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00:00you can find all of his work over there at cleveland.com our good friend dan lobby joining
00:04us now dan what's going on hey jake how are you uh doing well dan i'm going to give you
00:10one
00:10opportunity oh tell deshaun he was too conservative and actually needs to be 500 yards and six
00:17touchdowns yeah right i mean i keep telling him over and over again deshaun my expectations for
00:22you are 405 and then next week yeah that 506 and then let's let's keep adding to it those are
00:29the
00:29expectations that i personally have set for deshaun watson i mean dan realistically i heard him say
00:35that today and i was flabbergasted i don't think there is a single soul certainly in the media in
00:40cleveland i don't even know that there's an irrealistic fan in cleveland that is saying he
00:44has to do anywhere even relatively close to that yeah i think most people understand that the idea
00:51of him being the houston version of deshaun watson like it's not going to happen but the best you're
00:57hoping for is can he manage the football game can he protect the football can the operation be clean
01:03can he just distribute the ball to his playmakers and kind of be the point guard be that game manager
01:08type of quarterback maybe make a few plays with those legs here and there i think expectations
01:12have probably never been lower for deshaun watson since he's been a starting quarterback if we really
01:18think about it so i was a little surprised that that's the the tact he took um and obviously it
01:25hasn't gone over well with a fan base that is you know ready to ready to jump on anything deshaun
01:30watson says all right dan i mean going back to sunday a true evaluation of his play obviously i mean
01:38they put up 10 points of the game we know the offense wasn't great but as you watch the game
01:44how much of that was actually bad deshaun watson football i mean honestly i think it was everything i
01:52think there were a lot of things that were bad but i do think it starts with the quarterback and
01:56when you have a nice drive going to start the game you know the script is working todd munkin takes
02:01the
02:02football because he wants to kind of make a statement against the team he thinks is very good
02:06in jacksonville uh he probably thinks it's going to end up being a high scoring game and and it was
02:10for
02:10at least for at least one side that was involved um and and then that drive stalls because your quarterback
02:17throws it right to a linebacker um you know those are the things that you just can't do i i
02:23just think
02:23deshaun overall just didn't play at an acceptable level now you know look did the offensive line
02:29struggle sure could they not run the ball yeah that that's true and there's a lot of young playmakers
02:33out there but you do have to as the quarterback be able to elevate some of those young playmakers be
02:39able to elevate a young offensive line if it's maybe if if there are maybe some growing pains so
02:45i think the bulk of it rests on deshaun watson because that's your job as the starting quarterback
02:51even though like like we said off the top the expectations aren't for him to be houston deshaun
02:55you still want him to have the ability to elevate people around him especially when you're playing so
03:00many young guys i mean going back and looking i mean it sounded like todd through his review
03:05i after watching back the tape and decided to name him the starter for week two thought that he played
03:11pretty well i did you get the impression from deshaun today that he was also under the
03:15impression he played well i mean obviously him and todd looked at it and and thought that there
03:20were things that that weren't necessarily his fault and things that might have been out of his control
03:25and and look i'll say i know there have been clips going around of you know maybe could he have
03:30made
03:30this throw or that throw i don't know that i necessarily watched it and thought to myself and
03:34even when i re-watched it thought to myself there were guys just running free the the whole game that
03:38that he was missing uh but again i i just think i i guess i was a little surprised how
03:44strongly todd
03:44came out and said well after i watched the film you know that that he made it sound better than
03:49it was and and deshaun i guess i would expect that a little bit from from deshaun watson i mean
03:54you're
03:55you're gonna look at it and maybe see it through rose-colored glasses if you're evaluating yourself i
04:00suppose but um you know i was a little surprised how strongly they they kind of both came out uh
04:06and and made it
04:06sound like it was better than it looked and i wonder how much weight they're putting on like
04:11the second half of that game and and then of course that throw to denzel boston near the end when
04:15i mean let's be honest jacksonville had let off the gas at that point yeah i mean they definitely had
