Show Notes
It's time! Time for Burning River Sportscast to go live again!
Join as we discuss the Week 13 Cleveland Browns loss to the Denver Broncos.
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: It's.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: Excuse me. Music was not stopping. It's time for a very special Burning River Sportscast After Dark edition.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: Way after dark of the show.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: I'm Kenny Thunder here with Red Hot Ronnie Jams.
I don't know why this won't go.
Make it stop.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: You got. You gotta love live shows. Yeah.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: New feature.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: There it goes. You did it.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: I don't got any cute openings or quips this week. We lost. We suck. What do you got?
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Bone literally turned into a pumpkin.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Yeah, he disappeared there somewhere in the third quarter.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: If you're a regular on our, you know, to our show, you'll see that Bone is not with us. It's because he literally were all text. We all text during a game and then all of a sudden he was nowhere to be found.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: He was dead guy.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: So he don't want to stay up and watch the end of this thing, which I don't blame him. I mean, it was painful. It was fun to a point and then it was painful.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: It was. It was entertaining to the last two minutes.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: That's what I mean. It was fun to a point and then it was painful because we were just trying to force plays and bad things happen. That tends to happen with the Browns when they're trying to force plays at the end of games.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: It's what we do best.
[00:01:57] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
So no. Yeah. Let's get into this thing. Before we get started though, I want to shout out to a couple of our. Well, first of all, you can find our podcast wherever you get your podcasts. I'm talking Apple Podcast, Spotify, stitcher, Amazon Music, YouTube 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 check us out on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Our handle for all those socials is at Burning River Sportscast. We are on X as well with the handle at Burning Ver Pod. And while you're at it, check out our merch. Www.thetapinmedia.com Shop all kinds of stuff in there. River Gear, River Gear, Chub Gear, Brook Park, Browns Gear. We got it all. But before we get started, as I was mentioning before, I want to shout out a few of our sponsors. Topat Distillery. Topat Distillery, an award winning craft distillery located in Akron, Ohio. Topeth focuses on high quality spirits, carefully made in small batches. Topet Distillery. Handcrafted, award winning small batch, local and family owned.
And then True Fan travel. True fan travel makes away games, home games with their travel all inclusive travel packages had trips this year for the Browns fans for Vegas game, the Commanders game and the New Orleans game.
And those trips were everything they promised and so much more. And they don't do stu football games either. They're involved in other sports and they do other things as well. Upcoming events include next year the Kentucky Derby in October festival. So yeah, make sure you check out True Fan Travel highly recommend one of their travel packages. 10 out of 10. 10 out of 10.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: I second that. 20 out of 20.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: Ah, nice as we're getting up there. If Bone was here, it'd be 30 out of 30. But there you go, Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin. But today on the show, this is what you can look forward to. We got a recap of tonight's Week 13 game against the Broncos. How we're feeling about the Browns, what, what we can expect the rest of the season. I'm sure there's going to be more, but let's jump right into it by reminding everybody to call the Burning River Sportscast hot take hotline. Don't forget to call and leave your hot takes on the hot take hotline. Remember, these are hot takes.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: Call that shit.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: Yeah, we want your hot takes. 330-227-8080 call now. We'll put you on the air.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: We're standing by.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: Absolutely. So let's get right into it. The Week 13 recap here.
Listen, this, this game was all about the good, the bad and the ugly. And what do I mean by that? We'll start with the good. The good was the Browns offense absolutely impressive in this one.
You know, t late turnovers aside, trying to come back and win the game.
Jerry Judy, dominant in his return to Denver. He had. What did he finish with? 9 for 235 and a touchdown. That's a big day.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: Pretty impressive.
[00:04:45] Speaker A: Yeah. David Ajoku, nine for 52 and two touchdowns. Elijah Moore eight for 111.
You'll notice big numbers from these receivers because what I'm building towards, Nick Chubb had a receiving touchdown as well. But what I'm building towards is Jameis Winston threw for 497 yards in this. And I know there's people out there, they're going to say, yeah, but the late picks killed him. He did what James does. He threw picks and it cost us the game. But we'll get to that part of it here in a little bit. I don't think. You know, I wouldn't put this on Jameis at all.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: It's a Browns record by the Way.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. Absolutely not. Not since 99. Like a Browns record ever.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Ever.
Yeah.
Yeah. Jerry Judy also with.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: You can also get mugs, by the way.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Jerry Judy also with a record setting night that was the most yards ever by a receiver against his former team.
[00:05:40] Speaker A: So top beating out Terrell Owens against the Cowboys.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: Big numbers all the way around.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
And so, yeah, I mean, the offense, especially the passing game, was absolutely humming in this game. And it was against a defense that ranked in the top five in every statistical category that you could think of.
I think the only downside for the offense was that Nick Chubb could not get anything going. And Jerome Ford, he wasn't impressive in this one. He did average 4.6 yards a carry. It's a little skewed because he had one for 21, you know, a rush for 21 yards. That ball bolstered that. But I mean, I texted you mid game and I was like, jerome Ford needs to man up.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: But it's disappointing because actually that Jerome was running hard early on. I thought he had some good runs that were tough yardage runs. And then on that third one, whatever it was, I think it was third and one, and he had the toss out, the toss action out.
I mean, you got to put your head down and make a play. You can't settle for the sideline on that. You gotta make. You got to make the first down.
So that's just inexcusable out of a running back. I mean, you're just. That's just a soft, soft play.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: Luckily, the quarterback bailed you out on the next play.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: True, true. And he got rolled up on pretty good on that. That was pretty ugly. And it should have been offsides on Teller whoever, anyways, so.
[00:07:01] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Don't worry. They gave it back to us a few plays later when James Winston got punched in the head and nobody said anything.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: Yeah, he got cracked right in the face. Ripped his helmet off and they didn't care.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: So it was good. Clean hit.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Keep playing. You want a piece of all the action?
[00:07:16] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. No, but, yeah, just watching this game is.
I think this just. Just goes to show you once again, and we've talked about it a lot on our show because I know, Kenny, you may be the most angry person about this on the planet. Just, just the. The that we've been fed all year long about Deshawn Watson gives us the best chance to win. Like, do you. This guy was on your team the entire year and you weren't playing him?
[00:07:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:43] Speaker A: 500 yards 497 yards in this game.
[00:07:46] Speaker B: I mean, when you look at. I mean, James has played five games now. He's 2 and 3. He's beat the Ravens and the Steelers, two of the best teams in the NFL. His losses are to the Chargers, who are probably a playoff team, the Broncos, who are probably a playoff team, both with eight wins, at least on the season anyways.
[00:08:03] Speaker A: So the Saints was a bad one, but that.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: And the Saints was a clunker, but. And this game actually reminded me a lot of the Saints game. The interesting segue there, just in terms of the passing offense, was there we had a bunch of gaudy yardage, but in the end, it didn't mean a whole lot because you didn't execute fundamentals. There's three things that good teams do week in and week out to win football games. You play good defense, you run the ball well, and you win the turnover battle. And we didn't do any one of those three things tonight. And that was the same story in New Orleans. It doesn't matter. I mean, look, we needed. We've said along all year long like desean was holding this team back, and you're finally getting good quarterback play out of. Out of James. But the thing is, the defense shit their pants. There's still. There's still like, there's, you know, a point where you're.
You're return on the passing game. It kind of levels out if you can't run the ball and you can't play defense, you know, because at some point you're just playing from behind.
[00:09:02] Speaker A: At that point, you just have to score more points and you can't always win that battle.
[00:09:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, you need good quarterback play, but at some point, like, there's diminishing return there if you can't do the other thing as well. And that's exactly what happened in the New Orleans game. It felt very much the same. I mean, shoot, New Orleans didn't have a very good football team, but Taysom Hill rocked your world tonight. You looked at a team that had two very average running backs that were able to get first downs on you all night long. They were the only out of the two teams they did crack, you know, 100 yards for a team rushing.
And they'd have a bunch of trash wide receivers that like. And a rookie quarterback that we. That we let throw for 300 yards against us. And there was no stopping the big play again.
[00:09:46] Speaker A: We know. I mean, you. You pointed that out this week. Bo Nicks is a good quarterback, which is.
[00:09:53] Speaker B: Yeah, that's officially the reality we live in.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: It's hard to let that come out of my mouth because I never thought I would say those words, but he is a good quarterback. But still he's a rookie and he threw over 300 yards on you. And so, you know, you're talking about the defense right now and the running game. Kenny. Those were both. You know, I said this is about the good, the bad and the ugly. The good was the offense in general, specifically the passing game. The bad, we can't run the ball. We didn't play defense at all.
