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It's time! Time for Burning River Sportscast presented by Tap In Media to go live again!
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Join as we discuss the Week 15 Cleveland Browns loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:32] Speaker A: It's time time for the burning River Sportscast. Chiefs 21, Brown 7. We'll break it all down right now. Welcome into a very special post game live edition of the Burning River Sportscast presented by the fine folks at Tapit Media. I'm as always Kenny Thunder joining me tonight. If he was a goat, you'd best not drink his milk. These red hot Ronnie jams and the orthopedic one himself, the Big Bone man. Gentlemen, good evening. Happy to have you both.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Howdy.
[00:01:01] Speaker C: Never, never happy to see you, but especially after a Browns loss.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: Yeah, fair enough.
Back to red Hot. Where can our listeners find the dopest dope they ever heard on a podcast? A number one rated football podcast and all the good pods as well as the unofficial podcast of Cleveland Browns backers.
[00:01:17] Speaker C: Everywhere and the official podcast of some Cleveland Browns backers somewhere. You can find a podcast wherever. Get your podcast from Talking Apple Podcast, SP, Stitcher, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio podcast, Castro, good pods and so many more good pods where we are number one ranked football podcast. 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 Tick Tock handle for all those socials. Burning your sportscast. And we are on X with a handle at Burning Over Pod. While you're at it, check out our merch www.thetappenmedia.com backslash shop all kinds of stuff in there. River Gear, Chub Line, rip again, Brook Park, Browns Gear, all kinds of stuff. Just check it out. But before we get started I want to give a quick shout out to some of our sponsors. First of all, Toepath Distillery Topat Distillery is an award winning craft distillery located in Akron, Ohio. Towpath focuses on high quality spirits carefully made in small batches. Topath Distillery Handcrafted, award winning small batch, local and family owned and true fan travel. They make away games, home games with all inclusive travel packages. They they had three trips for the Browns fans this year. Vegas, Washington D.C. and New Orleans which we happen to be a part of. And they were dope ass. They were so dope.
A lot of fun, worth every penny. They made everything so easy. And they don't just do football games either. They get involved with a lot of other things other events upcoming this this next year, Kentucky Derby and Oktoberfest. So be sure to check them out. Highly recommend one of those travel packages.
And on today's show this is what you can look forward to. A recap of today's Week 15 loss against the Chiefs. We'll keep it brief, I promise.
How we're feeling about the Browns. An update on the major Nick Chubb injury yet again. And what can we expect or what we can expect heading into the off season.
What we can expect the rest of the season this year. And I'm sure there' to be more that comes up. But like I said, we'll keep it brief. We know that there's not much to talk about when it comes to this year's Cleveland Browns. So let's get things started by reminding everyone to call the Burning sportscast hot take hotline.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Yeah, call that.
[00:03:33] Speaker C: Yeah, there's. I know that there's a lot to say, a lot of negative out there because just we've talked about it. I feel like just, just too much at this point, honestly. Like this is worse than 1 in 31 browns. And I will argue that against anybody. Fight me if you want. I don't care.
One in 31. We knew was coming. We knew it was a rebuild. We knew that was happening. This is just an embarrassment. There's so much talent on this team. So much that we had looking forward to coming into the season. So many expectations. And to be 3 and 11 now. Yeah, you heard that right. Is just absolutely pathetic. So call the Burning River Sportscast hot take hotline number to call there 330-227-8080 and leave us a hot take on a hot take hotline. But let's get into the Week 15 recap. We'll kind of do it like we did last week, guys. We'll just in tandem at the same time. We'll do KC offense and the Browns defense.
Let's start with this. If you, if we came into this game like coming into this game, if somebody told me what Patrick Mahomes stats were going to be at the end of this game.
19 of 38, 159 yards and just two touchdowns. I'd have been like, yeah, okay, I feel good about that.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: Or how about that Patrick Mahomes couldn't even finish the game because he couldn't stand up.
[00:04:57] Speaker C: Yeah. So like I would have been like, yeah, okay, that's. That's probably a good day. Right? We're doing all right. Wrong.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, the defense roughed him up pretty good, but it wasn't enough, unfortunately.
[00:05:09] Speaker C: No. And I mean, and really they hold their own against basically everyone else too. I mean, Kareem Hunt had 45 yards, but beyond that in the rushing game there, nothing really happened. Only 159 yards out of, out of Patrick Mahomes, like literally, they did nothing on offense to beat the Cleveland Browns today.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: Well, yeah, the defense played well today. Yeah, I mean, I really, I really don't have a whole lot of complaints about the defense. I mean, you can't, you can't keep the, essentially the best team in the NFL out of the end zone all day long. They minimize damage and they, they forced them to punt several times, gave the offense opportunities to move the ball and to score. And unfortunately, this one, I mean, purely kind of came down to the turnover battle. You turn a ball over six times, you're not going to win a game.
[00:06:00] Speaker C: Yeah, we'll, we'll get there in just a minute. But yeah, I mean, to your point, the defense played well. If you.
Holding the Kansas City Chiefs to 21 points. And the fact that multiple times in this game we had to. Even after it got to the 217 marks, it got there pretty quick.
Even after that, where we had a chance to, you know, we're driving down the field, we have a chance to score and make it a one score game. I'm talking like early in the third quarter, kind of throughout the third quarter and even into the fourth quarter. And yeah, the d. Like you said, the defense did their jobs. They gave us a chance and unfortunately we just, we just didn't pay him back on the other side of the ball. So, Bone, how'd you think the defense looked in this one?
[00:06:44] Speaker B: I mean, they're running around. They looked like they were after it. You know, I didn't, I didn't see anybody give up.
I remember on one play, I feel like Miles like took off like a lightning bolt after what he thought was a fumble. When Mahomes kind of like muffed his throw, I don't know if anybody caught that, but he kind of hung on it too long and he just threw it in the dirt. But Miles, like sprinted downfield, you know, like a track star to get the football. So, you know, things like that I thought were interesting. Just it didn't seem like guys were giving up. And like you said, it was still, they only gave up 21 points off of, you know, how many turnovers. So they were showing up.
[00:07:19] Speaker C: Which, I mean, and yeah, you said it just now is. It's amazing that they had as many, the Browns had as many turnovers as they did and somehow only gave up 21 points to the Chiefs. Like, that's, that's pretty insane.
And six turnovers. Kenny, to your point, that doesn't, that doesn't happen in an NFL game, that's a lot of turnovers.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: No, no. And I mean. And honestly, you know, for the defensive standpoint, too, I don't. I think we should not overlook the fact, and I think this is credit to Jim Schwartz, is that this defense is quite thin right now. I mean, you had guys out there.
[00:07:57] Speaker C: Like basically have no linebackers.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: Nathaniel Watson, Rex Sunahara, Cam Thomas, Juwan Briggs been brought up, Myles Harden.
I mean, a lot of these guys are not everyday starters. And that's the team that was out there today against this Kansas City offense. So good on them.
[00:08:19] Speaker C: They came to this thing 12 and 1. And by all accounts, I mean, you know, honestly, the defense looks pretty good in this.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Yeah, this team. I mean, this team looked beatable all day long. If they could have just. And the frustrating thing is the offense was moving the football. It just came down to the fact that like everyone on every drive, instead of. Instead of punching it in for a touchdown, we punched it in for a turnover.
