Speaker 1: Love.
Speaker 2: This is Bengals pep Rally presented by Just Beared Chicken
Speaker 2: on the Bengals Radio network. Paycore paycor is proud to
Speaker 2: be the official hr software provider of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 2: Kettering Health best Care for the Best Fans, Carry Health,
Speaker 2: official healthcare provider of the Cincinnati Bengals. This is ESPN
Speaker 2: fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 3: It is a Friday afternoon in Cincinnati, and a big
Speaker 3: football weekend is about to begin. Huge high school games
Speaker 3: coming up tonight, the bear Cats against the Arizona Wildcats
Speaker 3: in an important Big twelve game coming up tomorrow at noon,
Speaker 3: and of course the game we are going to get
Speaker 3: you set for over the next three hours, the Bengals
Speaker 3: against the Pittsburgh Steelers coming up on Sunday at one
Speaker 3: o'clock in the Steel City. I'm Dan Hord with Dave Lapham.
Speaker 3: This is the Bengals pep Rally show presented by Just
Speaker 3: Bear Chicken. Here on ESPN fifteen thirty. We are at
Speaker 3: our Friday afternoon home, the on the Ryan Eatery here
Speaker 3: in downtown Cincinnati. If you have not been here before,
Speaker 3: it is the Food Haul on the second floor above
Speaker 3: the downtown Kroger on Court and Walnut. We are on
Speaker 3: thirty minutes earlier than usual today because of a scheduling conflict,
Speaker 3: So it's a two thirty to five thirty show this afternoon,
Speaker 3: as is always the case, will be joined by a
Speaker 3: very special guest. He'll be here from four thirty to
Speaker 3: five thirty and he is a fan favorite. Dave Lapham,
Speaker 3: the guy known as Money Mack Evan McPherson.
Speaker 4: Money Mac, no question Dan he is. He is a
Speaker 4: fan favorite, and he's because he can be a hero,
Speaker 4: you know, or a goat, I guess, depending on the
Speaker 4: way his kicks go. But he's executed at an extremely
Speaker 4: high level. I mean he makes money Mack. It's almost
Speaker 4: like automatic money Mack. It's you just you just start
Speaker 4: counting the points before they're actually up on the board.
Speaker 4: And he's got a huge leg got He's got such range,
Speaker 4: credible range. I mean he can hit from fifty five
Speaker 4: sixty yards. He shit a fifty seven yarder this year.
Speaker 4: He made a sixty yarder that was nullified by penalty,
Speaker 4: so he can kick it a mile literally and very
Speaker 4: popular with his teammates. Cincinnati Bengals are glad to have
Speaker 4: a player of that caliber. Darren Simmons, a special teams
Speaker 4: coach loves him, loves him to death, and he's a
Speaker 4: weapon on kickoffs as well. He can manipulate the football
Speaker 4: like a very few can. He can do a lot
Speaker 4: of things with that football.
Speaker 3: He's got eight game winning field goals in his Bengals career,
Speaker 3: the most recent against the team the Bengals have played
Speaker 3: this Sunday, to Pittsburgh Steelers. They met on Thursday night,
Speaker 3: almost exactly a month ago. Cincinnati won the game on
Speaker 3: a kick by money back with seven seconds to go.
Speaker 3: And let's face it, if not for that victory over
Speaker 3: the Pittsburgh Steelers, we might be thinking that this game
Speaker 3: on Sunday doesn't mean much. But it does because of
Speaker 3: the state of the AFC North. In a normal year, honestly,
Speaker 3: the Bengals would probably be out of it. Yeah, Normally
Speaker 3: you'd expect Pittsburgh or Baltimore to be seven or two,
Speaker 3: maybe the other team six and three, But not this year.
Speaker 3: Pittsburgh is five and four on top of the division
Speaker 3: and the Steelers are reeling. They've lost three out of
Speaker 3: their last four. Baltimore is coming on. The Ravens have
Speaker 3: won three straight, but that's after a one in five start,
Speaker 3: so they're four and five and who knows, Lamar Jackson's
Speaker 3: already missed a couple of games with a hamstring strain.
Speaker 3: He could tweak it again this week, sure, and the
Speaker 3: Ravens would be in jeopardy if that happens. So the
Speaker 3: Bengals still have a shot. They can climb right back
Speaker 3: into the thick of the race if they can beat
Speaker 3: the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road this Sunday, they would
Speaker 3: be three and oh in the division and two and
Speaker 3: oh head to head against Pittsburgh. Let's hear from Joe
Speaker 3: Burrow and Jamar Chase on the importance of Sunday's game.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, our division is why open. I think
Speaker 5: Pittsburgh's five and four at this point. We play them
Speaker 5: this week, so you know, everything is still there in
Speaker 5: front of us. It's very rare that our division looks
Speaker 5: like this, but it does this year, and so you know,
Speaker 5: I think we'll be at least in it until the end.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's muscling if you want to win AFC.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's approaching any differently because of.
Speaker 6: The no I mean you can't approach another game differently
Speaker 6: because it's muscling game that approach every game the same.
Speaker 6: You want to win every game, so I approach every
Speaker 6: game the same.
Speaker 3: Lap. We've been working together for fifteen years now, you
Speaker 3: know me. I hate the expression must win. Right when
Speaker 3: people start throwing that out in week three, I want
Speaker 3: to put a fist through a chalkboard. It drives me bananas,
Speaker 3: and it's common for people to do that. Sure, I
Speaker 3: will use that expression this week. If the Bengals have
Speaker 3: any shot of going to the playoffs and winning the division, realistically,
Speaker 3: they need to win this.
Speaker 4: Week, absolutely, Dan, I mean, it's got to have a game.
Speaker 4: You know, the Cincinnati Bengals have really no choice. They
Speaker 4: have to come out and beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. Not
Speaker 4: an easy task, and to beat them in Pittsburgh makes
Speaker 4: it doubly difficult. They play well in front of their
Speaker 4: hometown crowd, The fans respond to Mike Tomlin, they absolutely love.
Speaker 4: It's a love fest with Mike Tomlin the Pittsburgh Steeler
Speaker 4: fan base. So this is not going to be an
Speaker 4: easy task. The Bengal's gonna have to play, in my mind,
Speaker 4: the best game they've played to date. This season in
Speaker 4: order to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Pittsburgh, and they
Speaker 4: come off the bye week, you know it'd be timely
Speaker 4: to do that. You know, you have a bye week
Speaker 4: to make some adjustments, tweak some things, figure some things out,
Speaker 4: you know, find out what you do well and emphasize
Speaker 4: that and things you're doing poorly, eliminate them or change
Speaker 4: them up somehow. So I know the coaches have been
Speaker 4: grinding during the bye week. They put in a lot
Speaker 4: of time and have been studying tape and trying to
Speaker 4: figure out a way to get on a run. And
Speaker 4: the best way to get on a run is to
Speaker 4: beat the Pittsburgh steel Is at Pittsburgh. That's Game one,
Speaker 4: and then string a few together. And it's a tough
Speaker 4: task though. I mean, you look at that, You look
Speaker 4: at who they've got Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh, New England here
Speaker 4: in Cincinnati, at Baltimore at Buffalo, Baltimore at home, what
Speaker 4: I mean, finish the season at Miami, Arizona, here, Cleveland here.
Speaker 4: But man, the stretch, these one, two, three, four, five
Speaker 4: game stretch, that's as tough a five game stretch as
Speaker 4: anybody in the National Football League has over the next
Speaker 4: five weeks. So the Cincinnati Bengals are going to have
Speaker 4: to play their best football of the season to put
Speaker 4: it together in terms of you know, if you don't
Speaker 4: win them all, win four, four and one.
Speaker 3: Not bad against a schedule like that, or even three,
Speaker 3: and it's the right three Pittsburgh Baltimore, Baltimore. If they
Speaker 3: can win those divisional games, that's the formula this year,
Speaker 3: because they're not going to be the wildcard team at
Speaker 3: three and six. They have to go six and oho
Speaker 3: or five and one in the AFC.
Speaker 4: North, absolutely, and if they do, if they win, they'd
Speaker 4: be five and zero in the division at that point.
Speaker 4: One of those games, I mean that that is that's
Speaker 4: just what the doctor ordered. That would be a must,
Speaker 4: that would be a requirement if you not if your
Speaker 4: overall record is a blow par so, very very important
Speaker 4: football game in Pittsburgh this weekend.
Speaker 3: The Steelers started the year four and one, but they've
Speaker 3: dropped three out of four. That streak began with a
Speaker 3: loss on a Thursday night to Cincinnati at pay Courts Stadium.
Speaker 3: Thirty three to thirty one was the final score. We
Speaker 3: think of the Steelers for great defense, but it's been
Speaker 3: up and down this year. They're near the bottom of
Speaker 3: the NFL in yards allowed, they are dead last and
Speaker 3: passing yards allowed. They had a lot of sacks, They've
Speaker 3: got a lot of takeaways. But if you can preventure
Speaker 3: or protect your quarterback brother and avoid turnovers, you can
Speaker 3: put points on the board against this Pittsburgh team. And
Speaker 3: when we come back, that's what we are going to discuss.
Speaker 3: Are the Steelers still the Steelers on defense? This is
Speaker 3: the Bengals pep Rally Show live from the on the
Speaker 3: Rhine Eatery here in downtown Cincinnati on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 3: Dan Ord and Dave Lapham back on the Bengals pep
Speaker 3: Rawley Show, presented by Just Their Chicken on thirty minutes
Speaker 3: earlier than usual this week. It's a two thirty to
Speaker 3: five thirty show. That will also be the case again
Speaker 3: next week. So keep that in mind as we come
Speaker 3: to you from the on the Rhine Eatery here in
Speaker 3: downtown Cincinnati, the food hall above the downtown Kroger at
Speaker 3: Court and walnutt. It's the Bengals and Steelers this Sunday
Speaker 3: at one o'clock. When you think of Pittsburgh, we tend
Speaker 3: to think of Blitzburg. Great defenses, and they've got a
Speaker 3: lot of sacks this year as they always seem to
Speaker 3: the time for second in the NFL in sacks with
Speaker 3: thirty two. They've got some tremendous defensive players. Three guys
Speaker 3: on the defense are seven time Pro Bowlers T. J. Watt,
Speaker 3: Cameron Hayward, and Jalen Ramsey. That's incredible. Patrick Queen's also
Speaker 3: a two time Pro Bowler. So naturally when you think
Speaker 3: of Pittsburgh, it's that physicality on defense. Let's hear from
Speaker 3: Bengals linebacker Demetrius Knight.
Speaker 8: We know this is a team that you know they
Speaker 8: like the pounding ground and you know that's that's who
Speaker 8: they are, and that's their identity, identity of their head coach.
Speaker 8: And I believe that that that's there, that organization's motto,
Speaker 8: you know, being being very hard nosed and you know,
Speaker 8: being old fashioned football.
Speaker 4: The run, run, run, run the ball.
Speaker 8: So for us, we're getting back to again mastering the basics.
Speaker 8: After everybody got fresh and everybody got healthy, we're getting
Speaker 8: bast to just giving it back to them, you know,
Speaker 8: making sure that we don't end up being the but
Speaker 8: also you know, for being an enforcer, being the hammer,
Speaker 8: striking first before they can strike strike us. So make
Speaker 8: sure we jump out to it a fast start. It's
Speaker 8: been amount of just since the beginning of the season,
Speaker 8: so it's not going to go away. So just continue
Speaker 8: to start fast in this in this opportunity and bring
Speaker 8: it to him as as as we know.
Speaker 4: As we know how so.
Speaker 3: I focused on the physicality on defense before we heard
Speaker 3: from Demetrius. Let's talk a little bit about the physicality
Speaker 3: on offense because in that first meeting a month ago,
Speaker 3: we saw a lot of a sixth offensive lineman coming
Speaker 3: into the game, double tight ends, including Darnell Washington, who
Speaker 3: is a tight end in name only. He's more than
Speaker 3: three hundred pounds. He's really an extra tackle. It's like
Speaker 3: having seven offensive linemen on the field.
Speaker 4: It is I mean, uh, Darnel Washington, like you say,
Speaker 4: is is definitely you know, a monster. I mean he's
Speaker 4: he's a moose.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: And it's a tackle that has great feet. I mean,
Speaker 4: he's a he's a good athlete. He he's not a
Speaker 4: joke as a tight end. I mean he's a legitimate weapon.
Speaker 4: He can run good routes, he can catch the football,
Speaker 4: he can put the football away protect the football. He's
Speaker 4: a he's a hell of a football player, and he
Speaker 4: does get movement when he's in the football on the
Speaker 4: football field at the end of the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 4: You watch tape of Darnel Washington, he is moving people
Speaker 4: and laterally, and he's if they if they slant, he's
Speaker 4: carrying him way past where they want to be. And
Speaker 4: if they're not, if they're trying to gap them. Again,
Speaker 4: three hundred pound guy gets good low pad level, bends
Speaker 4: his knees well because he can flex his knees being
Speaker 4: the athlete that he is, and and he's got flexibility
Speaker 4: in his ankles as well, and he can move people.
Speaker 3: Staelers value the trenches. They always have the first round
Speaker 3: draft pick this year a defensive tackle Derek Harmon, their
Speaker 3: first round drift draft pick last year an offensive tackle
Speaker 3: Troy Fatanu. There are a first round draft pick the
Speaker 3: year before that, another offensive tackle, Roderick Jones. So their
Speaker 3: last three first round draft picks have been guys in
Speaker 3: the trenches.
Speaker 4: And and that's that's what Mike Tomlins all about, you know.
Speaker 4: And it goes, it goes all the way back to
Speaker 4: in the trenches. In the Pittsburgh Steelers when they had
Speaker 4: the Steel Curtain, and remember playing against those Pittsburgh Steeler
Speaker 4: teams when the steel curtain of Joe Green, Dwight White,
Speaker 4: L C. Green, would Ernie Fatz Holmes. Those guys were amazing,
Speaker 4: very very difficult to try to handle them on a
Speaker 4: on a snap by snap basis when the Pittsburgh Steelers
Speaker 4: were reigning supreme in the National Football League. And then
Speaker 4: their offensive line, you know, anchored by Mike Webster, who
Speaker 4: you know, unfortunately passed away way too young, was a
Speaker 4: pretty good friend who played in a bunch of college
Speaker 4: All Star games with Mike Webby Webster and he was
Speaker 4: he was a great player. But they've moon Mullins. I mean,
Speaker 4: they they've always had very very strong offensive lines physically
Speaker 4: strong and athletic, you know, not just big stiffs. These
Speaker 4: guys are athletic. They can they can go out and
Speaker 4: pull and get get out in front of people. They
Speaker 4: have a nice trap game that they've had for years.
Speaker 4: In their offensive line they've had they always had like
Speaker 4: a big physical back Franco Harris, I mean, Franco's a
Speaker 4: big dude.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 4: Rocky Blier, you know, another guy served in the military.
Speaker 4: You know, it's just a hard nosed dude. The Pittsburgh
Speaker 4: Steelers have always been about physicality. Dan, There's no two
Speaker 4: ways about it.
Speaker 3: The Bengals dead last at stopping the runs so far
Speaker 3: this year. They are going to have to be much
Speaker 3: better than the one hundred and sixty six rushing yards
Speaker 3: per game that they've allowed in the first nine games
Speaker 3: this season. We'll take a time out when we come back.
Speaker 3: Would you sign Joe Flacco to a contract for next year?
Speaker 3: Right now, I'm seeing nodding in the audience. Well, this
Speaker 3: guy's that when we come back. This is the Bengals
Speaker 3: Pepper Rally Show presented by Just Bear Chicken on ESPN
Speaker 3: fifteen thirty. Welcome back to the Bengals pep Rally Show
Speaker 3: presented by Just Fair Chicken, live from the on the
Speaker 3: Rhine eatery here in downtown Cincinnati. It is the food
Speaker 3: hall above the downtown Kroger at Courton Walnut. Plenty of
Speaker 3: parking nearby, including a garage that's attached to this building.
Speaker 3: Lots of seating available inside here, particularly right now. I'm
Speaker 3: sure it'll continue to fill up as we get closer
Speaker 3: to four to thirty. When We will be joined in
Speaker 3: the final hour by our special guest, Bengals kicker Evan
Speaker 3: McPherson Money Mack. We've got round two in the Battle
Speaker 3: of the Aged on Sunday, forty year old Joe Flacco
Speaker 3: against forty one year old Aaron Rodgers. Rogers, by the way,
Speaker 3: turns forty two in about two weeks. Real Flacco one
Speaker 3: round one, thirty three to thirty one about a month ago.
Speaker 3: We'll see if Joe Calm can do it again. Flatco
Speaker 3: has been incredible since joining the Bengals. He's averaging three
Speaker 3: hundred and thirteen passing yards a game, eleven touchdown passes,
Speaker 3: two interceptions, passer rating over one h two. The Bengals
Speaker 3: are averaging more than thirty two points a game in
Speaker 3: the four games that he has started, and he has
Speaker 3: obviously become embraced by his teammates and coaches.
Speaker 7: Here's Joe, Well, I feel like I'm a part of
Speaker 7: the team, you know. I think that's a big thing,
Speaker 7: you know, like developing relationships with the guys and you know,
Speaker 7: proving to them that you belong and that you can play,
Speaker 7: and yeah, it means it means more when you can
Speaker 7: look guys in the eye and like know.
Speaker 1: That you went to battle with each other.
Speaker 7: And I think that's the biggest difference, is just feeling
Speaker 7: like I'm a part of all that, all.
Speaker 3: Right, lap I asked the question before the commercial break,
Speaker 3: if Joe Flacco wants to play and be Joe Burrow's
Speaker 3: backup next year at the age of forty one, would
Speaker 3: you sign him to that deal today?
Speaker 4: I do it yesterday. I mean, like, uh, the ankor
Speaker 4: would be drying, be bone dry today. Yeah. I think
Speaker 4: that Joe Flacco has exceeded. Uh, he's gone above and
Speaker 4: beyond expectations. That the numbers that he's putting up are incredible.
