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Bengals Booth Podcast: Ready For Some Football · Bengals Booth Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody on dan Horde and thanks for downloading
0:06
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booth Podcast. Uh ah you ready for some football?
0:12
Speaker 1: A Monday Night party addition, as we look ahead to
0:17
Speaker 1: the Bengals and Steelers on Monday Night football coming up,
0:22
Speaker 1: Dave Lapham joins me to discuss the latest Bengals news,
0:25
Speaker 1: including a season ending injury for one of the best
0:28
Speaker 1: players in franchise history, Geno Atkins. One on one player
0:32
Speaker 1: interview this week is with offensive lineman Fred Johnson, who
0:35
Speaker 1: discusses his bout with COVID nineteen and at Our Know
0:40
Speaker 1: the Faux segment, former Pittsburgh cornerback Ike Taylor shares his
0:43
Speaker 1: thoughts on the Steelers and why he thinks the Bengals
0:46
Speaker 1: have found their franchise quarterback in Joe Burrow. The Bengals
0:50
Speaker 1: Booth Podcast is presented by bud Light Seltzer Refresh the
0:55
Speaker 1: game and here's a quick reminder that you can have
0:57
Speaker 1: the latest edition of this podcast livered right to your phone, tablet,
1:02
Speaker 1: or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitch, your Google Play, Spotify,
1:06
Speaker 1: or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since coffee, vanilla,
1:11
Speaker 1: peanut butter. My wife peg is a marathoner and a
1:15
Speaker 1: much healthier eater than I am. If left to my
1:18
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1:22
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty pound nose tackle. Well. Recently, Peg started
1:27
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1:31
Speaker 1: Run Fast, Eat Slow Cookbook, and it's a game changer.
1:36
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1:39
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1:43
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1:51
Speaker 1: vanilla peanut butter spread recipe from the Run Fast, Eat
1:55
Speaker 1: Slow Cookbook a try. Now, let's get to football, beginning
2:00
Speaker 1: the visit with my broadcast partner Dave Lapham Lap. Let's
2:04
Speaker 1: start with the news from Wednesday that Geno Atkins has
2:06
Speaker 1: done for the year going on season ending ir with
2:10
Speaker 1: his shoulder injury. Finishes with no sacks this year in
2:13
Speaker 1: eleven games. Earlier in the season, when people were ripping
2:17
Speaker 1: the effort of Carlos Dunlap and Gino Atkins, you were
2:20
Speaker 1: really the first person to defend Gino and say he
2:24
Speaker 1: was trying to fight through a serious injury. What do
2:27
Speaker 1: you make of his effort this season? He damaged that shoulder.
2:32
Speaker 1: I guess rotator cuff is the part of the shoulder
2:35
Speaker 1: that he damaged warming up for the inner squad scrimmage,
2:39
Speaker 1: you know, in the end zone, just doing warm ups
2:41
Speaker 1: with the offensive and defensive line. And you know, he
2:45
Speaker 1: tried to battle through it. He missed a month and
2:46
Speaker 1: then tried to battle through it, but he just couldn't
2:49
Speaker 1: reach and grab with that right arm. He was literally
2:51
Speaker 1: one armed and very very deficient what he was trying
2:55
Speaker 1: to get done. I mean, he's his whole thing is
2:57
Speaker 1: power football and power foot ball. You have to use
3:00
Speaker 1: your hands. I mean that's a big part of it.
3:03
Speaker 1: And he couldn't. He couldn't, couldn't. Really, his right the
3:07
Speaker 1: right side of his upper body was useless. So I
3:11
Speaker 1: admire the fact that he tried to give everything he could,
3:15
Speaker 1: but he was just basically a shell of himself. And um,
3:19
Speaker 1: sounds like in the Dallas game he exacerbated the problem
3:22
Speaker 1: and at that point in time, might as well just
3:24
Speaker 1: shut it down. You thought he was on his way
3:27
Speaker 1: to having a good year in training camp, didn't you. Yeah,
3:30
Speaker 1: I mean I remember a couple of times, you know,
3:32
Speaker 1: when we were watching pass rush together, I'm like, man,
3:35
Speaker 1: you know he's he's really he's got I didn't see,
3:39
Speaker 1: you know, that explosion, and I thought, I thought not
3:44
Speaker 1: this season, the season before last year that it's like maybe,
3:47
Speaker 1: you know, maybe he's kind of round and third and
3:50
Speaker 1: heading for home as the lovable left he used to say.
3:52
Speaker 1: But and then I saw him at training camp. It's like, man,
3:56
Speaker 1: this offseason really did him a lot and did well
3:59
Speaker 1: for him. So and then boy gets hurt and it
4:04
Speaker 1: all unravels and goes downhill from there. It's amazing when
4:08
Speaker 1: you look at it. All four of their defensive tackles
4:12
Speaker 1: that they were counting on actually five two opted out.
4:16
Speaker 1: But the four that they thought were going to play,
4:19
Speaker 1: all of them has spent time on injury reserve, if
4:22
Speaker 1: not the whole season on injury reserve. It's crazy. So
4:25
Speaker 1: Gina will be thirty three in March. He's got two
4:28
Speaker 1: years left on his deal. Fourteen mill between salary and
4:32
Speaker 1: bonuses next year, sixteen mill between salary and bonuses the
4:36
Speaker 1: following year. If the Bengals cut him, there'd be five
4:40
Speaker 1: point two million dollars in dead money. But they would
4:43
Speaker 1: save nine point six million dollars. What do you think
4:46
Speaker 1: is going to happen? From the organization's perspective, it's like
4:51
Speaker 1: he was trying, you know, he's trying to give us
4:53
Speaker 1: everything he's got. You know, it's not a situation where
4:57
Speaker 1: in Carlos's case, he could play, but he decided he
5:00
Speaker 1: wouldn't play, you know, and obviously that whole thing turned
5:04
Speaker 1: into a into an ugly situation, an unfortunate ending. I guess,
5:09
Speaker 1: maybe not so unfortunate for Carlos. He's out in Seattle
5:11
Speaker 1: and playing well, but um, you know, the bad taste
5:15
Speaker 1: in everybody's mouth I think is unfortunate because Carlos gave
5:19
Speaker 1: him some good years. Gino has given him everything he's got,
5:23
Speaker 1: and he continued to try to give him everything he's got.
5:26
Speaker 1: That's a that's a that's a tough one, Dan, I mean,
5:29
Speaker 1: I don't know. I wonder. I wonder if it's you're
5:32
Speaker 1: gonna have to go for a while in the rehab,
5:33
Speaker 1: See how the rehab goes, See how he does come
5:36
Speaker 1: back from it. See if there's a potential that he
5:38
Speaker 1: could get back to you know, a good spot, a
5:41
Speaker 1: good place physically and make a decision from there. I
5:44
Speaker 1: don't think there'll be any rash decisions made, but it's
5:48
Speaker 1: going to be interesting how it all unfolds. AJ Green's
5:51
Speaker 1: contract is up, unlike Geno Atkins. It certainly sounded, based
5:55
Speaker 1: on his comments after the game the other day, that
5:58
Speaker 1: he's ready to move on on. How do you think
6:01
Speaker 1: other teams in the NFL are going to evaluate AJ
6:04
Speaker 1: Green after this year? Yeah, It's it's funny. You know,
6:08
Speaker 1: you hear all these coaches when AJ Green's name is
6:11
Speaker 1: brought up when we're doing zooms and conference calls with
6:14
Speaker 1: other head coaches. You know, AJ Green is still He's
6:18
Speaker 1: still he's still a good player. You know, we gotta go.
