00:00Here was Mike McCarthy, Steelers head coach, earlier this week talking about the Browns' ability to win late games.
00:07I mean, that's the way you have to win in this league.
00:09I think, really, I go back to the first meeting that we had as a football team,
00:13and, you know, we talked about the importance of winning, you know, in the last series of the game.
00:17I think that's today's NFL.
00:19You see it yearly, as far back as I remember, in playoff games,
00:23and, you know, division games also take on those type of characteristics.
00:27So I think it's a credit to what they've done.
00:29But, you know, we plan on, you know, winning, and if we've got to win in the last series,
00:33that's a dead point to our training.
00:35So I think our guys do a good job of understanding the importance of, you know,
00:40the situations coming down to the end of the game, and it's, you know,
00:43maybe another big challenge in that area.
00:45Are we having a melatonin off between Munkett and McCarthy this week?
00:48So McCarthy kind of went a little hard in the paint earlier in the week,
00:52and so I wonder if he's trying to maybe settle himself back down.
00:54I feel like...
00:55Because he was getting into it.
00:56I feel like Todd is going as low as you possibly can on the radar,
01:00trying not to talk any smack, and it does feel like McCarthy's play.
01:04It's a game of Congo.
01:05A Congo?
01:06Congo line.
01:07That's what I was going for.
01:08No.
01:08What's the one?
01:09What's the...
01:10What are you going for?
01:13Apparently not a Marconi.
01:14What's the game where you're trying to go under the stick?
01:18What's that one?
01:20Where you go under the stick?
01:22Limbo?
01:22Yes.
01:23Oh, Mark Hatch, you're not supposed to help him out yet.
01:25No, no.
01:25What are you doing?
01:27Thank you, Mark Hatch.
01:27Mark Hatch, you blew it.
01:29This is why he's trying to get you off the show,
01:32but it's why I'm fighting to keep you on the show every day.
01:34What a disappointment that was.
01:35We had him right where we wanted, Mark Hatch.
01:37No, you had me right where you wanted me.
01:40Right where we wanted.
01:40Mark Hatch, you watch Band of Brothers.
01:43I'm proud of you.
01:45Yes.
01:45It is like a game of limbo between Melatonin Mike and Melatonin Monk.
01:49So excited to hop in and be like limbo?
01:52Good man there.
01:54Saved the show.
01:55That was tough to watch.
01:56Come on.
01:57It was even tougher to live.
01:59Oh, thank you.
02:00So explain what game of limbo are they playing?
02:03I already explained it.
02:03How is this a game of limbo?
02:06In terms of who's trying to be more understated?
02:09Who's trying to have less energy?
02:11They go under the stick is how they're understated?
02:12Yes.
02:13They just put things that start with under?
02:15Yeah, they go under, energy-wise.
02:18That's an energy bar, and you're trying to go under the energy bar.
02:20Oh, no, we're getting there.
02:21You didn't tell me about the energy bar.
02:22Yeah, yeah.
02:23That's where I missed.
02:24I think you're sucking the energy out of the segment while we're at it.
02:27If you would have led with energy bar, we would have got there.
02:28I couldn't get limbo.
02:29You think I'm getting the energy bar?
02:31Sure.
02:32Here it would have been the difference.
02:34No, McCarthy's clearly trying not to step in it the way he did earlier on in the week.
02:38I think that's part of the idea with this.
02:41Do you disagree?
02:41Right now, McCarthy's actually the coach that I feel like you want in this back and forth.
02:47You want Munkin to be what McCarthy has been in this, whereas I've been telling you the
02:51entire time, dance on the grave, but don't dance before they've actually built the grave
02:56and buried themselves.
02:57You've got to take it easy, but McCarthy clearly was doing everything you wanted Munkin to be
03:02doing, and he's brand new to this whole thing, too.
03:04He was only there last year.
03:07Still getting over the limbo thing.
03:10Listen, when it comes to this game, I want this win in a way I haven't wanted a regular
03:15season win in a long time.
03:17And I can't really...
03:19The sting is actually taken out of that because of the stupid thing I said about the Jets game.
03:23Was it now three weeks ago?
03:25Yeah.
03:26Could have been two weeks ago.
03:26No, you just stand it down.
03:27Could have been ten years ago.
03:28You really like regular season football in a way that others don't.
03:31But this specific game, given the meaning of the game, and the meaning is tremendous,
03:39and truthfully, if they lose, as long as they don't lose in a tremendously stupid way,
03:44I'm not going to be necessarily crestfallen.
03:46With the first meeting of this, would that have been a tremendously stupid way or no?
03:49If they had lost that game, remember, it was 24-10 in the second quarter.
03:52That's a tough one.
03:5324-10 in the second quarter, and then by the time we got to Wade in the fourth, minute 42
03:57remaining, it was tied up at 24 apiece.
03:59Yeah, I mean, if you blow a two-touchdown lead in the second half, that is tremendously stupid.
04:04Because the under-talked-about part of that Thursday night game is the significant lead
04:08the Browns got into, and this was not yes, although there was a game-winning drive
04:11because Deshaun got the field goal again late in the fourth quarter.
04:15The Browns were vomiting all over their shoes and letting Pittsburgh back into that game.
04:19Tremendously stupid, by the way.
04:21I would throw in if you don't show up in the first quarter again.
04:25And you have had seven weeks.
04:28This is, we start talking about, like, the ways to win.
04:30They can come back, by the way.
04:32And it might stand to reason, by the way, that one of the blessings of the Tennessee game
04:38is the Browns kind of took the training wheels off of Deshaun and kind of let him throw the
04:43ball more instead of just simply protecting the football.
04:46Like, they took a few more risks in that Tennessee game because they were coming back from,
04:51you know, giving up those two touchdowns in the first quarter.
04:53It was enough for me to actually have a complaint about Deshaun Watson's deep passes.
04:57Do you want to hear it?
04:58Yes.
04:58He throws them too deep.
05:00If you are, I made it sound simple for a reason.
05:03If you are trying to generate any sort of pass interference flags or anything of the,
05:08you want to throw the ball a little bit shorter because then, obviously, it messes up the defender.
05:13And then when you have to come back, when the receiver has to come back for the ball,
05:15it opens up the opportunities for PIs if they don't actually catch it by 10x.
05:20And when you overthrow the receiver by five yards and never give the defender a chance
05:24to commit PI, you're never going to get the call.
05:27Just a quick little nugget.
05:28It's pretty basic, but, you know, good one from you.
05:31Good one from you.
05:32Very good.
05:33Oh, you're going to be hurtful because I didn't know I didn't play along with Limbo now.
05:38Nope.
05:38This whole segment is going to be me dragging the entire show to the mat.
05:42I don't know if you caught the first segment, dog, in a little bit of a vengeful mood today.
05:47Yeah, and who played along nicely?
05:51Where's your credit for that?
05:52You're trashing all the Cleveland media.
05:54And I'm going down right there with you, buddy.
05:56I'm just dragged along with you.
05:59That's fair.
05:59I owe you the Limbo one.
06:01You know?
06:01No, I mean, I think this could be a game that you might have to open up a little bit
06:08more
06:08with Deshaun Watson.
06:09And, by the way, I don't think it's a coincidence.
06:11Deshaun threw for, I think it was 256 or 268 yards in the first game of this.
06:15Like, I think this is an important game for Deshaun for ways we've already talked about.
06:20But it's an important game that you do not get behind.
06:23And the first quarter stuff really has to stop.
06:27Although, wouldn't you make an argument that although the first quarter stuff obviously
06:30has to stop, the Titans game, they were down 21-7.
06:34They're down 14-0, then 21-7.
06:35The difference is that's the Titans.
06:37The Titans are a team incapable.
06:39I mean, the Titans are so incapable of maintaining a significant lead that they just traded the
06:45best player they've had in the last 10 years because they're about to go after another quarterback
06:49probably this offseason.
06:50Yeah, I know.
06:51I'm just trying to highlight the point that we already watched one game against the Steelers
06:56where the Browns were the ones that coughed up their lead and then obviously didn't know
06:59how to preserve it.
07:00This Titans game, they at least came back.
07:02I think the end result here is that the Browns don't feel comfortable in these games until
07:06it's incredibly close and they can win with a field goal in the last possession.
07:09If we can only start the game.
07:10That's like their comfort zone.
07:11It's where they think they're the best at.
07:13If we can only start the game in the second quarter, we'd be undefeated.
07:17Yeah.
07:18I think that's a, by the way, I think that's a better take than if the Browns had Shador
07:22starting.
07:23It'd be 6-1.
07:24I still can't get over the Emory Hunt thing.
07:26But no, I mean.
07:26So what'd you make of Grant Delpit's comments today?
07:28Which ones?
07:29The one where he joked about the idea that this slow starts.
07:32And said, yeah, we allow, oh, we allow those, we allow those touchdowns in the opening
07:36drive on purpose.
07:37Well, I'd rather take a lighter tone with it than being like, we can't figure this out
07:44and I really am stressing out about it.
07:46I mean, that's what he's telling you in every sort of way.
07:48He's telling you we can't figure it out and if it was that easy, we would just have this
07:51fixed.
07:52It sounded actually very Todd Munkin in a way.
07:54I thought it was, I took it more as a joke, but.
07:56Well, of course it's a joke.
07:57Well, okay.
07:58Because he's joking.
07:58But there is, there is a hidden truth attached to it in that they can't figure out why this
08:02is happening.
08:03They obviously don't like that it's happening.
08:05Who would?
08:05Or they know and they don't want to tell you.
08:07If they knew, wouldn't they've already had this fixed?
08:09Or did they just figure something out within the Titans game that's going to have this
08:12turned around?
08:12Yes or yes.
08:14Okay.
08:14One of those two.
08:15All right then.
08:15No, I mean, like, listen, this is one of those rare games where I actually do expect
08:22the Browns to be very competitive in this and the upside of being very competitive in
08:27this game and or winning this game, this is the kind of game, listen, just win, all
08:33right?
08:33I will take a ugly win over a beautiful loss, but this is the kind of game of like, man,
08:39there's a lot of upside in just going in there and giving the Steelers hell.
08:43And we can talk about wins or losses on, on Monday.
08:45You know what I mean?
08:46Yeah.
08:46Well, I'm, I'm always of that belief in that there's, there's things that you can take
08:49away in if they lose this game, there's things you can take away in the positive.
08:53I'm sure.
08:53But how they do this game and how they go about this game, because we haven't had
08:57enough against what I believe to be our good teams.
08:59Now I I'd make the argument that I think the Steelers are more of a fraudulent team than
09:03a good team, but I'm not going to do that right now.
09:06Do you mean fraudulent in the regular season sense, or do you mean it in the post-season
09:10sense?
09:11Well, in the post-season sense.
09:12Okay.
09:13Yeah.
09:13So I, if a team, if you don't think a team's going to win in the post-season and I
09:17don't
09:17care if your frauds think that they like, some of them think they're legitimate contenders.
09:20Well, yeah, they're inbred.
09:21And I just, I just don't see it.
09:22They, they have cousins that are siblings.
09:25Like, of course, Jalen Warren's a certified stud.
09:28I give him a bunch of credit.
09:29They're very much a one trick pony.
09:31This offense, in my opinion, like Aaron Rogers can't throw the ball over the yard still,
09:35but as a whole, it's not, it's not nearly what Aaron Rogers was even last year in many
09:39respects.
09:40But I think that's where like the real, not real conversation sometimes vexes me when it's
09:45had about the Browns is it's like, uh, right now, all I can worry about is, is this real
09:50in the regular season?
09:50So when people say it's not sustainable, it's not real.
09:54I think most of the time they're just talking about the post-season and I'll care about the
09:57post-season when it's time for the post-season.
09:59And the reason why it matters is like on Monday, if they win, even if, even if my, my curiosity
10:06or my, my, my hackles or hackles, whatever is raised.
10:10And I might think that they could be fraudulent at Pittsburgh.
10:14I, that, I don't know.
10:16I don't know that that's going to be my main takeaway.
10:18This is going to be an incredible win, uh, assuming that the Browns get it.
10:22And if they do, I think that's where the expectations train leaves the station.
10:27Like, I think, I think our expectation should become with a win on Sunday, winning the division.
10:32I think our expectation should become double digit wins.
10:35We get to move our original takes on the Browns and find out new ones.
10:38And some of that is it's eight games into the season.
10:40So that's a great checkpoint for this.
10:43And the other part of this is no, this is a legitimate win.
10:46If I have one real gripe about how the first seven games have been treated by people outside
10:52of Cleveland, it's that they've completely snoozed on the fact you've already beaten
10:56a very good team in the Pittsburgh Steelers.
10:58I know the Panthers are a 500 team when you beat them, but they're under 500.
11:02No, well, they, but when you beat them, they were above 500.
11:05I want that on the record.
11:06So like there, there is an element of, you already have a good win here.
11:10Or I, the idea that that hasn't been given enough credit is already upset.
11:14Would you argue the Steelers are our best win?
11:18Yes.
11:19Because I think so too.
11:20But the problem with that is that then I turn around and I just told everyone two minutes
11:23ago, I think the Steelers are pretty fraudulent.
11:25In the postseason, but not in the regular season.
11:28Right.
11:29See, it matters.
11:31It does matter.
11:32Like there's, there's no team on left on your schedule that, that is legit when it comes
11:38to the postseason, right?
11:40Uh, maybe the Ravens with Lamar, but we'll see where they are when you play.
11:44The Ravens with Lamar, potentially the Bengals, uh, for this season.
11:47I was thinking more like outside the division, but you're fair points.
11:51Uh, I'm trying to think if there's anybody else that we still have because the Texans
11:54aren't what they used to be.
11:55Obviously the Falcons aren't that good.
11:57The Giants aren't that good.
11:59The Colts are just abysmal and the Saints are, I told you the Saints are sneaky.
12:03You want to keep you remind everyone I, they're sneaky, but they're not, they're not very
12:06good.
12:06So your point's valid.
12:07Yeah.
12:07And I just, I look at this and go, I, if this win doesn't do it for people in terms
12:12of are the Browns, is, is this a real six and two start or whatever?
12:16That's fine.
12:17There's, there's very few wins in the schedule that are going to do it for you.
12:21I'll take the greater body of work and plug into that.
12:23And I'll take first place in the AFC North and say, all right, that's enough for me.
12:27Oh, of course.
12:28But I think that's still the reality there that, and it'll change obviously when we take
12:32on Lamar and Joe Burrow up until this point, Trevor Lawrence has been the best quarterback
12:36the Browns have played.
