Spencer German and Anthony Moeglin talk postgame on the Browns Offensive Line and Joe Flacco against the Bears.
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00:00 Welcome back guys Spencer German Anthony Maglin as we continue recapping the Browns 20 to
00:12 17 win over the Chicago Bears. It wasn't pretty at all times. Offense certainly was a slog
00:19 in the first half to a flack. Oh he threw three picks. It was not the not his best performance
00:24 to say the least. It was looking kind of like Jets Joe Flacco and then all of a sudden Anthony
00:28 in the fourth quarter something clicked and he started rolling. I'm less worried about
00:35 his overall numbers right now because I think he was like 17 or 31. He had like 100 and
00:40 something yards and the three picks going into the fourth quarter and then in the fourth
00:46 quarter he was 11 13 212 yards had a touchdown. I mean God was lights out. It was it was very
00:54 reminiscent of Deshaun Watson in the second half of that Ravens game where he just couldn't
00:58 miss. He was hitting his guys in stride. He was making a lot of plays and ultimately he
01:02 ends up being one of the big reasons why the Browns win this game despite his struggles
01:06 early on in it. Timely man it was it was a special performance to watch. It truly was
01:11 like we it's rare you see a guy get off so slow and like especially with what we've seen
01:17 in the past especially with young guys and they don't they don't shake it. But with these
01:21 veteran dudes they're like hey you need to stop me for 60 minutes and I don't care if
01:25 I had done my best stuff in the first three quarters I didn't. But in the fourth quarter
01:29 I still have 15 minutes left to change this game and the Browns offense was their backs
01:33 were against the wall and they needed to go and when they went it was it was special man
01:38 two hundred twelve yards in one quarter is out of control. Yeah. And I mean he said after
01:45 the game you know somebody asked him first question how do you process throwing three
01:50 interceptions playing the way you were to just kind of be able to rally and stay focused
01:55 and then have that fourth quarter that you had. And he you know he admitted it like hey
01:59 I'm human. You know at times you want to go crop in a ball and just go hide the hole somewhere
02:05 but you just got to stick with it. And it felt like that. That's such a simple way to
02:08 look at it. But you know it felt like that was kind of the case early on. He was facing
02:13 a lot of pressure all day. We'll get to the offensive line just how banged up that group
02:17 is. But he kind of started to figure it out. He started to kind of figure out like OK I
02:22 got to speed up my clock a little bit. I got to get rid of the ball quicker. I think Kevin
02:25 Stefanski once again called a great game for him made the throws easy got guys open and
02:31 then he was making the right throws and reads as they mounted that comeback. But a 13 point
02:35 fourth quarter to then come back from down 10 points and win the game. That's pretty
02:42 much the story of the game. Like people had their stories written at the end of the third
02:45 like well Browns lose that they're going to be sort of playing with fire here down the
02:49 stretch of the season. And Joe Flacco had other plans. And it was also the storyline
02:53 was also Joe Flacco. It was a flash in the pan right. He had two good games. Looks good.
02:58 And now the Browns are they going to go back to DTR. What's the story going to be you know
03:03 coming off his bad performance. And instead he just stuck with it man. And that was most
03:07 impressive part. And it felt like that first throw out in the fourth quarter obviously
03:12 the Marquis Goodwin that just bombed that beautiful float and throw down the field.
03:16 And it was like OK I can still do this right. It's this is this is easy. Let's just let's
03:21 just do what I got to do. Find the open guy and deliver the football. And you know the
03:25 one thing that's insane about Joe Flacco is his arm strength. Like there's a couple throws
03:31 that stand out. He threw a cut. He threw a curl route early in the game to Cedric Tillman
03:35 that was no less than 80 miles an hour. Like he was just totally ripped and like his ability
03:40 to throw the ball. He's got every throw in the book that you would ever need. And it
03:45 just when that matches up and you can mentally get through a tough start to finish the way
03:49 he did just an all time special performance like a career performance. He threw for 374
03:55 yards and 212 of them came in 15 minutes like that is that's a special special day. I've
04:00 been saying that if Flacco takes his team to playoffs he will be one of these iconic
04:05 instant Browns fans legends where like he can go anywhere in the city of Cleveland and
04:10 we'll never have to pay for a beer pay for food whatever. Where do you think he fits
04:14 in on that chart I guess or that that spectrum if you want to call it that after today because
04:19 they didn't clinch a playoff berth. There's still some way there's still ways to go with
04:23 that. They got they got to get at least one more win. And even if they win next week I
04:26 don't think they formally clinch it depending on what happens. But where does he kind of
04:32 fit you think on this legendary status as he continues this remarkable story that's
04:36 got everybody feeling Flacco fever.
