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Speaker 1: Hike Sincy three sixty about Cincinnati from Cincinnati Sponsorman Park

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Speaker 1: by Cincy Shirts, Cincy Shirts all sincey all day. This

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Speaker 1: is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

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Speaker 2: Welcome back, it's our number two.

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Speaker 3: It's Thursday on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, which

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Speaker 3: means we got to thank our friends at Cinty Shirts,

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Speaker 3: and it means we kick off the hour with our

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Speaker 3: good friend covering the Bengals from eight hisz E Sports.

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Speaker 3: John Shearon with us right now, John, what's going on?

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Speaker 4: Fellas doing?

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Speaker 2: All right?

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Speaker 5: Had a nice refreshing weekend of no football of any

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Speaker 5: kind except very leisurely watching, geting pleasure.

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Speaker 2: So good to be back. Wait, you barely watched any

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Speaker 2: football at all?

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Speaker 4: It was it was it was here.

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Speaker 5: There, you know. I caught some caught some good moments,

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Speaker 5: caught some.

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Speaker 4: Bad moments that made me like, oh yeah, I remember

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Speaker 4: what that looks like.

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Speaker 2: And now now we're back. What's back? What did you

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Speaker 2: do with your time? Were you doing yard work? Were

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Speaker 2: you cramps?

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Speaker 4: Like?

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Speaker 2: What were you doing? You're hanging out with your family?

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Speaker 2: What's going on?

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Speaker 4: Absolutely nothing beautiful about it?

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Speaker 3: H What what do you make? John? Let's get to

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Speaker 3: the let's dive right into the heart of this right now.

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Speaker 3: Al Golden was stretching yesterday with the team. Do you

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Speaker 3: think this is something that they may be self scattered

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Speaker 3: during the by Do you think this can translate to

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Speaker 3: better defensive play?

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Speaker 5: Hey, any any additional help that they can find on

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Speaker 5: the ability might as well go for it, right And

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Speaker 5: that suffs cute to see in August, and it's kind

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Speaker 5: of annoying to see November a little bit. I said

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Speaker 5: this yesterday, But yeah, I don't know what they're trying

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Speaker 5: to do to galvanize this group of players that clearly

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Speaker 5: there's not a lot of faith in, but they got

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Speaker 5: to try something. I don't know if that means put

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Speaker 5: the defense corner out there in paths or anything like that.

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Speaker 5: But no, like right now, we haven't seen probably as

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Speaker 5: many adjustments as you would like to see for a

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Speaker 5: defense that is historically bad. And that's what the Bible

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Speaker 5: gives aboutand about self reflection. It's about recognizing who you

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Speaker 5: have who probably needs to play a little bit more,

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Speaker 5: who needs to play bit less. Injuries are probably going

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Speaker 5: to force their hand in some regards to then in

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Speaker 5: terms of swapping guys in and out, But right now

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Speaker 5: their problems in week ten are very similar to their

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Speaker 5: problems in week three, and without any new additional answers

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Speaker 5: coming through the door. Just about self reflection about what

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Speaker 5: you can do differently and who you can play more

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Speaker 5: or who can.

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Speaker 3: Play less, knowing not knowing no one else is coming

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Speaker 3: through this door. How can they how can they get

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Speaker 3: tangibly better? How can this defense coming out of a

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Speaker 3: bye be better than what they've been through the majority

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Speaker 3: of this season.

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Speaker 5: I think it starts with the linebackers trying to slow

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Speaker 5: things down a little bit with what's in front of them,

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Speaker 5: because right now they're taking bad angles, and bad angles

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Speaker 5: leads to mist tackles, and mistackles lead to these explosive plays.

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Speaker 5: Just trying to get the situation under control in which

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Speaker 5: you can have second and longs, third and manageables for

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Speaker 5: a defense and how bad effects what the play calling

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Speaker 5: could be from al Gool's perspective, because when you're just

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Speaker 5: going from first down the second and short to first down,

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Speaker 5: et cetera, et cetera, it limits you as far as

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Speaker 5: far as which what you can do schematically.

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Speaker 4: So it's just about guys just knowing.

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Speaker 5: Where to be and reading their keys and reading their

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Speaker 5: fits and then actually making the play when it comes

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Speaker 5: to them, and obviously having a better pass rush can

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Speaker 5: help with that when you're dealing with dropback situations. I

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Speaker 5: think the secondary has done okay relative to the rest

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Speaker 5: of the defense, aside from some obvious miscues from the

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Speaker 5: safeties and everything like that. But it's just about very simple,

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Speaker 5: correctible mistakes that need to be hroned out and hopefully

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Speaker 5: with you know, some reflection and some time off that

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Speaker 5: can happen.

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Speaker 4: Now.

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Speaker 2: You wrote about Cedric Johnson, who got his first game

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Speaker 2: action a week or so ago prior to the bye week.

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Speaker 2: I've been a big fan of his, especially the way

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Speaker 2: he ended last season. What did you see from him that,

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Speaker 2: in your mind warrants more Cedric Johnson on the field

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Speaker 2: against Pittsburgh.

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Speaker 4: I think he just.

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Speaker 5: Kind of shows up whenever he's called upon, and there's

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Speaker 5: not incredibly noticeable production, but there's there's some flashes here

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Speaker 5: and there, like, Yeah, you would like to see if

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Speaker 5: a larger sample size can translate into the production that

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Speaker 5: they need more of. I think from an athletic perspective,

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Speaker 5: he's a little bit on the shorter and the stockier side,

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Speaker 5: but there's a lot of explosion and burst that comes

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Speaker 5: with that, So I think he can get under the

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Speaker 5: pads of offensive tackles a little bit easier compared to

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Speaker 5: the likes of Shamar Stewart and Miles Murphy, in which

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Speaker 5: leverage has always been kind of an issue with those guys.

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Speaker 5: But there's first, there's speed around the edge, there's power,

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Speaker 5: and I think that has translated to some quick wins,

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Speaker 5: or at least quicker than what we've seen from his contemporaries. Right, So,

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Speaker 5: Trey Henderson going to be out this week with his

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Speaker 5: hip injury, Shamar Stewart is now weak to week with

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Speaker 5: the knee injury.

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Speaker 4: He needs three pass rushers that you can rotate it.

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Speaker 5: And now at the defensive end spot, we know Miles

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Speaker 5: Murphy and Joseph Sai are going to be handling the

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Speaker 5: line share of that. I think it's Cedric Johnson's time

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Speaker 5: to be number three in that rotation, to see what

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Speaker 5: he can do with a larger sample size and with

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Speaker 5: a larger opportunity in a larger role. If he only

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Speaker 5: played eighty three snaps last year as a rookie, he

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Speaker 5: played sixteen snaps last week and got three pressures against

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Speaker 5: the Bearers. I know that another one really noticed that

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Speaker 5: because of how the game was going from a totality standpoint.

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Speaker 5: But I think if you give him a little bit

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Speaker 5: more opportunity just to see what he can do, because

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Speaker 5: he's the draft pick from last year, you need to

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Speaker 5: see as many of these guys play as possible to

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Speaker 5: see who's worth keeping around in twenty twenty six going four,

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Speaker 5: So I think this is a good week to see

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Speaker 5: what Sedra Johnson can do.

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Speaker 3: The Joe Burrow news I think shocked everyone this week,

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Speaker 3: thinking there was a remote possibility that late in the season,

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Speaker 3: maybe Miami, maybe Arizona, that he would be able, but

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Speaker 3: you wanted at that point in time, would it even

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Speaker 3: make sense to come back if you're Joe Burrow now

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Speaker 3: that timeline has been significantly changed, are you in the

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Speaker 3: camp of when he's ready to go, you're throwing him

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Speaker 3: out there, or are you waiting to see what happens

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Speaker 3: this week, maybe next week, and then make a decision

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Speaker 3: off of that.

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Speaker 5: So I don't have a job on the line here,

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Speaker 5: so naturally my perspective is going to be different than

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Speaker 5: the people in the building. I would imagine it's as

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Speaker 5: simple as if your quarterback, one your franchise quarterback is

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Speaker 5: healthy enough to play, not as healthy enough to play.

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Speaker 5: If he's as healthy as you could expect him to

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Speaker 5: be in late November early December, and he's able to play,

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Speaker 5: then you play the quarterback. It probably doesn't matter too

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Speaker 5: much what the situation with the playoff scenario is. I

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Speaker 5: would imagine that they want as many wins as possible

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Speaker 5: so that as many people in that building can keep

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Speaker 5: their jobs, and Joe Burrow does a great job of

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Speaker 5: providing job security to a lot of people in that

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Speaker 5: building right so, as well as Joe Flacco has played

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Speaker 5: in recent weeks, I think these next couple leeks are

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Speaker 5: going to be very important to see if that continues

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Speaker 5: to be sustainable, especially against a really good defense in

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Speaker 5: New England, especially on the road, agains the team he

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Speaker 5: knows well in Baltimore, like, if he has to play

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Speaker 5: in those games, how he does is obviously not only

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Speaker 5: going an impact that the Bengals can actually win those games,

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Speaker 5: but also how much they may need Burrow in case

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Speaker 5: this does end up being in a situation which they're

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Speaker 5: alive for the playoffs and they can go down the stretch.

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Speaker 5: So yes, it was a major surprise. I think to

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Speaker 5: all of us on the outside, it's very clear that

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Speaker 5: internally they had this sort of timeline played out and

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Speaker 5: they weren't necessarily shocked by it. But I think if

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Speaker 5: Burrow is able to play, it doesn't really matter about

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Speaker 5: the risk of re injuring him. If he's able to play,

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Speaker 5: He's Joe Burrow.

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Speaker 4: He's gonna play.

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Speaker 3: Is there any concern coming out of the ball? I mean,

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Speaker 3: we're at a point where Joe Flacco is not thrown

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Speaker 3: the first couple of days. He's expected to throw today.

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Speaker 3: But is there a concern of you know, Mo has

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Speaker 3: used the term this week of Joe Flacco of eventually

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Speaker 3: turning back into a pumpkin. Is there a concern for

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Speaker 3: you at some point that it's just not going to

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Speaker 3: be as smooth as what we've seen.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean that's possible, right, Like I think because

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Speaker 5: of just who Joe Flats has always been in his career,

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Speaker 5: you would naturally expected those tendencies, of the up and

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Speaker 5: down nature of going through the season with him, it

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Speaker 5: would eventually catch up to him, especially at this point

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Speaker 5: in his career. I think it definitely benefits the fact

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Speaker 5: that he has wide receivers that win so quickly on

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Speaker 5: the outside that he doesn't have to deal with pressure

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Speaker 5: and therefore he's taking pure hit. So of course in

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Speaker 5: this scenario, he still.

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Speaker 4: Ends up ends up getting demmed up a little bit.

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Speaker 5: And that's why he's not throwing as much during the week,

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Speaker 5: right So it is very possible that he could turn

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Speaker 5: back into a Pumpkins as pointly pointed out, which is

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Speaker 5: why I think they wanted to see what Burrow can

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Speaker 5: do of these next couple of weeks, just to prepare

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Speaker 5: for that. I think right now they've just envisioned themselves

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Speaker 5: as not being out, you know, out of the woods yet,

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Speaker 5: and like they're very much in this and how the

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Speaker 5: quarterback plays is going to be so dependent upon if

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Speaker 5: that continues to be the case. So I think we

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Speaker 5: can expect, we should expect anything and everything from Joe

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Speaker 5: Black at this point. It's been amazing to see him

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Speaker 5: in the past four weeks, but you know, there's a

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Speaker 5: reason why he was able.

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Speaker 4: To be traded in the first place. So we're going

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Speaker 4: to see this as sustainable.

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Speaker 2: Second matchup coming up against the Steelers this weekend, it's

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Speaker 2: always tricky the second time around. What do you make

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Speaker 2: of Pittsburgh in the weeks following their loss to the Bengals,

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Speaker 2: and how do you expect them to try to maybe

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Speaker 2: play Cincinnati differently this time around.

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Speaker 5: They're pretty disjointed for a Mike Tomlin team, like I

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Speaker 5: would imagine, there's not a lot of positivity going on

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Speaker 5: to that locker room right now, especially after.

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Speaker 4: What they just did against the Chargers.

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Speaker 5: Aaron Rodgers his efficiency has dwindled dramatically since playing the

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Speaker 5: Bengals back in Week seven. He's taking three sacks a

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Speaker 5: game over the past three weeks. Obviously, his offense and

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Speaker 5: around him is not what it probably should be to

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Speaker 5: support a quarterback at that.

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Speaker 4: Stage in his career.

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Speaker 5: It's just DK Metcalf and a bunch of guys and

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Speaker 5: the offensive line is not necessarily playing well either, right,

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Speaker 5: So it's not looking great for them. And I think defensively,

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Speaker 5: they have put together this group of players that they

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Speaker 5: managine to play a certain style of defense, and clearly

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Speaker 5: it's not a style that's, you know, going to work

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Speaker 5: against the Bengals. So how they adjust with that and

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Speaker 5: how they make sure they give safety help over the

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Speaker 5: talage more.

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Speaker 4: Chase is going to be imperative there. But you know,

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Speaker 4: they're the Steelers.

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Speaker 5: And somehow they find answers to some of these tough games,

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Speaker 5: and that's always gonna be something I count on when

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Speaker 5: whenever Mike Tomlin is coaching that team. But you know,

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Speaker 5: if they're looking for a bounce back game, I can

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Speaker 5: find a lot of other teams that wouldn't be as

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Speaker 5: ad for that than than the Bengals right now.

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Speaker 3: The bye week allows for self scout for a team.

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Speaker 3: It also provides, you know a chance to look at

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Speaker 3: tendencies and different things like that. When you look back

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Speaker 3: at where this team is at, how do you evaluate

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Speaker 3: the offensive line as a whole at this point through

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Speaker 3: the year.

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Speaker 4: It's been a mixed bag.

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Speaker 5: I think considering the fact that they just stumbled their

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Speaker 5: way to the star position, I think it's okay with

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Speaker 5: where it's at now. I think you have a piece

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Speaker 5: in Dylan Fairchild that you can go into next year

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Speaker 5: hoping that he can progress. We haven't really seen that

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Speaker 5: progression from Mamarus Mimms, but I think he's still been

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Speaker 5: good enough to be like, Okay, you can keep him

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Speaker 5: out there and he can continue to grow he just

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Speaker 5: turned twenty three years old, right, so he's still very young.

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Speaker 5: Orleana Browns Junior, I think is firmly in the back

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Speaker 5: half of his career at this point, and there's gonna

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Speaker 5: be more weeks than you would like where he's just

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Speaker 5: not really playing well and he's losing the speed. And

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Speaker 5: then Ted Carris is still holding on at center. So

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Speaker 5: it's a weird composition of players at different points in

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Speaker 5: their career. But I think they're all playing okay as

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Speaker 5: a union, and it's like, yeah, we're in the heart

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Speaker 5: of the season, we're not really talking about the offensive

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Speaker 5: line as a major glaring issue for this team, and

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Speaker 5: I think relative to the history of the recent history

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Speaker 5: of the Bengals, that's a massive win, right, But there's

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Speaker 5: always more that they can do. I think they need

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Speaker 5: to see a little bit more out of Jalen Rivers

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Speaker 5: to be comfortable with having him in the competition for

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Speaker 5: next year at right guard.

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Speaker 4: So these final leagues are going to be really big

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Speaker 4: for him.

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Speaker 5: So it's very much a mixed bag, I would say,

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Speaker 5: but it's not definitely not the worst of the world.

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Speaker 3: How much more can they unlock with Chase Brown It

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Speaker 3: just feels so directly tied to Joe Flacco's ability to

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Speaker 3: go under center. How can they unlock more out of

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Speaker 3: Chase Brown now going forward with the assumption that a

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Speaker 3: team like Pittsburgh is going to say, we're not going

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Speaker 3: to let you throw twenty three passes to Jamar Chase

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Speaker 3: and complete sixteen of them.

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Speaker 5: Man, they really were close to doing that a couple

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Speaker 5: weeks ago before he dropped that pass.

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Speaker 4: That would have been a touchdown, right.

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Speaker 5: I think they've had opportunities to feature him more in

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Speaker 5: the past game. Unfortunately under Zach Taylor, they've never been

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Speaker 5: a great offense with executing screens, and partly that has

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Speaker 5: to do the offensive line not being able to get

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Speaker 5: out in space and things of that nature. But I

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Speaker 5: think he is a very capable pass catcher, and I

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Speaker 5: feel like that's just the next step of making sure

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Speaker 5: that you're utilizing him in that sense where it's not

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Speaker 5: just you know, it's in garbage time against the Bears

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Speaker 5: and you're just trying to catch up and you just.

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Speaker 4: Dump off after dump off with him.

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Speaker 5: I think there's still a way that you can utilize

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Speaker 5: him in the past game that compliments what he can

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Speaker 5: do in the wrung game. I'm very encouraged by what

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Speaker 5: I've seen from the wrong game. You're right, and I

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Speaker 5: think part of that is just making sure that the

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Speaker 5: second level continues to be open so he gets in

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Speaker 5: space to make guys miss and obviously use that acceilaration

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Speaker 5: that he has. So we've been progress there, and I

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Speaker 5: think just making sure that you utilize the full flex

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Speaker 5: of his abilities as a well rounded player, making sure

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Speaker 5: that he's still involved in the past.

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Speaker 4: Game that can continue to compliment with what they're doing

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Speaker 4: in the rung geam.

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Speaker 3: I wonder you know, we mentioned the path forward and

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Speaker 3: the Bengals certainly believe in the past. John, as we

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Speaker 3: sit here today, in your view of this team, do

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Speaker 3: you view this as a team that still has one

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Speaker 3: final run left in him that can take the Joe

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Speaker 3: Burrow news and that adds enough spark to this locker room?

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Speaker 3: Do you see or feel a run left in this

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Speaker 3: in this Bengals team this year.

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Speaker 5: I'm not going to count him out because I've just

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Speaker 5: seen him do it a couple you know enough in

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Speaker 5: recent years under this coaching.

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Speaker 4: Staff, so that's always in play.

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Speaker 5: You always expect the Bengals to play their best when

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Speaker 5: October turns to November and the game has become even

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Speaker 5: more important, And I think that's honestly a really strong

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Speaker 5: test or a testament to see how together this locker

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Speaker 5: room remains to be.

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Speaker 4: I think it was really notable last week how.

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Speaker 5: Offensive and defensively, how those players responded to that win,

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Speaker 5: and how they're going to come back now and regroup

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Speaker 5: and try to just work together as a collective locker

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Speaker 5: room to do what they've tried to do over the

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Speaker 5: past two years and just take the take the first

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Speaker 5: two months of the season, throw it in the trash.

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Speaker 4: It's the new season.

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Speaker 5: Obviously, the opponents are going to be tougher within these

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Speaker 5: next five weeks, which is why my authorism is not

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Speaker 5: necessarily great, because let's be honest, like the teams in

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Speaker 5: front of them for the next five weeks are all better.

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Speaker 4: Than the Bengals.

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Speaker 5: They're going to be underdogs in every single one of

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Speaker 5: those games, and then you probably need to win most

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Speaker 5: of them in order to keep this postseason hope alive.

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Speaker 5: So this is a really strong test and I'm not

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Speaker 5: counting them out because I've seen him do it before,

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Speaker 5: but I've also seen him do it Joe Burrow and

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Speaker 5: he's not walking through that door just yet.

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Speaker 3: Awesome stuff. As always, John, I'm sharing eight is E Sports.

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Speaker 2: What are you?

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Speaker 3: What are you working on? And what's the easiest way

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Speaker 3: for folks to follow along with everything you got?

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Speaker 5: Well? Like Austin said, there's an article about Cedric Johnson

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Speaker 5: not right now. There's a couple of other articles about

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Speaker 5: Joe Flacco, about the importance of this game, things of

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Speaker 5: that nature, all on eight of the Sports dot Com

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Speaker 5: back Slash Cincinnati and all your short form content on TikTok,

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Speaker 5: Instagram YouTube. Eight is the Sports Cincinnati follow us for

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Speaker 5: the final eight weeks of the season.

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Speaker 4: There you don't know, miss it?

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Speaker 3: John, We appreciate your time. Do the Bearcats get back

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Speaker 3: on track as well? Listen, you throw out the tape

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Speaker 3: for the Utah game. I know last year this team creator,

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Speaker 3: they got the five and two and then things fell apart.

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Speaker 3: Was there anything you saw against Utah that worries you're

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Speaker 3: going forward? Or do you think they use the buy

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Speaker 3: and they get back on track?

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Speaker 5: Listen, I was not a fan of what Utah was

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Speaker 5: trying to do offensively, I was not a fan of

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Speaker 5: I was working so well against the Bearcats defense. So yes,

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Speaker 5: that's tape is being thrown into the into the incinerator.

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Speaker 5: Regroup against Arizona. See if you get a win, stay

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Speaker 5: in this college football playoff Rares, We'll see what happens.

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Speaker 2: Awesome.

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Speaker 3: Thank you so much, man, We appreciate your time. We'll

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Speaker 3: talk again next week.

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Speaker 5: Thanks.

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Speaker 4: Hellas.

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Speaker 3: There he is John Shearon Height is he sports covering

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Speaker 3: the Cincinnati Bengali Incinerator.

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Speaker 2: He said, I love it. I'd like to put all

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Speaker 2: the Demetrious Knight and Shamar Stewart tape in the incinerator.

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Speaker 2: Oh do you think you can? Do you think maybe that?

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Speaker 3: Maybe may mean that's what they did during the Bobby,

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Speaker 3: that was part of their tendencies. There's a lot of

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Speaker 3: smoke coming from Pakor over the last couple of days.

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Speaker 3: We'll take a break. When we come back, it's your

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Speaker 3: Talkbacks Hour number two of ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

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Speaker 4: Now your chat