Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: 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, Aaron Metcalf and a dozen others. Book now and take advantage of our easy, budget friendly payment plans on this 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. Don't wait. Secure your spot today and go Brown.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Media.
[00:01:16] Speaker C: It'S time, time for the Burning river sportscast this Christmas, Joe Flacco did play, but the very next year we planned to give him away.
This year, to calm all my fears, he threw it to someone special this Christmas, Coop was a dog, but the very next day d hop went away.
This week to kick it again. We signed some dude named Patterson.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: Patterson.
[00:01:49] Speaker C: This weekend etr hurt his hip, so the injured reserve is worth he'll have to dip this week. We probably need another active QB and maybe a punt or someone. Call Chris Gardaki for Christmas. The Browns with ten and five, I can't imagine. And I have no clue how this team keeps on winning games. Kevin and Platco got these boys playing special.
Mere formality separating these Browns from the playoffs. Will there be anyone healthy and able to play in the postseason once they get there? Can the Browns wrap this up on a short week? And finally, will this team, ailing at nearly every position. What are reasonable expectations for this team as we look forward to the playoffs? We'll break it all down for you next on the Burning river sportscast.
You know what's crazy is like, think about the time Michael Thomas missed with his turf toe dwarf. Hamlin died and came back faster than Michael Thomas. Turf toe.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: That was pretty wild.
[00:03:06] Speaker C: Taylor Swift is the worst GM of all time.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: You don't think she should be making decisions? You know what Joe Flacco's really got going for him?
[00:03:14] Speaker C: He's big.
[00:03:17] Speaker B: Do you know?
[00:03:18] Speaker D: Great family.
[00:03:21] Speaker B: So we're not saying don't fly spirit airlines. We're just saying if you do, you might end up somewhere else.
[00:03:26] Speaker C: Check your kid.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: Check your kid at the gate. It's a team of destiny where they.
[00:03:33] Speaker C: This is the team of an extra point of destiny.
[00:03:38] Speaker E: But the best part is, man, just seeing all the people walk into the bar and they're like, where the hell are all these brown spots come from?
[00:04:00] Speaker C: You think sauce gardener is going to get it?
[00:04:02] Speaker B: Yeah, he's going to get it.
[00:04:04] Speaker C: Okay, I'm in.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: I like it.
[00:04:06] Speaker C: Sauce needs cooked.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: Yeah, but as a team, the jets cold sauce. No, it's the worst sauce.
[00:04:13] Speaker F: So they call me angry Bobby. So that's the name of the golf outing. It's called the angry Bobby open. And any money we raise from that to also go to the same charities. I just mentioned.
[00:04:25] Speaker C: A number.
[00:04:26] Speaker F: I would advise trying to join a Browns backers group somewhere.
[00:04:30] Speaker E: To the younger fans. If you want to be best friends with a bunch of middle aged men at Browns fans, also do it.
[00:04:42] Speaker C: Happy holidays and welcome in to the Burning river sports guest, presented by Tapin 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, joined as always by Santa's nightmare, the always naughty and strawberry blonde hottie, red hot Ronnie jams. On the board today, the man who amassed a small fortune canning and selling dog farts as his own across the Internet, the big bone. Man bone. Do you ever feel dishonest, given that the sniffums you sell aren't necessarily your own real brand? No.
[00:05:15] Speaker D: It's a dirty business.
[00:05:18] Speaker C: Back to Red hot. Two questions. Let me hear them on this episode of the Burning river sportscast. Who can our fans look forward to us talking to this week?
[00:05:25] Speaker B: You want to know who we're talking to?
[00:05:26] Speaker C: I do.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: We're talking to the Browns backers of North Jersey, baby.
[00:05:30] Speaker C: Very nice, Joy Z. And number two, where can all of our listeners find all the burning river sports guests? Exclusive interviews with Browns, backers and former Cleveland Browns players all season long in preparation for what is going to be the year's most exclusive, most exciting and most electrifying event, with several events emceed by yours truly, the Burning river sportscast.
[00:05:51] Speaker B: Well, 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. The only place that you can find our video podcast, and that is also where you can find the video version of those interviews. Check us out on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Our handle on all of those socials, including YouTube, is at Burning River Sportscast. And we are on X, the artist formerly known as Twitter with the handle Burning river pod. And while you're at it, check out our merch WW dot thetappinmedia.com shop. You forget to get something for somebody for Christmas. That's right, go to our shop, get them something and give it to them the next time you see them. It'll be dope. There you go. We got the cruise line, the chubb line, cold weather gear. It's all there, and we're constantly adding more. So check it out and buy something. Buy it. But here's the deal.
The Browns are on a three game winning streak, and the latest win came in dominant fashion. Granted, they were without their best player, but don't get things twisted here. The Browns are without 25% of their roster. So cool Joe was once again slinging it, and after just four games with the franchise, he is the team leader in passing yards this season, this time on the back of a historic performance from Amari Cooper. Despite all the injuries, this team just keeps on keeping on and refuses to be denied. So let's talk about what we've got in store for today's show. Today we've got a week 16 recap of the thrashing we laid on the Texans. Yes, an interview with the Browns Backers of North Jersey. As you just mentioned, no interview with the Browns alumni that will be joining us on the Cleveland Browns fan cruise in March of 2024 in the second half of the show this week. But we will hopefully get back to that next week. I know we still got. What is it like, two more guys?
Schedules, schedules. People have busy schedules, especially around the holidays. Yeah, we'll get that all figured out. But in the meantime, go back and catch a few of the old interviews. I know Josh Cribs is out there.
Webster Slaughter, whole slew of other ones that were really, really good. Phil Taylor was the most recent one, but great stories to be heard. So go check out some of our interviews.
And finally, we round out the show with a week 17 preview of the game against that motherfucker in New York. And I mean that literally.
Zach Wilson, if he plays, of course.
I think it just came out today that he is not playing, which is disappointing.
But with that being said, take your coat off because we're about to crank up the heat. Let's get things started the best way we can with the burning river news.
[00:08:18] Speaker C: Story of the weekend.
[00:08:30] Speaker B: All right, so spirit Airlines this week.
[00:08:33] Speaker C: Put a favorite airline.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: You're an idiot. Put a six year old boy on the wrong flight. Are they still your favorite?
[00:08:40] Speaker C: I mean, I wouldn't expect anything less.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: He was supposed to go home to his grandma for Christmas. She was waiting for him at the airport and he never showed up. He was supposed to go to Fort Myers from Philadelphia. Instead, the little boy showed up in Orlando.
[00:08:56] Speaker C: At least they got him close.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: He's pretty close. They did figure it out eventually and got him back to his family.
But I have to ask this question, guys. I really do.
Is this bad airlining or bad parenting?
[00:09:11] Speaker C: Six is pretty young to have on a flight by yourself, right?
[00:09:14] Speaker B: And I know spirit Airlines one bad job out of you for losing a kid. But they did come out and say, well, he was always in the care of a spirit Airlines professional.
[00:09:24] Speaker C: I would hope so. He was six.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: Yeah, but even still to your .6 is very young to send a kid on an airline by himself, even if he is being helped by an airline professional. Like, you're six years old, dude.
[00:09:37] Speaker D: It's like, hello, stranger. Take care of my boy.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: For I've never met this spirit Airlines employee. What if that's the guy that takes him home?
[00:09:46] Speaker C: The only thing that I could see maybe separating this from potentially endangering your child is maybe this is a really mature six year old. That's what we're going with. I probably could have flown at six and been okay.
[00:10:01] Speaker D: Yeah, I knew you had six. You probably could have done it, but damn.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: I was hoping for bone to go the other way on that one, but. Go on.
[00:10:08] Speaker C: But most six year olds in, and that's pretty young to not have a chaperone.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: At six years old, you were already shaking everyone's hand and telling them, hi, my name is Kenny Hendrickson. I'm going to be the president of the United States one day.
[00:10:19] Speaker C: That's right. At six years old, I was having in depth conversations about fractional reserve banking and fiat currency.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: I guess you were the only child, the only six year old kid that could fly.
[00:10:30] Speaker C: I probably could have flown by myself, but I don't know about the rest of the kids in my kindergarten class.
[00:10:35] Speaker B: Zach, he was an idiot.
[00:10:36] Speaker C: There was kids in my class that. Just. The way they colored.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: I take it back. Bone was mature.
[00:10:40] Speaker C: The way they colored was just to smash the crayon. Like, all the way until there's no crayon left. That kid couldn't have flown by himself.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: That was probably me.
Let's be honest, guys. Of all of us here, I'm probably the biggest idiot.
[00:10:52] Speaker C: You would have ended up in Orlando.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: Yeah, and I probably would have just went about, I guess I'm in Orlando now.
[00:10:58] Speaker C: Fly Tokyo.
[00:10:59] Speaker D: Somehow snuck away from the chaperone. Just really got yourself lost.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: I live here now.
[00:11:03] Speaker C: He lives in the bathroom of the airport.
[00:11:04] Speaker B: I've grown up on my own since I was six years old, separated from my parents on a spirit Airlines trip.
[00:11:10] Speaker C: He's the real Joe dirt.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
But anyways. Yeah. So I guess what's the consensus? Bad parenting? Bad airlining?
[00:11:18] Speaker C: Look, I'm going to give the parents a break here because it's the holidays. The holidays. And say for an airline that charges you for a glass of water, I'm going to blame them.
[00:11:26] Speaker D: He just wanted to see his grandma.
[00:11:28] Speaker B: Yeah. All right, it's unanimous. The airlines does a bad job out of them.
[00:11:34] Speaker C: To be clear, though, the kid did make it eventually back to his grandma.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: He did.
[00:11:37] Speaker C: He's not lost anymore. He's not living in the airport.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: So we're not saying don't fly spirit airlines. We're just saying if you do, you might end up somewhere else.
[00:11:45] Speaker C: Check your kid.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: Check your kid at the gate. Put them in the overhead bin.
[00:11:51] Speaker D: Yeah, they do a better dog with or a better job with animals, I think.
[00:11:54] Speaker B: Yeah. But that'll take us to the week 16 recap.
All right, guys, so the Cleveland Browns, I don't know if you know this or not, the Cleveland Browns won again.
[00:12:08] Speaker D: They just keep winning.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: Somehow they won again. I'm not even sure what to say at this point.
[00:12:14] Speaker C: It just doesn't feel like any brown season I've ever been a part of.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: I'm legitimately running out of things to say on the show to explain how we keep winning games. It doesn't even make sense.
[00:12:23] Speaker C: The problem is it's this feeling of confusion but also happiness that I'm almost thinking, like, now, as good as this year has been, I don't know what the future holds for this Browns team. All I can do is be excited and happy for the way that they bounce.
[00:12:37] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:12:37] Speaker C: And whether they lose or win, it doesn't even matter at this point because I'm just like, what the hell is this year? But I'm almost sad now for next year because does it go back to normal next year and everybody gets hurt? We just suck again?
[00:12:51] Speaker B: I think it goes back to normal next year and everybody's not hurt. And expectations are super high and we suck again.
[00:12:56] Speaker C: And we suck again when everybody's. I just. I'm fearful of next year and sad.
[00:13:01] Speaker D: There's literally articles already about comparing this brown season to the Nick Foles Philadelphia Super bowl season.
[00:13:08] Speaker C: It feels.
[00:13:09] Speaker D: I read an article today about it. I think it was like a yahoo thing. But I mean, people are writing this.
[00:13:15] Speaker C: Awesome for the last few weeks. This team, I feel like, has a legitimate shot at the Super bowl and it's just because it's like the right time.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: We'll get into this, I'm sure, at some point in the episode, but just think about the teams that you classically, at least for the last few years, have thought about as like the powerhouses, like the Kansas City Chiefs of the league.
[00:13:33] Speaker C: Well, and that's what I mean.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: I think they're garbage. They're not garbage, but they're not.
[00:13:37] Speaker C: The league has never been more wide open. When you think about the good teams. The Chiefs are skidding. Philadelphia has a good record, but has something wrong in that locker room because.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: Something'S been going on lately.
[00:13:47] Speaker C: Great there.
Dallas can't beat a good team. Miami is kind of like one week they'll score 70, and that's the only.
[00:13:52] Speaker B: Good team Buffalo has beat.
[00:13:54] Speaker C: A Buffalo hasn't been great this year.
[00:13:57] Speaker B: Buffalo might not even make playoffs.
[00:13:59] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, all the teams that you thought, like at the beginning of the year, this league, they aren't who we thought. They aren't who we thought they were. And all of a sudden this Browns team has caught fire at the right time.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. It's pretty wild to see. But this game we did win 36 to 22, and I'll be honest with you guys, it was nowhere near that. As close as the score indicator. This was a blowout for all intensive purposes. It was 36 to seven.
[00:14:23] Speaker D: They took the starters out.
[00:14:24] Speaker B: Yeah, but anyways, this is the backups that started out. Sure. Exactly. They took out the 6th string and put the fifth string back in. But we'll start with the Houston Texans because we always start with our opponent of the week. We'll start on the offense. They decided to go with the two quarterback approach this week. Started with Case Keenum. He was eleven to 17 for 62 yards and two interceptions. And the Browns defense absolutely shit on him, which, I mean, they've practiced against him for a couple of years, so it's not surprising.
[00:14:53] Speaker C: Yeah, Case Keenum wasn't good when he was here. That last game he played against, I think it was Cincinnati last time he was here. I mean, he was just a shell of himself then, so I had zero expectations for him.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: He's a shell of anything he was.
[00:15:04] Speaker C: Supposed to be, ever. He's. He is what we thought Joe Flacco should be. But Joe Flacco is at a resurgence, apparently, but, yeah, I mean, he was a statue back there.
[00:15:13] Speaker B: He turned the ball over.
[00:15:14] Speaker C: He wasn't good.
[00:15:16] Speaker B: Yeah. And so the Texans made a switch and decided to go with Davis Mills the rest of the game. Right. I mean, it was like midway through the second quarter or something, wasn't it?
[00:15:24] Speaker C: It was later than that because it was after the Browns pretty much had this game in hand.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: Either way, they let Davis Mills sling it.
He didn't do a very good job of it. He got to throw 32 passes and basically a half, and he was 15 of 32 for 149 yards. He did get two touchdowns to no interceptions and added two rushes for nine yards. But, I mean, 149 yards and 32 passes is not good.
[00:15:49] Speaker C: Yeah. I will say this, I kind of feel their pain just in terms of like, we've been there before.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, this part we haven't been there before, but they have a stud at quarterback.
[00:16:01] Speaker C: Well, that's what I mean. They had a season that was going pretty well for them until their starter went out, and then these guys that are backups for them are just ass.
[00:16:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Not just bad.
[00:16:09] Speaker C: We've seen really bad, and I feel bad for them.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: But hey, I'm looking at the numbers just real quick here, and they threw 49 passes for just over 200 yards. That's really bad.
But yeah. So moving on, running backs here for Houston, or I should say running back. The only one of note, Devin Singletary, nine carries for 44 yards and added three receptions for 19 yards.
[00:16:36] Speaker C: He had moments where he looked like he'd be dangerous, but at the end of the day, they felt down early and just weren't able to really run the ball anyway.
[00:16:44] Speaker B: Stayed there the whole game. Dalton Schultz, eight receptions for 61 yards in this. Noah Brown, three receptions for 38 yards and then Nico Collins, four receptions for 18 yards in a touchdown. So really nobody had their way with the Browns secondary at all. We'll actually talk more about that when we get into the Browns. But on defense, Houston had one sack. They forced two turnovers, both interceptions. So Flacco has thrown some interceptions. But I think it's part of, I mean, in my opinion, one of those.
[00:17:18] Speaker D: Was at the end of the half just chucking it.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: True. I will say this, it's funny because we've talked about this on the show. Everybody liked to talk about the rust with Deshaun Watson.
[00:17:29] Speaker C: Right.
[00:17:29] Speaker B: I think this is what it looks like shaking off rust. Like, yeah, he's going to throw some interceptions, but you also see the positive side of it. Right. And that's what Russ should be. So we won't get too far to Sean.
[00:17:41] Speaker C: Yeah. I kind of liken this to like, when Nick Chubb fumbles the ball and you're like, well, he didn't fumble for 300 times before that.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: Joe, at least to this point, has bounced back very well. Basically, every time he's thrown an interception.
Special teams for Houston, Kymi fair Baron, however you say his name, two for two extra points. And then Damien Pierce did get us. He had a kick return for a touchdown for 98 yards that I did not expect. No, and we'll talk more about it. We'll talk more about it in a minute because it hurt the Browns in more ways than one. Yeah.
But that takes us to the Cleveland Browns. We'll start with the offense. We just mentioned him, and we'll talk more about him. Joe Flacco here. 27 of 42 for 368 yards, three touchdowns, two interceptions.
