00:00As we kind of all got to sit pretty for the Browns after winning on Thursday Night Football,
00:05it did feel like no matter whether the opposing AFC North teams won or lost on Sunday,
00:11you got a lot of wins regardless, given that Lamar Jackson has to have an MRI today on his
00:16ankle after leaving the stadium in a boot yesterday, the Jamar Chase and T. Higgins injuries.
00:22Like, again, it's incredibly early, and this thing can fall apart very easily, and that
00:28should probably be the expectation until we get deeper into the season, but like, those
00:33were huge, especially with the Bengals losing to the Jacksonville Jaguars, so now you and
00:38the Ravens are in first place in the AFC North.
00:41Those were huge breaks in terms of the Browns can have a quick go, early go at the AFC North
00:47division lead.
00:47Yeah, again, I mean, you're right to just kind of stress the idea that it is early, but listen,
00:51we're not talking to you guys after week 10, we're talking to you guys after week 4, and
00:55so right now, we couldn't have gone basically any better for the Browns than we could have
01:00envisioned, and yeah, if you're a real player in the AFC North, kind of 3-1, I don't know
01:05how you dismiss anybody that's 3-1.
01:06The Lamar thing's going to be the most interesting, because the fact that a day later we're talking
01:12about an MRI, if he has to miss 4 weeks, let's just, let's like, average ankle injury that
01:18isn't a season ender, I don't even know what that could be, just, I'm going to say nebulous
01:22ankle injury, 4 weeks could be the difference between you winning the division and not.
01:26Yeah, oddly enough, like, just as we're talking about this, the ESPN Ravens reporter, Jameson
01:30Hensley, just tweeted out that Jesse Minner on whether Lamar will start Sunday night at
01:34the Falcons, he said, I don't know the chances yet, and then added, I don't think it's going
01:38to be crazy long term.
01:40Okay, so that makes you think.
01:42They might miss a game, might miss this Sunday night, might not even.
01:45It's kind of like the Mason Graham injury, where it's like, it's an MCL sprain, and he could
01:48be back for the Ravens game, he could also not be back for the Ravens game.
01:51Yeah, but not crazy long term was the term that Minner uses, I don't think it's going
01:54to be crazy long term.
01:56That's such a youthful way, that's such a young man's way of describing it, because
02:00it's incredibly vague.
02:01Not crazy long term might be different from you to me.
02:04Well, yeah.
02:05Like, not crazy long term for me would be like 3 weeks, 4 weeks.
02:08Crazy long term, alright, what is crazy long term?
02:10It is...
02:11Anything more than 4 weeks, like anything more than a month is crazy long term.
02:14Anything where you have to put him on the IR, I think is crazy long term.
02:17But like, I mean, that dude misses 2 games, and that's the kind of thing that can...
02:21And that doesn't mean it'll automatically go in the Browns' favor.
02:24The Bengals are right there, the Steelers certainly are right there as well, as it looks like maybe
02:29Aaron Rodgers realized DK Metcalf and Roman Wilson are both good receivers.
02:34But it's interesting, like, I do not expect them to win the AFC North, but if they're...
02:40If we're already starting to talk about, alright, did I short sell the 8-9 prediction there?
02:46I mean, I don't know right now, if Lamar misses any modicum of time, does 10-win get the division?
02:54Well, that's the question, right?
02:55Is 9-0 enough or is 10-0 enough?
02:56And if we're thinking about the Browns, I mean, hell, when we did...
02:59Before the season, we did our own predictions week by week.
03:03I had them winning 6 games beyond Week 4.
03:05Now, that's because I had them starting 0-4.
03:07Swing and a miss, Jonathan.
03:08And what else?
03:08And Shador starting the rest of the games?
03:10No, Shador was Week 8 on, remember?
03:12Oh, that's right.
03:13You're right.
03:13I was the only person in the world that felt like they were going to say that Deshaun Watson
03:17was going to start the first 8 games.
03:19I will then give you the win there.
03:21I don't know.
03:21I'm still just egregiously wrong, but that's alright.
03:24The main point is that if I had...
03:26But you were right in one aspect, and that's the one you should cling to.
03:28This is Sports Talk Radio.
03:29That's right.
03:30If I had 6 wins from this point forward, if we just take and give them the 6 wins that
03:36I had, that's a 9-win team.
03:37Does 9 wins get the AFC North done?
03:39Beginning of the year, I would have told you hell no.
03:40But now, after watching what's gone in Cincinnati, watch what's unfolding, I still think Baltimore
03:44is going to win more than 9 games.
03:46I just think they're too good of a team.
03:47But yeah, that's the hang-up I have.
03:51The hang-up I have is Baltimore.
03:52I don't want to say that I like the Lamar injury, because that feels douchey to me.
03:57What I like about the idea, if he misses a certain amount of time, is it's the first
04:03real stress test of the Jesse Minter era.
04:07And I think so many people expect it.
04:09It was a little wild to me that this offseason, it was like, oh, the Ravens got better at head
04:13coach.
04:14It's like, John Harbaugh won a lot of freaking games.
04:17And up until this last year, the idea that they would move on from him was a sacrosanct
04:22idea, right?
04:23It was sacrilegious in Baltimore, not for Ravens fans, but from people observing the Ravens
04:27organization.
04:28Well, now you're going to find out.
04:30You're going to find out how good of a coach Jesse Minter is.
04:32And from...
04:33We might get a backup for this game then, huh?
04:36Ooh.
04:37Yeah.
04:38See...
04:39We're not talking forever.
04:40I don't know what crazy long-term is for Jesse Minter, but we might get a backup for that
04:44game.
04:44So it's interesting.
04:45My initial thought was, that'd be a great prove-it game.
04:48If Lamar's in that game, and Deshaun plays better, and you go to either 4-2 or 5-1, we're
04:56going to get real antsy in our pantsy after that kind of win over Baltimore.
05:00At the same point, to hell with that, I'll take any win you got against Baltimore.
05:03Oh, yeah.
05:03Let's take as many wins as we can.
05:04Screw Baltimore.
05:07This is incredibly early.
05:08And I cannot say this enough.
05:10Does it not feel a little bit like the first half run of the Colts last year?
05:14Where they won every game, and then Daniel Jones got injured?
05:17Yes.
05:17No, no, no.
05:18I'm just talking about the first half.
05:19I don't know.
05:20I don't remember what happened in the second half of Indianapolis.
05:23Okay.
05:23But where the Colts...
05:24Didn't they close the season with like nine losses?
05:26That's a different team.
05:27I'm just talking about the first half of the season, which led the Colts to do something
05:33that in the moment we all thought, not we all thought, I thought, and I think you
05:37thought was pretty stupid, which was trade two first rounders for Sauce Gardner when your
05:42quarterback was Daniel Jones.
05:43But like, the road looks to be paved here that if the Browns want to continue just taking
05:49the obvious layups, it does feel, at least right now, that is still right there for the
05:55Browns.
05:55And I think that's, again, aiding to the, how real is it?
05:59Well, against the Jets, I don't know you find out how real something is against the
06:03Jets.
06:03That's more of a don't screw it up.
06:05It's a don't screw it up, even though we're not favorites, once again.
06:07And like, even with the Ravens game, if that's a backup quarterback, that is a don't
06:12screw it up kind of performance, especially because that's your home game against them.
06:15But like, the path is there.
06:17And what's funny is that the Browns have tried to screw it up in recent weeks, and we've
06:22been able to escape with the win.
06:23It's kind of funny, we've been in these battles of which team is going to screw it up the most.
06:27I mean, McCarthy and Todd Munkin in the final two minutes of that game on Thursday night
06:31was a masterclass in how many wrong decisions can we each do in two minutes.
06:36I highlighted three on Friday for that show.
06:40We're Munkin, and I love what Munkin's doing right now.
06:42I give him a bunch of credit, but we're winning by the skin of our teeth is the point, and
06:47they're pulling these things out.
06:48But you've got to show me that you can consistently do that.
06:51Well, but that's why I think, and again, if we set Deshaun off to the side here, my theory
06:55has always been, if you have a quarterback that can manage the game, make a couple of
07:00plays per game that are positive and not the explosives, as it were, but you get the
07:05ball to the playmakers and they do the heavy lifting, and that offensive line holds
07:10up and that defense continues to play at a significant level, that formula can work.
07:16The formula that worked against Pittsburgh, the formula that worked against Tampa Bay,
07:19that worked, what's the third game we need?
07:22Carolina.
07:23That formula can work against the Jets, Ravens, or anybody else you have on your schedule.
07:28And so the truth is, when we ask the question, is the AFC North there for the taking?
07:33My answer is, I don't know, and it probably should be, probably not, but the formula that
07:39they've used to get to 3-1 is incredibly repeatable for how this team is built, and that makes the
07:46question at least intriguing to me.
07:48Yeah, I mean, I think there's a couple of things that we'd like to see a little bit
07:50different.
07:51We'd like to see the run game going, right?
07:52Yeah.
07:52And, you know, obviously the offensive line has been much better than I thought it would
07:56be, but as far as their run blocking, it's maybe not the greatest, but again, what you're
08:03saying is 100% true, which is, are we going to get Deshaun Watson, who's played like a
08:06top-10 quarterback this year?
08:08Because honestly, I think that's the most surprising part of this, three-game winning
08:13drives, Deshaun playing like a top-10 quarterback, and that's also the part I think a lot of fans
08:17are looking back and saying, I don't know that that's repeatable.
08:19Yeah, I think what's repeatable for Deshaun, because we have seen him do it.
08:23Because you still need that second quarter, Nick.
08:25You know, I mean, that second quarter, he made one incompletion the entire quarter,
08:29threw for 180 yards, had three touchdowns.
08:32Like, that is, as much as we're talking about like a dink and dunk mentality, like, that's
08:35not what he was in that second quarter.
08:37He was awesome.
08:38But I'll go back to, if you're stout on third downs, if you're stout in situational football,
08:44and you keep the football clean in the fourth quarter, I mean, like, if you're clutch in
08:49the fourth quarter, again, I think you can win an asinine amount of games, even if they're
08:54the second half against Tampa Bay, is somewhat of an apparition.
08:57Well, and so was the second half against the Steelers, or was the Steelers game as a whole
09:01just not how you're trying to win these games in general?
09:03Because if we're trying to, if we're coming up with that blueprint, I think we both kind
09:06of agree that it's a good blueprint, right?
09:08Be good in third downs.
09:09Don't turn the ball over.
09:10All these things, right?
09:11They didn't really do much of that when it came to the whole entirety of the game in Pittsburgh.
09:16But they did get the win.
09:17That's the most important part of that.
09:18But they didn't do that in its entirety.
09:20Deshaun had the two fumbles and the interception in the second half of that game.
09:24Like, they were still, if we're talking about don't turn the ball over, play it safe, complete
09:29third downs, keep the ball moving, they struggled at achieving that task.
09:342-1-6, 4-7-4, double-0-9-2.
09:36Is the AFC North there for the taking for the Browns?
09:40It is early.
09:41We should still be erring on the side of no, it's not from the Browns.
09:44They need to prove more before we go too hog wild into this.
09:48But with Lamar injured, with the Bengals having their moments against the better teams and
09:54a little tougher road than you've got, with the Steelers having TJ Wawawat screaming at
09:59the defensive coordinator at any given chance, and of course, Aaron Rodgers being a weird
10:02knob, it at least feels like a possibility that it's opened up here.
10:07Ken Inorori, you've got about 45 seconds, buddy.
10:09Welcome to the show.
10:11Hey, guys.
10:11Appreciate you having me on.
10:13I've been listening off and on all day, and I love the talk of the AFC North coming into
10:18Baltimore, or having Baltimore come to our house here in two weeks, but we cannot look
10:23past the Jets.
10:24So much so that I'm thinking a 26-10 win, something like that would make me feel good.
10:30We can't just squeak that out, because Baltimore is down the road, and I feel like everybody's
10:35looking beyond the Jets, and we cannot do that.
10:37Yeah, okay, so I agree that if we start looking too far ahead, and that's a great point, that
10:43you will get bit, and that could be a twofer.
10:45That could be the BOGO, right?
10:46Oh, no.
10:47No, we don't want that to be the BOGO.
10:48You get bit by the Jets, that could turn into a bad performance against the Ravens.
10:50The only thing I'll say is, I don't care.
10:52Style points don't matter to some degree.
10:55We're in the just-win territory.
10:57Like, it's better if you win 27-10.
11:00If you just blow the doors off them, yeah, I'll take those wins.
11:04I'll take any win right now.
11:05You beat the Jets, and you start 4-1, hell yeah.
11:08Yeah, but the bigger reminder, guys, we're not the favorites against New York.
11:10Yeah.
11:10Like, I know I and Nick and everyone listening right now thinks we're a substantially better
11:15team than the Jets, and oh boy, Gino was really good for the first three weeks.
11:18He looked awful yesterday.
11:20Just atrocious.
11:21I hope that Gino shows up.
11:22But, like, we're not the favorite.
11:25Like, there's clearly something that we're missing here.
11:27And let's be clear, they're not going to be the favorite for the next two weeks.
11:30You could beat the brakes off the Jets.
11:33And, honestly, I think even if the Ravens are starting a backup two Sundays from now,
11:38I think the Browns are going to be dogs.
11:41Oh, that game is here, right?
11:42It is.
11:42It's here against Snoop Huntley.
11:45I think if there's Snoop Huntley out there.
11:47Vegas does not respect this Browns team, and I don't think a win over the Jets is going
11:50to change that.
11:51They don't, but Snoop Huntley should change the math there.
11:54Pro bowler.
11:55It should.
11:55It's a pro bowler in Snoop Huntley.
11:57I don't know.
11:57I'm going.
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