Instant Analysis Of The Browns 20-17 Comeback Win vs Bears
Instant Analysis Of The Browns 20-17 Comeback Win vs Bears
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00:00 Hello Browns fans. Spencer German coming to you live from Cleveland Browns Stadium after
00:14 a thrilling 20 to 17 win by the Cleveland Browns over the Chicago Bears. Yes I know
00:20 I look goofy with the big headphones. My other ones died but you know what. It doesn't matter
00:24 because the Browns got to win today and we got some good stuff to talk about because
00:28 next to me man this was one of those games and we'll hit on some specifics here in a
00:32 second but this was one of those games where we've talked about this before. Football is
00:39 such a weird sport man. You just never know what's going to happen. You play poorly for
00:44 basically three quarters on offense. It looks like the flacko fever is losing some of its
00:49 luster. The defense played great pretty much the entire game. They kept you in it. And
00:54 then in the final sort of stanza things here the fourth quarter the offense finally gets
00:59 in a rhythm and pulls this thing out and gets the win. Just one of those flukey games that
01:03 you can't you can't. Hollywood could have written a better script for. No you're dead
01:09 right and I can't speak for you but I know for me I got I don't know maybe 20 texts midway
01:13 through the game like flackos done flacko this flacko that. I'm seeing tweets that I
01:18 saw a tweet that was like flacko is marginally better than Dorian Thompson Robinson or something
01:23 like that and it's like holy cow. First of all our fan base does ride the wave a little
01:27 bit but that fourth quarter man you play 60 minutes that you know the coaches preach that
01:32 from the time you're in Peewee playing for whoever may be your dad and your uncle right
01:36 they're preaching that you play the whole game and it goes all the way up into the pros
01:41 and you even heard flacko in the in the in the postgame he's like people are congratulating
01:45 us on the sidelines you can't celebrate until that clock hits triple zero. And the way that
01:50 they respond in the fourth quarter I mean Joe flacko like we're going to talk about
01:53 him tonight and the rest of the week but fourth quarter eleven of thirteen two hundred twelve
01:58 yards. Yeah. Are you kidding me. Are you serious. That's what he did. Insane. I was on the record
02:06 this week saying that if flacko takes his team to the playoffs he would be like an instant
02:11 legend in this town. Well he's one step closer to that with the win today because the Browns
02:15 go to nine to five chance to clinch a playoff. I shouldn't say a chance because if they win
02:19 next week I don't think they clinch. They need some other things to kind of happen.
02:23 We'll get obviously with the playoffs scenarios are as we kind of progress this year and as
02:27 some of these other games play themselves out but it'll be a big one against Houston
02:30 next week. But yeah like he's he has cemented himself I think especially with the win today
02:35 just what he did in the fourth quarter as one of those just amazing Brown stories that
02:40 fans remember forever especially assuming that this thing is going to end in a in a
02:45 trip to the playoffs. Yeah I mean he was just spectacular and it's
02:48 so funny to watch like for the past five years now we've been obviously trying to find the
02:53 solution at quarterback and not saying he's a long term solution but when he stands back
02:58 there it's just different right. It's like hey you always feel it's like you know you
03:02 just feel like you're never out of it right. If he's playing poorly like he was in the
03:06 first half and he was playing poorly like two picks were his like two of those interceptions
03:11 were his fault. Obviously one wasn't but like he wasn't playing well but it's like he even
03:15 said it like you just keep going. It's never about the play that happened before whether
03:19 it's good or bad. It's always about that next play and how you can continue to push the
03:23 team forward and he's been in every type of situation. He's lost on play like like what
03:29 we almost lost on his one on them. He's been in close games been in blowouts. He's seen
03:33 it all and he's exactly what this team needs and where they're at right now. I feel very
03:39 similar about it like he came and joined this team at the right time as they're trying to
03:42 make a playoff run. His story continues to be remarkable. We got to talk about the defensive
03:45 side of the ball though as well. Just phenomenal today even given the sheer. I mean Megs this
03:52 is a week that started with more bad news on the injury front. We find out J. Wills
03:56 is coming off the I.R. I was that's an offensive guy. You get the news that Grant Delpit could
04:01 be on the I.R. He does end up on the I.R. Maurice Hearst is done for the season. Oboe
04:06 Okuwokwu we don't know if he's done for the season just yet but sort of the winds are
04:11 blowing that direction. It sounds like they're waiting for confirmation but he obviously
04:14 wasn't available today because of the pec injury and the defense didn't miss a beat.
04:19 I kind of had to remind myself pregame like as bad as some of those injuries were going
04:23 to hurt this team and this defense. The one thing that was a silver lining to all of it
04:28 is like OK you're starting front line is still intact. Still got down with Thomas and you
04:32 still got to Darius Smith. You still got Miles Garrett. You still got Shelby Harris and Jordan
04:36 Elliott who played today despite the being in the concussion protocol all week.
04:40 So I mean you had still those guys were wreaking havoc today. They made some really good plays.
04:44 I thought Devin Tomlinson was phenomenal in his own right and hats off as well to the
04:51 guys in the secondary because no grant dealt but no one Thornhill I thought Ronnie Hickman
04:55 playing as a rookie. He had some moments. I thought the Anthony Bell almost made me
05:00 forget that grant up but even played for this team. No offense to grant up but he's a great
05:04 player and obviously we're glad to see that he got the extension to stay here in Cleveland.
05:07 But I mean he was making some grant dealt but dealt it like plays in this game. Yeah
05:12 I was just going to say let's focus right now specifically on that secondary. OK you
05:16 come in DJ Morris is averaging 100 yards a game right. They don't have a great passing
05:20 attack but DJ Morris is big play threat and you're down your entire safety room right.
05:25 You're starting Ronnie Hickman undrafted free agent the Anthony Bell a second year guy at
05:29 a West Florida University and then Duran Harmon who is now you signed him this week to the
05:35 50 53 man roster. This guy's in his 11th year. He's been great but he hasn't played all year.
05:40 Last time he played was early early November for the Chicago Bears. So you have this group
05:44 of in the secondary like oh like if we can't if things start to break down like you got
05:49 a really young group and they responded awesome. The cornerback room responded unbelievably.
05:55 Greg Newsome we're going to watch it and we'll watch it this week. He was a rock star today.
06:00 He was everywhere he needed to be. They were early. It almost feels like since that Denver
06:05 game where he struggled especially against court and the Courtland Sutton he's been like
06:08 on a mission to prove that that game was almost like a cosmic fluke like it was never going
06:13 to happen again. He's been phenomenal last couple weeks and he was very good again today.
06:17 I agree. And you could see it right away. First two drives they tested him vertically.
06:21 There was two deep throws that were right at Greg Newsome and he was right there in
06:25 the right spot. He almost had a pick six which would have been great. He dropped it but like
06:29 there was so much to love about that secondary and then hey Cam Mitchell fifth round pick
06:34 out of Northwestern has been on IR for the last month. OK. Comes in makes the play of
06:38 the game makes the play of the game say pretty much saves the game at the end of the third
06:42 quarter. I mean that's secondary. There's not enough good things to say about how they
06:45 played today and they need to get their credit for it. We'll be doing a few more videos where
06:50 we will talk about the defense specifically that cam Cameron Mitchell play. I mean there's
06:54 a case we made that that play save save the game for Cleveland. So I'm curious to dissect
07:00 that with you a little bit more there. We started with the positive. There was some
07:03 negatives today I think as well Anthony you had the offensive line losing Joel Batonio
07:09 early which Kevin Stefanski said after the game that it sounds like that was something
07:13 he tweaked pregame and he tried to give it a go and then just kind of after the first
07:19 series there he was like I'm not going to be able to do this. So we don't know the severity
07:23 of that. Obviously we'll find out more from Kevin Stefanski on Monday on that front. Michael
07:27 Ford did leave this game as well. He never returned. I don't know the severity of his
07:32 injury so we'll wait for sort of updates on that. But without Joel Batonio to go back
07:35 to the offensive line here that group struggled today which is probably part of the reason
07:41 why it took Flacco so long to get going. He was running for his life. He was in he was
07:45 under constant pressure. Montez Sweat was just absolutely owning James Hudson a couple
07:51 times and I don't mean to be disrespectful to James Hudson but Browns fans have seen
07:55 him struggle with some of these elite pass rushers before and he did so today. There's
07:59 a couple of plays the weird sort of Flacco trying to it almost like he tried to shovel
08:03 the ball out of bounds and he fumbled it. Jaron Christian got shoved right back into
08:09 him on that play. He was basically on skates. So even the guys in the ends who had kind
08:13 of held their own in place of Jedrick Wills and DeJuan Jones and Jack Conklin they struggled
08:18 today but yeah without Joe Batonio that that group was leaking from pretty much anywhere
08:23 across it was it was not pretty. It was the first time all year that the injuries that
08:28 we have sustained at this point were evident. Like it was for we've been able to mask him
08:33 and Kevin Stefanski and Alex Van Pelt on the offensive side specifically have been able
08:37 to mask all those injuries and like hey just kind of fill in spots and you cover this guy
08:41 cover this guy. It was too much today like you can't there's nothing you can do when
08:45 you got four not even backup linemen play like third and fourth string guys playing.
08:50 It's like really really challenging and it was evident today like even and then Wyatt
08:54 Teller's your last one remaining and like he's just getting teed off on because these
08:58 guys are running stunts and games and like they're either getting crushed inside. It
09:01 was really it's amazing that they won the football game because that was going to be
09:06 the story had they not like it was very nerve wracking before things started going our way
09:11 like hey you got to find two wins in these last three games with like a patchwork offensive
09:18 line that's like you know it just beat up and it was very evident for the first time
09:23 all year and it was it's kind of like oh this is what we got going forward. Yeah that was
09:29 definitely alarming and even in the wind it's going to be something that we talk about this
09:33 week of course because you got some tough opponents coming up especially that Jets game
09:37 where they have a very very good defense. Yep. Maybe maybe not Aaron Rodgers ends up
09:41 playing we'll see that's a conversation for another day. But yeah I think that's going
09:46 to be a problem. I think you saw the run game the run game struggled all day Flacco was
09:51 under duress all day. I don't know how that's going to affect things moving forward but
09:55 obviously it's not a good it's not a good feeling. It's a good feeling that you get
10:00 the win even despite that. But moving forward that is obviously going to be a concern for
10:04 this team for sure. Yeah. And what one other thing too on the last I guess negative note
10:08 they got to figure out the run game like you don't you've gotten three straight weeks of
10:13 Flacco thrown at 44 plus times. If I were if we were to ask Kevin Stefanski what his
10:18 ideal number would be for throws it wouldn't be that you know he's going to be one he wants
10:23 to be more balanced. I kind of disagree. I feel like I feel like the fans he loves slinging
10:27 it. Yeah. Well here's the way I look at it. Like I think about it like this. It like Jerome
10:33 Ford he's had some good games he's had some bad games it's been kind of hit or miss at
10:35 times. I kind of feel like at times the fans he just goes with what he trusts. And right
10:40 now I think he feels like he can trust Flacco more than he can trust his run game and his
10:44 running backs. So that's what he's riding and it's working. He's got a couple wins out
10:48 of it now in a row. And so I think they're going to kind of just keep riding that for
10:52 the most part until it basically doesn't work. I would also add to that exact point. Not
10:58 only does he trust Flacco with it but he trusts David Njoku and Amari Cooper and you know
11:04 Cedric Tillman now is getting an increased role and he's going to have to kind of step
11:07 up some things but like he had a bunch of targets today and even Elijah Moore had a
11:10 couple critical catches. So it's like hey you trust that side of that part of the game
11:15 a little bit more than the run game right now. But hey at this point in the year it
11:18 doesn't matter. Like it just doesn't matter how you get it done. It just matters that
11:22 you get it done. And that's that's that's the special part about this team is they just
11:26 keep finding different ways to get it. You brought him up real quick so we'll sort of
11:30 wrap with this and then talk quickly just about the what lies ahead for the Browns the
11:33 potential playoff picture. But Cedric Tillman the one interception goes right off his hands.
11:40 It looks like the first interception was also potentially his fault. It looked like there
11:45 was clearly a miscommunication there because Flacco threw it to a spot and Tillman was
11:49 going deep. And then obviously we know the third interception was totally on Flacco.
11:54 But what did you see on those plays. And here's the thing with Tillman like he had some really
11:59 good moments today and he's had that in his first couple of games here that he's been
12:02 more prominent since DPJ got traded. But he's also had some moments where you're like yeah
12:07 this guy's clearly a rookie. Yeah clearly a rookie. And that's the thing too. Some of
12:11 the things you see and I think that that interception the first one that was returned to the one
12:15 yard line is a perfect like teaching moment for him for a young rookie because the way
12:20 I see it and there's going to be some drawings you'll see on Twitter tonight where people
12:23 are kind of dissecting that play is they had like what's called a bender route where if
12:26 you get too high safety he's supposed to like bend it in and like Flacco's like hey dude
12:30 I've seen this coverage 300 million times in my career. It's clearly two. And for Tillman
12:35 it's like I've seen it 22 times you know or whatever you know so he didn't really see
12:39 it and it's an important play and Flacco's throwing it on time whereas he doesn't really
12:43 make the bend. The second one I'll I disagree with with you there. That one's all on Flacco's.
12:48 You'll see it. He missed him like a little bit inside and just he got thumped like and
12:52 it was all like like Tom Brady talks about like quarterbacks need to be held responsible
12:57 for getting guys blown up. It was one of those where he just put him in a terrible spot and
13:01 he just got blasted. But all those things are like learning learning points for first
13:06 ever Tillman who you know he's going to continue to get better. Look at that. You got a little
13:09 preview of our brownie breakdown for this week talking about the interceptions in the
13:13 Cedric Tillman stuff. So stay tuned for that obviously coming up on Tuesday or Wednesday
13:18 this week. But in the meantime guys a big win for the Browns. Like I said nine and five
13:22 now on the season. The highs of this game defense being fantastic basically only given
13:28 up three points in the second half. Here's another note real quick that I didn't hit
13:32 on because I wrote a story about this during the week. The Browns have now given up one
13:37 hundred and eleven points off of turnovers alone and that's like either it directly leads
13:43 to a turn a touchdown off or points off of the turnover or the team scores after they
13:50 get a turnover. So that's something that's been an issue for them all season. If they
13:53 could clean that up you wonder if the record would even be even be even better and if they'd
13:58 actually have a shot maybe at the AFC North. So we'll see. But they do have a shot at the
14:01 playoffs next week on the road in Houston. Christmas Eve you might have an early Christmas
14:07 present at the Browns get you a win and improve to 10 and five in the season and get one step
14:11 closer to clicking that play up for it for the first time since 2020. We got plenty more
14:15 to come. Be sure to follow along over the Browns digest YouTube channel. We're gonna
14:19 be talking about Joe Flacco more. We're gonna be talking about the defense some more and
14:23 some other other notes that we got to get to. We certainly didn't give enough love to
14:26 David to Joe who who had 10 catches for one hundred four yards and a touchdown today.
14:35 We're gonna do that though in another episode. So keep it locked. Keep on following along
14:38 and as always follow along with everything we're doing covering the Cleveland Browns
14:41 over a brown digest dot com.
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