Mike Tomlin spent 19 years in Pittsburgh watching Cleveland find new ways to lose. Now he works for NBC, and after the Browns dropped their opener to Jacksonville, he reached for the old JuJu Smith-Schuster line and said the Browns is the Browns.
Todd Monken heard it. So did his locker room. On Sunday in Tampa, they answered.
The Quote That Ended the Press Conference
Cleveland beat the Buccaneers 23-19 at Raymond James Stadium, erasing a 10-point second-half deficit through a weather delay that stretched past two hours. Monken saved his response for the end of his postgame session.
“Browns are gonna Browns,” Monken said. “Expletive that.” Then he added the part that actually mattered: “The guys took that to heart.”
Watson, asked about it afterward, kept it short. “Monk said what he said. That’s how we all feel.”
Watson Played Like He Meant It
This is where the story gets uncomfortable for everyone who has spent two years writing Watson off. He went 24-of-30 for 238 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions, adding seven carries for 22 yards. He threw the go-ahead 17-yard touchdown to tight end Blake Whiteheart with under four minutes left.
Denzel Boston had already broken a 55-yard touchdown catch late in the third quarter to swing the momentum. Watson delivered the finish.
It was his first win as a starting quarterback since Week 2 of the 2024 season. Cleveland fans booed him loudly in the preseason, and he made no secret of resenting it. Sunday was the first evidence in two years that there is still a functional NFL quarterback in there.
Monken Has Been Right About Something
Monken is in his first year as a head coach after building Baltimore’s offense, and this was his first win in the job. He inherited a franchise that has been a national punchline for most of three decades and a quarterback nobody outside the building wanted to defend.
His response to a former division rival taking a free shot on television was to swear on camera and then go win a road game. That is not a coincidence. Bulletin-board material is usually overrated, but Monken clearly used it deliberately, and his players said out loud that it worked.
Tomlin Is Enjoying This Too Much
Tomlin, for his part, seemed delighted. Asked about the reaction on NBC’s Sunday pregame show, he chuckled and said he was glad he can still motivate even though he is not coaching anymore.
He stepped away from Pittsburgh after the 2025 season. Nineteen years of never posting a losing record buys a man the right to needle his old rivals. It also means he knows exactly what he was doing when he said it.
Now Comes the Hard Part
Cleveland is 1-1 and finally comes home in Week 3 to face Carolina at Huntington Bank Field. One win in Tampa does not rewrite a franchise’s reputation. Ten of them would.
The Browns have talked plenty over the years. Monken’s version at least came attached to a result, which is more than most Cleveland September bravado can claim. Beat Carolina at home and people will start taking the whole thing seriously.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.