Latest / Disguised Coverage / Buffalo Bills vs Cincinnati Bengals- X's & O's, Matchups, & More | DC

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Buffalo Bills vs Cincinnati Bengals- X's & O's, Matchups, & More | DC · Disguised Coverage

0:00
It's thirty eight. All bills can win. In here, Wake puts it
0:03
down, the kick is on the way and dock m the bell good one?
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How the hell that one home? How one? They were a party
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one not party y? Incredible? Why not combat by my bell? Jacksonville's
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perfect record on the line right here, quick kicking, look excited. Touchdown
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Kyle Williams touchdound amazing, unbelievable. They puttied william Who's has to full back
0:56
and he scores a touchdown. It's wealthier to face tackle. What's good?
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Folks, family, friends, loved ones, enemies, frenemies, wizards,
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which is Muggles, mud bloods, people of Middle Earth. To another episode
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of Disguise Coverage, the only podcast in existence that gives you an equal amount
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of blueberries in each muffin. I'm your host, Anthony. Find me on
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Twitter at Pro Underscore Underscore ant that's Pro two underscores a n T. This
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show is of course sponsored by the best pizza in Buffalo, New York,
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and that is one PI Pizza. You can find the online menu in the
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episode show notes, whether here on YouTube or whichever podcasting app or platform you
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are listening to This show on In tonight's episode of Disguise Coverage, it is
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Bill's versus Bengals week, a game that the fan base and I think even
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the league to a degree, has kind of had circled or earmarked since,
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uh, you know, kind of the unfortunate way that the regular season game
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ended last next year, and then the way the Bengals just walked into Buffalo
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and whooped the Bills and the playoffs last year. This is a game that
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will be played by two teams that both believe they are Super Bowl contenders and
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both believe they can represent the AFC when it comes super Bowl time, and
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they believe they're the best of the best. And the Bengals legitimately have that
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track record at this point, you know, and having an advantage over the
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Bills in the playoffs and also going to a super Bowl. They've beaten the
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Chiefs and the Bills. This is kind of a potential statement game for them,
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but also a potential statement game for Cincinnati, who has started to write
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the ship in these past several weeks after starting out in a less than ideal
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fashion for them. So in the front half of this episode, we'll be
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breaking down Bills versus Bengals, x'es and o's, the key matchups, all
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of those pieces that will really determine this game. You folks know how we
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do on the nd season episodes of Disguise coverage, bringing down the bones and
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the structure of what will matter most in this game and decide this game.
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The who's, the what's, the hows and the whys all that kind of
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stuff. Pops, I appreciate you being here, and I like where your
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head's at, you know, But first, what do you think about Rasoul?
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We are going to be talking about Rosseull Douglas on the back end of
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this show as we also break down some tape and some game film when it
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comes to the Bengals to dive into some specific aspects of their team that will
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present some potential problems and or matchup pieces to give you the visual for it
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for Bengals versus Bill. So, Pops, I like where your heads at.
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I'm going to keep that in the back pocket. We are going to
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dive into that on the back half of this episode. But in the forefront
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of this episode, I am joined by mister Mike Santagata, whom I said
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it right, I no, yes, of all Bengals. Mike use tremendous
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work. I appreciate you taking the time to join me. You break down
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film. You're a good writer. I gravitate towards that type of work.
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We're chopping it up a little bit briefly off air when you joined here,
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So I appreciate you work, your work, and you know, just in
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case people don't know who you are, the floor is yours. Feel free
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to introduce yourself, tell everybody what you like, what you're signing, if
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you like long, moonlit walk on the beach, whatever you got. Yeah,
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I like you talking about the Bengals had less ideal start. I remember
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I bought I'm not in towner, I am out of towner. I'm going
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to the game though, And I bought the tickets right before the season.
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And then the season started the way it did. I went, am I
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about to watch like Jake Browning get fed to the Wolves and paid two hundred
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dollars in the nose leads to say, it's a nightmare. So I'm glad
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they turned it around. Yeah, I can imagine speaking of that, that
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turnaround, you know, before we dive into the real ex'es and o's and
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bones of this matchup, just high level overview, you know, for anyone
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not you know, keyed into the Bengals. What's been the source of their
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turnaround? Is it as simple as Joe Burrow starting to get healthier? Is
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it the offense starting to click? Is it anything defensively in some of the
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new pieces that were brought in starting to gell a little bit more like,
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what's a high level reason or reasons in your mind that we've seen this Bengals
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team turning around? And you know, I know the Niners are banged up,
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but they walked into San Francisco and be a really good forty nine ers
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team. And I'm also a big believer in the whole East coast teams traveling
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west. West coast teams traveling east, it's not an easy thing to do.
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They went into the Niners house against a good football team and whooped up
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on them. So you know, what's you know, what's the source or
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core point when it comes to their turnaround in these past several weeks, It
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really does feel almost as simple as Joe Burrow's calf got healthier. I mean
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it, but that is more than just oh, as calf's healthier, so
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he can move now. That also means like he could go under center now
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because he couldn't go under center before. It means that he's not leaving balls
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inside. He was insanely accurate, but that's how he's played for the past
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two years, so it's not like that was just he's on a heater in
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this game. It's like, Okay, that's he's back to normal, because
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he was very inaccurate the past what five games before that, six games before
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that, so that was an issue. The offensive line suffered because of it
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because he was a statue back there. He was kind of skipping reeds once
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in a while. You could see him go one to check down, one
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to two to check down, not get to number three and just because he
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knows I can't move and this pressure coming. So it felt like he trusted
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his offensive line more. I think it's all just basically related to the calf.
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The play calling felt better and just the whole offense just operated at a
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much better level. I will say. The only other part that kind of
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turned itself around was on defense. They're tackling and that was a big issue
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to start the season, but that could be they just rusty. Whatever else
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is going on, they're normally a pretty good tackling team, so I wasn't
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too concerned about that, But that is also worth noting for the defensive turnaround.
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That's an important piece, and that's kind of not music to Bills fans
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ears, but a statement that is similar around these parts with the Bills,
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just there's such a aggressive type of defense in terms of just getting up field
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and fast falling to the football, and they have their significant share of mistackles
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with regularity. So you're talking about like a team being able to rectify that
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potential aspect of a team and being able to go forward to something that is
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consistently on the mind of Bills fans in just terms of how this defense works
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and how this team operates. Okay, so cool. So we've set that
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table a little bit. Let's move into the meat of the episode, the
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schematic components that will decide Bills versus Bangles in week nine for those of you
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who don't know. Just in case you don't so, Mike and I are
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going to be diving into the schematic components, the matchup pieces, the x's
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and o's, however you want to label it of Bills Versus Bangles in terms
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of breaking them down into the matchup buckets, most important, What will decide
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this game? How? Why? And it could be as wide scale or
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as granular as either of us want. It could be one side of the
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ball against the other. It could be a specific player versus another specific player.
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It could be a route concept versus a specific coverage. Anything and everything
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is on the table. Mike doesn't know my answers. I don't know his.
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The mystery is extremely intriguing and tantalizing, and that's what brings the people
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in Mike. The floor is yours. You can start with your most if
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they're all equal, cool, But if you have a most important or least
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important, you can start with whichever one you please. The floor is yours.
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Whichever order you'd like to go in. Feel free. In God's speak.
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I don't know about most of port. It was the least important,
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but I do remember, and a lot of what I'm thinking of is related
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to that snow game, even though that in itself was a weather game and
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there could be some funky stuff going on there. The main thing I remember
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that really gave the Bill's offense issues were the creeper exchange pressure stuff that Anna
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Rumo brought from really far away, like it wasn't like simulated and it really
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was like it would be like Mike Hilton rushing from almost the numbers yep and
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yeah, so and he would come free. He would come free. The
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offensive line didn't account for it, Josh Allen didn't account for it, but
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he had such a good beat on that snap that he got there within two
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and a half seconds or so. And so I'm wondering, is there an
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answer for that or is that going to be another thorn in the side of
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the Bill's offense in this game, because that would be the first thing I
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think. If I'm lou Anarrumo, what am I gonna like? Key down?
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I'm probably gonna bring one of those. So it's super funny. And
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this is like I like when there's overlap. So I have this one as
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my first one, and I'm just gonna go with it because it's basically the
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exact same as yours. So I just labeled it Josh Allen Versus lou Anarumo.
9:16
But to start with that piece, Yeah, like the first one I
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have in my head, I think it's just a creeper and it's that one.
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If you're watching it on the screen, Bills are going from left to
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right. Mike Hilton blitz is from the slot towards the bottom spencer. Brown
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doesn't recognize it. Alan doesn't recognize it. Hilton comes Scott Free Clean from
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a spot too yep, nails them. And it was that was a kind
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of symbolic of the entire day, whether it was their creepers or five man
9:45
pressures, or even just something as simple as taking Joseph Aside, this quick
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athletic edge rusher and putting him on the interior versus slower Roger Saffold at left
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guard. That was the first third down of the game. Diggs wins on
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the outside and Alan gets heated up on that throw because oside beat Saffold,
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Clean comes bearing down on him. And now, granted that's just a one
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on one, you know, piece, but Ana Roumo set that up and
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that game, Ana Roumo attacked the Bills protections. He created advantageous matchups for
10:15
their defensive line versus the Bills. Oline created free runners with blitzes, sims
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and creepers, and did a really good job of you know, not just
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because it's the name of the show, did a great job of disguising coverages.
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Yes, right, there was a ton of just like Cover two invert
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that they were getting too, from a variety of looks, in a variety
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of ways. He's spinning safeties, they're getting to unique looks. They also
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played really physical against the Bills wide receivers. The first one that I think
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of is it's early on and Cam Taylor break goes to like jam digs and
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just basically cracks them right in the face and there was no break. He
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took it to Dk Metcalf a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't seen
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somebody take it to Dk Metcalf like like just took him out of a play
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with a jam. And that dude's like six four hundred and fourty dude,
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he's a monster. He looks like he was made in a like who takes
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it to him? And especially to like I remember watching him at Nebraska and
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watching his tape, and I love how he played, but at times he
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would be so physical that it would like take him out of the play.
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He'd get too aggressive with a jam, or he'd get so hyped up and
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he'd blow a coverage and it just seemed like Anna Rumo and that Bengals staff
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were able to just kind of like hone in the aggression and the physicality,
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and he's been so much better for it. And he's he's been technical too.
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There's a I tweeted out a play earlier today. He was covering Ayuk
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one on one and Ayuk runs it out like a ten yard out and Brick
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just runs it for him and he undercuts it. And it would have been
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a pick if DJ Reader didn't get down on Purty and just pummel them.
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They just brought such great energy plus schematics into Buffalo to beat the Bills last
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year, and then they've shown a lot of those similarities this year. And
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then I'm watching the Niners Bengals tape and they're showing like six and seven at
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the line, and then they're dropping eight and playing cover three yep. And
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Sam Hubbard's like the low hole player. They're doing it at other times and
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Logan Wilson's the low hole like they'll drop eight and play with like a cover
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four shell behind it. They also did a really good job in that game,
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like using bearfronts on early downs to really try and stemy or try and
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stemy that Niner zone running attack. There's also certain looks where like Dax Hill
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and Snick Scott are like in the box, like they're playing cover one or
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just a single high look, and Mike Hilton is the post safety. Yeah,
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he lose the safety. That's that's the first time I'm seeing it,
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Okay, thank you, because I wasn't. I watched multiple Bengals games coming
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in and like preparing for this week, and I hadn't really seen that,
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and I didn't remember seeing it or I saw it a couple times this year,
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but I hadn't seen that last year, and I was like, that's
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got to be a new wrinkle. They just did such a good job this
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year. Again, I'm just using this past game against San Francisco, like
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disguising their fronts and their coverage shells, and they did that against the Bills
12:52
last year. And lu An Arumo at this point, I feel like he's
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extremely you know, widely respected and known for his ability says a defense coordinator,
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and I think even more so, especially as a big game defensive coordinator.
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He's at his best versus the best, you know, whether it was
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what he did the Bills last year or the year before with the whole drop
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eight stuff yep against Kansas City in the second half. That was like a
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masterclass like his ability to isolate an area of vulnerability in an offense that he
13:20
can exploit and then use that to either hinder or cripple the offense. It
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just regularly shows up in the box score and on tape and what we've seen
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the beast several weeks when the Bills offense has struggled, they've really struggled to
13:35
kind of decipher these looks pre and post snap. You know, some of
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it is schematic, some of it is you know, they get too predictable.
13:41
In certain third down situations, Defenses are able to dictate their protection to
13:46
them and then snuff out the hots, so Josh Allen has nowhere to go.
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Other times, hots are available, just elementary one on one. You
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know, if that guy you're hot, if that guy blitz his turn,
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I'm gonna hit you, and Josh Allen's seeing it but not hitting it.
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That's when the Bills have struggled a bit. It happened against Jacksonville, it
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happened against the Patriots, didn't happen too much against the Bucks. They seem
14:05
to have righted the ship a little bit with a lot of tempo, a
14:09
lot of quick game, and also keeping themselves out of like third and longs
14:11
and advantageous situations for the defense. But it's such an important piece because Ana
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Roumo is such a good architect defensively and so good at even with those drop
14:22
eight looks against San Francisco, everybody's moving in unison on the Bengals defense,
14:28
like no one is out of position, like they're all showing that look,
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and on the snap it looks like a choreographed dance, like he had that
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group so well coached up and pinpoint with their movements mentally, physically and everything.
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And for eighteen, when the Bills that struggled against that defense last year
14:45
with their disguising and their attack minded nature and what they were doing with their
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fronts and shells, and have shown kind of frustrating times this year against similar
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pieces, I think that's where like the matchup starts and ends, especially considering
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the Bills defense is banged up, This Bill's offense really needs to carry this
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team, and so it however you want to label it. For me,
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it really comes down to yet like Josh Allen versus lou An Rumo or Ken
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Dorsey versus lu Ana Rumo and that whole pre snap deciphering, post snap processing
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piece, because an Rumo is going to get into his bag, mix it
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up on you and make you have to play mentally in addition to physically.
15:18
Absolutely. And I'm also thinking one thing that's I think people don't really talk
15:24
too much about is he holds those disguises so like last second thing, and
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he does it, and he did it to the forty nine ers. Forty
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nine's are at home, so they can hardcount, they can do whatever they
15:33
want, and it's still on the snap. Everybody moves, and I feel
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like that's what makes it really difficult, especially when you're on the road and
15:41
you gotta get to a silent count of some kind. You know, there's
15:43
there's only so many different types of bobs and moves you could make there,
15:48
so even want to stay in rhythm. So that turns into Yeah, I
15:52
think these disguise are going to be able to hold, They're gonna be able
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to do all that. I wonder if there's any chance the Bills will move
16:00
to any type because I remember it's a lot of five man protection in that.
16:03
Yeah, in the divisional round, I wonder if there's any type of
16:07
like let's leave the back end. Maybe it's new edition Lenny or right,
16:12
I don't know, somebody just somebody like check release or something like he doesn't
16:17
have to stay in the block so much, or just maybe I'm gonna check
16:21
see if that dude Mike Hilton's coming because he had three pressures two quarterback kids
16:25
in that game. He was huge in that game. Let's just you know,
16:26
like have a Hilton check, Let's have a twenty one check, running
16:30
back check twenty one. Okay, he's not coming them out. And they've
16:33
done that a bunch this year, Like they used tight ends, you know,
16:36
either attached to the line or kind of like that spread chip helped type
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of Look, they did it against Washington because of their front. They did
16:41
it against the Raiders really exclusively just to help with Max Crosby, Like they
16:45
have done that at times to add help to that offensive line. The offensive
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line has been better this year for the Bills, but they've definitely reinforced their
16:53
support there in terms of alignment schematically like pre snap and what they're doing.
16:59
Yeah, it's just I love that point you make about like them holding the
17:03
disguise because again they did it against the Bills last year, and you know,
17:07
I'm just using the most recent game, that game against San Francisco.
