Speaker 1: Seven hundred WLW. We are up and running on a
Speaker 1: Friday night of Verneil Carrier Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet.
Speaker 1: Very excited to welcome in My first guest covers the
Speaker 1: Bengals for CLNS sincywithwy dot Com, host of the Jungle
Speaker 1: Roar podcast on YouTube. He's already dropped today's latest episode.
Speaker 1: It's an excellent listen. That would be the man we
Speaker 1: call Trags, Mike Petrellia. Mike, you were there. Let's start
Speaker 1: broad and then we'll narrow it down. Give us your
Speaker 1: general reaction to the sixty three minutes or so with
Speaker 1: Duke Tobin.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's a loaded question, Lamb. Well, I guess my
Speaker 2: general reaction is good on the Bengals to make him available.
Speaker 2: It was a very performative and perfunctory press conference. What
Speaker 2: do I mean by that? I think it was there.
Speaker 2: I think it was held so that Duke Tobin could
Speaker 2: show his faith on behalf of the front office and
Speaker 2: ownership and give their perspective on what happened this past year.
Speaker 2: It was also a pr ploy and an intelligent pr
Speaker 2: ploy to offer some sympathy to the incredibly frustrated fan base.
Speaker 2: That is why you heard Duke Tobin say multiple times
Speaker 2: that they are disheartened by Bengal fans being disheartened and
Speaker 2: that they are all about trying to change the narrative
Speaker 2: by dedicating themselves to improving the roster this offseason. So
Speaker 2: when it comes to the nuts and bolts, the x's
Speaker 2: and o's of how they're going to go about it,
Speaker 2: the people making those decisions aren't going to change. You're
Speaker 2: not going to have any additions to the scouting department,
Speaker 2: You're not going to have any additions to the Pro
Speaker 2: Football Operations staff, the one that does the evaluations in
Speaker 2: free agency, for instance, Duke Tobin is not going to
Speaker 2: hire an assistant or two to help him evaluate talent.
Speaker 2: He's not going to do that. And what I was
Speaker 2: left with is feeling like, well, they're just going to
Speaker 2: run it back with the same people. And at the
Speaker 2: very end of the sixty three minutes, we got an
Speaker 2: insight to what he meant by that, and that is
Speaker 2: that the technique of what they do this offseason is
Speaker 2: going to be a little bit different, meaning the personnel
Speaker 2: and the scouting department are going to try and tweak
Speaker 2: what they do. The coaching staff is going to come
Speaker 2: back with different schemes, and there's going to be a
Speaker 2: little bit of emphasis on the players to do their
Speaker 2: jobs better. That's what I was left with in tragues.
Speaker 1: When it comes to why we should believe they can
Speaker 1: fix this, the go to answer seems to be because
Speaker 1: we've done it before. And I think that we have
Speaker 1: a lot of fans shaking their hands.
Speaker 2: Well, here's why it does. What happened in nineteen eighty one,
Speaker 2: what happened in nineteen eighty eight? What has happened so
Speaker 2: far after twenty twenty one? All three of those years
Speaker 2: that I just mentioned, of course were Super Bowl years. Well,
Speaker 2: within three years the team was headed down the slide
Speaker 2: to oblivion. Now in eighty eight they made it back
Speaker 2: after seven years and fine, But in three more years
Speaker 2: after eighty eight, what happened? They went into the dark
Speaker 2: dark ages of Bengal football. And they've been to the
Speaker 2: playoffs lance twice in ten years. Skinny on my podcast
Speaker 2: also mentioned that, and he was the one who asked
Speaker 2: Duke today, well, you've been to the playoffs just twice
Speaker 2: in ten years, why should any fan bel leave that
Speaker 2: you're capable of turning things around? You and your staff
Speaker 2: and Duke again came back with the answer, We've done
Speaker 2: it before. I believe in the people we have in
Speaker 2: the building. Well, you may believe in the people you
Speaker 2: have in the building, but your fan base doesn't and
Speaker 2: the results aren't there. And he mentioned many times today
Speaker 2: Lance that the effort and the dedication of the coaching
Speaker 2: staff and the young players is exceptional. Well, that's great,
Speaker 2: and you see improvement in the young players terrific. Where's
Speaker 2: the production and the NFL, as is any major league sport,
Speaker 2: professional sport, it's all about production, and the Bengals production
Speaker 2: the last three years has been very poor. Last year
Speaker 2: they had a winning record, but they were nine and eight, Lance,
Speaker 2: they were four and eight with Joe Burrow starting all
Speaker 2: twelve of those games, and of course he started all seventeen.
Speaker 2: There's a serious fundamental flaw in the players that are
Speaker 2: being put around Joe Burrow, certainly on the defensive side
Speaker 2: of the ball.
Speaker 1: And you alluded to the scouting aspect of all this,
Speaker 1: and he really doubled down on the fact that despite
Speaker 1: we all know how small the department is, his belief
Speaker 1: that they have all the information they need.
Speaker 2: They believe that they would rather have fewer voices contributing
Speaker 2: to the pie, if you will, fewer chefs making the
Speaker 2: meal because too many chefs ruin the meal. And they
Speaker 2: have believed that for forty forty five years, Lance, and
Speaker 2: it's not going to change now it is.
Speaker 1: I get still worked up over this. I got to
Speaker 1: take a breath. He also mentioned finishing in the big
Speaker 1: aspect of being able to finish games, and yet is
Speaker 1: what's frustrating to me trags. While he pointed out the
Speaker 1: troubles finishing this year, they had troubles finishing last year
Speaker 1: and it wasn't fixed.
Speaker 2: So it just that's not a question. It's all land. Yes,
Speaker 2: what is the natural logical deduction you take from that? Well,
Speaker 2: if you can't finish games, it's coaching. So I interrupted
Speaker 2: Duke and I said, well, Duke, you know what that means.
Speaker 2: It means that falls at the feet of Zach and
Speaker 2: his coaching staff. What do you think of them? And
Speaker 2: then he went into this flowery uh commendation and praise
Speaker 2: of Zach Taylor. And I agree, having covered Zach Taylor
Speaker 2: now for five full seasons, he's one of the brightest
Speaker 2: football people I have ever been around. But that doesn't
Speaker 2: mean necessarily he's a good head coach and a situational coach,
Speaker 2: especially at the end of games. What did Duke point
Speaker 2: out this afternoon, Specifically, we have losing DNA at the
Speaker 2: end of games. Players make too many mistakes. They don't
Speaker 2: wrap up on tack like Jordan Battle at the end
Speaker 2: of the Bears game. He pointed that game out specifically today,
Speaker 2: which really means to me that game stuck in his
Speaker 2: craw And you know, as much as the Browns game
Speaker 2: was a microcosm of the season, that Bears game ticked
Speaker 2: everybody off in the organization. And I'm sorry, but you've
Speaker 2: got to have better coaching to teach the technique. Jordan
Speaker 2: Battle is not a rookie and he, as much as
Speaker 2: Duke Tobin pointed him out as perhaps one of the
Speaker 2: cornerstones of the defense going forward. You've got to be
Speaker 2: much much better if you're Jordan Battle going forward. And
Speaker 2: I think it's up to the coaching staff to take
Speaker 2: a long, hard look at how they're going to get
Speaker 2: Jordan Battle to be more productive, because right now I
Speaker 2: don't think I see it drags.
Speaker 1: It seems pretty clear based on what he said and
Speaker 1: how many times he referenced it, and emphasis will be
Speaker 1: on improving, upgrading that defensive line and pressure on the quarterback.
Speaker 2: Yep, he's all about pressure in the quarterback. He said
Speaker 2: that a couple of times this afternoon, Lance that you
Speaker 2: got to get after the quarterback. And rebuilding the defense
Speaker 2: to Duke Tobin means rebuilding along the defensive line. And
Speaker 2: he mentioned by name in twenty twenty one and in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty DJ Reader and Larry Ogan Jobi, and he
Speaker 2: needs to go back to the drawing now. DJ Reader
Speaker 2: is a free agent this year, but he's not the
Speaker 2: same player he was five years ago. Let's not get
Speaker 2: too far ahead of ourselves. But Duke Tobin and his
Speaker 2: personnel staff have to go out in free agency, spend
Speaker 2: the limit and find those players that they sailed to
Speaker 2: find last year.
Speaker 1: Sixty three minutes, approximately forty seven questions asked. You are
Speaker 1: the president of the Cincinnati chapter the Pro Football Writers'
Speaker 1: Association of America. Were you happy with the execution of
Speaker 1: the group today? I thought it was an impressive performance.
Speaker 2: I was. I mean, that's a lot of questions to
Speaker 2: be asked, and it is a logistical challenge, to say
Speaker 2: the least, to give the beat people their proper opportunities
Speaker 2: to ask questions. Myself, Paul Danner, Junior, Richard Skinner, James Rapine,
Speaker 2: Kelsey Conway, who did a fabulous job today, had three
Speaker 2: questions actually typed up so that when she had her opportunity,
Speaker 2: she got all three questions in. But also it was
Speaker 2: an opportunity, as I said, this was performative for TV
Speaker 2: folks to get all their questions in. And I thought,
Speaker 2: given how lumbering environment this is, I think it was.
Speaker 2: I think it was held pretty well. And here's what
Speaker 2: I was happy about. It never got to the point
Speaker 2: where somebody was show voting and trying to show up Duke.
Speaker 2: Because what I was concerned about going in is there's
Speaker 2: a lot of raw emotion from the fan base, and
Speaker 2: a lot of reporters got questions like for comments and dms,
Speaker 2: we're counting on you, We're counting on you. And yes,
Speaker 2: we definitely felt the obligation to ask the questions that
Speaker 2: needed to be asked for the fans, but you have
Speaker 2: to do it in a manner where it's respectful to
Speaker 2: Duke Tobin, and I thought it was. I thought it
Speaker 2: came off very well in that regard. And one more thing,
Speaker 2: one more thing. Good on Duke Tobin to take time
Speaker 2: out at the very beginning to you know, send out
Speaker 2: sympathy to Jay Morrison, who I think we all know
Speaker 2: now has been through hell and he lost his wife obviously, Nikki.
Speaker 2: And for Duke Tobin to you know, start the press conference.
Speaker 2: I actually think it was good because kind of kept
Speaker 2: everything in perspective. So good on Duke for doing that.
Speaker 1: Trags, You've had a busy day and you were all
Speaker 1: over this. Tell listeners how they can watch, read and follow.
Speaker 2: Sure we have the reactions and my takeaways up on
Speaker 2: the X at Trags t r Ags colns since with
Speaker 2: a y dot com. We'll have a column up later today,
Speaker 2: later tonight or tomorrow, and the Jungle War Podcast with
Speaker 2: Richard Skinner is up on YouTube dot com at Jungle
Speaker 2: War Pod. My apologies in advance. My sound is a
Speaker 2: little low, so you might have to type me up
Speaker 2: just a little bit when I'm talking.
Speaker 1: Treg's final thought, and I'm late for news, but I
Speaker 1: wanted to publicly thank you for your weekly, year long
Speaker 1: contributions to the Roundtable Show. You made our show better.
Speaker 1: Your appearances are much appreciated. We look forward to doing
Speaker 1: again next year, and I hope I can bug you
Speaker 1: before then.
Speaker 2: You got it, Lance anytime, Thanks to you.
Speaker 1: There you go, Mike Petrellia trags all right when we
Speaker 1: come back. My thoughts, Your thoughts, let's say, exchange ideas.
Speaker 1: RNL carry or Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet seven
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