Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast. The Get Ready becaus Ira, Come
Speaker 1: my Way, get Ready Kauzira Come. Addition, a little motown
Speaker 1: seemed appropriate as the three and two Bengals head to
Speaker 1: the Motor City to try to keep the Owen five
Speaker 1: Lions winless. Coming up, I'll talk to one of the
Speaker 1: guys who will call the game on TV for Fox
Speaker 1: this Sunday, former Dallas Cowboys Pro Bowl fullback Darryl Johnston.
Speaker 1: My one on one player interview this week is with
Speaker 1: one of the Bengals highest graded players so far this
Speaker 1: year according to Pro Football Focus, Defensive tackle DJ reader
Speaker 1: Dave Lapham joins me to discuss the latest Bengals news
Speaker 1: and answer some questions you submitted via Twitter. And finally,
Speaker 1: it's our noa Fox segment as we discuss why the
Speaker 1: Lions don't have a win with the host of the
Speaker 1: Locked On Lions podcast, Matt darry The Bengals Booth Podcast
Speaker 1: as is presented by Ultimate Bengals. The free to play
Speaker 1: Next Level Fantasy Football game downloaded now from the App
Speaker 1: Store and Google Play. And here's a quick reminder that
Speaker 1: you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered
Speaker 1: right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitch,
Speaker 1: your Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest
Speaker 1: thing since The official trailer for Get Back. This week,
Speaker 1: a three minute, fifty eight second trailer was released to
Speaker 1: preview a three part documentary about the Beatles called Get Back.
Speaker 1: Just when you thought there couldn't possibly be anything new
Speaker 1: out there about the band, they've unearthed never before seen
Speaker 1: crystal clear footage gathered from nineteen sixty nine leading up
Speaker 1: to the beatles final live performance on a rooftop in London.
Speaker 1: If you haven't seen it yet, check out that trailer
Speaker 1: for Get Back. The three part series should be incredible
Speaker 1: for lovers of the original Fab four. Now time to
Speaker 1: go from the Beatles to the Bengals, beginning with one
Speaker 1: of the guys who will call this week's game in Detroit.
Speaker 1: He was the best fullback of his era and he'll
Speaker 1: be in the booth for Fox this Sunday. Former Dallas
Speaker 1: Cowboys great Darryl Moose Johnston, Darryl, you had the Bengals
Speaker 1: in Week one, that overtime victory against the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 1: What stood out about Cincinnati when you called that game.
Speaker 1: Really the big thing for me was the resiliency you
Speaker 1: know through that game. You know, a team that's that's
Speaker 1: made a lot of splash in the off season with
Speaker 1: some of the free agent acquisitions and then the draft,
Speaker 1: there's expectations coming in and then you get into a
Speaker 1: game and those are the areas where you want to
Speaker 1: see if you've taken that next step. You know, how
Speaker 1: quickly has that talent that we assembled in the off
Speaker 1: season come together? And that was really the one thing
Speaker 1: that I was impressed with. You know, there were moments
Speaker 1: there for a Minnesota team that's been together for a
Speaker 1: long time and had some high expectations for their own
Speaker 1: team coming into that opener, and at times it looked
Speaker 1: like there was a chance that they could kind of
Speaker 1: take that game away. And I thought the resiliency of
Speaker 1: the Bengals was very impressive in Week one with everything
Speaker 1: that they've done in the offseason to kind of validate
Speaker 1: that not only do we have talent, but we're starting
Speaker 1: to come together as a team. We're gonna be able
Speaker 1: to fight through some of this adversity. Let's talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about Joe Burrow. You were drafted in the
Speaker 1: second round by the Cowboys in nineteen eighty nine, the
Speaker 1: same year they took Troy Aikman number one overall. So
Speaker 1: you saw his growth from one in fifteen as a
Speaker 1: rookie to Super Bowl champion in year four. Do you
Speaker 1: see any parallels where Joe Burrow is concerned? You know,
Speaker 1: That's It's funny you ask that because in the production meeting,
Speaker 1: and one of the reasons that, you know, I wanted
Speaker 1: to come up to Cincinnati. You know, a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of times we're gonna do things via zoom
Speaker 1: nowadays in our preparation, but I really wanted to be
Speaker 1: able to sit across from Joe Burrow and Zach Taylor
Speaker 1: and really kind of get a feel for who they
Speaker 1: are is men as much as who they are as
Speaker 1: football coaches and quarterbacks. And I was really impressed with Joe. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I thought he was very purposeful. Um he
Speaker 1: reminded me of Troy that which where he's very serious
Speaker 1: when it comes to the game. You know, it kind
Speaker 1: of seemed like he was already kind of sliding into
Speaker 1: that that pre game mentality, you know, on a Friday afternoon,
Speaker 1: and that was very similar to Troy. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: he got more and more serious as we got through
Speaker 1: the course of the week and moved into the weekend.
Speaker 1: So I thought, just from a personality standpoint, you could see, uh,
Speaker 1: you could see the seriousness, the purposefulness. But but then
Speaker 1: also you know, very very conversational with us, very open
Speaker 1: to sharing information. So you know, for a younger guy
Speaker 1: in the NFL here in season two, for him coming
Speaker 1: off that big injury, I was impressed and I'm glad
Speaker 1: we got to see that face to face because I
Speaker 1: don't know if he would have staw that Vida zoom call.
Speaker 1: So that was something that that I felt was very
Speaker 1: beneficial coming out of Week one. Our guest is three
Speaker 1: time Super Bowl champ Darryl Johnston. As you prepared for
Speaker 1: Week one, you heard about and read about Jamar Chase's pregames,
Speaker 1: a preseason struggles with dropping the football, and then he
Speaker 1: was great against the Vikings and he's been outstanding in
Speaker 1: the first five weeks. What do you think of Jamar
Speaker 1: and the Bengals receiving group as a whole. Well, I
Speaker 1: think that that's going to be probably the big tide
Speaker 1: turner this weekend against the Lions. Yeah, you know, Jamar
Speaker 1: Chase to going through camp, you have some drops. I
Speaker 1: think we all go through drops at a certain point
Speaker 1: in our career. You know, I had a training camp
Speaker 1: where I stayed after practice for three consecutive days. I
Speaker 1: mean it was just simple things and it gets into
Speaker 1: your head and you just continue to work and grind
Speaker 1: and try and get it out of there. And I
Speaker 1: think that that's exactly what happened to Jamar Chase. It
Speaker 1: was just odd that it was, you know, in his
Speaker 1: training camp of his rookie season, with all these expectations
Speaker 1: that were placed on him. So I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people, me included, might have made out made that
Speaker 1: out to me in a little bit more. But you
Speaker 1: could hear his teammates talk about it. Hey, listen, we
Speaker 1: watch always working at practice. He's doing everything to kind
Speaker 1: of work himself out of this. You know. That was
Speaker 1: the big thing I think in Week one was his
Speaker 1: performance there kind of solidified that the work he had
Speaker 1: put into kind of remedy that situation, you know, had
Speaker 1: paid off. And since that time, we've seen him make
Speaker 1: a number of fantastic catches. Uh. You know, there was one,
Speaker 1: you know, the go route down the left side. The
Speaker 1: one time when he caught the back end of the football. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know that that was outstanding. UM. So yeah, his
Speaker 1: confidence is just going to continue to grow. I think
Speaker 1: when you put him together with everybody else that they
Speaker 1: have there. Uh. You talk about trios of wide receivers
Speaker 1: being able to you know, kind of roll out that
Speaker 1: thirteen personnel, you know, the three wides on the one
Speaker 1: running back, one tight end. That's become very very popular
Speaker 1: in the NFL. When you've got the wide receiver group
Speaker 1: that that Cincinnati does. Um, you know, that's that's gonna
Speaker 1: be very difficult for people to defend. And I think
Speaker 1: it was something that we saw last week in Minnesota, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, being able to roll out feeling uh and
Speaker 1: Justin Jefferson against Detroit. But they've also got that identity
Speaker 1: of wanting to run the football and we thought maybe
Speaker 1: they'd back off that a little bit with Dalvin Cook out,
Speaker 1: but they got a little bit stubborn with the run game. UM.
Speaker 1: And the great matchups were in the past game. I mean,
Speaker 1: Justin Jefferson got off to a tremendous start. He had
Speaker 1: a hundred yards by halftime. UM. So I expect Cincinnati
Speaker 1: to do the same thing. I think they're going to
Speaker 1: challenge Detroit in their secondary because of the injuries that
Speaker 1: they've had and how young they are and how much
Speaker 1: their margin for air to win a football game is
Speaker 1: is so razor thin. You know, that's where the matchups
Speaker 1: are going to be for Cincinnati, and how much do
Speaker 1: they commit to that. Frank Pollock coached in Dallas after
Speaker 1: your playing days. So I don't know how well you
Speaker 1: know him personally, if at all, but do you see
Speaker 1: the Bengals offensive line making progress under his coaching? Absolutely? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: And it's actually, you know, on my to do list,
Speaker 1: I'd love to have the opportunity to maybe visit with
Speaker 1: coach Pollock, you know, away from the production meeting, just
Speaker 1: to kind of pick his brain a little bit. You know,
Speaker 1: he's one of those those coaches at the offensive line
Speaker 1: position that you hear about that just seems to make
Speaker 1: a huge difference when he gets into an organization, kind
Speaker 1: of like Bill Callahan has done throughout his career in
Speaker 1: the NFL. It seems that his offensive lines are are
Speaker 1: just always very very technique sound, you know, very very physical.
Speaker 1: We're really really well as as a group of five,
Speaker 1: and you can see that. You can see the growth
Speaker 1: from week one till now already. You know, I went
Speaker 1: back and watched, you know, the Pittsburgh game just to
Speaker 1: see how they did there. You know, for for that
Speaker 1: group to break that street. You know, Pittsburgh had had
Speaker 1: a sack in seventy five consecutive games, and they kept
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow clean that entire game. That's impressive. You know,
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh was you know, kind of in the midst of
Speaker 1: kind of figuring things out. But but that's still a
Speaker 1: very very sound defense, very very strong defense. So I
Speaker 1: think that that's a huge stepping stone for that group
Speaker 1: on the offensive line. And when you watch them run
Speaker 1: the football, you know, one of the big things that
Speaker 1: that's the most important for an offensive line is to
Speaker 1: stay on your feet. You know, continue to push, continue
Speaker 1: to stay on your feet, don't get on the ground.
Speaker 1: You know, we used to call him otgs. You know.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you know, your offensive lineman can can create as
Speaker 1: much of distraction as a defensive player who's in the
Speaker 1: running lane because they're on the ground. So I think
Speaker 1: that that Frank does a great job and his guys
Speaker 1: do a great job of just staying up, keeping their
Speaker 1: feet moving the zone blocking schemes are very effective. Um,
Speaker 1: you've got good runners behind with Joe Mixon and j p. Ryan.
Speaker 1: So it's just it's it's impressive to watch, you know,
Speaker 1: when that unit really starts to come together. And from
Speaker 1: week one until now, just kind of going back and
Speaker 1: watching the film, you can see the growth of those
Speaker 1: those five guys. Former Pro Bowl fullback Darryl Johnston is
Speaker 1: our guest. As you noted, you had the Lions game
Speaker 1: last week in Minnesota. They're o and five, but in
Speaker 1: two out of their last three games they had the
Speaker 1: lead in the final minute and lost on a really
Speaker 1: long field goal sixty six and fifty four yards. What
Speaker 1: are the strengths of the Lions right now? Their resiliency,
Speaker 1: their grit um. You know, there's there's always a little
Speaker 1: bit of a talent deficiency when you're going through a
Speaker 1: rebuild um, and the Lions are in the middle of
Speaker 1: that right now. And to to you know, to add
Speaker 1: to that, they've had some key injuries, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: rush in secondary. It's just it's made a really challenging
Speaker 1: for them. Uh, you know, the Taylor Decker they're starting
Speaker 1: left tackle, got hurt, you know, getting ready for Week one, Uh,
Speaker 1: they're starting center who some people consider to be, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the best centers in the NFL all you know,
Speaker 1: got hurt the week before Minnesota's games. So it just
Speaker 1: it seems like every week it's a similar scenario for
Speaker 1: Detroit where they're they're losing heartbreaking games, they're losing key
Speaker 1: players on the team, Yet every Monday they come back
Speaker 1: to work and get ready to play. You know that
Speaker 1: that's a testament to Dan Campbell and what he's building
Speaker 1: in Detroit. So you know, as as opponents, when you're
Speaker 1: getting ready for the Detroit Lions, you have to understand
Speaker 1: that they will give you everything they have for sixty minutes.
Speaker 1: Your your talent level may be superior to what they
Speaker 1: have right now, but if they play a clean game,
Speaker 1: they are going to stretch you to the end. And
Speaker 1: that's what I think we're seeing. And even without these
Speaker 1: clean games, and that's one of the things that Dan
Speaker 1: will say is we keep shooting ourselves in the foot.
Speaker 1: So you know, if Detroit catches somebody on a Sunday
Speaker 1: afternoon where they're playing a clean football game, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a tough It's gonna be a tough out for people.
Speaker 1: They remind me a lot of my nineteen eighty nine
Speaker 1: team here in Dallas. They finished one in fifteen. You know,
Speaker 1: I never believe that we were one in fifteen team
Speaker 1: because there were there were opportunities for us to win games.
Speaker 1: We should have been four and twelve or maybe even
Speaker 1: five and eleven, but we just did not know how
Speaker 1: to win a game. And I see a lot of
Speaker 1: that with the Detroit Lions right now. You know, there's
Speaker 1: a ton of fight in them. There's talent that you're
Speaker 1: going to see grow down down the road, but but
Speaker 1: they just don't know how to finish those games. They
Speaker 1: don't know how to close them out and get that victory.
Speaker 1: You certainly learned how to win in Dallas with three
Speaker 1: Super Bowl titles. Final question for Daryl Moose Johnson. I
Speaker 1: appreciate your time. If you were an NFL GM or
Speaker 1: head coach, would your roster include a full back? Absolutely? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: m I still think it's a very valuable position, and
Speaker 1: we're starting to see guys, you know, around the league
Speaker 1: do what I think is necessary to really bring it back.
Speaker 1: I think the full back in today's game has to
Speaker 1: be able to break formation and go outside and give
Speaker 1: the give the defense a challenge in a matchup. You
Speaker 1: know who you're gonna put out there. You're gonna put
Speaker 1: a linebacker out there and is he athletic enough that
Speaker 1: that's considered a mismatch on the outside. But then you've
Speaker 1: also got to be able to come in and be
Speaker 1: an effective lead blocker because that's that's the bread and
Speaker 1: butter or the fullback position. But we're starting to see
Speaker 1: that Kyle Uschek is a great example of that out
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. Uh, we're seeing teams that are coming
Speaker 1: off that that Kyle Shanahan tree um, you know, going
Speaker 1: back years to his dad, going back all the way
Speaker 1: to the to the Kubiak era um. You know that
Speaker 1: that offense that that values that running game and for
Speaker 1: formational flexibility. You know, I think that that's a great opportunity, uh,
Speaker 1: you know for the fullback position to start to make
Speaker 1: a resurgence in the NFL. But the problem is we've
Speaker 1: gotten away from it so much at the collegiate level
Speaker 1: that there's not really a pipeline coming to the NFL
Speaker 1: with a true traditional fullback that can do the things
Speaker 1: that we talked about. So you're trying to convert. You're
Speaker 1: trying to convert an outside linebacker, you're trying to convert
Speaker 1: a tight end. Uh. And the full the fullback position
Speaker 1: is very unique. Uh. You know, you're you're not close
Speaker 1: to the to the people you're blocking. It comes from
Speaker 1: from distance you're separated by anywhere from you know, six
Speaker 1: to eight to ten yards. Uh. And and those collisions
Speaker 1: can be violent at times. So you know, really, you know,
Speaker 1: the fullback position is not all about technique as much
Speaker 1: as it is about mentality. And if you haven't been
Speaker 1: in that position and learn how to do that and
Speaker 1: develop that mentality of that style of play, it's it's
Speaker 1: hard to convert somebody who's work at the line of
Speaker 1: scrimmage with only about you know, you know, six inches
Speaker 1: to a yard of separation for those those collisions in
Speaker 1: that contact. So hopefully we'll see some of the collegiate
Speaker 1: teams start to bring back the fullback position, which will
Speaker 1: help the NFL teams find valuable guys to fill that role.
