00:00We go to the Wiseheart Wright, we make it right, call Kyle Wright Hotline.
00:03She usually joins us on Tuesdays at 11 o'clock,
00:06but the Browns got in the way of that yesterday.
00:08So we're thrilled to have Mary Kay Cabot from the PlainDealerCliven.com
00:11with us right now.
00:12Hi, Mary Kay.
00:13Hey, Mary Kay.
00:14Hey, guys.
00:15How are you doing?
00:15Good.
00:16We're well.
00:16How about the Browns on a Thursday night with a chance to go to 3-1?
00:20As I said earlier, Mary Kay, 2-1 seems like, hey, great start.
00:24That's nice.
00:253-1 makes you think, wait a minute, what's really going on here?
00:28What could this team possibly do?
00:31Well, at this point in the season, it really doesn't get much better
00:35than to be hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers for first place in the AFC North
00:40at Huntington Bank Field.
00:42So exciting.
00:43Primetime football coming off of two victories.
00:46Deshaun surprising everyone by playing well, coming through in the clutch,
00:50and it's just an exciting time in Brownstown.
00:54It was interesting to read your story again today,
00:56just talking about how Deshaun really wants the fans on his side.
00:59Beating the Steelers would be huge.
01:03I'm just – we were just discussing the whole rivalry thing with Pittsburgh,
01:07and is that what plays into it, or is it just – you know,
01:10just going 3-1 in itself should help him.
01:14I mean, we talk about Deshaun Watson going from, like,
01:17everyone talking about booing him to let's go Watson on Sunday.
01:20It's been a crazy 180.
01:23It really absolutely has.
01:26And I think it shows that Browns fans want good football.
01:29They want excitement.
01:30They want touchdown passes.
01:32And that place was electric on Sunday when he threw that game-winning touchdown pass.
01:36So that's what fans want.
01:38But my point of that story was the fact that even Josh Cribs used to say,
01:42no matter what, we have to beat Pittsburgh, right?
01:45I mean, that was always the assignment.
01:47You must beat Pittsburgh, and it doesn't take long for Browns players to figure that out
01:53when they are in town, that that's what fans want.
01:57And if Deshaun can do that, and he can do it in front of the home crowd
02:01and do it on national television, that's going to go a long, long way
02:06towards bringing fans back on board.
02:08Mary Kay, where do you think he is right now as a quarterback?
02:11Two years without playing, basically.
02:13Is he knocking off the rust, or is this about the level of play you think we can expect?
02:21Well, I'll tell you what.
02:22People always judge quarterbacks as though they exist in a vacuum,
02:26and it's just not true.
02:27It's not the case.
02:29You have to look at the whole picture of what's going on with an offense.
02:33And right now, he's playing on arguably, I think it is the youngest offense in the NFL.
02:39Most of the players are either first-year players or second-year players.
02:43It's a brand-new offensive line.
02:45And you could see in that game against the Panthers, there were some issues with that
02:48offensive line and with the protection and with the blocking schemes and those kinds of things.
02:53So you cannot just put this all on Deshaun and say, you know, how is he doing and how has
02:59he performed?
03:00Yes, you can do that to a certain extent, but you have to look at the whole entire picture.
03:04When I went back and watched the film of that Panthers game, I thought he played his tail off.
03:10I thought he put the team on his back offensively and carried it through some very, very difficult times.
03:17If you look at that long, epic drive where they committed five offensive penalties on that drive,
03:23he threw a beautiful 23-yard touchdown pass to Denzel Boston to the Panthers' 11.
03:29It was wiped out by a holding call.
03:31And there were other things like that, too.
03:33So the supporting cast, they just all have to get working together, which was, of course,
03:40my beef all the way back in April, saying that the first-team offense needs time on task,
03:47rep after rep, rep after rep.
03:49And they're just starting now to work out some of the kinks.
03:53Mary Kay, I want to turn to the other side of the ball and Mason Graham and how he's looked,
03:57especially the last game.
