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Bengals Booth Podcast: Opportunity · Bengals Booth Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody on Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
0:06
Speaker 1: the Bengals boot podcast. The Opportunity Opportunity This is your
0:14
Speaker 1: big opportunity addition as we look ahead to Sunday's game
0:20
Speaker 1: at Paul Brown Stadium as the O two and one
0:22
Speaker 1: Bengals are at three point favorite as they host the
0:25
Speaker 1: one and two Jacksonville Jaguars. Coming up, Dave Lapham joins
0:29
Speaker 1: me to discuss right guard. No, not the popular mail deodorant,
0:34
Speaker 1: the position which could use some freshening up. Will cover
0:38
Speaker 1: that and all of the Bengals key storylines. This week's
0:42
Speaker 1: one on one player interview is with center Trey Hopkins
0:45
Speaker 1: as we discuss protecting Joe Burrow and opening holes for
0:49
Speaker 1: Joe Mixon. And finally, it's our No the Faux segment
0:52
Speaker 1: as we get an in depth look at the Jaguars
0:55
Speaker 1: from Gene Frenette, a straight shooting columnist from the Florida
0:59
Speaker 1: Times Union. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Prime Sport,
1:03
Speaker 1: the official hospitality partner of the Cincinnati Bengals. And here's
1:07
Speaker 1: a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition
1:09
Speaker 1: of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or
1:13
Speaker 1: computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or
1:18
Speaker 1: pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since the QB School.
1:24
Speaker 1: Remember JT. O'Sullivan the Bengals backup quarterback in two thousand
1:28
Speaker 1: and nine. He has a channel on YouTube these days
1:31
Speaker 1: called the QB School where he does in depth analysis
1:35
Speaker 1: of quarterback play. On Tuesday, he spent seventeen minutes going
1:40
Speaker 1: over Joe Burrows performance against Philadelphia and it's excellent. I
1:45
Speaker 1: highly recommend checking out the video and then tune into
1:48
Speaker 1: the Bengals pep Rally Show this Friday afternoon. JT will
1:52
Speaker 1: be our guest at three fifteen. Now time to bring
1:55
Speaker 1: in my broadcast partner Dave Lapham. Let's discuss the number
2:00
Speaker 1: any issue on this team, and that is the play
2:02
Speaker 1: of the offensive line. They gave up eight sacks against
2:05
Speaker 1: the Eagles and eighteen quarterback hits, although according to head
2:09
Speaker 1: coach Zach Taylor, the line was not responsible for all
2:12
Speaker 1: of those sacks. The offense lind didn't give up eight sacks,
2:15
Speaker 1: you know, they gave up four, and one of them
2:16
Speaker 1: was at the last play the half. You know, when
2:18
Speaker 1: I asked Joe to hold on the ball for about
2:19
Speaker 1: fifteen seconds. Um, you know, we had receivers involved, we
2:23
Speaker 1: were somewhere on naked, somewhere on the tight end, you know.
2:26
Speaker 1: So there was a lot of people involved in No.
2:27
Speaker 1: Eight sacks. It's always going to be reflection on the
2:29
Speaker 1: offensive line, but that's just not the truth after this game,
2:31
Speaker 1: you know. And and again it's there are we we
2:33
Speaker 1: got to continue to improve up there. You know. We
2:35
Speaker 1: got two guys on the left side there that are
2:38
Speaker 1: played probably combined ten games of their NFL career, and um,
2:41
Speaker 1: we're only going to get better, you know, and those
2:43
Speaker 1: guys are are accountable to what they can improve on.
2:46
Speaker 1: And so again I'm not I'm always. I'm always. Um,
2:50
Speaker 1: it's never as bad as you think it is. And
2:52
Speaker 1: there's some things that we're improving on, and um, we'll
2:54
Speaker 1: continue to improve on as the season goes. That being said,
2:57
Speaker 1: how how do you feel about the amount of times
2:59
Speaker 1: Joe was contact something? Did those differ from maybe some
3:01
Speaker 1: of the contacts that he had in Week one and
3:03
Speaker 1: Week two? Yeah, I do, you know, it's we had
3:06
Speaker 1: two sprint outs where he got contacted on you know,
3:08
Speaker 1: out of bounds almost you know, and and his biggest
3:11
Speaker 1: hit of the day was on a naked you know,
3:13
Speaker 1: where he scrambled on a naked and the line's not
3:16
Speaker 1: really planning on him being there. You're faking to the
3:18
Speaker 1: right and you're keeping the ball the left. They're not
3:20
Speaker 1: expecting him to be back on the right hitting an
3:22
Speaker 1: explosive play. To TV, that's just what he brings to
3:25
Speaker 1: the table. You know, it's anything's on the table on
3:27
Speaker 1: any given play call. And you know he got hit.
3:30
Speaker 1: We got the penalty there, and so you know, some
3:33
Speaker 1: of those that look really bad are on some plays
3:36
Speaker 1: where we don't necessarily intend on that happening. But again,
3:38
Speaker 1: that's that's what makes Joe the player that he is
3:41
Speaker 1: is he's not afraid to take those hits and put
3:43
Speaker 1: himself in those positions because it means explosive plays. And
3:46
Speaker 1: there's a balance there of being smart, you know, not
3:48
Speaker 1: putting yourself in that position. But at the same time,
3:51
Speaker 1: I'm screaming out and throw the ball away. On the
3:53
Speaker 1: play where t got called out of bounds, I'm scrammed
3:56
Speaker 1: two feet from him, screaming throw the ball away. All
3:57
Speaker 1: of a sudden, he puts a spin move on somebody
3:59
Speaker 1: and gets us twenty five completion completion on the field
4:02
Speaker 1: and turns on sources of laughing at me, you know.
4:04
Speaker 1: So there's just some things with his offense that we're learning.
4:09
Speaker 1: There's gonna be some explosives there that are unexpected, and
4:12
Speaker 1: we got we gotta be all the block for ten
4:13
Speaker 1: seconds sometimes and some things where you don't think the
4:15
Speaker 1: ball's coming back at you, but it is. And that's
4:17
Speaker 1: part of what's going to make this thing pretty exciting.
4:19
Speaker 1: All Right, we're gonna hear from Joe Burrow on that
4:21
Speaker 1: subject in just a little bit. Let's unpack some of
4:24
Speaker 1: the stuff that Zach Taylor had to say there. He said,
4:27
Speaker 1: I asked Joe to hold on to the ball for
4:29
Speaker 1: fifteen seconds. He's referring to the Hail Mary at the
4:32
Speaker 1: end of the second quarter. Then he also talked about
4:34
Speaker 1: the biggest hit that he took, that shot, that wicked
4:36
Speaker 1: shot that knocked the wind out of him on a
4:39
Speaker 1: naked So he's rolling out to his left, there's a
4:42
Speaker 1: guy there. He stops, starts to run back to the
4:45
Speaker 1: right a little bit. And in the NFL, if you
4:48
Speaker 1: do that, you are setting yourself up to potentially just
4:51
Speaker 1: get crushed. Le did You're on your own and Malik
4:53
Speaker 1: Jackson said, oh, I'm going hunting, and you put a
4:57
Speaker 1: big X on his chest and shoulder and smoked it.
5:02
Speaker 1: You can rationalize, You can build a case, almost like
5:05
Speaker 1: a lawyer, to say, oh, you know, eight sacks, they
5:09
Speaker 1: all weren't in the offensive line. And that's true, but
5:11
Speaker 1: you can find other plays where the quarterback save the
5:14
Speaker 1: offensive line from a sack, or a running back save
5:17
Speaker 1: the offensive line from a sack. I don't care what
5:19
Speaker 1: the numbers say. I don't care how you try to
5:21
Speaker 1: rationalize it. All I know is one I'm watching a
5:23
Speaker 1: game as a former lineman. I don't see a clean
5:26
Speaker 1: enough pocket a high enough percentage of the time. And
5:29
Speaker 1: you can Billy Day all you want about you know
5:32
Speaker 1: this that I don't give a damn. It's like, is
5:35
Speaker 1: the pocket secure enough but with the center and guards
5:38
Speaker 1: for the quarterback to step up if he needs to,
5:40
Speaker 1: And is it wide enough from the tackles for the
5:42
Speaker 1: quarterback not to worry about getting hit? And way too
5:46
Speaker 1: higher percentage of the time. It's not. And I'm not
5:49
Speaker 1: saying it's all five guys. I'm not saying that by
5:52
Speaker 1: any stretch, because I've been there and I know it
5:54
Speaker 1: only takes one guy, but there's way too many times
5:57
Speaker 1: where it's happening where one guy has an issue. And
6:00
Speaker 1: in some cases, you know, like Zach said after the game,
6:03
Speaker 1: his first reaction as a former quarterback after the game
6:06
Speaker 1: is when a three technique is coming up to feel
6:08
Speaker 1: like a free runner and that's the outside shoulder of
6:10
Speaker 1: the guard. The right guard is coming up the field
6:12
Speaker 1: like he's hardly touched. That's disconcerting to the quarterback, no
6:17
Speaker 1: question about it. So the bottom line is it has
6:21
Speaker 1: to get better. I know what good protection looks like.
6:25
Speaker 1: I think almost everybody knows what good protection looks like.
6:28
Speaker 1: Right now, it's not good protection. It's not good enough.
6:30
Speaker 1: And you know, and Joe needs to make an effort
6:35
Speaker 1: to not exacerbate the problem. He needs to make a
6:38
Speaker 1: decision where man if I start to take too many
6:41
Speaker 1: of these, I'm not going to be around for a
6:43
Speaker 1: very long time because these guys. The SEC is a
6:46
Speaker 1: great level of competition, but these guys are bigger, faster,
6:48
Speaker 1: stronger than the SEC. Has more offensive and defensive line
6:52
Speaker 1: playing in the NFL than any conference. But all of
6:55
Speaker 1: these guys playing in the NFL right now on both
6:58
Speaker 1: sides of the line of scrimmage could play in the SEC,
7:00
Speaker 1: not just you know, two per team, maybe three on
7:04
Speaker 1: a team offensive defensive lineman. So it's just another jump up.
7:08
Speaker 1: I mean, you have defensive ends outside linebackers that are
7:12
Speaker 1: more athletic than running backs you played against in college.
7:16
Speaker 1: It's crazy. That's just that's nature of the beast, and
7:19
Speaker 1: you're just going to have to decide I'm gonna put
7:22
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna put myself at unnecessary risk for the
7:25
Speaker 1: sake of one play. Not going to do it. Molie
7:27
Speaker 1: Campbell got penalized for that hit, and I'm sure he'll
7:30
Speaker 1: get fine, but I'm alike Jackson. I'm sorry, but I
7:33
Speaker 1: really haven't heard anybody talk about that as a cheap shot.
7:36
Speaker 1: If Vontest Berfect had hit a quarterback like that, it
7:39
Speaker 1: would have run non stop. Right twenty four to seven,
7:43
Speaker 1: people would have been calling for him to be banned
7:45
Speaker 1: from the league. I'm not saying Malik of Jackson is
7:48
Speaker 1: a dirty player. I don't know of any history of
7:51
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, but that was a dirty hit
7:55
Speaker 1: in my opinion, Yeah it was. It didn't launch himself
7:59
Speaker 1: toward the shoulder neck area, he ran through him. You know,
8:03
Speaker 1: kind of you're right, if Vontes Berfet or Joe Green,
8:06
Speaker 1: or you know, pick a guy Dick Buckis, pick a
8:08
Speaker 1: guy with a reputation, so you know that can be
8:12
Speaker 1: a prejudicial scenario, There's no question about it. But he
8:16
Speaker 1: was flagged. I'm glad he was flagged because you know,
8:19
Speaker 1: one of those I wonder if you'se find he will
8:21
Speaker 1: be fined. I mean, the league find that out at
8:23
Speaker 1: the end of the week. He wasn't ejected, obviously, but
8:26
Speaker 1: I'm sure he's looking at the final he was penalized
8:28
Speaker 1: like that. Bottom line is you got to protect quarterbacks.
8:32
Speaker 1: A Quarterbacks are the storyline of the National Football League
8:34
Speaker 1: and they're the most valuable asset you have in your company.
8:38
Speaker 1: So you gotta protect him. You gotta protect him. All right,
8:41
Speaker 1: Let's talk about right guard Xavier sue Philo was the
8:44
Speaker 1: starter in Week one. He got hurt. Billy Price finished
8:47
Speaker 1: up that game. Fred Johnson started and played Game two.
8:51
Speaker 1: Fred Johnson started Game three, got yanked at halftime, Billy
8:54
Speaker 1: Price finished up. It didn't go particularly well. They've got
8:57
Speaker 1: Alex Redman on the practice squad. They promote did keep
9:00
Speaker 1: in Sutherland from the practice squad this week. What are
9:04
Speaker 1: they going to do a right guard. Before you answer
9:06
Speaker 1: the question, let's hear from offensive coordinator Brian Callahan. We're
9:10
Speaker 1: looking at all of them and the play there has
9:13
Speaker 1: got to be better, and I think everybody can see that. Um.
9:18
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know that I felt at halftime.
9:21
Speaker 1: We kind of felt French struggling more than as you watched.
9:24
Speaker 1: The tape wasn't as bad as itself. There's just a
9:26
Speaker 1: couple of plays that make it feel bad. And then
9:29
Speaker 1: Billy kind of did some good things early and then
9:31
Speaker 1: he struggled late in the game there in passcrow. So
9:35
Speaker 1: we just we need better play there. And so all
9:37
Speaker 1: the options are on the table as far as the
9:40
Speaker 1: players that are on our roster. Um. You know, I
9:43
Speaker 1: ultimately the chances of a Pro Bowl guard walking through
9:47
Speaker 1: your door and week through the season are real low.
9:51
Speaker 1: It's just there's just the nature of it. So there's
9:53
Speaker 1: really no cavalry comment in that sense. Um. So we
9:56
Speaker 1: gotta we gotta find ways to take it. The best
9:58
Speaker 1: guys on the field, and we're looking at all the options,
10:01
Speaker 1: especially who's here, and if there is somebody out there
10:04
Speaker 1: in the world that can help us, we'll sort of
10:06
Speaker 1: look at that too. He sounded like Rick Petino and
10:08
Speaker 1: his Boston Celtics days, Larry Bird and Kevin McHale aren't
10:11
Speaker 1: walking through that door. And he's right, you're probably not
10:14
Speaker 1: going to be able to land a great guard right
10:16
Speaker 1: now at this point of the season. But but what
10:18
Speaker 1: do you think, what do they do? It's it's open competition,
10:22
Speaker 1: you know. And if I'm if I'm alignman, if I'm
10:24
Speaker 1: a guard, I'm like, this is my chance, you know.
10:28
Speaker 1: But the problem is, why the hell hasn't that happened
10:31
Speaker 1: long before this? Why does it have to come to
10:33
Speaker 1: this desperate situation where it was so bad that the
10:38
Speaker 1: right guard was the biggest problem in the past, protection
10:42
Speaker 1: from more snaps than not. So why did it come
10:45
Speaker 1: Why does it come down to this? This is the
10:46
Speaker 1: fourth game of the season. Now, there was no training camp, now,
10:49
Speaker 1: ot is all that sort of thing. They thought they
10:52
Speaker 1: were better off than they were. Obviously once it got
10:54
Speaker 1: to live bullets, man, it certainly wasn't good enough anywhere
10:58
Speaker 1: near good enough. And in my opinion, the guy that
11:01
Speaker 1: can handle the job the best is Alex Redmond. Alex
11:04
Speaker 1: Redmond has seventeen NFL starts. Alex Redman has played next
11:08
Speaker 1: to Trey Hopkins, He's played next to Bobby Hart. They
11:11
Speaker 1: know live action, where to set for stunts. They have
11:16
Speaker 1: a feel for each other. They they've communicated all those
11:19
Speaker 1: kind of things that are important. They're extremely important. You know.
11:23
Speaker 1: So if he's healthy. But that's the problem. You know,
11:26
Speaker 1: Alex had the wrestling incident. I guess you know in
11:29
Speaker 1: the offseason right for training missus training camp. Now there's
11:32
Speaker 1: no preseason games, no OTAs, no mini camps, and he
11:36
Speaker 1: missed his training camp. What are you supposed to do?
11:39
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, he painted himself in the organization
11:43
Speaker 1: both into a corner and they decided, you know, he's
11:46
Speaker 1: not ready for they let him go. And the and
11:48
Speaker 1: the thing is what has to go on the light
11:50
Speaker 1: that has to go on his head is nobody picked
11:52
Speaker 1: him up when the Bengals let him go, Nobody picked
11:56
Speaker 1: him up. The Bengals brought him back. Okay, so now
12:01
Speaker 1: when you're healthy, we know you can play, we know
12:04
Speaker 1: you can finish, we know you're a beast, we know
12:06
Speaker 1: you can you know, by finish, it's like not just
12:09
Speaker 1: block people, but then try to abuse him at the
12:11
Speaker 1: end of it and say, you know, you're not gonna
12:13
Speaker 1: want to line up against me anymore. That kind of
12:15
Speaker 1: an attitude. He has got that saltiness. Now he has
12:18
Speaker 1: to make sure he doesn't take it too far. Don't
12:20
Speaker 1: let the pendult swing too far. You don't want any
12:21
Speaker 1: silly penalties. You don't want any false starch, you don't
12:24
Speaker 1: want mental errors. You know, those are the kind of
12:26
Speaker 1: things he has to make sure. He has to make
12:28
Speaker 1: sure he is on point dot and I crossing the
12:30
Speaker 1: tea detail oriented proved to the coaches that he is
12:34
Speaker 1: not only ready to go physically, ready to go mentally.
12:36
Speaker 1: Because if that's the case, he's the best right guard
12:39
Speaker 1: they have in my opinion, bar none. You know, case closed.
12:42
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's best in league or anything like that,
12:44
Speaker 1: but I'm saying from what they've got to choose from
12:46
Speaker 1: right now, he is their most viable and best option.
12:50
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow has been sacked more often than any other
12:52
Speaker 1: quarterback in the NFL so far this year. He's been
12:54
Speaker 1: sacked fourteen times. Deshaun Watson of Houston right behind him
12:58
Speaker 1: with thirteen sacks. According to Pro Football Focus, if you
13:03
Speaker 1: measure the highest percentage of pressure, it's not at the
13:08
Speaker 1: top in terms of the Bengals. Former Bengals quarterback Jeff
13:10
Speaker 1: Driscoll has been pressured on forty seven percent of his
13:14
Speaker 1: drop backs, that's number one. Joe Burrow has been pressured
13:17
Speaker 1: on roughly thirty eight percent of his drop backs, that
13:21
Speaker 1: is ninth most in the NFL. So here's Joe Burrow
13:25
Speaker 1: on the pressure he has been facing in his first
13:28
Speaker 1: three NFL games. You know my style, everyone talks about
13:31
Speaker 1: the hits and you know the sacks. My style of play,
13:34
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get hit. You know, I'm gonna try to
13:36
Speaker 1: extend the play as much as I can. And that's
13:38
Speaker 1: something that I'm gonna have to live with, and I've
13:42
Speaker 1: I've lived with it. I understand that. You know that's
13:44
Speaker 1: going to happen. You know, there were a couple of
13:47
Speaker 1: times where I held the ball a little too long
13:49
Speaker 1: and you know at the end of half, end of
13:52
Speaker 1: game that you know, the eight sacks was kind of
13:54
Speaker 1: misleading because you end a half end of game, you
13:58
Speaker 1: don't want to turn it over, you don't want to
14:00
Speaker 1: the clock to stop. So I took a couple of
14:02
Speaker 1: sacks on purpose. Um, So the eight sacks was a
14:05
Speaker 1: little misleading. So I remember one you you ran a
14:08
Speaker 1: naked bootleg, wasn't there You started to come back and
14:12
Speaker 1: try to make a play, you know, like you have,
14:13
Speaker 1: You've done a lot and uh, you're you're on your
14:16
Speaker 1: own then, I guess, aren't you. Yeah, you know That's
14:20
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna live with when I make When I'm
14:23
Speaker 1: you know, running about, running around out there trying to
14:25
Speaker 1: make plays. You know, I understand that I'm gonna take
14:28
Speaker 1: hits when I you know, naked to my left, roll
14:30
Speaker 1: back right. But we completed the ball, made a play,
14:32
Speaker 1: got a first down. So I'm gonna live with that
14:34
Speaker 1: hit every day of the week. As you advance in
14:37
Speaker 1: your NFL career, there's a balancing act there between taking
14:41
Speaker 1: the hit, making the play. Taking the hit and making
14:43
Speaker 1: the play. Are you still in the process of going
14:45
Speaker 1: through evaluation part of it? Yeah? But like I said,
14:49
Speaker 1: I'm always gonna try to make a play. And now
14:51
Speaker 1: you know, I understand when and when not to. You
14:54
Speaker 1: know the situations of the game. You know, if it's
14:57
Speaker 1: second and long, you know, getting closer, taking a sack,
15:01
Speaker 1: just get rid of the ball and play third and
15:03
Speaker 1: you know eight instead of third and fifteen. But you know,
15:06
Speaker 1: on the one, it was second and fifteen, and in
15:09
Speaker 1: my mind, there's not a lot of difference between second
15:11
Speaker 1: and fifteen and third and twenty. So I'm gonna extend
15:14
Speaker 1: that play a little longer than I would have otherwise.
15:17
Speaker 1: After the game, Sacks said that, you know, when the
15:20
Speaker 1: three technique is getting big time pressure, it's almost like
15:23
Speaker 1: a free runner. It doesn't matter what play is called.
15:26
Speaker 1: You know, it's a tough dynamic. I mean, that's hard
15:28
Speaker 1: for you to see in that situation when the pressure
15:30
Speaker 1: is coming right in your face in the middle of
15:31
Speaker 1: the pocket, isn't it. Yeah, But you know it's my
15:34
Speaker 1: job to make that guy miss and make a play.
15:38
Speaker 1: You know, I don't get paid to take sacks. I
15:40
Speaker 1: get paid to make plays, and so that's my job.
15:43
Speaker 1: Things are going to happen where you know, we got
15:46
Speaker 1: five guys blocking every single play, and they got pass
15:49
Speaker 1: rushers that are paid millions of dollars to come and
15:51
Speaker 1: sack me. So guys are gonna lose, Guys are gonna
15:53
Speaker 1: get beat. That's the nature of the league. It's my
15:55
Speaker 1: job to limit mistakes and make plays. Let's talk about
15:59
Speaker 1: the sacks a little bit more lap right now, he's
16:01
Speaker 1: on a pace to basically tie the all times single
16:04
Speaker 1: season record that was set by David Carr number one overall,
16:07
Speaker 1: picked by Houston his rookie year, when he got sacked
16:10
Speaker 1: seventy six times. That's basically the pace that Joe Burrow
16:13
Speaker 1: is on right now. He got sacked eight times last week.
16:16
Speaker 1: I went back and looked at the most sacks that
16:19
Speaker 1: the all time great Bengals quarterbacks took in a single game,
16:23
Speaker 1: Kenny Anderson eight, Carson Palmer six with Cincinnati, but yet
16:28
Speaker 1: sacked eight times once with the Arizona Cardinals, Boomer six,
16:34
Speaker 1: Andy Dalton eight last year, the all time record David
16:38
Speaker 1: Klingler in his first NFL start ten. That's the Bengals record.
16:42
Speaker 1: That's not the NFL record, which is twelve shared by
16:45
Speaker 1: two great quarterbacks, Donovan mcnabbin Warren Moon. Yeah, and you wonder, Okay,
16:50
Speaker 1: those guys are athletic running around, you know, trying to
16:53
Speaker 1: hold the ball, make plays and everything goes along with it.
16:57
Speaker 1: You know. I wonder what Andrew Luck, how his career
17:00
Speaker 1: would have been if he can do now. The offensive line, though,
17:03
Speaker 1: is much different. I think Andrew Luck right now would
17:06
Speaker 1: be enjoying his life because Philip rivers Is and the
17:09
Speaker 1: Indianapolis Colts fixed that problem after Andrew Luck decided to retire,
17:14
Speaker 1: which is unfortunate. But yeah, it's look like like Joe
17:18
Speaker 1: Burrow said, pass rushers are paid a lot of money.
17:21
Speaker 1: Defensive linemen paid a lot of money to rush the
17:24
Speaker 1: passer and pressure the quarterback. And the Bengals right now
17:27
Speaker 1: dan lasting the league in sacks with fourteen that's thirty second,
17:30
Speaker 1: one hundred and seven yards lost thirty second as well,
17:33
Speaker 1: dead last. They've lost over a football field. They've given
17:36
Speaker 1: back over a football field of offense due to their
17:39
Speaker 1: quarterback sacks Denver who you mentioned, you know, with our
17:43
Speaker 1: with our good buddy playing a quarterback position, thirteen sacks,
17:46
Speaker 1: one hundred and six yards, one less sack, one less yard.
17:49
Speaker 1: They're thirty first in both categories. So when you're given
17:52
Speaker 1: up fourteen sacks and over a football field in yards,
17:57
Speaker 1: it's obviously it's it's something that has to be addressed.
18:01
Speaker 1: But then on the other hand, Joe Burrows the only
18:03
Speaker 1: rookie quarterback since nineteen fifty that has back to back
18:07
Speaker 1: games thirty plus completions with no interceptions since nineteen fifty,
18:11
Speaker 1: So in the midst of all of that that's going
18:14
Speaker 1: on around him, you know, all the whirlwind, He's still
18:18
Speaker 1: executing and performing pretty darn well. So if things get better,
18:22
Speaker 1: think how much better Joe can be. He's not operating
18:26
Speaker 1: at a deficient level right now as a rookie quarterback
18:29
Speaker 1: with all the friends going on around him. So if
18:32
Speaker 1: that can improve whatever percent, ten percent, twenty percent, Joe
18:36
Speaker 1: Burrow will improve as well. I mean it can only
18:40
Speaker 1: get better. I mean if if he's posting these numbers
18:43
Speaker 1: under these adverse conditions, when conditions improve, so should his numbers.
18:48
Speaker 1: He has one for sixteen on throws that have traveled
18:51
Speaker 1: twenty or more yards downfield. The one completion his first
18:55
Speaker 1: career NFL touchdown to C j Uzama, and that was
18:58
Speaker 1: twenty three yards, So it's not like fifty. How much
19:01
Speaker 1: of that is not having time and space? I think
19:04
Speaker 1: a good bit of it. And you know the other
19:07
Speaker 1: thing is if you get ping ponged around when you
19:11
Speaker 1: do have an opportunity, you overthrow it. I mean I
19:15
Speaker 1: think I think the throw that overthrew it to AJ Green,
19:18
Speaker 1: he said himself, high school quarterback, it's got to make
19:21
Speaker 1: that throw ninety nine times out of one hundred Joe
19:24
Speaker 1: Burrow hits Aj Green. I think on that pass now,
19:28
Speaker 1: you know, am I saying that pressure had affected him
19:31
Speaker 1: at that point that early in the season to where
19:33
Speaker 1: he didn't make a good throw. I don't know, Maybe,
19:36
Speaker 1: maybe not, but I do know that over time, when
19:40
Speaker 1: you're getting smacked around like that, it's like, oh, here's
19:43
Speaker 1: the the deep ball opportunity. Oh it might be, it
19:46
Speaker 1: might present itself here, get it out now. You're getting
19:48
Speaker 1: it out too fast. You're not as accurate as you
19:51
Speaker 1: could be. If you if you feel like I mean
19:54
Speaker 1: the great deep ball throwers. You know you're throwing with
19:58
Speaker 1: the anticipation and accuracy everywhere deep ball as well, but
20:01
Speaker 1: the deep ball throws that really killed defenses over the years.
20:05
Speaker 1: Hold it that extra half a beat to make short
20:08
Speaker 1: and the boom laser you know, getting in there. I mean,
20:10
Speaker 1: it's it is. It's all about time and like we've
20:14
Speaker 1: talked about a million times, space, keep people arm's length away,
20:18
Speaker 1: keep them away from Joe Burrow. So far this season,
20:21
Speaker 1: for lack of a better term, Aj Green has looked pedestrian.
20:25
Speaker 1: Not terrible, but not what you expect out of Aj Green.
20:29
Speaker 1: He's on a pace for sixty nine catches and six
20:32
Speaker 1: hundred nineteen yards this season. His longest catch so far
20:36
Speaker 1: this year is fifteen yards. Here's offensive coordinator Brian Callahan
20:40
Speaker 1: on the first three games of the year for Aj Green.
20:43
Speaker 1: You need to get more on Aj There's no question
20:46
Speaker 1: about that, you know. And I think he's felt his
20:51
Speaker 1: way through three weeks here after not playing for two years,
20:54
Speaker 1: and I think every time he steps out there, he
20:56
Speaker 1: gets better and gets more comfortable. And you know, he
21:00
Speaker 1: really hasn't taken reps in the offense up until the
21:03
Speaker 1: season started. You know, he's been a right he's been
21:06
Speaker 1: meetings and he's been attentive and he understands and but
21:09
Speaker 1: you know, going out and doing it sometimes it's a
21:11
Speaker 1: lot different than it is sitting in a classroom, and
21:14
Speaker 1: that part of it's. I think every day that goes by,
21:16
Speaker 1: he gets more comfortable, he gains more confidence, and you know,
21:20
Speaker 1: we need Ada to help us. And then we've called
21:22
Speaker 1: on him in some big spots already this year and
21:24
Speaker 1: he's made place for us, and we just you got
21:26
Speaker 1: to continue to find ways to get him the ball
21:29
Speaker 1: and get him give him more optus and make plays
21:31
Speaker 1: as well. Brian when you were talking about receivers stretching
21:33
Speaker 1: the field. I think you said that Aj can still
21:36
Speaker 1: do a little of that. There was a time that
21:38
Speaker 1: he there was a time that he did a lot
21:40
Speaker 1: of that. Does that kind of reflect where he is
21:43
Speaker 1: at this stage of his career. I think he just
21:45
Speaker 1: he's just coming off of a hamstring injury that limited
21:49
Speaker 1: him for most of Camp. I think he feels finally
21:52
Speaker 1: feels like he's fully ready to open it up, and
21:57
Speaker 1: he's done a lot of good things so far. He's
21:58
Speaker 1: put a lot of content the balls that have been
22:02
Speaker 1: first downs and good plays for us to move the
22:05
Speaker 1: chains down the field, and finding ways to get aged
22:08
Speaker 1: down the fields and more too, is something that you know,
22:11
Speaker 1: we need to keep keep prodding and pushing to get
22:13
Speaker 1: to that spot. I don't know that it's effect of
22:15
Speaker 1: anything other than um, you know, kind of how the
22:18
Speaker 1: games have fallen, the types of scheme we've seen, and ultimately,
22:22
Speaker 1: you know, being able to get in a position to
22:25
Speaker 1: throw those balls down the field. You know, we missed
22:27
Speaker 1: him in the Chargers game. He was he was open.
22:30
Speaker 1: So I don't think it's a factive other than just
22:33
Speaker 1: just gotta gotta connect on some of the deep shots
22:35
Speaker 1: and then you've got to find ways to get them there.
22:38
Speaker 1: In the last two weeks, at least when I've been watching,
22:41
Speaker 1: I don't see great separation between AJ Green and the
22:44
Speaker 1: guys covering him. And Denzel Warden Darius Slay are two
22:47
Speaker 1: to the better cornerbacks in the NFL, So that has
22:49
Speaker 1: something to do with that. But we're talking about AJ Green.
22:51
Speaker 1: It didn't matter who covered him in the past, the
22:54
Speaker 1: best corners in the game at least a few times
22:56
Speaker 1: during the game, he was going to fake them out
22:58
Speaker 1: of their jock and be wide open. AJ Green's body
23:01
Speaker 1: language oozes with uncertainty in my opinion, you know, like
23:07
Speaker 1: I think Brian Callahan said, he's kind of feeling his way,
23:10
Speaker 1: you know, out there on the football field. And I
23:12
Speaker 1: concur one hundred thousand percent, and I've said it a
23:15
Speaker 1: million times and I'll say one more. He's a REP guy.
23:19
Speaker 1: He will tell you I'm a REP guy. I need
23:22
Speaker 1: to be on the football field doing it over and
23:25
Speaker 1: over and over again. He's not a guy that takes
23:27
Speaker 1: it from the classroom and feels comfortable until he's out
23:30
Speaker 1: on the field actually going through the process with a
23:33
Speaker 1: defender and knowing exactly what he's doing, how he's supposed
23:38
Speaker 1: to do it, where he's supposed to be, how he's
23:40
Speaker 1: supposed to get there, all those kind of things. And
23:42
Speaker 1: there's no doubt in my mind that when opposing coaches
23:46
Speaker 1: and players watch tape of AJ right now, they say,
23:50
Speaker 1: let's get our hands on him. In the past, AJ would,
23:54
Speaker 1: I mean, just destroy guys that we're trying to, you know,
23:57
Speaker 1: check him out the line of scrimmage, bump and run,
23:59
Speaker 1: he'd be he'd have a release and be buy him.
24:02
Speaker 1: Now they're getting their hands on him, and they're riding
24:04
Speaker 1: you know, they're riding them, you know, And I mean
24:06
Speaker 1: the touchdown passed a good example could have been called.
24:09
Speaker 1: Could have because he more than five yards down the field.
24:13
Speaker 1: Maybe he had his hands on him. You can chuck
24:16
Speaker 1: within a five yard area. Was at the three yard line,
24:19
Speaker 1: so it was close, wasn't that? How much out of that?
24:21
Speaker 1: But you can't bear hug him, you can't put an
24:23
Speaker 1: arm around him, which is what happened. And then he
24:26
Speaker 1: could call for the push off, but he was so
24:28
Speaker 1: frustrated because of how he was bottled up. He pushed
24:30
Speaker 1: off to get to try to get separation because he
24:33
Speaker 1: knew they were going to him. They said, Aj, this
24:36
Speaker 1: is the biggest play of the game. You're our best player.
24:39
Speaker 1: We're going to you. And he knew it. So he
24:42
Speaker 1: knew at the top of his route. Damn, this ain't working.
24:46
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta do something to give some separation.
24:49
Speaker 1: So right now, watching AJ, I'm watching a player with
24:54
Speaker 1: a little uncertainty. You know, I'm not saying he doesn't
24:58
Speaker 1: know what to do assignment wise. What I'm saying he
25:00
Speaker 1: has not had enough repetition where he feels totally comfortable,
25:04
Speaker 1: where he's just ripping up the football field. You know,
25:07
Speaker 1: he's he's he's it all hang out to me, to me,
25:11
Speaker 1: he's got a governor on him. You know, he hasn't
25:13
Speaker 1: he doesn't let he hasn't let it go to the
25:16
Speaker 1: to the top of his uh you know, auto bond
25:18
Speaker 1: type range. Yet he's got a governor, you know, And
25:21
Speaker 1: and hopefully he'll start to feel more and more comfortable
25:24
Speaker 1: and take that governor off. On defense, Carl Lawson had
25:28
Speaker 1: two sacks last week. He also had a pair of hurries,
25:31
Speaker 1: and according to Pro Football Focus, Lawson is currently tied
25:34
Speaker 1: for eighteenth among edge defenders through three weeks. He also
25:39
Speaker 1: had a good game as a run stopper last week
25:40
Speaker 1: in Philly, and he embarrassed nine time Pro Bowl left
25:44
Speaker 1: tackle Jason Peters. Here's Carl on last week's performance. I
25:49
Speaker 1: think me just being on the field more is just
25:51
Speaker 1: you know, that's kind of helped because it's like, you
25:53
Speaker 1: know sometimes when you gotta um sub in and get
25:56
Speaker 1: your motor running a little bit, you know, kind of
25:58
Speaker 1: but now you know, it's on something a bitter a
26:00
Speaker 1: better role this year where I get to play, you know,
26:02
Speaker 1: for a second and third down. I'm just getting the
26:04
Speaker 1: rhythm and I can you know, impose my will on
26:06
Speaker 1: the game a little bit more, you know, So I
26:08
Speaker 1: don't not necessarily think that Peters was doing it. Just
26:10
Speaker 1: you know, just me being out there more and just
26:14
Speaker 1: having some experience I think helped with my play. Is
26:17
Speaker 1: Carl Lawson more than a situational pass rusher? I think
26:20
Speaker 1: he is now. He does have three quarterback sacks, tied
26:23
Speaker 1: for fifth in the NFL with Miles Garrett and Joey Bosa.
26:26
Speaker 1: Pretty good company. But he can play the run. I
26:29
Speaker 1: mean when he gets lined up on tight ends and
26:33
Speaker 1: some of the packages that lou An Rumo has. It's
26:35
Speaker 1: a it's a mismatch. And the thing about him is
26:38
Speaker 1: he plays with low center of gravity anyway, and he
26:41
Speaker 1: does that in the running game as well. And he's
26:43
Speaker 1: got really good hip snap. He can roll his hips
26:45
Speaker 1: and man, when he strikes you and has that low
26:48
Speaker 1: pad level, he can be a load. I mean, he's
26:51
Speaker 1: got a very very quick first step. He's sudden, he's explosive.
26:54
Speaker 1: He can play with power, he can play with strength,
26:56
Speaker 1: he can convert power to strength. He's got a bunch
26:59
Speaker 1: of trade that that would translate to more than just
27:04
Speaker 1: like an edge pass rush guy on third down. I
27:06
Speaker 1: think he can do more than that. For you, did
27:09
Speaker 1: lou Anna Romo basically let the front four go in
27:12
Speaker 1: passing situations last week? It seemed like it. Yeah, it
27:15
Speaker 1: seemed like they they thought we got some favorable matchups here.
27:19
Speaker 1: I mean, Peters is going in the Hall of Fame,
27:22
Speaker 1: but he's thirty eight years old, it's seventeen season. He's
27:25
Speaker 1: you know, I was kidding during the game, they're two
27:28
Speaker 1: statue of liberties, one in Philadelphia and one in New York.
27:31
Speaker 1: Because he wasn't He's not moving like he was and
27:34
Speaker 1: Carl Lawson was the one one arm stab throwing him around.
27:38
Speaker 1: I mean he was, he was just having his way
27:39
Speaker 1: with him. But yeah, it's it's uh, they decided they
27:44
Speaker 1: could just beat him. Don't have to do anything fancy,
27:47
Speaker 1: don't have to overload the blitz action, don't have to
27:49
Speaker 1: twist as much. Just one on one pass rush, get
27:52
Speaker 1: up the field and get something done. And Carlos Dunlap
27:55
Speaker 1: had nine unassisted tackles. That's a that's a very productive
27:57
Speaker 1: day out of the defensive end. Like I said a
28:00
Speaker 1: couple of times, I thought they let Lane Johnson get
28:03
Speaker 1: away with some action on the edge. I thought that
28:06
Speaker 1: Lane Johnson, I know, he's coming off an ankle injury.
28:08
Speaker 1: He looked a little diminished, and Peters looked big time
28:11
Speaker 1: diminished from where he was in his prime. Did Mike
28:14
Speaker 1: Daniels have an impact in his return? He did. You know,
28:16
Speaker 1: he's uh, he definitely you know, can invert the line
28:21
Speaker 1: of scrimmage. And he played another one plays with a
28:24
Speaker 1: low pad level. He's you know, six to one and
28:26
Speaker 1: three hundred plus pounds. I mean that's like trying to
28:28
Speaker 1: block a you know, a mini fridge that's got some mobility,
28:31
Speaker 1: or a hydrant that can move around and he definitely
28:34
Speaker 1: he definitely shores it up for him up front. Hopefully
28:38
Speaker 1: the word is that he came out of it well,
28:39
Speaker 1: I was, you know, Okay, you come off a groin,
28:42
Speaker 1: you play twenty some odd snaps the next day after
28:45
Speaker 1: the game. Is the tale of the tape? How so
28:48
Speaker 1: are you? How stiff are you? And uh, he went
28:50
Speaker 1: into the training when I might understand, you know, not
28:52
Speaker 1: in that serious scenario. So hopefully he'll be able to
28:56
Speaker 1: ramp up his snaps because he's going to help. And
28:59
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm not sure about Gino. Doesn't look
29:02
Speaker 1: like Gino's gonna make the dance this week either, unfortunately.
29:05
Speaker 1: And you know how bad is this shoulder injury? What's
29:09
Speaker 1: going on here? You know it's get your best defensive
29:12
Speaker 1: player not playing the first month of the first four
29:14
Speaker 1: games of the season. Man, you could use him. It's
29:17
Speaker 1: a team struggling to stop the run. He can help that.
29:20
Speaker 1: He and Daniel's in there together with DJ Reader and rotation.
29:24
Speaker 1: I'm dogging hunt right there. Gino Atkins did practice on
29:28
Speaker 1: a limited basis on Wednesday, so if he's not back
29:31
Speaker 1: this week, hopefully he'll return soon. Linebacker Logan Wilson missed
29:35
Speaker 1: Wednesday's practice due to the concussion protocol. The highest graded
29:40
Speaker 1: pass blocker through three games on the Bengals offensive line
29:43
Speaker 1: has been center Trey Hopkins. Pro Football Focus ranks him
29:47
Speaker 1: tenth among NFL centers in that category so far this year.
29:51
Speaker 1: It's only his second year at the position, and I
29:54
Speaker 1: spoke to the twenty eight year old this week. Trey,
29:57
Speaker 1: you know how this works, regardless of how many pass
30:00
Speaker 1: at tempt your quarterback throws or if there are situations
30:02
Speaker 1: where he has to get rid of the ball, if
30:04
Speaker 1: he gets sacked, the offensive line gets ripped. How difficult
30:08
Speaker 1: is that aspect of the job right now? I think
30:11
Speaker 1: we've made it more difficult than it needs to be.
30:13
Speaker 1: We just have to settle things down, and we have
30:16
Speaker 1: to We have to give each other tommy needs, no
30:18
Speaker 1: matter how many times it is in a game, matter
30:20
Speaker 1: where we throw it a hundred times, when we throw
30:22
Speaker 1: it once, um, when the plays called block it is
30:25
Speaker 1: our responsibility. So just let it stay that simple, I guess,
30:29
Speaker 1: and and and we just got to do a better
30:31
Speaker 1: job to share it up and be a lot firmer
30:33
Speaker 1: up there. Following last week's game, both Zach Taylor and
30:36
Speaker 1: Brian Callahan said when they looked back at the tape,
30:39
Speaker 1: it was better than they thought. Did you feel the
30:42
Speaker 1: same way. It's difficult to find yourself get into that conclusion.
30:47
Speaker 1: It's a it's a very it's a difficult thing. It's
30:50
Speaker 1: a it's a thing that takes a lot of maturity
30:52
Speaker 1: because I mean a tie, it's still not a win.
30:55
Speaker 1: So you still have that that you still have that
30:57
Speaker 1: same bitter taste in your mouth, and a lot of
31:01
Speaker 1: times it's easier to just to go go over the
31:03
Speaker 1: things that went wrong. Those things seem to stand out
31:05
Speaker 1: a lot more in your head when when you don't
31:08
Speaker 1: win a game, just like when you win a game,
31:09
Speaker 1: things that went right, since he seemed to stand down
31:11
Speaker 1: a lot more than they should, but they're both exactly correct.
31:15
Speaker 1: When we sat down with the coach and actually watched
31:17
Speaker 1: the film and slowed down and watched play by play
31:19
Speaker 1: and watch assignments and steps and techniques, yes, there there
31:23
Speaker 1: has been an improvement um and throughout these three games
31:27
Speaker 1: so far, still not enough obviously to get the win,
31:30
Speaker 1: which is the ultimate goals. So he has to keep
31:31
Speaker 1: pushing towards that. Visiting with Trey Hopkins on the play
31:35
Speaker 1: last week where Joe Burrow had the win knocked out
31:38
Speaker 1: of him. Did that take the wind out of you
31:41
Speaker 1: watching it? Yeah? Yeah, it it definitely. It's not a
31:46
Speaker 1: not a good feeling, not a not a good play,
31:49
Speaker 1: not something that you ever want to have happened, for sure,
31:53
Speaker 1: for sure it was. It was definitely disheartened. I want
31:56
Speaker 1: to go back to it. Joe Burrow quote from the
31:58
Speaker 1: preseason about his relationship with the offensive line. He said,
32:02
Speaker 1: those guys have to be my best friends. I have
32:05
Speaker 1: to make them happy so they'll fight for me. And
32:07
Speaker 1: then he went on to say they are going to
32:09
Speaker 1: have some nice Christmas presents this year. Does Joe make
32:13
Speaker 1: you guys feel appreciated? Yeah he does. Yeah, he does.
32:16
Speaker 1: And one thing Joe does he makes it a point,
32:20
Speaker 1: which is something that's kind of new. He always speaks
32:22
Speaker 1: to the aligne first thing he doesn't he comes into
32:24
Speaker 1: the huddle Eastern series, he speaks to the olne and
32:26
Speaker 1: practicing in the games, and he's been a great presence.
32:30
Speaker 1: Um he hasn't been a down. Bo's been an encouraging
32:34
Speaker 1: one and just letting us know, hey, I'm on board
32:37
Speaker 1: you guys and we got to get this thing right,
32:38
Speaker 1: and then I believe and he believes in us to
32:40
Speaker 1: get it right. So now it's just up to us
32:42
Speaker 1: to protect the guy and to do a better job
32:45
Speaker 1: at that all of us. Let's turn to the running game.
32:48
Speaker 1: It was excellent in the second half of the season
32:50
Speaker 1: last year. Can you put a finger on why you
32:52
Speaker 1: haven't been able to pick up where you left off?
32:55
Speaker 1: Not exactly a finger. It's one of those things where
32:57
Speaker 1: you look at you look at the film and it's
33:00
Speaker 1: it takes all eleven on offense and even when you
33:02
Speaker 1: got ten doing it right, you got nine. Those pieces
33:06
Speaker 1: are critical, and that's one thing that's that's where we're at.
33:08
Speaker 1: That's what we're seeing with our run game. It's just
33:10
Speaker 1: small pieces or what you think are small pieces, actually
33:13
Speaker 1: play a huge role when it comes to live bullets.
33:16
Speaker 1: So it's just making sure all eleven guys were all
33:19
Speaker 1: we're all on the same page, and we're all executing
33:21
Speaker 1: to the best of our abilities on each place. You
33:23
Speaker 1: never know when the big run could be. You never
33:26
Speaker 1: know when you're one block. Even if you don't get
33:29
Speaker 1: it right, there one extra that that little bit of
33:31
Speaker 1: strange just gets to get the defender of off balance
33:34
Speaker 1: just a little bit more to get Joe just firsting
33:36
Speaker 1: through that hole, you know what I'm saying. So it
33:39
Speaker 1: just comes to all of us executing on every play,
33:42
Speaker 1: not each of us taking taking our turns and missing
33:45
Speaker 1: an assignment or missing a step or being behind or
33:47
Speaker 1: something like that. It hasn't been what you would have
33:50
Speaker 1: wanted so far, but it's been far superior to the
33:53
Speaker 1: first half of last year. Does the turnaround you had
33:57
Speaker 1: last year give you confidence that you will turn it
34:00
Speaker 1: around him again this year? Sure? I mean I have
34:02
Speaker 1: confidence because the guys that are in this locker room
34:04
Speaker 1: one hundred percent now. We don't want it to take
34:07
Speaker 1: as long as last year. Obviously, we have a game
34:09
Speaker 1: coming up on Sunday that we have to be confident
34:12
Speaker 1: that we can win. We are confident that we can win,
34:14
Speaker 1: and we deserve too, and we're gonna work and prepare
34:16
Speaker 1: for it. Um So the turnaround, we're not giving ourselves
34:20
Speaker 1: that much time, We're not giving ourselves that much that
34:22
Speaker 1: much leadway we need. We need this right now because
34:25
Speaker 1: the guys in this locker room deserve it. We work
34:27
Speaker 1: too hard, they put in a lot of time. We've
34:29
Speaker 1: got to turn this thing around. Now, you've played with
34:32
Speaker 1: three right guards in three games, partly due to injury,
34:35
Speaker 1: partly due to performance. How difficult is that. It's not
34:39
Speaker 1: the best situation, it's not optimal. It's not what you
34:41
Speaker 1: would go into the season and say, yeah, we're just
34:43
Speaker 1: gonna rotate each one. But it's it's part. It's something
34:46
Speaker 1: that just happens, and like anything else, you gotta take
34:49
Speaker 1: it in stride and you gotta roll with the punches
34:50
Speaker 1: and the guy that gets called up, that guy just
34:53
Speaker 1: does the best disability. Everybody around him, rally around him,
34:56
Speaker 1: and we get this thing going. It's not something that
34:58
Speaker 1: you could really you can labor on too long or
35:01
Speaker 1: woe is me about? It's just it is what it is.
35:04
Speaker 1: Let's play last thing for Trey Hopkins. You've got a
35:07
Speaker 1: three point loss, you've got a five point loss, you
35:09
Speaker 1: have a tie. Are you encouraged by how close these
35:13
Speaker 1: games have been or angry that you have not been
35:15
Speaker 1: able to seal the deal? Angry? We were close all
35:19
Speaker 1: last year in a two win season. We were close
35:22
Speaker 1: in pretty much all of those games. All said, there
35:24
Speaker 1: wasn't a game that I felt like we just could
35:26
Speaker 1: not have one. So It's not enough to be close.
35:30
Speaker 1: It's not enough to have a competitive game or to
35:33
Speaker 1: not gonna get blown out. These are games that we
35:34
Speaker 1: can when we should win, and we have to figure
35:36
Speaker 1: out a way to win. Hope you get it done
35:39
Speaker 1: this Sunday. Thanks for the time, appreciate it trade so much.
35:42
Speaker 1: Now time to turn our attention to this week's opponent,
35:45
Speaker 1: but one and two Jacksonville Jaguars. It looked like they
35:48
Speaker 1: were in full tanking for Trevor Mode when they traded
35:51
Speaker 1: away defensive stars Jalen Ramsey, Klias Campbell, and Yunique and
35:56
Speaker 1: Gockway and released running back Leonard Fournette. But lo and behold.
36:01
Speaker 1: The Jags opened the season by upsetting the Colts and
36:04
Speaker 1: had the Titans on the ropes in Week two before
36:06
Speaker 1: losing on a field goal in the final two minutes.
36:09
Speaker 1: But then Jacksonville laid a Terra dactyl sized egg last week,
36:14
Speaker 1: losing by eighteen to the Dolphins at home. Gene Frenette,
36:18
Speaker 1: a columnist to the Florida Times Union, joined Lapping Me
36:21
Speaker 1: on the Bengals Game Plan show this week, and I
36:23
Speaker 1: asked Jean if the Jaguars had exceeded his expectations so
36:27
Speaker 1: far this year a little bit. Certainly the last game
36:31
Speaker 1: gives you a little bit of a pause, right, I mean,
36:35
Speaker 1: it looked like a semblance of Jaguars teams we've seen
36:38
Speaker 1: in the past, and more to the point, it looked
36:42
Speaker 1: like a team that was very, very young and you know,
36:47
Speaker 1: maybe did not handle having a little bit of praise
36:50
Speaker 1: thrown their way the first two weeks, and for whatever reason,
36:54
Speaker 1: you know, put up a clunker. And now, now granted
36:56
Speaker 1: they had some injury issues. I mean, their starting center
36:59
Speaker 1: was out for the game, their best receiver DJ Shark
37:02
Speaker 1: and best deep threat did not play, So that's you know,
37:05
Speaker 1: that's a little bit, a little bit of it, but
37:07
Speaker 1: you know, you certainly can't blame all of it on that,
37:09
Speaker 1: right at Plus, they lost their h you know, probably
37:12
Speaker 1: what may be the one of the top two place
37:14
Speaker 1: kickers in the league, and Josh Lambo, who's still on
37:17
Speaker 1: IR won't and won't be there this week either. That, oh,
37:21
Speaker 1: you know, all those things factored in a little bit.
37:23
Speaker 1: But you know, none of that excuses the fact that
37:26
Speaker 1: the Jaguars defense for the third week in a row,
37:29
Speaker 1: looked absolutely hideous in the first quarter and put and
37:33
Speaker 1: put the and put their team in a fourteen point
37:35
Speaker 1: hole yet again. Yeah, that's the thing that is amazing
37:39
Speaker 1: to me. Thirty five points allowed in the first quarter,
37:42
Speaker 1: twenty seven in the second quarter, sixty three points allowed
37:45
Speaker 1: in the first half, and three football games. That that
37:48
Speaker 1: makes it. That makes it some tough sledding for you.
37:50
Speaker 1: When you talk about how young thirty youngest team in
37:52
Speaker 1: the league, twenty five years, twenty and seventy four days
37:55
Speaker 1: average age of the football team, thirty six players with
37:58
Speaker 1: four years or less varience? Were all the changes made
38:02
Speaker 1: with the name players strictly economics or a segment earlier
38:07
Speaker 1: here in the show, we were talking about culture. Were
38:10
Speaker 1: their culture issues that some of these veteran players were
38:13
Speaker 1: causing problems and concerns? Was of a combination of everything.
38:17
Speaker 1: Why did they decide to just strip it and get
38:19
Speaker 1: so young? Well, the accurate answer is it was a
38:23
Speaker 1: little bit of both. Some of it was salary cap related,
38:25
Speaker 1: some of it was culture related. And by the way,
38:27
Speaker 1: the Jaguars the youngest team in the NFL, and I
38:30
Speaker 1: think the only reason it might have gone the third
38:32
Speaker 1: youngest is because they had to sign a veteran that
38:35
Speaker 1: bumped up their average. Because they were they were more
38:38
Speaker 1: like about twenty five years and one month. Okay there
38:42
Speaker 1: for a while, but you know, I mean this, yeah,
38:44
Speaker 1: this is going on going off of release from the
38:46
Speaker 1: league for this game. Yeah, yeah, point the point, the
38:49
Speaker 1: point is obvious. But no, it was it was both
38:51
Speaker 1: culture and economics related. They you know, they they traded
38:56
Speaker 1: away Calais Campbell. That was certainly an economics issue. That
38:58
Speaker 1: certainly wasn't a production culture issue because he's the best
39:02
Speaker 1: leader you had in that locker room. So uh, Jawen Ramsey,
39:07
Speaker 1: that was pretty well documented what happened there, and they
39:09
Speaker 1: ended up getting two first round draft picks for it
39:12
Speaker 1: for him, so A. J. Bouier was probably a little
39:15
Speaker 1: bit more economics. And then you've you know, there's an
39:19
Speaker 1: unique and goaqway. I mean, you saw with that situation
39:22
Speaker 1: evolved into he didn't want to play for the team anymore,
39:25
Speaker 1: and h you know, but he wasn't a bad guy
39:27
Speaker 1: in the locker room, but he just got to the
39:29
Speaker 1: point where he was shut up because he didn't think
39:31
Speaker 1: he was getting that he didn't think he was valued
39:33
Speaker 1: as much as he valued himself. And consequently, uh, you
39:37
Speaker 1: know we've seen that you know, the pass rushers weren't
39:41
Speaker 1: getting the high market and deals they were getting two
39:43
Speaker 1: years ago, and he just, you know, he just got
39:45
Speaker 1: caught in a little bit of a timing thing and
39:48
Speaker 1: so so. But the point is when you let go
39:51
Speaker 1: that many veteran talented guys and you replace them with younger,
39:57
Speaker 1: cheaper players, you know every once in wow, that's going
40:00
Speaker 1: to come back and bite you. And I think that
40:02
Speaker 1: was what we saw the other night. You know, you
40:04
Speaker 1: saw a young team on the big stage, had it
40:07
Speaker 1: all to him, to itself and just did not handle
40:10
Speaker 1: it well. Right. Jeane for Nett from the Florida Times
40:13
Speaker 1: Union is our guest Jean for nine years here, Andy
40:16
Speaker 1: Dalton was the quarterback and a lot of people felt like, well,
40:18
Speaker 1: clearly he's good enough to get you to the playoffs,
40:21
Speaker 1: but is he good enough to take you to a
40:23
Speaker 1: super Bowl or win a Super Bowl? What about Gardner? Minshew?
40:27
Speaker 1: He's obviously proven he's good enough to you know, keep
40:32
Speaker 1: them in games. He has some terrific performances like he
40:34
Speaker 1: did in Week one, But can an NFL team win
40:37
Speaker 1: big with Gardner? Minshew? Well, the Jaguars are the Jaguars.
40:43
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know if he'll get. I don't
40:44
Speaker 1: know if he'll get that chance to find that out
40:46
Speaker 1: with the Jaguars. You know, as you know, the NFL
40:48
Speaker 1: is a week to week league. You know, first two
40:51
Speaker 1: weeks go by and they're saying, hey, we got something
40:53
Speaker 1: really it looks like we might have something really special
40:55
Speaker 1: in Gardner Minshew. Then a game like Miami happened, and
40:58
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden you're tapping the breaks a
41:00
Speaker 1: little bit, and then you realize that you know, things
41:03
Speaker 1: are going to change from week to week. And in
41:07
Speaker 1: my opinion, Gardner Minshew is gonna be a quarterback in
41:10
Speaker 1: this league for a long time. He's gonna he's gonna
41:13
Speaker 1: be in this league in some capacity for the next
41:16
Speaker 1: eight to ten years in my opinion. Now what is
41:20
Speaker 1: going to be his role over the course of that time,
41:23
Speaker 1: that I think is still to be determined. I think
41:25
Speaker 1: the Jaguars think they got something pretty good in him.
41:28
Speaker 1: But I also think that Gardner Minshew is the type
41:31
Speaker 1: of quarterback you've got to surround him with some really,
41:34
Speaker 1: really good and special talent if you're going to go
41:37
Speaker 1: a long ways with him. That's just my feeling on it.
41:40
Speaker 1: I you know, and you know what that describes a
41:43
Speaker 1: lot of NFL starting quarterbacks, you know, if they don't
41:46
Speaker 1: have there's only like three or four guys in the
41:48
Speaker 1: entire league that can literally put a team on their
41:51
Speaker 1: shoulders and take them somewhere. Right. So, well, Aaron Rodgers,
41:58
Speaker 1: certainly Tom Brady and at a younger Tom Brady, a
42:01
Speaker 1: younger Drew Brees. But there's just not that There's just
42:04
Speaker 1: not that many of those guys. You know. I'm Patrick Mahomes. Yeah,
42:08
Speaker 1: but you know what, I'd like to see how Patrick
42:10
Speaker 1: Mahomes would do if he had the job, if he
42:12
Speaker 1: had the Jaguars skill players. I mean, I'm not taking
42:16
Speaker 1: anything away from Patrick Mahomes, but he came into a
42:19
Speaker 1: perfect ready made situation in terms of the running back,
42:22
Speaker 1: in terms of the receivers, in terms of the tight end. Um,
42:26
Speaker 1: he's a special quarterback there. Yeah, he's a generational talent,
42:29
Speaker 1: There's no doubt. Also he also benefited from you know,
42:32
Speaker 1: having Andy Reid and just a great situation. So uh,
42:37
Speaker 1: you know, I mean right now, I think Russell. I
42:39
Speaker 1: think Russell Wilson's the best quarter if you if you
42:41
Speaker 1: asked me to pick the best quarterback in the NFL,
42:42
Speaker 1: I'd be Russell Wilson, he'd be my first pick. But
42:46
Speaker 1: getting back to Minshew, I you know, it's it's still
42:50
Speaker 1: it's a work in progress, that's what it is. You know,
42:53
Speaker 1: if he goes up this week and has a great
42:56
Speaker 1: game against the Bengals and the Jaguars win, you know,
42:59
Speaker 1: ten or fourteen, four points, well, does that validate him
43:02
Speaker 1: as the long term answer at the court at the
43:04
Speaker 1: quarterback position. No. I mean you're going up against a
43:07
Speaker 1: rookie and Joe Burrow who's taking fourteen sacks who sell
43:10
Speaker 1: in the first three games. I don't know how many
43:12
Speaker 1: of those are covered sacks, how many of those are
43:14
Speaker 1: have either you know, got sacked immediately ort or held
43:18
Speaker 1: the ball too long. It's probably a little bit of both. Right,
43:21
Speaker 1: So you know, this week is certainly not going to
43:23
Speaker 1: be a you know, affirmation or otherwise on Gardner Minshew.
43:30
Speaker 1: He's just got to keep trying to progress as a
43:31
Speaker 1: quarterback and hope that he's good enough to win the job.
43:36
Speaker 1: Because quite frankly, if if you know, if they only
43:38
Speaker 1: win three or four games this year and they get
43:41
Speaker 1: and they're able to get into the Trevor Lawrence sweep sing,
43:44
Speaker 1: I think the Jaggers will be good enough. It will
43:46
Speaker 1: be just good enough to stay out of the Trevor
43:48
Speaker 1: Lawrence Derby. Let's put it that way, right right. I
43:52
Speaker 1: think the fact that you're talking about the uncertainty of
43:56
Speaker 1: the player, Minshew, it's going to be about running the football.
43:59
Speaker 1: And you go a free agent college free agent running
44:02
Speaker 1: back Robinson, who is very impressive to watch on tape.
44:06
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's Maurice Jones Drew, but he's a
44:08
Speaker 1: poor man I don't know how poor man, but he's
44:10
Speaker 1: a poor man version kind of in my guys a
44:12
Speaker 1: little bit watching him. Three touchdowns rushing tied for seventh
44:15
Speaker 1: in the NFL, averaging four to nine to carry two
44:18
Speaker 1: in ten yards, eleventh in the NFL. And last year
44:22
Speaker 1: Jaguars rushed for two hundred and sixteen yards against the
44:24
Speaker 1: Bengals and when so, I would think Jacksonville's game plan.
44:27
Speaker 1: I don't know what Jake Gruden's thinking, but I would
44:29
Speaker 1: think he'd come in here and run the football. The
44:32
Speaker 1: Bengs are dead last in the NFL, not only this year,
44:35
Speaker 1: but over the last two years twenty nineteen and twenty
44:38
Speaker 1: twenty against the run, giving up over one hundred and
44:40
Speaker 1: fifty yards a game on the ground over the last
44:43
Speaker 1: year plus, so I would think that would be their big,
44:46
Speaker 1: big deal. Well, you certainly have to you certainly have
44:51
Speaker 1: to think that that has to be part of it.
44:53
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, I know it's a passing league, right,
44:56
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's that's what that's what the NFL
44:58
Speaker 1: evolved into for the last ten seen years. But you
45:01
Speaker 1: look at the teams that are running the ball, well,
45:03
Speaker 1: those are the teams that have got the better records
45:05
Speaker 1: in the NFL right now, and the teams that pass
45:08
Speaker 1: the ball a lot, including your Bengals, are not doing
45:11
Speaker 1: so well. You have to be able to You have
45:14
Speaker 1: to be able to have you got to have a
45:15
Speaker 1: running game. I mean, you just do. I mean the
45:18
Speaker 1: Kansas City Chiefs are maybe a little bit of an
45:20
Speaker 1: outlier there, but for the most part, you've got to
45:23
Speaker 1: be able to run the ball when you want to
45:25
Speaker 1: run it. And you know the Jaguars, you know, they've
45:27
Speaker 1: fallen behind early, and it'll be interesting to see what
45:30
Speaker 1: happens if they win the coin toss again, whether they'll
45:33
Speaker 1: defer or take the ball, because you know, Doug Maron
45:36
Speaker 1: has said he's going to maybe revisit the strategy of
45:38
Speaker 1: always deferring when he wins the coin toss, because you know,
45:41
Speaker 1: the Jaguars I've gotten off these terrible starts because of
45:45
Speaker 1: what the defense is, you know, basically sleepwalking in the
45:50
Speaker 1: first quarter for whatever reason, or maybe they're just not
45:52
Speaker 1: good enough. It's possible that that that's the possibility as well.
45:56
Speaker 1: But you know, they're certainly not playing as bad in
45:58
Speaker 1: the fourth and third and second orders as they have
46:00
Speaker 1: been in the first. But yeah, I mean, James Robinson
46:04
Speaker 1: has just been He's been the most pleasant surprise of all.
46:08
Speaker 1: I mean, there's it's not even it's not even close.
46:10
Speaker 1: I mean, when you ask Jaguars, you know who, who's
46:13
Speaker 1: who's been the biggest surprise? They weren't. Now, James Robinson
46:17
Speaker 1: was not a surprise to the coaching staff because they
46:20
Speaker 1: saw in camp, you know how well you know, particularly
46:23
Speaker 1: his vision. He just has seems to have a knack
46:26
Speaker 1: for making the first guy miss and for picking the
46:29
Speaker 1: right hole and being decisive and doing it. And you
46:33
Speaker 1: know that's the reason why his yards for terry average
46:35
Speaker 1: right now is as good as it is. Small sample size,
46:38
Speaker 1: I get it, three games, but yeah, I mean I would.
46:41
Speaker 1: I would expect James Robinson has been averaging seventeen touches
46:44
Speaker 1: a game between receiving and rushing, and I would expect
46:50
Speaker 1: that that that trend would continue and maybe even get
46:52
Speaker 1: up a little bit. But you know, the Jaguar has
46:54
Speaker 1: got a lot of weapons. But if they don't have
46:56
Speaker 1: DJ Chark this weekend, and I think that's going to
46:58
Speaker 1: be a game time decision, and I think Lender the
47:01
Speaker 1: center will also be a game time decision. Chart does
47:04
Speaker 1: change things a little bit. It may it's going to
47:07
Speaker 1: be a lot easier for defensive coordinators to defend the
47:09
Speaker 1: Jaguars if Chart's not in the lineup. Didn't they Jack
47:12
Speaker 1: go get a second opinion? What happened with that second opinion?
47:15
Speaker 1: I've heard somewhere he's getting a second opinion on his chest. Yeah,
47:19
Speaker 1: I don't know what's happened with the second opinion, But
47:22
Speaker 1: you know he's back in practice today on a limited basis,
47:24
Speaker 1: and it just feels like to me that Jaggars are
47:27
Speaker 1: going to take this up all the way until Sunday,
47:29
Speaker 1: and he'll be a game time decision. You know you
47:31
Speaker 1: got you when you've got chess issues and back, I
47:34
Speaker 1: mean that that's you know, that's quite a bit to
47:37
Speaker 1: deal with, and maybe they sit him out for one
47:39
Speaker 1: more week just to give him time to for cool breakers,
47:42
Speaker 1: you know. You know, if this was mid December, they
47:45
Speaker 1: probably have him out there. But you know, it's only
47:47
Speaker 1: week four and the last thing you want to do
47:49
Speaker 1: is aggravate that injury and then you'll have him out,
47:51
Speaker 1: you know, and then you'll have him on ir you know.
47:53
Speaker 1: So I think that the Jaguars are going to play
47:58
Speaker 1: that with a lot of caution going into this Sunday.
48:01
Speaker 1: My last question for Jean for Net from the Florida
48:03
Speaker 1: Times Union. How does Tyler Eifford look? Uh, well, you know,
48:10
Speaker 1: I mean he's uh, he's a pretty pretty good looking guy.
48:16
Speaker 1: Is he practicing much? But I mean from a football
48:22
Speaker 1: standpoint for now, I mean, to be perfectly honest with him,
48:26
Speaker 1: he looks like he's just a guy, you know, just
48:29
Speaker 1: to you know, okay, tight end, good, you know, decent blocker,
48:34
Speaker 1: I guess, but you know, I haven't seen anything for
48:38
Speaker 1: right now that makes me go, boy, Jaguards were smart
48:40
Speaker 1: to go get him now. I'm sure, you know, I
48:42
Speaker 1: bet Tyler might be a little bit more productive this
48:45
Speaker 1: week facing his old employer. In fact, he actually I
48:49
Speaker 1: was I was somewhat impressed that he actually had a sarcastic,
48:55
Speaker 1: dead panning remark when asked about whether he had a conversation,
48:59
Speaker 1: you know, with with with Minshew about you know, being
49:02
Speaker 1: able to have more production this week, and yeah he said, yeah,
49:05
Speaker 1: I said, we talked about twenty targets. Of course, then
49:11
Speaker 1: he reverted back to, uh, you know, Vanilla Bland. Nice
49:16
Speaker 1: guy answer your question, Tyler effort, but nothing, you know
49:21
Speaker 1: now he hasn't made it. Yeah, he hasn't made me go,
49:24
Speaker 1: oh wow. He looks like the guy. He looks like
49:27
Speaker 1: that tight end from you know, five years ago or whatever. Yeah,
49:30
Speaker 1: the twenty fifteen version. Unfortunately he took too many, too
49:34
Speaker 1: many shots, no doubt, no doubt. Final question. Final question
49:38
Speaker 1: here too, Gene, And thanks for all the time you
49:40
Speaker 1: carve for us. Um the guy who basically said, let's
49:44
Speaker 1: get Tyler right down here. He knows my system. Jay Gruden,
49:47
Speaker 1: what kind of an impact has he had with the organization? Offensively,
49:53
Speaker 1: you can't begin to imagine how many rose pedals and
49:56
Speaker 1: bouquets were thrown at Jay Steep after the first two
50:00
Speaker 1: games in the season. Oh gosh. He was like, oh,
50:04
Speaker 1: finally we got this play caller enough. And this is
50:07
Speaker 1: one of my pet peeves about NFL fans and even
50:10
Speaker 1: about the media to some degree that if something works
50:13
Speaker 1: really well, it's a great play call, and if something
50:16
Speaker 1: just is terrible, it looks like, you know, the first
50:19
Speaker 1: guy they want to blame is a play caller, you know,
50:21
Speaker 1: having no idea that you know, one guy could have
50:23
Speaker 1: missed an assignment or whatever. You don't know. There's a
50:26
Speaker 1: zillion factors that go into whether somebody's a good play
50:29
Speaker 1: caller or struggles to be a play caller. Do I
50:33
Speaker 1: think Jake Bruden was a good higher? Yes, I do.
50:35
Speaker 1: I mean that they had to. They had to get
50:37
Speaker 1: something different because it's just it just didn't work with
50:39
Speaker 1: John d. Philippo last year and certainly with Nick Foles done.
50:43
Speaker 1: You know they was not going to work. But no,
50:45
Speaker 1: I think Jay is you know, for the most part,
50:47
Speaker 1: come in and done a nice job and is utilizing
50:50
Speaker 1: the weapons that they have. But you know, this, this
50:53
Speaker 1: NFL is plays. It's not I mean, it's players. It's
50:57
Speaker 1: not plays. As much as fans want to bet yak
51:00
Speaker 1: about play calls, and you know, a third and seven,
51:04
Speaker 1: where the quarterback throws a three yard out not realizing
51:07
Speaker 1: that Hey went some three progressions that he had nobody,
51:09
Speaker 1: so he took his check down, hoping his guy could
51:11
Speaker 1: make a play. Right. I mean it just you know,
51:13
Speaker 1: you see this all this time, his criticism about sometimes
51:16
Speaker 1: throwing behind the six or what have you. And there's
51:20
Speaker 1: so much going on on an NFL play, you got
51:22
Speaker 1: to depend on your quarterback to make the right decisions,
51:24
Speaker 1: go through his progressions, what have you. But I would,
51:27
Speaker 1: I would say that Jay Gruden was it was a
51:30
Speaker 1: logical hire for Doug Marone to make, and I do
51:35
Speaker 1: think it's I do think it's it will prove to
51:38
Speaker 1: be a good hire. Whether it's good enough to get
51:40
Speaker 1: Jay a head coaching job again next year, you know that.
51:43
Speaker 1: Only time will tell that, but I think it's I
51:45
Speaker 1: think on paper, it's a very good hire. You'll have
51:48
Speaker 1: much more on the game this Friday and the Bengals
51:50
Speaker 1: pep Rally Show from three to six on ESPN fifteen
51:54
Speaker 1: thirty and Cincinnattie online at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com
51:58
Speaker 1: or on the iHeart Radio app by searching for ESPN
52:02
Speaker 1: fifteen thirty. That's going to do it for this episode
52:05
Speaker 1: of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to you by Prime Sport,
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Speaker 1: that helps more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde,
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Speaker 1: and thank you for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast.