00:004th quarter 4, 4th quarter 4, 4th quarter 4, 4th quarter 4, 4th quarter 4, yeah, let's go boys on
00:10a day where the boos rained down once again from Huntington Bank Field from the fan base on Deshaun Watson
00:16after it was put on the shelf for a couple of weeks.
00:19On a day where you didn't have Quinshawn Junkins, Mason Graham, or Mike Hall Jr., on an afternoon where Andre
00:26Schmidt, earlier in the game, missed an opportunity to kick the go-ahead field goal, somehow at the end of
00:34the day, Andre Schmidt, Deshaun Watson, and Jerry Judy put themselves in a position to win the game.
00:41The final field goal does go through the uprights, and your Cleveland Browns are 4-2, 2-0 to begin
00:49the season in the AFC North for the first time since 2019.
00:54They are first place in the AFC North this late in the division since 2014.
01:01Holy cow.
01:02It was awful.
01:04It was terrible.
01:05It was no good.
01:06It was very bad at many, many points all throughout this afternoon.
01:10But at the end of the day, what have we been saying all season long?
01:15A win is a win.
01:17And I can't tell you how many times I've been in here with you guys after a Tampa Bay Buccaneers
01:22win, after a Carolina Panthers win, and now after today, and even in that Steelers game where we, you know,
01:28didn't have the late show because I would have been on until like 4 o'clock in the morning, and
01:32nobody wants that.
01:33If you have to win ugly, I don't give a damn.
01:37Damn, as long as you consistently win.
01:41We knew going into the season that this team wasn't riddled with talent.
01:45There was a lot of promising spots up and down the field, and we've seen even the bright spots blossom
01:51early on.
01:52Even the young guys on the offensive side of the ball, even without Quinshawn Junkins today and Casey Concepcion for
01:59the majority of last week and maybe working on a little bit of a pitch count today.
02:02We knew that there was something there tangible, but there were so many question marks that going into the season,
02:09we didn't know what it was going to look like.
02:11And that's why many of us felt like this season was going to be another wash, and we were going
02:15to be paying attention to the likes of Arch Manning and Dante Moore.
02:19See, check back later on how those guys are doing thus far this season.
02:23So I have to, when I'm going into a season like that, I can't expect them to suddenly go out
02:29and win games convincingly, win games going away like they're the better team on the field day in and day
02:36out, week in and week out.
02:37And that's totally fine with me, because for a team that you don't have the answer at starting quarterback long
02:43-term, you have five new offensive linemen, you got rookies all over the place, and a first-year head coach
02:50and first-year coordinators.
02:51As long as you win at the end of the damn day, that is what should be the takeaway.
02:58Like, we have plenty of hours for the rest of the night tonight and all throughout these next couple of
03:05days to break down how poorly Deshaun Watson looked.
03:08And certainly, this is not going to be some great glowing review of the game for the next couple of
03:13hours.
03:13Like, obviously, there were plenty of times, there's plenty of notes that I'm sure we all wrote down throughout the
03:18game where it was like, this is just not sustainable whatsoever.
03:22But again, guys, at the end of the day, Deshaun Watson, Jerry Judy, two of the most hated players on
03:30this Browns roster, put you in prime position to win the game.
03:33And a redemption story once again, a redemption arc over the course of just 15 game minutes for Andre Schmidt
03:41goes from the guy that might have handed the Baltimore Ravens a loss when he missed that 47, 48-yard
03:49field goal, however long it was.
03:50And it was by a hair.
03:52It was by a whisker.
03:54It was so damn close.
03:55It's not like he shanked it.
03:56For him to then come back and be trusted like that the very next quarter when time was expiring and
04:03it mattered the absolute most, how cool is that to see for a guy, again, only in his second season
04:10with the Browns?
04:11All right, 216-474-0092.
04:13This is the fan final call.
04:15We got a lot of stuff to set up for you guys because obviously it is a huge sports day
04:20in Northeast Ohio.
04:21Driving into downtown this afternoon, not only was it awful, but I mean, it was awesome to drive past progressive
04:28field as the game was starting up and seeing everybody that's going on there.
04:31So here's what we're going to do.
04:32For the next couple of hours, we're going to do this scheduled fan final call, recapping the Browns games, getting
04:38your guys' last thoughts in on the win today.
04:41Again, your Cleveland Browns winners, 13-10 over the Baltimore Ravens on a walk-off field goal for the second
04:48time this season from Andre Schmidt.
04:51And then the second the Guardians game ends today because obviously they've got game five of the ALCS going on
04:57over progressive field.
04:58The rain out, we will get to that.
05:00I'll continue to update you guys on what's going on.
05:02So you don't have to go anywhere else, but right here until around the nine o'clock hour, then we'll
05:08kick you over to Sunday night football.
05:09So that's what we've got set up.
05:11But for the time being, want to break down a great Browns win that looked ugly.
05:16It looked ridiculous.
05:17It looked terrible at so many certain points.
05:21Again, I had to sit on my couch after that field goal went through.
05:27And after the euphoria of feeling like, oh my gosh, we finally did it.
05:31We won the damn game.
05:32I had to sit there being like, how did we actually get to this point?
05:36How in the world did we play as poorly as we did throughout basically four quarters for not, not, not
05:45the first time this season, not hold a lead at all during what, you know, while there was time left
05:51on the clock.
05:52And yet you come out with a victory.
05:54I don't know if it was the fact that Deshaun Watson just somehow, some way in crunch time is able
06:01to get you into that spot to win.
06:03But guys, at this point, we're six games into the season.
06:07This is not the first time that he's done stuff like this.
06:09This is not the first time that we can shout the mantra of fourth quarter four.
06:14It started off this year as tongue in cheek and a little bit facetious.
06:18I mean, I, I, I've, I'm getting evidence.
06:21I'm getting more evidence week in and week out that I don't trust the guy necessarily to march down the
06:27field and win me the game, but you have to believe in the back of your mind that he has
06:32the capability to do so.
06:34And again, I mentioned Jerry Judy just a second ago.
06:37Jerry Judy is a guy that has played himself out of the starting rotation.
06:41He's basically a spot guy so that they can let the rookies, you know, play the majority of the snaps.
06:47He kind of goes in as needed, but he's still at the end of the day, probably the most trusted
06:53receiver that Deshaun Watson has at this point.
06:56He came into the game with less than a hundred yards through the first five games of the year for
07:01a guy that, you know, coming off his first season in Cleveland had a thousand yards.
07:05Like just the fall from grace that we have seen and the ups and downs from Jerry Judy.
07:11And again, I thought it was just such poetic justice or irony or whatever word you want to call it
07:17that Deshaun who play people were booing in the stands earlier in the game, literally the quarter before the drive
07:24before and, and Jerry Judy,
07:27who nobody in this town trust whatsoever, who we're trying to find any sort of way to get out of
07:32town via trade and looking around the league to see who needs a wide receiver that we can dump them
07:36off to.
07:37Those are your two guys that had the biggest roles to get you down into field goal range when the
07:43game finally mattered.
07:45Look at the end of the day, I don't know if I can trust Deshaun Watson.
07:49I don't know if I can trust Jerry Judy.
07:51I don't know if they're even going to be here next season right now.
07:56Now it doesn't matter right now today was the evidence as to why Deshaun Watson was named your starter continues
08:03to be your starter,
08:04despite some pretty hapless and poor performances throughout the early regular season.
08:09And Jerry Judy, who, again, as I mentioned,
08:12played himself out of a starting role and is closer to the end of the wide receiver room than being
08:17that number one guy that we at least thought at the beginning of the season,
08:21he would be before training camp and before Denzel Boston and Casey Concepcion took a massive leap forward through the
08:28first couple of games.
08:29So I don't need to look further.
08:32I don't need to look long term other than the fact that I just like the fact that they are
08:36winning games and that it seems to me like they are moving in the right direction.
08:41I hope that at the end of the season, we can look back at that Jets game last week and
08:45just say that that was a weird aberration.
08:47It's the NFL.
08:49Bad teams win games all the time.
08:51And it was a terrible weather day.
08:52There was a bunch of external stuff going on that maybe led you to having just a horrific game.
08:58And obviously in that game as well, Casey Concepcion goes out with a concussion.
09:02And I felt like that played into the poor offensive performance almost as much as the rain drenched day did.
09:09Well, now you get Casey back.
09:10Now you get back in front of your home crowd in a game that hopefully Todd Munkin got the players
09:16up for saying, hey, this isn't necessarily the team that fired me, but this is the team that let me
09:21walk out of the door.
09:22I want to prove to that organization, the organization that has had a stranglehold on the AFC North over these
09:29last couple of seasons that we are a force to be reckoned with that this Browns team maybe isn't at
09:35the level talent wise of the Baltimore Ravens, but we got a lot of things going for us and we
09:40are really well coached and we are putting the guys in the correct positions to succeed.
09:45And again, at the end of the day, be in a spot to kick that game winning field goal.
09:50I, again, that, that, that, that drive doesn't mitigate all the bad that we saw from Deshaun Watson and the
09:57stale offensive play that we saw throughout this game.
10:00But it does give you a lot of confidence that something is working over there, that Todd Munkin has belief
10:08in the right players that Deshaun Watson at the end of the day, when the back, when his back is
10:14against the wall,
10:15at least has the capability to do so that he's not going to do it every single time.
10:21And again, like I've tried to compare Deshaun Watson to a backup quarterback style, just get the ball, hand it
10:26off, toss out to the out route, get your five yards, keep it moving, keep the ball down the field.
10:32Don't give the ball away to the other team.
10:34And what, what, what did we see again today?
10:36We saw another turnover free performance from Deshaun Watson.
10:39We saw just try and get the open man, even though the open man wasn't hit all the time, but
10:45just move the ball down the field consistently, do what you can to stay ahead of the chains.
10:52Give yourself a chance to win.
10:53And again, the story of the game today is that the defense played out of its mind once again, but
10:59we knew that going into the game.
11:01We knew that going into this season, that this was a fantastic defense.
11:04And as long as they didn't take some massive step back without miles Garrett and Jim Schwartz, that they were
11:10going to keep you in a lot of games.
11:13So because you knew that the defense was as good as it is, and it's given you now six games
11:19of evidence that they're not really going to take a major step back.
11:22I guess we can put away that Jacksonville Jaguars game for a lot of different reasons, but we can at
11:27least put that Jacksonville Jaguars game where it is for now.
11:30Over the last five games, you've seen a defense that's kept you in the game.
11:34And I like, if you want to talk about the identity of this team, and I listened to Jeff and
11:39Tybis talking a little bit about it on the Browns radio network.
11:42What is the identity of this team?
11:44Well, offensively, I think it's a huge question mark right now.
11:47They're still trying to get their sea legs underneath them.
11:49It was great to see them run the ball a lot more consistently today, but how much am I supposed
11:54to rely on your fourth and fifth string running back, including a guy that was literally signed off of a
12:00practice squad on Tuesday and then ended up scoring a touchdown for you today?
12:04Like, that's not something that I can rely on as your, oh, you're the ground and pound run first identity
12:10that maybe we've seen from the Browns in the past.
12:13But the identity of this team is a stalwart defense that is going to keep the other team from scoring
12:18consistently and allow your offense while it figures itself out to stay on pace.
12:24And at the end of the game, have a chance, have the ball and have a chance to win the
12:29ball game.
12:30We've seen it multiple times this season.
12:32And today was another piece of evidence that no matter how poorly you played all throughout the first three and
12:38a half quarters, if you do, if you execute when it matters the most, you can excuse a lot for
12:45a team that was not supposed to be that that's this good though.
12:50For a team that was not supposed to be four and two to begin the season for a team that
12:53Vegas thought was supposed to only win four and a half games this year.
12:57Well, guys, if you bet the under, you might as well cash out and cut your losses right now, because
13:02all you need to win is one more game to hit that over for a team like that heading into
13:07the season.
13:08This is as good of a start as I can possibly conjure up.
13:13Of course, we would have loved to win that Jets game.
13:16But again, the team was in a position to win.
13:18Deshaun Watson just didn't execute.
13:20And if Deshaun Watson is viewed as that sort of backup quarterback role, he's not going to execute every single
13:26time.
13:26And then once again, when you take away guys like Quinshawn, Casey, that's going to put your starting quarterback, whether
13:33it is Deshaun Watson or Bo Nix or Brock Purdy or one of those guys that we feel like he's
13:38in the realm of, then you know that it's not going to end up in a good way.
13:45I have to be excited coming out of this thing because you beat a team in a game where you
13:50should have won.
13:51You had no Lamar Jackson on the other side.
13:54And that's what I was talking about.
13:55If you guys heard me Friday night with Jake Volnick, why I was so nervous heading into this game outside
14:00of the fact that it was a really big divisional game and an opportunity to showcase maybe a measuring stick
14:07game as to where you were versus who we see as the cream of the crop in the AFC North.
14:11If the Browns weren't able to look good today and they were jostled around by a Lamar Jackson, less Baltimore
14:20Ravens team, then you would have had to seriously reconsider your expectations for this team.
14:26Because we were so gung-ho after the first four or five weeks because of the three-in-one start
14:32and that Pittsburgh Steelers win on Thursday night that we thought that this was way ahead of schedule.
14:37It was going to be high tide sets out.
14:38We knew that things were going to fall back down to earth eventually, but you saw things that made you
14:46feel like this was not that bad team that we thought it was going to be at the beginning of
14:50the season.
14:51Maybe the Jets were a bit of a reality check, but what the Browns did today and what I was
14:55so happy seeing is they took care of business on defense.
14:59They put Tyler Huntley throughout the game in bad situations and really what I've been really, really impressed by throughout
15:06this afternoon was the fact that they bottled up Derrick Henry.
15:09I thought for sure that Derrick Henry was going to come into today again with no Mason Graham, with no
15:15Mike Hall Jr., with Carson Schlesinger playing injured like every single play.
15:21It looked like he was getting hurt.
15:23I thought that Derrick Henry was going to run rough shot over you.
15:25And after that first drive, much like in the Jets game, it looked like that was going to be the
15:29case.
15:30But at the end of the day, Derrick Henry ends with 17 rushes for 58 yards.
15:35You take that for a guy like Derrick Henry, you take that a hundred times out of a hundred times.
15:41You put Tyler Huntley in consistent spots to force him to make plays that are above his skill set.
15:49If that's Lamar Jackson on the other side instead of Tyler Huntley, yeah, maybe the Browns lose this game today.
15:54But Lamar Jackson's injured.
15:56That's the cards that you're dealt.
15:58And you have to take care of business with the guys that you have in front of you.
16:02Tyler Huntley is not a pushover quarterback.
16:04He's not like a spot starter, I don't know, Tyson Bajan or what Tua Tunga Bailoa is right now.
16:10But he's not Lamar Jackson.
16:12And you had a window to win this game.
16:15And I was so happy to see that the defense stood tall throughout the game today and stopped him,
16:21stopped Derrick Henry, and put this team in a great position to win.
