Takes By The Lake Podcast

Informações:

Sinopsis

Get the latest news and analysis about the Cleveland Browns, Cavaliers, and Indians with Doug Lesmerises and special guests on cleveland.com

Episodios

  • Ep. 100: The Cleveland Browns are being underestimated, with NFL insider Benjamin Allbright

    05/10/2018 Duración: 35min

    Benjamin Allbright is an NFL analyst and radio host in Denver who has connections around the NFL and a full view of the league. His NFL power rankings, based off his own mathematical formula, have the Cleveland Browns as the No. 10 team in the league through four games. So Doug Lesmerises invited him back on Takes By The Lake. They talked about those rankings in the interview, and of course it's early and a small sample size can easily skew rankings like this. Allbright said his rankings give a lot of credit to staying close in games, and in the three games they didn't win, the Browns have been really close. But beyond a ranking, Allbright has been very impressed with the Browns defense, and he's been a strong believer in Baker Mayfield since the middle of last season. He's a great guest and it was an interesting conversation. So enjoy this Takes By The Lake episode from cleveland.com. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

  • Ep. 99: How Baker Mayfield fits into the NFL's quarterback revolution

    28/09/2018 Duración: 47min

    Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, Philip Rivers, Eli Manning, Alex Smith and Aaron Rodgers all entered the NFL between 2000 and 2005. They've owned the league for more than a decade, winning games and piling up passing yards. Soon, the league will belong to a new group of quarterbacks. And the Browns Baker Mayfield should be part of that group. On this episode of Takes By The Lake from cleveland.com, Doug Lesmerises was joined by Kevin Cole, the director of data and analytics for rotogrinders.com, to discuss how to evaluate all these new quarterbacks. We also got into the Browns defense and how it was built, but mostly, this was about Mayfield. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

  • Ep. 98: Cleveland Browns win on talent, not culture, and they're fun again

    21/09/2018 Duración: 36min

    The Cleveland Browns are fun again, and that's a victory in itself. One team wins the Super Bowl each year, which leaves 31 other fanbases in search of a joyous season that ends short of a championship. At some point, the Browns have to win a Super Bowl. But Thursday night's win over the New York Jets gave some indication that the season-long pursuit is going to provide a lot more reasons to scream, shout and smile. On this episode of Takes By The Lake from cleveland.com, Doug Lesmerises is joined by a Browns fan just like you. His name is Tony Hall, and he's an assistant principal in the Washington, D.C., area. He's active on Twitter as The Cleveland Guy, and as a sports fan born and raised in Cleveland, he helped me do what everyone was doing after Thursday night. Talking out this win. So sit down and listen for the same topics you're discussing with your friends, as we touched on the play-making ability of the defense, whether Baker Mayfield can keep this going and what kind of threat rookie receiver Anton

  • Ep. 97: Was that Browns QB Tyrod Taylor's worst game, and will he get better?

    14/09/2018 Duración: 01h01min

    Never before had Tyrod Taylor started an NFL game and completed fewer than half his passes. So that 15 for 40 performance in the rain against Pittsburgh on Sunday, that wasn't him. "I put that on the whole unit," offensive coordinator Todd Haley said Thursday. "That's kind of the point that I'm making that we need to speed this process of trust because to be a good or big-time passing offense, you better have trust in everyone." So look for trust in week two. And look for what happens when there's no rain. In a dome against New Orleans, the Browns should get a much better idea of their 29-year-old veteran quarterback. According to Pro Football Focus, there were 149 uncatchable passes thrown by all 32 NFL teams last week. That's an average of 4.6 per team. By the PFF numbers, Taylor threw a league-high 14 uncatchable passes. But Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger threw 10. So what was happening in FirstEnergy Stadium made life difficult on both quarterbacks. To break that down, Doug Lesmerises is joined by two g

  • A special presentation: Let's Get a Dog - The Tale of Ty-Dog Taylor and Barker Mayfield

    12/09/2018 Duración: 09min

    In a departure from our usual Takes By The Lake, we present an eight-minute children's story in the mode of the great Dr. Seuss. A typical Takes By The Lake episode will be back on Friday. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

  • Ep. 96: Browns 2018 season preview extravaganza, from punching bag to promise

    06/09/2018 Duración: 01h39min

    The Browns season is around the corner and you can't start it without listening to our humongous preview on Takes By The Lake. Doug Lesmerises is joined by four guests in a supersized episode to dig into the hopes, the talent, the past miseries and the promise of the 2018 Cleveland Browns. First up is Clayton Braham, a fan who makes his own hype videos and explains what fans are hoping for, rooting for and worried about with the Browns. Next is Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, one of the most plugged-in NFL writers in the country to explain the talent on the Browns roster, what the expectations should be for GM John Dorsey to eventually shape a playoff team and the talk around the rest of the league about what's happening in Cleveland. Then comes Neil Paine, the author of a fascinating recent story on fivethirtyeight.com examining the numbers behind the Browns futility of the past two decades. If your heart has suffered with the Browns, let Neil explain to your head why it happened, and it will help you mo

  • Ep. 95: The Indians World Series chances now compared to the Indians of the '90s

    31/08/2018 Duración: 44min

    The American League is stacked and the Cleveland Indians have as much of a chance to reach the World Series as any other AL team. That's the opinion of Yahoo Sports national baseball writer Jeff Passan, a Solon High grad, who joined Takes By The Lake this week. Jeff and Doug Lesmerises talked about his life growing up as the son of a Plain Dealer journalist, and how being a Cleveland sports fan shaped him. And then we dug in on the Indians. We compared this Indians team to the Indians teams of the 1990s. We compared them to the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees and the Houston Astros, the three best teams in the American League. We talked about how long the Indians have to stay at this peak. We also talked about Trevor Bauer in the bullpen in the postseason. Few have a greater knowledge of the full baseball scene than Passan, who last year published a book called "The Arm," that went inside the most valuable commodity in baseball. If you care about the Indians at all, this podcast is for you. Next week, we

  • Ep. 94: Can Myles Garrett become one of the NFL's best players?

    25/08/2018 Duración: 53min

    Myles Garrett held a house party in the Philadelphia Eagles backfield in the Browns third preseason game on Thursday night. So what might the No. 1 pick in the 2017 NFL Draft do for the Browns in his second season? On this episode of Takes By The Lake, Doug Lesmerises is joined by Brendan Leister, an analyst for Pro Football Focus and an assistant high school coach in the Cleveland area who does a great job breaking down the Browns on Twitter. We delved into everything about the Browns, with a strong focus on Garrett and on defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. Beyond Garrett, there's clearly more talent on the defense this year, but will Williams use it correctly? We also hit on a major point that Browns fans need to think about. How much does the run game really matter to the Browns success this season? You may be surprised by the answer. So it's another great discussion with a really smart person who understands this Cleveland football team. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

  • Ep. 93: How the Browns are constructing a roster that can win

    17/08/2018 Duración: 47min

    The final 53-man Cleveland Browns roster for the 2018 season will be vastly improved from the roster that began the 2017 season. But it won't end there. On the latest episode of the Takes By The Lake podcast from cleveland.com, we looked big picture at the current and future roster construction of the Browns, before we get into the daily grind of a 16-game season less than a month from now. Host Doug Lesmerises is joined by guest Zack Moore, a writer for OverTheCap.com and author of the recent book, "Caponomics: Building Super Bowl Champions." The topic is where the Browns are, with the most cap space in the NFL at around $52 million. They have young talent that should encourage fans for next year. But they'll need to continue to build to become the playoff team that is the goal and needed result from this multi-year teardown. They have the flexibility to keep adding. Zack and DOug talked about where the Browns are spending money now, how they could use their cap space in the future and whether the current se

  • Ep. 92: Preseason opener proves Browns good enough for little things to matter

    10/08/2018 Duración: 40min

    The Browns beat the New York Giants in their preseason opener on Thursday night, so let the optimism flow. In the latest episode of the Takes By The Lake sports podcast from cleveland.com, Doug Lesmerises is joined by fellow cleveland.com sportswriter Chris Fedor to talk about everything the Browns showed in their first time facing an opponent in 2018. Tyrod Taylor and Baker Mayfield both played well, so what's the right thing to do with the quarterbacks? John Dorsey has made moves to help this team, as Thursday showed, so what's the confidence in him going forward? Hue Jackson is still around, and is there reseason to believe in him as the leader of a team that clearly has more talent? But mostly, the talk centered on Baker Mayfield as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft made his debut. Catch it all on the latest Takes By The Lake - as find out why people in Buffalo are mad at Doug. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

  • Ep. 91: Jay Crawford on the Browns, LeBron James, Skip Bayless, ESPN and a life in TV sports

    03/08/2018 Duración: 01h15min

    The voice you'll hear calling three Browns preseason games, starting with the Giants game on Thursday, is one you've heard on ESPN for years. Jay Crawford, an Ohio native who has worked in TV sports for three decades, will serve as the play-by-play man, with former Browns QB Tim Couch as his partner, when the Browns play the New York Giants on Thursday, the Buffalo Bills on Aug. 17 and the Detroit Lions on Aug. 30. First, Crawford joined Doug Lesmerises on this week's Takes By The Lake for an in-depth conversation on what's been wrong with the Browns, what he thinks of LeBron James, his life as a Cleveland sports fan while working in TV sports, his opinion of his friend and former co-worker Skip Bayless and what it was like to work for and then leave ESPN, when the company laid off more than 100 employees last spring. Take it all on on our latest edition of our all-sports Cleveland podcast, which we bring you every Friday. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

  • Ep. 90: The baseball team giving the Browns hope for their tank and rebuild

    26/07/2018 Duración: 32min

    The Cleveland Browns opened preseason camp, which means year three of this plan. This is the year to show something. At least that's how the team that the Browns should hope to follow did it. This week's Takes By The Lake podcast centers on Doug Lesmerises' interview with baseball writer Ben Reiter, the author of the new book, "Astroball: The New Way to Win It All." Why talk football with a baseball writer? Because Reiter chronicled the rise of a franchise that tanked and rebuilt the way the Browns hope to. Houston's two low seasons in their plan compared to the misery of the Browns going 1-15 and 0-16. Yet that absolutely started the Astros on their path to the 2017 World Series. Reiter is doing a lot of interviews for what is a very interesting book, one that Browns fans may want to read to get an understanding of the philosophy and strategy of a team that successfully pulled off what the Browns are trying now. Yes, it has worked. Doug is planning to write more about this in this week's 3rd & Short column

  • Ep. 89: Did the Cavs fail by winning only one title in 11 years of LeBron James?

    20/07/2018 Duración: 01h04min

    LeBron James brought Cleveland its first major sports championship in 52 years, but was winning just one title in James' 11 years in Cleveland a failure by the Cavaliers? On the latest episode of Takes By The Lake from cleveland.com, Doug Lesmerises is joined by Chris Manning of fearthesword.com and Scott Sargent of waitingfornextyear.com to discuss the James era and whether it should be viewed more with joy or regret. What more could the Cavs have done to win with James? Was it mismanagement or bad luck? Now that Kawhi Leonard has been traded, what does that tell us about how the Cavaliers handled the Kyrie Irving trade? And what could the Cavs have done to avoid losing Irving and James in consecutive offseasons? James is now a Los Angeles Laker, but he'll always be a part of Cleveland sports. How are you thinking about his time here right now? Chris and Scott provide their insight and assess whether that one title is only to be celebrated, or whether Cleveland fans are justified in feeling there should have

  • Ep. 88: Emergency episode, LeBron left, should the Cavs tank?

    02/07/2018 Duración: 33min

    It's an emergency podcast episode shortly after the announcement from LeBron James on Sunday night that he's signing with the Los Angeles Lakers. Doug Lesmerises thought the Cavs should not tank next year with LeBron gone and should do their best to keep winning. But a vast majority of Cavs fans disagreed and are ready for a total rebuild. Doug talks through that thinking and tries to decide if he was wrong. Also, an appreciation for James' 1,0001 games as a Cavalier and the hope that fans won't let their disappointment and anger in the moment turn into hatred toward the greatest player the Cavs will ever see. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

  • Ep. 87: Browns playoff talk for 2018? Save it for 2019

    28/06/2018 Duración: 01h30min

    How does a 10-6 Browns season sound to you? Exciting? How does hoping for a 10-6 year and getting 6-10 sound? In this episode of Takes By The Lake, we take on the idea of irrational exuberance around the Browns by welcoming three NFL analysts: Samantha Bunten of NBCSports.com, Charles McDonald of SB Nation and Michael Salfino, who writes for the Wall Street Journal and fivethirtyeight.com. But first, host Doug Lesmerises of cleveland.com is joined by a fan who makes a reasonable case for 10-6. That's DawgPound Dave, who wouldn't give us his full name, but who did provide enough NFL history and roster analysis of this Browns team to make 10-6 sound almost possible. Why burst the balloon on the Browns in June? We're less than a month from the start of training camp, and the last thing Browns fans need to do off an excruciating 0-16 season is to set themselves up to be disappointed with a six-win improvement. On this podcast, we looked closely at Gregg Williams leading a young, talented defense, and examined wh

  • Ep. 86: Cleveland sports fervor in the hallways of Washington

    22/06/2018 Duración: 37min

    The Cleveland Browns get talked about in political circles in Washington. The Indians get talked about. The Cavs get talked about. Hugh Hewitt makes sure of that. The political commentator on NBC and MSNBC and long-time radio host is a big hitter in national politics and served as a co-moderator for several presidential debates. At his core, Hewitt is a 62-year-old kid from Warren who wants to talk sports with his friends. That's what Hewitt said happens in the green room before political talk shows - sports talk. So we asked him to bring that talk to the latest episode of Takes By The Lake with Doug Lesmerises. Part of what we want to do in our all-sports podcast is interview well-known guests who are diehard Cleveland fans. Hewitt is the latest guest on that list. He's lived in Washington and California since growing up in Ohio, but he's still a Browns season ticket holder. We talked some about the intersection of sports and politics, and whether we could see a current sports figure run for president. We e

  • Ep. 85: Bill Belichick worries Jim Brown will be forgotten

    15/06/2018 Duración: 34min

    Bill Belichick, NFL coaching legend, considers Jim Brown one of the top two or three people he's ever met. But Belichick fears that Brown's contributions to sports and society may eventually fade away. In the new book, "Jim Brown: Last Man Stadning," author Dave Zirin puts everything Brown was and everything Brown has done into context. It's a complicated legacy, but it's one that should be remembered and appreciated on many levels. On the latest Takes By The Lake from cleveland, Doug Lesmerises is joined by Zirin to talk about Brown and to analyze his contributions in light of today's political and social context. The theme that Zirin returns to is Brown's manhood, which explains many of his actions, both good and bad. Whether you are a Brown expert, or whether you know him only as a former Browns star running back and not much more, this conversation with Zirin should help you understand Brown. And if you are a Cleveland sports fan, you need to understand Brown. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-o

  • Ep. 84: Will the Browns ever get better than the Pittsburgh Steelers?

    02/06/2018 Duración: 31min

    The Pittsburgh Steelers hold a 14-2 edge on the Browns this decade and a 33-6 advantage since the Browns returned in 1999. What could ever cause that to change? On this episode of Takes By The Lake, Doug Lesmerises is joined by Jeremy Fowler of ESPN to break down the Steelers as we finish our podcast tour of the AFC North. We dealt with the Ravens and the Bengals, and now it's on to the team that has won the AFC North in eight of the 16 years since the NFL went to four-team divisions in 2002. The Steelers have made the playoffs in 10 of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's 14 season. How long will he stick around? How can the Steelers keep winning after he's gone? How will they replace linebacker Ryan Shazier this season? What should they do about the contract status of running back Le'Veon Bell? The Steelers, in many ways, are in flux. But in some very important areas, they're the same winning franchise they've almost always been. And how can the Browns possibly get past them? Jeremy and I get into all that and

  • Ep. 83: Are the Browns ready to pass the Bengals as Ohio's best NFL team?

    25/05/2018 Duración: 46min

    Think of this small step for the Cleveland Browns. Possibly becoming the best NFL team in the state of Ohio. On Takes By The Lake, your cleveland.com all-sports podcast that mostly deals with the Browns because we can't help it, our latest episode focuses on the Cincinnati Bengals. We're taking a tour of the AFC North. Two weeks ago, we dealt with the Baltimore Ravens. Next Friday, we'll get to the Pittsburgh Steelers. This week, it's Cincinnati, as Doug Lesmerises is joined by guest Jim Owczarski, one of the Bengals beat writers for cincinnati.com and the Cincinnati Enquirer. The Bengals have won seven straight over the Browns dating back to November 2014 and have won 15 of the last 19 in the series. But after making the playoffs five straight seasons between 2011 and 2015, the Bengals are coming off two losing seasons. So what does that mean for head coach Marvin Lewis? What does that mean for quarterback Andy Dalton? And as the Browns attempt to find their footing and move out of their perpetual spot in th

  • Ep. 82: Will legalized sports gambling mean booing the Browns for not winning by enough?

    18/05/2018 Duración: 38min

    Will the Browns lose by fewer than two touchdowns? Hey, can the Buckeyes really beat Rutgers by more than 35? The Cavs look terrible, but wouldn't you put money on LeBron to somehow carry them to a win? Lots of us in Ohio know something about sports gambling. At least we think we do, until the sure prediction we had for a game goes terribly wrong. But not many of us know a lot. Rich Exner here at cleveland.com has been doing a great job providing details about what might happen in Ohio after Monday's Supreme Court decision made legal sports gambling possible in every state. But there's a lot of ground to cover. So Doug Lesmerises spoke with Brett Smiley, the editor in chief of sportshandle.com to discuss every possibility about sports betting in Ohio. Smiley has a background in journalism and law, so he has a pretty good grasp on how all this might work. How will the sports world change for fans and teams? What is the best way to implement sports betting in Ohio? Will we see more or fewer gambling scandals? H

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