Some of the throws that he made in this game were absolutely bonkers. Like, I just watched him, but I was like, what the hell just happened?
I know Bone was talking about one before the show started. Bone, which one were you talking?
[00:18:41] Speaker D: Uh, he had like three guys hanging on him. Somehow got out, and I believe he hit, it was either najoku or he hit Cooper on the sideline, just threaded the needle, like back shoulder, and then Cooper just toe touched it in, and it was just unbelievable.
[00:18:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
Out of superlatives for the way this guy's played. I mean, this guy, every week he puts up 350 and a couple of touchdowns, and he's efficient with the ball. He makes the right throw, the right read at the right time. He's not classically agile or is good at escaping the rush, but he has just enough strength.
[00:19:17] Speaker B: It's like the class of, like, Ben Roethlisberger.
[00:19:20] Speaker C: Yeah. He can move side to side with enough pace to get out of the way. And his arm strength is incredible. Not to mention, I think this guy throws one of the nicest balls in the NFL, period.
[00:19:32] Speaker B: It's ridiculous comparing his spiral to anybody I've ever seen.
[00:19:37] Speaker C: Every throw is the tightest spiral I've ever seen.
[00:19:40] Speaker B: You know what Joe Flacco's really got going for him?
[00:19:44] Speaker C: He's big.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: Do you know?
[00:19:48] Speaker D: Great family.
[00:19:51] Speaker C: He's a Super Bowl MVP.
[00:19:53] Speaker B: No, there's one big thing that he's got going for.
[00:19:56] Speaker D: He's just at ease. He's just like, whatever.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: He does have a big dick. He's got to just like, at this point, he's just slinging it over.
[00:20:02] Speaker C: That's how he knocks out defenders.
[00:20:04] Speaker B: Just slings it around, get out of the way.
[00:20:06] Speaker C: I got the biggest one.
[00:20:07] Speaker B: No, but I mean, seriously, though, I think the biggest thing that Joe Flacco's got going for him this season is that he's just got nothing to lose. Like, he's at the end of his career and he got signed at the end of the season to do whatever he possibly could to help us stay afloat. That was the expectation. He's like, yeah, I'm just going to go out there and play with no fear.
Nothing's holding him back. He's just playing loose, he's just playing free.
[00:20:29] Speaker C: I think that's what's been so fun is you're just watching him have fun. I think some of the throws he makes, he's like, yeah, I wasn't sure about that one.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: I didn't even know I had that in me still. Yeah, you could tell because he makes some of these throws that you just see him sprinting down the sideline like, yeah, let's go.
[00:20:45] Speaker C: So excited.
I was watching the game with my wife this weekend and I had to sound like a 13 year old boy. Like every time he made a thrill, I'm like, oh, God, another one, another one.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: He did it again.
[00:20:56] Speaker C: He's like, you waking the baby.
[00:20:59] Speaker B: It was just wild. And we're still in the process of moving, so I'm like, trying to organize our house and do some stuff. It's Christmas Eve, every possible distraction and I have to stop every five minutes to look at the tv and be like, what the hell? Just, how did he do that? I just don't get it. It's incredible.
[00:21:18] Speaker C: It's been so much fun to watch.
[00:21:19] Speaker B: Yeah, it was awesome.
We'll talk more about Flacco, I'm sure, but we'll move on to the running backs here. Jerome Ford, 15 carries for 25 yards. He did get a touchdown, but he had one reception for negative two yards. And he continues to be, as I keep saying, it's like they're trying to force Jerome Ford on us and we're.
[00:21:37] Speaker C: Like, was that a direct snap where he caught the edge? That was one of the few plays where he's made it to the. And turned it up and they were inside the red zone.
[00:21:45] Speaker B: Well, look what happened. He made a decision, made a cut.
[00:21:48] Speaker D: That was that first touchdown, I believe.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: After that long, it was because they went back to back direct snaps. Didn't they go Kareem Hunt and then him?
[00:21:55] Speaker D: Yeah, I think.
[00:21:58] Speaker B: Don't. I don't know. I just feel like it's being forced on all Browns fans. Like you will like Jerome Ford and he is going to be a good running back, but he consistently averages 1.7 yards a carry.
[00:22:11] Speaker C: That was interesting to me too, is I was actually just listening to Jay Cutler talk about this, about his time when he was in wildcat formations because they had played a couple of clips on him where when he was out there he would just kind of stand there with his hands on his hips.
Why don't they sub the quarterback out on those plays and put in a wide receiver? Because you're playing ten on eleven, right? I mean, no one's expecting Joe Flacco to do anything when he's standing over there on the sideline.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: He can't. What's he going to do? Literally the only thing he could possibly do, and they're covering for it. They know that's the only thing you watch for is like a double pass and they're going to throw it out to him and then he's going to throw it again.
[00:22:45] Speaker C: I guess to their credit, they did put DTR in on a couple of those Wildcats where they kind of like faked the pitched him like he was going to throw. But more importantly, just in general on the Wildcat. Why do they not just sub in an athlete?
[00:22:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. It doesn't make sense.
[00:22:58] Speaker D: Sorry. Like you said, put DTR in every time because then at least, at the very least you have a threat running and throwing the ball there, right?
[00:23:05] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't get it. Wildcats.
[00:23:06] Speaker C: Weird.
[00:23:07] Speaker B: But anyways, Kareem Hunt, he had seven carries for eleven yards and he continues to average like 1 carry. Basically one touchdown.
[00:23:16] Speaker C: Show up big in these playoffs, let me tell you.
[00:23:18] Speaker B: Hey, I actually agree with you. We've said that before, is that even though he doesn't get that many yards per carry, I think at this point in his career, his leadership and everything else is big in the locker room.
[00:23:29] Speaker C: And I think he's going to have a big game in the playoffs.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: One guy that we did see more of than usual, Pierre strong, showed up. He had five carries for 22 yards. And look, we've been saying it for a while now and he's the only guy that can average more than two yards of carry. Average 4.4 yards of carry.
[00:23:44] Speaker C: He just runs straight ahead.
[00:23:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:46] Speaker C: I mean, he just goes and he's fast.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: Yeah. It's crazy because every time they sub him in and he gets a run, he looks like he's hitting a whole different gear than the other two running backs and for some reason, we don't want to give him the ball.
[00:23:56] Speaker C: Yeah, I can't figure that one out.
[00:23:57] Speaker B: I'm hoping that this is classic Stefanski and he's saving him for the playoffs.
[00:24:03] Speaker C: Just come out and unleash him.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: Pierce.
[00:24:05] Speaker C: John goes for 202.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
But we'll move on to the wide receivers here. Amari Cooper.
Cooper. Hot damn. Eleven receptions for 265 yards, two touchdowns. Look, I know we're all dying to talk about him. I will say this, keep it brief, guys, because we are going to come back to Amari Cooper very soon here.
You got just one thing to say about Amari Cooper before we move on.
[00:24:30] Speaker C: I'll just say this. I think Amari, I think because he's so consistent at what he does, he gets undervalued or just not represent. Like, he is an elite receiver in this league. And I think he doesn't get the credit that he deserves because he's just not flashy.
[00:24:50] Speaker B: And I'll be honest, even by us sometimes, we've talked about how should we get another number one receiver.
[00:24:55] Speaker C: He just has a mediocre 112 yards every week.
We just expect that out of him. But that's what top tier receivers do in this league every week is catch 100 yards.
I'm glad he's on our team.
[00:25:09] Speaker B: Yeah, fair boney. Got anything quick about Amari?
[00:25:12] Speaker D: That was incredible. I mean, it was so fun to watch and he was just grabbing everything this week. Like, some of those sideline passes from Flacco were just.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: It was almost like every time you thought, like, there's no way they go to him again and they just.
[00:25:24] Speaker C: Yeah, it was kind of like when Josh grips told us he would just throw it to his friend.
[00:25:30] Speaker B: Did you hear the interview after the game? And Joe Flacco was like, when I heard he needed ten yards, for the record, he's like. It's not like I had to look for him. I knew he was going to be open, so I just threw him the ball once and there we were.
[00:25:44] Speaker C: I mean, it's like they got together before the game and he was like, amari, I'm just going to throw you every ball. What do you think about that?
[00:25:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Like I said, we will talk about Amari again here soon. But next up here on the receivers, David and Joku. Six receptions, 44 yards and a touchdown of his own. So he's been playing very well of late. Yeah.
[00:26:01] Speaker C: I mean, a game where Amari Cooper has 265 yards, there's not a whole lot left to go around.
[00:26:07] Speaker B: But David and Joku still made an impact.
[00:26:09] Speaker C: Yeah, he had the touchdown catch.
[00:26:11] Speaker B: He's on your fantasy team. You had a solid week this week.
[00:26:13] Speaker C: Yeah, no complaints there. I mean, I think there just wasn't a lot of balls to go around outside of what Amari caught.
[00:26:19] Speaker D: Great touchdown. He had a guy right on him in the end zone, and Flacco just put it perfectly and he made a great catch.
[00:26:27] Speaker B: And then next up for the receiver is the only other one I wanted to mention, just because we've talked about them a lot on this program. Cedric Tillman, two receptions for 13 yards. So even though between those two, that's 300 yards plus receiving.
[00:26:41] Speaker C: Still getting looked.
[00:26:42] Speaker B: Cedric Tillman was still getting looks. So that was good to see. And then on the defensive side of things here, the defense looked good in this one. Most of Houston's points came against special teams, and in garbage time, they did get three sacks. They forced two turnovers. Miles still not getting any calls, but I mean, overall, I think the defense looked good in this one. And even though they scored, the Houston Texans scored 22 points.
Almost all of those weren't the defense's fault.
But we'll start with Miles Garrett again. Like I said, he's still not getting calls. He did not have any sacks in this. He really needs to get it together to have the. What was it?
There was a number, and we talked about a few weeks ago, that only TJ Watt and one other person have that many sacks through their first hundred games.
[00:27:25] Speaker C: Yeah. To get.
[00:27:25] Speaker B: And he's like three shy, and he's sitting at like 97 games or something, so he needs to get it in gear. And if he could get some freaking calls, though, I mean, this dude would literally have like 20 sacks this year. Yeah.
[00:27:37] Speaker C: I mean, week in and week out, this is just baffling to watch him get held the way that he does. And then you watch some of the tiki tech calls made on other players, and you're like, the guy had his arm, he had a guy locked in, and then his hand floated across his shoulder pad and it's holding like what? Miles is getting his face mask in the neck repeatedly, and no one cares.
[00:28:00] Speaker B: He's just so big, strong and fast that I think we mentioned it last week. It's like the.
And because it looks like it doesn't affect you as much as everybody else, you don't get any calls.
[00:28:10] Speaker C: And to Miles'credit, I know he's come out and talked about it, but to his credit, during the game, he just keeps the motor going. I mean, I saw him get thrown down a couple of times. He just got back up and just followed the play.
[00:28:22] Speaker B: And to be fair, he really only mentioned it that one time when he said the hack of shack craps needs to stop. That's like the only time he's really mentioned it. Besides that, he's actually kept his mouth shut, which is insane given the amount of times he's been held and it hasn't been called.
[00:28:36] Speaker C: Yeah, and look, I think the thing is, even when he's being held, Miles is still making an impact because he's forcing double teams his way, he's forcing that extra chip block his way, and it's allowing guys like Zadarius and Agbo to get his. His presence is still felt very much.
[00:28:58] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Next up here on the defensive side of things, Zidarius Smith. Two sacks in this one in four QB hits and also one pass defense. So this dude was blowing up the o line all night.
[00:29:13] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, look, again, I think a lot of that is to do with Miles Garrett's. Well, not to downplay that performance. It's a great performance, but I think they asked Miles during or before the game about the stack drought, and he kind of, hey, look, like just because I'm not getting home doesn't mean other guys aren't. And it's good for their developments, good for their stats, and for their career. So if I'm on a team where everybody on the defensive line has ten or more sacks, then that's a good thing.
[00:29:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I'd agree with that. I think that's one of the things where we've talked about what Miles Garrett is versus what people wanted him to be. As far as either leadership style or just like play style. He plays for the team, in my opinion.
Besides, I will say he does take a few plays off here and there, but that's besides the point. But he plays for the team and he wants the team to do well, and he doesn't necessarily care about those individual stats. And so he's not always going to sit there because if it's taking three.
[00:30:11] Speaker C: Guys to block Miles, he's doing his job.
It's just like being a nose tackle. Your job is to draw a double team.
You can't double team the nose tackle and Miles and have anybody left a block.
[00:30:22] Speaker B: And the numbers don't lie. Everybody likes to talk about, well, TJ Watt has this many sacks compared to Miles Garrett's number of sacks. But TJ Watt wins, like less than half the amount of the matchups that he has as Miles Garrett Miles Garrett gets double teamed far more often than Watt does. Like, there's all these different things. If you look at the in depth statistics, Miles Garrett is clearly the better pass rusher.
[00:30:50] Speaker C: I mean, we're talking about Zidaria Smith and we already went back to so.
[00:30:55] Speaker B: But anyways, Alex Wright, one sack and one pass defense in this for him. So that D line, even the backups and everybody else that we're playing, they're getting it done and they keep making an impact on every single game.
[00:31:10] Speaker D: Was Alex Wright hurt or is he just getting time right now because of somebody's injury? I haven't seen him in a while. Or is it.
[00:31:17] Speaker B: He's been playing?
I think he's just been like a rotation, like a piece in the rotation, but not necessarily a feature guy. But he probably is getting more time.
[00:31:27] Speaker D: He played good.
[00:31:28] Speaker B: I mean, heck, last week we just had two more defensive linemen go down. So we'll talk about that.
And then the secondary for the Browns. I thought they looked great in this one. They only allowed 178 pass yards. There was not a single pass allowed in this game over 20 yards. And the defense as a whole had eleven total passes defensed in this game, which is insane.
[00:31:48] Speaker C: MJ Emerson is getting beat up on penalties for DPI and stuff, but they.
[00:31:56] Speaker D: Were targeting the hell out of him.
[00:31:58] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I think that's where a lot of the balls were thrown. And it's hard, right?
There's probably defensive holding and pass inference as well as offensive holding and pass inference on every play. Yeah, defensive holding, no matter whether it gets called.
[00:32:12] Speaker B: Can we be real here? I was a defensive guy, and I think it's absolutely ridiculous that a five yard penalty gets you an automatic first down every time. Right?
It's unreal, given the fact that it's not like you don't even lose a down on offense when you have a hold and you get an automatic first.
[00:32:30] Speaker C: Down when you're on, it's almost like as hard as it is to play defense now, it's almost like when you get the ball back and you're under a minute, I feel like more teams just chuck the ball down the sideline hoping for a DPI call than even try to play offense, because it's just you're more likely to get a call.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: To me, that five yard holding, automatic first down in some cases ruins the.
[00:32:50] Speaker C: Game because that's the worst case scenario. You're going to get a defensive hold, but if you can get a DP eye down a field 40 yards, like all of a sudden you're in field.
[00:32:57] Speaker B: Goal rate and I guess there's always the argument like, okay, well, then if you don't make it an automatic first down, they're just going to hold on. Every play.
Say a DB gets beat, he's just going to grab a jersey and hold and say, I'm not beat now, and it's only five yards. But on the flip side of that, it's like, okay, well, then make that. If it's clearly clear thing, just make it a pass interference.
[00:33:17] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: So I don't know. It just bothers me that a five yard defensive holding gets a first down every time. Especially because defensive backs don't always. Their backs are turned. They're playing the guy and not necessarily looking at the quarterback the whole time. So they don't even know when the ball is in the air and you're allowed to hand fight before the ball is in the air.
[00:33:35] Speaker C: I'll just go back to this. People talk about quarterback being the premier position in football, and that's fine and well and dandy, but the toughest position corner in football is defensive back, period.
[00:33:45] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:33:46] Speaker C: The hardest position to play, especially with the rule changes in the last ten years where we've made it impossible to guard receivers that keep getting bigger, faster and stronger every year.
[00:33:54] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely.
We'll move on, though. Special teams here for the Browns. Dustin Hopkins, two for two extra points, but he pulled a hammy just four points shy of Jim Brown's record.
I mentioned we would talk about again, it was on the kick return for a touchdown. He was trying to save the touchdown and he tried to run too fast. So we're going to start with. Hold your thoughts there, Kenny, because I know Bone's probably devastated. Bone, what are your thoughts on the situation here?
[00:34:27] Speaker D: Yeah, it's sad.
[00:34:29] Speaker C: It's really sad.
[00:34:29] Speaker D: But I'm optimistic. I think we will be assigned a kicker. So I think we have a short week, so I think he's just going to rest up a little bit.
He'll be back for Cincinnati.
[00:34:39] Speaker B: You think so?
[00:34:40] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:34:40] Speaker B: He gets Jim Brown's record in the final game against Cincinnati.
[00:34:44] Speaker D: That'd be great.
[00:34:45] Speaker B: What do you.
[00:34:50] Speaker C: Know? I just have a. I have a hard time with this because as a special teams unit, you're a part of it. You're expected to try and contribute.
[00:34:58] Speaker B: Like, why not just let that guy go at that point, if you're Dustin?
[00:35:01] Speaker C: I mean, was Dustin Hopkins going to stop him?
[00:35:03] Speaker B: No, let's be honest, Dustin Hopkins was stopping nobody.
[00:35:07] Speaker C: He almost had him.
[00:35:07] Speaker B: And part of Dustin Hopkins would have tried to tackle him and been stiff armed to the ground and then ran down to the end zone and shook his hand and be like, good job, budy.
[00:35:13] Speaker C: Yeah. You're 33 years old.
This just isn't your place to be anymore. And so part of this is, like, bad decision making. Second part of this is you're a kicker. Your legs should always be warm.
So I'm a little worried, like, pulled Hammy out of a kicker, just not taking warm up seriously. It was the start of the game. I don't know. It bothers me that your kicker's legs aren't ready.
[00:35:42] Speaker B: Wasn't the start of the game.
[00:35:43] Speaker C: It was the beginning of the game. It was like the second or third possession, wasn't it?
[00:35:48] Speaker B: When the kickoff return.
[00:35:49] Speaker D: It was our second touchdown. It was after our second touchdown.
[00:35:52] Speaker B: Yeah. So I think it was like second quarter sometime.
[00:35:54] Speaker C: Either way, you should always be ready to play. I don't know. It was the first time he's been asked to sprint all year.
You got to pull a hammy every time I ask you to sprint. Come on.
[00:36:04] Speaker B: To be fair, I'm pretty sure it's the hamstring in his plant leg, so that's not the one he was keeping warm.
[00:36:09] Speaker C: Your legs should both be warm. You're a kicker. You got to use them both. But either way, I just. Devastating for Dustin Hopkins because he's been so good, all so I wouldn't be sad if Jim Brown kept the record just because of the history with Jim Brown.
[00:36:25] Speaker B: I'd be sad for bone.
He's the biggest Dustin Hopkins fan that lives.
[00:36:30] Speaker C: Here's my biggest thing is whether Dustin Hopkins clearly isn't coming back this week, whether he comes back next week or not, I'm more worried about having a healthy Dustin Hopkins going into the playoffs. So if he has to miss the.
[00:36:43] Speaker B: Rest of the just. I say they keep both the kickers on the roster. And if Dustin Hopkins is at least healthy enough to kick short kicks, they should just put him in on extra point. I will say this and let him get his record.
[00:36:56] Speaker C: Bad job out of Bubba Ventrone and this coaching staff not having a second option.
[00:37:03] Speaker B: Hold on, hold on.
[00:37:05] Speaker C: Not to fill in for Dustin Hopkins, but even like, to punt the ball when Bajor went down.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: Well, hold on. So that's where I was going with this is almost every team in the NFL. The kicker is the number one guy and then the punter is the backup. Sure. Who would have thought that the kicker and the punter were hurting the same game?
[00:37:22] Speaker C: I don't know, but it happens. And I've seen quarterbacks pooch punt balls.
Give me 20 yards on the other side. Don't.
[00:37:29] Speaker B: Just. Don't.
[00:37:30] Speaker C: Just go for it on fourth down because you have to.
[00:37:32] Speaker B: I'm just saying it was kind of a freak thing. What are the chances that both your kicker and your punter get hurt in the same game?
[00:37:38] Speaker C: I know, but if this was a closer game against a good opponent, wouldn't you be pissed that you couldn't punt the ball?
[00:37:42] Speaker B: Probably, but it wasn't. So it's okay.
[00:37:45] Speaker D: Yeah, luckily we were dominating.
[00:37:47] Speaker B: It sounds like Bajoroquez is not as serious and he'll be back this week. From what I was reading, hopefully that's the case.
[00:37:54] Speaker C: TBD. It's still a short week.
[00:37:56] Speaker B: It is a short week. That's what's scary about it. It could be good because you've seen these experiments play out like the college level. I know there's a few teams that do it and there's definitely a lot of teams that do it at the high school level where on fourth down, no matter where they are on the field, they just go for it. Unless it's like fourth and 15 plus, you just go for it.
[00:38:15] Speaker C: It was interesting to see that style of football because we talked about eliminating extra point in general.
[00:38:19] Speaker B: Roll over last. Yeah, let's just do it. Let's just always go for two.
[00:38:22] Speaker C: So I have to watch them go for two every.
[00:38:23] Speaker B: And what happened in this game, it basically evened out like it just was like a wash. Well, I think it.
[00:38:28] Speaker C: Was more interesting is if you eliminate the extra point, if you have like a two point line and like a three point line, I like it.
[00:38:33] Speaker B: I like it.
[00:38:34] Speaker C: Go back to the 25, make it worth five points, something.
[00:38:36] Speaker B: I like it.
[00:38:37] Speaker C: But, yeah. Devastating for Dustin Hopkins, but we need him back healthy for the playoffs. So whatever it takes to get him that way, I think, is the important thing right now.
[00:38:46] Speaker B: Yes. And then next up here, coaching, Stefanski. What else can I say here? We won again after sustaining multiple injuries to starters. We just mentioned both kickers were hurt in this game.
There was probably other injuries. He kind of just stopped counting after a while.
But this dude is performing miracles every week getting this team ready to play, knowing with the whole team, knowing that on any given Sunday, you're likely going to have three to five guys that go down with injuries that land them an IR.
[00:39:13] Speaker C: I have one criticism of Stefanski.
[00:39:16] Speaker B: This. I mean, yeah, go ahead to your.
[00:39:19] Speaker C: Like, all in all, win the game. Good one. Essentially it was a blowout. Fine.
You've had injuries to quarterbacks all year long in this game. Was it necessary to have DTR on the field at all?
Did you need him on the field at all?
[00:39:37] Speaker B: No.
[00:39:37] Speaker C: I mean, was the misdirection he provided on three or four plays necessary to win the game?
[00:39:41] Speaker B: No.
[00:39:42] Speaker C: And now he's on the injured reserve of the hip, so he's done for the year.
[00:39:47] Speaker B: DTR is on IR. I didn't know that. Is that announced today?
[00:39:50] Speaker C: That came out today.
[00:39:52] Speaker D: I didn't know that either.
[00:39:53] Speaker C: I know we'll get to the injury report, but, yeah, I mean, done for the year. Because, what, you have a handful of plays to be a gadget guy.
[00:39:59] Speaker B: Okay. I agree with you. That is a big criticism.
[00:40:02] Speaker C: You've got Joe Flacco, who's 40 years old, and one other healthy quarterback on your roster who is ass. Just absolute ass.
[00:40:10] Speaker B: So please don't go back to PJ Walker.
[00:40:11] Speaker C: They signed PJ Walker today.
So that's your backup heading into this week. But you have a 40 year old Joe Flacco, who I think is good for the long haul. But just in case, you would have much rather had DTR for the next two games than PJ Walker.
[00:40:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:27] Speaker C: So that's my only.
Wasn't necessary.
[00:40:30] Speaker B: No.
[00:40:30] Speaker C: And if you wanted a guy that was a gadget player to go, and you have plenty of athletes to choose from, put Goodwin back there.
Put David Bell or one of these guys.
Let them be your gadget guy. Why am I using my backup, my only other healthy backup quarterback on the roster when I've had four quarterback injuries all season long?
[00:40:50] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:40:51] Speaker C: Not necessary.
[00:40:51] Speaker B: Let's go get Nick Foles. Let's just sign all the big dick Nicks. Yeah.
Next up here, though, Jim Schwartz, Jim Shortz. Defense looked good. Again. I said it last week. The swagger is back with this defense.
They're excited after every big play. They're starting to dominate, start to finish, like they did earlier in the season.
Again, the points scored were in garbage time or on special teams. And nothing you can do as a defense, a defensive unit to stop a kick return for a, um.
I'll put this defense against literally anybody in the.
I know, I know. We'll talk about it later. I know Baltimore's defense is playing well right now, too, but I would put this defense against anybody in the.
[00:41:35] Speaker C: To your point about Baltimore, the biggest difference between Baltimore and this defense is they have a Smith.
[00:41:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:40] Speaker C: And he makes up so much of what that defense does. Where I feel our team defense is anybody can hurt you, and anybody could pick up a ball, anybody could make a sack or a fumble, and it could happen at any time where, like, Roquan is the heart and soul of defense. So knock on wood for him, he stays healthy. But if he were to go like, that's a huge blow for, I mean, the defense would be half as good as it.
[00:42:04] Speaker B: Like, I would argue that Roquan going down for Baltimore would be just as big, if not bigger, as Lamar Jackson going down for them. Sure, because that defense completely different without him.
[00:42:13] Speaker C: But I also think I would almost feel like if Miles went down, if Miles went down, it'd be a huge blow, but the defense would still be pretty good. Yeah, I would survive without Miles for a game or two.
[00:42:26] Speaker B: I would agree.
And so I guess with the defense here, the last thing I got to say is keep playing. Well, let's get that last w and start talking about the playoffs.
But next up here, Bubba Ventron. Special teams did show some cracks this week.
Damien Pierce returned that 198 yards for a touchdown. You don't really see many kick returns for touchdowns in the NFL anymore, and in the same play, it got our kicker hurt. So really just a massive disappointment on special teams there. I think they still remain the best unit in the.
Yeah, I mean, that just wasn't a good look again.
[00:43:03] Speaker C: I mean, that's probably a conversation Bubba Ventron should have with us. And Hopkins is like, what are you doing, guy? At this point in your just if you're the last guy, then I guess they get six points.
You were more valuable to us healthy in kicking than busted because you tried to make a tackle.
[00:43:23] Speaker B: Honestly, if Dustin Hopkins is my kicker, I probably would have told him, like, don't even cover kicks.
[00:43:28] Speaker C: Kick the ball and run to the sideline.
[00:43:29] Speaker B: I don't even care if they get passed. That's not on you, right?
Overall, though. Total yards Cleveland 418 Houston 251st downs Cleveland 26, Houston 20. Time of possession Cleveland 33 34 Houston 26 26. Penalties? Cleveland nine for 55, Houston ten for 76. And turnovers. Cleveland and Houston both had two here. So first things first. What are we going to do without kickers?
We literally have no kickers. They did sign an ex Lions kicker. What's the dude's name?
[00:44:04] Speaker C: Patterson.
[00:44:05] Speaker B: Patterson.
I do know this. Patterson is 100% on kicks this season, and he's kicked a decent amount. I think he's like 15 to 17 on the season or something like that.
[00:44:13] Speaker C: He played for the Lions.
[00:44:14] Speaker B: He's 100% this season from 30 to 49 yards. So, like, the ones that you like should be the mid range easier.
[00:44:21] Speaker C: I mean, the very least, I think they got to kick an extra point.
[00:44:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I think he's missed two field goals and two extra points this season. It's not like he hasn't kicked them any. Like I said, I think he's like 15 or 17, so he's actually kicked a decent amount this year.
[00:44:33] Speaker D: I think I heard he missed two extra points back to back, and that kind of got him in the doghouse. Kicked off.
[00:44:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
And I think it cost him the game. But he's missed two extra points. He's missed two field goals. That's not bad.
[00:44:48] Speaker C: The reality is you're heading into what, week 17?
I mean, there's not a lot of guys available. They're either rostered or hurt. So you just need a guy that can kick the ball.
[00:45:00] Speaker B: Yeah. My point is they signed probably the most consistent guy that you could sign. Yeah.
[00:45:05] Speaker C: And he played for the Jaguars last year and they were in a playoff, so he has some playoff experience if it comes to that.
But we'll. I mean, hopefully this team with Joe Flacco is not in a position where.
[00:45:18] Speaker B: It'S a team of destiny, where they.
[00:45:21] Speaker C: This is the team of an extra point of destiny.
[00:45:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Another Browns news here. The Browns sent out their virtual Christmas card this week and had David and Joku in an uncomfortable spot. He was standing in front of the fire holding a football wrapped in Browns paper, and David and Joku was quick to point out and asked the question, why did you guys feel a need to put me next to the fire?
That's messed up, man.
Yeah. It was a pretty cool Christmas card and funny moment there for David and Joku on social media.
[00:45:54] Speaker C: Lack of awareness there, maybe. They could have probably put them anywhere else, but you put them in the fire.
[00:45:59] Speaker B: They put them right in the fire.
With this win, though, the Browns chances of making the playoffs now stand at greater than 99%.
And I know the Browns fans are sitting there thinking, so you're telling me there's a chance.
It's true, but they might get in regardless. But one more win would absolutely clinch it. Good opportunity this week, and we'll talk more about that in the second half of the show with the jets. But they remain at the 10th best ods of winning the Super bowl at plus 4500, which is a little bit better than it was last week.
It equates to about a 2.2% chance of winning at all. That's up 0.4%.
[00:46:37] Speaker D: Nice.
[00:46:39] Speaker B: And so again, you're telling me there's a chance it could go either way here we have the same chance of missing the playoffs as we do winning the Super bowl.
[00:46:47] Speaker C: Basically. Yeah. And they control their own destiny, which is nice. I think a lot of times when we get to this point in the season, the Browns are hovering around near 500. If they're that lucky, you're kind of waiting on someone else to win a game to knock somebody else out. Browns win this week, they're in. Really? The win of the next two weeks. One of the next two you're in.
You basically have to lose out and have a bunch of things bad happen to not make it this point.
[00:47:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, like I said, they could probably lose out, and chances are they're still making the playoffs because of the scenarios. But Dustin Hopkins, we just talked about him. He's up to 123 points this season before he went down with that hamstring injury. So we already mentioned it last week, but the single season franchise record for a kicker previously was 120 by Phil Dawson in 2007. That one's been broken. Dhop owns that one. The single season franchise record for any player is 126 by Jim Brown in 1965. He is three points short of tying it and four points short of breaking it.
If he wouldn't have gotten hurt this week, he would have broke it this week.
Will he be healthy enough to return during the regular season to get a crack at it? I don't know. We'll see.
[00:47:56] Speaker C: Hamstrings tough for a kicker.
[00:47:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Regardless, don't worry, bone. I'm going to continue to track this one because I know that you're ready to explode over there.
[00:48:05] Speaker C: You know what I've been thinking about recently?
[00:48:07] Speaker B: What?
[00:48:08] Speaker C: Just because we both have a golf background?
[00:48:10] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:48:10] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:48:11] Speaker C: If you had to hit a golf ball through the uprights, let's say, like 33 times or however many kicks Dustin's made this year.
[00:48:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:21] Speaker C: Could you do it?
[00:48:22] Speaker B: No.
[00:48:25] Speaker C: Hitting like a wedge.
Think about yards overall. You're at 45, 50, 60 yards. Could you, with a wedge, make 30 consecutive attempts through the uprights of the golf ball?
[00:48:39] Speaker B: No, absolutely not. And I will say this, though, and that's even with it being known that, what do they say as far as distance to direction correlation in golf? The longer the shot, the worse the distance.
[00:48:53] Speaker C: Sure.
[00:48:54] Speaker B: The shorter the shot. I'm sorry. The longer the shot, the worse the direction. The shorter the shot, the better direction your distance starts getting, like you're off. So even though you're more accurate, short range, I still don't think he could do it.
[00:49:10] Speaker D: Pretty tight spot in this scenario. Is there shubbery in trees between the.
[00:49:15] Speaker C: Heights of five, just on a football field through the upgrades.
I'm thinking of it in my head. I'm like, you should be able to because you do it once from 50 yards. Seems easy enough.
[00:49:27] Speaker B: Yeah. If you're a golfer out there listening.
[00:49:28] Speaker C: To this, think about doing 30 times.
[00:49:30] Speaker B: Realistically, think about how many times. You're like, I'm 50 yards out, and you're like, I'm to hit the green, and then it's like, way left or way right, and it's like almost every time that you hit the ball.
[00:49:39] Speaker C: But now think about doing that same thing with your foot and just, like, how hard that jump.
[00:49:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:44] Speaker C: It has to be exponentially easier to hit a golf ball with a sand wedge than it is to kick a football, and we couldn't even do it with a wedge.
[00:49:54] Speaker B: The golf club definitely takes less energy.
Well, yeah, but if you told me I had to, I think it's simpler. I don't know if it's easier.
[00:50:03] Speaker C: If you told me I had to do one or the other, I would pick the golf club every time.
[00:50:07] Speaker B: Oh, I would, because I'm well past my prime, and I'd probably kick a 20 yard field goal.
[00:50:12] Speaker C: Even in my prime, like, a 30 yard field goal was long for me to kick because I wasn't a kicker.
I kicked it as hard as I could to kick it 30 yards.
[00:50:20] Speaker B: That's fair. I don't know where we're going.
[00:50:22] Speaker C: This I was just thinking about the other day. I was like, would a good golfer?
[00:50:27] Speaker B: But you're holding me up from getting to something really important here. And I'm talking about the burning river sportscast dog of the week.
[00:50:42] Speaker E: Doesn't matter, man. You got to play tough people in the National Football League. You got to be ready, and we.
[00:50:47] Speaker B: Got to be the dogs that we.
[00:50:49] Speaker E: Are every time we step on there on Sunday and be ready to attack and don't stop until we're in that.
[00:50:54] Speaker B: Locker room shanking away. Yeah, it's literally going to be shank straight, right? I'll be like, I don't know where the fuck that came from. And then the next four go with it.
My good.
[00:51:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:51:22] Speaker B: All right. So this week's burning river sportscast dog of the week is obviously Amari Cooper. Eleven receptions, 265 yards, two touchdowns. A monster game for Amari Cooper. This broke Josh Gordon's record of 261 yards against the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2013. He is also the first Cleveland Browns player to ever have back to back seasons of 1000 receiving yards. Oh, and by the way, this is officially the best season of Amari Cooper's career. So yeah, Amari Cooper is pretty amazing, guys. This is a phenomenal game.
[00:51:54] Speaker C: It's funny actually. I was just watching that Jacksonville game because we were playing the Jaguars. There was a bunch of clips of the old Jacksonville Browns games recently and I was just watching that game with Josh Gordon and I was like, just think about good Gordon.
[00:52:06] Speaker B: He did it with shit quarterbacks.
[00:52:09] Speaker C: I think his quarterback that year was Brandon Whedon.
But look good for Amari. I'm happy that, look, people, you say what you want about Josh Gordon. I don't have a problem person with Josh Gordon. But to have Amari in the record book there for yards in the game means more to me than having Josh Gordon do it because of all the baggage with Josh Gordon.
[00:52:29] Speaker B: Not only his baggage, but just the baggage with the teams around that time.
[00:52:33] Speaker C: They weren't like, it just brings up.
[00:52:35] Speaker B: Bad memories, to be honest with you. Like a lot of bad memories.
[00:52:37] Speaker C: So to now be able to tell that story to my kids someday about Lamar was just on, caught every ball thrown to him. It was ridiculous. It's a better story than Josh Gordon. He had like four really big catches.
[00:52:51] Speaker B: In that game before they allowed players to smoke weed. He smoked weed and got kicked out of the league for like six years.
[00:52:58] Speaker C: So good on Amari. Again, I just go back to this guy I think is underappreciated, undervalued in the league because he's not a super flashy guy. All he does is come in week after week and have workman like performances of 120 yards and a touchdown. So to have him just break loose and have him have a monster game was really fun to watch.
We've talked a lot about what makes Amari a good receiver on this show in the past.
And I think one of the things like watching this game in particular was, and if you've never maybe played receiver, you may not even really have a.
[00:53:36] Speaker B: Concept of this high point the ball.
[00:53:38] Speaker C: But not only that, but his ability to run the route tree. And what I mean by that is like, at that breakpoint, in that route, his route looks entirely the same up until that breakpoint. So whether it's an in, whether it's an out, whether it's a poster or a flag, set them all up the same exact way, the same way, whether depth of target changes, but you don't know what he's running until he's run it. And I think a lot of receivers have tells and struggle with that. I mean, it's one of the hardest things to do is to make mask every route to look the same until you make your break. He's so good at it that in a way that he creates and comes off a contact at the point of the catch. But just his route tree is so phenomenal and you watch him just, you don't know whether he's running a fade or a stop because it's the same up until he does it.
And it's amazing.
Joe Flacco is the best quarterback I've seen a Browns jersey. Amari Cooper might be the best receiver I've seen.
[00:54:35] Speaker B: We've talked about. Just to add on to that, that is the reason why he's so good is his route running allows him to be wide open on most plays and it's just crazy to watch because like I said, when you think he can't keep doing it, he just keeps doing, uh.
[00:54:51] Speaker C: It was just funny because there was a couple of times where it was like he hit Amari for a huge catch and then he went right back to him and you're just like, again, another one. It was insane.
[00:55:01] Speaker B: Yeah, it was like DJ Khaled, another one, another one.
But anyways, that'll take us to the division roundup.
All right, so it was a week of blowouts in the AFC north this week, which nobody saw coming. Bone actually texted us during the games and he was like, it's so hard to pick AFC north games and we agreed. But we'll start with the Ravens because this one was actually the most surprising one to me. They dominated the 49 ers on Christmas day, 33 to 19. Bone man and I were both wrong. Kenny was right. I did not see them running away with this one like they did. But I guess nobody saw Brock Purdy throwing four interceptions.
[00:55:46] Speaker C: Mean, I said last week, the Ravens are playing some of the best football in the league right now and Brock Purdy is still.
Is Brock Purdy good or is Brock Purdy the product of being in the right place at the right time? I don't know.
We'll see. I would say that his MVP hopes are probably dashed.
[00:56:07] Speaker B: Absolutely. You can't throw four picks in week 16 and win the MVP when you have like a prime time game against one of the other top teams in the NFL.
[00:56:17] Speaker C: You get benched for Sam Darnold. You're no longer my most valuable player.
[00:56:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
So as I said, kudos to Kenny. He did pick that one right. And we were both wrong in this one. That rarely happens.
[00:56:29] Speaker D: Yeah, it feels bad.
[00:56:30] Speaker B: Feels real bad.
Next up, the Steelers violently humped the Bengals this week, 34 to eleven.
[00:56:37] Speaker C: Got no words for this one.
[00:56:38] Speaker B: Me neither.
[00:56:38] Speaker C: Where'd Jake Browning go?
[00:56:40] Speaker B: He's gone. He realized that he was just a high school phenom, not a college. He's just not that good.
[00:56:46] Speaker C: I mean, what was that?
[00:56:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. But again. And now the Steelers are one step closer to Mike Tomlin. Still remaining.
[00:56:56] Speaker C: Well, yeah, they're above 500 now, right? They're eight and seven.
By the time I. Christmas Eve or whatever, when this game was on, and I'm looking for the game. By the time I turned this game, I was 21, nothing. I was like, what in the world? What happened?
[00:57:09] Speaker B: It got bad fast.
Yeah, I remember I had the same reaction. I looked at it and I was like, well, I guess we're all wrong in this game. Nobody's coming back from that.
[00:57:19] Speaker C: Just terrible.
[00:57:21] Speaker B: And then finally, obviously, the Browns beat the Texans 36 to 22. And it was not even that close. We were all right in that one. And Kenny actually called for a blowout. We all had a pretty wide scoring margin, but Kenny specifically said this was going to be a blowout. Like, we were going to score big and they were not going to score very many.
It was a good week for Kenny.
So, for the AFC north standings, in order here, Baltimore at twelve and three, Cleveland at ten and five. Somehow we still have a chance at that number one seed. If Baltimore loses the next two games and we went out, there's some other things need to happen with Miami losing a game, but we could still get that number one seed. Probably not getting it, let's be honest.
[00:57:59] Speaker C: But I thought if we were going to get it, it would have been 49 ers. Had to win one.
[00:58:04] Speaker B: I was pumped for that game, and I was pretty quickly. My hopes were dashed.
[00:58:08] Speaker C: But in the season of Destiny, what if the Browns had a first round by.
[00:58:15] Speaker D: Home field?
[00:58:16] Speaker C: Get people healthy?
[00:58:17] Speaker B: That'd be pretty dope.
[00:58:18] Speaker C: Maybe Nick Chubb comes back with the Burma bowl.
[00:58:25] Speaker B: So Baltimore in first at twelve and three, Cleveland in second at ten and five. Pittsburgh has now overtaken Cincinnati with that win at eight and seven as they hold the tiebreaker. And Cincinnati is also eight and seven, but in fourth place. And so for king of the north. And we'll talk more about this in the second half of the show. Bone remains in first place at 28 and 22. I am in second place at 27 and 23. And Kenny is trying to scratch and claw his way back into this thing. But remains under 500 at 23 and 27.
Yeah, you got to say it like that because I got to humble you a little bit. You're like, I had a better week than you guys. Well, you're still in last place. Suck it. And that'll take us to a quick trip around the NFL.
You all right? So Kareem Jackson, best known for playing for Denver this season and being fined and suspended multiple times for egregious and violent hits, has been released by the team.
[00:59:32] Speaker C: To be fair, egregious and violent hits is just what some people used to call football.
[00:59:36] Speaker B: That's true. Some of his this year have been pretty bad, though. I mean, the dude's just like, launched his head into other people's heads.
[00:59:42] Speaker C: I mean, I'll give you that. You have to know the rules now.
[00:59:44] Speaker B: You got to adapt. You got to adapt.
[00:59:46] Speaker C: You can't keep playing the same way and hope nothing happens.
[00:59:49] Speaker B: But clearly, he's a decent player because the Texans promptly picked him up right away. I'm just glad that they waited until the week after they played the Browns because we already have enough injuries. We don't need more. True. The Dallas Cowboys still can't beat a good team.
[01:00:03] Speaker C: No, they can't.
[01:00:03] Speaker B: They lost to the Dolphins, and this was the battle of the teams that couldn't beat good teams. And now we know the Dolphins are the team that can beat good teams, that can't beat other good teams.
[01:00:12] Speaker C: I've been high on Dallas all year long, but, I mean, you can't argue with the results. So they can't beat good.
[01:00:18] Speaker B: They've. I don't think they've had a win.
[01:00:20] Speaker C: Beat Philadelphia, which is a good team, but Philadelphia has been in the middle of their.
[01:00:23] Speaker B: Is that their only win against a team that's over 500 this year?
[01:00:26] Speaker C: I think so, yeah.
[01:00:27] Speaker B: Not good.
The Chiefs, another team that's typically good, lost to a guy that threw for 62 yards this week, and it turns out that Taylor Swift is not good for football. Taylor in Kansas City.
[01:00:38] Speaker C: Taylor Swift is the worst gm of all time.
[01:00:40] Speaker B: You don't think she should be making decisions?
[01:00:42] Speaker C: No. Look, here's the thing. This thing has been a circus in and around Kansas City since week one.
[01:00:48] Speaker B: Oh, yeah?
[01:00:49] Speaker C: At what point?
[01:00:50] Speaker B: Well, to be fair, it was like week five when they started all dating.
[01:00:55] Speaker C: Whatever this thing has been. Absolutely.
[01:00:58] Speaker B: I'm surprised they haven't broke up yet. True.
[01:01:01] Speaker C: That'll be also devastating. Travis Kelsey probably won't catch a ball all week.
[01:01:05] Speaker B: They still out there making out in front of her.
[01:01:12] Speaker C: But Patrick Mahomes has been on a terror of throwing his helmet off and yelling at people.
[01:01:18] Speaker B: Travis Kelsey did this.
[01:01:20] Speaker D: Whiny.
[01:01:20] Speaker B: He threw his helmet across the sideline this week.
[01:01:22] Speaker C: At what point do the Chiefs say, like guys, like, it's enough. We didn't change anything. This guy went all Hollywood with trailer Swift and trailer Swift.
[01:01:30] Speaker B: She's trailer Swift now.
[01:01:32] Speaker C: Brought all her buddies in.
[01:01:34] Speaker B: Tractor trailer Swift.
[01:01:36] Speaker C: You have to be wondering what Brittany Mahomes is thinking, like up in the press box now.
[01:01:40] Speaker B: She was jealous.
[01:01:41] Speaker C: She used to be the distraction, but now no one even knows her name.
Man, I just have to.
[01:01:47] Speaker B: You do.
[01:01:48] Speaker C: I just have to wonder, at what point did Patrick Mahomes or Andy Reid say, you got to shut this thing down at least till the end of the season.
[01:01:56] Speaker B: Somebody's got to, right? I mean, it's literally, the Browns have.
[01:01:59] Speaker C: A better record than us. Like, they have to be saying that in the locker room.
[01:02:02] Speaker B: We faced more adversity, but we've had less distractions this season somehow than the Chiefs.
[01:02:07] Speaker C: Right?
[01:02:08] Speaker D: Even more than Travis Kelsey. Andrew Reid is not trying to get himself put into a Taylor Swift song.
[01:02:18] Speaker B: He just wants his chicken nuggets man do together with.
Speaking of this game, guys, speaking of this game, they lost to the Raiders. Let's talk some playoff permutations here. Right? Excellent.
Let's get into it.
[01:02:33] Speaker C: AFC west is heating up.
[01:02:34] Speaker B: Yeah. So the Chiefs, they have the Bengals and the Chargers left, right?
The Raiders have the Colts and the Broncos left. I don't know who the Broncos have. Don't really care. But the Raiders and Broncos are currently at seven and eight and the Chiefs are at nine and six. If the Chiefs lose out, which again, they have the Bengals and Chargers, which are both losable games, especially with the way they've been playing, you know, Jake Brown is going to get more than 62 yards passing.
[01:03:02] Speaker C: True.
[01:03:03] Speaker B: And then the Chargers game against the Chiefs always seems to be a high scoring, close game. So if they lose out, and the Raiders or the Broncos would be in, one of those two teams would be in. If they can win out. So what this all boils down to and why I got into this is because the Browns in week 17 are better positioned for the playoffs than the Kansas City Chiefs.
[01:03:28] Speaker D: Hell yes.
[01:03:29] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, look, the AFC west is heating up and there's some bunch of teams there that really aren't that good. When you think about the Chiefs and where they've been the last couple of years and they've been darlings of the NFL and Super bowl champions, and all of a sudden they look very mediocre, and they look like they may just as easily miss the playoffs and have the Raiders, the Broncos in.
[01:03:49] Speaker B: Yeah, it's just wild. We're better set up for the play. We have a better record than the Chiefs in week 17.
[01:03:55] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:03:56] Speaker B: Especially if you would have said, we would have talked about all the injuries the Browns had at the beginning of the year. There's no way you would have said that they would be better than the Chiefs right now.
[01:04:03] Speaker C: You mean every quarterback we've played has gotten.
[01:04:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaking of playoff permutations, though, the AFC south has a three way tie for first place right now between the Jaguars, Colts. And just, just talk about this a little bit because this is pretty wiggly. I will say this before you get started. I know the Jaguars Trevor Lawrence is hurt. He just got diagnosed with an ac joint sprain, so he may be out multiple weeks. The Colts obviously have been without their starting quarterback, have been rolling with Gardner Minshew. Who is Gardner Minshew? I love Gardner Minshew, but he's so hot and cold. It's either really good or really bad. There's like no in between for Gardner Minshew and then the Texans. CJ Stroud's been hurt and he had a really bad concussion. Who knows when he's going to be back? Hopefully it's this week, but that's not a guaranteed thing.
And if he doesn't come back, they're pretty much ass as. So, yeah.
[01:05:00] Speaker C: I mean, people talk about the AFC north being most competitive division in football, and it certainly probably is the best division in football in terms of teams, but the AFC south don't sleep on them. We have three teams that are eight and seven. He's kind of know all these teams have their own struggles. I think personally with the Colts having Jonathan Taylor come back from his thumb surgery or whatever, he had, probably are poised to make the sneak run here. But the Jaguars do hold the tiebreaker as of right now and are in first place. So depending on how healthy Trevor Lawrence is and how his shoulder goes, who knows?
[01:05:37] Speaker B: Stroud comes back this week. I would say the Texans are the favorite.
[01:05:41] Speaker C: I've heard them say that his concussion was the highest graded or the worst graded concussion of any injury this year, a head injury. They were talking about his sensitivity to light. He couldn't be in a meeting room or outside right now. So I don't know whether he'll be back this week, next week or at all this season, but that certainly would change things. I mean, if the Browns had played the Texans with CJ Stroud, that game would not have been a blowout. No, CJ Stroud would have taken a.
[01:06:10] Speaker B: Lot longer to put them away, that's for sure.
[01:06:12] Speaker C: So, yeah, I just think this is a really interesting division to watch to see what happens. And in fact, depending on what happens here, because these teams are all eight and seven, they're all going to end up in that mesh at the end of the season for six and a seven seed in the wild card, which could impact where the Browns end up, depending on whether we win out or not, whether you end up as a five seed or a seven seed. So just a really interesting division to watch because you also have the Bengals and Steelers in our division at eight and, I mean, all of a sudden these last one or two playoff spots are.
[01:06:48] Speaker B: Things are heating up down there, right? Sure. Yeah. Bone, who are you liking? The AFC South?
[01:06:53] Speaker D: I was thinking the Colts. I think I like the Colts. All right, Gardner. I like Gardner. He'll bounce back. You said Jonathan Taylor will be back in the lineup.
[01:07:02] Speaker C: Jonathan Taylor's back this week.
[01:07:04] Speaker B: Bone loves his gardener.
Does Christy know?
[01:07:09] Speaker D: She doesn't know. She never listens all the way through the podcast, so she won't be hearing this.
[01:07:14] Speaker B: We're long winded.
Speaking of the playoffs, though, the Lions and the Browns have ten wins each in the same season for the first time in 70 years. Ice, could this be the year, guys? Are we going to get it?
[01:07:28] Speaker C: Would people watch that Super bowl if.
[01:07:29] Speaker B: It was Lions versus Browns versus the Lions?
[01:07:32] Speaker C: The two cities would watch it and it would be the most insane thing for both those cities.
[01:07:37] Speaker B: I would say this because they both have really good fan bases, too, even though, even given their especially recently shitty history, I think it would be one of the most watched Super Bowls of all time.
[01:07:52] Speaker D: The storyline for the Browns with Flacco, I think is just unbelievable for them.
[01:07:57] Speaker B: The Lions have been like a Cinderella story all year. Everybody kind of expected them to be just like mediocre.
[01:08:03] Speaker C: I think as good as the Browns have been and Kevin Stefanski has been, I think Dan Campbell probably ends up winning coach of the year because of.
[01:08:10] Speaker B: And I think that when you're voting for that stuff, a lot of these voters don't pay as close attention as far as injuries and those types of things. So when they're looking at it, they're saying, well, before the season, a lot of people were actually picking Cleveland to win their division, or at least be competing for their division. They were expected to be somewhat like a pretty good team, whereas the Lions were they might be okay.
And I think, honestly, we all know where this show stands, and even though we've given him shit throughout the season, we all want and think Kevin Stefanski deserves it because of the injuries and because of everything they've overcome.
[01:08:45] Speaker C: I don't know how you can't look at the body of work and say, I mean, what a coaching.
[01:08:50] Speaker B: Yeah, but they're not going to. They're going to look at preseason, nobody expected the Lions to do anything. The Browns were supposed to be good.
[01:08:57] Speaker C: And Kevin won it before, too.
[01:08:58] Speaker B: There's that. But, yeah, I hope it's a Browns Lions Super bowl. That'd be fantastic.
[01:09:03] Speaker C: Would be cool.
[01:09:04] Speaker B: Next up here, your boy Baker Mayfield, who we love to argue about, has gotten the Buccaneers back over 500.
[01:09:12] Speaker C: Another clean game this week, 26 to 35, 287, two touchdowns.
[01:09:17] Speaker B: Yes. You're saying that as I'm staring at your baker bros flag across the studio here. Like I said, they're now eight and seven. As you mentioned, Baker. You mentioned this last week. Baker's probably going to finish second and comeback player of the year. He'll definitely lose to, well, actually, Demar.
[01:09:32] Speaker C: Hamlin died on the field.
[01:09:34] Speaker B: He didn't die.
[01:09:35] Speaker C: He did die.
[01:09:36] Speaker B: His heart's technically dead. Yeah. Okay, fair, fair.
[01:09:41] Speaker C: You know what's crazy is like, think about the time Michael Thomas missed with his turf toe dwarf. Hamlin died and came back faster than Michael Thomas turf toe.
[01:09:55] Speaker B: That was pretty wild, but yeah. So I just had to throw it out there. I'll give him some props. I'm not the biggest Baker fan.
He's actually kept his mouth subdued this season, too.
[01:10:09] Speaker C: I think what's really interesting is what's going to happen with Baker. I think he's built himself a lot of good will down in Tampa Bay. I think they are still paying the piper for Tom Brady being they need. They needed Baker. It was the right time to sign a quarterback they could get for whatever they paid him for. 6 million this year, but he's going to probably get himself some kind of contract next year, whether that's in Tampa.
[01:10:30] Speaker B: Bay or somewhere else, because they only signed him for two years, didn't they?
[01:10:32] Speaker C: They only signed him for the year. So he'll be, he's like probably the prime free agent acquisition right now, depending on who wants him. But it'll be interesting to see if Tampa Bay tries to retain him and probably depends a lot on what they do, if they make the playoffs or not.
[01:10:45] Speaker B: But closing out their trip around the NFL this week, there's like conspiracy story theory out there. Have you guys heard this thing about the last few Super bowl logos? The colors match the teams that are in it and the logos are revealed months and months ahead of time.
[01:11:00] Speaker C: Only when you brought it to me in preshow.
[01:11:01] Speaker B: Yeah. So Super Bowl 56 is when it started. So it's the last two and then we'll see what happens. This year, Super Bowl 56, the logo was orange and yellow and it was the Bengals and the Rams.
Super Bowl 57, it was green and red and it was the Eagles and the Chiefs. This year, Super Bowl 58, it is purple and red.
And good chance that the matchup ends up being the Ravens and the 49 ers. So, I mean, I'm just saying. Is that a conspiracy? I guess we have to revisit this at the Super bowl.
[01:11:40] Speaker C: We'll see. I think the 49 ers are kind of ass now.
[01:11:43] Speaker B: There is also just to add something to this.
There are some out there that are saying that when it was originally was revealed, that logo had more of an orange tint to it rather than a red, and it was purple and orange.
And then as the season went on, the NFL has changed it to purple and red. So I don't know if there's any validity to that part of it, but that's just what.
[01:12:09] Speaker C: Are there any NFL NFC teams outside of the, like in the playoff picture that are purple?
[01:12:14] Speaker B: Minnesota.
[01:12:15] Speaker C: They're not in the playoff picture, though.
[01:12:19] Speaker B: Purple.
[01:12:21] Speaker C: I can think of one. What is interesting around the colors of this whole thing is that if you go back before 56, all these logos for the last ten years before that were just silver.
[01:12:33] Speaker B: And so it's weird that the first two years that they did colors, it was.
[01:12:35] Speaker C: It did match the teams that played and all of a sudden. Yeah, I guess those are the two favorites. So I don't know. I guess we'll have to see what happens.
We've had those conversations in the past about, is there a script to the NFL? Because sometimes weird shit does.
[01:12:50] Speaker B: It's like a well known fact now that they're an entertainment business and not a sports entity.
[01:12:54] Speaker C: Franklin wrestling came out.
[01:12:56] Speaker B: Yeah. So I guess we'll see. We'll revisit. Put a bookmark in this one. We'll revisit this.
[01:13:03] Speaker C: Mean if the XFL starts to become part of know, kind of entryway or entry league into the NFL and they eventually, you know, who knows Vincent? Kenny McMahon. He's a hell of a promoter.
[01:13:16] Speaker B: Yep. But that will conclude our trip around the NFL. Kenny, you want to talk to some fellow Browns superfans?
[01:13:22] Speaker C: I sure as hell do. All right.
[01:13:24] Speaker B: So something that we started this year is our Browns Backers interview series. What we wanted to do was highlight brownsbackers from around the country. These are all people that are diehard fans, belong to Brownsbackers chapters in their respective communities. That part's obvious. Browns fans are everywhere. We love the Browns. They're all over the place, all over the world. Yeah. But we also wanted to highlight these people, because what most people, including a lot of Browns fans, don't know about the Browns Backers is that they do a lot of community service, a lot of charity work where they're located. So with that, let's go ahead and get into the next interview in the series.
[01:14:11] Speaker C: Powered by Riverside.
[01:14:13] Speaker B: FMbackers interview series this week is Bobby and Kevin from the Brownsbackers of North Jersey. Bobby, Kevin, thanks for joining us. How are you today?
[01:14:40] Speaker F: Great. Thanks for having us. Really appreciate it.
[01:14:42] Speaker E: Yeah, very excited for this one.
[01:14:44] Speaker B: Yeah, no problem. No problem. I know everybody's time is valuable, so thanks for taking some of yours, especially around the holidays, to chat with us. So before we get into some of the more exciting stuff, just tell us a little bit, not that you guys aren't exciting, but tell us a little bit about your chapter and kind of what you guys have going on up there.
[01:15:03] Speaker F: Well, we originated in 1989.
We're actually 186th chapter of the Brownsbackers.
The chapter was founded by a Joanne Stonson back in 1989. She actually put an article in the local newspaper looking for Browns fans, and the group actually started in 1989. I became a member probably 20 06, 20 04, 20 05 right around there.
And then, of course, I introduced my son. My other son actually just started following the Browns now, too, so he comes every week as well.
[01:15:44] Speaker B: Who is he following before that?
[01:15:46] Speaker F: What's that?
[01:15:47] Speaker B: Who was he following before that?
[01:15:48] Speaker F: He wasn't following anybody. He wasn't really a sports fan, but know, he gets into all the fantasy stuff, so. And he sees how much fun we're having, so he comes down with us now, too.
[01:15:58] Speaker B: I was going to give him some shit, but then I realized he wasn't rooting for anybody, so it's okay.
[01:16:03] Speaker F: But he's having a blast now, too. But we meet down in Rockaway, New Jersey, at a little place called the exchange.
We have our own room downstairs. It's actually a banquet hall, but they actually put up tvs for us.
We have our own bar down there. They have a big screen that comes down from the ceiling.
Nobody bothers us. We have our own entrance, own bathrooms. It's great. And we hoot and holler down there and it's a great time.
[01:16:34] Speaker B: Nice.
[01:16:35] Speaker F: We really had a good time.
[01:16:35] Speaker C: Nice to have your own area, for sure.
[01:16:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:16:39] Speaker F: Occasionally they'll put a banquet down there. We'll have to go upstairs and we're really not.
[01:16:44] Speaker E: People don't really get shipped at us by other fans.
[01:16:48] Speaker B: For some reason, when you're in another town, they don't like you cheering for somebody else.
[01:16:52] Speaker C: It's funny how many of the, as we've gone through the series, the Brownsbeckers, how many of these chapters each started with just like a note in a local paper?
[01:17:01] Speaker B: I was going to say, this is the second week in a row where that's how it started out. It's just like a couple people or one person put a ad in the paper and said Browns fans wanted.
[01:17:10] Speaker C: It's just funny to think about how times have changed. I mean, when we think about group networking today and how much different it.
[01:17:14] Speaker F: Is with social media.
[01:17:18] Speaker B: They'D all be flaky and not show up.
[01:17:21] Speaker F: I can tell you when I wear brown stuff around, I get more comments from people wearing my brown stuff. And it's just easy. You just tell them about the club, and sometimes they show up, sometimes they don't.
[01:17:31] Speaker E: But the best part is, man, just seeing all the people walk into the bar and they're like, where the hell all these brass come from?
[01:17:38] Speaker B: Yeah, they're like, I thought we were in North Jersey.
Did we take a wrong turn? We end up in Cleveland?
No, but. So part of the reason we're doing this interview series is because we want to highlight, obviously, you guys are a Brownsbackers chapter in North Jersey, and there's browns backers chapters all over the country and all over the world.
And we all know that browns fans are everywhere. But part of what we wanted to do here was highlight some of the good things around your community that you're able to do being a Brownsbackers chapter, be it community service, charity work, whatever that may be. So can you tell us a little bit what you guys have going on in your chapter?
[01:18:21] Speaker F: Yeah, so we do a bunch of raffles, but we do a lot of donations. We're really big into charity. One of the things we do is the Tunnels Towers foundation. That's usually the first game of the year, obviously, because it usually falls around 911. And obviously this area here, a lot of people were affected by 911. So we have actually a couple of members who actually work for Anon Flags, which is a large flag manufacturer. They donate some flags to us which we raffle off, and we send the money to the Tunnels Towers foundation.
My dad and Kevin's grandfather passed away from Alzheimer's back in 2018. So we do a big Alzheimer's fundraiser. We do the walk last year, well, this past fall, we raised over $6,000, almost $7,000 for that.
I have a relative, was a really good athlete, and he developed a brain tumor, which kind of affected his whole. So we donate to the children's brain Tumor foundation here in North Jersey.
We also donate food to the interfaith food pantry.
A couple of years ago, I started twice a year, we do a raffle for a jersey.
Jersey of your choice. So basically, people pay $10 to enter, and then if you bring food in, I'll give you more tickets for the jersey. So then every week, I go to the food pantry, and we've donated about 800 pounds of food so far this year.
And then we also donate to the North Star Pet rescue, which is a local pet adoption and pet rescue place up here as well.
[01:20:10] Speaker C: A ton of things there.
[01:20:12] Speaker B: A lot of great causes.
[01:20:16] Speaker F: And people from our group want to have an idea about donating somewhere, and then we'll accept that idea, too. We've donated to. Didn't we do, like, we did a march madness pool and we donated to St. Jude's. Kevin won that pool, so he donated.
[01:20:32] Speaker E: Half to St. Jude's and half.
[01:20:37] Speaker F: Everything went to.
[01:20:40] Speaker B: You guys. Like Kenny said, you guys have a lot of good things going on there. You're donating to a lot of good causes.
And so with mean, is there any special events that you guys have coming up that you're hosting, be it now in these next couple of weeks during the playoffs or in the offseason?
[01:20:59] Speaker F: Well, what we usually meet for the draft, obviously, and then now I'm starting to slowly try to get a golf outing going. We're, like, approaching. I don't know if you can see the belt in the back.
That's the belt for the champions because we won this past year.
[01:21:17] Speaker B: Nice.
[01:21:18] Speaker F: It's kiddingly called the angry Bobby Open because they call me angry, because I'm usually angry, yelling at the tv or something.
[01:21:26] Speaker B: You don't seem so angry.
[01:21:30] Speaker F: Watch me watch the game. So they call me angry Bobby. So that's the name of the golf bounty. It's called the angry Bobby Open. And any money we raise from that to also go to the same charities I just mentioned before.
[01:21:41] Speaker B: You can't hear it right now, but our board man is in the background just laughing.
[01:21:47] Speaker C: What golf course do you guys do that at? Do you rotate every year? Do you have a specific course you go to?
[01:21:51] Speaker F: There's a local course up here, Berkshire Valley. Give him a little plug.
[01:21:56] Speaker E: Good course.
[01:21:57] Speaker B: Good course.
[01:21:57] Speaker F: Yeah, it's a really tough course.
[01:21:59] Speaker C: Nice, Ronnie. I both have a golf background, so we're always here.
[01:22:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Little known fact, you're talking to a couple of golf instructors, not the greatest golfers ourselves.
[01:22:10] Speaker F: Want to come out June 7? Come on out.
[01:22:13] Speaker B: Oh, man. June 7. We got to pencil that in right after the Browns fan cruise.
[01:22:16] Speaker C: Yeah, we'll be there. Don't tempt us. With a good time.
[01:22:19] Speaker B: Yeah, but, no, with all that being said, let's get on to the football side of things. I mean, we all love talking football. So what are your guys'thoughts about the game this past week against the Texans?
[01:22:32] Speaker F: Well, it was a nice, relaxing game, let's put it that way.
[01:22:36] Speaker E: It's kind of a little scary, but thankfully, they pulled it out.
[01:22:40] Speaker F: Yeah, when he took the starters out, we got a little worried, but then when we put him back in, we were all rooting. I wanted Cooper to get the record. I mean, I saw him there pleading on the sideline to get in. When the Texans finally scored, a couple of know he was able to get back in there.
[01:22:55] Speaker B: You think the defense just gave him up because they said, we got to get him back in?
[01:23:00] Speaker F: I'm not too happy about the injuries to Hopkins and our punter, but everything's happened this whole season. Next guy stepped up.
[01:23:11] Speaker E: Next man up.
[01:23:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:23:12] Speaker F: So we'll see what happens.
[01:23:13] Speaker C: Isn't it just the most bizarre Brown season that you can remember? I mean, with all the adversity and injuries, but this team just continues to win. It just feels like I'm in a.
[01:23:22] Speaker B: Parallel universe, opposite of what typically would happen to a Browns team.
[01:23:27] Speaker F: Exactly.
[01:23:28] Speaker E: Mentality, though.
[01:23:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it really is. And like you just said, next man up. And everybody seems to be stepping up.
We've given Kevin Stefanski a hard time in the past, but it seems like this team has really kind of rallied around him and bought in him, and Jim Schwartz and everybody else on that coaching staff have them all playing for each other, and it's fascinating to mean. With that being said, you guys mentioned the injuries, so how do you think they've dealt? We've talked about it a little bit already, but how do you think they've dealt with the injuries, and do you think they can sustain much more of that?
[01:24:11] Speaker F: So far, so mean. Who would have thought Flacco would be coming in here?
[01:24:18] Speaker E: I have budies that are jets fans and when they sign Flacco, they're like, oh, good luck with them. I'm like, okay, wait till old Flacco comes back and see what happens four.
[01:24:26] Speaker B: Games later in 1300 yards and you're like, feels pretty good.
[01:24:29] Speaker E: Yeah.
