away. I do think it's Ramandre Stevenson. I think former Oklahoma sooner. I think he's been handcuffed early on in his time in New England. But I think you saw last week he has a potential to be in every down back. And on Sunday he was 25 carries, 160 yards. Sturdy guy, good pass blocker, so he'll see more snaps Sunday with Bailey Zappy behind center. You're going to see a full workload out of him. And he's a guy that has strength, speed, balance, and he's going to be on the field a lot. So I think if he has another 150 yard game against us, it's going to be a long, long day.
[01:22:16] Speaker B: Good pick. Good pick. You want to know who I'm picking for my player to watch?
[01:22:20] Speaker A: Ronnie Jams. Who are you picking?
[01:22:23] Speaker B: I'm going out on a limb this week.
[01:22:26] Speaker A: You're not picking Miles Garrett this week.
[01:22:28] Speaker B: No.
David Bell.
[01:22:31] Speaker A: Oh, the Venus flytrap.
[01:22:33] Speaker B: It's time. Time for the Venus Flytrap. He arrives this week. He's been slowly getting more and more involved with the offense. He's been on the field a lot more. He has a catch now and I think three straight games. I think he finally gets his first touchdown of his career this week.
[01:22:49] Speaker A: Would love to see it.
[01:22:50] Speaker B: Yeah, big time here. If I called that, I don't even know. I must be Cleo.
[01:22:57] Speaker A: I mean, you already have the fever.
[01:22:59] Speaker B: I got a fever. And the only prescription is more David Bell.
[01:23:03] Speaker A: Here it is.
[01:23:05] Speaker B: That's who I'm going.
Um, yeah, that's it for the preview for week six. Let's go ahead and take a revenue break before we do king of the north and close this thing out. So hold that up for me.
Topath rum.
Topath rum is a silver rum made from the highest grade molasses distilled three times in a copper pot. Still, this rum is designed to be the backbone of a great cocktail. However, it's so good that you can drink it by itself. Topath rum.
That'll do, pig.
[01:23:50] Speaker A: That was actually way harder than I thought it would be.
[01:23:52] Speaker B: You're not very good at holding things.
[01:23:54] Speaker A: I give mad props to those girls from prices. Right.
[01:23:57] Speaker B: Good job, ladies.
[01:23:59] Speaker A: Did I even put that back on the acrylic riser the right way? Is it in the middle?
[01:24:05] Speaker B: Now it's done.
[01:24:06] Speaker A: Now I'm done.
[01:24:07] Speaker B: All right, king of the North.
And remind everybody of the tally.
I went two and one this last week.
[01:24:23] Speaker A: Yeah, you did.
[01:24:24] Speaker B: You went three and O. You finally got me undefeated.
My record is now ten and seven on the season and Kenny is nine and eight and it is pretty close now.
[01:24:33] Speaker A: I'm coming for you, Jim.
[01:24:36] Speaker B: I'm Jim.
So let's go ahead and get into our predictions for this week. The AFC north picks Bengals at New Orleans. Who you got?
[01:24:45] Speaker A: You go first.
[01:24:47] Speaker B: I'll go first.
All right, so here's the deal for the Bengals at New Orleans here. I still don't understand Cincinnati. Have no idea who they are.
I've watched a few games. There's now I don't know which team's going to show up on a week to week basis. Borough has been playing a little bit better as of late. New Orleans, kind of same thing on their end. They're all over the place, except I think they're actually worse than the Bengals.
I think this is going to be a close game, but I'm going to go with the Bengals in this one. Taysom Hill had a huge week last week.
[01:25:18] Speaker A: Do we know if Andy Dalton is starting again?
[01:25:23] Speaker B: He's supposed to be starting again most likely. And Taysom Hill, they're going to run those packages for him. In case anyone was wondering. I'm pretty sure it was three rushing touchdowns and one passing touchdown last year.
[01:25:31] Speaker A: Yeah, Taysom Hill had a monster game and I saw how he was only started in like 3% of fantasy leagues.
[01:25:36] Speaker B: Yeah, it's the same thing for the receiver from Buffalo. Like, bad job out of you if he doesn't start those guys. Yeah, feels bad, but I'm going to go with the Bengals in this one. In a close one.
[01:25:47] Speaker A: I'm going to go New Orleans.
I think, like you mentioned, both teams have been kind of up and down.
I think it's time for New Orleans to come up this week because I just think that that Bengals team is, I don't think they know what their identity is at this point. And it's easy to say Joe Burrow is your identity and he's good. But outside of that, I just think they're a little bit lost and they're playing in New Orleans, so I'll give the edge to them.
[01:26:16] Speaker B: Fair.
Tampa Bay at the Steelers.
Steelers trash.
[01:26:23] Speaker A: Steelers are trash. We're both picking the Bucks.
[01:26:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Easy, easy. Win for the Bucks.
[01:26:28] Speaker A: Kenny Pickens.
[01:26:32] Speaker B: Ravens at Giants. You. Me, me. You, me.
[01:26:35] Speaker A: This one gave me pause because I think the Ravens are the better football team, but the Giants are somehow some way four and one that they are.
They just beat the packers, question mark.
And that Ravens defense, I'm Ron Burgundy. Is not good, but Lamar still playing good football. I know he didn't have a huge week this week, but here's what I also know, is that the AFC north is starting to separate this week a little bit. And I think Jim Harbaugh's teams, especially when healthy, tend to capitalize. They know that the Bengals are lost.
The Browns is the Browns.
[01:27:24] Speaker B: The Browns is the Browns.
[01:27:26] Speaker A: And the Steelers are trash. So if they're going to just love to hear it. If they're going to win this division, they have to win games like this against teams that they're probably better than on paper. So I think the Ravens win this.
[01:27:39] Speaker B: Got, like you said, the giants are somehow four and one. They just beat the Packers. The Ravens defense is terrible. Absolutely God awful.
And here's what separates it for me, is Saquon Barkley is having a huge comeback here.
[01:27:57] Speaker A: And don't worry, a CL is coming.
[01:27:59] Speaker B: Oh, no, not a Cl. But I'm going to go with the Giants in a close one.
That's who I'm picking.
[01:28:07] Speaker A: Okay.
I mean, it could go either way. This one, like I said, it gave me pause. I think this is a hard game to pick.
[01:28:13] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's a tough one. Now the reason for the season, Patriots and Browns, baby. I don't know why I'm making voices right now, but that's what I'm going with.
I'll go first.
[01:28:24] Speaker A: All right.
[01:28:24] Speaker B: Because you're just going to make fun of me. The Patriots haven't been great this year. Neither of the Browns.
[01:28:30] Speaker A: How many times have you picked the Browns to win this year?
[01:28:33] Speaker B: We'll find out in a second.
The Patriots haven't been great. Neither of the Browns. The Patriots. I think the difference in this one is going to be that they're down to their third string quarterback. And I know that they just beat the Lions 29 nothing. The Browns have been beating themselves all year.
But here's the deal. Even with a terrible defense, you can make the argument that the Browns should be five. And right now I think they have another bad day against the run.
But the D line finally comes to play in the passing game and gets some pressure on the quarterback. I think we forced them into some turnovers, and I like the Browns winning 30 to 20.
[01:29:14] Speaker A: Of course you do.
[01:29:17] Speaker B: Well, of course you're going to pick against them. So let's go. Go ahead.
[01:29:20] Speaker A: The Browns can't stop the run. Ramondre Stevenson just ran for 160 yards. They fed him the ball all day long. There's nothing wrong with Bailey Zappy.
I think he's comparable to Jacobi Brissette.
[01:29:34] Speaker B: Netflix, Mac Jones, you're a fan?
[01:29:36] Speaker A: Netflix, Mac Jones. I don't know what I am of him yet, but I also know that the Lions beat themselves in that football game, and that's what the Browns do really well.
[01:29:47] Speaker B: That's a fair point.
[01:29:49] Speaker A: 24 20.
Browns lose.
[01:29:52] Speaker B: Dang, man. Dang. Feels bad. All right, well, that'll do it for this week.
Here's to hoping next week is better. I guess. So. Speaking of next week, what can we expect next week, Kenny?
Yeah, and speaking of next week, Kenny, what can we expect next week?
[01:30:12] Speaker A: What can you expect next week?
That's what you want to know?
[01:30:18] Speaker B: Yes, that's what I'm asking you.
[01:30:20] Speaker A: Well, what you can expect next week is what you could expect every week on the Burning River Sports cast presented by Tapa Media. We will recap the Patriots Browns matchup and we will preview the Cleveland Baltimore game coming up next week could be a little weird because I'm on vacation. I'm out of pocket.
[01:30:41] Speaker B: I'll be out of pocket. Your favorite saying.
[01:30:44] Speaker A: I'll be on the island, closing out summer with a bang. So we'll try to see how that even goes.
[01:30:50] Speaker B: Guys, we started a podcast and he decided five weeks, six weeks in, he's leaving. He's out.
[01:30:56] Speaker A: I'm out.
[01:30:57] Speaker B: He's out. He's done with this podcast. He's going on vacation.
[01:30:59] Speaker A: I'm done with peace.
[01:31:00] Speaker B: I'm out of here. That's right. All right, so listen, make sure you follow us on social media. Tap in Media is at the tap in media, on Facebook and Twitter. Their Instagram is Tapin Media Official.
[01:31:14] Speaker A: Official.
[01:31:15] Speaker B: And then Burning River Sportscast, you can find us on Facebook and Instagram at Burning River Sportscast. We're on Twitter at Burning River Pod. And you can also find us on YouTube for the video version of our podcast, the podcast itself.
[01:31:32] Speaker A: Where can I find that?
[01:31:33] Speaker B: You find it wherever you get your podcasts, Spotify, Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartradio, podcast Castro and so many more.
[01:31:41] Speaker A: Real quick yet predictions for the Yankees Guardians series.
[01:31:47] Speaker B: Guardians are going to hump them.
[01:31:48] Speaker A: Guardians going to hump them. Guardians in.
[01:31:52] Speaker B: It's a five game series, right?
[01:31:54] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:31:55] Speaker B: I'm going to go Guardians in four.
[01:31:57] Speaker A: I like it. I'm also going Guardians in four.
[01:32:00] Speaker B: Hell yeah.
[01:32:01] Speaker A: Things. They got a real shot.
[01:32:03] Speaker B: I really do.
[01:32:04] Speaker A: Sunday during the Browns game. Well, not during the Browns game, just all day Sunday.
[01:32:09] Speaker B: Speaking of which, sorry, Guardians, longest drought in MLB right now.
[01:32:13] Speaker A: So we're due about to end. About to end October 9, the birthday of the late, great Eddie Guerrero would have been 55 years old this year.
So young. Viva Laraza.
And don't just be a part of the problem, be the whole problem.
[01:32:32] Speaker B: And only you can prevent river fires burning river peace. I'm out of here. Sportscast burning river sportscast burning River.