6:21
Speaker 1: You gotta take care of AJ Green. You have to
6:23
Speaker 1: double AJ Green and he has gotten doubled some. But
6:26
Speaker 1: Tyler Boyd's getting doubled a ton and you know it
6:30
Speaker 1: is shifted. Um. So I think it is going to
6:35
Speaker 1: be interesting to see how they evaluate AJ Green. You
6:38
Speaker 1: know what they think that he has has left? Is
6:40
Speaker 1: he expo as explosive coming off the line of scrimmage?
6:44
Speaker 1: Can he run the routes the way he used to
6:47
Speaker 1: run them, you know, sinking his hips, getting in and and
6:49
Speaker 1: out of the cuts like he did before, with the
6:51
Speaker 1: explosiveness and the fluidity and everything that goes along with it.
6:55
Speaker 1: Um but he's certainly not going to be making the
6:58
Speaker 1: kind of money they made. As he was tagged this
7:01
Speaker 1: year by the Cincinnati Bengals. That's that's by the boards.
7:04
Speaker 1: So it'll be interesting to see how many students there
7:07
Speaker 1: are out there and what they're talking about. And I
7:11
Speaker 1: guess that's probably why he definitely doesn't want to. AJ
7:14
Speaker 1: is the type of guy that doesn't want to close
7:16
Speaker 1: the door on anything or anybody really, and he doesn't
7:20
Speaker 1: want to burn any bridges. So whatever he does, I
7:23
Speaker 1: think he's going to do with the class that you'd
7:26
Speaker 1: expect out of AJ Green. If it is a departure
7:28
Speaker 1: from Cincinnati, I think it'll be a departure that it'll
7:31
Speaker 1: be just the opposite of what Carlos Dunlap, you know,
7:34
Speaker 1: obviously experienced. It'll be a lot different with AJ. So
7:39
Speaker 1: right now, Bengals fans are hurting. They had so much
7:42
Speaker 1: hope going into the season with Joe Burrow and the
7:44
Speaker 1: great free agent class that the Bengals signed, and really
7:47
Speaker 1: very few of those guys are playing right now. I
7:50
Speaker 1: had this thought this week. And it sounds overly simple
7:54
Speaker 1: and maybe pollyanna ish, but I don't care. I'll say
7:57
Speaker 1: it anyway. If they fix the lines on both sides
8:01
Speaker 1: of the ball, everything else falls into place. It's so
8:07
Speaker 1: blatantly obvious. They've just got to get good again on
8:12
Speaker 1: both lines. Now, it's easier said than done to fix
8:15
Speaker 1: it and coach it and everything else. But if you
8:17
Speaker 1: begin there, fix the lines, you can be back in
8:21
Speaker 1: contention in a relatively short period of time. Agree one
8:24
Speaker 1: hundred thousand percent. You know it's This season is a
8:31
Speaker 1: great example of it. All starts up front. You know
8:35
Speaker 1: said many times over the years, you can have Hall
8:38
Speaker 1: of famers, a skilled positions. If you've got nothing up
8:41
Speaker 1: front to talk about, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.
8:46
Speaker 1: You have to give You have to give that group
8:49
Speaker 1: time to operate, in time to be an opportunity to
8:53
Speaker 1: be efficient and do what they need to do. Obviously
8:57
Speaker 1: that it has not been up to par on the
9:00
Speaker 1: side of the line of scrimmage. Part of it is injury,
9:02
Speaker 1: part of it is due to ineffective play. And that's
9:06
Speaker 1: a you talk about a terrible cocktail to swallow man,
9:11
Speaker 1: that's a that's a bad, bad, bad, bad thing that takes.
9:15
Speaker 1: You know, when you have injury and inefficient play on
9:18
Speaker 1: both sides of the line of scrimmage, you don't you
9:21
Speaker 1: don't really stand a chance. And when you look at it,
9:25
Speaker 1: you know, the money that was spent in free agency
9:28
Speaker 1: and the draft picks that were spent in an effort
9:30
Speaker 1: to try to fix the offensive line, you know, it's
9:35
Speaker 1: just it hasn't panned out for whatever reasons. And the
9:38
Speaker 1: reasons vary, but the bottom line is it just has
9:41
Speaker 1: not panned out. It's not like they haven't tried to
9:44
Speaker 1: fix it, but the fix is not done. It's so
9:48
Speaker 1: far from done. It's like you're just in the beginning
9:51
Speaker 1: stages of doing the fix again. And that's got to
9:53
Speaker 1: be frustrating because there have been assets spent in terms
9:57
Speaker 1: of draft picks and dollars to try to fix try
10:00
Speaker 1: to fix it. It's it's it's nowhere near where it
10:03
Speaker 1: needs to be right now. Yeah, at least on the
10:05
Speaker 1: offensive line. I mean, an unbelievable amount of resources have
10:09
Speaker 1: been devoted to trying to fix that over the past
10:11
Speaker 1: several years, and unfortunately, by and large, they haven't worked.
10:16
Speaker 1: And you know, the defensive line it's injury is the
10:19
Speaker 1: biggest thing. You know. You look at Geno Daniels, I
10:22
Speaker 1: mean DJ Reader, it's it's just unbelievable. Wren, DJ Reader
10:27
Speaker 1: and Wren had the same thing happened, and it's a
10:29
Speaker 1: rare quad injury where an attachment to her quad, you know,
10:33
Speaker 1: snaps it. It didn't happen once, it happened twice. So
10:37
Speaker 1: sometimes you sit back and shake your head and you say, wow,
10:40
Speaker 1: is there a black cloud? You know, how big is
10:43
Speaker 1: that black cloud? One's that black cloud cloud going to
10:46
Speaker 1: pass over us and go somewhere else, And you know
10:49
Speaker 1: it is. Every team has injury, there's no question, but
10:54
Speaker 1: this one, this one really had injury to people that
10:59
Speaker 1: you look at the quarterback. I mean all the hope
11:01
Speaker 1: is on Joe Burrow and he was delivering. He goes down.
11:05
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's not the it's not injury, it's who is injured.
11:10
Speaker 1: And once that you you can't afford to lose. You
11:13
Speaker 1: start to lose and all of a sudden, man, you're
11:15
Speaker 1: in a real struggle. So looking at the two lines,
11:19
Speaker 1: who are the building blocks that you really feel good
11:23
Speaker 1: about on each side of the ball. On the offensive line,
11:26
Speaker 1: Jonah Trey Hopkins, anybody else that you know, You're like, okay,
11:31
Speaker 1: sooner or later, these guys are going to be part
11:34
Speaker 1: of a really good offensive line. Yeah, I mean every
11:37
Speaker 1: everybody else. Really it's it's like you can poke holes him,
11:40
Speaker 1: you know. Um So if I'm if I'm an offensive
11:45
Speaker 1: lineman on this group of linemen that are finishing out
11:49
Speaker 1: the season, I have in my mind I have to
11:55
Speaker 1: put as many unbelievably solid reps on tape as I
11:59
Speaker 1: possibly can be because right now there's no way that
12:02
Speaker 1: I feel like, man, I'm going to come back and
12:04
Speaker 1: have a job next year. Really, I mean, you have
12:07
Speaker 1: to approach you with a mindset like, all right, this
12:11
Speaker 1: we're not in the playoffs. We can't make the playoffs.
12:14
Speaker 1: This is my personal playoffs. For the last three games
12:17
Speaker 1: of the season, I have to go against good competition.
12:20
Speaker 1: I'm going against you know, two of the three opponents
12:23
Speaker 1: that are left our playoff potential teams. Pittsburgh's in already.
12:27
Speaker 1: Baltimore is not that they could be. So put it
12:30
Speaker 1: in your mind that you're going to try to compete
12:32
Speaker 1: at the highest level you possibly can against pretty good
12:35
Speaker 1: competition obviously, and if you can do that, you know,
12:40
Speaker 1: finish strong and then give yourself an opportunity to compete
12:43
Speaker 1: next year. But there's nobody, nobody that should think that
12:48
Speaker 1: they're locked in and they've got a job available to
12:51
Speaker 1: them and it's a it's a done deal. There's nobody
12:53
Speaker 1: that should feel that way. In the offensive line and
12:55
Speaker 1: my estimation defensive line. DJ Reader will be back. I'm
13:00
Speaker 1: Hubbard's under contract. I assume they'll try hard to resign
13:04
Speaker 1: Carl Lawson based on the season that he's had. Those
13:07
Speaker 1: are your three solid building blocks that you feel really
13:10
Speaker 1: good about on the defensive line if you keep Karl Lawson. Yeah,
13:14
Speaker 1: I mean, I think Carl Lawson. The thing about him
13:17
Speaker 1: is h he works really hard to be good. It's
13:23
Speaker 1: important to him and he wants to be good and
13:25
Speaker 1: that and that's the first thing is the work ethic.
13:28
Speaker 1: And I see a strong work ethic with that kid.
13:31
Speaker 1: I really do. UM and I do a DJ Reader
13:34
Speaker 1: was given I thought he was given the Bengals as advertised.
13:38
Speaker 1: You know, he's a hard working guy. He's an effort guy. Um,
13:41
Speaker 1: he's got some athletic ability in a big body. I
13:44
Speaker 1: think DJ Reader, you know, is a is a nice
13:47
Speaker 1: is a nice piece as well, um, you know, Daniels
13:51
Speaker 1: is an interesting situation. What do you do with Daniels?
13:53
Speaker 1: He's on the back nine. But he's a guy that
13:55
Speaker 1: gives you effort out there too. I mean, he plays,
13:58
Speaker 1: he plays hard, you know. I do think, I do
14:01
Speaker 1: think potentially you do have a few components on the
14:05
Speaker 1: on the defensive line, but you've got to address the
14:07
Speaker 1: pass rush. I mean, it's just you have to have
14:11
Speaker 1: somebody that, you know, besides Carl Lawson, who will give
14:15
Speaker 1: you consistent pressure off the edge. Sam Hubbard is a
14:19
Speaker 1: guy that will do the same. And you know he
14:21
Speaker 1: battled injury this year as well. And when you have
14:24
Speaker 1: an elbow injury again, man, when you when you have
14:27
Speaker 1: to as a lineman, when you have to use your
14:30
Speaker 1: hands and your you know, your your hands, your elbow,
14:33
Speaker 1: your shoulder, anything in your arms is messed up, It's
14:37
Speaker 1: it's hard to play, it's hard to be effective. You know,
14:40
Speaker 1: you just can't do it one arm, There's no doubt
14:42
Speaker 1: about it. So I think I think Sam Hubbard's a
14:45
Speaker 1: you know, a piece to work with for sure. I
14:48
Speaker 1: think he gives you everything he's got. He empties the uh,
14:50
Speaker 1: he empties the bucket big time. There's there's absolutely no
14:54
Speaker 1: question about it. I think that what this football team,
14:57
Speaker 1: particularly in the in the defense of an offense line,
15:00
Speaker 1: has to realize. I had a very good high school
15:03
Speaker 1: coach one time that uses this term to me that
15:07
Speaker 1: stuck with me for a long time, competitive endurance. And
15:10
Speaker 1: he said, you know what, he said, the good Lord
15:12
Speaker 1: blessed you son with some physical ability. Now it's going
15:16
Speaker 1: to be your mental part of it. Where is your
15:19
Speaker 1: competitive endurance? Is your competitive endurance going to be where
15:23
Speaker 1: no matter what the situation, you're going to give maximum effort.
15:27
Speaker 1: You're going to max out with what you're trying to
15:29
Speaker 1: get done every single snap, no matter what, no matter
15:33
Speaker 1: what other people around you are doing, no matter what
15:35
Speaker 1: the score of the game is. You have to be
15:38
Speaker 1: as consistent as players you can be. And the way
15:41
Speaker 1: you get to that level is competitive endurance, and you
15:44
Speaker 1: have to start to learn how to deal with that.
15:46
Speaker 1: And I thought, to this day I remember it, and
15:49
Speaker 1: that's something I think that it's a very simple concept,
15:53
Speaker 1: but it's a very true concept. Competitive endurance is what
15:57
Speaker 1: it's all about. That's what makes great players great. They
16:00
Speaker 1: have these unbelievable physical skills, but their competitive endurance is
16:04
Speaker 1: off the charts, off the charts. Anthony Munels did not
16:08
Speaker 1: want to lose one rep. Not one. I mean, he
16:12
Speaker 1: was infuriated. If a guy got a good pressure against
16:15
Speaker 1: the never mind the sack, and that's what it takes,
16:18
Speaker 1: That's what it takes to be great. So Monday night
16:21
Speaker 1: against Pittsburgh will be Zach Taylor's thirtieth game as an
16:24
Speaker 1: NFL head coach. He's only won four so far, so
16:27
Speaker 1: the record is not good. What are some of the
16:29
Speaker 1: things you think Mike Brown's going to consider as he
16:32
Speaker 1: evaluates Zach's future after the season. I think that obviously
16:37
Speaker 1: he'll evaluate the fact that, you know, this year was
16:40
Speaker 1: such an odd year in terms of the coronavirus, but
16:43
Speaker 1: everybody dealt with that and the injuries that we're talking about.
16:47
Speaker 1: I think Mike Brown is very sensitive to what you
16:52
Speaker 1: thought you were going to have coming out of training
16:54
Speaker 1: camp and what you ended up having as being two
16:56
Speaker 1: different things. I think he's very sensitive to that as
16:59
Speaker 1: he'd go who is evaluation process all the time. But
17:03
Speaker 1: I think the biggest thing that has to be evaluated
17:06
Speaker 1: does he have the locker room still? And if he
17:09
Speaker 1: doesn't have the locker room still. If he doesn't have
17:11
Speaker 1: the respect of the players, and the and the players,
17:14
Speaker 1: the oars aren't in the water and growing the same way.
17:18
Speaker 1: If that's not the case, then then you have to
17:22
Speaker 1: make a hard decision. But if he feels like that
17:26
Speaker 1: he does have the football team still and he has
17:29
Speaker 1: the respect of the football team still and his coaches
17:32
Speaker 1: and and that that's the other part of it, not
17:34
Speaker 1: only Zach, but who stays as assistance and who goes.
