00:00This is going to be a very fun game.
00:03I think that last week you seen Casey Concepcion be unlocked.
00:08And then, you know, when he did his damage in the first half,
00:11you see him become a decoy in the second half.
00:15And I think when you got a guy that's that dynamic,
00:19that much of a playmaker that can kill you out in space like that,
00:23it is good things happen when you get him to football.
00:26And he's one of those guys that if I looked at as an X factor
00:29or top five key player in this game, if you put the player pools together,
00:33I think Casey is right there one through three.
00:37Pick wherever you want to put him at simply because you see how dynamic he is
00:41and what he can do when he has the ball in his hands.
00:44But after he does his damage, you can tell defenses start paying attention to him.
00:49And it unlocks things for other players on this offense.
00:53And I think the Browns will have some opportunities to do more of what they did
00:57against the Tennessee Titans.
00:59To the Pittsburgh Steelers.
01:01And I think also offensively, you know,
01:04you got to continue to get the ball out your hands quick.
01:05You got to continue to run a football.
01:08Jalen Warren, that dude is a beast.
01:10And you got to figure out a way to slow him down, slow down that running game.
01:14And that'll give you the best chance to win this game.
01:16But, you know, I feel very,
01:17very confident as a Browns fan walking into that stadium this weekend
01:22and coming back to Cleveland victorious.
01:23I think it's the most confident that I've felt in a long time.
01:27It's something about just being 5-2 against that team, you know,
01:31at 5-2 with so much on the line and having legit confidence in your football team.
01:37Like, yeah, we're a better squad than them.
01:38Because to me, I kind of felt like we left a lot to be desired in that first matchup against
01:44Pittsburgh.
01:45And maybe if we can clean up some of those things that occurred in the second half,
01:48we can play a much more complete game.
01:51And that would be even more special to do it in their house.
01:53Yeah, I mean, the best part is, for the offense,
01:56it felt like last week was the realization of what this offense's full potential could be.
02:03And you remember the conversations going into the season, Earl.
02:06Like, I remember you and I talked about it.
02:08We weren't sure about the quarterback, right?
02:10We didn't know what that was going to look like.
02:11We didn't know who was going to be starting.
02:12We didn't know how well they would play if it was going to be Deshaun early on as well.
02:16Like, what would that actually look like?
02:18And he's been serviceable enough with the players around him.
02:21But that was always the thing, was the players around him,
02:25whoever was starting a quarterback,
02:27were always going to raise the floor for this offense and what it could be.
02:32And you've seen that with Denzel Boston's contributions,
02:37Casey Concepcion's contributions in spurts,
02:40Jerry Judy's contributions in spurts,
02:42the run game in Quinchon Judkins and Harold Fannin.
02:44Like, the thought was you have all these young weapons
02:48and they'll lift up whoever's a quarterback
02:50and whatever the offense is doing.
02:51And so last week was the first time you actually saw that for the first time.
02:56Denzel Boston didn't have as much of a role,
02:57but, like, you saw KC unlocked as this yards-after-catch god
03:02that can just, like, hey, catch it five yards past the line of scrimmage
03:06and then take it for a huge gain, 20-plus yards.
03:10We saw Harold Fannin do similar stuff.
03:12You saw the run game finally get going.
03:14And so the hope is that you—
03:17You saw it get going from under center, not to cut you off.
03:19But that's another thing that people need to understand and point out
03:23because that was huge.
03:24You know, you ran the ball, I think, 21 times from under center
03:27and was 65%—
03:28Yeah, time for the most of the season.
03:29—65% success rate on those runs as well.
03:31And so that is something else that you can build upon also.
03:35Which I asked Travis Schweitzer about that this week,
03:38and he said part of the reason they were able to do that
03:39was because they were staying ahead of the sticks, right?
03:41Like, because they had third and manageable instead of third and seven,
03:45they could run more under center stuff.
03:47So that—like, but that's where it all is.
03:49Like, this offense hopefully can take what they did last week,
03:52replicate it in—tomorrow in Pittsburgh,
03:56and if they can, like, they absolutely have a chance of winning this football game.
04:00If it reverts back at all to not being able to run the football,
04:02which the Steelers' defense is one of the better-run defenses in the NFL right now,
04:07some of that is skewed because they played the Saints last week,
04:10and the Saints—bro, the Saints ran the ball 18 times
04:14and had 17 rushing yards.
04:16That's, like, one of the worst rushing performances I've ever heard of in my life.
04:19That's terrible.
04:19So, like, some of that is skewed.
04:21But I agree with you.
04:23Like, that's the hope.