Speaker 4: They really are. And he's he's very humble. He's like
Speaker 4: you said, Dan, and you know, the listening to the
Speaker 4: interview of the tape that you ran of Joe Burrow,
Speaker 4: Joe Borrow, Joe Flacco talking about his teammates, he is
Speaker 4: extremely humble and they love the guy. Uh, you know,
Speaker 4: he's he's not about himself. He's not about you know what.
Speaker 4: What all I'm worried about is how many yards I'm
Speaker 4: throwing for, how many touchdowns I'm throwing. He's all about
Speaker 4: the w's man. He wants to win as many football
Speaker 4: games as he can. And when you have a quarterback
Speaker 4: that has that kind of a mindset, that is that unselfished,
Speaker 4: is that much of a team player. You have a
Speaker 4: diamond in the rough, you have a gym.
Speaker 3: So the Bengals protected him him extremely well. In that
Speaker 3: first game against Pittsburgh. He got sacked a couple of times,
Speaker 3: but obviously that doesn't cost you the game against Pittsburgh
Speaker 3: as long as you hold onto the ball. He didn't
Speaker 3: throw any interceptions in that game. Aaron Rodgers threw a
Speaker 3: couple to me. That's the game. Protect Flaco, don't turn
Speaker 3: it over, and you got a chance. You still might
Speaker 3: not win if your defense struggles the way the Bengals
Speaker 3: defense has struggled, But you got a chance if you
Speaker 3: can keep Flaco on his feet and avoid turnovers.
Speaker 4: Exactly, Dan, I mean, you know, make sure that Joe
Speaker 4: Flacco takes the first nap and the last nap. Make
Speaker 4: sure that he's there performing at a high level for
Speaker 4: the entire football game, and don't let him take any shots.
Speaker 4: Don't let him take hits even after he releases the football.
Speaker 4: Sometimes those those shots that you take right after you
Speaker 4: have let the ball go.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 4: Those things. Those things linger, They stay with you, and
Speaker 4: you know he's you just have to protect them. When
Speaker 4: you're over forty years old, all your body parts start
Speaker 4: to feel it a little bit. You know. You wake
Speaker 4: up in the morning and get out of bed and man,
Speaker 4: and these a little bit stiff. Man, it hifts a
Speaker 4: little bit stiff. And then you start to rotate your
Speaker 4: arms a little bit. Man, the shoulders are a little bit,
Speaker 4: a little bit stiff and sore. Oh flex the arms. Men,
Speaker 4: the elbows a little bit stiff and sore. So when
Speaker 4: you have a commodity that is as valuable as Joe
Speaker 4: Flacco has been to this football team at forty years old,
Speaker 4: you have to do everything you possibly can to protect him.
Speaker 4: Maybe that's putting in another offensive lineman, extra offensive lineman,
Speaker 4: and making sure you can double more than one of
Speaker 4: those great defensive front four members of the Pittsburgh Steelers
Speaker 4: if you have to to keep Joe Flacco clean. With
Speaker 4: that said, the biggest thing is don't give the football away.
Speaker 4: Do not give extra possessions to the Pittsburgh Steelers. If
Speaker 4: you can take them away from him, take at least
Speaker 4: one away. If you could take two or three away.
Speaker 4: You should be in high cotton. You should be in
Speaker 4: good position to win that football game. Close that football
Speaker 4: game out. But you can't be given the football away
Speaker 4: and expect to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers no matter where
Speaker 4: you play him, home, away or in the moon.
Speaker 3: Let's get to the Bengals injury report, brought to you
Speaker 3: by the Kettering Health Network. Joe Flacco has been dealing
Speaker 3: with a sore shoulder. He only practiced once this week.
Speaker 3: Didn't practice Wednesday, did practice yesterday, did not practice today.
Speaker 3: That was the formula in his last game, and he
Speaker 3: threw for four hundred and seventy yards. It sounds like
Speaker 3: his shoulder is feeling better this week after a bye
Speaker 3: week than it did going into the Bears game, So
Speaker 3: I don't think that's a big concern, even though his
Speaker 3: practice has been limited this week. Trey Hendrickson, as expected,
Speaker 3: is out, Shamar Stewart has expected is out. Samaj p
Speaker 3: Ryan as expected, is out. So the Bengals are going
Speaker 3: to be missing two good players on their defensive line
Speaker 3: and a great third down running.
Speaker 4: Back, no question. And let's start at p Ryan first.
Speaker 4: The offense. I mean, he's had a hell of a year.
Speaker 4: He's a special player in my opinion, because he's such
Speaker 4: a special human being. Had a great career at Oklahoma,
Speaker 4: had a great high school career before that, most definitely,
Speaker 4: and goes to Oklahoma, performs at an extremely high level there,
Speaker 4: gets drafted. This is his second go round with the
Speaker 4: Cincinnati Bengals. Drafted by the Bengals coming out of Oklahoma.
Speaker 4: He can do it all. He can run, he can
Speaker 4: run away from you. He can run for power with power,
Speaker 4: he can catch the football out of the backfield, runs
Speaker 4: great routes, soft hands, puts the ball away. And the
Speaker 4: big thing that he does and Joe Flacco and Joe
Speaker 4: Burrow both appreciate this. He will stick his nose right
Speaker 4: in the middle of the chest of a linebacker or
Speaker 4: a defensive end or an outside blitzer safety, whoever it
Speaker 4: may be, and stone him, stop him right in his
Speaker 4: tracks and allow the quarterback time to get the football away.
Speaker 4: That is invaluable, and he is. He's a significant member
Speaker 4: of the Cincinnati Bengals offensive skill position players for sure.
Speaker 3: It's the Bengals and Steelers. This Sunday at one o'clock
Speaker 3: will take a time out. When we come back, we
Speaker 3: will head to Pittsburgh and get the latest on this
Speaker 3: week's opponent, the dreaded, hated but grudgingly respected, very grudgingly
Speaker 3: Pittsburgh Steelers. This is the Bengals pep Ratley Show presented
Speaker 3: by Just Bear Chicken, live from the on the Rhine
Speaker 3: Eatery on ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm Dan Horde, He's Dave Lapham.
Speaker 3: This is the Bengals pep Rally Show presented by Just
Speaker 3: Bear Chicken Live on ESPN fifteen thirty. We are broadcasting
Speaker 3: on this Friday afternoon, as we do every Friday, from
Speaker 3: the on the Rhine Eatery here in downtown Cincinnati. Evan
Speaker 3: McPherson Moneymack will join us in the final hour of
Speaker 3: the show from four thirty to five thirty. Right now,
Speaker 3: it is time for our no the Faux segment. Let's
Speaker 3: get the latest on this week's opponent, the Pittsburgh Steelers,
Speaker 3: and to do that we had to Pittsburgh, and we
Speaker 3: welcome in a buddy of mine. He is a broadcaster,
Speaker 3: a podcaster, and a columnist in Pittsburgh. He is also
Speaker 3: a proud former Syracuse Orange Grass Cord and lapham our
Speaker 3: pal Tim Benz. Tim welcome back to the Bengals Pepperrilly show.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 9: We're deploying the Syracuse line here. I'm actually listening to
Speaker 9: a Penguins game right now at two pm in the
Speaker 9: afternoon from Stockholm, So I got hockey on the brain.
Speaker 9: I'm calling a hockey game tonight. So it's crossover season.
Speaker 3: You know how that goes. We certainly do. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 3: all right, Tim, Let's go back about a month Thursday
Speaker 3: night at pay Course Stadium, Cincinnati beats Pittsburgh thirty three
Speaker 3: to thirty one. Aside from the final score, obviously, what
Speaker 3: was the most disappointing aspect of that game from the
Speaker 3: Steelers perspective.
Speaker 9: I just think it was the overall lack of answers,
Speaker 9: the inability to when they adjusted, come up with anything better.
Speaker 9: I think there's a little bit of a misconception that
Speaker 9: they didn't try to adjust on Jamar Chase and see
Speaker 9: Hagen's particularly Chase. I mean, they did at times go
Speaker 9: from zone demand, but they were playing man so soft
Speaker 9: because they were so concerned about getting burned. It looked
Speaker 9: like zone, you know, and that kind of became apparent
Speaker 9: in the analysis afterwards. But the corollary to that I
Speaker 9: would see the second part beyond just not being able
Speaker 9: to proficiently adjust and get better once you figured out
Speaker 9: what's going on is they never figured out the pass
Speaker 9: rush either. They never applied any pressure on Joe Flacco.
Speaker 9: He dropped back forty seven times. I think he got
Speaker 9: sacked twice. He's in his forties, he can't move. And
Speaker 9: if you can't get to him and you allow him
Speaker 9: to get the ball off as quickly as he did,
Speaker 9: as good as those two wide receivers are and I
Speaker 9: think below the line as the Steelers are on the secondary,
Speaker 9: it's gonna make for a long night. And that was
Speaker 9: exactly the formula that was followed throughout the course of
Speaker 9: that game.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that's pretty amazing. I mean, you look at
Speaker 4: the Pittsburgh Steelers and you think about the Pittsburgh Steelers
Speaker 4: pass rush comes to mind immediately. You're just catching up
Speaker 4: talking with Dan earlier about playing against the Pittsburgh Steelers
Speaker 4: back in the seventies and early eighties with the steel
Speaker 4: Curtain defense. Oh my god. And they could bring the heat.
Speaker 4: Any one of them could have a multiple sack game.
Speaker 4: You know, you got Fast Holmes and Joe Green at
Speaker 4: defensive tackle Dwight White on one flank and Ernie yeah
Speaker 4: Else Greenwood, big, big, long, tall, strong Elsie Greenwood on
Speaker 4: the other side. I mean it was those were challenges,
Speaker 4: those those were big time challenges. This Pittsburgh Steeler defensive
Speaker 4: football team. Mike tom has been around a long time
Speaker 4: in Pittsburgh. You've seen a lot of great defenses. What
Speaker 4: does he think about this crew?
Speaker 9: Well, he was really sold at the start of the year,
Speaker 9: these now departed one Thornhill, who they've already gotten rid of.
Speaker 9: They had an interview session with him media members up
Speaker 9: there at training camp, and he talked about how great
Speaker 9: this defense is going to be. He was just gushing
Speaker 9: about how awesome it was and how it was going
Speaker 9: to set records, this, that, and the other thing. Tomlin
Speaker 9: goes on the morning show for the flagship station forty
Speaker 9: hours later and they asked him about that, like, do
Speaker 9: you want to tamp that down at all? They asked
Speaker 9: it that way.
Speaker 3: Is is this a little extreme?
Speaker 9: Do you want to tamp down that conversation all? He goes, No,
Speaker 9: I think we can be historic. So he ratcheted up
Speaker 9: the speculation, and you know, you get out there and
Speaker 9: you play against a team that can throw the ball
Speaker 9: with a smart quarterback and good wide receivers, and you
Speaker 9: get exposed passing the ball after they had been dealing
Speaker 9: with a carryover from the end of last year where
Speaker 9: they couldn't stop the run against the Jets and some
Speaker 9: other teams earlier in the season, and right away he
Speaker 9: kind of looked dumb, and the entire defense looks silly
Speaker 9: for propping up this notion that they were going to
Speaker 9: be to your earlier points akin to what we saw
Speaker 9: in the seventies or the nineties or.
Speaker 4: The early two thousands.
Speaker 9: Around here. They are not that they are not closed,
Speaker 9: and especially in the secondary. I think they just miscalculated
Speaker 9: what they were getting in some of the veterans they
Speaker 9: were requiring. Obviously they swung and missed on Thornhill. They
Speaker 9: thought that Ramsey could be a safety corner hybrid. Clearly
Speaker 9: he's still got the safety instincts and skills. He can't
Speaker 9: run with good wide receivers anymore.
Speaker 3: And Slay was just shot.
Speaker 9: You didn't hear a lot of people complaining in Philadelphia
Speaker 9: down the turnpike going, oh my god, we lost Darius Slay.
Speaker 9: No wonder you saw what happened when he came here,
Speaker 9: and they're trying to puff up Brandon Eckles like he
Speaker 9: can be the answer.
Speaker 3: He was a nice little signing.
Speaker 9: But let's not get carried away and think he's going
Speaker 9: to be mel Blunt if you want to continue with
Speaker 9: the seventies analogies, right, he ain't that. He's not even
Speaker 9: to Shaye Townsend. So like that's the biggest problem.
Speaker 3: Tim Ben's is our guest. This is year nineteen from
Speaker 3: my Tomlin in Pittsburgh. He went to two Super Bowls
Speaker 3: in the first four years of his tenure, winning one.
Speaker 3: That means no Super Bowls in the last fourteen years.
Speaker 3: Hasn't had a losing season, as everybody knows, but there's
Speaker 3: been a lot of a game over five hundred cup
Speaker 3: three seasons where they finished exactly five hundred. I say
Speaker 3: all of that to bring up this. After the Giants
Speaker 3: fired Brian Dabole, some columnists nationally suggested, you know what,
Speaker 3: Mike Tomlin would be the perfect guy in New York.
Speaker 3: Maybe it's time for a change of scenery. Forum. How
Speaker 3: would most Steeler fans react at this point if that
Speaker 3: went down? Did welcome in?
Speaker 9: I think the majority would welcome it. The majority of
Speaker 9: people I think who are Steelers fans are ready for change.
Speaker 3: They don't see an.
Speaker 9: End to the perpetual wow, slightly above mediocre level of
Speaker 9: football that they've.
Speaker 10: Put out there.
Speaker 9: There's been a lot of nine and eights and ten
Speaker 9: and sevens that have been baked up to feel better
Speaker 9: than what they are. It's not just a Tomlins streak.
Speaker 10: By the way.
Speaker 9: That streak of non losing seasons goes back to when
Speaker 9: Roethlisberger was drafted towards the end of the Cower era
Speaker 9: in two thousand and four, so it even pre dates
Speaker 9: Mike it's even longer than his run here. But you know,
Speaker 9: I think it's also I made the hockey reference before.
Speaker 9: There's an analogy that a lot of people are drawing
Speaker 9: that the Penguins just got away from Mike Sullivan after
Speaker 9: he won two Cups and it got very stale and
Speaker 9: they didn't have a playoff round win since twenty eighteen
Speaker 9: and missed the postseason entirely for the last three years,
Speaker 9: and they made a change and the Penguins are off
Speaker 9: to a much better than expected start, And it's pretty
Speaker 9: low hanging fruit. But it also drives on the point
Speaker 9: of maybe you get sedentary and you get afraid of
Speaker 9: change because you're used to what you're getting and it's
Speaker 9: not terrible. It hasn't been terrible around here. It's been okay.
Speaker 9: A lot of our franchises in football would kill per okay.
Speaker 9: But when you know what's gonna go on, Mike Tomlins
Speaker 9: tombstone is the phrase. The standard is the stand and
Speaker 9: it's been substandard to what that standard is supposed to
Speaker 9: be around here. You can't live with that credo and
Speaker 9: live beneath it for the majority of the past eight seasons,
Speaker 9: and that's definitely caught up to him when it comes
Speaker 9: to public perception going on what is almost now a
Speaker 9: decade in the making since the last time they want
Speaker 9: a playoff game.
Speaker 4: Mike Tomlins can definitely coach defense. He can definitely coach football.
Speaker 4: I mean great. We've talked about great head coach on
Speaker 4: twenty five straight non losing seasons. He's responsible for a
Speaker 4: high number of those. A big percentage of those great
Speaker 4: seasons went to Miami of Ohio. Played wide receiver there.
Speaker 4: You know, hell of a football player goes into the
Speaker 4: coaching profession and succeeds at an extremely high level after
Speaker 4: matriculating at the Cradle of Coaches, and I think he
Speaker 4: might have been an assistant coach there after graduation. And
Speaker 4: he's a hell of a football coach. He knows defense
Speaker 4: when he watches the Cincinnati Bengals, and I know, you know,
Speaker 4: you're not in there with him watching tape and getting
Speaker 4: his thoughts and opinions on the Bengals defense. But he
Speaker 4: knows good defensive players, he knows good defensive coaches when
Speaker 4: he sees it and works against it. What does he
Speaker 4: think about the Cincinnati Bengals unit, Well.
Speaker 9: I mean he's kind of avoided spending too much time
Speaker 9: talking about it publicly, honestly. And he was actually the
Speaker 9: defensive back coach at Cincinnati. That's where his relationship developed.
Speaker 9: Rick Minner and Jesse Minner, who's you know, just put
Speaker 9: on a good display from the Chargers the other night.
Speaker 9: But yeah, I mean, I think what he has said
Speaker 9: about the defense of the Bengals is you know, he's
Speaker 9: always kind of he does the Louholtz thing, you know,
Speaker 9: whenever he does his weekly press conference, he spends the
Speaker 9: first fifteen minutes talking about every team like they're the
Speaker 9: nineties Cowboys, the eighty five bears right, And when he
Speaker 9: was talking about the Bengals defense this week, he kept
Speaker 9: talking about the young developing players of what they could be.
Speaker 4: Spent a lot of.
Speaker 9: Time focusing on DJ Turner and you know, like the
Speaker 9: job that he's done, and he played against Metcalf last time.
Speaker 9: And you know, even though it's pretty clear that Trey
Speaker 9: Anderson was gonna play, he was talking about Henderson and
Speaker 9: you know how much he has when he is in there.
Speaker 9: So he had a very depth way to not talk
Speaker 9: about where the Bengals defense has been. But you know,
Speaker 9: people in Pittsburgh, people who analyze this sort of thing,
Speaker 9: have definitely said this is a game that the Steelers
Speaker 9: probably will have to win in the thirties and probably
Speaker 9: can and should win in the thirties. Because that game
Speaker 9: from Aaron Rodgers was his first bag game, I.
Speaker 3: Don't as a Steeler. It was off the Sharks bad, don't.
