The HOF Breaks Down Win Number Four - Cleveland Browns Daily - 10.19.26

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Speaker 1: Coming to you live from the Cross Country Mortgage Campus in Berea, Ohio, this is Cleveland Browns Daily on 850 ESPN Cleveland. Brought to you by BallyBet. BallyBet Sportsbook, the best place to bet the Browns. Please bet responsibly. Here are your hosts, Bo Bishop and Nathan Zagura.
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Speaker 2: All right, let's do it live on.
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Speaker 3: A Victory Monday edition of Cleveland Browns Daily.
00:00:43
Speaker 2: Atop the AFC North we sit. I am merely Bo. It's a great Z. Hello. Here we are. What a Sunday. What a Sunday. And what a, just what a resilient, fun day. football team this is would i like to go out there and win easily you betcha you betcha but there is something magical happening with this team and it was funny at one point in i want to say maybe the early fourth quarter i turned around and i go if if if the roles were reversed in this game and we were the ravens and they were the browns i'd say man This has a bad feel. We're letting them hang around, and we should be putting them away. And they didn't, and the Browns, you get complimentary football, the Schlesinger fumble, you capitalize that, get it into the end zone. And then Deshaun, as he's done, this is five straight games in which he has led a go-ahead drive, five straight in the fourth quarter. Four of them ended up being game-winning drives.
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Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
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Speaker 2: The one with the Jets, he took the lead through the touchdown to Boston. We didn't hold on. But five straight games in the fourth quarter, he has led a drive to give this football team the lead. Five. That's nuts.
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Speaker 3: It's a hard thing to try to break down because the result in some instances doesn't make sense as the game flow is going. But for whatever reason, when his back is most up against the wall, he thrives. And Todd talked about it earlier today. He had his availability. He talked a little bit about You know, he's so conscientious of not making an interception, like making sure that he doesn't. And it's almost like it comes to a point where it's like, oh, just let it fly, man. And Todd's been talking about that all the way back from camp. But he was superb in the fourth quarter of this game. Absolutely superb. And we've seen this time and time again where he just elevates his play when he just goes and plays. And then our offense comes along with it. The crazy thing, we really don't run the ball very effectively at all. We still don't really do that. Consistently, we don't throw it. The one thing that is consistent is our defense. And our defense under Mike Rutenberg has been elite all season long. I think at this point, we certainly have enough enough good stuff in the bank out there to say that what happened week one in Jacksonville was just a combination of every bad thing that could go wrong did. But everything since that point has been elite. Everything since that point has been game-winning worthy that he has put on. It's remarkable what Jacques Césaire is doing on this defensive line with this constant rotation of guys that should not be, based on their pedigree, playing to the level that they are. You mentioned Swessinger on the punch-out. I don't know that we've had a defensive player. We obviously had Miles for a long time, but from a linebacker position, the way that he flies around and just makes all of the big plays and is not practicing because he's banged up and all these things. Then the secondary, you lose Grant Delpit in the first half of this game, and you don't really give up anything down the field. You put in the kid, and McNeil Warren comes in, and he's in the mix, and So there is something, and I think Mike Rudenberg deserves a lot of credit for it. I think his lieutenants deserve a lot of credit. Mike deserves a lot of credit for keeping those lieutenants because he could have gone in another direction, but he kept all of those guys. Those guys are near and dear to us, obviously, and great friends of the program, all of them. But they have these guys ready week in and week out, and it's almost like it's kind of like the Braveheart thing where he says, hold, hold, hold until the offense gets it going, and then the offense gets it going enough that you're getting results.
00:04:22
Speaker 2: It is, and you mentioned Deshaun. In the fourth quarter of this season, 40 of 63, 488 yards, four touchdowns, a 101.8 quarterback rating, 116 rushing yards, and four game-winning drives, five go-ahead drives. He's incredible. It's really superhuman for Carson Swessinger to do what he did out there. He makes it look easy. He didn't even have a brace on his ankle. Just went out there and played, and understands his body understands his pain tolerance and you know he's had some big injuries in the past so you know the calcification I guess I'm told helps in these situations but 13 tackles the forced fumble at the most important moment of the game to get it out from Derrick Henry was awesome Quincy flying around he had a sack this week three forced fumbles the week before you mentioned Emmanuel McNeil Warren should have had his first, should have had his, not only his first pick, should have had his first pick and a touchdown. That was going to be a, to the house variety there. And he dropped it. And, but he was in the right spot. And then Daniel Thomas, who was brought to this football team to play special teams, plays 20 snaps of defense. Once, you know, Grant goes out and played really well. I think he was our highest graded defender, pro football focus, three tackles was in the right spots when he needed to be. Um, Yeah, and you think about Aiden Huntington stepping up. You think about the way that these Sam Kamara have in another good game. Isaiah McGuire now, three sacks on the season, playing the best football of his young career versus being selfless to be in some of these TE stunts and to be the guy who's going in and crashing down the guards and bringing the tackle with him to free up the loopers. It's really fun to watch. I'd love to watch it for 60 minutes, certainly on the offensive side. And defensively, all you can really say is the opening drives have not been great. But other than that, they've been spectacular. It's fun. And for Jerry Judy to stick with it the way he did, to be the leading receiver in the game, 4 for 69. The Browns, going into the final drive of the game, had not had a pass play of 20 yards or more, and they had not had a run play of 10 yards or more. Not a single one. And You hit Jerry Judy for 33 on third and five. And what's really cool about it is he and Harold fan and Harold fan and was kind of talking like, look, when I run some of these clear out routes, their middle of the field is wide open. Judy was saying, I think that they're jumping everything underneath or sitting on all of our like stick routes. I think if we can run, you know, the deeper digs, I think we have a chance. So there's been all this talk about it. They get to the line of scrimmage on that last one. Deshaun sees the two high, and he sees the corners down, which is a cover to tell. Now, of course, they could bail out and play some form of quarters, or they could try to disguise and end up being in a single high. So he checks to that play, and that's part of the thing. Think about it. He checked to the route for Denzel Boston in Tampa. He's checked to a lot of what have been the big plays, and that's the trust and having what Todd Munkin calls a quarterback-driven offense. He checks to that play, fan and clears out. Kyle Hamilton runs some classic cover, too. dig right in front of the safety. The other safety goes over to get on top fan, which clears out that side. And that allows for all that yak balls right on them, which allows for all that yak. And it just, it's, it's a perfect thing. This team never gives up. They are resilient. They do not quit. The first half was as ugly of offensive football as we've seen in some time. And yet they come out, get it done. And then defensively, this stat continues to blow my mind in the entirety, in the entirety of the second half, In the entirety of the second half, the Baltimore Ravens managed two first downs. Two first downs in the entirety of the second half. The Browns had eight first downs in the fourth quarter. Their last three drives were a touchdown drive, a missed field goal, and then they did get the field goal at the end there where they did whatever they needed to do to move the football. Second half, their drives, with the exception of two quick three and outs, were excellent, but two first downs and a half of football against a team that, you know, Stu Huntley has been playing well for them.
00:08:22
Speaker 5: Yep.
00:08:22
Speaker 2: That's got Derrick Henry. That's got Zay Flowers. Like that's just an insane level of suffocation by this Browns defense. Yeah, it really is.
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Speaker 3: And it's there's, they are doing something at halftime and there is an overarching thing here, guys, that is, that has to be talked about and addressed. And that is this, there is a tremendous belief that has been built in the building. There's a, specifically a tremendous amount of belief that has been built in that room. There is a complete trust that is happening between Todd and his staff and this team. There's a togetherness that you just very rarely see this quickly in professional sports. And it's something that is for us, I think, allowing to kind of a never say die. Like you feel like you're out of it, but you're not really are. And just get us the ball one more time and let's see what we can do. And it's manifesting in these wins. And I think The best example of this yesterday was Andre Schmidt stepping up to hit what you thought would be a game-winning field goal to put us up 13-10 and missing it.
00:09:24
Speaker 2: Shocker. Which was a stunner. 25 in a row.
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Speaker 3: And then he goes up the next time down, and it's a no-doubter. But there's a belief, like there was no doubt he was going to make the second one, even after missing the first one. And I think that belief is something that comes from Todd that permeates through the roster. It permeates through his offensive and defensive assistance. It gets into the room, and now the leaders on this team are buying into it. This is a very, very young team. Todd Munkin is a first-year head coach in his early 60s. He has reached them all. They believe in him. He believes in them.
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Speaker 2: It matters, man. It matters. It matters so much. My question right now, and probably a question I should have asked earlier, do we have the locker room? Do you mind if we throw that in soon? Is that possible? Could he do that soon or no? We'll do it in the second segment. But anyway, the locker room afterwards in Munkin's speech, I think Because your point was just so good that it was a natural thing. He basically thrust us right into that locker room, which was an incredible scene. And you guys will get to see that in the show. We've seen that at all of these, though. Every one of these.
00:10:28
Speaker 3: There's a different guy. And there's a different guy who, like the first time they gave.
00:10:32
Speaker 2: A game ball to Rudy. They go nuts.
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Speaker 6: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: I mean, they like each other. Yeah, absolutely.
00:10:38
Speaker 7: Chemistry.
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Speaker 2: That's a theme. It's there. Everybody I've talked to about it, they said that this is the most tight-knit locker room that they've been in. And it's not just in the locker room. It's outside of the facility they use. spend time together they genuinely like each other and it's working they're playing together as a team and Todd Munkin you know when we show that does something I've never seen a coach do and admit basically like hey I had something wrong here and I'm gonna get it fixed and that Jerry Judy has been we need Jerry Judy and Jerry Judy has been to his credit he has been shown a resilience and has gotten things done when it has not always been that fun for him this year In Tampa, he had one target, no catches, and yet he was the one who blocks for Blake Whiteheart on the game-winning touchdown. Then we go to Carolina. He wins zero targets. Three targets, three catches, 36 yards against Pitt. Seven targets, three for 19 last week. Six with it, four targets, four catches, 69 yards. And obviously, if you think about two of his catches against Pitt were on the final drive, the 17-yarder, which is as good of a catch as you'll see this season. And then he actually once again caught the one that got us in field goal range. He does it again there. So It's just cool to see his resilience. It's cool to see that for him. And just the way, it's not even what Munkin said about him, which was awesome. It's the way that Casey Concepcion is reacting. It's the way that all those guys were reacting for Jerry Judy. And it just shows you, like, it would be so easy to be like, I'm going to be a crud. I got my money. This is garbage. This is beneath me. They don't even care. I don't care. And he's not done that. He's shown up in the biggest moments. And I mentioned a few weeks ago that Deshaun went and talked to him, and I talked to Jerry this morning, and that mattered to him that Deshaun went and talked to him, and he's like, I'm going to be there for you. It's nice to be wanted. It is nice to be wanted. It's nice when somebody comes up to you and says, hey, man, we need you. Yeah, yeah. This is a game, and it is a sport, and it is awesome, and it requires so much. And I think that we sometimes think about it like, and I'm saying we as the collective fandom. Right. As that it is mad and that these are little, you know, robots with particular set of skills and you plug them in and they're human beings.
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Speaker 5: Yep.
