00:00Two teams with question marks on offense going at it on Sunday.
00:05First of all, I know you're surprised.
00:08I'm surprised.
00:10Let's be honest.
00:11Any Browns fan who's not surprised that the Browns, after seven weeks,
00:16are 5-2 and sitting in first place, they're lying to you.
00:19Oh, for sure.
00:20They're lying to you.
00:22Are the Browns players, coaches, staff, are they surprised?
00:28Maybe, but they won't admit it to you.
00:30But they're 5-2, despite some real growing pains with this team,
00:35which you would expect.
00:36But they're 5-2, Andy.
00:38Is week one the best thing that ever happened to this team?
00:41No.
00:41I don't think it is either, but was it an eye-opener?
00:43Was it something that made these guys wake up and go,
00:47oh, man, this isn't, oh, boy, this is bad.
00:51I don't think so.
00:53It might be the best thing that ever happened to the defense.
00:56Okay.
00:56Because Mike Rutenberg kind of took a look at things and adjusted things
01:01and thought, let's get after it a little bit more.
01:03Maybe that's the case.
01:05But it's a flawed football team.
01:07You had a quarterback coming back from two years of inactivity
01:12and who had never clicked here
01:14and still isn't playing great football until you get to the fourth quarter,
01:20until you get to winning time.
01:22But it's still a flawed football team.
01:25A lot of young guys on offense, a lot of guys still trying to find it,
01:28but they've done a terrific job of doing that, and they sit at 5-2.
01:33Then you have the Pittsburgh Steelers.
01:36How long did they wait until they decided, until Aaron Rodgers decided,
01:40yeah, I think I'll play again?
01:41It was like, you know, wasn't it the day before the start of the season?
01:44Yeah.
01:45That he decided to finally come back.
01:48Has he earned that right, probably?
01:52It seems to me that when he's calling the plays,
01:55or he's changing the plays, that things are working better.
01:59Or he's yelling at Mike McCarthy and Mike's calling him names.
02:02And they're just used to it.
02:03I guess that's kind of the toxic relationship they have.
02:05I guess it is.
02:06But that toxic relationship has made them 5-2.
02:08You know, you said last week, did you call last week's game
02:13that this makes them legit?
02:15Yeah.
02:15I'm trying to remember, this game makes them.
02:17No, I honestly think it was last week.
02:20I think it's this week.
02:21Well, this week you could lose this game, and people won't even bat an eye.
02:26No, but if you win, you're going to earn a lot of respect.
02:29Well, if you win, you're 6-2, and you're silly.
02:33You have two wins over 500 teams, one 3-3 team.
02:39And if you go into this week, and again, part of it's a little bit of rivalry.
02:44I mean, for us, at least, on our side of it, Pittsburgh still thinks Baltimore is their rival.
02:48But if you've got to beat them a couple times, it's changed their mind.
02:50That's all there is to it.
02:52Baltimore is still their rival.
02:53What are we looking at?
02:5488 was the last time the Browns swept the series against them?
02:59I thought I heard that yesterday or two days ago.
03:0188?
03:01Like, it's been that long since they've gone 2-0 against the Steelers?
03:04They've been silly bad against the Steelers.
03:06Yeah.
03:07Especially in Pittsburgh.
03:08And that's, like, last 50 years, it feels like that's what we've gone through.
03:13So, if you ask me, I think this week carries more weight than last week did.
03:17If they go out and win, look, the offense, and we've heard Todd Munkin say it before,
03:23he doesn't think it's a construction area.
03:26Nobody says it's a construction zone when it comes to this team and getting better.
03:29I think the offense is getting better every week.
03:31I think we see things that make me think they're improving.
03:34So, now they need to start getting up to speed.
03:37I mean, they might need to do a little bit of passing in the speed lane
03:40to make everybody else believe them that they are legit.
03:43This week is a much more street-cred-worthy game than last week.
03:51I'll disagree with that.
03:51I'll say it for this reason.
03:53Okay.
03:54If you had gone to Tennessee and lost, you would have lost all your street cred.
03:59It would have been over.
04:01Now, it didn't mean your season was over, but it would have been like, okay.
04:05So, they lose in New York to a Jets team that's not very good,
04:09and they lose in Tennessee to a Titans team that's not good at all.
04:12Okay.
04:13Well, the Browns aren't quite there, but somehow they managed to win some games.
04:16Okay.
04:17You went to Tennessee and you took care of business.
04:19You had to struggle to do it, but you did it.
04:22If you go to Pittsburgh and win, I give you –
04:25You're for real.
04:26No, I give you credit.
04:27That would be like, boy, that's real serious.
04:29You're 6-2.
04:30You can lose that game in Pittsburgh, and you're not going to lose your street cred.
04:35The losing factor last week, I agree with you, would have been somewhat devastating.
04:40If you lose this week, it's not the end of the world.
04:42I think we're both right.
04:43Yeah.
04:44I think if you win this week, though, I think the rest of the league respects you.
04:48Like, Mike Florio seems to be the only guy that actually respects the Browns a little bit.
04:52But when you look at some of the things that –
04:55And by the way, Mike hasn't traditionally been that guy.
04:58So, I think if they win this week, it changes the national narrative on this team.
05:05After all, remember, they kicked the tires on making this Sunday night football for this week.
05:09And it just didn't come to fruition.
05:12So, if they can beat the Steelers this week, I think a win over the Steelers this week means way
05:18more than last week's win.
05:19Last week, you were supposed to win last week.
05:22I don't know that everybody thinks you're supposed to win this week.
05:24Last week, I thought if you lose that game, you lose it.
05:27You lose your street cred.
05:28If you win this week, I think you gain more.
05:32Do you know what I mean?
05:33Now we're on the same page.
05:34Yeah.
05:34Now we're both on the same page.
05:35But, you know, winning against Tennessee didn't make you legit.
05:42Losing would have thrown it out the window.
05:43Yes.
05:44And it didn't mean your season was over.
05:46It didn't mean you couldn't do big things.
05:48But it would have been like, okay, there you go.
05:50But you go to Pittsburgh and lose, it's not a big deal.
05:53You go to Pittsburgh and win, it's a big deal, Andy.
05:56Yeah.
05:57And the Bronzer underdogs coming into the same page.
05:59I think the Steelers are in a strange place.
06:02You know, because we look at Aaron Rodgers, and Aaron has said, now, Aaron has said a lot
06:07of things over his career, and he's a very interesting guy.
06:10And I'll be perfectly honest, even now, I love watching that guy play quarterback.
06:16He's one of my favorite quarterbacks of all time, the way he plays the game.
06:20I think he's been terrific during his career.
06:24When he was in Green Bay, he was unbelievable.
06:27He's not unbelievable anymore, but he's still fun to watch, I think.
06:34And they've, I think it's a weird Steelers spot.
06:38You don't have Tomlin.
06:41You know, you don't have Cower.
06:42You've got a guy who's not the typical Steeler coach, and the typical Steeler coach is you
06:48hire a young guy, and you let him sit there for 15 years.
06:51You know, that goes back to the 60s with Chuck Knoll.
06:54Right.
06:54This is Mike McCarthy, who is a Pittsburgh native and comes back after having a good
07:01run in Green Bay, after having a good run in Dallas, a run in Dallas that has people
07:06in Dallas wondering, why did we ever fire Mike McCarthy?
07:11And he's here now.
07:13You know he's not out of the Tomlin Cower mold.
07:16He's not going to be there 15, 20 years.
07:19And you've got a quarterback who says he's done with no true, real heir apparent on the
07:26roster.
07:27It's just a weird spot to me for the Steelers to be in, and not a typical spot for the
07:32Steelers
07:32to be in.
07:34It's more like the rest of the NFL than it is the Pittsburgh Steelers.
07:39All right, well, veteran quarterback, du jour, and veteran coach who we hired, rather than
07:44the Steeler way, Mike Tomlin, there's Ben Roethlisberger.
07:50This makes me wonder, like you talk about where the Steelers are, size up, I know we
07:55talked about this for a second yesterday, but size up the AFC North.
07:58If you ask me what is the AFC North, I kind of think when it's all said and done, it's
08:02going to be the Bengals.
08:03The last two weeks have really, like, that Bengals offense has been on all cylinders.
08:09Well, 60 plus points, I mean.
08:11Well, but they didn't score a point in the first half last week.
08:14Does it matter?
08:15Yeah, a little bit.
08:16I mean, 30, would they end up at 35 on Sunday?
08:18Yeah, they scored on five straight possessions.
08:21That was phenomenal.
08:23Against a Ravens team that doesn't do that.
08:25I kind of feel like it's Cincinnati, maybe the Browns?
08:31See, that's...
08:32Pittsburgh, and I can't believe I'm saying Baltimore four, but...
08:35No, I don't know about that.
08:36I don't think Baltimore's four.
08:37It's hard for me to say that.
08:39I think we're so used to saying Browns four, too, that it's a hard pill.
08:43Size it up.
08:43Give me your top four, then.
08:44Go.
08:45One, two, three, four.
08:45My top four, they're all about the same.
08:49I mean, seriously.
08:50You think that all four teams are similar?
08:52Yeah.
08:52Okay.
08:53At this point, I honestly can't tell you who the best team is.
08:59I can tell you who I think the best team is.
09:01I think it's Cincinnati.
09:03Cincinnati, their defense is a little improved, and I think it's Cincinnati, but I can't give
09:12you any confident real thought on that, and then I think it's next, I would probably pick
09:19Baltimore, but those aren't the teams in first place right now, and the Browns and Steelers,
09:26I think, though they're five and two, I think you're the team still with some things to show,
09:31and the team that wins this game on Sunday will go a long way in doing that.
09:36Number to join us, 216-474-0092.
09:39Can you wrap your head around Browns and Steelers, both with flaws, but playing for first place
09:47in the AFC North coming up on Sunday, and the team that wins this game coming up on Sunday
09:54goes to six and two.
09:56That means you're almost halfway through the season, and you go under .500 the rest of
10:02the way, and you can still make the playoffs.
10:06Big day right here on Basket and Phelps.
10:08Florio at 11, Deshaun Watson in the 11 o'clock hour, Todd Monk in right after noon, Chris Rose
10:13at 1 o'clock.
10:15Great day to be on the fan.
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