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Bengals Booth Podcast: Wonderful Christmas Time · Bengals Booth Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: I get everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
0:06
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast. The simply having a wonderful Christmas
0:12
Speaker 1: time addition, as the Bengals move on after being the
0:17
Speaker 1: Grinch that stole Christmas from Steelers fans and head to
0:20
Speaker 1: Houston two days after the holiday to face the Texans
0:24
Speaker 1: coming up, Dave Lapham joins me to put a bow
0:26
Speaker 1: on Monday night shocking win and look ahead to what
0:29
Speaker 1: it's going to take to make it two in a row.
0:32
Speaker 1: My one on one player interview this week is actually
0:34
Speaker 1: with a former player who started on the Bengals nineteen
0:38
Speaker 1: eighty eight Super Bowl team, and in our know the
0:41
Speaker 1: post segment, we'll find out what's gone wrong in Houston
0:44
Speaker 1: this year from one of the best NFL reporters out there,
0:48
Speaker 1: John McLean from the Houston Chronicle. The Bengals Booth Podcast
0:52
Speaker 1: is presented by bud Light Seltzer. Refresh the game, and
0:56
Speaker 1: here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest
0:58
Speaker 1: edition of this podcasts delivered like Santa right to your phone, tablet,
1:03
Speaker 1: or computer by subscribing on Itune, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify,
1:08
Speaker 1: or Podbean. It's the greatest thing since Darlene Love's annual
1:14
Speaker 1: Christmas appearance on Late Night with David Letterman for nearly
1:18
Speaker 1: every year from nineteen eighty six to twenty fourteen, when
1:21
Speaker 1: the show ended, the Great Darlene Love performed her signature
1:25
Speaker 1: song Christmas Baby, Please Come Home on David Letterman's final
1:30
Speaker 1: late night show each year before Christmas. It was always
1:35
Speaker 1: fantastic and helped raise the profile of a nineteen sixties
1:39
Speaker 1: singing great who had never received the stardom she deserved.
1:43
Speaker 1: Even though the Letterman Show has been off the air
1:45
Speaker 1: for nearly six years, the tradition continues as Darlene belts
1:50
Speaker 1: out the song each year on the view. You can
1:53
Speaker 1: check it out by searching for Darlene Love on YouTube. Now,
1:58
Speaker 1: let's get to football, beginning with my podcast partner Dave Lapham,
2:01
Speaker 1: and we start our chat by discussing Monday's win over
2:05
Speaker 1: the suddenly reeling Pittsburgh Steelers. Think about, all right, Bengals
2:11
Speaker 1: have to bring their A game, Pittsburgh maybe bring their
2:14
Speaker 1: C game. And that's what happened. I mean, Pittsburgh did
2:17
Speaker 1: not play well, but part of that was because the
2:19
Speaker 1: Bengals were bringing their A game. I mean, honestly, they suffocated.
2:23
Speaker 1: The suffocating, stifling defense was the Bengals, not the Pittsburgh Steelers.
2:28
Speaker 1: Cincinnati Bengals ran the football, They controlled tempo. They frustrated
2:34
Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh Steelers by running the football the way they did.
2:36
Speaker 1: The quarterback run package a big part of it. They
2:39
Speaker 1: didn't turn the football over Cincinnati Pittsburgh did. Pittsburgh basically
2:44
Speaker 1: flipped the script. They ran the ball down your throat,
2:48
Speaker 1: they didn't make mistakes, and they played suffocating defense. Check
2:53
Speaker 1: check check flipped the script on Pittsburgh win. So I
2:57
Speaker 1: was thinking about this today. Lap. The Bengals are three
3:00
Speaker 1: and one with two games to go. Right now, they've
3:02
Speaker 1: got the third pick in next year's draft. But if
3:05
Speaker 1: you really go back and look at the early portion
3:07
Speaker 1: of the season before Joe Burrow got hurt. In Week one,
3:10
Speaker 1: they threw a game winning touchdown pass with seven seconds
3:12
Speaker 1: to go. AJ Green got called for a tikie tack
3:15
Speaker 1: offensive fast interference. Randy Bullock missed a chip shot field
3:19
Speaker 1: goal to four's overtime due to cramping in the calves.
3:22
Speaker 1: They're want a wink, yeah, Calfman. Week three, seven point lead,
3:27
Speaker 1: less than thirty seconds to go, Carson Wentz scrambles for
3:31
Speaker 1: a game tying touchdown. There goes another win. Game ends
3:34
Speaker 1: in an overtime tie. Week six, twenty one nothing second
3:38
Speaker 1: quarter in Indianapolis, still up by six in the fourth quarter,
3:41
Speaker 1: wound up losing to the Colts. Week seven, three different
3:45
Speaker 1: leads in the fourth quarter, including a touchdown pass with
3:47
Speaker 1: one oh six to go. They allowed Baker Mayfield to
3:50
Speaker 1: beat them with a TD pass of his own with
3:52
Speaker 1: eleven seconds left. Week eleven, they go up and down
3:55
Speaker 1: the field in Washington Borough. Had twenty one pass completions
3:58
Speaker 1: in the first half, they had the lead in the
4:00
Speaker 1: third quarter when he blew out his knee. That's five
4:03
Speaker 1: games that could have been wins, really should have been wins.
4:07
Speaker 1: I mean, those are what just happened type of losses.
4:11
Speaker 1: The Bengals probably should be eight and six with two
4:16
Speaker 1: games to go. Yeah, and that's that would be the
4:18
Speaker 1: best case if they win all the game, all those games.
4:20
Speaker 1: If they only win three of them, they still have
4:22
Speaker 1: six wins. I mean, you know, it's it's not as
4:25
Speaker 1: desperate or as desolate a seasons as it sounds. And
4:30
Speaker 1: in all of those wins, I mean, in the Philadelphia game,
4:33
Speaker 1: if Carlos Dunlap had played against the Eagles like he's
4:37
Speaker 1: playing for the Seattle Seahawks. Carson Wentz does not score,
4:42
Speaker 1: Carlos Dunlap makes a play on him. Carlos Dunlap, he
4:45
Speaker 1: was in his mode where it's not that he couldn't play,
4:47
Speaker 1: he wouldn't play, and they that whole thing blew up
4:50
Speaker 1: and fell apart. But in that game, I can point
4:53
Speaker 1: to a handful of plays where it's like, come on, man,
4:56
Speaker 1: just give some kind of effort. And I'm not going
5:00
Speaker 1: to put that loss just on that play with Carlos Dunlap.
5:03
Speaker 1: But but you know, there were other players in that
5:05
Speaker 1: football game, obviously. But I mean, if in fact, he
5:07
Speaker 1: had stepped up to his ability in the fourth quarter
5:09
Speaker 1: in any of those close games when he was still
5:11
Speaker 1: with the team defensively, they'd have handful more wins potentially.
