00:00But I'm not here to tell you that.
00:01I don't think they have no chance to beat Carolina.
00:03But I do think Carolina's a really good team.
00:05But we're going to get into a lot of the in-between stuff
00:08and why I think the way that I do on this game.
00:12But I am seeing that, obviously, we talked about it.
00:15Vibes are high.
00:16Everybody's sitting here with, not everybody,
00:18but a lot of people expectations Browns could win this week.
00:21We heard Jeff D. Lowe right there at the end of the station buzz tell us
00:24he's like an 8 out of 10 confidence heading to play Carolina
00:28back at home in Cleveland.
00:30Which is good.
00:32I enjoy that people are expecting really good things.
00:37I do think that this is like a bit of false confidence, though.
00:40In a way that you're not actually legitimately confident about the Browns.
00:45Because I sit here and tell you,
00:46do I think the team has a chance to look a lot more like they did in Week 2
00:49than they did in Week 1?
00:50Yeah, absolutely.
00:51They got punched in the mouth.
00:52If this team looks like they did in Week 1,
00:55fast forward to bare minimum April of 2027 now, please thank you.
01:00I really don't need to see the rest of the football season
01:02if they're going to look more like they did in Week 1.
01:04So, yeah, I'm inclined to think Week 2 makes a lot more sense.
01:07And I didn't think they were fantastic in Week 2.
01:09The defense had questions of their own, right?
01:11They still weren't getting to Baker Mayfield a ton,
01:13especially that front four.
01:15The offense still had no run game.
01:18And Deshaun Watson won a game in which he put up six points across three quarters
01:21and had an average air yards of 3.7, the lowest of his career.
01:26There's still a lot of questions that exist with that team.
01:28And I think that's where your confident level should be at is that,
01:32hey, this team could go out and win some games.
01:34There's games that they can go out and steal,
01:36and they have a version of football.
01:37Todd knows what he's doing.
01:39Clearly, he has some semblance of what it is to be a head coach in the NFL.
01:42He knows how to operate an offense a little bit.
01:45Mike Rutenberg's not a complete dud defensive coordinator.
01:47He figured some things out from Week 1 to Week 2.
01:50Okay, so they have their footing.
01:52But I have people right now basically back on their high horse of like,
01:55you know what?
01:56Carolina Panthers who?
01:57Okay, that might not even be a team.
01:59Pittsburgh, oh, that team stinks after two weeks.
02:02That's an easy win.
02:03And it's like, well, I do think that you could beat Carolina,
02:06and I do think that you could absolutely beat Pittsburgh.
02:09I think this week has a, it's massive implications for Deshaun Watson.
02:14I think it's massive implications for the way that the fans feel.
02:18I think if this team wins,
02:20you're going to have people taking the Browns to go to the playoffs.
02:23Like, just like that.
02:24Snap of the fingers.
02:26Schedule's easy down the stretch.
02:27This team has the opportunity to take down Tampa Bay and Carolina.
02:31Yeah, they can absolutely beat, you know, the Jets,
02:33and now the Giants without Jackson Dart.
02:35And they can take on, you know, maybe steal a game from the Bengals.
02:39Definitely beat the Steelers.
02:40Maybe steal a game from the Ravens.
02:42Everyone's going to start talking themselves into it.
02:44But on the flip of that, I think if the team loses a game this week,
02:47let's say for the sake of the argument,
02:49Deshaun goes back to looking closer to how he did in week one.
02:52Right?
02:52Throws an interception and basically plays the game that he did in week two,
02:56minus the fourth quarter.
02:58I think that basically everybody's right back to being out on Deshaun.
03:01And this is immediately back to,
03:03let's just see what we have in the young guys.
03:05It was never going to last.
03:06That was never going to be there.
03:08We are basically just hanging in the balance with every single game that gets
03:11played, especially games that are getting played with Deshaun.
03:16And I don't even know that that would change in week four, by the way,
03:19if Deshaun puts up a week two S performance and then reverts back to week
03:22one and week four, anybody sitting back and saying that they still have
03:27confidence that Deshaun is going to play 50% really good football.
03:31I don't think you would have it.
03:32It's just, it's sitting here, but I think everything rides on this week.
03:36It is a very important week for Browns football home opener in front of your
03:40home crowd.
03:40And I think everybody's basic basic version of hope right now,
03:44the rides on whether or not they win or lose this game.
03:46And in addition to how it looks like nobody was getting hope after they beat the
03:50green Bay Packers last year.
03:52They did it by basically lucking in and playing some lucky special teams and
03:57some good defense and you're like, Oh, they won.
03:59They're going to be great this year.
04:01It's like, wow, that offense stinks.
04:02And I don't think we can play Joe Flacco anymore.
04:04That was about the spot you were on.
04:06It was like, Joe's not any good.
04:07We had to watch him.
04:08I think it's smacked by the lions the very next week before we were like,
04:11absolutely.
04:12Yeah.
04:12That was about enough.
04:15James, like, do I, do you feel like I have the wrong read on this?
04:17Is it, it feels like this week is basically hope personified.
04:21I think you are taking the very good pragmatic approach.
04:25I don't think you're sounding like a fan from a fan perspective, man.
04:31Last week outside of the delay was kind of fun.
04:35No, it was.
04:36And it gives you some hope going into this week to see the quarterback play so well.
04:42Not saying he played, you know, hall of fame level, but he did play well.
04:46He had a good game last week.
04:47And to see him kind of progress, like we hadn't seen real live progression from Watson.
04:53So to see that, I think gives a lot of people a lot more, a different level of hope,
04:58because that was something we could like really latch on to.
05:01The first week was such a disaster.
05:03I think it was easy to overreact on one side or the other.
05:08Last week had progress, and it wasn't just like it was luck compared to like last year
05:13or the other times we maybe seen him and didn't believe it.
05:15So I think because of that is why people are more willing to buy in,
05:21even despite the struggling running game, despite the defense having its struggles at time.
05:27I think there's something about the confidence that comes when the quarterback just plays well.
05:36You know, and we're hearing Darryl earlier with the afternoon drive about the vibe just being immaculate.
05:42Yeah, they were singing Journey at Don't Stop Believing.
05:46They were just finishing the lyrics at practice as the music cut off.
05:49It's an entire team.
05:51It was good vibes out there.
05:52And I guess my problem is, and it's not that I think the Browns stink, right?
05:56I mean, I don't think they're the most amazing team in the world,
05:58but that's the thought process that I've had from the start of the year,
06:00and I picked them to win seven games.
06:02That's a middle of the pack slash slightly less than middle of the pack NFL team.
06:07The problem is that we have seen this from Deshaun.
06:11He did this exact scenario.
06:13This was the exact game that he played against Baltimore a couple years ago.
06:16The one game we hold on to is like, hey, he actually did play good football for that one half.
06:21That was his game.
06:21He did not play a good game of football.
06:23He played a clean first half of football.
06:25He played a good second half of football.
06:27I would say if you played a clean first half, you did your job as a quarterback.
06:31You didn't throw your team out of it.
06:34You didn't penalize us out of it.
06:36You didn't do anything that set us back.
06:39And that's where I got to give him credit for that.
06:41Like, for as much as it's the, you know, bottom rung of a tier of trying to, you know,
06:49what the standard is, it's still a standard.
06:51And, you know, as far as quarterback goes in Cleveland, you know, we already got across
06:55the first two lower bars before we get to expecting bar six, seven, and eight.
07:00No, there's no doubt about that.
07:02And listen, I said on Tuesday when we had our first show after the game, I gave all the
07:06credit to Deshaun.
07:07I think he did play well in that game.
07:08He deserves the credit.
07:09He should take it as a confidence booster.
07:11Absolutely.
07:12It was great.
07:13That's Deshaun's personal, what he should take away from that.
07:17What I have to take away from it is one game does not crown you and it does not give
07:20me
07:20an endless, say, you know, vial of hope.
07:23This is still a tough game that you're playing against Carolina.
07:25And I do think like as much as I think that if we walk away from this game with a
07:31loss,
07:31I'll be the person that ends up higher on the Browns than everybody else.
07:34That's kind of what I'm getting out of this is because I'm going to look at this and go,
07:38Carolina is a good team.
07:39It's not a great defense and especially against the run.
07:41They stink against the run, but it's a solid team.
07:45They've put up 30 odd points in their, their first two games.
07:49So that is a good offense.
07:50It's a respectable team to lose to, but if Deshaun goes out there and doesn't look good,
07:55right?
07:55I'm not saying great.
07:56I'm not saying fantastic, but if he doesn't go out there and look good, I think you're
07:59going to lose everybody off this ship.
08:01When in reality, one, Deshaun is still your starter for week four, has an opportunity to
08:05look good against Pittsburgh, which would give him the opportunity to go start against the
08:08Jets in week five.
08:09I would think, and I'm going to be sitting in a spot where you got a bad game out of
08:14Deshaun more than what we're likely there's questions to be answered.
08:17Is that more of what we're going to be watching?
08:19Hey, did we just get a lucky week out of Deshaun or one good week?
08:23Like we had seen against the Ravens, or is this something that can actually manually
08:26stay throughout the course of a season?
08:27We can ask all those questions, but I think a lot of people are going to move themselves out
08:31because the hope just rides right now.
08:33The same way that if they win this week, I mean, I don't know that I'll have as high
08:39his confidence as a lot of the fans, but I think it'll boost me with them.
08:42I'm not riding or dying with this game and I'm not riding or dying with this game for
08:45the Browns.
08:46I'm not doing it with Deshaun.
08:47I think he has an opportunity.
08:49I think he should look good in this game, but it's not going to be the end all be all
08:53for me, where I think for a lot of people, the result of this game is everything.
08:56And I don't think they know it's everything, but I think they are living in a moment where
09:00it's going to be everything.
09:01I think if they were 0-2, you'd be overly correct because I do think they were still going to
09:06start watching.
09:07But I think that there are some fans who, once he was named the starter, they were okay with
09:15whatever the runway was for him, whether it's four games, five games, six games, 17, right?
09:21And the fact that he's able to, through two games, stay healthy, I think there's anticipation
09:28for seeing how he looks after success.
09:31We have not seen Deshaun Watson have a lot of success and then be able to come back and
09:37show how he can handle that.
09:38Some people don't handle prosperity very well.
09:41They don't work as hard the next week.
09:43They don't study up like they should.
09:46I don't think that's the case for Deshaun.
09:48So I think there's an element of excitement of the unknown that comes with him playing
09:55and him, like I say, showing progress from just from week one to week two and just the
10:01first half.
10:02If he would have just gave it the first half and the second half as well, I don't think
10:07people would have been mad even if they would have lost because at least he didn't lose you
10:10the game.
10:11And I think it's so tentious right now that not necessarily people are rooting for him to
10:16fail, but if he's the reason we lose, it makes it makes the decision a lot easier for people.
10:20No, it a hundred percent does.
10:21And listen, like, I don't mean this to, you know, this isn't a conversation to temper Brown's
10:26excitement, Brown's fans excitement.
10:28I don't think at all.
10:29Like you should live and die with the team.
10:31You should be excited if they win.
10:32It should give you hope every time they win.
10:34We enjoy these.
10:35You get to play 17 games and over the last year, two years, well, the number of losses
10:41is a hell of a lot higher than the number of wins.
10:44So this is a moment that we haven't felt.
10:46This is just a night time in what?
10:4836 weeks of football that we have felt a win.
10:52So yeah, it should make you feel good.
10:54It should give you confidence, especially the fact this team is heading in at one-on-one
10:56one-on-one.
10:57Everything is on the table.
10:58Everything is possible.
11:00Oh, and two, uh, you can talk to the numbers people, not me.
11:03Oh, and two, your chances to make the playoffs basically plummet into the ground.
11:06You're at like 25% and, uh, well, you're pretty much stuck there.
11:11You have to live with the reality of the season.
11:12And if you go, oh, and two, there's a slim chance you climb out and are able to actually
11:16fight and make a competitive season of it.
11:19So I am sitting here and I want fans to be excited.
11:22I think you should be excited.
11:23I also just don't think you should live and die with this game.
11:26I don't think this should be everything.
11:28And I don't think your hope should ride on this week.
11:30If they lose to Carolina and Deshaun looks bad, he's got one more week coming.
11:35I think there should be a pause in the, okay, well, let's see, you know, how he bounces
11:39back from the bad game, because if he's giving you bad game, good game, bad game, good game.
11:45Oh, that leaves the Browns at about eight, nine.
11:47That would be a win on the season.
11:49If he played 17 games, going bad game, good game.
11:51Now I'd like you to live somewhere in the middle.
11:53You don't have to play out of this world, but stop giving me week one, Sean.
11:56Uh, don't throw the interception and look bad for an entire half of football.
12:00But if that's the reality of what it comes out to be, that it's Browns loss and a Browns
12:05win and they play 500 football, that is good, right?
12:07That is a win for where this season stands.
12:10Even though it's not a win by normal NFL standards, I think they should, this just shouldn't be
12:16everything.
12:16And I don't want to see people get crushed.
12:18If Carolina wins this game, I don't want to see people overreact when Carolina wins this
12:22game, but I just have a feeling that it's going to happen.
12:25216-474-0092, how much of your hope rides on this week's result?
12:30Be honest with yourself.
12:32They win.
12:33I think you're going to be even more overconfident than you have ever been.
12:36If they lose, I think people are ready to flip like a quarter.
Comments