Speaker 9: Get me wrong, But I don't quite think I'm ready
Speaker 9: to believe that we're getting into Russell Wilson territory like
Speaker 9: we saw the last five weeks of last year. This
Speaker 9: might be the exact elixture that that offense and Aaron
Speaker 9: Rodgers needs to face the Bengals defense, and you know,
Speaker 9: I expect a similar tone to what we saw in.
Speaker 3: The first game.
Speaker 9: I'm not certain the Steelers are gonna win, but I
Speaker 9: would expect to see that overheit. I think it's at
Speaker 9: like fifty and that feels like something that both these teams,
Speaker 9: even to the field has turned sworn off after Notre
Speaker 9: Dame and pitt and the weather's not great, which potentially
Speaker 9: could be the case. I still see an option for
Speaker 9: a lot of offense this weekend.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: That has certainly been the way it's looked in Bengals
Speaker 3: games since Joe Fleco has been Cincinnati's quarterback. Tim, we
Speaker 3: appreciate your time, enjoy that hockey match, and we will
Speaker 3: see you on Sunday at Akroshore.
Speaker 1: All right, good cashing up with you guys.
Speaker 10: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 4: Safe travels, Tim.
Speaker 3: All right, that is Tim Bens again, a broadcaster, podcaster,
Speaker 3: and columnist covering all things Pittsburgh in the Steel City.
Speaker 3: We'll take a time out when we come back with
Speaker 3: Trey Hendrickson out, Shamar Stewart out. Can Miles Murphy step
Speaker 3: up start to look like a first round draft pick?
Speaker 3: We'll hear from him next. This is The Bengals pep
Speaker 3: Rally Show on ESPN fifteen thirty Dan or Todave laugh
Speaker 3: them back on The Bengals pep Rally Show presented by
Speaker 3: Just Bear Chicken, live from the On the Rhine Eatery
Speaker 3: here in downtown Cincinnati. Mike Mills is our engineer, Drew
Speaker 3: Wester Heidi is back in the studio. We appreciate you
Speaker 3: joining us on this Friday afternoon. Evan McPherson's going to
Speaker 3: be here in the final hour of the show today.
Speaker 3: That's four thirty to five thirty, not the usual five
Speaker 3: to six. So if you're listening, have that time period off.
Speaker 3: Maybe have a kid that would love to meet Money Mack.
Speaker 3: You've got the opportunity to do so. Today from four
Speaker 3: thirty to five thirty. Evan will sign, com sign autographs,
Speaker 3: whether during the commercial breaks, he will pose for pictures.
Speaker 3: All of it's free. Come down and join us here
Speaker 3: at the on the Rhine Eatery. I say all of
Speaker 3: that because we have friends here today that are going
Speaker 3: to get the greatest autographed item from Evan McPherson of
Speaker 3: all time. They've got the leg of a mannequin in
Speaker 3: part of a Bengals uniform with an orange sock and
Speaker 3: like a kicking shoe. Yes, and I assume it is
Speaker 3: here to get signed by Moneymack. That is going to
Speaker 3: be the coolest autographed item by an NFL kicker of
Speaker 3: all time.
Speaker 4: That's a show and tell man, you got to take
Speaker 4: that to school. You know, let everybody, everybody give the
Speaker 4: gander that bad boy.
Speaker 3: So if we get a quarterback to come by, we'll
Speaker 3: you get the arm from the same mannequin. Yes, they will,
Speaker 3: all right. Before the commercial break, we mentioned that Trey
Speaker 3: Hendrickson is out this week dealing with a hip injury.
Speaker 3: Shamar Stewart is out this week dealing with a knee injury.
Speaker 3: Hopefully those guys will be back soon. In the meantime,
Speaker 3: somebody's going to have to step up put some pressure
Speaker 3: on Aaron Rodgers this week. Joseph Osai could be one
Speaker 3: of those guys. Hopefully they'll get a pushed from inside
Speaker 3: from somebody like bj Hill or Chris Jenkins. But let's
Speaker 3: face it, the guy that we keep hoping is going
Speaker 3: to urge is a dependable pass rusher. Is the twenty
Speaker 3: eighth pick in the draft a few years ago, Miles Murphy.
Speaker 3: He's going to get a bunch of playing time this
Speaker 3: week against Pittsburgh, and I talked to him about that
Speaker 3: and much more this week. Miles, You've led the Bengals
Speaker 3: defensive lineman in snaps each of the last two games.
Speaker 3: You were too off the lead in the game before that.
Speaker 3: Is this the opportunity that you've been looking for?
Speaker 11: I mean yeah, I feel like as a player, you
Speaker 11: always look for any opportunity you can get, and really,
Speaker 11: anytime you're on the field, regardless of the snap count,
Speaker 11: you want to take advantage of each and every snap,
Speaker 11: whether it's one or seventy, you want to take advantage
Speaker 11: of each and every one of them. And you know
Speaker 11: he's being the pun.
Speaker 3: To put your best before it. Really, do you feel
Speaker 3: like all of these snaps are paying off? And if so,
Speaker 3: how uh?
Speaker 11: Yeah? I think experience is the best teacher, regardless of
Speaker 11: who your coach is. Like, if you're on the field,
Speaker 11: you're you're gonna learn something coaches helped, So the coaches
Speaker 11: help you progress faster, but experience, I feel is.
Speaker 10: The best teacher.
Speaker 11: Put his dudes that are just year ten, year twelve
Speaker 11: that I've talked to and it's just things that they've
Speaker 11: learned just by playing the game and being on the field,
Speaker 11: like just small, small stuff to give you a little
Speaker 11: bit of an edge on a handful of plays. So yeah,
Speaker 11: I think experience is the best teacher, and I'm learning.
Speaker 11: I'm learning a lot just being just being on the field, anticipating,
Speaker 11: anticipating runs and passes a little bit better, going against
Speaker 11: elite tackles and developing my pass rush and run moves whatever.
Speaker 11: So yeah, I think I'm learning, learning and developing a
Speaker 11: lot just being on the field.
Speaker 3: You were one of the youngest guys in your draft class.
Speaker 3: You're still only twenty three. Do you feel like you're
Speaker 3: still relatively early in the learning process?
Speaker 8: Uh?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 11: That was one of coach Taylor's main points coming off
Speaker 11: of last season. I'm stilling my the things that infancy
Speaker 11: of my career. So it's it's okay to continue to
Speaker 11: get better. It's rome wasn't built in the day, regardless
Speaker 11: of what anyone else says. And here I know I've
Speaker 11: gotten a lot better since my rookie year. And the
Speaker 11: biggest thing because that is just being able to being
Speaker 11: able to anticipate, being able to anticipate plays, knowing knowing
Speaker 11: how to watch film, sting, sending in the film with
Speaker 11: h jmo or Jerry, just having him walk me through
Speaker 11: things to look for, how to watch film, what to
Speaker 11: what to study, how to dissect players, how to dissect
Speaker 11: backfield formations, being it. Yeah, just doing things like that,
Speaker 11: and and and anticipating plays, being able to just play fast.
Speaker 3: Visiting with Biles Murphy. You've been teammates with one of
Speaker 3: the better sac artists in the NFL now for three
Speaker 3: years and Trey Hendrickson. Are the things that you pick
Speaker 3: up from him? Or is it easier said than done
Speaker 3: to just say, I play with Trey Hendrickson, therefore I'm
Speaker 3: going to be able to pick up tricks of the
Speaker 3: trade from him.
Speaker 11: Nah, you can't just be here. You can't just show
Speaker 11: up and say, Okay, I'm gonna evolve into trade now.
Speaker 11: You gotta really tap in, like you can ask him.
Speaker 11: I've since I've gotten here, I've been asking him questions.
Speaker 11: And it's not all just football stuff. How do you
Speaker 11: throw your swipe?
Speaker 3: Is?
Speaker 11: Like what do you do when you go home? Or
Speaker 11: something like that, Like how do you recover so? And
Speaker 11: like one of the things, I'm a pretty good observer.
Speaker 11: I've observed a lot of things and people.
Speaker 1: He is.
Speaker 11: He and him and Sam Hubbert when he was here,
Speaker 11: we're very anal about their schedule still are, and it's
Speaker 11: like I can I can show up to the I
Speaker 11: can show up to the facility, and I can expect
Speaker 11: Trade to be in certain spots and he's always in
Speaker 11: certain spots because he is on top of his schedule.
Speaker 11: And I've I tried to do the same thing. I
Speaker 11: tried to create a schedule and be on it every
Speaker 11: single day, especially when it comes to recovery, because that's
Speaker 11: the that's the biggest thing. I didn't really I kind
Speaker 11: of just did what I was recommended in college. Now,
Speaker 11: since it's so much just free time, you can do
Speaker 11: whatever you want me to go home, I had to
Speaker 11: just create a schedule, stick to it, create a diet,
Speaker 11: stick to it, and really hone it on film and
Speaker 11: just use use my use my free time.
Speaker 3: Wisely, Really, you are a smart cerebro guy. I enjoy
Speaker 3: talking to you. I wonder as a pass rusher if
Speaker 3: that works against you, are there times where you find
Speaker 3: yourself thinking and maybe you'd be better off just going
Speaker 3: uh yeah.
Speaker 11: Early on in my career I admitted that I think
Speaker 11: my rookie year and a little bit last year where
Speaker 11: I was just thinking overthinking myself of second guests and
Speaker 11: on some rushes where I should go inside or outside
Speaker 11: or just power.
Speaker 1: Us to the guy.
Speaker 11: But I think now I've kind of develop a mindset
Speaker 11: of pick one and go commit to it. That's that's
Speaker 11: the big thing. That's a big thing. You can portray said,
Speaker 11: you gotta just commit to a rush. You can't if
Speaker 11: you go into a rush. He says it all the time.
Speaker 10: You go.
Speaker 11: If you go into a rust thinking about a counter,
Speaker 11: thinking about a if this doesn't work, go to this,
Speaker 11: You're probably not gonna win. So it just really just
Speaker 11: commit to that one rush, as for already thinking about
Speaker 11: or setting up. So that's a big, big teaching point
Speaker 11: that I kind of took in this year.
Speaker 3: This defense is filled with guys that had tremendous college careers,
Speaker 3: played on great college teams, and unfortunately, in recent weeks
Speaker 3: the Bengals defense has struggled. How hard is it when
Speaker 3: I'm sure you feel like you've let the offense down
Speaker 3: to a certain extent.
Speaker 11: It's a tough phone, a swallow for sure. But like
Speaker 11: you said, us coming from winning programs, successful, successful team
Speaker 11: successful defenses, Like we all know, we all know what
Speaker 11: it looks like, we all know what it feels like.
Speaker 11: Although yes, sharel was at the college level, some of
Speaker 11: the guys that were here during that Super Bowl year, BJ,
Speaker 11: TREYE and some of the other guys, like, they know
Speaker 11: what it looks like on this level. So those are
Speaker 11: the leaders that are stepping up and really just us
Speaker 11: taking what we knew from college, what worked in college,
Speaker 11: bringing it here kind of just adding on, adding on
Speaker 11: to the things that the vests did that Super Bowl
Speaker 11: year and just taking coaching and retaining it and continuing
Speaker 11: to stuff forward. That's the main dame. He can't can't
Speaker 11: step back, can't let the confidence kind of just wither away.
Speaker 11: Like we know, yeah it's a little bit of a
Speaker 11: value right now, but that doesn't mean just the season's over.
Speaker 11: So you got to just keep keep stepping forward.
Speaker 3: Honestly, appreciate your time. Best of luck this week, Thanks
Speaker 3: so much. Appreciate it all right. Laugh. That was Miles Murphy.
Speaker 3: Here's my feeling on Miles in year three of his
Speaker 3: Bengals career. I think he's improving as a run stopper.
Speaker 3: I think he's been decent at that this year, I
Speaker 3: haven't seen enough growth as a pass rusher, and obviously
Speaker 3: the numbers bear that out. He's got one and a
Speaker 3: half sacks this year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, one and a half sacks this year, four and
Speaker 4: a half for his career. I mean a guy that
Speaker 4: was picked where he was twenty eighth and has the ability,
Speaker 4: the physical talents, the physical skills that he's been blessed with.
Speaker 4: You know, you just you expect much more production than yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, and he's a puzzle. He's a quandary for
Speaker 4: coaches to try to figure out because it's not like
Speaker 4: he's loafing or you know, not interested, not paying attention.
Speaker 4: He's not anything like that. He wants to be good.
Speaker 4: He wants to be he wants to be a dominant player.
Speaker 4: He wants to be an upper echelon NFL edge pass
Speaker 4: rusher that offensive tackles in the National Football League are like,
Speaker 4: oh boy, I got Miles Murphy this week. Oh man,
Speaker 4: but he got a lot of sleep better eat right,
Speaker 4: And you know, it's it hasn't hasn't panned out for him,
Speaker 4: hasn't turned out to be the case. So I know
Speaker 4: he's not going to quit on it. I know he's
Speaker 4: going to continue to work and work hard. And uh,
Speaker 4: the organization, the coach's position, coach coordinator, head coach, nobody's
Speaker 4: gonna quit on the guy. They're gonna give them, give
Speaker 4: him their full attention as well. I'd like to see
Speaker 4: Murphy have a you know, eight or nine sacks season.
Speaker 4: That would be That would be great. That would be
Speaker 4: a coming out party, you know, that would be Welcome
Speaker 4: to the National Football League here, I am.
Speaker 3: He's got a year left on his rookie contract prior
Speaker 3: to next season. He'll be eligible for a fifth round option.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, a fifth year option as a first round
Speaker 3: draft pick right now, there's no way he gets it
Speaker 3: based on how he's played. So he would have to
Speaker 3: really have a surge over these final eight games for
Speaker 3: the Bengals to want to invest beyond next year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and like we talked about, you know, they're in
Speaker 4: the beginning of a stretch. Okay, Pittsburgh. You got Pittsburgh twice. No,
Speaker 4: you got Pittsburgh once. I already played them once. You
Speaker 4: get them again. Aaron Rodgers, you know upper echelon guy
Speaker 4: new England quarterbacks playing at a high level. Baltimore. We
Speaker 4: know he's playing at a high level. Buffalo, He's playing
Speaker 4: at a high level. You could use somebody on the
Speaker 4: edge that on a snap by snap basis. These quarterbacks
Speaker 4: have to, you know, get their head on a swivel
Speaker 4: and look look for a little bit, get their eyes
Speaker 4: off the downfield coverage. And Miles Murphy is that kind
Speaker 4: of guy. He just have to He has to believe
Speaker 4: it and he has to get there.
Speaker 3: The other team's quarterback this week is Aaron Rodgers. Coming
Speaker 3: up next, what is it like for a twenty three
Speaker 3: year old rookie to face a quarterback in his twenty
Speaker 3: first NFL season. We'll hear from Bengals linebacker Barrett Carter next.
Speaker 3: This is the Bengals pep Rally Show presented by Just
Speaker 3: Bear Chicken live from the on the Rhine Eatery on
Speaker 3: ESPN fifteen thirty.
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Speaker 3: One Hour in the Books, two hours to Go on
Speaker 3: the Bengals pep Rowley Show, presented by Just Beared Chicken.
Speaker 3: Here on ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm Dan Horde, He's Dave Lapham.
Speaker 3: Evan McPherson will join us in one hour. He'll be
Speaker 3: here for the final hour of the show. If you
Speaker 3: want to get an autographed for a picture with money Max,
Speaker 3: this is your opportunity to do it. It's absolutely free,
Speaker 3: although we highly encourage you to take advantage of the
Speaker 3: opportunities for food and drink here. Beyond the rhyine eatery,
Speaker 3: plenty of inexpensive food options. There's a great bar here
Speaker 3: as well, So if you want to come out and
Speaker 3: start the happy hour on a Friday afternoon, have something
Speaker 3: to eat, this is a great place to do it. Hoard,
Speaker 3: Lapham and Mills have been sampling the dry rub wings, yes,
Speaker 3: and the potstickers so far today. Both delicious, outstanding. The
Speaker 3: wings in particular tremendous.
Speaker 4: They're cooked to perfection. I mean just enough spice, you know,
Speaker 4: just enough seasoning in.
Speaker 3: Correctly perfect, really really good. Yeah, we tend to bring
Speaker 3: them home as well, have no question. So we got
Speaker 3: the Bengals and Steelers coming up this Sunday at one o'clock,
Speaker 3: second time this year that the Bengals will face forty
Speaker 3: one year old Aaron Rodgers. He will be forty two
Speaker 3: year old Aaron Rodgers in eighteen days. What a career
Speaker 3: he's had. He's a four time MVP, he is a
Speaker 3: Super Bowl MVP. He has passed for so many yards
Speaker 3: in his NFL career we can convert them to miles.
Speaker 3: He has passed for thirty six point eight miles in
Speaker 3: his NFL career. He's thrown for five hundred and twenty
Speaker 3: one touchdowns, including four in the first meeting between these
Speaker 3: two teams about a month ago. Cincinnati did win the
Speaker 3: game thirty three to thirty one. So imagine what it's
Speaker 3: like for the Bengals rookie linebackers Demetrius Knight and Barrett
Speaker 3: Carter to walk up to the line of scrimmage, look
Speaker 3: at the other team's quarterback, stare them in the eyes,
Speaker 3: and see a guy that's been playing in the NFL
Speaker 3: since they were two or three years old. Let's hear
Speaker 3: from Bengals rookie Barrett Carter on what it's like to
Speaker 3: go head to head with a legend in Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 12: It was so cool planning to get some side note,
Speaker 12: But what I learned is that you can tell he's
Speaker 12: been playing the game for a long time and for
Speaker 12: a long time at a high level. At that just
Speaker 12: you know, he's walking up out of the huddle and
Speaker 12: he's he's viewing the defense and he just looked super
Speaker 12: super like calm out there. So that's really that was
Speaker 12: really that was really cool to see and just being
Speaker 12: able to you know, I was I remember I was
Speaker 12: a kid watching him and I got to play against
Speaker 12: some first hand. So he's a he's a pois player,
Speaker 12: plays with a lot of confidence and uh, you know,
Speaker 12: you got to.