04:20and it it just continuously goes back to this idea that i i continuously go back i wanted it deshaun
04:27to
04:27be a number one thing this year in the right headspace and it felt like uh leading up until you
04:32know week
04:32two of the preseason for the most part it sounded like he had been sounded like he had put a
04:36lot
04:36behind him was in a good mood uh his press conferences since then have seemed to tailored
04:40back to more of the deshaun that was a little bit more confrontation that we had seen over the first
04:45four years yeah look i've kind of been thinking about this deshaun has never faced situations like
04:51this before if you go back to clemson he was like the hero there you know in houston he was
04:56beloved
04:57and he was the hero there and you know he was always the guy that you know when he first
05:02got to
05:02houston it took all of one half of football for him to take over as the quarterback when he first
05:06got there and he didn't relinquish it outside of being hurt you know until they finally traded him
05:12to the browns so he's never really been through this situation where first of all he's not this
05:17beloved figure in in the community that he's playing in and secondly he just doesn't have that
05:22physical ability anymore to just go out and do these superhuman things that he could do at clemson and
05:28that he could do at houston i think the reality of this is if he had arrived in cleveland even
05:33with
05:34all the baggage and all the stuff that came with him if he would have still been superhuman deshaun
05:38and won a bunch of football games it wouldn't be like this fans a certain segment of the fan base
05:44will never embrace him but i think fans generally would have embraced this idea of him as their
05:48quarterback and that hasn't happened and he's in this weird spot where for i think the first time in a
05:53long time he's not this beloved conquering hero and and i think that has to affect him and again
05:59dan lobby with this here on the hotline dan i have to ask you because i think it's a question
06:02that todd
06:03munkin had to be asking himself uh at least monday morning do you think that sure would have played
06:08better in that game it's it's it's really hard to say um i think jacksonville did a lot of things
06:16that caused problems i think they were disruptive but i do wonder if sure could have hit maybe one or
06:22two
06:22explosive plays that that deshaun couldn't obviously hit the one to boston at the end but before that
06:27could he have gotten the ball and do a case he can set the own hands the owns hands could
06:32he have
06:32hit you know there was one play isaiah bond didn't play a lot in this game but there was one
06:36play where
06:37it kind of looked like he got by a defender but deshaun had started to scramble away from pressure
06:42you know i wondered to should or maybe make a play to isaiah bond there whereas i think
06:46deshaun made a more conservative play i think there could be a few moments where you'd look at it and
06:51say
06:52okay shador sanders made an explosive play i also don't know how he would have dealt with pressure
06:57i mean that's always going to be the question with shador sanders until we see it again when that
07:01pressure comes is he going to hold the ball is he going to make a mistake what's going to happen
07:05there so i don't know if overall it would have been significantly better but i think you maybe would
07:10have had a chance to hit one or two more explosive plays at least danny as you'll go back and
07:15re-watch
07:16this game watch it the first time we talk about the offensive line i know you mentioned them earlier
07:20i mean what was kind of the reality of it because the run game never got going and it didn't
07:25feel
07:25like you know jacksonville was stacking the box all that much and then hey we got clips floating
07:30around and stats floating around on social media that you know the offensive line isn't getting
07:34attributed any of the sacks and then people obviously rehashing that and replaying a bunch
07:38of the sacks what is the actual reality that you see i do think i don't know that the offensive
07:44line
07:44was as bad as people thought maybe off the bat i think there were some things they could have done
07:48better and again just like with a lot of these areas there are a couple young guys out there
07:52playing right like i think spencer fano was decent in this game but there were also some mistakes and
07:58you know you make one mistake as an offensive lineman it can lead to a sack or a pressure
08:03austin barber of course was excellent in in this game but i do think i i do think one of
08:07the delay of
08:08games came as a result of you know they're working on the silent count and he was a little late
08:12tapping elton jenkins on on the leg telling him to snap the football so you had some growing pains
08:17there but i do think the line i'm i'm confident that the line if they can continue to stay healthy
08:24if they can continue to play together and now that austin barber is going to be your right guard full