[01:24:30] Speaker F: But I must admit though, in that bears game, I kind of like, oh, here we go. When he threw the interceptions and then he bounced back and it's just that.
[01:24:39] Speaker B: Old savvy veteran just shake your head.
[01:24:40] Speaker F: Like, oh my God, I can't believe this is.
[01:24:44] Speaker B: Been, it has been wild. And I don't think anybody at the beginning of the season, if you had your bingo card, Joe Flacco is going to be the starting quarterback for the Brown Browns and he's going to dominate.
Nobody would have had either.
[01:25:00] Speaker E: Now he just jinxed. And wait till the game.
[01:25:05] Speaker B: Here we go. Angry Bobby's going to come out.
I think what it boils down to is Bill Callahan is just such a good offensive line coach. It seems like no matter who they know, they plug them in and it might be a little shaky or a little rocky the first little bit, but then it's like you didn't even know.
[01:25:26] Speaker C: Well, it seems like no other position group embodies next man up quite like that offensive line group does.
[01:25:32] Speaker B: No, we're down to what, one single or maybe two now, but at one point it was a single starter.
[01:25:42] Speaker E: We had four different combinations of offensive line in there.
[01:25:45] Speaker F: But it was nice to see Luke Whipler in Jersey, boys.
[01:25:49] Speaker B: He was hurt most of the beginning of the season. Wasn't mean, obviously it was a backup too, but he was hurt most of the beginning of the season. But yeah, they keep stepping up and it's been great to see and obviously at all the other positions as well. I think the only one that I would argue nobody's really stepped up is running back and for some reason we still keep winning despite not having a good running.
[01:26:11] Speaker F: Yeah, that's one thing we got to.
[01:26:13] Speaker B: Get going is that running tv to.
[01:26:16] Speaker E: Go cut up the field is the only thing that's.
[01:26:18] Speaker B: Yeah, just make a decision and go. That's all you.
And I think we're a little spoiled because Nick Chubb is the absolute best at that in the is.
[01:26:27] Speaker C: It is sad not having Nick Chubb this mean just thinking about the success the team is having and what he means to the city and to the team to have not there. It still stings.
[01:26:36] Speaker B: I'm sure it's hurting him too.
[01:26:37] Speaker E: So good and have him on the sideline now.
[01:26:40] Speaker F: It just hurts.
[01:26:41] Speaker B: Yeah. And so let's look to this week. What are your thoughts on the week 17 matchup with the goddamn jet?
[01:26:49] Speaker F: Well, before we got on this call, I just saw that Zach Wilson is definitely out this week.
[01:26:55] Speaker E: Trevor Simeon.
[01:26:56] Speaker F: We got Trevor Simeon.
[01:26:57] Speaker B: I guess that's bad for us because Zach Wilson is probably worse, let's be honest.
[01:27:02] Speaker F: Well, we were at the game in 2019 when Trevor Simeon played, and that's when Miles Garrett knocked him out, like on the third play of the game.
And I don't even remember who the backup was. I don't even know who the Luke folk or something like that.
[01:27:16] Speaker E: No, it was like the long last name.
[01:27:21] Speaker F: I don't even know who the third string quarterback is for the jets, to be honest with you.
[01:27:24] Speaker B: Well, if they would give Miles Garrett a hold call and he knocks him out again, this know, we might run into the same situation because nobody knows who Trevor Simeon's backup is.
[01:27:34] Speaker E: That's when everybody comes out, is when Miles Garrett doesn't get his old man.
[01:27:38] Speaker B: Oh, it's been terrible. It's been absolutely awful.
[01:27:42] Speaker C: What are you guys hearing on the ground there in Jersey about just the jets in of been? It's kind of been a season a little bit mirroring the Browns. They've had a lot of injuries, questions of quarterback, but they've still won some games out there.
[01:27:56] Speaker F: Yeah, they had a big win this past week. It was the commanders, but we saw the score on the side. We're like, oh, my God, the Jets are up by 20 because they don't really score. I don't think they've ever scored it, like in the first quarter.
[01:28:10] Speaker E: I think their defense was holding off and that's like, the one thing I'm a little nervous about is Thursday's bad defense.
[01:28:16] Speaker F: They have a good defense, the defensive line, they got sauce Gardener also in Garrett Wilson. Yeah, I'm always afraid of him and Bruce hall.
[01:28:36] Speaker E: I mean, you got to get our d lines blocking that run.
Seems like anytime a running back, our top run defense goes away when we go against some mediocre running back.
[01:28:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I'd agree with that. It is weird when we play the nobodies, that's the games that it seems like they rush for 180 yards and you're like, where'd this come from? Right.
But no, obviously the jets are out of playoff contention. Have been for a couple of weeks. Aaron Rodgers decided not to come back this week or this season because of.
I mean, what are you guys hearing? I'm just curious locally, do the jets fans still think that Aaron Rodgers, like the savior. And they're going to win the Super bowl next year.
[01:29:18] Speaker F: Yeah.
[01:29:19] Speaker E: You got plenty of people around here. Plenty of people.
[01:29:26] Speaker F: They were hoping he'd come back this year.
[01:29:27] Speaker B: I think the millfunder, Zach Wilson ruined that.
But no, I would say that they're crazy, and I think I actually just did. But at the same time, we've got 38 year old Flacco that's out here about to take us to a Super bowl. So I guess crazier things have happened, but, yeah, I just didn't know with the injury and, I mean, what's Aaron Rogers going to be, 39, 40 when he comes back from popped achilles?
[01:29:59] Speaker F: I think it'd be close to 40, right?
[01:30:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:30:02] Speaker F: He bought a house here.
Him and Tommy DeVito live in the same town.
[01:30:08] Speaker B: Nice.
They're going out for.
[01:30:12] Speaker F: That's actually where David, a joke was from, too, the same town.
[01:30:14] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[01:30:15] Speaker F: Peter Grove.
[01:30:16] Speaker C: Everybody's from up there is Tommy DeVito. The biggest story in the New York area right now.
[01:30:21] Speaker E: Once Aaron Rodgers went down and then a couple weeks later, Tommy DeVito stepped up, they're like, oh, new savior for either New York team. So definitely taking the paper, front page.
[01:30:30] Speaker F: Of paper, but this headline in the New York Post today was fraud cutlets.
[01:30:37] Speaker C: That's what mom was making this week.
[01:30:39] Speaker F: Because he got pulled from the.
[01:30:43] Speaker B: He was. He was pretty bad in the first half, wasn't he? It was rough.
[01:30:46] Speaker F: Our old budy Tyrod Taylor came in.
[01:30:48] Speaker B: So what are they saying locally where you guys are at, if anything, about the Browns? I mean, are they looking at this game as just, are they chalking up an l or are they thinking they're going to be able to pull one out, pull the old stats?
[01:31:04] Speaker F: Like I got. I get the paper every day. I'm one of the very few guys who still read the newspaper. I still go to the store and get the newspaper and read it, and I get the New York Post.
[01:31:12] Speaker B: You're the only guy I know, I said, you're the only guy I know that reads the paper.
[01:31:19] Speaker F: I get made fun of that, too.
But today, you know, the story was about, you know, because he was on the jets and the old man flacco coming back, but they don't think the jets are going to beat the Browns. I mean, look at the line already went up. It was like five and a half. Now it's got a little confident this week, which is probably not a good thing.
[01:31:44] Speaker B: That's usually when bad things happen for the Browns. But this is a different Browns team.
[01:31:50] Speaker C: You should have heard us before the jets came last year.
[01:31:51] Speaker B: We were pretty want to get, you want some entertaining content? Just go back and listen to our jets preview last year.
[01:32:02] Speaker C: We showed up the next week with bags in our heads.
[01:32:05] Speaker F: It was my fault because I'll tell you what, what we do here, we have a poop head emoji like a hat at our club. If anyone makes a stupid comment like, oh, this game is over or whatever, I put it on their head like, just shut up. Don't say anything.
Last year at the jet game, there was a Jet fan, there was our.
[01:32:26] Speaker E: Buddy game and I went up to.
[01:32:27] Speaker F: Him like, dude, you gave us a great game. After Chubb scored, I said, you gave us a great game. And then we were about to line up the shots, do the shots and that was it. Forget it.
[01:32:37] Speaker E: My buddy was like, I don't know how to react right now. I'm just going to keep quiet. I'm going to possibly come up on the ball and celebrate under the table or something like that. I have no idea how to react.
[01:32:47] Speaker B: It's a good choice. Just when in doubt around a bunch of angry Browns fans, just keep your mouth shut.
No. So with this game, though, do you guys have predictions for us? I want to score prediction out of both of you.
[01:33:02] Speaker F: I'll go first. I'm saying browns 31, jets 13.
[01:33:07] Speaker B: Nice. I like that.
[01:33:08] Speaker E: I'll go a little under that. I'll go 28 to ten.
[01:33:11] Speaker B: Oh, nice.
[01:33:12] Speaker C: Like it going away.
[01:33:13] Speaker B: Nice. Yes.
[01:33:15] Speaker F: Prediction?
[01:33:16] Speaker E: I'm going to say one defensive touchdown, hopefully.
[01:33:19] Speaker B: Oh, that's bold. You think Miles Garrett gets any holding calls?
[01:33:24] Speaker F: He will get at least one. He has to.
[01:33:26] Speaker B: One has to.
[01:33:28] Speaker E: You can't keep going about without getting no holding.
[01:33:30] Speaker B: Well, the worst part to me, and we've talked about it on the show is that now it's like NFL Network, ESPN, everybody is sitting here and blowing up these clips of him just getting wrapped around the neck and thrown on the ground. How can you not call this? I don't understand.
[01:33:45] Speaker F: The other day they showed a replay of Michael Dunn. Like his hands were like this and just grabbing onto his shirt a little bit and he got called for a flag. I'm like, and Miles Garrett doesn't get called against him.
[01:33:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it is getting ridiculous. So hopefully that gets turned around. I like to score predictions.
[01:34:04] Speaker C: Quick question. We usually cover this more in the album, but we ask where you guys have always been in Jersey or were you at one point in Cleveland?
[01:34:13] Speaker F: No, we're jersey. I'm Jersey born. Like I said, I went to mount Union in the late eighty s.
There was no directv back then, obviously, my dad brought me up as a giant fan.
Giant tickets were very hard to get back in the day.
And then when I went out to school here in our fraternity house, watching the Browns every week that was always on was the Browns. So I watched the Browns. I would go to the stadium every once in a while. I saw Bernie's Cozart's first game.
[01:34:44] Speaker B: Nice.
[01:34:45] Speaker F: He played and I just fell in love with the whole atmosphere. And that's how we became a Browns fan. It was the whole know and just the team itself. Back in those days, they weren't.
[01:34:57] Speaker B: So you saw Bernie Kozar's first game and his skills diminish.
And Kevin, were you born into this is what I'm assuming.
[01:35:07] Speaker E: Yeah, I was born into this, but I wouldn't trade it for the. I mean, obviously, growing up Browns fan, it was very tough. I would carry a little Browns backpack. I had my Brady Quinn jersey on. I had a Derek Anderson jersey.
I was like, what is wrong with you? Coming home from especially the oldest thing in high school. Oh, my gosh, it was terrible. But I wouldn't trade it for the world. Now.
[01:35:29] Speaker B: Coming home with a black eye every other day, and your dad's like, what happened?
[01:35:33] Speaker E: This.
You made this happen to me, so it's not my fault that I'm a brown.
[01:35:40] Speaker F: Kevin's first game, actually, it was in Cleveland against the jets. Against the jets was a barn burner.
[01:35:46] Speaker B: Ten, seven.
From that point on, Kevin was in love.
Yeah, look, everybody's got a story, and those are some good ones. I especially like, Bobby, that you fell in love with the Browns. Going to mount Union, obviously soft spot for me there, also having gone to union. But before we get going here, guys, I do want to mention that we are brought to you by who?
[01:36:12] Speaker C: Kenny Seaside events as the official cruise.
[01:36:15] Speaker B: Event provider of the Cleveland Browns and organizer of the Browns fan Cruise. And so with that in mind, I did just want to mention that they ran a competition this year for brownsbackers. Basically, the chapter with the most bookings was able to win free tickets for some of their members to the Browns fan cruise. The Browns backers of Pinellas won that.
However, we still want to say, obviously, with us being a partner of Seaside events, we will be McG several events aboard the ship. There will be 17 alumni joining the cruise that fans will get to mingle with like they're normal people. And so, for anyone that hasn't booked yet, please do so, because it's going to be a really fun time in March of 2024.
[01:36:57] Speaker C: Absolutely. Tickets still available. Cabin is still available and it's going to be one hell of a cruise.
[01:37:01] Speaker B: Yeah. And then one final thing for us, we'd like to mention Bobby and Kevin and everybody that's in your chapter or anybody else listening, we do have our hot take hotline and what that is, it's a voicemail that we set up for Browns fans to call in, invent to. It could be happy, it could be mad, it could be sad, it could be all of the above in one single voicemail. But just call us and talk to us and let us know how you're feeling on the Browns. But we take the best ones, we put them on air, and then we'll comment on them and see how it goes. So the number for that, Kenny, 330-227-8080.
[01:37:36] Speaker C: We'Ll throw it on the screen here as well. So anybody watching the video pod has that also.
[01:37:40] Speaker B: But again, and then last thing for you guys, and this is for both of you, is there anything that you want to say to Cleveland fans that have maybe moved away from northeast Ohio and are missing their fellow Browns fans or just kind of grew up somewhere else and happened to fall into being a Browns fan and they're looking for somewhere to join some camaraderie and they're thinking about joining a Brownsbackers chapter. You got anything to say to those people?
[01:38:06] Speaker F: Yeah, if you need a group of people to watch a game with, join the Brownsbackers. I mean, we have so much fun. The people in our club I've made, they're some of my best friends now. I mean, I've been with these guys for 1012 years.
[01:38:21] Speaker E: They watched me grow up.
[01:38:22] Speaker F: Also, they've seen Kevin since he's been five years old and now he's 21, so they're his friends now, too. It's so cool to see we all hang out together.
We have picnics in the summertime. Everybody comes over, we have group chats.
It's a lot of fun. So I would advise trying to join a Browns packers group somewhere to the younger fans.
[01:38:47] Speaker E: If you want to be best friends with a bunch of middle aged men at Brownstones also, they're in.
[01:38:52] Speaker F: That's why I got him. I'm trying to get the influx of the younger fans coming to the group.
[01:38:57] Speaker B: Yeah, these generations ahead of us have the best stories, man.
[01:39:03] Speaker E: They got the winning stories, too.
[01:39:05] Speaker B: Exactly.
[01:39:05] Speaker E: All I got is the losing stories.
[01:39:07] Speaker B: Exactly.
[01:39:07] Speaker C: But you do got a backfield, though, right? We got to keep these chapters alive and vibrant for the next generation.
[01:39:13] Speaker F: That's one thing about our group, too, is we have a bunch of families that come and it's great.
They pull the raffle tickets for us and we try to make it a lot of fun.
[01:39:25] Speaker B: Yeah, that's awesome. And we really appreciate everything that not only you, but all the Browns backers groups out there do for the Cleveland Browns. And just to showcase what a great fan base that Cleveland has here. I know a lot of people like to run Cleveland down, and there's one thing you can never take away from us, and it's that our fans are better than anybody else's. And I would put that up against anything, for sure. But, yeah, with mean. We really appreciate you guys having us. It's been awesome. Hopefully we can get up there to North Jersey and see you guys in person sometime soon.
[01:39:56] Speaker C: The golf is going to come.
[01:39:58] Speaker F: That'd be great.
[01:40:00] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[01:40:01] Speaker E: You have the bell in the middle of the decks now.
[01:40:03] Speaker B: Oh, man.
I think we might have to make a trip again, guys, thanks for joining us. We really appreciate it.
[01:40:11] Speaker F: Thanks, guys.
[01:40:12] Speaker E: Thank you.
[01:40:12] Speaker F: Thank you.
Hi, I'm Bob.
[01:40:26] Speaker B: This is Kevin.
[01:40:27] Speaker F: We're from the Browns Backers in North.
[01:40:28] Speaker E: Jersey, and you're listening to the burning river sportscast.
[01:40:31] Speaker F: Go Browns.
[01:40:48] Speaker B: Good time. Talking about you and Kevin there.
[01:40:51] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, they are in an interesting spot, too, because they have Jersey got giants.
[01:40:59] Speaker B: They got so many teams around them that aren't the Browns and just a.
[01:41:02] Speaker C: Lot going on because you're New York in general.
But no, I think it's really interesting that they have a ton of charities that they work with.
[01:41:10] Speaker B: We've got a lot going on.
[01:41:11] Speaker C: Not necessarily bad about any other Browns backers, but I know we've seen other chapters that have struggled to try and get different things going because they're just not in a Browns friendly town. So it's harder for their chapters to raise money, but they don't seem to have that problem there. They have all kinds of charities and been raising buttloads of money for them.
[01:41:28] Speaker B: Well, like you said, he wears his brown stuff around and people say something to him all the guess.
[01:41:35] Speaker C: Maybe that's just a byproduct of, like, New York being so big. There's just lots of but good on them. They've done a ton of good things there and fun to talk to those guys. Hopefully we make it out to their golf outing next year. That'll be fun.
[01:41:47] Speaker B: That'd be dope ass. Go out there, dominate, come back with a belt.
[01:41:50] Speaker C: That's right.
Put the belt there.
[01:41:54] Speaker B: Suck it.
[01:41:55] Speaker C: Suck it.
[01:41:57] Speaker B: But that'll take us to the burning river. Sportscast hot take.
Don't forget to call and leave your hot takes on hot, hot take hotline. Remember, these are hot takes. Hottest take.
[01:42:13] Speaker C: We want hot takes.
[01:42:15] Speaker B: We want hot takes. We want hot takes. We want hot takes. 3302-2780-8033-0227 80 zero 3302-2780-8033-0227 80 now operators are.
[01:42:34] Speaker C: They are not here.
[01:42:35] Speaker B: Not here. Machine.
[01:42:37] Speaker D: They go.
[01:42:38] Speaker B: All right, so let's take care. All right, guys, we get it. All right. Let's take a quick revenue break and get back here and talk about the week 17 preview for the matchup against the jets.
[01:42:52] Speaker C: The goddamn jets.
[01:43:00] Speaker B: 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. Topath's lineup includes an ultra smooth, award winning premium vodka, a small batch silver rum made from the highest grade molasses, an american craft gin made with nine botanicals and a blended straight bourbon made from corn and rye. Topath distillery. Now available locally and in 46 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 and 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 of beans purchased, three meals get donated to the food bank. It's such an awesome idea. A bunch of great individuals were involved, and the result is the best coffee in Cleveland, bar none. It comes in three roasts, light, medium and dark. The dark is what Joe Thomas enjoys every day. I, myself and my co host here, Kenny, are medium roast guys. 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 we do a Cleveland Browns fan cruise alumni interview here. We don't have one today due to scheduling conflicts. We're still trying to wrangle the last couple of interviews we have for this series, but I will say go back and check out some of the past interviews. There's a lot of good ones in there. There's a lot of good stories from these alumni.
[01:45:05] Speaker C: Sure.
[01:45:06] Speaker B: And it's just a taste, just a taste of the stories you're going to get on the fan cruise in March of 2024.
[01:45:12] Speaker C: I've come back just recently, just so with some of the work I've been doing and have watched bits and pieces of them because I've had to pull for other projects and things, and some of these stories, I'm just dying laughing.
[01:45:21] Speaker B: Yeah, they were good.
[01:45:23] Speaker C: We've had some really great. These guys have been so we're lucky enough, too.
[01:45:26] Speaker B: We hear the behind the scenes and the stuff that people will get to hear, like on the fan cruise, even the stuff that didn't make the actual interview that we know is going to come out later to everybody else. I mean, you guys are in for a treat. It's pretty phenomenal.
I've laughed harder off air than I have on air, which was pretty hard in some of these.
[01:45:45] Speaker C: These guys have just been so generous with their time and open in telling these stories.
[01:45:50] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I mean, most of the time we tell them it's going to take 15 to 20 minutes and we're talking to them for an hour.
[01:45:54] Speaker C: So if you haven't yet, go check out some of these interviews. They're a really good. Listen, whether you're in the car or on the way to work, whatever, check them out. They're good stuff.
And if you haven't bought your tickets to the clean Browns fan cruise yet, you're wrong.
[01:46:09] Speaker B: Do it now. Hear us mc a bunch of events, including the opening day and closing day pool parties. That's going to be a lot of fun.
[01:46:15] Speaker C: Kevin's still available?
[01:46:16] Speaker B: Yes. That'll take us to the week 17 preview.
Fellas, this week we got the goddamn jets.
Goddamn jets.
[01:46:33] Speaker D: We're gonna destroy them.
[01:46:35] Speaker B: Fellas. This week we got the goddamn jets.
This week we've got the goddamn jets.
[01:46:48] Speaker C: This whole thing's just going in now.
[01:46:52] Speaker B: Anyways. Yeah. So, Kenny, you got any matchups or matchup previews or opposition research you want to share before I get into my matchups that I want to highlight?
[01:47:01] Speaker C: Yes, I actually do have one, two quick things that I wanted to mention. I mean, the first thing is, the big news today was Zach Wilson is out, so Trevor Simeon will start again for the goddamn jets.
[01:47:14] Speaker B: It's actually probably bad for, I think.
[01:47:18] Speaker C: You know, we talked to our brownsbackers friends there in Jersey and this team in a lot of ways kind of looks like the Browns just terms of like they've been beat up with injuries, but they've overachieved to some extent given the fact that they've had a bunch of backups playing, especially at the quarterback position where they just have been kind of fluid all year long. And Zach Wilson's played a lot and they just haven't been that good. So the first thing that I would bring up is just that this team is, in terms of offense, dead last in the NFL, 32 and a 32.
[01:47:54] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, that's bad.
[01:47:55] Speaker C: So I think it's one of those days where the defense could eat. But that being said, they are third in the NFL in opponent yards per play.
The offense is going to yards per game, too. Yeah, they're going to have their work cut out for them just in terms of getting things done on offense. But I think that's kind of the paradigm, right? You have an offense that is underachieving with a backup quarterback. The defense on our side should play really well, but the offense has to bring it this week because this defense is no joke over in New York. And look, we took New York lightly last year, and if this show was big, that would be the thing that we're known for or are overestimating the Browns ability to win that game.
[01:48:43] Speaker B: Here's my advice for the Browns this year. You get up, don't take your foot off the gas. No, but yeah. So obviously I always highlight two matchups each week. Right. So this week we'll start with Miles Garrett versus Trevor Simeon.
Look, Trevor Simeon, he's ass.
And basically what we're looking for here is can Garrett get some calls? Can he get home?
Because I know I said it last week, but it's kind of rinse and repeat here. He's got a chance for a massive game, like three to four sacks. Massive game.
Just with the state of the offense. For the jets, it's time. You don't have any more time in the season to make your case for defensive player of the year. You're kind of out of the conversation at this point. You're like very fringe talks of defensive player of the year just because you happen to play for the best defense in the league right now when he.
[01:49:37] Speaker C: Has had a sack drought.
[01:49:39] Speaker B: Right.
That's what I was getting to. It's been like four weeks since you had a sack, so nobody's talking about you. But one game with like three to four sacks and all of a sudden everybody's talking about you again. So it's time there's no more time to wait. So we'll see what Miles Garrett does here. And then next up for my matchups is Joe Flacco versus the jets secondary. We've been winning on the strength of Joe Flacco's arm for a few weeks now. The jets are only giving up 168.6 pass yards per game, which is just behind the Browns pass defense.
Browns are number one, jets are number two. So does Joe Flacco care that they're number two? Hell no. Will it stop him from revenge against his old team? I know he kind of played that off like as nothing, but I mean, they kind of ran him out of New York with the jets. Everybody just talked about how ass he.
[01:50:28] Speaker C: Was, and when you think about the other quarterbacks that are there, it's like, man, how bad could he have been?
[01:50:35] Speaker B: Can they cool off cool Joe? I don't know.
[01:50:39] Speaker C: Nobody can suck off cool Joe.
[01:50:40] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[01:50:41] Speaker C: Nobody can cool off.
[01:50:44] Speaker B: I think he's just going to continue his dominance at the age of 38. Just keep shitting on everyone.
[01:50:48] Speaker C: Yeah, he's the ageless wonder.
[01:50:51] Speaker B: I think this week Joe Flacco cooks the sauce.
[01:50:55] Speaker C: You think sauce Gardner is going to get it?
[01:50:57] Speaker B: Yeah, he's going to get it.
[01:50:58] Speaker C: Okay, I'm in.
[01:51:00] Speaker B: I like it.
[01:51:01] Speaker C: Sauce needs cooked.
[01:51:02] Speaker B: Yeah, but as a team, the jets likes cold sauce. No, it's a worse sauce. The jets are six and nine coming off a close win against the Washington Commanders. Although I don't even say this is a good win because at one point they were up like 20 to nothing. They only ended up winning 30 to 28. Almost lost it. Their defense, as you mentioned, does rank third in the league in terms of yards per game and apparently yards per play.
They have played well against the pass. However, they've played very poorly against the run. They have the worst offense in the league statistically, by far. The team's just really bad and they got an ass quarterback.
Oh, and they're playing in Cleveland where the Browns are seven and one this season. So the Browns should roll in this one and clinch a playoff spot, maybe even rest their starters. The last week, if it doesn't matter.
[01:51:51] Speaker C: Should we go to this game?
[01:51:53] Speaker B: I would love to go to this game, but I think we both know. I think we both know that we have too much going on in our personal.
[01:51:59] Speaker C: We could probably get tickets, though.
[01:52:00] Speaker B: We probably could.
You look into that?
[01:52:05] Speaker C: It's one thing we haven't done yet on the show, which might be fun.
[01:52:07] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll see. Kenny, what do you got for the injury report this week.
[01:52:27] Speaker C: Injury report. Okay, jets, we already talked about Zach Wilson, the MILF hunter. He is out looking on the hunt for Mills.
Also this week, Israel Abanikanda, running back questionable with an ankle, was limited this week at practice.
Place kicker? Kicker, questionable. Greg Zerline, apparently he's dealing with some quadricep soreness coming out of the win against commanders on Sunday and is uncertain for Thursday's game against the Browns. And then finally, Dwayne Brown is the most recent questionable offensive tackle. They had a couple of guys out on injured reserve before that.
Let's see, the only other one that's recent is Jeremy Ruckard has a concussion, so he won't be available for the game. He's out out. But outside of that, they do have a whole mess of guys that have missed basically the entire year.
Corey Davis, Conor McGovern, Perry and Winfrey are old friends. Tgu Zama, Zaire Barnes, Quentin Jefferson, Aaron Rogers, name a few. So, beat up a lot like this Browns team, but not nearly as bad.
[01:53:46] Speaker B: Nobody does injuries better than the 2023 Browns.
[01:53:49] Speaker C: No. And speaking of, we got some great what happened there? We got some new ones to the list. Obviously, we talked about Dustin Hopkins. Who knows how long he'll be out with the hamstring? Hopefully not too long.
[01:54:03] Speaker B: I thought it was what do they have him listed as right now? Questionable.
[01:54:07] Speaker C: He is listed as out. He's considered week to week but won't be available to play Thursday.
So he's out this week. Marquise Goodwin questionable with a knee. Kareem Hunt questionable, listed as a limited participant in practice this week. Bojoraquez the punter listed as questionable with a quad DTR we talked briefly about hit the injured reserve today with a hip injury, so he is done for the year. Brown said. Made the corresponding move to bring PJ Walker back onto the practice squad. I'm sure they're going to have to elevate him before the game Thursday.
[01:54:40] Speaker B: Yay.
[01:54:41] Speaker C: Anthony Walker questionable. Agbo Akanronquo this is an interesting one, listed as questionable, but it is been reported, I believe, by Mary Kay as a torn peck toro.
[01:54:55] Speaker B: Do you even play with that?
[01:54:57] Speaker C: I don't know. The story was like they're waiting on him to be moved to IR because he has torn peck, but he's like, I think I can play. So they're trying to find a doctor that will clear him to play.
So he's officially listed as questionable, but he has a torn know how he's going to play through a torn wild.
[01:55:14] Speaker B: How many guys can we possibly have an injury reserve?
[01:55:17] Speaker C: And then Jordan Kanachic questionable as well. Juan Thornhill still listed as questionable with the calf, and Martin Emerson listed as questionable, did not practice on Monday this week. And then our on tire offensive line, Wyatt Teller, Ethan Pochick, Joel Boltonio and Christian are all listed as questionable as well. Heading into this scariest environment imaginable, that's.
[01:55:41] Speaker B: All you had to say. Scariest environment imaginable.
[01:55:43] Speaker C: That is one healthy lineman on your offensive line. James Hudson is the only one not with an injury designation.
[01:55:49] Speaker B: You know what's wild is I've used that line from Armageddon at least six times this year for you explaining the injury report for the Browns. And it keeps getting worse.
[01:56:00] Speaker C: I mean, this thing is bad.
[01:56:02] Speaker B: So like it's the scariest environment imaginable, but then it just gets.
[01:56:05] Speaker C: It's, yeah, not good. Not good at all.
[01:56:09] Speaker B: Bone, any words on this?
[01:56:11] Speaker D: It's a lot of hurt Browns, but for some reason they just keep winning.
[01:56:15] Speaker B: Keep on keeping on.
[01:56:16] Speaker C: I think the biggest thing outside of the kicking specialist being out is the fact that Anthony Walker's question will answer Jordan Kanachic because that means you're going to see either Takitaki playing more middle linebacker this week. He played well this past week, but you may end up seeing Tony Fields and Mohammed Diabati getting some playing.
I think both of those guys have played well this year, but they're also both young and not starters. So who knows what you're going to get from those guys.
[01:56:42] Speaker B: Yep. So with that, one more thing before we get into King of the north player to watch this week. I will start this week, guys. My player to watch this week is Cedric Tillman.
Amari Cooper is coming off that big game sauce gardener, who we all know is very good, will be on him the entire game. Although I do think Joe Flacco cooks the sauce. I think someone else will also have to step up for Joe Flacco this week. And outside of Njoku, I think that Tillman has the best opportunity to do that. So I like Tillman. I think he might get a touchdown. This you.
[01:57:18] Speaker C: I'm going to stick in the receiver room. I'm going Elijah Moore, the revenge game here.
[01:57:24] Speaker B: I didn't even think about that.
[01:57:25] Speaker C: Things did not end on a good note for him in New York. He was happy to get out. They were happy to get rid of him. I think he's done all the right things, said all the right things, despite the fact that he's had an underwhelming season here in Cleveland.
[01:57:37] Speaker B: I wouldn't be surprised if there's some jawing and some like, bad blood.
[01:57:40] Speaker C: There's going to be a lot of jawing and bad blood, but I expect him to come up big when it matters and I think he'll do something special this week.
[01:57:47] Speaker B: You think? Elijah Moore runs over to the sideline after doing whatever that special thing is and in solo, I kept her seats.
Bone, who you got?
[01:58:01] Speaker E: I'm not going.
[01:58:02] Speaker D: Very flashy. I'm going Riley Patterson. I know. Like you guys said, bone loves the kicker. Yeah, I love it.
[01:58:07] Speaker B: Is a new love story brewing?
[01:58:09] Speaker C: Possibly.
[01:58:10] Speaker D: Possibly. Yeah. I've been Facebook stalking, seeing if he has a girlfriend, but you guys said they got a really good pass defense and good run defense, so I don't know. We might be getting some stalled drives, so I think we're going to.
[01:58:25] Speaker B: I think the jets actually play pretty well in the red zone, too, which, to your point, leads to a lot of field goals.
[01:58:30] Speaker D: Suddenly there'll be opportunities for the new kickers. Hopefully he can pull it out, make some kicks in Brown Stadium.
[01:58:37] Speaker B: Nice. I like it.
[01:58:38] Speaker C: To your point. Number six in the red zone, scoring.
[01:58:41] Speaker B: There you go. I do my research.
I don't know what I'm talking about, but that'll take us to the king of the north.
That's what we're going to be doing. Multimedia production studio all right, in case anyone 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 munilot before a preseason game. Kenny, how do you feel?
[01:59:33] Speaker C: Bad, man. You don't want to lose.
[01:59:35] Speaker B: Worst pain of all times.
[01:59:36] Speaker C: Don't want to lose. King of the north.
[01:59:37] Speaker B: Was it the worst pain ever?
[01:59:39] Speaker C: It was one of the bad ones, yeah. I mean, I felt like I got beat up pretty good.
[01:59:44] Speaker B: Part of that was my doing. I froze the eggs, asshole. But we're still working out the punishment for this year, guys. Off the top of your heads. Bone, what do you got?
[01:59:51] Speaker D: Oh, massive. Maybe not massive, but a big tank. And we put like 10,000 minnows in it. And then the loser has to get in with all the minnows.
[02:00:00] Speaker B: That's weird.
I'm shook a little bit by that. That's weird. Kenny, what do you got? You got anything to top that?
[02:00:07] Speaker C: Get dropped off at a brothel with $10,000 cash.
[02:00:11] Speaker B: Is it because you're losing? Are you preparing for?
Okay, we're not asking you this question anymore because you're just preparing for the worst. All right, let's get into it, guys. First things first, I want to remind everyone that I am still the reigning, defending, undefeated, undisputed king of the North.
[02:00:27] Speaker C: I hear the amenities of the bunny rancher. Quite nice.
[02:00:30] Speaker B: Oh, God. And Kenny is where he belongs, in last place. And apparently he wants to stay there and have his punishment picked. But also, in case anyone hasn't noticed, we've added our trusty board out bone man to the competition this year, and he is currently in first place. Way to not disappoint.
[02:00:44] Speaker D: Booyah.
[02:00:46] Speaker B: All right, so let's remind everyone of the current records before we make our picks. Bones in first at 28 and 22. I'm right behind him at 27 and 23. And Kenny, he's trying to get back into it. He's at 23 and 27 with just two weeks to go. So let's get into this week's matchups. The Steelers travel to Seattle to take on the Seahawks bone. Who do you got?
[02:01:09] Speaker D: I like how you did this.
[02:01:11] Speaker B: I didn't show you guys my smart.
[02:01:13] Speaker D: Smart, yeah, I will go. Steelers, Steelers, they're fighting for the playoffs, and for some reason, Mason Rudolph played okay, and George Pickens was, like, dominant last week.
[02:01:25] Speaker C: Nobody cared that he didn't block anymore.
[02:01:28] Speaker B: Right, Kenny, who you got?
[02:01:34] Speaker C: I'm going to go Steelers this week as well, just because conventional wisdom is that the Seahawks should win with them traveling across the country. Yep. Steelers. Let's do it.
[02:01:43] Speaker B: All right. And I also have the Steelers this week.
[02:01:46] Speaker C: Oh, shit. I'm gonna have to change my pick.
[02:01:48] Speaker B: Are you going to.
[02:01:52] Speaker C: Fucking give me the Seahawks?
[02:01:54] Speaker B: It's that point in the Seahawks. Yeah, the Seahawks are the better team.
[02:01:58] Speaker C: And they're playing at home.
[02:02:00] Speaker B: It's funny how you instantly come up with an argument for they're going across country and the Seahawks are the better team. They're playing at home, so they're going to win this game.
Now, I like the Steelers because they're eight and seven right now, and they play the Ravens the final week. So if Mike Tomlin is going to stay above 500, this is probably the game he has to win.
So I got the Steelers. Next up, we've got the Ravens hosting Miami in their second straight tough matchup. Miami just beat the cowboy in Miami's second straight touch. Well, I guess both of them. The Ravens just beat the 49 ers, and Miami is coming off a win against the Cowboys.
You want me to go or you want to go first.
[02:02:43] Speaker C: You go first.
[02:02:43] Speaker B: You want me to go? I've got Miami in this one.
I think they're both coming off big wins.
I don't know. There's just something about the Ravens. I know they're playing great football and I will acknowledge that they're playing great football.
I just don't think they're built for the Super bowl this year. I don't know.
Don't. It's probably biased because I hate them, because I'm a Browns fan.
It is what it is, but I just think they're not a complete team. But I like Miami in this one. Kenny, who you got? Actually, bone, who you got?
[02:03:23] Speaker D: I'm going to go Ravens. Ravens make it interesting, between us, we're only separated by one fair.
[02:03:30] Speaker B: I like that. Kenny, who you got?
I like what he did there, too. He put you in a position where you're like, who am going to catch here? You probably got to pick opposite me because that's your best chance, right?
[02:03:45] Speaker C: Just to pick. Not to lose, but not to win.
[02:03:48] Speaker B: Or just pick whoever you want.
[02:03:50] Speaker C: I'm going to go with my gut on this one, since I had to stray the last time. I'm going to go Ravens. I still think they're playing the best football in the country right now, outside of the Browns, because Joe Flacco is elite.
But I actually agree with you. I think the Ravens are not built for the Super Bowl. I think all it takes is a tweak of a hammy for this team to not be for anything on Lamar Jackson's side, and I think. I think it would be very tough for them. But that being said, right now, in this very moment, I think they're playing the best football in the country. Lamar has been just playing his balls off.
[02:04:22] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Next up, the Bengals take a trip out to Kansas City to take on the Chiefs. Kenny, who you got?
[02:04:29] Speaker C: Look, I'm going to go. Jake Browning gets the win in the comeback game here against the Chiefs. I think the Chiefs are an utter disaster. I think Taylor Swift has distracted the entire organization from winning and what's important. And I'm going to go bangles this one to put the Chiefs in a really tough spot here heading into the final week of the season.
[02:04:49] Speaker B: I'll go next year. I'm going to pick the Chiefs. So things could get really interesting here between us. Kenny could either be really bad for you or really bad for me, but I'm going to go with the Chiefs. I just think that this is where they write the ship and clinch a playoff spot. Bone, who you got?
[02:05:07] Speaker D: I'm going to go Chiefs as well. They're going to cry their way to a win.
[02:05:10] Speaker B: Nice. I like that. And then finally we got the Browns hosting the jets in their final game of the 2023 calendar year.
Yeah, that's right. The next game after this will be playing in 2024.
[02:05:24] Speaker C: See you next year, Steve.
[02:05:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll go ahead and start this one. I'm going to pick the Browns in this. I think they win big. I actually have the same score as Kevin did in our interview. I have 28. Ten. Browns.
We'll go with bone. We'll leave Kenny's for last. Bone, who you got?
[02:05:43] Speaker D: I got Browns, of course. Better team clinch playoff spots. Home game Thursday night, prime time.
[02:05:50] Speaker B: Let's go.
[02:05:51] Speaker D: Browns 31, jets, nine.
[02:05:55] Speaker B: Nine. Nice.
Kenny, who you got?
[02:06:00] Speaker C: I wish I could pick the jets for sake of. I need a chance to get back in this thing. But the Browns are the better team here.
The jets aren't playing for anything. The Browns are still playing for playoff seeding and pride. I'm going to go Browns. I think they win this one relatively easily. But I do think that defense is a little stingier than Houston. So I'm going to go Browns 24 three.
[02:06:25] Speaker D: Nice.
[02:06:25] Speaker C: Three.
[02:06:26] Speaker B: That's a dominant defensive performance. I like it. All right, so like I said, things could get pretty wiggity here this week. Kenny's either going to be completely out of it with no shot or me and him are going to be a nail biter. So let me remind you with that to call the burning of sports. Guys, take outline.
Don't forget to call elite hot take dog.
We want the hottest takes. We want hot takes.
Three. Three.
[02:06:57] Speaker C: That's not even a number.
[02:06:58] Speaker B: 2278-0803-3022-7808 0330-2278-0803-3022 780 call now. Operators are not standing by.
[02:07:14] Speaker D: Nobody's there?
[02:07:14] Speaker C: No.
[02:07:15] Speaker B: And be sure to check out our gear. Ww thetapenmedia.com backslash shop click on show specific. Click on burning over Sportscast. That's us. And you will see all our dope shit.
So that'll do it for us. Kenny, what can we expect next week?
[02:07:30] Speaker C: What can we expect next week? We will recap the game against jets. The goddamn jets. Hopefully another win here. We'll be breaking down further. Hopefully the playoff permutations to see kind of where we at and where everybody else is.
[02:07:45] Speaker B: Hopefully we're clinched. If we win, we're clinched. Yeah.
[02:07:48] Speaker C: And then we will preview the Browns Week 18 matchup with the team from the armpit of a city with no airport. Cincinnati clinch is such a funny word. Yeah, because you normally only clinch your buttocks.
[02:07:59] Speaker B: Get them in a clinch or you.
[02:08:02] Speaker C: Get them in the clinch. That's true. Fighting mma or boxing. Interview another Browns backers chapter. We will be talking to our friends in the armpit of a city.
[02:08:14] Speaker B: The only good folks down there in.
[02:08:16] Speaker C: Cincinnati, the greater Cincinnati Browns backers. And we are still trying to line up our final Browns alumni interviews for the Browns fan cruise of March in 2024.
Big thanks to the North Jersey Browns backers for joining us today. Red hot Roddy jams and Big Bowman on the board, but they're great show.
[02:08:37] Speaker B: Hell yes. And don't forget to check us out on social media. Tapping media is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at the tapping media. And Burning River Sportscast is on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at Burning River Sportscast and on X at Burning River Pod. And by the way, that's this podcast. You can find this podcast wherever you get your podcast. I'm talking Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, Pandora, iHeartRadio Podcast, Castro, Good podcast and so many more. And you know that.
[02:09:14] Speaker C: It facts for days. Number one one, SpongeBob SquarePants is officially.
[02:09:21] Speaker B: Square pants, the longest running Nick tune.
[02:09:23] Speaker C: Of all time and is the last remaining regularly played series from the nick tunes of the 1990s.
[02:09:28] Speaker B: Whoa. Wow. That's a long. That's a long time. It took you a long time to watch all the SpongeBob Squarepants.
[02:09:34] Speaker C: Yes, it would. Number two.
The year was 1994.
[02:09:40] Speaker B: Good year.
[02:09:42] Speaker C: Ace Ventura, the mask. And dumb. And dumber.
[02:09:45] Speaker B: Hell yes.
[02:09:46] Speaker C: Made Jim Carrey the first actor to have three films reach number one in the box office. All in a single year.
[02:09:51] Speaker B: Hell yes. Anybody done it since?
[02:09:55] Speaker C: No.
[02:09:56] Speaker D: That's a lot.
[02:09:57] Speaker B: You said first, so I thought maybe there was another one since there might have been.
[02:10:00] Speaker C: I don't know. But he was the first. He did it quite a year. I mean, just think about those movies, like all three classics.
[02:10:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[02:10:06] Speaker C: Who else says that?
[02:10:07] Speaker B: Nobody.
I don't know.
[02:10:12] Speaker C: And number three. Number three, people are afraid of all kinds of things.
Seems like you might have been afraid of things like spiders or snakes or fish or kissing your entire life, but it's not true.
[02:10:27] Speaker B: You're afraid of butts.
[02:10:32] Speaker C: I'm an ass man.
[02:10:34] Speaker B: I'm an ass man.
[02:10:35] Speaker C: According to scientists now, humans has been discovered have only two innate fears. Fire fears that you are born with.
[02:10:47] Speaker B: That's just David and Joku.
[02:10:50] Speaker C: To be fair, he was burned alive.
Any ideas what these two fears would be?
[02:10:58] Speaker D: Falling.
[02:10:59] Speaker C: Falling is number one.
[02:11:01] Speaker B: Wait, so is that why I'm afraid of heights?
[02:11:03] Speaker C: You're afraid of falling from the time you were born. And.
[02:11:08] Speaker D: It'S probably not dark, but I'm going to say dark.
[02:11:11] Speaker C: Dark is a good guess.
Not having air, that's a better guess.
[02:11:16] Speaker D: Butphyxiation.
[02:11:16] Speaker C: I don't think Infants are really aware of the whole breathing process. What they are scared of frequently is loud noises.
[02:11:26] Speaker D: Nice.
[02:11:26] Speaker C: Loud noises are another innate fear you're born with. The rest are just shit you learn over time.
[02:11:31] Speaker B: You have to be afraid of. I never understand this because how did I get afraid of heights when I was afraid of heights as long as I could possibly remember?
[02:11:38] Speaker C: Well, you're afraid of falling, so it makes sense. You're afraid of heights.
[02:11:41] Speaker B: That's what I think about every time I get close to an edge or something.
[02:11:44] Speaker C: You're not really afraid of height. Like being. It's a falling. It would be bad. There's no scare.
[02:11:50] Speaker B: I don't understand. My wife's not afraid of heights at all. She just, like, leans over the edge and looks down, and I'm like. Literally the only thing goes through my head is, splat.
I'm going to die.
[02:12:00] Speaker C: I do. A bonus fact.
[02:12:01] Speaker B: Okay, gone.
[02:12:03] Speaker C: We'll call this timely or not, given we are going on the browns fan cruise.
[02:12:08] Speaker B: Okay.
[02:12:09] Speaker C: Cruise ships have their own morgues.
[02:12:13] Speaker B: Whoa.
I don't know.
[02:12:17] Speaker C: When travelers take cruises, they're focused on the sunshine and seawater. But those who run the ship have to consider the practical side of being out on the ocean for days, weeks at a time. And that includes what happens if someone passes away. So, in order to deal with this unfortunate reality, all cruise ships are equipped with their own morgue, able to accommodate multiple bodies at a time.
[02:12:38] Speaker B: Wow.
[02:12:40] Speaker D: Have you guys ever been in a morgue before?
[02:12:42] Speaker B: No.
[02:12:42] Speaker C: I don't know where this.
[02:12:43] Speaker B: I don't like it. Yeah, me too.
[02:12:45] Speaker D: It's weird.
[02:12:46] Speaker B: It is weird. Not where you want to be. Do you know what that fact sounds like? Sounds like a problem.
[02:12:52] Speaker C: Don't just be a part of the problem. Be the whole damn problem.
[02:12:55] Speaker B: And only you can prevent. River fires burning river burning river burning.
[02:13:03] Speaker C: Burning river burning river burns when I.
[02:13:08] Speaker B: Burning rivers first burning river golden showers rivers on fire and they got a song we could sing this week.
[02:13:14] Speaker C: Last Christmas I gave you my heart and the very next day, you gave it away.
This year to save me from tears, I give it to someone special.
[02:13:30] Speaker B: Burning rivers.
[02:13:36] Speaker C: Good night, Cleveland Browns fan cruise and.
[02:13:39] Speaker E: The burning river sports cast. What better combination could you possibly think of?
[02:13:43] Speaker B: Motorboat.
[02:13:44] Speaker F: You play the motorboat, you motorboat son of a bitch.
[02:13:48] Speaker B: You old sailor, you.
[02:13:50] Speaker C: You know, I was thinking during that.
[02:13:51] Speaker B: Interview, what were you. Nothing. Because you don't have thoughts. Because you're a brainless idiot.
[02:13:56] Speaker C: Wow. My name is utred, son of utred friend.
[02:14:00] Speaker B: By the way, I want my foreskin back. It doesn't matter what you think.
[02:14:04] Speaker C: That's right. At six years old, I was having in depth conversations about fractional reserve banking and fiat currency. The weather outside is weather.
[02:14:12] Speaker B: The other one, the finger eating food.
[02:14:15] Speaker C: Fingers ejaculate all over my body and my genitals.
[02:14:18] Speaker D: Yes.
[02:14:19] Speaker B: Oh, my God. My house is full of shit everywhere.
[02:14:24] Speaker D: Oh, massive. Maybe not massive, but a big tank, and we put, like, 10,000 minnows in it. And then the loser has to get in with all the minnows.
[02:14:33] Speaker B: That's weird.
I'm shook a little bit by that. That's weird.
What do you mean, funny?
[02:14:39] Speaker C: Funny?
[02:14:40] Speaker B: How am I funny? All I do is win win no matter what. 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. It was his voice.
I can't reenact it. But my friends, as soon as I said something to the affirmative, like, yes, sir, coach. I heard all these different voices laughing and snickering, and I was just so embarrassed. Erroneous. Erroneous on both counts.
[02:15:27] Speaker C: Wow.
[02:15:28] Speaker B: But damn, the leads are weak. Leads are weak. Fucking leads are weak. You are weak.
[02:15:36] Speaker C: You know why, Mr. Because you drove a Hyundai? To get here tonight, I drove an $80,000 BMW.
[02:15:42] Speaker B: That's my name. I live my life a quarter mile at a time. Now, I think we've officially lost all of our more conservative viewers, so I don't think they want to listen any longer.
[02:15:55] Speaker D: It's Mother Nature.
[02:15:57] Speaker C: Where's logo girl when you need her?
[02:15:58] Speaker B: I desperately want to make love to us.
[02:16:00] Speaker C: We need cheese girl, now.
[02:16:02] Speaker B: Oh, man.
[02:16:03] Speaker C: We need cheese girl, now.
[02:16:04] Speaker B: Eating.
[02:16:05] Speaker C: We need cheese girl, now.
[02:16:06] Speaker B: Eating that.
[02:16:06] Speaker C: We need cheese girl, now.
[02:16:08] Speaker B: Down goes Anderson. Down goes Anderson.
[02:16:12] Speaker C: Who's canceled now? Who's canceled now?
[02:16:15] Speaker B: Probably me.
[02:16:15] Speaker C: You making a photo of fat people?
[02:16:18] Speaker B: I'm not just you. We're a whole race, basically.
No way. You're just straight. Just finger bang their salad.
[02:16:29] Speaker D: You first get shocked, and then you get the shocker.
[02:16:34] Speaker B: You like to see almost naked.
[02:16:36] Speaker C: That's cool, man. Whatever.
[02:16:37] Speaker B: No.
Are you not entertained?
Are you not entertained?
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[02:17:35] Speaker A: 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, relipping 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 easy, budget friendly payment plans on this 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. Don't wait. Secure your spot today and go Brown road.
