00:00on what was a tremendously stressful, but ultimately a tremendously exciting win over
00:06the Panthers 21 to 18.
00:10Nobody's going to believe me by the way, but I did.
00:12If you ask some of the people at the other place that I work, I predicted 22 to 16 Browns
00:17win.
00:17I was as confident coming into this game as I have been coming into a Browns game in,
00:23I don't know how many years, probably since 2023.
00:25For some reason, I felt deep down inside of me, some eternal optimism with this game
00:33that they could repeat their successful formula from week two against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
00:40And I didn't think they were going to win that Buccaneers game.
00:43I thought, I think as many of us did that, that was going to be Deshaun Watson, Swan song,
00:48and that we were going to set sail on another crummy season with Shador Sanders.
00:52And off we go to the, you know, the tank for whoever quarterback in college football is
00:58right now.
00:59And then he surprised all of us by performing really, really well with one of his best games
01:04in a Browns uniform.
01:05And that set up a really interesting day today over at Huntington main field.
01:10There were conversations going on off the field about what was going to happen in the stands.
01:16Would he get booed before he even takes the field?
01:19Would they boo him the second that he throws an incomplete pass?
01:23All of this conversation around what is actually happening on the field of play.
01:29And we can get into all of that.
01:30But at the end of the day, what we got to see was a gritty, sometimes awful, but at the
01:37end of the day, it was a win.
01:39We got to see a win.
01:40And if this is the strategy for the rest of the season, if this is what we have to endure
01:45for the next care of the two, 14 weeks of Browns football, as long as it results in
01:52more wins than losses and positive steps forward with this team in every facet of the game that
01:58we've seen thus far through three weeks, I think everybody would sign up for that.
02:03The one thing over everything that I wrote down while watching the game, while sitting
02:09back there pacing, like, like a caged animal getting ready to come in here today was when
02:15ugly, but when often, if this offense is going to be run by a Deshaun Watson, that maybe is
02:22not the guy that we traded for that is still injury prone.
02:26That kind of has lost that step, whether or not he can run, whether or not he can still
02:31find guys over the middle and contested coverage and make some really good passes, which we saw
02:36throughout the game today. If this is the offense that we're going to have, you're going to have
02:42to know how to win ugly. You're going to have to be led by your defense. You're going to have
02:47to
02:47grid it out in the fourth quarter. And I could not think of a more gritty, more better testament to
02:54what this organization can be this season. So what the culture of a Todd Munkin led Browns can be
03:01that Deshaun Watson getting popped, getting the wind knocked out of him late in the fourth
03:05quarter, sitting out one play plus a little bit of a timeout, and then coming back two plays later
03:10and immediately throwing a dot to the end zone to Harold Fannin for his second touchdown of the game
03:16to put the Browns on top. That is grit. That is something that I can build off of as an
03:22excited,
03:23excited fan, as somebody that wants to continue to watch more of an offense and of a quarterback
03:29that at the beginning of the season, none of us wanted anything to do with. And in the matter of
03:34three regular season games and really only the last two games, because, you know, after week one,
03:41we all know what happened down in Jacksonville. We went from Deshaun Watson getting booed
03:46relentlessly in a preseason game to I'm seeing videos across social media of you guys that were
03:53in the upper decks chanting, let's go Watson. Let's go Watson. That's all it takes for Browns fans
04:00to get back on your side is demonstrating that you have the heart, that you have the grit, that you
04:04have the wherewithal and the excitement that want to win. And then you deliver when it matters the
04:10most. Deshaun Watson played terrible throughout plenty of stretches in this game. And I believe
04:16wholeheartedly that if you were to replicate that exact performance for the next 14 weeks, you're not
04:22going to win every single time. You're certainly not going to win once the schedule gets harder.
04:28And I mean, even Thursday night against the Steelers, but I want to talk about today because
04:32you did just enough when it mattered the most. And for a team that is kind of working with one
04:39hand tied behind their back with as many rookies as they have as so much inexperience that they have
04:45put forth in such key positions across the board from the head coach on down to your left tackle.
04:52That is something that is so quintessential to build off of as an organization where I think
04:59that we got stagnant with the Kevin Stefanski tenure and why that eventually ended after six seasons
05:05is from week to week to week. It didn't seem like there was an improvement on the team. It didn't
05:12seem like there was an improvement every Sunday when we'd watch and then we'd hear the same postgame
05:17press conference of we'll get it fixed. We had too many penalties that did up. And believe me,
05:23there were plenty of issues and Todd Munkin addressed it in this post game. And you know,
05:27who knows, maybe down the road, we hear him say things like Browns have to stop hurting Browns
05:32and we'll roll our eyes at it just the same way that we did all the Kevin Stefanski isms.
05:37But if you look at what this team has put forth over these last two weeks against really difficult
05:42opponents. Yeah. You weren't playing Superbowl contenders, but it's not like the Buccaneers
05:46and the Panthers are, are just nothing burgers. You know, you didn't play the bottom of the barrel
05:52in the NFL that's coming. These were playoff teams in the last few seasons with at least what they
05:58believe are franchise level quarterbacks and a lot of talent around the roster. You've done better
06:04every single week and you've resulted. What has resulted is two straight victories and a home
06:10crowd that was as jubilant and as excited as I have seen them. And I don't know how damn long
06:16and just even seeing like driving into Cleveland while the game is still going on. And I've got
06:21Andrew and Nathan Zagura on the call and I'm just stressed out white knuckling the steering wheel.
06:26And you look around at people leaving the stadium, holding their phones up and you could see the worry
06:32on their face. You look at the cars next to you and you could see the anxiety pouring out of
06:38them.
06:38That was something where we had missed as Browns fans. We had missed that living and dying in the
06:45fourth quarter because in seasons past in these last two seasons, we got to the fourth quarter and we
06:50were in our sixth drink of the night, or we were mowing the lawn by then. Now, at least through
06:55these
06:56last two weeks, we've been able to hang on every single play and nitpick and be an actual NFL
07:02fan and get excited about things that are happening on the football field. That is what we have lost
07:08over the last two years that in some way, and I know, again, I know it's only been two weeks
07:13and I
07:14don't want to overreact, but there is so much excitement exuding from me and from this fan base
07:19right now. And from that locker room from Deshaun Watson and Todd Munkin that I do kind of want to
07:25overreact a little bit that we have gotten back some of that excitement of what it takes to be an
07:31actual NFL fan. We know what it's like to grit out a win. We know what it's like to hang
07:36on every
07:37single run and pass. I've gotten calls. You know, we've gotten calls throughout the post game shows
07:44across the Browns radio network of people nitpicking specific plays. We didn't get that opportunity over
07:50the last couple of years. We didn't get that opportunity in week one because it was just big
07:55picture bitching about Deshaun Watson, complaining about Andrew Barry and the head coach and everything
08:01under the sun that didn't have to do with the field of play. And even leading up to this week,
08:06it was about to boo or to not to boo. How many segments did shows across 92, three of the
08:12fans spend on
08:12that? Well, we got down to Sunday at one o'clock and we actually got a legitimate NFL game and
08:19an exciting
08:20one at that, whether or not it was a crummy offense that only gained eight yards in the third
08:26quarter, whether or not you saw miss after miss after miss from Deshaun Watson and a run game that
08:32really couldn't consistently get going. Although it did, it was more successful later on in the game
08:38than it has been all season. You got so much back today and over these last two weeks that the
08:45excitement has to be there. This was a sliding doors game. I firmly believe that if they were
08:51to win this, if they were to lose this game, you know, you're two, you're, you're wanting to. So
08:56you're not out of anything necessarily. It's still way too early in the season. You're not Oh,
09:00and three, like some other teams, the Houston Texans, the LA chargers, who you are now two games
09:05better than by the way. But if you came out and looked more so like week one in Jacksonville,
09:12as opposed to what you looked like last week, you'd kind of look like that. You look at that
09:16Tampa Bay game, like it was an aberration and maybe the Browns are closer to that terrible four
09:21win team that we predicted at the beginning of the season. Then that team that won and gritted out
09:26a win in Tampa Bay, and maybe we're helped along by a two hour rain delay. But if you won
09:32today,
09:32like you did now there's optimism going into Thursday night's game against the sealers team that I
09:38don't think anybody here in Cleveland is all that worried about, especially with Aaron Rogers,
09:41under center. And then you have a mini by, you got 10 days off before a jets team that has
09:47looked
09:47better over these last couple of weeks, but that still feels like a winnable game. And then all of
09:52a sudden you're thinking crazy. These are the crazy thoughts that are returning. And that all
09:56throughout the week, I felt like, yeah, they're going to win today. I had confidence that they
10:01were going to be able to grit out a win like we saw this afternoon. And then once they won
10:06that game,
10:06I had basically already chalked up the Steelers to a win and I chalked up the jets to a win.
10:11So I'm
10:11thinking after five weeks, this team's going to be four in one. And I know that we're putting the
10:15cart way before the horse and there's so much to fix and there's a lot that we can get into
10:20and so
10:20little time to do so until our next game. But I think that at least for now, just relish in
10:28the
10:28excitement of two straight gritty wins and a formula of football that seems like it can result in a lot
10:36of victories. I said it last week on the post game show that approach, the sort of don't turn
10:43the ball over offense, big time defensive plays throughout stopping them, putting good quarterbacks
10:49in terrible positions to make awful throws. Like you've now done two straight weeks. That is the
10:54winning formula that Kevin Stefanski was never really able to unlock over these last two years,
11:00whether it was with Deshaun Watson or the carousel of quarterbacks that we brought in here.
11:05Somehow, some way in three weeks, Todd Munkin is able to go two for three on that winning formula.
11:11And again, I need to see more from Deshaun Watson. Absolutely. I need to see more from
11:16Quinshawn Junkins in the rest of the run game. And I don't necessarily think that it's Quinshawn
11:20Junkins fault. I just think the run game just not in a good spot right now. I need to see
11:24more
11:25from the offensive line and certainly fewer penalties that were backbreaking at points
11:29and just stalled out drives throughout this game today that puts you in a position where you had
11:35to go down and make a game winning touchdown and had to go make a game winning interception with a
11:40couple of seconds left on the clock. But that is a winning formula that you've now been able to
11:44replicate two straight weeks. And because there's so many young players on this team, because Deshaun
11:51Watson still feels like he's easing his way back into what it feels like to be a starting NFL
11:56quarterback in this league, there still does feel like optimism for room for improvement.
12:02It does feel like there is plenty of room to grow. And I know that how many times have we
12:07talked about
12:08a Brown season where for the first few weeks, maybe they don't win a ton of games, but they look
12:13impressive in some spots. You say, man, if we just got a better offensive line, if we just
12:18batten down the hatches on that run defense late in games, we're going to be able to win games,
12:22then it just doesn't come to fruition. You've had now two straight weeks of success that you can
12:28replicate against the Steelers team that hopefully you feel like you can beat that a Jets team on 10
12:33days of rest. I mean, how many times have we seen a Browns team, Anthony, that the defense is good
12:39and we keep asking, and this was last year, especially where it's like, man, only if we had like
12:44one playmaker, well, you know, Fannin last year. Now this year, you have two other wide receivers
12:50popping up and you have running backs that are good. You have room for optimism, really? And I
12:56mean, Watson played well enough to win you two football games so far. So there's reason to be
13:02optimistic that this football team might overachieve 16 for 30, 144 yards. And I know that's just box
13:08score watching. If you, if anybody were to watch the game, I don't think anybody can come away from
13:12today and say that Deshaun played a good game. His best game of the year is still week two,
13:17but somehow 16 for 30 for 144 yards and two tutties. That was enough to win you a game and
13:24win against
13:25a Carolina offense that just two weeks ago hung nearly 40 points on the Chicago bears that just
13:31beat the brakes off the Atlanta Falcons. Like this is not a slouch offense. I know that they lost,
13:37you know, Jalen Coker and a couple other guys were ruled out throughout the game and prior to the game,
13:41but you, you didn't beat a hapless offense. You, you beat a team that had a lot of success
13:49through two weeks. And as Dom mentioned, we're going to get into it over this next hour. There
13:54is optimism because there's so much youth. There's so much room to grow on this team.
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