04:25The Browns certainly have a chance to win this game.
04:27Like, this isn't some go to Pittsburgh,
04:29and you know that you can 100% expect what's going to happen here.
04:33This is like—no, they have a legitimate shot at beating this Steelers team
04:36because we've seen them do it before,
04:37and if the offense found its rhythm paired with that defense,
04:41like, don't get me wrong, it's going to be hostile.
04:43Pittsburgh's always a tough place to play.
04:46But I think Todd's going to have them emotionally prepared
04:49for whatever they're going to see,
04:51and if they finally have an offense that can complement their defense even better
04:55and actually score more, like, bro, they can be—
04:58I don't want to get ahead of myself here,
05:00but, like, the way they played last week, if that can be the norm,
05:02they can score 27 points.
05:04If they can get their defense, even if it's not perfect,
05:06making stops in key moments, the goal line stand, getting big turnovers,
05:11like, that's the type of style and that's the type of team
05:14that can compete at least with anybody in this league.
05:17You mentioned the defense, and I think this is the perfect opportunity
05:20to get that bad performance out of their mouth.
05:22I think the Cleveland Browns' defense was about average,
05:25C- level performance last week, and I say that because we know
05:28that they are capable, much capable, of being better than what they are.
05:33And I think when you look at the Steelers' offense,
05:35yeah, Aaron Rodgers gets that ball out of his hand quick,
05:37and yeah, Warren can kill you.
05:39But at the end of the day, you know, Big Ben has been sacked,
05:42I think, 22, 23 times this season,
05:44and if you look at the QB pressures and if you look at all that advanced stats,
05:48they say that the offensive line allows defense to get pressure
05:52on their quarterback.
05:54And one of the things the Browns did very well in that first matchup,
05:57and Aaron Rodgers talked about it after the fact,
05:59was disguising what they wanted to do at the line of scrimmage.
06:02And the Cleveland Browns have become much better at pre-snap disguises,
06:08mixing it up, you know, creating pressure, coming with four or five up front,
06:12sometimes coming with the blitz, and just confusing the quarterback.
06:15And I think the Browns' defense, knowing how they performed last week,
06:18they want to step up and they want to be better.
06:20And if you can come out here and be better this week,
06:23I just think it's one of those games.
06:25I do.
06:26Because not too many people are giving them a chance.
06:28They're talking about the history.
06:30It's been all over nationally.
06:32We've talked about it locally a lot.
06:34And I just don't think a lot of people are giving them a chance.
06:36Can I say this too?
06:37Like, as you talk about what this game means
06:39and what it validates and all these things,
06:42if you win this one, I think two other things happen here.
06:45I think, A, the P word starts getting used a lot more.
06:52Like, Baskin told me yesterday when I was filling in for, I think, Mennegan.
06:56Mennegan got to go to the Brewers' Parade, by the way,
06:58which I thought was pretty sweet.
06:59Keith...
07:00He earned it.
07:01Keith flat out told him.
07:02Keith came into the studio apparently on Thursday and said,
07:05dude, no, take off and go to the parade.
07:07He earned it.
07:08He straight up told him.
07:09Yeah, he earned it.
07:10So, he was going and said I was in.
07:11Baskin told me that teams that start the season 6-2 over in NFL history
07:18have a 92% or 93% chance of making the playoffs.
07:23So, I think that's another thing that comes with this.
07:25Like, I know we're already thinking about that a little bit,
07:26but you're 6-2.
07:28You only got to win, like, maybe four games the rest of the way.
07:31Like, you feel really good about your proposition
07:33and where you sit in terms of the playoff picture.
07:36And then, B, the second thing is if they win this game on Sunday, tomorrow,
07:44I think winning the division becomes even a bigger conversation.
07:47Because right now, it's like, yeah, they look good for the playoffs,
07:50but I don't know that anybody's, like, talking about, yeah,
07:54they're definitely going to win the division.
07:55I mean, all these teams are above .500 right now.
07:57They're all really good.
07:58We know at least two of these teams, the Bengals and the Ravens,
08:02are kind of coming into this year, like, with Super Bowl aspirations,
08:04given their quarterback situations, how they overhauled their rosters,
08:07different things like that.
08:08So, we know this division's good.
08:11But you start 3-0 in the division, and the schedule you have left,
08:16and all these things kind of working for you,
08:19like, all of a sudden winning the division becomes, like,
08:21a real possibility on top of we can start throwing the P word around
08:24a little bit more, I think.
08:25So, those are two more additional things that this game sort of brings to the table
08:30if you come away with a win.
08:32I'm excited.
08:32I can't wait for them to play.
