Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, Browns fans.
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[00:01:18] Speaker B: Time for the Burning river sportscast. Former Raven, Bronco and Jet, the man we all thought was washed up and flaccid. Turns out he's still the original cool Joe Flacco. And he's got the city so engorged and ready to burst that practically every doctor in the country is worried. Cool Joe has led this team with a calm and a poise that many Browns fans haven't seen in ages. Do you believe in miracles? Because frumpy Joe certainly has me believing that this team could compete with any of the potential playoff teams heading into the offseason. Could this team truly be a team of destiny? Does this motley crew have what it takes to withstand injuries and keep playing next man of football? Or will the attrition of the NFL simply be too much to overcome as the Browns head into the home stretch plagued by injuries, this team is teetering on the edge of greatness. But we all know how quickly things can change in the CLE, and we'll break down the rest for you next on the Burning river sportscast.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: If there's a publicly paid for restroom, we will deface it with random things, human nature.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: I'm going to do my best to marginalize my emotion and try to think practically about this and rationally about this, but Joe Flaggle is the best quarterback ever seen a Brown school ever. Brown's jersey, ever.
He's now the second winningest quarterback in Brown Stadium in Brown's history, putting me at ten and two.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: That's a pretty good record. Who the hell is better than ten and two?
[00:03:03] Speaker B: Baker Mayfield. But you don't have to talk about that.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: I'm just saying, like, Baker Mayfield played for four years for the Browns. He should have more than ten.
[00:03:13] Speaker C: Joe Blacko didn't play for the team.
[00:03:18] Speaker B: He is the quarterback of the future.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: He's 38, but he doesn't look 38.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: No, he looks 48.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: I did say last week he looks like Kevin Stefanci's dad.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: This guy doesn't care about anything but football. And the thing is, we've been butt football.
He loves butt football.
[00:03:40] Speaker A: Let me bang my wife real quick and go join the NFL.
[00:03:45] Speaker D: But you know something?
As we were going through the aggravation of seeing Kevin Stefanski try to be the smartest guy on the field, which he loves to do, a couple times a game, that at one point, I look at my friend Steve, who's been with us. We've been kind of the last two survivors of the original group. And we were like, you know, this is still a hell of a lot better than the Owen 16 year.
And there are even the craziest people going. You know, if the Bears went out, they could make the playoffs at nine and eight. So you start to hear some of that whispering. They're looking at this as their toughest game for the rest of their season.
And I think we're looking at it. I think most of us, especially with the Browns backers, are kind of going, two more wins.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: Why don't we show notes?
[00:04:33] Speaker A: I specifically.
[00:04:36] Speaker B: Welcome into the burning river sportscast, presented by tapping media and brought to you by seaside events as the official cruise event provider of the Cleveland Browns and organizer of the Browns fan cruise. I'm Kenny Thunder, back from sabbatical and ready to rock and roll with my merry band of thieves, joined as always, by the man with more bruises than evil Knievel's knee, red hot Ronnie jams. Look over there, it's hangman. No, it's origami. Nay, it's the big Bone man back in the corner booth where he belongs. Bone man, please tell us what you prefer, playing kids paper games or playing with kids.
[00:05:12] Speaker C: Playing paper games.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: Question mark. There's a question mark on that.
[00:05:17] Speaker B: Back to red hot. Two questions.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: What's up?
[00:05:19] Speaker B: On the next episode of the verdict of sports guest. Is there a special guest that you are looking forward to talking with this week?
[00:05:24] Speaker A: Like, this week?
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Yeah, this show.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: No, there's not.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: No, there's no one. No, we don't have any guests on this week.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: No, we don't have any Browns fan cruise guests this week.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: I didn't say Browns fan cruise guests.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: We could talk to the Browns backers. I like them.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: They're cool.
And number two, where can all of our listeners find all the burning river sports guests? Exclusive interviews with Browns backers from around the country and former Cleveland Browns players all season long in preparation for what is going to be a majestic and cathartic boat party next year.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: You can find our podcast wherever you get your podcast, I'm talking Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, podcast, Castro, good pods and so many more. And don't forget to subscribe on YouTube. That's where you can find the video version of these interviews. Sure can, as well as our video podcast. The only place you can find our video podcast and check us out on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Our handle for all those, including YouTube, is at burning river sportscast and we are on X, the artist formerly known as Twitter, as well with the handle at burning River Pod. While you're at it, check out our merch ww thetainmedia.com backslash shop. We've got all kinds of stuff in the shop. We've got the cruise line, the chub line, cold weather gear. I got a hoodie on today. It's pretty dope.
That's all there. Make sure you check it out. You got a hawaiian shirt? We have different vibes today.
[00:06:39] Speaker B: It's not hawaiian.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: It's macho man Randy Savage on a hawaiian shirt. Cream always rises to the top. Yeah, but, yeah, check out our gear. We're constantly adding stuff. It's the holiday season. Everyone wants something. Dope ass always rise. We understand.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: To the top.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: Thank you.
But here's the deal. So for this week, the Browns came back home and Joe Flacco and the boys have us all believing again. The feeling with Browns fans right now couldn't be further from the feeling we had after they concluded their two game west coast swing going owen two in embarrassing fashion. We are now back in the driver's seat and looking to be on the fast track to a playoff berth. We will get to all of that and so much more. We got a solid show planned for everybody. You want to know what we're talking about today, Kenny?
[00:07:23] Speaker B: Please tell us.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: All right, we got a week 14 recap of that glorious home victory that felt oh so nice. An interview with the Chicagoland Browns backers. Due to scheduling conflicts, we will not have a Cleveland Browns fan cruise alumni interview this week, but we will be back to those and have another one for you next week.
[00:07:41] Speaker B: But they can always go back and listen to the Josh Cribs interview for last week.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: Yeah, you can listen to Josh Cribs for last week. That's still really good one. That was fantastic. But then we will close things out this week with a week 15 preview for the game against the Chicago Bears. Strap in and strap on because this show might get a little freaky. Yeah. So let's start things out with the burning river news story of the weekend.
All right, so last week and the week before, actually, we talked about soccer. I know that it's usually rare. You okay over there? It's usually rare here. But we did talk about soccer two weeks in a row because in the MLS, the Columbus Crew had the championship game this past Saturday against LAFC. And they won, as I understand, is.
[00:08:53] Speaker B: That the Los Angeles football club.
[00:08:55] Speaker A: Los Angeles football Club. And they won that game in Columbus. And I think for this, we need to go to Bone man, our resident MLS correspondent, for kind of a recap on this game. Bone, what do you got for us?
[00:09:10] Speaker C: Okay, so in full disclosure, I was replacing a ceiling exhaust fan in my bathroom as I was watching this game.
[00:09:18] Speaker A: So paying very close attention so you could give a complete rundown of what happened.
[00:09:23] Speaker C: I did see the first goal, and they scored quickly, the crew, and then they scored quickly again. So it was 20 in the first half, and they held onto that lead throughout the game.
Second half, I believe it was the leading score of LAFC, scored a goal and made it to one.
And in extra time, I think they had seven minutes of extra time. So they added on to the end of the.
[00:09:44] Speaker A: Kenny gave me the look like, what the fuck is extra time?
[00:09:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I know what extra time is. It's extra time.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: What is it?
[00:09:50] Speaker B: Is it extra time that they get penalized for?
[00:09:54] Speaker C: It was like, stoppage time.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Yeah, there you go. It's stoppage time. Go ahead. Anyways, move on.
[00:09:58] Speaker C: Yeah. So in the stoppage time, it was getting know and the other team didn't score. So the Columbus crew won and it was great. And it's fantastic. And Dee Haslam went out there and accepted the trophy and then handed off to the team.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: All right, now the Haslams just need to bring one back to Columbus.
[00:10:12] Speaker C: Yeah. The champions.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: So speaking of this game. And this was in Columbus, right?
[00:10:17] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: I was driving back from Tennessee with my wife from our little vacation, and when the news broke that the crew had won, I was like, oh, no, we're about to drive through Columbus. And flashes of the 2016.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: Just like, oh, no.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: The craziness of the Cabs being everybody out in the streets and all the roads were closed. And I was like, we might want to take a detour? We drove straight through Columbus. It was like everyone was asleep.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: Well, one, it's not a Cleveland team winning a championship. And two, soccer, while it's growing in the US, still hasn't quite caught on.
[00:10:53] Speaker C: I was getting updates from the guy at work, as I've been calling him, our correspondence correspondent. Yeah, he went to the game and he had tickets and he enjoyed it. And he said he had a great time. And he sent me some pretty cool videos. They had big parades and know, leading to the stadium.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Maybe that'll be, I don't know, when soccer actually starts, but, like, if they start before football season, that could be an off season. Burning river sportscast thing to do is go to a Columbus crew game with guy from work.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: We follow the crew.
[00:11:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
I like it. I like it. And then in other news, we are still running our burning river sportscast holiday food drive right now in partnership with the Greater Cleveland Food bank. So make sure you check our social medias for information on that. We are more than halfway to our goal, which I am proud to announce. Our goal is $1,000 year. We started out kind of modest.
We probably could have done more, but we wanted to give ourselves an achievable goal to start out here. We want to dip our toes a little bit.
[00:11:56] Speaker B: We don't like to lose.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: Yeah. And we can exceed it. And I can change the goal anytime I want and say, you guys gave us 1000. Let's go to 10,000. Wow. But anyways, we're a little bit more than halfway to our goal, so make sure you check out our socials for information.
Also, the show notes will have a link that you can go straight to the donation page and give some money to the greater Cleveland food Bank.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: Yeah, Greater Cleveland food Bank. Great people do great work. Let's take care of them like they take care of the community.
Is that everything you had for the Bringer Renew story of the week?
[00:12:27] Speaker A: That's it. That's all I got.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: I had one thing I just wanted to talk about. Let's talk about, before we get into football and all the good stuff we're going to talk about today, I just have to say. What year is it?
[00:12:35] Speaker A: 2023.
[00:12:36] Speaker B: 2023. As I'm driving back from Tennessee this weekend, made a few stops at rest areas.
At what point have we evolved past, like F. Joe Biden, F. Trump? Call Harry for a good time. Written all over bathroom.
[00:12:58] Speaker A: Everywhere.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: Every stall that I was in, I was like, who? A, takes the time to do this and b, like, why I think the.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: Better question here is who a takes the time to walk down the line of stalls? Just check every battle it's in. Every single one. What the hell?
[00:13:12] Speaker B: I was never one that was in. I was out there.
[00:13:14] Speaker C: Where's the creativity?
[00:13:17] Speaker B: Well, I'm just like, why are we still doing this?
[00:13:19] Speaker A: I don't know, guys, I'm going to be honest with you. The call for a good time, one still gets me every time I see it. I'm like, I used to work with.
[00:13:28] Speaker C: A guy, a good friend of mine, his name's Gil, and he actually delights in finding great quotes on the side of bathroom walls and, like, porta potties. And I will get random pictures and messages from him.
[00:13:41] Speaker B: Okay, if you're going to be artistic about it, and it's like graffiti, like, you put something profound and thoughtful on the stall. I could almost get on board with that. But why does every stall say f Trump and f Joe Biden 1400 times?
[00:13:56] Speaker A: Those ones are the worst. Because it's just the most unoriginal. Now call for a good time. That's a classic. But just f whoever, any moment, CBAs is going to at least come up with, like, a good joke about Joe Biden or Donald Trump and put it on there so I can read it and be like, that was funny.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: But that's not what's in there.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: It's just a bunch of scribbles about take. I would even take something stupid like, donald Trump wears aupe. I accept that's better than F Donald Trump.
[00:14:24] Speaker B: That would be more.
But, like, who are these people and what are they doing? How long are they staying in stalls? And they're just like, I'm writing this.
I've never had the urge to write on a stall wall before.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: I bet it's you.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: And now I get my today. Everybody has a smartphone.
[00:14:39] Speaker A: I bet it's you. You're the guy.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: Don't you just look at your phone while you go?
[00:14:42] Speaker A: Number.
[00:14:43] Speaker C: Carry a sharpie.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: You're the guy. I bet it's Kenny.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: It wasn't me.
[00:14:49] Speaker A: She's offended.
[00:14:50] Speaker B: I just was like, this feels like something that was, like, 25 years ago, but it's still going on today.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: If there's a publicly paid for restroom, we will deface it. Random things, human nature. Okay, destructo. Anyways, that'll take us to the week 14 recap.
All right, guys, so the Cleveland Browns bounced back in a big way and took care of sunshine and the Jacksonville five two to move to eight and five. So they're 30. Get it the Jackson five, Jacksonville 5252. The 52 men on football I don't know. I lost you guys.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: You're really stretching there.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: You should put that on a bathroom stall.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: Yeah. This is much more original than F Joe Biden or F Donald Trump. Anyways, Browns won 31 27, now have a 79% chance to make the playoffs. Pittsburgh and all these other teams losing that needed to lose for us to have better chances. So it was a good week for the Browns.
It's good. But as always, we will start with our opponents here, the Jacksonville Jaguars. This week we'll start on the offensive side of the ball. Trevor Lawrence 28 of 50 for 257 yards, three touchdowns, three interceptions.
He threw three interceptions, but he looked okay. But I think our defense just played him pretty tough this week.
[00:16:17] Speaker B: I think the ankle was clearly bothering him.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: Absolutely. His mobility was mostly taken away. He couldn't run like he usually does.
[00:16:22] Speaker B: But to be fair, our team then took advantage of what was mean. That's what you're going to mean. I don't know that CJ Bethard would have fared any better in that game against our defense.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: No, he probably would have fared worse.
[00:16:32] Speaker B: Probably gave them their best chance to win and fortunately, our defense took care of business.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: What do you think about sunshine?
[00:16:40] Speaker C: I don't see a lot of Trevor Lawrence play just because they don't play a lot of Jaguars games up here. But I was kind of like he got hurt last week. I heard it was a pretty serious injury. I felt like he moved decent.
[00:16:52] Speaker A: I think he still moved okay, but he will use his legs a lot more than he did in that game. And I'm not necessarily saying to take off and run, he is a very good pocket passer. Well, yeah, but he used it to extend plays, just like throw the ball.
[00:17:06] Speaker B: But I think even throwing the ball, I think it bothered his accuracy because he wasn't able to really fully play.
[00:17:10] Speaker A: True. The 28 out of 50 is not Trevor Lawrence number.
[00:17:12] Speaker B: Yeah, no.
[00:17:13] Speaker A: So there's that. But next up here, Travis etn. 14 carries, 35 yards, one touchdown, four receptions for 37 yards. He had an okay game. Not great, but not bad.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: I was happy about the way that the Browns contained him, honestly.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: I agree.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: He's one of those guys that can go off.
[00:17:28] Speaker A: He got his touchdown, but I mean, he's one of the playmakers. So when you get down there in the red zone and they were down there a few times, he's one of the guys you're going to go to. So he's probably.
[00:17:36] Speaker B: I'll give up the one touchdown during the game if you aren't controlling the clock. Running game all day long with your running back.
No. Very pleased with the way they contained him because he's easily a guy that.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: Could go off for. We've had a little trouble against the run lately, so it was nice to see.
[00:17:50] Speaker B: I think we struggle in general, just against top tier athletes. I think it's hard to contain some of those guys, and he's certainly one of those that can really pop off at any time. And then we did a nice job of keeping him in front of us.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: And then onto the receivers here for Jacksonville, we'll start with Evan Ingram. He's probably the only guy that killed us this week.
[00:18:10] Speaker B: We did not keep him in front of us.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: Eleven receptions, 95 yards and two touchdowns.
You've actually said multiple times in the past, and I think I've actually reiterated it on a number of occasions. The Browns, for whatever reason, they have problems with tight ends. Yeah, for whatever reason, the tight ends, yeah. Especially the athletic ones. They're able to kind of find open spaces in the defense and go off for a decent amount of yards, usually.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: I mean, Evan Ingram is one of those guys that I consistently would pick up in fantasy football, and for the last few years has just kind of been not great. But like, man, he put it on the Browns.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: Bone looks like he's got something to.
[00:18:46] Speaker C: No, he destroyed us.
[00:18:48] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:18:49] Speaker C: He looked good. I was just zoned out.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: Honestly, you were staring right into my soul and I was like, I think Bone has something to say on this. No, nothing.
[00:18:57] Speaker C: I mean, I know you haven't gotten into the rest of receivers, but I feel like they missed Christian Kirk quite a bit.
[00:19:01] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I think they did. They definitely did. Next up on the receiver list, though, Kevin Ridley. Four receptions for 53 yards, so contained him pretty well. Zay Jones, five receptions for 29 yards kept him in front of him. And then finally, Parker Washington, whoever the hell that guy is, two receptions for 27 yards, so not too much damage, but he did get a touchdown against us, so I had to mention him.
[00:19:23] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, look, this whole offense was primarily Trevor Lawrence throwing the ball around all day. And I think for better or worse, I mean, the Browns did what they needed to, to, um.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: And then on defense for the Jaguars, one sack, three turnovers forced, three turnovers isn't great for the Browns. Pretty good for their defense, but really, I don't think their defense even played particularly well. I think we just made some mistakes at different points in the game. So it is what it is. Special teams Brandon McManus, three for three for his extra points. So there's that on the Cleveland Browns side of things where it starts to get excited because the Browns are, they won again, like I mentioned, and it's starting to feel pretty good.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: Eight and five, baby.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: And we'll get to the injuries because there's four more of them to add this week, and that's a definite downer, but we'll get to that in the second half of the show. But we'll start with the offense for this week. Joe Flacco, 26 of 45 for 311 yards, three touchdowns, one interception. And I don't want to talk too much about them here because we're going to talk more about them later. But Joe freaking Flacco, man.
All I've been begging for all season long is like, I just want somebody to have a 300 yard game. We did it. We did it.
[00:20:44] Speaker C: It's here.
[00:20:45] Speaker A: Joe Flacco did it.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: I'm going to do my best.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: To.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: Marginalize my emotion and try to think practically about this, okay. And rationally about this, but Joe Flacco is the best quarterback ever seen a Browns, Browns jersey ever.
He's the best there is. He's the quarterback of the future. I will say he's the quarterback we've been waiting for. He's the quarterback savior of this team.
[00:21:11] Speaker C: He's here.
[00:21:11] Speaker A: He's here at 38 years old. It just took a while.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: He's the guy.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: He's the future, this guy. The future.
[00:21:19] Speaker B: Look, I know we haven't hit the top take hotline yet. Here's the hot take. Browns win the Super Bowl. Joe Flacco is the MVP.
[00:21:25] Speaker C: That's it.
[00:21:26] Speaker B: Period. This is it. This is the first time I felt good about the Browns in a long.
[00:21:30] Speaker A: Time, even with the four injuries.
[00:21:32] Speaker B: Don't care. This guy has changed everything for this team. He throws it all down the field. He's poised, he's calm, he's collected. He brings an energy and a precision to this team and this offense that I've never seen before. I know it's two games. I don't care. It's the best I've ever seen.
[00:21:49] Speaker C: Well, on top of that, we've proved it throughout the year. We can literally beat and play with anybody in the NFL. All we need was a quarterback and we've done it.
[00:21:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
We didn't even need a quarterback. Now we have one.
[00:22:02] Speaker C: The resume is mean.
[00:22:04] Speaker B: What?
[00:22:04] Speaker C: You're mean.
[00:22:05] Speaker A: How we won with PJ Walker.
[00:22:07] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:22:08] Speaker B: And to Zach's point, and to Bone's point, that's the thing is that you look around the rest of this league. I mean, what team is the clear favorite to win this whole thing? Because you've got Kansas City goofing things up. Philadelphia is goofing things up. Maybe Philadelphia is probably the strongest, like San Francisco. Who's the coming in?
[00:22:24] Speaker A: According to all the experts out there, the hands down best team in the league. The Browns handled well.
[00:22:28] Speaker B: We PJ Walker, we beat them with the human turnover machine. So I'm not even worried about San Francisco f them.
They're trash at this point.
Look around this playoff picture on the other side. Where is there a team that this team cannot beat? Especially if Joe Flacco continues to play like this.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I agree.
Look, save some of the Joe Flacco talks. Like I said, we will talk about him in more depth later on in the show.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: He's the best quarterback I've ever seen a Browns jersey ever.
[00:22:56] Speaker A: All right, so with that, we will move on to the running backs for this game. Jerome Ford. Twelve carries, 51 yards, five receptions, 31 yards. Looked all right.
I'll be honest, the longer the season goes on, the less impressed I am with Jerome Ford. That's true.
I'm ready for the experiment to be over, just to have our guy back and Nick Chubb next season because, not that I'm saying to end this season, I'm super excited about what the rest of this season holds, but I'm just so sick of them pushing Jerome Ford like he's going to be the next running back and he's average at best.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: It just feels like you could kind of replace him with anyone.
[00:23:33] Speaker A: Kind of like they replaced Dearness Johnson with him. Dearness Johnson put up decent numbers at one point and yeah, in my opinion was better. Like, Jerome Ford is nothing special. He's just. Okay, yeah, I'm not saying he's a bad player.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: I'm just saying he's like, he's not a starter.
[00:23:49] Speaker A: He's not what they've built him up to be.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: He's probably a below average starter.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: Next up, Kareem Hunt. Ten carries, 27 yards and a touchdown. And look, I like the touchdown. The direct snap to Kareem Hunt. And he showed a lot of toughness on that run. But I've been saying it for a few weeks. I think what Kareem Hunt is now is he's a short yardage back. That's all he is.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: I think Kareem is more than I think Kareem brings experience and leadership to.
[00:24:15] Speaker A: That team, and that's fair. But just his presence on the team is enough for that.
[00:24:21] Speaker B: To your point, he's not a guy that's going to get 130 yards rushing.
[00:24:26] Speaker A: No.
[00:24:26] Speaker B: Anymore.
[00:24:27] Speaker A: And that's what I'm talking about. I think it's very clear after this season, in the last couple of years, you could argue he was buried behind Nick Chubb and he didn't quite get a fair shake of enough carries to really show what he could do. But I think that it's kind of, as this season has progressed, I can see why they didn't give him more carries now because maybe he was and has been for a couple of years, kind of past his prime. As far as being explosive and being able to run for the 130 yards a game.
[00:24:55] Speaker C: Yeah, I feel like he's so important to our team just for that one. You even think about that one player where he went airborne and went face first into the grass and they were like brushing the huge turf chunk out of his face mask. But he got the first down.
[00:25:09] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:25:10] Speaker C: And then even on that touchdown where they went play action to him on the short yardage, I think it was the fourth down to David Bell, maybe. And it was just like it was wide open because everybody was keyed in on, you know, going on that short yardage.
[00:25:23] Speaker A: That's exactly what he offers and what I'm saying is not to take away from any of that. I think he is a huge key to the success of this team. I just think that father time was cut up for even like the people.
That's why I say I'm fine with Jerome Ford getting the majority of the carriage still, because he's younger, he's faster, he's fresher, whatever.
And Kareem Hunt, he's just not the guy anymore. But we do need him on this team. He's a key part to the team.
[00:25:52] Speaker B: What's frustrating about this running game right.
[00:25:54] Speaker A: Now is that we don't use.
[00:26:01] Speaker C: Pierre strong.
[00:26:03] Speaker A: His name always slips my mind. I don't know why.
[00:26:05] Speaker B: Because he's a slippery fellow.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: Yeah, there you go. He's really fast.
[00:26:08] Speaker B: To your point. Yes. That is frustrating because I would love to see him get some more touches because it looks explosive.
[00:26:14] Speaker A: I think if he got twelve to 15 carries a game, he'd have 80 numbers out of the water.
[00:26:19] Speaker B: Agreed. I don't know what the deal is there, but what's frustrating is watching this team run like the zone plays that in the past. Nick Chubb eventually would cut them up. These running backs both just take the zone. They dance all the way to the know because they just don't have that second gear. Nick Chubb had that vision where he's like, as soon as he saw butt turned his way, he was like, I'm in. And he'd cut off that.
[00:26:46] Speaker A: Just cut his foot and straight up the field.
[00:26:49] Speaker B: These guys just continue to stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, until they run out of field. And it's frustrating to watch.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: It is really frustrating because they just dance nonstop and you're like, could you please do something? And then I can't tell you at least three times a game, Jerome Ford gets tackled in the backfield. I will give that to Kareem Hunt. Kareem Hunt usually makes it back to the line of scrimmage because he's a little bit tougher than Jerome Ford. But I'm sick of the dancing. It drives me insane.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:18] Speaker A: So we'll move on to receivers here. We'll start with David and Joku. I know he's not technically a wide out, he's a tight end, but leading receiver in this one for the Browns. Six receptions for 91 yards and two touchdowns.
[00:27:30] Speaker B: He could catch the ball again.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: Him and Amari both figured it out this game. Apparently, like I said, they're talking after, maybe we'll start catching again.
But, yeah, I mean, he had a huge game, and I think most of his damage was done in the first half, which helped kind of give us a cushion and let us ride that to the end of the game. But he looked good, and he continues to just be a monster. Every time he touches the ball, he looks like he's on a whole different level physically than everybody else on the field.
[00:27:57] Speaker B: And the only difference is you looked at his stat line versus, like, Evan Ingram's, and you're like, he's still just this far away. Ed Ingram had a similar stat line, but he had five more catches.
And Joku, to your point, his presence was felt in the first half, but, like, worried to go in the second half.
[00:28:11] Speaker A: True.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: He's just so close to being elite that it's frustrating because he's not.
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Yeah. And then I mentioned Amari Cooper. Seven receptions for 77 yards in this one. Should probably play seven in some sort of lottery this week, probably. He's really rich. He doesn't have to.
[00:28:26] Speaker B: He doesn't have to. It was good to see him catch the ball.
[00:28:29] Speaker A: Yeah, that was nice. Elijah Moore, three receptions for 42 yards. So not that many catches, but a decent amount of yards for the number that he had. And then David Bell, the Venus fly trap, baby.
[00:28:39] Speaker B: On fourth down.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: Hell yes. One reception for 41 yards and one touchdown. And, oh, what a glorious touchdown it was.
[00:28:46] Speaker B: So before that happened, take me back to what your headspace was before they snapped that ball.
[00:28:54] Speaker A: As far as. What do you mean? What was I thinking we should do?
[00:28:57] Speaker B: Because it was one of those where you could have very easily just did hard count and tried to. You were going to punt out of that?
[00:29:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I kind of thought.
[00:29:04] Speaker B: You were barely across midfield.
[00:29:06] Speaker A: I kind of thought maybe there was a little bit of hardcount. It's Kevin Stefanski, so he likes to give us the riskiest situation and he's going to go for it because it.
[00:29:15] Speaker B: Wasn'T time yet to go for it on fourth.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: No, but it felt very on brand for Kevin Stefanski to go for it there. So I was pretty sure they were going for it and not just doing the hard count.
Mean, I. Gutsy call. I probably wouldn't have caught a pass. It was a yard and a half that they needed, or three fourth and got a. The way they've been running the ball, averaging like two and a half yards of carry, you probably got a pass to go to. David Bell, though.
[00:29:48] Speaker B: I'm thinking like, you put some floods out, some high and low.
[00:29:53] Speaker A: It was the classic Kevin Stefanski call, though. It was, let's run this play action pass.
It takes ten years to develop, and then all of a sudden we're going to sneak this guy out the middle where nobody's expecting him and bam.
[00:30:07] Speaker C: Freaking Kareem.
[00:30:08] Speaker D: Hut.
[00:30:08] Speaker C: Just picks up the blitz.
[00:30:11] Speaker A: If he would have missed or only been able to chip that guy, my.
[00:30:14] Speaker B: Other question is, was David Bell the call or was that a byproduct of having Joe Flacco Flacco's vision out there where he was like, look, I don't care if this guy's a scrub or not, I'm throwing the ball.
[00:30:25] Speaker A: Know. We'll never know because Joe Flacco also is like a consummate never. He's going to be like, it was a great call by my coach. That's what it is. So we'll never know. But I'm willing to bet that the call was not to go to David Bell on fourth and three, but that's where we went. And it was for 41 yards and a touchdown, and it worked out and basically sealed the game. So fantastic to see.
We coined the Venus fly trap last year for him and it hasn't really come to fruition. So it was a big moment for him. I think it's hard for him to.
[00:30:59] Speaker B: Drop balls when they don't throw them to.
[00:31:01] Speaker A: That's very true. You got to stop making me laugh so much because RSV. Yeah, I got a cold.
[00:31:08] Speaker B: Good one.
[00:31:09] Speaker A: Let's move on to the defense, though. As exciting as I wish I didn't have a cold so I could be more excited about David Bell. But the defense here, I think they bounced back and had a solid day on defense.
It wasn't as dominant as we're used to, necessarily from earlier in the season, but they did hold them to under 300 yards. They had four sacks, four turnovers forced, and they took care of business. And they're dealing with three more injuries on the offensive or defensive side.
[00:31:36] Speaker B: And to be fair, out of the teams that they've played in recent weeks, this team's a better offensive football team.
[00:31:42] Speaker A: Than this was one of. Statistically, this is actually one of the better offensive football teams in the league this year.
Yeah, I mean, really good effort to hold them to under 300 yards is pretty solid.
And we'll start as far as players, we'll start like we always do with Miles Garrett. I think he looked much better this week than he did the last couple of weeks. He still didn't get a sack, but he was a disruptor kind of throughout the game. He was kind of putting pressure on and getting back there and making noise.
[00:32:09] Speaker B: Get a sack. It just didn't count because it was in two point conversion. Well, yeah, true, but that was a.
[00:32:13] Speaker A: Big play, right, and that's my point. So he didn't get, I guess in the stats, he didn't get a sack.
[00:32:19] Speaker B: Which is really stupid, by the way.
[00:32:20] Speaker A: It is stupid.
[00:32:21] Speaker B: I mean, you should get something from. It's not like a play didn't happen.
[00:32:24] Speaker C: I have a feeling, like points on the know.
[00:32:27] Speaker A: I have a feeling if Miles Garrett comes up like one sack short of their sack record, like they're going to be like, we got to change this.
[00:32:34] Speaker B: I mean, how do you not give that to. How do you not just put sack down for that?
It's a play, the play during the game.
[00:32:41] Speaker A: Just because it's an untimed down doesn't mean it shouldn't count.
[00:32:43] Speaker B: That's weird.
[00:32:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. But he was a disruptor throughout the game. He was constantly, at least in the backfield, causing havoc and getting Trevor Lawrence to step up and make a decision quicker than he wanted to. For sure.
Still don't think he's completely himself, but like I said, I think he's a lot closer to being in a space where he can do some damage again.
[00:33:09] Speaker B: All I know is he better hurry and have a vintage Miles Garrett game here before the end of the season to bump his sack numbers back up.
[00:33:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: If he's going to be defensive player.
[00:33:19] Speaker A: He needs like another one of those three, four sack games.
Hopefully it's this week against the Bears.
[00:33:24] Speaker B: The Bears.
[00:33:27] Speaker A: And then oboe Okaranquo, Grant Delpit Mohurst and Zesaria Smith all had a sack in this one. Those were our four sacks. All these guys except for one have now been put on IR report yet.
I know, but it's important to note that here that they had big games.
[00:33:47] Speaker B: I don't know why I would do the injury report.
[00:33:48] Speaker A: People still got to know. They got to get reminded. And we'll get to that in a minute. In the second half of the show, J-O-K. Eight tackles, two tackles for loss all over the place again. J-O-K has been looking good all season long and continued it in this game. And then finally, special teams here. I know bone's excited. Dustin Hopkins, one for one field goal, four for four extra points. Where's the bone meter bone?
[00:34:10] Speaker C: All right, well, 55 yard field goal, right, to kind of seal the deal. So it was clutch field goal, but we're definitely important. Due north.
[00:34:21] Speaker A: Due north. Due north. Is that like full chub?
[00:34:23] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:34:24] Speaker A: Beyond full chub.
[00:34:25] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm back.
[00:34:26] Speaker B: You're back.
[00:34:26] Speaker C: Like, yeah, he's back.
[00:34:27] Speaker A: Waistband trick. It's hit you in the back.
[00:34:31] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:34:31] Speaker A: All right. He's full bone for Dustin Hopkins. Good to know.
And we'll talk more about Dustin Hopkins later. We got our tracker going of where he's at points wise, so we'll talk about that in a second. Coaching here. Stefanski. Yes. I am returning him to Stefanski this week, and I'm getting a little sick from seesawing adventure we're having with Kevin Stefanski this season. He's Stefanski. He's Stefanik. He's Stefanski. He's Stefanik.
Is it ridiculous that we give and take his name all willy nilly like this? Sure.
Are we going to keep doing it anyways? Absolutely. And he did well in this one, so he is Kevin Stefanski again.
And there were some good play calls in this one. We already mentioned the fourth down call to.
[00:35:19] Speaker B: The Venus blackjack.
[00:35:20] Speaker A: I'm dying. Sorry, guys.
The fourth down call to David Bell.
There was some other plays throughout the game. It looked like innovative play calling that really got the defense on their heels. Some of those. The touchdown to David Ajoku is just wide open nobody around him. Yeah.
I think another part of this is Joe Flacco. Makes Kevin Stefanski better.
[00:35:43] Speaker B: Agreed. He's the best quarterback I've ever seen in a balanced uniform.
No, I mean, I thought the play calling was fine this week. I didn't have any issues with clock management. I thought, look, they went out and they beat a team that was a leader in their division. They were eight and four. That team moves to nine and four. I mean, they start becoming one of the top teams that people are talking about in the playoffs in the NFL. So you go out there and you beat another team. That's good. And again, I'll keep saying that you've seen a lot of teams that are in this playoff hunt right now that have beat up, know, the poor man teams in the NFL. This Browns team has continued to overachieve by beating teams with winning records that are the top of their division, that are at the top of power rankings.
[00:36:24] Speaker A: We lose to the average team down.
[00:36:28] Speaker B: To the bad teams and lose to them.
But yeah, I mean, it's just impressive what they've done. Impressive what they've done considering the amount of injuries and just run a four string quarterback adversity that they've, you know, you go back and it almost feels like every other brown season you've ever had because they've had so many quarterbacks play and you were just used to that part of it. Like that part you're just numb to. But this is the first year that they're winning with four different quarterbacks.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: Yeah, just imagine before the season, the over under on Browns quarterbacks for the season and how much money you could have put on. Like, I bet they're playing four and people thought you were insane. And here we are.
It never fails with, yeah, he's overcome basically everything. So I can't really fault Kevin Stefanski anymore.
He's been doing well and he's Kevin Stefanski for, I mean, you almost have.
[00:37:19] Speaker B: To give him a pass at this point too because, and we'll get to the injury report later because it's getting really ridiculously bad out there, but you almost have to look at it and say, like, this team is eight and five in December.
With the amount of injuries.
[00:37:34] Speaker A: It'S harder to miss the playoffs now than it is to make the playoffs.
[00:37:37] Speaker B: But even if they did miss the playoffs at this point, I don't even know that I can be like, is that a Kevin Stefancy problem?
[00:37:43] Speaker A: No, with the amount of, to your point and like you said, we'll get to them but the amount of injuries at this moment and the number of people, number of starters from the beginning of season on IR, to me, if you just told me that the number of starters on IR right now, I'd say, oh, we're losing every game the rest of the season.
[00:38:00] Speaker B: I mean, it sounds like the real problem here is whoever's in charge of our training staff, because we need to.
[00:38:05] Speaker A: Talk to those guys.
[00:38:05] Speaker B: I mean, in a city where you have the Cleveland clinic and you have university hospitals, how does this football team have the most soft tissue injuries in the game?
[00:38:14] Speaker A: Every knee is blown, every shoulder is broken.
It doesn't make sense at all, but we'll move on here. Jim Schwartz, the defense looked better this week. I will say this, and I mentioned that they didn't look as dominant this week.
Jim Schwartz is still getting it done. The defense still looks good, but you could tell, I think the fact that they're not as dominant is because the injuries are starting to pile up. So we still have a solid defense, but they're not quite as dominant as they were because we're missing, like, I don't know, seven starters.
[00:38:46] Speaker B: Well, yeah, I mean, you got Ronnie Hickman and Cam Mitchell playing out there in your secondary.
Guys like Mike Ford and D'Anthony Bell, who was undrafted, they were playing the cards that they were dealt. That's all I can say.
[00:39:03] Speaker A: And I will say the good news is we have Flacco now. So the offense is finally giving the defense some help, and that may be like, it may even out now.
[00:39:12] Speaker B: Greatest quarterback to ever live.
[00:39:15] Speaker A: I can't wait for your statue. Oh, my God.
[00:39:17] Speaker B: I'm going to build it.
[00:39:18] Speaker A: I'm going to die now. What?
[00:39:20] Speaker B: I'm going to build it myself.
[00:39:22] Speaker A: And then Bubba Ventron. Special teams look to get in this one.
[00:39:26] Speaker B: Yeah, look, I think the special teams has been not just, obviously, Hopkins has been a great story all year, but in this game. But Jorquis showed up huge, turning, 75.
[00:39:41] Speaker A: Yard punt this week.
[00:39:43] Speaker B: He had a lot of punts down inside the 20, and their coverage has been pretty strong all year long. Look, I think it's one of those things that people go to sleep on because special teams is so boring now because of all the rule changes. But that Baltimore game this week was decided on a punt return and an overtime. You still got to play those downs and you got to make sure that you're containing and covering things up. And to his credit, we haven't had those big letdowns on special teams this year.
[00:40:10] Speaker A: But Jorquez, in case you're wondering. Eight punts, 412 yards, a 51.5 yard average, three inside the 20 along of 72.
[00:40:21] Speaker B: And you wanted to cut him because he was a bad holder.
[00:40:24] Speaker A: I didn't say cut him. I said, is it his fault? It was a question.
It was just a question.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: Dustin Hopkins doesn't think so.
[00:40:31] Speaker A: No, Dustin Hopkins, not his fault. He's like, I'm best kicker ever.
So, yeah. Special teams doing well.
Buba Ventrone, that was a huge pickup in the offseason, I think it's safe to say now.
Overall, though, total yards Jacksonville 293, Cleveland 389 1st Downs Jacksonville 20, Cleveland 16. That's one of the first times we've lost the first down battle. Time of possession Jacksonville 20 811, Cleveland 31. 49 penalties? Jacksonville seven for 40, Cleveland eight for 75 yards. And then turnovers. Jacksonville four and Cleveland three. So even with the three turnovers, we won the turnover battle this week.
[00:41:11] Speaker B: Yeah, it's always good. And then obviously it has to be cleaned up. But as long as you get more than the other team.
[00:41:17] Speaker A: Yeah, you usually win.
So another Browns news here. The Browns are once again in the driver's seat. I mentioned 79% chance to make the playoffs as of now, which is a good sign.
Like I said, at this point, it's harder to miss the playoffs than it is to make the playoffs.
[00:41:35] Speaker B: Then pretty much you have to lose out.
[00:41:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, that's pretty much the route.
[00:41:38] Speaker B: I mean, if you win one game.
[00:41:40] Speaker A: You'Re going to tiebreakers. At this point, you're probably still okay.
[00:41:42] Speaker B: With tiebreakers and help. You're close, you win two games, you're probably in for sure.
[00:41:46] Speaker A: Yeah, and that's kind of. We talked about it last week it was three, now it's two as the magic number. You win ten games, you're in.
[00:41:52] Speaker B: And the strength of schedule that they have coming up here has got to be one of the lowest in the league in terms of what's left on their roster, on their schedule.
[00:42:01] Speaker A: And then next up here, Grant Delpit signed a three year contract extension this week. Deserves it after the season he's had. It's just unfortunate that he went on ir the same week he was the.
[00:42:11] Speaker B: Leading tackler of the Browns. I think he was up over 80 or 90 tackles for the year. So he was their leading tackle, which.
[00:42:16] Speaker A: Is super impressive for a safety.
[00:42:17] Speaker B: Had just had a hell of a year. He looked really good in this Jim shorts defense, doing some different things, being able to come in on some blitz packages and stuff. So look, he looked like he's finally coming to his own, which is good. And to your point, deserving of the.
[00:42:33] Speaker A: Good news about his IR visit, though, is if they do get into the playoffs, he should be back for the first week of the playoffs. True.
Silver lining there. Sorry, I'm dying right there.
[00:42:44] Speaker B: Silver lining.
[00:42:45] Speaker A: Yeah, it's rough. And then finally, Dustin, I mentioned we'll be back to him. Dustin Hopkins, up to 113 points scored this season for the Browns. A single season franchise record for a kicker is 120 by Phil Dawson in 2007.
Single season franchise record for any player is 126 by Jim Brown in 1965. So we're going to continue tracking this for bone man over there.
Bony, was that you hitting under the table there?
[00:43:12] Speaker C: Yeah, he'll be breaking the record. He'll break Jim Brown's record.
[00:43:16] Speaker A: I think he will, too.
He's getting close. And some of the other records that Hopkins broke this week, most field goals in the season by a Browns player, he is at 31 now. That broke Phil Dawson's record of 30 in 2008 and most 50 yard field goals in franchise history.
Jesus.
[00:43:37] Speaker B: No, it was not Jesus.
[00:43:38] Speaker A: No, it wasn't Jesus. D hop has eight right now in 2023, and Phil Dawson had seven twice in 2011 and 2012. So he now holds the franchise record for most 50 yard field goals in this season. So he's basically the best kicker the Browns have ever had.
[00:43:53] Speaker B: The best player the Browns have ever had.
[00:43:55] Speaker A: Yeah, but that'll lead us to the burning of a sportscast. Dog of the weekend.
Doesn't matter, man.
[00:44:10] Speaker D: You got to play tough people in the National Football League. You got to be ready.
[00:44:14] Speaker A: And we got to be the dogs that we are every time we step.
[00:44:17] Speaker D: On there on Sunday and be ready to attack.
[00:44:19] Speaker A: And don't stop until we're in that locker room.
All right? So two games with the Browns and two dog of the week awards. This week's burning river sportscast dog of the week for the second week in a row is Joe Flacco. As we mentioned earlier, 26 to 45, 311 yards, three touchdowns, one interception. He got his 100th win this week, only the 19th quarterback in NFL history to do that.
He now has more games with 250 plus passing yards and two plus touchdowns with the Browns, two than Deshaun Watson does with one.
He also has more of those games the last two weeks with two than the Steelers do since Big Ben retired with zero.
Let's dig at Kenny Pickett, in case anyone's wondering.
Look, Joe Flacco looks really good. He looks fantastic.
[00:45:17] Speaker B: He's the original Joe Cool of the AFC north.
Not only that, those are some good things you just read off there. But the other thing is, he's now the second winningest quarterback in Brown Stadium in Brown's history, putting him at ten and two.
[00:45:36] Speaker A: That's a pretty good record. Who the hell is better than ten and two?
[00:45:40] Speaker B: Baker Mayfield. But you don't like to talk about that.
[00:45:45] Speaker A: I get what you're saying.
[00:45:46] Speaker B: He has more wins at Brown Stadium.
[00:45:48] Speaker A: Yeah, that's fine. That's not impressive. He played here a long time. He should have more than ten wins.
[00:45:52] Speaker B: Of all the quarterbacks who ever played here, ever, Joe Flacco is number two.
Baker's number one.
[00:45:59] Speaker A: I'm just saying, like, baker Mayfield played for four years for the Browns, he should have more than ten.
[00:46:05] Speaker C: Joe Flacco didn't play for the team.
[00:46:08] Speaker A: I understand. I'm just saying, even all the other quarterbacks we had, they play like kind of a sad. I get what you're saying. It's very sad stat. But he specifically came in at me for Baker Mayfield and I'm saying, yeah, he should be.
[00:46:25] Speaker B: Look, I'm just saying, all roads lead to Baker. How much different would this season look?
[00:46:28] Speaker A: You just love Baker.
[00:46:29] Speaker B: If you just had Baker's production this.
[00:46:30] Speaker A: Year, we would have never stumbled upon Joe Flacco. True.
[00:46:34] Speaker B: But you would probably be undefeated at this point.
[00:46:36] Speaker A: I don't think you would. Not even close.
[00:46:38] Speaker B: But regardless, the thing is, I'm okay with the trade now because we have Joe Flacco.
[00:46:45] Speaker A: All's right with the world when Joe Flacco is your quarterback.
[00:46:47] Speaker B: He is the quarterback of the future.
[00:46:50] Speaker A: He's 38, but he doesn't look 38.
[00:46:52] Speaker B: No, he looks 48.
[00:46:56] Speaker A: I did say last week he looks like Kevin Stefancy's dad.
Have you seen the step brothers meme that's going around where it's just like, it's Joe Flacco with his hands on Kevin Stefanski's shoulders.
It's really good picture day.
He looks fantastic. I think he just really wants to prove that he can still play, especially when he's in a good system and he's definitely still got something.
[00:47:20] Speaker B: Yeah, look, I mean, this guy's won 100 games in the NFL, which what you've just read was less than 20 men ever have ever done. So this guy has some experience, some knowledge that a lot of people don't have. He has just a great nose for finding the open guy. The big question with Joe is how does he withstand to getting hit and can this offensive line that is kind of beat up and battered a little bit, missing both tackles? How do they keep him upright through the end of the year. Now, I think Joe is a good job of getting rid of the ball quickly when he needs to. I think he does a good job of finding his dump off if he has to dump off. But there's going to be those times where he just takes an absolute blindside hit and it's like, if he dies, he dies.
[00:48:13] Speaker C: He's still a pretty big dude.
[00:48:14] Speaker B: He is still a big dude, but, yeah, just to come out. Here's my other thing that I'll say that is really kind of frustrating at this point, is Joe Cool comes off his couch after not playing all year long, throwing passes to his brother.
[00:48:30] Speaker A: We're going rest, is that what we're talking about?
[00:48:31] Speaker B: Into stationary targets. And I've seen Josh Dobbs playing three different offenses this year and show up and win games in a Minnesota Vikings jersey. I saw Baker Mayfield do it with two days on the Los Angeles Rams team last year.
I can't give Deshaun Watson any more rust time anymore.
You have been out of the NFL. All the stuff was going on.
[00:48:56] Speaker A: Even when he comes back as a injury next year, if anybody tries to talk to me about rust, I'm going to be like, just shut up.
[00:49:01] Speaker B: There's no excuse for it. We've seen guys come in and do this.
[00:49:04] Speaker A: It's your job to be ready to go.
[00:49:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:07] Speaker A: With way less preparation in hindsight, being 2020, I'm at the point now where I'm like, that should have never been an excuse because he should have stayed ready when he was not playing. Right. Even if you're not ready physically with the, we all know, like, game speed and whatever, as far as conditioning is so much different than what you can simulate. But everything else should have been ready to go.
[00:49:28] Speaker B: But even this year, we made that excuse for him all year, and he had a whole offseason with this team in this offense. This rust argument is bullshit at this point.
[00:49:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree.
[00:49:36] Speaker B: Absolute baloney. Joe Flacco looks like he's ten years younger, ten years faster, and ten years stronger than Deshaun Watson, and he's been hanging around his living room and sweatpants for last six months.
[00:49:47] Speaker A: Yeah. One final thing on Joe Flacco here, so that we don't devolve into a Deshaun Watson discussion, because that's not what this is. This is burning River Sports guest dog of the week, which is Joe Flacco. It was nominated for FedEx, airplayer of the week, or whatever it's called this week, didn't win. Brock Purdy beat him, but pretty impressive. His second game with the Browns.
But that'll lead us to the division roundup.
Ready? Down.
Okay. To start the division roundup this week, I need to add in the Cincinnati Monday Night Football game from last week. They did beat the Jaguars, so not real interesting here. We were all wrong. Everybody was wrong with that pick. We all picked Jacksonville.
[00:50:35] Speaker B: It's a little interesting because.
[00:50:37] Speaker A: Well, it's interesting because Jake Browning's our fucking quarterback.
[00:50:40] Speaker B: Browning showed up, and he was like, I'm going to play myself to do a really nice contract all of a sudden.
[00:50:44] Speaker A: And it's even more interesting when you add in this week's game, because this week, since he beat the Colts, who actually were playing pretty good football, and Jake Browning again, looked pretty darn good.
[00:50:55] Speaker B: I think he's thrown seven incompletions in two weeks.
[00:50:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:50:59] Speaker B: And it's not like they're being careful with him. He's throwing the ball 30 times a game.
[00:51:02] Speaker A: No, he's come out of nowhere. And he's definitely played himself into a good contract somewhere. Or at least he's going to be, like, on the trade, I said when.
[00:51:09] Speaker B: He got to play, he was the number one quarterback in the country in high school.
[00:51:13] Speaker A: Any chance they start looking at this like, Joe Burrow's been hurt a lot?
What do you guys think?
[00:51:21] Speaker C: They just signed him to a big contract, right?
[00:51:23] Speaker A: They did.
[00:51:24] Speaker C: This year.
[00:51:24] Speaker A: They did. But somebody else would take on Joe Burrow's contract, have him.
[00:51:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Look, Joe Burrows still got the body of work. I mean, this guy's only been around for a little bit, which is different than the flacco situation, because Flacco has been there. He's a Super bowl winner, so we know what he can be. We know he could be the quarterback of the future. We don't know about Jake Browning just yet.
[00:51:44] Speaker A: That's fair. I just wanted to ask a question, because Joe Burrow does have some injury. I mean, he's been injured a number of times, but I would say if.
[00:51:54] Speaker B: I'm Cincinnati, I would do everything I could to sign this kid in the offseason and to a longer term deal.
[00:51:58] Speaker A: And I don't know if it's going to happen because somebody else out there is going to be like, this could be the next brock purdy, probably. The Browns might sign him, get all the quarterbacks.
[00:52:06] Speaker B: We'll get Danny DeVito. And.
[00:52:11] Speaker A: What a. What a QB room.
But as I said, they beat the Colts this week. We were all wrong with that pick, too. We picked Cincinnati to lose both. And they won. Both of them. So lots of losses there. The Steelers lost to the two win Patriots on Thursday Night Football this week. And two of us picked that game, right? And Kenny was not one of them. So bone man, good job. Saw that coming.
[00:52:33] Speaker B: Mitch Trubisky is so bad.
[00:52:35] Speaker A: He is very bad. Kenny was wrong. Feels bad. Kenny. The Ravens beat the Rams in overtime this week. And once again, bone, good job.
Kenny, I don't know what you were thinking there, but the game went to overtime.
[00:52:50] Speaker B: Act like this game was blowout in the Ravens.
[00:52:53] Speaker A: Who won?
[00:52:54] Speaker B: It was a punt return. Who won with three minutes left?
[00:52:56] Speaker A: Who won?
[00:52:58] Speaker B: Yeah, the Ravens won.
[00:52:59] Speaker A: Great.
[00:53:01] Speaker B: You love the Ravens. You love Lamar.
[00:53:02] Speaker A: Hey, you like to see almost naked? That's cool. Yeah, I don't think we can put that on air.
Wow.
[00:53:10] Speaker B: I'll put what I want, I'll put on air.
[00:53:16] Speaker A: And then it's frozen.
Browns beat the Jaguars. And once again, Kenny was wrong and bone man and I were right. Kenny's really bad at picking AFC north games. So for the AFC north standings are as follows. Baltimore still in first place at ten and three, followed by Cleveland and second at eight and five, and then Pittsburgh and Cincinnati at seven and six, each bringing up the rear. So just like Kenny. So for King of the north, an update there and we'll talk more about this later. Bone man and I, we are tied for first at 23 and 20 and Kenny is at 18 and 25 after going Owen five this week. So feels bad.
But after that, let's take a quick trip around the NFL.
To start our trip around the NFL, we've talked all season long about Bill Belichick and whether or not he will stay or go at the end of the season. Well, news broke this week that the decision has been made and the Patriots will move on from Bill at the end of the season. He still has one year remaining on his contract. So there are reports out there that there may end up being a trade where they trade him to another team. That is how the Patriots got him in the first place.
And in true Bill Belichick fashion, when asked about his future with New England this week, he said, I'm getting ready for Kansas City.
So what do you guys think about this end of an era?
[00:54:58] Speaker B: Look, it's interesting. There's still quite a few games left on the schedule. I think this might be a wake up call for Bill Belichick. I think if he goes, you know what, I'm going to put my heart and soul into this thing. Big again. And we just went out then mean.
[00:55:17] Speaker A: You think it'll be a wake up call for him because according to the reports, they made this decision like weeks ago.
[00:55:23] Speaker B: Well, the season's been bad for weeks.
I don't know that Bill Belichick ever thought that he would be in a position where he really was going to be asked to leave New England.
But all good things come to an end.
Look, it's got to be hard for a guy that's one of the winningest coaches in the NFL to be asked to step aside.
I would be surprised that if he does have that year left on his contract, if the Patriots didn't decide to try to trade him and get something.
[00:55:55] Speaker A: Well, can you imagine, like a fringe team?
They're like, you know what? We don't have a really good coach. Or like, the coach may be on the way out because they had high expectations. They're kind of mid right now. Sure, they would trade a lot for him.
[00:56:06] Speaker B: There's probably 30 franchises in the NFL that would like to have Bill Belichick be their coach.
[00:56:10] Speaker A: Probably.
[00:56:12] Speaker B: Who's a better coach, Nick? Kevin Stefanski or Bill Belichick?
[00:56:17] Speaker A: I mean, it's Bill Belichick. But the problem is in Cleveland right now, you got a lot of people that would question that.
[00:56:23] Speaker B: Well, yeah, they're not going to sign him now because is it a sure.
[00:56:25] Speaker C: Thing he goes to another team or do you think he would just ride off into the sunset?
[00:56:30] Speaker A: I think it's a sure thing he goes somewhere else. Isn't he pretty close to, like, the all time wins record?
[00:56:35] Speaker B: Yeah, he's only 20 or so wins away from the all time wins record.
[00:56:38] Speaker A: It's only a couple more years.
[00:56:39] Speaker B: So I do think that he's got that big of an ego.
He's kind of given up everything for football.
He broke up with his girlfriend this year and there was all that drama at the beginning of the season that she was going to leak information to other teams just based on their pillow talk and stuff. It's like this guy doesn't care about anything but football. And the thing is, we've butt football.
He loves butt football.
But the funny thing is we've actually had the guys that played for Belichick on our show this year and they've said that same thing. They've said he's all about the game. I mean, he is 100% about the game. That's all he cares about is winning. I would have to believe that he ends up somewhere else next year.
[00:57:26] Speaker A: That kind of fire in you, it doesn't just die because your team goes two and ten one year. I mean, that's what they're at right now, or what they were before this week. So it doesn't just die in you, it's there still. And I'm sure, especially if his team started winning again, to your point, that fire has got to rekindle and you got to be there again.
[00:57:45] Speaker B: I mean, if you coach three more seasons and you play 500 football, and then you can start right off into the sunset as the winningest coach all time.
[00:57:53] Speaker A: Does he pull a Tom Brady? He just goes somewhere else. He's like, I'm going to win one more Super bowl real quick. Somewhere else.
[00:57:58] Speaker B: Where would he go? Maybe Andy Reid retires. If he wins another Super bowl this year, he goes to Kansas City and coaches.
[00:58:02] Speaker A: Was he sending us messages when he said, I'm just getting ready for Kansas City?
[00:58:06] Speaker C: I liked your take on the jets. Him going to the jets?
[00:58:08] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, you go somewhere with a ready made quarterback that's already an all.
[00:58:11] Speaker A: Star, Aaron Rodgers comes back healthy next year, they get rid of Robert Salah.
What did he say? He's keeping receipts.
[00:58:18] Speaker B: Yeah, or maybe Robert Salah says maybe he'll take a step back and be the defensive coordinator because Belichick's coming in.
[00:58:23] Speaker A: I don't think any coach in the NFL would be willing to do that. I think their egos are too big.
[00:58:29] Speaker B: Well, then he'd get fired.
[00:58:31] Speaker A: Fair. I agree.
[00:58:32] Speaker B: I mean, pretty much. Here's the thing about it's always a shock when these guys gets fired, but every coach in the NFL gets hired.
[00:58:40] Speaker A: To get, not even most of them get paid by the team years after they're not even there anymore. Yeah, I agree.
[00:58:49] Speaker B: Belichick to Buffalo. Oh, that would be interesting, too.
[00:58:53] Speaker A: And that's actually plausible with how bad of a year Buffalo's had.
[00:58:56] Speaker B: Yeah. McDermott's in the hot seat out there.
[00:58:59] Speaker A: I like that. And imagine what he could do. I mean, Josh Allen's had his problems, throws lots of interceptions, but imagine what Bill Belichick could do with a Josh Allen and a good defense. Yeah, agreed. Yeah, that's interesting.
We'll keep an eye on that, but I do have to move on. Brock Purdy, we mentioned him just a second ago. Mr. Irrelevant. He is the current ods on favorite to win NFL MVP. His annual salary, 934,000, roughly per year. Deshaun Watson, $46 million per year. Jacoby Brissette, $7.5 million this year. Meanwhile, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes are having the worst seasons of their careers and making pretty close to that Deshaun Watson number.
And Brock Purdy, as you mentioned earlier in season, still driving, what, like his old Ford excursion or something? Whatever.
[00:59:48] Speaker B: Toyota SUV or something stupid.
Here's the thing.
[00:59:52] Speaker A: No offense to anybody that drives a Toyota SUv.
[00:59:55] Speaker B: We talked about this earlier in the season, about quarterbacks need to stop. Oh, yeah.
[01:00:00] Speaker A: This is.
[01:00:01] Speaker B: Why is this Brock Purdy's opportunity now to say, I want $50 million a year?
[01:00:05] Speaker A: I think this might be what makes quarterbacks stop.
Think about it. This year you got Brock Purdy.
[01:00:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:00:12] Speaker A: You got Tommy DeVito, right? You got Joe Flacco. I think you got Jake Browning.
[01:00:18] Speaker B: Josh Dobbs.
[01:00:19] Speaker A: Josh Dobbs, which he kind of fell off, though, and he's trash. But he got benched this week.
[01:00:23] Speaker B: But it's been proven that they could win games without a top tier quarterback.
[01:00:27] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm just saying that's probably not a great example in this stretch. But anyway, I'm just saying there's quarterbacks out there that you don't have to pay $46 million a year that you could still win games with.
[01:00:38] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, imagine if you had $40 million in cap room to sign other top tier free agents and you had a quarterback that was making ten to 15 million a year. Your team would be unstoppable.
[01:00:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
It's just an interesting thing that that's the current favorite to win NFL MVP. Also. I will throw this out there. I think it's trash that he's the ods on favorite to win NFL MVP one. CJ Stroud should definitely be the favorite to win over Brock Purdy.
They won three games last year. In case anyone forgets, they won three games last year, and they're in the playoff hunt right now with.
[01:01:16] Speaker C: It.
[01:01:17] Speaker A: Not to mention, somebody else pointed it out on one of the Fox programs when Fox did their promo for the big game, 49 ers versus eagles last week. Who did they use on their promo for the 49 ers? They always use the best player from each team. Who did they use on the 49 ers?
[01:01:38] Speaker B: Kittle.
[01:01:39] Speaker A: No.
Christian McCaffrey.
[01:01:41] Speaker B: McCaffrey.
[01:01:42] Speaker A: Kittle probably would have been the second choice and then Brock Purdy. So Brock Purdy's not. I think it's just he's in a good system. And I'm not saying he's a bad quarterback, even. I think he's a pretty good quarterback. But the fact that he's ods on favorite to win NFL MVP is just asinine.
[01:01:59] Speaker B: No, he's not terrible. Here's the thing, too. This is going to upset a lot of people.
I think the dark horse favorite to win the MVP is going to be Dak Prescott.
[01:02:08] Speaker A: That's going to upset me. I hate you.
[01:02:10] Speaker B: I know. So I think that team is peaking at the right time.
[01:02:15] Speaker A: Yeah. But every time they play a decent team, they get shit on CD.
[01:02:18] Speaker B: Lamb is his. His numbers right up there with.
[01:02:28] Speaker A: Your favorite. You love. You love the Cowboys.
[01:02:32] Speaker B: I don't love the saying.
[01:02:34] Speaker A: You're advocating for them to be America's team again.
[01:02:37] Speaker B: I'm saying they're playing really good football.
[01:02:40] Speaker A: You love Dag Prescott.
[01:02:41] Speaker B: And they just beat the Eagles, what, 33 to 13? I mean, the Eagles were kind of your ods on favorite to be Super bowl contender.
[01:02:49] Speaker A: No, they're not. 49 ers are. But anyways.
[01:02:52] Speaker B: Well, the 49 ers record isn't even as good as the Eagles.
[01:02:55] Speaker A: It doesn't matter. For four weeks now, they've been the favorite to win the Super Bowl.
[01:03:00] Speaker B: I mean, that doesn't even make any sense.
They lost to the Browns and the PGs.
[01:03:04] Speaker A: Yeah, you mentioned the Cowboys. It's a good segue. Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey made history this week. He hit field goals from 60, 59, 50 and 45 yards. He is 30 of 30 on the season. Yeah, you heard that right. And he is a rookie.
He is literally everything that Cade York was supposed to be.
[01:03:27] Speaker B: Bone, he's 30 for 30.
[01:03:29] Speaker A: Yeah, he's 30 for 30.
Would you take him or Dustin Hopkins?
[01:03:37] Speaker C: Shoot. Probably.
[01:03:38] Speaker A: Aubrey, I didn't think I could get you to say it. And you said it.
[01:03:41] Speaker C: The dude's a rookie. But have you heard a little bit of his story?
[01:03:44] Speaker A: No. Tell us.
[01:03:45] Speaker C: He didn't play college football, right. He was a soccer player who got training by an ex NFL kicker. I believe in coach and walked onto a team that's pretty impressive.
[01:03:57] Speaker B: And he freaking ball. Didn't he play the USFL?
[01:03:59] Speaker C: I think he went. Yeah, he went to, like, know he started maybe in the canadian league or USFL, whatever it is, and then worked his way onto an NFL team.
[01:04:06] Speaker A: Yeah, that's pretty mean. Those numbers are insane.
[01:04:11] Speaker C: The story I heard was his wife was like, they're watching a game in bed. And she's like, you could do that. Couldn't.
Like, the next couple of weeks, he just got the ball rolling. He's like, yeah, I think I could do me.
[01:04:23] Speaker A: Let me bang my wife real quick and go join the NFL.
But anyways, we'll move on from Brandon Aubrey. He's pretty impressive. That's just wild.
Especially with all the cade York talk last year and coming into this season and what he was supposed to be.
[01:04:40] Speaker B: I didn't realize he had 30 kicks already.
[01:04:42] Speaker A: Brandon Aubrey is him when it comes to kickers.
[01:04:47] Speaker B: To be fair, he gets to play half his games in the dome on turf.
[01:04:50] Speaker A: That's true. So, yeah, you could argue what Dustin Hopkins has done this year is more impressive, way more. He plays in Cleveland. But anyways, moving on, Minnesota defeated the Las Vegas Raiders three to nothing this week. Yeah, you heard that right. This game is probably the worst game ever played.
Absolutely terrible. Lowest scoring game in 16 years and just. Yuck. That's not the kind of football I want to watch.
[01:05:14] Speaker C: I think both teams were like, on their 9th quarterback.
[01:05:17] Speaker A: That's terrible. Three to nothing. Come on.
Did you guys see DK Metcalf, though? That was the least exciting thing that happened as far as Minnesota and the Raiders. Did you guys see Metcalf almost beat up Fred Warner?
[01:05:31] Speaker B: DK Metcalf?
[01:05:32] Speaker C: I didn't see it.
[01:05:33] Speaker B: I would not want to get into.
[01:05:34] Speaker A: A fight with no. He made Fred Warner look tiny. And Fred Warner is like a middle linebacker.
[01:05:39] Speaker C: Yeah, he's a big dude.
[01:05:40] Speaker A: Like, he literally grabbed him and he probably had 30 pounds on Fred Warner. I was like, what in the world? DK Metcalf did get ejected.
[01:05:49] Speaker C: Why was he so angry?
[01:05:51] Speaker A: He was just blocking him. It was pretty normal play. And then, I don't know exactly. They got tangled up and DK Metcalf ended up on the ground. And while he was on the ground, Fred Warner came in and hit him in the back.
[01:06:05] Speaker C: Okay.
[01:06:05] Speaker A: Like after the play, because he was mad at DK Metcalf getting physical with him during the play or whatever. And DK Metcalf stood up, was like, fuck no. Just went over to him, grabbed him by his face mask and just wanted to.
[01:06:19] Speaker B: That's a lot on the podcast.
[01:06:22] Speaker A: Yeah, what you said is not.
But anyways, that was wild. And then next up, Kansas City Chiefs Travis Kelsey made an absolutely ridiculous play and lateral across the field to Cadarius Tony to win them the game this week.
Or so they thought.
Or so they thought. There was a flag on this play. When the dust settled, it turned out that Cadarius Tony had lined up so far off sides that they didn't even know which team he was playing for.
And it was called back. The Chiefs went on to lose, and Patrick Mahomes threw one of the most epic tantrums I've ever seen from an NFL player. Guys, what were your thoughts on this? Because there was a lot of talk about it right after the game and how the Chiefs got screwed. But I just want to know what you guys thought.
[01:07:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, look, I know it doesn't look like I used to play receiver, but I'll say this, this is like day one stuff as a wide receiver, learned all the way back in high school and middle school is you're checking in with the ref where you are on the line of scrimmage. If you're off, you're telling the guy, hey, I'm off. If you're on, you're telling the guy, hey, I'm on.
[01:07:26] Speaker A: And then they tell you. They'll tell you when you're off.
[01:07:29] Speaker B: It's part of the line judge a responsibility to say.
[01:07:31] Speaker A: And they will say to you, if you're engaging with them, they'll say to you, hey, you're a little bit over. Take a step back.
[01:07:35] Speaker B: Take a step back or come up a little bit, whatever the case may be. So I get that these guys are professionals. Sometimes they just think, hey, I already know what to do. That's fine. But I still think if you watch professional football, most wide outs that end up on near a line judge are still going, hey, am I good?
So it's just one of those unacceptable things for a wide receiver to ever line up in front of the ball. The ref, when they asked him afterwards, was like, if he's lined up in front of the ball and I can't see the ball, he's off sides.
[01:08:03] Speaker A: They went back. I know on one of the networks they went back and they're like, well, he lined up this exact same way three other times during the game. And to me, that actually speaks to the refs being like, we're going to give you some leniency. It was close, whatever.
To me, they showed all of them. And the one at the end of the game was actually by far the most egregious. His whole foot was like, past the ball.
[01:08:25] Speaker B: And I always hate that, too, because especially in a game setting where there are rules, past mistakes doesn't mean that a future mistake gets treated the same way.
[01:08:37] Speaker A: Right.
[01:08:38] Speaker B: Just because they missed it the first time doesn't mean that, well, everybody was.
[01:08:40] Speaker A: Pointing to that being more of like, well, the refs are terrible because if they didn't call it then they shouldn't have called. Okay, well, maybe they didn't see it then, but they saw it now. And even if that's the case, like you're saying, if this is the only time all game they saw it, still a penalty, regardless of what you think.
[01:08:56] Speaker B: And maybe the refs are terrible. I would agree with you.
[01:08:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I would agree, too.
[01:08:59] Speaker B: Every week there are poor calls in the NFL, more so than in any other sport that you watch.
[01:09:06] Speaker A: And speaking of. So, Bo, did you have any thoughts on this one specifically?
[01:09:10] Speaker C: I was going to say little things. Win and lose you football games every week. And this was so, like Kenny said, such a standard day one thing that lost them the game they called the penalty before the play happened. It just so happened to be an insane play. Like, if that play won the game, that would go down in NFL history as like one of the most insane plays ever, right?
[01:09:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:09:27] Speaker C: But say Travis Kelsey tries to throw that lateral pass, gets tackled and he gets fumbled or gets picked off, and that play gets redone. And the Bills are like, what the know, look, what happened is Mahomes yelling and screaming at the riff after that.
[01:09:41] Speaker A: No. And to that point. So, like, Patrick Mahomes, that was his big thing after the game in his press conference. He's like, we've been robbed of greatness. Not only us, but the fans have been robbed of greatness. This was a great play by Travis Kelsey, one of the great players in the NFL, and the refs robbed us of greatness.
So you guys had a rules infraction and we were robbed of greatness because the refs were wrong, even though they were right.
[01:10:04] Speaker B: Robbed of greatness. Bro, you were almost nine and four.
[01:10:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:10:08] Speaker B: That's not greatness. It's above average.
[01:10:11] Speaker A: Yeah, it was just insane.
Bottom line, it was a penalty. I think they called it right.
[01:10:18] Speaker B: Penalty is a penalty.
[01:10:18] Speaker A: The fact that anybody's upset about it is kind of ridiculous to me.
[01:10:22] Speaker B: I just think we've seen way more egregious.
[01:10:26] Speaker A: You want to talk about bad calls? Yeah, don't talk to me about bad calls. Patrick Mahomes, do we remember the playoffs, the Browns versus the Chiefs a couple of years ago and we scored a touchdown and our guy got drilled in the head. Like it was completely just helmet to helmet, drilled in the head. And he fumbled the ball through the end zone and we got a touchback and took away our. Like you want to talk about bad? Like, that was probably the most blatant, obvious call I've ever seen, and it was a non call and it went against the Browns.
[01:10:52] Speaker B: I'll say this, though, I do like the fact that Mahomes is speaking up about it because nobody will because they don't have the money to just pay fines.
[01:11:00] Speaker A: Yeah, well, Miles Garrett went out there this week, too.
[01:11:04] Speaker B: Officials, I say bring the heat on these guys, because these guys do suck ass.
[01:11:07] Speaker A: Well, and again, we'll go back to overall, the refs have been terrible for a long time. This was the correct call. The refs have been terrible for a long time. And it's funny because amidst all the officiating woes and all the things that have been going on, Roger Goodell was asked about it this week. You know what he said? He was incredibly proud of how the officials have done this season.
[01:11:26] Speaker B: Yeah, he has to. He's like a police commissioner or something.
[01:11:30] Speaker A: Absolutely ridiculous.
[01:11:34] Speaker B: I just think they need to do something.
It's 2023. Why is there not a quick phone call that can be made to an office in New York where they can. Yes or no? A call? I don't know.
We have these guys sit and watch an iPad in the sun for 15 minutes trying to figure out whether the guy's foot is in or out of bounds. Call New York and let him watch.
[01:11:59] Speaker A: It on HD just to find out.
[01:12:00] Speaker B: That his butt cheek was inbound and let them go. Yeah, this is already done. Why is there not just a rules official committee for every game in the.
[01:12:07] Speaker A: NFL where they say there is, but there was. I mean, yeah, I'm with live in.
[01:12:11] Speaker B: Real time making decisions.
[01:12:13] Speaker C: There's not enough money to pay those guys, Kenny.
[01:12:16] Speaker A: We don't have it. We don't have any money.
Speaking of Roger Goodell, though, he also said this week that they need to eliminate the hip drop tackle. And I know that's a long discussion. I'm actually not going to get too far into that right now because we're running out of time and around the league, around the NFL. But yeah, it's absolutely ridiculous. Basically, Roger Goodell just said we want to eliminate tackling.
[01:12:38] Speaker B: I hate this man.
[01:12:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. And one final note. Sal Palo is to host a regular season game in 2024, which is pretty cool. Sao Paulo, Brazil. Our boy BPG a few weeks back, big play, Gary. Gary Barnage, he told us, he said Brazil is big on football and here we are, they're going to get a game of their own. So I'm pretty excited.
[01:13:01] Speaker B: He mentioned a couple of countries that it was really big in. Brazil was one of them.
[01:13:06] Speaker A: So I'm pretty excited about this, but that'll conclude our trip around the NFL. Kenny, you want to take some time to talk to the.
Uh huh. Something we started doing this year is our brownsbackers interview series. What we wanted to do was highlight not only the fact that Brownsbackers are everywhere, lots and lots of Browns fans belong to these Brownsbackers group, they're all over the country. They show up rain or shine, no matter. The Browns are doing good, bad, indifferent, whatever the case may be, they're there supporting the team. But we also want to highlight what most people may not know about the Brownsbackers, and that's the fact that they participate in a lot of charitable events, a lot of community service. So we wanted to highlight those chapters, and we're kind of following the team as they make their way around the country this season during their schedule.
[01:13:51] Speaker B: In fact, we are.
[01:13:52] Speaker A: We are following them. Yeah. So, with that, let's go ahead and get into the next interview in the series.
Okay, so this week, for our brownsbackers interview series, we get to chat with Joseph from the Chicagoland brownsbackers. Joey. Can I call you Joey? Joe? Joe. Yeah.
[01:14:33] Speaker D: Joey. The only people I allow to call me Joey are my immediate family and an old friend named Craig, who's an actor here in Chicago, and he was on an aircraft carrier, so he can do whatever he wants and call me whatever he wants to call me.
[01:14:48] Speaker A: Well, we'll stick with Joe, then. But thank you for joining.
Know, we really appreciate it. We know time is valuable, but how are you today?
[01:14:56] Speaker D: I'm good.
So I'm a college teacher. Just finished my last set of classes and then spent some time with some friends at a little german mart just outside of Wrigley Field. And then for $5, you can actually go into Wrigley Field. And they decked it out for the holidays. I stood in center field for the first time.
It was kind of.
[01:15:22] Speaker A: Do, uh, here in Cleveland. I don't know if you're familiar. They do like the. What do they call that? The winter toboggan shoots and stuff. Yeah. I don't know. They literally make toboggan shoots from the top of the.
What's the word I'm looking for?
Yeah, it is the left field wall.
There's a word I'm looking for. It's the stadium seating.
[01:15:47] Speaker B: The left field wall.
[01:15:49] Speaker D: Like the bleachers?
[01:15:50] Speaker A: Yeah, there you go. That's the word I was looking for. The bleacher seating. I couldn't think of it, but, yeah, the bleacher seating gets turned into toboggan shoots, and you kind of end up down on the field. It's really cool. Fun, but no. So, before we get started here, tell us a little bit about your guys'chapter.
[01:16:05] Speaker D: Well, so I was asking if there is a camera, and there is, because I have a visual. And just to show you here, brown smackers look at that date of establishment.
Hell, yes, if we are not the oldest chapter, we are one of the oldest. And, yeah, I've been doing it since I was eight. Okay, we'll see if you believe that.
And, man, in those days, in the earliest days of the brownsbackers, before the days of DirecTV, you had to go to a bar that had an actual satellite to get the actual coordinates and try to tune it in. And some days it would be crystal clear. Some days it would be crazy snowy. Some days they were on the military feed, and those games were wild because you got to see the same commercials they run on bases and holy smokes, they were a hoot.
So, yeah, we've been doing it since 87. Was what, the year after the fumble? Right? Or was that the year of the year?
So we have persevered through thick and thin, and we are currently nestled in a lovely little neighborhood, Andersonville, Edgewater, where I live. Place called Burke's public house.
[01:17:39] Speaker A: Oh, nice.
[01:17:40] Speaker D: On Broadway. And Berwin, I want to say, and we have a nice little back. Our friend Chris Farrell, who watched games there, said, why don't you come over? Because we got to be a little itinerant after a certain point, and we are no longer the biggest Chicago Browns club. That's the chitown dog pound, and they're still in Wrigleyville. And that's okay because their thing is they want to put you in the middle of the dog pound. Our thing is we throw a party every.
Yeah. So we have people come by, we hang out. We have always, like, our other signatures. I think we were one of the first groups at halftime to do this little door prize giveaway we always gave away and still do bottles of stadium.
[01:18:27] Speaker A: Nice, nice stadium.
[01:18:29] Speaker D: Which is. Still can't fit in.
[01:18:31] Speaker A: Know, hopefully you never can't. Not for you guys. But, I mean, I wish you guys could get your stadium mustard, but for all those other Chicagoans, we don't want them to have it. So that's a Cleveland.
[01:18:42] Speaker D: I still have siblings in Cleveland, so when I go, I always grab a couple of bottles on the way home.
[01:18:47] Speaker A: There you go. There you go. No, I mean, luckily, technology has come a long way, and you guys are able to watch crystal clear games every week now, more or less.
But how many members are you guys up to over there? I mean, I know you said the other one's a little bit bigger at this point, but I know you guys are from what I know as well.
[01:19:06] Speaker D: Yeah, well, we've got a pretty sizable little group of about 25 30 people. I think when the Browns win consistently, there are going to be plenty of spaces and plenty of bars. I can rattle off a couple of Cleveland bars in the area that do really well and also show Buckeye games and also show calves games and also do the draft. I mean, I'll give a shout out to a place called Vaughn's Pub where we will go for draft day parties, for example.
They're not an official bar, but they're a Cleveland bar and an Ohio bar and they're good people. And when burks isn't open, they're a good place to go as well. And nothing wrong with Shytown, just a different vibe. They're different crowd, different vibe.
[01:19:54] Speaker A: Do you do any collaborations, anything in tandem with each other?
[01:19:59] Speaker D: Not really. In some ways we used to be that big back in the 90s before art and all of that.
And so some of our longer, like the folks that originated the club, some of them are no longer with us. And so it's about the games. It's about just hanging out and it's small enough. Somebody comes in like, hey, where are you from? Where'd you grow up? And we get to compare notes and we get having travelers come know the place does a nice some good burgers. They have great lakes on tap.
[01:20:42] Speaker B: Honestly, what more, it's a great segue. So where are you from in northeast Ohio? And when did you move out to Chicago?
[01:20:51] Speaker D: So I grew up in Collingwood.
[01:20:56] Speaker A: 156 shout out Cecil shorts was from. I don't know if you know the name Cecil shorts, but just retired now from the NFL. Played a few years, went to mount Union. He's from Collingwood though.
[01:21:09] Speaker D: Oh, there you well see, I've been around long enough that I went to Villa Angeles St. Joe's when it was just St. Joe's with Clark Kellogg and all the golicks and all those. One of my dad's best friends, his son Al Sinsich was actually the first guy that went to Michigan and kind of created that pipeline. Eventually we sent them Elvis Gerbach and Desmond Howard and all of that.
But I came to Chicago in 1984 right around the same time as the Rick Sutcliffe trade with the then Indians. And I remember know just a very quick kind of fun sports story that I think y'all will appreciate. The first apartment I lived in Chicago, I lived on the third floor and the ground floor was this hot dog place called the hot dog factory. And the owner of the hot dog factory was this gentleman by the name of Dino Skeptar, my friend. And he looked just like you. He sounds right down to the mustache and the glasses.
And the reason I mentioned that is because, as fate would have it, on the second floor of that building was this quiet jewish kid from New York who was learning to be a comedy writer at Second City, and his name was Robert Smigel.
And so Smigel took Dino and helped to create the whole superfans phenomena of bulls. That all came small part from Dino, who is still with us, and it's great. And you talk to us. Yeah, I know a bunch of guys that look like fun. I just like telling that story.
[01:23:04] Speaker A: Every single time the bears get mentioned on this podcast, somebody throws out the bears.
[01:23:12] Speaker D: It's Dino.
[01:23:14] Speaker B: Now we know.
[01:23:16] Speaker A: Nice.
But, I mean, you did mention, obviously, like you say, you moved there in 84. It just kind of drives home the fact that Browns fans are everywhere. I mean, there's a lot of people that even though even all the people you talk to that moved away from Ohio still love Ohio, there are a lot of transplants that kind of find their way elsewhere, but that love for the Cleveland Browns kind of never dies. And you have that camaraderie all over the place.
And so as far as our interviews with the Browns backers, I mean, that's what it's all about is the fans that are everywhere. But then the other side of it is the community service and charity work that you guys are kind of involved with that we want to highlight. And so with that being said, when you guys get Together every week, is there any community service or charity work that you guys are involved with?
[01:24:08] Speaker D: Yeah, so we're in a really kind of a very cool neighborhood. Andersonville specifically, is a very prominent LGBTQ neighborhood.
So we do a 50 50 raffle every week. And so we designate a group, and there was a group called the Test Positive Action Network. They're all about making hiv testing and such, and we raised money for them.
We have a great local food bank, care for real, that we raise money and funding for. We have a fantastic little place called felines and canines, where you can dop dogs and cats, and they have a relationship with pound in Alabama.
And we do that. And so, especially as we get into the holidays, we're certainly working with care for real. We're definitely working with felines and canines. And then this year, Chicago is one of those cities that have been getting a lot of immigrants kind of coming up by the busload from Texas. And so it's been a big issue of trying to find housing for them and temporary housing. So in our neighborhood, we have a national Guard armory, which is acting as a temporary shelter. I mean, just people in cots while we try to find housing for them. And so we have been doing a warm clothing drive for them since a lot of them don't come with a lot of warm clothes when they get to Chicago. And Chicago, it's been a very gentle fall so far. So we are helping them with a warm clothing drive. We'll be doing that periodically.
We're going to be raising some money for care for know. I don't know how they work in Cleveland, but in food banks, sometimes they get overloaded with canned goods and sometimes you try to give them cash cards for grocery stores. So we just decided, you know something, let's just raise as much money as we can, cut them a check. They can buy what they need and disturb burst it where they need to.
So we're lucky that in this neighborhood we have so many really local groups that we can work with and we do.
[01:26:26] Speaker B: That's really awesome. So are you able to fund all those different charities with just like 50 50 drawings during your weekly games and events or do you guys do anything outside of that to try and raise money or like merchandise sales?
[01:26:41] Speaker D: We're working next year we want to do a much broader sort of season long fundraising. We're talking with the owners of Burke so that we can get the entire bar involved because they have bears games, but they'll put different tvs on so other fans will get to come in. I mean, we've befriended a few Minnesota Vikings fans. Bears fans are actually generally pretty respectful of Browns fans. I think they see us as kindred spirits in a lot of different, you know, the test positive action network is a group that burks, raises money for throughout the year as so I know last year we were hoping to do some Cavs playoff games, but they didn't help us by bowing out in the first round as quickly as they did.
[01:27:36] Speaker A: They're off to kind of a rocky start this season, too.
[01:27:39] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm watching them. They just. So many injuries, they can't seem to build a lot of momentum yet.
[01:27:47] Speaker A: We like to do that in Cleveland.
[01:27:50] Speaker D: Yeah, it's a tradition. But the Cavs, they're fun to root for. They're young enough that you can kind of still see where they're going to mean. I imagine we'll probably do some Guardians games at White Sox park because that's going to be an easy park to get the tickets for this year.
Cubs are a little trickier because it is the Cubs and, no, there actually isn't a lot of angst with the Cubs in the 2016 World Series. I know I gave them a pass because LeBron won in 2016.
[01:28:29] Speaker B: That did make.
[01:28:32] Speaker D: Okay, you got yours.
If it happens again, sorry, it's like all Cleveland this year, but again, the Guardians do what they do, and you just kind of roll with it, and it's baseball, so you just kind of kick back.
[01:28:45] Speaker A: You mentioned the 2016 World Series. We just like to harp on the rain delay conspiracy here. Oh, God. Yeah. We had all the momentum, and all of a sudden we got called rain delay even though it lasted, like, five minutes.
[01:28:57] Speaker D: Well, I mean, Tito Francona damn near won that series with two decent pitchers. Spit and duct tape.
[01:29:04] Speaker B: Well, that's what would have made it so special, because victory. To have that run that they did and just the way that game seven played out, man, it would have been nice to have. But to your point, at least we got one.
[01:29:16] Speaker D: At least we got one.
And it's fun because I can taunt Bulls fans by saying I will put that 2016 title above both three peats. I think when you look at what LeBron had to do, the team, he had to beat the three to one deficit, and then what they did in response by bringing in Kevin Durant, I think that tops either of those three.
I will. I will bend that hill, man.
[01:29:46] Speaker A: There's that meme that goes around every so often that it's like you'll tell your kids that they needed these four guys just to beat this one guy, and they won't believe you. And that's exactly what it was.
When they brought in Durant the following offseason, I thought that was just the. It was the ultimate sign of respect for LeBron. Like, okay, you are legitimately that good that this is the team we need to put together to beat you.
[01:30:10] Speaker B: And they were already coming off, what, 73 and nine, or whatever the 73 and 70 record was.
[01:30:15] Speaker D: And the year before, it was like, kyrie Irving was in for half a game. Kevin Love was out the year before that.
[01:30:24] Speaker A: They were both hurt, weren't they? Yeah.
[01:30:29] Speaker D: Vinnie Della Dova. I mean, come on.
[01:30:33] Speaker A: But kind of back to your things and what you have going on here. Are there any events that you guys are hosting or looking forward to maybe in the offseason?
[01:30:45] Speaker D: We always do a draft day of some sort, which, again, is weird, because there hasn't really been a draft day for the last two years and won't.
[01:30:52] Speaker A: Be this boring those first couple of rounds.
[01:30:54] Speaker D: But you know something?
As we were going through the aggravation of seeing Kevin Stefanski try to be the smartest guy on the field, which he loves to do. A couple times a game that at one point I look at my friend Steve who's been with us. We've been kind of the last two survivors of the original group, and we were like, you know, this is still a hell of a lot better than the.
[01:31:19] Speaker A: We'll.
[01:31:19] Speaker D: We'll still take this any damn day. So we'll do something on the draft.
I think we got to start thinking of something special to do for the playoffs.
Although I have read that there's a chance it could be the Peacock game. And if it is, some of the bars can't show peacock.
Like they get one.
Yeah, that's. They get one exclusive playoff.
[01:31:47] Speaker A: I feel like Cleveland fans might riot if we get the Peacock game because.
[01:31:51] Speaker D: Especially if we place Jacksonville. I mean, we won, so we kept the bottles in our hips. This.
[01:32:02] Speaker A: Think. I don't know. If I had to put money on it, I'd say Cleveland's not getting the Peacock game because of all the fan bases. I think ours riots if everybody can't watch the game.
[01:32:13] Speaker D: And now that Joe Flacco is turning into a story, I think there are going to be a lot of people that want to see how that turns.
[01:32:20] Speaker A: I agree.
It's kind of a good segue because we're bleeding into the football side of things real quick.
[01:32:26] Speaker B: I was going to ask, though, do you have anybody coming in, guys in town this week for the game? Do you have anybody travel?
[01:32:33] Speaker D: We never know. Which is part of the beauty of it. We are always listed and we always get a couple of calls of, hey, can we get some over here? Especially because, again, you go to Wrigley Field, you've got the Chris Kindlemart and Winterfest, and it's still crazy busy. And so we're like, yeah, we got parking. Come on up here. It'll be a lot more relaxed.
And again, one of our favorite things, like, where are you from? Where are you from? Where are you from?
We never know. We don't have celebrities coming in. Just kind of roll with it.
Yeah, we just keep the door open. Now, this week will be interesting because it's obviously going to be a local game, so they'll be on locally being Christmas. We'll see how many people are kind of so crazy that they're trying to find.
They may not want to take a few hours, but we will certainly say it's always more fun to watch with a lot of friends. It just.
[01:33:38] Speaker A: So now onto the football side of things here.
You mentioned playing the Jaguars last week, and yes, we did keep the bottles on our hipster. Yeah, we did not throw them.
What are your thoughts on the game against the Jaguars and how they looked?
[01:33:57] Speaker D: It was a game I was worried about, especially coming off those two losses on the west coast. I was certainly kind of hoping Trevor Lawrence wasn't going to play, but he did.
I continue to be amazed and happy at what Jim Schwartz can.
Obviously, again, Flacco is just. I think we're all going, wow, that guy still has some, you know, I was just reading, know, they're just injuries upon injuries upon injuries. And so listening to Chicago sports talk radio being trying to build up some hopes for the Bears, it's kind of interesting. I just think getting that lead, watch the field go was a highlight.
And I think the last few minutes, again, like my friend Steve was like, it's going to come down to the outside kick. It's going to come down to the outside kick. It's going to come down to the onside kick, which it did. And again, we all hold our breaths because we've seen onsite kicks go very badly both against know, both with Joe Flacco and against the Bears. I remember going to a Bears game, Bears, browns game, and watching an onsite kick work right in front of me.
I think the Bears scored ten points to get in overtime and then one.
[01:35:29] Speaker B: I was going to say, was it the Tim Kowski? That's almost 20 years ago where they scored like three. They had like three possessions. They scored directly in a row. And then onsite kick and, yeah, that was just a disaster.
[01:35:39] Speaker D: And the onsite kick, like, literally spun directly over whoever the brown was. I've never seen an onsite kick do that in my life before, since.
Yeah, of course.
But at the end, last week, we won. We relaxed. Steve and I had our victory shots, which is how we like to end each victory.
[01:36:04] Speaker B: What is the victory shot?
[01:36:06] Speaker D: He does, Jameson. I do. Old granddad.
[01:36:10] Speaker B: Nice.
[01:36:13] Speaker A: Granddad's good. Is it the original? Is it bottled in bond or is it 114?
[01:36:20] Speaker D: No, it's the standard stuff.
I am a Bourbon drinker and I normally will do Jack just because I only want to do one shot, and that's it. But, granddad, that one is pretty smooth. I'm pleasantly surprised. Yeah, I'm a makers mark guy, myself, personally, that's my go to.
[01:36:41] Speaker A: They have a lot of different things. I could talk bourbon all day. I'm a huge bourbon fan, but we can do that Bourbon Lovers podcast. We'll set that up later. But I love, you know, obviously they were able to pull out the win against the Jaguars. Jim shorts continues to do good things, but how do you think they've looked so far this season? And can you tell us how your chapter is dealing with injury after injury after injury after injury after injury after injury after injury after.
[01:37:16] Speaker D: I think the first step is as long as Miles Garrett's on the field, there is hope.
We were thinking, is he doing anything? But again, we have enough astute watchers to go, no, he's getting chipped every time. He's getting double teamed every time. But he's making Lawrence go faster. He's not letting him plant. That injury didn't help. So as long as you've got Miles Garrett on the field, I think there's always hope. And the amazing thing is just watching all of the quarterbacks.
Our group, probably, like a lot of other groups, are kind of conflicted about Deshaun.
The fact that one game he finally came through and he did it. Now that we know, without all those injuries, was it the Steelers game? Was it Steelers or the Ravens game? Whichever one, I think we're very happy. PJ Watson is third string.
He was the one that caused most of our angst.
[01:38:21] Speaker A: We call PJ Walker the human.
[01:38:27] Speaker D: Now, again, we're watching Flacco and suddenly they can throw the ball and suddenly people are getting open and the Joku finally is starting to earn some money. And there was a David Bell sighting.
[01:38:43] Speaker A: Yes, there was.
[01:38:45] Speaker D: At long last, and thank goodness Kareem Hunt, like my nephew, went to high school and Willoughby south with Kareem Hunt. It's nice that he came back and is doing also. Is it Caldwell, our offensive line coach? Is it. No.
[01:39:02] Speaker A: Who's our Callahan?
[01:39:04] Speaker D: Callahan. God, I'm sorry.
I think we also just have a little shrine for Callahan because it doesn't matter. He just brings in. See, it reminds me of the 80s teams where all of their offensive lineman is, they just plug and played guys all the time. And somebody said, well, that was in the 80s. They had a very specific type. They like guys with long arms. They like guys with a lot of upper like that could move their feet, and they just knew what to look for and they kept finding those guys. And I think you're seeing the same thing because it's funny listening to the Bears fans going, oh, we've got all these injuries, and they're down to their third and fourth stringers. And I'm like, we've been we're eight and come on.
[01:39:54] Speaker A: I can't stand every week hearing different teams talk about their injuries, and I'm like, if you only knew.
And then we were dealt, what, four more this week?
[01:40:08] Speaker B: They all hurt. I mean, it's like every time, you can't be that guy. You can't be that know.
[01:40:12] Speaker D: We have become big Dewan Jones fans at the adopt. He was our adopted guy. My friend Steve picked him out. He told him when we drafted him, watch out for this guy. He's going to eventually replace Willis, and I hope he better be first team roll rookie.
[01:40:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I think he's probably solidified really well this year.
[01:40:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm worried about this injury, though, because a guy that big, you just worry about sustainability until your lower half because he was so phenomenal. But, man, you just hope you can build some longevity there.
[01:40:50] Speaker D: Yeah, well, again, he's got the right coaching staff to do that because they seem to find like, the guy that replaced posick was the guy that was supposed to be there in the first comes in.
[01:41:05] Speaker A: Yeah, the whole center saga last year was insane. We had our starter that we let go right before the season started, and then the guy that replaced him ended up being like Pro bowl caliber, and then he got hurt, and then the next guy was Pro bowl caliber.
[01:41:20] Speaker B: And Pochek was very quietly putting together a really strong campaign this year where he was, by all accounts, with PFF grades and things like second.
[01:41:27] Speaker D: And it doesn't sound like he's as hurt as a few other guys because.
[01:41:31] Speaker B: Hopefully he might be able to come back.
[01:41:34] Speaker D: I mean, it reminds me of when Mayfield was in the playoff game and he was like, oh, I just met my new left tackle. Hey, how?
[01:41:40] Speaker B: Blake Hans met him in the parking garage.
[01:41:45] Speaker D: Northwestern guy with the Northwestern. So go represent.
[01:41:50] Speaker A: But Joe, let's look to this week now. So what are your thoughts? I mean, obviously, you guys get to hear about the Chicago Bears being local for you guys. What are your thoughts on the week 15 matchup with the Bears, and what are they saying locally about the Bears?
[01:42:07] Speaker D: Well, the thing about the Bears has been about Justin Fields. Is he the guy? Is he the guy?
I think those of us that saw him at Ohio State feel like he was given a really bad hand with so much of the coaching that he's gotten.
They're trying to make him a pocket just, and it's not what he does best.
And a lot of questions about the coaching staff. And the thing is, in the back of everybody's mind is they have Carolina's first round draft pick, which is going to be the first pick. So everything is all about Will Justin Fields show them enough that they don't use that pick on.
[01:42:51] Speaker A: I mean, it is a good question because to your point, all of us that got to watch him nonstop because we're Ohio State fans.
Justin Fields is a phenomenal quarterback and not even necessarily making all the plays with his legs. He's really good when he's able to roll out, kind of get on the move and then throw from outside the pocket and it seems like they want nothing to do with that. For whatever reason.
[01:43:17] Speaker D: They'Ve gotten him so nervous that his accuracy has just went down the toilet. Also, he had no offensive line at.
[01:43:26] Speaker A: Know Kenny's, Kenny's been saying since the beginning of the season like he's got to get away from Chicago. Yeah, it was a tough place for.
[01:43:32] Speaker B: Him to land just because there was so much. It's a lot like Browns quarterbacks to come in over the last 20 years. It's not a safe place to land between the coaching and some of the front office stuff that was going on there. It just was not an ideal situation for a young quarterback and I feel for the kid because he's such a tremendous athlete, obviously, Grinding said. We watched a ton of him at Ohio State, really liked what we saw there and we're proud to have him as a.
I don't know. I don't know what the future holds for that kid. I just hope that he lands somewhere that is a better fit at some point for him.
[01:44:07] Speaker D: Well, here's the thing though, is they won two in a row, first time since Matt Eberfluce has been coach their offensive line. It's going to be the fourth week in a row the same five guys have started, which has never know. The Bears are usually known for their defensive they made them a trade for Montez sweat. He's looking halfway decent.
They do have Jaquan Brisker, who is a really good defensive back. Tackles, everybody.
He's going to be a fun challenge.
They're looking at it and there are even the craziest people going. You know, if the Bears went out, they could make the playoffs at nine and eight. So you start to hear some of that whispering. They're looking at this as their toughest game for the rest of their season and I think we're looking at it. I think most of us, especially with the Browns backers, are kind of going two more wins, two more wins. And with the teams that we've got, I think most of us are thinking the Texans game was going to be the toughest, but that depends on whether TJ Stroud plays or.
[01:45:13] Speaker A: Yep.
[01:45:14] Speaker D: But they should be able to beat the Jets. I still think they should beat the Bengals, even though know Browning mania. Okay, whatever.
And I think most of us were looking at this Bears team as the winnable one.
[01:45:29] Speaker A: As winnable, and I'd agree with that. I mean, as far as us looking at the schedule, that's one of the ones we've pointed out.
[01:45:34] Speaker B: Certainly several weeks ago. I think we felt a lot better about it than we do. To your point, they've played better in recent weeks. I think Dante Sweat has been a shot in the arm for that defense.
[01:45:42] Speaker D: For sure, but the Browns are going to have the better and they're already thinking, oh, Joe Flacco's a statue. He's just going to be standing there and they're going to be able to come after him. And so far, the first couple of weeks he has that one hit in LA, he's only gotten a couple hits.
He's been doing fine. They've been running enough to keep everybody like Flacco knows where David Nuchoku is all the time and he can still throw down field.
[01:46:18] Speaker A: Well, I think what you just mentioned, I think is the biggest reason why he hasn't been sacked very often is because I think, especially as he learns the offense, he's like, where's my tight end? Because anytime I'm in trouble, I'm going right to him and I'm not going to stand here and take a bunch of hits from everyone.
[01:46:34] Speaker B: He said Harrison Bryan a couple of times, too.
[01:46:37] Speaker A: That's what I mean. It doesn't matter who the tight end is. Where's my tight end? So that I have that security blanket. If people were bearing down on me.
[01:46:45] Speaker D: And you still see the Browns with direct snaps to wide receivers. There were a couple of packages with DTR. I wouldn't be surprised if you see a couple more of those again. Knowing Stefanski, though, we fear for the option to DTR. In the past.
[01:47:01] Speaker A: To Flacco, the old negative 20 double.
[01:47:05] Speaker D: Reverse, well, that was the DJ Walker specialty.
[01:47:10] Speaker A: Yeah, we harp on it, though. We say at least once a week we run some sort of reverse or some sort of trick play that has a difficulty level of about 100 out of ten, and we end up with negative 20 yards, or that's the way.
[01:47:27] Speaker D: You'Re supposed to go.
[01:47:29] Speaker A: Well, we get nine yards out of it, which is. That's a bad risk reward, if you ask me.
No, but with all this being said, with all this being said, obviously Bears have won a couple in a row. Oh, the dog.
[01:47:44] Speaker D: There he is.
[01:47:48] Speaker A: What's the dog's name?
[01:47:49] Speaker D: His name is Fagan.
I named my pets after 70s rock figures. So it's named after Donald Fagan from Steely Dan.
[01:48:00] Speaker A: Nice. But no. With the Bears winning a few games in a know, the Browns bouncing back against the know, what are your thoughts? What do you think is going to happen in this game? And obviously we're going to ask you, what is your score prediction for the Browns versus the Bears?
[01:48:17] Speaker D: Man, I haven't done a score prediction in a long time. I do expect the Browns win. I do think playing at home is a huge factor.
It'll be fun for fields because I think he remembers those seven sacks and he's going to try to pull that off. I'm going to say 20, 414 and I've been saying this because I'm trying to will it to happen. The one thing Miles Garrett has yet to do is score off a turnover. So I'm going to keep saying Miles Garrett will score off a turnover and I will keep saying it until he does.
[01:48:55] Speaker A: Do you just keep putting money on.
[01:49:00] Speaker D: Whenever, whenever he's back there and we're going strip sack? It's like you can get an interception, too. He can return the fumble, too. He hasn't done it yet.
[01:49:09] Speaker A: No. I like the 24 to 14. I think that's honestly probably where a lot of people's heads are at right now, where maybe there's some fight. But overall, the Browns should be the better team and they should win this game. So I think that's where a lot.
[01:49:23] Speaker D: Of people's heads, yeah, they're going to be better coached. I still trust their offensive line until Flacco proves that they can actually hit him before he throws, he's smart enough to let it know you are a little nervous about.
My guess is, but they don't have anybody else, so my guess is J-O-K is his.
[01:49:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:49:52] Speaker D: And Schwartz is just going to go, you don't let him out of your sight, period. That's your guy the entire game.
[01:49:59] Speaker A: Yep. I would agree. I would definitely agree. Now, I will say before we get going here, I do want to say that we are sponsored by who kenny.
[01:50:09] Speaker B: Seaside events as the official cruise event.
[01:50:12] Speaker A: Provider of the Cleveland Browns and organizer of the Browns fan Cruise. And so with that in mind, they did run a competition for brownsbackers, however, that has closed. If they haven't announced the winners yet, they will be doing that soon. But I do want to say we, burning river sportscast will be Mc several events aboard the ship and there will be 17 alumni joining the cruise that the fans will kind of get to mingle with like they're normal people. You just get to see them on the ship, you have a conversation with them.
So for anybody that hasn't booked yet, please go ahead and check that out. And if you want to have a lot of fun in March of 2024, come set sail with us.
[01:50:51] Speaker B: And there's still a promotional deal going right now, too where you get some cash back on your ticket if you book now. So definitely get the scabbards booked.
[01:50:58] Speaker A: And so, Joe, is there anything else that you would want to say to Cleveland fans? I mean, you're a transplant yourself, so is there anything you want to say to Cleveland fans that maybe have moved away from northeast Ohio are missing their fellow Browns fans and are potentially thinking about joining a brownsbackers chapter out there?
[01:51:16] Speaker D: Well, I think, like I say, we have been around a long time. We have a lot of history, we have a lot of fun. We are laid back. My attitude is always, we're throwing a party, we give away silly prizes at the half, we do the 50 50. Like I say, we're building towards something a little grander as we get into next year. 24. But we are a fun group. We are a laid back group. If you got some kids, bring some kids over. We are clean, we don't work. Blue and Burks is a really comfortable place. Nice food. Again, it's a parkable neighborhood in Chicago, which is not always the case. And like I say, come have some be. Like I said, we probably do a Cavs game here and there. Maybe a guardians game here and there. Here and know even NCAAs. I actually went to undergrad at Cleveland State and like the Cleveland State women made the NCAAs and northwestern men made the NCAA. So it was the first time in my life both schools were in the show and that was a blast. And we'll do some watch parties.
You know, Chicago is a great town.
It's no Cleveland, but Chicago is a great town. You will have a good time.
We would love to have you. Like I say, we will tip a great Lakes Christmas ale on tap and y'all can do a victory shot with us.
[01:52:46] Speaker A: There you go. And one final thing we'd like to mention is the Burning river sportscast hot take hotline. So Kenny, tell them about the hot take hotline.
[01:52:55] Speaker B: Absolutely. So we do have a voicemail box set up that we call the hot take hotline here at the Burning river sports cast. And each week we invite fans to call in before, during after the game. Let us know your thoughts. If you're happy, you're angry, you're sad, whatever it may be, any time of the week, let us know. Call in with your hot takes. If you have things you need to say, things you want to tell us about Kevin Safanski's play calling or the personal groupings or how the defense is playing, let us know. We want to hear it. And we take the best takes and we put them on our show each week and react to them. So just something that's a little bit fun to do. And if it's something you want to make your group a prize to maybe get some phone calls in from the Chicago area this week. And that number is 330-2278 we'll put it on the screen here so that when this releases, people know. But that is the number to the Britney river sportscast hot take outline.
[01:53:41] Speaker A: Yes. And so Joe, it has been great having you.
[01:53:46] Speaker B: Can I ask Joe too, real quick?
[01:53:47] Speaker A: You got another question just before we go?
[01:53:49] Speaker B: We're having a good time with Joe. Joe, I want to ask you two more questions. Joe, you mentioned you were in education. What do you teach?
[01:53:58] Speaker D: I teach freshman composition and public speaking.
[01:54:01] Speaker B: Oh, okay, perfect. And then being that you are a Chicago guy now, a Cleveland slash Chicago guy, do you have a favorite pizza place out in Chicago?
[01:54:12] Speaker D: It all depends on what kind of pizza. If you are talking about what the tourists considered Chicago style pizza, which is the stuffed pizza, I'm actually a fan of Lumel Nadi's. But if you think of what actual Chicagoans think of Chicago pizza, which is called tavern cut, which is thin pizza cut in squares because they used to bring it out at bars. So you could grab a couple and then you'd get thirsty, you'd buy another couple of beers.
My favorite thin crust tavern pizza is at a place called Pat's. Pat's pizza.
[01:54:49] Speaker B: Where's Pat's at? Is that downtown?
[01:54:51] Speaker D: Pat's pizza is on Lincoln, near diverse.
[01:54:55] Speaker A: Okay, nice.
[01:54:56] Speaker B: Awesome. We'll check that out next time we're in town. But absolutely just a big pizza guy. So I'm always curious to hear from the guys that are like in New York Chicago, because there's so many different answers and it's like, I just want to find the best.
[01:55:12] Speaker D: Cottage. It's one of the greater debates you have in Chicago. And there are sometimes bad pizza, but usually there are no losers.
[01:55:23] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. I'd agree with that pizza.
[01:55:25] Speaker B: Delicious.
[01:55:27] Speaker A: No. But once again, Joe, it's been great having you. Thanks so much for joining us. We really appreciate your time, and we hope to one day make it out to Chicago, maybe get some pizza, and join you guys for a Browns game.
[01:55:41] Speaker D: We would love to have you.
We'll roll out the welcome map or the banner as I'm going to unfurl one more time, just because.
[01:55:51] Speaker A: There we go.
[01:55:53] Speaker B: That is quite the banner.
[01:55:55] Speaker A: It's like the original Brownsbackers logo, too, isn't it?
[01:55:59] Speaker D: It is.
[01:56:01] Speaker A: Hell, yes.
[01:56:02] Speaker D: Well, that's sort of that there. Right?
[01:56:06] Speaker A: Cool.
[01:56:08] Speaker D: Because we actually have the occasional debate over Brownie. I'm a fan, but not everybody is. I don't know why.
[01:56:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know.
[01:56:16] Speaker B: I'm a big fan hater.
[01:56:17] Speaker D: I am, too.
[01:56:19] Speaker B: It's unique, you know? It's one of those things that's uniquely Cleveland.
[01:56:23] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[01:56:24] Speaker A: But, hey, Joe, we appreciate it. We'll talk to you soon, man.
[01:56:27] Speaker D: Likewise. Thanks for having me.
This is the Chicagoland Browns backers, and you're listening to the burning river sportscast.
[01:56:47] Speaker A: Go browns.
[01:57:04] Speaker B: Talking to, uh, Joe's a dog. And you can.
[01:57:08] Speaker A: He did not like when I called him Joey, though.
[01:57:11] Speaker B: He put the cabas on.
That was kind of one of those moments where you're like, oh, all right, Joe.
[01:57:18] Speaker A: Joe it is.
[01:57:19] Speaker B: Joe it is. But no, respectful. I had a great conversation with Joe. Sounds like they have a lot of good.
[01:57:25] Speaker A: Their backers group, although the numbers aren't quite there. It doesn't sound like they used to. It sounds like that backers group has a lot of history.
[01:57:32] Speaker B: Oh, for sure. I mean, the.
[01:57:33] Speaker A: The bannery been there since before I was born.
[01:57:35] Speaker B: Had 87 on it from the original founding of the group. It's cool to have a club that's around that long, if nothing else.
[01:57:43] Speaker A: But those guys have seen a lot of shit.
[01:57:45] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I mean, just listen to him talk about the original games with the satellite where they had to go through.
[01:57:52] Speaker A: I don't even know what that's like because that's not my lifetime. The only thing that I can kind.
[01:57:57] Speaker B: Of compare that to is, like, remember when you used to have to plug in a video game system and it had to be on, like, channel four or channel three, and you had to have just. Right.
You didn't have inputs on tv like you do today.
[01:58:10] Speaker A: No.
[01:58:10] Speaker B: So, yeah, I mean, just kind of wild to think about the lengths people went through to watch the Cleveland Browns in the city of Chicago 35 years ago.
[01:58:19] Speaker A: Pretty wild. And the fact that to that point, that they started all over the nation, all over the world.
There's other ones that started in the late 80s as well. And so they're not just doing that, Chicago, they're trying to mess with satellites all over the nation, trying to point them in the right direction to get the Cleveland Browns game. It's just crazy to think about. But no, we loved having him on. It was a good time. Good interview there, but we will move on to the sports gas.
Did I put you to sleep there?
[01:58:54] Speaker B: No, it was already coming out. All right.
[01:58:56] Speaker A: Well, don't forget to call and leave your hot takes on the hot take hotline. Remember, these are hot takes. We want hot takes. We want hot takes. We want hot takes. We want hot takes. 3302-2780-8033-0227-8080-3302-2780-80 bone forgot the number.
[01:59:15] Speaker B: He also fell asleep.
[01:59:16] Speaker A: 330-2278 call now. Operators are never standing by.
[01:59:22] Speaker B: Nobody's there.
[01:59:22] Speaker A: Nobody's there. Just an answer machine. Nobody's there. Let's make some money, guys. It's time for a quick revenue break and then we'll get back here and preview the week 15 matchup against dubbears. Dubbears topath distillery topath distillery an award winning craft distillery located in Akron, Ohio, topath Distillery focuses on high quality spirits carefully made in small batches. Topaz lineup includes an ultra smooth, award winning premium vodka, a small batch silver rum made from the highest grade molasses, an american craft gin made with nine botanicals and a blended straight bourbon made from corn and rye. Topath distillery now available locally and in 44 states. Visit topathdistillery.com to place your order online or find an OHLQ retailer near you. Topath distillery handcrafted, award winning, small batch, local and family owned all Cleveland coffee all Cleveland coffee is a coffee company that launched earlier this year in Cleveland, as the name would suggest. Founded by Browns legend Hall of Famer Joe Thomas and six time heavyweight champion of the world in the UFC, stipe Miocic, along with a team of several other brilliant clevelanders, all Cleveland coffee is on a mission to give 1 million meals back to the community through an official partnership with the Greater Cleveland Food bank. How will they do this, you ask? Well, with every bag purchased, three meals get donated to the food bank. It's such an awesome idea, and a bunch of great individuals were involved with it. And the result is the best coffee in Cleveland, bar none. It comes in three roasts, light, medium and dark. Dark is what Joe Thomas enjoys every morning. Me and my co host here, Kenny. We're medium roast, guys. Right, Kenny? Swag all Cleveland coffee. Visit all cleveland.com today to order your coffee and donate a few meals in the process. All Cleveland coffee, ethically sourced, premium roasted, and three meals donated for every bag purchased.
All right, so usually before we get into the week 15 preview or the next week's preview, we like to do our Cleveland Browns fan cruise alumni interviews. This week we don't have one. We will get back into those next week, though. So let's just get right into it. Let's do it. Week 15 preview.
Okay, gentlemen, this week we have.
So, Kenny, you want to start us off with whatever previews of matchup previews or opposition research you have?
[02:01:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I think there's two things.
[02:02:00] Speaker A: There's two things in this. Only two things.
[02:02:02] Speaker B: One is, in our interview with our Chicago land, Brownsbacker pointed this out that there's just a lot of emphasis on Justin Fields and what his role is going to be on this team going forward. Is he their franchise quarterback of the future? So I think every opportunity he has out right now is kind of like, I'm putting this on tape for either this coaching staff or the next to see whether or not I'm going to be here next year. Obviously, they have a really interesting draft pick scenario, given that they have the Carolina Panthers first pick in the draft, which is likely going to be the number one pick in the draft.
So he's kind of playing for all the marbles right now for himself.
[02:02:39] Speaker A: If you can't see that the.
Again we've talked about, I want Justin Fields just because we like Ohio State and we want Ohio State players to play well in the NFL. We want Justin Fields to go somewhere else so he can have more success. But it's wild to me that the Bears are even considering moving on from him. Like, if you can't see that he's got a ton of talent, if you just put the right players around him.
[02:03:01] Speaker B: You'Re so he's a huge wild card because he has all the talent in the world. He can make every throw and he can burn you with his feet. So it's just a matter of can they contain him? I think in terms of, like, a matchup, a true matchup, it's probably got to be J-O-K spying this guy all day long because you can't just let him go because he will definitely hurt you.
[02:03:26] Speaker A: But I'll jump in on that one because you stole my thunder a little bit. Thunder.
But that was one of my matchups. As well is J-O-K versus Justin Fields. He's definitely going to be spying him, at least for a good part of the day. So as you just mentioned, Fields can kill you at any given time with his legs.
And Joseph had some good points there as far as j OK. Following him around and what's going to happen. I think he's spot. So just obviously we've got to see if j ok. Can at least just keep him in check. Like, you don't have to shut them down completely because if the only thing they're getting yards and points on is Justin Fields legs, they're probably not scoring enough to beat you. Anyways.
[02:04:06] Speaker B: What I think will be interesting, but.
[02:04:07] Speaker A: Just hold him down a little bit.
[02:04:09] Speaker B: Is the chess game between those two and how Jim Schwartz reacts to it. Because I can see Jim Shortz pulling out some weird shadow spy where everybody.
[02:04:19] Speaker A: Knows following him and then somebody comes.
[02:04:24] Speaker B: So that'll be fun to watch for sure. But the other thing just keep in mind is in terms of overall rankings for this team this year, I have their offensive passing at 28 against the defense. Sorry. Their defensive passing is 20 eigth and they are third against the run. So when you think about how this Browns team has won games this year, it's typically been run the ball, play great defense. Now you have Joe Flacco is a part of this whole thing. This sets up well for a game where he could have a ton of yards.
[02:04:58] Speaker A: This is wild. This is like the first time ever that we have the exact same two matchups.
I got Joe Flacco versus the Bears secondary.
[02:05:07] Speaker B: That's why I don't read show notes.
[02:05:10] Speaker A: I specifically put in here we got Joe Flacco now and the dude can chuck it. And the Bears defense is 20 eigth against the pass and third against the rush. Another dream matchup for Kevin Stefanski.
[02:05:21] Speaker B: Yeah, he'll love that because he won't have to only run.
[02:05:23] Speaker A: We're going to throw it 75 times.
[02:05:25] Speaker B: Only have to run the ball 18 times, and we got to throw it 55 times and it'll be great.
[02:05:30] Speaker A: I think those are your linked up, bro.
[02:05:32] Speaker B: You're deciding matchups in the game for sure.
[02:05:34] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I think those are definitely easily the top two matchups to watch.
[02:05:40] Speaker B: If I had to pick a third component of this game, it's important. It's just the health of the Browns.
[02:05:44] Speaker A: Because, yeah, we got to make it through without another so many injuries. I mean, legitimately. I know we keep saying it and we'll continue to say it because somehow this team keeps pulling through and finding players that can fill the void and at least keep us playing good football. But at some point it's finally going to break and you have one too many injuries that you just can't keep up anymore. So we need to make it through this game healthy for sure.
As a team, though, the Bears have a five and eight record, the team is not very good, to be honest with you. They've had a couple of good games this season, but overall they're not a very good team. They are the worst team in the league in red zone defense. They are 29th on defense when it's third down for the conversion percentage. So the Browns should be just fine, especially with Joe Flacco and his Savy veteran presence out there.
This should be one of the two wins that the Browns need to make the playoffs.
[02:06:40] Speaker B: What if Joe Flacco gets hurt?
[02:06:42] Speaker A: Like, just gets seriously? Seriously? You just said, what if Joe Flacco gets Joe Thisman?
[02:06:48] Speaker C: You shouldn't say that.
[02:06:49] Speaker B: I macked on wood.
[02:06:50] Speaker A: You shouldn't say that.
[02:06:52] Speaker B: But like, can this brownsteam keep winning despite all the injuries?
[02:06:57] Speaker A: I could not hate you any more than I do right at this moment. I literally couldn't.
But with that, why don't you just give them the injury report since there's going to be 15 more people added onto it after that bullshit.
Anybody else out there feel it with us? I mean, you guys, there's got to be people that are listening. They're just like somebody listening. Son of a bitch. This cold, it just will not go away. I've been dealing with it for weeks, man.
[02:07:38] Speaker B: Okay?
I don't even know where that came from.
[02:07:44] Speaker A: Who's on the injury report?
[02:07:45] Speaker B: Chicago Bears this week lost Yannick and Gakuay placed on injured reserve.
[02:07:51] Speaker A: That's impressive pronunciation.
[02:07:52] Speaker B: He just did on Wednesday. So he's one of their best defensive linemen. Equinimius St. Brown wide receiver.
[02:07:59] Speaker A: He's done it again.
[02:08:01] Speaker B: Did not participate in Wednesday practices, so he's still got a bum pectoral.
That's a receiver. Jaquan Brisker, safety is questionable. DJ Moore missed practice this week with an ankle injury.
[02:08:15] Speaker A: DJ Moore can't play. That's a big bonus for the Browns.
[02:08:17] Speaker B: He listed as questionable at this point.
Man, they actually are relatively healthy outside of that.
Their next injury update is August 31. Joe Reed wide receiver, injured reserve.
[02:08:30] Speaker A: Damn, that's impressive.
[02:08:31] Speaker B: It's got to feel good on the other side of things.
[02:08:35] Speaker A: Just run off our IR list before you start anything.
[02:08:38] Speaker B: I don't have it organized like that, so I'm going to do it this way.
Jerome Ford questionable with the wrist limited at practice this week. Ogbo Okun Ragnko doubtful. Season likely over.
[02:08:51] Speaker A: Not doubtful.
[02:08:52] Speaker B: He's officially on IR.
Still shows doubtful right now, but he is, according to Kevin Stefanski, likely headed to IR. Grand Delbit injured reserve, signed a big contract. Groin. I think he had the groin.
[02:09:05] Speaker A: Short term IR, luckily. So he's back for the playoffs but out for the next four games.
[02:09:08] Speaker B: I think he had groin surgery today or yesterday to repair the issue there. So he was moved to the injured reserve. Kareem Hunt questionable. Expect him to play this week. He also has a groin injury.
[02:09:20] Speaker A: He's been questionable for several weeks in a row.
[02:09:22] Speaker B: Doesn't sound serious. He sounds like the questionable, like I'm a better.
[02:09:26] Speaker A: I need some rest at practice.
[02:09:27] Speaker B: Here's why Duan Jones moved to injured reserve this week Kareem Hunt's literally, like.
[02:09:32] Speaker A: You say, he's questionable with a hamstring. He literally has a hamstring. That's why he's questionable. Yeah, he physically has a hamstring.
[02:09:41] Speaker B: He has a groin. Duan Jones moved to injured reserve.
That's a big bummer there. Big bummer there.
[02:09:49] Speaker A: Mohurst, that was bad. That felt real bad. He's been the biggest surprise of the season, biggest deal of the draft, and we mentioned it earlier, he's probably going to be on the all rookie team and out for the season.
[02:10:01] Speaker B: Yeah, Mo Hurst was one of the offseason signings that came in. He is out with pectoral, also placed on injured reserve.
He's been a bright spot a couple of places. He's knocked down a number of balls this year, so that's another big loss on your defensive front. Jedrick wills underwent season ending arthroscopic surgery yesterday, on Tuesday, so he's on the Ir. Denzel Ward still listed as questionable. Jordan Elliott, defensive tackle, concussion during the game on Sunday against the Jaguars, so he'll be in the protocol. Ethan Pochick questionable, exited the Jaguars game with a shoulder injury, and Juan Thornhill did not play against Jacksonville because he was ruled out before the game with a calf injury during pregame activities. So that's the list. Along with guys like Roddy McLeod, Deshaun Watson, Nick Chubb, all the rest.
[02:10:52] Speaker A: Basically, everybody's injured. The worst environment imaginable. So I had to say worst environment imaginable.
[02:10:56] Speaker B: Serious environment imaginable.
[02:10:59] Speaker A: Got it.
[02:10:59] Speaker B: Yeah, it's not looking good for the Browns, but we keep winning games some way.
[02:11:04] Speaker A: This team, we got Joey C has persevered. We got Joey C. On our team or Joey F. I guess there's two C's in his last name. I don't know what I was saying but Joe Flacco's on our team. Joe Flaccid Flacco is on our team and he's winning games and he's giving us full.
I mean we're going to win because Joe Flacco's on the team.
[02:11:25] Speaker B: He is the best quarterback ever.
[02:11:26] Speaker A: If you want to win, put Joe.
[02:11:27] Speaker B: Flacco in this team again. Is going to go to the Super bowl with Joe Flacco.
[02:11:33] Speaker A: Book it. Heard it here first. You heard it here from the guy that's the worst at picking AFC North Kansas. We'll get to in just a second.
[02:11:38] Speaker B: I don't care.
[02:11:39] Speaker A: Book it. Player to watch real quick before we get to the king of the north. I'll start this week. We talked about him just a minute ago. J-O-K-J ok. Is who we really need to pay attention to because he is going to be spying Justin Fields pretty much the entire game. Should be a good matchup. J okay. Is a freak athlete just like Justin Fields. So we'll see what happens here. Kenny, who you got?
[02:12:06] Speaker B: I like to make up my own rules to this part of this show.
[02:12:09] Speaker A: Usually I like it. You going with a Bears player this week?
[02:12:11] Speaker B: I'm going to go with anyone that's healthy on the Browns team. No.
[02:12:15] Speaker A: Any player that is healthy.
[02:12:17] Speaker B: No.
I am going to change the rules though. I'm going to go with both Geron Christian and James Hudson. The Tackles. Nice.
[02:12:25] Speaker A: Because I think this bone approves of your rule change. He just chimes in with a nice. Yeah, thank you.
[02:12:31] Speaker B: I mean they still have a pretty good defensive front there with the Marcus Walker, Andrew Billings, Justin Jones and Montez Sweat has been a really big shot in the arm for those guys after he came in off the trade this year.
So I think basically this team now wins or loses based on can we keep Joe Flacco upright and healthy and let him deliver the ball on time? So those outside tackles on both sides right now I think are your biggest question marks on offense. They need to play well to keep Joe Flacco clean. I think if Joe Flacco gets sacked less than two times in this game, they win.
[02:13:06] Speaker A: Going away fair about who you got.
[02:13:09] Speaker C: I'm going to go Mari Cooper. I feel like the first like seven, eight games of the season he had 100 yards every game. He was on a while with three different quarterbacks and I want to see him back on that. He had a couple of drops the last couple of games.
[02:13:23] Speaker A: Statistically he's playing with the best quarterback he's played with all year.
[02:13:26] Speaker C: Exactly. So I want to see him getting the ball downfield and making some big plays.
[02:13:30] Speaker A: I like it. And that'll take us to the king of the north.
Anyone is living under a rock and doesn't know by now, this is our year long AFC north pickham competition. At the end of the season, whoever comes in last place gets punished in the offseason. This past year, Kenny had a gross of eggs thrown at him by fans in the Munialot before a preseason game. How'd it feel, Kenny?
[02:14:10] Speaker B: It was terrible, to be honest.
[02:14:14] Speaker A: Top five? Worst experience of your life.
[02:14:15] Speaker B: Definitely top five. Probably top three.
[02:14:17] Speaker A: Nice. Very nice. I also froze those eggs in case anyone was wondering, so I made it even worse.
[02:14:22] Speaker B: Real dick.
[02:14:22] Speaker A: Yeah, and we're still working out the punishment for this year, guys. Off top of your heads. Any more suggestions? We'll start with bone. You got something?
[02:14:31] Speaker C: Yeah, like a dark, long pipe like you got to crawl through. It's kind of scary and creepy and redemption.
[02:14:38] Speaker A: Different substances in the bottom maybe that you just have to crawl through.
[02:14:42] Speaker C: Yeah, just like worst fear getting stuck in a cave or something.
[02:14:45] Speaker A: How are we going to set this up?
[02:14:47] Speaker C: I don't know.
[02:14:52] Speaker A: Kenny. What do you got?
[02:14:54] Speaker B: I was thinking about the loser has to go to some public event with a high powered vibrating anal plug.
Yes. That is controlled by the winner.
[02:15:06] Speaker A: Oh no.
[02:15:07] Speaker B: Winners. You just turn it on and off.
[02:15:10] Speaker C: Got to keep your cool.
[02:15:11] Speaker B: Up and down at will.
[02:15:13] Speaker A: I am out on this one.
If that's what we choose is I'm out.
[02:15:19] Speaker B: If you refuse the punishment, you have to leave the show. You have to quit.
[02:15:22] Speaker A: Then I'm quitting the show 100%. But since you're so far behind, I guess we could make the punishment this year anyways. We're still working that out. We'll figure it out. We'll let you guys know. But let's get into things. First things first. I want to remind everyone that I am still the reigning, defended, undisputed, undefeated king of the north.
How's it feel, guys? Bone, you shouldn't feel any type of way. Kenny, how's it feel?
[02:15:50] Speaker B: I hate you more every week you say?
[02:15:52] Speaker A: Well, yeah. And Kenny is where he belongs. He's in last place.
I've been talking to bone here. We have added him. He's our trusty board op. We've added him this year to the competition and he is tied with me in first place right now and Kenny just sucks. So let's remind everybody of the current records before we pick me and boner at 23 and 20, and Kenny is at 18 and 25. So he's doing really well.
So let's get into this week's matchups. We'll start with the Steelers. They head to indy to play the Colts. I'll start this one. I'm going to go with coltsness. I think the Steelers, as weird as it sounds, without Kenny Pickett, for some reason, or worse, I would have thought they would have been a better team without Kenny Pickett. But for some reason they're worse and they've kind of felt fallen off a cliff here.
I think they are going to hit the 500 number this week and be seven and seven. I got the Colts in this one. Kenny, who you got?
[02:16:49] Speaker B: I'm going Steelers. I think the Colts lost.
[02:16:51] Speaker A: Perfect.
[02:16:52] Speaker B: Another loss a lot this week with Taylor being out and he'll be out a couple more weeks with the surgery he had on his hand.
I think that was probably the biggest turning point in the game for the Colts. And the Bengals game was just that the Colts couldn't run the mean. Obviously Browning showed up and played. Um, but I think if the Colts could have ran the ball, you keep him off the field, it's literally going.
[02:17:17] Speaker A: To be battle of Mitch Trubisky and Gardner Minshew. I like Gardner Minshew in that.
[02:17:25] Speaker B: I mean, I do too, but I also can't pick the same as you. Basically for the rest of the year, I'll lose just all.
[02:17:30] Speaker A: Yeah, this is my favorite part of the season where Kenny starts racking up losses.
[02:17:33] Speaker B: I just have to rationalize ways that these teams can beat the team.
[02:17:36] Speaker A: Well, there's a wrench thrown at this year because now bones in it. So you've got to somehow catch up to just one of us.
[02:17:42] Speaker B: Right. But if I just could pick all the teams that you guys pick, then I just won't catch up.
[02:17:46] Speaker A: Bone, who you got?
[02:17:48] Speaker C: I am going Colts simply because it's a home game.
They're fighting for their playoff lives, which I guess Pittsburgh is, too, but they suck.
[02:17:58] Speaker A: I think Pittsburgh's outlook is much bleaker. Sure, because at least the Colts kind of knew early on. Like we're playing with Gardner Minchew the rest of the.
[02:18:07] Speaker C: So I guess I didn't even know Jonathan Taylor was out. I didn't know that.
[02:18:11] Speaker A: Yeah, that part sucks. But what's his name play has played well for him in relief.
Yeah, he had a really big couple of really big games early in the year. But anyways, Kenny's going to have another loss, so it doesn't matter. Next up, the Bengals travel to Minnesota to take on the Vikings. Kenny, who do you got?
[02:18:27] Speaker B: Gotta pick the Bengals here. I just need to win.
I think Brown's playing out his mind and this Vikings team is.
[02:18:34] Speaker A: He was the best high school quarterback in the nation for a while.
[02:18:36] Speaker B: This Vikings team is on the downslide.
[02:18:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Bone, who you got?
[02:18:39] Speaker C: Bengals.
[02:18:40] Speaker A: Bengals. Okay, I'll keep it short and sweet. I got the Bengals as well. I think they're just the better team right now.
After our boy in Minnesota got benched at quarterback.
Were they on like their fourth quarterback this year, too? So third quarterback and their third or fourth quarterback is not Flacco. So true. So I like the Bengals in this one for all the reasons that you guys said and more.
So we all got the. So the Ravens go down to Jacksonville on Sunday night football for a matchup with the Jaguars. Bone, who you got?
[02:19:16] Speaker C: I'm going to go Ravens. Sorry for the long go.
Yeah, Lamar and Lamar and company, I think, are playing really well right now. Ten and three, they're just winning games. So I know it's down in Jacksonville, but a little vacation for them going.
[02:19:31] Speaker A: It's not a hard place to play.
[02:19:32] Speaker C: Feeling good, jump in the pool, win a football game.
[02:19:36] Speaker A: Kenny, who you got?
[02:19:37] Speaker B: I'm going Baltimore as well. I think they're just playing really good football right now, and we just beat the transitive property fair.
[02:19:47] Speaker A: I'm actually going to go with the Jaguars in this one. I think the Ravens, they've had a couple of close games of late, and there's something about the Ravens, and I know people will probably kill me for this, but there's something about them that feels fake almost.
Obviously. They're ten and three. I think that's what their record is, what they're up to. They're ten and three and they're playing good football overall throughout the season, but they just don't pass the eye test to me. Like, when I watch them, nothing jumps out as like, man, this team is really good at this. They're just pretty okay at everything.
[02:20:27] Speaker B: I think they're a really good regular.
[02:20:29] Speaker A: Season team, and I agree with that.
But even with that being said, I think the Jaguars are also a pretty solid team this year.
I think Trevor Lawrence has another week to get healthy from that ankle sprain, and I think the Jaguars are going to get them. I think it'll be another really close game. Probably come down to a field goal or something like that at the end of the game. I like the Jaguars.
And then finally, the Browns host the Chicago Bears this week.
So with that, let's see, we're going to start with Kenny.
[02:21:08] Speaker B: I'm also going to say next year we're going to implement a new rule.
[02:21:11] Speaker A: What's the rule?
[02:21:12] Speaker B: Which is the pick of the Browns.
[02:21:14] Speaker A: Score counts for bonus points.
[02:21:17] Speaker B: The closest score gets a bonus point. It's a bonus point.
[02:21:20] Speaker A: I like that. But it can't start this year.
[02:21:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you.
[02:21:22] Speaker A: Right now the score doesn't matter, but we tell you anyways.
Who do you got?
[02:21:29] Speaker B: Look, Joe Flacco is the best quarterback that the Browns have ever had. The Browns win this game easily.
Let's go 30 814.
[02:21:38] Speaker A: Did you say 38?
[02:21:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[02:21:40] Speaker A: Holy shit. This is going to be a fun game to watch.
[02:21:43] Speaker B: Yeah, they're going to shoot all over them.
[02:21:44] Speaker A: Nice. I like that bone. Who you got?
[02:21:47] Speaker C: Browns 34 ten.
[02:21:49] Speaker A: Jesus Christ.
Crunky, you got to pull that up for Monty Python. Add that to the list this week.
[02:21:58] Speaker B: Oh, I thought Steve when was here.
[02:21:59] Speaker A: No, it was Monty Python when the rabbit attacks.
[02:22:03] Speaker B: Makes sense.
[02:22:04] Speaker A: Anyways, 34 to 1038 40. I thought I was calling a blowout with. I got the Browns as well, 27 and 13. But you guys really shit all over my number. So we all got the Browns in this. So we'll see what happens. But that'll do it for king of the north. Let me remind you to call the burning of sports guest hot take hotline.
[02:22:25] Speaker D: Yeah, call it.
[02:22:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Don't forget to call the hot take hotline and leave your hot take on the hot take hotline. That's the hot take.
[02:22:30] Speaker B: Hot takes.
[02:22:31] Speaker A: Remember, these are hot takes. We want hot takes.
[02:22:34] Speaker B: We want hot take all the hot takes. 330-227-8080 hot take three or 302-27-8080 hot take.
[02:22:42] Speaker C: 3302-2780-8033-0227-8 call now.
[02:22:47] Speaker A: Operators are machine.
Leave a message and we'll put it on air. And be sure to check out our gear. Www.thetamedia.com shop hit show specific hit burning river sportscast and you'll find all the best shit that you could buy anybody for Christmas. So that'll do it for us. Kenny, what can we expect next week?
[02:23:11] Speaker B: What can we expect next week will be another great week. We have the recap of the game against the Dubas previewing the Browns week 16 Christmas Eve matchup with the Houston Texans. An interview with another Browns backers. Chapter this space city Dog Pound. And we will get back on track with our Browns alumni interviews. Joining us on the Browns fan cruise in March of 2024, Phil Taylor. Big thanks today. Glad to be back in the studio. Big thanks to red hot Ryan jams. Big thanks to Big Bone, man, running the board. And to the Chicagoland of brownsbackers for spending some time with us this afternoon. Hope you all enjoyed it. Hell yes.
[02:23:52] Speaker A: And don't forget to check us out on social media. Cut you off because I think you ran out of things.
[02:23:56] Speaker B: Yeah, you're good.
[02:23:57] Speaker A: Don't forget to check us out on social media. Tapin'media is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at the Tapin'media and burning river sportscast. That's this podcast is on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at Burning River Sportscast and on X at Burning river pod. And you can find us wherever we get your podcast. We're talking Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher Pin, to our iHeartRadio podcast, Castro good pods and 70 more. And you don't have to take us to kenny backs for days.
[02:24:34] Speaker B: Verdes, got some facts here. Hit me number one.
[02:24:39] Speaker A: Hit me with the facts. Yeah.
[02:24:42] Speaker B: Honey is the tastiest of all the insect vomits that we have tried.
[02:24:46] Speaker A: True. So far, I do love bee vomit. So far. I like this so far.
Everybody says when a fly lands on you, it instantly throws up. Like, why can't we harness that?
[02:24:56] Speaker B: It doesn't taste good.
[02:24:57] Speaker A: Oh, who knew?
[02:24:58] Speaker B: Tastes like bee spit, I guess. Fly spit.
[02:25:00] Speaker A: Fly spit. That's weird. That fly spit tastes like bee spit.
[02:25:04] Speaker B: Exactly.
[02:25:04] Speaker A: Bee spit tastes good. So if fly spit tastes like bee spit, then that would taste good.
[02:25:08] Speaker B: Look, do you know of any other insect vomits that taste good? No. Number two, let's go back to the AFC north here. I'll finish out with a little bit of football. Mike Tomlin is officially 170 97 and two, with one Super bowl win.
Bill Cower finished his career 161 wins, 99 losses, and one tie with one Super bowl win. Wow. So, to all you yinzers that want to claim that Mike Tomlin sucks, it's fine. But I better hear you talk about the golden days of coach Cal rither clouds.
[02:25:52] Speaker A: Sons of bitches. Steelers suck. Steelers suck.
[02:25:56] Speaker B: They're the worst.
[02:25:57] Speaker C: Fans suck.
[02:25:58] Speaker A: Their fans suck. They suck. To yingers, Pittsburgh is the damn Yinzers. I'm going to get fired for my job. It's all based out of Pennsylvania.
[02:26:06] Speaker B: It doesn't matter. They know they suck.
[02:26:08] Speaker A: You suck.
[02:26:09] Speaker B: That's why they wear yellow and black.
[02:26:10] Speaker A: Damn Yenzers.
[02:26:12] Speaker B: Number three, look, we all know the lore and the numbers that at one time the sun never set on the British Empire.
[02:26:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[02:26:18] Speaker B: Covering a mass of 13.7 million sq. Mi, including 23% of the world's population at the time, was equivalent to over 412,000,000 people.
[02:26:27] Speaker A: To the millions.
[02:26:30] Speaker B: Millions. But did you know that the most common national celebration on Earth, shared by over 60 countries on an annual basis, is the celebration of independence from the British? Meaning that roughly every six days, somewhere on the planet, they are celebrating their departure from british colonial rule.
[02:26:49] Speaker A: We did it, too. Good job, guys.
[02:26:50] Speaker B: F the Brits.
[02:26:52] Speaker A: Yeah, a bunch of dicks.
[02:26:54] Speaker B: Serious dicks.
Number four bonus fact today, more of a news brief than anything. But since we're talking about american independence and others, Elon Musk, champion of social media free speech, has reactivated Alex Jones, his ex account after being banned for the previous five years. I don't give a shit about Alex Jones, but I will defend his right to talk about gay frogs if that's what he's.
[02:27:20] Speaker A: Not.
[02:27:20] Speaker B: Really.
[02:27:21] Speaker A: I don't care about Alex Jones either, but he does make a good sound bite.
[02:27:24] Speaker B: Makes a great sound bite. And don't just be a part of the problem. Be the hold of him problem.
[02:27:28] Speaker A: And only you can prevent. River fires. Burning river sportscast. Burning burning river. Burning river.
[02:27:37] Speaker B: I like that. Like a motorcycle, but bubble.
[02:27:48] Speaker A: Burning river.
Burning river. Burning river.
[02:27:55] Speaker B: River sports kiss.
[02:27:56] Speaker A: Look, I got.
[02:27:58] Speaker B: What do you got?
Oh, she's so scared.
[02:28:02] Speaker A: I got our mascot, Kaya. Resident mascot here. You guys can meet Kaya.
[02:28:08] Speaker B: There she is.
[02:28:09] Speaker C: She's scared.
[02:28:09] Speaker B: What a cute little pie.
[02:28:13] Speaker C: Such a sweet little.
[02:28:18] Speaker B: Burning river.
[02:28:37] Speaker D: You.
[02:28:37] Speaker B: You know, I was thinking during that interview.
[02:28:39] Speaker A: What were you. Nothing. Because you don't have thoughts. Because you're a brainless idiot.
[02:28:43] Speaker B: Wow. Name is Utrid, son of Utrid.
[02:28:52] Speaker A: By the way, I want my foreskin back. It doesn't matter what you think. We got Joey C has persevered. We got Joey C on our team, or Joey F. I guess C. There's two C's in his last name. I don't know what I was saying, but Joe Flacco's on our team. Joe Flaccid Flacco is on our team and he's winning games and he's giving us full chubs.
[02:29:12] Speaker B: The weather outside is weather.
[02:29:14] Speaker A: The other one, the finger eating food. Fingers?
[02:29:17] Speaker C: Yes.
[02:29:17] Speaker B: Ejaculate all over my body and my genitals?
[02:29:20] Speaker C: Yes.
[02:29:20] Speaker A: Oh, my God, I have a bullshit everywhere. What do you mean, funny? Funny how?
[02:29:27] Speaker B: How am I funny?
[02:29:28] Speaker A: All I do is win win no matter what. And some of the other records that Hopkins broke this week, most field goals in the season by a Browns player, he is at 31 now. That broke Phil Dawson's record of 30 in 2008. At most 50 yard field goals in franchise history.
Jesus.
[02:29:48] Speaker B: No, it was not Jesus.
[02:29:50] Speaker A: No, it wasn't Jesus. Dhop has eight right now. They called my house on three way, and I was fooled. I straightened up.
I remember one of my friends was like, I'm just goddamn.
I mean, he had his voice down.
He was like, I'm looking for Mr. Josh Crip. I mean, it was his voice.
I can't reenact it. But my friend, as soon as I said something to the affirmative, like, yes, sir, coach. I mean, I heard all these different voices laughing and snickering, and I was just so embarrassed. Erroneous. Erroneous on both counts.
[02:30:36] Speaker B: Wow.
[02:30:37] Speaker A: But damn, the leads are weak. Leads are weak.
[02:30:41] Speaker B: Fucking leads are weak.
[02:30:43] Speaker A: You're weak.
[02:30:44] Speaker B: I've been in this business 15 years.
[02:30:46] Speaker A: What's your name? You. That's my name.
[02:30:49] Speaker B: You know why, Mr. Because you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight, I drove an $80,000 BMW.
[02:30:55] Speaker A: That's my name now. I think we've officially lost all of our more conservative viewers.
I don't think they want to listen any longer.
[02:31:06] Speaker C: It's Mother Nature.
[02:31:07] Speaker B: Where's logo girl when you need her?
[02:31:09] Speaker A: I desperately want to make love to us.
[02:31:11] Speaker B: We need cheese girl, now.
[02:31:13] Speaker A: Oh, man.
[02:31:13] Speaker B: We need cheese girl, now. We need cheese girl, now.
[02:31:17] Speaker A: Eating that.
[02:31:17] Speaker B: We need cheese girl, now.
[02:31:19] Speaker A: Down goes Anderson. Down goes Anderson.
[02:31:23] Speaker B: Who's canceled now? Who's canceled now?
[02:31:25] Speaker A: Probably me.
[02:31:26] Speaker B: You making a photo of fat people?
[02:31:29] Speaker A: I'm not just you.
[02:31:31] Speaker B: We're a whole race, basically.
[02:31:34] Speaker A: No way. You're just straight. Just finger banger salad.
[02:31:39] Speaker C: You first get shocked, and then you.
[02:31:41] Speaker A: Get the shocker you like to see almost naked.
[02:31:46] Speaker B: That's cool, man. Whatever. No, I am the one who knocks.
[02:32:02] Speaker A: Today's episode was brought to you by Topath vodka. Topath vodka, an award winning, ultra premium, extremely smooth, high quality vodka, six times distilled and made from Midwest corn and Ohio fruit. Clean and crisp. A truly high quality spirit. Made right here in northeast Ohio. Available locally in northeast Ohio and online in 44 states. Topath vodka.
Hey, Browns fans.
This is your chance to join the company of some of the Browns all time greats on the first ever Browns fan cruise. Picture this. For five unforgettable days, you're sailing across the beautiful caribbean sea, reliving the Browns'greatest moments, getting autographs, snapping photos, and celebrating on the beach with your favorite Browns alumni like Josh Cribs, Webster Slaughter, Eric Metcalf and a dozen others. Book now and take advantage of our.
[02:32:54] Speaker B: Easy, budget friendly payment plans on this.
[02:32:56] Speaker A: Once in a lifetime, all inclusive cruise adventure. The clock's ticking, Browns fans. To book your cabin and for more information, visit brownsfancruise.com or call 216-284-6472 today Browns fan cruise where diehard fans and Browns alumni come together for the trip of a lifetime.
[02:33:15] Speaker B: Don't wait.
[02:33:16] Speaker A: Secure your spot today and go Browns.