And so you mentioned the 300 yards out of Bo Nicks. Dude look like John Elway out there. I think all of Denver's having flashbacks this year.
And then once again, no sacks out of Miles Garrett. So we continue to play this game of. Of. Yeah, he'll have a three sack game and it's fantastic and whatever, but where was he in this one? We probably could have used a few of those, you know, when Bo Nix is shredding us up and.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: Well, and even just, even just pressures. I mean it didn't have to be sacks, but you only have one hit.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: One QB hit. Yeah.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: I mean putting dirty this kid up, you know, like put him on the ground, make him know you're there, make him think about it so that when. So that he can't just sit back there and carve you up. Because he was just. It was just felt like at no point did I feel like we were ever going to get them off the field unless there was just an accidental turn. You're praying for a miscommunication on their end or just an errant throw to end a drive. There was. There was no way our defense was going to stop them.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: Yeah. And then McLaughlin over there, just random, you know. You know he. He had 14 carries for 84 yards, but it felt like so many, so much more because we would stop him for no gain or a 1 yard loss. But then the very next play is running for 14 yards and it's like, what are we doing here?
So that was frustrating all day.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Just felt a lot like that New Orleans game. I mean you just James through for a million yards and just the defense was not going to stop anybody all night.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: Yep.
Just real quick for Denver here. You mentioned their trash receivers and we had Marvin Mims Three receptions for 105 yards and a touchdown, which I believe included the 93 yarder. We had them backed up into their own end zone basically. And just our DBs forgot the one rule as a DB that you should always follow, that we talk about nonstop, as deep as the deepest.
[00:12:12] Speaker B: I'm still confounded on that one because watching the replay back when I came back from the commercial break, I mean.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: Dude, the DB just let the ball go straight through his hands.
[00:12:21] Speaker B: Well, Rodney McLeod never moved. I mean, he's the safety on the plate, so I don't know what defense. I mean, clearly probably not his assignment, but in what world is is it the best idea to have your inside linebacker covering the guy that's, that's running the go route like. And then with. That's not good with corner help coming from the outside. But that's not good. Was a, this was a steam.
Where. Why, why is there not.
I mean, unless just McLeod just didn't see him walk by. But, I mean, his feet were firmly planted in cement and I'm watching poor Hicks try and chase down Marvin Mims. It was just never a battle he was going to win.
[00:12:59] Speaker A: No, no, absolutely not.
And yeah, it was just. I guess I'll add to the bad Jameis Winston, the only knock on him tonight. He did throw two pick sixes, but again, I don't. That's fine. The first one was legitimate. The second one was he's trying to make plays and trying to lead a game winning drive. And you have to take chances. And sometimes I just don't go your way if you're going to lead a game winning drive.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: Jameis Winston gave this team the lead with six minutes left in the fourth quarter.
[00:13:31] Speaker A: We promptly gave it back, we promptly gave it away.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: We promptly let them walk right down the field and kick a field goal and urge and that's that.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: So, I mean, that's got to, that's got to weigh on you as a quarterback is like every time you're like, all right, I think we're in a good place and you're just like, I guess I'll put this team on my back again.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: So, yeah.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: And I mean, if they had been able to stop them on defense at all, you know, you, you win that game, you get the ball back. You're thinking, I can run the clock out here with Nick Chubb and we're good to go. But the defense couldn't make a stop. So you get the ball back, there's, you know, two minutes and change, whatever you get when you get back. And then.
Yeah, I mean, it was, it was. Those are tough situations. Again, you made the point earlier in the, in the conversation. That's. That's a really good defense too. I Mean, let's, let's not put this all on the fact that like James made bad decision. This defense ranks in the top five in pretty much every everything.
So yeah, those, those kinds of mistakes happen. Let's, let's like the big picture. Jamis is a backup quarterback in the NFL playing against the top five defense. The team exceeded expectations tonight. They scored 30 plus points.
[00:14:39] Speaker A: First time that happened all year.