17:10
It's literally like we're showing The one that keeps sticking in my head is that
17:15
everybody's at the line. It's like a third and six and they're showing man
17:19
like it's just like like it almost like a cover zero type look. Yeah,
17:23
and they had birds birds on the fence post everything. It looked exactly
17:27
like Cover zero. And then they drop in that drop eight Cover three Prettium
17:30
supposed a pick. If it doesn't get tipped, it might have been a
17:33
pick. Logan Wilson tips it, right, Yeah, well it was bj
17:36
Hill tipped it at the line actually, and then Logan Wilson was sitting in
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the low hole right there and it gets the ball on. And what's even
17:42
nice with that too, the Niners motion and your Maine Pratt travels with McCaffrey
17:48
to the other side. So everything, even the motion piece that you're trying
17:52
to use to identify the coverage pre snap, everything is saying, hey,
17:56
we're bringing man or it's going to be man, and we're bringing pressure.
17:59
And then like you said, like there's no indication like Dax Hill, nobody
18:03
starts to drop coming up to the snap. It's literally no, everybody hold
18:07
hold, hold. The snap happens and then they drop and the picture changes.
18:12
And for what the Bills do a lot Dorsey's helped this a little bit,
18:17
but a lot of like the Bills offense from a passing concept perspective is
18:19
very like half field reads. So like this read over here, this concept
18:23
over here is gonna beat cover two, This concept over here is gonna beat
18:26
cover three. Josh read it out, you know, and hit what you
18:30
need to hit. But if you're oh, I think it's Cover two over
18:33
there, and then you're like, oh no, it's quarters. I think
18:37
bam you get hit, or you're like you're like, oh no, that's
18:41
gonna work. Let me get back over here, and then the picture's worst.
18:44
You're right, or Sam Hubbard got through or DJ Reader got through,
18:47
or Trey Hendrickson got through, or any one of these pieces, like or
18:49
Mike Hilton coming off the slot. Like man, it's just from like a
18:53
from a chess piece perspective. It's just like so fun to watch, like
18:57
the Bengals defense and help they operate and watch quarterbacks on offensive lines try to
19:02
set protections and id the mic and figure out who they're going to take and
19:07
where they're going to slide to. Because the Bills have had some issues with
19:08
that too, like they'll slide left, psych pressures coming from the right,
19:11
and all of a sudden there's one or two free runners come in. The
19:15
Bengals create that with regularity against everybody. Oh so I like that. I
19:18
like there were a pretty much in a similar alignment there for that first point.
19:22
All right, second point? What do you got? Okay, this
19:26
was a surprising win for the Bengals in that snow game. I think it
19:29
basically determined how good their offense was. Can the Bills d line, which
19:33
I think, especially last year was better on paper, beat this Bengals offensive
19:37
line. Bro? Yeah yeah last year. I mean they had three starters
19:41
out and the Bengals offensive line just took it to them. That was the
19:45
most surprising thing to me. I kept thinking before the game, they have
19:48
to get the quick game, They're going to have to be a little tricky
19:51
in the run game. They just went down and I think the snow was
19:55
a little bit of an effect. Sometimes that effects pass rushers more like get
19:57
off and whatnot. But I know von Miller was out. Yeah, even
20:03
considering that the Bill's defensive line should have had such a on paper advantage,
20:07
and they just they didn't. I mean, they were starting Jackson Carmen at
20:10
left tackle, they were starting Kichema d Energy at right tackle, and I
20:12
believe it was Max Sharping at right guard. None of those guys are starting
20:15
in this game. Those guys are all backups for this game. Well the
20:18
Kee's not even on the roster, but the other guys, the backups in
20:22
this game. That point going into the game was such a not like like
20:30
low hanging fruit matchup piece, but just like the given like the Bengals offensive
20:33
line hadn't been good all year and then they going, yeah with like all
20:36
these backups, and you're thinking, okay, even without vond they'll be able
20:38
to do something. And it was. It was two things. So the
20:41
Bengals went quick game a ton, as they do. I think Burrow's type
20:45
of throw in that game was like average time of throw is like two point
20:48
four to six, so super fast, he's getting the ball out right away.
20:52
But then Bill's fans know this because it was why most of them wanted
20:55
Leslie Fraser fire as defensive coordinator. They paired that so like they they they
21:00
they allowed the Bengals to operate with quick game and then also like from a
21:04
coverage standpoint, they were just playing off so much and were not like pressing.
21:07
They were. It was the opposite of what the Bengals were doing.
21:10
Whether whether the Bengals were gonna do you know, from a physicality perspective and
21:14
a press perspective on defense, whether they were going to do that regardless of
21:18
the snow or not. It paired perfectly with the elements on the weather,
21:22
and the Bills were just like, no, We'll let you complete six and
21:26
seven yard passes underneath all day to whoever you want, and then we're gonna
21:29
come up. We're gonna miss tackles like they just didn't threaten Burrow. They
21:33
there were a couple times where, uh, you know, especially Ed Oliver
21:37
got that contract this offseason for the Bills, and a lot of people were
21:41
using like, well, he didn't do anything against Cincinnati, you know,
21:44
once Daeikwon Jones was out, the line fell apart. There are several reps
21:48
in that game where ed Oliver wins within like one second, one second and
21:52
a half, Like I timed it, he wins and the ball is already
21:56
out of Burrow's hands. Like so there were times when like the D line
22:00
would win, but then they're not pairing it with the coverage on the back
22:03
end. And Burrow, who is such a good processor and such a good
22:07
decision maker, and also he has no problem being like no, I'm just
22:10
gonna check it down, Like if you let me check it down, I'll
22:11
just check it down. The Bills like fed into that matchup and now you've
22:18
got a reinforced Bengals offensive line and yeah, like that's a great matchup piece
22:23
I've got. I'm gonna speak about the full piece in a minute because I
22:27
similarly have a similar point with it. What have your thoughts been on Orlando
22:32
Brown? I want to ask before like I dive into my side of it,
22:33
like coming over this year, guy who's been I feel like he's in
22:37
the story like every offseason wanted a big contract from the Ravens and then goes
22:41
to the Chiefs and now he goes to the Bengals, Like he keeps going
22:44
to these high profile teams and like kind of has some red flags, but
22:47
also like has some really big positives. What have you in your impressions or
22:49
I guess the return on investment so far for Orlando Brown, Yeah, I
22:52
mean the ten thousand foot view is about what I expected. I think some
22:59
fans hype him up as if he's like a top five left tackle, and
23:02
I just I never saw that. You know, he's big, he's hard
23:06
to get through, but he is a guy that sometimes he'll short set something
23:11
and give up a little bit of pressure around the outside. Now, now
23:12
that Burrow's healthy, he's better at stepping up and getting around that. When
23:17
he was, you know, not moving well, it was sitting duck on
23:22
those plays. I think nick Bosa was able to Nick Bosa beat him a
23:26
bit, but it was like slow death. And you can live with that.
23:30
If Nick Bosa is taking two and a half seconds to beat you,
23:33
okay, I'll take that sure, Like that's what I'm expecting. So yeah,
23:38
I think he's been fine for the most part. He's been the guy.
23:41
He's always been big. It's hard to go through him or to the
23:44
inside. He'll give up a little bit of stuff around the outside, and
23:48
when he really gets beat, it's if somebody can jab inside and then get
23:53
him the short set. He's already short setting a little bit. If they
23:56
get him to really short set, he does not know he's one hundred and
24:00
seventy pounds or something. He's not moving his feet extremely fast, so you
24:03
know, if you get him off that at all, and then you can
24:07
turn that corner from ten to eleven yards into eight nine yards, that's where
24:11
he that's where the pressure is like no longer manageable. That's oh, that's
24:15
that's a bad pressure because you can't really even step up around that sometimes,
24:18
especially if guy's got some bend to him. But overall, I think he's
24:21
been about what I expected. Okay, that's fair. And I love that
24:23
point too, because like there's so much of the analysis piece comes with like
24:27
your initial expectations for a guy. And if you like poon a. Ford
24:33
is an example who Bill has brought him in and for whatever reason, like
24:37
a lot of Bills fans anointed him as like I don't know this second coming
24:41
monster on the inside. And he's been good as a rotational guy and he's
24:45
doing what he does. He holds up well against double teams, he does
24:48
well in one on ones against the run, like he's he's poon afford.
24:51
He can line up in a three tech and line up in a one,
24:52
but he's like a run defender kind of guy. And the amount of slander
24:56
that he was getting the past several weeks I think was equal or like directly
25:00
correlated to how hyped you were when he came to the Bills and if you
25:04
thought he was going to be Like, so, Daikwon Jones is beloved as
25:08
a Bill and he was having an all Pro season before he tore his pack.
25:11
I think a lot of people saw him as like Daikwon Jones two point
25:14
zero, and when he wasn't, just the amount of like hate that he
25:18
got and it was like no, Like he's actually been good, but if
25:21
you expected him to come in and be an all Pro, you're disappointed.
25:23
Similarly, I think the opposite is true for what Leonard Floyd has been for
25:27
the Bills. He came in late in the off season, one year deal,
25:30
and everybody was like, oh, cool, Like that's a nice piece,
25:33
and he's just been a stud week in and week out, and I
25:37
think that is again directly correlated. You came in thinking, oh, this
25:40
guy's cool, and then he overperformed expectations. So I like your analysis there
25:44
for Brown overall, and then again tying into expectation piece, I'm also focused
25:48
on the trenches. I had this listed as one of my poys. I
25:51
had as my third, but again I also kind of create them equally.
25:55
I'm very arbitrary in terms of where I rank things, and I struggle with
25:57
it all the time and go back and forth, and I really, for
26:02
me, it's both sides of the line in the trenches overall. Like I
26:06
watching that Bengals game last year against the Bills. You know, we talked
26:08
about the Bengals offensive side, but they really won on both sides of the
26:14
ball from a trench perspective. Last year, DJ Reader was a monster,
26:18
BJ Hill was strong. Trey Hendrickson, which just there were a couple like
26:22
three man rushes where Trey Hendrickson is just winning immediately, which is something he
26:26
I think he also does with a decent amount of regularity. Like part of
26:30
the reason the Bengals like drop eight stuff works is because when they rush three
26:33
like Trey Hendrickson just finds a way to win. Like anytime you see a
26:37
dude in today's NFL that is not what that's a regular starter and they don't
26:41
wear gloves. That dude is going to be real is either really good or
26:45
is a psycho. And Trey Henderson does not wear gloves. He tapes his
26:48
knuckles. It's just it's just science and he just finds a way to win,
26:53
whether it's and he can do anything. He can beat you around the
26:56
arc, he can run through you, he can go inside like and his
26:59
motor never stops. He had a good year or a good game last year
27:03
against the Bills and the playoffs. And you know, the Bills revamped their
27:06
offensive line this past year this past offseason, bringing in Connor McGovern and then
27:11
drafting Ocyrus Torrance, who's been very good as a rookie this year, shed
27:15
some weight, leaned down a bit, so he still has the physicality and
27:18
the people moving ability, but he's also moving better in space and he's able
27:22
to handle quicker rushers a bit better than he did at Florida. And so
27:26
the Bills revamped that line this year. They're playing much better in pass protection
27:30
and in the run game, and they have an actual identity in the run
27:33
game this year. They can pivot to a variety of run concepts based on
27:37
opponent and being able to establish some semblance of success or control on that side
27:42
of the ball. Initially, like I think the Bills have to establish the
27:45
run. I think that starts with the run game. All three of the
27:48
Bills losses this year have coincided with a negative EPA per attempt on the ground
27:55
for their running back carries. The Jets they were negative point one zero,
27:57
the Jags they were negative point three seven, the Pats they were negative point
28:02
nine. They also had a negative EPA per attempt versus the Buccaneers at negative
28:06
point owight, but they won that game, you know. And while the
28:07
pass protection piece is the primary piece for the Bills O line, when they
28:11
can run the ball, and this is true for almost everybody, but when
28:14
they can run the ball, everything on offense becomes easier. But it's even
28:18
more so for the Bills because of the potency of their passing game and then
28:22
the dual threat ability of Josh Allen. And then when the run game starts
28:26
clicking, the play action game starts clicking even further. And then the RPO
28:29
game, which they tapped into a bit more against the Buccaneers last week,
28:33
that starts to improve a little bit more. And if the run game is
28:37
working, and you force that defensive line to have to play run on their
28:41
way to the quarterback or on their way to the pass rush. That's huge
28:44
because again, like the Bengals have studs upfront, Sam Hubbard, Trey Hendrickson,
28:48
Like that's starting four of Hubbard, Hill, Reader and Hendrickson. I
28:53
don't think it's talked enough in terms of like what a front four they are.
28:59
I think a lot of like the sexiness for the Bengals defense, maybe
29:02
more so this year is like Jermaine Pratt came back on a great deal and
29:06
he's having a good year and what Logan Wilson does. And they lost Jesse
29:08
Bates and Von Bell, but they got some other pieces back there. Like
29:11
I feel like the front four doesn't get enough love and they are monsters on
29:15
that side of the ball, and then flipping to that other piece. Yet,
29:18
like we started to talk about what your point was the Bills again,
29:22
I think a lot of it was tied to their coverage aspect. They weren't
29:26
able to really do anything against the Bengals from a pass rush perspective, and
29:29
then from a ground perspective, the Bengals were able to spread the Bills out
29:33
and the Bills were giving them like five and six man boxes, and Joe
29:34
Mixon was just running it down at their throat like every play. It seemed
29:38
like he was getting like eight nine yards before contact was even being made on
29:42
him, and then the Bills were tackling poorly. On top of it,
29:45
the Bengals just owned both sides of the line of scrimmage in that playoff game.
29:48
I still think they have the capacity to potentially do that, but with
29:52
a Bills defensive line that is a bit banged up at Oliver's hurt, Greg
29:56
Russeau is hurt. They're both probably gonna play slightly, will play, but
30:00
they're missing Daikwon Jones. Von Miller isn't one hundred percent yet. He's getting
30:03
a little more up to speed each week, but I don't even know if
30:07
he's like seventy five or eighty five percent at this point. Like, can
30:11
the Bills control that on that side of the ball, and then are they
30:12
able how are they able to wit stay in Cincinnati's D line on the other
30:15
side of the ball, because again last year in that playoff game, I
30:18
mean, Cincinnati again came in and whooped the Bills. So it would would
30:22
make sense that they won in most fat facets and phases of the game,
30:25
but they really controlled the line of scrimmage in both ways. And you know,
30:29
they flashed again against San Francisco this week against a team that has a
30:33
good defensive line. Again, San Francisco did get theirs, but they held
30:36
their own at times and then also stood up on the other side of the
30:37
ball when they needed to. It's a huge piece. Yeah. My last
30:41
point about that was Joe Mixon sixty percent rushing success right in that game.
30:45
I mean, I know it's a lot of spread stuff, it's getting the
30:48
slight boxes and whatnot, but sixty percent rushing success, right, You're not
30:52
gonna You're not gonna win many games given that up, I expect it not
30:56
to be that good. But like I was saying, I was expecting them
31:00
to run the ball very much at all in that game, and they did
31:03
a pretty good job of it. What are your thoughts on you know,
31:06
I know there's been differing thoughts on mixing. You know, so a lot
31:08
of like was he even gonna come back this year? Like was he gonna
31:11
get cut? And then kind of like a running back by committee. I've
31:14
seen different Bengals people be in the mode of like just ride the hot hand,
31:18
whoever that is week to week. What are your thoughts on Joe Mixon
31:19
as like an RB one and then you know what, I guess the timing
31:25
interestingly enough of you know, him having a good game against the forty nine
31:27
ers and them running the ball, Well, like, what are you what
31:29
are your thoughts on mixing in that Bengals ground game. I mean, I
31:32
think mixing is good. I don't think he is everything you want in terms
31:37
of he doesn't create a ton of explosive plays a lot. He's more of
31:41
more of a grinder, more of a guy that's going to run people over
31:44
and try to play through contact that way and establish himself. And I know
31:48
a lot of people want, like, well, where's the home run hitting?
31:51
Because these teams are all trying to stop the pass. We need a
31:52
guy that's going to gain twenty yards on a play once in a while.
31:56
Well he could do that, but Nigga, I can take it for fifty.
31:59
You know, see the Dolphins he gets So you're like, oh,
32:01
they don't have a Raheem Moster, they don't have Devon hen they don't have
32:06
all these guys now he's hit home runs. It's so ridiculous, like every
32:08
dude is just home run speed. Yeah, I guess you know. I
32:12
wasn't even thinking about the AFC East, but yeah, So I think he
32:16
leaves a little bit to be desired. But at the same time, I
32:20
think he's a good back. I think last year a lot of his inefficiency,
32:23
at least early in the year. He left the first four games in
32:27
a row due to an ankle injury, and that really tanked it. And
32:30
then he got hurt again later in the year, and I know, like
32:32
that's probably tied a little bit to running back age and whatnot. Hasn't been
32:36
hurt this year, and he probably looked the best he has and maybe a
32:42
year and a half two years against San Francisco. I mean, there was
32:45
burst, there was power, there was he looks really good. I'm into
32:49
it. They don't trust any best run the ball though, If so,
32:52
I think I haven't kept track of it. Two weeks ago they were at
32:57
eleven total running back carries that were not Joe Mix That's awesome, So well,
33:02
he's not in there. They're probably not running the ball fair fair.
33:07
That's actually a really good. Tell I like that. Yeah, I've always
33:08
been I know people have been again, like you said, like people have
33:13
been down on him at different points, like but the size, the speed,
33:15
the athleticism, like he's good catching the ball out of the backfield.
33:17
You know, it's funny like the healthier guys are, the better they play.
33:21
Shock. But yeah, he had such a strong game last week and
33:24
you really started to see, like, especially as that game went on,
33:29
his size and power and bursts start to wear on that forty nine ers defense
33:32
and guys that are usually not missing tackles are kind of falling off of Joe
33:37
Mixon And that's a piece like I really worry about, like it just in
33:39
general, the nature of how this Bill's defense flies around the ball. And
33:44
then Joe Mixon size and frame with the potential to break tackles regularly, let
33:47
alone like later in the game again, that starts to wear on you.
33:51
It's like the Bills have done it to teams this year, Like whereas James
33:52
Cook is missing guys, making guys miss with his speed and agility and slipperiness,
33:57
like mixing has some shake to him, but dude is just such a
34:00
big, powerful dude. And then you had the burst on top of it.
34:04
It's such a scary piece, So I like it. Well done,
34:06
Well done. All right, your last point, last schematic piece, matchup
34:09
component, whatever have you that will decide Bills versuspangles in week nine? What
34:13
do you got? Okay, this is one. I have not watched the
34:15
Bills since Sea's injuries because it's a little earlier in the week. But how
34:22
is the Bill's secondary with the injuries to like Trey White and Matt Alano is
34:28
a very great coverage guy too. How do they handle the Bengals weapons?
34:31
Because I mean, that's the strength of the team and on paper, it
34:37
looks like this is something they should exploit. I also expect the Bills to
34:39
know that and probably try to take that stuff away. But that's interesting to
34:45
me is like, how can this secondary hang with Jamar Chase and t Higgins
34:51
and all these different guys? So I have a My third point is very
34:55
related to that. Before I get to that, I want to I want
34:58
to kind of follow up on that first from you, if you were building
35:01
a game plan or whether it's coverage wise, whether it's fronts and pressures,
35:06
any type of piece like that, If you were trying to build a defensive
35:08
game plan to slow down the Bengals offense from a weapons perspective, or just
35:14
overall, where do you start? What do you do? Like? What
35:16
are you putting together? Like you watch this team every week, you study
35:20
them, Like if you're trying to exploit their weaknesses and mitigate their strengths,
35:23
what are you doing against the Bengals. I'm probably going to almost always have
35:30
some type of cloud or something on Jamar Chase, and I'm probably going to
35:36
take whoever my best press corner is and put them over there. And that's
35:39
not to say Chase has a bad release game or anything. That's just anytime
35:44
I've seen a corner do a good job against him, it feels like a
35:49
like Carlton Davis did last year, and that was Carlton Davis being really physical,
35:53
really aggressive. Hey, some of this is a little really to the
35:55
officials. If they're letting them play, they're letting them play. And sometimes
36:00
I think Jamar Chase has a little bit that bulldog of getting into a fight
36:04
with the corner versus trying to just beat him with your skill and your ability.
36:08
Yet, but he gets into it like a physical like Machio fight sometimes,
36:13
not to say that's like I get him out of the game. He
36:15
just press him a few times and you get him to fight him. But
36:16
that's I think I would try to take my most physical corner, put him
36:20
on Jamar Chase, and then always play cloud or some type of half field
36:24
coverage so that that corner knows you could be aggressive as you want, like
36:28
you've got a safety over the top, like don't get don't get too smoked,
36:32
but you know, like you can be aggressive in this situation. And
36:37
then really on the other side, I mean, they had struggles and its
36:40
covered to like a year and a half ago, but they seem to solve
36:44
that a bit with getting some of their high low concepts and being able to
36:49
exploit some of those middle of the field defenders. So I don't know if
36:52
I'm just gonna play cover too the whole game. Maybe you go to some
36:55
quarter stuff on the other side, and hopefully you have a corner that has
37:01
some ball skills to them that can play with t Higgins, and then you
37:06
really just need your front to hold this Bengals run game, because if the
37:08
Bengals can stay on schedule and get into second and threes and stuff. Well,
37:13
now I feel way way less confident about being able to play cloud to
37:16
one side and quarters the other side or something like that. I think if
37:22
you can control the Bengals run game from a too high standpoint and then consistently
37:27
have that cloud type thing on Jamar, chase and do whatever on the other
37:30
side, probably mix things up on the other side, really play some quarters,
37:32
play some half and once in a while you'll probably have to just rotate
37:36
into cover three because they'll go to middlefield up, the middlefield close. Looks
37:38
like you just talked about the half field, half field, millfield open,
37:42
half field, middlefield closed. Want to be able to diskuise that and make
37:45
that change as well. But yeah, I think that's it's a lot.
37:49
But that's how I think about doing it. Is the Ravens do that a
37:52
lot too. They disguise things, and the Bengals have had their struggles with
37:55
it, and the Ravens, I think, take the calculated They mostly will
38:01
play some type of half field wherever Jamar goes, which it's not like passing
38:07
strength for his run strength. It's literally it's half field to Jamar and then
38:12
we'll figure out the rest of the other side, like is it six,
38:15
is it nine or whatever? Is a quarter core half half cor qord,
38:16
it's half to Jamar and then whatever to the other side. But they will
38:21
take their calculated like, Okay, we're gonna look like we're doing that,
38:24
and then I'm gonna leave that corner on an island and try to get a
38:28
pick by you know, maybe poaching the number three or something. The Ravens
38:32
did that. Geno Stone got a pick by poaching number three and he wasn't
38:37
bracketing Jamar chasing, and that's what it looked like pre snap and the thing.
38:38
I had a good caluse like and I know what you know what I
38:40
know that you know type of chess match, Like I know you're throwing rock,
38:44
so I'm gonna throw paper because you think I'm throwing scissors type of thing.
38:47
And it worked. But you gotta be tricky. You have to really
38:52
honor I think the Jamar chase thing and try to disrupt his timing too.
38:55
That's a big part of trying to get that jam is if you're gonna take
38:59
him out of the primary read or he's got a one on one Burt like's
39:04
looking that way, so it disrupt that timing. Maybe he's no longer going
39:08
to have an alert here that he's going to hang on for an extra second.
39:10
He goes a Jamar's kind of jammed up. I got to go move
39:14
on to number two or maybe start the three level read to the other side
39:17
or something. But yeah, that's uh, I think that's how I would
39:22
try to handle it. I don't know, from a front standpoint, what's
39:28
the best way to handle the run game other than beat their guys up front.
39:30
Yeah, win one on ones, right, Like, I don't think
39:34
it's a front thing, like, oh, they really struggle against this front
39:37
versus that front. I think it's just you got to win your one on
39:38
ones against these guys and just be strong, stout upfront, be able to
39:44
rally and make your tackles. And that's where the Bills losing Daikwon Jones up
39:49
front hurts them so much because they were able to live in this light box
39:53
nickel defense too high world, because their front four could play the run so
39:59
well, because they had Greg Russou on one edge, who's one of the
40:01
best run defending edges in the entire league, and then you had Daikwon Jones
40:06
in the middle, who if you play in one on one, he's probably
40:07
gonna win. If you're playing with a double team, he also can win
40:10
that as well. And then if you have a one on one against at
40:13
Oliver, he can shoot the gap, he can penetrate, he can get
40:15
upfield. And then behind them were these heat seeking missiles and Matt Mulano and
40:20
Torell Bernard, and with Milano being out and Daiquon Jones being out, it's
40:27
You've seen more single high coverages from the Bills this year in general, which
40:30
I think they were going to do always. Not having Tremaine Edmunds was his
40:34
size and frame was all was just such a key part of how they lined
40:37
up and controlled the middle of the field. And so they've shown more,
40:40
you know, single high looks in general. But I think a lot of
40:44
that now has come even more so because they're having issues stopping the run.
40:47
With just four I mean against the pass, there were so many run blitzes
40:51
and so their blitz percentage will show high for that week overall, but a
40:53
lot of those blitzes were run blitzes because they could not control the pass offensive
40:58
line with their defensive line, and so they were having to win with numbers
41:02
instead of just winning. You know, I know my guy can win this
41:06
matchup where I've got two guys that can win, and you need that if
41:08
you're gonna play a light box and you're gonna win with your front four.
41:10
At a certain point, technique and scheme not go out the window, but
41:16
they become secondary and tertiary to just win. Like, you just need a
41:21
guy who can win up front consistently, and the Bills haven't had that since
41:24
Daikwon went down, and they're getting rotational pieces in and again, like Ed
41:28
Oliver's got his toe injury, Greg Russeau has a foot thing, So it's
41:32
they've just been banged up upfront and that's a huge piece. Like I wonder
41:37
how they can control that Bengals run game. Do they have to commit more
41:40
numbers to the box. Do they have to bring a safety down or are
41:45
they having Taron Johnson play more into the box? Are they showing more seven
41:47
or eight man boxes? Who is that seventh and eighth defender that they bring
41:52
in? Just because yeah, they've struggled a bit from a light box perspective
41:55
and from defending the run with just like their four down, I'm in similar
42:00
Vein in terms of like that matchup aspect, so I just have it kind
42:05
of just generalized it with defending the Bengals passing offense. They've been vulnerable in
42:09
coverage at the second level the past several weeks since Matt Malone went down.
42:14
His two replacements Tyrol Dodson, who is not built to be a starter in
42:19
the NFL. He's fine, is like maybe a spot starter, but he's
42:22
really more like a third string depth kind of linebacker and a special teams guy.
42:25
He's very limited athletically. He's fine against the run. He can come
42:29
up and you know, fit the run, but sometimes he'll hit the wrong
42:32
gap, he'll take a poor angle, and then he's just not what you
42:36
want in coverage again because of his athletic limitations. Dorian Williams, third round
42:42
linebacker this year that they drafted from Tulane. Athletic, long rangey burst like
42:47
brings his entire body into every contact point and tackle piece, but he's very
42:52
green from a coverage perspective. At Tulane they played a ton of just like
42:54
spot drop Maden type of coverages. There's not a lot of match stuff from
42:58
him at all, so he's been learning on the fly in terms of how
43:01
to pass off and fall off of this and pick this up, match this,
43:05
you know, shepherd this guy to my support and then again fall off
43:08
and pick up the next man in my zone. He's had those. He
43:12
has the physical tools and traits, and he has flashed, but he's been
43:15
vulnerable to being misled in coverage and getting lost and is diagnosing and processing.
43:20
So it's kind of like six to one half a dozen of the other when
43:23
it comes to Dodson and Williams and replacing Malone. So you don't have a
43:27
holistic answer there, and so much so that recently, especially last week,
43:30
the Bills have opted to go with three safety looks on known passing situations.
43:36
So they'll bring in Taylor Rapp, they'll keep him and hide as kind of
43:38
those back safeties, and then they'll put Jordan Poyer in the role of like
43:43
a dime linebacker, off ball box safety box linebacker type of piece because they
43:46
don't have that consistent answer at linebacker, which is cool on third and eleven
43:53
and you know it's going to be a pass, but it's not cool on
43:57
first and ten or second and four or any of these other situations when you
44:00
have to have that linebacker in there from a run perspective, because you can't,
44:05
especially with light boxes, or even if you brought in more defenders into
44:08
the box, you're not defending it with a three safety look with Poyer as
44:13
your dime linebacker off ball linebacker. So they've been vulnerable in that area of
44:19
the field. And again it's led to them playing more single high coverages.
44:21
They're normally a quarters and a Cover two team, and they'll sprinkle in a
44:23
bunch of Cover one and Cover three, but they've been more Cover one and
44:27
Cover three this year than almost anything else. And again, like we talked
44:30
about earlier, the Bengals offense starting to turn it around a little bit.
44:35
So against the forty nine ers, they're passing offense. They had a six
44:39
point zero six total passing EPA versus the Niners. That was their highest of
44:43
the year. They had a sixty percent positive play percentage, which is absolutely
44:46
tremendous. And then overall, just in Week eight, they were third in
44:52
offensive EPA per play, they were first in offensive success rate, they were
44:55
fifth in dropback EPA, they were first and drop back success rate, they
45:00
were fourth in rushing EPA, and they were eleventh in rushing success rate against
45:05
a very very very good forty nine ers defense that can play in a variety
45:12
of ways. And then so I tie that all into can they also get
45:16
pressure because that would also go a long way, but that vulnerability at the
45:20
second level and then also some on the outside too. No Tray White,
45:23
as you mentioned in like that coverage piece. So now who like because even
45:29
when Trey White is in there, Trade White is very technical, he's smart,
45:31
he's responsible. But even with Trey White, even when the bill secondary
45:36
is holistically healthy at one hundred, they're not a big, athletic, speedy
45:42
type of secondary. They are a technically sound, smart, responsible type of
45:46
secondary, which is awesome. That's not the type of dudes that you need
45:52
going up against t Higgins, who's this six foot five ball winner who does
45:55
the you know, proverbial I take fifty to fifty balls and I make them
45:59
eighty twenty balls. Like who bangs with t Higgins downfield? And then on
46:02
the other side, Yeah, like who's handling Jamar Chase? Like I love
46:06
your idea of like clouding that Jamar Chase side. You almost kind of have
46:08
to. Christian Benford has played really well as the corner two for the Bills
46:13
this year opposite of Trey White. Trey White went down, they brought Dan
46:15
Jackson in. They traded for Rasul Douglass today from the Packers. Like I
46:19
would like to see Douglas get a chance, We'll see how he gets acclimated.
46:22
But from just a matchup perspective in terms of my skill set versus your
46:28
skill set, like if you're looking at it from a Bills or Bengals perspective,
46:31
like the Bills don't match up great with the speed and athleticism and size
46:36
that the Bengals have. Even from a slot perspective, Taron Johnson is one
46:39
of the best slock corners in football, like him and Mike Hilton are and
46:43
when Kenny Moore is on. Kenny Moore, Mike Hilton, and Taren Johnson
46:46
for me are like the top three slock corners in football. I would probably
46:50
give it the nod to Mike Hilton in terms of being the best slock corner
46:52
in all of football because of how good he is against the pass and coming
46:55
forward. Taron Johnson's awesome because he plays the run like a linebacker and his
47:00
good is in coverage as well just not to the level of Hilton for me,
47:02
but even that, he's on the smaller side for slock corners, and
47:07
Tyler Boyd is a huge slot receiver, like he is not the like today's
47:12
slot receiver of like the Wes Welker Hunter, Renfro, Juliane Edo Mingole Like
47:16
he's six to two. Yeah, good ball skills, good body control.
47:21
Yeah, type of ball winning type. I mean the Bengals have a type
47:23
that they want guys that can win at the catch point and have good body
47:28
control. So he can he can he has the catch radius, he can
47:30
go up and get it, like, he can make you right even if
47:32
the ball is a little off frame. He's got the power, but he's
47:36
also technical and he's athletic. Like even that matchup piece isn't the best against
47:42
someone like Taron Johnson. Or even again, if the Bills like to use
47:45
their their safeties and slock coverage and stuff cool, like, he's still a
47:47
matchup problem for even Micah Higher Jordan Poyer and one on the coverage or if
47:51
you spin that safety down. There's so many matchup points that from a skill
47:55
set perspective, favor the Bengals individually, like in a silo, this player
48:01
versus that player, let alone the schematic piece and then let alone. Yeah,
48:07
just where the Bengals come in as this offense as an offense starting to
48:10
hum a little bit, and then one last piece like Burrow's under pressure numbers
48:15
against San Francisco were ridiculously strong. So overall a two point seven time to
48:22
throw his time to throw again overall last year versus the Bills and the Division
48:25
I was two point four to six. But Burrow had sixteen dropbacks against the
48:30
Niners where he was under pressure. He was sacked three times, okay,
48:34
but he had ten attempts. He was ten of ten. Ten of nine
48:37
of those completions were for first downs. He had a ten point six average
48:42
depth of target thirteen point six yards per attempt, which isn't just a Burrough
48:45
stat Like that's him getting the ball to his guys and then making plays.
48:49
And then he also had a one hundred and fifty two point one rating.
48:52
That to me, like, as a person who doesn't watch as much Bengals
48:57
tape as you do, but I feel like I watch enough when and he's
49:00
clicking, and when this Bengals offense is clicking, it's almost like no matter
49:04
what you do, you send pressure, he's beaten it. You play coverage
49:07
numbers, he beats it. You get him under pressure, he beats it.
49:09
And it's not by you know, although in what was that the first
49:14
offensive series of the game, he gets out of the sack from Bosa and
49:16
just like f nagels out with three different yeah, just makes some ridiculous play
49:21
and then of course like throws it like nine or ten yards and it's like
49:22
a first down. So he's usually not that guy, you know. It's
49:27
not like he's he's not beating pressure like Josh Allen where he's evading the rush
49:30
and stiff arming alignment and making some alien play. Like he's beating it with
49:35
quickness and recognition and anticipation and precision, and him showing those numbers against San
49:38
Francisco again he was sacked three times, so they did get to him.
49:42
But again ten of ten, nine first downs, one hundred and fifty two
49:45
point one rating ten point six average depth of target. That's him knowing what
49:52
to do being Joe cool in the moment. I hate you using that proverbial
49:54
label, but he was buzzing and like coming into this game, like with
49:59
that confidence in that mold and then on top of it having the matchup skill
50:04
set differences versus the bill secondary. It's such a I think it's an advantage
50:08
honestly that leans Bengals. I just wonder how much and how far the pendulum
50:14
swings in that way, right, And I mean when you look at the
50:16
season long numbers, I think Burrow was one of the worst quarterbacks under pressure
50:20
at the start of the year, and that was just he couldn't move and
50:22
he couldn't buy any time. And buying time doesn't always mean, you know,
50:25
stiff arming linebackers, and it means like taking a quick step inside to
50:31
avoid some pressure, to buy yourself an extra quarter of a second to get
50:36
the ball or at least make things cleaner. One thing about Burrow that yes
50:40
very technically sound. I think his feet are always good. I think he's
50:43
always in a wide base, good rhythm. He is never and I don't
50:47
think the Bengals. I think the Bengals tested this very early in his career.
50:51
He has never been afraid to throw with bodies around his feet and like
50:55
everything starts falling down around him, he just confidently will step through and still
51:00
and I think that has to do with the pressure too. He's gonna get
51:01
hit, he's going to have a guy around his legs, He's going to
51:05
have people falling down, doesn't matter. He's just unfazed by that. Able
51:07
to deliver accurate passes and keep his footwork, keep his base, and be
51:12
able to use good placement. And I think he's just played so on time
51:15
in that forty nine ers game, and can he keep stay on time of
51:20
backfoot hits ball out type of thing where maybe it's not the two and a
51:23
half second time to release, but he's always up there on time to release
51:27
because he's just always ready to throw hitting that back foot, he's ball comes
51:31
out or he's just one hitch ball out. It's not what am I seeing
51:36
here, and being a little confused, and then laid on a throw at
51:39
least not in the past couple of years. Maybe his rookie year he'd be
51:43
laid on throws. That's alsohy I took somebody's sacks, so he was a
51:45
little bit late on stuff. But also he thought they had to dial back
51:50
the you're not Superman, which I think Bill Fits probably get that idea too.
51:53
If like Josh Allen was very much in the Yeah, I'll just make
51:58
all these guys miss the thing. It's like whatever, let the pressure come.
52:00
I'll just I'll juke this guy, I'll shake this guy, I'll stiff
52:04
on this guy, and then I'll just make some ridiculous throw. Yeah,
52:07
it's it's also very funny, like that matchup piece of even just like from
52:13
a quarterback and weapons perspective, like Alan is this alien and unicorn of a
52:16
quarterback, and Joe Burrow is very He's I think he's more mobile and athletic
52:21
than he gets credit for when healthy, but he's very just much this like
52:24
kind of more old school type of quarterback. Like I like this comment from
52:30
Sale and the Chat saying Burrow is this generation's Joe Montana, Like he's like
52:34
a surgeon, which is extremely high praise. But yeah, that just ability,
52:37
like the mental side of it, and the precision and the quickness and
52:40
the on time rhythm of it all. Everything that he does is not necessarily
52:45
the antithesis of what Josh Allen does. But you're not really showing Josh Allen
52:50
to like an eight year old quarterback and being like, here's the teach tape,
52:53
this is what you should do. Yeah, roll your right throw across
52:58
your body, chuck the ball sixty five yards downfield on the run and make
53:00
a throw. No, like you would show him more of Joe Burrow tape
53:05
and be like, this is how you want your feet, this is your
53:07
timing, these are your reads, These are how you get through your progressions.
53:09
And not that Alan can't do that, but he's able to lean into
53:13
that superman Unicorn alien skill set and it's different than what Burrow leans into.
53:19
And then even from a weapons perspective, like Diggs is athletic, but Diggs
53:22
is this precision, technical craftsman of a route runner. And then you've got
53:25
all these different kind of auxiliary or anci lary pieces for the Bills on offense.
53:30
And then you go to the Bengals and it's just like Jamar Chase,
53:32
like tremendous athlete, like top five pick potential type of dude, like not
53:37
necessarily generational talent, but pretty close to it. T Higgins this huge,
53:42
tall, athletic downfield ball winner, like physical presence monster Tyler boyd dwarfing everyone
53:47
else in the slot receiver game in terms of like what type of mold and
53:52
archetype fit he is versus what the Bills have leaned to in the slot.
53:55
And they've changed a little bit now having Dalton Kincaid be more of that guy,
53:59
but before it was Colebaslee and Isaiah McKenzie and Jamison Crowder. Like their
54:05
roster constructions and idea of how they put together a team philosophically have just been
54:10
different, and then the skill sets that they put together have been different as
54:14
well, And it's interesting just to yeah, like when you look at it
54:16
and break it down from a matchup perspective, not that these teams are like
54:20
polar opposites, but the way they do business is just different in a lot
54:25
of you know, I think when you look at the Bills and Chiefs,
54:28
there's a lot of similarities and how they operate offensively and the explosives and Allen
54:31
and Mahomes, but Burrow just isn't in that mold. That Bengals offense isn't
54:35
in that mold, and how it operates is really fun to watch, and
54:39
especially in such a man yeah, big game. I remember when this schedule
54:43
came out, I was like, man, like, Bill's Bengals is like
54:46
way in November. It's so long, and then like it's Halloween right now,
54:50
and it's November already. I feel like the season has gone by so
54:52
fast, like it's and yeah, it's Sunday night. Cart It's definitely started
54:57
slow on the side, felt and same thing like it did last year too.
55:01
You guys were I I lost in my survivor pool last year. Early.
55:06
I picked the Bengals against Cooper Rush and the Dallas Cowboys because I was
55:09
like, wang, they freaking lost. I wasn't even that close, Like
55:13
I'm thinking I end up being one scorer, but they scored garbage time touchdown
55:16
to make it one score. It was like it didn't feel like they were
55:21
How did Cooper Rush just take this team that went to the Super Bowl out
55:24
to the woodshed like that? And I was like that didn't matter. By
55:28
week seven, I was like once they turned it around, I was like
55:31
I knew they were going to do it. I just thought it would happen
55:34
early and I was like against the stupid Cooper Rush Cowboys, like really,
55:37
and yeah, they Cincinnati scored and I think got a two point conversion and
55:43
they made it close, but then Dallas scored again and it was done,
55:45
and then Cincinnati scored, Like I was literally watching that game, rooting my
55:50
heart out for the Cincinnati Bengals. And then they lost. Yeah, and
55:52
then turned it around. And it was the same thing this year. Like
55:55
I had a lot of people being like, bro, Bengals are terrible,
55:59
Like they're dead in the Like, no, they're going to turn it around,
56:01
like and it was like no, like the Ravens house them, Like
56:04
they're not going to do anything. Oh, Cardinals suck. That doesn't mean
56:07
anything. San Francisco will kill them. And like lo and behold, they
56:10
come in, you know, riding a little bit of some confidence and on
56:15
a bit of a heater and Sunday night Primetime in the Jungle, you're gonna
56:20
be there? Man, I how pumped are you to go now that the
56:22
Bengals have righted the ship a little bit at primetime game? Like, how
56:25
pumped are you now to be there? Oh? Very excited? I mean
56:28
I think it'll be a good game. I'm not I'm not going to predict
56:30
game or anything like that unless I'm forced. But I'm very superstitious. I
56:35
never I've been on shows they'll be like, what's your prediction for the game.
56:37
I'm like, nah, I don't do that. A good game.
56:39
Yeah, no, I think I think it'd be a great game. I
56:42
think it'd be electric. I mean this game primetime biggest game of the year
56:49
so far. I mean they play the Chief Slater. I feel like that's
56:52
always the biggest game for anybody in the AFC, right, It'll be say
56:55
for the Bills, like, yeah, this is like our second biggest game
56:58
of the year. We got the Chief Slater this one, So this one
57:00
is a big one for Bills fans or for the Bills in general. This
57:04
one's a big one. The one against the Chiefs is a big one.
57:06
And then the last week of the season is in Miami, so that's like
57:10
the other big one for the Bills, especially now with like Miami being good
57:15
again and the rivalry there. I feel like it's it's crept up to what
57:19
what b Bengals Ravens is or maybe Bengals Steelers, depending on which team you
57:22
feel like is the better like rivalry peace. But yeah, that those are
57:25
the big the big four this year that will we're circle for the Bills where
57:30
both Miami games, the Chiefs and the Bengals, And then I would say
57:34
the Philly game too, even though it's an NFC team, but they represented
57:37
the NFC last year, the last one. Yeah, that's similar I think
57:40
to what Bengals forty nine ers felt like, except I guess the old head
57:44
Bengals fans still hold a lot of resentment for losing two Super Bowls to the
57:47
forty nine ers, so they're probably very happy about that game going. I
57:51
could see that. You know what's funny too, is NFL network we're showing
57:53
I think the one from with the Boomer Sias in one they were showing on
57:58
NFL Network like the night before. Yeah, and I was you know what's
58:00
funny is I was watching it. The Bengals are using like surge motion and
58:05
fast motion like the Niners do now, and it was I was gonna tweet,
58:08
but it was like two am. I don't know why I was up,
58:10
but it was just one of those examples of like time as a flat
58:14
circle and like like nothing is new, like everything that everyone's like, man,
58:17
like you know so and so just created this concept. I was like,
58:21
Nope, some team did that in nineteen fifty four. Like it's just
58:22
like nothing is now, everything is the same. Yeah, that's that's funny.
58:27
With the how Bengals fans do that. That's I mean, you can
58:30
get it with the young crowd too, But Bill's old heads hate the Cowboys
58:35
and hate the Dolphins. There's just that hate for Miami in the seventies and
58:37
eighties and then they hate for the Cowboys in the early nineties. Yeah,
58:42
they old heads talk about like that, like those Super Bowl teams and like
58:45
the old Dolphins, like people coming back from Vietnam. Like it's just like
58:49
war stories and just hatred and emotion. And you get drunk at Christmas and
58:53
someone's telling you how much they hate Dan Marino and Troy Aikman. It's just
58:58
yeah, like and that's where I was as fans like stupid Joe Montana and
59:01
Jerry Rice and John Taylor and Bill Walsh. Yeah, I can't think I
59:07
feel like you got it. Whenever you get to like somebody that was like
59:08
a spot starter and like there's like a deep hatred for that guy, that's
59:13
where it really is. Like Bengals definitely have that with like the Steelers.
59:16
They'll name guy like Mike Mitchell started there a few years like, well,
59:20
they despise Mike Mitchell, Like it's like, dude, Mike, Nobody even
59:22
knows Mike Mitchell. Dude, So I I'm obvious like a Bills fan,
59:29
but Ed Reid is my favorite player of all time, and so when the
59:31
Bills were terrible, I would gravitate towards the Ravens. So I hate the
59:36
Steelers, and so I'm a little bit like that for the Steelers, like
59:38
I hate Brett Keesl and like Mike Taylor and just the most random Steelers that
59:44
like people were like who and I'm like, yeah, like Brett KEESL.
59:46
I absolutely like hate them, just like the weirdest. Yeah. It's funny
59:50
how you get that passion. Man, it just makes you hate like the
59:53
most random dudes and it just sticks in your craw forever. But yeah,
59:59
dude, that's for you being able to go there. I hope you enjoy
1:00:00
it. You're awesome tonight. I appreciate you taking the time on Halloween to
1:00:05
join me chop it up, talk x's and o's. Like I said earlier,
1:00:08
you do really great work and breaking down stuff for the Bengals, both
1:00:13
like in written content form and just breaking down stuff on your Twitter and anything
1:00:17
and everything. When it comes to like the film piece and breaking down the
1:00:20
house and whys and I always tell everybody on the show, like, even
1:00:22
if you're just a Bills fan, it's important to stay up on all the
1:00:27
other teams because every other team is your enemy and you want to be knowledgeable
1:00:30
and up on those teams. And you are one of my go tos for
1:00:32
anything and everything Bengals, So once again, I appreciate you taking the time,
1:00:36
Thank you for joining me. The floor is yours. Feel free to
1:00:38
pump your Twitter, your written content, anything and everything you got. The
1:00:43
flow is the flow the floor. I guess the flow can be yours as
1:00:45
well, but the flow of the floor is yours. Tell the people where
1:00:49
they can find you, what you do and all that stuff. Yeah,
1:00:51
everything's promoted on a Twitter at Bengals Underscore Sands. You can check it out
1:00:54
there, and if you don't have Twitter x whatever you're boycotting it or something,
1:01:00
you can check out the written content at All Bengals from Sports Illustrated.
1:01:04
I do a weekly film breakdown there sometimes more depends on my real life schedule
1:01:08
because this isn't my full ton job, And then you can check out any
1:01:13
type of if you're in the podcast. I do a podcast called It's Always
1:01:15
Game Dance Cincinnati as well. Yeah, your work is tremendous again, detailed
1:01:21
the breaking down again like x's and O scheme structure, like what you really
1:01:24
want to know about teams, you do it the right way. I appreciate
1:01:28
the hell idea for what you do in general, and just yeah, taking
1:01:30
the time joining me. I know I kept you a little longer than forty
1:01:32
five minutes, but I got excited and I was having a blast. Travel
1:01:36
safe, enjoy the game Sunday night. I'll see you on Twitter. And
1:01:39
yeah, I appreciate the Hi. Yeah, thanks for stopping by, Thanks
1:01:42
for having me a man, tremendous guest. I was pumped that I was
1:01:50
able to get Mike on again. He's genuinely worth a very good follow if
1:01:53
you're on Twitter on social media, that piece on the camera's a little fussy
1:01:57
there. Give him a follow on Twitter. Like there's no emotion or fan
1:02:00
bias in it. Like he's just breaking down plays and breaking down schemes and
1:02:05
concepts and aspects. And again he just does like a really good jobs somebody
1:02:09
I gravitate towards for that content. Then he provides, so give him a
1:02:14
shower, give him a follow. He's awesome. I love the comments here
1:02:15
from Sale. I pulled one of them up. I love Sale saying the
1:02:19
Dolphins by far the biggest hated team and then saying Marinos teams needed to wear
1:02:23
helmets on the bus for rocks flying. I absolutely love that. That is
1:02:30
fantastic. Oh. I had to change the camera there. I don't know
1:02:34
why the camera wasn't showing and showing in low res. Now I switched it
1:02:37
and it's back into higher depth. That was weird. That's annoying. Oh.
1:02:42
I like this from from us old heads is definitely Cowboys and Finns.
1:02:45
The younger fans, it's probably the Pats. I kind of like Bridge a
1:02:49
little bit just because of my I'm just big into NFL history and then combined
1:02:52
with my age, so I overlap a little bit. I definitely hate the
1:02:55
Cowboys just because I grew up on it. Like you grow up hating the
1:02:59
Cowboy and hating the Dolphins, like that's just how you're ingrained and brought into
1:03:04
like Bill's Mafia, like that's what you grow into. But for me,
1:03:07
yeah, I definitely hate the Patriots more than nothing will ever come close.
1:03:12
Yeah, and Nicki throws it up their paths for sure, but I was
1:03:15
born in ninety. It's just, Oh, I don't and see even like
1:03:19
Roy saying this, like us old heads, it's definitely the Cowboys and Finns.
1:03:22
The younger fans is probably the Pats. Roy I would love to know,
1:03:25
see and See Andrew says this comment. Andrew says, the Patriots out
1:03:29
did anything Dallas or Miami did. So that's what I want to know from
1:03:30
Roy or like anybody who's like kind of an older head fan, whatever,
1:03:34
however you label yourself. How close is the hatred for the Patriots to the
1:03:38
Cowboys and to the Dolphins because I just integrant. Maybe again, this is
1:03:44
just my perspective of growing up in it, but I feel like, oh
1:03:46
and Seeing Andrew throws it in there too, and See Andrew says, the
1:03:49
Pats out did anything Dallas from Miami did. And I'm forty five, and
1:03:52
that's my thought, right, like the Patriots, like we're just the evil
1:03:57
empire for so long, I feel like that outweighs anything, Like I feel
1:04:01
like that should overshadow anything that Dallas did. I guess maybe not Miami because
1:04:08
well because the Miami run, while the Bills were bad, was pretty long,
1:04:11
especially in the seventies. But I just feel like that Patriots dominance was
1:04:15
so long, not to mention how many Super Bowls they won, like they
1:04:18
were more successful as a dynasty and as a franchise than Miami. I am
1:04:21
interested to know Roy, or for anybody out there who is like an older
1:04:25
Bills fan and you like your hatred for teams is defined by Dallas or Miami,
1:04:30
how close does the hatred for the Patriots come to that. I am
1:04:32
very interested in that because I think that's a very interesting piece. Yeah.
1:04:35
See Andrews says that even with the Dallas be like twenty years versus two super
1:04:39
bowls. I think also for me, what stems the tide a little bit
1:04:42
for the hatred for Miami is knowing that those Marino Dolphins teams could never get
1:04:49
past those Bills teams in the nineties. Like I think about it from the
1:04:54
opposite perspective, right, like what the Patriots are to the Bills, the
1:05:00
Bills are that way to Miami in those nineties years. Like me think about
1:05:03
that, like Marino goes to the Super Bowl in his second year and they
1:05:09
lose to the Niners. But if you're the Dolphins and a Dolphins fan,
1:05:12
you're thinking, man, like, we're gonna we're gonna be a dynasty.
1:05:15
We're gonna be going to Super Bowl's year after year after year. Marino never
1:05:19
goes back. He goes in his second season and he never goes back again.
1:05:23
And a large part of that is because of the Buffalo Bills. And
1:05:27
so I think that like if I grew up hating the Dolphins in the seventies
1:05:30
or eighties or whatever, that kind of turn and being able to block the
1:05:34
Dolphins and then having your own success in the nineties, I think balances is
1:05:39
out, balances it out a little bit. Whereas versus the Patriots, they've
1:05:43
never had their comeuppance, like the Bills never the Bills got the best of
1:05:45
Dan Marino and beat them and beat Shula eventually. The Bills really have never
1:05:50
gotten the best of Tom Brady, like he went out on top against the
1:05:54
Bills, So you'll never you'll always have that like they'll always have that one
1:05:57
up. And that bothers me even more, drives me nuts not to mention
1:06:00
too. Like Andrews says, Pats fans are the worst. I'm a Red
1:06:03
Sox fan, so like New England fans are all just in general can be
1:06:08
real althos. There's a bunch of Bills fans that aren't great as well.
1:06:10
But man, oh, here goes Roy saying, I love this. I'm
1:06:13
a whisper from sixty Dallas. Whooped our asses in the Super Bowl. Patriots
1:06:16
whooped us when we had craft teams. That's fair, But I just feel
1:06:19
like like the Pats never got their comeuppance. Right if you're following like the
1:06:28
story arc for anything, the bad guy at the end gets their comeuppance and
1:06:31
the good guy or the protagonists like prevails and stands atop the mountain. The
1:06:36
Bills never got that with the Pats. I know, the Bills kicked the
1:06:39
crap out of the Patriots a couple of years ago in the playoffs, but
1:06:42
it wasn't Brady and Belichick. It was Mac Jones and Belichick. So like
1:06:45
you, you never got that chance to stand atop Tom Brady and those Patriots
1:06:50
teams year after year. They were just rubbing your noses into the dirt year
1:06:55
after year. God, I hate them, but good times. You know
1:06:59
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Let me pull that band down and now so Ku says he'd be spoken on
1:08:02
the trade yet no have not and bring up this comment from Pops earlier,
1:08:06
it says, but first, what do you think about Russoul Douglas. So
1:08:11
both of those pieces tie into this next piece, which changed the banner,
1:08:15
so that way I can see what we got on the screen here. So
1:08:20
I went on timestamping it later. It makes more sense for me. So
1:08:23
boom Bill's trade for Packers starting corner Russeul Douglas. I like the deal.
1:08:30
If you're looking at him from an archetype fit, in a scheme fit,
1:08:32
he ticks a lot of boxes for this Bill's defense. He has good zone
1:08:35
eyes. I put a couple of really good clips of him on Twitter earlier
1:08:39
today of him playing the run and him playing in zone. You so what
1:08:44
I mean by zone eyes like he So, for example, there's one play,
1:08:47
Oh, I don't ever have brought it up. They're playing cover three,
1:08:50
and so he's dropping into his deep third and he's flowing with his man.
1:08:54
But then it's against the Raiders. He's flown with not DeVante. He's
1:08:57
flowing with Trey Tucker across the field, but then he sees Jacoby Myers come
1:09:00
in on a deep over, so instead of continuing he Id's Jacoby Myers stops
1:09:06
falls off, Trey Tucker drives on Jacoby Myers reads Jimmy Garoppolo making the throw
1:09:14
for him. He jumps it, almost gets the pick, but he just
1:09:15
breaks up the pass because Myers it's a contested catch. He's just responsible in
1:09:20
zone coverage, and a lot of that comes from the coverages he's played,
1:09:25
what he did in Philly, what he did with Green Bay. He's comfortable
1:09:28
in match coverage. He's comfortable in press, He's comfortable in man. He's
1:09:31
long, he's physical, listed at six two, two hundred and nine pounds,
1:09:36
plays with an edge, plays with a tenacity. He's good against the
1:09:40
run. I like what Nikki here says, says he adds something. We
1:09:44
don't have a bigger CB that can play both man and zone. Yeah,
1:09:46
and he covers ground. He's not the fastest dude, but he does have
1:09:50
longer legs and being six to two, like he can cover some ground.
1:09:54
He's got good recovery speed because he takes good angles to the football and also
1:09:58
again because he has longer legs and his ranger type of quarterback. He's got
1:10:01
good experience in terms of playoff experience and high leverage game situations. Going up
1:10:09
against the best type of dudes. I know the Raiders didn't feature Adams a
1:10:14
bunch when they played the Packers earlier this year, but if you go back
1:10:16
and you watch Packers Raiders, he's on Davante Adams rap after rep a lot
1:10:20
of times in press and whether it's press zone, press man, Like he's
1:10:24
up against DeVante Adams, wrap after rep after rep, and like that's an
1:10:29
encouraging piece, especially knowing that that team also has Jyr Alexander. So he's
1:10:33
a good corner. I like what he adds from a better an experienced standpoint,
1:10:41
from a tenacity standpoint, a toughness standpoint, Like you don't have to
1:10:44
worry about this guy kind of I don't want to say shriveling in the moment,
1:10:47
but worrying about the moment being too big for him. You know,
1:10:53
you don't have to worry about him not being able to bang with a wide
1:10:56
receiver one or a wide receiver two. Like he's got that capacity kind of
1:10:59
built into him. And he's also under contract for the twenty twenty four season,
1:11:03
which helps in general because it's always good to have that corner depth.
1:11:06
But Dan Jackson is a free agent next year. Maybe he doesn't come back.
1:11:11
We're still trying to see what happens with kyer Elam. You also got
1:11:15
to see what type of shape Tredavious White comes back in next year. Russell
1:11:18
Douglas has been playing, you know, corner one and corner two. You
1:11:24
know, even again JayR Alexander is the one for the Packers, But Russell
1:11:28
Douglas will get matched up again. Like I said in that Raiders game,
1:11:30
he's going toe to toe with Devonte Adams for the heavy majority of that game.
1:11:33
So Rasseull Douglas is very much like a low end CB one, like
1:11:38
high end CB two, and you add him into a corner grouping that has
1:11:42
Christian Benford, who I think has played very well this year, Dan Jackson,
1:11:45
who I think is better than people give him credit for. But Dane
1:11:48
is still like a low end CB two, high end CB three. And
1:11:53
some good comments here like this one from Aiden saying I saw from Packers fans
1:11:56
that he brought a huge amount of leadership and voice to that locker room.
1:11:59
He's got a lot of good experience, like he he's that type of dude
1:12:01
you want to go to war with. In the regular season down the stretch
1:12:05
with games that matter in the playoffs, like the physical presence that he brings.
1:12:10
He plays the run hard, he takes on blocks, he avoids linemen
1:12:15
in the screen game to try and sift through traffic and make tackles again,
1:12:17
long rangey, physical corner, good eyes, good zone eyes again, but
1:12:23
also can play some man coverage, has the ability to jam and effect receivers,
1:12:28
releases and routes because of the length, and also the veteran savvy that
1:12:30
he operates with. It's a good ad. I would have loved it they
1:12:34
got Jalen Johnson from Chicago. He's somebody I liked coming out, and I
1:12:40
was actually surprised the Bears were even considering trading Jalen Johnson. I like what
1:12:44
they are building in that secondary with him and Kyler Gordon and Jakwan Brisker,
1:12:50
and so I understood a little more when Johnson wanted to be traded potentially wasn't
1:12:55
going to resign and all that. But until that came out, I was
1:12:58
surprised the Bears would move or want to move a guy like that like Jawan
1:13:01
Johnson. Jawan Johnson, Jalen Johnson just seems like the type of corner you
1:13:05
want to build around, especially with the youth and athleticism they have there in
1:13:09
Chicago. Reports came out that the Bills did make an offer. They were
1:13:12
pretty aggressive, quote unquote and trying to get Johnson from Chicago. But at
1:13:15
the end of the day, you know, the Bears wanted too much,
1:13:19
which is part of the reason why Johnson stayed put. There were several other
1:13:23
teams, including the forty nine ers, who were in on Johnson, but
1:13:25
he ended up staying put. And so you get Rasoul Douglas. I believe
1:13:29
what is a for a third round pick, and then the Packers sent the
1:13:31
Bills a fifth round back their way. I was looking into it a bit
1:13:36
during doing Hollow, during doing Halloween festivities this evening, but I spent a
1:13:42
lot of time just going back to the tape and seeing what they got.
1:13:45
I'm interested to see how acclimated he gets and how quickly he gets acclimated.
1:13:49
From a scheme fit perspective, and an experienced perspective, It's not going to
1:13:54
take him a while to fit in and gel you know, with this system
1:13:57
and with this scheme. But there are intricacies aked in and built into this
1:14:00
Bill's defense from a communications standpoint. From a rapport standpoint, you know,
1:14:05
hide employer and Taron Johnson need to know that you're going to be where they
1:14:11
think you are going to be, and vice versa. And that's not necessarily
1:14:15
something I can't tell you that. That's something that you know will be If
1:14:17
he shows up in Buffalo tomorrow, that'll be good to go by Friday.
1:14:20
I can't tell you that, especially against you know, going up against a
1:14:24
team like the Bengals this week, who are going to present some matchup problems.
1:14:28
He's somebody that I would like to have against the Bengals. He's somebody
1:14:33
that I would like to put up against at Higgins. From a size and
1:14:36
length and frame perspective, he gives you some of that ability to kind of
1:14:41
fight fire with fire, and I do like the potential combination of him and
1:14:45
Christian Benford on the outside. Again, I like Dame Jackson. I think
1:14:49
he's more of a rotational piece. Again high I've always labeled him as like
1:14:53
a high end CB three, low end CB two, but I like the
1:14:57
addition of Rasul Douglas. We'll see how quickly he gets up to speed.
1:15:00
But he ticks a lot of the boxes from a size, frame, mentality,
1:15:03
perspective, experience, perspective, skill set, perspective abilities like what the
1:15:09
Bills are specifically Sean McDermott looks for in his corners and in his secondary players.
1:15:15
Douglas ticks a lot of those a lot of those boxes. So I
1:15:19
think it's a good move and one that you know, helps bolster this team.
1:15:23
I would have loved if they could have added, you know, another
1:15:26
interior defensive lineman, mainly just because I don't think. I'm just waiting for
1:15:30
Jordan Phillips' injury history to I hate to put this out there, but like
1:15:33
I'm waiting for that injury history to rear its ugly head when it comes to
1:15:35
Jordan Phillips. So I would love to reinforce the interior a bit more.
1:15:42
I would love linebacker to come through so the Bills don't have to be forced
1:15:48
into these dime looks with Poyer at off ball linebacker. But again, it's
1:15:55
not easy to make a trade in the NFL. I think there's soul Douglas
1:15:58
move is good. I do think it bolster the secondary. I do think
1:16:00
it helps them in a in a position to need and especially too if if
1:16:03
Kyrie Elyam is hurt or the Bills have lost confidence in him, or he's
1:16:06
lost confidence in himself. You are now back to a pretty steady rotation having
1:16:11
you know, Rasul Douglas, Dane Jackson and Christian Benford, and you know,
1:16:14
I know, Trey White going down sucks and there is no silver lining
1:16:16
to it or way to make anybody feel better about it. But there is,
1:16:25
you know, some positivity there in terms of bringing in Douglas and what
1:16:27
they can do to kind of bridge that gap and mitigate the loss of Trey
1:16:31
White. Warped Prad says, what do you think we're gonna do about Jamar
1:16:35
like man for man or splitting duties. I'm very much into what Mike said
1:16:42
earlier when he was on the show. It's something that I posited last year
1:16:44
with Bruce Nolan when he was on for the Playoffs playoff show. I think
1:16:47
you have to cloud Jamar chase, which basically means like you're playing like cover
1:16:50
two to his side, where you have a corner jam and sit underneath him
1:16:55
and then you have a safety over the top. I don't think, and
1:16:59
I don't even think this is a bill. I don't know how many teams
1:17:01
have somebody who can just go man for man, blow for blow with Jamar
1:17:04
Chase, Like the dude has strength and burst and explosion, but he also
1:17:09
has technicality and savvy and nuanced. Like He's not somebody that I think you
1:17:13
just locked down one on one. You can from time to time, and
1:17:15
I think you will have to show some of those looks. You are going
1:17:17
to have to at some point play him straight up man coverage or play him,
1:17:21
you know, with a deep third side like a cover three or even
1:17:25
quarters and kind of match with him a little bit. But I do think
1:17:28
you have to cloud his side. I think you have to get physical with
1:17:30
him. I'm very much. And this is just for Jamar Chase. With
1:17:34
like top notch dudes like Jamar Chase, like Travis Kelcey, guys that are
1:17:39
just uncomfortable to a degree, and there's not only so much you're not going
1:17:42
to stop them. There's only so much you can do to detain them.
1:17:46
My thing with that is just beat the ever love and hell out of them.
1:17:49
Legally. I'm throwing, I'm jamming left and right, i am pressing,
1:17:54
I'm getting physical, i am re routing, I am hitting them at
1:17:57
the line. I'm hitting them in the stem. I'm doing everything I can,
1:18:00
aside from illgal contact penalties and holding and pushing someone down and pass interference.
1:18:06
I'm doing everything I can from a physicality perspective to beat the hell up,
1:18:11
beat the hell out of them all night long. So I'm throwing that
1:18:15
against the Bengals all night and against Jamar Chase, and Pete says it sounds
1:18:19
like we want Benford to bracket Chase and rasul On Higgins. Could he actually
1:18:24
start Sunday night. Yeah. I spoke a little bit about that briefly,
1:18:28
Pete. If he can get up the speed I think he can from like
1:18:30
a schematic standpoint and a fit standpoint, it's just a matter of how quickly
1:18:32
he picks up the terminology, the checks, the adjustments, the rapport and
1:18:36
communication with the rest of the secondary pieces in terms of getting everybody together and
1:18:43
just being able to operate on that same page, because so much of this
1:18:45
defense is predicated on trust both within the players on the field but also within
1:18:50
the coaching staff and them having the faith in you to go out and execute,
1:18:54
which is something that is holding Kyrie Elm back at this point. So
1:18:57
I do think he could start. I think it's a fifty to fifty toss
1:18:59
up, like I think he can fit in, but just how much how
1:19:03
many intricacies there are within this defense that he has to adjust to and pick
1:19:06
up, And that's something that I don't know, and I don't think anyone
1:19:11
really knows, but it's gonna be a really interesting point. I like to
1:19:13
move overall again. I'm gonna be breaking down more of his tape on my
1:19:15
Twitter. I put out several clips of him today when the news dropped.
1:19:20
I'm gonna be going more into the tape tonight and in the following days,
1:19:24
in addition to going into more Bengals tape and putting out some things. But
1:19:28
yeah, good move again for what they got him for. This is somebody
1:19:30
who also again is under contract for twenty twenty four. So he's somebody that
1:19:34
you look at and you know, whether it's just functional depth or it's insurance
1:19:40
for Shredavious White or any of these pieces. Like, he's somebody that I
1:19:44
think, will you know, pay dividends this year and potentially next as well.
1:19:46
So good move for Brandon Bean. I hope it's sexy enough for everybody
1:19:49
out there that wanted to move at the trade deadline and so on and so
1:19:54
forth and all that, but yeah, good move overall. Now let us
1:19:59
go into to some tape with the Bengals defense. So I want I talked
1:20:05
about them earlier and I wanted to show some of these pieces here in this
1:20:10
episode just for a lot of a lot of what they do. I wanted
1:20:13
to show some clips of what happened last week against the San Francisco forty nine
1:20:18
ers. And as I show my screen there, so this first one here,
1:20:24
what you've got for the Cincinnati Bengals. Again just being creative in terms
1:20:30
of what they're able to do. So this one is a third and six.
1:20:32
This is part of what one of the plays I was talking about earlier
1:20:34
with Mike. Now, this is like right as they kind of come out
1:20:38
of huddle, come to the line, watch what happens with San Francisco here.
1:20:42
So you see the switch. So Jermaine Pratt comes in motion, not
1:20:46
comes in motion, but shifts. So Jermaine Pratt right here. And so
1:20:51
the way this aligns pre snap would indicate a pressure and would indicate man coverage.
1:20:58
So Pratt coming over here, This is Pratt. He comes over here,
1:21:00
he's got McCaffrey, you've got Hilton on Ayuk Cam Taylor Britt out here
1:21:03
on Jennings man man or again. Maybe if they know these do a switch
1:21:09
release, maybe they banjo and pass these off. And he stays man coverage
1:21:12
out here, he stays man coverage inside some so on and so forth.
1:21:15
But what you've got is presenting like a man coverage look for the Bengals in
1:21:18
addition to an overload pressure. Look here on this side, and again it's
1:21:23
third and six, So you're looking at how this defense is presenting, and
1:21:27
you're anticipating getting some pressure, and you're looking at a man coverage look again,
1:21:30
third and six. They hold this look so they're sitting in it.
1:21:33
There's no keys, there's no keys, there's no keys. They're staying in
1:21:38
it. Now Ray Ray McCloud for the Niners. Number three up here,
1:21:41
he goes in motion. So Bengals corner widens again, still looking like mann.
1:21:46
On the snap everything changes. So they held this look literally until the
1:21:51
snap. And now on the snap, look what this turns into. It
1:21:58
is not man coverage. It's a drop eight and it's cover three. And
1:22:01
look how they got to it. This defender here. I'm sorry, not
1:22:04
that defender there. Actually, yeah, that defender there is going to drop
1:22:11
to the middle third. That becomes a middle third. That becomes a middle
1:22:15
third. Then you get the underneath piece where you have Logan Wilson who is
1:22:20
right here acting as that low hole player. So again they drop eight,
1:22:27
go fast here, boom, drop eight, rush three, cover three flats,
1:22:33
hook curls, hook curls, flats, and then you have Logan Wilson.
1:22:38
Well, it's way too big of a circle for that. Logan Wilson
1:22:41
as your low hole player. Underneath party throws that pass. BJ Hill right
1:22:47
here gets a hand up, gets a piece of it, and then Logan
1:22:50
Wilson gets the full on PBu underneath. That's a really creative look. And
1:22:57
again the bills, like we've talked about in the film room with Eric,
1:23:00
what I've shown here on the show and talked about on the show, we've
1:23:02
seen at times Josh Allen's inability to diagnose properly the changes in the pre to
1:23:10
post snap picture. The Bengals are very adept at changing that pre to post
1:23:14
snap picture, using it to confuse you, or just playing a sound coverage
1:23:18
look. And what's nice about this too. Here is again Logan Wilson is
1:23:21
that low hole player, so he's impacting throws underneath because he can cover down
1:23:27
on those. He's impacting throws in the intermediate because you have to put the
1:23:30
ball over him and it changes the ball trajectory. Or if Purty runs and
1:23:33
escapes, Logan Wilson can close down on him. Again. In this instance,
1:23:40
Hill gets a piece of it, Logan Wilson finishes it. That's just
1:23:43
a really creative look and coverage. And again it's nice like that they get
1:23:48
to it, like look how long, Like just watch it, watch them
1:23:50
disperse in unison and synchronization like this is pretty. And so this is a
1:23:57
good comment here from Nikki saying what motion even help versus that kind of defense
1:24:00
In this instance, if you use the right kind of motion, you can
1:24:05
potentially see them start to shift a little bit. So like in hindsight,
1:24:09
Ray Ray McLeod goes in motion here and that corner widens, but it still
1:24:14
looks like, oh he's widening because okay, he was just gonna take whoever
1:24:17
goes outside in man. Now in hindsight he's widening because they're gonna end up
1:24:21
going into cover three and he's gonna be playing that single third on that side,
1:24:28
but you would have to use a lot of motion, and what they
1:24:31
do is their checks counteract for that, so you have difficulty identifying it.
1:24:38
Like they're a well coached, well designed defense. Again, even just from
1:24:41
an alignment perspective. Again, like mentioning Jermaine Pratt, like coming across here,
1:24:46
he aligns to that side to make you think, oh okay, cool,
1:24:50
Like he's got the running back like one on one, Like everything about
1:24:54
this is screaming man coverage, and it's just well designed. Like they do.
1:24:59
They do so many good things, and again pay attention to the synchronization
1:25:01
of all of it and the timing of all of it. Not only do
1:25:03
they hold this look right to the snap, but watch them all move,
1:25:09
Like how choreographed it is, how seamless, it is just fluid, good
1:25:13
movement. They know where the sticks are, they attack. It's just well
1:25:15
designed, well coached defense. And then again it helps to have the players
1:25:18
in it, right. It helps to have Logan Wilson and Jermaine Pratt at
1:25:21
the second level. It helps to have Sam Hubbard and Trey Hendrickson and you
1:25:27
know Nick Scott's playing well for them coming over from the Rams. There's a
1:25:31
lot of good pieces that they have on this defense, and you have Cam
1:25:33
Taylor Brinn on the outside and a woozy A and DJ Turner, like,
1:25:36
they've got some really fun pieces on that side of the ball, and they
1:25:41
lean into their skill sets with creativity. Even seeing Jordan battle there at number
1:25:45
twenty seven, they just lean into their pieces and it's they do a good
1:25:49
job. This is the defense that you can easily get confused going up against,
1:25:56
like where you looked at the wrong piece, or you thought the wrong
1:26:00
pressure was coming, or you thought Player A was blitzing, but it's actually
1:26:03
Player B and you thought it was going to be Cover one, but it's
1:26:06
actually Cover four, anything and everything. It's very possible to get lost in
1:26:11
the sauce against this defense, both from a protection standpoint and from a quarterback
1:26:15
id in coverage routes, you know, and all that processing and diagnosing standpoint
1:26:20
post snap. So it's a lot to go through and a lot to you
1:26:25
know, diagnose. They make it hard on it. Now here's another one.
1:26:28
This is a really creative look. This one actually works for the forty
1:26:30
nine ers. So the forty nine ers get a big completion on this one.
1:26:32
It's first and ten. There's thirty one seconds left in the second quarter.
1:26:36
Again confusion, not necessarily confusion, but disguising coverage, disguising the look.
1:26:42
You get a single high look pre snap. But then the Bengals again
1:26:45
they drop eight into coverage, but this time it's cover two. Maybe kind
1:26:49
of a Tampa TUO based on what Jermaine Pratt does here and this time.
1:26:55
So last time, when we showed this play again, I'm going back to
1:26:58
this previous one. You had Ogan Wilson right here, was mugged up in
1:27:01
the a gap linebacker dropping. Is that low hole player. This time you've
1:27:06
got Sam Hubbard, edge player and a very good edge player who I've highlighted
1:27:11
there. He drops as the low hole player. So we look at this.
1:27:14
Everything is looking like single high coverage. And what do they do on
1:27:17
the snap. Let's just watch Hubbard real quick before we do anything else.
1:27:21
On the snap. Hubbard takes a step in. Now watch him drop.
1:27:27
So Sam Hubbard is now your low hole player. And then we look at
1:27:30
what we have elsewhere. So Dax Hill and Nick Scott or vice versa.
1:27:36
That's Nick Scott on the left, Dex Hill on the right. Boom.
1:27:40
They take their drops in a Cover two. Got a cloud corner here,
1:27:44
Cam Taylor Brad is clouding over here Tampa two. The only difference between Cover
1:27:48
two and Tampa two is you get a linebacker that runs that middle third.
1:27:51
You have your Maine Pratt here. He ends up being that pole runner,
1:27:55
but he doesn't go to it. Initially that was like the only thing to
1:27:57
hold him back from being like this is a full on Tampa two versus a
1:28:00
Cover two look. But at the end of the day, similar functionality.
1:28:04
Here's Jermine Pratt. He ends up trying to cover down or not covered down,
1:28:08
but Carrie George Kittle. Kittle gets the better of him running that middle.
1:28:13
Pratt kind of gets caught looking in the backfield and before he knows it,
1:28:16
his eyes are a little late getting to Kittle, who is just hauling
1:28:20
ass down the middle of the field. Boom splits it. This is a
1:28:24
really good throw from Black perty bang and then Kittle takes the hit from Dax
1:28:28
Hill. But again creativity, So showing five down right, They got that
1:28:34
bear front occupying the nose. They're five down front five defensive linemen, defensive
1:28:41
lineman, defensive lineman, defensive lineman, defensive lineman, defensive lineman. Everything
1:28:45
about this looks like a regular single high. Look, you're playing the run,
1:28:49
so on and so forth. But just getting creative, taking somebody like
1:28:54
Sam Hubbard here and using his athleticism in size and because you were show and
1:29:00
five, you can still rush four, but you drop you know, a
1:29:02
non traditional defender underneath. And again, I know this play works for the
1:29:05
Niners because Purdy makes a hell of a throw and George Kittle is fast and
1:29:10
athletic and makes a really good catch. But this is good design, This
1:29:14
is good confusion from the defense, Nicky, you see your comment. They're
1:29:18
saying, yeah, play action can help to freeze those backers. Absolutely,
1:29:21
play action. Make them hesitate, make them honor the run, make them
1:29:27
either come forward or just hesitate a little bit. Or make those defenders,
1:29:31
those those those down linemen, make them have to play the run on their
1:29:35
way to rushing the quarterback. Same thing using RPOs, making like what they
1:29:40
did against the Buccaneers this past week for the Bills, using those RPOs to
1:29:43
suck in Devin White or Lafonte David and moving them enough and then replacing them
1:29:47
with Gabe Davis or Dalton Kinkaid behind them manipulating that second level. You gotta
1:29:54
you gotta fight fire with fire to with a certain degree because the Bengals,
1:29:56
they're trying to manipulate you. They're trying to dictate protection to you. They
1:30:00
trying to confuse you and take advantage physically and mentally of who you are.
1:30:04
And so at a certain point you have to take that dictation back. And
1:30:10
part of the way you can do that is with the run game, with
1:30:12
the play action game, with some RPOs. I would expect tempo in this
1:30:15
game. Again from the Bills. You do not want the Bengals getting comfortable
1:30:20
and getting set in their defense and a roomo being able to see everything that's
1:30:25
going down, being able to relay those calls in and allowing this Bengals defense
1:30:29
to sit and get set so they can get into these looks and get into
1:30:32
these coverages. Because they get set into them and they hold them, and
1:30:36
then on the snap they change in the blink of an eye and confuse the
1:30:41
hell out of you. Even if you're great at processing like that's just what
1:30:43
they do. So the quicker you can get your play in the quicker.
1:30:45
You can get to the line and you're ready to go the quicker, you
1:30:49
can call your play with time on the play clock remaining. Not only do
1:30:54
you create more possessions for yourself later in the game, which the Bills need
1:30:56
because they've been so methodical and efficient, but you also prevent the defense from
1:31:00
getting set and getting comfortable, and you keep yourself on the front foot and
1:31:03
them more on the back foot. Again, I'm gonna play one more time.
1:31:08
I just I know this play works for the Niners. It's a good
1:31:10
throw from Purdy and it's a good catch by Kittle, But this is just
1:31:14
really creative. And again it's coming from a five down front and using an
1:31:16
edge player as your low hole player. So if they run a drag underneath,
1:31:20
he can function there, or if perty escapes, he can function there.
1:31:24
If he dumps it down to used check, Hubbard can close down even
1:31:27
because he has some size and length that there's something coming over the middle.
1:31:30
If he wants to hit this inbreaker or a dig or a slant, he's
1:31:32
got the wingspan and the height to impact that potential throwing window. We're throwing
1:31:36
lane. So it's a good job from anarrouma with the design. It's a
1:31:40
good job by the timing and execution from the Bengals. It just gets beat
1:31:44
by a better throw and a good catch from George Kittle in a situation that's
1:31:48
kind of a tendency breaker. You know, thirty seconds left in the first
1:31:51
half, you're sitting there thinking, Okay, they're gonna run the ball,
1:31:55
just try and get out of here. But maybe coming out in this formation,
1:31:58
you're thinking, maybe it'll be something tricky. But again they even even
1:32:02
with I mentioned too, like they have five down, but again they drop
1:32:08
eight. So I showed Hubbard as the low hole player. You also get
1:32:13
Trey Hendrickson is dropping out in the flat. They only rush the three on
1:32:17
the interior. And again this play works for the forty nine ers. So
1:32:20
you can sit here and be like, well, why are you showing this
1:32:23
play like the Bengals got beat on it. They got beat because Perdy made
1:32:27
a great throw and George Kittle made a great read. Like look at Kittle.
1:32:30
Look at Kittle's speed and the direction and path that he takes. He
1:32:34
diagnoses the coverage and then has the speed in the athleticism to get up the
1:32:39
field. Look at him just run like that's not normal. And then he
1:32:42
makes the good catch, turns around, makes a hands catch, protects it,
1:32:46
and takes a shot. So again, you can beat this coverage.
1:32:49
You can beat this Bengals defense. You just got to beat it with execution.
1:32:54
That's why I'm showing this play like. This is a really good coverage.
1:32:57
This is a really good design. This is a fun concept. It's
1:33:00
well executed right well, mate, not the best executed from Jermaine Pratt.
1:33:04
He's a little late with his eyes, especially if this is Tampa too and
1:33:08
he's supposed to carry kittle. You know, if again, if we watch
1:33:13
Pratt there who I circled, watched Jermaine Pratt, and just watch his eyes
1:33:16
like he is in the backfield, in the backfield, in the backfield,
1:33:19
and then all of a sudden he realizes, oh there's kittle, and the
1:33:24
old ad age if you're even you're leaving kittles, even with Pratt and he
1:33:27
just takes off on him. So there's that failed execution there. If again,
1:33:30
if it is Tampa two for the coverage there, if not, just
1:33:34
regular cover two or so on and so forth. But this is a fun
1:33:36
design. This is a fun concept, fun idea. I like it a
1:33:40
lot. It just gets beat with better execution. The Bengals are going to
1:33:44
be creative and they're going to have good execution. They're going to try and
1:33:46
confuse you, and it's it's possible to beat that. You can beat that
1:33:49
confusion, you can beat their creativity, you can beat their execution. You
1:33:54
just have to execute better. That's all it comes down to. And Purdy
1:33:58
makes a good throat. Kitt'll make a good catch. He's fast, athletic,
1:34:00
it's tough, strong, good hands. Boom his next play here,
1:34:05
This was the interception for Jermaine Pratt. This play is absolutely ridiculous by Jermaine
1:34:14
Pratt. Who have got circled here. But I've also got Hubbard circle down
1:34:16
here because he makes this play happen. Let's first focus on Sam Hubbard.
1:34:21
So what you get here? Every Bills fan, if you watch the Chiefs
1:34:26
enough, whether against the Bills or the Chiefs in general, you see this
1:34:29
play all the time. This is that shovel pass. They run it too
1:34:30
Travis Kelcey so designed to go to Kittle right here, Chiefs will running to
1:34:34
Kelsey. They'll run it to Blake Bell before that, like they will get
1:34:40
creative in terms of who they give it to, and it's not just unique
1:34:42
to the Chiefs, Like this play has been around for a bit. But
1:34:45
so watch Sam Hubbard. Here you get the run action. So first you
1:34:48
get the motion from McCaffrey pony personnel. McCaffrey's in motion, Elijah Mitchell's in
1:34:55
the backfield, so pony personnel, two true running backs. Watch Hubbard crash
1:35:00
down. Now, I don't think he does this on purpose. I think
1:35:03
he's trying to take on the block, and because Banks keeps going to the
1:35:08
second level, Hubbard misses and it just puts him into the passing lane.
1:35:13
But watch Hubbard crash down. He goes to take on the block, but
1:35:18
Banks skips him to go up and climb to Pratt. So Hubbard goes to
1:35:24
take on Banks, but because Banks move, now Hubbard kind of like flies
1:35:27
through the window a little bit. But now he's in that lane. He's
1:35:31
on Kittle, So Perdy has nowhere to go. Perty wants that flip but
1:35:34
he can't because it's covered. So he's like, oh, what do I
1:35:39
do? Let me go into creation mode. Hubbard now starts to chase him
1:35:43
down. Here's your main Pratt. Perty's rolling. Okay, I'm gonna throw
1:35:48
to McCaffrey tip pick. Tremendous catch. Penalty was on the Niner shot legal
1:35:55
man downfield. The only thing wrong here with Pratt is Dee could have done
1:35:57
a better job staying in bounds and could have housed it. This play is
1:36:00
fantastic from Jermaine Pratt. It's fantastic from Sam Hubbard. Go there goes the
1:36:06
motion from George Kittle. Again. We'll highlight some players here for everyone.
1:36:12
There is mister Sam Hubbard, there is mister Jermaine Pratt. So again watching
1:36:18
what they do on this play. Watch Hubbard, the big one there,
1:36:23
Watch him come crashing down. You can see it on this angle. Hubbard
1:36:26
comes crashing down like as I keep playing it, See he doesn't look like
1:36:30
he's not iding, at least I don't think. I don't think he's iding.
1:36:33
George Kittle like his eyes are on the pullar, on that pulling guard,
1:36:38
and see he go. He braces himself and gets low and goes to
1:36:42
explode into the guard, but the guard, instead of kicking him out,
1:36:46
goes past him to go to Jermaine Pratt. But his momentum Hubbard's momentum right
1:36:51
here carries him through and you can see now he's like lunging, but he's
1:36:56
just in the window and Perty has nowhere to go. So just making a
1:37:01
good hard hustle play by Sam Hubbard ends up making all the difference because again,
1:37:08
if that doesn't happen, Perty hits that shovel to Kittle. We'll see
1:37:13
what happens from there and what Kittle does with it. But that hustle,
1:37:15
that recognition, that effort, that angle to the ball from Sam Hubbard is
1:37:18
what creates this initially, and then Jermaine Pratt finishes it on the back end,
1:37:24
like this play is unreal from Pratt. I thought he was gonna sign
1:37:27
for way more money than he did well this offseason he ended up coming back
1:37:30
to Cincinnati, Like, I didn't think they were gonna be able to keep
1:37:33
They lost esse Bates, they lost von Bell. I thought Jermaine Pratt would
1:37:36
be in that loss group for them as well. He had a really good
1:37:41
year last year, especially from an advanced metrics standpoint, but with a coverage
1:37:46
perspective on tape and what he and Logan Wilson do together, like they're a
1:37:49
really fun pair. They're fast, they're athletic, they're aggressive, they can
1:37:53
be used in a variety of ways. And seeing what Pratt can do again,
1:37:58
like this play is nuts, just like down on Purty in and of
1:38:01
itself, but then getting the hand up like we're gonna go slow motion with
1:38:04
it, like the reaction time and again some of that is luck, like
1:38:09
he deflects the ball in the right way so that you know he doesn't purposely
1:38:13
deflect it this way so he can pick it, like it's just the timing
1:38:15
of it all happens. But the reaction time to get the paw up,
1:38:20
bang, see the deflection, catch it and just man again, he probably
1:38:30
his momentum is carrying him out, but he probably should scored there. Like
1:38:32
this play again, I just want to highlight both of them. This isn't
1:38:35
necessarily scheme. This is a super creative look by lou Ana Roumo, like
1:38:42
we showed in the first two plays earlier, like this is just two good
1:38:45
players making two good football plays. Hubbard makes a good play with the hustle,
1:38:50
the effort, the angle to the ball, knowing his assignment, knowing
1:38:54
his responsibility. Boom again, I don't think he's trying. I don't think
1:38:58
he sees this play developing and it's like, boom, there's the shovel pass.
1:39:00
Let me cut off the pass to George Kittle. Maybe he he does,
1:39:04
maybe he is, but based on his body language and his assignment,
1:39:09
it looks like he's just trying to take on this pulling guard here. But
1:39:14
because the guard skips him and goes to Jermaine Pratt, he lowers and goes
1:39:18
to take on that pulling guard misses momentum carries him through, and then he
1:39:21
sees Kittle and it's like, okay, let me just stay here. That
1:39:25
gets pretty off the look and off the read, puts him into creation mode
1:39:30
and then bang, you just get an amazing play from Jermaine Pratt. Huh,
1:39:44
that's a tremendous play. Again, this is a quality and I don't
1:39:46
think their defense gets talked about enough. I mean, I think they do
1:39:49
a little more now, mainly from a Luenn or Rumo perspective. A lot
1:39:53
of what the conversation around the Bengals, and rightfully so, it's an offensively
1:39:56
driven league. Quarterbacks to the stuts and studs, and you've got Jamar Chas
1:39:59
and T Wiggins and Joe Mixon and Tyler Boyd so on and so forth,
1:40:01
and they bring in Orlando Brown. I get why the conversation is on that
1:40:05
side of the ball usually for the Bengals team, but man, like just
1:40:10
the athleticism, the athleticism and toughness that they have up front with Logan Wilson
1:40:15
and Jermaine Pratt and Trey Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard, like those four, what
1:40:19
they can do combined, and the skill sets you can lean into with them
1:40:23
from a versatility versatility versatility is not a word versatility perspective, and then having
1:40:29
some anchors on the inside like bj Hill and DJ Reader, and then fun
1:40:32
pieces on the back end like again, Mike Hilton is one of the best
1:40:35
slock corners in all the football, if not the best slock corner in all
1:40:38
of football. Dax hill Is has adjusted nicely in terms of being like a
1:40:42
full time dude they can count on, and it's part of the reason why
1:40:45
they were to let go of Jesse Bates and or Von Bell and they lose
1:40:47
both of them. But then they bring in Nick Scott, number thirty three,
1:40:50
you know, super Bowl winning safety with the Los Angeles Rams, who
1:40:54
does good in match coverage a bit on the smaller side, but has no
1:40:57
fear when it comes to matching up with variety of dudes they're coming down for
1:41:00
or reliam playing the run or function in a variety coverages. They've got some
1:41:02
fun pieces on that side of the ball. And so the first two plays
1:41:06
again I wanted to just show I'm gonna recap them all. Now just play
1:41:11
them again. You know, this one is just good coverage, good execution,
1:41:15
creativity showing you showing a team A and then seamlessly transitioning into B and
1:41:20
making a play like this is this is a really good job again design and
1:41:27
creativity from an architects standpoint by lou Anrouma. But then the players execution again,
1:41:32
they're coached up to do so, so it's a good job by anrumo
1:41:36
from start to finish. But they've got the players that they can tap into
1:41:40
and lean into, so they've got talent. They can beat you with talent,
1:41:43
but they can also beat you with scheme on this side of the ball.
1:41:45
So that's again creative example on defense that works. Another creative example on
1:41:48
this one just happens they get beat by a better throw and a better catch,
1:41:53
which again is how the Bills are gonna win this game on that side
1:41:56
of the ball. You're gonna have to win with execution. You're gonna have
1:41:59
to execute in your run black, You're gonna have to execute in your pass
1:42:00
protection. Josh Allen is going to have to properly set protections and id coverages
1:42:05
and hit his hots, process and diagnose and get through his reads and his
1:42:11
progressions all of that. Like, he's gonna have to do that to succeed.
1:42:15
Execution can you can out execute somebody, right, And that's what the
1:42:17
Bills are gonna have to do in this game. You can be said every
1:42:20
week, but matchups and opponents, opponents differ from week to week. The
1:42:24
Bengals a very creative, high executing, high functioning team on defense. The
1:42:29
Bills are going to have to match that execution and functionality with their offense and
1:42:33
rise above it and beat it. And that's what those first two plays were
1:42:36
for the Bengals defense. But this last one is just again good play from
1:42:41
Hubbard and then just an unreal play from Jermaine Pratt, who's super awesome and
1:42:44
fun to watch again. Probably should have housed it. When I was watching
1:42:47
it live, I thought like, oh well, he's gone, but his
1:42:49
momentum just carry him out again. Everybody doing their job. Hubbard does a
1:42:56
job. This play for Jermaine Pratt is amazing by him. He doesn't happen
1:42:59
without how initially causing that havoc and force some Purty off the spot. It's
1:43:05
gonna be a big game, as we all know, but it's fun.
1:43:09
It's so fun and so big from like a chess match perspective, you know,
1:43:12
Dorsey, I disagree with his head being on the chopping block for a
1:43:15
lot of people, but I recognize that his head is on the chopping block
1:43:18
for some or for many. And again, this is a game against a
1:43:24
well traveled, well versed defensive coordinator who is viewed as one of the best
1:43:29
defensive coordinators in all of football, in lou Ana Arumo. Dorsey's gonna have
1:43:32
to be on point. Josh Allen's gonna have to be on point. So
1:43:35
much of this that we've seen from a struggles perspective of this Bill's offense,
1:43:41
and I've talked about him in the show. I've broken it down in the
1:43:43
film room with Eric. So many of these struggles we've seen for the Bill's
1:43:46
offense is not just isolated to Ken Dorsey sucks. It's some on Ken Dorsey
1:43:53
right, for sure. It's also not all well, Josh Allen sucks,
1:43:57
but some of it is on Josh Allen. We saw a lot of those
1:44:00
problems and struggles get rectified to a decent degree against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
1:44:04
The tempo helped a lot. The rpo game helped a lot in terms of
1:44:08
simplifying some things, giving the Bill some advantageous looks. But again it was
1:44:11
on a short week, so we'll see what happens, you know, against
1:44:15
the team with a full week to prepare. But again, now the Bills
1:44:16
have shown those looks and gotten to those pieces that they previously have not,
1:44:20
so the Bengals have more to prepare for and potentially play against. And again
1:44:27
I mentioned that ground game is going to be very important for the Bills.
1:44:29
Every one of the Bills losses this year have coincided with a negative EPA per
1:44:33
attempt on the ground for their running backs. The Bills run game gives this
1:44:38
offense a genuine pivot. It takes pressure off of Josh Allen, It allows
1:44:43
him to sit and relax for a play. It allows some others to kind
1:44:45
of pick up the load and do some of the heavy lifting so he doesn't
1:44:48
have to. And then it also puts, you know, be in the
1:44:51
bondet of the defense in terms of what they have to honor, what they
1:44:55
have to respect from a run versus past perspective, but also from a perspective.
1:45:00
And yes, you do not need a good run game to have a
1:45:02
good play action game, but it definitely helps, and it most certainly helps
1:45:05
the RPO game, which the Bills had success with against Tampa Bay Buccaneers last
1:45:10
week. Another piece I want to mention as well when it comes to matchup,
1:45:13
especially for the Bills offense versus the the Bengals defense. Coming into last
1:45:18
week, Cincinnati was third in single high pre snap shells. So again like
1:45:24
that look that I showed on that second play with that single high safety,
1:45:28
they were third in single high shells so that again that means single high looks
1:45:32
pre snap. They were third at fifty six percent, and they were fourth
1:45:36
in single high coverages post snap so Cover one and Cover three. They were
1:45:41
fourth in single high coverages at fifty four percent. So they've been largely a
1:45:45
single high team both pre and post snap. Now again they'll hold those looks
1:45:49
and shift into too high or vice versa. But a lot of their looks
1:45:54
pre snap and post snap are with single high safeties. Josh Allen, out
1:45:58
of thirty eight qualifying quarterback, he has the third most attempts versus single high
1:46:02
coverages post snap, so again Cover one and Cover three, third most attempts,
1:46:08
fourth highest EPA, sixth highest positive play percentage, and he's eighth in
1:46:13
rating. So he's largely done good against Cover one and Cover three against those
1:46:15
single high coverage looks the Bills traditionally have with their deep overs the play action
1:46:20
game. So I'm interested to see how Cincinnati, from a coverage shell perspective
1:46:25
and a coverage perspective post snap, what they continue to lean into. And
1:46:30
then again, can the Bills stay on schedule in this game? So much
1:46:32
of what benefited them against the Buccaneers was winning on first down, winning on
1:46:38
second down, having second and short, having third and short, having the
1:46:41
opportunity to get easy first downs or be in third and questionable for a defense.
1:46:46
And when I say third and questionable, I mean it's third and four.
1:46:49
They could run the ball, they could throw the ball. It could
1:46:53
be short, it could be intermediate. It could be a chunk play,
1:46:55
they could go deep. There's more options available on the menu versus being in
1:47:00
third and seven, third and eight, third and nine. Those third down
1:47:03
scenarios we've seen the Bill struggle with really since the Jaguars game, and a
1:47:06
lot of their struggles against or in those situations have come against defenses that have
1:47:13
been creative with their pressure packages, creative with their coverages, creative in disguising
1:47:17
their pressure packages and coverages, and also snuffing out some of the Bill's hot
1:47:23
reads that have been a bit predictable, which is on Dorsey, but then
1:47:26
also Josh Allen being inefficient in terms of iding his hots, setting protection and
1:47:31
hitting those hots. So a lot of, you know, the remedy for
1:47:35
that whole situation against the Buccaneers was staying out of those third and lungs,
1:47:40
which they did a relatively good job of. They're gonna have to do that
1:47:43
again in this game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Again. This defense is real,
1:47:45
Luanna Rumo is real. I say it every week, maybe not every
1:47:48
week. You can win in the NFL with talent or you can win with
1:47:51
scheme. The Bengals have the ability to do both on offensing and defense.
1:47:56
But like I said last week, with the injuries to this Buffalo Bill's defense,
1:48:00
this Bill's team was a complete team went healthy. Now that they're banged
1:48:04
up on defense again in terms of the quantity, but in terms of the
1:48:06
quality of the players that are injured, and on top of that, the
1:48:11
premium positions that they play and the importance of those positions in this defense.
1:48:15
This Bill's team, if it wasn't already an offensively driven football team, it
1:48:19
is now. And if it was an offensively driven team already, that pendulum
1:48:24
has swung further into the offensive direction. This team was always going to go
1:48:29
as far as Josh Allen took them, and like I said last week,
1:48:30
it'll be even more so now. So that focus for me number one tops
1:48:35
in terms of matchup and importance and scheme. It comes down to that Bill's
1:48:40
offensive side of the ball, and it can switch from week to week,
1:48:42
but the biggest piece is going to be iding protection or setting protections, iding
1:48:48
pressure, processing pre to post snap. For Josh Allen, He's going to
1:48:54
have a very mentally taxing game against the Cincinnati Bengals. His eyes, his
1:48:59
brain, his recognition, his prep, his diagnosing, his processing, his
1:49:03
reading, his progressions. This is going to be a mentally challenging game for
1:49:08
Josh Allen. That is the type of defense that lou Ana Roumo has architected
1:49:13
and curated for the Cincinnati Bengals. And then on top of it, again,
1:49:15
they got talent. They can rush the passer, they can cover,
1:49:18
They're athletic, they're tough, Their scheme versatile in a variety of ways.
1:49:21
They can blitz, they can play coverage, four down fronts, bear fronts,
1:49:26
five down odd even just what they can spin too, what they can
1:49:30
do with their safeties, the versatility, taking Mike Hilton a slot corner and
1:49:33
putting him as the post safety in the middle of the field, even though
1:49:35
he doesn't play safety, and what they're doing with their actual safeties, just
1:49:40
the unconventional things that they do and the creativity with which they do it at
1:49:44
with the creativity with which they do it with and the execution on top of
1:49:47
it is just a real quality unit on that side of the ball. It's
1:49:51
going to test the Bills offense mentally and from an execution standpoint. And then
1:49:57
on the other side, who, Yeah, this Bengal's offense is going to
1:50:00
be a challenge. I'm very interested to see if Russell Douglas suits up.
1:50:02
I think he gives you some kind of fight fire with fire type of possibility
1:50:08
against T Higgins. I actually like that kind of matchup for the Bills,
1:50:11
with his size and length and frame going up against T Higgins. I'm throwing
1:50:15
Russell Douglas in and if you get beat, he get beat. But I'm
1:50:16
throwing Russell Douglas in press against T Higgins night and day. And if you
1:50:21
get beat, he get beat. And then I'm taking Christian Benford and putting
1:50:25
him as a cloud corner on Jamar Chase, and I'm having Benford beat the
1:50:29
ever love and hell out of Jamar Chase play after play, and if Chase
1:50:31
gets his if we're going into the third quarter, or we're in the third
1:50:35
quarter and Chase has nine catches for eighty seven yards, cool, you tip
1:50:39
your cap, you beat us. But I'm hoping that by that fourth quarter
1:50:43
he's a little tired, he's a little worn down. Maybe he's a little
1:50:45
frustrated because of what's been happened, and especially if he feels he's not being
1:50:49
efficient enough right the Bills are kind of making him stagnant a little bit,
1:50:54
but it depends on how he feels to be. He has got nine for
1:50:56
eighty seven in this hypothetical, But beat the hell out of Jamar Chase.
1:51:00
Use the athleticism and the physicality that Benford has plus his size to get into
1:51:03
that kitchen of Chase and make life difficult for him. And you got to
1:51:09
control the run game. I know it's, you know, antiquated to some
1:51:12
degree, but a lot of what the Bengals were able to do last year
1:51:15
in the playoffs is because they just ran the ball down the bill's throats against
1:51:17
these light boxes and mix and just had room to run for days. He
1:51:21
had alleys and runweight to get to the second level and run the ball down
1:51:26
the bill's throats. Can't allow that to happen again. And the more bodies
1:51:30
you have to commit to stopping the run, the less bodies you have in
1:51:33
coverage, the less bodies you can use to disguise your coverages, and the
1:51:38
coverages you can get to what you can play off of that. If you
1:51:40
have to spin a safety down, if you have to commit numbers to the
1:51:43
box with rum blitzes and so on and so forth, it's just basic math
1:51:45
at that point. So it all starts with that and then we go from
1:51:49
there. I like this comment too from Nikki G Nikki saying simple, got
1:51:54
to get off the field early and get the offense on the scoreboard. You
1:51:57
cannot start down fourteen again, that's a huge piece. You get Josh Allen
1:52:01
in a rhythm early, even if it's toe to toe, even if the
1:52:04
Bengals score two touchdowns on their first two drives. Cool, you gotta match
1:52:09
it. It's got to be fourteen to fourteen, or it's got to be
1:52:11
fourteen to ten. You have to maintain you cannot get down early. You
1:52:15
cannot allow Cincinnati as a team, or that stadium and that fan base to
1:52:20
feel like we got this game again, this team's done. We're better than
1:52:24
this team. They feel that as a team and as a fan base.
1:52:28
And again you might think, well, who cares what the fan base thinks.
1:52:30
It's important when you're going into a Sunday night, primetime hostile game.
1:52:32
The Bengals fans and Bengals team, they're gonna be treating this like a playoff
1:52:36
game, and it kind of is. Like both teams have three losses.
1:52:40
This game will be important for playoff positioning. It's important for the Bengals who
1:52:43
are still trying to keep pace with the Ravens and win the AFC North.
1:52:46
This is a big game. It's November. This is a playoff game.
1:52:50
It's playoff atmosphere is going to be a playoff mentality, And you're going against
1:52:54
the Bengals team that went to the Super Bowl two years ago and was pissed
1:52:58
off as hell that everybody was talking about Bills Chiefs AFC Championship and where was
1:53:02
it going to get played. Is it going to be a neutral site?
1:53:04
Is it going to be at the Bills stadium or the chief stadium? Where's
1:53:09
it going to be? The Bengals team and the Bengals fans were pissed and
1:53:12
they felt overlooked at that whole scenario in situation. And the Bengals came into
1:53:15
Buffalo, kicked their teeth in and took that game from the Bills in the
1:53:20
Divisional round and left Buffalo going on to Kansas City and had Kansas City for
1:53:25
a little bit before they lost it and the Chiefs went to the Super Bowl
1:53:28
again. This Bengals team believes in themselves. They don't like the Bills.
1:53:32
Man it's gonna be a tough atmosphere, a tough environment. Nikki says,
1:53:38
I hope the Bengals players going sleeping on the Bills. Maybe they will be
1:53:41
a little bit. Maybe they think, you know, we dominated this team
1:53:44
last year. We would have beat them in the regular season. Two.
1:53:45
We're better than them. They're coming to our house. We're going to snop
1:53:48
them out. It is what it is. So maybe they do go in
1:53:50
and sleeping a little bit on the Bills. But if you feed into that
1:53:56
by having a slow start and going down early, it's hard. Momentum is
1:54:00
a very real thing, and if you give that to Cincinnati, both to
1:54:03
their players and to their fans in that stadium, if you allow that pendulum,
1:54:06
that momentum pendulum to swing hard and early, it's a tough hill to
1:54:12
climb up, and it's a tough hole to dig yourself out of. Pete
1:54:15
says, the Bengals beat San Francisco last week and beat us the last time
1:54:19
we played. I doubt they'll have the same edge as before. That's fair,
1:54:25
but man, they've got a lot of dudes who just operate with a
1:54:30
with a natural edge and tenacity, Like this is a team that I don't
1:54:34
think overlooks anyone, and I don't think turns down for anyone. This is
1:54:38
a team that is at one hundred miles an hour one hundred percent of the
1:54:42
time offensively and defensively. So we'll see what happens. If if you're a
1:54:46
Bills fan, you're excited. If you're a Bengals fan, you're excited.
1:54:49
And even if just a football fan like schematically, this is a very fun
1:54:53
game. But with again, like I talked with Mike earlier, how these
1:54:58
two teams are built realistically and philosophically on both sides of the ball, and
1:55:01
how those two styles clash and butt heads in this game. Then you've got
1:55:05
the individual talents and skill sets on top of it. This canna be a
1:55:09
really fun football game. And it's Sunday Night Primetime. I think Sunday Night
1:55:12
Primetime is the new Primetime. I feel like it's better than Monday Night Football,
1:55:15
which is also awesome and exciting, the culmination of the day like the
1:55:18
finale of Sunday, which is, you know, the true football day.
1:55:23
It's an awesome game, very exciting. We'll see what happens in this game.
1:55:28
It's gonna be rough, it's gonna be rough for somebody. Somebody's gonna
1:55:30
leave this game very disappointed in some form or fashion, and we'll switch the
1:55:33
banner here, it says to those folks. But before anybody goes, if
1:55:35
you have not already, please please please and think you drop Alke on this
1:55:39
video. It goes a sincerely long way toward's helping myself and the entire team
1:55:42
to track and trend in front of more eyes and ears. So if you
1:55:45
are enjoying this content, and if you have not dropped Alike already, please
1:55:47
please please and think you drop Alke on this video. It goes a long
1:55:51
way towards helping myself and the entire team. If you are listening to one
1:55:56
of the podcasting apps or platforms, that's cool too. Please rate and you
1:56:00
and subscribe to Disguised Coverage. Please subscribe to Disguised Coverage here on YouTube as
1:56:03
well if that fits your fancy in suscribe to the cover one channel as a
1:56:08
whole Who's got you covered every single day of the week when it comes to
1:56:10
anything and everything Buffalo Bills. I appreciate all the folks who rode with us
1:56:14
live tonight here on this episode. I know it was Halloween night, so
1:56:17
I don't know if anybody has family obligations or kid obligations or whatever have you.
1:56:21
So regardless if you do or don't, I appreciate you taking the time
1:56:25
to join me live here on this show. I had a blast breaking down
1:56:30
this really important game that again, the Bengals are a really good team.
1:56:35
They're not unbeatable. This Bills team can beat them. You're just gonna have
1:56:39
to execute better than they do, which is possible, Like this isn't I
1:56:43
respect the Bengals a lot, and I like a lot of what they do,
1:56:45
but they're not some insurmountable mountain to climb. I don't think anybody is
1:56:48
in the NFL. Anybody can get got on you know, quote unquote any
1:56:51
given Sunday. But you know, you just have to execute. You have
1:56:55
to bring it. You have to have a good game plan and schematic design,
1:56:58
which starts with the coaches and the preparation in this staff. But then
1:57:00
the players got to go out and execute. And you know that's again that
1:57:03
may seem like simple or proverbial or just whatever adage is and cliches and all
1:57:08
that, but this Bengals team can get got the Bills are still a very
1:57:12
good football team, and that's what's so exciting about this matchup. You've got
1:57:15
two very good football teams. We'll see who plans better, who schemes better,
1:57:18
and then at the end of the day, which teams players execute better.
1:57:21
Does someone just go out and make a play and play above the scheme?
1:57:25
Does somebody just go out and game wreck? You know, at the
1:57:27
end of the day, sometimes all the scheme and structure you have goes out
1:57:31
the window if big time players make big time plays in big time games.
1:57:34
So that's what we have in this game, a big time game with a
1:57:38
bunch of big time players, and we'll see who makes the big time plays.
1:57:41
So again, don't don't leave this episode thinking like, oh God,
1:57:45
like Cincinnati's a wagon, the Bills are done. That is not the case.
1:57:47
The Bills are a very good football team. This team just has to
1:57:50
be respected on the Cincinnati side of things, which I think a lot of
1:57:54
you do, and I know the Bills do. You just got to go
1:57:57
out and out execute them and beat them, which is going to happen,
1:58:00
which has to happen if you want to get to the super Bowl, You're
1:58:01
going to play good teams. Good teams aren't gonna throw up all over themselves.
1:58:05
They're going to be prepared, they're going to execute. You just got
1:58:09
to be more prepared and or execute better. But that's part of the excitement
1:58:14
and the variability of football and sports in general. So it's gonna be an
1:58:16
awesome time. Again. If you have not, please, please please and
1:58:18
thank you. Drop ake on this video. It goes a long way towards
1:58:21
helping myself in the entire team. Please, please, please, and thank
1:58:25
you. I appreciate the kind words coming through in the chat and the ones
1:58:27
that came through throughout the entire episode tonight here on disguise coverage and again,
1:58:35
you know, I know it's a holiday night and Halloween depending on how you
1:58:40
view it or how you think about it, but regardless, I appreciate you
1:58:45
folks stopping by. And thank you again to Mike Santagata from All Bengals joining
1:58:49
me earlier and giving us the insight into the x's and o's of the Cincinnati
1:58:53
Bengals team. I'm gonna keep diving into them as the weeks go along.
1:58:57
As the week goes along, I posted a bunch of Bengals film earlier today.
1:59:00
I'm going to keep doing that this week, in addition to post on
1:59:02
some Russell Douglas stuff. So if you if that fits your fancy, follow
1:59:05
me on Twitter at Pro Underscore Underscore ant that's Pro two underscores, A n
1:59:10
T. Give me a follow on Twitter as I break down a bunch of
1:59:13
that wh whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa who whoa. Pops,
1:59:15
you're killing me, Pops. Pop says, that looks like a Bengals
1:59:18
tree. No, it's just a Halloween tree. It's Halloween. I can't
1:59:21
help it that Halloween colors are black and orange. You got the black garland
1:59:25
with the little ghosts, and then you got the little orange jack landern lights.
1:59:30
Oh and I realized there's something. I can't see it from the camera,
1:59:31
but there's more little jack Lander lights that are down there as well.
1:59:34
It's not a Bengals tree, it's just a Halloween tree. But I respect
1:59:36
you, Pops, and I appreciate you for recognizing the little change in the
1:59:40
tree. Thank you very much. And again everyone who wrote with me live
1:59:44
here on the show, thank you very much. If you did not watch
1:59:45
live and you were watching post live listening later, whatever, have you.
1:59:49
Thank you very much for your view you're listening, your downloaded, whatever form
1:59:53
or fashion it comes in. I am greatly appreciative of any and all ounces
1:59:57
of support that comes from you, folks, in whatever form or fashion it
2:00:00
comes in. Tell your family and friends and loved ones about how awesome this
2:00:03
show is. Word of mouth is great. If you thought the show was
2:00:06
terrible, tell your enemies about the show and try and ruin their day with
2:00:11
this show. I appreciate you, folks more than you will possibly know,
2:00:14
and I say that every week, and if anybody ever thinks it's false,
2:00:15
they just not. I'm very thankful for this platform, and very thankful for
2:00:19
any and every person that tunes into the show, and whatever way that you
2:00:23
do tune in. Hope you had a good Halloween. Enjoy your candy.
2:00:27
Appreciate more of the kind words coming in. I see them. I don't
2:00:29
pull them up because I feel corny, but thank you very much for the
2:00:32
kind words that are coming in the chat. I'm glad you folks enjoyed this
2:00:34
episode. Thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of your Halloween. Enjoy
2:00:36
the candy that you may or may not have for the next week, and
2:00:40
a half depending on how much you have try and eat the candy and moderation
2:00:45
or don't you know, do you enjoy it? Regardless, Happy Halloween,
2:00:47
Happy Bills Begles week. If you're traveling to the game, which I know
2:00:51
some people do because it's in Cincinnati and it's a hop skipping and jump away,
2:00:55
travel safe, drive safe. I hope you and your family and friends
2:00:58
and loved ones are all doing well and staying safe. Be kind of one
2:01:00
another, take care of one another. I will see you next Tuesday,
2:01:03
nine pm Eastern for another episode of Disguise coverage, and until then, godspeed
2:01:09
and as always go Bills,