00:00We're doing Super Bowl Super Browns!
00:06Yeah!
00:08Audio courtesy of the UH Browns Radio Network, your Cleveland Browns.
00:13Out to a 5-2 start.
00:15Started off, Harry, started off terribly, to be honest with you.
00:18But they clawed back, tied it up, took a lead, held on, fought.
00:24And then on the final drive, yes, Harold Fannin Jr., Deshaun Watson, Andre Schmidt.
00:31Good night, everybody!
00:325-2, your Cleveland Browns.
00:33A toning for the missed kick earlier in the game, the 43-yarder that went doink,
00:38the loudest miss in the history of the NFL.
00:4027-24 is all that matters.
00:43I'm not going to get into missing a couple here and there.
00:46It ain't going to happen with me.
00:48But 5-2 to start it off, and point blank,
00:51Lima said something that I want to turn into a thing.
00:53Like, there's a lot of people who've been skeptical.
00:55There were a lot of people who were skeptical last week.
00:57They beat the Ravens, come from behind.
00:59There was skepticism last week.
01:01And I do think that a lot of us, somebody had tweeted at me,
01:06and I said to them, social media reactions on X brought to you by?
01:09Shive and Jewelers, Cleveland's premier jewelry store.
01:11I wrote back to them just this morning.
01:13I go, I think there was about 3% of the population
01:20that thought they might get off to a 5-2 start.
01:22And of the 3%, I think two were just saying it, to say it,
01:29I think only 1% meant it.
01:31I think only 1% meant that they would do that.
01:35And so this is a blast.
01:38And every week, to go there, I'm going to tell you guys this right now.
01:43I had that football award ceremony, and so it started at 3.30.
01:47So this is crunch time of the game.
01:49Well, you've got to be there.
01:51This is my last one.
01:52I've got to go.
01:53It was so cool that over the last few years,
01:59guys did not care about putting their phones away and just sitting there.
02:02It's not a long ceremony.
02:03It's an hour.
02:05And guys just do not care when the Browns are bad.
02:09Okay, fine.
02:10We'll sit here and we'll talk and shake hands.
02:12And all right, see it.
02:13Wrestling and basketball season and everything else.
02:16to look across the auditorium and to see a bunch of guys looking at their phone.
02:22And then the one assistant, Mark, he's like, he's got his phone down.
02:25He's like, look, look, look, look, what's going on.
02:26It's just you don't take these moments for granted.
02:30You don't take a moment where the Browns are good
02:33and everybody's having a communal watch.
02:36You don't take that for granted.
02:38And so it was a wonderful thing yesterday.
02:40And Lima came in and said it.
02:42He said, I love this team.
02:43And I want to know, do you officially love the Cleveland Browns?
02:47Again, do you love this team this year?
02:49Lima, go ahead.
02:50Well, think about how against all odds that is.
02:53That a team that I thought was going to win three or four games
02:56that got drilled the way they did in the opener.
02:59A team that has a quarterback, which we certainly know all that has followed him
03:06since he's been here in Cleveland.
03:08And I look around, we wonder just what was this year going to be about?
03:13What were we going to be able to extract from this year?
03:17After that first loss, I had to pull our young producer, John,
03:21who I still don't, I thought he was past his probationary period
03:25and then I was told otherwise over the weekend.
03:26Oh, John has passed the probationary period.
03:29Well, I had other intel.
03:29He's a good young man.
03:31He's thorough.
03:32John's fine.
03:33I pulled John in and I said, hey, just so you know,
03:36we've had years like this before.
03:37And I was thinking back to the 0-16, the 1-15, and I'm like,
03:41here's what we got to be thinking about.
03:43That's true.
03:44Because the normal storylines aren't going to be.
03:46And why was I wrong?
03:48I was not even close.
03:49So to have a team with young, promising players,
03:53with draft picks that clearly the embattled GM had knocked out of the park.
03:58Like, this is awesome.
04:00I'm watching.
04:01Here's how I know I love this team.
04:04I'm scavenging everything I can from the post-game locker room,
04:07from the Browns' social media areas.
04:10Like, I can't get enough of it.
04:12I'm looking at every player in their exuberance.
04:15I'm trying to get every article that's being written and every podcast.
04:20I don't do that with the Browns.
04:22I normally just go and watch all the other teams
04:24and try to find what I can around the NFL
04:26to make up for what I'm not getting with the Browns.
04:29And now it's been the opposite.
04:30So that is how I know I love this team.
04:33I want to know from you guys.
04:34Like, coming into this season,
04:37we were booing them during the third preseason game against the Bills.
04:42It was a very unlikable situation.
04:45It was like we had talked about Andrew Barry's future
04:48and how tenable it was.
04:50We talked about all these nasty things.
04:53Good God, if Todd Munkin was one and done,
04:56that was a big conversation.
04:57That was a conversation before they even went to camp
04:59for some people out there.
05:01And to be at 5-2 and right at the top of what is turning into a tough division.
05:07I mean, it's been that way for a long time.
05:10I know last year kind of had a little bit of a dip,
05:12but you look at what this division is.
05:14And Baltimore is still tough.
05:16Cincinnati, what a performance that they put on yesterday.
05:19What a performance that the Steelers grinded it out to win.
05:22They're still going to be professional about it.
05:23And then you're sitting there at 5-2 right there with everybody.
05:27It is a monumental feeling, and it should not be discounted whatsoever.
05:34The feeling of waking up on a Monday morning at 5-2
05:38and going down to Tennessee, starting out dreadfully slow.
05:44The giving up, what, in seven games they've given up five opening drive touchdowns.
05:49So that was the first thing that kind of kicked you in the face.
05:52And then there was the interception.
05:53And before you blink, it's 14-0.
05:55And I'll tell you this, and I wrote this down.
05:58I was not despondent.
06:03I was not panicked.
06:05I knew they had to jump back into that,
06:08and that's what made that drive so important,
06:09just to get them on the field, get your defense off the field,
06:14gain your bearings, and try to put up some points.
06:17I had confidence that they would do it.
06:20I really did.
06:22And I know that Tennessee's bad, and they've been bad.
06:25They haven't won back-to-back games in four years.
06:28I know that they're not good, but I don't think I had that at all over the last year.
06:34Maybe in 2024, I would have talked myself into it a little bit coming off of 2023
06:40in the playoffs, even though it was a different quarterback and all that stuff.
06:43But I didn't feel that way last year.
06:45Like, if they started off 14-0, it kind of felt like that was it.
06:49And I'm sure there's a game that somebody could jog my memory on
06:53that would tell me otherwise.
06:54But I did.
06:55I had a totally different feeling yesterday than what I had about any game last year.
07:01So there is – it's not just an excitement.
07:03It's not just a hope.
07:05I am trusting them.
07:08And I think that that is a tremendous thing.
07:10I'm actually trusting them.
07:12And that is a huge difference.
07:13You can love them.
07:14You can like them.
07:15You can be excited about them.
07:16Trusting them is a different feeling.
07:18And I think I trusted them yesterday, and I think I trust them.
07:21Yeah, and it was the way that it was the inverse of what it's supposed to be
07:26with the Browns, with the exception of the patented, the now trademark
07:30Deshaun Watson comeback situation, which is the defense wasn't that good yesterday.
07:35I know they had a – that's weird to say about a team that had a goal line stop,
07:39a team that got the takeaway the way they did.
07:43And they – a couple takeaways.
07:47They were getting run all over.
07:49I mean, Pollard, it was right back to last year how he feasted on the Cleveland Browns.
07:54And then you looked at his numbers, and you're like, he's really been this good for this many years?
07:58It's pretty incredible.
07:59He doesn't get talked about in that way because of where he is.
08:02But he was slicing and dicing us up.
08:04And then Cam Ward had his best game of the year.
08:07Yeah, I know through an interception, and they had another takeaway too after that.
08:11But he was converting.
08:13He had a huge fourth down conversion on the final drive.
08:18If he doesn't miss, you know, the one – was it Bellinger wide open?
08:23Like, who knows?
08:24But he was making some really, really good throws, and you saw the arm talent
08:29that was the reason that he was the number one overall pick.
08:31And you were thinking back to that sliding doors moment where there is a situation
08:35where Cam Ward is a Cleveland Browns quarterback.
08:37If, what, Marlon Humphrey just catches an interception against the Browns last year
08:42or a couple years ago.
08:44So, you're watching that game, and it was the defense that was kind of letting the team down
08:50while Deshaun Watson was doing whatever he wanted, really finding that groove
08:54before the end of the first half.
08:55That is where you were like, whoa, okay.
08:58Watson is kind of honed in, and we certainly will talk about, you know, the early interception.
09:02No, I'll talk about him.
09:04At 640, we're going to get into it earnestly, yes.
09:07It does make me think, like, you guys don't have to scramble to social media
09:12to tweet about how bad the quarterback is early in a game.
09:15You don't have to.
09:16You can wait.
09:16Oh, considering the argument we had earlier – well, you and I were actually agreeing
09:20with each other, but considering the arguments that we had had earlier this week,
09:23when he threw that interception and go, I ain't opening up that website.
09:26Nope.
09:26Not a chance.
09:27There's no gun to your head that you have to do that early in a game
09:31to proclaim how bad a quarterback is, just like you don't have to say
09:34how bad Joe Burrow is early in a game when his team is down 13-0
09:39and he's looking kind of – there's nobody – but yet we do need to –
09:43we have something about it.
09:45We do have to scratch that itch.
09:46We've got to get our takes off.
09:48We've got to get our takes off.
09:48I don't know.
09:49Let more than 30 minutes of gameplay go by before we determine
09:53if a quarterback is good or bad in a given game.
09:54Anyway, it was awesome to see those young targets.
10:00You know, last week I'd said Harold Fannin's had a very disappointing season.
10:04Yeah.
10:04I said that before this week.
10:06And then Todd Munkin joked after the game in the locker room
10:09while he was giving away the game balls.
10:11He's like, yeah, maybe it was a good idea to get him involved in the passing game.
10:15Like, love the sarcasm, but what a time for that to happen.
10:20He looks like the most untackleable guy in the NFL once he gets going.
10:25He does not go down the first, the second, or third time someone gets close to him.
10:31And then KC's first half.
10:33How insane.
10:34And then, you know, he had another moment where he actually helped seal off a defender,
10:39I think a defensive lineman.
10:40I mean, that's KC doing that for a Junkins run.
10:43They're all kind of helping out and pitching in wherever possible.
10:47Judkins finally broke through.
10:49I mean, he didn't have 100 yards, but it seemed like, you know,
10:52that was back to the Judkins that we loved early on last year
10:55that was showing off all that talent.
10:57So they all kind of chipped in here or there or everywhere.
11:01And that is a mark of a really good team,
11:04that they can get it from all sorts of different directions.
11:06And pick up when the defense kind of wasn't their best.
11:10Pick it up.
11:10And then when the defense does need to make a big play, they did it.
11:14They came through.
11:15So this is just very promising.
11:18And it was one of those weird times where I'm not going,
11:21yeah, but it was the Titans.
11:23I wasn't saying that.
11:24They have enough wins now where I'm not doing that.
11:26And they have an easy schedule anyway.
11:28So I don't need to sit there and micromanage the schedule and go,
11:34well, it was this team.
11:35Who cares?
11:36They won the game.
11:37They had how many yards of total offense yesterday?
11:40I got to take a look.
11:40Was it?
11:41I was excited about the 96 that Quinch on Judkins had.
11:44Heck yeah.
11:45Which I know 100 is the number for everybody.
11:47It almost had 500 yards, Kenny.
11:48They were nine yards shy.
11:49And that's with the KC drop of another,
11:52of just a money throw from your confident starting quarterback.
11:582-1-6-4-7-4-0-0-92.
12:00So as Lima said, Lima said he loves this team.
12:02He didn't think he was going to love the team.
12:03He loves the team.
12:04Do you officially love the Browns again?
12:07Considering where we were, it is October 26th, August, I mean two months ago.
12:13Considering where we were then to where we are now, I don't think anybody could have seen this happening.
12:19I really don't.
12:20And it's fun.
12:23It's fun to see the coach get excited.
12:25It's fun to see the players excited.
12:27I don't think it's this stupid happy-go-lucky type of thought.
12:31I understand that the schedule does line up for us,
12:35but you still have three straight road games there.
12:37And then you have Houston, which is trying to be a surging team,
12:40even though it might be a little bit too late on their part.
12:42You got a lot of things that are going for you.
12:45And I came away, like, yes, the game against Baltimore was impressive,
12:48but, you know, you're favored for the first time all year.
12:54You go down to Tennessee.
12:56Again, it starts off so poorly.
12:58And then to kind of keep your resolve and to fight all the way through,
13:03to have a back-and-forth battle, and to win the game,
13:06a game that you were expected to win.
13:10I think that that was a big test for them yesterday, and they passed it.
13:13It's still a professional football team that you're playing against.
13:16There are still guys getting paid.
13:18It was still going to be a tougher matchup than what we wanted to believe.
13:22You weren't playing some high school team.
13:24It was still a bunch of pros.
13:25And you went down there, and you got yourself a win.
13:27It wasn't workmanlike.
13:28It wasn't lunch pail stuff.
13:30It was you went down there, and you found yourself a way to win.
13:33And any road game that you – any game that we win is going to be exciting still.
13:36Any road game you win is going to be really exciting.
13:39And the Browns went down there, and they got it yesterday.
13:41So after this start, 5-2, do you officially love the Cleveland Browns?
13:462-1-6-4-7-4-0-92.
13:48And, yes, the referendum on Deshaun Watson at 6-43 on the fan.
13:522-1-6-6-6-6-7-6-6-7-7-7-6-7-7-8-5-7-7-7
13:52-7-7-7-7-7-8-7-7.
13:522-1-7-7-7-7-7-7-7.
13:523-1-7-7-7-7-8-7-7-7-7-7-8-7-8-7-8-8-7-8
13:52-7-7-7.
