Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast. The I Just Can't Crack Your Code. Addition,
Speaker 1: as the Bengals lose to the Cleveland Browns for the
Speaker 1: fifth straight time and eighth time in their last nine
Speaker 1: meetings thirty two to thirteen. Coming up, you'll hear radio replays,
Speaker 1: one on one, locker room interviews and analysis form my
Speaker 1: broadcast partner Dave Lapham. Then, in this week's fund Facts segment,
Speaker 1: you'll get to know Bengals rookie Zach Carter. The Bengals
Speaker 1: Booth Podcast is brought to you by pay Corps. More
Speaker 1: than twenty nine thousand customers trust pay Corps to help
Speaker 1: them recruit, pay, engage, and retain employees. Learn more at
Speaker 1: paycorp dot com. Now here's a quick reminder that you
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Speaker 1: get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since my mom.
Speaker 1: My mom turned eighty five last week and on Sunday
Speaker 1: I was able to drive home to Lakewood, New York
Speaker 1: and surprise her for her birthday. It's only a couple
Speaker 1: of hours from Cleveland, so it worked out perfectly. My
Speaker 1: mom is amazing. She raised five kids while having a
Speaker 1: wide variety of jobs over the years and kept working
Speaker 1: until she was eighty. If I am one tenth of
Speaker 1: the parent that she is, my son Sam should turn
Speaker 1: out okay. So happy birthday, Mom, and thank you for everything.
Speaker 1: Now let's get to the radio calls from a Monday
Speaker 1: night loss in Cleveland. Burrow catches the shotgun, snap throws
Speaker 1: a palo deflected and intercepted to snap the put down
Speaker 1: and the right footed kick. It's block head. It flutters
Speaker 1: down to the ten and we'll roll to a stop
Speaker 1: inside the ten. The Bengals block the field goal tried
Speaker 1: by Kade York and they'll get a great drive start
Speaker 1: as a result at the forty three yard line. B
Speaker 1: J Hill, I think is the guy that blocked a
Speaker 1: Burrow catches the shotgun staff and he'll be sacked back
Speaker 1: at the forty five by you guessed at Miles Garrett.
Speaker 1: Now it's an end around and a pass down the
Speaker 1: field intercepted. Von Bell picks it off, running up the
Speaker 1: sideline into Brown's territory. They'll say he stepped out, but
Speaker 1: it is an interception. The Brown's going to some trickery.
Speaker 1: It was an end around and then a pass and
Speaker 1: Amari Cooper's throw is picked off by Von Bell his
Speaker 1: fourth interception of the year, and Logan Wilson put the
Speaker 1: pressure on Amari Cooper and made him throw the football
Speaker 1: sooner than he wanted to in errantly to boot. Seven
Speaker 1: offensive lineman stretched out a straight line. Now they're going
Speaker 1: to snap it directly to Nick Chubb out of a wildcat,
Speaker 1: catches at the nine, runs right, cuts up the middle,
Speaker 1: and goes into the end zone, standing up seven offensive
Speaker 1: lineman and a direct snap to Nip Chubb. The end
Speaker 1: result of four yard touchdown for I'll tell you the
Speaker 1: Bengals defensive lineet washed that time. Every member of the
Speaker 1: defensive line was about four yards in the end zone
Speaker 1: were set back to three. He gets hit, ball comes
Speaker 1: out crabs by a King Davis ka and the Bengals
Speaker 1: will take over near midfield as a King Davis Gaither
Speaker 1: comes away with the interception. As Brissette got hit hard
Speaker 1: and coughed up the ball. Money back is ready trying
Speaker 1: to put Cincinnati on the scoreboard. From forty seven yards away,
Speaker 1: the rookie Ademitas fires it back to Huber. Here comes
Speaker 1: the kick, a high spinning end over end kick and
Speaker 1: it's wide right raw from fifty five yards away. The snap,
Speaker 1: the put down, and the kick. It has the distance
Speaker 1: and it is good. And the half ends with the
Speaker 1: Browns on top eleven zip second goal from the three
Speaker 1: per set with a play action fake now running moving
Speaker 1: to his left, pump fakes trying to get to the
Speaker 1: end zone. Dives touches the pylon, touchdown Cleveland per set
Speaker 1: in the shotgun he catches, He drops back, floats a
Speaker 1: fade into the end zone. Easy pitch and catch Amari
Speaker 1: Cooper with a touchdown. Trey Flowers flailing in pursuit. Bengals
Speaker 1: go empty with three receivers left and two right on
Speaker 1: first and ten from the Cleveland thirteen, two defenders waiting
Speaker 1: at the goal line. Burrow drops back. It's a deep drop.
Speaker 1: Joe runs away from a possible hit, throws into the
Speaker 1: end zone, deflected and caught by Tyler Boyd. Touchdown. BEng
Speaker 1: Goals per set with the play clock at three, hands
Speaker 1: it off the Chubb running up the middle of the
Speaker 1: five and into the end zone. Standing up for the touchdown.
Speaker 1: Burrow waits for a shotgun snap with Mixon to his right,
Speaker 1: fakes the mix and drops back, throws it deep down field.
Speaker 1: Higgins high points the ball, snakes the catch and runs
Speaker 1: into the end zone. He was too big and too
Speaker 1: strong for Greedy Williams, and the Bengals score on the
Speaker 1: forty one yard strike. Bengals chances are slim, but they're
Speaker 1: not quite dead yet. They need to convert here. On
Speaker 1: fourth and four, trailing by nineteen. In the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: Burrow drops back quick throwback shoulder broken up incomplete intended
Speaker 1: for Tyler Boyd. Martin Emerson would the play defensively and
Speaker 1: the Bengals turn it over on downs. The final score
Speaker 1: again thirty two to thirteen, and the stats were pretty grizzly.
Speaker 1: The Browns out gained the Bengals four forty to two
Speaker 1: twenty nine, topped them in rushing yards one seventy two
Speaker 1: to thirty six, and time of possession was roughly thirty
Speaker 1: seven minutes to twenty three. To make matters worse, Chitabeyawoogie
Speaker 1: left the game with a knee injury. He was taken
Speaker 1: to the locker room on a cart and was on crutches,
Speaker 1: wearing a bulky knee brace. After the game, Sam Hubbard
Speaker 1: addressed his teammate's injury and other issues in front of
Speaker 1: his locker. I'm actually the loss of Cheetah hurt oh, unbelievable.
Speaker 1: He's uh, you know that that hurts really bad. He's
Speaker 1: an unbelievable player. I wish him all the best, and uh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna miss him. If I don't know what happened
Speaker 1: or but I saw him on crutches, this is really tough.
Speaker 1: What did you say about him that so many guys
Speaker 1: wanted to check on him while he was in the
Speaker 1: medical tent before he got carted off. Yeah, he's just
Speaker 1: you know, if you know anything about Cheetoh, this is
Speaker 1: means the world to him. He's one of the most
Speaker 1: reliable teammates I've ever played with. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: not much to say, oh than uh, you know, it
Speaker 1: means a lot to this team. You guys obviously have
Speaker 1: to move on, but how do you keep it from
Speaker 1: the being deflating? I mean, you guys are human. You
Speaker 1: have to feel for the guy. And yeah, I'm sure
Speaker 1: the loss of him meant a lot X and O wise,
Speaker 1: but even beyond that is it's something you guys felt, Yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: you know we uh you know, it's never easy, you know,
Speaker 1: down a bunch of our leaders and you know, DJ
Speaker 1: stuff like that, but you know, young guys are gonna
Speaker 1: get opportunity step up and we'll rally around that. There's
Speaker 1: always the talk that there's a lot of football left
Speaker 1: to be played, and obviously not even halfway through the
Speaker 1: season yet. But do you look at o and three
Speaker 1: in the division? Is that something that you pay attention
Speaker 1: to at this point and realize what kind of a
Speaker 1: hole that's going to be to climb out of? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you have to. At this point we get one more
Speaker 1: shot at each team and best chances to go three
Speaker 1: and three in the division, and it's kind of getting
Speaker 1: crunch time where we don't have any room for air
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, it's tough loss, but it's football. You're
Speaker 1: gonna face adversity. It's not how you just spawn, Sam,
Speaker 1: how do you keep yourself focused moving forward? Myself? I'm
Speaker 1: no issues there, I'm I'm all in. So yep, Sam,
Speaker 1: what do you know about this team? It's carater. They
Speaker 1: lead you to believe that you guys will bounce back collectively. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know the guys we got in our locker room,
Speaker 1: so many leaders, so many you know guys that I mean,
Speaker 1: this is some of the best groups a group of
Speaker 1: guys that ever been around. And I know that there's
Speaker 1: not gonna be any figure pointing. It's gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot of people looking at themselves figure out what they
Speaker 1: can do individually to get better. And that's how how
Speaker 1: you get out of situations like this. I've been here
Speaker 1: many times before. He's just perplexing. A game like tonight, though,
Speaker 1: when you guys felt like collectively you had things kind
Speaker 1: of figured out more moving forward, and then you have
Speaker 1: a speed bump like this. It happens. It's football. You
Speaker 1: can't let it, you know, derail your entire receive season,
Speaker 1: and you just gotta take what you did wrong and
Speaker 1: fix the corrections and move on to the next It's football.
Speaker 1: Just think the game, and think the game at the
Speaker 1: end of the half and hitting into the second. Happen
Speaker 1: is that we're kind of cut away where they scored
Speaker 1: at the end of a half and then they began. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was tough. I mean, I snapped my finger in
Speaker 1: half on that drive. Had to leave the field. Uh,
Speaker 1: I'm not even sure what happened. But uh, yes, it
Speaker 1: was a collective of drives after that drive that we
Speaker 1: got to make stops as we ask out what happened.
Speaker 1: So I just got Actually, I'm not I don't know
Speaker 1: if I'm talking in yeah, I'm good to go. I
Speaker 1: snapped my finger in half. Certainly doesn't sound pleasant. A
Speaker 1: finger on Sam's left hand was in a metal splint
Speaker 1: after the game. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by
Speaker 1: Alta Fiber future Proof Fiber Internet capable of delivering multi
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Speaker 1: Without Jamar Chase, the Bengals offense failed to score until
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. While Joe Burrow's final numbers were okay
Speaker 1: two hundred thirty two passing yards, two touchdowns, one pick,
Speaker 1: and a passer rating of ninety six point four. The
Speaker 1: offense failed to take advantage of good field position for
Speaker 1: much of the night. Tee Higgins had that forty one
Speaker 1: yard touchdown grab, but only had two other catches for
Speaker 1: eight yards. As for Tyler Boyd, aside from his thirteen
Speaker 1: yard touchdown grab, he was held to two other catches
Speaker 1: for twenty five yards, and the offensive line really struggled.
Speaker 1: Burrow was sacked five times, hit two other times, and
Speaker 1: the Bengals longest run was seven yards. I caught up
Speaker 1: with a member of that old line. We're in the
Speaker 1: locker room with l Collins. You guys have been playing
Speaker 1: so well. Unfortunately, it was just one of those nights
Speaker 1: where it didn't seem like anything went well. It is
Speaker 1: that how it fell to. You just felt like, you know,
Speaker 1: we didn't really get into a rhythm like we wanted to.
Speaker 1: Like we respected too, But he's got to get back
Speaker 1: to work obviously, not have some more. It's big for us,
Speaker 1: you know, so and he's missing a guy like that.
Speaker 1: You know, we all got to step up and do
Speaker 1: a better job at that. I think in the first
Speaker 1: half you drove into Brown's territory and five out of
Speaker 1: six drives and then just stalled. I mean, when you
Speaker 1: have those opportunities and can't capitalize, he usually comes back
Speaker 1: to haunt you, doesn't it. Absolutely. I mean, anytime you're
Speaker 1: in the territory, you gotta put points up on the board.
Speaker 1: It's a bottom line, you know. Wasn't able to do that. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I definitely think we have the opportunity to
Speaker 1: do it. You know, defense there was that opportunity, um
Speaker 1: but unfortunately just what nable capitalize on it. How hard
Speaker 1: is it to protect in a game against these guys
Speaker 1: when you have to pass. That's what we get played
Speaker 1: to do. So you know, there's no there's no exceptions
Speaker 1: to that. You know, we gotta it's like the Q
Speaker 1: big give him time to go through his reads and
Speaker 1: keep him up right. So I gotta go. We gotta
Speaker 1: get back to work and do a better job at that.
Speaker 1: And know it set part. Performance is never good, never
Speaker 1: feels good. But when it's prime time does that staying
Speaker 1: that much more. It doesn't matter prom time, no time,
Speaker 1: any time, y'all don't feel you know, I want to
Speaker 1: give your best performance and you know we just got
Speaker 1: to do a better job at that. You know, collectively
Speaker 1: as a group, appreciate your time. Thank you you. That's
Speaker 1: Lal Collins. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Kettering Health,
Speaker 1: the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. With more than
Speaker 1: one hundred twenty care facilities and fifteen hundred care providers.
Speaker 1: Kettering Health has committed to guiding you to your best health.
Speaker 1: Visit Kettering health dot org to learn more. Seven teams
Speaker 1: in the AFC will ultimately make the playoffs, and right
Speaker 1: now the Bengals are tied for the eighth spot with
Speaker 1: the Patriots. They're a half game behind the Chargers and
Speaker 1: just one game behind the Ravens, Jets, and Dolphins, so
Speaker 1: they're far from dead, but with an O and three
Speaker 1: record in the division, they might have to be a
Speaker 1: wildcard team to make it. Now, let's hear from head
Speaker 1: coach Zach Taylor as he spent a few minutes with
Speaker 1: day Lap them after the game. Coach, just one of
Speaker 1: the one of those knights Murphy's law. I mean the
Speaker 1: first you had I think five possessions that were inside
Speaker 1: the fifty yard line at one point, which couldn't finish
Speaker 1: any of them. No, we could, you know, the two
Speaker 1: turnovers and the missfield goal, heard us there, and we
Speaker 1: mixed in two three and ounce and that mix as well.
Speaker 1: And so that's just that's a tough recipe for success.
Speaker 1: We got to learn from it. Be able to make
Speaker 1: the corrections if there are there something to be made there.
Speaker 1: The two turnovers just unfortunate because it's it's an open
Speaker 1: receiver on a tipped ball, and it's another one he's
Speaker 1: going to throw it an open receiver and they get
Speaker 1: his risk right as he's going to throw it. So
Speaker 1: those are tough ones. So do you think it was
Speaker 1: lack of execution on your end of it? Was what
Speaker 1: the what they did on their end of it? A
Speaker 1: combination of both. How do you assess it? Yeah, the
Speaker 1: two three and ounce, you know, I think we had
Speaker 1: a big drop there on one of those drives to
Speaker 1: an open receiver. And you know so again in just
Speaker 1: getting two yards on first down of a second to
Speaker 1: eight and then two yards of a third and five,
Speaker 1: and just wasn't enough moving the ball forward to put
Speaker 1: us in better positions like we had been the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. And when they got a pass for
Speaker 1: us like they do, it makes it difficult because then
Speaker 1: you got to use guys in protection and you get
Speaker 1: a few guys out, And so they did a good
Speaker 1: job putting us in those situations and we couldn't get
Speaker 1: it done. You made mention of first down winning four
Speaker 1: out of five. You guys had a good run going
Speaker 1: on first down tonight. It wasn't there. I know your
Speaker 1: first twelve plays on first down its twenty four yards
Speaker 1: and they were averaging like eight or nine on their
Speaker 1: first downs. They handled first down pretty well. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: just didn't go a good enough job, you know, and
Speaker 1: uh search with us as coaches and asking the players
Speaker 1: to execute it. So again, we got to rebound quickly
Speaker 1: in a six day week, and I'm confident our guys
Speaker 1: we'll be able to do that. So injuries, I mean,
Speaker 1: Cheeto that one. That one looked like it's it's not
Speaker 1: good in the reaction to some of the guys in
Speaker 1: the locker room. And he has such an impact on
Speaker 1: so many guys. There's a lot of emotions in there
Speaker 1: in the locker room. That's the tough part of the
Speaker 1: National Football League, isn't it is? You know, he's he's
Speaker 1: one of our best and just every way that he
Speaker 1: goes about his life football, he's worked so hard to
Speaker 1: put himself in this position to be a premier cornerless lee,
Speaker 1: which he is, and uh, you know, he's a big
Speaker 1: part of the heart of this team. And so we're
Speaker 1: gonna have to rally behind him and other guys are
Speaker 1: gonna have to step up. And that's a tough one.
Speaker 1: Really tough. I mean on the back end with him down.
Speaker 1: I mean you you were playing Ducks Hill out there
Speaker 1: at outside corner and against Cooper, and that's that's a
Speaker 1: that's a tough, tough scenario. Welcome to the NFL. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's tough, you know. And so we're just a lot
Speaker 1: of guys are gonna have to step up and make
Speaker 1: some plays, and we're gonna be calling a lot of
Speaker 1: guys to do it. A home game against Carolina is
Speaker 1: up next, and it's been a rough year for the Panthers,
Speaker 1: who are two and six. Head coach Matt Roll was
Speaker 1: fired and has been replaced by Steve Wilkes. Baker Mayfield
Speaker 1: has been benched, and PJ Walker will make his fourth
Speaker 1: straight start at quarterback. Last Sunday, Walker through a touchdown
Speaker 1: pass that traveled sixty seven point six yards in the air.
Speaker 1: That's the longest completion by air distance since the NFL
Speaker 1: started tracking that stat in two thousand sixteen. In other words,
Speaker 1: he's got a strong arm. Now, time for the radio
Speaker 1: guys recap lap. I don't think anybody saw it coming.
Speaker 1: The Bengals played their worst game of the year. The
Speaker 1: Browns probably played their best and when that's the case
Speaker 1: in the NFL, it does not look good. No, you're right,
Speaker 1: and you know, as the old saying goes, sometimes you
Speaker 1: get the bear. A lot of times the bear gets you.
Speaker 1: And that's what happened today. I mean, every phase had
Speaker 1: had contributions to the defeat. There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: And you know it happens. And what you have to
Speaker 1: do is you have to put it aside. You can't
Speaker 1: let one game like this turn into two or three
Speaker 1: where the problems become persistent. I think this group has
Speaker 1: that type of mentality, Like you know, it happened. We
Speaker 1: just got to have selective mnees. You put it aside
Speaker 1: and and move on to the next one. If you don't,
Speaker 1: it can gall you up pretty quickly. And it's tough
Speaker 1: on a short week too, It's very tough. And then
Speaker 1: you know the compound by the fact that Cheeto's injury
Speaker 1: it looks very severe and a lot of guys were
Speaker 1: mourning that injury, no question about it, in terms of
Speaker 1: emotion and tears and everything else. I mean, this guy
Speaker 1: is somebody that has about a high level of respects
Speaker 1: as you can have in the locker room. There's no
Speaker 1: question if people didn't appreciate him, Andy lie Apple to
Speaker 1: a lesser extent, we saw their value in this game
Speaker 1: when when Jacoby Purcette had to throw, guys are wide open, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they were wide open. He almost threw for three hundred yards.
Speaker 1: Cooper has one hundred and thirty and uh, you know
Speaker 1: you rush for over one hundred with Chubb. I mean
Speaker 1: that's that's the trifecta quarterback. Three hundred yards and one
Speaker 1: hundred by a receiver and a hundred by a running
Speaker 1: back is like the triple crown. And they came within
Speaker 1: just a few yards of doing that. So credit down,
Speaker 1: they played well, like you said, the and the Bengals
Speaker 1: certainly didn't. The Bengals, um, we're fighting an uphill battle
Speaker 1: all the way. And once they fell behind by three scores.
Speaker 1: The way Cleveland can run the football, man, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like now you have to Cleveland knows you have
Speaker 1: to throw it every down. They're tea and off. Now
Speaker 1: you have to take extra people and help the line block,
Speaker 1: and now you have less receivers in the route. Now
Speaker 1: you're playing to play, trying to play that game of
Speaker 1: when are we going to put extra blockers in what
Speaker 1: are we going to put them out in the route?
Speaker 1: And and you get a whole whole bunch of things
Speaker 1: that just compound and h pretty soon you're you're you're
Speaker 1: losing by three scores. Goes without saying that when the
Speaker 1: Cleveland Browns know you're going to pass, as you were saying,
Speaker 1: they're going to tee off. But even before that was
Speaker 1: the case in this game, they got too much pressure
Speaker 1: on Joe Burrows more like the first two games of
Speaker 1: the season than the last five. Yeah, they did. They
Speaker 1: just they decided that they were going to be aggressive
Speaker 1: in terms of getting up the football field and if
Speaker 1: they run, so be it. You know, we'll try to
Speaker 1: make a play on the run as we're as we're
Speaker 1: moving up the football field. It's going to be an
Speaker 1: aggressive posture. And they brought talkie talkie a few times
Speaker 1: on run blitzes. They brought them down a distance situations,
Speaker 1: particularly with the way the game was unfolding, where you know,
Speaker 1: if you do decide to run a drawer or whatever,
Speaker 1: he's still going to be in position to make a play. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: they they definitely got the upper hand and then took
Speaker 1: advantage of it with the play calling and the execution
Speaker 1: of the play calling, No doubt about it. It was.
Speaker 1: They were overwhelming in terms of rushing the passer six
Speaker 1: possessions in the first half. They drove past the fifty
Speaker 1: on five out of the six and failed to score.
Speaker 1: How big of a factor was Chase his absence in
Speaker 1: the inability to keep on driving and score points. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I hate, I hate to put it on
Speaker 1: one thing, but maybe the biggest player that Miles Garrett
Speaker 1: made was tipping that pass because it was there and
Speaker 1: Higgins still try to make a play on it and
Speaker 1: he'd second tip and then the interception, so it's tip tip, doink, doink.
Speaker 1: But he was wide open. And if the Bengals score
Speaker 1: points on that drive, you know it. I'm I'm not
Speaker 1: going to say it would have changed the outcome of
Speaker 1: the game, but it would have in a different football game. Um,
Speaker 1: there's no two ways about that, I think. And you
Speaker 1: know when that that was the first, uh, that was
Speaker 1: the first bit of tragedy adversity to deal with, and
Speaker 1: then it just started snowballing and compounding. So if you're
Speaker 1: able to avoid that one who knows, who knows? You know,
Speaker 1: just um, just one of those days things just didn't
Speaker 1: go Sam Hubbard said after the game, Listen, we went
Speaker 1: into the bye last year with a five and four record.
Speaker 1: That's the goal. Now when next week, get to the
Speaker 1: buy five and four. Yeah, get to the buy five
Speaker 1: and four of it right now. Three of those four
Speaker 1: losses or division losses, and that's that's the thing that Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the thing that's tough right now. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: down the stretch, you've got other tough opponents you're going
Speaker 1: to be playing as well as the division opponents you're
Speaker 1: already lost to, so you've got to sweep them as
Speaker 1: well as uh, you know, try to handle business with
Speaker 1: other other tough opponents. So you've definitely definitely backed yourself
Speaker 1: into a corner. It was very little margin for ever,
Speaker 1: if any, that's for sure. It's amazing, isn't it. Eight
Speaker 1: days ago, after that victory against the Atlanta Falcons, it
Speaker 1: seemed like, oh man, this team is on fire, they're
Speaker 1: ready to take off. And now in this locker room
Speaker 1: right now, and the injury to a Woozie and the
Speaker 1: flat performance on Monday Night football, I mean, guys are
Speaker 1: as low as you can be telling you. I mean,
Speaker 1: think of what took place during the course of this week. Chase, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to shut him down. He's not going
Speaker 1: to be even showing up. He's not traveling. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's shut down. And then a Woozier. So in the
Speaker 1: course of a week, you lose one of your most
Speaker 1: important players. The only other player of more importance is
Speaker 1: probably number nine, a quarterback Joe Burrow. Then on the
Speaker 1: other side of it, you lose a Woozier. Who is
Speaker 1: he covers the number one guy every week. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's not a more important role than that for the
Speaker 1: defensive football team. But that's what life's like in the NFL.
Speaker 1: You can never count on things going smoothly. Who's gonna
Speaker 1: step up, who's going to be the next man up,
Speaker 1: Who's gonna bring the Bengals out of the wilderness? Because
Speaker 1: they were on a prairie it was wide open. Now
Speaker 1: they're back in the wilderness. I mean, you win four
Speaker 1: out of five and you lose one and get thumped
Speaker 1: in so doing, and all of a sudden, men, it's
Speaker 1: dark outside. The Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you
Speaker 1: in part by Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals they're free
Speaker 1: to play with tickets and side merchandise up for grabs.
Speaker 1: Find both inside the Bengals app. Finally, it's time for
Speaker 1: this week's fun Facts interview, where we get to know
Speaker 1: the person under the pads. Time for some fun facts
Speaker 1: with Bengals defensive lineman Zach Carter from Tampa, Florida, also
Speaker 1: known as Champa Bay due to the recent success of
Speaker 1: the Buccaneers, the Rays, and especially the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Speaker 1: Are you a big fan of the Tampa teams and
Speaker 1: have you ever attended a victory parade. I'm a Hughes
Speaker 1: fan and of the Temper teams. I take a lot
Speaker 1: of pride in the Temper teams. You know, we've been
Speaker 1: through a lot. The Rays used to struggle, the Lightning
Speaker 1: used to struggle, the Bucks. Everybody used to struggle, and
Speaker 1: then it's like out of nowhere, like temperatures lit up. Man.
Speaker 1: But sadly I could say I've never been to a
Speaker 1: victory parade, only because we kind of started winning when
Speaker 1: I went off to school, like I was in college.
Speaker 1: So I remember when the Bucks to win the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: I was sitting in Gamesville watching the game, but all
Speaker 1: my friends sending me videos and Ebort City, Like Temper
Speaker 1: has never been like that before, so I never got
Speaker 1: to go to win. But it's great for you know,
Speaker 1: it's great for Tempa Bay. Well, I'm hoping he'll be
Speaker 1: in a super Bowl parade here. How does that sound? Oh?
Speaker 1: That sounded even better. We obviously agree. Were you a
Speaker 1: kid who played everything growing up? Or were you primarily
Speaker 1: a football guy? I played baseball, basketball, and football, so
Speaker 1: it kind of came down to a decision where I
Speaker 1: had to choose which one I was gonna go with,
Speaker 1: like from my career, but honestly, I would have made
Speaker 1: a heck of a first basement. I was really good,
Speaker 1: like really good. Well, you're a big man. You're six
Speaker 1: four two ninety. Did you tower over the other kids
Speaker 1: growing up? I definitely did, especially like starting in middle
Speaker 1: school and elementary school, I was kind of bigger than everybody.
Speaker 1: But once I got to middle school, I hit like
Speaker 1: a four inch growth spurt, like after my sixth grade year,
Speaker 1: and like I was having knee pains and everything like that.
Speaker 1: But that's when I really started to tower over people.
Speaker 1: There's a reason why they have the term growing pains.
Speaker 1: It's literally a thing you were a highly touted recruit.
Speaker 1: I read that you had forty one offers and you
Speaker 1: ultimately chose to go to the University of Florida. Did
Speaker 1: you enjoy the attention or was it a bit overwhelming.
Speaker 1: I'd be real early in the recruiting process, like when
Speaker 1: I was in high school, I wasn't really getting any attention.
Speaker 1: So I started getting more attention starting like spring headed
Speaker 1: into my junior year. So once I started getting attention,
Speaker 1: it was a good feeling, like it's like, man, that's
Speaker 1: what I worked for. Like I got all these college
Speaker 1: coaches telling me I'm good, and you know, we want
Speaker 1: you here. But then like as it started to get crazy,
Speaker 1: like I'm like, oh my goodness, it's like this is overwhelming.
Speaker 1: Like I was ready to shut it down. That's why
Speaker 1: I committed kind of. I committed the Florida kind of
Speaker 1: early before my senior season even started because I was
Speaker 1: just ready to shut everything down. What was the best
Speaker 1: part of being a Gator. It's just that pride, man,
Speaker 1: that Gator pride. We really we really bleed orange and blue,
Speaker 1: whether we're up our down. I really think that's the
Speaker 1: biggest thing. We all stick together and all kinds of
Speaker 1: weather for you could have gone to the NFL after
Speaker 1: your red shirt junior year. You'lllected to go back to
Speaker 1: school for a fifth year. Why did you stay? I
Speaker 1: love the University of Florida, man, Like I was. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I was ready to leave. And then when I really
Speaker 1: sat down and I prayed about it and I really
Speaker 1: thought about it, I was like, man, actually just go back.
Speaker 1: You know, I was able to be a captain my
Speaker 1: senior year. It was gave me some you know, captain
Speaker 1: skilled leadership skills I could carry over to this level.
Speaker 1: And then you know, we didn't have like the greatest season,
Speaker 1: like we had a losing season, but looking past the
Speaker 1: losing season, like just the experiences I had, like the
Speaker 1: friendships I got to have, Like I was, it felt
Speaker 1: good to be like a leader on the team and
Speaker 1: guys really truly believed in me. So that was a
Speaker 1: big thing for me. Visiting with Zach Carter. You were
Speaker 1: drafted by the Bengals in the third round. Describe that
Speaker 1: moment you're surrounded by loved ones, you get that phone call.
Speaker 1: Describe the emotion that you experience. Well, I'll tell you this,
Speaker 1: that whole night was crazy because I'm sitting there watching
Speaker 1: every pit go by, and I'm getting more nervous and
Speaker 1: more nervous. And I had family and friends over that night,
Speaker 1: so like it came to a point somewhere like men
Speaker 1: in the third round, I was like, I told everybody, like,
Speaker 1: I'm feeling kind of sick, Like I was feeling nauseous
Speaker 1: and stuff. So I went to the back room by myself.
Speaker 1: I isolated myself, and people were doing what they did.
Speaker 1: And then my brother walked in the room, and my
Speaker 1: mom walked in the room kind of come for me
Speaker 1: and stuff, and she's like, just be patient. And then
Speaker 1: it's like ten minutes later, I get a phone call.
Speaker 1: I'm like Cincinnati. I'm like, no way, that's like, man,
Speaker 1: I was the best. That was probably the best moment
Speaker 1: of my life. Honestly, I never forget that feeling man
Speaker 1: I was. I was like, man, this is a blessing.
Speaker 1: I was excited, really excited. So I'm here. It's just
Speaker 1: I'm living out my dreams. You majored in journalism at
Speaker 1: the University of Florida. Would you like to get into
Speaker 1: broadcasting many many years from now when your NFL playing
Speaker 1: career is finished. I could definitely see myself in broadcasting.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, just my personality. Everybody's always told
Speaker 1: me growing up, like I got a sean personality. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm funny, goofy. I could carry that over to the
Speaker 1: TV set easily and it'll be natural for me. All right, now,
Speaker 1: time for some wild card questions with Zach Carter. Do
Speaker 1: you have any hidden talents? I do share well. I
Speaker 1: grew up in the choir church choir. A lot of
Speaker 1: people don't know that. You know, I'm a religious guy,
Speaker 1: but I could sing. People don't know that I could
Speaker 1: really sing, So that's one of my hidden talents. I
Speaker 1: also played the piano growing up, so I could do
Speaker 1: that as well, and the trumbone, so I'm kind of
Speaker 1: musically gifted a little bit. All Right, we're in an
Speaker 1: empty room. Do you want to give me a little
Speaker 1: amazing grace or something and show off the singing voice?
Speaker 1: I got you, Oh, manz grade a sweet That was great.
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed that. Who is your all time favorite
Speaker 1: athlete in any sport? And why, I gotta say Lebron
Speaker 1: Lebron James just his dedication to the game. You know
Speaker 1: what he what he brings to the game. But his
Speaker 1: biggest name, his impact off the court, like the man
Speaker 1: he has his own school, Like just things like that.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's what it's really about, you know,
Speaker 1: Like all the accolades, that's important as well, but like
Speaker 1: what you're doing for others because he's, like, you know,
Speaker 1: he one of the biggest names in sports and a
Speaker 1: lot of people look up to him. So just what
Speaker 1: he's doing on and off the court, it's a big
Speaker 1: deal to me. That's a great segue into my next
Speaker 1: question because at Florida you were named to the SEC's
Speaker 1: Community Service Team for the things that you did off
Speaker 1: the field. Do you consider it important to give back?
Speaker 1: Really important? Man? Just you know, it's a lot of
Speaker 1: being in this position, you know, being looked at by
Speaker 1: hundreds thousands of kids like that want to be NFL
Speaker 1: players or any any kind of athlete. Like we're on
Speaker 1: the highest platform. So I just feel like it's important
Speaker 1: to give back to those kids, to give them hope
Speaker 1: because everybody's not in our shoes, you know, So I
Speaker 1: feel like that's one of the easiest things we could do.
Speaker 1: It caused no money to give back. Well, put being
Speaker 1: from Tampa, Florida, how are you with cold weather. Well,
Speaker 1: I got I got to test it out this week. Man,
Speaker 1: it's tough for me. I'm not gonna lie, but you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm taking it day by day. I just put
Speaker 1: in a big order for about four or five coats,
Speaker 1: so I should be good. Is there anything that you've
Speaker 1: experienced in Cincinnati so far that you consider to be
Speaker 1: a really cool thing about this city? Just exploring the
Speaker 1: downtown are like, it's a really nice area, OTR you know,
Speaker 1: the banks. I feel like it's a nice city. And
Speaker 1: I know it's like a young a kind of a
Speaker 1: young city, and it's on to come up in the ride,
Speaker 1: I can see it. But it's a love of Cincinat
Speaker 1: It's a nice city, all right. Final question, this one's
Speaker 1: kind of deep. If you could meet anybody in history, athlete, entertainer,
Speaker 1: states been, religious figure, whoever it might be, who would
Speaker 1: that person be. I probably want to meet Martin Luther King,
Speaker 1: just because of the impact he had on the whole world.
Speaker 1: Man Like he brought he brought millions of people together,
Speaker 1: and he kind of like put us, like the Nissan
Speaker 1: in a better direction, you know what I'm saying. Like
Speaker 1: it says a strong man move a lot of people
Speaker 1: like that, so I definitely want to meet him and
Speaker 1: just pick his brain about how he thought and you
Speaker 1: know how he was able to lead like an excellent answer.
Speaker 1: This has been great. I appreciate you singing a little
Speaker 1: bit for us and best of luck the rest of
Speaker 1: the year. I appreciate him, man, Thank you. That's going
Speaker 1: to do it for this episode of The Bengals Booth Podcast,
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Speaker 1: Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Horde, and thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast.