00:00we know her work from cleveland.com and the orange and brown talk podcast on the wise heart right we
00:05make it right call kyle wright hotline ashley bastock joins us ashley welcome to the show
00:10thanks for having me guys so two straight weeks in a row i've been wrong with my pick we'll see
00:15if i can make it a third straight week i guess so with that track record you kind of have
00:21to
00:21just go ahead and pick the panthers right yeah like i don't know i don't know what i'm gonna do
00:27this is one of the the rare instances i haven't decided yet by this point and i think it's because
00:32both of these teams have had some weird things going on and you know i haven't obviously watched
00:39carolina as much but they are a weird team right they gave up 59 points in week one and then
00:45last week they beat up on the falcons so i don't know what to make of this week quite yet
00:52quite
00:53honestly so i'm glad you said that we'll get to the deshaun stuff in a second here uh because i
00:58know
00:58you've been itching to talk about that because you very all of us very rarely ever talk about the
01:02deshaun stuff here but i there's this narrative coming out that all of a sudden the bucks are
01:08just bad at football and that was actually a good matchup for cleveland which is not what anyone was
01:13saying going into that game and that somehow the panthers game is a better maybe a better matchup
01:20wise for carolina against deshaun or like a tougher matchup i actually look at this and think this
01:25should be a uh i don't say more winnable and i'll say more winnable game for the the browns than
01:31last
01:31week do you agree yeah i mean i think in the sense of especially just that they are at home
01:37after playing
01:38two straight games in florida when the feels like temperatures were uh at or above 100 degrees by the
01:46time uh kickoff happened and yeah i mean i think just the fact that uh there was so much with
01:54that
01:54tampa matchup with baker mayfield and obviously uh how well do the two sides actually know each other
02:00uh and things like that and like i said i mean carolina it's like how much of what we've seen
02:05from
02:06them is is an aberration like the falcons are spoiler alert not a good football team um and i mean
02:12what's really interesting is the panthers right now have the worst run defense in the nfl but
02:18again it's only been two weeks and the browns have been unable to get anything going so i mean i
02:23i kind
02:24of tend to think that uh what happens on the ground is going to have a huge factor in this
02:29game but it's
02:29like between these two teams how i look at it is something's gotta give but i mean i think just
02:35by
02:36the fact that it's at home it's a bit easier of a setup for the browns than the last two
02:41weeks really
02:42actually it seems like the national media wants to run with the deshaun watson uh ready for support
02:47line uh that's the the headline that is is going around uh ready for support from browns fans this
02:52weekend now deshaun did say that and and my i caution deshaun if that's what you're expecting i
02:57don't know that that's what's going to happen i i always do worry about uh when his expectations
03:02are one thing and then it's something else it seems like we get the worst version of deshaun
03:05what was your takeaway though was that the big overarching takeaway for yourself or was there
03:10something else or something that was better representationally of what that press conference
03:15was yeah i mean really like that sort of sums it up right i think he was trying to diffuse
03:22any of those negative feelings that may be left on the part of fans now i don't quite know that
03:28that's possible and i agree i mean i think that so far there's been multiple instances like whether
03:35it was the the getting booed after that uh like his going off about that after the second preseason
03:42game against the bills uh whether it was what he said last week with the 400 yards and five touchdowns
03:48and people expect me to do that and they you know won't consider consider it a success if i don't
03:55i agree like that's kind of the worst version of deshaun watson and like it's felt like along this way
04:01how much work has actually been put in to preparing him for this stuff or how much is he actually
04:08thinking about it and i get not wanting to be in the weeds but i'm like you jp i mean
04:13i i do get a
04:15little concerned when i'm like okay what is that reception going to be like now they are coming off
04:21a win so i think it's obviously not as bad as it would have been if they were oh and
04:26two it's not going
04:27to be as bad as it would have been if they were oh and two but i worry about what
04:31you said this idea
04:32of what if this doesn't play out the way he expects it to and like i for one do think
04:39if he starts and
04:40this offense starts the way they did uh at the beginning of that game in tampa like it won't take
04:46long for the boo birds to come out like these browns fans i don't think will be shy about it
04:51so i mean
04:52we we asked todd munkin about this today and i mean it sounds like something the team has taken
04:57into account but this is also something like todd munkin's been in the building since what january
05:02like i don't know how much time that they've had to realistically think about this and i mean really
05:07this should have been going on since like 2024 and i mean i think it's pretty evident that
05:12he's not really been prepared for that over the last two-ish years
05:17so what version of deshaun watson do you expect to show up on the field for the browns on sunday
05:23well i think right now it's like we i know i see all the comments on twitter about the checkdowns
05:29and that sort of thing but um i mean i do think that's the sort of version right you want
05:34that
05:35sort of game manager type stuff uh going on with him and i think look that's just the reality like
05:4230 years old now um he's not going to be as he said that exact same guy that he was
05:48in houston back
05:49in 2020 so i think the the version that you would expect is for him to in some capacity build
05:57on what
05:57he did on sunday and i think he will be helped along if the rest of the offense can clean
06:03up
06:03some of the dumb mistakes i mean again six penalties in the first half that cost them 50 yards
06:09that wasn't good there were a handful of drops too right uh it was just some sloppiness going on that
06:16i think maybe he can do more earlier if they can get back cleaned up uh but i'd expect you
06:23know those
06:23checkdowns sort of throws and i'd expect it just seems like to me right now uh his go-to deep
06:30threat
06:30that's emerged so far is denzel boston like that's the guy he's gonna look for downfield i mean talking
06:36to both of them today it seems like they've developed a pretty nice rapport with one another that
06:42uh deshawn feels comfortable throwing to him and i think that's like sort of what i would expect is
06:48for denzel boston to be a little bit of his safety outlet there all right so what do you expect
06:53out of
06:53quinchon then you mentioned carolina's awful run defense so far this season are we going to get
06:58quinchon back i can't even say to the old quinchon because it's not like his yards per attempt
07:03were so high last year but what are we expecting yeah that's what's funny right is like the that
07:09number has just not really been able to gain much ground like pun intended and i do wonder you know
07:17he said he's eliminated the idea of oh this is not related to me not being healthy and like i
07:23think
07:23that's obvious based on what we've seen he's looked like himself in practice like every step
07:29of the way so uh when we talked to him on monday and this is kind of the best explanation
07:34i have for
07:35it too it's just like when you consider all the new pieces and parts of this offense uh not just
07:40the fact that it's a new offense with a new head coach a new play caller and todd munkin but
07:45the fact
07:45that you're asking five offensive linemen who have never worked together prior to this spring uh to
07:52really develop this run game and you know there's a lot that goes into it it's not just like oh
07:58quinchon's
07:59not doing what he needs to do and that's why his yards per carry aren't as high like i think
08:03it gets
08:04oversimplified a little bit uh and it's not that they're not trying right you know i asked todd
08:09munkin about uh the fourth down call and obviously they went to him there in that game against uh the
08:15bucks and he said you know it's he's going to keep being aggressive like that i think he's not afraid
08:21to kind of keep pounding away at it and trying to figure out what's going to work but like i
08:26do think
08:26it's there's truth to the fact that it's going to be a bit of a process to get this going
08:32and
08:32quinchon judkins too is still only a second year player at the end of the day so i don't expect
08:39it
08:39to look perfect yet by any means but i think if this uh panthers defense run defense is as bad
08:46as
08:46the stats say it has been throughout the first two games then there should be room for some of those
08:53numbers to go up for the browns and quinchon judkins i think ashley we found out that taylor swift
08:59uh one of your favorite artists maybe your favorite artist is uh is going to be releasing
09:03a song this week called cleveland exclamation point yeah with the exclamation point uh how many
09:09cleveland fans will be converted to taylor swift fans with her new song cleveland exclamation point
09:16i mean hopefully everyone right i've i've wondered is it going to sample my may i think it was radio
09:24hit
09:24on this very station with daryl writer on the sunday show that made it on to new heights is it
09:30going to sample that that would be pretty cool uh not expecting it but i do think uh it has
09:36some
09:36potential look at the time of year it's coming out i'm like is this going to become a little bit
09:39of a
09:40guardian's anthem this season depending on the tone of the song because it's coming out on friday so
09:45uh it could potentially be really really big here i think ashley i don't think you can handle that
09:51if if they sampled if a taylor swift song sampled part of your voice i listen there you're a very
09:59humble person you're a hard worker i think your ego would go off the charts if if you were in
10:05a
10:06as it should though as it should that'd be a while as your friend i worry about you and i
10:12just i don't
10:12know that would be the best thing for you no i mean i think what would have to happen is
10:17if that did
10:18occur next week you two would have to pull out a ouija board and contact me from the great beyond
10:24because i would no longer be in this realm of existence i would just not i would no longer exist
10:30here so i want to tell you actually i want to tell you what i think the song is going
10:33to be about
10:33okay and i want to know what the swifties are talking about as far as what they think it could
10:37be
10:38because i i've not checked into any of it i think it's going to be cleveland's going to be used
10:42as a metaphor for travis kelsey and i i think i think she's just going to say all these things
10:47about cleveland but really she's talking about travis because they're kind of i don't know they're
10:51synonymous but also the idea that it's got you can use all sorts of like underdog different
10:55different different ways of describing travis but really uh or describing cleveland but really
11:00she's describing travis yeah i will say as a swifty community correspondent i i believe that is
11:06most of the talk happening on swifty twitter right now it just makes the most sense knowing knowing
11:11taylor knowing all that like it just it just makes the most sense yeah i don't think you're too far
11:16off on that one i think i i agree with that take i myself think that's what it's going to
11:20be but
11:21hey like within 48 hours we'll know you know i actually the exclamation point scares me though
11:27guys i want it to be a ballot i don't want it to be her just screaming cleveland and no
11:30mike i'm gonna i
11:31feel bad about this ashley because i've been holding on to this i actually have heard it already
11:38so yeah i actually i don't want to talk about my connections to the camp there because i don't
11:44want to burn bridges i'm under an nda and all that but i can give you a little bit of
11:51i can give you
11:51a sample of what it's going to sound like are you ready ashley i think we're all ready welcome to
11:56cleveland we've been waiting for you welcome to cleveland yeah yeah you know she's writing not as
12:04sharp as it used to be yeah yeah yeah that's all i mean she's got a marriage she's got priorities
12:10i can't believe you were willing to go against your nda to give us that snippet nick wilson that's
12:16the kind of person i am and you're welcome a real banger yeah it's a real banger i loved it
12:23it's
12:23so many poor people man they really think this is going to be like an anthem to cleveland it's not
12:26going to be an anthem to cleveland it's not going to be an anthem to cleveland it's not a love
12:29letter
12:30to cleveland she spent like three collective days here come on guys correct do now when do we get
12:35about travis when do we get this song called bratt and all exclamation point
12:41i mean i feel like once the move is complete right oh they haven't moved in yet good god
12:46they take forever to do everything yeah like who knows you're at the song a year ago so i even
12:52take
12:52back the three days she spent like a collective three hours in cleveland that's all you need it's not
12:56a love letter to cleveland guys all right i i don't like the cynicism out of you but all right
13:02ashley but one before you go what preseason take are you already rethinking it can be browns wise it
13:07can be nfl wise so you put you on the spot yeah i don't like that welcome to cleveland we've
13:15been
13:15waiting for you welcome to afternoon drive welcome to afternoon drive we've been waiting for you
13:24actually how's your boyfriend doing well i'm oh my god we didn't answer the football question
13:29i just figured i know you're done with the football portion are we like running out of time for me
13:33to
13:33even answer this question now i mean we're trying to stall for time for you to answer the damn thing
13:37i know i guess you are i keep asking about gary if we if we have to we're here till
13:41seven okay
13:42we gotta get all the time okay she would not date a gary i know gary doesn't even get a
13:49swipe
13:49right on the apps just because because of the name gary now now we will talk more about darren if
13:54we have to you might be a michael guy though you guys are gonna have to apologize to all your
13:59listeners named gary after this i don't think so no there's gary gary knows who gary is
14:06yeah self-awareness is top for gary classic gary's oh god i love those gary's okay well back to the
14:13football i i will say like i think just the the overarching take that obviously has had to be
14:19reconsidered over the last week is that the defense would transition pretty easily right like i mean
14:26they obviously did not do that in week one i thought things looked a little better in week two
14:33obviously they did enough to win the game uh they made things more difficult there weren't those
14:37same busted coverages but i do still think uh these first two weeks have showed that it's not going
14:42to be quite seamless they do look a little different obviously we've seen uh less sack
14:48production so far but i don't think uh that doesn't mean it's not going to come at all i think
14:53they'll
14:54get there eventually but it's just going to be more of a process than people thought and look the
14:59personnel and not having miles garrett that just automatically is a huge change and i think maybe
15:04it was undersold a little bit how long it's going to take uh for them to get there but it's
15:10a good sign
15:11i think that they bounced back enough to win that game especially when it counted after that rain
15:18delay on sunday ashley great stuff as always enjoy cleveland exclamation point and tell ricky we said
15:24uh what it do i will not but he was listening so he heard that you say that himself i
15:31think classic
15:32slick rick i think i would be more offended by ricky than uh than gary but that's just me i'm
15:38i'm i'm a
15:38nick all right he said nick with an n yeah yeah bye guys bye that's a good call that's where
15:47you just
15:48that's where you just exit stage left there on the wise heart right we make it right call
15:52kyle wright hotline ashleybass.cleveland.com
