00:00All right, Mary Kay, you have been, I would say, ahead of the pack
00:05when it comes to this team and the quarterback situation
00:08throughout the mini camps, training camp.
00:12But we all had to admit it was looking shaky after the Jacksonville game.
00:17Can you talk about what it's been like for this team and Deshaun Watson
00:21since conquering Baker Mayfield in Tampa
00:25and then coming back with that huge fourth quarter a week ago?
00:30Well, once again, I think the Jacksonville game was basically like a preseason game.
00:35It was the first time that the offense had played together in a game
00:38and the first time the defense had played together in a game.
00:41And it was a wake-up call for everyone.
00:42And they realized that they had a lot, a lot of work to do.
00:47And also at that time, there's really almost no doubt in my mind
00:51that the plan was going to be to turn it over to Shador
00:55for the home game against the Panthers if Deshaun did not play well
00:59and if he lost the game.
01:01And that is the way that I wrote it a number of times,
01:04that if you go out there and you win the game,
01:06then you're going to obviously keep your job.
01:09But he needed to do that.
01:10And he came up off the mat.
01:12His back was against the wall.
01:13And he was able to do that.
01:15And he had confidence in his legs, even more so than his arm.
01:20But he just had a lot of trust and faith that he could extend plays with his legs,
01:25scramble, and do all those kinds of things.
01:27And that's probably been the number one thing that he's been able to do
01:31over these last two games.
01:32Mary Kay Cabot joining us here on the Wise Heart Right.
01:34We make a right call call right hotline.
01:36How do they intend to find Jerry Judy?
01:38Is he part of the game plan tonight?
01:41Well, he's always part of the game plan,
01:43but you have to take what the defense gives you.
01:45And as I've mentioned so many times before,
01:47Deshaun just doesn't really have a whole bunch of timing, chemistry,
01:53and mojo down with most of the guys in the passing game.
01:56They're still working on it.
01:57It's still a work in progress.
01:59And you don't want to force it.
02:00If you start forcing it, then you're going to throw interceptions.
02:03So he has to feel good about where he's putting that football.
02:06And right now, Denzel Boston and Harold Fannin are two of his most trusted pass catchers.
02:14And I think you'll probably see more of that until he gains more faith
02:17than some of the other guys just in game in the heat of the moment.
02:21And they didn't have, again, much time to work on that this week.
02:24You know, it is rare, Mary Kay, that we talk about somebody who's been in the league
02:27for a decade struggling with confidence issues.
02:31But is that a big part of what Todd Munkin and his organization has attempted to do
02:36with Deshaun Watson?
02:39Well, remember, he's only started 21 games in the last six years.
02:44Or now, I guess it's 22.
02:46But in the last six seasons, because of suspension, shoulder, and Achilles,
02:52he's only started those 21 games.
02:53So I think the first game, in my mind, had a lot to do with taking those hits,
02:58absorbing those blows, realizing that you're not going to snap an Achilles
03:03if you take a step to the left.
03:04So I think he had to gain some confidence in his body
03:07and know that he could do what he needed to do.
03:10And then just in terms of the offense, you do.
03:13It does take time to get some of that back.
03:15And when you're dealing with a completely new offense, new scheme, new terminology,
03:20overhauled offensive line, two rookies on the offensive line,
03:24and then two rookies at receiver, it's going to take a little time
03:27before you feel really super confident in what you're doing out there.
03:31How critical is the loss of Elton Jenkins for tonight?
03:35Well, I think it's critical.
03:36As I mentioned, you already have a rookie left tackle.
03:39You have a rookie right guard.
03:41The offensive line had plenty of issues against the Panthers.
03:44I thought when I went back and watched that game again,
03:47I know some people were pretty critical of Deshaun Watson
03:50when they went back and watched that game again.
03:52I actually felt better about his game when I went back and watched it
03:56and realized just how under siege he was,
03:59just how many penalties that they had to overcome.
04:01I mean, he hit Denzel Boston with a really nice 23-yard pass
04:06on that epic drive that contained five offensive line penalties,
04:10and it was wiped out by a holding call.
04:12That would have ended up at the Panthers' 11.
04:14So I think there are issues going on around him,
04:18and I think offensive line is certainly one of those things,
04:22and they are going to have to be on point.
04:24I don't know how they're going to manage this Pittsburgh Steelers defensive line
04:29with so many new guys and with everything they're going to have to deal with
04:33with Cam Hayward and Alex Highsmith and TJ Watt.
04:36That's going to be the key to the game right there.
04:39All right, the running game that we have been discussing, Mary Kay,
04:43I know we're alluding to trying to get that going
04:45because that can open up things in the passing game,
04:48but it's not a running back problem, is it?
04:50Because I definitely have seen some people start to wonder about, you know,
04:55a former Buckeye who we thought was going to be very, very promising,
04:57still struggling to bust out of a lot of these carries
05:03and hit those home runs like we thought he'd be able to.
05:06Well, I think it's a team-wide problem.
05:09I think it's an offensive problem.
05:10The blocking schemes, just it's everything.
05:13It's timing, it's the running backs, it's hitting the holes,
05:17finding the holes, creating the holes.
05:19It's just a little bit of everything.
05:21So, no, not putting that on Quinshawn at all,
05:24or at least not all of it is on Quinshawn.
05:27They just all have to learn to work together better,
05:29and they just haven't done that yet.
05:31And, once again, it's not going to be any easier tonight knowing that right up the middle
05:37that you've got a backup center who is trying to hold it together.
05:42So, hopefully for them they'll be able to generate some rushing yards they really need to,
05:46but I think it will have to come from a combination of Quinshawn, Raheem, Deshawn,
05:51and then maybe some end-arounds, jet sweeps, and things like that.
05:54Are we taking Aaron Rodgers maybe a little too lightly here?
06:00Maybe. He's another player that I think needed to come back a little bit from his own ruptured Achilles,
06:08and it takes time for a player to come back from these very serious injuries,
06:12especially as you get older.
06:14And now it seems like he has his confidence back in his body and his offense as well,
06:20and so I think he's playing really, really well.
06:22That was a very nice game that he had against the Bengals,
06:25and he's definitely someone to worry about.
06:27Well, he's also such a different quarterback than the last two that they've been able to beat,
06:32and they've been able to use that Mason Graham and inside rush to really neutralize Baker and Bryce Young.
06:40They've done a great job of containing those two.
06:42This is such a different task, and very different, too, from the guy that shredded them in Week 1.
06:48You know, how does that play into it with their defensive scheme?
06:51Well, I think it's going to be interesting to see how that goes in the beginning of the game,
06:56and they might have to pivot and adjust, but they have a lot of things in the defensive tool bag
07:01to come at him from different angles and in different ways.
07:04It's never going to be easy because he gets rid of the ball so incredibly quickly,
07:09as we've seen so many times before, and he's going to have to do that again
07:13because these guys are going to try to give him 60 minutes of hell like they said they were doing
07:18last week.
07:19So they'll have to try to, you know, come from the middle, come from the edges, blitz, whatever they have
07:24to do.
07:25But once again, as Jared Burst was saying, you know,
07:28don't get frustrated by the fact that he gets through the ball so quickly
07:32because there will be times when he has to hold it, and that's when they must pounce.
07:36Are there reasons, Mary Kay Cabot joining us on the show,
07:38are there reasons why Mason Graham has broken through here in year two?
07:44Well, I think there are a couple of reasons.
07:46Number one, a lot of players take that big step up in their second year,
07:50so I think you're seeing some of that where he just has his sea legs and he understands the assignment.
07:55He did not play in an attack-style defensive front in college,
07:58and it's vastly different when you're trying to do that.
08:01You have to just think, see quarterback, get quarterback, and just go.
08:05And he wasn't used to doing that, so he was probably slightly a little bit hesitant at times.
08:10And then in my mind, I think he was one of the players that was somewhat dwarfed by Myles Garrett.
08:15I've been saying this for a long time.
08:16I think that Myles had sort of a larger-than-life presence on that defensive line and the defense as
08:23a whole,
08:24and some players may not have played with as much reckless abandon as they're doing now.
08:31And I think Mason was one of those players where perhaps he would arrive
08:35or maybe arrive a millisecond slow or maybe not raise his hand to claim that half a sack or whatever.
08:42So I think that has something to do with it.
08:44I know it's a number that every coach always says they're working on,
08:49but the penalties last week were really bad.
08:51We know how Todd Munkin feels about really bad football.
08:54He has a different term for it.
08:55But with a short turnaround, how much effort can they put into making those disappear, especially for this huge game?
09:03Well, like you said, it's a very, very short turnaround, and it's tough to get too many things cleaned up
09:09just in really one full day of practice.
09:12But they have to do the best they can to try.
09:15I know Titus Howard is committed to not false starting.
09:18He had three in that game.
09:20He has five this season.
09:21That's more than he's had combined in the last three years, I think.
09:24But once again, this is all new to him.
09:26He played seven seasons in the same place, and now he's in a completely new offense.
09:30So these guys are learning everything.
09:33Everything's new.
09:33Everything's different.
09:35And I'm sure that the Steelers are going to be doing whatever they can to confuse the Browns,
09:40to cross them up, to make them be thinking, to get them false starting.
09:45So they will try to exploit that as much as they can.
09:49If the Browns win tonight, we done with the starting quarterback conversation?
09:54No, I don't think so.
09:55I think it's just going to be pretty much a week-to-week thing.
09:58I think you just have to see how everything plays out.
10:02But certainly, if Deshaun Watson can go out there with this really new offense and a lot
10:08of really, really young guys that are all trying to figure each other out and somehow find a
10:13way to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, I think that will go a long, long way towards getting
10:19a lot of fans back on his side and getting people to believe in him.
10:23I think you guys probably saw throughout the week, a lot of national pundits and experts
10:28were praising him and talking about how he looks like he's back to his Houston days in
10:33certain respects and things like that.
10:35So little by little, he's chipping away at some of his detractors and his critics.
10:40And a victory tonight, I think, would really get Browns fans on his side.
10:45If they win tonight, will Mary Kay Cabot come on next week and say the Browns are going
10:51to the playoffs?
10:54No, I don't think I would necessarily say that yet.
10:58But if you do go to 3-1, your chances increase exponentially.
11:03There's no question about that.
11:05So they would be much better positioned to make the playoffs.
11:10And anything can happen.
11:12But it's still a very, very long season.
11:14We've seen other teams start strong.
11:17You don't know who's going to stay healthy.
11:19Sometimes it's just a war of attrition.
11:22And so I wouldn't be prepared to say that.
11:25But the chances would be looking a lot better.
11:27Did you ever develop a penchant for a video game the way Mike Tomlin has?
11:32Oh, my goodness, no.
11:33I mean, that is unbelievable.
11:36I saw Le'Veon Bell saying, hey, we were supposed to be winning Super Bowls.
11:40And he's out there building Minecraft cities, which I thought was kind of funny.
11:43But, no, not anything close to that.
11:47Unbelievable.
11:48Board games, anything?
11:50Anything you like?
11:51No.
11:52Stratego?
11:54Stratego.
11:56All right.
11:57Mary Kay, thank you very much for the time.
11:59All the best to you and yours.
12:01We'll talk to you next week.
12:02Sounds good.
12:03Thanks, guys.
12:04The tremendous Mary Kay Cabot.
12:05On the wise heart, right?
12:06We make it right, call, call, right hotline.
12:08No video games for Mary Kay.
12:10Very interesting.
12:11Still week to week.
12:12Even if he wins.
12:15You believe that?
12:16Three and one.
12:17Kind of depends how he plays, too.
12:19Right?
12:20Like, if they win in spite of him, which I don't think they've done yet.
12:23I don't think they've done yet.
12:24Look at the QB play across the league, man.
12:27I think they, okay, week to week.
12:29No, they're not going to replace him the following week.
12:31Right.
12:31So, no.
12:32Okay, I should have said the answer is no.
12:33It's not week to week.
12:35But, we'll see.
12:37If he continues doing this where he's, I think, putting the team on his shoulders.
12:42Mary Kay talked about the offensive line breakdowns, and yet he's using his feet.
12:45And they're winning ugly.
12:47No, I think he's going to be fine.
12:48Question is, if tonight he throws two picks, fumbles once, but the defense carries the day and they win,
12:56then I still think we're in a very interim basis with him.
13:00Could it still be interim to you, or are we solid and done if they win tonight?
13:052-1-6-4-7-4-0-0-92.
13:07Ken Carman, Anthony Lima, live on the.
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