Why Deshaun Watson Deserves to Start for the Browns in Week 3

The Cleveland Browns had every storyline stacked against them on the road, and Rich could not think of a bigger road victory.

Consider the setup as Rich described it. All the talk about Deshaun Watson. All the talk that "the Browns are going to Brown." Baker Mayfield, coming off a Week 1 disappointment after signing a big contract, loving the idea of planting a flag on Cleveland and sending Watson back home to face fans who don't want him. Todd Monken insisting that he chooses the players and the players play.

Then the Browns went in and took a lead. They sat through a weather delay with two minutes to go that felt like 19 hours, with Mayfield holding the ball and driving. They survived it, got Mayfield off the field, and won. Watson is a winning starter for the first time in two years.

Before getting to Watson, though, Rich wanted to talk about the head coach. "This coach, he pushes chips to the center of the table," Rich said. He acknowledged plenty of Browns fans had wondered why the team hired Monken. The show had its crack staff cut the full postgame sound bite, since Rich felt it had been chopped down on social media, and it was worth hearing in its entirety.

"Ultimately, we're judged by wins and losses as coaches, and we're judged how we play on the field," Monken said. "It's not the name on the back." A player's name on the back, he explained, is based on how he plays on the field, "not their history, not what they've done in the past. It's what you do every week."

Then came the part that made the rounds. "We had a couple scuffles Wednesday, which is good. That's awesome," Monken said. "Cuz guys didn't like it, right? They're a little pissed off, right? You got to be a little pissed off. Played awful. It wasn't the standard. Browns are going to Browns. That. Okay?"

The studio loved it. Rich connected it to Mike Tomlin's line that the standard is the standard, and figured the "Browns is the Browns" talk had simply lodged in Monken's head until he decided he'd had enough. "Todd Monken, what a breath of fresh air," Rich said. "Just absolutely love it." He expects the message to play very well with Browns fans, locally and nationally. "The past is the past. Sort of like Frozen. Let it go."

Now, about Watson. Rich has lost track of how many times over the last two years he addressed the quarterback directly to camera. "Deshaun, nobody in the media wanted you to throw for 400 yards and five touchdowns. Nobody did." What they wanted is what Watson delivered: 24 of 30, 238 yards, two touchdowns, and the plays at the end of the game that the opposing quarterback, who badly wanted to beat him, did not make.

"That's the stuff right there," Rich said. "And he earned a start next week in Cleveland."

Next up is Carolina and Bryce Young, a team that reversed its Week 1 problems against an Atlanta team that Rich said looks like a get-right opponent through the first two weeks.

Rich also singled out Denzel Boston. "Holy crap," he said, and the desk agreed the Browns "might have found one there, too." The formula from here, as Rich laid it out, is to get Quinshon Judkins and the run game going and support it. If Watson plays under control, doesn't turn it over, and makes the plays in front of him the way he did to take the lead, "the Browns can make some hay."

"It doesn't have to be 400 yards, five touchdowns," Rich said.

Rich admitted he didn't see this one coming. Between the Browns' win, the Ravens' loss, and maybe the Chargers' loss too, a lot of survivor pools got wrecked.