- 9 minutes ago
Dan Labbe details importance of Browns' momentum at 2-1, Deshaun Watson/Shedeur Sanders timeline now
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00From cleveland.com, our good friend Dan Lobby joining us now.
00:03Dan, what's going on?
00:05Hey, Jake, how are you doing?
00:07The Browns are 2-1, Dan.
00:08I don't know how I – I couldn't have imagined it,
00:11but my vibes are about higher than I could have ever imagined.
00:15Yeah, the vibes are high everywhere right now.
00:17This was – especially after that Jacksonville game,
00:19I don't think anybody thought that this team would be playing a meaningful game
00:22on October 1st against the Pittsburgh Steelers,
00:25but here we are, a real football game on Thursday night.
00:29Excited for it.
00:30Dan, I have to ask you.
00:31Obviously, we mentioned the vibes are high.
00:33You think about this team, this offense in particular, what kind of wins out?
00:38Is it the excitement of the team being 2-1,
00:40or is it the concern that that unit in particular in the offense
00:45has continued to display throughout a majority of the game?
00:48You know, I think winning kind of masks everything,
00:52and obviously you are going to be critical of things in a win,
00:55and coaches will always say they love when they get to teach off of wins
00:58more than losses.
00:59So, you know, you can't just look at it and say, okay, they won,
01:03everything's great.
01:04Obviously, there are issues on offense, and, you know,
01:07just across the board there are issues.
01:09But, you know, defensively they were fantastic on Sunday,
01:12and they've been getting better, so that's the positive.
01:14But, you know, look, the goal of all of this is to win football games.
01:17If they're able to find ways to win football games, you know,
01:20every team has its flaws.
01:22Every team has things they need to improve on,
01:24and especially at this time of year.
01:25So, at the very least, they're getting a chance to do it while they win.
01:29Now, is that going to hold up if they don't fix some of these things?
01:32Probably not.
01:34But at least right now they've got a little momentum,
01:36and they're building a little confidence.
01:37And I do think that matters.
01:39The way that they've walked away with wins out of the last two weeks,
01:42and, again, like the offense, it feels like at least a half of football
01:46not playing great.
01:47It felt like three, three and a half quarters back on Sunday.
01:49That doesn't feel like something reliable to fall back on,
01:53that Deshaun's going to be able to put on the Superman cape
01:55and carry you through a fourth quarter at the end of it, right?
01:59Right.
02:00That's going to be a tough formula.
02:01But that being said, you know, again,
02:04beggars can't be choosers when it comes to the Browns.
02:06And if we're being honest, you kind of look around the NFL,
02:10you know, how many truly dominant teams are there?
02:12How many teams are there that are out there that are just perfect across the
02:15board?
02:16And, I mean, even Seattle lost to Washington on Sunday, right?
02:19So this is just a weird league.
02:21And I think most teams are probably – I don't want to say most teams are
02:25like the Browns, but most teams kind of are flawed teams that are just kind of
02:30trying to find ways to win every Sunday.
02:33And whatever you can do, if that means figuring out a way to get the ball in
02:38Deshaun Watson's hands in the fourth quarter.
02:40I mean, Kevin Stefanski tried that a couple years ago.
02:42It didn't work.
02:43It's worked for Todd Munkin here to start this season.
02:45So if it continues to work – and Deshaun does look more comfortable than he did
02:50two years ago – again, maybe you can build a little momentum here and build a
02:54little bit of a cushion while you're figuring things out.
02:57Dan, what is the kind of concern level we put on – maybe just this being
03:02overblown on the idea that Deshaun to KC really feels like the connection that
03:07just can't get going.
03:08It's on a lot of short routes.
03:09The depth of target to KC is not very far.
03:11But especially on Sunday, those two just look like they couldn't find it to be on
03:15the same page.
03:17Yeah, it's very concerning.
03:19I actually thought coming into this season after training camp that KC was going to
03:23be the guy that was really going to hit the ground running.
03:25I had a lot of confidence in Denzel Boston, but just based on the way camp was
03:29going, KC was the guy that had really built momentum.
03:32And I thought that that was going to be someone who was going to make life easy
03:36for whoever was playing quarterback.
03:37A lot of easy throws, quick routes, yards after the catch, and it just hasn't
03:42happened.
03:42And if you're looking for some areas of criticism with this offense, it really is
03:48that it's kind of just the Harold Fannin and Denzel Boston show right now on
03:53offense.
03:54And that's fine.
03:54And those are two really good players.
03:56You want to get the ball in their hands, but you know, Jerry Judy is not involved.
04:00Casey Concepcion is not involved.
04:02You know, Quinshawn Judkins is struggling.
04:05Isaiah Bond can't even get on the field.
04:07So you're really kind of limited right now in what you're able to do until you can
04:12start to unlock some of these guys.
04:14When we talk about Deshaun, obviously so much earlier, Dan was focused on, okay,
04:18what's the leash?
04:19How long could he possibly get?
04:20Is he looking at it right now?
04:21Is it even possible to try and fathom an idea, a length of what the leash would be
04:25on Deshaun?
04:27It's not because, you know, first of all, it starts with wins.
04:31You're probably not going to replace your quarterback if you're winning.
04:35And secondly, I just don't know.
04:38Like, I don't know how it looks like.
04:39Let's see he goes out and plays poorly tomorrow.
04:42So then you've got a whole weekend of, well, he didn't play well now.
04:45Now what's it going to look like against New York?
04:47So I think it is something that can turn quickly.
04:50If he, if they lose some games and he starts to struggle, you could be kind of back having
04:55this discussion after two to three weeks.
04:57But if he can continue to develop, use his legs, show that he can keep the chains moving
05:02and hopefully kind of get Casey more involved, kind of get this passing game a little more
05:07dynamic.
05:08He can hold onto this job for a while, I think.
05:10So it's really hard to kind of judge this leash right now.
05:13Uh, at least if they can continue to, like if they win tomorrow, I've got to imagine
05:18that leash extends a few more weeks, at least if they lose tomorrow, then you start to get
05:23back and he looks bad.
05:24Then you start to get back on the verge of like, okay, where is this going?
05:28When does Shador get a chance?
05:29So I think a lot of it depends on tomorrow's outcome.
05:31And again, Dan lobby with this here on the hotline.
05:34I mean, we continue to look at the offense, but Dan, we talked so much about the reception
05:39that, you know, the home crowd would have given to Sean coming off of a win, but in
05:43that one-in-one state, what did you think of the reaction that came out?
05:47Were you surprised by it louder than expected, more supporting than expected that the home
05:51fans gave for, for to Sean and that team?
05:54I really wasn't that surprised because I did think that because he won that game in
05:58Tampa, it was just going to be hard to just rain booze down on him.
06:02Now they made it easy because they didn't announce, they didn't introduce the offense
06:05first, or, you know, they introduced the defense.
06:08It was Nick Chubb day.
06:10They had alumni, like, you know, they made it very easy to not boo to Sean early in that
06:16game.
06:16But the reality is like, you know, if he throws a touchdown pass, they're not going to boo.
06:21Everyone, everybody's going to cheer.
06:23If they win the game, they're not going to boo.
06:25Everybody's going to cheer.
06:25I mean, it really is that simple.
06:27If you perform well, if you make plays, if you win games, people are going to cheer, whether
06:32they like you or not, people are going to cheer for you and the Cleveland Browns.
06:36So I wasn't super surprised at anything really, you know, I know there was, there were videos
06:42going around of people chanting Watson.
06:44I didn't hear that sitting in the press box, but obviously there were some pockets of the
06:48stadium where that was happening.
06:49So I think again, the reception tomorrow will be positive, but we'll see how it looks going
06:56forward, depending on how he performs.
06:58Run game looked a little bit better than it had in weeks past.
07:01Quinshawn, you know, eclipsing in yards that he had not hit anywhere near previous on the
07:05season.
07:06Did you feel like the run game actually figured anything out during Sunday's window, or was
07:11that kind of expectation given the Panthers weren't very good in that unit?
07:16I think a lot of it had to do with the Panthers and especially with Devin Lloyd being out.
07:20They were able to run the football a little bit, but I still don't think it was enough.
07:24And I still don't see an offensive line that's really getting enough push.
07:28You know, Quinshawn Judkins really hasn't been super explosive yet to this point, and I think
07:33we're kind of seeing, you know, training camp is a little different than real games on Sundays,
07:38and he is coming off the serious injury.
07:40So, you know, maybe that's been a little bit of a factor.
07:43But I thought it was more a result of playing the Panthers, who just got run on by Chicago.
07:49They got run on by B. John Robinson.
07:51And I thought the Browns found a few moments where they were able to run a little bit.
07:55But right now, this offensive line just isn't getting enough push to run the ball consistently.
07:59So, I don't think Sunday fixed anything.
08:02I think it's still a major concern for this team.
08:04And on top of that, Danny, it was procedural penalties.
08:07I mean, Titus Howard had me screaming at my TV on Sunday afternoon.
08:11And then I'm walking away halfway this week.
08:13I almost feel bad for him.
08:15Todd's just laying into the guy throughout the week.
08:18Yeah, Todd does not sugarcoat things.
08:19I'll tell you that.
08:20And I think that's something fans appreciate about it.
08:23I think players appreciate that, too.
08:25I mean, you know, we talked to Titus a little bit yesterday.
08:27And, you know, he kind of echoed what Todd said.
08:30He said, hey, one, that's, you know, that happens.
08:33Two or three, you've got to get it fixed.
08:34And it's so strange because I looked back and Titus Howard had more false starts on Sunday
08:39than he had the previous three years combined.
08:41You know, like back in 2022, he had five for the season.
08:44But since then, he has not had a lot of false start problems.
08:48So I don't know exactly what's going on there.
08:50I don't know if it's some of the cadence stuff that Todd Munkin was talking about over the
08:55summer.
08:55I don't know if it's just kind of getting used to a new quarterback.
08:58But he knows Deshaun Watson.
09:00He played with Deshaun Watson in Houston.
09:02So with Titus, it seems like he would at least be familiar with Deshaun's cadence.
09:07And it's bizarre, everything that's happening.
09:09And, you know, you're getting formation penalties.
09:11You're getting illegal shifts.
09:13Austin Barber had a penalty.
09:14It's just a lot of this pre-snap stuff that Todd kind of vowed wouldn't happen.
09:20It's all been happening.
09:22Dan, on the other side of the ball on the defense, we talked last week and you pointed
09:26out some of the concerns, especially with that defensive line.
09:29They're obviously able to create a lot of pressure.
09:31Mason Graham picks up two sacks.
09:32How much of those, how much of the pressure they created on Bryce Young went to quiet
09:37or silence is some of the worries that you had.
09:41I thought it was great to see.
09:43I think the big development was Jared Burst had a really good game.
09:46And I know he didn't get a sack, but I thought Jared Burst was really impactful in this game.
09:50And you saw him kind of getting pushed.
09:51You saw him being that powerful rusher that he was advertised as coming from L.A.
09:56He looked a little more like L.A. Jared Burst, you know, pushing tackles back into the
10:00quarterback.
10:00And he said this week that that's something he's, he almost kind of got caught up and
10:05like, I've got to, I've got to get more moves, you know, the bag has to be bigger.
10:08But now he's kind of going back to, you know what, power's what I do best.
10:12And so that's what I'm going to do.
10:14And if he can do it against Pittsburgh, continue to create pressure like that, that'll help
10:18Mason Graham, Malik Collins, Isaiah McGuire.
10:20But the other thing is Mike Grutenberg is doing a lot of creative things.
10:24We saw Miles Harden blitzing a lot.
10:26He played a lot of three safety looks on Sunday.
10:29So this is going to be an interesting test because Aaron Rodgers is the type of quarterback
10:34that maybe can exploit those things if he can pick up on what you're doing.
10:38So I, so I kind of want to see what this looks like.
10:40Now, obviously you want to pressure Aaron Rodgers because he's no quarterback wants to
10:44get hit, but Aaron Rodgers especially does not want to get hit.
10:47So you want to try and hit him as much as possible and try to try to force him to
10:51get rid of the
10:51ball quickly.
10:52But he'll also pick you apart if he kind of sees what you're doing on that back end.
10:56And again, Dan Lobby with this year on the hotline.
10:58Hey, let's turn some focus over here.
11:00Obviously tomorrow's game against the Steelers.
11:03I think one of the under talked about things that has been not even really that floated
11:08around is Todd's obviously been around the game a long time is a head coach.
11:12It's his first time preparing for a short week, right?
11:15And this is going from Sunday immediately into Thursday.
11:18How much of a challenge is this for, for Todd and the Browns right now?
11:23These Thursday games are always challenging.
11:25And for Todd, you know, I think the advantage here is they're at home.
11:28So they didn't have to travel today.
11:30So, so, you know, he was able to kind of figure that out without having to get on a plane
11:34on
11:34Wednesday and fly somewhere.
11:36They were able to have a normal-ish week, at least at their facility.
11:40It seems like he had a pretty clear plan.
11:42You know, I think they started work on this game on Sunday.
11:45They did a walk-through Monday.
11:47They did a jog-through today, a practice on Tuesday.
11:51So it feels like he had a pretty good plan going into this.
11:54And I think being in Baltimore for the three years prior, being around what they did and
11:59just sort of understanding how a schedule looks on a short week, I think that helps.
12:04So I think Todd is set for this.
12:06He's been through it, obviously not as a head coach, but he's been through these short
12:10weeks before.
12:10So I can't imagine it was too big of a problem.
12:12So, again, we know we got the injury report.
12:15A couple of things stand out.
12:17No Tylan Wallace.
12:18No Tevin Jenkins again this week.
12:20But the big one is the concussion popping up for Elton Jenkins.
12:23How big of a loss is that for this offensive line now heading into face Pittsburgh?
12:29Well, when we talk about the offensive line and its struggles, Elton Jenkins is probably
12:34their best offensive lineman on Sunday.
12:35Now, over the course of the season, Austin Barber has been very good.
12:39So maybe he'd have a case for that over the body of work.
12:42But Elton Jenkins has been good, you know, I think at least all three games.
12:46And especially on Sunday, he was the one offensive lineman that I thought played well when I
12:50went back and rewatched that game.
12:51So losing him is big.
12:53Now, Luke Whippler has started before.
12:55He actually started against Pittsburgh last year and didn't allow pressure.
12:58He doesn't have a guy like Joel Batonio next to him this year.
13:01So that changes things a little bit.
13:03But, you know, losing Elton Jenkins, I think, is kind of a big deal, especially going against
13:08the Steelers front with, you know, they've got some heft in the middle.
13:11They're going to be able to attack Whippler.
13:13They're going to be able to attack Zion Johnson, who's been struggling, and Barber, who I think
13:17is coming off his worst game.
13:18So this is not the best time to lose your veteran center.
13:21And going back to what we talked about, all the operational issues, you know, now you're
13:25throwing a guy out there who hasn't played all season.
13:27And so, and by the way, Luke Whippler is also coming off a serious injury that he was carted
13:32off in week 18 last year.
13:34So I think this is a really important injury to watch.
13:38Just looking at that Steelers defense now getting ready for Sunday, the Browns through
13:42their offensive struggles.
13:44I mean, where do you kind of place Pittsburgh in the defenses the Browns have played so far?
13:49Oh, man, that's a tough one.
13:52You know, they're a little banged up in the second.
13:55They don't have Jalen Ramsey, or while they might not have Jalen Ramsey, he's questionable.
13:59Joey Porter's been out all season, obviously, with this contract thing, and now the back.
14:04But I think Pittsburgh is a good defense, not necessarily a great defense.
14:09They're probably better than the Panthers.
14:12They're probably better than the Bucs.
14:14I don't know how good.
14:16They're probably somewhere around that level of the Jags, maybe a little below the Jags.
14:19So I guess I'd put them second.
14:21What we do know is they can create pressure.
14:23We do know they have a way that they want to play, even with a new coach.
14:27This is still going to be a Pittsburgh Steelers defense.
14:29So I think there's some vulnerabilities there, especially in the secondary.
14:34But they're going to try to create pressure.
14:36They're going to try to find ways to get T.J. Watt free for sacks.
14:39And we know that Alex Highsmith, Cam Hayward, these are the types of guys that correct games.
14:45And Pittsburgh still has that ability.
14:47What did last week for Pittsburgh kind of do in your perception of this game?
14:52Obviously, the offense looked basically putrid for two weeks.
14:55And then they shook off the rust.
14:58They got going against Cincinnati.
15:00And now, kind of similar to the way I think a lot of people think about the Browns offense,
15:04I have no clue what to think about the Pittsburgh offense heading into Thursday.
15:08It just reminded me, as all the Browns coaches like to say, it's a week-to-week league.
15:13I came away from that Pittsburgh-New England game thinking there was no way I could pick Pittsburgh
15:18with that offense to beat this Browns team and this defense, at least the way they were playing.
15:22But then they played really well against Cincinnati.
15:25And Aaron Rodgers was actually throwing the ball downfield.
15:27And it seemed like he had a lot of control over that.
15:31And by the way, they did that.
15:32They're still not getting much from D.K. Metcalf.
15:35I know he caught a touchdown pass in that game, but you sit there and watch it,
15:38and you kind of don't notice him unless he makes a mistake for the most part.
15:42So he hasn't really gotten going yet.
15:44It's a weird offense.
15:46You know, Jalen Warren is probably their best player if D.K. still kind of is playing like he has
15:50been playing.
15:52And their receivers are like guys I kind of like, but not guys I, you know, necessarily would have to
15:57have.
15:58So I was a little surprised what they were able to do against Cincinnati.
16:01I don't know if that was a result of, like, were we overrating Cincinnati's defense and Aaron Rodgers and they,
16:07and, you know,
16:08kind of his brain and Mike McCarthy were able to exploit that.
16:12Or did the Steelers turn a corner offensively?
16:15And maybe that's more of who they are.
16:16I think the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
16:18But I'll just say it's a better offense than I thought it was coming out of that week two game
16:22against New England.
16:23All right, Dan, we got about 30 seconds.
16:25Where is your confidence level for the Browns heading into tomorrow?
16:28Do you think you're going to pick them to win?
16:30I am going to pick them to win.
16:32And it kind of comes down to the unit I trust the most is the Browns defense.
16:36You know, I don't trust either quarterback in this game.
16:39I don't really fully trust either offensive line.
16:43So I think I'm going to go with the Browns defense is the unit I trust most.
16:48So I'm going to back them.
16:49I think it's going to be a weird game like most Thursday night games.
16:52And so I'm picking a weird score.
16:53I'm going to take the Browns 19 to 17.
16:55All right.
16:56I love it, Dan.
16:57I always appreciate you setting aside the time.
16:58Always good to talk to you and look forward to catching up next week and hopefully having
17:03a Browns team that's three and one.
17:05Yep, for sure.
17:06I'll talk to you next week.
17:07Yep.
17:07Dan Lobby, cleveland.com with this there.