03:59But, I mean, four sacks, three games, looking good.
04:01How much has his game changed because Miles is not there?
04:06Well, you guys know that I was sort of beating that drum right from the start,
04:12that Mason was going to be one of the players that sort of busted out in the absence of Miles
04:18Garrett.
04:18I thought he was somewhat dwarfed by the presence of Miles Garrett and that we would see some things from
04:23him
04:23that perhaps we didn't see before, that maybe he wasn't as explosive to the ball
04:28because you don't want to steal a half a sack from Miles Garrett in a year when they're going for
04:32that record
04:32or whatever the case may be.
04:35The other part of it is just as a rookie, you're learning the job.
04:39Now he's got his sea legs and he can just play fast.
04:41So it has to do with a number of things, but I think that's one of them.
04:47Do you think he was asked to do different things last year, Mary Kay, by Jim Schwartz,
04:51and he's being asked to do different things by Rudy this year because Miles isn't there?
04:58No, I don't really think so.
04:59I think it's an attack-style defense that he did not play in college.
05:05So it was a completely different paradigm for him last year to come into this defense
05:11and it's basically see quarterback, get quarterback.
05:15You just go.
05:16And that's not how he played before.
05:18And so I think he was probably at times tentative to just be as explosive as he could be.
05:24And now he's unleashed and he's just letting it rip, and that's what they really need.
05:32Let's just talk about Todd Munkin's influence in here because it was just interesting to hear people say
05:36over the last week or so that, well, they'd be 3-0 or they wouldn't be 2-1 if Kevin
05:42was still here.
05:43One, I don't think that's fair.
05:45But two, just tell me what you think Todd's impact has been on this team
05:51and have there been some decisions that maybe we just haven't seen in the past?
05:54Well, his impact has been absolutely enormous on this football team.
05:59And I think the team is mirroring his personality.
06:03A lot of emotion, a lot of intensity, a lot of caring, a lot of yelling.
06:08Todd does everything in a big way.
06:10And I think the team is playing with just all of that intensity.
06:15And Mike Rutenberg is the same way too.
06:17So it's a different culture.
06:18It's a different vibe that's going on here.
06:21In terms of Todd with Deshaun, I think he really gets Deshaun.
06:25I think he really understands Deshaun.
06:28I think he saw exactly what Deshaun could do given the right environment, given the right scheme and play calling.
06:36And now he's trying to tell us this.
06:38And I think that people need to listen.
06:40Todd is trying to say we are a work in progress.
06:44Then, you know, we've got a lot of young guys and they don't have a frame of reference to go
06:48back and say,
06:49here's how I did it two years ago or three years ago if things don't go right.
06:53They're learning and there aren't necessarily a lot of old grizzled veterans to say, oh, here, you know, here's exactly
06:59what you need to do.
07:00I mean, there are some, but it's a very, very young offense, new scheme, new terminology, overhauled offensive line.
07:07And there's no way that it was going to look like a well-oiled machine right from the outset.
07:12But for them to be 2-1 right now, I think it's pretty remarkable.
07:16Is the offensive line functioning okay for three games in with a new group, Mary Kay, or does it need
07:21tweaking?
07:22Does it just need polishing up?
07:24What do you think?
07:25Well, certainly you can't have seven offensive penalties.
07:28So whatever was happening there, that does need tweaking, that does need polishing up.
07:34But they only had one day of practice this week, so there was no time to go back and reinvent
07:39the wheel.
07:39Certainly, Titus Howard is committed to not false starting and trying to figure that out,
07:44but you also don't want to play tentatively either and be thinking about that.
07:48So he's going to have to find the balance there.
07:51And then now, of course, Elton Jenkins is going to be out, Luke Whipler is going to be in there.
07:55And I think that's going to be the key to the game, how this offensive line can handle a very
08:00veteran,
08:02aggressive, attacking defensive front of the Steelers with Alex Highsmith and T.J. Watt and Cam Hayward.
08:09I mean, these guys are long, long, long-time veterans, and they're going to be watching this film
08:15and trying to make these guys make mistakes, and they're going to be trying to do whatever they can to
08:21cross them up,
08:21and it's just going to be a huge part of the game.
08:24Merrick, what is it about the Browns at home on Thursday night that's been –
08:30I don't know, it's as simple as sleeping in your own bed,
08:32but this team has been good since 99 on Thursday nights at home, 10-1, 11-1 overall, I think.
08:40So I'm just curious, your thoughts on that, because is it something special about the atmosphere?
08:45It's kind of hard to get a read, but they play well at home on Thursday nights.
08:50Well, I think it has a lot to do with the crowd.
08:53The crowd is so electric on those Thursday night games, and then I think the Browns do a phenomenal job
08:59of turning it into quite the event.
09:02You're down there, and there's so much electricity.
09:05In this particular case, there's going to be a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band down there.
09:11I mean, the energy that you feed off of that crowd with is just going to be what it has
09:16been in the past,
09:18and it's why they're 10-2 at home on Thursday night football.
09:22It's a big reason, and that means a lot to the players to have that.
09:26And now the good thing for these players is – and for Deshaun Watson is –
09:30he doesn't have to go into this football game wondering if the crowd is going to boo him and hate
09:35him,
09:36even if he plays well.
09:37Now he knows that if he plays well, that he will be supported, cheered, embraced,
09:44not by everybody, but by most fans.
09:47And so I just think the home crowd has been tremendous.
09:52Mary Kay Cabot joining us from the Plain Dealer in Cleveland.com,
09:55and of course you can hear her on the Orange and Brown Talk podcast as well.
09:59Mary Kay, what are the Steelers doing?
10:01You bring in Mike McCarthy, who's not their typical kind of hire.
10:05Mary, you're trying to squeeze one last year out of Aaron Rodgers.
10:08It almost has to feel like they're kind of treading water as they're doing a slow rebuild.
10:16Well, they're a team that's in transition, and they know what the deal is in terms of Aaron going forward,
10:23so they know that they're going to have to find their quarterback of the future somewhere.
10:27But the Pittsburgh Steelers are a team that they've never tanked.
10:30They've never tried to lose to get the higher draft pick.
10:33They just win year after year after year, and that's what they're doing now.
10:37They're trying to win football games.
10:39And I just think it's a great approach.
10:42It's what the Browns should always do.
10:44They should never, ever try to tank or lose or not care about winning,
10:48because you have to establish a culture of winning.
10:51You have to be feared.
10:53You have to be revered.
10:54You don't ever want to be called Browns' Browns.
10:57You want to be a team that is respected, and that's what this football team needs.
11:02That is what Todd Munkin is trying to instill, and I think he's going to get the job done.
11:07Mary Kay, I agree with you completely.
11:09In theory, you can find a quarterback, even though it's been an issue here.
11:14In theory, you can find one.
11:15And if you can drop that quarterback into a better all-around football situation,
11:20you give that young quarterback, if it's a young one, a chance to thrive.
11:24And if it's a veteran one, then you just bring him in, and you hit the gas, and you go.
11:28I love the idea of this team being competitive this year.
11:33Well, it's important.
11:34It's so important.
11:35You want these young guys.
11:37You don't want them to be infected by losing.
11:40Nothing good happens when you are a losing football team,
11:43except for, yes, maybe you will get that higher draft pick
11:46and have a shot at your quarterback of the future.
11:48But even that doesn't always work out.
11:50What you want is a bunch of guys that don't accept losing or a losing culture
11:56or a city that won't accept it either.
11:58And that's what needs to change around here,
12:00and I think they have the people in place to try to do that.
12:04We appreciate your time today.
12:05Thank you for adjusting.
12:07No problem.
12:08Thank you, guys.
12:09Thanks, Mary Kay.
12:09Mary Kay Cabot, PlainDealer, Cleveland.com.
12:12And, of course, you can hear her on the Orange and Brown Talk podcast.
Comments