[00:14:40] Speaker B: I'm pretty sure, you know, if you got a little help from the defense, you're not in that situation. So. Yeah, I mean, it was an unfortunate way for the game to end. And you know, you know, James is kicking himself for it because he felt like he had a, a nice night up until that point. And you know, that's the crazy part.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: You say you give them the 14 that they scored cause James threw two pick sixes and I mean 28 points on the board.
Yeah. And even say your defense gives up 14, you know, you're still at 32, 20. Like you give up 31 points, basically you still win the game. And we couldn't, we couldn't stop them. We just couldn't stop this team.
No, but, so the ugly though. I said the good, the bad, the ugly. The ugly. Dustin Hopkins just absolutely broken this dude. Misses another field goal.
I don't know how you go from what we had last year to what we have this year. Like the dichotomy there is astounding. It's literally just night and day.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: He was automatic and he was automatic from 50 deep. Yeah, I mean, he's missing now. He's missing field goals.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: I mean, look, we talked just a second ago about James. Like that had to be weighing on James's mind. I texted you when the drive started and I said, better score a touchdown because I don't have any faith in Dustin Hopkins to kick a game winning field goal.
[00:16:04] Speaker A: Right. And even further than that, Even further than that, we were just talking about Jameis having to feeling like he has to throw the team on his shoulders every single drive. And it's like if you would have just had that field goal. This whole last like 10 minutes of the game is completely different because at some point the Broncos have to score a touchdown in order to take the lead instead of being able to settle for that field goal at the end. And we didn't have that because we like to, we like to miss chip shots now. That's just our thing. That's what we do.
[00:16:32] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And in Denver, no less, I mean, you know, you know where the ball flies the easiest. Yeah. I mean, the kicker should have a field day out in Denver. It wasn't like the conditions were bad tonight. It was a nice night out there. It was a little chilly, but that's what you're going to get in Denver. And the thing is, the ball flies a mile out there. So the air was too thin.
[00:16:52] Speaker A: He kicked it too far, I guess.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: Hit you for the wrong direction.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
And I don't understand it. We, you know, at first we said maybe it was. Was the, you know, the fact that Charlie Hewlett went down and we don't have our long snap or whatever, but it's. It's been too long at this point. Like, you can't just keep blaming that. You guys have practiced now for the majority of the season together, and you're going to tell me that you guys can't get this figured out and, and just watch the snap. Like, it seems fine. There's a couple here and there that are maybe off slightly off target, but they get the ball down in time and that's. That's the only thing the kicker should be focused on, is the ball there. I'm going to kick the. Out of it.
[00:17:31] Speaker B: And. And they're in the building every day. Right. So, like, if the snap was truly a problem, they would have made a personnel move by now.
I mean, this is just a confidence thing, I think, with Dustin, and it's. It's really unfortunate because he was so good last year and dare I say.
[00:17:47] Speaker A: He'S starting to look like Katie York out there.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: Zero faith in him at all. And, you know, I mentioned this to you guys just earlier in the game. It's like, you can't run it back with him next year. It doesn't do you any good really, to like, go out and cut him on, you know, tomorrow, because what are you going to do? Replace him with a guy like K Dork off some practice squad? Like, you're not getting a better kicker at this point in the season. Anybody that's got a kicker that's been hurt has already signed the better reserves anyways. You look at teams like Washington that have gone through the ex Browns kickers like Kerrison Marcel with Cade York and Zane Gonzalez and Austin Cyber and these guys. Like, there's not a lot of good kickers out there. So you're kind of stuck with Hopkins the rest of the year now that it matters. This team's not going to the playoffs. But. But I do think that, oh, no, they're going to have to do something in the off Season, they're going to find, you know, they're bringing in a free agent, bring in competition, drafted guy, somebody, because you can't run it back with Dustin again after this. This. This stretch here. It's ugly.
[00:18:43] Speaker A: Yeah. And this, you know, just. Just in case anyone is looking ahead and saying, is there a scenario? There's not a scenario. They're officially under.500 this year. In the same week that Mike Tomlin clinched not being.500. Ever under.500 ever. The Browns are under.500 yet again with all the expectations that they had coming into the season. So.
So, yeah, there it is for you. That's. That's the good, good, the bad, the ugly.
[00:19:10] Speaker B: It just really does feel bad, though, because at the very least, you're watching this team play competitive football, which you didn't have at all through the first seven weeks of the year, really. So, I mean, it's a Jacksonville game.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: This whole thing, the fact that they were able to exploit a top five defense like this, regardless of how our defense didn't support them on the other side of it, and the fact that we couldn't get a running game going like you did this against a top five defense, at the very least, we would be in the hunt right now, I would say, if James Winston started from the beginning.
[00:19:45] Speaker B: Well, I mean, here's the thing. If. Let's run it back and just say James started from the beginning and James went. And James was throwing for 400 yards every week and for four touchdowns and two picks. And you were. And you. And you had the same record. At least then I'm going like, there's a fixable problem here and it's the defense. Like, we got to do something on the deal. Like, it's a smaller problem because it's not the offense. Not the offense inability to score points. Like the passing games there. And maybe through the first, you know, half the season, you're going, well, we don't have Nick Chubb. Whatever. So, I mean, any way you spin this thing, it's just so unfortunate because you have what should be a competitive football team. The defense has not played up to snuff this year, and there's been some injuries and things. I mean, it hurts not having GOK in the lineup, obviously, at the end of the game. Like, Denzel Ward was out tonight, and then Grant Delpha went down with the head or neck injury, too, like in the same series. So on the Denver Broncos last drive there. So those things hurt.
But, I mean, look.
[00:20:45] Speaker A: But they also gave up. They also gave up 260 yards before that. So it's not like that was for sure gonna win the game for you.
[00:20:52] Speaker B: Right.
[00:20:54] Speaker A: But, yeah. So, I mean, with that, you know, it's late. I know. We want to kind try and keep this. This episode brief. Overall, it was an exciting game. It was a lot of fun to watch until that last two minutes when things started going bad.
[00:21:07] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, again, look at the team and just how back and forth this game was. I mean, you kind of got out to an early lead there, and then it just went back and forth. And, you know, there was points where you were down in this game, and you're thinking, God, this team struggled all year to score 16 points. Like, there's no way they're going to keep putting points on the board. And they just kept. They just kept coming back. So that was fun to watch.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: And quick shout out to all our friends out there in Denver, both at Pikes Peak, who we interviewed this week, the Pikes Peak Brownsbackers and the Mile High Browns backers who had the big Browns. Browns backers bash this week. I'm sure there were a lot of touchdown shots to be had. So, you know, true raffle. We talked about their party and earlier in the week, and I'm sure they were having a really good time regardless of the outcome because it was exciting all the way up until that last two minutes.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: So I will all. Just. While we're. While we're live, any of those folks are listening. We had our interview, the video version with. With Aaron come out today. I was violently ill for. Oh, it was last week.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: He was texting me graphic descriptions of what was happening, and you don't want.
[00:22:16] Speaker B: To know all weekend long. So I was kind of hoping. I mean, you kind of hear it in my voice still a little bit, but I was kind of hoping, like, tonight would be, like, a big Browns win. It would feel good. It kind of be like the rebound of the start of my week here, and now I just feel worse again. So.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: Anyway, we intended to have that video out earlier, and that we did, and I just could not get to it. So finally, also, my apologies out to Pikes Peak and their team there.
[00:22:40] Speaker A: Here at Burning River Sportscast, we all wear many hats, and Kenny happens to be our editor in chief, so.
[00:22:46] Speaker B: And my hat was very ill. Yeah, we met. I mean, we missed it. We missed Thanksgiving. We stayed home on Thanksgiving. My. My wife was sick. My son was sick.
The family that my wife and Annie's for all three kids were sick. Mom and dad were sick. Grandma and Grandpa, Think about it this way.
[00:23:01] Speaker A: Just a couple weeks ago, so just a couple weeks ago on our show, you said you favorite fall activity was thinking about Thanksgiving. So you don't even have to have it. You just got to think about it all week long.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: Think about it all week long. I never even got any. I, like, I didn't get, like, luckily, like the night before when we realized, like this, this was our reality. There was we weren't going to have Thanksgiving. I was like, let's doordash some chicken quarters and at least like, bake some chicken tomorrow. Like, that was our Thanksgiving, so.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: Well, at least you had something.
[00:23:27] Speaker B: That was all we had.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: I wasn't sending you a care package. I wasn't going anywhere near you.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: No, no. We haven't seen each other in over a week. So. Yeah, I've been. It's. It's been really ugly.
[00:23:36] Speaker A: We both have toddlers. I know my role here.
[00:23:40] Speaker B: Maybe we'll get into more detail for on a Thursday show. But.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Right now, though, right now we need to do our nominees for this week's Burning River Sportscast Dog of the Week. So I'm gonna start. Cause I call Jerry Judy.
[00:23:52] Speaker B: I feel like that's a bullshit call on your part because Jerry Judy was my player to watch this week, so.
[00:23:57] Speaker A: All right, I'll let you have him.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: I'm also Jerry Judy.
[00:24:00] Speaker A: That's fine. I'm going to give them to you. We have to have three. For the people we know, it's going to be Jerry Judy.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: And he was my player to watch because of the revenge game, and it was certainly a revenge effort.
[00:24:13] Speaker A: That's fine. I'll give it to you. I'm going to go.
I'm going to go. David Najoku, actually, I know he didn't have a ton of yards and he actually had a drop, at least one drop that I saw. But he had two touchdowns in this to help us stay in this game. And one of them was a man's catch. He was just. He just went up and got it and got basically slammed to the ground as he was catching it.
[00:24:33] Speaker B: So you can tell that is something that they work on practice a lot because that's about the third.
[00:24:37] Speaker A: Just throw it in the air. David's going to get it.
[00:24:38] Speaker B: It's about the third time we've seen that since Jameis took over. Where Jameis just is like, look, I'm.
[00:24:43] Speaker A: We're gonna.
[00:24:43] Speaker B: As soon as you see me, as soon as we make eyes, the ball's coming your way. Like, it's a jump ball and you're gonna have to win it. Sorry.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: Yeah. They're always making each other.
And then we're gonna give Bone Jamis Winston.
That's fair. The other, the other option was going to be Elijah Moore, who I. I will say as an honorable mention, not going to put him on the graphic, but Elijah Moore as a big game. We're not used to those types of games out of Elijah Moore as a Cleveland Brown, but he had a big game, 8 for 111.
[00:25:10] Speaker B: So I mean, none bigger too than the catch right before the turnover. I mean, what an amazing effort to keep his feet in bounds. Get that ball that was sailing on the sideline.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: Yeah. And I guess I'll dock him a point just because on the, the pick six at the end, he just let the guy leave. He didn't touch him down when he was standing next to him and just let him get up and run for a touchdown. So.
[00:25:32] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think that's the things you see with a 3 and 8 football team, right?
[00:25:37] Speaker A: Interception. I'm throwing my hands up. I'm done with this interception at the.
[00:25:40] Speaker B: End of the game with them at the end of a tough year, like, I could probably touch that guy down. But you're not thinking of that in the moment. You're thinking, oh, crap, we blew it again. So, yep.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: So. But again, overall, Elijah Moore had had a, had a heck of a game for the Cleveland Browns today.
[00:25:56] Speaker B: Cause really until that point, they could have called timeouts and maybe made him kick a field goal there.
[00:26:00] Speaker A: Yep. Yep. So final thoughts for Week 13 in the NFL. Kenny, we'll start with you.
[00:26:12] Speaker B: Again. I'll just go back to like every week we have the same conversation and it's frustrating. Again, three things you have to do. Run the ball, play good defense and win the turnover battle. And you haven't won the turnover battle. Basically, all year long, the running game has been non existent. I, you know, we kind of knew that Nick Chubb was going to just, just realistically looking at what was ahead of them, what their schedule was, what their record was like, it doesn't make a lot of sense to run him into the ground. So he's getting very limited participation in this offense.
And with that, like, I'll be honest, like I look, I love Nick Chubb. Nick Chubb has been an absolute godsend for the football team for his entire career.
I'm a little worried about Nick Chubb at this point. We just have not seen the same kind of explosiveness, same explosive plays come out of Nick Chubb just, it just doesn't look like the same guy yet. So. Yeah, you know, hopefully that will change. Hopefully. Maybe, you know, maybe the conversation about shutting Nick Chubb down for the season is coming, but also his contract's up, so who knows what their, their future state plans are, but I have to think that that's going to not bode well for him in terms of long term future with Cleveland right now.
[00:27:29] Speaker A: Yeah, and he went at one point today, he went something stupid, like 32 straight plays on offense, on the bench. So.
[00:27:36] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, so he's just not, he's just not getting that. And, and this defense, it, it looks broken and I don't know, I, I don't know, like not that much changed from last year to this year. So, you know, there's just, it's, it's a calamity to watch every week and I had faith that they were going to win this game. I thought that this was going to be a competitive game because of Jim Shorts and his record against rookie quarterbacks.
And I thought that if this defense could make some plays, this offense could hang with them. The offense absolutely could. This defense just did not step up all night long. So as long as you continue to miss on, you go over three on all three of those battles every week, you're going to continue to lose football games which this team has done exceedingly well all year long.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: Oh, we're good at losing that. That is for sure. The only thing I'll say about Nick Chubb is it makes me wonder we are seeing that the offensive line has shown their age this year. I don't think it's been as bad as most people think it's been, but I don't think it's been good either. And so I wonder how much of that is like in past years that they were good and it was kind of, you know, half you, half me, Mario, it was a little bit Nick chub probably like 75, 25, like, like Nick Chubbs really good. And then the offensive line held their own and sometimes they're just getting blown up. Like a couple times today I was like, dude, there's guys in the backfield before he even gets to the line of scrimmage.
[00:29:04] Speaker B: So. And, and I just wonder too because again, just about his long term future because there's some good running backs in this upcoming draft class.
And I think what we've actually seen, I mean for all the talk all off season about running backs not getting paid and their roles declining in offenses, you look at the teams that are on top of their divisions right now, teams that are winning games consistently.
I mean, look no further than Saquon Barkley in Philadelphia and how much he has changed everything for them. And he's on pace to break the rushing record this year, which is.
[00:29:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I just. I just think it's so funny because now they play 17 games. Eric Dickerson did it in, like, 14. So.
[00:29:48] Speaker B: True. But even with. Even with that, I mean, he would still be on pace close to 16. Was it Dickerson's in 14 or 16? I didn't look that up, but either.
[00:29:57] Speaker A: Way, I thought it was 14, but it might have been 16. Either way, it was. They play an extra game now.
[00:30:02] Speaker B: So either way, I think that even at 16, he's going to be close because he's. He's like. Right. He's on pace to eclipse it. So 20.
[00:30:08] Speaker A: He's on pace for 21, I think 55. And the records 2105 or something.
[00:30:12] Speaker B: So, yeah, so we'll see. I mean, and that guy's capable of having big games every week. And another guy in. Derek Henry. Derek Henry, you know, has been huge this year. And you look across the league at some of these other teams that are good and have been in the mix for the last couple of years with team guys like Christian McCaffrey, like, running back, I think, is not dead. It's not as dead as we thought it was in the NFL. And because the adage is true, you have to run the ball to win football games. And these teams that continue to run the ball well are continuing to win football games. So I just. Again, just when you're the Brown, you.
[00:30:45] Speaker A: Run for 77 yards in a football game, you lose.
[00:30:48] Speaker B: Like, if. If that's. If that's, you know, again, I don't know, in terms of rehab and, like, how close Nick Chubb is to really feeling like Nick Chubb. Obviously, he's feeling good enough to play.
Is Nick Chubb feeling like he's at 100% because he doesn't look 100%? That's the question. So is Nick Chubb feeling good enough to play? He can play. I'm 100% good enough to play, but I'm 80% of what I should be? Like, is that the case, or is this the reality of, like, two major reconstructive knee surgeries? You're pushing 30 years old, and it's just, you know, the unfortunate circle of life.
[00:31:24] Speaker A: So Father Time is undefeated.
[00:31:26] Speaker B: Undefeated. So either way.
[00:31:28] Speaker A: Yeah. So my final thought this week, the Browns Are not a terrible football team. As much as the front office, as much as Andrew Barry. Even though it doesn't make sense, if you want to keep your job, as much as Andrew Berry and Kevin Stefan would like you to believe that the Browns are a bad football team and they're doing the best they can. They put the, the people out there that give us the best chance to win all year long. The Browns are not that bad of a football team. We had a quarterback problem, we fixed it. Now we're competitive. It's pretty simple.
And I know we talk about, we've talked about this at least five times at length, but I just have to go back to it because every time I watch this, every week that we come back and watch a competitive game, a game that's fun, a game that we're scoring points in, I just. That's all I think about is the first six weeks when we were told DeSean Watson gives us the best chance to win even though he can't run the offense.
And it's just, it's just really frustrating because I just, again, I don't think. Do I think we'd be like, you know, you know, what's our record right now? It's. We're down to three and nine. Three and nine. Do I think we'd be like 10 and. Or nine and three? No, absolutely not.
But I think that we would have won several more games than we did, probably two to three more games than we did. And you're, you're right in the thick of things at that point. And, you know, I don't know, it just.
It's frustrating. It's very frustrating.
And it hurts. The longer it goes on, the longer we see Jameis Winston put up huge passing numbers, it just goes to show you that it definitely.
We were snowed and not told the truth about who gives us the best chance to win at the quarterback position.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: Well, that's the thing. It's just. I mean, you look at the games that you lost, I mean, tonight, absolutely. A winnable game. Unfortunately, the way that it ended, you look at New Orleans. Absolutely, a winnable game. Not a very good football team. You look at teams like the Giants game like if you started Jameis all year long and this team had the ability to build chemistry all year long. The defense wasn't gassed from being on the field for the first eight weeks of the season. Nonstop.
Things could be very different. This is, this is easily a six or seven win football team.
[00:33:40] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:33:40] Speaker B: You know, are they, are they top of the division right now? Probably not. But are they. Are they at least 500 or better? Like yes, they're very much capable of that with this group.
[00:33:50] Speaker A: Absolutely. So with that, let me remind everybody to call the Burning River Sportscast hot take hotline.
We said at the beginning of the show. We're saying it again now. Make sure you call that hot take hotline. We want your hot takes on our hot take hotline. Switch could put it in our show that's coming out on Thursday. We talk about your takes. We want to hear what you think about the Browns. Who's to blame in this one. That's a big one right now because I'm sure there's plenty of opinions on that. I'm sure there's a bunch of people sitting at home right now maybe listening to us. Maybe they'll catch it later. You know, the video is just out there. So maybe they'll catch you later and they'll be like, who are these saying Jameis Winston isn't to blame.
You let me know because I want to hear it and I want to talk about it.
But yeah, call the hot take hotline, 330-227-8080.
[00:34:33] Speaker B: Yeah, we want to hear from you. Let us know.
[00:34:36] Speaker A: Yep. And be sure to check out our gear. Www.thetappedia.com backslash shop and that'll do it for us. Kenny, what can we expect this week?
[00:34:44] Speaker B: Oh, we will have our normal show that will be released Thursday afternoon. A little bit of a the the short week here with Monday Night Football for us. So we'll be recording later this week Previewing the Week 14 game. The rematch against Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh should be fun. We will have brownsbacker interview lined up North Royalton Brownsbackers on deck. Our defensive correspondent John Hughes makes his return to the show. Friend of the show. And we do have a special guest, macho fan, super fan, macho fan joining us for an interview as well. So it should be a hell of a week.
[00:35:20] Speaker A: Jam packed for Steelers week. Jam packed. Yeah. So check us out on social media. Tap the medias on Facebook, Twitter, Twitter and Instagra. Instagram or Facebook X in Instagram I should say at the tapping media and Burning River Sportscast. I'm I'm tongue tied there. I'm it's bad Sportscast after dark. Yeah, it's 1242. You know 1243 now.
Bur sportscast is on Facebook, Instagram, tick tock and YouTube at Burning River Sportscast and on X at Burning River Pod. And you can find our podcast wherever get your podcast from Talking app Podcast, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Stitcher, Pandora, iHeartRadio Pocket Cast Castro Good Pods were our number one ranked football podcast and so many more.
That's it.
[00:36:02] Speaker B: That's the show.
[00:36:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:05] Speaker B: Don't just be a part of the problem.
[00:36:06] Speaker A: Today were the Browns today were part of the problem.
[00:36:09] Speaker B: Yeah, they were part of the problem. Don't. Don't just be a part of the problem. Be the whole damn problem.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: And only you can prevent river fires.
[00:36:18] Speaker B: Burning River Sports cast Burning river out.
Good night, Cleveland.
[00:36:23] Speaker A: Good night, Akron.
