Brendan Gulick and Anthony Moeglin evaluate P.J. Walkers performance vs Seahawks.
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00:03 Well, hey, everybody.
00:10 Brendan Gulick and Anthony Meglin
00:12 with you with Browns Digest, part of the Sports Illustrated
00:15 Media Group here with Fan Nation.
00:17 Live in Seattle after the Browns wrap up,
00:19 certainly a disappointing afternoon, 24 to 20,
00:22 after the Seahawks scored with 38 seconds left
00:25 to take a victory away from the Cleveland Browns
00:28 and send Cleveland back home without a three-game win
00:31 streak.
00:32 Anthony, we're talking PJ Walker here for a moment.
00:35 And the reality is Cleveland is now
00:38 trying to evaluate how good they are.
00:41 And they have to do it without factoring
00:44 into the equation what Deshaun Watson's been
00:46 capable of these last few weeks.
00:48 Because the best ability is availability,
00:51 and Deshaun has not been out there.
00:52 And yet, Cleveland beat San Francisco,
00:54 and they beat Indianapolis with PJ Walker.
00:57 They were that close today to beating the Seattle
01:00 Seahawks on the road.
01:02 The question is, is PJ's magic running out?
01:06 And I think, actually, the answer to that
01:09 may still be up in the air.
01:11 But I thought PJ Walker probably played his best football
01:14 today.
01:15 For my perspective on that question--
01:17 and I agree with you, I thought he played very well today.
01:20 And I was excited about this.
01:21 We talked in the pregame.
01:22 I'm excited to see how he is.
01:24 Like, you get into that first week in San Francisco,
01:26 and there's a ton of question marks.
01:28 Like, who are you?
01:29 What is he?
01:30 The defense has no idea.
01:31 We have no idea.
01:32 The Browns, frankly, have no idea.
01:34 And he comes out, looks OK, does enough to get the win.
01:37 The Colts game was a shocker to everybody.
01:40 Deshaun gets hurt.
01:41 He gets thrown back in.
01:42 You're like, uh-oh, we just got to kind of survive.
01:44 This one, it was announced on Monday.
01:46 He was going to be the starter.
01:47 He had all week to prepare.
01:48 And it was, hey, we're now in week three.
01:51 Let's see how you kind of have progressed.
01:54 And honestly, my thought to the question,
01:57 is the magic kind of running out?
01:58 I think yes.
02:00 But the thing is, I think today he played actually
02:03 like an NFL quarterback.
02:05 Like, I wasn't surprised today when
02:08 he was making completions down the field
02:09 and he was leading drives.
02:11 And you weren't sitting on the edge of your seat like, oh,
02:13 gosh, we got to go 75 yards, and PJ's got to do it.
02:16 It got to the point during the game, it was like, OK,
02:18 he can do this, and he has the ability to do this.
02:22 And I thought-- I was impressed today.
02:23 I thought him and Kevin worked really well together.
02:26 I thought Kevin, an AVP, he called a great game,
02:29 going to his strengths.
02:30 And I thought he executed well.
02:33 And I think that he put the team--
02:35 he had the team right there.
02:36 He had the team right there in position
02:37 to kind of get the job done.
02:39 I agree with you that largely he competed really hard.
02:43 I loved his toughness, his willingness
02:45 on a couple of design quarterback runs
02:47 to put his head down and fight for an extra yard or two,
02:50 even if it had most of the Browns fans
02:53 holding their breath because of the injury situation
02:56 in that position room already.
02:59 But look, I mean, I'm not sitting here--
03:01 I don't want to sing his praises.
03:03 PJ's not the kind of quarterback you're trying
03:05 to build a franchise around.
03:07 But I don't think he's a full-blown liability.
03:11 I think he's done a really professional job.
03:13 He had a good week of preparation.
03:16 He acknowledged post-game that the fact
03:18 he knew he was starting the game on Monday
03:20 helped him lock in a little bit more as the week's gone along.
03:23 But these things are kind of stacking on each other for him.
03:26 And he is playing a little bit better.
03:28 Can he make every single throw in the route tree perfectly?
03:31 I don't know if I believe that.
03:33 But there were certainly some moments in the game today
03:35 where I thought to myself, like, man, this is a third and long.
03:39 This doesn't feel good.
03:41 And then he would drop a diamond to Omari Cooper
03:43 on the near sideline a couple of times in the first half.
03:45 And it was like, OK, well, game on.
03:48 Way to go be a gamer and make a play.
03:50 So I appreciated his competitiveness.
03:53 If Cleveland has to play with him against Arizona next week,
03:57 I wouldn't rule the Browns out of winning that game.
04:00 But I don't think he's the kind of quarterback that is going
04:02 to take it to the playoffs.
04:04 And I'm not sure that anybody truly believes that.
04:06 But in the locker room, they've got a lot of confidence
04:08 in him to keep on playing well.
04:10 And they should.
04:11 And the thing is, the truth of the matter
04:13 is he's got enough for this team especially to win games.
04:17 I think, obviously, it's been said enough.
04:19 This team's roster is awesome.
04:22 It's one of the better rosters in the league.
04:24 And if you get just decent quarterback play,
04:26 you're going to be in every game.
04:28 We've got to figure out the turnover problem.
04:30 Because, again, another game with three turnovers.
04:33 And two of them were his fault. With the first one,
04:37 the strip sack, we've had a couple of those now.
04:40 But this today was an empty set.
04:42 He knew there was pressure coming.
04:44 He even said it at the end of the game that he saw it.
04:46 He thought he could get the ball out quick enough.
04:48 And he should have adjusted protection.
04:51 And you know what?
04:51 That's a play there that led to points for the other team.
04:55 And it's one he's going to want back.
04:57 And then the interception to Njoku,
04:59 where you can watch that over and over again.
05:01 His eyes should have--
05:03 he should have dropped back.
05:04 And his eyes should have went, boom, right to David
05:06 and just dumped it down before even getting any pressure.
05:09 And then having to try to dish one out.
05:11 And he overshot it.
05:12 That one's a disappointing one.
05:14 Because you're in the red area.
05:15 You're in field goal range.
05:16 And I believe it was third down.
05:19 Because I was even thinking, no turnovers.
05:21 We have points in the bag.
05:23 But you turn it over there.
05:24 And frankly, if you get it to David,
05:26 the way Njoku was playing today, may have scored.
05:29 Because he was playing like a man possessed today.
05:32 And it was awesome to watch him.
05:33 But just those turnovers, they kill you.
05:36 They kill you.
05:37 And Cleveland's been playing with fire every single week,
05:40 losing the turnover battle.
05:41 And again, today, they lost it again.
05:43 And it bit them.
05:44 And it bit them in a tough way today.
05:47 Walker, 15 of 31, 248, a touchdown, two interceptions,
05:51 and the lost fumble.
05:53 I think if I had to grade him out,
05:55 I'd probably give him a C plus.
05:57 I thought he was fine.
05:58 I didn't think he was great.
06:01 But I thought he was plenty good enough
06:02 to give the team a chance.
06:05 And ultimately, you just want to have a shot.
06:07 You want to have a chance to win.
06:09 And he did not play well enough to help the Browns win the game.
06:16 But I'm not going to pin the loss on their shoulders,
06:18 either.
06:19 I apologize for some of the noise over my shoulder.
06:22 I thought he was OK.
06:24 And I appreciate how hard he competes.
06:28 And I'm certainly hopeful that if he's
06:30 got to go again next week, that he'll be ready to go
06:34 and give Cleveland a chance to play the Cardinals.
06:36 Yeah, no question about it.
06:37 And you can tell even that the team is starting
06:40 to rally around him.
06:41 They love playing for him.
06:42 They play hard for him.
06:43 You got Omari dropping that first one.
06:45 It was a bad drop.
06:46 And then he caught the rest of his balls.
06:48 He was in it.
06:49 The guys were in it.
06:50 They were making plays for him.
06:51 They had him.
06:52 And it just was one mistake too many.
06:54 And any quarterback's been there, frankly.
06:57 And if you clean that up, then you're
06:59 a guy who you can rely on to win football games.
07:02 Not just give your team hope, but give your team a chance
07:05 to win.
07:05 And clean those turnovers up, the Browns
07:07 will be in good shape with PJ at the helm.
07:09 Seattle 24, Cleveland 20 as the Browns fall to 4 and 3.
07:13 Seahawks are now 5 and 2.
07:15 Cleveland coming home to play the Arizona Cardinals
07:17 next weekend.
07:18 For Anthony Meglin, I'm Brendan Gulick.
07:20 See you real soon on BrownsDigest.com.
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