00:00I'm just happy.
00:01And I think that a lot of you guys are happy too,
00:03because we had zero expectations for this team.
00:06Like even like people that were predicting them to win seven or eight games,
00:10it wasn't in a positive light.
00:13It wasn't like, yeah,
00:14they're going to be a really confident seven or eight win team.
00:17It was like, ah, they could like stumble their way into seven or eight wins.
00:20They could play crappy football and great defense and just win a bunch of
00:25games, six to three.
00:27And like, so far they've kind of done that.
00:29But like, I don't know there,
00:32this is the most confident in this team,
00:35in this system that I've been since 2023.
00:39And even then in 2023,
00:41it was that magic carpet ride with Joe Flacco.
00:44For the first time since 2023,
00:47I woke up excited to watch the game and not like I felt like I was doing it.
00:52Like I was clocking into work.
00:54That's how the last two weeks felt.
00:56I wasn't excited to watch Browns football.
00:59I was excited for the fact that my team was playing and that I hadn't seen him in a,
01:03in however many months.
01:04And I was intrigued by the young guys.
01:07And I was intrigued by what was going on throughout the roster and how Todd Munkin would be.
01:11But I wasn't confident in a Deshaun Watson led offense with five new starting offensive linemen and a bunch of
01:18unproven wide receivers.
01:19And Jerry Judy,
01:20who seems more,
01:21you know,
01:22interested in how many yards and receptions he gets,
01:25as opposed to actually bettering himself as a player and bettering the rest of the team and the wide receiver
01:30room,
01:31like all these,
01:31all these different things.
01:32Like it was such a crappy off season.
01:35I wasn't happy sitting down for the first time today.
01:39I was,
01:40I sprung out of bed.
01:42Like it was real excitement,
01:44joyous occasion of being a fan of a team that I felt like they were going to win today against
01:50the team that I think pretty highly of.
01:53Like,
01:54I don't think that the Panthers are going to go off and set sail to win the NFC championship this
01:59year,
01:59but I think that they're a good team.
02:01And I think that Bryce young is taking meaningful steps to being a good quarterback.
02:06I can't remember the last time I had confidence like this.
02:09I can't remember the last time I went on air or talked to my,
02:13you know,
02:13day-to-day lives about the team winning what now four straight games.
02:18Like I've been doing over this last week,
02:20because I told you guys at the top of the show,
02:23I felt like if they won this game today to improve the two and one,
02:27that Steelers win was all but a victory.
02:29You can chalk that one up right now.
02:30And then you have 10,
02:3110 days off until the jets game.
02:34And the jets aren't that good.
02:36I know that they almost beat the lions today,
02:38but like,
02:38I feel as confident in the Browns team winning that game as I do the jets.
02:44I can't remember the last time I was like this.
02:46So there's,
02:47there's just a ton of optimism going through the,
02:51like being a Browns fan today.
02:53And I think that it's a good idea to relish that and sit in that and be
02:56excited about it for a couple of days.
02:59Allow yourself to be excited about the fact that your favorite football team
03:02is two and one,
03:04allow yourself to be happy that you don't have to pay attention to every
03:08single throw that Arch Manning and Dante Moore,
03:11Lenora Sellers,
03:13Darian Mensah,
03:14CJ car,
03:15all these guys that we've been talking about all off season,
03:17while we've been spinning our wheels,
03:18waiting for the season to start,
03:19we can set that aside for a while.
03:22Cause yeah,
03:23it's going to be there.
03:23Eventually we've got two first round picks.
03:25We know what the deal is here.
03:27We know that Deshaun's not your long-term answer and he's probably gone June
03:30one of next year,
03:32but you can set all that aside for a little bit and focus on being a fan of an
03:36NFL team weekend and week out.
03:39That is what it's supposed to be like.
03:41You're not supposed to be going into the season excited more.
03:45So for the guys playing on Friday and Saturday nights,
03:47then the guys playing for your football team on Sunday.
03:51Now,
03:51at least for a little stretch of time,
03:53we have an opportunity to focus solely on this team.
03:57So focus solely on the young guys throughout this roster that perform their
04:02asses off today and continue to watch them improve day in and day out.
04:07That is something to hold on to.
04:09And I think that's something that we can really relish in over these next
04:14couple of days.
04:15With that being said,
04:16there were some things that weren't so good.
04:19I wrote down after the first half that there's still so much room for growth
04:24with this team.
04:26The penalties need to get fixed,
04:28man.
04:28I mean,
04:29just a ridiculous first half and it happened throughout the second half too.
04:33I mean,
04:33you started the second half off with a penalty and then Malachi Corley got
04:38blown up and then they had to redo the kickoff and then he fumbles the ball
04:42and you're thinking like,
04:42Oh my God,
04:43this is just not good.
04:44And all throughout that third quarter,
04:46you couldn't move the ball.
04:48It was so clear to me that the defense was gassed and was just needed to be off
04:52the field for just a little bit of time.
04:54And the offense wasn't doing anything for you to keep you rested and get you
04:59recharged a little bit.
05:00And you're sitting there thinking like,
05:02all right,
05:03well,
05:03this is,
05:03this is how this is going to go.
05:04The Panthers took the 12 to 10 lead on that field goal.
05:07When Bryce young seemed like he was really starting to hit a groove and our
05:10secondary was just,
05:12I don't know what playing back or what,
05:14whatever the hell they were doing.
05:15Like it was clear that they were gassed and you're just like,
05:18all right,
05:19well,
05:19this is,
05:19this is how this is going to go.
05:20We're going to blow a 10 point lead.
05:22I'm going to come in here complaining for two hours and just not be happy about
05:27this thing because we had an opportunity and this offense that I'm not all that
05:31confident in to begin with just prove me right.
05:34And I didn't want them to prove me right because I saw what they could do in
05:37crunch time in Tampa Bay.
05:40Again,
05:40instead they,
05:41they showed out in the fourth quarter and performed higher at a really,
05:47really high level and did exactly what you needed to do to win the game in
05:51crunch time.
05:51But there's things that Todd Munkin touched on today of Browns need to stop
05:57hurting Browns,
05:59the holding calls,
06:00the false starts,
06:01the illegal shifts,
06:02things like that,
06:03that are kind of like that are very,
06:06very avoidable.
06:07Those things have to get cleared up.
06:09I remember talking to a high school coach last year that was like,
06:12Hey,
06:12between the,
06:13between the whistles,
06:15like if you get called for a defensive pass interference,
06:17but it was a little ticky tack or you accidentally get a guy's face mask.
06:22You accidentally hit a quarterback a little bit too late,
06:24but your momentum was already going there.
06:26Like all of those things are kind of excusable.
06:30They're teachable moments,
06:31but it's the pre snap and post app stuff that really gets coaches upset and
06:36fired up about what Todd Munkin called bleep football.
06:40You know,
06:40you know,
06:41the word that he,
06:42that he used,
06:42there were some things pre snap that hindered this offense and they weren't
06:48necessarily backbreaking because they were able to stay in the game
06:52throughout and able to get themselves in a position for a game winning drive in
06:56the fourth quarter.
06:56But there was enough to where if they compounded and the Panthers took advantage
07:01of those mistakes that this game wouldn't have been as close as it would have been.
07:05If this game would have been a two touchdown loss,
07:08and we would have been talking about all these different things,
07:11the boo birds would have been well,
07:13you know,
07:13what in,
07:14in full force over at Huntington bank field.
07:17The offensive line has a lot of room to grow.
07:20That's clear to me.
07:21Again,
07:22Spencer for no,
07:23I don't know how good of a game.
07:24He ended up having,
07:25I'm not an offensive line guru,
07:27but he seemed like he was thrown off of his mark a lot.
07:31Maybe they need to look a little bit more critically at Titus Howard and what
07:35he looks like.
07:36I know that they're down one guy in Parker Brailsford as more of a backup
07:40option.
07:41He's more of an interior guy.
07:43He'd be your starting center eventually,
07:44but for as consistent as they were for the first two weeks,
07:48I was,
07:49I was not super impressed with the step back that they took against,
07:54the Panthers and against the defense and a front line that going into it,
07:59we were like,
07:59this is not that good of a defense is not that good of a pass rush.
08:03They can really feast.
08:05They can really get the run game going.
08:06And I think that's going to be the key for Deshaun Watson in this offense
08:10moving forward is can you get Quinshawn Jenkins going?
08:14Can you get that run game going?
08:15Obviously,
08:16you know,
08:17he,
08:17Jenkins had his best game of the season.
08:19He got up to 70 yards.
08:21He broke off an 11 yard run today.
08:22They said on the broadcast,
08:24which surprised all of us that that 11 yard run was the longest by a Browns
08:28player this season.
08:29But it still felt like there was something lacking there to where if I need
08:34to get three yards,
08:35if I need to establish the run early in the game,
08:38that's just not there yet.
08:40And there's a lot more room to grow in that department.
08:43But I mean,
08:44Deshaun got out to people in space consistently.
08:47He tossed to five different wide receivers.
08:51I mean,
08:51Raheem Sanders,
08:52your backup at third string running back came out of nowhere and did really,
08:58really well for,
08:58for 34 today.
09:00And then you think about adding Dylan Sampson back in a couple of weeks,
09:03there's optimism here that hopefully you can mitigate some of these mistakes
09:07moving forward.
09:08But again,
09:09maybe a better coach team,
09:10maybe a more well-oiled machine that you play against.
09:14Some of those mistakes are going to be capitalized upon.
09:17But at the end of the day,
09:19we can complain about those things from a two in one perspective.
09:22We can complain about how the offensive line played or how the secondary looked
09:27outside of Denzel Ward and Carson Swessinger from a position of excitement and
09:33winning and going into a highly anticipated Thursday night game against the
09:38Steelers with a two in one record and a chance to be a top the AFC North.
09:43This was a lot of fun today.
09:45I had a lot of fun in with y'all.
09:47I'm not going to be in Thursday night.
09:49They don't want me on that late.
09:50Anyways,
09:50I will be on when they play the jets,
09:53but until then be excited,
09:55Cleveland,
09:56be happy.
09:56Your Cleveland Browns are two in one.
09:59That's it for the fan final call.
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