[00:08:42] Speaker C: Yeah, I made.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: They scored on half of those drives at the Ty Ball game.
[00:08:46] Speaker C: Yep. And so let's just go ahead and we'll talk about the Browns offense and the KC defense or what we gave the KC defense. I guess I'll say. But yeah, the Browns threw four interceptions in this one. And listen, you know, we. We've talked about it. You get the good and the bad with Jameis Winston. Well, today was especially bad given the fact that we were in the game when he was throwing these. It wasn't like we were trying to force something at the end of it. Like we had a, you know, a chance in this game. And especially I believe it was two interceptions in the red zone, if I'm not mistaken. Wasn't it? And that just kills you. You can't have that.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: No, no. I mean, it was the absolute difference in the game. And I mean, I know like early on he. He slung that one up into double coverage and I'm like, man, they were moving the ball. Mean Judy was catching everything and getting nice yardages, converting first downs and keeping, you know, just playing ahead of the six. And. And then all of a sudden he just starts slanging it and I'm like, I get that this is Jamis's mo. Like, that's his skill set. He's a. He's a gunslinger. But, you know, there's times when prudence is a virtue, and we just didn't see any of that today. I mean, fortunately, there were no pick sixes to be delivered from. But.
But there were Way too many turnovers. I mean, way too careless with the football.
And isn't that like a thing?
[00:10:07] Speaker C: Like sometimes be careful. Be careful what you pray for, be careful what you wish for. Like he got delivered from pick sixes, now he just throws even more picks.
[00:10:15] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe. Maybe that's the case.
[00:10:18] Speaker C: Yeah, he should have. He should have been more careful, but he should have been more specific in his prayers.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: Yeah, and the frustrating thing too was it wasn't even, you know, you know, this was a full team loss, right? I mean, defense comes out and makes a stop on the very first drive. You feel pretty good about it. And then James Prochet all of a sudden decides he's going to be a hero. Look, we talked about this last week with Kaderius Tony and thank goodness was cut. This week was. We just needed somebody to go out there and catch the ball. And that's what James Prochet has been doing, right? Just fair catch the ball, give us a chance to put our offense on the field. Then on that first return, he says, I'm going to be a hero. I'm going to take this thing and do something with it. And promptly turns the ball over on the punt. So then you give them the ball.
[00:11:01] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:11:01] Speaker A: Pretty close to the red zone there.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: I was surprised he took that punt, honestly. I was like, oh, he's going to, he's going to fair catch this one for sure. They were all over. It seemed like new.
[00:11:11] Speaker A: Just bad decision to. Bad decision. And then, and then a couple things for him.
[00:11:15] Speaker C: Like one don't you learn from Kaderius Tony. Like he just got cut because he can't do what he's supposed to do with the ball on punt return and you decided to do the same thing.
The only good, the only silver lining here is, is Kenny. I think you're right. I think he learned his lesson after this because I think he fair caught every single punt.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: Yeah. And then, and then obviously the uncharacteristic fumble on Nick Chubb, which was especially painful because it came on the heels of the last possession, which he tipped the ball up and it was almost like one of those weird slow motion plays. Like he kind of like bobbled it and then bobbled it into the hands of the defender.
So there was a sloppy play before that. And then obviously the. He put the ball on the ground with the peanut punch on the following possession.
[00:11:59] Speaker C: So was that the play? I mean, was that the possession that Nick Chubb broke his foot on or was he.
[00:12:04] Speaker A: No, he broke his foot. Honestly, it was. It was a fake. He Pulled up after the. After he received the. The fake handoff, heading towards the line, and he just stepped funny. I mean, there was a. It wasn't really like a contact play. He just stepped funny. And you saw him pull up and he kind of was kind of walking on it funny. And you didn't really know at the time if it was serious or not. I mean, he came out of the game and went back into the locker room. But, I mean, I was. I was shocked when they said that his foot was broken because it wasn't.
[00:12:35] Speaker C: Like, stuff like that always makes me wonder, did he have, like, a hairline fracture that they knew about that? Like, it just got worse because he played on it or whatever the case may be. I. I don't know at that point, though. I mean, just bad job out of everybody because he's already coming off a major, major injury.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: But, well, just the whole thing, right? I mean, he's had so much focus and attention on building the muscles around that. Around his whole knee mechanism, trying to make sure that that was strong enough that he could cut, that he could run, that he could sprin.
I'm not accusing Nick Chubb of ignoring other parts of his body. I don't know, it's like you can do curls with your foot to make him strong, but it's just one of those things, right? Like, as you focus on something so much, sometimes other parts you just don't get the same attention. And the atrophy a bit, so you wonder if that had anything to do with it. Just the strenuous rehab to get his knee right and what that does to other parts of the body that just. You just don't have time to focus on as much.
[00:13:36] Speaker C: Yeah, and I'll say this. I know we kind of gave to some people for basically saying that the entire strength and conditioning staff needed to go before the season started because of the number of injuries last year and everything else. And we kind of called it bull crap as just a lot of injuries or luck or whatever, but it's been like four years in a row now, so I'm starting to wonder if, like, there is something to that and the fact that, like, I just don't see other. Like, obviously other teams have injuries, but I don't see any other team in the NFL have this many serious injuries as consistently as the Cleveland Browns do.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: Well, just look at our injury report going into the game every week. There's twice as many guys on it, whether or not they're going to play or not. There's twice as many guys on ours than is on every other team in the NFL's When We Come and play them each week.
[00:14:25] Speaker C: The other part of it is weird is it kind of coincides with Kevin Stefanski's tenure. So I'm wondering if maybe he's too lenient on like practicing.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: Well, that's something that we've heard a lot of, right? Is that those, those play out. The, the practices under Stefanski are a little, A little, you know, light. There's a lot of veteran days off and those types of things. And, and it gets chalked up to like, this is the modern day NFL. Right. Like, you can't have these guys that are making tens of millions of dollars on contract hitting each other full speed every day. But, but to your point, like, that's, that's what creates football shape. Right. I mean, that's what puts you in that, that mindset, that mind frame that gets your body ready to take hits, receive hits and give hits is, is being full speed. So, you know, there's obviously got to be a. Looks like a better balance there.
[00:15:21] Speaker C: Yeah. And either way, just devastating like you said for Nick Chubb after coming back from the knee injury, you know, we were even talking about should he even play with the Browns season. The. It's going because he risked getting hurt again and obviously it wasn't the knee again this time, but still another, another major injury.
And like, I mean, you got to start wondering legitimately now. Like before it was kind of like you want to say we can trust in Nick Chubb. We've seen him come back from it before. Whatever. He's going to be on the other side of 30 now, and he's going to be coming off of his third, like a third major leg injury in his career. And I just. You wonder if he's ever going to be Nick Chubb like we think of Nick Chubb again.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a fair question. I mean, I think, look, if anybody can do it, it's Nick Chubb. We all believe in Nick Chubb and his ability to bounce back and to be a beast. But to your point, I mean, it's another lower body injury on a guy that's livelihood depends on strength and speed and working on through from the ground up. So it would have been much more comforting had he broken a hand, you know, or had the labrum issue or something that you think, oh, you know, that sucks, but he'll rehab that in the off season. It's not a big deal.
You know, this guy's whole life depends on his legs, the shape of his, his feet, his lower half, and they just keep getting dinged up. And so I think this does two things right, is it makes the conversation for the Browns front office really easy because you go, look, Nick, we love you. We love you in the locker room. We want to have you back. But unfortunately, like given your injury history and where we're at right now, like, and the cap situation that we're already in with deshaun's contract, like, here's what we can offer you and it's not a lot. I mean you're going to be looking at probably close to a veteran minimum type deal for him. Maybe they can put some incentives in and things for him if he gets back and he's able to play, you know, week one. But, but that also puts him essentially out to bid then for somebody that might be looking for a running back and thinking, hey look, Nick said, you know, the all off season to rehab this, his foot looks good, he seems fast, he seems strong. And they might be willing to pay, you know, the additional premium to get a guy like Nick Chubb that the Browns just aren't in the off season.
[00:17:44] Speaker C: Yeah. And yeah, I mean I, I just feel for the guy because especially after, you know, I, I talked about it when I went, I was there the game, he came back this year and it was just phenomenal to see the city behind him and everything. But I think at some point, obviously everybody's a huge fan, but you also as a fan need to think about like is is it best for the, the team necessarily to have a guy that's coming off of his third straight injury, you know, his, his a third major injury to the, you know, lower extremities. And, and I don't. It just, it's a hard position to be in both as a fan as the organization and then you even go to like Nick Chubb, like is that what's best for him or is it better for him to possibly get a fresh start at this point and go somewhere else and maybe like ride off into the sunset at the tail end of his career.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: So yeah, I mean it's.
Look, again, I, I'm not going to write off Nick Chubb right now on December 15 or whatever it is. Like I believe that he a few good years left in this league where he's going to be a top back. The unfortunate thing is that he was pacing all time greatness. Right.
I mean he was having the kind of career where if he had finished the second half of his career the same way that he started the first half of his career. You're looking at 12, 13, 14, 15,000 yards in a season and being a part of that kind of top 10 list or at least the top overall Browns rusher of all time, that sort of thing, generational talent. And. And now it almost feels like if, you know, for lack of a better like comparison, it almost feels like watching your favorite pet get older. Right. I mean, and all of a sudden they've got arthritis in their head.
[00:19:33] Speaker C: It kind of reminds me of Todd Gurley from recently. Like, he was just dominant for a few years, then he got injured and it was over.
[00:19:39] Speaker A: Well, yeah, and it's. You don't ever think that those guys are just gonna. I mean, Todd Gurley's a perfect example because, I mean, it was a cliff, right? I mean, he got hurt once, twice, thrice, and like, then he just never played ball again. Whereas like, I think Nick and I mean this is his foot. So like, I think they're gonna, they'll fix the bone and it'll be fine and he just has to rehab again in the off season. But. So I still think like he has thousand yard years ahead of him. But will he ever be the, the same dominant force that he was now? I don't know. And, and does he have the longevity at this point to. To continue into his mid-30s?
[00:20:12] Speaker C: Yeah. And to be fair, I guess, you know, a broken bone isn't the same thing as completely blowing out your knee. So.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: No, I mean, it's still to. It's. It's better than he torn and MCL or ACL or pcl. You know, it's like. Yeah, but it's still not good because it's a lower body injury. So.
[00:20:30] Speaker C: Yep. On offense. I do want to shout out one silver lining in this game is Jerry Judy had another big game. Eleven catches for 108 and 8 yards, which puts him over a thousand yards on the season. And he is currently the fourth leading receiver in the entire league.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: Imagine if he had a quarterback to threw to him all season long. He'd have caught for 2,000 yards already.
[00:20:54] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, it is wild. Like, and you look at the, you know, just the difference between when he played with DeSean Watson and he was down here and barely getting anything to. All of a sudden it's taken off. And Jameis Winston, obviously, you know, we've talked about his interception issues and all that, that stuff, but at least he, he can throw for some yards and put you in positions to move the ball and Those types of things. And yeah, I mean, to your point, if he had a. If Jameis Winston would have been playing all year long, that we might be looking at all time great numbers from Jerry Judy.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: Yeah. I think the nice thing is, is it you start to feel really comfortable about having we have a number one receiver in Jerry Judy going into next year. Now again, I still would love them to add talent to that room, but you have a legitimate number one threat now in that wide receiver room.
[00:21:45] Speaker C: Yep. And then kind of, while we're on the topic, we, you know, we just mentioned quarterbacks.
You know, we said Jameis Winston, obviously, through the three interceptions, he was then benched.
And I just honestly, like, I know he threw three interceptions, but I just found the move kind of perplexing. I'm just like, I don't really understand it. I know we've talked on the show, guys, about how you've kind of seen what DTR is. I know there's a lot of people that are saying, oh, it'd be nice to see DTR get a few starts. But honestly, like, for what the dude's played, he's started, what, six or seven games now for the Browns, and he's played in relief quite a bit. And every time he's played, we don't move the ball, we turn the ball over. Like, just bad things happen across the board. So I'm just. And then, you know, he came in today and promptly threw an interception. So I just, I don't really understand all the people that are still high on dtr. I don't think he brings anything to the table as far as an upgrade over anybody that's on this roster. Like, I would much rather, given the interception problems and everything, I would much rather roll with Jameis Winston than dtr, so.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Well, and to your point, I mean, my biggest concern with DTR is the thing that has been my concern with him since he got to Cleveland, which is ball placement. And he sails so many throws. And you saw it even today on the one or two completions that he had. I mean, he just throws the ball high. And I don't know if it's a mechanics thing or what, but no one has taken the time to fix it or talk to him about it because it just seems like he's got these receivers just reaching out over their head every sing time he throws the football.
And that's a worrying lack of development. Right. That he's not putting the ball on. Guys, maybe there's just because he's got, you know, adrenaline or something every time he gets into a game because he's coming in for a short time. But it's not an excuse. Right. Like, you got to be able to put the ball on guys and look, there's things to like there. He's got good mobility. Saw him take off on a couple of runs there to try and keep drives alive. But honestly, at the end of the day, like ball placement and decision making and just the fact that like, does he, does he look like. Does he have the skill set of a top 12 quarterback? Like, to me, it's. To your point. Right. Like, it's plain to see that he doesn't. So I don't. I think he's fine as a backup. He's fine. He's fine in spots. If you had to roll with him for a game or two during a 17, 18 week season, you could survive that.
But I don't think he's a top 10 guy. I don't think there's any amount of work, development, coach clinics, training, things that you can do with him that's going to turn him into a top 10 player in this league.
[00:24:31] Speaker C: No. And you said not even a top 10, not a top 12. I don't even think he's a top 32 quarterback. So.
[00:24:38] Speaker A: No, he's. And that's. And that's okay. Like, look, not everybody is meant to be, like, not every career backup.
[00:24:45] Speaker C: And that's fine.
[00:24:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Can he be 32 to 64? Sure. He fits in that group perfectly. He's a, he's a great fit for that. And you look at guys like Colt McCoy and Ryan Fitzpatrick that made very nice livings and had long careers being. Being that 32 to 64 guy. So now that I don't like DTR, I think he's a smart kid in that I just, I just don't see anything out of him that tells me like, yes, this is the guy that we should be investing draft picks and.
[00:25:12] Speaker C: Right.
[00:25:12] Speaker A: Strategy and development and scheming behind to try and make this guy the guy.