08:29time i think it can gel into a good unit but the the thing that concerned me is that they
08:35weren't
08:35able to run the football and and if you can't run the ball i just don't think this offense is
08:39going
08:39to do much especially if they're reliant uh on deshaun watson you were out there at practice you
08:45watched this team take a ton of snaps are they legitimately working seven stop dropbacks from the
08:50uh the shotgun or was that more improv you know improv from uh from deshaun than you had seen in
08:57practice i i can't say i've ever seen that that sort of drop now we're not out there for full
09:03practices
09:03anymore so maybe after we leave i mean we're only out there for like half an hour so maybe after
09:08we
09:08leave they have their seven step drop period or something i don't know um you know i'll say this
09:14with deshaun and i certainly don't want to be the guy that's sitting here just defending deshaun
09:19watson but he's always been a little unconventional and he's always been there's always been something
09:26unconventional about his game taking deep drops kind of just the way he throws it he's always been
09:32sort of an unconventional quarterback and and i think what we're seeing is to kind of go back to
09:38what i said earlier like you could live with that stuff when he was when he could put on the
09:42superman
09:42cape and he could make amazing throws and he was explosive with his legs he was explosive with his
09:48arm and he's just not that anymore so now all of this unconventional stuff some of these bad habits
09:53that maybe never got fixed because you didn't need to fix them now they stand out because you're asking
09:59him to be a game manager and he's not doing some of that fundamental stuff that you would want someone
10:05like that to be able to do what do you put it right now after watching week one if week
10:10two looks similar
10:11to that does he make it to week three for the home opener i i don't i don't know how
10:15you could do it
10:16now i i know todd my i think there's one thing we've learned about todd munkin it's that he doesn't
10:21care uh he doesn't care if his guy's gonna get booed he doesn't care what that atmosphere is gonna be
10:26like at the stadium but i i would think somebody in that organization i have to pull him aside and
10:31say
10:31todd we like we can't do this we can't put him out there and you know it's going to be
10:37ugly and that's
10:37going to affect not just to sean but everybody if he makes one bad throw on on a third down
10:44he's going to get booed like everything he does that is negative is going to get booed even if it's
10:49something that happens in every football game that's ever played like it's going to be such a
10:54bad a bad place to be and there's going to be so many bad vibes if he plays like this
10:59sunday and and
11:00todd mungin sticks with him for the home opener i i really do think somebody would have to pull him
11:07aside and say todd are you sure this is the the kind of environment you want to create for your
11:12football
11:12team to play in and again dan lobby with this here on the hot line uh on the other side
11:17of the ball
11:17dan i mean we were obviously talking a lot about the offense uh defensively this team was just as
11:23if not even worse uh coming from you know what was basically a top five defense last year i mean
11:29where
11:29is the the concern level at for that group right now well i think the big winners uh from sunday
11:35were jim schwartz and miles garrett and i know miles garrett got some bad news on sunday uh with with
11:40the the knee the surgery is gonna have to have on his knee and go on ir but i think
11:44you know i i don't
11:46know that we're going to be saying this four or five weeks from now maybe this defense will get it
11:49together but it kind of struck me that with that inability to create pressure that really exposed
11:56some things on the back end of this defense that we hadn't seen before and you kind of realize like
12:01when a quarterback can hold the football when he's when he doesn't have a superhuman ed rusher
12:05who is going to make him get rid of the ball in a second and a half or two seconds
12:09all of a sudden now all that stuff behind the pass rush that maybe didn't have to do as much
12:15for so
12:16long before now those guys get exposed a little more so i they've got to get pressure that's where
12:21it's got to start they call that the engine you know jared verse had a bad game i thought mason
12:25graham played well well you know malik collins is coming back from that injury i i don't know what
12:30they're going to do with that second address spot right now but they need to figure out a way to
12:34create pressure because i think in this game i think they i think this was the result of them
12:39not having a guy that was going to make the quarterback get rid of the ball quickly like
12:43trevor lawrence was able to just sit back there and sort of do whatever he wanted to do i mean
12:49in
12:49looking at it and looking at some of the stats after the game i think it was the the browns
12:52brought
12:54three blitzes is the defensive line clearly wasn't getting the job done i mean i imagine that's
13:00something that rudy's got to go back and look to but that's probably one of the areas
13:04they'd have to look at now yeah and then like this traditionally hasn't necessarily been a team
13:10that's blitzed a lot at least you know this form of the defense and you know it just changes everything
13:15now when you have to start to blitz because it used to be in a big third down you could
13:20just say
13:20okay we're going to rush and we're going to have our guys play man and you see if you can
13:24beat it and
13:25i don't think you have that luxury anymore until you kind of get that pass rush going and until
13:29jared verse really kind of gets going so if they have to blitz then that's what they're going to
13:34have to do but again that's going to expose even more on the back end so i'm not ready to
13:40bail on
13:41this defense on week one just yet you know week one is weird we'll see what happens here against
13:45tampa bay maybe baker will give them some opportunities to to get some turnovers like
13:50he did against cincinnati but um it was a very i think that was the most concerning performance
13:55because to me if tashaun's the problem you can just put in chador and see what happens
14:01there's no easy fix for this defense they've got to get that figured out so that was the most
14:05concerning performance to me on sunday well and dan on the back end of it i mean they played
14:09more zone than they have in the last two years basically in any game that they had lined up i
14:15mean
14:15that's a little bit of what mike rutenberg does but i think you look at this secondary too and i
14:20don't
14:20think tyson campbell is a you know zone corner he clearly wasn't working in jacksonville
14:24and denzel's good but i would also argue he's better than man no yeah well and that's one of
14:30the things that they kind of sold us with tyson campbell on is there they brought him in because
14:34he was a better scheme fit for what they were doing now i don't know that denzel and tyson were
14:39were really the problem necessarily on sunday i think the one throw was just a great throw by
14:44by trevor lawrence you know and it wasn't a perfect game from those those two guys but i think a
14:49lot of
14:49the other stuff in that back end you know miles harden got beat a couple times i thought grant
14:53delvin ronnie hickman you know you didn't really hear from them much and ronnie was certainly one
14:57of the guys on those deep passes where you saw him chasing the play so i think it was some
15:02of the
15:03other guys that were an issue i think denzel and tyson will be okay but it's you know they got
15:07to
15:07figure out nickel they got to get these safeties playing the right way like that that's the stuff
15:11that they have to get figured out dan looking forward obviously week twos in tampa against baker and
15:17the buccaneers i where are expectations in hopes for the browns kind of sitting at right now for you
15:25well expectations are low but but i do kind of keep reminding myself that i like we've seen this
15:30before with a browns team where it feels like oh man they're dead in the water and they're going to
15:34go play this game and and it's going to be a knockout punch yeah i think back to green bay
15:38last
15:39year when they were coming home to face the packers like oh the packers are going to kill this team
15:43next
15:43thing you know the browns win at 13 10 we've seen it on you know they lose to the saints
15:47a few years
15:48ago on the road coming out of the bye and then they turn around four days later and beat the
15:52stealers so this team has done this organization has done weird things where they're it feels like
15:58they're dead in the water and then they turn around and they surprise you on you know the next
16:03sunday or the next thursday night whatever it might be so i wouldn't rule out the possibility they
16:07could go to tampa and win this game just because it's the nfl and also baker may feel
16:13might throw two interceptions in this game you know he might take three sacks and jared verse
16:18might get a strip sack on one of those you know there's there's a lot of things that can happen
16:21in this football game now my confidence level is is not super high especially with the sean
16:25watson at quarterback i'm not going to pick the browns to win this game but i do want to give
16:30them
16:30a little bit of the benefit of the doubt and kind of see if they can make some adjustments this
16:34week
16:35and see if this looks better in the second game against tampa dan always appreciate you setting
16:40us out of time always good to catch up to you and uh looking forward to talking about this tampa
16:45game
16:45coming up next wednesday yep absolutely thanks dan dan lobby cleveland.com
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