17:39
Speaker 1: I mean that that's a that's a big process. And
17:43
Speaker 1: I think obviously the thing that Mike Brown has shown
17:46
Speaker 1: over the years with coaches, his patients obviously, so that's
17:50
Speaker 1: going to be a factor. But it's going to be
17:52
Speaker 1: it's going to be a process. It's going to be
17:53
Speaker 1: a arduous process, for sure. So the Steelers are here
17:58
Speaker 1: on Monday night looking to beat the Angles for the
18:00
Speaker 1: twelfth consecutive time. They're favored by anywhere from eleven and
18:03
Speaker 1: a half to thirteen points based on the lines that
18:06
Speaker 1: I've seen. They can clinch the AFC North with a
18:09
Speaker 1: victory against the Bengals, And at this point at least,
18:13
Speaker 1: we don't know who Cincinnati's starting quarterback is going to be,
18:16
Speaker 1: since Brandon Allen heard his knee last Sunday and the
18:18
Speaker 1: loss to the Dallas Cowboys. It doesn't add up to
18:21
Speaker 1: a great scenario, unfortunately for the Bengals going into this
18:24
Speaker 1: National League televised game. No, it doesn't. They've played the
18:28
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh Stealers eleven times on Monday Night Football on or
18:31
Speaker 1: three and eight. Mike Tomlin was twenty two and five
18:34
Speaker 1: against the Cincinnati Bengals. Ben Roethlisberger better than that. I
18:37
Speaker 1: mean it, it doesn't add up to a very promising,
18:42
Speaker 1: promising evening for sure. You know the defense that this
18:46
Speaker 1: offense that's missing key components, particularly at the quarterback position,
18:50
Speaker 1: is going against a team that's led up the fewest
18:53
Speaker 1: points in the National Football League and is a takeaway
18:56
Speaker 1: machine tied for most takeaways in the league, has the
18:58
Speaker 1: most interceptional league. I mean, you know, it's it's staggering.
19:02
Speaker 1: The odds are staggering going into this football game. So
19:06
Speaker 1: the bottom line is the Bengals have to bring their
19:09
Speaker 1: at least a game. Hopefully they have an eight plus game,
19:12
Speaker 1: and you got to hope that the Pittsburgh Steelers are
19:14
Speaker 1: continuing to play at the level they've played at the
19:17
Speaker 1: last the last couple of weeks, which is closer to
19:19
Speaker 1: a sea, you know, for them, a lot of drops
19:23
Speaker 1: that that's the kind of thing that you you need.
19:25
Speaker 1: You need some help from Pittsburgh, to be quite honest,
19:28
Speaker 1: To be quite frank, if Pittsburgh comes out and plays
19:30
Speaker 1: a clean game and Ben operates like he did the
19:33
Speaker 1: first time they played, he had a season high three
19:36
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty three yards passing, the season high four
19:39
Speaker 1: touchdowns passing. Supposedly coming off, you know, a knee injury
19:42
Speaker 1: that they were worried about. He wasn't gonna play it
19:44
Speaker 1: in practice all week. So Pittsburgh's Pittsburgh, There's no doubt
19:49
Speaker 1: about it. And I think that they're you think Dan,
19:54
Speaker 1: at some point they're gonna start to try to commit
19:57
Speaker 1: to running the ball again. Eighty eight percent of their
20:01
Speaker 1: yards the last two in the two game losing stream
20:04
Speaker 1: has come from the passing game, eighty eight percent of
20:07
Speaker 1: their yards generated. And I thought, honestly that in the
20:11
Speaker 1: last game when they went to Buffalo, thought they're going
20:14
Speaker 1: to have to commit to the running game, and I'll
20:16
Speaker 1: be a son of a gun, they sure it didn't.
20:18
Speaker 1: They didn't even try. So I'm thinking Monday and Night
20:21
Speaker 1: football against the Bengals in December. Pittsburgh has to commit
20:26
Speaker 1: to the running game, don't they. But maybe the coaches
20:29
Speaker 1: feel like with the running backs they have and the
20:32
Speaker 1: offensive line they have, and the quarterback they have and
20:34
Speaker 1: the receivers they have the best thing to do spread
20:37
Speaker 1: them out and throw the football and do the quick
20:39
Speaker 1: passing game. And I mean Ben leads the NFL in
20:43
Speaker 1: yards in attempts in completions, but his yards per attempt
20:47
Speaker 1: are way down in the twenties. I mean, he's dinking
20:50
Speaker 1: and duncan. I mean, I don't even recognize the Pittsburgh
20:53
Speaker 1: offense has played in the last couple of games. And
20:55
Speaker 1: I think it might be different on Monday Night. We'll
20:57
Speaker 1: see you. Gotta think they'll try it there. Vaging fifty
21:00
Speaker 1: four rushing yards in their last seven games. That is
21:04
Speaker 1: unbelievable for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yeah, I mean the first
21:08
Speaker 1: time that the Bengals and Steelers played, Pittsburgh only ran
21:14
Speaker 1: for like two point two yards per play. The Bengals
21:17
Speaker 1: ran for six. Now you take the thirty nine yard
21:20
Speaker 1: fake punt out of there, they still ran for five.
21:23
Speaker 1: They had twenty carries, one hundred yards, right than those
21:26
Speaker 1: five yards of carry. Pittsburgh was at two point two
21:29
Speaker 1: onlike twenty carries, twenty carries for like, you know, eighty
21:32
Speaker 1: yards whatever it was, and no one like twenty carries
21:37
Speaker 1: forty forty four yards. I think it was something crazy
21:40
Speaker 1: like that. So that's that's not that's not the Pittsburgh Steelers.
21:45
Speaker 1: You know that that you know And then Ben, of
21:47
Speaker 1: course there in the thirty three yards, like we talked
21:49
Speaker 1: about that at some point in time, I think they're
21:52
Speaker 1: going to commit to more balance. As the playoffs get closer,
21:57
Speaker 1: they're going to have to have more balance than that.
21:59
Speaker 1: They cannot rely on a passing game that multiple receivers
22:04
Speaker 1: are having drops tight end receiver, they're all dropping the football.
22:09
Speaker 1: Christmas shopping done, No, not yet. In that case, I'll
22:15
Speaker 1: wrap up this conversation. You can get to it. Have
22:18
Speaker 1: a good one, Dan, I appreciate it. Thanks obviously, wrap
22:22
Speaker 1: that up because I need to do my Christmas shopping now.
22:26
Speaker 1: Time for this week's one on one player interview. My
22:29
Speaker 1: guest is second year offensive lineman Fred Johnson. After rookie
22:34
Speaker 1: Hakimadenagy started last week's game at left tackle and struggled
22:38
Speaker 1: early Fred wound up playing sixty two of the seventy
22:42
Speaker 1: two offensive snaps. As a result, it seems likely that
22:45
Speaker 1: Fred will get to start at that position this week. Fred,
22:48
Speaker 1: it's been an interesting year, to say the least. You
22:51
Speaker 1: have played three different positions this season, you tested positive
22:54
Speaker 1: for COVID. How would you describe your second NFL season.
22:58
Speaker 1: It's like one of them, the closest that everybody want
23:01
Speaker 1: to like, either they're too scared to ride or they're
23:04
Speaker 1: just you know, it's just one of those like things
23:07
Speaker 1: like you don't really want to do it, but you
23:09
Speaker 1: kind of have to. You know. It's been a lot
23:12
Speaker 1: of ups and downs, me being COVID, switching multiple positions.
23:18
Speaker 1: So it was in the world when the highlight of
23:21
Speaker 1: the Bengals season was the Tennessee game, when four starting
23:25
Speaker 1: offensive linemen were out. You were one of the guys
23:28
Speaker 1: that that came through that day and be the likely
23:31
Speaker 1: playoff team. How would you describe that day and your
23:34
Speaker 1: pride and what the offensive line achieved. I was walking
23:37
Speaker 1: in and like I've seen you know, you know, Mike
23:40
Speaker 1: Jordan was out there for that game, and I've seen
23:42
Speaker 1: him walking on. I was like, what you wanted? You
23:44
Speaker 1: forgot something in your car. He's like, nah, like I
23:47
Speaker 1: can't play to Then I was like, what did yell?
