Speaker 1: Hike and everybody. I'm Dan Horde and this is the
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth. Podcast one is the Loneliest number addition as
Speaker 1: the Bengals try to get off to schneide and get
Speaker 1: that elusive first win of the season this Sunday at
Speaker 1: home against Jacksonville. Coming up, I'll be joined by my
Speaker 1: broadcast partner Dave Lapham as we discuss what, if anything,
Speaker 1: the Bengals can do in order to run the ball.
Speaker 1: Will also touch on the impending return of AJ Green
Speaker 1: and Minshee Mania as the Bengals try to shut down
Speaker 1: Jacksonville's impressive rookie quarterback with a great mustache, Gardner Minshew.
Speaker 1: My locker room conversation this week is with linebacker Leroy Reynolds,
Speaker 1: who knows better than anybody else on the team what
Speaker 1: it's like to grind through a terrible start. He began
Speaker 1: his career in Jacksonville back in twenty thirteen as a rookie,
Speaker 1: the Jags started oh and eight. In his second year,
Speaker 1: they started oh and six, and then one and ten.
Speaker 1: We'll discuss how a player gets through it, and in
Speaker 1: this week's No The Faux segment, we'll get the lowdown
Speaker 1: on the Jags from a guy who has been writing
Speaker 1: about them throughout their history, Gene Frenette from the Florida
Speaker 1: Times Union. All of that is straight ahead, But first,
Speaker 1: here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest
Speaker 1: edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet,
Speaker 1: or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify,
Speaker 1: or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since sports gear
Speaker 1: from teams that no longer exist. I celebrated a birthday
Speaker 1: this month, and my son gave me an awesome gift
Speaker 1: a T shirt from the NBA team of my youth,
Speaker 1: the Buffalo Braves. I'm guessing that some of you don't
Speaker 1: even know that Buffalo had an NBA team in the
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, but it did before moving west end of
Speaker 1: actually becoming the LA Clippers. The Clippers will be wearing
Speaker 1: Buffalo Braves throwback jerseys at some point this year, and
Speaker 1: they sell Braves merchandise on their website. It's awesome, as
Speaker 1: is much of the gear that you can find online
Speaker 1: from sports teams that no longer exist. Now let's get
Speaker 1: to my conversation with Dave Lapham as we discuss the Bengals,
Speaker 1: OZ and sixth start and what it's going to take
Speaker 1: to get a win over Jacksonville on Sunday Lap. The
Speaker 1: Bengals are only averaging fifty six point five rushing yards
Speaker 1: per game. Last week in Baltimore, Lamar Jackson had fifty
Speaker 1: seven after his first two runs. What if anything, can
Speaker 1: the Bengals do to get something out of their running game?
Speaker 1: Tradeful Lamar Jackson. I mean, honestly, they're up. They're burning
Speaker 1: the midnight oil right now trying to figure that out.
Speaker 1: You know, it's the problem that they have is and
Speaker 1: it's not every snap. You know, people are gonna say, oh,
Speaker 1: seven eight in the box and they're doubling Tyler Boyd.
Speaker 1: I mean, they don't have that many players. That's not
Speaker 1: happening every single snap. But there are down in distances,
Speaker 1: you know, conditions of a game where you're trying to
Speaker 1: do something and they have the box loaded, the box crowded,
Speaker 1: and then you have to throw it and then they
Speaker 1: double Tyler Boyd. Well, they don't have seven or eight
Speaker 1: in the box when they're dubling Tyler Boyd. It's different circumstances,
Speaker 1: different down and distances. But the problem is that you
Speaker 1: don't have in my opinion, part of the issue could
Speaker 1: be solved by having aj Green and John rossback because
Speaker 1: if they can just be threats on the outside stretch
Speaker 1: in the football field, it gives you more running lanes.
Speaker 1: I mean, it opens the box up, makes everybody play
Speaker 1: play deeper, makes the linebackers play deeper off the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage, and then they have to take you know,
Speaker 1: start taking drops. Gets the safeties out of there. I mean,
Speaker 1: right now, it's it's it's rush hour in there. It's congested,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of traffic in there, and you know,
Speaker 1: the offensive line to boot isn't getting a whole lot
Speaker 1: of push. So it's like running into the Great Wall
Speaker 1: of China that has the extra bricks in it. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like, oh my gosh, man, it's like beating your
Speaker 1: head up against the wall. And you know, you'll try, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's try inside zone and maybe okay, let's work the
Speaker 1: outside zone. Okay, let's maybe run a gap play kind
Speaker 1: of playing trying to, you know, see if we can
Speaker 1: get them without a little bit. Nothing's working. I mean,
Speaker 1: it is. It's unbelievable, and I think it's just a
Speaker 1: numbers game, you know, a matter of sometimes a matter
Speaker 1: of bodies, the number of bodies that are there to
Speaker 1: be blocked, and then guys aren't blocking them efficiently enough.
Speaker 1: So that's a recipe for disaster. And that's what the
Speaker 1: running game is right now. It's disastrous. Lap Last year,
Speaker 1: the Bengals fired their defensive coordinator during the season, Tarall Austin,
Speaker 1: because things were not going well on defense. Marvin Lewis
Speaker 1: acted as his own defensive coordinator for the rest of
Speaker 1: the year. This year it's lou Anna Romo and basically
Speaker 1: not much has changed. What conclusion should we be drawing
Speaker 1: about the Bengals defense, Well, if I'm a defensive player,
Speaker 1: I'm in the mirror and saying it must be me,
Speaker 1: you know, because they've they've made some changes, and not
Speaker 1: only with coaches, but philosophical changes, you know, with those
Speaker 1: coaches and even some schematic stuff. I mean, lou and
Speaker 1: Rumo again has tried a lot of different things. Five
Speaker 1: man defensive line, five defensive backs, with the five defensive
Speaker 1: lineman only one linebacker on the field. He's had all
Speaker 1: three linebackers on the field, two linebackers on the field.
Speaker 1: You know, he's running every every combination you can run
Speaker 1: in the secondary nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar. He's running
Speaker 1: every every coin you can run back there. I mean
Speaker 1: it's penny whatever. You got a sack at Jeeah coin defenses.
Speaker 1: There's such a thing. I'm thinking those coins are counterfeit.
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's like it's crazy, but he's he's
Speaker 1: you know, it's right now. It's if he felt like
Speaker 1: the football team on both sides of the ball. There's
Speaker 1: not one thing that coaches can say, this is our identity.
Speaker 1: This is when the times get tough, this is what
Speaker 1: we're gonna go too. And the times has gotten tough,
Speaker 1: and they can't go in anything. They don't have an
Speaker 1: identity established on either side of the line of scrimmage yet,
Speaker 1: and that is a tough tough thing for a coaching
Speaker 1: staff when you're putting together a game plan, and man,
Speaker 1: that's why a big part of the reason they haven't
Speaker 1: won a football game yet. In crunch time, it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: we got this. Now we're gonna We're gonna close it out.
Speaker 1: This is what we're doing, this is who we are.
Speaker 1: The Bengals get a taste of Minshee mania this Sunday,
Speaker 1: Gardner Minshew come into town. The rookie quarterback drafted in
Speaker 1: the sixth round by Jacksonville. He was supposed to be
Speaker 1: the backup under Nick Foles, and then Foles broke his
Speaker 1: collarbone in Week one. Gardner Minshew's passer rating is identical
Speaker 1: to Tom Brady's. At this point of his rookie year,
Speaker 1: Minshew is playing very, very sound football. The thing that
Speaker 1: impresses me most about him Dan just two interceptions, tied
Speaker 1: for six fewest in the in the NFL. He's got
Speaker 1: nine touchdown passes, tied for leventh in the NFL. That
Speaker 1: plus seven touchdown interception ratio is gonna work, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's got better than four to one ratio.
Speaker 1: So you have to like that about him. And against
Speaker 1: Carolina he was twenty six for forty four three hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy four yards two touchdowns against the Panthers, who
Speaker 1: have a good defensive football team, so they leaned on him,
Speaker 1: you know, in those on that occasion, and he has
Speaker 1: run the ball. I mean it's not designed runs like
Speaker 1: we've seen, you know with Lamar Jackson, but you know,
Speaker 1: when he's in trouble, he has tucked it in. Run
Speaker 1: twenty one times one hundred and twenty five yards six
Speaker 1: yards per twenty one yard rush. So you have to
Speaker 1: still respect him. You know, you can't over rush him,
Speaker 1: you can't rush by him, you can't distort your rush lane,
Speaker 1: you know, because he's going to be looking for those
Speaker 1: type of things like guys coming right out of college
Speaker 1: do if a couple of reds aren't there, my next
Speaker 1: backs option is to try to get something, try to
Speaker 1: get with it with my legs. I've heard that he's
Speaker 1: squats five fifty. I mean he's he's a he's a
Speaker 1: strong kid. His dad is a like a bodybuilder type dude,
Speaker 1: you know, a big workout guy. And Minshew's no joke.
Speaker 1: I mean, Minshew was going to go to Alabama and
Speaker 1: he wanted to be a coach. So he's going to
Speaker 1: go to Alabama and learn under the great Sabman. And um,
Speaker 1: you know they said, you know, why don't you don't
Speaker 1: you hit to Washington State here, come out and play
Speaker 1: out here and lead the country in passing. He almost did.
Speaker 1: He led the pack twelve in passing. But h I'll
Speaker 1: tell you it's a heck of a story. Really is
Speaker 1: a heck of a story. And this kid when the
Speaker 1: opportunity presented itself. He has stepped up big time. We
Speaker 1: know the Bengals have had trouble stopping sideline to sideline
Speaker 1: running games. Well that's not the challenge this week. It's
Speaker 1: a battering ram coming right at him in Leonard Fournette.
Speaker 1: No question, Leonard Fournette is l lodo. I mean, he
Speaker 1: is a guy that is just gonna try to run
Speaker 1: you over. There's there's not a whole lot of wiggle
Speaker 1: to him, but he when he hits creases, he hits.
Speaker 1: He hits some violently, he hits some hard. Hit an
Speaker 1: eighty one yard run so far this season, I mean
Speaker 1: he's um. He had a game against the Denver Broncos
Speaker 1: that's the best rushing game in the league so far
Speaker 1: this season. He had twenty nine rushes, tied for most
Speaker 1: in a single game for twenty and twenty five yards,
Speaker 1: the best rushing total in a game this season. So
Speaker 1: he has another another hundred yard rushing game against Carolina
Speaker 1: twenty three carries, one hundred and eight yards in a touchdown,
Speaker 1: so he's capable, obviously, and his five hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: four yards a third best in the NFL. He's averaging
Speaker 1: over five yards of carry five point one. The Bengals
Speaker 1: are giving up five point three per carry, So they
Speaker 1: got their work cut out for them in handling Leonard Fournette.
Speaker 1: And if they don't, I mean, Fournette makes life a
Speaker 1: lot easier for a young quarterback like Minshew. And if
Speaker 1: they start gashing the Bengals running the football, Minshew is
Speaker 1: going to have a good football game. If they can
Speaker 1: somehow control Leonard Fournette and not let him run crazy,
Speaker 1: Minshew will have more difficulty solving and handling the room
Speaker 1: was defense, that's the bottom line, that's the fact of
Speaker 1: life in the NFL. Last week saying it's apparently shut
Speaker 1: down Jacksonville by playing two deep safeties that gave Gardner
Speaker 1: Minshew trouble. But can the Bengals do that considering how
Speaker 1: much trouble they're having stopping the run, that's going to
Speaker 1: be the big key. Then the onus is on the
Speaker 1: front seven. You know, how well are you going to play?
Speaker 1: I think that Jacksonville Jaguar's offensive line is big and
Speaker 1: physical like they've been facing and at this at this juncture,
Speaker 1: if I'm Luna Rouma, I don't know how much confidence
Speaker 1: I have doing that. You know, I'm not. It's going
Speaker 1: to be an interesting to see how much two DP
Speaker 1: does play because at this point in time, they've been gashed,
Speaker 1: but they've been gashed by this style of offense. They've
Speaker 1: been gashed by, you know, the Houdini mystery magic. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like, don't know, they don't trust their eyes. Their
Speaker 1: eyes are betraying them because these offenses are doing so
Speaker 1: much with personnel informations and motion and all that sort
Speaker 1: of thing. I think Jacksonville may be more like Seattle was.
Speaker 1: You know, Jacksonville made line up and just say here
Speaker 1: we are, come get us. And the Banks played well,
Speaker 1: you know against Jacksonville. So you know, hopefully h they
Speaker 1: get a break from all these all these college type
Speaker 1: offenses that they've been facing, with these quarterbacks that are, um,
Speaker 1: you know, the basically the poster child for these type
Speaker 1: of offenses from an execution standpoint, running him and go
Speaker 1: back to a more traditional, conventional NFL quote, you know,
Speaker 1: style offense. We'll see what happens. Jermaine Pratt got increased
Speaker 1: playing time last week and made some plays in the
Speaker 1: run game, but man, he struggled trying to cover tight
Speaker 1: ends and tight ends that, you know, I mean, Andrews
Speaker 1: does not. He's not a blazer, you know when you
Speaker 1: say the name Mark Andrews or he's like, oh man,
Speaker 1: that's a big boy that can run. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: almost like when you when you see him, it's like,
Speaker 1: how does he get open as much as he does?
Speaker 1: Because he doesn't have you blazing speed, but he understands
Speaker 1: the game of football. He understands leverage and uh and
Speaker 1: they schemed him open, and I think part of it
Speaker 1: was Pratt biting on. I don't know what he was
Speaker 1: seeing what he was biting on, but he was I
Speaker 1: mean a simple, you know, a simple like out move
Speaker 1: that seemed like Pratt was in trail position by about
Speaker 1: five yards. And he can run, so it's not the
Speaker 1: physical part of it. He's just I don't know what
Speaker 1: he was looking at. But you know the one I'm
Speaker 1: thinking of when he ran the little out route to
Speaker 1: the sideline and then just took it up the football field,
Speaker 1: Pratt was nowhere near him, nowhere near him. AJ Green
Speaker 1: started practicing in Pad's last week. I don't think he's
Speaker 1: going to play this Sunday against Jacksonville, but at this
Speaker 1: point I'm thinking why not just wait until after the buye.
Speaker 1: I mean, what's the likelihood that Aj Green is going
Speaker 1: to help you beat the Rams in London anyway? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I guess it's I've been saying that for
Speaker 1: a while. I felt like, you know, if it's at
Speaker 1: this point, why not take the extra week and make
Speaker 1: sure you know it's like, okay, is he close? Well?
Speaker 1: Why not be positive about it? And you know a
Speaker 1: lot of times players that are coming off an injury
Speaker 1: like he is, a lot of times training staffs and
Speaker 1: medical people will say, Okay, when you're ready, we're going
Speaker 1: to wait another week to be positive you're ready. And
Speaker 1: that's been the philosophy I think here in Cincinnati with
Speaker 1: every injured player that's ever been injured, I mean they
Speaker 1: don't players don't come back fast here compared to other
Speaker 1: places in the league. So I think that's the mentality overall.
Speaker 1: And a guy like Aj wouldn't shock me whatsoever if
Speaker 1: if we were a boardline or questionable at all. You know,
Speaker 1: the temptations huge, because, like we said, if he comes
Speaker 1: out in the football field, everything changes. The running came
Speaker 1: will to mark my words. I mean, there'll be better
Speaker 1: lanes to run the football, other receivers will have more
Speaker 1: opportunity to make catches because everything changes, the entire configuration.
Speaker 1: The defense takes a tilt toward a player the caliber
Speaker 1: of aj Green, So there is a huge temptation to
Speaker 1: get him back, but it'd be fool harder to bring
Speaker 1: him back so too early, and he has a setback,
Speaker 1: and now he's you know, he's done for the season.
Speaker 1: Potentially he hasn't even played a full game for you
Speaker 1: if he gets hurt in that one game. So it
Speaker 1: would it would not stun me whatsoever if if he
Speaker 1: didn't play until after the bye week. But knowing him,
Speaker 1: he really wants to play. I'm sure the coaches obviously
Speaker 1: are very h they're panting to get him back out
Speaker 1: on the football field, but you certainly you know the
Speaker 1: situation they're in. I mean, if you're four and two
Speaker 1: right now and you're fighting for your division supremacy, that's
Speaker 1: one thing, but your own six, you know, it's like,
Speaker 1: why why are you bringing him back potentially too early?
Speaker 1: Why are you doing that? So it's going to be
Speaker 1: interesting to see how it all plays out. This offensive
Speaker 1: line might have been good if everybody was healthy from
Speaker 1: the beginning, of the Year. Johnah Williams had left tackle,
Speaker 1: Cordy Glenn at left guard. If Billy Price didn't begin
Speaker 1: training camp with plantar fasciitis, maybe things would have gone
Speaker 1: better for him. But that's not the reality that we're
Speaker 1: living in. And now there have been more injuries that
Speaker 1: are piling up. John Miller got injured early in the
Speaker 1: game last week. Andre Smith has been out people listening
Speaker 1: to this know the a litany of injuries they're dealing with.
Speaker 1: How much has the lack of continuity upfront taking that
Speaker 1: offensive line down another notch? It always plays a part.
Speaker 1: You know, I've said for years now. You know, an
Speaker 1: offensive line when it's performing well is like making a fish.
Speaker 1: You don't even think about it. You just curl your forefingers,
Speaker 1: wrap your thumb. It just happens, you know, spontaneously, and
Speaker 1: there's unspoken word communication when an offensive line is playing
Speaker 1: at a good level with each other, understanding what the
Speaker 1: other guy is going to do in certain situations. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't have to overcommunicate verbally. You can do it
Speaker 1: just by you know, body language and little things that
Speaker 1: you that you use to communicate. So that that's tough,
Speaker 1: But I will say that from day one, not only
Speaker 1: of training camp but OTAs, Jim Turner's big thing was
Speaker 1: everybody has to play multiple positions for this very reason.
Speaker 1: So he was running a lot of combinations. You know,
Speaker 1: every single workout, he was lining guys up in different spots,
Speaker 1: every single preseason game, landing guys up in different spots
Speaker 1: for this very thing. But with that said, game snaps,
Speaker 1: game speed, you know, the only way you can get
Speaker 1: those kind of things is to do it over and
Speaker 1: over and over again together with the same people. And
Speaker 1: when those people are switching around and it's musical chairs
Speaker 1: up there, it adds to the challenge, There is no
Speaker 1: doubt about it. It adds to the challenge. It just
Speaker 1: there's no substitute for on task, you know, game experience,
Speaker 1: there's none. Pro football is a hard sport to play
Speaker 1: when things are going well. How do they keep it
Speaker 1: fun when a team is l and six. That's a
Speaker 1: big challenge, you know. Because the O and eighth season
Speaker 1: that I have referred to multiple times, I will say
Speaker 1: that my sanctuary was still to come down to Spinney
Speaker 1: Field with my teammates because we were all suffering the
Speaker 1: same damn thing, and we were all you know, misery
Speaker 1: loves company, you know, so you come down and commiserate
Speaker 1: and okay, and we talk about how how are we
Speaker 1: gonna how are we gonna get off this night? What
Speaker 1: are we gonna do? You know, let's figure out how
Speaker 1: we can get something done, because, like I said, I
Speaker 1: didn't want to see anybody else, you know, I barely
Speaker 1: want to see my wife and kids. I was so embarrassed.
Speaker 1: But um so, you know I'd literally that whole that
Speaker 1: whole season, even when we started winning some football games,
Speaker 1: I was. I was absentee in terms of the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: I was nowhere to be found. I was in the
Speaker 1: witness protection program. But um it is it still is
Speaker 1: your because you know, if you start listening to that.
Speaker 1: Guys talk about it all the time. The outside noise
Speaker 1: can be can add pressure. I mean it can just
Speaker 1: it can ruin your life. It really can, and it
Speaker 1: will make you maybe do some things you might regret doing.
Speaker 1: You don't want to do that to people, you know.
Speaker 1: But a lot of people don't have much sensitivity for
Speaker 1: how you might be feeling, that's for sure, because they're frustrated.
Speaker 1: They don't understand how frustrated you are. And you can't
Speaker 1: give people knuckle sandwiches. That's not gonna that's not gonna
Speaker 1: play well. So you have to be smart about it,
Speaker 1: and the best way to do it is to avoid
Speaker 1: that those kind of confrontations, those kind of things. So
Speaker 1: it is, it's hard, but it is still the sanctuary.
Speaker 1: So we would try to figure out things, you know,
Speaker 1: to do, whether it's a you know, offensive lineman playing
Speaker 1: a touch football game and you know, one of the
Speaker 1: lineman's obviously a quarterback, you know, or whatever, whatever the
Speaker 1: case may be, just try to lighten it up a
Speaker 1: little bit. But you knew that you better get your
Speaker 1: notes to the grindstone as quickly as you possibly can
Speaker 1: because there was work to be done. And you know,
Speaker 1: the sad the sad thing is sometimes too as far
Speaker 1: as an offensive line's concerned, when the team is struggling,
Speaker 1: and even when the team is playing well, offensive line
Speaker 1: play a lot of times when it's when it's at
Speaker 1: least acceptable, acceptable to great is not a huge difference.
Speaker 1: When you're watching tape, it's like you're getting the job
Speaker 1: done and plays are being made. Sometimes like you're getting
Speaker 1: the job done, plays aren't being made, and it's like
Speaker 1: the offensive line play is not hugely different on tape.
Speaker 1: But somebody has to make somebody miss, somebody has to
Speaker 1: make a great cat, somebody has somebody has to do
Speaker 1: something to light a fire. But there are times also
Speaker 1: when you watch an offensive line playing, it's like, oh man,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody took their turn on getting their butts
Speaker 1: royally kicked, and that stands out like a store thimb
Speaker 1: as well. So I'm sure they're experiencing all of it
Speaker 1: for sure. By the way, our adjacent cubicles at Paul
Speaker 1: Brown Stadium, that's my sanctuary these days. All right, let's
Speaker 1: get to the keys to victory this Sunday, the Bengals
Speaker 1: get off the schneide we say coffin nails bang bang
Speaker 1: bang at the end of the game because they do
Speaker 1: what against Jacksonville. Well, first thing they have to do,
Speaker 1: Dan is somehow figure it away to run the football
Speaker 1: and stop Jacksonville from from dominating the football game playing keepaway.
Speaker 1: I mean, Jackson's going to look at exactly what Baltimore did,
Speaker 1: look at the stats, and then the film's going to
Speaker 1: support it. Pound the ball, play keepaway. That's what they're
Speaker 1: gonna try to do. Minimize the opportunities the Bengals have
Speaker 1: and four Nett's going to be the big, the big deal.
Speaker 1: You got to control that guy. Five hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: four yards third in the league, five point one to rush.
Speaker 1: He's also capable, you know, catching the ball out of
Speaker 1: the backfield seven hundred and seventy three scrimmage yards, third
Speaker 1: best in the league. So the Bengals are thirty second
Speaker 1: in the NFL running the football yards per game thirty second,
Speaker 1: are defensive allowed yards allowed per game, thirty second in
Speaker 1: yards allowed per rush five point three. Offensively fifty six
Speaker 1: and a half is dead last. Three point one is
Speaker 1: thirty first. So overall, the Bengals are minus one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty eight rushing yards a game a football field
Speaker 1: and a quarter and minus two point two average rush
Speaker 1: per attempt minus two point two dead lasts in league.
Speaker 1: Minus und twenty eight yards a game, dead last in
Speaker 1: the league. You can't allow that to continue to happen.
Speaker 1: That's what Jacksonville is going to try to do. Then,
Speaker 1: ball security, you know, Jacksonville, they've only got two takeaways,
Speaker 1: tied for the fewest in the league. They won an
Speaker 1: interception tied for second fewest because Denver and half one
Speaker 1: yet or Arizona doesn't have one yet, that's who doesn't.
Speaker 1: They have a fumble recovery tied for fewists in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Two takes amazing with that defense that they have. In
Speaker 1: the last two games, the Bengals have only given the
Speaker 1: ball up one time, so it's been even in the
Speaker 1: turnover ratio. There were no turnovers in the Arizona game.
Speaker 1: Each team had won in the Baltimore game. So ball
Speaker 1: security is going to be a big deal in that
Speaker 1: football game. And then inside the twenty gonna call it
Speaker 1: the red zone for the defense. Red zone for the defense,
Speaker 1: how about green zone for the offense? I mean red stop?
Speaker 1: How about green Why don't you go do something in
Speaker 1: the red zone in the scoring zone for the offensive
Speaker 1: football team? They're thirty one point three percent scoring touchdowns
Speaker 1: in the red zone now is dead last five touchdowns
Speaker 1: in sixteen opportunities, five tds, thirtieth four times they haven't
Speaker 1: scored a point, tied for fifth worst scenario there. Jacksonville's
Speaker 1: offense has struggled as well, thirty eight point nine percent
Speaker 1: twenty ninth in the NFL, but they've only not scored
Speaker 1: points one time. Their second in the NFL in terms
Speaker 1: of scoring points when you get in the red zone. Defensively,
Speaker 1: both teams have done a lot better. I mean, Cincinnati's
Speaker 1: sixth best in the NFL touchdown percentage in Jacksonville's fifth best.
Speaker 1: Bengals three times no points tied for tenth best in
Speaker 1: the league, Jacksonville four times no points allowed, tied for
Speaker 1: sixth best in the NFL. So they've played good red
Speaker 1: zone defense both teams have, and neither team has played
Speaker 1: very good scoring zone offense. It's been read and they
Speaker 1: have to turn the traffic signal to Green. Who's going
Speaker 1: to be able to be the traffic cop and turn
Speaker 1: the traffic signal to Green in the scoring zone and
Speaker 1: score some damn touchdowns. Green means go, yes, let's get
Speaker 1: it done this Sunday against Jacksonville. Thanks Lap. There are
Speaker 1: two undefeated teams left in the NFL, the Patriots and
Speaker 1: forty nine ers, and there are two winless teams left
Speaker 1: in the NFL, the Bengals and Dolphins. Linebacker Leroy Reynolds
Speaker 1: was with one of the undefeated teams in training camp,
Speaker 1: the forty nine ers, and is now playing for the Bengals.
Speaker 1: I talked to him in the locker room this week,
Speaker 1: we're in the locker room with Bengals linebacker le Roy
Speaker 1: Reynolds in training camp with San Francisco and then becoming
Speaker 1: a Bengal in week two? Do you have all of
Speaker 1: your stuff? Are you still living out of a suitcase
Speaker 1: after a month? I mean, well I was transitioning, so
Speaker 1: I'm still transitioning, but yeah, just you know, suitcasing, it
Speaker 1: bag still in the truck. We're talking to Leroy Reynolds.
Speaker 1: You've played for five different teams, six if you include
Speaker 1: San Francisco from training camp this year. How do you
Speaker 1: go about fitting in with a new team in a
Speaker 1: new city. Just being myself, always being myself, being true
Speaker 1: to will always been as a player as a leader.
Speaker 1: I just kind of carry that and you know where
Speaker 1: I'm wherever I am, just take that with me and
Speaker 1: try to leave as ample and be the best me
Speaker 1: I can be. So just being myself. We're visiting little
Speaker 1: Roy Reynolds. San Francisco is off to a great start.
Speaker 1: Did you see that coming when you were with that
Speaker 1: team during training camp? You know for sure? I think
Speaker 1: that you know, they did a great job competing, did
Speaker 1: a great job getting better each and every day, So
Speaker 1: you know, it's just a reflection of the work they
Speaker 1: put in, and it was obvious like, well, you know,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of work getting put in. So
Speaker 1: you see those guys being playing well, being successful, getting
Speaker 1: after it. So yeah, I noticed that. Definitely. One of
Speaker 1: your previous stops was Atlanta and you played in the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl for the Falcons team that made it in
Speaker 1: the twenty sixteen season. My broadcast partner Dave Lapham was
Speaker 1: on the Bengals for a Super Bowl team and he
Speaker 1: describes the feelings like he felt like he could lift
Speaker 1: the stadium when he ran out there for the starting lineups.
Speaker 1: Do you remember the adrenaline rush and what was going
Speaker 1: through your mind? Yeah, and I was a real feeling.
Speaker 1: I still remember the lights flashing off a kickoff. You know,
Speaker 1: as a kid, you always see that on TV, you know,
Speaker 1: the lights flicking from everybody taking picture. So I still
Speaker 1: remember that. I just remember how the grass felt, how
Speaker 1: good it felt. I just felt like the right day
Speaker 1: probably gives you the overwhelming desire to get back. Oh, definitely, definitely, definitely,
Speaker 1: that's definitely what I want to do. Especially in my career.
Speaker 1: A lot of guys aren't able to reach that point.
Speaker 1: Something grateful enough to be able to reach there. But
Speaker 1: I would love to go back for sure. We're talking
Speaker 1: to linebacker Leroy Reynolds. So you've had the high of
Speaker 1: going to a super Bowl with the Falcons and you
Speaker 1: also experience with the Bengals are going through right now
Speaker 1: early in your career with Jacksonville as a rookie, you're
Speaker 1: on a team that started the season oh and eight.
Speaker 1: How do you fight through that? UM and just having pride?
Speaker 1: You know what we do? I think and all guys do,
Speaker 1: all the guys in the locker room do. I think? UM?
Speaker 1: Just being UM at a level where you know we
Speaker 1: can compete, get better, and and and and win games. UM.
Speaker 1: So I think that's the mentality. Uh. There's so many
Speaker 1: factors that play into it. But I think they're really
Speaker 1: good teams that I've played on. It starts with veteran leadership.
Speaker 1: From the day you arrived here. You've been a core
Speaker 1: member of the special teams. What are the qualities that
Speaker 1: a great Special Teams player has to have? UM spend
Speaker 1: a competitor, UM, willing to go out and play the
Speaker 1: tough down. UM. You know you're usually running sixty seventy
Speaker 1: yards on the play, um, all outspeed, and you're usually
Speaker 1: battle somebody while you're doing it. So it's just one
Speaker 1: of those gut checks. Um, you just gotta out out
Speaker 1: will the man. UM. So for me, that's always been
Speaker 1: my my pedigree, being able to out wield the man
Speaker 1: and out work them to you know, to get to
Speaker 1: the ball or prevent him from getting to the ball.
Speaker 1: So I try to take pride in that, UM and
Speaker 1: just try to get better. Coach Darren's done a good
Speaker 1: job just implementing me, getting me acclimated, and I'm still
Speaker 1: just getting better learning the system of playing around, you know,
Speaker 1: with the guys that I have. UM plays a great
Speaker 1: special teams player. He's done it for a while, and
Speaker 1: just from his leadership he's been, you know, welcome me
Speaker 1: in and allowed me to kind of, you know, do
Speaker 1: my thing as well. Final question for linebacker Leroy Reynolds.
Speaker 1: You have a saying on your Twitter profile and I
Speaker 1: seen you wearing a T shirt with this hunt as well,
Speaker 1: All Gas No Breaks. Explain the meaning behind all gas
Speaker 1: No Breaks? Um, Well, it's more so again like the mentality, UM,
Speaker 1: it's about effort, always mean about effort. It's between you
Speaker 1: and you learn that at a young age. So for me, it's,
Speaker 1: you know, go all out every chance you get. Play
Speaker 1: with effort, play with passion, play with energy and be
Speaker 1: kind of um give all of yourself. So for me,
Speaker 1: it's just the possibility of going all out now holding
Speaker 1: back and emptying your tank. So all gas, no bricks,
Speaker 1: appreciate your time. Best the Fluck this week, I'm problem.
Speaker 1: Thank you appreciate. That's Leroy Reynolds. Now time for this
Speaker 1: week's Know the Faux Interview as we do a deep
Speaker 1: dive into the Bengals upcoming opponent with somebody that knows
Speaker 1: the team. This week it's columnist Gane for Nette from
Speaker 1: the Florida Times Union. You can find him online at
Speaker 1: Jacksonville dot com. He joined Lapping Me on the Bengals
Speaker 1: Game Plan Show and we started with the big news
Speaker 1: out of Jacksonville this week, the trade of Jalen Ramsey
Speaker 1: to the La Rams for two first round draft picks
Speaker 1: and a fourth I asked Jean a two part question,
Speaker 1: if the Jags did the right thing and how the
Speaker 1: locker room reacted to the trade. The first part, I'd
Speaker 1: say absolutely, I mean Dalen was becoming not necessarily a
Speaker 1: big distraction, but I would say a headache to both
Speaker 1: the coaching staff and the front office. From the coaching
Speaker 1: staff standpoint, just a limbo status nees week of not
Speaker 1: knowing whether he would play or not play his back
Speaker 1: the element had become somewhat of a little bit of
Speaker 1: a charade, not that he didn't have a back intrigue,
Speaker 1: but whether he was really going all out to recover
Speaker 1: from it, to get himself ready to play. And as
Speaker 1: far as the locker room goes, now, they were they
Speaker 1: were all alling the line. You know, you know they
Speaker 1: can deal with this. It's not a big faction. You know,
Speaker 1: they understand part of the the business, what have you. But
Speaker 1: I do think that some degree to has to be
Speaker 1: a little bit of relief. I think it's find me
Speaker 1: a resolution to all that. Do you think the problem
Speaker 1: um that Ramsey had was Tom Coughlin and not Doug
Speaker 1: Marone or Tom Coughlin and Doug Marone or not Tom coflin,
Speaker 1: but Doug Marone. I mean what what where was his problem?
Speaker 1: What was Jalen Ramsey's problem? Did he ever declare what
Speaker 1: his uh his big issue was? Well? I think everybody
Speaker 1: it seems to feel like it was with Tom Coughlin
Speaker 1: more than anything else. To listen to. Dylan Ramsey's a
Speaker 1: fantastic player, but he's also an impulsive, narcissistic off the
Speaker 1: door prayer is right. As I wrote for the Morph paper,
Speaker 1: he's the second g Stiva behind Antonio Brown. And you know,
Speaker 1: when you create some of the things that Dalen has created,
Speaker 1: and there's been a lot of stuff over the course
Speaker 1: of three and a half years, you know, this kind
Speaker 1: of stuff fills up and I think the la rams
Speaker 1: over the course of time. I'm going to find out
Speaker 1: what the Jaguar found out, and that is Dalen Ramsey.
Speaker 1: As great a player as he is, that he will help.
Speaker 1: He will help your team on the field, also provides
Speaker 1: at a off the field, and you know he kind
Speaker 1: of wears you out. He wears coasting staff out and
Speaker 1: wears the media out. Where's everybody out? Our guest is
Speaker 1: Jean Frenette, a columnist from Jacksonville. If Ramsey has been
Speaker 1: a pain in the New York in the you know
Speaker 1: what so far this year, Gardner Minshew has been the
Speaker 1: opposite one of the great stories in the NFL so
Speaker 1: far this season. Have you seen enough of them Jean
Speaker 1: to have a strong opinion as to whether he is
Speaker 1: for real or well, I guess, I guess My question
Speaker 1: to you is, what do you define as for real?
Speaker 1: If you define it as a guy who can be
Speaker 1: a sut starter in the NFL, I would say, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess I would say somebody that you would want
Speaker 1: to be your quarterback long term. Well, I don't know
Speaker 1: if the sample size is big ing up yet for that,
Speaker 1: but he definitely has been far more impressive than than
Speaker 1: I or anybody else they anticipated he would be. Now,
Speaker 1: last week, you know, he had sort of his you know,
Speaker 1: his kryptonite game in the New Orleans Saints found ways
Speaker 1: to just really keep him from ever getting into any
Speaker 1: kind of a rhythm, and he didn't get a whole
Speaker 1: lot of help from his receivers in that regard. They
Speaker 1: did as just a whole lot what the safecist is doing.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure the Cincinnati Bengals this week are going
Speaker 1: to try to do some of the same things the
Speaker 1: Saints did, which would play a lot of Twoman and
Speaker 1: safety help over the top and forced the Jaguars to
Speaker 1: receivers to adjust, you know, try to find the holes
Speaker 1: over the middle as they called them. But you know,
Speaker 1: the NFL is a test from big sex games. Some
Speaker 1: weeks you have, some week you have it. You get
Speaker 1: the better of your opponent of the weeks, the better
Speaker 1: of you. And we'll see how Gardner meant to react
Speaker 1: coming off the game where the better of him? One
Speaker 1: more question on the Jalen Ramsey um scenario. Do you
Speaker 1: do you anticipate any uh after shock and during the
Speaker 1: course of this whole thing, a leader like Calais Campbell,
Speaker 1: where was he? Where was his stance on this? I mean,
Speaker 1: did he ever have any any kind of discussion with
Speaker 1: Jalen Ramsey that you're aware of, or did did he
Speaker 1: try to you know exactly, you know, appease uh and uh?
Speaker 1: I don't know, be a buffer in the situation between
Speaker 1: Jalen Ramsey and the front office and the coaching staff
Speaker 1: or did he just let it play out? No, players
Speaker 1: do that. They just go interfol. Players respect another player's
Speaker 1: face when it comes to business off the field. I
Speaker 1: mean they just do. I mean it is not the
Speaker 1: player's flight to get in to be some sort of
Speaker 1: intermediary to bluing the front office and a teammate. That's
Speaker 1: about their job and they don't want that. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's something that they know is out of bounds. You know,
Speaker 1: so did so did Jalen Ramsey? Did Jalen Rant I
Speaker 1: don't mean to couch, but did Jalen Ramsey Uh at
Speaker 1: that point not take anything out on the teammates? I mean,
Speaker 1: what was what was the teammate's posture in this whole thing?
Speaker 1: They just said, Okay, we understand you want to go
Speaker 1: go ahead. We're not going to have any issue with
Speaker 1: what you're doing here to disrupt our team. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: pretty much it. Because listen, regardless of what drama might
Speaker 1: be going on with a star player in the team,
Speaker 1: all those two other guys that locker room have a
Speaker 1: job to do. They have they have film to study,
Speaker 1: they have preparations to do from the next game. Getting
Speaker 1: caught up in somebody else's drama, it's not gonna do
Speaker 1: this dem any good and it's not gonna do the
Speaker 1: team any good. So you know, there was no there
Speaker 1: was no like, you know, interception on the part of
Speaker 1: Jalen Ramsey. This was strictly jailing acting out on his own.
Speaker 1: He's a very impulsive guy and once he had it
Speaker 1: in his head that he wanted out there was not
Speaker 1: gonna be anything to use mine and if not, probably
Speaker 1: a coincidence because forty eight hours after he didn't play
Speaker 1: in a game was the older was expected it to play.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, he wass traded and shipped out right.
Speaker 1: Gene Fournette from the Florida Times Union is our guest Gene.
Speaker 1: It seems to me when people talk about the best
Speaker 1: running backs in the NFL, they rarely mentioned Leonard Fournette.
Speaker 1: Should he be in the conversation. His stats this year
Speaker 1: are awesome? Um, yeah, he has to some degree out.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna make I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna make him an elite NFL back yet. I
Speaker 1: don't think. I don't think he has the always has
Speaker 1: the instinct and the cutting ability and things like that
Speaker 1: of an elite NFL running back. But if you give
Speaker 1: him a hole to get through and to let him
Speaker 1: get in the second level, then yeah, uh it's great.
Speaker 1: But I don't see. You know, even though the yards
Speaker 1: per carry is much better than it has said his
Speaker 1: path and he's clearly such for focused and better conditions
Speaker 1: coping getting the season, I don't think he's gonna lead
Speaker 1: NFL back. I do think he can be a very
Speaker 1: good one month. Looking at Fournette's numbers, you had a
Speaker 1: huge game against Denver two in twenty five yards, most
Speaker 1: in the NFL in a single game. He had another
Speaker 1: one hundred and eight yards against Carolina. So he has
Speaker 1: a big game and then maybe not so much. Is
Speaker 1: it the lack of consistency that you have an issue with? Two?
Speaker 1: And I mean a DJ Chark the same way he'll
Speaker 1: have He has a couple of big games, but then not,
Speaker 1: you know, on on a weekly basis. I mean it's
Speaker 1: kind of a yo yo thing. Is that? Is that
Speaker 1: an issue in your mind? Or are you okay with that? Well?
Speaker 1: I don't think DJ Shart is a yelo at all.
Speaker 1: He's been pretty good all year until this past week.
Speaker 1: Letter from that's a little bit of a different story,
Speaker 1: of course. You know letters much more can uh? You know,
Speaker 1: dependent on the offensive line creating those planes for him.
Speaker 1: A receiver, you know, you're not so much dependent on
Speaker 1: an entire judic to help you look to it. You're
Speaker 1: dependent on a running game though, so you can have
Speaker 1: an opportunity to get opened down the field. That can
Speaker 1: help you, that's for sure. But I mean DJ Chart
Speaker 1: got got double teams pretty consistently last year for the
Speaker 1: first time all chiever. So if a decent wants to
Speaker 1: take away a receiver, they can do that. The question
Speaker 1: is can the team make the decents pay for for
Speaker 1: you know, stating a lot of you know, a lot
Speaker 1: of players the way of one of one guy, and
Speaker 1: the Jaguars weren't able to do that last week. But
Speaker 1: if they do that another week, then maybe then maybe
Speaker 1: DJA Shock will getting more opportunities we had last week. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when you running back like Fournette and a receiver like Chart, Okay,
Speaker 1: you just count the number of players in the box. Well,
Speaker 1: I can put eight in the box and stuff Fournette.
Speaker 1: Chark's gonna eat. I gotta I gotta double Chart, so
Speaker 1: I can't put it in the box. Fournette should eat.
Speaker 1: So they should play off each other. I mean, you
Speaker 1: can't have eaten the box and double the receiver and
Speaker 1: you don't have many players out in the football field.
Speaker 1: So I mean those guys should, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: benefit off each other depending on what the defense tries
Speaker 1: to take away. It'll be interesting to see. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be a count the box. Yeah, well, let's not put
Speaker 1: DJ Shark in the same category as like a Julio's
Speaker 1: Jones or or put Leonard Fournette in the same category
Speaker 1: as an Elliott Just yeah, okay, they're good. They're very
Speaker 1: good good receivers. BJ Chark has improved over last year
Speaker 1: more than anybody I've ever seen twenty five years covering
Speaker 1: the Jaguars from first years. The seven year DJ Stark
Speaker 1: uprovement has been phenomenal and letters much better all of
Speaker 1: mean he was last year. The other parts of the
Speaker 1: offense for the offense of mind walking together as they
Speaker 1: meeting those opportunities at that points sisted the Jags so far,
Speaker 1: and you've got a quarterback kids who I have to
Speaker 1: commend and done really well. Let's not forget that, and
Speaker 1: a couple of different lousions the game that they won
Speaker 1: as far as the Denver Broncos game, so you know
Speaker 1: one or two points look at the Bengals, Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: you're right, I mean could be huckdown right, Yeah exactly.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know it's lost by a point, three points,
Speaker 1: four points, and six points. So you know four of
Speaker 1: their losses are by a touchdown less than a touchdown.
Speaker 1: You may let me ask you this, how are people
Speaker 1: running the football for five point two yards? Because the
Speaker 1: Bengals at five point three yards a kind of staggering
Speaker 1: to me. I mean, they're a bunch of game, but
Speaker 1: five points to a care I mean, what in your eye,
Speaker 1: what's been the problem with stopping the run? Well, they
Speaker 1: had one really horrific game at Carolina. Okay, give up
Speaker 1: two hundred and eighty five yards jushing and McCaffrey went
Speaker 1: off on them, and so that's us the numbers a
Speaker 1: little bit. But the dec has been talk about incomesistence.
Speaker 1: This decents has been you know, jekylin high the entire season.
Speaker 1: It has three really either terrific ors to that game.
Speaker 1: So you don't do one week to the next, what
Speaker 1: decents you're gonna get? That's part of the problem right there.
Speaker 1: All thanks to Jean for Nette. And here's a quick
Speaker 1: reminder that if you live in the Cincinnati area and
Speaker 1: listen to this podcast before Friday afternoon at three, we
Speaker 1: hope you'll join Lapp and Wayne box Miller for the
Speaker 1: Bengals pep Rally Show on Friday from three to six
Speaker 1: at Buffalo Wings and rings in Fairfield. Their special guest
Speaker 1: in the final hour of the show will be Bengals
Speaker 1: cornerback Tony McCray and there will be plenty of giveaways
Speaker 1: as well. That's going to do it for this episode
Speaker 1: of the podcast. If you haven't done so already, don't
Speaker 1: forget to subscribe, and if you have a minute, give
Speaker 1: it a rating or share a comment. Those five star
Speaker 1: ratings help more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan
Speaker 1: Horde and thank you for listening to the Bengals Boot Podcast.