Speaker 3: Be on your piece accus when you play him. The
Speaker 3: Bengals intercepted him twice in that first meeting. Jordan Battle
Speaker 3: got him, DJ Turner got him. Came on back to
Speaker 3: back possessions in the second quarter. More than anything else,
Speaker 3: that was probably the biggest key to the win. Because
Speaker 3: the Bengals defense clearly is not shutting teams down. They've
Speaker 3: got to get some takeaways and they got two in
Speaker 3: that first beating.
Speaker 4: Absolutely and uh, you know, we thought turnovers were going
Speaker 4: to be a big key in game one, and they
Speaker 4: were two interceptions that that Aaron Rodgers threw. Joe Flacco
Speaker 4: didn't throw any, so that that was big. That was
Speaker 4: a deciding factor in the in the victory for the
Speaker 4: Cincinnati Bengals in a hard fought two point win. So yeah,
Speaker 4: it's it is. Uh, you go, You're gonna have to
Speaker 4: take care of the football, There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 4: And Aaron, Aaron Rodgers is going to the Hall of
Speaker 4: Fame that five hundred and twenty one touchdowns in his career,
Speaker 4: kidding me, it's ridiculous. He did throw four touchdown passes,
Speaker 4: like you said, Dan, two interceptions hurt four touchdown passes
Speaker 4: almost overcame those interceptions and almost led his team to victory.
Speaker 4: You do know that Aaron Rodgers will compete. Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 4: wants to make amends for what he feels like a
Speaker 4: game where he cost his team a football game and
Speaker 4: you know, you can definitely say it. You know it's
Speaker 4: a and he realizes that. So he doesn't want to
Speaker 4: be the goat. He doesn't want to wear the goat horns.
Speaker 4: Again in the Pittsburgh steel of locker room when that
Speaker 4: football game ends.
Speaker 3: So we talked about the Bengals injuries earlier in the show.
Speaker 3: Now the Steelers injury report is out and there is
Speaker 3: some good news where the Bengals are concerned. Alex Highsmith
Speaker 3: is out. Wow, one of their best pass rushers, a
Speaker 3: guy who has given Cincinnati fits over the years. Linebacker
Speaker 3: Clay Holcomb is out. That's not quite as significant, although
Speaker 3: he had been playing well when he was healthy. Their
Speaker 3: left guard Isaac Seamalo is questionable. He did not play
Speaker 3: last week in their loss on Sunday Night against the Chargers.
Speaker 3: He might be the best offensive lineman they have. He's
Speaker 3: certainly the most experienced, so questionable means it's fifty to fifty.
Speaker 3: The Bengals can keep their fingers crossed and hope that
Speaker 3: he is out this week.
Speaker 4: He is a beast. He really does a hell of
Speaker 4: a job. He kind of controls an aw owns the
Speaker 4: owns the line of scrimmage. I think that that's an
Speaker 4: underrated group to the Pittsburgh Steelers, their offensive line, how
Speaker 4: well they've played, you know, as a group this season.
Speaker 4: Thought to know at the right tackle position is another horse.
Speaker 4: He's a He's an excellent player. Zach Frasier is a
Speaker 4: grizzled veteran center. McCormick uh plays well at the at
Speaker 4: the right guard position. Roderick Jones a big old, big
Speaker 4: old body at the left tackle spot as well. They've
Speaker 4: got players. I mean, the Pittsburgh Steelers know what they're doing.
Speaker 4: Their stuarding department as a formula, the things they look
Speaker 4: for in offensive lineman that over the years they've monitored,
Speaker 4: and most of the offensive linemen that have been successful
Speaker 4: in the NFL, particularly with the Pittsburgh Steelers, have fit
Speaker 4: the bill and and been in the mold of these
Speaker 4: physical traits. So they know what they're doing. Absolutely, they
Speaker 4: know what they're doing. And I think a big key
Speaker 4: in the football game this time, just like it was
Speaker 4: in the first matchup dan is who runs the football? Well,
Speaker 4: you know who gets their running game going. And you
Speaker 4: get that running game going play action pass falls into
Speaker 4: plays very easily. So you don't get that running game going.
Speaker 4: It does not.
Speaker 3: All right, you just talked about the Steelers offensive line.
Speaker 3: We're going to talk about the Bengals offensive line when
Speaker 3: we come back. Is Joe Flacco making the Bengals offensive
Speaker 3: line look good or is the line actually playing well?
Speaker 3: We'll discuss that when we come back. This is the
Speaker 3: Bengals pep Rally Show presented by Just Bear Chicken, live
Speaker 3: from the on the Ryan Eatery on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 3: They are broadcasting live this afternoon from the on the
Speaker 3: Ryan Eatery, the food hall above the downtown Kroger at
Speaker 3: the intersection of Court and Walnut. It's the Bengals pep
Speaker 3: Rally Show presented by Just Bear Chicken. Joe Flacco has
Speaker 3: been the Bengals starting quarterback for four games. In those
Speaker 3: four games, the Bengals are averaging more than thirty two points.
Speaker 3: He's being sacked less than two times a game. The
Speaker 3: Bengals running game is averaging five and a half yards
Speaker 3: per carry, which is excellent, and all of that suggests
Speaker 3: that the offensive line is playing well. The Bengals offensive
Speaker 3: line's taking a lot of shots in recent years when
Speaker 3: opposing teams have gotten to Joe Burrow, and some of
Speaker 3: that is obviously deserved. So when they're playing well, they
Speaker 3: deserve some credit. Yep, let's hear from left tackle Orlando
Speaker 3: Brown Junior.
Speaker 13: You know our standard has Risen is going to continue
Speaker 13: to rise. We've only gotten better as time's going.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 13: I also want to come in the coaches too. I
Speaker 13: feel like in the way coach Taylor, pitch Scott Man,
Speaker 13: coach Hills, coach Casey Hopefully, I'm not forget any of
Speaker 13: the position coaches. Man, They've put us in great position
Speaker 13: and the way that they've been calling the game has
Speaker 13: allowed us to flourish and allow guys to play with
Speaker 13: emotion and you know, pund teams in the run game
Speaker 13: help keep you know, flack o'clean in the past game.
Speaker 13: And but a lot of that is just a collective effort.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 4: Offensive line play.
Speaker 13: You know, we could sit here and talk about talent
Speaker 13: all day and o line coaches, but to me, it's
Speaker 13: a collective thing of receivers getting open, which requires coach
Speaker 13: to call certain plays, you know what I mean, in
Speaker 13: the rhythm of a game, to go a certain way.
Speaker 3: Laptist line features a twenty two year old rookie starting
Speaker 3: at left guard, Dylan Fairchild, twenty three year old rookie
Speaker 3: starting at right guard, Jalen Rivers, a twenty three year
Speaker 3: old second year player starting at right tackle, Marius Mims.
Speaker 3: What is your view of the progress of your old
Speaker 3: position group, the offensive line.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree with what Orlando Brown was talking about
Speaker 4: in your comments, and everybody's really thoughts about the offensive
Speaker 4: line on a weekly basis. Seems to be improving. You know,
Speaker 4: the performance is definitely better in a lot of areas,
Speaker 4: and I think their understanding of what the expectation is
Speaker 4: at that position is starting to starting to take shape.
Speaker 4: They're young, like you said, I mean twenty two years old.
Speaker 4: That's unbelievable that you're starting in the National Football League
Speaker 4: is a twenty two year old guy, that's truly amazing
Speaker 4: in today's NFL, particularly amazing. So they've got a long
Speaker 4: way to go. They're not there yet, but they are
Speaker 4: starting to climb, you know, the latter of success or
Speaker 4: rung at a time, and they're starting to see some success,
Speaker 4: particularly in that running game. Like we talked about earlier,
Speaker 4: you can run the football. Play action pass is going
Speaker 4: to happen, and you're gonna get some big plays out
Speaker 4: of it. And then all of a sudden, it's going
Speaker 4: to be easier to run the football and one hand
Speaker 4: feeds the other, one hand washes the other, And I
Speaker 4: think they are starting to realize that big time.
Speaker 3: We've arrived at a point that we were at in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three when Jake Browning played well while Joe
Speaker 3: Burrow was out. One of the things that the Bengal
Speaker 3: did more when Jake Browning was playing well that year
Speaker 3: was half him under center. Yep, they ran the ball
Speaker 3: well with him under center. It opened up more of
Speaker 3: a play action passing game. We are led to believe
Speaker 3: that that is not Joe Burrow's preference. That he likes
Speaker 3: to be in the shotgun scan see what the defense
Speaker 3: is going to do and would prefer to do that
Speaker 3: than be under center. But seeing the effectiveness that they
Speaker 3: had in twenty three with Browning, seeing the effectiveness that
Speaker 3: they're having with Joe Flacco doing that, does Joe Burrow
Speaker 3: have to do that more when he's back and playing.
Speaker 4: It's a great question, million dollar question, and only Burrow
Speaker 4: can answer it. I think the coaches will if Joe
Speaker 4: Burrow says, look, I don't like I'm being under center.
Speaker 4: I'm not comfortable, they won't do it. But Joe's like,
Speaker 4: you know what you know, watching Flacco, watching Jake, I mean,
Speaker 4: there's something to be said for you know, mixing it
Speaker 4: up and getting under center a little bit. I'd still
Speaker 4: want to play out of the shotgun. I don't want
Speaker 4: to give it up totally, but man, there's some reasons,
Speaker 4: good football, sound football reasons to get an under center.
Speaker 4: One of the big ones is when you're under center,
Speaker 4: you know, you you give the look that you know
Speaker 4: you can do either run or pass. You turn your back.
Speaker 4: You turn your back to the defense a little bit,
Speaker 4: and Joe Burrow hates it. A lot of quarterbacks don't
Speaker 4: like turning their back to a defense, so you lose
Speaker 4: track of what's going on with the linebackers. How deep
Speaker 4: they're dropping safeties? Is one rotating up and the other
Speaker 4: one rotating back? Are they you know, doing that at
Speaker 4: the safety position? Did they change their blitz look? Did
Speaker 4: they drop out of it? Or did they come from
Speaker 4: a pass drop look to a blitz look. So a
Speaker 4: lot of quarterbacks like the shotgun staying in the gun
Speaker 4: because they can see all that. They can see the field,
Speaker 4: and they they're not surprised. They're never like, oh my gosh, man,
Speaker 4: I lost track of that one. So it's interesting. There's
Speaker 4: pros and cons to everything, and there's pros and console
Speaker 4: a lot of things in the game of football as well.
Speaker 4: And I guess you know it all. It all boils
Speaker 4: down to what do you like, what do you feel
Speaker 4: best doing, what fits your skill set better? Do you
Speaker 4: think allows you to, you know, make throws you want
Speaker 4: to make read the football field more easily, more comfortably,
Speaker 4: And I think Joe Burrow would vote for a shotgun.
Speaker 3: Has Joe Flacco helped the offensive line and if so,
Speaker 3: in what ways?
Speaker 4: I think he has, dan And the biggest way is
Speaker 4: he gets rid of the damn ball so quickly. I mean,
Speaker 4: it is out two and a half seconds. It's if
Speaker 4: there's nothing there, it's gone. It's either on the ground,
Speaker 4: not intentional grounding, but putting the ball, you know, low
Speaker 4: and on the ground where nobody can make a play
Speaker 4: on it, you know, Or if he sees an opening occurring,
Speaker 4: he'll throw the receiver open. He gets the ball out
Speaker 4: so quickly, and he throws the ball so beautifully well
Speaker 4: that I do think that he's helped the offensive line
Speaker 4: a little bit. I think his fourteen years experience has
Speaker 4: helped the offensive line. I think he wants to help
Speaker 4: the offensive line a little bit, and the offensive lineman
Speaker 4: love him. They love that quick release man. I mean,
Speaker 4: it's a valuable commodity for a quarterback to have that
Speaker 4: feels confident and comfortable enough to get the ball out
Speaker 4: of his hand as quickly as Joe Flacco does.
Speaker 3: Coming up next, the Bengals scored thirty eight against the
Speaker 3: Jets and lost. They scored forty two against the Bears
Speaker 3: and lost. What's a simple thing, just a simple thing
Speaker 3: that they can do on defense to play better this
Speaker 3: week against Pittsburgh. We'll hear from linebacker Demetrius Knight with
Speaker 3: the answer to that when we continue. You're listening to
Speaker 3: the Bengals Pep Brawley Show live from the on the
Speaker 3: Ryan Eatery at ESPN fifteen thirty. Welcome back to the
Speaker 3: Bengals Pep Rally Show, presented by Just Fair Chicken. Here
Speaker 3: on ESPN fifteen thirty, live from the on the Rhine
Speaker 3: Eatery in downtown Cincinnati. It's on the second floor above
Speaker 3: the downtown Kroger at Courton Walnut. Lap and I are
Speaker 3: here until five thirty this afternoon, not six half hour
Speaker 3: earlier than usual. This week, Bengals kicker Evan McPherson will
Speaker 3: be joining us from four thirty to five thirty. He
Speaker 3: will be signing a leg lamp. We look forward to
Speaker 3: seeing his reaction when the person with the leg lamp
Speaker 3: approaches the stage. The Bengals defense is obviously having a
Speaker 3: rough year. They're giving up thirty three points a game
Speaker 3: that is last in the NFL. It would be the
Speaker 3: most in team history. But they've got eight games left
Speaker 3: to improve and hopefully with the young players they have
Speaker 3: out there, they are going to improve. There have been
Speaker 3: some signs of improvement, but obviously they've still got some
Speaker 3: big strides to go to reach the point where they
Speaker 3: can win games with their defense. Let's hear from one
Speaker 3: of their two starting rookie linebackers, Demetrius Knight, on one
Speaker 3: very simple thing that they can do better that would help.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's just just about doing your win eleven on
Speaker 8: the field. Everybody feeling in those tied and critical moments,
Speaker 8: Oh I got a strain and make the play. It's
Speaker 8: not about making the play. It's about doing your win
Speaker 8: eleven and if the play comes to you, then you
Speaker 8: make the play. Not just going out of your way
Speaker 8: to jump out of your gap in a crucis situation
Speaker 8: where you can get off the field or trying to,
Speaker 8: you know, overrun someone who's already into in the flat.
Speaker 8: Just knowing your job, doing the best of your ability,
Speaker 8: and knowing that the guy to your left, here, right
Speaker 8: in front of you and behind you, he's going to
Speaker 8: do the same thing.
Speaker 3: Lap. It's something you talk about a lot. Harvest your
Speaker 3: own crop.
Speaker 4: No question, And that's a damn smart rookie right there,
Speaker 4: realizing that that's what you gotta do is don't try
Speaker 4: to do too much. Your natural reaction on a football field,
Speaker 4: if you're a football player and a good football player
Speaker 4: is I got to do more. I got to make sure. Man,
Speaker 4: my teammate over here is not having a good day.
Speaker 4: He's made a couple of mistakes, he's hit the wrong gap,
Speaker 4: he's not where he's supposed to be when he's supposed
Speaker 4: to be there. I gotta go make amends for that.
Speaker 4: I got to go make up for it. That's the
Speaker 4: worst thing in the world that can happen, and coaches
Speaker 4: hate it. Coaches tear their hair out by the roots
Speaker 4: when that kind of thing is going on. Coordinators, position coaches, everybody.
Speaker 4: So that's the one thing that you can't do. You
Speaker 4: can't panic. You can't sound the alarm. Just you know,
Speaker 4: line up and in the huddle, make a commitment, commitment
Speaker 4: to yourself. I'm going to do my job. And that
Speaker 4: came from Paul Brown, that that phraseology, that sentence, that saying,
Speaker 4: don't try to harvest somebody else's crop. And it makes
Speaker 4: so much sense. I don't care what era you're talking
Speaker 4: about a football, I don't care what level of football
Speaker 4: you're talking about. Do your job, don't harve someone else's crop.
Speaker 4: Don't try to do someone else's job on top of
Speaker 4: your job.
Speaker 3: So since the Bengals last game and since our last show,
Speaker 3: they have traded away Logan Wilson to the Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 3: So if the rookie linebackers weren't already you know, the
Speaker 3: leaders of this defense, or at least the guys in
Speaker 3: the middle, they certainly are now Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter.
Speaker 3: They do have a veteran that can help them in
Speaker 3: Orrin Burke's played on a Super Bowl champion last year,
Speaker 3: played on the Super Bowl loser the year before. He's
Speaker 3: been in the Super Bowl each of the last two years.
Speaker 3: So the guy has some great experience. But man, after that,
Speaker 3: it's a bunch of young guys that don't have a
Speaker 3: ton of experience. So those live backers, they got to
Speaker 3: grow up. They got to grow up fast they do.
Speaker 4: I mean it's sink or swim time. You know, you
Speaker 4: got you gotta show up. You gotta make plays, You
Speaker 4: have to do exactly what you're assigned to do. You
Speaker 4: have to have belief that your coaches are gonna put
Speaker 4: you in a position to help the football team, help
Speaker 4: the football team win games. I I do know that
Speaker 4: these young players have a tremendous amount of respect for
Speaker 4: Al Golden. They saw what he did with Notre Dames defense,
Speaker 4: and they were they played such good team defense. You know,
Speaker 4: guys are talking about one eleventh. You know, I gotta
Speaker 4: I gotta be my one eleventh. Make sure I'm the
Speaker 4: one eleventh that everybody's counting on the coaches, the players, everybody.
Speaker 4: Don't try to be two elevenths yours and another one
Speaker 4: that's not gonna work. That's gonna that's gonna it's gonna be.
Speaker 4: You're gonna negate, You're gonna race. Uh, you're one eleventh,
Speaker 4: so you can go back to ground zero. Do your job. Uh,
Speaker 4: it's it's it's it's it's a given, it's a must,
Speaker 4: and it always will be in the game of football.
Speaker 3: The Bengals lead the NFL in missed tackles. I did
Speaker 3: an interview with Tony Pike earlier this week, and he
Speaker 3: did point out something that I hadn't considered. Part of
Speaker 3: the reason why they lead the NFL in miss tackles
Speaker 3: is that they're in position to make them, which in
Speaker 3: a way is a good thing. At least, you know,
Speaker 3: guys are not running down the field untouched, right, it's
Speaker 3: being in a slightly better position to make them.
Speaker 10: It is.
Speaker 4: It's like you have to go back to your techniques
Speaker 4: and fundamentals, and when you are in position, get your
Speaker 4: head across the bow, get your helmet in front of
Speaker 4: the offensive player. That will curtail his momentum, that will
Speaker 4: stop him from moving the football down the football field anymore.
Speaker 4: And then the thing that they do not do, and
Speaker 4: they've done, they've missed so many tackles because wrap your
Speaker 4: arms around the ball carrier and take them to the ground.
Speaker 4: Wrap them up and take him to the ground. And
Speaker 4: we used to do a drill every day before practice
Speaker 4: with Paul Brown called the routine tackling drill, and that
Speaker 4: was actually doing exactly what I just said. You know,
Speaker 4: you to guys lineup against each other. The guy goes
Speaker 4: on a forty five degree angle carrying a football, and
Speaker 4: you put your helmet across the head and helmet across
Speaker 4: the bow, wrap your arms up and take him to
Speaker 4: the ground. Basic fundamental football Blocking and tackling wins you
Speaker 4: football games.
Speaker 3: This week's fun Fact segment coming up next, It's The
Speaker 3: Bengals pep Rally Show on ESPN fifteen thirty. Thanks for
Speaker 3: turning into the Bengals pep Rally Show live from the
Speaker 3: on the Rhine Eatery here in downtown Cincinnati, Money Mac
Speaker 3: Kevin McPherson, we'll be here in about twenty five minutes.
Speaker 3: He will join us for the final hour of our
Speaker 3: three hour Friday afternoon extravagan Money Mack, It's the Bengals
Speaker 3: Steelers this Sunday at one o'clock. Right now, Time for
Speaker 3: this week's fun Fact segment, presented by Skyline Chili. Time
Speaker 3: for some fun facts with tight end Noah fan from Omaha, Nebraska,
Speaker 3: the biggest city in Nebraska, give the home of the
Speaker 3: College World Series Noah. Based on what I've read you're
Speaker 3: the youngest of six kids. Is that accurate and what
Speaker 3: was that like?
Speaker 14: Yeah, I'm definitely definitely the youngest of six, three brothers
Speaker 14: and two sisters, and it was a great, great upbringing. Definitely.
Speaker 14: My my siblings thought I was a little bit spoiled,
Speaker 14: but it was great. I have great relationships with all
Speaker 14: of them, so couldn't complain.
Speaker 3: It's funny you say that because I'm the fourth of five,
Speaker 3: and my older siblings always said, You've got it so easy.
Speaker 3: Mom and dad have just kind of given up. They're
Speaker 3: letting you do whatever you want.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 14: No, I definitely definitely think there's some of the same.
Speaker 14: But my parents were tough on me growing up, but
Speaker 14: in a good way, so I was blessed to have them.
Speaker 3: One of your older brothers was your high school coach.
Speaker 3: Was he tough on you?
Speaker 1: Uh? Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 14: I think my brother just wanted the best for me,
Speaker 14: wanted me to achieve greatness, and yeah, he was a
Speaker 14: big part of my development early on growing up, as
Speaker 14: with my dad and my mom, but yeah, he was.
Speaker 1: He was a big part of that.
Speaker 3: You attended Almaha South High School but also took classes
Speaker 3: at the University of Nebraska Medical Center while you were
Speaker 3: in high school. Tell me about that.
Speaker 14: Yeah, the un m C High School Alliance was kind
Speaker 14: of a program for high school students to kind of
Speaker 14: get a fast track to any any medical profession that
Speaker 14: they wanted to get into going into college. So it
Speaker 14: was taking college classes out of college at a college
Speaker 14: campus and uh, you know, kind of working in and
Speaker 14: seeing what path we wanted to take.
Speaker 1: When we got into college. So it was a great experience.
Speaker 14: And I still keep in touch with some of the
Speaker 14: people that run that program and have gone back to
Speaker 14: visit before, and yeah, I'm just super fortunate to be
Speaker 14: able to partake in that.
Speaker 3: You dealt with Kidavers, Yeah, what was that like?
Speaker 1: You know, it's definitely a unique experience.
Speaker 14: Not something that I thought that I would have been
Speaker 14: doing that young but uh man, what a cool like
Speaker 14: a like cool experis't a blessing for me to be
Speaker 14: able to do that at such a young age and
Speaker 14: really learn I learned so much in that program and
Speaker 14: the classes that I took, So I was super fortunate
Speaker 14: to be able to be a part of that.
Speaker 3: In your scouting report coming out of college on NFL
Speaker 3: dot com, it said you had an idea of possibly
Speaker 3: being a surgeon after playing football. Is that still a
Speaker 3: remote possibility in your mind?
Speaker 1: I'm not so sure yet.
Speaker 14: It's a lot of schooling that I don't have to
Speaker 14: go through after playing football in year seven, So we'll
Speaker 14: see how it plays out.
Speaker 1: But not shutting in any doors.
Speaker 3: We're visiting with Noah Fat. When it came time to
Speaker 3: pick a college, you chose the school with the reputation
Speaker 3: of being tight end you Iowa, Dallas Clark, George kittle,
Speaker 3: TJ Howkinson, Sam Laporta, Ralf from the Bengals, and others.
Speaker 3: How do you explain that lineage of great tight ends?
Speaker 14: Yeah, I think that just like when I was going
Speaker 14: to Iowa, the guys that were kind of there before
Speaker 14: me were like Dallas car Tony Mulaki, I think, Scott Chandler,
Speaker 14: guys of that nature that had been there before and
Speaker 14: had made it to the NFL, and it was just
Speaker 14: kind of one of those things that was that was
Speaker 14: a selling point that if I wanted to play tight
Speaker 14: end in a in an offense that used the tight
Speaker 14: end quite often, that I wanted to be able to
Speaker 14: do that and go and go there. And obviously my
Speaker 14: freshman year was Georgia's senior year and then after that
Speaker 14: it's just been pumping out tight ends, uh, definitely more
Speaker 14: frequently ever since. So it's been It's been a really
Speaker 14: cool experience to be a part of, for sure.
Speaker 3: Is it almost like a self fulfilling prophecy where the
Speaker 3: best high school tight ends in the country gravitate to
Speaker 3: Iowa and then it's almost destiny that they're going to
Speaker 3: turn out to be pros.
Speaker 14: You know, honestly, I think that I wouldn't necessarily say
Speaker 14: the best, like the best top recruits that tight end
Speaker 14: really go to Iowa. I think Iowa does a really
Speaker 14: good job of identifying guys that have the trades and
Speaker 14: then developing them. Like when I was coming out of
Speaker 14: high school, I was a three star atta fleet out
Speaker 14: of Nebraska. I had like fifteen offers from different schools,
Speaker 14: but wasn't like a top recruited five star tight end
Speaker 14: coming out of out of high school. So they do
Speaker 14: a great job of identifying guys with those traits and
Speaker 14: developing them into a all around tight end. So that
Speaker 14: was something I was I was really proud of going
Speaker 14: there and being a part of.
Speaker 3: After three years with the Hawkeyes, you entered the draft
Speaker 3: and were selected in the first round twentieth overall by Denver.
Speaker 3: Describe your draft night experience.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a great experience.
Speaker 14: I mean, obviously it was waiting a little bit twenty
Speaker 14: picks in, but it wasn't complaining at all. It was
Speaker 14: just like a very stressful situation. But what a cool
Speaker 14: experience for me and my family being there all together
Speaker 14: in the green room and getting that call from Denver
Speaker 14: at the time, and it was it was a surreal moment,
Speaker 14: So really cool experience for me and my family.
Speaker 3: You had three good years in Denver, you probably expected
Speaker 3: to be there for a long long time, and then
Speaker 3: the Broncos pulled off a blockbuster trade for Russell Wilson,
Speaker 3: giving up multiple high draft picks and yourself in that deal.
Speaker 3: Did you have any inkling that you might be traded
Speaker 3: or was it a total shock?
Speaker 1: No, I was.
Speaker 14: I was pretty shocked, to be honest with you. Hindsight
Speaker 14: twenty twenty. Obviously, I'll understand, right, it's like you get
Speaker 14: your shot at a franchise quarterback at the time that
Speaker 14: you think it is your franchise quarterback and you're gonna
Speaker 14: do whatever. You know you're not going to hold back
Speaker 14: a tight end to for that deal, you know what
Speaker 14: I'm saying. So I understood, I understood it. I was
Speaker 14: definitely shocked and taken it back by it. Some would
Speaker 14: say blindsided, but like, man, it was such crazy experience,
Speaker 14: and obviously was traded to Seattle and had some good
Speaker 14: years there, but uh, yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was definitely wild, a wild experience for sure.
Speaker 3: So three years in Denver, three years in Seattle, and
Speaker 3: then earlier this year they let you go kind of
Speaker 3: in a salary cap dump type situation. But it did
Speaker 3: give you the opportunity affinity to choose for the first
Speaker 3: time since you were in high school. Did you enjoy that?
Speaker 14: It was a very interesting experience because it was I
Speaker 14: supposed to choosing thing, but at a time that was
Speaker 14: very late in the process, and you know, people had
Speaker 14: already really had the roster set and things of that nature.
Speaker 14: So yeah, it was nice to choose, I suppose, but like,
Speaker 14: wasn't an ideal situation that late in the game, which
Speaker 14: is kind of a little frustrating. But yes, I was
Speaker 14: happy to be able to land in Cincinnati. What a
Speaker 14: great place for me to land that with coach Taylor
Speaker 14: and and pitch and and James Casey is a great,
Speaker 14: great Titans coach. I've been really really fortunate to be
Speaker 14: able to work with them and be in a good
Speaker 14: situation here. So it ended up working out, but obviously
Speaker 14: it was definitely a process to get there for sure.
Speaker 3: All Right, a few wild card topics now for Bengals
Speaker 3: tight end Noah Fan Who is your all time favorite
Speaker 3: athlete in any sport?
Speaker 14: I would say Michael Jordan. I wasn't old enough to
Speaker 14: like see him in his prime, but just like the
Speaker 14: greatness of him and the championships that he's won that
Speaker 14: is all of his highlights.
Speaker 1: He's just an iconic player.
Speaker 14: Whenever someone mentions like a goat of a sport, it's
Speaker 14: like he automatically comes up. He's definitely a polarizing player
Speaker 14: that not only changed the game, but changed really just
Speaker 14: like the world kind of honestly, He's like he was
Speaker 14: a world known athlete. So it was like, what a
Speaker 14: cool what a cool experience, like experience to be able
Speaker 14: to see but unfortunately I wasn't able to see it,
Speaker 14: But what a cool experience to like be able to
Speaker 14: go back and watch those highlights and experience that greatness so,
Speaker 14: and he made.
Speaker 3: It okay for people like me to be bald. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you've spent seven years in the NFL, You've done well financially.
Speaker 3: What do you like to splur John, Food?
Speaker 14: That's like, that's one of the things that I'll like
Speaker 14: pay a good a good dollar for. Is like a
Speaker 14: just a really good meal, especially like with friends and families,
Speaker 14: which is which is one of the things that I
Speaker 14: value very much.
Speaker 1: So food is definitely one of those things.
Speaker 3: Big fancy steakhouse are something more eclectic and foodie either one.
Speaker 14: I'm I'm a pretty wide range guy that'll that'll like
Speaker 14: have anything to eat, And honestly, it's a it's just
Speaker 14: a what's the choice of the day, honestly.
Speaker 3: So other than sports, do you have any hidden talents?
Speaker 1: I don't know about hidden talents.
Speaker 14: I just kind of I try to view myself as
Speaker 14: like a like a pretty multifaceted guy, Like I just
Speaker 14: like a lot of different things. I do a lot
Speaker 14: of different things, and I don't think there's just one
Speaker 14: one singular thing that I'm like super talented at though.
Speaker 3: All right, final fun fact for Noah, this one's kind
Speaker 3: of deep. If you could meet anybody in history living
Speaker 3: or deceased. Who would that person be.
Speaker 14: I would want to meet my my dad, my dad's dad.
Speaker 14: He passed away when my dad was very young, so
Speaker 14: it had been my grandpa, but I never got to
Speaker 14: meet him. But I definitely wouldn't want to met him
Speaker 14: and just kind of talk to him and see what
Speaker 14: he see how he viewed life, see how he viewed everything.
Speaker 14: Obviously my dad didn't wasn't able to have those those
Speaker 14: moments with him very long, But yeah, I think those
Speaker 14: would be some really cool conversations to see what he thought.
Speaker 3: No doubt about it. No, I appreciate your time, best
Speaker 3: of luck the rest of the year.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Appreciate it all right?
Speaker 3: That was fun Facts with tight end Noah Fan, great
Speaker 3: job Dan, now, thank you. When the Bengals signed him,
Speaker 3: we thought there was going to be the opportunity for
Speaker 3: some great two tight end packages with no and Mike
Speaker 3: is Sicky. Fortunately, Mike got hurt early this year with
Speaker 3: a pectoral injury, but his four week window for where
Speaker 3: he has to be out is about to run out
Speaker 3: and he could be back soon. It sounds like he's
Speaker 3: recovering well from that pectoral injury.
Speaker 4: That's good, and he is a He is a weapon.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 4: I think back in the day, teams that could run
Speaker 4: two tight end package were formidable because it just balances
Speaker 4: everything out, you know. I mean, the defense can't really
Speaker 4: have a pre snap read in terms of where's the
Speaker 4: strength of the formation, where might they go, Where's strong
Speaker 4: side weak side? Kind of distorts all of that. So
Speaker 4: having multiple tight ends on your roster that are capable
Speaker 4: and can go out there and play at a high
Speaker 4: level and help you win football games is a great
Speaker 4: luxury in today's NFL.
Speaker 3: All right, Coming up next, we know that Joe Burrow
Speaker 3: is back at practice. The question is should he play
Speaker 3: this year regardless of the Bengals record. We'll discuss that
Speaker 3: when we come back. You're listening to the Bengals pep
Speaker 3: Rally Show live for the on the Ride Eatery here
Speaker 3: and down town Viincinnati. Who da is here?
Speaker 4: Who is in the house?
Speaker 3: At ESPN? In fifteen thirty, Dan and Dave lap them
Speaker 3: back on the Bengals pep Rally Show presented Just Bear Chicken.
Speaker 3: We are broadcasting live from the on the Rhine Eatery.
Speaker 3: If you're getting out on a Friday afternoon, come join us.
Speaker 3: Evan McPherson will be here in just a few minutes.
Speaker 3: He will join us for the final hour of the show.
Speaker 3: If you've never been to the On the Rhine Eatery,
Speaker 3: it's a great spot for our Friday afternoon show. It's
Speaker 3: a food haul above the downtown Kroger at Court and Walnut,
Speaker 3: with plenty of great inexpensive food options, great wings, great burgers,
Speaker 3: great podstickers, which we've enjoyed today. There's a bar if
Speaker 3: you want to come out and have a beer or two.
Speaker 3: It's a great spot for our show. Plenty of available seating.
Speaker 3: Who Day is here. Love seeing who Day in the
Speaker 3: house and again. Money Back will be here shortly. He'll
Speaker 3: sign autographs, he'll pause for pictures. It's all for free, unless,
Speaker 3: of course, you want to spend a few of your
Speaker 3: hard to earn dollars having something to eat or drink
Speaker 3: here at the On the Rhine Eatery. Well, we got
Speaker 3: a very pleasant surprise at the beginning of this week
Speaker 3: on Monday, when we saw Joe Burrow back at practice,
Speaker 3: albeit on a limited basis, which is to be expected
Speaker 3: coming back from his toe injury. But the prognosis when
Speaker 3: he suffered the injury was that it was a three
Speaker 3: month recovery. He was practicing again in less than two months.
Speaker 4: And that's that's Joe Burrow. That's what he's all about.
Speaker 4: He's all about, you know, if somebody says you can't
Speaker 4: do it, and I'll show you. I'll show you I
Speaker 4: can do it, and I'm gonna go do it. Uber
Speaker 4: competitive man, he really is. I mean if if if
Speaker 4: people say it's unreachable, he's going to reach for it
Speaker 4: and he's gonna get get grab it, He's going to
Speaker 4: get it. I think that he plays this this week
Speaker 4: coming up. I think there's a strong chance anyway, not.
Speaker 3: This week, not Sunday against Pittsburgh, the following, Okay, the
Speaker 3: home game against New England. You think that's passed.
Speaker 4: The Patriots game, I think is possible. I'd love to
Speaker 4: see you play this Sunday, But I don't.
Speaker 3: Know he's out for this week because of the.
Speaker 4: Number of days. You've got twenty one days and he
Speaker 4: hasn't served that sentence. Hyeit, but I mean he is
Speaker 4: a guy that is I'm gonna do it on my schedule.
Speaker 4: I don't care what you think. Your opinion is your opinion.
Speaker 4: I know what I can do I know what my
Speaker 4: body can do. And you know he takes care of himself.
Speaker 4: I mean the guys in unbelievable shape, the conditioning that
Speaker 4: he goes through, and unfortunately he's been doing a rehab
Speaker 4: and conditioning way too much the last few years. But
Speaker 4: I mean this guy, he works hard. He works in
Speaker 4: the weight room hard overall body. I mean his quads,
Speaker 4: his hamstrings, his calves, his pectoral, his delta, everything is
Speaker 4: strong on him and he's put on about i'd say
Speaker 4: a good fifteen pounds of muscle.
Speaker 1: Dan.
Speaker 4: When you look at him walk into a room, it's like, man,
Speaker 4: this guy's substantial. Now you know he's put together and
Speaker 4: he certainly hasn't affected him negatively in terms of how
Speaker 4: he's throwing the football. He is a beautiful thrower of the.
Speaker 3: Football, no doubt. As I said earlier, I was surprised
Speaker 3: to see him on the practice field on Monday. I
Speaker 3: was not alone. Let's hear from Jamar Chase and T Higgins.
Speaker 6: I didn't know he was practicing. I was surprised. I
Speaker 6: just seen him putting stuff on. I didn't know what's
Speaker 6: going on.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he caught. I came in the locker room and
Speaker 4: he was like, you see now. I was like, well
Speaker 4: he doing He was like, he's practicing. I was like, oh,
Speaker 4: it's not so. He caught me off guard too.
Speaker 6: I think his personality makes him unique. The way he
Speaker 6: approaches the game makes him crazy. How much he loves
Speaker 6: the game makes him crazy. That's how much passion he
Speaker 6: has behind it. And nothing's wrong with that.
Speaker 1: He just wants to win. And you know you need
Speaker 1: people around you like that.
Speaker 3: All right, lap, Let's get to the big debate that's
Speaker 3: going on right now among Bengals fans. The Bengals are
Speaker 3: three and six. Yeah, if they win in Pittsburgh this week,
Speaker 3: they are still in the hunt right to win the
Speaker 3: AFC North. If they don't, it is a real long shot.
Speaker 3: Although I guess if Baltimore loses this week, maybe they've
Speaker 3: still got a pulse. But anyway, should wins and losses
Speaker 3: matter or should Joe Burrow come back at some point
Speaker 3: this year regardless of what the Bengals record is?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean that's a matter of opinion. I'm sure
Speaker 4: Bengal fans would be Look, if don't win this week,
Speaker 4: three and seven, the odds of turning it around and
Speaker 4: having a potential playoff season are almost nil. But Joe
Speaker 4: doesn't look at it that way. Joe looks at he
Speaker 4: lives to play football. I mean, he eats, sleeps, and
Speaker 4: drinks football. He's football twenty four to seven, seven days
Speaker 4: a week, three undred and sixty five days a year,
Speaker 4: and twelve months a year. It's just the way he's built,
Speaker 4: the way he's uh, he's put together. You know. I
Speaker 4: think he wants to see where he is, and I
Speaker 4: think he wants to evaluate physical He'll want to play
Speaker 4: absolutely and you know, and compete against the best at
Speaker 4: the highest level for as many games as you possibly can.
Speaker 4: It's uh, it's it's what makes him get up in
Speaker 4: the morning, man. It's what makes him tick, makes us
Speaker 4: heart kicking, makes everything tick.
Speaker 3: I'll be honest. My feelings on this subjective changed. So
Speaker 3: during the early stages of his recovery, I thought, all right,
Speaker 3: if he can come back and the Bengals still have
Speaker 3: a chance to make the playoffs, you'd certainly want him
Speaker 3: in the playoffs if he was healthy. So I was
Speaker 3: kind of thinking, it's going to depend on the record.
Speaker 3: Now that he's practicing and could conceivably come back with
Speaker 3: four games left, right, five games left something like that.
Speaker 3: I'd play him because A it's his belief that you
Speaker 3: can always gain something from playing. You can learn something,
Speaker 3: you can develop timing and you know, chemistry with your
Speaker 3: receiving targets. It means something to him to show that
Speaker 3: he can come back this year. It means something to
Speaker 3: him to show that his teammates, show to his teammates
Speaker 3: that it's important enough for him to come back this year.
Speaker 3: So my feeling has changed from only bring him back
Speaker 3: if it's important too. If the doctors say the toe
Speaker 3: is not at risk and he wants to play, let
Speaker 3: him play.
Speaker 4: I agree. And I mean everybody in the division has
Speaker 4: four losses, you know, I mean four losses or more? Yeah,
Speaker 4: four losses and more so. I mean, if the Bengals
Speaker 4: knock off the Pittsburgh Steelers again and they fall, they're closer,
Speaker 4: They're closer to where the Cincinnati Bengals are. And I
Speaker 4: just I feel like, no matter what if the if
Speaker 4: the division is within grasp and there's a month of
Speaker 4: playing the season, he's gonna want to go after it
Speaker 4: tooth and nail. He's gonna go want to go after
Speaker 4: it one hundred and I think the more snaps he gets.
Speaker 4: The more reps he gets under his belt, the more
Speaker 4: confident he's going to be, the more comfortable he's going
Speaker 4: to feel, and the better he's gonna play.
Speaker 3: Naturally, if the Bengals are out of it and he plays,
Speaker 3: you open yourself up to the biggest second gesh of
Speaker 3: all time. Should another injury happen. Yep, that would be
Speaker 3: the risk. But that's football. So are you gonna put
Speaker 3: him in bubble wrap forever?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 3: You know, when he feels healthy and ready to go,
Speaker 3: I don't think he can do that. This is what
Speaker 3: he does. If he feels healthy and back in a
Speaker 3: good practice groove, wants to play, and feels like he's
Speaker 3: ready to play, then he's a guy.
Speaker 4: You got to play. Yeah. This is who he is,
Speaker 4: This is what he wants to be. This is what
Speaker 4: he's chosen as a profession in his adult life, and
Speaker 4: he's great at it. And uh, you know he he's
Speaker 4: going to be able to put up significant numbers. He
Speaker 4: always does. I mean, when Joe Burrow plays, he rings
Speaker 4: him up, He rings up numbers, and he's not playing
Speaker 4: to pat his stats. That's not what I'm saying, and
Speaker 4: that's not what is in his mind, he's playing to
Speaker 4: win football games for the Cincinnati Bengals. Uh, there's no
Speaker 4: question about it. That's what his mo is. But man,
Speaker 4: I think, I think when he when all said and done,
Speaker 4: when he's done playing the game of football, he's going
Speaker 4: to have numbers at the quarterback position, yards, touchdowns, uist, interceptions.
Speaker 4: He's going to be the leader across the board. I
Speaker 4: think he's got that.
Speaker 3: Kind of ability, kind of like those Aaron Rodgers numbers
Speaker 3: who have given earlier sixty four thousand yards crazy five
Speaker 3: and twenty one touchdown passes and twenty.
Speaker 4: One touchdown passes. That's absurd, man, that's crazy, it really is.
Speaker 4: I mean, mind buggling.
Speaker 3: Aaron Rodgers will take on the Bengals for the sixth
Speaker 3: time in his career this Sunday at one o'clock. The
Speaker 3: Bengals do have a winning record against him. They're three
Speaker 3: and two in the previous five games. They've come up
Speaker 3: with quite a few interceptions in those games. Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 3: historically has not thrown many in his NFL career, but
Speaker 3: in five career games against Cincinnati, he's thrown six interceptions,
Speaker 3: including two in Game one earlier this year. Won by
Speaker 3: Jordan Battle and one by DJ Turner. All Right, two
Speaker 3: hours just about in the books. One hour to go.
Speaker 3: Our special guest is here. Will take a time out,
Speaker 3: We'll come back and we will introduce Bengals kicker Kevin McPherson.
Speaker 3: This is the Bengals pep Rally Show presented byy Just
Speaker 3: Bear Chicken on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2: This is Bengals FeH Rally presented by Just Beared Chicken
Speaker 2: on the Bengals Radio Network. Paycore Paycor is proud to
Speaker 2: be the official hr software provider of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 2: Kettering Health, best Care for the best Fans. Kettering Health,
Speaker 2: Official healthcare provider of the Cincinnati Bengals. This is ESPN
Speaker 2: fifteen to thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 3: Money Mack is ready. He takes a deep breath, waits
Speaker 3: for the long snap back to Rico. Rico puts it
Speaker 3: down to kick his up.
Speaker 15: It is good, gosh, and the Bengals have a two
Speaker 15: point lead with seven seconds left on the clock.
Speaker 4: Nice gotta love it. Joe Flacco, Welcome to Cincinnati, my man.
Speaker 3: All right, that's how it sounded almost exactly a month ago.
Speaker 3: The last time the Bengals beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cincinnati
Speaker 3: winning on a field goal with seven seconds to go
Speaker 3: by Evan McPherson thirty three to thirty one. And that
Speaker 3: makes our special guest this afternoon here at the on
Speaker 3: the Ryan Eatery very appropriate. We are joined by the
Speaker 3: guy that made that kick, one of eight game winners
Speaker 3: in his Bengals career. Money back, Evan McPherson, Welcome to
Speaker 3: the show. Thanks for being here.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it's always fun to get to do a show
Speaker 10: with y'all. We appreciate time very much, much self time
Speaker 10: worth it.
Speaker 3: Thank you. Let's turn the clock back to that game.
Speaker 3: It was an interesting one because with less than a
Speaker 3: minute to go, that was the game that featured this
Speaker 3: unselfish t Higgins slide when he could have run in
Speaker 3: for the go ahead touchdown, but given the Steelers more
Speaker 3: time to potentially come back. Instead, he goes into the slide.
Speaker 3: But once he did that, then all the pressure shifts
Speaker 3: to you.
Speaker 10: Yeah, you know, that was a really unselfish play by
Speaker 10: team because he definitely could have easily walked into the
Speaker 10: end zone. But I mean, you got to realize who's
Speaker 10: on the other side. Of the field. One of the
Speaker 10: best to ever do it out of Aaron Rodgers. And
Speaker 10: he's got a good receiving core and group there and
Speaker 10: really dangerous team. And so you're taught, and we're taught
Speaker 10: as a team to be unselfish in times like that
Speaker 10: and set the team up for success. And this really
Speaker 10: unselfish play by Tea And as soon as he did it,
Speaker 10: I knew kind of what we were going to do.
Speaker 10: Set up for the last second field goal. It's a
Speaker 10: it's a make or break and win a loss, and
Speaker 10: those are always a lot of fun.
Speaker 4: Darren Simmons, Yes, it has been your special teams coach your
Speaker 4: entire career in the National Football League. In my opinion,
Speaker 4: he's the best in the business, the best at any level. Yeah,
Speaker 4: of football. You're with him basically every day.
Speaker 1: Huh.
Speaker 4: What makes Darren Simmons special? What separates him from the
Speaker 4: pack man?
Speaker 10: He he's a nitpicker. He'll yep, if I'm not making
Speaker 10: field goals down the center of the uprights, he'll give
Speaker 10: it to me. Even if they're going in, he'll say
Speaker 10: it's not good enough. Then you go down the center.
Speaker 10: And he's like that with everybody on the team. If
Speaker 10: you're doing your job correctly, he's gonna find a weak
Speaker 10: point that you have and he's gonna tell you that
Speaker 10: you need to work on it. So I think just
Speaker 10: his attention to detail is probably above the rest, I
Speaker 10: would say. So, I feel like his attention to detail
Speaker 10: and his willingness to not just kind of tell you
Speaker 10: what you want to hear, but tell you what you
Speaker 10: need to hear is kind of what sets him apart.
Speaker 3: In that Pittsburgh game where you hit the game winner,
Speaker 3: I remember looking down toward the field before the game.
Speaker 3: So it's a Thursday night game against the Steelers, and
Speaker 3: there had to be twenty guys, thirty guys, like thirty
Speaker 3: grown men wearing yeah McPherson jerseys. Who was that group?
Speaker 10: Yeah, So there's a small group I'm part of, been
Speaker 10: a part of for about three and a half years.
Speaker 10: And it's a group of twelve guys that we got
Speaker 10: together through crossroads, you know, just kind of a group
Speaker 10: that I was thrust it into, invited into, and they've
Speaker 10: been great for I feel like development off the field,
Speaker 10: em just in my relationship with God and just my
Speaker 10: relationship outside of football. I can go to them with
Speaker 10: any issues anything I'm feeling struggling with. And they've been
Speaker 10: a real important part of this journey in Cincinnati.
Speaker 3: So there, it wasn't quite as big as I thought
Speaker 3: from looking down there. But twelve guys yep, wearing your
Speaker 3: jerseys that you befriended through the Crossrooms church.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it's been great. We meet every Monday night. Well
Speaker 10: I say every Monday night, Monday nights every whenever we
Speaker 10: all can, but it's usually every Monday night, if not
Speaker 10: every other. But yeah, we just get together, talk about life,
Speaker 10: talk about the Bible, just kind of bounced off off
Speaker 10: each other, and any struggles that we have in our life,
Speaker 10: we talk about it. And there's a lot of wise
Speaker 10: men in that in that room that are older than
Speaker 10: us and have been through a lot of situations, so
Speaker 10: they're good to kind of learn from. And had breakfast
Speaker 10: with the Leader this morning, so.
Speaker 3: That ye great that they could be there for that
Speaker 3: particular night. The way it ended.
Speaker 10: We always me and the Leader will always talk like strategy,
Speaker 10: What game should the guys come to? And I always
Speaker 10: tell people you need to come to a night game
Speaker 10: at Paykor Stadium because I think the fans show up
Speaker 10: and show out for those for those games, and I
Speaker 10: always enjoy night games, so I always tell people to
Speaker 10: come to those.
Speaker 1: I'm with you.
Speaker 4: So, what's the longest field goal you've made? Sixty one
Speaker 4: for the Bengals?
Speaker 10: Sixty on unofficial? Yeah, yeah, yeah, in a game when
Speaker 10: the unofficial didn't count.
Speaker 4: Yeah, give us stat first.
Speaker 10: Yeah, the sixty seven in Green Bay obviously went in,
Speaker 10: didn't count.
Speaker 3: The time out actually the timeout was yeah right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, all the time out to nullify it.
Speaker 10: But yeah, I think the longest field going franchise history,
Speaker 10: right is fifty nine?
Speaker 3: Correct? Somebody won a gift card for eventually guessing that
Speaker 3: events earlier that we went through every number in the
Speaker 3: spectrum from about fifty five to seventy before we have
Speaker 3: actually got the correct fifty nine.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I remember that one vividly right Week one against Pittsburgh.
Speaker 10: I think it was. Was it my first field goal
Speaker 10: to open the season the second year, right, first field
Speaker 10: goal my second year? Yeah, I hit it really well,
Speaker 10: game didn't and how how i'd like it to.
Speaker 3: That's the one where you lost your long snapper, correct,
Speaker 3: Harris yep, and poor Mitchell Wilcott tight end gets thrussed
Speaker 3: in there trying to long snap and actually did. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but you know that's a hard thing to do when
Speaker 3: that's not your job.
Speaker 10: It is, yeah, because we have guys that we also
Speaker 10: like obviously prepare for the worst of the situations and
Speaker 10: so like we have backup holders. Charlie Jones is our
Speaker 10: backup holder, and once a week he'll get a rep
Speaker 10: and he's like, if I get into a game, I'm
Speaker 10: gonna be He's like, I don't care about kickoff, kickoff return,
Speaker 10: punt return. My sole focus is going to be on holding,
Speaker 10: and I'm gonna be terrified for my life. He's like,
Speaker 10: that is the most stressful thing that I've ever.
Speaker 1: Done in my life.
Speaker 3: Is Tanner Hudson your emergency long snamp?
Speaker 10: Yep? Yeah, yeah, Tanner. So they both get a wrap
Speaker 10: once a week just to make sure that you know,
Speaker 10: you brush up on it and you're never surprised whenever
Speaker 10: that kind of comes up.
Speaker 4: So is what what is when you when you make
Speaker 4: a try attempting these long field goals a game winner.
Speaker 4: You know you're down a point or two points and
Speaker 4: you have to make this this long, monstrous field goal
Speaker 4: to win the game. What what goes through your head
Speaker 4: is it. Is it the mental part of the techniques
Speaker 4: fundamentals that you've worked throughout the entire week, your legs swing,
Speaker 4: all the mechanics and all that, or is it like
Speaker 4: all right, deep breath, calm down, let me just get
Speaker 4: myself composed. What do you what do you think about? More?
Speaker 10: I just try to kind of keep myself calm and
Speaker 10: keep myself from having negative thoughts as you've probably experience,
Speaker 10: Like the mind is is your biggest enemy. Yeah, and
Speaker 10: for whatever reason, in those big spots, like your mind
Speaker 10: just wants to flip to like, oh, well, what happens
Speaker 10: if I don't make this? Like and you just kind
Speaker 10: of have that run through your head. So for me recently,
Speaker 10: it's just running through my head the scenario of what
Speaker 10: happens when I make it and seeing that ball go
Speaker 10: through the uprights before I even step out on the field,
Speaker 10: and I'm just telling myself, you know, you got this,
Speaker 10: You've done it in a million times, to just go
Speaker 10: out there and do it one more. And just the
Speaker 10: whole visualization of just seeing that ball go through the
Speaker 10: uprights in my head and then just kind of reacting
Speaker 10: to that right to what I see.
Speaker 3: So in your rookie year when you made five lockoff
Speaker 3: game winners for very first NFL game, you made one
Speaker 3: Amsy Championship game, you made one. We'll hear that later
Speaker 3: on the show. Were you like too young and naive
Speaker 3: at that point to even have any negative thoughts?
Speaker 10: I guess so, because I go back and think about
Speaker 10: that year. I definitely struggled mentally there for a little bit,
Speaker 10: like middle of the season, and then for whatever reason,
Speaker 10: I came out of it on the other side and
Speaker 10: later in the season, and it's kind of expresses like
Speaker 10: you just kind of blacked out and don't remember much
Speaker 10: and don't remember what I was thinking in those moments.
Speaker 10: I was just kind of going out there and reacting
Speaker 10: and just kind of letting letting loose and just swinging,
Speaker 10: swinging away.
Speaker 4: You know, people, I think a lot of times don't
Speaker 4: give kickers the credit for the athlete that they are,
Speaker 4: because in Bengals history, the kickers, I mean, I had
Speaker 4: a teammate, Jim Breach, unbelievable athlete. Jim Breach was like
Speaker 4: All City, All State in football, basketball, and baseball. You know,
Speaker 4: I mean, point guard in basketball, shortstop baseball, hell of
Speaker 4: a golfer. He has the hell out of the golf ball.
Speaker 4: He's amazing and a lot of Doug Pelfy in the
Speaker 4: same way. Pelsa hell of an athlete. And how about you,
Speaker 4: what's sports would you excel at besides just kicking the football?
Speaker 10: I mean, I grew up playing I feel like all
Speaker 10: the sports I stopped, soccer was my main sport. I
Speaker 10: stopped playing baseball when I was twelve, and then basketball
Speaker 10: in eighth grade, but I stuck with soccer for the
Speaker 10: most part, and we won a state championship my freshman
Speaker 10: year of high school. So that's kind of my My
Speaker 10: big success in high school is the state championship in
Speaker 10: soccer and then one I feel like state titles, like
Speaker 10: in travel soccer. Uh, it was like Division two, so
Speaker 10: it was like redbind Division one. We went to Division
Speaker 10: one for like one year and it was just a
Speaker 10: whole different level. Yeah, so, but we wanted a few
Speaker 10: state titles in Division two soccer and travel years from
Speaker 10: like seven to i'd say thirteen to fourteen. Yeah, but yeah,
Speaker 10: so soccer. I was pretty good at golf. I'm getting
Speaker 10: better at every year, you know, trying to do yeah,
Speaker 10: trying to get better.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so am I it's only been fifty years trying.
Speaker 4: Let me ask you out watching you, uh, in practice
Speaker 4: on the on the foot, on the field in warm
Speaker 4: ups before games, you'll have like a bottle or a
Speaker 4: can of some sort of beverage or whatever. Yeah, that
Speaker 4: that your your leg swing is like right in front
Speaker 4: of it by like the centimeters, you know, half an
Speaker 4: inch or an inch. Yeah, what what are you doing there?
Speaker 4: You're just trying to groove your swing or your leg.
Speaker 10: Yeah. You know a lot of people picked out uh
Speaker 10: kind of that drill that I'm doing. And it's a
Speaker 10: simple one that I started, like back whenever I was
Speaker 10: going through the draft process. So with my plant foot,
Speaker 10: my left foot, I'll get into a situation where it
Speaker 10: can get a little too close to the ball and
Speaker 10: I'm a little pigeon toed, so to be kind of
Speaker 10: pointing right and then it'll make me like swing around
Speaker 10: it and go get around the ball and pull it.
Speaker 10: And it's just super inconsistent. And so I kind of
Speaker 10: hurt my ankle a little bit back in May, and
Speaker 10: then it was forcing me to protect it kind of
Speaker 10: be a little more pigeon toed. And so throughout the
Speaker 10: summer and the more my ankle got stronger and felt
Speaker 10: better about it. I started using this ball. I remember
Speaker 10: what the drills that I did through the draft process
Speaker 10: and what helped my plant foot kind of stay straight
Speaker 10: down the field and wide enough away from the ball
Speaker 10: so I can have consistent ball contact. And so that's
Speaker 10: what it is. It's just kind of like a drill
Speaker 10: that I'll use to kind of get my plant foot
Speaker 10: in the right spot. And so whenever I'm out in
Speaker 10: the field, it's kind of the same thing. Like I
Speaker 10: don't really think about it with all that training that
Speaker 10: I'm doing. My body just kind of reacts and.
Speaker 3: Does it all right, We need to take a time out.
Speaker 3: Evan McPherson is our special guest. He'll be here until
Speaker 3: five thirty today. We're live at the On the Rhine Eatery,
Speaker 3: the food hall above the downtown Kroger at Court and Walnut.
Speaker 3: At ESPN fifteen thirty, we are back on the Bengals
Speaker 3: pep Rally Show presented by Just Bear Chicken. We're live
Speaker 3: at the On the Rhine Eatery here in downtown Cincinnati.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: Normally our special guests signed during the commercial breaks, but
Speaker 3: we are extending that a little bit right now because
Speaker 3: money Mack Evin McPherson is signing a leg, not an
Speaker 3: actual leg like a leg lamp. It is a mannequin's
Speaker 3: leg with a light bulb attachment on the top and
Speaker 3: a white kicking shoe. Is that the first one of
Speaker 3: those you've signed?
Speaker 10: I don't know if it's to your surprise, but it's
Speaker 10: it's not about that. Yeah, I probably, I don't know,
Speaker 10: maybe around ten ten. A lot of people have those.
Speaker 3: That is hysterical.
Speaker 10: It is funny because the first one I saw is
Speaker 10: like somebody's like, do you know what this is? You
Speaker 10: know it's from?
Speaker 3: Is it Chrischristmas Story? Christmas Story?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So I had a lamp before, but I.
Speaker 10: Don't think I really watched the movie, so I understood
Speaker 10: what it was and I think it's great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that is That is definitely the best autograph item
Speaker 3: we have seen on this show so far. Here, what
Speaker 3: is the most unusual thing you've signed? Have you signed
Speaker 3: like baby's heads or anything?
Speaker 10: Or I mean I've signed a few babies like clothes
Speaker 10: signed while they were wearing it's a Yeah, it was
Speaker 10: kind of strange, and I feel like if you guys
Speaker 10: have done this as well, like there's somebody at training
Speaker 10: camp that's a prosthetic leg that they will take.
Speaker 3: Off okay and give it to you to sign.
Speaker 10: And then I know there's one lady that has like
Speaker 10: a little orange car car. Yeah, everybody signs, so it's
Speaker 10: pretty strange. But yeah, I say, a prosthetic leg is
Speaker 10: probably the strangest thing that I've signed.
Speaker 4: Strangest thing I've signed. Yeah, where it's panties. Well it
Speaker 4: was at a show.
Speaker 3: Hopefully they were not No, no, she didn't take.
Speaker 4: Them off for anything. Sign. Yeah, they didn't go through
Speaker 4: the washers, dryer. But another parent it's like these they're
Speaker 4: very nice. I'm so glad.
Speaker 3: I asked, all right, we need to take another quick
Speaker 3: time out more with money Mack Kevin McPherson in Just
Speaker 3: a Moment here at ESPN in fifteen thirty, Dan Orden,
Speaker 3: Dave Lap I'm back at the on the Ryan Eatery
Speaker 3: here at downtown Cincinnati. It's the Bengals pep Rawley Show
Speaker 3: presented by just Paar Chicken. Our engineer is Mike Mills.
Speaker 3: Drew Wester. Heidi is back in the studio. Nicky Growl
Speaker 3: is helping us out with the autographs. Today we appreciate
Speaker 3: everybody involved with this show, and we obviously appreciate our
Speaker 3: special guest Evin McPherson with us for the final hour. Today,
Speaker 3: Let's hear from Special Teams coordinator Darren Simmons on Money Mack.
Speaker 16: I've learned to not worry a lot about things with
Speaker 16: him that he'll.
Speaker 10: Get it figured out.
Speaker 16: He's very, very very strong mentally. He's really really mature
Speaker 16: and understands a great deal about being a kicker and
Speaker 16: what it means to be an effective kicker in crunch time.
Speaker 16: So I never ever worry about him in critical spots.
Speaker 16: He thrives in situations like that because he's so competitive.
Speaker 3: I agree, we never worry about you and those critical
Speaker 3: spots almost every time you were able to deliver. Here's
Speaker 3: my question for you. Darren Simmons was a college punter,
Speaker 3: so he's got some experience kind of in the kicking world.
Speaker 3: But who taught you? Were you self taught largely? Did
Speaker 3: you have a kicking guru from an early age? How
Speaker 3: did you learn to do this?
Speaker 10: I feel like early on it was a lot of
Speaker 10: self taught YouTube Definitely. My older brother was the one
Speaker 10: that tried it out first, and so whenever he tried
Speaker 10: out for the football team and made it and started
Speaker 10: kicking as me and my younger brother were just in
Speaker 10: the front yard just kicking footballs. Didn't really know how
Speaker 10: we knew how to kick a soccer ball, so we
Speaker 10: just kind of implemented that and watched a lot of
Speaker 10: YouTube videos to start, and then we started going to
Speaker 10: bi weekly. This guy like an hour and a half away,
Speaker 10: his name is Mike McCabe. One on one kicking. That's
Speaker 10: where we started, Uh, just kind of like one on
Speaker 10: one training and then with the camp series and trying
Speaker 10: to get exposure and rankings, like we would go to
Speaker 10: Cole's Kicking and that's kind of who I stick to now.
Speaker 10: Jamie Cole is the head of that and he's just
Speaker 10: fantastic human being, a great person personally for me to
Speaker 10: just kind of reach out to and talk to every
Speaker 10: now and then. And we get together once a year,
Speaker 10: uh probably about twenty of us like kickers, punters, long snappers,
Speaker 10: and Gatlinburg once a year and we just kind of
Speaker 10: get together kick.
Speaker 3: College people.
Speaker 10: Yeah, so they have like a huge weekend NFL will
Speaker 10: be I think it's Wednesday Thursday. NFL guys will come
Speaker 10: and kick and then call it or now Tuesday, Wednesday
Speaker 10: will be NFL Thursday, Friday's College and then Saturday Sunday
Speaker 10: is there big high school camp. And so they just
Speaker 10: make a big week out of it in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
Speaker 10: And so you have your slots, but it's always fun
Speaker 10: just together like with other NFL guys, with Jamie and
Speaker 10: his staff, they've they've got a great staff. They don't
Speaker 10: they care about you as a player, but more important,
Speaker 10: they care about you as a person. And that's kind
Speaker 10: of why I graduate kind of favored them more than
Speaker 10: the others, is just because the way they had treated
Speaker 10: me off the field, and they were They've always been
Speaker 10: great to me, great to my family, and I will
Speaker 10: forever be in debt for for the work that they
Speaker 10: put in to get me recruited and get me looked at.
Speaker 4: So Kickers are great athletes. You know, we talked about
Speaker 4: it a little bit. Preach. Preach was unbelievable athlete in
Speaker 4: high school, All state, All City, all state basketball player,
Speaker 4: football player, baseball player.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure if you played soccer or not, but
Speaker 4: I mean he played as many sports as you could play.
Speaker 4: Were you of that same mindset? Did you probably everything
Speaker 4: when you were younger.
Speaker 10: Yeah, definitely tried everything whenever I was younger, but in
Speaker 10: high school, mainly for me, it was just soccer, football,
Speaker 10: you know. It didn't really golf as much as I
Speaker 10: do now. You man, I've got a core group of friends.
Speaker 10: It's probably make up of a like five to seven
Speaker 10: guys that will come up to one one game of year.
Speaker 10: And I started playing soccer with them whenever I was
Speaker 10: like seven, and we played all the way through throughout
Speaker 10: high school with and so you know, I still talk
Speaker 10: to them on a daily basis, and they're some of
Speaker 10: my biggest fans, and so I love just keeping that
Speaker 10: relate those relationships, those those are big for me and
Speaker 10: just being back from home. It's always good to see
Speaker 10: him whever they get to come up.
Speaker 4: That's awesome.
Speaker 3: Who are your closest buddies in the kicking fraternity?
Speaker 10: Closest buddies in the kids like that? That's a good one.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 10: So my best friend I met him. It was eighth grade.
Speaker 10: I think it was eighth grade camp. One of the
Speaker 10: first I met him, name is Jake Kmarta. He's a
Speaker 10: punter from Norcross, Georgia, and I got injured at this camp,
Speaker 10: and I was pretty upset that I didn't perform the
Speaker 10: way I wanted to. And he was the only guy
Speaker 10: that came up to me after the camp when I
Speaker 10: was visibly upset and asked me how I was doing.
Speaker 10: And from that point on, we just kind of started
Speaker 10: following each other on Instagram. And he had a girlfriend
Speaker 10: at the time, I had my wife. We were dating
Speaker 10: at the time, and we would just take turns kind
Speaker 10: of visiting each other, double dating at top golf and
Speaker 10: going out to dinner together. And that's just kind of
Speaker 10: blossomed into where I mean, I facetimed him today, so
Speaker 10: we talked daily. You could ask both of our wives
Speaker 10: if they're annoyed by it, So I would say he's
Speaker 10: my closest friend. He was with the Bucks for two
Speaker 10: and a half years and then short stint with the Bills,
Speaker 10: and now he's he's on the streets right now but
Speaker 10: looking to get another opportunity. But other kickers, I mean
Speaker 10: Cam Little, that's a record holder, Yeah, new record holder.
Speaker 10: So you know, if if the record would account, it
Speaker 10: wouldn't stood.
Speaker 3: For long, that's right. So just to explain for people
Speaker 3: wondering what I'm talking about you attempted a sixty seven
Speaker 3: yarder against Green Bay. First try was good, the coach
Speaker 3: called the time out. Yep, second try was a little
Speaker 3: bit short. That would have been the NFL record. But
Speaker 3: then a couple of weeks later, your friend cam Little
Speaker 3: made a sixty eight yarder for Jacksonville and that's now
Speaker 3: the new NFL record. It is.
Speaker 10: So we'll see if he gets broken, but yeah, him,
Speaker 10: they're punter. Logan Cook. He was at Missippi State whenever
Speaker 10: I was getting recruited there, so I built a relationship
Speaker 10: with him, and I mean from there, I feel like
Speaker 10: a lot of the guys in the NFL were good
Speaker 10: friends with Obviously Eddie Pinero, he was at Florida right
Speaker 10: before I got there. Thomas Morestead at San Francisco. He's
Speaker 10: always at the Coles camps in Gallinburg. He's a great mentor.
Speaker 10: He got Austin McNamara in with the Jets.
Speaker 3: He was here a brief teammate.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 10: He's really good dude. And I'm sure I could name
Speaker 10: play somebody from each team. I feel like I have
Speaker 10: a pretty good relationship with all.
Speaker 3: Right, we're gonna take a time out when we come
Speaker 3: back we'll turn the clock back to perhaps the most
Speaker 3: important kick in Cincinnati Bengals history. This is the Bengals
Speaker 3: pep Rally Show presented by Just Fair Chicken. We're live
Speaker 3: at the on the Rhyin Eatery here on ESPN fifteen thirty,
Speaker 3: final half hour The Bengals pep Rally Show presented by
Speaker 3: Just Faired Chicken. We are live at the on the
Speaker 3: Rhine Eatery. It is our Friday afternoon home for this show.
Speaker 3: It's been great this year. If you haven't been down
Speaker 3: to join us, what are you waiting for? We're here
Speaker 3: every Friday, usually three to six. This week two thirty
Speaker 3: to five thirty. Next week again it'll be two thirty
Speaker 3: to five thirty. Great food options here. There's a bar,
Speaker 3: there's a ton of seating. It's all free unless you
Speaker 3: just to get something to eat or drink. Bengals players
Speaker 3: join us every week. They're kind enough to sign autographs
Speaker 3: and take pictures. Just has Moneymack has been doing today
Speaker 3: our friend Bengals kicker Evan McPherson. Prior to the commercial break,
Speaker 3: I promised we would listen in to perhaps the most
Speaker 3: significant kick in Cincinnati Bengals history. So let's turn the
Speaker 3: clock back. It is the AFC Championship game against Kansas
Speaker 3: City in the twenty twenty one season. After falling behind
Speaker 3: twenty one to three, the Bengals come roaring back and
Speaker 3: the game in overtime came down to this. Four years ago,
Speaker 3: he was a senior in high school in tiny Fort Payne, Alabama.
Speaker 3: Now the Bengals Super Bowl chances rest on his right foot.
Speaker 3: The kick is up, yeh ye.
Speaker 15: Good coffin nows bam, bam bam.
Speaker 4: That is unba believable. The Cincinnati Bengals come from behind
Speaker 4: on the road. Unbelievable.
Speaker 3: Dan, It is no fluke, it is a fact.
Speaker 15: The Cincinnati Bengals are headed to Super Bowl fifty six.
Speaker 3: Gives me chills. Yeah, thinking back to that moment. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 3: hair is raising on my arm. Thank you for that memory.
Speaker 10: We appreciate shit. You know what it fit really well
Speaker 10: right there is it wasn't an upset.
Speaker 3: You like that line so earlier this year, you see,
Speaker 3: had a big victory when they were an underdog, and
Speaker 3: I said, it's not an upset, it's an uprising. And
Speaker 3: he found me like two days later. That was a
Speaker 3: great line. So thank you, Thank you for listening. Appreciate it,
Speaker 3: of course.
Speaker 10: But yeah, that one that day special. I definitely remember
Speaker 10: it for the rest of my life. My parents are there,
Speaker 10: my family was there. I feel like just the only
Speaker 10: person I wish would have been there was my wife.
Speaker 10: We were dating at the time, and she was unable
Speaker 10: to make it. She was still in college.
Speaker 3: But she go to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 10: She did Okay, Yeah, at the Super Bowl is where
Speaker 10: she decided that she was going to graduate early and
Speaker 10: we were going to get married. So well, we were engaged.
Speaker 10: I shall say that we moved our wedding date up
Speaker 10: because she decided to leave so early.
Speaker 3: So and you were both able to watch the halftime show.
Speaker 10: We both were goe. I reminded Darren of that. Not
Speaker 10: a couple of days ago. I think there was like
Speaker 10: a Doctor Dre's song on and I was like, I
Speaker 10: got to see him in concert. He was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 10: when was that.
Speaker 3: So you're coming off your bye week and basically during
Speaker 3: this time period you lost one of your closest friends
Speaker 3: off the roster. You haven't lost him as a friend,
Speaker 3: but you and Logan Wilson were tight, Your wives were tight,
Speaker 3: Your daughters were born at basically the same time.
Speaker 10: Was that tough for you, Yeah, you know, it's tough
Speaker 10: to seeing a good friend like Logan go. But I
Speaker 10: feel like, like I've said, I feel like we're still
Speaker 10: gonna stay in touch obviously, because I feel like of
Speaker 10: how close our friendship is. You know, it sucks that
Speaker 10: I'm not gonna get to see him day to day,
Speaker 10: but you know, I can always keep in touch with him.
Speaker 10: I know our wives will more than likely text every
Speaker 10: single day just to keep up and see how each
Speaker 10: other are doing. But I feel like I'm more sad
Speaker 10: for our daughters. They really did enjoy spending time together,
Speaker 10: and Morgan and Cambry, their daughter, actually spent the night
Speaker 10: with us last week before they flew out because their
Speaker 10: home was gutted into they needed a bed to sleep
Speaker 10: in one last night, and so we had them over
Speaker 10: and the girls got to play together and fight for
Speaker 10: a few hours, and they fight like sisters and they're
Speaker 10: hilarious together.
Speaker 3: Refresh my memory. Were your wives like an adjacent hospital
Speaker 3: rooms or something like that.
Speaker 10: Yeah, the thing was me and my wife got there
Speaker 10: March fourteenth, and we had our daughter at like four
Speaker 10: point thirty seven on the fifteenth am and then Logan
Speaker 10: and his wife came in that afternoon and had their
Speaker 10: daughter and so on the recovery floor we shared a wall.
Speaker 10: That's crazy and that was kind of wild. And then
Speaker 10: they came in a few days I think the next
Speaker 10: day and introduced everybody. Everybody got to see each other
Speaker 10: and it was a fun experience.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're gonna have fun when you guys have your reunions.
Speaker 4: And yeah, ten or fifteen years down the road, it's like, oh, yeah, gee,
Speaker 4: what's so Oh he got into uh investment world and
Speaker 4: he's a multi gazillionaire now. And you know, I think
Speaker 4: that this football team has a bunch of guys that
Speaker 4: are really smart, you know, I mean, yeah, very smart
Speaker 4: raw football raw IQ and then football IQ as well.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be really interesting with some of these guys
Speaker 4: do down the road.
Speaker 10: Yeah, you know, that's always the fun thing is like
Speaker 10: what to do after football? Right, everybody's got their their
Speaker 10: thing that they're interested in. And we've got a few
Speaker 10: different ones that you wouldn't even think about, like with
Speaker 10: Marco Wilson in his fashion he's got his own clothing brand,
Speaker 10: and yeah, long snapper Will Wagner, he majored in he's
Speaker 10: a it's an engineering guy, isn't Yeah, what is it mechanical?
Speaker 10: I don't know if he's a mechanical engineer, but yeah,
Speaker 10: he got his engineering degree. And if you maybe, if
Speaker 10: you talk to him, wouldn't even believe it. I get
Speaker 10: a hard time, but yeah, you know, we got a
Speaker 10: lot of unique guys on this team, a lot of
Speaker 10: good guys, and we all have our little special skills,
Speaker 10: right right.
Speaker 3: So the big news of this week was Joe Burrow's
Speaker 3: return to practice on a limited basis on Monday. We
Speaker 3: heard earlier on this show that Jamar Chase and t Higgins,
Speaker 3: two of his closest buddies, didn't even know he was
Speaker 3: kind of back. What about you?
Speaker 10: Uh, you know, you can't can't reveal too many, too
Speaker 10: many sources, But I mean I had an idea of
Speaker 10: what he was looking at to kind of get back to.
Speaker 10: But I can tell you if you didn't ask, you
Speaker 10: were not gonna know, because you know, Joe's not the
Speaker 10: guy that's going to tell you face to face like
Speaker 10: what he's thinking about. But fiig, you're gonna have to
Speaker 10: go out and ask. And so I had an idea
Speaker 10: of whenever he wanted to return. But I can definitely
Speaker 10: see where some guys are like, oh.
Speaker 3: What's your practice today.
Speaker 10: But it's impressive to see his rehab and how hard
Speaker 10: he's going at it and how much effort he's putting
Speaker 10: into it. You can really tell that he didn't want
Speaker 10: to let it be a season ending injury after a
Speaker 10: couple of years ago.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that's the thing with this everybody as a
Speaker 4: group on this football team, we talked about the makeup
Speaker 4: of the character of the football team, not only the
Speaker 4: intellectual abilities of a lot of the player, but the
Speaker 4: you know, the football toughness, the mentality, gonna go get
Speaker 4: get it, gonna get after it, not gonna miss. They're
Speaker 4: saying I'm gonna miss. The three minds say I'm gonna
Speaker 4: be back in a month and a half, two months. Yeah,
Speaker 4: And Joe Borrow kind of leads the charge there, you know,
Speaker 4: I mean, he he knows that guys are looking at him,
Speaker 4: looking up to him, and the bottom line is he
Speaker 4: wants to play. I mean, then this is this is
Speaker 4: what he's a football player and he uh yeah, he's
Speaker 4: at his happiest and his best when he's not leading
Speaker 4: the football team.
Speaker 3: Right for sure.
Speaker 10: Yeah, he's a really tough guy, and I think he's
Speaker 10: uh shown that over the whatever six years that he's
Speaker 10: been here, willing to play through injury and put the
Speaker 10: team kind of first. And he's been really good about
Speaker 10: being a leader vocally just showing out on the field.
Speaker 10: And you know, I think a lot of guys would
Speaker 10: be excited to get him back, and I think a
Speaker 10: lot of guys are excited to see him back out
Speaker 10: there just kind of going through all of what he
Speaker 10: needs to get back on the field.
Speaker 3: And in the meantime, Joe Flatto has done an incredible.
Speaker 4: Amazing job.
Speaker 3: I find it impossible to imagine how he's pulled this
Speaker 3: off with a limited number of reps he's had with
Speaker 3: the team, and Bengals have averaged more than thirty two
Speaker 3: points a game in the four games that he started.
Speaker 3: Would have been your biggest impressions of your your forty
Speaker 3: year old quarterback?
Speaker 10: Yeah, the guy that could probably be my father, you know,
Speaker 10: Joseh Yeah, he started you. You know, he's a really
Speaker 10: cool guy. You can tell, you know that he's been
Speaker 10: doing it for a long time. It doesn't take a lot,
Speaker 10: I feel like for him to be prepared for the
Speaker 10: moment because he's been in that moment for so many years.
Speaker 10: And you can tell that he's NFL MVP, super Bowl Champion,
Speaker 10: super Bowl MVP just by the way he carries himself,
Speaker 10: like throughout the locker room and just keep in his
Speaker 10: body in check and keeping it healthy. And there's the
Speaker 10: way he carries himself is really impressive. And you know,
Speaker 10: he is a really personable guy and he likes to
Speaker 10: chat it up and just kind of talk about anything.
Speaker 10: And that's kind of what's been cool for me is
Speaker 10: you know, not that I watched a lot in NFL football,
Speaker 10: but I knew who Joe Flacco was growing up. So
Speaker 10: it's really cool just to put like a human perspective
Speaker 10: on Joe Flacco and not just like the football version.
Speaker 3: How old were you in twenty twelve?
Speaker 10: I was twelve depending on the year thirteen.
Speaker 3: So that's when he won the Super Bowl. You're a
Speaker 3: twelve year old kid when he was leading the Ravens
Speaker 3: Super Bowl title. Yeah, amazing, yep, Now your teammates.
Speaker 10: Exactly he is.
Speaker 4: He is a kind of a one of a kind,
Speaker 4: yeah sort of guy. I mean, I hear you know
Speaker 4: a lot of players saying how much of an impact
Speaker 4: he made in such a short period, It's that's tough
Speaker 4: to do. Yeah, but joined the team, you know, after
Speaker 4: you know, an x period of time. Everybody's going from together.
Speaker 4: Different guys have different friends, different yonds, and for him
Speaker 4: to be uh, to be part of that as quickly
Speaker 4: as he has forget the football part of it just
Speaker 4: to become part of the the the organization, and a
Speaker 4: lot of it is his character, right, I mean he's
Speaker 4: a high character guy. That's uh uh Yeah, He's all
Speaker 4: about success.
Speaker 10: He's driven for sure, and I think he's a great
Speaker 10: locker room guy. And I feel like coming into this
Speaker 10: organization and this team, I feel like he probably had
Speaker 10: to feel pretty good with with five and one r
Speaker 10: out there running outs for him, no doubt, he's probably
Speaker 10: all I gotta do is back and just throw it
Speaker 10: up and they're gonna come down with it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely works.
Speaker 10: So but no, he's been a great addition, uh, great
Speaker 10: guy to having the locker room, great guy to have
Speaker 10: on the field obviously, and I feel like he's going
Speaker 10: to continue to lead this team, uh where we need
Speaker 10: to go.
Speaker 3: All right, We're going to take our final time out
Speaker 3: when we come back we will play America's favorite game show,
Speaker 3: Know Your School. Five questions about the University of Florida
Speaker 3: for former Gator Evan McPherson. This is the Bengals pep
Speaker 3: Rally Show Live from the on the Rhine Eatery on
Speaker 3: ESPN fifteen thirty. Final segment of the Bengals pep Rally Show,
Speaker 3: presented by Just Fair Chicken, Live from the on the
Speaker 3: Rhine Eatery here in downtown Cincinnati. We are getting ready
Speaker 3: for the Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers coming up on Sunday
Speaker 3: at one o'clock at Akroshuer Stadium. Our special guest today
Speaker 3: and we really appreciate him joining us. He does it
Speaker 3: every year, Bengals kicker Evan McPherson. We've reached the final
Speaker 3: segment of the show, and that means it is time
Speaker 3: for America's favorite game show. We call it No Your School.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, we've done this with you before, so I
Speaker 3: hope I came up with different questions. We've got five
Speaker 3: questions about the University of Florida for a former Gator,
Speaker 3: Money Matt, Are you ready need to get at least
Speaker 3: three rights?
Speaker 10: All right?
Speaker 3: To be declared a winner? Let's start easy. Florida has
Speaker 3: had three Heisman Trophy winners, the most recent in two
Speaker 3: thousand and seven, named the Gator lefty who won the
Speaker 3: Heisman that year.
Speaker 10: That's tough, Tim Tebow.
Speaker 3: Tim Tebow is correct?
Speaker 10: Can I name the other two?
Speaker 3: Sure? Go ahead?
Speaker 10: I mean Steve Spurrier, correct, Steve Superior, Danny Warfore, you.
Speaker 3: Are right here we go now he's showing off. Bus
Speaker 3: questions are gonna have to be harder next time. And
Speaker 3: by the way, I heard audience participation. No, I frown
Speaker 3: at audience participation. Question number two.
Speaker 10: I can't hear who da is here?
Speaker 3: So this is a good question. Florida has two alligator
Speaker 3: mascow Albert and alberta.
Speaker 2: Ooohh boy, how about that boom?
Speaker 4: How about that boom?
Speaker 3: He's two for two. The most famous building on campus,
Speaker 3: Oh I think we is one hundred and fifty seven
Speaker 3: feet tall and features sixty one bells. What is the name?
Speaker 10: This was a question last time and I didn't know it,
Speaker 10: and I still don't know it.
Speaker 3: I don't remember it. It's going to keep being the
Speaker 3: question until you get this right. Century Tower, Centry Tower,
Speaker 3: Cree Tower. Two questions left you need to get at
Speaker 3: least win, right, all right, to be a winner. You're
Speaker 3: Alma Mater won the NCAA basketball championship last year. Okay,
Speaker 3: four players averaged ten or more points scoring. Boy, can
Speaker 3: you name one?
Speaker 10: I know one was like number one.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 3: That was probably Walter Clayton. It was really good. Elijah Martin,
Speaker 3: not gonna Will Richard and Alex Condon.
Speaker 10: I didn't watch one game.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 10: I watched the National championship game, and then I threw
Speaker 10: up a post like I watched every game. After they won, they.
Speaker 3: Tried to claim was the biggest by that I've done worse.
Speaker 3: All Right, It all comes down to this question. Dave
Speaker 3: Lapham is going to know the answer to this question.
Speaker 3: We'll see if you do name the former Gator played
Speaker 3: with Dave Lapham in Super Bowl sixteen who can now
Speaker 3: be heard every week on Sunday Night football.
Speaker 10: You know, he's a neighbor of mine, so I didn't know. No,
Speaker 10: he's not. He's not actually my neighbor. We just live
Speaker 10: in the same like city because his wife drug him
Speaker 10: there Thomas. Yep, she's born and raised Fort Thomas. And
Speaker 10: she said, we're not leaving. And the answer is Chris Collins.
Speaker 3: Chris Collin correct number.
Speaker 10: Eight, Chris, his wife and few kids. They were at
Speaker 10: the we go to Tower Park a lot and him
Speaker 10: and his grandkids were there one day when we were
Speaker 10: and it was cool to see him, you know, just
Speaker 10: being a granddad and a father, and he was running
Speaker 10: around going down slides, swinging. Uh So it's just fun
Speaker 10: to see him out about like that. Yeah, he's a
Speaker 10: great dude.
Speaker 4: Do you remember a linebacker that played at Florida by
Speaker 4: the name of Glenn Cameron. Do you remember that name?
Speaker 4: He was a first round pick of the Bengals back
Speaker 4: in the late seventies. We were good friends and his
Speaker 4: wife Liz and my wife Limb good buddies. And we
Speaker 4: started a T shirt company called Pro t Shirts that
Speaker 4: was around for a little bit.
Speaker 3: Your a T shirt guy, left shirt man.
Speaker 4: We had this one. It was like the excellon Tiger
Speaker 4: and it was yipe stripes we put on there and
Speaker 4: then every player signed it. And it was like, right
Speaker 4: after the Super Bowl sixteen.
Speaker 3: Do you make some bank?
Speaker 4: Got the kids from school?
Speaker 15: You know.
Speaker 3: The table. I didn't realize you were the entrepreneur of
Speaker 3: this group. Suppressed my man cranking out T shirts back
Speaker 3: in the day. All right, You're heading to Pittsburgh Sunday
Speaker 3: one o'clock game against the Steelers. Yep, that's notoriously a
Speaker 3: tough place to kick, between the wind and the field.
Speaker 3: Pitt plays Notre Dame there tomorrow, so the field's going
Speaker 3: to get chewed up, of course. Is it the toughest
Speaker 3: place to kick?
Speaker 10: Toughest, Uh, it's up there, up there, up there. I've
Speaker 10: always struggled in Cleveland for whatever reason. Uh, you know,
Speaker 10: put a complete game together this past year, which felt good.
Speaker 10: So we'll put the struggles behind us in Cleveland. And
Speaker 10: I feel like, for the most part, I've always had
Speaker 10: pretty good games in Pittsburgh. The wind hasn't ever been
Speaker 10: really too crazy there. I remember my rookie year, I
Speaker 10: got a little breezy and the field was kind of
Speaker 10: chewed up. But the other two times we played at nine,
Speaker 10: we're kind of midday, and I think they resided like
Speaker 10: right before we came. So grass was great when wasn't
Speaker 10: too bad as it has been freezing when I've played there.
Speaker 10: But you know, I've put it. I've put together a
Speaker 10: few good games in Pittsburgh, so I've always enjoyed it.
Speaker 10: It's a fun stadium, fun environment to play in. Crowd
Speaker 10: really gets into it and the towels waving and whatnot.
Speaker 10: They got good traditions there, So I always enjoy going
Speaker 10: to UH.
Speaker 3: To Pittsburgh Renegade at some point in the second half
Speaker 3: get the defense.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean, I always love a good tradition and
Speaker 10: just getting to watch other teams kind of traditions and
Speaker 10: like the Vikings had a really cool like intro video
Speaker 10: that I get to watch, and like Pittsburgh with the
Speaker 10: the Renegade. It's you know, I'm just big on like traditions,
Speaker 10: and I won't not enjoy somebody's traditions just because I'm
Speaker 10: playing against them. You know, I'm gonna sit there, I'm
Speaker 10: gonna be like, oh, it's cool, let's just go beat
Speaker 10: them and send everybody home upset.
Speaker 3: Now, see, you're more mature than I am. Because I
Speaker 3: can't like anything about the Pittsburgh Steelers, I can't blame you.
Speaker 3: I always refer to them as the dreaded, hated, but
Speaker 3: grudgingly respected Pittsburgh Steeling. So like the fact that you
Speaker 3: can enjoy their traditions even as you try to beat them.
Speaker 10: Yeah, you know, it's really cool something.
Speaker 4: If a kicker is struggling in the league, do the
Speaker 4: is it a big fraternity to the other kickers kind
Speaker 4: of everybody take somebody to reach out to them and say, hey,
Speaker 4: look we're thinking about you. We noticed it. You might
Speaker 4: be doing this, or you might want to try this.
Speaker 4: You guys do any of that.
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 10: Not really?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 10: I feel like if anybody is struggling or anybody has
Speaker 10: any questions, they'll reach out.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 10: But I will say, if I have a really close
Speaker 10: friend that I'm like in speaking terms with like regularly, yeah,
Speaker 10: I'll reach out to him, see how he's feeling, what
Speaker 10: what he's thinking about, and kind of what's going through
Speaker 10: his head. So I feel like in certain instances, yeah,
Speaker 10: that would be the case.
Speaker 3: All Right, we are just about out of time. A
Speaker 3: few thank yous are in order. Thank you to our engineer,
Speaker 3: Mike Mills pipe man came down early and set everything
Speaker 3: up even though he didn't know the show started two
Speaker 3: thirty today, so we appreciate how early Mike comes. Thanks
Speaker 3: to Drew Wester Heidi back in the studio. Thanks to
Speaker 3: Nicky Growl who helped us out with the autographs today.
Speaker 3: Thank you to the manager here Nick. Thanks to George,
Speaker 3: you're bringing us food. Most of all, thank you to
Speaker 3: our special guest, Evan mcphersource and thank you to the
Speaker 3: Bengals fans who came out to be part of the show.
Speaker 3: If you bear listening too, the Bengals pep Rally Show
Speaker 3: on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2: This was Bengals pep Rally presented by Just Baird Chicken
Speaker 2: on the Bengals Radio Network. Pay Corps. Pay Corp is
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Speaker 2: fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals,