Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: My next guest covers the Bengals and the local sports
Speaker 2: scene for Local twelve dot com. His Skinny podcast with
Speaker 2: Roock Brewing a must watch as well Stocks and Bengals
Speaker 2: with the man they call Skinny, Richard Skinner. How are you.
Speaker 1: I'm good, last, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: Thanks for making time tonight. Let's start with the news
Speaker 2: of the day surrounding Joe Flacco. What do you make
Speaker 2: of his if we're projecting ahead now from Wednesday forward,
Speaker 2: what do you make of his status for Sunday?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I think. I mean fifty fifty is what Zach
Speaker 1: Taylor called, and that's probably being generous. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: when he went down on that sack on the next
Speaker 1: to last series, I had my head down for a
Speaker 1: second and somebody said, oh, Jake's throwing, and I looked up, okay,
Speaker 1: and then you see Joe kind of being looked at
Speaker 1: by the medical staff. Then he tries to throw. He's
Speaker 1: wincing in pain. They give him a couple of a
Speaker 1: couple of I don't know maybe til at all, but
Speaker 1: I know he took something on the sideline that went
Speaker 1: into the locker room, and you can imagine probably got
Speaker 1: a shot of something in the locker room and did
Speaker 1: finish the game, and he was asked after the game
Speaker 1: how he felt and said, I feel fine. Well, that's
Speaker 1: all well and good because you just got shot up
Speaker 1: with pain medication probably so you did. And then the
Speaker 1: reality comes in that, yeah, he sprained his ac joint
Speaker 1: and that's Those things can be dicey. I mean, they
Speaker 1: can be really long term, they can be medium term.
Speaker 1: They can sometimes be short term. But if he wasn't
Speaker 1: good enough to go today and he doesn't go tomorrow,
Speaker 1: I know, Zach said, you know, if he feels good
Speaker 1: on Sunday, even without reps, he could probably play him.
Speaker 1: I just I think that's a really big ask. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'll give him credit. I know Zach did too. I mean,
Speaker 1: kudos to him for wanting to play, right. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: this guy's forty plus years old. He just hurt his
Speaker 1: throwing shoulder. You got a bye week coming up, easy
Speaker 1: to go, Hey, man, I'm good. Get Jake ready for
Speaker 1: this week and I'll come back hopefully and you know,
Speaker 1: after the bye week. But I just think it's a
Speaker 1: big ask if he plays this weekend.
Speaker 2: After the game on Sunday, Zach made a public declaration
Speaker 2: of a need for somebody to step up on defense.
Speaker 2: What'd you make of that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know you lost the leadership. But Logan Wilson,
Speaker 1: I mean he's still playing snaps, but he's not playing
Speaker 1: start he started. Actually he's not playing you know, the
Speaker 1: majority of the snaps. I think it's a plea for
Speaker 1: somebody to make a play. I believe that. I mean, like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, somebody needs to make a tackle. Somebody needs
Speaker 1: to disengage and go make a fact. Somebody needs to
Speaker 1: you know, come up with interception of sometimes. But I
Speaker 1: think he's looking for leadership with Logan off the field
Speaker 1: and Logan's I don't want to call Logan not a leader.
Speaker 1: That's not fair. He's just quiet, okay. And you know
Speaker 1: leaders do different things. I mean some lead quietly by
Speaker 1: example and some are our real leaders. The guy I
Speaker 1: think they're pointing to is Barrett Carter. I mean he
Speaker 1: I know Zach really likes spirits leadership qualities. The problem
Speaker 1: there is, you know, you've also got to lead by
Speaker 1: example too. And I'm not gonna knock bear a Carter
Speaker 1: for everything because he had a really good first couple
Speaker 1: of series, like alling those great, and he's played okay,
Speaker 1: but he also had a chance on a tackle on
Speaker 1: Isaiah Davis, the running back. I mean he diagnoses the play.
Speaker 1: He gets right in the gap. It's one on one
Speaker 1: in the gap, and the thing you have to do
Speaker 1: there as a professional linebacker is put that guy on
Speaker 1: the ground. Would have been a yard gain it most probably,
Speaker 1: and he slips through and goes for fifty yards. It's
Speaker 1: hard to lead when you're not making the plays and
Speaker 1: you're a rookie on top of it. But I do
Speaker 1: think that's you're looking for the leader that they're trying
Speaker 1: to point to. I think he'd be the guy. Maybe
Speaker 1: Jordan Battle a little bit, but again, his performance doesn't
Speaker 1: exactly scream Hey, I'm really good, so I'm gonna lead
Speaker 1: you guys. So I think I think. I think it's
Speaker 1: a mess at the moment. I really do. I mean,
Speaker 1: they had all three levels of the defense. Skinny.
Speaker 2: Is there an in season fix for this defense?
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I just don't think it's one guy.
Speaker 1: I think, honestly, Atlantis is multiple seasons. It's gonna take
Speaker 1: to fix, you know. I think part of what you're
Speaker 1: seeing with the rookie linebackers is okay, these are our
Speaker 1: guys for the next few years, and let's just let
Speaker 1: them go. They're gonna make mistakes. I mean, you saw
Speaker 1: the one in Green Bay where they both won to
Speaker 1: the outside gap on a on a Josh Jacob's fourteen
Speaker 1: yard touchdown line. He goes right up the middle of
Speaker 1: the end zone. Both of them went to the wrong place.
Speaker 1: Both of them went the wrong way. I don't want
Speaker 1: to say you have to live with it, but you
Speaker 1: kind of do. While they kind of get some of
Speaker 1: that out of their system. And you know, at the
Speaker 1: cornerback spot, you've you've been up and down with the
Speaker 1: camp Tiller brit situation. At the safety spot, neither safeties
Speaker 1: played well. And guess what if you're looking, we'll put
Speaker 1: somebody else in there. They don't really have a backup safety.
Speaker 1: They got two special teams guys backing up at safety
Speaker 1: and Tyson Anderson PJ. Jewels and up front. I mean Lance,
Speaker 1: you see the audience is seen in the last the
Speaker 1: last two weeks. They don't disengage from a soul. I
Speaker 1: mean it's it's not even like getting pressure. It's like velcro.
Speaker 1: When offensive lineman get them. It is staggering. Then in
Speaker 1: the last two weeks they have three quarterback hits total.
Speaker 1: One of those was on that Aaron Rodgers remember when
Speaker 1: he scrambled for eight plus seconds and threw a touchdown pass.
Speaker 1: Dimitrius not actually hit him right after he threw the ball.
Speaker 1: That's one quarterback hit. Another one came this past week
Speaker 1: when Cam Taylor britt blitzed and and hit and hit
Speaker 1: Justin Fields. Those are two of the three quarterback hits
Speaker 1: in the last two games. Not sacks, just hits. And
Speaker 1: that's a big problem at the moment because while you
Speaker 1: can put this second go, I how of Justin Fields
Speaker 1: carve him up? Well, he carve him up because he
Speaker 1: stood back there for eons to throw the football. There
Speaker 1: was one wor seacon number who the receiver was, because
Speaker 1: they were all, you know, backup quality guys. I saw
Speaker 1: a guy on a takeoff route and I kind of
Speaker 1: looked away for a second. All of a sudden, I
Speaker 1: see Justin throw it that way. The guy came back
Speaker 1: ten yards of the football because he had a billion
Speaker 1: years to throw. They've got to find a way to
Speaker 1: generate pass rushing, and I think Al Golden hinted this
Speaker 1: hinted at that with us on Monday a little bit
Speaker 1: without letting the cattle bag. He's on the record when
Speaker 1: he said it like, I've got to create more. I
Speaker 1: gotta create more pressures, and I think the only way
Speaker 1: to do that is to start blitzing more and just
Speaker 1: throw caution the way. But we ain't getting stops anyway.
Speaker 1: Maybe I can create a negative play, maybe I can
Speaker 1: create a turnover too, and that's the only way we're
Speaker 1: gonna get stops. Because if this team just lines up
Speaker 1: and says we're gonna try to stop you in base
Speaker 1: defense and maybe occasionally blitz, it's not gonna work. It's
Speaker 1: just not good enough.
Speaker 2: The run game is clicking. Joe Flacco has been kept
Speaker 2: relatively clean other than the hit he got smoked on Sunday.
Speaker 2: Why has that happened?
Speaker 1: Great question, and that was actually we talked Damn Pitcher
Speaker 1: today and that was asked the Dan. He just I
Speaker 1: just think the offensive lines played well the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. You know, I thought Orlando Brown was sliding
Speaker 1: backwards significantly for the first few weeks. He's played well.
Speaker 1: Ted Carris has actually elevated his level of play. It
Speaker 1: looks like Jalen Rivers, I think settling in nicely at
Speaker 1: right guard. Marius Mims has kept his side quiet and
Speaker 1: and you know, Dylan Fairchout came back in for Dalton
Speaker 1: Reisner and Dalton started the previous game when the offensive
Speaker 1: line played well against Pittsburgh. I just think I think
Speaker 1: they've somehow settled in. Uh you know, I know people
Speaker 1: continue to look at the offensive line with a John
Speaker 1: Desie and go, oh, they they haven't stunk. They've won
Speaker 1: the ball great. Joe's been sacked three times and hit
Speaker 1: minimal times in the last two games at approximately you know,
Speaker 1: eighty some odd drop backs, and uh, you know, they
Speaker 1: still have to They still have to protect for a
Speaker 1: lot of times in the game because they dropped back
Speaker 1: to pass so much. So Yeah, I don't honestly, there's
Speaker 1: no real answer than they're just playing better.
Speaker 2: Jamar obviously has been incredible and heavily targeted. Did the
Speaker 2: two t targets on Sunday raise an eyebrow?
Speaker 1: Sure? Did you know? I know the Jets were, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to take both of them away. But you know,
Speaker 1: if I'm taking one away, no offense to T Higgins,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna focus my taking away on Jamar Chase and
Speaker 1: not Tea. And so Jamar got plenty of targets and
Speaker 1: had plenty of catches. He had two targets. Andre Yoshibash
Speaker 1: had three. Look, I know, Andre was probably single covered
Speaker 1: more often that last play at the end of the game,
Speaker 1: they did double both Tea and Jamar. Jamar talked about
Speaker 1: that and Andre was the place to go with it.
Speaker 1: But in what world did you sign t Higgins in
Speaker 1: this contract and he only gets two targets? That just
Speaker 1: seems to be crazy to me, Like, and it feels
Speaker 1: like it's kind of been that way almost all year,
Speaker 1: where he he seems kind of invisible at times. And listen,
Speaker 1: he is a clear number two to Jamar Chase. Let's
Speaker 1: not forget that. But you didn't pay him like a
Speaker 1: clear number two. You paid him like a one a.
Speaker 1: And if you're gonna pay him like a one a,
Speaker 1: then you better find a way. I mean, honestly, you
Speaker 1: better throw four jump balls to him again just to
Speaker 1: get him extra targets. In my opinion, If not, why
Speaker 1: did you resign him?
Speaker 2: Do you see Yoshi's snaps declining? And if so, who
Speaker 2: assumes those snaps?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great question because we you know, we
Speaker 1: asked both Pitch and I think Zach either Monday or today,
Speaker 1: and we ask Pitch today of you know, do you
Speaker 1: still have confidence Andre? And they both expressed their confidence.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't expect them to say anything otherwise publicly, but
Speaker 1: it's hard not to. I mean that last play is
Speaker 1: an example of kind of how his years gone. He
Speaker 1: doesn't get much separation. It was a contested catch. I
Speaker 1: think we can agree with that. It was not a
Speaker 1: you know, he wasn't wide open. It wasn't wide open
Speaker 1: because he didn't get separation, and then it was a
Speaker 1: contested catch that he couldn't quite haul in. He's had
Speaker 1: some issues with some drops. I mean, it's hard not
Speaker 1: to like the kid, but at some point life has
Speaker 1: nothing to do with this. I can't imagine you don't
Speaker 1: give Mitchell Tin's a little bit more on. I think
Speaker 1: it'd be silly not to, just because you know, Andre's
Speaker 1: not producing, and you know, I think there's a there's
Speaker 1: a role where they'd like to get Jermaine Burton on
Speaker 1: the field, and Jermaine keeps probably stubbing his foot to
Speaker 1: on the field, and so there's that issue and so
Speaker 1: it's it's really it's either Mitchell Tinsley or him. I
Speaker 1: mean maybe if Mike Kasicki was healthy, you could might
Speaker 1: put Mike in that role, but Mike's not healthy. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the next man up would be Mitchell Tinsley.
Speaker 1: And I think you need to see more of that,
Speaker 1: to be honest with you.
Speaker 2: All Right, last question. They're three and five, there's nine
Speaker 2: games left. I saw a new win total today posted
Speaker 2: for them at seven and a half. If you were
Speaker 2: Terry Rozier, would you bet over or under on that total?
Speaker 1: Yeah? The other thing is I don't have control of
Speaker 1: It's like Terry had totals, man, I mean, that's the
Speaker 1: one thing he had gone for me. He could determine
Speaker 1: what those totals were going to be.
Speaker 2: That would be five, and that'd be five and four
Speaker 2: the rest of the way to go over.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think they. I think they do because I
Speaker 1: think they win this week. I think Flacco is at
Speaker 1: least back for the Pittsburgh game and they have a
Speaker 1: schot to go there. Believe it or not, they win
Speaker 1: this week. There is a world in which pitt Sburg
Speaker 1: is four and five and the Bengals are four and five,
Speaker 1: playing at Pitts first, first place, or at least to
Speaker 1: keep the raven Heck, the Ravens might be four and
Speaker 1: five at that point two, but you'd be playing head
Speaker 1: to head to see which one of you goes to
Speaker 1: five and five. That's the goofy part. I mean, nine
Speaker 1: wins can win this division. The question is then you're
Speaker 1: asking can they hit the seven and a half? Can
Speaker 1: they get denying there's a world where they can. There's
Speaker 1: also a war where they win two more games the
Speaker 1: rest of the way because this defense is just so horrific.
Speaker 2: All right, what are you working on? And how can
Speaker 2: listeners read and watch all you have going on?
Speaker 1: Yep, just go to Local twelve dot com slash sports.
Speaker 1: I got the Joe Flacco story up today and kind
Speaker 1: of the confidence they again have in Jake Browning, and
Speaker 1: then tomorrow Lance I did this today. I was gonna
Speaker 1: post today if the Joe flacko who's had to come out.
Speaker 1: I redrafted the Bengals first three picks this year just
Speaker 1: because I wanted to just see who you could go with,
Speaker 1: and it took me in a direction where it wasn't
Speaker 1: completely off base. And the three picks make a whole
Speaker 1: lot of sense, and it makes you wonder what are
Speaker 1: they doing in the draft through one draft night?
Speaker 2: Well, I can't wait. I will read it at Local
Speaker 2: twelve dot com. You're a good man. I appreciate the time.
Speaker 2: Thank you. All Right, there you go, Richard Skinner. Check
Speaker 2: it in tonight.