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Speaker 2: And I think one of the things that I love about my job so much is I get to know them as the football players, but I get to know them as human beings. And a guy like Jerry Judy, for whatever reason, he and I have always kind of clicked whenever we talked. And like, I'm an emotional guy, so bear with me. But it, you know, I competed on a very small scale at one point in my career. And you know what it means when you like your teammates, have your back and what it means to then deliver for them and what it means to have the ups and downs. One of the guys that we became great friends with over the time. And it was, you know, sometimes it was a rollercoaster, David and Joku going from being, you know, benched and, and asking for a trade to then figuring it out and growing up and maturing and becoming like the heart and soul for a while of this organization on certainly on the offensive side. And to see these guys, go through some of those things and the way they respond, it's, it just makes you really happy for them because so much of it, and we'll talk with the half later, but there's a reason that receivers are like, I'm always open and I want the football, you know, because they're relying on so much to actually get the football.
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Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:14:00
Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm just happy. I'm happy for him. I think it's so cool the way that the young guys like him. It's just, there's some, there is a special vibe around this team. Now what I'd like that to translate in is 60 minutes of good football. And then maybe we don't have to, have it be quite so, at times, visually displeasing or so tense.
00:14:17
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:14:17
Speaker 2: But it's awesome. And you mentioned Andre. Andre hadn't missed forever. I think that the streak was on some level, like, on his mind. Like, this is crazy. I just want to go kick, but it's always, oh, now it's 25. Now it's 26. Now it becomes its own thing, right? It takes on a life of its own. Absolutely. So he misses it. He's like, whatever, I'm not going to miss two. Then they jump off sides and block it. And that can certainly affect your mind. From your vantage point, you knew that right away. Oh, right away. Okay, so from the TV, they had it from behind.
00:14:46
Speaker 6: Yeah, right away.
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Speaker 2: And you couldn't tell that he left right away? Oh, yeah. And I was just like, oh, for God's sake. And the flag was out early. Andre's like, what are we doing? Like, yeah, there's no way that he was able to be where he was. So, yes, it was offsides, and we got it. But even that, and he just nails it right down the middle. Right down the middle. Like, awesome. I told him you just wanted, I said, you kind of got robbed in some way of having the walk-off winner against Pittsburgh. So I said, I think you just wanted to say you wanted a walk-off. Wanted a walk-off, yeah.
00:15:22
Speaker 3: I want to go back to Judy for a second. You and I talked a couple of weeks ago. I can't remember if we did this on or off. It doesn't really matter at this point. I think it may have actually been off. I was concerned that that thing could really become a problem. Because we've seen it become a problem.
00:15:38
Speaker 2: Of course.
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Speaker 3: And this is a business with a capital B. Everybody, this is very transactional when it gets to this level. Even as transactional as college football has gone, it's not quite.
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Speaker 2: To this point. This is professional football.
00:15:52
Speaker 3: You're paid to do a job, and then somebody here is paid to replace you at some point.
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Speaker 2: Totally.
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Speaker 3: When your usefulness wears out. And Jerry's an idiot. He's looked at the draft, and you can see that certainly. And he did not have the best camp.
00:16:06
Speaker 2: He didn't. He didn't have a great year last year either.
00:16:08
Speaker 8: No.
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Speaker 3: And so you could start to feel the momentum going negatively, and I thought, boy, this is a young, impressionable team. I hope this doesn't end up being bad. And you could feel that potentially it could. And we've been doing this long enough that we've seen some of these things where this starts to go bad, and you just want to get rid of it as soon as possible before it manifests and festers. A great deal of credit goes to Jerry Judy. It goes to Deshaun Watson for that conversation. It goes to Todd Munkin. It goes to position coaches.
00:16:38
Speaker 2: It goes to everybody.
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Speaker 3: For everybody to kind of get on board and say, hey, let's make sure this doesn't get there. And then Jerry went out and proved that he deserved what is now the trust that his coach and his quarterback have in him. He went out and proved it. And somebody as established as him to do that at this stage in their career tells you a lot about what makes that guy tick, to me. And I think it tells you a lot about the trust that this team has has in their head coach.
00:17:05
Speaker 2: That's a two-way street. 100%. And that is why I think that we're sitting here. I think in a situation that didn't have that kind of leadership or a situation that felt somewhat rudderless, this easily could be a team that is 2-4, 0-6. But they aren't rudderless. They have a belief, and they have a belief in each other that makes them want to be at their absolute best for one another. And I think that that is... what is really cool about this. And the funny thing is Jerry Judy is 27 years old.
00:17:37
Speaker 4: Oh yeah.
00:17:38
Speaker 2: It feels like he's the old head in that room. No, no, he's only 27 years old. So he has a lot of career, I think in front of him as well to, to capitalize. And let's not forget two years ago, he turns in one of the greatest games in the history of the Cleveland Browns organization. Oh yeah.
00:17:54
Speaker 9: Yeah.
00:17:54
Speaker 2: On a Monday night in Denver against his former team. Yeah. And he then, you know, goes on to the Pro Bowl, career-high 1,200 yards. That game he had nine for 235 in that game. Yeah, remember it well. Now he hasn't had a 100-yard game since that season, and I'm sure he wants to do that again, but yeah, there's something, it just, everybody's willing to do their part, whatever it is, and I'll even say for Jared Verse, I'm sure Jared Verse, when you get traded for Miles Garrett, that you want to go out there and put up huge numbers, and Here's the number. The Browns have 19 sacks this season, second most in the NFL as a defense. 19 sacks, second most in the NFL. Jared Verst has zero. And yet, Jared Verst is actually, you know, this isn't hockey where the guy who makes the good pass that sets up the good pass still gets an assist. A hockey assist. But Jared Verst would have a lot of sack assists this year and is doing things unselfishly as they rush the passer as a team. And that's cool to see. Everybody is willing to play their role and do their part and it's been that's why this team is fun i think it's why it's a team that you can love i think it's why it's a team that you can embrace it's a team you certainly should be proud of and be proud to be a fan of because they are doing it the right way we'll find out what the ceiling is you know the reality is they have not played their best football yet we're getting better at penalties that's a win right we're yeah slowly chipping away now we need to play 60 minutes of football and this game coming up and i don't want to get too far ahead of myself but This is one that if you want to be that team, we said it about the Jets team, true, this is more true. You've got to go to Tennessee and handle your business. I'm with you. I don't want to get into Tennessee. We've got all week to get into that.
00:19:37
Speaker 3: But the reason that I think it's very important that you brought that up as you did is we just beat the 4-1 Baltimore Ravens.
00:19:45
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:19:46
Speaker 3: Every game we've played, with the exception to the Jacksonville, game, has felt the same no matter who the opponent is.
00:19:53
Speaker 2: Yep. Which is a wild thing.
00:19:54
Speaker 5: Yep.
00:19:55
Speaker 2: Like, the Ravens with Huntley have been great. Yeah, they're averaging 33 points a game. He's not Lamar, but, like, he's been great.
00:20:02
Speaker 5: Great.
00:20:02
Speaker 2: Not good. Great. 75% completions.
00:20:04
Speaker 10: Yes.
00:20:04
Speaker 2: 110 rating. Killing it. Yes. So.
00:20:08
Speaker 3: So the idea that you have that performance and it's a win against Baltimore and you have a similar performance, whether it's a win against Tampa Bay or even in a loss to the Jets that you lose kind of in a flukish way, these aren't easy on your stressors. But what I think is cool about this team right now, and I do think it comes back to what Todd and his staff and the way that these players have bought in, is there is a true belief that you're never out of it and that we can muddy it up a little bit and we will be clutch when we need to be. and that's coach, that's quarterback. That is quarterback, man. That dude is playing out of his mind in these fourth quarters. That was incredible yesterday. To not hit anything, nothing feels right, and then bing, bing, bing.
00:20:51
Speaker 2: Wait, what? It's that easy? Let's go. That's the dude that led Clemson down and hit Hunter Renfro. That's it. That's the dude.
00:20:58
Speaker 3: That's the dude. And he's still in there. And we've seen it a lot, luckily, this year. He is a massive reason that we are foreign to the way that he is executing. in these clutch, clutch moments. This is a clutch team. We had an executive here, Paul DePodesta, I'll never forget this interview, came in here with us. Actually, Paul should have done that more when he was here because I think it did a really good job of explaining to the audience about kind of what the plan was and all of it. And obviously he's off to Colorado now and probably mixed feelings about Paul in the area.
00:21:28
Speaker 2: That's fine.
00:21:29
Speaker 3: But he came in here once and he goes, he was talking about the Browns away. And one of us, I can't remember which one of us, doesn't really matter. One of us said, well, what is the Browns way? And he said, well, I don't want to tell you. Can't give that secret out, that type of thing. He said it on the air. It was a funny moment. Todd Munkin has created the Browns way. This is the Browns way. This is what it is. This is, it's clutch. It's big plays when it matters most. It's staying in the fight, belief, all of those things. He's created it.
00:21:56
Speaker 2: And these young guys have bought in, in a big way. Big Cat today on part of my take said that the Browns basically the Browns way is to drag you into the deep water. And then in the fourth quarter, Deshaun Watson drowns you.
00:22:10
Speaker 3: That's pretty good. I mean, that's pretty good. I mean, there's I don't know what this is going to manifest in.
00:22:16
Speaker 2: I don't know.
00:22:16
Speaker 3: I don't know if we're a playoff team. I don't know if we're going to be in the mix.
00:22:20
Speaker 2: I know this.
00:22:21
Speaker 3: We will show up every Sunday and punch you in the mouth. We'll take some punches, too. Because that's what it is.
00:22:26
Speaker 2: I mean, we're trying to get into 12-round fights. We muck it up.
00:22:29
Speaker 3: And our defense is good enough that we can withstand a lot of body blows. And then we can try to win the game in the fourth quarter.
00:22:35
Speaker 2: And we've done that. That's kind of who we are now. We've done it four times. I wouldn't mind going ahead and winning games in the third quarter.
00:22:41
Speaker 3: Not the Baltimore game, but certainly Tennessee this week. Jets a couple of weeks ago. That's the next step is can we do it for four and then win the game? Because if we're going to be a playoff team, then what we're doing right now is the minimum requirement. The next step is when you play a team like Tennessee, when you go to a team like the Jets, handle those business and bury teams where the talent maybe doesn't quite equate.
00:23:06
Speaker 2: You can have three straight on the road. All three are winnable games. And if you can go, you know, one and two at worst, or if you can go two and one, two and one would be six and three, five and four. You're going to be in a good spot going into this bye week, you know, when you got Houston there. But if you can win two of these three on the road, This team is going to be right where they need to be, and everything will be there. By the way, if one of those two happens to be the Steelers, get to 3-0 in the division, sweep Steelers, that would be great. But you're right. This team is going to compete, and they will not be flustered.
00:23:35
Speaker 5: No.
00:23:36
Speaker 2: They will not be flustered.
00:23:36
Speaker 9: You should be.
00:23:37
Speaker 2: Sometimes I'm like, God, okay, it's over, but they don't.
00:23:40
Speaker 10: No.
00:23:41
Speaker 2: No, they do not. And that's what's fun about it. That's what's fun rooting for them. And that's why these games, they are 60-minute games for a reason. And games... You know, if this was a 15 minute game, we got boat race. We have not been a good first quarter team. That's something that's an area for improvement. It's nice to identify areas for improvement and know that you have the opportunity to improve after wins. But as it goes right now, this is hard to sustain because the NFL, if it proves anything, it's that one score games will always regress to the mean. You're not going to always get to be the best team in a one score game. Browns are now four and one this year in one score games. you've got to put some distance at some point. And I believe that this is a team that will, you know, when we see a game where it all clicks and, and I think this Sunday coming up is a great opportunity for that. I think the saints game is a great opportunity for that. I would expect in Pittsburgh, it's going to be an absolute just knockdown drag out brawl, but yeah, this team is fun and there is something special about them and being in the locker room, going into the locker room after the games is something that I love to do. Obviously after wins, the vibe is, Incredible. It's a special group, and it's a young group, too. That's the thing. We're probably ahead of schedule right now, if we're being honest, in terms of what our record is. But you feel like, man, if we can play 60 minutes, we have an opportunity to really do something. The over-under was five and a half. We're at four.
00:25:15
Speaker 12: Mr.
00:25:15
Speaker 2: Hassel was dead on earlier this week. in training camp when he said be over that.
00:25:20
Speaker 5: Sure.
00:25:21
Speaker 2: Four already.
00:25:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a survive and advance league. It's a very binary league. Win the Sunday, advance to win the next Sunday. Eventually you get to a point where you start to, you should have, if you're a good team, you start to cruise and you start to put people away and you have kind of clean performances starting to finishing. Um, and, and, and I think that'll come for this team that that's why I think this, this Brown's way thing that I was talking about with Todd is so critical because what you just said, we have a lot of first and second year players on this roster who, and even, even third and fourth, just really young players on this roster.
00:26:01
Speaker 2: They don't know what they don't know. Yep. And what they're learning is that they're winners. Yep.
00:26:06
Speaker 3: And they can win on a Sunday and they're not being beaten down. They're not, There's not this disbelief. Why can't we go win it? Well, yeah, let's go do it.
00:26:14
Speaker 2: This is what we do.
00:26:15
Speaker 3: We win close games. We're clutch when it matters. And they have been. And I think that's very, very valuable. One other thing that I wanted to touch on here, because we had a backfield Sunday with the news. Must have been Saturday morning that Quinchon was out.
00:26:30
Speaker 2: Or was it Sunday morning? Sunday morning. He went out there. He tried to go through, but he could tell he was just a little ginger and.
00:26:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, so Quinshawn is out, and it's McLaughlin and Estime. Estime got here middle of last week. McLaughlin has been here, obviously.
00:26:43
Speaker 2: Since Dylan and Samson got here. Yep, since the injury.
00:26:46
Speaker 3: I thought they both did everything that you'd ask them to do, and I thought McLaughlin showed a lot of bounce to his game.
00:26:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, he looked great. He averaged over five yards after contact per carry. He forced six missed tackles in the game on his nine carries. He was spectacular. He really was. Caught four passes as well. One where if he just could have stepped out of that tackle, could have been a huge play in the fourth quarter. But nonetheless, played, I thought, very well. Obviously, he's got a pass pro is going to be an issue at his size in the NFL when he got Roquan Smith blitzing at you or Kyle Hamilton blitzing at you. But fortunately, those guys don't play for the Tennessee Titans. But I was really impressed with him. And then Estime was kind of in a tough spot because as soon as he came in and we were in the pistol or under, they knew we were running it or going to play action. They just blitzed the heck out of it. But when we needed a couple of those tough yards, he got him and he got into the end zone and that had to be very cool for him. I know it was very exciting and cool for Jaleel as well, but yeah, those guys gave us something. And I think, you know, we actually, we started off terrible on first down, but as the game went on, we started doing pretty well on first downs and Jaleel was a big part of that. And, you know, we ended up on second down, not having nearly as much success, but it felt like, yeah, there's something, there was something there. And you wonder, does Dylan Sampson get back this week is back to Dylan and Quinn Sean this week. And this was just a one week thing. And if it was, It's kind of reminiscent of when Dearness Johnson stepped in on a Thursday night with Chubb and Kareem Hunt out and carried us on his back to a victory along with Case Keenum against the Denver Broncos. So these guys, whomever it is that needs to step up, it just seems like they are. They just are stepping up, and it's awesome. I thought those guys did a great job, and Jaleel has been a huge part of both of our wins over the Steelers and the Ravens. on 10 carries. I mean, if you think about both of those games, it's 10 carries for 69 yards and a touchdown.
00:28:34
Speaker 1: Yep.
00:28:36
Speaker 2: That's pretty good. That's really good, buddy. Yeah, it's pretty good. It's really good. And, and, and it's eight missed tackles on 11 carries. One of the highest rates of league right now, he's averaging over six yards of carry after contact.
00:28:50
Speaker 12: He's good.
00:28:50
Speaker 2: He's leading all runners in the league who have at least 10 carries this season and, and same in the missed tackle rate that he is forcing them. So He has been special. He is the all-time leading rusher in the history of college football. I don't know how many people realize that, but that is the case. All-time. Yeah.
00:29:08
Speaker 3: He knows how to run the football, and this team right now knows how to win. Folks, there are, by my count, seven teams in the NFL who are undefeated at home. San Francisco, Minnesota, Kansas City, Denver, New England, Pittsburgh, us. All undefeated at home.
00:29:27
Speaker 2: Kind of fun, right? Can't believe Pittsburgh won that game yesterday. I mean, it was weird. It was a weird day.
00:29:34
Speaker 3: It was a weird day in the league after a bonkers Saturday in college. So it was a lot of fun football to watch over the weekend. Those are your hot topics today presented by University Hospital, official health.
00:29:44
Speaker 2: Care partner of your Cleveland Browns.
00:29:46
Speaker 3: And celebrate Victory Mondays in style with the Browns Pro Shop, a fanatics experience right next to Huntington Bakefield. Gear up with jerseys, hats, hoodies, collectibles, exclusive merch you won't find anywhere else. Shop in-store or online at shop.clevelandbrowns.com. The Browns Pro Shop, official merch for true Browns fans.
00:30:04
Speaker 2: We are just getting started here.
00:30:06
Speaker 3: Of course, the Joe Thomas half hour of the program coming up at the end of today's program. Joe's thoughts on everything that happened yesterday down at the stadium. You're listening to Cleveland Browns Daily. We're brought to you by BallyBet and the BallyBet Sportsbook. Please bet responsibly.
00:30:25
Speaker 13: Deshaun gives to Estime, looking for a hole.
00:30:28
Speaker 2: Estime, touchdown! Touchdown, Browns! Audrick Estime!
00:30:34
Speaker 13: And you're an extra point away from tying this game at 10!
00:30:39
Speaker 1: You're listening to Cleveland Browns Daily on 850 ESPN Cleveland. Brought to you by BallyBet. BallyBet Sportsbook. The best place to bet the Browns. Please bet responsibly.
00:30:55
Speaker 3: Add more fun to your Phantom of the Valley Bet Sportsbook app. Download today and get 50 back in bonus bets. You place your first wager of 10 or more Valley Bet official sports betting partner of your Cleveland Browns. So this is the locker room audio, right, that we're going to hear first, Gabe?
00:31:09
Speaker 2: We can play from. Yeah. Do you want to do that first?
00:31:12
Speaker 14: Yep.
00:31:12
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:31:12
Speaker 3: So this was what you were referring to. I think this is the locker room audio from yesterday postgame.
00:31:20
Speaker 2: One second. Internet loading. Spinning. It's like AOL dial-up. It's nuts is what it is.
00:31:32
Speaker 5: It has been elevated to the appropriate levels. Dr. J, whenever you are ready.
00:31:37
Speaker 8: If the last five weeks doesn't say what this team is about, I don't know what does, which is no matter how it goes, we just keep fighting.
00:31:50
Speaker 9: And defense, hell of a job. After– After the first ten points, I mean, great job.
00:32:13
Speaker 8: And offense, that's the way to get going in the second half. We fudged a few second and shorts. Could have had a chance to put it away even earlier than that. But we got a lot of work to do, okay? Let's give away some game balls and.
00:32:28
Speaker 9: Let's enjoy the night. Hey, hey, hey. Who's in first place?
00:32:41
Speaker 4: Hey.
00:32:43
Speaker 8: Without playing our best yet. And that's what's really cool, right? We got a lot of work to do. But that's what I love about this group because you don't ever shy away from work. That's what's the cool thing is that... We'll just keep working, keep trying to get better, coaching and playing. Let's give away some game balls, all right? Carson, game ball, where's the balls at?
00:33:05
Speaker 4: Anyone? Carson.
00:33:13
Speaker 8: First of all, early in the week, training room, walked out with a boot, and it's like, is he going to play? And basically everybody that knew Carson said, he's going to play. There's no doubt he's going to play. And every time I'd ask him, a little smile on his face and unbelievable turnover changed the game.
00:33:38
Speaker 4: There's no one I'd rather go out with, y'all.
00:33:40
Speaker 2: That's how you do it in Indiana. Offense, defense, special teams working together to get what we want. All right, enough to go around.
00:33:50
Speaker 9: But defensively, Rudy, come on up.
00:33:52
Speaker 4: Hey, I love y'all boys.
00:34:02
Speaker 9: All right, hell of the last couple of weeks. And it's all a credit to him.
00:34:07
Speaker 8: Making big plays at the end of the game, starting with the Steelers game last week and this week.
00:34:12
Speaker 9: And Jerry Judy.
00:34:28
Speaker 8: I mean this, and I'm speaking to me as much as anything. We're better on offense when Jerry's in a good place. And when we're utilizing him, we're better.
00:34:40
Speaker 9: Congratulations.
00:34:46
Speaker 2: Appreciate y'all boys, man.
00:34:47
Speaker 9: I know y'all boys, man. Let's keep ballin', man.
00:34:49
Speaker 14: Yeah!
00:34:53
Speaker 4: All right.
00:34:55
Speaker 9: Unpretty. Sean, get up here. Last drive. Seems like we have a chance every time.
00:35:00
Speaker 4: Hey, man.
00:35:04
Speaker 11: Appreciate y'all boys, man.
00:35:06
Speaker 7: I love y'all boys, man.
00:35:08
Speaker 11: It's been a long 22 months, and this is what I did it for, man. I come back so I can win these games for y'all boys, man.
00:35:13
Speaker 4: I love everybody.
00:35:14
Speaker 9: Offense, defense, special teams.
00:35:17
Speaker 11: Yeah, yeah, buddy.
00:35:25
Speaker 9: All right, Dre, get up here, man.
00:35:26
Speaker 4: Game winner.
00:35:31
Speaker 8: And I don't care what they say, like breaking the rhythm, them jumping off sides, right, getting the block, which wasn't a block.
00:35:40
Speaker 9: But then it's almost like it worked as like to... Almost right. Like, right. Put you under duress a little bit.
00:35:46
Speaker 2: Right.
00:35:47
Speaker 9: Hell of a job, man.
00:35:53
Speaker 2: Shout out offense, defense, Rex, Corey.
00:35:56
Speaker 7: Couldn't do it without you guys.
00:35:56
Speaker 2: Protection.
00:35:57
Speaker 9: Love you.
00:36:01
Speaker 7: Guys.
00:36:02
Speaker 2: Awesome. Just awesome.
00:36:06
Speaker 3: We'll have to ask Hoff about that when he comes on a little bit later, but that I'm smiling so big that the Judy monk thing.