23:50
Speaker 1: We go do that? And uh, it was just one
23:53
Speaker 1: of those things like you know what you're going into,
23:55
Speaker 1: you know what type of mentality you gonna have. And
23:57
Speaker 1: I think we went out there show like, you know,
23:59
Speaker 1: we we are definitely NFL caliber line, you know, being
24:04
Speaker 1: that it was all the scout team, the bomb spat
24:06
Speaker 1: and stuff. So I felt like we proved a lot
24:09
Speaker 1: of people wrong and showed the attitude that you know,
24:12
Speaker 1: the Bengals officive line. You know what we what we
24:15
Speaker 1: want to show, like what we want to display, and
24:17
Speaker 1: h that game just you know work for us. We're
24:21
Speaker 1: chatting with Fred Johnson. And then it was shortly after
24:24
Speaker 1: that game when you tested positive for COVID nineteen. How
24:27
Speaker 1: bad were your symptoms? My symptoms aren't. I think I
24:30
Speaker 1: had symptoms for like, you know, like two to three days,
24:35
Speaker 1: like when I first test a positive, like I felt
24:37
Speaker 1: like I could have had a code or I couldn't
24:39
Speaker 1: have a code. You know, it's just like a little off.
24:41
Speaker 1: But it wasn't like, uh mind staking like they've written
24:44
Speaker 1: or anything like that. And then I had like body aches,
24:47
Speaker 1: but I didn't know if that was from the game.
24:48
Speaker 1: Were just whatever. Then I felt fine, like for the
24:53
Speaker 1: next what However, many days I was on the protocol
24:57
Speaker 1: for ten days, I felt like I was fine. I
24:58
Speaker 1: was working out in my apartment and stuff, you know,
25:01
Speaker 1: just trying to keep some type of you know, fitness level.
25:05
Speaker 1: And it was one of the I was lucky. I
25:08
Speaker 1: was fortunate not to have to go through any severe
25:10
Speaker 1: symptoms and stuff. We're talking to Fred Johnson said, this year,
25:13
Speaker 1: you've started two games at right guard, one game at
25:16
Speaker 1: right tackle. It looks like you'll be the starting left
25:19
Speaker 1: tackle this week. You're clearly willing to do whatever the
25:22
Speaker 1: team needs. But where are you most comfortable. I mean
25:27
Speaker 1: I wanted to do whatever the team needs. You know.
25:29
Speaker 1: The first start against the Browns at right guard. You know,
25:33
Speaker 1: we had a short week and you know, I was
25:35
Speaker 1: getting I got like my revs there, but there was
25:37
Speaker 1: short reps and you had a big task with playing
25:41
Speaker 1: the Browns, and I felt like I settled in and
25:44
Speaker 1: got comfortable a guard. I gave up a play of
25:47
Speaker 1: Miss Garrett, you know. Then I mean I felt most
25:52
Speaker 1: comfortable at you know, tackle first and foremost left or
25:57
Speaker 1: right and just you know, doing whatever. But if the
26:00
Speaker 1: team needs, ben't play guard or whatever, like we'll hand
26:02
Speaker 1: nobody else they knock lightly. You know, accept that role
26:04
Speaker 1: because I played guard for four years in Florida, so
26:08
Speaker 1: you know I feel way. But I how about center?
26:11
Speaker 1: Could you play center if it was a dire ust
26:14
Speaker 1: like have like, hey, you know, if I had to.
26:18
Speaker 1: But we gotta be understanding the whole game. We have
26:21
Speaker 1: to be understand I'm not snapping it back then, no
26:24
Speaker 1: shotgun snaps or ye, shotgun snaps unless you try to
26:28
Speaker 1: run a fumble ruski or something. With this about it,
26:31
Speaker 1: I'd like to see that we're talking to Fred Johnson
26:34
Speaker 1: to this week. It's Monday night football against it. I guess. Yeah,
26:41
Speaker 1: the team you started your NFL career with last year,
26:44
Speaker 1: so you blocked these guys in training camp and in practice.
26:48
Speaker 1: What stood out from that experience from just being with Pittsburgh, Yeah,
26:52
Speaker 1: I mean just the standard of the stuff that they did.
26:56
Speaker 1: You know, how you walk into the locker room, how
26:58
Speaker 1: you you know what I'm saying, hand yourself on the
27:00
Speaker 1: field and meetings and just every little detail about your
27:04
Speaker 1: day with distillers or something that I like like I got,
27:07
Speaker 1: I got kind of like got adapted too, and things
27:10
Speaker 1: of that nature. And uh, just that practice like it's
27:14
Speaker 1: it's you know what I'm saying this, either kid is
27:16
Speaker 1: either kill or be killed. And you gotta show what
27:18
Speaker 1: you got every day, you know what I'm saying. Like
27:20
Speaker 1: you know, Mike Thomas used to preach a find a
27:22
Speaker 1: new find a new problem, you know, a training camp
27:26
Speaker 1: with things or that nature like with God. Like you
27:28
Speaker 1: get coached about something, don't let it be something that
27:30
Speaker 1: you know keeps happening, you know what I'm saying. So
27:33
Speaker 1: that that co league you've been kind of being undrafted
27:36
Speaker 1: rookie out of Florida, you know, trying to make that
27:39
Speaker 1: team with all those guys that they had them in squad.
27:41
Speaker 1: I was just blasting favor to you know, find like
27:44
Speaker 1: understand the playbook as soon as I did, and you know,
27:47
Speaker 1: have have the temps duels that they was looking for
27:50
Speaker 1: and made the fifty three, you know, stay with them
27:53
Speaker 1: for eight weeks, you know, just waiting on my chance
27:54
Speaker 1: to you know, get in the game and stuff. And
27:57
Speaker 1: I was blessed to you know, thanks thankful for the opportunity,
27:59
Speaker 1: and things of that nature were excited to play against
28:02
Speaker 1: them this week and see what happens. So when you're
28:06
Speaker 1: in training camp and you're blocking Cam Hayward and kJ Wattta,
28:11
Speaker 1: how does that prepare you for the NFL? It prepares
28:14
Speaker 1: you lock. I mean just going against those guys. They're
28:17
Speaker 1: high calor guys. I mean, look at look at their
28:19
Speaker 1: whole defness in front, Like those are you know, premier guys,
28:23
Speaker 1: you know, at each of their positions respectfully, and just
28:27
Speaker 1: going against dumb and experience, like you know, every snout.
28:30
Speaker 1: You know, it's just something that prepares you for anything. Really.
28:34
Speaker 1: And the guys on the old line, you know, the
28:37
Speaker 1: vessel with their Ramon Fosters, you know, the wave of
28:40
Speaker 1: US Councils, you know, they were guys well you know
28:43
Speaker 1: you looked up to this stuff, and like I learned
28:47
Speaker 1: a lot from that unit as a whole, and especially
28:50
Speaker 1: individual pieces like of how not to carry yourself coming
28:53
Speaker 1: from college to a pro professional team, and I those
28:56
Speaker 1: things that I felt like I needed to know, felt
28:58
Speaker 1: like I needed to learn there, and I did and
29:01
Speaker 1: I got and I got weighed and then you know
29:03
Speaker 1: that's just the way to Kikie Crumble. So you're from Florida. Yes,
29:08
Speaker 1: it's going to be cold on Monday night. How your
29:10
Speaker 1: body adjusted it? It's just a cold there's no one's
29:14
Speaker 1: no adjusted to it. I don't have a I don't
29:17
Speaker 1: have a thermostat on my right shoulder anything to change
29:20
Speaker 1: the temperature. But I mean it's uh, it's getting I'm
29:23
Speaker 1: getting used to it. Kind of more shorder than uh.
29:26
Speaker 1: We were just out there in the snow and I
29:28
Speaker 1: didn't really feel cold, but it was snowing, so I
29:30
Speaker 1: knew it was cold. But I mean, I'm getting used
29:33
Speaker 1: to it now. The last game was pretty cold, so
29:36
Speaker 1: nothing really too much to say about it. When you're
29:38
Speaker 1: on the field, you know, running around, you know, trying
29:41
Speaker 1: to hit people and stuff. But on the sideline it
29:44
Speaker 1: is probably the worst time. Once you're running around out there,
29:48
Speaker 1: you won't feel it. At that point you want it all.
29:51
Speaker 1: It's perfectly fine then. Bred appreciate your time. Best of
29:54
Speaker 1: luck against the Steelers, Happy holiday problem. Appreciate that both
29:58
Speaker 1: podcast its presented by Bud Light Seltzer. It's light and
30:02
Speaker 1: refreshing with a hint of fruit flavor. The Pittsburgh Steelers
30:06
Speaker 1: come to town on Monday night with an eleven and
30:08
Speaker 1: two record and an eleven game head to head winning
30:11
Speaker 1: streak against the Bengals. Furthermore, Ben Roethlisberger is twenty six
30:17
Speaker 1: and seven in his career against Cincinnati, including fifteen and
30:21
Speaker 1: two at Paul Brown Stadium. I know it's sickening. Ike
30:27
Speaker 1: Taylor was an outstanding cornerback for the Steelers from two
30:31
Speaker 1: thousand and three to twenty fourteen and one a pair
30:34
Speaker 1: of Super Bowl rings. He's currently one of the hosts
30:37
Speaker 1: of the Believe In Steelers podcast, and this week he
30:41
Speaker 1: joined lap In Wayne box Miller on the Bengals Game
30:44
Speaker 1: Plan show to preview Monday night's game. So the big
30:48
Speaker 1: buzz around the National Football League now is who is
30:52
Speaker 1: this Pittsburgh Steeler offense. We've never seen the Pittsburgh Steelers
30:56
Speaker 1: not commit to running the football like they haven't committed
30:59
Speaker 1: this year. They're just not getting it done running the football.
31:02
Speaker 1: But of course Benn has Ben, but it's more of
31:05
Speaker 1: a horizontal you know, um, not dinking dunk, but short
31:09
Speaker 1: intermediate passing game kind of thing. In your opinion, are
31:14
Speaker 1: they doing what's best obviously with the personnel they have.
31:17
Speaker 1: What do you think about the Stealers offense? Boom, You
31:19
Speaker 1: just hit on the head. That's that's that's your personnel.
31:22
Speaker 1: So when you look at the Pittsburgh Feelers offense, you're
31:26
Speaker 1: not looking at the running back room and be like, Okay,
31:28
Speaker 1: this is going to be us. You're looking at that
31:30
Speaker 1: wide receiver chords like, okay, this is us. The only
31:34
Speaker 1: thing when it comes down to this wide receiver chords drops.
31:36
Speaker 1: Of course, the Pittsburger Steelers lead the league and drops.
31:40
Speaker 1: But at the same time, you saw the difference when
31:43
Speaker 1: Deyontay Johnson was on the field and when he was
31:45
Speaker 1: off the field. You saw the energy that he bought
31:48
Speaker 1: when he's off the fielder to what when he's on
31:50
Speaker 1: the sale. So the only thing about that he's the
31:53
Speaker 1: one dropping the ball. Yeah, And that's the reason why
31:57
Speaker 1: Big Ben has went to this quick game passing game
32:01
Speaker 1: one to keep the pressure up off of him too,
32:04
Speaker 1: to get the balls and playmakers like a Deontae Johnson
32:07
Speaker 1: is just the boys gotta catch the ball and they
32:09
Speaker 1: gotta do it consistently, especially in this cold weather. You know,
32:13
Speaker 1: I when you think about guys dropping the ball like that,
32:15
Speaker 1: especially early in the Buffalo game, you guys a defensive backs,
32:19
Speaker 1: do you try to move quickly to get in their
32:21
Speaker 1: head and just remind them about that one hundred scent.
32:26
Speaker 1: I gotta let every time I'm facing you, I gotta
32:29
Speaker 1: let you know, ay, bro, you're about to drop got
32:33
Speaker 1: to cover you because you're gonna drop it anyway. So
32:37
Speaker 1: you know, if I hate, I hate to say it,
32:39
Speaker 1: but in the game of football, when you're on the field,
32:42
Speaker 1: you gotta kick the man while he's down. That that
32:45
Speaker 1: that that's that's That's just how it is because it's
32:48
Speaker 1: one on one. Mindame you mind, No, you gotta kick
32:50
Speaker 1: them while he's down, because I guarantee you, when he's up,
32:54
Speaker 1: he's gonna be calling every name but your name in
32:56
Speaker 1: the pot, smoking you on routes and touchdowns. A lot
33:01
Speaker 1: of that goes on, There's no doubt about that. Keith Butler,
33:04
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Defensive coordinators stay around
33:09
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh for a long time. I mean a lot of
33:11
Speaker 1: them had a lot of success. Is Keith Butler the
33:13
Speaker 1: kind of defensive coordinator the listeners to his players, particularly
33:16
Speaker 1: guys have been around a while. The thing I admire
33:18
Speaker 1: about Pittsburgh most players have played together for a while.
33:22
Speaker 1: They don't even need coaches to make adjustments. Guy still
33:25
Speaker 1: good and understanding what the what the scheme and the
33:27
Speaker 1: concepts all about when you guys come off the field.
33:30
Speaker 1: Keith Butler obviously values the opinion of the players coming
33:33
Speaker 1: off the field and telling them what they're seeing, doesn't
33:35
Speaker 1: he You got to in order to be successful, as
33:40
Speaker 1: coach Butts is as a DC, You're only as successful
33:45
Speaker 1: as the adjustments you make. One two listening to your
33:48
Speaker 1: players because they're on the field. You know, I think
33:50
Speaker 1: as a defensive coordinator sometimes you can go in with
33:53
Speaker 1: a game playing and your players are telling you something
33:56
Speaker 1: different because they're on the field. So now you have
33:59
Speaker 1: to a that's to your game playing coach. Coach Butts
34:03
Speaker 1: does that well, if you know what I'm saying, yep, yep. Yeah.
34:06
Speaker 1: When you think about the secondary the Steelers have, now,
34:09
Speaker 1: what do you like about them? And what do you
34:11
Speaker 1: think maybe a challenge for them? I think they can
34:15
Speaker 1: do a better job of tackling in Oakland space, you
34:20
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. That's that's that's when you're good.
34:22
Speaker 1: Secondaries win championship ball games. Yeah, guy might catch the ball,
34:27
Speaker 1: but once you catch the ball, I'm on my back
34:28
Speaker 1: and I'm making that tackle. It's not gonna be a
34:31
Speaker 1: five yard kiss turning into a third yard game. It's
34:33
Speaker 1: gonna be a five yard catching the five yard catch
34:36
Speaker 1: right there. So the only the only thing I can
34:39
Speaker 1: kind of criticize the Pittsburgh Still a secondary on is
34:42
Speaker 1: really a good criticism is making sure they secure the
34:45
Speaker 1: tackle once the wide receiver catch the ball. At the
34:49
Speaker 1: linebacker position, you talk about a position that's been hit
34:52
Speaker 1: by injury, Bush Spillane Williams do pree. I mean, man,
34:57
Speaker 1: the only guy that's you know, kind of avoiding it.
34:59
Speaker 1: I guess his point is t J. Watt, who's having
35:01
Speaker 1: a great year. But the Pittsburgh Stills, they don't cry
35:04
Speaker 1: and moan about that. It's always next man up with
35:06
Speaker 1: Mike Tomlin, isn't It Ain't a lot right, don't you say?
35:10
Speaker 1: Like the twist the scholars zero zero damn there? You
35:15
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, yea, and coach T Damn then
35:18
Speaker 1: went out there with eight with eight defensive backs. Yep,
35:22
Speaker 1: you know so. So I'm telling you, man, Coach T
35:25
Speaker 1: and coach Butts. Many they it's really next man up.
35:29
Speaker 1: And a lot of teams say that, but they really
35:31
Speaker 1: don't have the depth or the knowledge or the IQ
35:35
Speaker 1: as coaches to actually do that. Coach T with that
35:39
Speaker 1: defense and Coach Butts, they gave the Pittsburgh Sellers offense
35:43
Speaker 1: plenty of opportunities to at least get some points on
35:47
Speaker 1: the board or try to win that ball game. So yeah,
35:49
Speaker 1: it's really next man up. And if Coach T feels
35:52
Speaker 1: like his linebacker crew is depleted, which they are, he's
35:55
Speaker 1: gonna adjust and he's gonna get other extra guys out there.
35:59
Speaker 1: And at that time doing a Buffalo Bill game, it
36:01
Speaker 1: was the defensive backs. You know, one of the things
36:05
Speaker 1: that when you look at this team and you look
36:08
Speaker 1: at people that played in Pittsburgh, whether they move on
36:11
Speaker 1: to other places or coaches that move on to other places,
36:15
Speaker 1: it says some about the way coach Thomlin talks and
36:18
Speaker 1: the way he communicates. Lap Dave Lapham here NFL veteran,
36:22
Speaker 1: talks about that he's just probably one of the best
36:24
Speaker 1: communicators he's ever seen. Man, I've seen a lot of
36:29
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame players that know the game very well,
36:36
Speaker 1: but they're not able to teach it. They're not able
36:41
Speaker 1: to relay the message right. And that's what make good
36:45
Speaker 1: teachers great, and that's what make good coaches great. They
36:49
Speaker 1: understand the game where they understand whether you're a teacher
36:53
Speaker 1: who have a student or whether you're a coach. And
36:55
Speaker 1: this is my player. Every player won't learn the same
37:00
Speaker 1: how as a teacher or how as a coach? Can
37:03
Speaker 1: I simplify and make everybody understand what I'm saying? And
37:08
Speaker 1: I was talking about this on my show To Believe
37:11
Speaker 1: in Still the podcast. All I've been around with Hall
37:14
Speaker 1: of Fame coaches Dick Lebo, Russ Graham, Mike Munchek, Ray
37:20
Speaker 1: Horton probably would had the best IQ of any coach
37:23
Speaker 1: I've ever had as a defensive back coach Cornell Lake
37:26
Speaker 1: who actually played the game, DP who actually played the game,
37:31
Speaker 1: had a Hall of Fame owner in Paul Paul Ruining.
37:34
Speaker 1: So I've just been surrounded by greatness. And what these
37:37
Speaker 1: guys did well was simplify and got everybody on the
37:42
Speaker 1: same page, regardless on how difficult you might thought this
37:46
Speaker 1: defense or how complicated you thought this defense was. And
37:51
Speaker 1: that's the art, because everybody can't do it, you know
37:53
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So and it forced me because I
37:56
Speaker 1: wound up coaching my son's football team to three to
38:00
Speaker 1: three championships. I've learned how the coaches coach me to
38:04
Speaker 1: do the same with my kids, and it's already in
38:06
Speaker 1: the messages. So I just go back and rewind what
38:09
Speaker 1: I just told y'all. A lot of guys have a
38:11
Speaker 1: lot of information in their head, and I'm talking about
38:13
Speaker 1: Hall of Famous and they know the game and they
38:15
Speaker 1: can play the game, but they can't relay the game
38:18
Speaker 1: or they can't teach as the great ones due. I'll
38:22
Speaker 1: tell you what, your son and his teammates are lucky
38:24
Speaker 1: to have you coaching the man. Three championships. That's pretty
38:27
Speaker 1: that's pretty strong. So Mike, Mike Thomlin obviously is defensive
38:31
Speaker 1: oriented as a head coach, so obviously he and Keith
38:35
Speaker 1: bought to have a great relationship, working relationship. Mike, Mike
38:39
Speaker 1: knows probably you know, I can make some suggestions, but
38:42
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna step on Keith's toes.
38:44
Speaker 1: Keith is the coordinator, but Mike, I'm sure has a
38:47
Speaker 1: lot of input, doesn't he. You got them right, I mean,
38:51
Speaker 1: you don't. Don't forget coach. He was a defensive back
38:53
Speaker 1: coach when they won the Super Bowl coach, he wind
38:57
Speaker 1: up going to Minnesota being a defensive coordinator. I guess
38:59
Speaker 1: who number one in the run stop and we was
39:02
Speaker 1: number two. It was the Minnesota Vikings number one stopping
39:05
Speaker 1: the run and we was right under them at number two.
39:08
Speaker 1: But Coach T his love is secondary. He loves, he loves,
39:14
Speaker 1: he loves his secondary guys. That's why he went and
39:18
Speaker 1: got Minka you know, That's why went and got Joe
39:22
Speaker 1: Ye So And usually, you know, the prins Burghs killers.
39:25
Speaker 1: We usually draft corners, but we've been missing a lot.
39:28
Speaker 1: But when you got a sneaky free agent guy like
39:30
Speaker 1: that Mike Hilton, you know what I'm saying, who comes in?
39:34
Speaker 1: When you got a guy like Cam Sudden, who comes
39:37
Speaker 1: in in the slide ether, they can play in the sloder,
39:39
Speaker 1: they can play on the outside. But that's that's coach
39:41
Speaker 1: T fourte But don't please, don't get it twisted, because
39:44
Speaker 1: he felt like, over the course of his coaching career,
39:48
Speaker 1: he's learned the best from a Tony Dungee in the
39:51
Speaker 1: four three in the best in the three four out
39:54
Speaker 1: of a Dick La Boat. Yep. You know, like when
39:57
Speaker 1: you think about the game of football, now you know
40:00
Speaker 1: you're watching your fan, you're a coach, What do you
40:04
Speaker 1: like about the game. Now, obviously the way you hit
40:07
Speaker 1: has changed a lot. You think it would have been
40:09
Speaker 1: hard for you to adjust. No, I was. I was
40:14
Speaker 1: going through this adjustment as I was playing, and coach
40:17
Speaker 1: and Coach T did a great job of making sure
40:20
Speaker 1: we adjusted like the old like the two thousand and three,
40:25
Speaker 1: two thousand and six pitch Birds stillers, Coach T say, hey, man,
40:30
Speaker 1: we ain't get away with these hits no motive. Yeah,
40:32
Speaker 1: this is where I'm telling y'all, this is where the
40:35
Speaker 1: league is going. I know y'all may disagree with it
40:38
Speaker 1: and call it fantasy footballs or powder for football, but
40:42
Speaker 1: I'm telling y'all, old school catch this is where the
40:45
Speaker 1: league is going. And god damn Coat was at least
40:48
Speaker 1: three years ahead of his time, so he already was,
40:51
Speaker 1: you know, transcending, transcending into one of those coaches who
40:56
Speaker 1: understood and had a clear mind and seeing it before
40:59
Speaker 1: everybody else. So he was talking to us before everybody else.
41:02
Speaker 1: That's why you see the Pittsburgh Steelers rarely getting penalized
41:06
Speaker 1: for illegal hits because it's been instilled in us since
41:09
Speaker 1: Coach T was there and coach he did a great
41:12
Speaker 1: job of just teaching and practicing and making sure where
41:15
Speaker 1: where what the league is going. So let me ask
41:18
Speaker 1: you in terms of injury, we talked about Spillan obviously,
41:22
Speaker 1: Williams duprees out out for sure, Hayden. How beat up
41:25
Speaker 1: are all the stealers? How many guys do you think
41:27
Speaker 1: will be able to make the dance and who's not
41:29
Speaker 1: going to be able to? Man, I don't know, And
41:31
Speaker 1: that's a tough question, that's a real good question. But
41:34
Speaker 1: I do know schematically why they'll be ready on defense. Right,
41:38
Speaker 1: That's that's that's what that's that's what I will know,
41:41
Speaker 1: you know, just looking at Coach T and coach but
41:44
Speaker 1: they're gonna look at that roster. They're gonna see who
41:46
Speaker 1: could help them from game the game. From game the game,
41:49
Speaker 1: you're gonna see a different lineup and and and that's
41:51
Speaker 1: what I think it happens. Coach T, to me is
41:55
Speaker 1: a Hall of fame coach. And I played with coach Kyle.
41:58
Speaker 1: He's a Hall of fame coach. I think Coach getting
42:00
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame just as well. Yeah, But when
42:03
Speaker 1: you when you when you have a coach that can
42:05
Speaker 1: sit back and not be stubborn and say this is
42:08
Speaker 1: what I know, this is what I'm doing, and mess
42:12
Speaker 1: up your personnel or don't adjust to your personnel. That's
42:15
Speaker 1: destruction coach. As we can see with a depleted linebacker. Course,
42:20
Speaker 1: he's adjusting weekend week out on what he have on
42:24
Speaker 1: that roster schematically and going in the game and at
42:27
Speaker 1: least giving this team a chance to win. Organizationally, three
42:32
Speaker 1: head coaches since the Vietnam War, no Hall of fame,
42:36
Speaker 1: Kyra hall of fame, Tomlin will be Hall of fame.
42:39
Speaker 1: That is putting the battle the ball man. That is
42:41
Speaker 1: one hell of a decision making organization right there. In
42:45
Speaker 1: terms of picking head coaches, that's start with the Runeys.
42:49
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna go, don't give mister a big shout
42:51
Speaker 1: out because he don't used to get it. He's a
42:54
Speaker 1: man behind the scene. That's that starts with the whole
42:57
Speaker 1: Runny family, you know. So I just took my hat
43:00
Speaker 1: the Runey's family. But like you say, when you got
43:02
Speaker 1: three coaches, nestability and I'll tell you this, we learned
43:07
Speaker 1: that as soon as you walked in that Pittsburgh organization
43:11
Speaker 1: on that second floor you saw in them lobarties, and
43:14
Speaker 1: you saw the mean Joe Green, the lan Swan's, Frank
43:17
Speaker 1: o'harris's third Branshaws, the Jack Lambs. You've seen all of
43:20
Speaker 1: them guys just come around and mel blunts. You've seen
43:23
Speaker 1: all them guys come around often. And you see guys
43:26
Speaker 1: just stay and live in Pittsburgh. And there's a reason
43:29
Speaker 1: why you stay and live in Pittsburgh. Like Pittsburgh, it's
43:32
Speaker 1: really still a city, you know. But you I gotta
43:36
Speaker 1: give it to the Runis because they treat their players
43:40
Speaker 1: like family, Like you don't just work for me. You know,
43:44
Speaker 1: when when when the owner you know, know your kid
43:47
Speaker 1: and know your girlfriend and know your wife's name, or
43:49
Speaker 1: when you come downstairs after a meeting and he didn't
43:52
Speaker 1: gave everybody gifts for their kids, that's really family, you
43:56
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And I'm getting this off of
43:59
Speaker 1: other guys coming from other different organizations, and as soon
44:02
Speaker 1: as they walk in and tho, they just see it
44:04
Speaker 1: and feel it, like I see why y'all went, I
44:08
Speaker 1: see why y'all got this brotherhood. I see why y'all
44:10
Speaker 1: have this commaraderie, like y'all really are a family. And
44:15
Speaker 1: that's what you gotta love about the Pittsburgh still Is organization.
44:18
Speaker 1: But please don't never get it twisted. It starts with
44:20
Speaker 1: the Rooney family, you know. I uh, when you think
44:23
Speaker 1: about the matchup with the Bengals, you guys have had
44:26
Speaker 1: the Bengals number for quite a while. And as we
44:29
Speaker 1: wrap up here, talk about did you guys view playing
44:33
Speaker 1: the Bengals as much of a rivalry as the Bengals
44:36
Speaker 1: did here? Not at all, not one bit Cleveland, not
44:41
Speaker 1: not at all. It was the Baltimore Ravings. Yeah, yeah,
44:45
Speaker 1: that's I mean, it's when you talk about the AFC
44:48
Speaker 1: North and winning the AFC North and going to Super
44:51
Speaker 1: Bowls and making it to the playoffs for the past
44:53
Speaker 1: twenty years, who you're talking about either Chris burg Still
44:57
Speaker 1: or the Baltimore Rakings. Okay, let's bring it back either first.
45:00
Speaker 1: If you want to go to the early nineties, who
45:03
Speaker 1: are you talking about getting into the playoffs trying to
45:05
Speaker 1: Hoiston Lombardy. You're talking about the Pitts Burr Stealers us
45:09
Speaker 1: the Baltimore Rags and and that's and that's just how
45:13
Speaker 1: it's been for at least twenty five years. But I
45:17
Speaker 1: tell you this, and I said this on my show
45:20
Speaker 1: to Day as well. I said, between Cleveland, the Baltimore Ravens,
45:26
Speaker 1: and the Cincinnati Banks, Pittsburgh will have to draft a
45:30
Speaker 1: franchise quarterback this up and coming draft. And the reason
45:35
Speaker 1: why you got I call him Joe Cool, y'all call
45:38
Speaker 1: him Joe Burrow. You got Joe Cool sitting in the pocket,
45:42
Speaker 1: A natural a natural born leader, unnatural born leader. It's
45:47
Speaker 1: crazy how a young guys can come as a rookie
45:50
Speaker 1: and you can see the eyes sitting in the huttel
45:53
Speaker 1: undivided on this man when he's calling the plays, ready break,
45:57
Speaker 1: all synchronized and let's at least try to win the
46:00
Speaker 1: ball game. You can see it like I saw. I
46:03
Speaker 1: saw that Lshoe Like everybody was getting mad at me
46:05
Speaker 1: when I saw Joe Cool, and Lshoe was like, well,
46:08
Speaker 1: he's gonna be some special. He's gonna be some special
46:11
Speaker 1: in the league. And he just when you have a
46:16
Speaker 1: rookie who win as high as Joe, who can, who
46:21
Speaker 1: can pretty much say whatever he wants as then talking
46:25
Speaker 1: down about his teammates on the season and not having
46:29
Speaker 1: a good offensive line right now and not able to
46:31
Speaker 1: win ball games because of the defense sometimes, but when
46:34
Speaker 1: you have a rookie that says in probably he's the
46:37
Speaker 1: best guy on offense, say it's me, it's I. Yeah,
46:42
Speaker 1: that needs to get better. You don't have more on
46:45
Speaker 1: the Monday night matchup on the Bengals pep Rally Show
46:48
Speaker 1: this Friday afternoon from three to six on ESPN fifteen thirty.
46:53
Speaker 1: That's going to do it for this episode of the
46:54
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to you by bud Light, Seltzer
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Speaker 1: refreshed the game. If you ever done so already, please
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47:06
Speaker 1: find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thank you for
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Speaker 1: listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast.