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Speaker 1: This is Football in the NATI, brought to you by

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Speaker 1: Modern office Methods on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home

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Speaker 1: of the Cincinnati Bengal.

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Speaker 2: Twenty three after four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Moeger.

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Speaker 2: We spend time every Thursday chatting with Robert windrab right say,

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Speaker 2: weekly Bengals column for Cincinnati Magazine. You could read it

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Speaker 2: right now while we're having this conversation at Cincinnati Magazine

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Speaker 2: dot com. Robert, how are we doing well?

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Speaker 3: I don't want people to have divided attention spans, So

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Speaker 3: let's wait until the commercial break. Then you can look

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Speaker 3: at my piece and read it at your leisure.

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Speaker 2: How about just wait until after the show so you

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Speaker 2: can completely engage and the message is provided by our

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Speaker 2: loyal advertisers.

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Speaker 3: Even better scenario, Thanks you for correct Thanks.

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Speaker 4: There you go.

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Speaker 2: You know, all is right with the world. Joe Burrow

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Speaker 2: is back, and he reminded after he knocked off some

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Speaker 2: rusts early in that game, reminded the world that he's,

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Speaker 2: you know, pretty good.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. It's just such a transformative figure. It really is amazing,

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Speaker 3: isn't it. I mean, Zach Taylor looks like a genius.

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Speaker 3: Sal Golden looks confident, even like Brown looks like he's,

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Speaker 3: you know, got some idea of what's going on as

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Speaker 3: long as Joe Burrow's out there and playing. And you know,

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Speaker 3: it might have been a little fluky, but yeah, the

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Speaker 3: Bengals have nine takeaways and ten quarters with Joe Burrow playing,

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Speaker 3: and that they gets six turnovers in the other thirty

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Speaker 3: eight quarters with the backups in there. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 3: maybe there's not a direct A to B line on

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Speaker 3: that and it's a little fluky, but I don't think so.

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Speaker 3: I don't think the Bengals players think so either. You

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Speaker 3: could see just the way they rally them and everybody

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Speaker 3: knows this. It's nothing new. You know, your franchise quarterback

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Speaker 3: obviously makes is the ultimate disinfected, right, and he makes everything.

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Speaker 3: When he's gone, the warts appear, and when he's out

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Speaker 3: there things are much more rosy. So we saw that

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Speaker 3: with Joe. I don't know if I was expecting to

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Speaker 3: be quite that obvious in his first game back, but

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Speaker 3: you know, the hard cleats or whatever it is he's

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Speaker 3: wearing is obviously has magical powers and it was great

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Speaker 3: for at least one weekend to you know, Thursday night, anyway,

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Speaker 3: to be reminded of what we've been missing over the

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Speaker 3: last whatever it's been two and a half months, I mean,

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Speaker 3: and what we've really been robbed over these first six

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Speaker 3: years of his career with twenty plus starts missed, you know.

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Speaker 3: I mean, it's you know, that's looking negativity on what

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Speaker 3: should be a bit of an optimistic week. But still

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Speaker 3: it made me a little wistful seeing the Bengals and

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Speaker 3: Burrow play so well and reminded me of what we've

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Speaker 3: been missing out on with him out. But at least

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Speaker 3: for now, it's all good.

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Speaker 2: How'd you feel at halftime when he had dropped back

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Speaker 2: thirty three times?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I was a little surprised by that too. I

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Speaker 3: guess it was all that preseason action. Yeah, that was

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Speaker 3: for that, right, Yeah, it was a lot, no question

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Speaker 3: about it. And you know, but it's Joe Burrow. You

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Speaker 3: just see him telling Zach Taylor out of the game. Hey,

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Speaker 3: no restrictions, you know, no restrictor plate Let's go call

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Speaker 3: the game as we would. That's the matchup. They wanted

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Speaker 3: to take advance. They thought they, you know, could get

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Speaker 3: the ball moving better through the air, and that's usually

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Speaker 3: the case with Joe out there, even with see Higgins

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Speaker 3: out so a little surprising, and you know, you always

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Speaker 3: worry in the back of your mind when he drops

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Speaker 3: back a lot like that that maybe it's not the

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Speaker 3: best idea. But and he got through the game and

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Speaker 3: we know what he's capable of, and it was it

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Speaker 3: worked out. So as long as it keeps working out,

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Speaker 3: I'm fine with it. Let's let's hope they get a

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Speaker 3: more balance attack going forward down.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no question. You you wrote about the Bengals

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Speaker 2: blitzing Lamar, blitz the Bejesus out of him. First time

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Speaker 2: I've used the word but Jesus on this show. So

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Speaker 2: I've wondered this, right, especially for a team that like

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Speaker 2: linebacker in particular, you got guys who aren't good at coverage,

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Speaker 2: So why don't you send him in the other direction

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Speaker 2: and just have them go after the quarterback? Should they

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Speaker 2: start just pretty much blitzing everybody?

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Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I think you see, and you and l

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Speaker 3: Golden are thinking alike in that scenario. Whether that's worth Yeah,

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Speaker 3: they've definitely up to their blitzing. Take and listen, I mean,

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Speaker 3: there are a lot of guys and a lot of

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Speaker 3: offenses you don't blitz. I mean, maybe it's counterintuitive, but

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Speaker 3: Aaron Rodgers is one of the least blitzed quarterbacks in

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Speaker 3: the league. So it is the attack of Baila and

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Speaker 3: why their whole offenses are geared toward getting the ball

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Speaker 3: out really fast and throwing the guys who the linebackers

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Speaker 3: and safeties, guys who normally blitz would ordinarily be covering.

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Speaker 3: So you know, you think in that scenario you don't

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Speaker 3: want to do it quite so much. But your point

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Speaker 3: is valid in that the Bengals have to get some

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Speaker 3: pressure from anywhere. They've been dying for it all year.

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Speaker 3: They're still playing without Trey Hendrickson and Shabbar Stewart, and

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Speaker 3: it's just, you know, you're at the point now where

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Speaker 3: you've got to find that pressure from anywhere. And you

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Speaker 3: saw on Thursday what that meant to a team when

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Speaker 3: they can actually get heat on the opposed quarterback. They

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Speaker 3: might not get five turnovers every game by doing it,

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Speaker 3: but I don't think there's any question they'll be blissing

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Speaker 3: a lot Josh Allen and everyone else they play on

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Speaker 3: down the line. They get Lamar again, he's the most

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Speaker 3: blitzed quarterback in the league, and when he's not one

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Speaker 3: hundred percent, you know, the Bengals have done it before.

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Speaker 3: They've gone after a hymn rumentlessly. And I think you'll

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Speaker 3: he'll definitely see a blitz heavy package for the for

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Speaker 3: the last few games of the season, no question about it.

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Speaker 2: Robert win trub is with excuse me, Robert wind Trump

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Speaker 2: is with a Cincinnati magazine dot com. He also contributes

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Speaker 2: to a website FTN Fantasy And this time of year,

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Speaker 2: a lot of folks love to hit refresh on their

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Speaker 2: DVOA odds. Right, So the Bengals right now six point

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Speaker 2: six percent, which is basically loaded up on the AFC

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Speaker 2: North six point five percent. How are DVOA odds calculated?

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Speaker 3: Well, you start with the overall efficiency of the team,

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Speaker 3: which is DVOA. Bengals pretty low in that category still

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Speaker 3: despite the win on Thursday and many we play out

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Speaker 3: the season twenty for the remainder of the season in

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Speaker 3: its entirety, twenty five thousand times with the supercomputer in

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Speaker 3: the back room, I think his name is Gene, and uh,

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Speaker 3: you know, you take we take recent events into account,

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Speaker 3: kind of waited a little bit, so the most recent

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Speaker 3: games and you know, things like Joe Joe Burrow coming

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Speaker 3: back are taken into account, and many take those twenty

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Speaker 3: five thousand scenarios and you get the average wins and

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Speaker 3: losses from it, put into a spreadsheet and see what

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Speaker 3: happens overall in that scenario as it pertains to the Bengals,

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Speaker 3: as you say, only six percent of the time, six

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Speaker 3: point six percent of the time. Today, you know match

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Speaker 3: basically to win out and steal the AFC North. And

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Speaker 3: you know that's not that surprising, right, I mean, it's

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Speaker 3: hard for any NFL team in any scenario to win

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Speaker 3: five or six straight games. I mean that's not asked.

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Speaker 3: That asking a lot for any team. But this proof

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Speaker 3: of concept, you know we did last year, seldom make

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Speaker 3: the rundown the stretch, win five straight and if not

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Speaker 3: for the Chiefs turtling, do exactly what they are trying

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Speaker 3: to do this year, which is, you know, turn a

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Speaker 3: depressing three months into an amazing last month and and

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Speaker 3: come from way back in the pack and do it.

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Speaker 3: So you know, the playoff odds would definitely go up

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Speaker 3: if they beat Buffalo. And you have to remember to

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Speaker 3: Raid and the Steelers play each other, and one of

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Speaker 3: their odds are going to go down and it's gonna

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Speaker 3: you know, as long as they keep winning, those ads

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Speaker 3: will go up and up. That's all we can really

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Speaker 3: hope for this time of year.

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Speaker 2: I would describe right now a Raven Steelers game as

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Speaker 2: a pillow fight. And I don't know that at any

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Speaker 2: point I ever envisioned myself saying that about those two

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Speaker 2: teams playing against each other.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's kind of hard to believe. Right there's two

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Speaker 3: rock ribbed franchises right now just don't have much booms

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Speaker 3: behind anything they're doing. And you know, again, especially in

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Speaker 3: Baltimore's case, a lot of that is tied to the

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Speaker 3: health of the quarterback. Just like we were talking about

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Speaker 3: with the Bengals, Lamar Jackson not himself, and they're a

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Speaker 3: very mortal team, and all the things that you think

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Speaker 3: about as being strengths are not really the case. And

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Speaker 3: it all ties back into the fact that their quarterback

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Speaker 3: is injured. And with Pittsburgh, you know, I think to

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Speaker 3: coin a phrase or was it Dennis Green who said

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Speaker 3: they are who we thought they were? You know, a

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Speaker 3: team coming down the stretch with an ancient quarterback, not

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Speaker 3: much of an offensive plan. You know, guy spending a

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Speaker 3: lot of money on the defense that really isn't that capable.

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Speaker 3: And you know they're a team that when you have fire,

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Speaker 3: your coach chance. I mean, as much as everybody complains

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Speaker 3: about Zach Taylor, I don't recall any fire Zach Taylor

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Speaker 3: chance at the Course Stadium recently. So that's going on

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Speaker 3: in Pittsburgh. So you can tell right now they're in

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Speaker 3: the toilet. But you know they play each other. As

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Speaker 3: I mentioned on Sunday, one of those fan bases are

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Speaker 3: going to feel a lot better about themselves come Monday morning.

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Speaker 3: And you know it's the NFL. Things turn on a dime.

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Speaker 3: So I wouldn't discount either one of those teams at

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Speaker 3: the moment. But it's ironic and it's here we are,

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Speaker 3: and it's the Bengals. Everybody feels the best abound before

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Speaker 3: coming from a four and eight hole. Maybe it's not

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Speaker 3: impossible given the fact that the Ravens and Steelers are

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Speaker 3: really spinning their wheels at the moment.

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Speaker 2: Awesome stuff. As always, We will bother you next week.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much.

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Speaker 3: I can't wait. It's never bothered, Thanks mam.

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Speaker 2: That's our guy. Robert Winstraub, Cincinnatimagazine Dot com go read

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Speaker 2: his Bengals column. It's available right now. Hans Schroeder from

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Speaker 2: the NFL is going to join us next.

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Speaker 1: You've been listening to Football in the NATTI on ESPN

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Speaker 1: fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. Cincinnati's

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Speaker 1: ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

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Speaker 4: From the uc Health Traffic Center. U SE Health's Weight

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Speaker 4: Called five one three nine three nine two two sixty three.

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Speaker 4: That's nine three nine two two sixty three on eastbound

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Speaker 4: two seventy five, and it's an accident on the Coney

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Speaker 4: Bridge off on the right shoulder. Watch out for some

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Speaker 4: debris that's on the roadway from that accident in Ohio

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Speaker 4: northbound seventy five. Accident on the off ramp to westbound

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Speaker 4: two seventy five and North Bend Road. An accident at Coleraine.

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