04:38 Right. He's no longer the enemy anymore that's for sure. Like I mean for the last 10 years
04:43 though he's lost to the Browns three times you know and he's just totally killed us throughout
04:48 his whole career and it's just such a bizarre we're in such a bizarre world right now where
04:51 it's like Joe Flacco is the Browns quarterback and now he's two and one as the Browns quarterback
04:56 and he he has us touching the playoffs like we're reaching for it we're so close if he
05:02 can get us this team to the playoffs and you know frankly Spence like we'll see how we're
05:07 recording this two hours before Sunday night football so we'll see we probably won't be
05:10 able to get the North you know but this Browns team is not going to be one teams want to
05:15 face like if it's Jacksonville having to face Cleveland in the first round of the playoffs
05:19 or if it's even Kansas City they're vulnerable like the no one want to face this Cleveland
05:23 Browns team because guess what Joe Flacco has been to the Super Bowl and he's the Super
05:28 Bowl MVP like he knows how to do this like and he can get it done. This is a special
05:32 run right now that he's got these Browns on.
05:35 It's a special run for him a special run for the team and you're right I think you make
05:38 the playoffs with this team. They're going to be one of those teams that nobody wants
05:41 to face because part of the reason I think is obviously because the defense is so good
05:46 they obviously were fantastic today giving up just three points in the fourth quarter
05:50 or in the second half altogether and then pitching the shutout in the fourth quarter.
05:54 But just the fact that you like they they're just resilient and they muck the game up and
06:02 they win these weird ways like nobody wants to be part of a game like that come playoff
06:06 time. They want to know that they kind of can control things they have a good game plan
06:10 set and the Browns kind of screw with that. I think Flacco has obviously been a huge part
06:14 of that as well. You know it's funny before we'll get to the O-line here in a second I
06:18 was at the Cleveland Orchestra Christmas concert last night with my wife and they did this
06:23 whole bit where like Santa comes out they ask Santa questions and one of the questions
06:27 from like a kid on these pieces of paper that they had was Santa can you keep Joe Flacco
06:31 healthy for the rest of the season.
06:34 Which I think summed up pretty much where Browns fans are at at this point like yeah
06:38 they just want to see this guy keep doing what he's doing and stay healthy because there's
06:42 dealt with enough injuries on this team and they've dealt with enough change at that position.
06:46 The fact that he went from three of the worst quarters through obviously the three worst
06:50 quarters he's played with the Browns but also maybe three of the worst quarters of his career
06:54 to then doing what he did in the fourth quarter lead the team to victory. It's just the next
06:57 chapter of his story. It's been it's been awesome.
06:59 In the micro sense of looking at Joe Flacco from just today like the Bears defense since
07:05 week nine is a top five defense in the NFL and you saw that they have pieces on that
07:10 defense. They're not just the lowly Bears who had the one pick last year and trying
07:13 to figure out Justin Fields like yes they have problems but the defense isn't any of
07:18 those issues like they're a legit defensive line. Their linebackers are great and their
07:22 secondary is awesome. Like this is defense is playing very good and since week nine they've
07:27 been given up just about 220 yards passing per game. Flacco did that one quarter like
07:32 one quarter. He has that he has that like switch where it's like hey once we start feeling
07:37 it like these receivers stay in it all game long stay in it stay in it and then once Joe
07:41 goes like hey we can we can really pop the top off of any defense like we did today.
07:46 Well this feels like the right place to segue to the offensive line because they were objectively
07:50 not good today and I don't I'm not trying to call any individual players as like it
07:54 was all on you was on you but there were some bad performances. No middle of the offensive
07:58 line had some issues without Ethan Postak out there. We know Joel Petoneo left the game
08:03 with a back injury very early on which was something Kevin Stefanski said he tweaked
08:07 pregame and then couldn't really get through that first series. And then Jaron Christian
08:13 and on the other side James Hudson they were having some issues with Montez Sweat and other
08:17 guys off the edge that you know they were getting pushed back into Flacco.
08:21 They were just getting completely out late. It was not a pretty day for that group. And
08:25 I guess Anthony how big of a concern. Listen you escape with a win today. You put it behind
08:31 you and you move on and you just deal with it. But going forward how big of a concern
08:36 is that group going to be you think as this team tries to lock up that playoff run.
08:40 Yeah it's a massive concern because this was today was the first day that there the evidence
08:46 of injuries or the injuries were evident like we've been able to cover it up like you've
08:51 been able to kind of cover up Nick Chubb's injury just with a group of running backs
08:55 and Deshaun Watson's injury with a group of quarterbacks and every injury we've gotten
09:00 the offense has been able to kind of cover it up. But when you're down four out of your
09:03 five offensive linemen like that's that is hard to do and it's not even you're on backups
09:08 you're on fourth strings fifth strings like these guys are really hodgepodge together
09:13 and it's really challenging and midway through that you know start of the fourth quarter
09:16 you're like okay this is a loss now we have to find two wins in Houston New York and in
09:22 Cincinnati and you're like even New York with their defense like I don't know we can't even
09:27 stand back there and throw you know so then like that game becomes into question so it's
09:31 like not only was this win huge but it's like that is very concerning because there's only
09:36 so much you can do to protect both edges and both interior like you just can't there's
09:40 not enough guys. Yeah. So that part's really really a head scratcher right now.
09:44 We continue asking the question you know what what injury would would be enough to kind
09:49 of do things in here. And I think you're right like this was the first time you're starting
09:52 to see that on display like Joel Batonio being the guy who goes out that felt like it was
09:57 maybe a little bit too much for them to handle. Maybe the tackles were sort of destined to
10:01 have a bad game anyway because this defense is so good. But yeah like there's that it's
10:06 going to be a serious problem and you're right like I think it makes this win that much bigger
10:10 and that much more magnified because you kind of escaped with this one and now you're in
10:14 the driver's seat with three games to go if you get one you're almost guaranteed to be
10:18 in. So you got to kind of keep the patchwork going and find a way. But I am concerned about
10:24 that group moving forward to your point. Yeah. If there's two guys that can that can figure
10:28 it out it's Bill Callahan it's Kevin Stefanski like they're going to they're going to put
10:32 the best foot their best foot forward and there is one thing I agreed with listening
10:36 to Mark Sanchez talk about this game you know on the as the color commentator just one just
10:41 one thing and he was like that when you have a defense that is of the caliber of the Cleveland
10:46 Browns that is one thing that can cover up everything on offense like yeah we'll get
10:51 to the defense here in more detail but like it doesn't really the defense held this game
10:58 together and they truly did throughout the entire game interception strip sacks dead
11:03 drives on offense like the defense kept it all together and when that defense is playing
11:07 well you know what you know they they're going to be in every single game regardless if it's
11:12 me and you playing left and right tackle you know so yeah I hope it doesn't get to that
11:16 point though. No doubt about it. Big win for the Browns 20 to 17. We have an escape an
11:22 escape of a win but hey you'll take him anyway you can get him that's kind of been the mantra
11:26 all season as they take down the Bears 20 to 17 9 and 5 now in the season and on the
11:30 brink of clinching a playoff berth. We're going to be back with more coverage wrapping
11:35 up the Browns versus Bears win over at Browns Digest the Browns Digest YouTube page. You
11:40 can also follow along with all things Cleveland Browns over at Browns Digest dot com.
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