Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Kenny Thunder: Sam, It's time. Time for another very special live edition of the burning river sportscast.
Steelers 27, Browns 6. What a day.
[00:01:05] Ronnie Jams: We're back, baby.
We are back. We are the Browns. We're back.
[00:01:11] Kenny Thunder: Yeah, that's. We're, we're. We're good.
Yeah. The sports podcast. Yeah.
So Browns, you know, can I just, can I just say, and before we get into anything, how completely and totally unenthusiastically non plus that I am about this whole thing, just nonplussed.
This, this offense has been bad all year. The running game's been bad all year. Our quarterback is not like
[00:01:42] Ronnie Jams: eventually this was going to happen. If
[00:01:43] Kenny Thunder: you
[00:01:43] Ronnie Jams: think this is a surprise.
[00:01:44] Kenny Thunder: The defense has been good for the most part, but has a proclivity to give up big plays.
And we've been saying like, like all these things have been consistent all year long. The only difference is they were winning those games inexplicably. So
[00:01:58] Ronnie Jams: if I can quote Bobby Boucher's mommy, the cows are coming home to roost.
[00:02:05] Kenny Thunder: Well, that's what it is, right? I mean, you can't consistently be bad and keep expecting to win, right? Like, you have to start, start to put it all together consistently, sustainably.
And you know, it's not
[00:02:19] Ronnie Jams: all,
[00:02:19] Kenny Thunder: it's not
[00:02:20] Ronnie Jams: all
[00:02:21] Kenny Thunder: doom and gloom. Like, I don't think they're going to lose the rest of their games. No, I think we were, I think we were five and two. We were in first place and we were all feeling, we were all feeling like, you know, maybe this team was better than they are. And I think what we saw today was this team is exactly what we thought they were. They just got away with a few early in the year and they'll win a few more games this year. They're not terrible. They're not the worst team in the league like they usually are.
[00:02:44] Ronnie Jams: Can we just calm down here?
[00:02:45] Kenny Thunder: I'm just, I'm, I'm, I'm so non plussed by the whole thing.
[00:02:49] Ronnie Jams: We'll get into it. Just give me a minute. We gotta, we gotta, you know, do the whole rigamaroll.
[00:02:53] Kenny Thunder: Okay,
[00:02:57] Ronnie Jams: so first of all, before we get into all that, you can find our podcast wherever you podcast, talking to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, stitcher, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora Heart rated podcast Cast our good pods. We're an rank football podcast. So many
[00:03:06] Kenny Thunder: more.
[00:03:07] Ronnie Jams: While you're at it, please leave us a review on your preferred podcast app. Really helps us grow and get seen. Don't forget to subscribe on YouTube and check us out on Facebook instagram and Tik Tok. And now buzzer. Our handle on all of those socials is at Burning River Sportscast and we are on X as well at the handle at Burning Pod.
[00:03:21] Kenny Thunder: Pod.
[00:03:22] Ronnie Jams: While you're at it, check out our merch www.the media.comshop all kinds of stuff in there before we get started. Quick shout out to a sponsor. Topat Distillery. Topat Distillery, an award winning craft distillery located in Akan, Ohio. Topat Distillery focuses on high quality spirits. Spirits carefully made in small batches. Topat Distillery, handcrafted, award winning small batch, local and family owned.
All the holiday stuff is out. So go get it.
[00:03:47] Kenny Thunder: I was going to say, even though.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, go over there. Go, go get it.
[00:03:51] Ronnie Jams: Yeah, go get
[00:03:52] Kenny Thunder: it.
[00:03:53] Ronnie Jams: Today, today on the show, this is what you can look forward to. We got a recap of today's Week 8 loss against the Steelers. Closer look at everything, interactions with their listeners. Nominees for dog of the week, Final thoughts of the week. Basically the same thing. You listen to this burning of a sportscast for the same takes
[00:04:07] Kenny Thunder: over and over and over again.
[00:04:09] Ronnie Jams: There's usually a whole bunch more that goes with that. But let's get things started by reminding everyone to call the burning of Sportscast Hot take hotline.
[00:04:15] Kenny Thunder: Call that number. Yeah.
[00:04:16] Ronnie Jams: Call and leave your hot takes on the hot take hotline.
[00:04:19] Kenny Thunder: See those digits?
[00:04:20] Ronnie Jams: Yeah. Hippie picks. Anybody else that's in here right now? Let's see.
[00:04:23] Kenny Thunder: Just want everybody to know I spend good money on that and I had to update my credit card today to remind me how much money I spend on that. So please call
[00:04:31] Ronnie Jams: it like came after your secondary source. It came after me. It was like, hey, by the way, tell him to update his credit card information. So,
[00:04:39] Kenny Thunder: yeah, it expired. I waited until the absolute last day because one, that's what I do and two, I hate having to put all my new card details into everything that, you know, I pay for, including this business, which makes us no money. So
[00:04:52] Ronnie Jams: maybe one day. Maybe eventually, one day. But right now, no money. Zero money, sir.
But yes, as you said, let's get back into the Browns here. So a couple of comments already rolling in.
Highlight these as I go through them. Kenny, I
[00:05:09] Kenny Thunder: already highlighted them.
[00:05:10] Ronnie Jams: Yeah, you can't just. You, you, you
[00:05:12] Kenny Thunder: were doing, you were, you were doing the thing. And our crowd, our audience, our listeners, they're trying to get into it. They're trying to go. And you're like, hold on, I got to talk sponsors. I got to talk
[00:05:22] Ronnie Jams: obligations.
[00:05:23] Kenny Thunder: The show was starting without you.
[00:05:25] Ronnie Jams: We have obligations. We can't just. We can't just raw dog it right off the rip.
Listen, first of all, hippie picks. Let's figure out what the hell happened. How long do you have? Because this show's typically about an hour, and I don't think we can figure it out in an hour.
200 rushing yards allowed. Yes, we know it was bad.
Probably the worst defensive effort all year. And that's saying something because we got destroyed by Jacksonville Week 1.
And then typical Brown. Like, you talked about the typical Browns thing. Like, you know, I.
I don't think it's back to. Like, I. I really don't think it's doom and gloom. I think it's just like, we. This is more. You're going to have these ups and downs throughout the year. It's not going to be 5 and 2 the whole season, and we're going to win the division. Like, it's probably going to be ups and downs legitimately if you want to get deep into it. Like, we're gonna be probably under.500. I mean, I hate to break that to everybody right now.
Everybody's still feeling good because we're two games above.500, but it's gonna come back down.
But that being said, like, you're gonna have some good games, you're gonna have some bad games. It's. It's just. Is what it is.
[00:06:34] Kenny Thunder: Today was a bad one. Yeah.
[00:06:35] Ronnie Jams: Yeah, today was a
[00:06:36] Kenny Thunder: bad
[00:06:36] Ronnie Jams: one.
[00:06:36] Kenny Thunder: I'm. I'm with you. That it's not all doom and gloom, right? Like, it's. This isn't the end of the road for. For the Browns. No, it isn't. The. It isn't the same old Browns. Browns are gon. But today the Browns did. Browns and
[00:06:48] Ronnie Jams: they did. Everything that could go wrong went wrong today.
[00:06:51] Kenny Thunder: Literally right out of the gate. And. And truthfully, truthfully, right off the rip, right, it felt like Pittsburgh was playing with a different intensity than the Browns. It was kind of like we just showed up and they were ready to play a.
[00:07:03] Ronnie Jams: Pittsburgh knew this was like a game for the division right now,
[00:07:06] Kenny Thunder: and there was a lot of, like, chippiness going on midweek. The Jared verse comments about, you know, them being a dirty team and, you know, their team saying they're, well, he's going to get his on the game, you know, on the field, whatever.
So there was a lot of, I think, tension building up to today, but Pittsburgh was the team that harnessed it and came out and channeled it and did something with it because the Browns looked like they wanted to be just about anywhere else.
[00:07:30] Ronnie Jams: Well,
[00:07:31] Kenny Thunder: let's
[00:07:31] Ronnie Jams: just. Let's actually start there. Right? So I said, my, my.
I think I had my player to watch this week was Jared Verse. And I said, he made the comments last game and he said, dirty players over there. We're gonna fix it. Whatever. Whatever. Blah. Jared Verse had one stat. He had a single tackle. That's what he did. Two stats. He had a tackle and a QB hit.
[00:07:55] Kenny Thunder: We've been talking about Jared Verse all year long.
Less on the live shows and more on. On our. Our normal weekly preview show. And everybody just keeps saying, you know, relax, it'll be fine. He's. He's paying dividends in team leadership and that's all that matters. But. But we've been ringing the alarm all year long, which is like, guys, I know leadership is important and I'm not discounting that, but you also have to be productive on the field at some point.
[00:08:20] Ronnie Jams: If you put up no stats like that doesn't.
[00:08:23] Kenny Thunder: Regardless of
[00:08:23] Ronnie Jams: how good your leadership abilities are, you're not helping anyone. So.
[00:08:28] Kenny Thunder: Yeah. Yeah. And. And I mean, literally the most exciting thing Jared Verse did today was get dumped on his head.
[00:08:35] Ronnie Jams: Yeah.
I'm still going to hit a few more of these comments. Most fraudulent 5 and 2 team I've ever seen. That's probably fair.
[00:08:42] Kenny Thunder: 5 and 3.
[00:08:43] Ronnie Jams: 5 and 3. Now it's probably fair. I will say this. The team that we played today, not that good either. I mean, I'm being honest with you. I'm. They. They played well today, but we're also a fraudulent 5 and 2 team, so don't take anything away from them. They played a lot better than the Browns did today. They were the better team by far. It wasn't even close.
[00:09:02] Kenny Thunder: Well. Well, that's the thing, right? I mean, obviously the running game was big for them today, but Aaron Rodgers didn't hurt you like they. They. It's not like they threw the ball all around. DK Metcalf had like one catch all day.
[00:09:12] Ronnie Jams: 172 yards in the air for Aaron Rogers.
[00:09:16] Kenny Thunder: Yeah.
And. And their defense, which we knew coming in is. Is pretty good. I mean, they've got a lot of good players and some veteran players, but we just literally, it was like a struggle forever yard and just felt like they couldn't get anything going.
[00:09:32] Ronnie Jams: Yeah, I'll keep going here. Where's it put him in the overall standing? We're. We should be in second place right now. Right. And the Beng third.
[00:09:40] Kenny Thunder: The Bengals are now 5 and 2, so they're probably. I got game Ahead of us. So we'll be third place.
[00:09:47] Ronnie Jams: Yeah.
[00:09:48] Kenny Thunder: Baltimore lost again today. Right. So they're.
[00:09:50] Ronnie Jams: Gotta love that.
[00:09:51] Kenny Thunder: They're. They're the bottom. Oh, and,
[00:09:53] Ronnie Jams: and they announced Lamar Jackson's probably done for the season. So.
[00:09:59] Kenny Thunder: Yeah, I think they said he's gonna have to have surgery on his thumb.
[00:10:02] Ronnie Jams: Surgery on his thumb. He's going on the ir and when they asked Jesse Mentor if that meant his season was over, he said we'll see.
So that doesn't sound good.
So they're. Yeah, they're pretty much done. I mean watch,
[00:10:15] Kenny Thunder: watch me be non plussed.
[00:10:16] Ronnie Jams: Yeah, I feel good about finishing ahead of them because their defense is terrible and now their offense is terrible too. So.
Yeah. That puts us in third place though, to answer your question as far as standings go.
But yeah, let's, let's. I guess we'll start with the offense. We'll get into our typical recap that we do here. Unless you want
[00:10:36] Kenny Thunder: to. I want to, I want to hit this one one more time Real quick about the, the Watson injury and Sanders coming in.
I look, I mean there was, there was. There's a non story there. Shador came in for two plays.
[00:10:50] Ronnie Jams: Yeah. Finished
[00:10:51] Kenny Thunder: a
[00:10:51] Ronnie Jams: drive.
[00:10:51] Kenny Thunder: Right. He did what a backup does, which is try not to put the team in a bad position. And you wait until you have news on what is going to happen to your starter and, and he came back the next series. So you know, it's, it's. I think everyone was excited for a little bit to see Shador but it was very limited action and that drive was a hot mess. I mean they had I think three penalties on that drive.
[00:11:15] Ronnie Jams: The
[00:11:15] Kenny Thunder: game
[00:11:16] Ronnie Jams: really hot. They were, they were like let's see what we could do to give this game away immediately.
[00:11:20] Kenny Thunder: I mean, I think they had, I think they had literally back to back lineman, ineligible man downfield penalties on that drive. So
[00:11:27] Ronnie Jams: it really does feel like sometimes that.
And I know they don't and this is tongue in cheek and it's a joke, but it does feel like they like these games happen. We finally get this big game. We've been saying all week like this is what you want. You want to be in these big games. But it feels like now their leaders got out in front of everybody before they start. Like, hey guys, just so you know, everybody's hopes are up. We got this big game coming. Let's go out there and just absolutely ourselves to start the game so that nobody has any hope whatsoever that we're going to get back into this thing.
[00:11:59] Kenny Thunder: The Browns, the Browns. Browns. Yeah.
Yeah. Night and day from last week where it felt like even though they were down, I felt like they were never out of that game and that they would eventually win.
[00:12:10] Ronnie Jams: This
[00:12:10] Kenny Thunder: felt
[00:12:10] Ronnie Jams: the opposite.
[00:12:11] Kenny Thunder: This, this game, I expected it to be more competitive than it was, but obviously, you know, Pittsburgh was a decent football team. They've won five games as well, six now.
And, but, but I thought the Browns would have some fire. I thought there would be at least, you know, would at least come down to the wire. I didn't necessarily think they were absolutely going to win, no questions. But I thought it was going to be a competitive fight.
[00:12:36] Ronnie Jams: Yeah.
And then.
Yeah. I mean, I don't know.
Hippie picks talking about. The Steelers played a shit game, though. I mean, I don't think you can say somebody played a shit game when they ran for 200 yards. I mean, that's, that's literally like a man's game. That's like, hey, we're just going to line up and we're, we're better than you, so we're just going to keep running the box. We don't have to do anything else. You haven't stopped us one time, so we'll just keep doing this.
[00:13:02] Kenny Thunder: Yeah, I'll be honest, like, I didn't think a whole lot of Jalen Warren coming into this season. The guy I think he was, he was a fine player, but it wasn't like he's maybe one of the top 10 backs in the league. Like,
[00:13:12] Ronnie Jams: they let him play the Browns every week.
[00:13:14] Kenny Thunder: He was pretty impressive today. He's been impressive all year long. I think, I think they said on the broadcast that he was at or just about to go over a thousand scrimmage yards for the year. So,
[00:13:24] Ronnie Jams: yeah,
[00:13:24] Kenny Thunder: has had a good start to this year and looks like he could be a player.
[00:13:28] Ronnie Jams: Yeah, an F Pat Fryermouth with his one yard touchdown run. That put him at exactly 200 yards rushing.
That
[00:13:38] Kenny Thunder: was a, that was a gutsy call on, on that because I think, I don't think they had any timeouts left. I think they pretty much went, went. Whether they were like, this is, you know, the half.
[00:13:50] Ronnie Jams: Yeah,
[00:13:50] Kenny Thunder: but, yeah, agreed.
[00:13:53] Ronnie Jams: But, yeah. Well, let's get it. Talk about the Browns here. DeSean Watson, 27 to 39 for 324 yards. He did have another 300 passing game, but he took eight sacks for 41 yards.
And then he had multiple, well, just the one fumble, I guess. The one lost fumble.
Yeah,
[00:14:14] Kenny Thunder: I, I, I think this is one of those games where stats lie.
I don't think Deshaun, statistically,
[00:14:21] Ronnie Jams: as far as number of yards is the most yards he's ever thrown for is a Cleveland Brown. We scored six points, guys.
What else do you need to know about? Like, the stats don't always tell the whole story.
And I know, I clamor for 300 yard games from this guy because we pay him $230 million guaranteed. And so I say you should be throwing for that weekly.
If he throws for that weekly and we score six points every week, he still sucks.
So
[00:14:49] Kenny Thunder: it was, it was definitely one of those where like the box score looks way better than it was because, you know, again, the same things that have plagued him all year. Right? Ball.
[00:14:58] Ronnie Jams: Keep bringing your comments code. I had to. He's.
We're not trying to shut you down here. Keep them coming, keep them coming.
[00:15:09] Kenny Thunder: Anyway, I mean, it felt like a lot of garbage time throws. Odd decision a little bit by Todd Monkin to keep starters in the game. When the game was out of reach and the Steelers had put in Mason Rudolph and. And they were down three scores. I'm not sure why we kept starters in down to the, the very end.
Even on, even on defense. I think there was a play on that, like, final series, Pittsburgh had the ball where Quincy Williams got up slow. And I'm like, guys, what are we, what are we doing here? What are we trying to prove? Like, I know it's a rivalry game and it's Pittsburgh and you're. Everybody's pissed off because the game didn't go the way you wanted it to. But it doesn't also make sense now to get somebody that you're going to need all your hurt.
[00:15:52] Ronnie Jams: It almost felt like in high school, like when you just had a really poor game. So the coach is like punishment. He's just like, everybody stays in.
He's like, I don't care. Everybody stays in because you guys suck.
[00:16:04] Kenny Thunder: Well, I almost think like there was maybe some, you know, 40 checkers from Todd Monk in there going, well, hey, I can at least pad the Sean stat line and keep that conversation at bay if he throws for 300 yards again.
[00:16:19] Ronnie Jams: He did. He threw for 300 yards
[00:16:20] Kenny Thunder: and he did
[00:16:22] Ronnie Jams: Quinn. Sean Judkins, 11 carries for 25 yards, which is. Is especially disappointing given at halftime. I think he had 10 rushes for 27 yards, so he had one for negative two in the second half, which I know they were down, but yeah, I mean, it's 2.3 yards of carry again. I'm just throwing it out there.
[00:16:44] Kenny Thunder: We're back, baby.
[00:16:45] Ronnie Jams: Yeah. So across the board we are back and Dylan Sampson, no difference whatsoever.
[00:16:51] Kenny Thunder: I think he only got the rock one time today. He had a few catches.
[00:16:54] Ronnie Jams: He had six catches for 62 yards. He did a good job catching the ball out of the backfield.
[00:16:58] Kenny Thunder: But
[00:16:58] Ronnie Jams: as a running back, basically non existent. But he only got one attempt, so
[00:17:02] Kenny Thunder: I only got one carry. And most of those catches came on like that final series or two, you know, as they were trying to drive to score at the end of the game. So.
But yeah, I mean there's this offense was bad all day long. Passing bad, running bad, O line bad. I mean again, like we were talking about the sacks that they've given up all year long.
5 just
[00:17:26] Ronnie Jams: continues
[00:17:27] Kenny Thunder: 8, 5. Like you can't keep giving up sack. Deshaun
[00:17:30] Ronnie Jams: Watson is
[00:17:31] Kenny Thunder: the most
[00:17:31] Ronnie Jams: sacked quarterback in the NFL and this week you gave up another eight.
[00:17:35] Kenny Thunder: Good teams don't. Don't do that.
So. And you just can't continue to. To get away with that very long.
And then, you know, I think it was Bone Man's skeleton key to victory today. To have a cleaner game and clean up the penalties
[00:17:52] Ronnie Jams: he
[00:17:52] Kenny Thunder: called for. He
[00:17:53] Ronnie Jams: said, he said we had to have five turnover. I'm sorry. Five turnovers, five penalties or less. We almost doubled that up. We had nine for 85.
[00:18:01] Kenny Thunder: Nine for 85. So
[00:18:03] Ronnie Jams: you're the MO. You're one of the most penalized teams in the NFL and you give up the most sacks. It's recipe for disaster.
[00:18:08] Kenny Thunder: Everything that could go wrong went wrong.
[00:18:10] Ronnie Jams: Yeah.
Continuing down here on offense, our young receivers. Harold Fannin Jr. 10 receptions for 154 yards.
[00:18:19] Kenny Thunder: He's good.
[00:18:19] Ronnie Jams: Yeah. That's a good day. That's not
[00:18:22] Kenny Thunder: bad. He's. That guy's pretty good.
It's kind of amazing that it's taken Todd Monken this long to figure out like that he should be a football. We should probably get him the ball,
[00:18:30] Ronnie Jams: but I don't know, you know, now we got him the ball and we scored six points and we got destroyed. So
[00:18:36] Kenny Thunder: side note and unpaid advertisement, but I think I got something in the mail from Van's tires. That is you get a dollar per yard that Harold Fannin has in a game off at any point during the season for like $154 off
[00:18:51] Ronnie Jams: of tires.
[00:18:52] Kenny Thunder: So this might be a good for a winner set of tires. This might be a good game to pull the trigger.
[00:18:57] Ronnie Jams: Yeah.
Good job. Harold Fannin.
That's always good.
[00:19:02] Kenny Thunder: I
[00:19:03] Ronnie Jams: hope that everybody goes and buys tires from vans now and they're like, son of a bitch.
Dylan Sampson, six receptions for 62 yards, like we mentioned. Casey Concepcion, three for 37. Denzel Boston, six for 37, and then just kind of random onesie twosies here the rest of the way. But yeah, the, the young receiving corps continued to play well.
I think that they make desean Watson look better than he even is, which, if you've listened to us all year, we're highly unimpressed with desean Watson.
But this, this young receiving core is legit. I think if we can get a solid quarterback behind them. And I'm not even talking what desean Watson was supposed to be when he came here, I'm just saying if we have a solid quarterback behind them, I mean, that's a good, good young receiving core that you have.
[00:19:54] Kenny Thunder: And we can keep having this conversation right about every week because Deshaun Watson likely won't be here next year. So, yeah, it's nice to pick up a few wins along the way, but all this does is continue to set the Browns back long term because you don't know what you have in Shador Sanders. You don't know what you have in Dylan Gabriel. These college quarterbacks, anybody's guess which one of them is going to be good? Some of the teams that they're on now don't even know if they're any good. So, you know, do we end up in a situation where you're going after some other bridge veteran quarterback again next year? Like, it's, it's, it's all just,
[00:20:30] Ronnie Jams: you know, who's going to need another contract.
Kirk Cousins,
[00:20:35] Kenny Thunder: his age, is
[00:20:36] Ronnie Jams: real good at that stuff.
[00:20:37] Kenny Thunder: It's all just so frustrating because it does feel like you have, like you said, more talent on this offense. Like there are things, there are building blocks, foundational pieces. Now.
[00:20:45] Ronnie Jams: Yeah, right now this team would be so much better.
[00:20:49] Kenny Thunder: You actually do have some draft capital and, like, resources to work with. So, like, this team can continue to get better, but you're only going to go as far as you can go with a bad quarterback, and that's going to continue to be a question mark for these guys.
[00:21:02] Ronnie Jams: Yeah, well. And, yeah, and it's, it's just frustrating because especially with the, the quarterback crop coming out of the college ranks this year. I mean, everybody's taking a dive. Nobody looks good.
Like, why.
To me, it's more pressing now than ever that you either throw Shador or Dylan Gabriel out there. I don't even really care at this point which one it is. And I. We do not like Dylan Gabriel.
However, I Don't even care which one it is. Like, desean Watson really shouldn't be playing this year because again, we understand they're five and three right now. They're a game out of the division lead. Whatever. However you want to spin that this team is not by. By the end of the year, they're not going to be competing for the division.
[00:21:50] Kenny Thunder: Well, I would say, I mean, use Pittsburgh as your measuring stick, right? Are they one of the. The best teams in the NFL? No, but they're not bad necessarily either. So right there somewhere in the middle to the top half, they're probably in that, like, you know, 15 to 12 range, right?
[00:22:06] Ronnie Jams: Ish.
[00:22:06] Kenny Thunder: Yeah. And today you couldn't play with them. So if you can't play with a team that's mediocre to above average, you know, there's not a lot of potential here for you to make noise in the playoffs or do anything spectacular. So, you know, this season should continue to be about developing young talent and figuring out where you're gonna go.
[00:22:29] Ronnie Jams: Yeah, I like that. Big Dudog threw our nickname out. Hawaii five O.
Yeah, I don't know. I just go over the defensive side because the offense is frustrating and we are. This is what we're going to be. Like you said this conversation is going to happen every week for the rest of the season because what are we doing?
But on defense here, Carson. Swedish continued to just do his thing. I mean, I know he's probably the lone bright spot. Maybe Emmanuel McNeil. Warren, I would throw in there too, because he was all over the place from the safety position this week. Nine tackles for him, 10 for Carson.
But
[00:23:10] Kenny Thunder: Zell made a great play on the interception.
[00:23:12] Ronnie Jams: Yeah. Yes. Good play
[00:23:13] Kenny Thunder: there. Spectacular.
[00:23:15] Ronnie Jams: But like, overall. And what is that? Like two out of the last three games he's got an interception or is it last
[00:23:20] Kenny Thunder: two? I think he's at three on the season, so.
[00:23:22] Ronnie Jams: Yeah, so it continues to just turn back the clocks. Like this guy is ageless. He just.
He hits the third. He's 30 now, right? So he hits the 30 year mark and he's
[00:23:34] Kenny Thunder: like eighth or ninth year in the league. So, yeah,
[00:23:36] Ronnie Jams: like, doesn't matter. I'm still just as good as I always was.
But overall, I mean. Pretty uninspired day by the defense.
[00:23:45] Kenny Thunder: Well, yeah, like I said at the start, the, the just the lack of intensity, it just felt like they wanted to be anywhere but there. And, and you know, I know like Carson is, is banged up, so he's, he's making gritty effort to be out there. Every week and still producing at a high level.
But you're not getting, I think, the. The best he can be at this point.
And they might be starting to need to have a conversation about, do we, you know, take him. Take him and rest him till he is healthy.
It's hard to do when you're, you know, still in the hunt. But, yeah, you know, I don't. I would hate to see something bad happen to him playing in what probably is a meaningless season.
[00:24:29] Ronnie Jams: Yeah, I like the. Ward made a great play on dk. Shitty hands. That was. That's good comment.
For how big that guy is. He cannot squeeze a football.
This is really bad at it.
[00:24:44] Kenny Thunder: It's. It's kind of amazing.
[00:24:48] Ronnie Jams: And then, you know, I'll just throw this out there. Corey Bajorquez just continues to dominate from the punter position. Just put three inside the 20 today.
[00:24:58] Kenny Thunder: We love our specials. And Andre Schmidt, he was another bright
[00:25:01] Ronnie Jams: spot. Perfect. Two for two. The only points on the day.
[00:25:04] Kenny Thunder: As good as it gets.
[00:25:05] Ronnie Jams: And the one, the one before.
Was it before half?
1. One of them was pretty clutch. Like, did we kick one right before half? And then we. Yeah, it was before half. Because then we gave him 40 seconds left. We're
[00:25:17] Kenny Thunder: like, we
[00:25:17] Ronnie Jams: should go into the locker room. Pretty close. Nah,
[00:25:19] Kenny Thunder: nah,
[00:25:20] Ronnie Jams: nah. We wanted to give him a touchdown before.
Yeah.
[00:25:23] Kenny Thunder: Not like going to totally dismantle the. The coaching effort today, but the last time that they had the ball when the game was semi close, I thought it was interesting to not kick the field goal there just to draw the score closer, knowing you're going to have a couple more possessions. I felt like they went for it early to try and get in the end zone there and then obviously failed. So.
[00:25:47] Ronnie Jams: Yeah, yeah, I mean, that throw that one up there. That is a big problem.
If you show up to a division game with no energy at this point in the season, you guys are both tied for the division lead.
Yeah. Huge problem.
However, I do think.
I know this one's tough for me right now because I do think that Todd Monkin as a whole is. Is. He has them playing more inspired football this season. But out of the, what, eight games so far this season, we have two were complete duds. Like, the first game and this game were complete duds. Like, it was like we didn't even want to be there.
[00:26:30] Kenny Thunder: And you lost to a bad jets team.
[00:26:33] Ronnie Jams: Fair. Yeah.
[00:26:34] Kenny Thunder: Look, I have been very cautious around Todd Monkin and everybody, everybody,
[00:26:42] Ronnie Jams: I saw you smiling there.
[00:26:43] Kenny Thunder: You're like,
[00:26:43] Ronnie Jams: yeah, here comes.
[00:26:44] Kenny Thunder: Because everybody loves the guy and because he won five games out of the gate, like, it all looks good, guys. This feels a lot like Kevin Stefanski to me.
Anybody that's new coming in offers a breath of fresh air. They've been benefactors of an EAS schedule. We knew that coming into the season. It was one of the easiest strength of schedule wise in the NFL.
And they did add talent. They added legitimate talent to this offense this year, and you've seen some of that already.
This team is very, very fortunate, I think, to have won five games. Now, look, I'm not saying it's over for Todd, but like, we're. It's far from it. But.
But it will be really interesting to see how this team responds now because to this point, this. The level of adversity this team has faced has been pretty slight and we've seen them kind of grow week over week in some of the individual facets of the game.
This was the first kind of slap in the face, right? Like, does this team take this personal or do the. Does the old culture of the Browns are. The Browns start to creep in now? Do you start to see a drop off? Do you start to see guys, when they get into that third and fourth quarter go, you know, I'm still getting paid either way and still
[00:27:57] Ronnie Jams: hang on to this.
[00:27:58] Kenny Thunder: That's what's going to determine whether or not Todd Monken is as good as everyone thinks he is right now is if he can keep this team engaged and keep this team moving in the right direction all season. Because it's going to get harder. They're going to lose more games.
[00:28:12] Ronnie Jams: That's all. That's all really fair commentary. I mean, these are the moments when you find out, like, it's easy because we've been winning throughout the season.
[00:28:21] Kenny Thunder: Right?
[00:28:22] Ronnie Jams: But that's
[00:28:22] Kenny Thunder: what Bones said last week about DeSean Watson. He was like, this is the first. Deshaun had a great press conference after the game or an interview on the field after the game. It was the first time that he had not used I. And we talked about the team and all his players. And it's really easy to be a good teammate when things are going well and when you're winning games, it's. It's when things suck that your true color start to come out. And that's what we've seen most of the. From the Sean to this point. But.
But look, it's going to be the. The whole group now, right? Like, Todd Monkin's got to dig deep and figure out what works with this group.
There's obviously things conceptually, schematically that they got to get right and get fixed.
This, this running game is. Is really bad.
And, and the defense, back to back week now, weeks now, this. This aggressive front has been exposed a little bit.
And. And I think that's the. The final thing. Right. We talked about easy schedule, fresh breath, new talent. The. The other thing that they've benefited from is the fact that because it's a new organization, there isn't a lot of tape on this team. Now you're getting to the midpoint of the season. Teams are starting to figure out what you do well and what you do poorly, and you're starting to see that turn into a game like today.
[00:29:35] Ronnie Jams: Well, and that goes for all the coaches, not just Todd Monk, and that goes for defensive coordinator. That's everybody. So, yeah, to your point, you know, now. Now is when we start to figure out if we made good decisions in the coaching cycle this year.
[00:29:52] Kenny Thunder: There's our first Phil Jackson mention.
[00:29:54] Ronnie Jams: There it is.
Any big injuries this week?
[00:30:01] Kenny Thunder: I like to
[00:30:01] Ronnie Jams: throw. I like to throw this to you because you're the worst at keeping track of the injuries.
[00:30:07] Kenny Thunder: I don't know that there was anything significant in this game. Tyson Campbell came out for like a minute, but I think he came back.
I will say Campbell from the Lions. I don't know if everyone saw that or saw the clips on social media.
Pretty scary hit where it looks like a spinal injury. They were saying Amy was carted off the field.
Was saying that there was no, you know, movement or feeling in the extremities. Pretty. Pretty ugly scene at that game. So I guess just, you know, prayers up for that guy. I hope he's okay. You hate to see something like that.
I think, you know, is it. We just played the Steelers. The Ryan Shazier thing last time, I
[00:30:42] Ronnie Jams: can remember one that bad. It's Ryan
[00:30:44] Kenny Thunder: and even J. O. Right. Like we saw our own guy go down with something very, very serious. So, you know, just. You hope. Hope he's okay after that.
[00:30:53] Ronnie Jams: Absolutely.
But yeah, let's go ahead.
Let's. Let's do our nominees for the dog of the week.
Kenny, we'll start with you. We'll give you. We'll give you one more. I think we've given you two or three in a row, but I felt like I picked on you pretty much all last year. So
[00:31:09] Kenny Thunder: I'll go. Harold Fanning Jr. There.
[00:31:12] Ronnie Jams: Yeah. As bone would call him.
Yeah. So I'll remind you of stats again here. Harold Fannin Jr. 10 receptions, 154 yards. I think that'll do it. That's probably the dog of the week.
[00:31:25] Kenny Thunder: I mean, I'd almost like to abstain from dog of the week this week because the effort. You
[00:31:29] Ronnie Jams: always want to abstain. Anytime
[00:31:30] Kenny Thunder: we lose
[00:31:30] Ronnie Jams: bad, you're like, no, pretty
[00:31:32] Kenny Thunder: poor.
[00:31:33] Ronnie Jams: I can't wait till the end of the year when you nominate the fans, which they won. They won once.
I'm gonna go.
Yeah. I mean, it is difficult. There's slim pickings here.
I'm actually gonna go as much as we said, he was ineffective in the run game. I'm gonna go Dylan Sampson because running back with six receptions for 62 yards is pretty solid work. So I'll go Dylan Sampson. Who are we gonna give? Bone.
Bone forgot the phone is in. So we just gotta add a third one here.
[00:32:06] Kenny Thunder: Let's go say Jared Verse for getting choke slammed.
[00:32:10] Ronnie Jams: Oh,
[00:32:10] Kenny Thunder: my God.
I was gonna say maybe Zell with the pick.
[00:32:14] Ronnie Jams: All right, we'll go Denzel Ward. That works. He ain't gonna win, but that's okay.
And then final thoughts this week, Kenny, you want me to go or you want to go?
[00:32:25] Kenny Thunder: Yeah, you can go first.
[00:32:27] Ronnie Jams: My final thoughts are pretty simple. And this is a short show because obviously there's not a lot of good stuff to talk about this week. It was just a bad game start to finish.
There was really no life.
This isn't part of my final thoughts, but I'm just saying, like, that's why the show is so short, is because there's really nothing to talk about. Bad game, move on.
But my final thought of the week is this. You talked about being totally non plussed, right?
That's fair. Kenny. Kenny likes that. Don't. Don't blow his head up bigger than it needs to be.
No, but. So you talked about being non plus. That was your whole start to the show, right? You're like, this is what I expect. This is what it is.
I. So we had a. A. My niece's birthday party was today. Basically the same. Same time as the Browns. No complaints there. I'm not one of the people that's like, we can't have birthday parties during Brown's game. I think that's ridiculous. But the first thing that happened, we pulled into the parking lot, right?
Is my father in law comes over to me, goes, big game today. And I was like, they're going to lose pretty bad.
And he was like, oh, really? They've been playing well. And I was like, define well, because I don't know, we've been playing pretty Lucky, we've had a lot of things go our way this season, but if you're legitimately watching every game this year, I don't know how anybody can sit there and, and confidently say, like, you came into this game just expecting them to either win or, like, especially decisively. Like, I would say maybe if it was in another messy game and it was close in the end, like, okay. But I heard so many people this week talk about how they were going to have this decisive win over the Steelers. I'm just like, guys, let's just relax a little bit because I love the Browns and I love winning and I like that we're five and two coming into this, but I also have seen every single game and I see what happens and I see the way the offense still struggles every single game for three and a half quarters to get going this week for four quarters.
And I, I just, I see it all the time. The defense cannot carry you to that many wins. You have to have some offense. You can't score no points.
And it's just this team has a lot of work to do.
So I think, you know, our, our buddy Matt from Nashville has been saying, embrace the shake all season long. We have all these different sayings from, from his hero's journey and everything else. I think I already named this episode Shake like an Earthquake, because that's basically what it was. Today is like we're trying to embrace the shake, but when it, when there's an earthquake, everybody panics
[00:35:22] Kenny Thunder: and dies
[00:35:23] Ronnie Jams: and dies. So, yeah, I mean, I don't know.
Enjoy it the rest of the season. I think that there are going to be a few more wins. Like we said earlier, it's not doom and gloom, but I just don't think this team is good enough to compete yet. I don't think we're going to be anywhere near the division when it's all said and done. And I do not think this team will make the playoffs. So just temper expectations the rest of the way and get the young guys involved. Get some of these young quarterbacks out there.
That's it. That's my final thought.
[00:35:54] Kenny Thunder: My final thought is I.
I like food.
I like food a lot.
[00:36:04] Ronnie Jams: That's why it's such a big deal that you're down.
[00:36:07] Kenny Thunder: I've. I've lost 160 pounds in the last, let's call it 18 months.
Lost 160 pounds. Still fat.
Still got a ways to go because I like food.
And it wasn't that I didn't know I was eating poorly right. Like I could drink eight sodas over the course of a day, not think anything of it. I love pop and maybe a big glass of orange juice or apple juice.
Sauces, slather everything and ranch. Something
[00:36:40] Ronnie Jams: about sugar.
[00:36:43] Kenny Thunder: Just delicious stuff, right? And I kind of, I kind of lived for food and I still do to an extent. It's, it's one of my favorite things, right? Especially in a social setting where you're either breaking bread with family or friends.
I really, a lot of my, my life revolved around food.
And you know, at some point I had to say, like, that was probably going to kill me because what I had realized was I was eating a lot of empty calories.
And I think that's what this season is. I
[00:37:13] Ronnie Jams: like this analogy. I like where this is going.
[00:37:15] Kenny Thunder: So to give you another moniker along with Embrace the Shake and all the things we've been talking about this year is, I think this year is full of empty calories. It, it always feels good to have a king size Kit Kat, but it's not doing anything for you. It's not making you healthy.
[00:37:33] Ronnie Jams: Halloween
[00:37:33] Kenny Thunder: just filling your belly.
[00:37:35] Ronnie Jams: I might go have one of those right
[00:37:36] Kenny Thunder: now.
It feels good in the moment, right? It feels like 5 and 2 felt really good in the moment. And we were feeling like, yeah, this is great, but those five wins were empty calories born out of unsustainable, unsustainable actions that, that aren't things that good football teams do. So, and again, at the end of the day, if they win seven games this year, eight games this year, nine games this year, even if they continue to stay in the hunt, they're not going very far once they get there.
And to that I say, like, it might feel good in the moment, but I don't know what that does for you long term. I don't know what that does for you next year. You have a huge gaping hole at quarterback that we don't know how we're going to fix and we just kind of keep like walking away from it like it doesn't matter because we're winning and winning's all that matters. But I agree that, like, winning is important, but I want to win sustainably. I want to win year over year. I want to compete for division crowns and, and every win that you get with desean Watson right now is just an empty
[00:38:45] Ronnie Jams: calorie.
[00:38:46] Kenny Thunder: It's an empty calories kicking the can down the road into something that's not going to materialize into a future plan for this football team. So, you know, I, again, my final Thought is, is that's what this season is. That's what these wins are right now is, is empty calories. They're. They're a king size Reese cup or a kit Kat or A, a 2 liter soda in one sitting. That's, that's, that's what this is.
[00:39:10] Ronnie Jams: What is going on with you and hippie?
He loves you.
He's the only person that likes you in the whole world.
[00:39:23] Kenny Thunder: Me and hippie, we're dogs, you know? Yeah,
[00:39:26] Ronnie Jams: I like that.
[00:39:26] Kenny Thunder: Big dog called him paper dogs, but you know, hippie's a real one.
[00:39:30] Ronnie Jams: I like that. He told you a dog's got to eat. Big dog did after. You're talking about empty calories.
Yeah, I actually like that analogy. Empty calories, that's what this season is. Feels good in the moment, but it's not gonna feel good later.
We're gonna have to work real hard to come back.
[00:39:49] Kenny Thunder: You're gonna lose 160 pounds and you're still gonna be fat. That's the problem.
[00:39:53] Ronnie Jams: Damn, that feels bad.
Just bringing it home. I just, you know, you know, I couldn't have said it better myself.
But with that, let
[00:40:07] Kenny Thunder: me remind everybody,
[00:40:08] Ronnie Jams: actually, before
[00:40:09] Kenny Thunder: we been missing all night, he had to throw in a final troll.
[00:40:18] Ronnie Jams: And before we get, before we wrap things up here, I do want to shout out to Rod Thompson on Facebook, Rod, dog's been chiming in all night. It's been along the same lines of these other comments, so I haven't called most of them out, but he's been chiming in all night, so we appreciate that.
I was a little disappointed to see Raul come in so late because he's always just got the most off the wall things. He's
[00:40:40] Kenny Thunder: always lighting us
[00:40:40] Ronnie Jams: up. What are you gonna do now with that? Let me remind everybody to call the burninger sportscast hot take hotline.
[00:40:45] Kenny Thunder: Yeah, call that number that I know it's
[00:40:47] Ronnie Jams: gonna leave your hot takes on the hot take hotline. Rod, Hippie, Big dudog, Raul. Everybody else commenting, go ahead and call the hot take hotline and actually leave us a hot take here.
[00:40:57] Kenny Thunder: Yeah,
[00:40:58] Ronnie Jams: Kenny's paying for it.
[00:40:59] Kenny Thunder: Yeah, I'm paying for it. And you got extra time this week because.
Because we won't record our normal show till Wednesday. So
[00:41:05] Ronnie Jams: yeah, we'll get there in a minute and just shut up. 3302-2780-8133-0227-808-1330, 227881 and be sure to check out our gear. Www.thetappinmedia.com backslash shop.
That'll do it for us. Kenny, what can we expect this week?
[00:41:25] Kenny Thunder: I'll tell you what we can expect this week. Our normal weekly preview show that's normally out on Thursdays will be out on Friday this week. So scheduling note, just some family stuff this week.
So we will have a programming delay but we will be back with that preview and a another interview with the Browns backers group and of course all the other things that you listen to the Burning Sportscast for like the same takes over and over, over and over. That's
[00:41:49] Ronnie Jams: what we do.
We're gonna have the, you know, we're gonna take it to the Bone Zone this week and Bone's gonna give you his thoughts on the game in our our weekly preview episode because he's not here to join us live. And it's probably gonna be all the same things we said tonight.
So tune in for that. It's always fun.
[00:42:08] Kenny Thunder: The Bone Zone always goes off the rails.
[00:42:10] Ronnie Jams: Yeah. But check us out on social media. Tapping Media is on Facebook X and Instagram at the Tap Media and Burning River Sportscast. That's. That's this podcast. We're on Facebook, Instagram, tick tock, YouTube and buzzer Burning Sportscast. And we are an X as well at the Handle at Burning Over Pod. You find our podcast wherever you get your podcast. Talking to Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Stitcher, Pandora, iHeartRadio Pocket, Cast Castro Good Pods where we are a number one rank
[00:42:35] Kenny Thunder: number
[00:42:35] Ronnie Jams: one podcast and so many more reviews are the best thing you can do to help our podcast grow. Please keep supporting and we'll continue to bring you the best damn Cleveland Browns pod in the land.
That's it.
That's what we got tonight. Well, thank you.
Play me out, Jimmy.
[00:42:54] Kenny Thunder: Don't just be a part of the problem. Be the whole damn problem.
[00:42:56] Ronnie Jams: I think your cues are the whole damn problem.
But only you can prevent river fires. Burning River Sportscast.
[00:43:05] Kenny Thunder: Good
[00:43:06] Ronnie Jams: night, Cleveland. Good night, Akron.
Sam, It.