00:36:13
Speaker 2: You just don't see coaches do that. You don't see that type of humility from a coach very often. Absolutely. That is a public, like, mea culpa a little bit to Jerry Judy. Yeah. And very cool. It's emotional, dude. There's something special about that. And there's something special, I think, about the National Football League in just that how binary it is and how much goes into it physically, emotionally, mentally. from everybody involved, coaches, players, all of it, to try and get the win. And that's the thing. The Jags beating us the way they did in week one counts the exact same as us beating the Ravens the way that we did. It's a win, and you keep stacking them, and you get those division wins. They're even bigger, and it's just cool. It's just cool.
00:37:06
Speaker 3: It's not a coincidence that this sport has... taken over this country in terms of what we pay attention to the college and pro style of it. And the NFL obviously is the behemoth and college is the little brother, but it's a.
00:37:18
Speaker 2: Big little brother. Um, the, the all week preparation. Yep. The way that you have to execute on a Saturday or a given Sunday.
00:37:28
Speaker 1: Yep.
00:37:28
Speaker 2: The binary nature of it.
00:37:30
Speaker 3: And the, what if that you can play, because if we don't get a Derrick Henry fumble, uh, If we miss a second field goal, the show that we are having today is entirely different, and it is a play here or a play there. Saturday in Bloomington, if Nick Marsh gets his feet in, if Hoover puts the ball on the screws, that's it.
00:37:52
Speaker 2: That's it.
00:37:53
Speaker 3: And there's six other plays that went the other way. This is the thing that is so great about this sport, and it's so different than all the rest, in that you can identify, and in the NFL the talent almost always equates, There are five to ten plays in a game that flip it. And if enough of them go your way, then you get a victory Monday. If one more goes the other way, then you're sitting here going, God, we can't move the ball.
00:38:16
Speaker 2: We can't run it. We can't execute for more than a quarter. We're three and three. We lost two in a row. Now we've got a Tennessee.
00:38:22
Speaker 3: They beat Indy. It's a totally different thing, man. And it's three or four plays.
00:38:27
Speaker 2: You'd be three and three. Here or there. Two games back of the Ravens who have a head-to-head tiebreaker over you. They'd be five and one. And instead... You're four and two. And of course it's like how many teams in the league right now are forward to and better. And three of them are in our division. And the only reason that the Bengals potentially aren't foreign to is that they did not play this week. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah.
00:38:49
Speaker 3: It's just, unfortunately it's just bad luck to be in a North because the NFC North is exactly the same where everybody's got winning records in the NFC and AFC North. Like, and then you have teams like the Rams that did everything that they did in their two and four inexplicably.
00:39:01
Speaker 2: So like, losing the Cardinals.
00:39:03
Speaker 9: Oh, it's crazy.
00:39:04
Speaker 2: It's absolutely crazy. By the way, if the Niners beat... I got two fun facts for you. If the Niners beat the Commanders tonight, it will be... I think I read the first time. It's in the rundown. Is it in here? It's coming up.
00:39:22
Speaker 5: No, it's okay. You can read the note on this from the NFC East.
00:39:26
Speaker 2: It's insane. It's an insane stat. Yes. If the Commanders lose tonight on Monday Night Football to the 49ers, the NFC East would become the first division in NFL history to be winless in consecutive weeks in which all teams in the division played a game and two of the teams played each other last week. That was a tie, so nobody won. Wild.
00:39:44
Speaker 8: Wild.
00:39:45
Speaker 2: Absolutely wild. And then here's the other one for you to ponder. A little trivia for everybody. Where's young Gabriel? He's usually our trivia exit.
00:39:51
Speaker 3: He's operating a boom mic from what I can tell.
00:39:54
Speaker 2: He's off and running. He's off and running. By the way, you have plenty of time. We're good. I'm going to give it to you, right? Go ahead. All right. Teams with the most wins in SoFi Stadium this year. Oh, I saw this.
00:40:11
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:40:12
Speaker 2: I did see this one. Gibe, can you guess? There are three teams with two wins in SoFi Stadium this year. Well, one of them was yesterday. Dr. J, the Arizona Cardinals. Dr. J, you are correct. They are 2-0. They've beaten both the Chargers and the Rams in SoFi. Crazy. I mean, we're not counting Australia as a home game, are we? You are on the right track with that, but Australia is not correct. No, no, no. By the way, the Niners won that game anyway. We're talking in SoFi Stadium, so no. Playing in Australia. I thought you were talking about something else. Never mind. I thought that that– because it was a Rams home game. The Rams, but they lost. The Rams have also won two games in SoFi this year. It's the Rams. It's the Arizona Cardinals. The other team plays football. It's a World Cup team, isn't it? A World Cup team. Spain. The Spaniards. The Spaniards. The Spaniards, the Cardinals, and the Rams. How is that hammer not dropped in Los Angeles? On Harbaugh, you're talking Chargers? I'm talking about his offensive coordinator. I mean, it is.
00:41:25
Speaker 5: They're averaging 15 points a game.
00:41:30
Speaker 2: I'll say what I said earlier. We think of them as robots, and they have somebody who certainly looks like a robot from central casting. He is a human being. Yep. And it seems as though he might be a little distracted. That was Beamsie's take when he saw Madison Beer. I think he might be a little.
00:41:47
Speaker 3: He was like, how can he? That's what he said last Monday on the way to school. No wonder he can't win.
00:41:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, football might not be as important to him as it once was. Yeah, I hate that, though, because, like, you know, I mean, obviously, that's a problem. I know, I know, I know. But, like, yeah, I mean, it is. I will say high school Nate had a girlfriend, and my desire to practice golf went down.
00:42:07
Speaker 3: Significantly i always went the other way because i thought i want to ball out like when i had lady friends like let's ball out like so i i always went the other way i was i never.
00:42:17
Speaker 2: Thought well like yeah that's how i thought i always thought man i'm like.
00:42:21
Speaker 3: Oh look who's in the crowd tonight yeah you want to see something let's.
00:42:23
Speaker 2: Put on a little show sweetheart.
00:42:24
Speaker 3: All right let's go back to the post game let's start with coach on uh work in progress still here he goes.
00:42:32
Speaker 8: We do too many things on the offensive side of the ball that hurts us, that doesn't allow us to stack plays. Coaching and playing collectively. Who we're going to be, what we have, what they do best. We're under construction, man. All you have to do is look at some map where you've got all these damn signs and stop and there's a Tonka truck and there's a digging up dirt and there's a building and you're like, okay, how do we manage this and get ourselves to.
00:42:58
Speaker 9: Where we want to be? Tonka truck?
00:43:02
Speaker 2: We're a work in progress. We're a work in progress. We're a construction yard. The three of us are all old enough. Do you ask young Gabriel if he knows what a Tonka truck is? Dr. J, do you know what a Tonka truck is? Well, Dr. J is a little older than young Gabriel.
00:43:16
Speaker 3: I wonder if young Gabriel knows what a Tonka truck is. Like my kids don't.
00:43:20
Speaker 10: Really?
00:43:20
Speaker 1: No.
00:43:20
Speaker 4: No.
00:43:21
Speaker 2: I don't even know if they make them anymore.
00:43:23
Speaker 5: My father, God bless him, kept a couple of the limited edition ones that we had where you could change out the tires.
00:43:29
Speaker 9: Oh, my God.
00:43:30
Speaker 5: So my grandson plays with them.
00:43:32
Speaker 2: Oh, that's amazing. My three-year-old does. That's great. Yeah, they're awesome. Yeah. We could never have one. It was always an off-brand Tonka. I wanted a Tonka.
00:43:40
Speaker 3: I couldn't get a Tonka. We got Tonkas digging the new stadium over there. I saw them driving into the hole.
00:43:45
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, baby. All right, back to Todd. Here he is on Jerry Judy's Impact.
00:43:50
Speaker 9: Gave him a game ball, and he deserves it.
00:43:52
Speaker 8: We're better on offense when Jerry's a part of it, and I can certainly do a better job of incorporating him in it. You can see a difference in his juice in practice and on the field. That credit goes to him and his decision to, all right, this is where it's at.
00:44:07
Speaker 9: I'm going all in.
00:44:10
Speaker 2: Incredible stuff there.
00:44:12
Speaker 3: Here is coach on Andre Schmidt coming back out and banging the one that ended up being the one that won it.
00:44:18
Speaker 8: Talk about when you've got a kicker that's now, right, made a couple of game winners, and what that means to your team, because whether he makes it or not, it wouldn't have meant we won or lost the game based on that. But the way it's looked at from a kicker's perspective, you know, it falls squarely at that moment. And that's so cool for him and for our team. It's hard to really put into words.
00:44:39
Speaker 3: Your quarterback, Deshaun Watson, now on getting quite comfortable in high-pressure moments.
00:44:45
Speaker 11: You know, once we get in that huddle, you know, I take charge and look every single one of those guys in the eyes and let them know that opportunities don't come. Let's finish it.
00:44:52
Speaker 2: Let's go win.
00:44:52
Speaker 11: It's going to be, you know, the legends and all the work that we put in is here for us. So, yeah, it's just a confidence thing. It's a still peaceful moment that I'm in, and, you know, they feed off the energy that I bring.
00:45:08
Speaker 2: Do you think it's just simply, like, Ricky Bobby is a driver. He's not a thinker.
00:45:13
Speaker 3: Is it just that for Deshaun late? Like he just starts just reacting and remembering the muscle memory. And, you know, cause Todd said this, he had the press conference earlier today, this afternoon here in Berea. And he was talking about, you know, he's conscientious not to throw interceptions. And I just wonder like what flips when, and then, and then how do you mine that earlier? Because we really haven't come out great offensively in the first quarter yet. The Pittsburgh game was the best half. It was really the second quarter. Second quarter, three straight scoring drives.
00:45:43
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:45:44
Speaker 3: So I wonder what that is that flips and he just plays.
00:45:51
Speaker 2: I think it's some of him being free. There's nothing to lose at that point. But there also was, though, in those games. Because had he thrown a pick against Pittsburgh or had he thrown a pick against Baltimore, we'd lose.
00:46:01
Speaker 5: For sure.
00:46:02
Speaker 2: So it can't be just that. It's not like he's chasing Pittsburgh. in those situations were tied. So he's done a very good job of doing whatever needs to be done in those moments. And I think sometimes things just all kind of come together. Like if you go back and watch the throw to Jerry Judy, he checks into the right play. Judy runs a great route fan and does his job clearing out. And then the offensive line blocks their butts off for him.
00:46:26
Speaker 9: They do.
00:46:26
Speaker 2: He has a completely clean pocket, which he did not have all that often in this game. And he's able to stand there. read it, let the play develop, because when you're throwing a ball that far down the field, it needs some time to develop, and then he drills it, and it's a beautiful thing. It is.
00:46:42
Speaker 3: Jerry Judy has been the beneficiary of that beautiful thing the last couple of times out, and wins at the stadium against Pittsburgh, and then two huge ones yesterday against Baltimore. Here is Jerry Judy on staying patient and making sure he can make that impact.
00:46:54
Speaker 6: Pretty difficult as a receiver, you know, wanting to be out there to compete, wanting to be involved in the game plan, you know, want to go out there and make plays, you know, but you're You can't let that discourage you. You got to stay focused and, you know, wait your turn week by week. And, you know, and eventually your turn, what's your turn? What's your numbers called?
00:47:10
Speaker 2: Make a play. And he did. He has.
00:47:13
Speaker 3: Last two times out here at the stadium, he has absolutely balled out in the fourth quarter. A guy who's balled out since he got here is Carson Swessinger. Folks, he's dealing with a lot, but you would never know it based on what you see on the field. He was asked postgame about playing through injuries.
00:47:28
Speaker 2: I think part of it is just I love football. I want to go out there and play. And if I have a chance to do that, that's what I'm going to do. And I think that's what we got.
00:47:35
Speaker 4: On this defense is a lot of guys who love football and love to go out there and play.
00:47:38
Speaker 2: And when you have a group like that, it's pretty easy for everybody to build off each other and play off each other.
00:47:42
Speaker 3: We used to have a picture on the wall over there of Clay Matthews.
00:47:48
Speaker 7: Yep.
00:47:49
Speaker 3: And you used to walk by it and just look at it and just think, like, God, what a stud. And the career, the longevity, the way that Clay is remembered for a certain generation of fans around here, Carson's a season and a half into his career, but he's the modern day that.
00:48:03
Speaker 9: Oh, yeah.
00:48:03
Speaker 2: He's certainly on his way to being, I think, perennial pro bowler, Zach Thomas. Yep. I hope he can be like a Zach Thomas, Luke Keekly. Both those guys ended up with gold jacks. I think Carson certainly has that kind of ability in this league. And I thought being on the field, sharing the field with Roquan Smith yesterday and being every bit his equal, that's a pretty darn good place to be in your second season in the National Football League.
00:48:25
Speaker 3: Hit 13 tackles. And the fumble. The week after having the fumble the week before.
00:48:30
Speaker 2: Yep.
00:48:31
Speaker 5: Yep.
00:48:32
Speaker 2: Really remarkable.
00:48:33
Speaker 3: For nearly a century, the Rumpke family has operated one of the nation's largest waste and recycling companies, providing top-level services to residential and commercial customers. To learn more and how they can help you meet your sustainability goals, visit rumpke.com. All right, we'll go around the league. Coming up next, we'll listen to Cleveland Browns Daily. We're brought to you by BallyBet and the BallyBet Sportsbook. Please bet responsibly.
00:48:57
Speaker 1: You're listening to Cleveland Browns Daily on 850 ESPN Cleveland, brought to you by BallyBet. BallyBet Sportsbook, the best place to bet the Browns. Please bet responsibly.
00:49:10
Speaker 2: Huntley gives it to him, and he's running left.
00:49:12
Speaker 13: Ball's out!
00:49:13
Speaker 10: Ball's out!
00:49:13
Speaker 5: Fight for the football of a 35!
00:49:15
Speaker 2: Henry fumbled! Give me a signal!
00:49:17
Speaker 10: Browns football!
00:49:23
Speaker 2: That's great out of Siciliano. Give me a signal. Give me a signal. I love that. That's great. That is good.
00:49:28
Speaker 3: The Cleveland Browns High School Game of the Week presented by Ohio Cat in association with Forever Lawn and Howard Hanna. showcases the top matchups and rising stars across Northeast Ohio. Each week, fans vote for the game they want to see featured, and the winning team earns $ 3, 000.
00:49:40
Speaker 2: In funding, along with coverage on the Browns' socials.
00:49:42
Speaker 3: Log on to clevelandbrowns.com slash community and vote today. Time to go around the league, presented by Little Caesars, official pizza partner of your Cleveland Browns, Little Caesars Pizza Pizza. And boy, do we have a lot happening in the National Football League this morning. Let's start with this crazy news out of Philly, where Jalen Hurts... is out for the season after doctors discovered multiple blood clots in his lungs. Multiple people reporting Hurts was diagnosed with blood clotting in London. Doctors told him not to sleep as a precaution, so he had been awake for roughly 36 hours when started against Jacksonville, throwing for 220 and a touchdown.
00:50:18
Speaker 2: I saw Tom did have an update to this from Jalen Hurts' agent. I didn't realize he was out. You didn't know he was out for the year? Yeah, that happened this morning.
00:50:30
Speaker 3: Pellisaro with this from, he spoke to Jalen Hurts' agent, Nicole Lynn, and clarified that while Hurts was up early Sunday morning getting evaluated at a hospital, he was able to sleep upon rejoining the team, and the Eagles set aside a room for him at the stadium. Videos from the stadium show Hurts coming onto the field just before kickoff. He felt rested enough to play. So he played in these circumstances. Then he flew back, which is crazy.
00:50:52
Speaker 1: No, no.
00:50:53
Speaker 2: No, no.
00:50:55
Speaker 5: But at the same time, like, You probably want to get back to the medical facilities here, I'd like to think.
00:51:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, but they have great ones in London. The whole thing is crazy, and now he's done for the year, and who knows what this can mean going forward. The only example I could think of this when I was talking about this this morning was Tommy Frazier. If you remember the legendary Nebraska quarterback, he had blood clotting in either the 94 or 95 championship season and missed like 10 games, and then kind of got it. and he ended up playing his last game as the national championship game where he had maybe the best game I've ever seen at quarterback. But I can't think of a lot of examples of this, but it's terrifying. It's a career, incredibly scary from a career standpoint for him. Now their season is cooked at this point and was probably headed that way anyway. They had a lot of issues anyway, but this only adds to it. This is pretty scary stuff for him.
00:51:56
Speaker 2: Terrifying the fact that he's terrified i think about when we had uh a couple of years ago we had the receiver why.
00:52:06
Speaker 3: Is his name oh my gosh we had him in the spring he had those great the kid from uh he played for the nine man he was with was he can he come from seattle he was at.
00:52:15
Speaker 2: One point i know he'd been with the niners he'd been with seattle.
00:52:17
Speaker 3: He had the great spring minicamp he was like Catching every punt.
00:52:21
Speaker 2: Return, and then he bombs. And we were over in Gibby's private cabana. Boy, I hope we get back there soon. Maybe the internet will work better there. Was it 2022? It was the first season. His name was... I don't remember if he ever got on the field for us. Maybe it was 23, because Watson threw a deep ball to him in the game one against Cincinnati, I remember. So he definitely was a Marquis Goodwin. Goodwin.
00:52:52
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:52:53
Speaker 2: Marquis Goodwin. I just can't believe they allowed him to play. Blood clots are scary, man. I can't either. I can't believe they allowed him to play. I can't believe he got on a plane.
00:53:00
Speaker 5: I can't believe he got on a plane. But you kept him awake for 30 hours, basically. And then we're like, hey, take a four-hour nap and then go play in an NFL game. And then hop on a plane and fly home.
00:53:09
Speaker 2: What I'm curious about in all of this is what.
00:53:12
Speaker 3: The real truth is because Pelissaro's report happens, he initially makes that report, which I just gave you in the rundown, where how committed, this is his tweets exactly, word for word. How committed is Jalen Hurts to football after initially being diagnosed with a superficial blood clot in London? Doctors told him not to sleep as a precaution, so he had been awake for roughly 36 hours when he started against the Jaguars, throwing for 220 and a touchdown. That was five hours ago. Then an hour ago, he gets the comment from Lynn saying, So my guess is in the four hours in between, the Eagles said, whoa, you need to change the dialogue on this because this wasn't on us entirely. And so there's another side of this that was presented four hours later. So just chronologically, I'm curious, what's kind of the real truth on how this all went down?
00:53:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it.
00:53:59
Speaker 5: If it went down the way Pellicero was reporting it, the players' union has to be losing their minds.
00:54:04
Speaker 3: Well, that's why I think Lynn jumps in and says, hey, now, hold on, hold on, not all of that. You don't have that exactly right. I'm guessing that she probably got quite a few calls on the way that it was framing. Because this morning when I first saw the original one, I was on air when this first one happened, and I thought, my God, wouldn't he own the Philadelphia Eagles at this point? Wouldn't you sue and all of those things? And I'm not for that, but what happened here that allowed for this? So now you get the clarification here within the last hour about how it all went.
00:54:35
Speaker 2: But there's two prongs.
00:54:37
Speaker 3: Number one, Jalen Hurts' health long-term, and that's first and foremost. And then the second thing underneath that is the Philadelphia Eagles now, this is a team that won the Super Bowl two years ago, and what becomes of them now? And obviously, this season will be lost for them. They've dealt with a bunch of injuries already, not just him. Saquon, Devonta, all of it. So, like, are they pushing the Chips team? And we'll see in 2027. It kind of feels like they could be.
00:55:05
Speaker 2: It's fascinating. And that is an organization that I will go back to when they drafted Jalen Hurts in the second round.
00:55:11
Speaker 14: Yeah.
00:55:13
Speaker 5: And yet, I would tell you.
00:55:15
Speaker 2: If they end up... They've won, what, two games?
00:55:19
Speaker 7: Yeah.
00:55:19
Speaker 2: I mean, they're... I mean, they're a game out of first.
00:55:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're 2-4. The Giants are in first place in the division at 3-2-1.
00:55:30
Speaker 2: If they end up at the top, I could see them drafting a quarterback.
00:55:34
Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.
00:55:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. I mean, who knows how this plays out? Honestly, even before this, I could have seen them doing it.
00:55:42
Speaker 3: Knowing them, I could have seen them doing it before it. So that is the first kind of. big news of the day is that it wasn't chronologically the first chronologically the first big news of the day is yesterday the Colts lose at home to the Titans Titans get their first win of the season and this morning the general manager Chris Ballard who has been the general manager over there for a decade was relieved of duties mid-season so there will be a new change in direction there The owner over there, Carly Ursae Gordon, I believe is her name, she had a statement today saying in part, you know, to do this right, we needed to do this now and take this in a little bit of a different direction. I just think this comes down to quarterback mismanagement. He gave Daniel Jones $ 88 million last March when there was really no reason to do so, and then they drafted Anthony Richardson really high, and that never got right. So you miss on quarterbacks twice. It's hard to stay employed.
00:56:38
Speaker 2: You also... Let Michael Pittman walk out the door, who was productive for you. You give Alec Pierce a huge contract who wasn't even healthy.
00:56:46
Speaker 10: No.
00:56:48
Speaker 2: You traded two ones for a cornerback. They did. Sauce Gardner.
00:56:55
Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
00:56:56
Speaker 2: They thought they were close. He thought he was close. I'm with you. He must. It just comes down to Jones, I think.
00:57:04
Speaker 3: I think this is entirely a Daniel Jones.
00:57:07
Speaker 2: Because that.
00:57:08
Speaker 3: He thought Jones was good enough to get him over the top in the AFC or get him to contend, and so that's why they make the Sauce Gardner play.
00:57:14
Speaker 2: That's an outrageous supposition. Which I don't even know if Sauce Gardner's playing great over there. I agree, and that's why he's out of a job. But he should have been. It probably should have. This probably was a long time coming or should have been a long time coming. You know, go back to 2024. They're trying Richardson. Flacco was there for a little bit.
00:57:35
Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
00:57:35
Speaker 2: 2023, that's where Flacco went after he was with us. 2023, it's Gardner Minshew is their starting quarterback. I mean, they have not been anywhere near having Matt Ryan comes in in 2022.
00:57:50
Speaker 3: They always felt like they were a quarterback away. They've been trying to do this with the exception of Richardson.
00:57:55
Speaker 2: Carson Wentz started a full season?
00:57:57
Speaker 9: Yeah.
00:57:57
Speaker 3: Ever since they lost luck, they've been trying to piecemeal this quarterback. I mean, Phillip Rivers, Matt Ryan, Carson Wentz, all these guys.
00:58:04
Speaker 2: And then.
00:58:06
Speaker 3: They draft Richardson, and I was worried about that just because of the lack of games he played and the inaccuracy that you saw in Florida. And it was going to take a very specific type of coach to try to nurture him. He certainly shouldn't have played right away. And then they pivot on that, and they go to Daniel Jones. And then they give Daniel Jones. They redouble down on Daniel Jones, and he is not.
00:58:27
Speaker 2: After he tore the Achilles, and they had an out.
00:58:29
Speaker 3: Yes, they had the out. It was there for him. He's completing 60% of his passes. He's got four touchdowns and six picks. And even in the one year that he played, last year he started good, but it's still 19-8. It's 3,000 yards. I mean, it's not crazy. And they gave him that extension for no reason last March.
00:58:49
Speaker 2: It's insane. I wonder if they fire sale it over there. Like, do you move Jonathan Taylor? Who are the pieces? Jonathan Taylor. They would have an offensive line. Quentin Nelson. Quentin Nelson. I don't know. Any idea on the defense. DeForest Buckner would make a lot of sense. Soss Gardner. Soss Gardner, absolutely. Absolutely. Like, if you're going to do that, then... You have three weeks.
00:59:09
Speaker 8: 22.
00:59:10
Speaker 2: Days. The problem for them is, though, that they are, if I'm not mistaken, isn't one of the Jets' first-rounders next year theirs? It is. So they don't even have a first-round pick next year. Yeah, the Jets have three ones in 2027. Well, maybe they could get a one back for one of these guys, not a one. Maybe. Currently, by the way, the Jets have three of the top 13 if the draft were to be held today, which it is not. They'd have three of the top 13.
00:59:38
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:59:39
Speaker 3: They're set up pretty well. They're set up pretty well. Who knows if there will be a quarterback in that mix. But, yeah, they're set up pretty well as it stands.
00:59:48
Speaker 5: Some other news coming down here in the last few minutes from Schefter. And the Texans, D'Amico Ryans, announced Tank Dell is going to play Sunday night. His first NFL game since December of 2024. The Rams placed their kicker on injured reserve after that debacle yesterday.
01:00:07
Speaker 12: Wow.
01:00:07
Speaker 2: Him trying to tackle, make a tackle. Nice work.
01:00:12
Speaker 5: John Harbaugh says they're working through the quarterback decision between Jameis and J.J.
01:00:17
Speaker 2: McCarthy. Not ready to name a starter yet.
01:00:19
Speaker 5: J.J.
01:00:19
Speaker 2: McCarthy, I was watching that game. It was on Red Zone a lot. J.J. McCarthy threw for 200 yards and a quarter. Did he look good?
01:00:26
Speaker 8: Yes.
01:00:26
Speaker 2: Yes.
01:00:27
Speaker 3: He threw a ball to Malik Neighbors on a crosser over the zone, dropped it right in, got a run after the rack after it.
01:00:38
Speaker 2: Yeah. He looked great. He looked great. You know, I don't know. He just looked great. I mean, yeah, he threw for 200 yards. They had a chance. He missed.
01:00:48
Speaker 3: There was a throw that he had in the end zone. Neighbors actually broke in. It was kind of a bang eight, skinny post, whatever you want to call it. and he missed him, and then he threw it off to the other side instead, but it would have tied the game had he put it on the screws.
01:00:59
Speaker 2: It was all him. It was all him. If you're John Harbaugh, I don't know.
01:01:04
Speaker 3: We love Jameis, and I'm sure the locker room loves Jameis, but wouldn't you want to see what you have in this kid more? This is why when he became available, you think, geez, he was a first-round pick.
01:01:16
Speaker 2: Take a shot. You know what I mean? The Vikings weren't the only team interested. The Giants, you mean? No, no, I mean the.
01:01:24
Speaker 5: Oh, when he was drafted. In the first round, there were clearly other suitors.
01:01:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, for sure.
01:01:31
Speaker 5: And Lamar Jackson continues to be day-to-day, could potentially practice this week, per Jesse Minter. And oh, by the way, the Falcons signed the Red Rocket. Andy Dalton's got it.
01:01:42
Speaker 2: Well, Cooper Rush is... Yeah, I'm not surprised that they're going to go ahead and move him on. Yeah, yeah. I do think that... You mentioned Tank Dell. That Houston team.
01:01:58
Speaker 2: Coming on.
01:01:58
Speaker 3: The last 0-4... Four weeks, we'll play them. Yeah, the last 0-4 team to make the playoffs was, I think, the Chargers.
01:02:06
Speaker 12: Okay.
01:02:07
Speaker 2: Like, over a decade ago. Well, it's big that they beat Jacksonville. They're 2-1 in the division. They lost to the Colts at Indy. They won, and they played all division games on the road so far.
01:02:17
Speaker 3: But since Nico's come back, CJ's been lights out, and now... They got Marvin Harrison involved a little bit yesterday.
01:02:24
Speaker 2: Tank Dell comes back. Yeah.
01:02:29
Speaker 3: They're right there. The quarterback's right. Now, you may have to win the division, which is going to be tough. So did Z's point, like, the divisional games are critical. And I haven't looked at their full schedule to know, like, how difficult it all is. But they are going to be around. Because they haven't been, even though they were 0-4, I mean, they barely lost to Buffalo. They were in the mix with a lot of games. Like, some things just didn't go their way. So that one was certainly there. The other one that was the most stupefying result of the weekend, and I know we'll have more on this on One Thought tomorrow, but the L.A. Rams losing at home to Arizona is very difficult to wrap your head around.
01:03:06
Speaker 2: The L.A.
01:03:06
Speaker 3: Rams being completely incompetent at special teams is a very difficult thing. When you've invested that much in your roster to not have your special teams buttoned up when it's been a problem.
01:03:17
Speaker 2: For a long time. Yeah. Is there undoing last year? I know it. They make the change. They bring in Bubba, who was here. It wasn't great here when Bubba was here. Not at the end.
01:03:25
Speaker 1: No.
01:03:26
Speaker 2: And now he's out in L.A., and it's a mess. They're on their third kicker. Mivas was terrible. This guy, Groupie, gets hurt in the game. Did you see how he got hurt? Yeah, like a return, right? He got smoked. He tried to tackle a guy. With his shoulder. With his shoulder. He tried to lower his shoulder to a ball carrier. Yeah, don't do that. He just bounced off. It's stupefying their inability with Pukunukuwa. Devontae Adams, a bevy of tight ends, Kyron Williams or Corum, and Matt Stafford that they cannot convert a two-point conversion. It's crazy. Can't do it. Yeah, I would almost think with that weaponry, like, forget the extra points. Let's just go for two all the time. Every time. You'd get more than you're not. Five seasons. Except, I was going to say, aren't they the team we talked about last week?
01:04:10
Speaker 3: They're the worst. They're the worst. And it doesn't make any damn sense.
01:04:14
Speaker 8: No.
01:04:14
Speaker 3: Because he's one of the best play callers. He's one of the best scripters. They have the reigning MVP. They've got a gold jacket, Devontae Adams, who catches everything in the red zone. They've got Puka, who's basically unguardable. They have good backs, good tight ends.
01:04:28
Speaker 2: There's no reason. No reason. Makes no sense.
01:04:31
Speaker 5: Yep.
01:04:32
Speaker 2: Absolutely makes no sense. So, a wild weekend in the National Football League.
01:04:37
Speaker 3: Join Zee and Gerard Thursday night, 7-8, for the Todd Munkin Show, live from Northfield Park. Raycino's Overtime Grill and Bar. Stop out and meet Zee, Gerard, and Brown's Corner Tyson Campbell. It's all brought to you by Northfield Park Raycino. Coming up next, we've got your clip of the game, and we've got a little bit of Monday Night Football with the Commies and Niners. We will get to all of that coming up next. You're listening to Cleveland Browns Daily. We're brought to you by BallyBet and the BallyBet Sportsbook. Please bet responsibly.
01:05:08
Speaker 8: I'm going to enjoy tonight, and that's what you have to do in the NFL. These are the nights that you don't ever want to end. because you know tomorrow it's on to the next game.
01:05:16
Speaker 9: And so I sit there. I know it sounds really goofy, but you sit there in bed, and you don't want the night to end.
01:05:21
Speaker 8: It's 10.30, and you're tired as hell, and you want to be up another 15, 20, 30 minutes to enjoy it, because you know tomorrow I've got to look at the offensive tape, and then you've got to move on to the next game.
01:05:32
Speaker 1: You're listening to Cleveland Browns Daily on 850 ESPN Cleveland, brought to you by BallyBet. BallyBet Sportsbook, the best place to bet the Browns. Please bet responsibly.
01:05:46
Speaker 3: Coach After a Win is similar to our generation when you heard the 60 Minutes tick, tick, tick, tick, tick on a Sunday. For my kids, their version of that is when the red zone red screen pops up.
01:05:59
Speaker 2: Then they're like, oh, God, got to go to school. It's that red zone, we're all done, we only have one game. You're right, the 60 Minutes. 60 Minutes, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Sunday's over. We didn't have Sunday night football. The fun was done.
01:06:12
Speaker 3: You've got to watch 60 Minutes is on and then the Sunday movie or whatever.
01:06:16
Speaker 2: But it's done. It's cooked. So we can empathize, Coach.
01:06:19
Speaker 3: Here is your clip of the game presented by Goodwin and generated by Goodwin. Here is Andre Schmidt on the game winner.
01:06:25
Speaker 13: We're in a 10-10 game. This is for first in the AFC North. Snap, hold, Andre Schmidt to the uprights, and Andre Schmidt has put your Cleveland Browns in.
01:06:41
Speaker 2: First place in the AFC North. 13-10, that is a game.
01:06:47
Speaker 5: Winner, and the Browns are 4-2.
01:06:54
Speaker 14: That's what I'm talking about, Deshaun Watson. For the fourth time now in five weeks, leads a game-winning drive. How about Jerry Judy with the big play? And Andre Schmidt, we said, give him another chance. And he's going to put it right down the middle. And that's what he did.
01:07:12
Speaker 2: Four and two. 2-0 in the division. You've beaten the Steelers. You've beaten the Ravens.
01:07:17
Speaker 14: And your Cleveland Browns, Andrew Siciliano, are atop the AFC North at Week 6 for the first time since 2014. That was good.
01:07:29
Speaker 2: You started to. Almost. It's there.
01:07:31
Speaker 10: Almost.
01:07:31
Speaker 2: It's there.
01:07:32
Speaker 4: A little homage.
01:07:32
Speaker 2: Just a little nod. A little nod. A little nod. That was great. That was awesome.
01:07:37
Speaker 3: You know, we didn't talk about this because, obviously, we have a game to talk about, but And I know the Guardians are playing tonight.
01:07:43
Speaker 2: I thought that was criminal, what Major League Baseball did Friday. You're not on. To move.
01:07:50
Speaker 9: We were here.
01:07:51
Speaker 2: To sit around. I mean, it's pouring. Yep. Just make the call. Make the call. Make the call.
01:07:57
Speaker 3: People sitting around standing in the rain all day Friday.
01:08:00
Speaker 2: You allowed them to pay $ 80 to go park and then go.
01:08:03
Speaker 9: Stop.
01:08:05
Speaker 2: Stop. They didn't want to go head-to-head with the NFL on Sunday. Okay, fine.
01:08:09
Speaker 3: But at some point, you've got to bite the bullet and just say, look, this ain't happening. Anybody with a phone could have told you that was not happening Friday night. It was not happening.
01:08:19
Speaker 2: And did I hear correctly that if you had tickets to Friday night, those became the tickets to Sunday?
01:08:24
Speaker 9: Correct.
01:08:24
Speaker 2: I kept seeing that going around on social media. How is that possible? That didn't make any sense either. I didn't understand that. Wouldn't Friday go to Saturday? Saturday would go to Sunday. Four is game four. Game five is game five. I have no idea. I guess they failed.
01:08:36
Speaker 3: Figured we'll just screw the people on Friday, not the people on Saturday, because it's obviously Saturday night has more juice to it than a Sunday afternoon, I guess.
01:08:44
Speaker 10: But those people paid more for Saturday, and then they only saw Game 4 instead of a pivotal Game 5.
01:08:51
Speaker 3: So the people who paid more Saturday, Kev, your contention is that was because that would have been the clincher it.
01:08:57
Speaker 10: Could have been a clincher or again game five simply are a swinging point in a series so potentially yeah so people I wonder when those go ahead those tickets I think were more expensive for Saturday which was supposed to be game five and then they ended up seeing game four.
01:09:13
Speaker 2: I just don't understand if I'm holding a ticket to game four yeah I should go to game four. You should go to game four. Yeah, I know it was because what if you bought a ticket to come in just for game four, let's just say you were somebody who just wanted to go to game four on a Friday night and you were in from out of town. Yeah. And you're leaving Saturday or whatever. And now you have to sit around till Sunday or I don't know. And that's all MLB too.
01:09:35
Speaker 10: Like that was guarding.
01:09:36
Speaker 2: Yeah.
01:09:36
Speaker 12: Yeah.
01:09:37
Speaker 2: I know it was, that was bonkers. Being baseball. Yeah. Very, very stupid. Um, All right, what do we got? Oh, we got to go. We got a Monday night.
01:09:46
Speaker 5: Trey Amos, Jordan McGee, and Jeremy McNichols coming off injured reserve for Washington. Stephon Diggs also trending towards playing. According to the score, it doesn't really matter. 49ers hosting the commies from Santa Clara.
01:10:03
Speaker 2: Pedro. That was my dad's birthday on Sunday. Give me the Niners. I love the Niners. Give me the Niners. I don't care. Niners, buy a billion.
01:10:16
Speaker 3: The hook has been unkind a lot this weekend to me. It's not been good. I'll throw caution to the wind, though. I think the Niners are really, really good. I think they handle business.
01:10:24
Speaker 2: You and Dusty Daniels. Caution to the wind. Caution to the wind.
01:10:28
Speaker 3: Dog Pound, join us at Huntington Bay Field Sunday, November 15th, 1 o'clock. Browns host the Texans in our Salute to Service celebration. Lock in your seats at browns.com. slash tickets the joe thomas half hour of the program coming up next you'll listen to cleveland browns daily we're brought to you by bally bet in the bally bet sportsbook please bet.
01:10:43
Speaker 1: Responsibly you're listening to cleveland browns daily on 8 50 espn cleveland brought to you by bally bet bally bet sportsbook the best place to bet the browns please bet responsibly.
01:11:03
Speaker 3: And welcome into the Joe Thomas half hour of the program on a victory Monday. They always are a little sweeter when we have victories to discuss.
01:11:10
Speaker 2: We do again this week off. This is a crazy team.
01:11:14
Speaker 3: Z and I talked about it earlier in the show. It's just a crazy team. We don't can't really particularly run it very well. We don't really throw it very well until we have to. But when we have to, we can. And this was kind of another example of this. What was watching this one like from your perspective? I guess that's it, full stop. What was it like watching a game like this one that ends up in a Browns win?
01:11:37
Speaker 12: Yeah, I mean, it's just so crazy because we've been doing it all season now. This is four wins, all decided late in the game, all by four points or fewer. The last time we were this deep in the season, first place in the AFC North, I was in the locker room, 2014.
01:11:52
Speaker 7: And because we've been doing it... Yeah, 2014! The cool thing.
01:11:58
Speaker 12: Is, as a fan, the games have been so strange, I guess, is maybe the best way I can put it. But because we've won late repeatedly... there was never a panic button. Like maybe in years past you get down a little bit.
01:12:12
Speaker 2: You're like, ah, crap.
01:12:13
Speaker 7: We'll never be able to get back.
01:12:14
Speaker 12: And you know, you still watching cause you're interested, but like I never panicked cause I was just thinking to myself, well, all right, as long as we keep it close to Sean, we'll do something crazy at the end of the game. We'll find a way to maybe at least give ourselves a chance. And sure enough, we followed the script.
01:12:30
Speaker 2: Boy, did we? And the flair for the dramatic, it's incredible. And, I want to ask you, you've been around, obviously, in your time here, a lot of wide receivers. And wide receivers, they have a certain personality or perhaps a certain reputation for their personality. And at the end of the day, I sometimes sympathize with a wide receiver because a wide receiver has to, number one, with their given route, they've got to get the coverage that allows for that route to be successful. Then they've got to win on the route, whether it's a zone or it's a man-to-man. Then they need the quarterback to see that they have won the route and recognize the same thing. Then they need there to be the protection that allows the quarterback to then throw them the football when they've won the route and gotten the right coverage. And then they need the quarterback to actually throw it accurately as well for them to be able to catch the football and have all of those things. So they need a lot of things to go their way just to even get a target, let alone a catch in a game. And for a guy like Jerry Judy Hoff, who... had been a pro bowler, had been a first-round pick. He'd been the best receiver in college football, won the Blitnikoff at Alabama. To go through a couple games where you don't even get a target and then to show up like he did on the final drive to beat the Steelers and then on the biggest play perhaps of the season at third and five to win that route, to catch it, and then also get the yak to put us into field goal range, it'd be easy for him to have pouted. It would be easy for him to have said, you know, whatever, I don't need this. For him to show up like that, what does that tell you about, if anything, just about this locker room, this coaching staff, and the buy-in of these players?
01:14:10
Speaker 7: The best thing you can say about him is he just went back to work.
01:14:13
Speaker 12: And he decided, like, I am not going to just allow my career to fizzle off and ride out into the sunset. Like, I want to be a significant part of this team. I feel like I have gifts and talents that can help this offense.
01:14:27
Speaker 7: And so we're starting to see it. And I think that rapport that.
01:14:29
Speaker 12: He's growing with Deshaun Watson– is apparent on the field you see a lot of those crossing routes middle of the field throws that it seems like Deshaun likes to throw he can rip it right down there and Jerry does a great job of getting open giving him a little bit of window and catching the football there so I think it's just a great balance that now they have in that passing game with Concepcion and Boston on the outside and Judy making plays in the middle and then you've got obviously Harold Fannin who can kind of make plays in the intermediate areas in the middle of the field as well so the scramble drills become a very difficult thing to defend for defenses when you've got four receivers that are all pretty good in their areas of the field and you're starting to see Deshaun Watson getting comfortable knowing where his guys are going to be when the pocket breaks down.
01:15:16
Speaker 3: Hoff, you mentioned Deshaun being comfortable. We had 41 net yards at half in this game. And in the third quarter, it wasn't a whole lot better. And then in the fourth quarter, it flipped. We've seen this before, although in the Pittsburgh game, he was incredible in the first half. What are you seeing that changes offensively for us? Are we doing anything different in these scenarios where he's thriving?
01:15:40
Speaker 2: And is there a way to get those things to happen in the first half, too?
01:15:45
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's a great question.
01:15:45
Speaker 12: I think it's a combination of a lot of things, but if I had to say what's the one or two things, maybe one is like when you're playing from behind, naturally human nature says like, now I'm going to take a little bit more of a risk. I'm going to take some more chances. And so that's kind of what I think you see from Deshaun and it allows him to kind of unlock what he does best, which is, hey, escape the pocket, hang on to the football a little bit longer, take those risks of maybe be getting hit but it puts a lot of pressure on a defense when they are in that scramble drill when Deshaun is trying to extend the play and push the football down the field and then maybe the second thing would be defenses they're playing a little bit softer when you are getting in those situations because they just don't want the big play right so you get a little bit more soft zone coverage you get deeper coverages but the problem is with those coverages is like when you're the pocket breaks down, Deshaun.
01:16:37
Speaker 7: Gets out of the pocket.
01:16:38
Speaker 12: Well, now you've got guys all over the field because you've got safeties and corners that are playing really deep. And so the middle of the field becomes a lot more open. There's a lot more green grass out there when you do get these conservative coverages, um, that gives Deshaun plenty of space to be able to take off and run, you know, get those five, seven, 10, 15 yard gains with his legs and which keep the ball moving, but also just dumping it off to his guys in the middle of the field. Let him let him work once they get the ball in their hands. And we got a lot of guys that are shifty that can make plays after they catch the football. So I'm not sure if there's a ton that you can translate and say, let's do this more in the first half, other than just saying like, hey, Deshaun, like, let's let it rip.
01:17:20
Speaker 7: You know, the same way.
01:17:21
Speaker 12: That you play without as much caution in the fourth quarter when we're behind.
01:17:27
Speaker 7: Like, let's play that way the whole game.
01:17:29
Speaker 12: Yeah, we understand there might be some more turnovers and we don't want to be careless with the football, especially when you got a defense as good as we have. But like, hey, just take a few more chances. And I think one thing that Coach Munkin can do is. is kind of lean into that and call some of those plays maybe that you've worked on during the week that you feel like, Hey, these are specific to this team and this defense. Let's set it up with a couple of different looks formationally motion.
01:17:53
Speaker 7: Wise that look like something.
01:17:55
Speaker 12: And then we can come back to it with those shot plays. And so calling those a little bit more and, and unlocking Deshaun and giving him the ability to go ahead and yeah, let's take a shot here. Let's, let's take a little bit of a risk on this play. It's calculated and, It's diagnosed. We got it scripted so that we know when it's going to show up in that first half. And maybe that gives them an opportunity to score a little bit more and get that ball moving a little bit more.
01:18:16
Speaker 7: Before it's just the fourth quarter.
01:18:18
Speaker 2: And Hoff, you know about this certainly better than I. But getting a peek into that locker room, and we talked earlier about Munkin, because you talked about that, but to see the way that the guys... Jerry Judy, for example, when he was drafted in Denver as a first-round pick, he's drafted to take somebody's job. Casey and Denzel Boston, they're drafted here to take somebody's job. Jerry Judy obviously has embraced them because the thing that stuck out to me more than even what Todd said, more than anything, was the way that his teammates and in particular, Casey Concepcion and Denzel Boston were so happy for Jerry Judy. I just thought that was such a powerful statement about his leadership there, the fact the way he has taken these guys under his wing and is being almost egoless to a point. You know, he's got pride. He wants the football. Everybody, I get that, but almost egoless to a point to still be the mentor and friend to them. He said they hang together outside of the facility. When you see that stuff in that locker room, that's as close to a genuine look at it as The people on the outside get, what does that say to you just about that dynamic? Because we keep hearing things. This is the closest team we had. It's a lot of young guys. They don't know any different and they're just, they're bonding and enjoying each other. Yeah.
01:19:31
Speaker 12: You're talking about the character of Jerry Judy, a man that could just shut it down if he wanted to.
01:19:36
Speaker 14: Right.
01:19:36
Speaker 2: He's made enough money.
01:19:37
Speaker 12: Like other guys came in to replace him. Now he's the third receiver. Like you could go through the motions and we've seen plenty of receivers coming in and doing.
01:19:45
Speaker 7: That in Cleveland.
01:19:46
Speaker 12: But I just think it talks about the character of the person like he did it. This is my situation. I'm now the third receiver. I get these two rookies in front of me. What can I do to help the team win? What can I do to help these young guys get ready to play? And then, oh, by the way, while we're doing this, like I'm going to make myself available and try to do everything I possibly can to help this team with me getting open, me showing that I can help within the confines of the offense and with these other three good pass catchers that we have here.
01:20:12
Speaker 7: And he just kept putting in the work.
01:20:14
Speaker 12: And I think it also speaks to the culture of, Coach Munkin has instilled within the locker room. And that was the one thing we talked about a bunch in training camp. Like, what are we trying to accomplish? Hey, Coach Munkin wants to bring that culture in here of accountability, but also love and teamwork. And the fact that it doesn't matter who's getting the credit. Like, we're just trying to win together as a team. And I love the honesty that you get from Coach Munkin. no matter where it is, whether it's in the media or surely in the team meeting room or in the locker room after a game. And I think that's why the players respect him. They love playing for him because they know exactly where they stand at any given moment.
01:20:52
Speaker 7: If you need a kick in the butt, that's what he gives to you.
01:20:54
Speaker 12: But if he needs to wrap his arms around you and be honest like he was with Jerry and say, hey, we need to get you the football more like that's what players love about him, because if they put in the work and And it shows up on the field. He's not about politics. He's not about looking forward into next year or the year after. It's like, who are the guys that are going to help me win this Sunday? I'm going to put you in. And for a player, that's exactly what you want to hear. You don't need to hear about anything else, but like, hey, what do I need to do to get on the field, to get the ball, to help my team win?
01:21:21
Speaker 7: And how do I do that? And he's given it to his players right now, and that's why they love him.
01:21:25
Speaker 2: Huff, he's unapologetically himself.
01:21:28
Speaker 6: Yep.
01:21:28
Speaker 3: He's completely genuine at all time. There's not a single fake phony thing to him.
01:21:33
Speaker 2: I don't even know.
01:21:33
Speaker 3: You know him decently. We know him decently. I don't know how he would even be a phony. I mean, it just, there's no BS meter with him. Like, it just is what it is. And I think one of the most remarkable things about this, because, like, we're 4-2, we're atop the AFC North, we're doing it in unconventional fashions, but I'm glad you brought up the game ball thing and Like even the Rudy stuff that he does and you see the affection that the players have. I think it's one of the most remarkable team buildings that I've seen in short order. There was there was no success. It's not like we hired Belichick and he had a bunch of Super Bowls and all this.
01:22:07
Speaker 2: Like Todd never been a head coach in the NFL. Rudy never been to D.C. Rudy never been to D.C.
01:22:11
Speaker 3: But they pop in here and they created culture and belief. kind of out of the clear blue sky. It's just a really remarkable thing. When you talk to guys who are in it and when you see it from your vantage point, is it as rare as it appears to be?
01:22:24
Speaker 12: I think it's rare, and it's interesting. We see a lot of young head coaches being hired in today's football, right? College football, the NFL. The trend is towards younger players or younger head coaches. And then when we hired Coach Munkin, it was like, oh, first time head coach. He's 60. How is he going to relate to the locker room? Let me tell you, from a player standpoint, the coaches that I related to the most and the coaches that your young guys are going to relate to the most are the guys that are the most authentic. If you're just yourself, players respect that. It doesn't matter if you're 28 or 38 or 60. Like if you are who you are every single day and you're laying out your plan, you communicate the right way and you show guys what they need to do to have success. Players are going to love you. They're going to connect with you. It doesn't matter how old you are.
01:23:07
Speaker 2: How about this defense off that? We'd like it to get a little better on the opening drive, but other than that, no notes, right? And how about the fact in the second half of this game, they gave up two first downs. Two first downs in a half of football. And Todd, Sue Huntley, by the way, just for context, had been averaging 33 points a game as a starter the last three starts with the Baltimore Ravens. 33 points a game. So it's not like they were not being productive because it was not Lamar. Tyler Huntley had been playing incredibly well. When you see this defense fly around the way that it did, Make those plays. Derrick Henry started the game off with a 10-yard run, then had a 17-yard run. He had another 10-yard run. So he had 37 yards on three carries. I'm pretty sure, what did he finish at? 17 for 58. So that means his other 14 carries went for... 21.
01:23:56
Speaker 7: Yards?
01:23:56
Speaker 5: Yeah.
01:23:57
Speaker 2: I mean, one and a half a carry all day long. You'll take that. But when you see this, what's making this defense so darn effective flying around the way that they are so much, so many games up front, the twists and the stunts, but what, how is this working?
01:24:10
Speaker 12: Yeah, I think it's two things. It's one, it's team defense, right? It's not like, all right, here are my stars. I'm going to try to finagle the coverages and the blitzes and stuff to get this.
01:24:19
Speaker 2: Guy a one-on-one.
01:24:20
Speaker 12: No, everything they do is all about playing together, working twists and stunts up front, moving guys around, utilizing their skill sets. But, and it goes back to the Jared verse conversation. Like the guy's not getting a lot of sacks. So he gets a lot of people that look at it and say, well, Hey, why aren't you getting sacks? But the defense isn't set up for one person to win. It's set up for everybody to win. And a lot of times Jared's job is to push his man into the quarterback, create space, pick for somebody who's looping, like, towards the end of the game, there's a couple of times where he was coming in, bull rushing his guy. And then you saw him actually turning and trying to T-bone one of the other linemen to be able to free up his buddy. Like they're playing off of each other. And those are really hard defenses to account for because it's not like, oh, we got Miles Garrett or we got Aaron Donald right here. We got to take care of him. It's like, we don't know where it's going.
01:25:05
Speaker 7: To come from. And everybody helps each other.
01:25:08
Speaker 12: And then the second piece to that is Rudy gets those guys to fly to the football. And that's the most important thing to have a successful defense at Any level of football is on defense. We need all 11 guys around the football when that whistle is blown. And the last image you see from the film, we need to see all 11 dudes right there because that's what wears out an offense. That's what keeps a guy like Derrick Henry, who typically goes off in the fourth quarter. You get him worn down because he's having three, four or five guys jumping on him every single time he touches the football. Now, it's exhausting from a defensive standpoint to do that. But that's why you need that defensive coordinator who brings the energy and the encouraging spirit from the sideline and through practice and maintains the expectations of I don't care if it's Tampa.
01:25:54
Speaker 7: It's the first game of the season.
01:25:55
Speaker 12: It's 90 degrees like we need to see all 11 dudes around the football every single time. That's the expectation. And then you hold those guys to it and then you've got a great defense. And that's what we got right now.
01:26:05
Speaker 3: It's every level, too. And I think the veteran position coaches on this defense, they do such an incredible job of developing players. So when there are guys down, we have not played with our hole up front defensively all year.
01:26:19
Speaker 2: Not what was intended. We haven't.
01:26:21
Speaker 3: We've had injuries from Jump Street up front. And then you have this second-round pick out of UCLA. And as an all-time Browns great, he didn't practice much. I don't know if Carson Swessinger had any, I don't know if anybody thought he should play. We all kind of knew that he would because he's him. But let's put him on the side of the damn new building, Hoff, because my God, 13 tackles in this one.
01:26:42
Speaker 2: He's everywhere. I don't know what more you want out of this guy. He's Wolverine.
01:26:48
Speaker 12: You know, he's reading from my playbook a little bit towards the end of the career.
01:26:51
Speaker 7: Hey, you don't need to practice.
01:26:52
Speaker 12: Just make sure you're doing your walkthroughs, your film study and go out and ball out.
01:26:56
Speaker 7: Nobody minds.
01:26:57
Speaker 12: And I think it's great, you know, for a guy in his second year to be able to do that is pretty impressive because there's still so much learning that's happening in the beginning of your career to be able to go out there with limited practice or no practice and play the way he did just speaks to his intelligence, the way he studies the game and, the way he meets with his teammates and it gets everybody on the same page.
01:27:17
Speaker 7: Like I'm, I'm good. Put them on the building.
01:27:19
Speaker 9: Let's go.
01:27:20
Speaker 7: I want to see that guy every single day.
01:27:22
Speaker 12: He is somebody that, you know, I can point for my kids and be like, that's the way you play football right there. That's Cleveland Brown football right there. That's the blue collar stuff that gets the fans excited, gets me excited when I'm talking to you guys on a Monday morning, because that's why we want to see everybody in that locker room. It reminds me of like a Nick Chubb, right? That's just how you play the.
01:27:41
Speaker 7: Game and, and he's doing it the right way every single week.
01:27:45
Speaker 3: All right, time to hand out some game balls, Hoff. Let's start with you on the offense. Who's getting your ball, buddy?
01:27:51
Speaker 7: Oh, I got to go to Jerry Judy.
01:27:53
Speaker 12: I mean, rising above, being the pivotal player on the final drive, a guy that we talked about earlier, selfless. All he wants to do is help the team win, putting his head down and working, even though he'd been moved down the depth chart. coming into this season and he's come up big for us and now you've got a legit four group four player receiving core that is a difficult matchup for any given defense and it's fun watching guys being able to kind of go through the highs and lows of their career but just doing it as a team with a great effort with a great attitude and that's exactly who jerry judy is.
01:28:29
Speaker 2: Dr z Obviously, Deshaun, for being clutch at the end, should get a game ball. But I'm going to give mine in this case to Jaleel McLaughlin because I thought he brought– I was just going to have it. because I thought for sure you'd go Watson. All right, I'll go to Sean Watson. You go, Jaleel. I'll go to Sean. OK, it's fine. Nine carries for 41 yards, four catches for 14. Those numbers don't jump out at you, but. At one point, he had a run that I said on the radio was the greatest one-yard run in NFL history where he jump cut like seven different dudes in the backfield and still managed to pick up a yard. And I thought he ran tough, and I thought they tried to bully him a little bit. He's got, obviously, small guy pass pro at times was a struggle, but they put a couple of hits on him that were obscenely violent. And he got up every time and just kept running hard and kept making plays for us. And sometimes I think we need to realize, you know, on second down after we pick up nine yards, like, it's okay to have a big play or to just go ahead and get one yard because I think we were net negative on second down and short, which was unfortunate because we actually did a pretty good job on first down. But I thought he just brought a little wiggle, a little toughness, and played his heart out, and I thought it was fun to watch.
01:29:36
Speaker 3: Four straight fourth-quarter comebacks now for Deshaun, or four fourth-quarter comebacks for Deshaun already this season. The thing, and I heard Todd earlier this afternoon talking a little about, he's so conscientious about not throwing interceptions and I hope that the next evolution for him is to just play free. I hope we just get to a point where we play free with him going forward. And I think if you do that, you've got a chance to be very, very successful. So there's something that flips there at that point. That'll do it for the Joe Thomas half hour of this program, and that'll do it for this edition of Cleveland Browns Daily. Just offensive game balls today, kids. We are back tomorrow with more fun. You're listening to Cleveland Browns Daily on 850 ESPN Cleveland.
01:30:13
Speaker 1: You've been listening to Cleveland Browns Daily, a production of the Cleveland Browns and 850 ESPN Cleveland.