[00:25:19] Speaker C: Yeah. Yep. And then finally for the Browns here, I'm going to go over to the special team side of things. Dustin Hopkins was out today.
This. This is kind of a weird situation, right? Because obviously we all know he's played like shit all year long, but there's like rumors that he could be going on ir. But then on the broadcast today, they basically were like, well, he just got benched. And so I just, I'm unsure of exactly what's happening here either way. I liked it though.
[00:25:50] Speaker A: I think Kevin said after the game that Dustin's our kicker, he'll be back. So.
[00:25:54] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't like that. I don't like that part of it. Like, I don't know. And if he is going to IR for what, like what, what's been going on, does that play into why he's been so garbage this year?
[00:26:06] Speaker A: Well, yeah, if you think if he was hurt, they should have told us by now, right?
[00:26:10] Speaker C: So it almost feels to me like another one of these, like, let's protect the player. Like, kind of like what they're doing with desean Watson. Like, we got some money invested into him now because we signed him to a three year extension. So we're gonna, we're gonna bench him and put him on ir, give him some time since the season's blown to get his head right and then come back next year and just run it back and. Which, you know, we can get in if you guys like to. We can get into this whole desean Watson crap that came out this week about how they're. The, the expectation is that he could still be an elite level quarterback and they're going to bring him in next year and they're just going to bring in some, some competition and give them the opportunity to earn the job and whatever. Whatever. Like, I don't like any of that. Well, it all just sounds like excuses.
[00:26:51] Speaker A: I mean, the first thing is, I'll say I did think that they were careful in the way they worded it and they said that they would allow him to compete for the starting job as opposed to saying he's elite, he is the starter, he is our guy. They did say, you know, pending the fact that he's healthy, that he would be able to compete for the starting job next year. Which to me, I think speaks volumes. It's the stuff that they don't say, right? Sometimes it's the most important.
And to me, that is a pretty clear departure from where this front office has been. As much as like, you know, small blogs and stuff want to blow this up and say, like, oh, Deshaun Watson's going to be back next year and Mary Kay Cabot's on her horse town and every day about Deshaun Watson being back next year.
But it's just, it's not realistic. Right? I mean, it's not, you're, you're, you can't, you can't bring him back.
[00:27:39] Speaker C: I don't know how he, I don't know how he starts another game for the Browns, barring injuries to Other quarterbacks that are already on the roster.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: Dustin Hopkins, I think, is another story. I think that they think he is so in his head right now that this thing is. He's just. He just needs a break. He needs a break. And whether that's one week and he has a good week of practice and they bring it back next week, or they look at him in practice this week and say, you know, Riley Patterson's a guy again this week to just maybe they shut him down for the year and say, look, get your mind right in the off season and come back and. And be the Dustin Hopkins we know you are.
I've.
[00:28:13] Speaker C: Has anyone ever been put on I are for the yips?
That's a great question, because I. I mean that legitimately when I'm reading through all this stuff. And then the fact that, like I said on the. On the broadcast today, the guy that we're just like, yeah, Dustin Hopkin got the day off. He was benched. Like, it just sounds to me he was legitimately, like, put on the injured report because he's got the yips. Because he's got a head issue right now, but not like a concussion. Like, he's just. He's got the yips.
[00:28:42] Speaker A: Is that. Is that the next step in 2024, 2025, the modern day. We can put you on IR for mental illness.
[00:28:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:28:51] Speaker A: I mean, like, your anxiety and Dustin Hopkins has it kicking anxiety.
[00:28:56] Speaker C: It gets. I feel like it gets sticky, man, because, like, we got to get this.
[00:29:00] Speaker A: Guy some Lexapro until it's in his system, we got to have somebody else kick.
[00:29:04] Speaker C: Yeah. I don't know what to do there. Like, it's. It's just a wild situation. But either way, though, like I said, I was happy he was not our kicker today. The only downside to this whole thing was Riley Patterson didn't even get a chance to kick any field goals.
[00:29:16] Speaker A: He was kicked his extra point.
[00:29:18] Speaker C: He did make his extra point, which Hopkins has had trouble with that this year, but he made his extra point, and then he wasn't allowed to kick any other field goals because we just. Anytime we had a chance to possibly kick a field goal, we threw an interception. So.
[00:29:31] Speaker A: And we've been saying this whole time, too, that, like, maybe there's not a really good replacement for Dustin Hopkins. And I had forgotten about Riley Patterson. Riley Patterson's a guy that spot played for the Browns in the past. Like, when Dustin Hopkins went down last year.
[00:29:42] Speaker C: Last year. Yeah.
[00:29:43] Speaker A: Yeah. So I don't. I don't have a problem with Riley Patterson being the guy for the rest of this year. Because the thing is, if Riley Patterson misses every field goal from here to kingdom come for the rest of the year, who gives a shit? It's Riley Patterson.
[00:29:56] Speaker C: How do you feel about all this? Because, because, you know, we talk about it, we still bring it up. Because I just. I loved how enthused you were last year with Hopkins, and he was the man last year.
[00:30:08] Speaker B: I mean, he won us quite a few games last year and he came through clutch replacing Cade York.
And I was kind of excited for him to come in. And I did not like Kid York. I was very excited when they got rid of him and he did well and they paid him and it seemed like he was going to continue on with the Browns. But like you guys said, there's something going on, whether it's an injury or it's just in his head.
And they're kind of.
[00:30:35] Speaker C: We want to go. The desean Watson argument, like a lot of, like, you know, a lot of people do, which is fine. I don't have any problem with the argument. But he, he got paid these guys guaranteed money. He's like, I don't gotta play anymore.
[00:30:46] Speaker B: I don't see that. I don't think that's the case. But I mean, I don't think that's the case either.
[00:30:52] Speaker C: I think it's a hundred percent. He's got the yips. He got to a point where he was missing one way, he over corrected the other way, and then it just got worse and worse and worse as time went on and he got.
[00:31:03] Speaker B: I could see them. I think he'll be back competing for the kicker spot next, you know, next training camp, you know, trying to win the job again, especially because he has been paid, you know, so I see him on the team next year for sure. But if we don't see him the rest of the year, so be it. I don't. I don't care if we lose the rest of the games. I'd rather have that better draft pick. So I'm at this point.
[00:31:23] Speaker C: Well, at this point, let's be honest, who are we going to be?
[00:31:26] Speaker B: Nobody.
[00:31:27] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:31:28] Speaker A: Wait a minute. We have Miami still before the end of the year.
[00:31:31] Speaker C: Yeah, we got Miami.
[00:31:31] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe them.
But look, and I know that like none of us were tour players, but we're all golf. We've all golfed before. Right? And you understand that like when you're going to the driving range or maybe you're taking lessons, sometimes you get worse before you get better.
Golf is a Game where you can absolutely just like lose your sweat. Like you can just.
[00:31:56] Speaker C: Oh, it's just gone.
[00:31:57] Speaker A: You just gone. I mean, you'll go out to the golf course and for a week straight, just. You won't be able to hit the ball. And you'd be like, two weeks ago I was pretty good.
[00:32:04] Speaker C: And usually it comes on the heels of some of your best golf ever. And then all of a sudden it goes to hell.
[00:32:08] Speaker A: Can't even hit the ball. It's like, what happened that I lost all coordination. So I think it's. Again, not that they're the same thing, but. But I think there's similarities there for sure in that, you know, once those mental things start to creep in, that doubt creeps in. You start maybe trying to change up your mechanics or get back to fundamentals, and all of a sudden you just find yourself in. In the worst possible place, which is, I can't do anything I'm supposed to do.
[00:32:34] Speaker C: Yeah. To that point, I think being a kicker is probably one of the closest things to golf in football, where it's all. I mean, most of it's technique and those types of things, rather than just being an athletic freak and being able to do what you got to do. So.
But yeah. So one more area I want to get into before we do our nominations for dog of the week here is coaching.
Guys, I think it's clear that the coaches we have now, particularly on offense, are just a far cry from what we had last year and in years past. Here the offense is vanilla. We can't really move the ball. We had a couple good weeks in a row, but overall this year we can't move the ball, we don't score points, and it's just. It's. It's embarrassing. I think the move from Scott Van Pelt to this Ken Dorsey offense has just been probably one of the worst things that I can remember happening to the Browns ever.
And it's just been ugly. I mean, what are you guys thoughts on the offense in general and just, you know, where do we go from here?
[00:33:41] Speaker A: I'll let Bowen take this first because I have some thoughts.
[00:33:43] Speaker B: So where do we go from here?
I don't think Ken Dorsey will be back. I believe Stefanski will be back. Just from everything I've heard, he's gonna be. He's gonna be bringing it back. So is he gonna be the play caller next year?
[00:33:56] Speaker C: I think if they lose out, they still bring him back. If they go 3 and 14, you think they still bring him back?
[00:34:01] Speaker B: I do. I don't think they're gonna fire Stefanski.
I don't really agree with it, but I don't think they want to start over coaching wise. I don't know about Andrew Berry, I don't know if they're tied at the hip or whatever they say, but I think Stefanski will be back.
Ken Dorsey, I don't know. I could see them firing him and then bringing in somebody else and then maybe Stefanski, you know, reclaims play calling duties. I don't know what the internal talkings are there, but yeah, it's been pretty. Jameson has had a few games, you know, where he's lit it up, but running games been garbage most the entire year.
Offensive line play has been very spotty. So, you know, you can continue to just make, you know, excuses like that, this and that. You know, offense hasn't worked because the guys aren't where they need to be. You know, they're not making the plays they need to make, blah, blah, blah. But yeah, I think Stefanski will be back.
[00:34:57] Speaker C: I just think that's so wild because I think this season more than any other season ever completely highlights like, yeah, I know he's won Coach of the Year two out of four years, but you got Mike Tomlin over there in Pittsburgh who year after year overachieves with the talent that he has. And I'm not saying that the Steelers haven't had talented teams because they've had crazy amounts of talent go through there. But this year, specifically, like the Steelers across the board, besides on our show and maybe a few others were picked to come in last in the AFC north, like everybody picked them to come in last.
[00:35:33] Speaker A: And to your point, Ronnie, they've had teams with talent. They've also had teams led by Kenny Pickett.
[00:35:41] Speaker C: Yeah, no, exactly.
[00:35:43] Speaker A: And they didn't get. And they didn't do worse than.500, right?
[00:35:45] Speaker B: No.
[00:35:45] Speaker C: And that's what I was getting to Kenny, is like this year they were legitimately picked to come in last and they're at 10 and 3, 10 and 4. I think they lost to Philly today, but they're at 10 and 4, probably going to win the division. And you've got, on the flip side of it, you've got Kevin Stefanski here. Mr. 2. 2 out of 4 Coach of the Year awards.
Who had the most talent, arguably the most talent the Browns have ever had on a roster. And we're 3 and 11. And it just, to me, it kind of shed some light on the fact that the Coach of the Year award doesn't mean Because Mike Tomlin's never won it.
Mike Tomlin's never been coach of the year, and he is a far superior coach to just about everybody else in the NFL.
[00:36:38] Speaker A: They're saving. They're saving the Coach at the Generation Award for Mike Tomlin.
[00:36:42] Speaker C: Yeah, I think. I think this year might actually be the year that he finally gets it. But regardless, you know, and. And to all our, you know, the Steelers people out there that like to get on and troll us every once in a while, you guys are probably going to be bitching and moaning when you guys are in the playoffs and either exit the first or the second round, you're going to want to fire Mike Tomlin again. And please do, because we'll take him. I'll take him, and I don't want to play him twice a year. So.
Yeah, I don't know. Kenny, you said you have thoughts on the offense, so I'll let you. I'll let you take it away there.
[00:37:15] Speaker A: I think Bill Belichick's buyout at UNC is only a million dollars after June 1st.
[00:37:24] Speaker C: Is that what's going to solve it?
[00:37:26] Speaker A: Look, Stefanski, Barry. Together are 40 and 41 point differential of negative 140, 143 over five seasons.
And they finished in third place out of four. Third place out of four, fourth place out of four, second out of four. And this year they'll finish fourth out of four.
It's just not good enough. I mean, it's just not good.
[00:37:55] Speaker C: What about that?
Tell me the argument that they should.
[00:37:59] Speaker A: Be saying, yeah, tell me you're safe. Like that's not good enough in today's NFL. Jesus, look at what Washington's done with Dan Quinn in a year. I mean, that's just a guy. That was another guy, right? I mean, this isn't. He's not the greatest coach ever to be in the sport. You drafted a rookie quarterback. They replaced a lot of guys on the roster. They've had shit ownership for decades, and they finally have some opportunity there to change things around. And in one year, in one year, you go from being one of the worst franchises laughing stocks of football to being a competitive football team, whether they win a bunch of the playoffs or they go anywhere. I would rather be the commanders right now than the Browns in terms of where we're at developmentally and as a team.
But I just look at that and you go, I mean, you're. You're under.500. You're. You're. You're giving up way more points than you're putting out on offense and you've got two playoff appearances. But I mean, let's be honest. One of those was a quarterback that you ran out of town. And the other wouldn't have happened if not for the magic of Joe Flacco, you know, saving the day.
And last year could have went just as poorly as this year in a heartbeat. And then this year, I think you see the true Cleveland Browns and what they're. What they're what this coaching staff is capable of. And it's, and it's 3 and 11 and it's going to be 3 and 14.
I just can't see a world in which that gets you another. A sixth year together.
That's an eternity in the NFL. Six years. This isn't. Hey, look, we need stability. We need to have a guy for a couple years. They've had five and they've done nothing with it except screw up the cap, bring in the worst quarterback on the face of the planet, run out of town a good quarterback and ruin the future of all of John Dorsey's fundamental picks that are the cornerstones of this team.
[00:39:57] Speaker B: That's a great point, Kenny.
[00:39:59] Speaker A: So I have no real, there's no nothing in me that tells me that these guys deserve to be back. I do think Kevin is a good play caller. I think he's a good offensive coach. It's just not good enough. Kevin should be an offensive coordinator for this team. If he wants to stick around, then that's just not going to happen. Right? They just don't do that.
And so, yeah, like, it's not that I just hate Kevin. It's just, it's not good enough. It's not good. And then you couple the fact with this year and the, the continued failure and continued lies about desean Watson and this back and forth and, and now we're playing coy in the media about who the quarterback's going to be when the season's lost or we don't know whether you go to Jameis or dtr. Like, it's just the management of this team is absolute bullshit. In this front office, there's not a person with a clue on how to build a winner and build sustainability and build consistency. It's just not there. It's just not there. So, yeah, Bill Belichick only costs a million dollars to bring out a UNC this summer. There's plenty of other guys that, you know, variable sitting out there looking for a job. There's, there's, and there's plenty of guys that you can go out and find, uh. There's been a number of firings already in the NFL this year. I mean, just go. Just go get a guy. Go get a guy. Find a quarterback in this draft that looks like the offense, they want to run and. And do it, do. I mean, bring in. Bring in your guys and make this team a winner. This isn't rocket science. We pretend like it's so damn hard, and it's not.
If it was, you wouldn't have the possibility of Dan Quinn and the Washington Commanders this year. It just wouldn't be a thing. So.
Yeah, that's my. I mean, this. This thing is a dumpster fire and needs to be treated like one. It needs to be extinguished and thrown out.
[00:41:48] Speaker C: Well, I know, I know we, we started with the offense here, and we talked Ken Dorsey and Kevin Stefanski has an extension because he's an offensive head coach. And then we got into Andrew Berry a little bit. But I don't want to stop at the offense. The defense is significantly worse. Like, you know, I, I don't get me wrong, I like Jim Schwartz, but the defense is significantly worse this year, mainly because they can't force turnovers like they did last year.
You know, I think people forget is. It's not like they didn't give up yards last year. They gave up some yards last year, but they would always. Almost always at, like, crunch times or whatever the case may be, they dial something up, get some pressure, and they'd get either an interception or a fumble recovery or something to help keep them in games. And they haven't turned the ball over at all. So how many games are.
[00:42:38] Speaker A: How many games are left worth?
[00:42:42] Speaker C: 3 and 11. 43. 3 left.
[00:42:45] Speaker A: 3 left. There's only 3 left.
[00:42:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:42:48] Speaker A: Okay. I'm just. I mean, because they're. They're.
They're essentially 60 points away from being the worst defense in terms of points allowed over the last five years. So.
[00:43:00] Speaker C: Right. And that's. That's my point. So it's kind of starting to show, like, and, And. And this is more of a question, like, I don't know who you put that on. Is that Jim Schwartz fault or is that the fact that the defense is gassed and they can't force turnovers because they're never fresh at the end of a game because our offense sucks so bad? I mean, I don't know what the answer to that is.
[00:43:22] Speaker A: Well, it's hard because you look at, like, performances like today, and I would arguably say, like, today might have been the defense's best effort all Year long.
[00:43:29] Speaker C: And I would agree with that.
[00:43:30] Speaker A: But it came in a loss, and no one particularly played, like, out of their mind. Well, but as a unit, I mean, you watch that game, and as often as they were on the field and as often as they were able to stop them on third down and forced punts, you know, this, this. If you had a competent NFL offense, you should have won this game by two scores.
[00:43:51] Speaker C: So, yeah, I bring it up too, because we like to talk about adjustments and things and how, you know, that's Kevin Stefanski. I know, gets a lot of flack for that. Is. Is adjustments are never made. And I think that's a valid point. And my question is, is that the same thing with Jim Schwartz? Is it not enough adjustments have been made? Like, you're not forcing turnovers this year, so what can you do to limit the yards that you're giving up, the scores that you're giving up?
And it just doesn't seem like this defense has evolved as it's needed to change what it. What it has to do to keep us in games. I'll. I'll give you. Kenny, I agree with you. This was their best effort all season long. I thought they played really well today, but outside of that, they play. We've seen them play very poorly. I mean, we were at the New Orleans game or the New Orleans game, so it was not good.
[00:44:40] Speaker A: Yeah. What does that mean? I mean, you watch a game like that, you go, the defense played well and a loss, but for most of the season, we've watched this defense play really, really bad football.
[00:44:48] Speaker C: Yeah. And then on. On top of that. So that. That's Jim Schwartz and then special teams, like, sorry, Bubba Ventrome, but you gotta go.
I know you were an ex Brown. I know all that stuff, but, like, you mean to tell me that every facet of special teams is just an unmitigated disaster and somehow this dude is still going to keep his job going forward? Hell no. Like, I don't think so. Ventrone is done. And plus, I just have to say this, like, since when did you become Bubba? Your name's Ray. You're Ray Ventrone.
[00:45:19] Speaker A: You don't get to be Gold Bubba when you're.
[00:45:21] Speaker C: You're only Bubba if you're somebody cool. You're not cool right now, man. You're Ray.
[00:45:25] Speaker A: They showed a. They cut a clip to him on the sideline after Harrison Butler had missed that field goal and it came away with no points. And I had to be like. He had to be thinking, like, okay, like, that's one more drive that didn't end in points on special teams. Like I can probably use that my end of the year discussions because we have less points given up.
Yeah. Special teams has been unmitigated disaster from Dustin, Dustin Hopkins to the return game to just, I mean the lone bright spot honestly has been Jerome Ford the last two weeks.
[00:45:59] Speaker C: Which is crazy because we, you know, we are not high on Jerome Ford. We don't really care for, for him here but he, I would agree with you, he's played well these last two weeks.
[00:46:07] Speaker A: Yeah, so like that out of nowhere. But like honestly like the special teams unit has been pretty piss poor all year long and yeah, again, I mean I think, I think you clean house. I, I think, I don't think you get. They're going to finish 3 and 14. I don't think you finish worse than that next year with a brand new organization.
[00:46:26] Speaker C: Well, and so you, you picked up what I was laying down. You stole my thunder as, as you know, as you tend to do because you're thunder.
But yeah, coaching, like we talked about Kevin Stefanski, we talked about Ken Dorsey, we talked about even going up to Andrew Barry at the gm. We talked about Jim Schwartz and we talked about Bubba Ventrone and basically we're saying all of them gotta go. So like it's, when you look at it, it just take this season and what's happened. I just don't see other, any other way around it. Like they've got to go.
[00:47:00] Speaker A: Well and Jim Schwartz is another one too that like again I like Jim Schwartz. I like the defense was great last year, but I watched this team this year and the thing that has been consistent all year long is the lack of fundamentals. Guys, I'm not an NFL head coach, but there are things that are consistent at every level of football.
Your defensive backs need to keep plays in front of them so people aren't behind them.
[00:47:27] Speaker B: They did that today.
[00:47:28] Speaker A: Your corner. They did the day. Your corners and ends have to play contained. They have to set edges on the outside and they have to stay home because at any time a counter or a trap comes back at you and if you're not standing there, you have all the big plays. We've been getting up all year long and it's not just on pass plays in man coverage. It's, it's, it's, we've seen it on stupid run plays. It should be a two yard run that end up getting busted for 40 yards. Um, I mean it's, it's just an unmitigated disaster all year long. Where you're watching guys not stay home, not play contained, not set edges, not keep guys in plays in front of them. Those, those are just the day one shit, right? I mean, and you look at like, what, what week is it? It's week 15. How many. Every penalty today was like a pre snap penalty, an alignment penalty. There were. I'll like, you get.
[00:48:21] Speaker C: I think I forget the stat I saw this week. It's like 65% of the Browns penalties on the year are pre snap penalties.
[00:48:27] Speaker A: And that's 100%. Coach coaching people not knowing where they're supposed to be, not knowing what they're supposed to do. That's on you. I'll take, you know, face masks, I'll take PI. Those things all day long. That happens in the heat of the play. Stuff happens, oops, sorry, I landed on the quarterback. Roughing the passer, those sorts of things. Those are in the field of play. There's no excuse to be 15 weeks into the season and your goddamn tackle doesn't know where to stand.
[00:48:52] Speaker C: I mean, when the plays are so confusing, I think what happens? Like, have you heard one of these play call. You've been watching Hard Knocks, you heard one of these play calls. They're just absolutely wild.
[00:49:04] Speaker A: Well, we asked John Hughes about that this week.
[00:49:07] Speaker C: Yeah. And, and yeah, sure, you can sit there and say, well, we only listen to one part. But like, maybe that's the problem.
[00:49:13] Speaker A: I'm only listening to their job and they don't know anybody else is doing.
[00:49:15] Speaker C: But even still, like, I feel like that. I feel like the play calls that they make have like three different assignments. Like, well, you have this. Unless this, unless this, you get the kick out.
[00:49:25] Speaker A: Unless he crashes. In that case, you have the interior block. Like, if you don't have the interior, then the guy behind you have to figure.
[00:49:31] Speaker C: Like, I honestly think to it to a degree that these coaches don't trust these players to make plays and do what they're paid to do. Like, it's, it's, it's that constant thing. What have we said the entire time Kevin Stefanski has been a coach for the Cleveland Browns? He's all. He's got to be the smartest guy in the room and the only guy that he's outsmarting is himself.
[00:49:49] Speaker A: And again, to your point, like, complicated doesn't always mean better, right? I mean, I think that that was, that was at least one of our fundamentals growing up at every level of football was.
[00:49:59] Speaker C: We were just better than that.
[00:50:00] Speaker A: Take the complex out and let your athletes be athletes. Let your athletes make plays. Don't let them. Don't make them think. Put them in a position where they're aligned properly and they have keys to read. And then you react and you go. You don't want to have to be thinking about about 16 different things. Again, to make a golf analogy, when you think. When you're thinking, let's see if I can keep my. My left arm straight, if I can turn my hips to 45 degrees, my shoulders to 90 degrees, and I keep my head down and I, like all of a sudden playing golf anymore, just doing math. You have to. You have to. To your point, like, let the athletes be athletes. Simplify the game if you can. And yeah, you know, just all the. All the things that the Browns aren't doing right now is what they should be doing.
[00:50:43] Speaker C: Yep, I agree. But, yeah, so with that, I mean, we're gonna be cleaning house after the season. If we don't, then we're just in for another mediocre at best season next year.
[00:50:54] Speaker A: Well, I'm worried that they're not. That. I'm worried they're not, because look how long it's taken them to figure out the desean Watson problem. I mean, all of it, all the things that we're saying right now are going to go just into the ether because Jimmy and D aren't listening to our podcast. But. But if they would, we could fix this thing in a year.
But we're gonna. We're gonna do this whole thing again next year. We're gonna bring back Kevin Stefanski and maybe some new play caller and some new offensive line guy and some new special teams guy. And.
[00:51:23] Speaker C: Yeah, I just had to say. I gotta stop you right there, Kenny. We're. I'm. We're. We. We've gone way too far with calling him Stefanski. So he's Stefanic again, and we will refer to him as such until he earns his name back once again. So. So if I hear anybody else say Stefanski, you're getting bleeped.
[00:51:41] Speaker A: I'm done.
[00:51:42] Speaker C: He's Stefanic from here on out. But, yeah, I mean, let's. Let's bring some levity to the show real quick. Let's get into the Burning River Sportscast Dog of the week nominees.
Kenny. We're not gonna start with you, Bone. We'll start with you.
[00:51:58] Speaker B: Oh, boy.
[00:52:02] Speaker A: I'll go.
[00:52:03] Speaker B: Michael Jr. I feel like he flashed a little bit today on the D line.
[00:52:07] Speaker C: I think he had one tackle.
[00:52:09] Speaker B: He's around the ball it was, it.
[00:52:11] Speaker A: Was a big tackle.
[00:52:12] Speaker C: It was a big tackle, but I think it was his only one. I love these, these recent dog of the week picks, they've been phenomenal.
[00:52:21] Speaker B: I'm just. I was thinking maybe, maybe they got something in him as an interior D lineman. You know, maybe he'll pan out next year and he'll, he'll actually be a.
[00:52:29] Speaker C: Piece if he could just stop pulling guns on people.
[00:52:32] Speaker A: Sure.
To defend. To defend. Bones pick there. A lot of times the things that defensive line does don't show up.
[00:52:40] Speaker C: I know. It was just a little bit of poking fun because I know last week's pick for bone was that guy made one tackle. And it was the only time that I was excited.
[00:52:47] Speaker A: I mean, if you, if you asked Patrick Mahomes who the word, who the best players on the team were today, he'd tell you it's that D line because they kicked his ass for three years.
[00:52:56] Speaker C: Yeah, that's fair.
Kenny, I'll go with you. I'll let you take him.
[00:53:01] Speaker A: I'm gonna go drew him. Ford, actually again this week because he had one nice kick return.
No, but he also had that. Ran the ball hard. Look, I mean, as much as I'm a, I'm a Nick Chubb fan. I love Nick Chubb.
It pains me to say, like, Jerome Ford has been the better back a number of times this season. Especially today. He showed some great takeoff and some burst on the 62 yard touchdown.
And you know, just for a team that's been devoid of big plays, I mean, this guy's at least covering ground out there. So I'll give him his flowers.
[00:53:36] Speaker C: To be fair, he only had six rushes for 22 or 22 yards outside of that 62 yard rush. But he did return, huh?
[00:53:46] Speaker A: He did the big kick return as well.
[00:53:47] Speaker C: Yeah, he did well on kick return. I'm going to take Jerry JR. And.
[00:53:50] Speaker A: He had two catches for 20 yards. He had that big screen catch that he. That was one of the best offensive calls of the day because they kept putting James on his back. And I'm going, can we run a screen or a draw? Can we, can we. Are we capable of trying to keep this defense off balance? Can we do something to mix this up? Because they're just in the backfield in his face on every play. And then we finally call a screen and. And it was executed perfectly. We just dumped the ball right over the.
[00:54:14] Speaker C: That was one of the better screens I've seen the Browns run in probably.
[00:54:17] Speaker A: Four years since Baker's been here for sure.
[00:54:20] Speaker C: Yeah.
But yeah, I'm going to go. Jerry Judy, obviously, like I said, over a hundred yards again and he gets over the thousand mark for the season, depending on how he closes this thing out. I mean, he has a chance to be a top three receiver this year. So just, just good job on Jerry Judy continuing to play well, be. Be one of the few bright spot. Bright spots the Browns have heading into next season, so.
[00:54:45] Speaker A: Well, I got news for you. In terms of Jerry Judy finishing this year, it's not going to be as pretty because DTR is going to be your quarterback the rest of the way.
[00:54:52] Speaker C: Well, that's. Yeah, yeah, I don't like that. But final thoughts here. This is on week 15. This could be anything around the NFL.
Kenny, we'll start with you.
[00:55:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
Just thinking about Nick Chubb had me thinking about good old Andy Bernard and the quote from the office that I wish there was a way to know when you're in the good old days before you've actually left them.
[00:55:28] Speaker C: Damn, you hit me in the fields, man.
[00:55:31] Speaker A: And just thinking about the running back position in general and our, like, our lives, like we, we really started. Let's. I mean, I've been a Browns fan my, my whole life. It's the only Brown, you know, team I knew existed when I was little and those sorts of things. But really, like, we started watching when the Browns came back in 99. So when you think about like the running backs that, that we've been blessed to watch since 1999 and whether that was the middle of their careers, the end of their careers, thinking about guys like Emmett Smith, Frank Gore, Adrian Peterson, Curtis Martin, LaDainian Tomlinson, like, these guys are all top 10 rushers. All time. All time.
And just thinking about again, like, Nick Chubb's trajectory should have been in that list.
And unfortunately there's a strong possibility now that he never makes it to that. To that point.
And again, just kind of going back to like thinking about how awesome it was to watch Nick Chubb run the football, how dominant he was, you know, post contact and just dragging through multiple tackles, dragging guys on his back. The big third and fourth down conversions where he'd get eight or nine and then the whole offensive line and Baker would come in behind him and just push him for the extra yard to convert the down. Those sorts of things just bring it all home to like, just say you wish you wish you knew like when it was as good as it was going to be, that that was as good as it was going to be.
[00:57:06] Speaker C: Because I would have enjoyed it so much more.
[00:57:08] Speaker A: It feels like you're coming maybe to the end of a lot of those good feels we had with, with our friend.
[00:57:15] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. Bone. Final thoughts.
[00:57:19] Speaker B: I feel like Buffalo handled Detroit today.
I know they, I know they came back at the end, but I don't know, like, from what I saw, at least in the first half, they were handling pretty well. So I'm on the, I guess the Buffalo bandwagon with rest of America. That's, that's my pick. That's what I want to see in the Super Bowl.
[00:57:35] Speaker C: Didn't Buffalo just get handled like a week ago or two weeks ago?
[00:57:38] Speaker B: I don't think so. They, I mean, Detroit was 12 and one today and they just whooped. I mean, it was a high scoring game, but they beat Detroit in Detroit. It was probably the game of the week.
[00:57:49] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. I mean, I saw that part of it. But.
But yeah, I, I hope that Detroit. This is just me talking. I hope Detroit wins the super bowl this year. That's. That's who I'm rooting for going on.
[00:58:01] Speaker B: I'll be happy for a rematch for sure.
[00:58:03] Speaker A: But it was a fun game today.
[00:58:05] Speaker B: They had. Today they had them. It was a good game.
[00:58:11] Speaker C: Yeah. I don't know. I think I'm just going to go back to coaching here and everything that we talked about in that discussion for my final thoughts is. Kenny, you kind of nailed it. It's fourth place, fourth place, third place, second place, third or fourth place in fourth place again. So they got to go.
They got to go. Like you could. You can make whatever arguments you think you need to make, but that's just not good.
[00:58:37] Speaker A: The glove don't fit. You gotta quit.
[00:58:40] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think an even bigger one that you brought up, I mean, those are, that's bad. But like 40 and 41 now as their overall record and you're talking, they're not even 500.
And we had all the pieces in place this entire time to not just make the playoffs, but make like legitimate super bowl runs. I go back to the beginning of the year. Once again, several legitimate sports pundits picked the Browns to go to the Super Bowl.
And here we are at 3 and 11.
They got to go.
[00:59:15] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, the other thing is too, is keep in mind, out of that 40 and 41, you know, 14 of those wins have come post Baker Mayfield.
[00:59:28] Speaker C: That's fair. That's fair. So those are my final thoughts, though. I'll get the, the stuff for dog of the Week up tomorrow for voting. But before we before we sign off here, let me remind everybody one more time to call the burning of sportscast hot take hotline.
Don't forget to call and leave your hot takes on the hot take hotline. We'll put them on air when we do our show later this week. It's a big week. Kenny will talk about that in just a second. But, but number to call there 330-227-8080. And be sure to check out our gear wwapping media.com shop. Kenny, that'll do it for us. What can we expect this week?
[01:00:06] Speaker A: What can we expect next week? I can tell you what we're going to expect next week.
This week. Yeah, this week. This next week. This week. This week. All the weeks.
This week in particular, we will be recording our normal show that will come out on Thursday. Excellent. Except for this. This is far, far from a normal show because this is our 100th episode of the Burning river sportscast.
[01:00:33] Speaker C: Burning river.
[01:00:34] Speaker A: Been time 100 times for the Burning River Sportscast. So we'll be Previewing the Week 16 game.
[01:00:41] Speaker C: Is that a blessing or not? I mean, that's, that's, that's for every man to defy decide for themselves.
[01:00:46] Speaker A: You know, I'll tell you this, as far as milestones go, to me, this was an important one because this now puts you in an echelon of the top six and a half percent of people who do what we do because it is not easy to get up and every week do hours of broadcast. Whether you're somebody that went to school for this, somebody that didn't. Somebody just enjoys hearing themselves talk.
The marketing, the distribution, the things that we do behind the scenes, the video editing, all the pieces that go into trying to build a show.
[01:01:26] Speaker C: We basically produce all the stupid that we have to do, but we don't want to do all do.
[01:01:32] Speaker A: We produce basically what is equivalent to almost like a small feature film for YouTube in those things in addition to all the other little things. Again, this has some special meaning to me because I think this just shows. Shows we have longevity. We're committed to this. We've done a lot of cool along the way, whether it be true fan travel, going to New Orleans, the Browns, fan crews. We've met a ton of alumni and had some awesome conversations with Brown speckers all over. So this should be at least for us, a chance to kind of let that all sink in, celebrate the moment.
[01:02:07] Speaker C: Become good friends with some of those alumni, too.
[01:02:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, this has been quite a journey. We've been on here. So to make it to 100 episodes, I'm very proud of that, that we'll be previewing the the Week 16 game against the Bengals. We'll have another Browns backwards interview, the sinde lucky dogs. And then we're gonna have a number of, you know, guest appearances, folks that have have called in to wish us well, those sorts of things to celebrate the milestone. So I'm looking forward to it.
[01:02:36] Speaker C: Absolutely. And don't forget to check us out on social media. Tapping media is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at the tappin media and burning of her sportscast, that's this podcast is on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube @burning river Sportscast and on X at burning river pod. And you can find us wherever you get your podcasts. I'm talking Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Stitcher, Pandora, iHeartRadio Pocket Cast Castro Good pods where we are, a number one ranked football podcast and so many more.
[01:03:01] Speaker A: Number one.
[01:03:03] Speaker C: Ah, the loss feels bad. But you know what? Feels good.
[01:03:07] Speaker B: Going to bed.
[01:03:09] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, that's. That's what I was gonna say.
[01:03:13] Speaker B: My teeth are a little fuzzy, so I'm gonna go brush them and then go to sleep. So bon appetit, guys.
[01:03:20] Speaker A: See, they're fuzzy.
[01:03:23] Speaker C: After fuzzy teeth, it's all fuzzy.
[01:03:25] Speaker B: Like, I didn't brush that that good today, so I got. I'll get it tonight.
[01:03:30] Speaker C: Oh, good job, buddy.
[01:03:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm just being part of the problem. Be the whole damn fuzzy problem.
[01:03:37] Speaker C: And only you can prevent river fires. Burning river sports.
[01:03:42] Speaker A: River sportscast.
[01:03:45] Speaker C: Good night, Cleveland.
[01:03:46] Speaker B: Good night, Akron.