5:16
Speaker 1: And again it's not all Carlos Dunlap, obviously, I mean,
5:19
Speaker 1: that would be ridiculous, that would be you know, small,
5:22
Speaker 1: to try to put it on a guy that's not
5:24
Speaker 1: even here anymore. But he was a factor while he
5:26
Speaker 1: was here. And because honestly, when you look at the
5:30
Speaker 1: overall effort, it's not that they're not trying. It's that
5:33
Speaker 1: they weren't playing smart enough football, you know, And you
5:38
Speaker 1: can't when you're when you're in the situation that since
5:40
Speaker 1: then any Bengals are in, you have very little margin
5:43
Speaker 1: for error. You can't put yourself on your schedule so
5:45
Speaker 1: often and turning the ball over, turn it over, turn
5:47
Speaker 1: it over. I mean we're like a bakery. We're making
5:49
Speaker 1: turnovers every Sunday, you know, and giving them to everybody. Now,
5:55
Speaker 1: the two games that they won, big games that they
5:57
Speaker 1: won it at Paul Brown Stadium against two playoff teams
6:00
Speaker 1: right now, playoff worthy teams, Tennessee in Pittsburgh. No giveaways,
6:05
Speaker 1: no turnovers, if you keep care of the football and
6:10
Speaker 1: then you can get it into the fourth quarter with
6:13
Speaker 1: a chance to win a football game and give your
6:14
Speaker 1: defense a chance to do their thing. And they get
6:17
Speaker 1: takeaways against Tennessee and they get takeaways against Pittsburgh. So
6:20
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's that's the formula. But the formula
6:24
Speaker 1: has been you know, just basically taken apart too many
6:27
Speaker 1: times by giving the football away. It just just can't
6:31
Speaker 1: do it. That's the Lottom line. So you know, it
6:33
Speaker 1: also is great about Monday's victory. It's caused major ajita
6:39
Speaker 1: in Pittsburgh. I mean the sky is falling from eleven
6:42
Speaker 1: and zero to eleven and three. They were hoping and
6:46
Speaker 1: expecting to clinch the AFC North title on Monday night
6:50
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati. Well now it's a real question mark whether
6:52
Speaker 1: they are going to hold off the Cleveland Browns. Cleveland
6:56
Speaker 1: is one game behind. Pittsburgh has to play the Colts
6:58
Speaker 1: this week ten and four, then the Browns in the
7:01
Speaker 1: regular season finale. Cleveland plays the Jets this week. I
7:05
Speaker 1: don't see New York winning back to back games after
7:07
Speaker 1: beating the Rams last week. I want to listen to
7:09
Speaker 1: something that I heard on Sports Center. This is former
7:12
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back Ryan Clark talking to host Kenny
7:17
Speaker 1: Maine after the game on Monday night. All Right, Pittsburgh
7:22
Speaker 1: was the last unbeaten team. Now they've done threes three?
7:25
Speaker 1: How far in your eyes have they fallen? When you
7:26
Speaker 1: look at the whole AFC playoffs which aren't too far away, Kenny,
7:30
Speaker 1: who can they beat? You tell me who can they beat?
7:33
Speaker 1: Can they beat the Coats? No? Right? Can they beat
7:35
Speaker 1: the Tennessee Titans in the playoffs? No? Can they beat
7:37
Speaker 1: the Cleveland Browns. We know they can't beat the Kansas
7:40
Speaker 1: City Chiefs. We know they can't beat the Buffalo Bills.
7:42
Speaker 1: We look at this team play offense. They are playing
7:45
Speaker 1: at such a deficit each game. There is no way
7:48
Speaker 1: that they'll win. Tonight, they were getting stopped behind the line.
7:50
Speaker 1: You couldn't convert third and one, fourth and one. The
7:53
Speaker 1: past game was any fishing. There weren't their drops, whether
7:56
Speaker 1: there were the incompletions, the passes that were blown up
8:00
Speaker 1: interceptions by the Cincinnati Bengals. They made the Cincinnati Bengals
8:03
Speaker 1: look like an All Pro Bowled caliber defense and they
8:07
Speaker 1: haven't been that all year. And so you think when
8:09
Speaker 1: you're playing the Kansas City Chiefs, the Buffalo Bills, the
8:12
Speaker 1: Cleveland brown some of the better teams in the AFC,
8:15
Speaker 1: that the Pittsburgh Steelers can win. They were eleven and old,
8:18
Speaker 1: and that was fool's goal. You're now losing players on defense,
8:21
Speaker 1: you have injuries on offense, and you have a quarterback
8:23
Speaker 1: that can't seem to make the right decision when that
8:26
Speaker 1: is what you're expecting him to do as a Pittsburgh
8:29
Speaker 1: Steelers fan. As an alum, i Am said, because I
8:32
Speaker 1: don't see them winning the game in the playoffs. So
8:34
Speaker 1: to summarize, you're not high on the Pittsburgh Steelers right now.
8:39
Speaker 1: Kenny Mayne putting the perfect capra on that so is
8:41
Speaker 1: a Bengals fan. How great is it to hear the
8:44
Speaker 1: Steelers and their fans and their former players just absolutely
8:49
Speaker 1: depressed for a change after losing a game at Paul
8:52
Speaker 1: Brown Stadium? How does it feel? You know, it's like
8:56
Speaker 1: ashen was a great description. And I think rol Aids
8:58
Speaker 1: had a record sales week and it wasn't because of
9:01
Speaker 1: overeating pre holiday food. It's because of the Steelers. I mean,
9:05
Speaker 1: they're just trying to lessen that hard burn. I mean,
9:07
Speaker 1: it's it really is. It is amazing to watch the
9:11
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh Steelers. Though offensively Dan, they're they're very hard to recognize.
9:15
Speaker 1: I mean, they look nothing like they looked before. It's
9:19
Speaker 1: it's almost like an impostor out there. And you know,
9:22
Speaker 1: now people are saying that the Steelers, it's Ben's done there.
9:25
Speaker 1: They're not going to extend Ben. They're not going to
9:27
Speaker 1: ask him. He's got forty some odd million dollar cap
9:30
Speaker 1: hit next year. What they normally do with them is
9:33
Speaker 1: they say Okay, we'll extend you and you know, lessen
9:36
Speaker 1: the load. There, ll give you a little bonus money
9:38
Speaker 1: and help us give us some cap releaf. And now
9:41
Speaker 1: they're not doing that. They're not doing that with a
9:43
Speaker 1: quarterback like that. I mean, I love it. It's great.
9:46
Speaker 1: How does it feel? I mean, boy, welcome to the
9:49
Speaker 1: real world reality in the National football You can suck,
9:52
Speaker 1: can it? Honest? Question? Do they win again this year? Cults?
9:55
Speaker 1: This week, Brown's the week after that? They have clinched
9:58
Speaker 1: to playoff Berth. Not the way you're playing right now,
10:01
Speaker 1: and not the way they're playing. And you think, all right,
10:03
Speaker 1: well they'll fix it. Well, I thought they'd try to
10:05
Speaker 1: run the ball against Buffalo. You know, you got to
10:08
Speaker 1: try to run the ball against Buffalo. No. I thought
10:11
Speaker 1: they try to definitely run the ball against the Cincinnati Bengals.
10:14
Speaker 1: Didn't do it against Buffalo. No. I mean, I guess
10:16
Speaker 1: they feel like they can't run the football. I mean
10:19
Speaker 1: Connor obviously is a factor in the equation. But I'll
10:23
Speaker 1: tell you, I mean running back is Snell. He was
10:26
Speaker 1: far from their worst problem. They had much bigger problems
10:29
Speaker 1: than that dude. That dude ran hard. I thought i'd
10:31
Speaker 1: take him and my team is running back any day.
10:33
Speaker 1: That wasn't the issue. Wasn't the issue that Snell was
10:36
Speaker 1: in the backfield of o Connor. That's a bunch of crap.
10:38
Speaker 1: If that's what they're saying, that's that's ridiculous, um. And
10:42
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that three Pro bowlers in that offensive line,
10:46
Speaker 1: former Pro bowl getting up there in years. Yeah, they
10:49
Speaker 1: ain't playing at that level anymore. And again, you know
10:52
Speaker 1: we talked about it before. Losson gives Villain a wave
10:55
Speaker 1: of fits, six quarterback hits in the quarterback sack, rolling
10:59
Speaker 1: a wave of the six fight inch bend at the
11:01
Speaker 1: waist tower of nonpower right now. I mean he got
11:06
Speaker 1: he got torched around the corner quite a few times
11:08
Speaker 1: by Carl Lawson. The Bengals finally beat the Pittsburgh Steelers,
11:12
Speaker 1: and the guy that led them to victory was Ryan Finley.
11:15
Speaker 1: Statistically not exactly dazzling. He passed for eighty nine yards,
11:19
Speaker 1: completing seven passes in the game. He did run for
11:22
Speaker 1: forty seven yards, including a twenty three yard touchdown run,
11:26
Speaker 1: but hey, the guy got the job done. Here's wide
11:28
Speaker 1: receiver T Higgins on Ryan Finley's performance. You know, I
11:32
Speaker 1: feel like he was lay more confident. You know, you
11:34
Speaker 1: could tell he was running the ball, you know, really good,
11:39
Speaker 1: and you know he was just just calm during the
11:42
Speaker 1: whole game, and that's what you wanted to use. Quarterback.
11:46
Speaker 1: Ryan Finley was moving on that touchdown run. Did you
11:48
Speaker 1: know he had those kind of wheels? No? I did
11:51
Speaker 1: not know he had those. That surprised me. So I mean,
11:55
Speaker 1: I'm glad. I'm glad it worked out, aren't we all?
12:00
Speaker 1: Ryan Finleys timed at four point six five and the
12:02
Speaker 1: forty yard dash when he was as Stella college student
12:05
Speaker 1: at NSE States, So he is faster, I think than
12:07
Speaker 1: most people realize. Now, the question is going into this
12:10
Speaker 1: week's game against Houston, does he start again or if
12:13
Speaker 1: Brandon Allen's right knee is okay, is he back in
12:16
Speaker 1: the starting lineup? What do you think? I think if
12:18
Speaker 1: Brandon Allen's right knee is okay, Brandon Allen starts, I
12:22
Speaker 1: think that they're limited offensively to what they can do
12:27
Speaker 1: with Ryan Finley, and I think it worked defensively. They
12:31
Speaker 1: allowed it to happen. They allowed it to work if
12:34
Speaker 1: the defense wasn't playing the way they were playing, and
12:37
Speaker 1: the Bengals had to throw the football more. Might have
12:39
Speaker 1: been a little more exposure, but the whole thing, I mean,
12:43
Speaker 1: every you talk about complimentary football, the ying and yang
12:46
Speaker 1: of that football game, the defense lifting up the offense,
12:49
Speaker 1: the offense responding, you know, and when the defense gave
12:51
Speaker 1: him opportunity with short fields, the offense capitalized two touchdowns
12:55
Speaker 1: in the field goal, seventeen points on the three takeaways.
12:58
Speaker 1: Those are the kind of things that you have to
12:59
Speaker 1: do to pull off an upset like they did. But
13:02
Speaker 1: I do think two things. I think the Texans have
13:05
Speaker 1: to prepare for both quarterbacks. Now they're gonna have to
13:08
Speaker 1: spend some time on the zone read and all that
13:11
Speaker 1: sort of thing. So and also it's going to make
13:14
Speaker 1: them be a lot more assignment sound defensively instead of
13:18
Speaker 1: backside defensive and crashing and pulling Giovanni Bernard down from behind.
13:22
Speaker 1: They're gonna have to stay home a little bit, particularly
13:24
Speaker 1: when Finley's a quarterback, because they've shown they're going to
13:26
Speaker 1: do that, so now they have to spend time in
13:30
Speaker 1: preparing for it. They have to make sure their real
13:33
Speaker 1: assignment sound, so they might not take as many chance
13:36
Speaker 1: as defensively. So your running gab with Giovanni Bernard may
13:40
Speaker 1: be better at the point of attack without extra clutter
13:43
Speaker 1: because of other things that you have to concern yourself
13:45
Speaker 1: with in terms of reads defensively. So there's some positive.
13:50
Speaker 1: There's some positive trickle down to the next week when
13:54
Speaker 1: an opponent springs something on the league, like the Bengals
13:58
Speaker 1: did with Finley with a run package Nobody, I mean Pittsburgh.
14:02
Speaker 1: Tomlin was like, I gotta give those guys credit. And
14:05
Speaker 1: during the course of the game it evolved. Finley said
14:08
Speaker 1: that Zach Taylor during the game the touchdown run of
14:11
Speaker 1: twenty three yards, they never practiced that that run that
14:14
Speaker 1: Giovanni Bernard ran. They never practiced him pulling it and
14:18
Speaker 1: having a read option from the thing. And during the
14:20
Speaker 1: course of the game, Zach saw what was going on.
14:23
Speaker 1: He said, look, if the backside guy crashed and Highsmith crashed,
14:27
Speaker 1: chased it down the line, scrims v crashes, pull it
14:30
Speaker 1: and run. That was just an adjustment, you know, And
14:33
Speaker 1: they're getting he's getting killed about not making adjustments in
14:36
Speaker 1: game adjustments and all that sort of thing. That was
14:38
Speaker 1: a huge in game adjustment and it led to a
14:40
Speaker 1: huge touchdown in the beginning of the fourth quarter of
14:42
Speaker 1: twenty three yard John and Scamper. That was a big
14:45
Speaker 1: difference in the football game. So it's it's very interesting
14:49
Speaker 1: to see how Houston is going to handle it. But
14:53
Speaker 1: I do think that Brandon Allen, if healthy, will be
14:57
Speaker 1: the guy that they'll send out there. So they ran
14:59
Speaker 1: a one times last week against the Pittsburgh team that is,
15:03
Speaker 1: you know, good at stopping the run. This week, they
15:05
Speaker 1: faced the Houston team that has given up two hundred
15:08
Speaker 1: and twelve yards to Derrick Henry one thirty eight to
15:11
Speaker 1: Clyde Edwards a layer one thirty, Dalvin Cook one twenty six,
15:17
Speaker 1: Nick Chubb one oh nine, James Conner one oh four
15:22
Speaker 1: Kareem Hunt in the same game where Chubb went for
15:24
Speaker 1: one twenty six. They're not stopping anybody. They're not one
15:27
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty and a half yards a game. They're
15:29
Speaker 1: allowing thirty first in the league five yards to carry.
15:32
Speaker 1: They're allowing thirty second in the league. Did last teams
15:35
Speaker 1: are efficiently pounding the football on them. The Bengals rush
15:39
Speaker 1: for over one hundred and fifty yards against the Steelers,
15:41
Speaker 1: you know, and forty some out of them courtesy the quarterback.
15:46
Speaker 1: But I think that they are going to feature. No
15:50
Speaker 1: matter who the quarterback is, the Bengals are going to
15:52
Speaker 1: come out and say to the offensive line, who I
15:54
Speaker 1: think is going to return intact to play in this
15:56
Speaker 1: football game. I think for the first time they'll they'll
15:59
Speaker 1: come off a good performance with an offensive line that
16:02
Speaker 1: is physically and mentally intact to try to do it again.
16:05
Speaker 1: That's the key. You don't just do it once in
16:07
Speaker 1: a while, do it again and again and again and
16:09
Speaker 1: see if they can control that Houston Texan front seven
16:13
Speaker 1: and Giovanni Bernard in company and p Running and everybody
16:17
Speaker 1: involved get after him. You'd after him, run the ball
16:20
Speaker 1: down their throat and make it easy for the quarterback
16:22
Speaker 1: and keep the defense off the football field against Watson.
