00:01and he asked it to me yesterday on the phone.
00:04And it seems a lot of you guys want to discuss it,
00:06so fine, let's talk about it.
00:09I said something silly last Friday,
00:11and I paid the fiddler for it on Monday
00:13because I picked the Browns to win.
00:15Didn't guarantee a damn thing,
00:17but I picked the Browns to win.
00:19I'm not picking the Browns to win this week,
00:21next week, the week after.
00:22It's not happening.
00:24I'm not picking the Browns to win for the rest of the year.
00:26Okay, that's my solemn promise to you.
00:28I also don't set out on Fridays
00:30to say things that I'm going to end up regretting on a Monday,
00:35all right?
00:36I'm not saying that the defense is going to be great.
00:39What I ask for here,
00:41not trying to do a bit,
00:42not trying to be silly.
00:45This is a first-time play caller, right?
00:48First-time defensive caller.
00:50Can we have a little bit of patience
00:53with Mike Rutenberg in the defense?
00:55I'm thinking about hiding under the table.
00:57Okay, so normally I would browbeat you over something like that.
01:01Owen just gave you a look like you should.
01:04But I told you that I was pretty hot and bothered about things
01:09in a bad way on Sunday night when I was talking to you
01:12and we kind of got into it
01:13because I'm like,
01:13Kenny, the defense was the story.
01:15Well, because I said the defense was the story.
01:17You couldn't get off the effing field
01:18because they couldn't do anything.
01:20I mean, seriously,
01:21you turn the ball over,
01:22then you have another three and out,
01:26then you turn the ball over again.
01:28It's like you don't have time to make adjustments.
01:30You're right.
01:30So I thought about that
01:31and I eased a little bit on my disdain for that performance
01:35and then I looked around the NFL
01:37and I'm sure you've seen it by now.
01:40Defensive coordinators are flummoxed
01:42as to all the quarterbacks going under center right now.
01:45The league changes so much every year and a half.
01:48Everybody just scraps everything they do
01:50and it's all based on what Sean McVay
01:52and Kyle Shanahan do apparently.
01:54And then the whole league changes again
01:55and you heard a lot of coaches say,
01:57maybe I should have taken preseason seriously
01:59even though you know next year at this time
02:01we're not going to take preseason seriously.
02:03Why?
02:03Because nobody wants injuries.
02:05So what I have seen
02:07and what everybody has seen,
02:08the one trend that is inescapable
02:10is that the defenses are so far behind the eight ball
02:14and the tackling.
02:16The tackling went right out the window.
02:18Guys, we were a good tackling team.
02:20Tackling seems to always go out the window.
02:21There was no tackling.
02:23I mean, Jared Verse was getting rolled over.
02:26Everybody was.
02:26He wasn't alone,
02:27but I saw him on a couple of plays.
02:29We sit there and we love to sit there
02:31and regurgitate things that we hear
02:33and sound like we know what we're talking about.
02:34Belichick said it best
02:35and I understand he looks like Robert Poulsen right now
02:37and his son had to resign.
02:40However, Belichick said it best.
02:41The game's blocking and tackling.
02:43Everything else,
02:43we can get into the nitty gritty and the minutia,
02:45but it starts and finishes,
02:46blocking and tackling.
02:47You get in front of somebody,
02:49you get a few more yards,
02:50you're able to bring them down,
02:51you get the ball back,
02:52it's blocking and tackling.
02:53And you are right.
02:54I thought we were able to block them up decently,
02:56at least in the pass block yesterday on Sunday.
02:59Honestly, for the first game,
03:00for a whole new offensive line,
03:01I thought that took them off the hook.
03:02I thought they were good.
03:03Now, run blocking,
03:04that's a different story,
03:05but that has something to do with the passing game
03:07or lack thereof.
03:07But defensively,
03:09it's not a mulligan
03:10because, you know,
03:12probably they would have lost no matter what.
03:13Yeah.
03:14Anyway,
03:14considering how bad Deshaun Watson was,
03:17but what's something under a mulligan?
03:19but I wouldn't have started making copies of forums
03:20in the third quarter for other things.
03:22Like,
03:22I wouldn't have done that.
03:25And it's bad to start off the season.
03:27I mean,
03:28maybe you look at it and go,
03:28hey,
03:29we can flush it,
03:29except you're a first-time head coach.
03:31You have a quarterback that has no confidence in himself,
03:32so you can't even do that.
03:34It was a horrible way to start a year.
03:35Horrible way to start a year.
03:36Because it just reaffirmed the suspicions and fears
03:40of every Browns fan out there.
03:42And I think it made it a little bit more,
03:45because you're used to the offense being terrible.
03:46The offense has averaged, what,
03:4716 points over the last two seasons.
03:49The offense is abysmal garbage.
03:52But what really threw you off
03:54was the defense being bad.
03:56And I just ask,
03:59he's a first-timer,
04:00and he does not have Miles Garrett.
04:05Jim Schwartz wanted to be the head coach.
04:07He didn't hire Jim Schwartz.
04:08And he threw a fit.
04:09And then he threw a fit.
04:10A pity party.
04:11Okay?
04:12I didn't call it a pity party.
04:13You did.
04:17I know that it turns into,
04:18would you rather just hire Jim Schwartz?
04:20I know the answer with everybody there.
04:21But you do remember.
04:22Do you know the answer?
04:23Yeah, everybody's going to say yes.
04:24I don't know if everybody's going to be
04:26on the same page there.
04:27The phone lines are now open.
04:292-1-6-4-7-4-0-0-9.
04:31You know what they're saying.
04:34After one game,
04:35I don't know what's going to happen Sunday.
04:36I think we're going to lose.
04:38But everybody thinks that we should have
04:40hired Jim Schwartz right now.
04:42The vast majority.
04:44I mean, you can make an argument
04:45because I was about to say,
04:46hey, I know year one was great
04:47and year three was excellent.
04:49There was that sandwich year
04:50where people were questioning Jim Schwartz
04:54and just how good of a defensive coordinator he was.
04:56Or had he been figured out?
04:58You remember misdirection,
04:59some of the problems with shooting gaps
05:02and being caught off guard
05:03and being Swiss cheese
05:05on the defensive run stopping.
05:09Like, there were conversations being had year two
05:11about whether or not Jim Schwartz
05:13had been figured out.
05:15I think it's easier to make those conversations go away
05:19when you have Miles Garrett.
05:21I'm not trying to tear down Jim Schwartz.
05:22All I'm really trying to do
05:24is ask for a little bit of patience
05:28with Mike Rutenberg.
05:29Yeah, look, we didn't...
05:31Which I know Sunday,
05:31they're probably going to give up
05:32a plethora of points
05:33because the Buccaneers can score with you
05:34and I'm probably going to get hammered for that
05:37because Keith will definitely make a video.
05:38I just don't want to get too crazy
05:41because we all remember
05:43what happened in 2020
05:44in Stefanski's first game
05:46against Baltimore.
05:47Everything looked bad.
05:48That was Joe Woods, I think, right,
05:50as a defensive coordinator.
05:51But everything looked like a total disaster
05:53and we were asking right after the show,
05:55probably took calls one and done.
05:57Probably took calls for everybody involved.
05:59But Joe Woods,
05:59and I don't mean to cut you off on that one,
06:02Joe Woods, it was a non-fit
06:04because he was having guys play dime
06:06that can't play dime.
06:07He was having guys play zone and dime
06:09that did not want to play zone.
06:10They're not good in zone.
06:11They didn't communicate well in zone.
06:13I mean, you had guys back there
06:14who were trying to play hero ball
06:16that weren't very good at it.
06:17Yes.
06:18What were you going to say?
06:19Isn't that what happened on Sunday?
06:21In one game.
06:22I don't know what...
06:23I got to give them more than one game
06:24before I go ripping it.
06:25It's hard.
06:25Was that about what they had seen on tape?
06:27I'm sorry?
06:28The show's over for today, then.
06:30No, it's...
06:30Well, we got plenty of Guardians to talk about
06:33and we got plenty of stuff about the quarterback
06:34that nobody wants to see.
06:36And I actually have to come to his defense
06:37or really his family's defense
06:38coming up here later on.
06:40Well, then I guess the topic's over
06:40if you're not willing to...
06:41Well, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
06:42critique a guy who yesterday said
06:44that it was zone can turn into man,
06:47which I don't totally disagree with.
06:51But, I mean, you have concepts for a reason, right?
06:54Okay, what...
06:55Did you like the offensive line play on Sunday?
06:58I didn't like anything on Sunday.
06:59You didn't like anything?
07:00No.
07:01So the offensive line play wasn't passable
07:02with five new offensive linemen,
07:04two rookies, and one being a later-round guy?
07:06I don't know.
07:06I thought it'd be worse.
07:07Three and out, two play, drive stuff,
07:09kind of killed everything.
07:10You're being mad.
07:11You're way more understanding than that.
07:13You know you're understanding.
07:15You're a football coach.
07:16Come on.
07:16Because the guy I don't like is playing quarterback,
07:17and that's where the whole catalyst for it is.
07:19That's not Root and Toot and Fresh and Frutenberg's fault,
07:21and that's not George Warhop's fault.
07:23Again, it's all about getting the players
07:24in the best position.
07:26Sometimes zone turns out to be man.
07:27Sometimes man can have zone feels.
07:30And the truth is, collectively,
07:32we're going to do everything we can
07:33to put our best effort forward on Sunday.
07:36And again, starting with yesterday's practice today
07:38and focusing in on tomorrow's practice.
07:39I've sat through these press conferences before, Ken.
07:42I don't want to do it anymore.
07:43All right.
07:43If he keeps that up.
07:44All that zone turns out to be man,
07:46but in this case,
07:47the zone turned out to them defending no man at all.
07:50Sometimes zone turns out to just not do anything on that.
07:52There are no knowns, and there are unknown unknowns,
07:55and sometimes there are known unknowns.
07:57He does sound like Rumsfeld.
07:59Their zone looked like there were seven guys
08:01on the field defensively at times.
08:03Now, maybe how much of that is just Trevor Lawrence
08:05was on it.
08:06Well, you couldn't get a pass rush.
08:06You got to get a pass rush.
08:07You got no pass rush.
08:08And they were a little timid,
08:09and I still ask, were they confused in zone?
08:14Because if you're confused in zone,
08:17you start thinking, what happens when you start thinking?
08:19Your feet stop moving.
08:20So that's the only thing I will say is I've watched
08:23and listened to all these analysts doing the games,
08:25and they've all talked about the horrendous breakdowns
08:30that all these secondaries have been responsible for
08:33around the league.
08:34So a lot of moving parts around the league,
08:37a lot of moving parts with the Browns.
08:39Let's reconvene.
08:40Let's reconvene after this Baker game.
08:43If Baker shreds us again,
08:44and we've got missed assignments,
08:45and we've got guys just not tackling,
08:47and we'll revisit.
08:49We'll revisit, and then this doesn't look...
08:51I just don't want to be guilty of the all-time prisoner
08:54of the moment.
08:54That's what I'm trying to...
08:55You're kind of with me on this.
08:56I'm a little bit surprised,
08:57because I know that you were pretty upset back on Sunday.
09:00I was.
09:00So obviously, with five days,
09:01you've cooled off a little bit.
09:03But I like what...
09:05I'll tell you this.
09:05I thought that the offensive line played better
09:07than what we thought.
09:08I think that, again,
09:09there's zero respect to who's playing quarterback.
09:12And when there's zero respect to who's playing quarterback,
09:15and number 10's on the field,
09:17it's a little easy to circle number 10.
09:19And I think that's what happened last year.
09:22Coach Lance has talked about that,
09:24and I think that's even what happened back on Sunday.
09:26So you don't have a lot of rushing yards
09:28when they just don't respect your quarterback,
09:30or they respect your pass game.
09:32I still like what I saw on Sunday with George Warhop.
09:39I'm not ready to crown him the Bill Callahan
09:42of this group just yet,
09:44because it's been one game.
09:45So something I like,
09:46I'm pulling back on something I didn't like,
09:48Kenny, no like.
09:50I'm not going to go full throttle
09:51and say we've made a tremendous mistake.
09:53Not yet, anyway.
09:53It's only been one.
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