16:25
Speaker 1: Sean Watson's having an incredible year. Number one in the
16:28
Speaker 1: NFL in yards per pass attempt, number one in yards
16:31
Speaker 1: per pass completion. He is second in yardage to Patrick Mahomes.
16:35
Speaker 1: Here's Bengals head coach Zach Taylor on the Texans starting QB.
16:40
Speaker 1: Just watching some of the highlight reels of this guy,
16:43
Speaker 1: or he's unbelievable. He's one of the best players in
16:46
Speaker 1: the league. There's no question about that. Every play is
16:49
Speaker 1: alive until you see someone get him on the ground
16:52
Speaker 1: or the ball hits the turf, because he just extends
16:55
Speaker 1: a lot of plays that you don't think there's any
16:57
Speaker 1: way they can be extended. And and really the other
16:59
Speaker 1: person I see that does that as Lamar Jackson's well,
17:02
Speaker 1: so all hands on deck for this guy. Tremendous playmaker.
17:05
Speaker 1: We got a ton of respect for him. You know,
17:07
Speaker 1: it'll be a great challenge for a defense. Named a
17:10
Speaker 1: Pro Bowler earlier this week, third time in his four
17:12
Speaker 1: year NFL career, he took Houston to the playoffs each
17:15
Speaker 1: of the last two years, won a playoff game last
17:17
Speaker 1: year with a tremendous individual performance against the Buffalo Bills,
17:21
Speaker 1: and now the team has kind of collapsed around him.
17:23
Speaker 1: But he is having an incredible year. He is, I mean,
17:25
Speaker 1: he's a one man show. And Sam Hubbard earlier today
17:29
Speaker 1: was talking about how hard it is to get him
17:30
Speaker 1: on the ground six two two fifteen, and he's got
17:34
Speaker 1: unusual strength for somebody that size. He's not a little quarterback,
17:38
Speaker 1: but he's not a big one either, but he has
17:40
Speaker 1: got unbelievable overall body strength and explosive this I've heard
17:44
Speaker 1: him referred to as magician, escape artist, fearless, resourceful, creative,
17:50
Speaker 1: He's all of it. I mean, his college coach called
17:53
Speaker 1: him Michael Jordan. I mean that's about as high praise
17:56
Speaker 1: as you can get. And Dan, he's one of these
17:58
Speaker 1: guys where he extends and creates and ultimately the play
18:03
Speaker 1: that he comes up with ends up being a better
18:06
Speaker 1: play than what was called. You know, He's one of
18:08
Speaker 1: those kind of guys. And they will live with his sacks.
18:11
Speaker 1: They'll live with the forty four sacks because he makes
18:13
Speaker 1: so many big plays in doing that. The only thing
18:16
Speaker 1: that if he starts throwing a lot of interceptions, they'll
18:19
Speaker 1: probably say time out, let's let's revisit this. But man
18:22
Speaker 1: on his career at this point, ninety four touchdowns he's
18:26
Speaker 1: accounted for seventy nine of them are touchdown passes, and
18:30
Speaker 1: then he's had touchdowns rushing obviously to twenty seven interceptions.
18:34
Speaker 1: Ninety four touchdowns he's accounted for seventy nine by air
18:37
Speaker 1: to just twenty twenty seven interceptions. That ratio they're going
18:42
Speaker 1: to continue to live with and let him play the
18:44
Speaker 1: way he's playing. I think the Barras would like a
18:46
Speaker 1: do over back in the twenty seventeen draft, they trade
18:49
Speaker 1: it up to take Mitchell Trubisky number two overall, and
18:52
Speaker 1: later in that draft the Chiefs took Patrick Mahomes. Two
18:55
Speaker 1: picks after that, the Texans took to Shaun Watson. Man.
18:58
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, yeah, I think they'd want to do
19:01
Speaker 1: over a redo safe pet right. The Bengals have seen
19:06
Speaker 1: to Shaun Watson once before. That was his first NFL start.
19:10
Speaker 1: It was Week two of his rookie year Thursday Night Football,
19:13
Speaker 1: and he led Houston to a victory at Paul Brown Stadium.
19:16
Speaker 1: He wasn't individually spectacular. He passed for one hundred and
19:19
Speaker 1: twenty five yards in that game. Do you know Atkins
19:21
Speaker 1: sacked him a couple of times, but he made one
19:24
Speaker 1: big play and that was enough of forty nine yard
19:26
Speaker 1: touchdown run in a thirteen to nine win. That was
19:29
Speaker 1: back in the early portion of the twenty seventeen season
19:32
Speaker 1: when the Bengals could not score a touchdown. Yeah, and
19:35
Speaker 1: that touchdown run was are you kidding me, Serpentine? Yeah,
19:39
Speaker 1: nobody's gonna get him. I mean he was like it
19:42
Speaker 1: was a forty nine yard touchdown run, but he probably
19:44
Speaker 1: ran seventy yards back. I mean he was zigzag and
19:47
Speaker 1: serpentine is a good word. I mean, it was an
19:50
Speaker 1: incredible effort by him. The Texans started the year on
19:53
Speaker 1: four and whacked Bill O'Brien and interim coach Romeo Crennell
19:57
Speaker 1: is the oldest head coach in NFL his three he's
20:00
Speaker 1: seventy three. George Allis and Marv Levy coached until they
20:04
Speaker 1: were seventy two. Romeo's first head coaching job was in
20:07
Speaker 1: Cleveland from two thousand and five to two thousand and eight,
20:11
Speaker 1: when the Bengals, Steelers, and Ravens all one Division titles.
20:14
Speaker 1: It's similar to what the Bengals are facing right now.
20:17
Speaker 1: So here is Crenell on the challenge of trying to
20:21
Speaker 1: rebuild in a division where the other three teams are loaded. Well,
20:25
Speaker 1: it's hard to compete versus an experience team who have
20:30
Speaker 1: pieces in place, who have guys who play well together,
20:35
Speaker 1: you know. And now you're got a young team and
20:38
Speaker 1: young talent, and you're trying to figure out what they
20:41
Speaker 1: can do well. And but you've got to play the
20:44
Speaker 1: games to try to figure that out, and so you
20:47
Speaker 1: end up taking a whipping a little bit, you know,
20:50
Speaker 1: while that goes on and so through that education that
20:55
Speaker 1: they have to get. You know, like the third year
20:59
Speaker 1: we were able to win ten games in the third
21:01
Speaker 1: year and almost made the playoffs. So it takes time.
21:06
Speaker 1: It just won't happen overnight unless you have the pieces
21:11
Speaker 1: in place already and then you can kind of build
21:14
Speaker 1: on that. But if you have to add the pieces,
21:17
Speaker 1: it takes time to add the pieces you need to
21:20
Speaker 1: be competitive. Romeo Cornell does not have a great head
21:24
Speaker 1: coaching record, basically two wins for every or two losses
21:27
Speaker 1: for every win, thirty two wins sixty one losses, but
21:30
Speaker 1: as he mentioned, he did have a ten win season
21:32
Speaker 1: in Cleveland back in two thousand and seven and they
21:35
Speaker 1: did not go to the playoffs despite going ten and six. Yeah,
21:39
Speaker 1: one year we went ten and four and didn't make
21:42
Speaker 1: the playoffs. It was there, there weren't as many wildcard
21:45
Speaker 1: teams and the Pittsburgh Steelers went twelve and two, the
21:50
Speaker 1: Houston Oilers won eleven and three. We went ten and
21:52
Speaker 1: four and stayed home. I mean, what was the loss
21:56
Speaker 1: that year that You're like, how did we lose that game?
22:00
Speaker 1: Was there one or not? Necessarily? Now I think you know,
22:02
Speaker 1: we pretty much pretty much lost it. Lost games that
22:07
Speaker 1: you know, it wasn't I get to really good teams. Yeah,
22:08
Speaker 1: there was no there was no guarantee. We didn't. We didn't.
22:10
Speaker 1: We didn't lose to like the one in eight Browns
22:13
Speaker 1: or anything like that. You know, nothing like that took place.
22:16
Speaker 1: But and that's that's probably you know, Pittsburgh and Tennessee
22:20
Speaker 1: probably right now scratching their heads of saying, what happened?
22:23
Speaker 1: What happened when we went to Cincinnati? What happened we
22:26
Speaker 1: did we? Uh? Did we have something that we shouldn't
22:29
Speaker 1: have had in terms of food or drink? What happened
22:31
Speaker 1: up there? So Romeo Cornell's got this record of sorts
22:34
Speaker 1: oldest head coach in NFL history. It might not last
22:38
Speaker 1: very long. Pete Carroll's sixty nine years old. It looks
22:42
Speaker 1: forty five. Yeah, he's a they say young. He is
22:45
Speaker 1: a young sixty nine years old Romeo Cornell. Watch him walk,
22:49
Speaker 1: He looks his age. I mean, he's I understand what
22:53
Speaker 1: he's going through. I'm pushing that seven oh, that's seven
22:56
Speaker 1: oh is coming sooner than I want. And boys, some
22:58
Speaker 1: some mornings and oil can you got to lubricate man,
23:02
Speaker 1: You got to loop up the joints. Man, it's there.
23:05
Speaker 1: It's no joke. Old age is not fun. It's happening
23:07
Speaker 1: to me in the fifties. It's awful. Bill Belichick is
23:11
Speaker 1: sixty eight. So you got a couple of guys and
23:12
Speaker 1: Carol and Belichick that could very easily surpass seventy three
23:17
Speaker 1: as head coaches if they choose to. They're obviously both
23:19
Speaker 1: still very much at the top of their games, very
23:22
Speaker 1: much still there. I mean, and there's a little bit
23:24
Speaker 1: of a connection in history all three of them. Romerio
23:27
Speaker 1: Cornell and Bill Belichick have a history, and Pete Carroll
23:31
Speaker 1: and Bill Belichick do. I mean, it's it's interesting that
23:34
Speaker 1: coaching tree. When the when the really prime fruit falls,
23:38
Speaker 1: somebody picks it up, scoops it up, and it's going
23:40
Speaker 1: to cherish it for a long time. So the Texans
23:43
Speaker 1: are in the market for a new GM and a
23:46
Speaker 1: new head coach. They've already started interviewing candidates. And I
23:49
Speaker 1: was listening to a kind of a team sponsored podcast
23:52
Speaker 1: about the Texans earlier today. They are pumping that up
23:56
Speaker 1: heavily as their kind of sales message to the fans.
24:00
Speaker 1: A new day is coming, a new year is coming.
24:03
Speaker 1: We'll have a new coach. We'll have a new GM.
24:05
Speaker 1: It's very interesting to hear a team just like openly
24:09
Speaker 1: advertise the fact that you know, we've cleaned house and
24:12
Speaker 1: you know the new era is about to begin. And
24:15
Speaker 1: I'll tell you, if I'm a general manager or a
24:16
Speaker 1: head coach, my biggest asset, everybody wants to work with
24:21
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson. If you have that, If you have that
24:24
Speaker 1: as a centerpiece, as a starting point, as a foundation piece, man,
24:27
Speaker 1: you've got something. And you know that's the interesting thing
24:30
Speaker 1: Dan With Joe Burrow, you know two things, two boxes
24:34
Speaker 1: that as we talk about Zach Taylor and what's gone
24:36
Speaker 1: on with the football team, Mike Brown is going to
24:39
Speaker 1: think two things and it's going to be pretty early,
24:43
Speaker 1: pretty high in the list. Has he lost control of
24:45
Speaker 1: the football team? And I think based on the performance
24:48
Speaker 1: that he saw going into Pittsburgh, He's going to think
24:52
Speaker 1: he hasn't really lost control of the football team. He
24:54
Speaker 1: hasn't really heard. I don't think anything internally that would
24:57
Speaker 1: suggest that he's lost control. And what's good for Joe Burrow.
25:02
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow couldn't have been more effusive in his praise
25:06
Speaker 1: of Zach Taylor. So if Joe Burrow is going to
25:09
Speaker 1: line up right behind Zach Taylor and push and support him,
25:13
Speaker 1: that's a that's a big piece. So you know, a
25:16
Speaker 1: couple of boxes might be checked in Zach's favorite I'm
25:19
Speaker 1: not saying they're the only boxes, but I'm saying those
25:21
Speaker 1: are a couple of boxes as you're going through the
25:24
Speaker 1: the evaluation process and considering what to do, those are
25:28
Speaker 1: significant boxes. Yeah, if Joe Burrow was being honest and
25:31
Speaker 1: wasn't just being nice in front of the cameras, and
25:34
Speaker 1: I have no reason to think that, you know, that
25:36
Speaker 1: wasn't the case. I think he was being a genuine
25:38
Speaker 1: That is a pretty important voice to have in your corner,
25:41
Speaker 1: it really is. I mean, I think he really liked
25:43
Speaker 1: working with with all of them. I think he really
25:46
Speaker 1: liked working with Zach, Bryan Callahan, Dan Pitcher. I think
25:49
Speaker 1: he really liked the trio of former quarterbacks and then
25:53
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow put in their heads together and coming up
25:56
Speaker 1: with game plans and they listened to him and his
26:00
Speaker 1: feelings and thoughts and opinions. He really liked it. He
26:03
Speaker 1: really liked that whole process. Now, time for this week's
26:06
Speaker 1: one on one player interview, and this week it's a
26:09
Speaker 1: former player. I had a chance to discuss the current
26:12
Speaker 1: team with a member of the nineteen eighty eight Super
26:15
Speaker 1: Bowl squad who is currently working as an analyst for
26:18
Speaker 1: Pro Football Focus. When the Bengals celebrated their fiftieth season
26:22
Speaker 1: back in twenty seventeen, he was named the fortieth best
26:25
Speaker 1: retired player in franchise history. A starting safety on the
26:29
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight Super Bowl team, the great Solomon Wilcot.
26:32
Speaker 1: It's always great to speak, Sally. I want to start
26:35
Speaker 1: with a guy on this year's team that plays your
26:37
Speaker 1: old position, Jesse Bates. Where does Jesse Bates rank among
26:42
Speaker 1: NFL safeties these days? Well, in our database, according to
26:48
Speaker 1: Pro Football Focus or PF as we had now been
26:51
Speaker 1: rebranded now, he ranks among the top safeties in the
26:54
Speaker 1: National Football League, particularly when it comes to coverage. Had
26:58
Speaker 1: started off the season very well, but still has maintained
27:01
Speaker 1: his position among the top five safeties in the National
27:05
Speaker 1: Football League. We're talking about guys like Justin Simmons, guys
27:09
Speaker 1: like Minca Fitzpatrick, Jamal Adams. I mean, that's pretty good company.
27:14
Speaker 1: And so he continues to make plays on the ball.
27:17
Speaker 1: His ability to help the defense in pass coverage and
27:21
Speaker 1: lock him down receivers tight ends. That's where he really
27:25
Speaker 1: tends to send himself apart. Love to get in, love
27:28
Speaker 1: to see him give a few more interceptions, but he
27:31
Speaker 1: still comes up with the football time and time again.
27:35
Speaker 1: Let's stick with a secondary and another guy having a
27:38
Speaker 1: very solid season, Will Jackson. What do you think of
27:41
Speaker 1: Will's play? You know, Will, after last year having a
27:44
Speaker 1: down year, this year he's been much better. We love
27:48
Speaker 1: to see him get back to some of the numbers
27:50
Speaker 1: we saw him early in his career, particularly when it
27:53
Speaker 1: comes to locking down the top receivers weekend and week out.
27:57
Speaker 1: But still he's a really good cornerback and ranking the
28:01
Speaker 1: top half of corners around the National Football League. I
28:04
Speaker 1: still believe he could be a top ten shut down
28:07
Speaker 1: corner weekend and week out. We are visiting with Solomon Wilcox.
28:11
Speaker 1: When the Bengals drafted Joe Burrow, you tweeted the following, Sally,
28:15
Speaker 1: good times are coming to the Queen City. So I
28:18
Speaker 1: know how you feel about Joe. What did you think
28:21
Speaker 1: of his play his rookie year? You know, I was
28:24
Speaker 1: very much impressed, and I think a lot of us
28:26
Speaker 1: who from Afar. We analyzed the game, We critiqued the
28:30
Speaker 1: game to the eighth degree, and we were very much,
28:34
Speaker 1: i think pleasantly surprised with the fact that he could
28:37
Speaker 1: handle blitz protection, that he was a born leader, that
28:41
Speaker 1: every single guy on the football team and in the
28:44
Speaker 1: huddle and in the locker room sort of defers to him.
28:47
Speaker 1: And the fact that if you take a look at
28:49
Speaker 1: the ten games that he played, he had him at
28:51
Speaker 1: every single game right up until the end, I think,
28:54
Speaker 1: with the exception of maybe the Pittsburgh Steeler in the
28:57
Speaker 1: Baltimore Ravens game. But the fact that you could see
29:00
Speaker 1: he tilt the competitive balance in the Bengals favor just
29:04
Speaker 1: by being under center and in the huddle and being
29:07
Speaker 1: the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback. He averaged about forty one pass
29:12
Speaker 1: attempts per game. I don't know that we've ever seen
29:16
Speaker 1: a rookie throw the ball as much to start a
29:19
Speaker 1: career without going to training camp or preseason in the
29:23
Speaker 1: history of our league. So the arrow was pointing up
29:26
Speaker 1: for Joe Burrow. You referenced his leadership. You played with Boomers,
29:30
Speaker 1: Sias and one of the great leaders in franchise history.
29:33
Speaker 1: Do you see some of those qualities in Joe very
29:36
Speaker 1: much so. And I always said that that's where I
29:39
Speaker 1: believe Boomer sias had sat himself apart from all the
29:43
Speaker 1: other quarterbacks around the National Football League. He played at
29:46
Speaker 1: a time when there was some great ones. There was Elway,
29:48
Speaker 1: there was Marino, there was Montana, But I'd take Boomer Siasen.
29:52
Speaker 1: I know what kind of leader he was. He was
29:54
Speaker 1: a guy that wouldn't back down, and he was the
29:56
Speaker 1: guy that everyone in the locker room with instantly follow
30:00
Speaker 1: And you could see that from the moment Joe Burrow
30:03
Speaker 1: arrived at Paul Brown Stadium, he was the guy in
30:06
Speaker 1: the room. Everyone knew he was the guy in the room.
30:09
Speaker 1: There's no questions, no doubts about it. And then when
30:12
Speaker 1: he stepped onto the football field without a lot of work,
30:16
Speaker 1: without a lot of lead time, no training camp, no preseason,
30:20
Speaker 1: the fact that he was able to dive into the
30:22
Speaker 1: deep end of the pool and still help this team
30:25
Speaker 1: improve in every single facet of the offense. I think
30:29
Speaker 1: it tells you what kind of player he can be.
30:31
Speaker 1: We're approaching the end of the season. What should the
30:34
Speaker 1: Bengals prioritize this offseason? I think you prioritize one thing,
30:39
Speaker 1: what's best for Joe Burrow, because what's best for Joe
30:43
Speaker 1: Burrow is what's best for the football team. What's best
30:46
Speaker 1: for Joe Burrow is gonna be what's best for the
30:48
Speaker 1: organization because I believe the wins will follow. If you
30:52
Speaker 1: improve the offensive line and you protect him. Not only
30:56
Speaker 1: does he play better, your running game gets better, your
30:59
Speaker 1: receiver get better. The overall productivity of the offense is
31:03
Speaker 1: going to get better. If you go out and get
31:06
Speaker 1: an extra receiver, an extra running back, or extra tackle
31:09
Speaker 1: are tied in. You get better around the quarterback that
31:13
Speaker 1: is Joe Burrow, and now you're going to see his
31:15
Speaker 1: production spiked to the next level. You also can help
31:19
Speaker 1: a quarterback by improving defense, right, so you don't have
31:22
Speaker 1: to go out and score five six touchdowns a game,
31:25
Speaker 1: but your defense is getting stops putting Joe Burrow in
31:29
Speaker 1: the short field after getting turnovers. So I think that's
31:32
Speaker 1: how you have to look at it. Everything you do
31:34
Speaker 1: is how do we play around Joe Burrow? How do
31:37
Speaker 1: we improve around him and help him be better. That's
31:41
Speaker 1: what the coachs did around Peyton Manning when he was
31:43
Speaker 1: a former first overall pick and you can see the
31:46
Speaker 1: ten win seasons just begin to stack up. The final
31:50
Speaker 1: road game of the year is coming up this week
31:52
Speaker 1: as the Bengals head to Houston. The Texans had been
31:54
Speaker 1: much better since they made their coaching change. They started
31:57
Speaker 1: out oh and four, they've been close to five hundred.
32:00
Speaker 1: Sense what are a couple of things the Bengals would
32:02
Speaker 1: need to do to beat Houston in Houston this week? Well,
32:06
Speaker 1: first of all, you got to get pressure on Deshaun Watts.
32:09
Speaker 1: I think he is one of the top and most
32:12
Speaker 1: prolific quarterbacks in the National Football League. This guy is
32:16
Speaker 1: going to be a winner, but you have to put
32:19
Speaker 1: pressure on him. You have to contain him in the
32:21
Speaker 1: pocket because he can break containment and he'll run while
32:24
Speaker 1: all over the field. He'll make plays. And then you
32:28
Speaker 1: have to be able to block JJ Watt on the
32:30
Speaker 1: other side. And that's two of the areas where the
32:33
Speaker 1: Bengals have struggled. One is getting pressure on the opposing quarterback.
32:37
Speaker 1: The other is protecting our quarterback from the opponent's best
32:42
Speaker 1: pass rusher. So you've got to be able to get
32:45
Speaker 1: after Deshaun Watson and you better block JJ Watt. Great
32:49
Speaker 1: stuff is always Sally, appreciate the time. Happy holidays and
32:52
Speaker 1: thanks for joining us. Dan, Happy holidays to you and
32:56
Speaker 1: everyone with the Cincinnati Bengals. Thank you for having me.
33:00
Speaker 1: Those Booth podcast is presented by Bud Light Seltzer. It's
33:03
Speaker 1: light and refreshing with a hint of fruit flavor. Now
33:07
Speaker 1: time for this week's Know the Faux Segment. Last year,
33:10
Speaker 1: the Houston Texans won their division, beat the Buffalo Bills
33:13
Speaker 1: in the first ground of the playoffs, and led the
33:16
Speaker 1: Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs twenty four nothing in
33:20
Speaker 1: the second quarter before getting mahomes and losing that playoff game.
33:25
Speaker 1: Now Houston is four and ten and in the market
33:28
Speaker 1: for a new GM and a new head coach. John
33:32
Speaker 1: McLean from the Houston Chronicle joined Lapping Me on the
33:34
Speaker 1: Bengals Game Plan Show this week and I asked him
33:38
Speaker 1: what happened. First of all, go back to the last
33:41
Speaker 1: game the last season against the Titans. The Texans have
33:44
Speaker 1: been behind in double figures six consecutive games, including two
33:48
Speaker 1: playoff games, and when they did it the first four
33:51
Speaker 1: games this year and lost all four, they fired Bill O'Brien. Now,
33:57
Speaker 1: in fairness to the Texans, they have played the toughest
34:00
Speaker 1: live seen in forty five years of covering the NFL.
34:03
Speaker 1: Five teams they played are in first place. The teams
34:07
Speaker 1: they played at a combined record of Mike plus forty five.
34:10
Speaker 1: I've never seen anything like it. But still they have
34:14
Speaker 1: not played well. The only player who's been consistently good
34:17
Speaker 1: is Deshaun Watson. He's having the best season of this career.
34:21
Speaker 1: He's on the page to set personal best in every
34:25
Speaker 1: statest dig he leads the league and average per attempt.
34:28
Speaker 1: Even though they traded DeAndre Hopkins, will Fuller suspended the
34:32
Speaker 1: last five games, Randall Cobbs injured the last five games.
34:36
Speaker 1: Don't matter who they put out there with him, he
34:38
Speaker 1: continues to play well. Now. One of the things interesting
34:41
Speaker 1: about that is their offensive line returned intact. It was
34:45
Speaker 1: in put it last year, and everybody had high hopes
34:49
Speaker 1: for this line coming back. They were ninth and rushing
34:52
Speaker 1: last year, so they were really good. Past protection or
34:56
Speaker 1: run blotting was awful, and then in the last three
34:59
Speaker 1: games the past protection has been off. The two Shawn
35:03
Speaker 1: Watson creates some sacks because he holds the ball, but
35:07
Speaker 1: he also gets away from a lot of sacks. Kind
35:09
Speaker 1: of like Coodini. It's people are amazed the way he
35:12
Speaker 1: seems to have eyes in the back of his head,
35:14
Speaker 1: and that comes from pocket awareness. But he's now been
35:18
Speaker 1: sacked forty times and that's just been a bad habit.
35:22
Speaker 1: And they don't have injury excuses up front like they
35:26
Speaker 1: do on their defense, where seven starters six have been
35:29
Speaker 1: injured and one Bradley Roby, was suspended. But last year
35:33
Speaker 1: they were nineteen rushing, this year their thirty second. They
35:36
Speaker 1: are one point four yards a game for being the
35:38
Speaker 1: worst rushing team in team history. That would be their
35:42
Speaker 1: expansion year two thousand and two. And then I wrote
35:46
Speaker 1: a column today they are on the verge of shattering
35:50
Speaker 1: the team record for fewest turnovers forced. They have eight.
35:55
Speaker 1: If they don't get to eleven, they're going to have
35:57
Speaker 1: the second fewest since nineteen eighty. Last year they had
36:01
Speaker 1: twenty two. Year before, they had twenty nine. Romeo Canell's
36:04
Speaker 1: first season here as defensive coordinator, they had a team
36:07
Speaker 1: record thirty four. How many teams have a defensive linement
36:11
Speaker 1: tide for the team league with intersetting right, that would
36:14
Speaker 1: be J. J. Watt was one. They have three interceptions,
36:17
Speaker 1: also lay Glow and one other thing. This team is
36:22
Speaker 1: on the pace to be worst against the run in
36:25
Speaker 1: franchise history. So they can't run, they can't stop the run,
36:28
Speaker 1: they can't force turnovers. Other than that, they're fine. Well
36:33
Speaker 1: that's a trifecta. There, can't run, can't stop the runner,
36:36
Speaker 1: and can't take take the ball away. Amen, let me
36:40
Speaker 1: ask you a question about O'Brien. In a two year period,
36:45
Speaker 1: traded Clowney traded Hopkins a year apart. Didn't get a
36:49
Speaker 1: first round pick in either of those trades, which to
36:52
Speaker 1: me is almost mind boggling. Not one first rounder. Is
36:55
Speaker 1: that the biggest reason he's gone into There are other
36:57
Speaker 1: reasons or what are the reasons that O'Brien is no
37:00
Speaker 1: longer there? Well, that's nothing to do with clowning. You know,
37:03
Speaker 1: Clowney had done squats since he was traded from here,
37:06
Speaker 1: the guy that got Jacob Martin one of the three players,
37:09
Speaker 1: he's had more sacks than Clowney. Coli'S having more surgery
37:13
Speaker 1: now he's out for the year. But what the Hopkins thing.
37:17
Speaker 1: Watson has played better without Hopkins, and he spread the
37:20
Speaker 1: ball around no matter who they put on the field,
37:23
Speaker 1: utilize his tight ends more. But where they miss Hopkins
37:27
Speaker 1: is down inside the ten yard line where they control
37:31
Speaker 1: him the ball. Now, Will Fuller was on a pace
37:33
Speaker 1: to have more yards and touchdowns and a better average
37:36
Speaker 1: per carry than Hopkins ever had when he got suspended,
37:40
Speaker 1: and that should have hurt should have hurt Watson, But
37:45
Speaker 1: I think the only place he's been hurt is when
37:48
Speaker 1: they get close to the goal line. Defenses do not
37:51
Speaker 1: have to worry about them trying to run the ball
37:53
Speaker 1: inside the five yard line. They know it's going to
37:56
Speaker 1: be a pass or it's going to be a Watson
37:59
Speaker 1: RPO or watch and draw. And when you can't run
38:02
Speaker 1: inside the five, teams get to play a whole totally
38:05
Speaker 1: different defense, which is the only thing they don't do
38:09
Speaker 1: in their passing game is score more in close to
38:12
Speaker 1: the goal line. O' brien was fired because this organization
38:17
Speaker 1: at the point they were owing four, you can put
38:21
Speaker 1: up the debut played. You know this. You guys know this.
38:26
Speaker 1: A coach can scream and yell at people consistently if
38:29
Speaker 1: you're winning. But when you scream and yell at other
38:33
Speaker 1: coaches and players and media and people in the office
38:37
Speaker 1: and you're losing, it goes in one ear and out
38:40
Speaker 1: the other and it teams to infuriate them, and some
38:43
Speaker 1: other than them lash out, and it was just a
38:47
Speaker 1: bad atmosphere over there. People didn't want to come to work.
38:50
Speaker 1: The organization was divided. So when they fired him, this
38:55
Speaker 1: says it all. They fired him over for they elevated
38:58
Speaker 1: the popular Romeo Mail the interim coach. He was associate
39:02
Speaker 1: head coach, and J. J. Watt put on Twitter a
39:06
Speaker 1: picture of the roof and NRG Stadium open and sunshine
39:10
Speaker 1: shining on the no comment, And then I asked him
39:14
Speaker 1: the next day when we had him on the zoom,
39:17
Speaker 1: I said, were you insinuating that the sun is shining
39:20
Speaker 1: it NRG Stadium again? And he basically said, you guys
39:24
Speaker 1: can read into it whatever you want, but we knew
39:26
Speaker 1: what that meant. And it was felt like that universally.
39:30
Speaker 1: It's like a dark cloud was lifted. What's O'Brian doing
39:34
Speaker 1: these days? Nobody's heard about him or from him. What's
39:37
Speaker 1: he doing it? Do you know anything what he's doing? Yeah,
39:40
Speaker 1: he's on the NFL radio every Friday doing a show
39:44
Speaker 1: with Pat Kirwin and Jim Miller. Okay, I think you.
39:47
Speaker 1: I don't know if he does predictions rundown or what.
39:51
Speaker 1: He walked away with a lot millions of dollars with
39:54
Speaker 1: two years left on his contract, and I think that
39:58
Speaker 1: Bill will get another job. He won four divisions and
40:01
Speaker 1: six years one two playoff games. People here are saying, oh, man,
40:05
Speaker 1: now to hire Marvin Lewis. I said, Bill o brian
40:07
Speaker 1: won two more playoffs games than he did and won
40:11
Speaker 1: more divisions than he did. No, you don't want Marvin Lewis.
40:15
Speaker 1: And even though he has a totally different personality, but
40:19
Speaker 1: O'Brien wants to coach. Some people think you'd be better
40:23
Speaker 1: in college where you can get away with that kind
40:25
Speaker 1: of dictatorship personality. He did a great job at Kent State,
40:30
Speaker 1: went into the worst situation in college football history and
40:33
Speaker 1: did a really good job. But his heart was always
40:36
Speaker 1: in the NFL. And people say, well, is he going
40:39
Speaker 1: to be an offensive coordinator? To give him another chance
40:41
Speaker 1: to be a head coach. Well, because of his personality,
40:45
Speaker 1: he would have to work for a really strong head
40:47
Speaker 1: coach like he used to Bill Belichick. But now that
40:51
Speaker 1: he has a taste to coaching for going into the
40:55
Speaker 1: seventh year, and I don't know that he wants to
40:57
Speaker 1: do that. A couple more questions are John McClain in
41:00
Speaker 1: the Houston Chronicle, you mentioned Marvin Lewis. Houston is already
41:03
Speaker 1: conducting a coaching search for after this season. It came
41:06
Speaker 1: out publicly that the Jim Caldwell got an interview. I
41:09
Speaker 1: don't know if that was the first. What do you
41:11
Speaker 1: think Houston is looking for? And although you don't sound
41:14
Speaker 1: like you would approve of Marvin Lewis being hired, do
41:17
Speaker 1: you think there's a shot that he would get an interview. Well,
41:21
Speaker 1: he might get an interview, but they're not good like Jim.
41:24
Speaker 1: The Texans will never say this. I think they're going
41:27
Speaker 1: to hire an offensive coordinator, somebody like Eric b Enemy,
41:32
Speaker 1: Arthur Smith a Tennessee, or defensive coordinator like Matt Eberklos
41:36
Speaker 1: from Indianapolis or Robert Salo from San Francisco was here
41:40
Speaker 1: for six years under Gary qbac. They're not going to
41:43
Speaker 1: give the head coach of files say on personnel like
41:47
Speaker 1: O'Brien had the last two years. They're done with that.
41:50
Speaker 1: It's going to go back to the way it was
41:51
Speaker 1: with Charlie Cashley and Doc Capers, Rick Smith and Gary
41:55
Speaker 1: Kubiak and Rake Smith and O'Brien for a couple of
41:58
Speaker 1: years before O'Brien was al Is trying to wrestle away
42:01
Speaker 1: personnel from him and he finally got it. So they're
42:05
Speaker 1: interviewing guys that are able to interview right now. Lewis Riddick,
42:09
Speaker 1: their own personnel director, Matt Bazzard, Jim Caldwell. He can interview,
42:15
Speaker 1: and I think it's smart to interview as many as
42:17
Speaker 1: you can. Learn as much as you can about the
42:20
Speaker 1: structure of an organization in case you don't know or
42:23
Speaker 1: here good ideas. Check out what are the people think
42:26
Speaker 1: about your players, your schemes. I would interview as many
42:29
Speaker 1: as I can. I don't think you can get too
42:32
Speaker 1: many opinions. And there's competition out there as well. But
42:36
Speaker 1: what the Texans have two offers and Sean Watson good receivers,
42:40
Speaker 1: they'll resign Will Fuller. They have two offense and tackles.
42:43
Speaker 1: They need a running back on offense, and then they
42:47
Speaker 1: need an overhaul on defense. Final question, John, will really
42:51
Speaker 1: appreciate your carbon time. It's going to be defense. Defense
42:55
Speaker 1: be a two parter for you. J J. Watt how
42:58
Speaker 1: close is he to one? He was Defensive Player of
43:01
Speaker 1: the Year and the linebacker crew. I always thought the
43:04
Speaker 1: linebackers were damned good down there in Houston, you know,
43:08
Speaker 1: led by Merciless, and I know you've had injuries. McKinney,
43:11
Speaker 1: I thought, hell of a player against the run. What's
43:14
Speaker 1: happened to the defense overall? And then I guess, more specifically,
43:18
Speaker 1: how was JJ watt plan? Two years ago? They were
43:22
Speaker 1: eleven and five. They gave up eighty two yards a
43:25
Speaker 1: game rushing. They were third in the league against the run.
43:28
Speaker 1: They had Clowney playing opposite Watt. Clowney's not a great
43:31
Speaker 1: pass rusher, but he's great against the run. And he
43:34
Speaker 1: had nine sids a year. He's never had double digits.
43:37
Speaker 1: They had Tyring mad to you at safety. They didn't
43:39
Speaker 1: pay him. The Chiefs dead O'Brien got mad, didn't think
43:43
Speaker 1: Clowney was serious enough about football, and they weren't going
43:46
Speaker 1: to give him one hundred million. They were already playing
43:47
Speaker 1: Watt one hundred million. In retrospect, Clowney probably should have
43:51
Speaker 1: taken their seventy five million, because you're never going to
43:53
Speaker 1: make that. And so DJ reader there no stackle, as
43:58
Speaker 1: you guys know that he to state here for the
44:00
Speaker 1: money they used to resign. Whitney merciless. Merciless like most
44:05
Speaker 1: of the players on this defense and a lot on
44:08
Speaker 1: offense have not played as well this year as last
44:11
Speaker 1: year for whatever reason, and so that's why they need
44:15
Speaker 1: the overall of the defense. Why is still their best
44:18
Speaker 1: defensive player. They're good at inside linebacker for next season,
44:21
Speaker 1: they're good at safety. They need at least two corners,
44:24
Speaker 1: two outside linebackers, another nose tackle like DJ Reader, and
44:28
Speaker 1: maybe another defensive end. What is not the pass rusher
44:32
Speaker 1: he used to be? He can still get pressured, but
44:34
Speaker 1: without anybody else on their defensive line who's a legitimate
44:38
Speaker 1: NFL starter like Reader and Clowney. He's playing with guys
44:42
Speaker 1: that are be really good backups. He gets double teamed
44:45
Speaker 1: on every play, and he's got five sacks, and he's
44:49
Speaker 1: not the pass rusher he was two years ago playing
44:52
Speaker 1: with those other guys when he had sixteen. You're in
44:55
Speaker 1: the car on Christmas Day afternoon, driving two or from
44:59
Speaker 1: a family gift ex change, join us for a special
45:02
Speaker 1: Christmas Day edition of the Bengals pep Rally Show from
45:05
Speaker 1: three to six on ESPN fifteen thirty. In addition to
45:09
Speaker 1: discussing the Houston game will feature some of this year's
45:12
Speaker 1: best fun facts interviews. That's going to do it for
45:16
Speaker 1: this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to you
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Speaker 1: done so already, please subscribe, and if you have a minute,
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Speaker 1: more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde. Merry Christmas,
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Speaker 1: thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth Podcast.