Speaker 1: But absolutely I'll scolet the entire country if I ever
Speaker 1: get an opportunity to make sure I've got a good
Speaker 1: fullback in that offense. Well, I know that Emmett Smith
Speaker 1: is happy he had a great one in Dallas. I
Speaker 1: appreciate your time, have a great call this Sunday. Thanks
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Good luck to you guys. Up next, my
Speaker 1: one on one visit with defensive tackle DJ Reader, who
Speaker 1: is part of a position group that's been dominant in
Speaker 1: the first five weeks of this season. Dj, I want
Speaker 1: to start with Pro Football Focus rankings for defensive accles
Speaker 1: in the NFL. You're number six, Josh Tupo is number fifteen,
Speaker 1: b J Hill is number eighteen. That's three Bengals in
Speaker 1: the top twenty. Do you think people realize how good
Speaker 1: the middle of the Bengals defense is playing so far? Um,
Speaker 1: You know, I think people recognize that we're playing well.
Speaker 1: Those are nice to have and not something that we
Speaker 1: paid too much attense too. But you know, I think
Speaker 1: we're playing good as a group together. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of guys are going They're given great effort and
Speaker 1: playing very hard. You know, they're proudful about what they do.
Speaker 1: They come to work to work hard every day and
Speaker 1: it's something that we're really trying to correct. Here's a
Speaker 1: number that does matter. Your seventh in the NFL and
Speaker 1: points allowed. That includes a pick six and a field
Speaker 1: goal in the Chicago game where the Bear started at
Speaker 1: the nine yard line. Take those ten points away and
Speaker 1: you're number four in the NFL and points allowed. What
Speaker 1: has the Bengals defense done especially well in your opinion?
Speaker 1: I think we do a good job, Bendon not breaking.
Speaker 1: I think in the red zone we do a good job.
Speaker 1: You know, we have a lot of longer we've for
Speaker 1: as soon as to make long drives. We don't give
Speaker 1: up too many big plays, you know, try to do
Speaker 1: a good job of living of those and forcing long drives.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, when I'm back against the
Speaker 1: wall and the road zone especially, we blow up. We're
Speaker 1: chatting with DJ reader. Is there anything on defense that
Speaker 1: disappointed you so far? No, you know, just not getting wins.
Speaker 1: I feel like a couple of games has been on
Speaker 1: us and we've done a good job, but we just
Speaker 1: got to take that step forward and get cold. Those
Speaker 1: turnovers at the end to go our way or things
Speaker 1: just to go our way. Settling a thing I think
Speaker 1: on third day, and we got to do a lot
Speaker 1: better of getting off the field. I think we've done
Speaker 1: a decent job, but sometimes, you know, I think we
Speaker 1: give up big third downs that we should be correcting.
Speaker 1: So I think that's a that's the thing as a
Speaker 1: team that we got to get better at. You've played
Speaker 1: in a lot of football games. Have you ever played
Speaker 1: in one with more emotional swings as that game had
Speaker 1: last week? If I have, I can't remember, but you know,
Speaker 1: it was fun to play and you know, you know,
Speaker 1: it was one of those fights and it's kind of
Speaker 1: crazy after watching that backs boxing match night before that
Speaker 1: Wilder and Food match and then coming back and having
Speaker 1: that game and just kind of everybody just throwing punches
Speaker 1: back and forth, and there was a fun game to
Speaker 1: play in. You know, guys play hard. We're chatting with
Speaker 1: DJ reader. You missed the last eleven games last year
Speaker 1: with the torn quad recepts. Where was your tear and
Speaker 1: how severe was it? Ruptured the tendon um? So it's
Speaker 1: pretty severe. It's a beginning of surgeries. First six weeks
Speaker 1: can't move. It's a nine month ree have So it
Speaker 1: was just it was a long little process. It's kind
Speaker 1: of at fifty percent return rate, it's not very high,
Speaker 1: but you know it's it's gotten better, you know, with
Speaker 1: modern medicine and you know, just everything. You know, surgeons
Speaker 1: have gotten a lot better. So it was just one
Speaker 1: of those things that you know, we attacked and it
Speaker 1: was it was crazy. It was a hard journey, but
Speaker 1: you know, it came back and I feel really good
Speaker 1: and confident, Like could you stand up and sit down?
Speaker 1: Could you sleep? What? Normal activities became impossible? Not really
Speaker 1: at the beginning of Like I said, the first six weeks,
Speaker 1: you can't move it like it's straight because the tendon
Speaker 1: has to repair. And then you know, after that, the
Speaker 1: tending strong, so then you start being then maybe twenty
Speaker 1: five degrees and fifty degrees and it just it sucks
Speaker 1: all the way up until that point. Like it's just
Speaker 1: it's really really rough. But you know, I think sleeping
Speaker 1: was probably the hardest thing, you know, because you can't
Speaker 1: move at all. You gotta sleep on your back, you
Speaker 1: gotta sleep straight, you're gonna brace you know. So that's
Speaker 1: a little rough. All right. You got the Lions this week.
Speaker 1: They're rowing five. They're in the rebuilt, rebuilding stage. But
Speaker 1: based on everything I've read and heard, they are playing
Speaker 1: extremely hard. Does that stand out when you watch them
Speaker 1: on take? Yeah, they played tough, they played physical. Um,
Speaker 1: they really brought into what their coaches saying, Um, you
Speaker 1: know it's a team that's rebuilding, but you know there's
Speaker 1: there's a lot of guys over there who played ball
Speaker 1: and they've won. They understand the game, so they're playing really,
Speaker 1: really hard, and you know, you can't look at it
Speaker 1: as anything like that anty given sound to. Anybody can
Speaker 1: be beaten. So you gotta go in there, and you
Speaker 1: gotta really put up your dukes, and you gotta go
Speaker 1: in there for a fight, because that's just what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: The coach broke down in tears after the game last
Speaker 1: week because he wanted his guys to win so badly.
Speaker 1: If you were playing for that guy, how would you
Speaker 1: feel this week? You want to run through a wallfare guy.
Speaker 1: You know, you'd be amped up to go out there
Speaker 1: and play. And I think that's that's just how it feels,
Speaker 1: you know, especially losing tough games and you can't really
Speaker 1: seem to get things right and you want to win
Speaker 1: so bad. I think, you know, similar to how we
Speaker 1: felt in our locker room last week. You know, it's tough,
Speaker 1: it's got rich, and you gotta want to go back
Speaker 1: out there and be hungry. The next Sunday to go
Speaker 1: out there and really still and win an A dub
Speaker 1: last question for DJ Reader at a topic I've never
Speaker 1: asked you about. You're David Vernon Reader Junior. So DJ
Speaker 1: is short for David Junior. Your son is not David
Speaker 1: the third. He's Rocky, as in Rocky belbow Hunter. How
Speaker 1: did that come about? Me and my dad always watched
Speaker 1: those movies. We watched all the Rocky movies. Um, that
Speaker 1: was the thing that me and my dad did a lot.
Speaker 1: And I was home school to a sixth grade so
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time with my dad and
Speaker 1: so you know, I really want to name him Rocky,
Speaker 1: and that's really what we went with. And if you
Speaker 1: see him, he really it fits his names and bunches,
Speaker 1: he moves around. He's a wild kid, he's fearless. So, um,
Speaker 1: I mean, here's a lot that he has a name.
Speaker 1: And you know, kyr really fits him. Rocky Reader sounds
Speaker 1: like an athlete. Yeah, hopefully he is. He's got some
Speaker 1: decent coordination right now, but we'll see. You know, he's
Speaker 1: a smart kid and I just love him. He's always
Speaker 1: got a good smile on his face and he's a
Speaker 1: funny kid, just like that. Appreciate your time. Best de
Speaker 1: flect this week, I'm problem. Thank you. DJ is twenty
Speaker 1: seven years old and in the second year of a
Speaker 1: four year, fifty three million dollar contract. It looks like
Speaker 1: money well spent by the Bengals. The Bengals Booth podcast
Speaker 1: is presented by Ultimate Bengals, the free to play fantasy
Speaker 1: football game. Ultimate Bengals will be awarding a weekly winner
Speaker 1: during the course of the season with tickets, autograph merchandise,
Speaker 1: and money can buy experiences all up for grabs. Find
Speaker 1: Ultimate Bengals in the app stores. Now now time to
Speaker 1: bring him my broadcast partner Dave Lapham to discuss the
Speaker 1: latest Bengals news and answer some of the ask lap
Speaker 1: questions you submitted on Twitter. Lap The Bengals are three
Speaker 1: and two. They're on a pace to go ten and seven.
Speaker 1: If the season ended today, they would be the AFC's
Speaker 1: fifth seed in the playoffs. The Browns and Chiefs would
Speaker 1: be out. Schedule is obviously a huge factor so far.
Speaker 1: I wish the season did end today if that were
Speaker 1: the case. But here's the interesting part to me, They've
Speaker 1: got a winning record despite a below average offense. Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow is seventh and passer rating. Jamar Chase is seventh
Speaker 1: and receiving yards. Joe Mixon is fifth and rushing yards.
Speaker 1: But they haven't scored more than twenty four in regulation yet.
Speaker 1: What are a few things you would like to see
Speaker 1: them do better or differently? A lot more consistency, obviously,
Speaker 1: you know they're they're streaky. You know they're they're up
Speaker 1: and down. They've only scored twenty eight points in the
Speaker 1: second quarter. All of them have come in the final
Speaker 1: two minutes of the second quarter. They've only scored fourteen
Speaker 1: points in the first quarter. So that's that's a lot
Speaker 1: of time over five games, first quarter and up to
Speaker 1: the final two minutes of the second quarter, where you've
Speaker 1: scored fourteen points. They scored twenty eight points in the
Speaker 1: finals two minutes. That's great, that's tied for second best
Speaker 1: in the NFL. But man, you can't make a living
Speaker 1: doing that. You know. A good example is, uh, you
Speaker 1: know this this past football game against a good Green
Speaker 1: Bay Packer team. Six possessions in the first half, four
Speaker 1: three and outs, and then two touchdowns. So it's like
Speaker 1: it's like all or nothing. It's like peaks and valleys,
Speaker 1: highs and lows. It's it's the graph isn't isn't very
Speaker 1: very you know, even and consistent. So I think consistency
Speaker 1: is probably the biggest thing in almost every position group level.
Speaker 1: And if if the consistency improves up front, I think
Speaker 1: it'll have a big trickle down effect. And for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: the level of play, uh, you know, when you when
Speaker 1: you look at how they played against Pittsburgh and how
Speaker 1: they played against Jacksonville, and the offensive line it was
Speaker 1: they only have a one sack and eight quarters. Green
Speaker 1: Bay for whatever reason, gave them trouble. They just as
Speaker 1: as a group offensively, the offensive line had issues, given
Speaker 1: up edge, everybody got on a shoulder on an edge
Speaker 1: and just caused all kinds of grief, all kinds of issues.
Speaker 1: So that that's that's going to pick up And um,
Speaker 1: I'd like to see, you know, I get I guess,
Speaker 1: more consistent performance in the running game and then there
Speaker 1: be might be more of a commitment to the running game.
Speaker 1: If there's more consistency in the running game, they're going
Speaker 1: to have to particularly as you get into the second
Speaker 1: half of the season where the schedule does get tougher,
Speaker 1: they're going to have to be a lot more effective,
Speaker 1: you know, established in some kind of monicum of a
Speaker 1: ground game. What was green Bay's blueprint defensively last week?
Speaker 1: And is that what the Bengals are likely to see
Speaker 1: going forward until they have more success against it? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's you wonder. Um, you know, teams around the
Speaker 1: National Football League or copycats and if they see something,
Speaker 1: you know, there's the blueprint, there's there's how you stop there,
Speaker 1: there's how you stop that. Some teams modify their the
Speaker 1: way they do something based on success they saw, and
Speaker 1: they'll study three games very closely, the prior three games,
Speaker 1: and if they see some kind of trend or something
Speaker 1: that has worked on a consistent basis, they'll modify their
Speaker 1: stuff a little bit to copycat that. A lot of
Speaker 1: times teams they won't wholesale change it. I mean, they've
Speaker 1: established an identity. They're not going to say, oh, because
Speaker 1: we're playing the Cincinnati Bengals, we're going to do this
Speaker 1: when we never done it before. But they were going
Speaker 1: to be there'll probably be some modifications. And really, what
Speaker 1: the what the green Bay Packers decided to do as
Speaker 1: they played, They didn't have a very full box. They
Speaker 1: had two safeties deep a high percent, or two safeties
Speaker 1: out of the box a high percent of the time.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they were deeper than other times, and they would
Speaker 1: come down quickly as soon as they saw that the
Speaker 1: ball was going underneath, you know, short intermediate routes. They
Speaker 1: wouldn't just hang back there. They'd come down and rally
Speaker 1: up and make players on the football. So when it's
Speaker 1: it's simply count in the box. I mean, if it
Speaker 1: looks like you have a light box, you're gonna be
Speaker 1: able to run against that and make them commit, um,
Speaker 1: you know, start to bring somebody down into the box
Speaker 1: and have have you know, have have some opportunities in
Speaker 1: the middle of the football field. Plus they decided to
Speaker 1: double Tyler Boyd. They took him away. They said, you know,
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna basically crowd the middle of the
Speaker 1: football field with bodies. We're taking away the middle of
Speaker 1: the football field from an opportunity standpoint, and that makes
Speaker 1: the quarterback make longer throws. You know, the balls in
Speaker 1: the air longer. If you're thrown from the left hash mark,
Speaker 1: you can't even there's really nothing in the middle of
Speaker 1: the football field over that right side. That ball's in
Speaker 1: the air a while, so you know it's a it's
Speaker 1: a sound um, a sound scheme. If you've they had
Speaker 1: confidence he went out their best corner. They had confidence
Speaker 1: that they can you know, stand up to it on
Speaker 1: the outside because they they they doubled Tyler Boyd. Uh
Speaker 1: that they also, I mean the guy that was left
Speaker 1: and one on one was Higgins. They double Boyd. They
Speaker 1: double Chase quite a bit as he started to make plays.
Speaker 1: And then Higgins had the most one on one coverage
Speaker 1: and you know he didn't make as many plays as
Speaker 1: he could have made. He admitts to you know, some
Speaker 1: big couple of big drops that were problematic. Whoever it is,
Speaker 1: whoever they decide to leave in single man coverage, you
Speaker 1: know they can move around who they're going to double.
Speaker 1: If Tyler Boyd, for every reasons, left in single coverage
Speaker 1: in the slot, he's going to have a feast. He's
Speaker 1: going to just make them pay a big time. And
Speaker 1: whatever outside receiver faces single coverage, he's got to win
Speaker 1: a high percentage of time. Not just half the time,
Speaker 1: you have to win three quarters or more of the
Speaker 1: time in your one on one coverage. And so the
Speaker 1: quarterback then has confidence to go to you. We are
Speaker 1: recording this on a Wednesday. As of today, Jackson Carmen
Speaker 1: is on the COVID list. Xavier Sophila started the first
Speaker 1: two games of the year at right guard. He's out
Speaker 1: with a knee injury. Carmen started the next three at
Speaker 1: right guard. He's possibly out due to COVID nineteen. Up
Speaker 1: next rookie Deante Smith. He started thirty games at ECU
Speaker 1: twenty nine at left tackle, one at left guard. How
Speaker 1: should we feel about the possibility of him making his
Speaker 1: first NFL start at right guard this week? Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: that's going to be an interesting thing to watch. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, he played more left guard even in training
Speaker 1: camp than he did right because of Sueflo and you know,
Speaker 1: the high draft pick Jackson Carmen playing that right guard position.
Speaker 1: But Frank Pollock does move everybody around. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a it's an equal opportunity scenario for Frank Pollock
Speaker 1: with with respect to position versatility, it is interesting. The
Speaker 1: right guard position is the only one that's been musical
Speaker 1: chairs the others everybody started every played every snap basically
Speaker 1: at left tackle, left guard, center and right tackle. Right
Speaker 1: guards the place right guards the it's that's that's got
Speaker 1: the black cloud over it or whatever for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: The good news is just like with Jackson Carmen, he's
Speaker 1: got Hopkins on one side and Riley Reef on the other.
Speaker 1: So I think that gives you a sense of come
Speaker 1: for when it's your first NFL start at a position
Speaker 1: that you haven't played a whole heck of a lot,
Speaker 1: but you understand, you know the techniques at the at
Speaker 1: the guard position. Haven't played some left guard and haven't
Speaker 1: played quite a bit of guard actually, you know, through
Speaker 1: preseason game, preseason preseason games and training camp and and
Speaker 1: so hopefully he's he's ready, he's up to the task.
Speaker 1: I think I think he'll mentally be ready to go,
Speaker 1: and I think the two veterans will help him, and
Speaker 1: we'll see how it how it pans out. I'm I'm
Speaker 1: glad he's not going against you know, some Pro Bowl,
Speaker 1: you know, Cameron Hayward type that would be, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: welcome to the NFL. Son. You know, maybe he can
Speaker 1: he can break in a little bit and knee's into it.
Speaker 1: Although I think the strength of the Detroit Lions defense
Speaker 1: and maybe of their football team, one of the strengths
Speaker 1: is is how how hard their defensive line plays. So
Speaker 1: he's certainly not going to have any kind of picnic.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a challenge a day at the
Speaker 1: It's going to be a grind a day. You will
Speaker 1: never hear me get snarky about NFL players with injury problems.
Speaker 1: I respect all of you guys who are willing to
Speaker 1: jeopardize your long term health by playing this game. So
Speaker 1: that's kind of my prelude to Trey Waynes, who unfortunately
Speaker 1: has had horrible luck when it comes to injuries and
Speaker 1: signing his big contract with the Bengals. How big is
Speaker 1: this loss at that position? I think it's big, you know.
Speaker 1: I think that they were feeling pretty good about having,
Speaker 1: you know, two guys that can play the corner position,
Speaker 1: that are both long and athletic and can flip their
Speaker 1: hips and aren't afraid to tackle people, you know, in
Speaker 1: Waynes and Cheeto, and they don't have Waynes, and you
Speaker 1: just you just start to wonder, It's like, all right,
Speaker 1: some guys are just tighter muscle wise, the attachments or
Speaker 1: whatever the case may be, because you end up having
Speaker 1: a pectoral injury just lifting waste and then both your
Speaker 1: hamstring start to give you problems. It's like, man, some
Speaker 1: guys physiologically you're just you know, put together a little
Speaker 1: bit differently, and you think we'll just continue to stretch,
Speaker 1: do yoga, do whatever, you know, work on your flexibility.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he's doing all of that. I'm sure I
Speaker 1: saw him with the bands you know that you use
Speaker 1: to use negative resistance and all that, and stretching and
Speaker 1: trying to strengthen you know, quad's hamstrings, all that sort of.
Speaker 1: He's religiously and diligently using those things at training camp.
Speaker 1: It's just and sometimes guys get in a situation where
Speaker 1: that's the way there their structured. And I talked about
Speaker 1: this before Paul Brown with Isaac Curtis. He was like, look,
Speaker 1: whatever you need to do to keep your hamstrings loose,
Speaker 1: you know, if you need to hop out of a
Speaker 1: drill and stretch for ten minutes, do it. So you know,
Speaker 1: I understand you have world class speed and you're you're
Speaker 1: cut high. You know, you get those long legs, those
Speaker 1: long hamstrings, and you're a high wasted guy and that
Speaker 1: you know, we're gonna make sure you're right with that
Speaker 1: world class speed. So yeah, everybody's different in that regard.
Speaker 1: And the thing is, you know, there was never any
Speaker 1: tag on him on anything like that when he came
Speaker 1: down from Minnesota. You know, it's like he hadn't had
Speaker 1: these issues. Now all of a sudden, every muscle in
Speaker 1: his body seems to be really tight and he's pulling
Speaker 1: him or a ripping him or tearing him. Took a
Speaker 1: look at some Pro Football Focus grades earlier today. Here
Speaker 1: are the highest rated players on the roster relative to
Speaker 1: their position group on offense and defense. Joe Mixon number
Speaker 1: four among NFL running backs. DJ Reader number six among
Speaker 1: interior defensive linemen. When it comes to Reader, his job
Speaker 1: doesn't come with gaudy's statistics. Do you consider him one
Speaker 1: of the best defensive tackles in the NFL? Is what
Speaker 1: he is told to do and what his assignment is
Speaker 1: to do. He does his job. You know here coaches
Speaker 1: all the time, just do your job, don't try to
Speaker 1: be a hero, don't try to do too much. Do
Speaker 1: your job, and then other people around you will be
Speaker 1: able to do their job. And that's DJ Reader. It's
Speaker 1: not going to show up necessarily in a bunch of statistics.
Speaker 1: You know, in terms of tackles, assists and all that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. But if they kept a stat on
Speaker 1: successful double team consumption, you know, he'd be right up there.
Speaker 1: And Logan Wilson's tied for ninth in the NFL in
Speaker 1: terms of total tackles because of DJ Reader or a
Speaker 1: big part of it is DJ Reader allowing him to
Speaker 1: be untouched and come downhill and quick, quick diagnosis, go
Speaker 1: down and explode, blow it up. Um, So it's it.
Speaker 1: Does you know the glove has to fit the hand,
Speaker 1: as OJ said, you know, I mean it's one of
Speaker 1: those kind of one of those kind of deals there.
Speaker 1: So I think I think he is playing at a
Speaker 1: very very high level, and I thought he got shafted
Speaker 1: as I looked at the game again. On the third
Speaker 1: and one, when they stopped Dylan and Uh on the
Speaker 1: he DJ basically threw a leg up up there and
Speaker 1: and trying he was trying frantically to just throw something
Speaker 1: up up there in that area as part of the
Speaker 1: stop in the play, and he could call for tripping,
Speaker 1: which you could see why the referee called that, but
Speaker 1: he missed the hold in the throw down. I mean,
Speaker 1: the offensive lineman tackled him through to the ground. And
Speaker 1: DJ's at that point just you know, trying to get
Speaker 1: something done. So when you only see the end of
Speaker 1: the plane you make the call, that can be really frustrating.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure he was really when he got up
Speaker 1: and he was so vociferous about the call, I thought, Tea,
Speaker 1: you know, he really did that. But then when I
Speaker 1: saw the whole thing, I'm like, oh, no, wonder. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's going he's going nuts because what about the holding
Speaker 1: penalty that occurred. You know, you didn't see, you didn't
Speaker 1: see the whole thing, and you know, in his mind
Speaker 1: it should have been an offset if worst case scenario,
Speaker 1: but it cost his football team big time. Instead of
Speaker 1: putting away the Green Bay Packers, you know, continue to
Speaker 1: drive and get points out of it. Lap, let's spend
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes on the lines before we get
Speaker 1: to some questions from Twitter followers. They're on five, they're
Speaker 1: in rebuilding mode. What are the big concerns for the
Speaker 1: Bengals in this game? I think the big concerns. Don't
Speaker 1: take it for granted. You know, they've they've been in
Speaker 1: a lot of football games. They they're gonna play hard.
Speaker 1: Their head coach is very emotional, you saw him be
Speaker 1: very vulnerable after the loss they just they suffered to
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Vikings nineteen to seventeen. They lost to the
Speaker 1: Ravens nineteen to seventeen on a historic sixty six yard
Speaker 1: field goal that shouldn't have even happened because there was
Speaker 1: a you know, the clock expired. It should have been
Speaker 1: a seventy one yard attempt. And then Minnesota beat him
Speaker 1: at the down as well. So they've they've been in,
Speaker 1: you know, just about every football game. They've lost two
Speaker 1: road games in the division, lost to the Bears by
Speaker 1: ten and the Green Bay Packers by double digit figures
Speaker 1: as well eight point lost to San Francisco. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's not like they've been destroyed. They were in those
Speaker 1: football games for a good period of time. You Know.
Speaker 1: The thing the Bengals have to do is we talked
Speaker 1: about earlier how they haven't come out out of the gate.
Speaker 1: Well yet they have to do do in this football game
Speaker 1: because if they don't, the Detroit Lions are going to
Speaker 1: have the feeling this is the week, you know, looks
Speaker 1: like we might be able to get this done here.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to squash that any any hope of
Speaker 1: that you know to just jump on them with both
Speaker 1: feet right away and say it's not going to be
Speaker 1: this week, and guy's gear up for next week because
Speaker 1: it's not happening today. And you know, I think I
Speaker 1: think the way you've got to do that is defensively.
Speaker 1: They the Lions utilize their running back in their tight
Speaker 1: end pretty exclusively. They're leading receivers by a good margin
Speaker 1: and a lot of yards after catch, yards after contact.
Speaker 1: Tackling is going to be a big deal in the
Speaker 1: football game. You can't leave your teammate out there one
Speaker 1: on one. You're gonna have to get you know, run
Speaker 1: to the football gang, tackle, leverage properly, you know, all
Speaker 1: those kind of things. If you're having trouble in the
Speaker 1: secondary with communication like you had against the Green Bay Packers, simplify.
Speaker 1: Paul Brown used to say, I thought you guys understood.
Speaker 1: I thought you guys could grasp all this. Obviously you've
Speaker 1: shown me you can't. We're gonna shrink it down to
Speaker 1: these couple of things, and if you show me you
Speaker 1: can handle these, we'll add another one and we'll add
Speaker 1: another one. But we're not going to do all this,
Speaker 1: you know, five different things. If you can't handle them
Speaker 1: so and that always worked. You know, you think it's
Speaker 1: too simple. If you're doing it right, I mean, you're
Speaker 1: gonna you're gonna be better off than trying to get
Speaker 1: too cute and not do it right at all. That's
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's self defeating, there's no question about it.
Speaker 1: So I think I think that's going to be a
Speaker 1: big factor. I think third down is going to be
Speaker 1: a big factor. I was looking at third down Dan.
Speaker 1: The Lions are fifteen of forty nine, I mean, their
Speaker 1: second in the NFL thirty point six percent, but they
Speaker 1: haven't been in third down very much. I guess teams
Speaker 1: would beating them on first and second down. That's what
Speaker 1: the Bengals should be thinking about doing, because you look
Speaker 1: at the Bengals numbers, they're thirty one of seventy three
Speaker 1: as opposed to fifteen to forty nine. The Bengals been
Speaker 1: in third down a ton offensively, third and short of time,
Speaker 1: but I mean third down defensively a ton, and uh,
Speaker 1: they're allowing over forty two percent, eighteenth in the league.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I think third down is going to
Speaker 1: be a big deal. Um, you know, I think that's
Speaker 1: gonna be a factor in the football game. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I think I think, like I said, you
Speaker 1: just can't. You can't let a trap game occur. I
Speaker 1: think that's the biggest thing. The mindset has to be right.
Speaker 1: You can't let a tough loss against the Green Bay
Speaker 1: Packers turn into you know, a two game losing streak
Speaker 1: or god forbid of three or four game losing streak.
Speaker 1: You have to nip it in the bud and just rebound,
Speaker 1: compartmentalized and roll. All right, I shine the ask lap
Speaker 1: signal into the Twitter sky. Here are a few questions
Speaker 1: from Twitter followers. We start with Pete, what's the problem
Speaker 1: with the screen game, specifically running back screens. I feel
Speaker 1: like we have the players to be successful, but they
Speaker 1: seem to get blown up every time. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: that's something that Detroit does exceptionally well. They'll screen to
Speaker 1: their running back, they'll screen to their tight end Hawkinson,
Speaker 1: they'll screen to receivers. They've run every screen known to man.
Speaker 1: So that's a key. Another key in this football game.
Speaker 1: Handle the screen game. And I'd like to see the
Speaker 1: Bengals be the best screen team in this football game
Speaker 1: as well, because it's a screen game. Is a very
Speaker 1: good weapon because it's a completion for the quarterback. He
Speaker 1: sees the throw being caught, and you know, the whoever
Speaker 1: the screen receivers is in space, hopefully with blockers to
Speaker 1: you know, just get some yards after catch, yards after contact.
Speaker 1: The screen game. I believe in the screen game, particularly
Speaker 1: if you're having trouble with pressure, a big way to
Speaker 1: skill to slow it down as a screen game and draws,
Speaker 1: draws and screens. That goes back to you know, Pop
Speaker 1: Warner football. So yeah, it's just they have to be
Speaker 1: better with their execution. You know, get out in a
Speaker 1: timely fashion if you if you don't, you know, thousand
Speaker 1: and one, thousand and two, release, get out in front
Speaker 1: of the screen. If if that gets buggered up somehow,
Speaker 1: you know you're out there with free runners at your
Speaker 1: at your receiver of the football, whoever that may be.
Speaker 1: It's just just like any other play. It has to
Speaker 1: be well coordinated, time to write, executed properly. And Detroit's
Speaker 1: done a much better job of it, I think to
Speaker 1: this point than the Bengals have. I'd like to see
Speaker 1: that trend reverse this week. Dustin writes the following, it
Speaker 1: looks like the pass rush win rate is among the
Speaker 1: lowest in the league. Does that align with what you're
Speaker 1: seeing and is it a concern long term? I looked
Speaker 1: it up. That's an ESPN stat They have the Bengals
Speaker 1: number twenty eight in the NFL and pass rush win rate,
Speaker 1: even though the Bengals have a respectable sack total of fourteen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's interesting, you know, because I like the pass
Speaker 1: rush win rate. I think can be subjective. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, sacks obviously they're either on the ground or
Speaker 1: or not. I do like sacks per pass attempt. Sometimes
Speaker 1: raw sacks don't really show because you know, you look
Speaker 1: at it. The Detroit Lions again, for example, have eleven sacks,
Speaker 1: that's tied for thirteenth in the NFL. Their sack per
Speaker 1: pass attempt is six though, because you know the opposition
Speaker 1: they've only thrown the ball one hundred and thirty five
Speaker 1: times and they've got eleven sacks, whereas you know, on
Speaker 1: the Bengal side of it, the Bengals have on the
Speaker 1: year have thirteen sacks, which is tied from ninth in
Speaker 1: the NFL, but their their sack per pass attempt is
Speaker 1: that is thirteenth in the league. Because the opposition is
Speaker 1: throwing one hundred and ninety five times. So it's it's
Speaker 1: the ratio how many times you're getting them on the
Speaker 1: ground as opposed to how many times they're putting the
Speaker 1: ball in the air. Do I think that the pass
Speaker 1: rush has been inconsistent as well? Yes? I do. I
Speaker 1: mean I think there have been there have been games
Speaker 1: where the pass rush has been a significant factor on
Speaker 1: a on a very high percentage of snaps. In this
Speaker 1: football game against the Green Bay Packers, I should say
Speaker 1: the last football game they had against the Packers, you
Speaker 1: had an unusual guy in that his first move is
Speaker 1: to retreat. He'll he'll back up. He'll back up as
Speaker 1: much as ten yards because of his arm strength. He
Speaker 1: didn't care. You don't care about adding that distance. U.
Speaker 1: He's he's a little bit of a nightmare to have
Speaker 1: your win pass rush rate be that high and that effective.
Speaker 1: But in my mind, if if I don't know how
Speaker 1: it's subjective, how however they do the grading. If in
Speaker 1: my mind, if a guy is beaten uh in less
Speaker 1: than three seconds, that was a that was a win
Speaker 1: pass rush rate by the defensive lineman. Even if you
Speaker 1: didn't get the quarterback off the spot. If you got
Speaker 1: the quarterback off the spot, that's that's an obvious one.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean Ken the pass rush win rate improve.
Speaker 1: Heck yeah, just like everything else in this defensive football team.
Speaker 1: This question comes from Tom. What are your thoughts on
Speaker 1: Trey Hopkins. It seems he's playing poorly. Is it physical
Speaker 1: limitations after his knee injury or reps needed to get
Speaker 1: him in a groove? Yeah, I mean I think I think, um,
Speaker 1: you know, physically and like you said, uh, after certain
Speaker 1: that's all related. I mean you have to remember this guy,
Speaker 1: um had an ACL reconstruction. He tore it in January.
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow played ten games. Trey Hawkins played all the games,
Speaker 1: he played sixteen and he had it done in January.
Speaker 1: Joe had it done in October. Um December for Joe
Speaker 1: for the surgery. December surgery, and so Treys was, you know,
Speaker 1: like a full month later. Um, So you know, if
Speaker 1: that four weeks is a is a big deal. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, and and look at it, looking at it,
Speaker 1: everybody's concerned. You know. Joe gets some pile. Joe gets this,
Speaker 1: gets that. I can tell you as an offensive lineman,
Speaker 1: you're there's so much pressure, leverage, pounding that goes on
Speaker 1: your legs, and then you're in cotton piles. You might
Speaker 1: be caught awkwardly in piles. And for him to be
Speaker 1: doing what he's doing is really remarkable. I think. I mean,
Speaker 1: I took my cap to the guy. Now. Is he
Speaker 1: playing like he played before where he had the ACL reconstruction? Now?
Speaker 1: Can he play like he played after the ACL reconstruction? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And I do think repetition he's had. He's had his
Speaker 1: down games and he's rebounded and had better games. He's
Speaker 1: up and down from a consistency factor as well, and
Speaker 1: I think the more reps he gets, the better he's
Speaker 1: going to be. But I just I have nothing but
Speaker 1: plotteds for him for doing what he's doing. You know,
Speaker 1: he's he's he's a heck of a teammate. He'll sacrifice
Speaker 1: everything he needs to sacrifice for the betterment of the
Speaker 1: football team. And I'll take all the Trey Hopkins I
Speaker 1: can get. This question comes from Eric and has to
Speaker 1: do with the other team's center. How significant is the
Speaker 1: loss of Frank Ragnow for Detroit? I think it's big.
Speaker 1: Frank Ragnow is the guy that I was hoping would
Speaker 1: come here to Cincinnati, and he picked before he goes
Speaker 1: to Detroit, and he's he made the Pro Bowl. He's
Speaker 1: made the Pro Bowl. He's he's long, strong, he's a
Speaker 1: very good player. So yeah, that toe injury is definitely
Speaker 1: a factor. But I will say the Green Bay Packers
Speaker 1: had a patchwork offensive line, and I thought that they
Speaker 1: performed very admirably, definitely well enough to win the football games.
Speaker 1: Since they won it. They executed the techniques that the
Speaker 1: offensive line coach wanted them to execute the way he
Speaker 1: wanted them to execute them, and the old line coach
Speaker 1: and the players were on the same page, and they
Speaker 1: played well. That offensive line as a unit played well.
Speaker 1: So you know, I'm not going to sleep on anybody,
Speaker 1: anybody's backup players because if you're if you're on a
Speaker 1: roster in the National Football League, you're good enough to play.
Speaker 1: And players that aren't starting are waiting for an opportunity
Speaker 1: to show they belong. So don't take anything for granted,
Speaker 1: Brad asks. Should we be concerned with a number of
Speaker 1: snaps the defense has played through five games. I think
Speaker 1: that's a I think that's a legitimate concern. There's no
Speaker 1: doubt about it. You know, I think that's four three
Speaker 1: and outs in six possessions in the first half. If
Speaker 1: you're a defensive player, that it's like you kidding me.
Speaker 1: I mean, we barely have time over here to make
Speaker 1: adjustments on the greef board between series. You know, it's like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: forget it, we'll talk about it the next get get up,
Speaker 1: get ready. They're putting the football. Oh my gosh. Again
Speaker 1: that that that complimentary football is huge and they're not
Speaker 1: playing good enough complimentary football yet. And I totally totally
Speaker 1: agree with that. That the defense has to take pressure
Speaker 1: off the offense and limit their number of snaps. I mean,
Speaker 1: the offense has to take pressure off the defense limiting
Speaker 1: the number of snaps there. I think when you consider
Speaker 1: all of that, I think that makes the defense performance
Speaker 1: even that much more remarkable. You know, I think that
Speaker 1: they're for them to have enough gas in the tank
Speaker 1: to make stops they make at the end of football games,
Speaker 1: I think is admirable to say the least, you know,
Speaker 1: and they have they have a never say die attitude.
Speaker 1: That defense is a extremely resilient on an individual player
Speaker 1: basis and collectively as a football team. They're not gonna
Speaker 1: They're not gonna quit on you. Nine times the Green
Speaker 1: Bay Packers had the ball inside the Bengals forty yard line,
Speaker 1: they scored two touchdowns. Are you kidding me? Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: twenty two points? If you hold him to twenty two
Speaker 1: points in a game, I'm gonna win that football game regular,
Speaker 1: you know, in the regulation time twenty five points with
Speaker 1: the field goal. After the tremendous exhibition of missus that
Speaker 1: took place, all right, final ask lap question comes from
Speaker 1: Dan h as in Me. I said on Twitter this
Speaker 1: week that it would be really cool if Jamar Chase
Speaker 1: and Pinney Sewell did a jersey swap after the game.
Speaker 1: I think Bengals Twitter would explode if that happened. Here's
Speaker 1: my question. Do you ever get another player's jersey? You know,
Speaker 1: we didn't even do it? Think about that, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, I honestly I would have done that. I
Speaker 1: would have gotten a bunch of players jerseys. I literally
Speaker 1: the first time I was on the same football field
Speaker 1: as Joe Namath, I was like, start, I wanted to
Speaker 1: have my autograph book out there. I was star struck.
Speaker 1: The first time, you know, lined up against Bob Lily,
Speaker 1: I was like, are you kidding me. This is my
Speaker 1: boyhood idol. I was just staring at him, like, wow,
Speaker 1: that's Bob Lily. Oh my god, what am I doing
Speaker 1: out here? I mean, I wanted to have, you know,
Speaker 1: autograph books, so I would have just I wouldn't expect
Speaker 1: them to want my jersey, but I would have collected
Speaker 1: as many as I could if that tradition were back
Speaker 1: in the day. And yeah, I just I wish I
Speaker 1: had a few of them. To tell you the truth,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna bring this to the broadcast world. I'm going
Speaker 1: to swap golf shirts with the other teams. Announceders do
Speaker 1: we call the games? What do you think? What do
Speaker 1: you think of that? That's pretty cool? Yeah, pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Maybe use some intensified tie to make sure they're clean. Hey,
Speaker 1: mister Musburger, can I have your shirt? I'm sure that's
Speaker 1: gonna go over well well, Dune, I think, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: pretty good. That's that's real good. I like that. Now
Speaker 1: time to take a closer look at this week's opponent.
Speaker 1: There are four current NFL franchises that have never made
Speaker 1: it to the Super Bowl, the Browns, Jaguars, Texans, and Lions.
Speaker 1: Detroit has one playoff win since nineteen fifty seven. The
Speaker 1: team is in rebuilding mode again under new head coach
Speaker 1: Dan Campbell, and lap and I were joined on the
Speaker 1: Bengals Game Plan Show this week by the host of
Speaker 1: the Locked On Lions podcast, Matt dry. I started our
Speaker 1: conversation by asking Matt where the O and five Lions
Speaker 1: are weakest? Well, first and foremost, I mean, they just
Speaker 1: can't finish games. I mean, you guys all saw it
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago. They have the Ravens, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, beaten and then just Tucker kicks like an
Speaker 1: eighty yard field goal to beat them, which is his
Speaker 1: classic Lions And in this past weekend, you know, they
Speaker 1: just couldn't get over the hump at the end of
Speaker 1: the game. The offense is not very good. Jared Goff
Speaker 1: is very low rated. When it comes to quarterbacks. They're
Speaker 1: not putting up a ton of points a receiver wise,
Speaker 1: you look at the Bengals roster and you go, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, it's like, you know, you make a poster
Speaker 1: and put it up on a kid's wall of the
Speaker 1: receivers that you have, and I'm the Lions receivers nobody's
Speaker 1: ever heard of. It's a really poor, poor young group.
Speaker 1: But it's not very good. So you know, mix that
Speaker 1: with a roster that was very depleted to start the year,
Speaker 1: and then you take the best player off the offense,
Speaker 1: Frank rag now a pro bowler, a center, but he's
Speaker 1: the best player they have. He's out for the year.
Speaker 1: Their best defensive player, Romeo a'quara, defensive end out for
Speaker 1: the year on a rebuilding team. That's tough. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: no doubt. After the game, Dan Campbell was vulnerable and emotional.
Speaker 1: If he had been coaching in the game, the Bengals
Speaker 1: played with five miss kicks in the last two minutes
Speaker 1: of the fourth quarter and overtime, he wouldn't need a
Speaker 1: box of Kleenex. I mean he would have been crying
Speaker 1: alligator tears. The way that thing finished it, it was
Speaker 1: emotional roller coaster. Dan was, you know, what are they doing?
Speaker 1: What are they struggling with? I guess my question would
Speaker 1: be what are they doing best? If there's something they're
Speaker 1: doing best, can you name a couple of things? Well, Dave,
Speaker 1: let me say this first and foremost. Everybody nationally, of course,
Speaker 1: is going to jump all over this Dan and Campbell
Speaker 1: crying thing. And look everybody jumped all over Dan Campbell's
Speaker 1: first press conference when he said the team was going
Speaker 1: to bite people's kneecaps. I liked it, and I'll tell
Speaker 1: you why. The last couple of years and the last
Speaker 1: couple of coaches that have come through Detroit, Jim Calbo
Speaker 1: was a very good man and the players loved him.
Speaker 1: But he never told you anything. He never showed you
Speaker 1: any emotion. He was stoic. Matt Patricia was as a phony,
Speaker 1: all right, Matt Patricia was a phony. This guy is
Speaker 1: crying after week five. I get why people can jump
Speaker 1: all over him and say, if you're going to cry
Speaker 1: in October, what happens if your ow and eleven in
Speaker 1: November or December. The players have rallied around him the
Speaker 1: problem that he has. And you know this, Dave, as
Speaker 1: a former player, you have to have players. You can
Speaker 1: have the greatest coach in the world. You can have Vincelbardi,
Speaker 1: you canna have Chuck Nole, You're gonna have Sam Weish,
Speaker 1: whoever it is. You gotta have material, and he did.
Speaker 1: You know, Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes a new general manager,
Speaker 1: just having inherited a roster that's very good and so
Speaker 1: players like Quandre Diggs and Darius Slay and t J.
Speaker 1: Lange and Golden Tate and Calvin Johnson and Matthew Stafford,
Speaker 1: they're all gone and they didn't win with those guys.
Speaker 1: How do you expect to win with Jared Goff and
Speaker 1: some cast some characters? And you asked me the question.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know this weekend, you're gonna have two
Speaker 1: undrafted free three I'm sorry, undrafted free agent rookies having
Speaker 1: to guard your receivers. Bobby Price, Jerry Jacobs and AJ Parker.
Speaker 1: None of those guys were drafted this year and they're
Speaker 1: all playing and starting. So that's a tough That's a
Speaker 1: tough thing for any defensive coordinator at coach when you
Speaker 1: fare all over your secondary. We are chatting with Matt Darry.
Speaker 1: He is the host of Lockdown Lions podcast. In the
Speaker 1: first two weeks of the year, the Lions gave up
Speaker 1: forty one and thirty five. Since then, the defense seems
Speaker 1: to be playing pretty well nineteen points, twenty four points,
Speaker 1: nineteen points last three games. I look at this roster
Speaker 1: on defense, I don't really know these guys except for
Speaker 1: a linebacker Derek Barnes, who's from here. But the guys
Speaker 1: they're trotting out there right now, who's good. Tracy Walker's
Speaker 1: coming on. Their strong safety has really really had a
Speaker 1: great game the other day against the Vikings. I've been
Speaker 1: a little bit hard on him because I know how
Speaker 1: talented he is, and I thought he regressed in year
Speaker 1: two last year, but he's starting to come on, and
Speaker 1: that's a guy number twenty one that Bengals fans should watch.
Speaker 1: Charles Harris has come around the edge over the last
Speaker 1: four games and as a sack of game, which has
Speaker 1: been nice. Owns Rique and McNeil in the middle. Two
Speaker 1: rookies that they're expecting a lot of a lot out
Speaker 1: of and have improved. Sanzeloni is kind of a throwback
Speaker 1: linebacker with long hair, wears the Sea on his uniform
Speaker 1: as a good leaders. It's not a great defense by
Speaker 1: any stretch of the imagination, but I like what Aaron
Speaker 1: Glenn is doing. Scheme wise, there's more zone being played.
Speaker 1: Remember when Patricia was here for three years, it was
Speaker 1: we're gonna play man or we're gonna do it the
Speaker 1: Patriot way. And it's like, hey, bro, like you don't
Speaker 1: you don't have the guys to do it you're throwing
Speaker 1: Jeoffrey o'cuter a rookie and having him played man against
Speaker 1: DeVante Adams in his first game last year. That was
Speaker 1: coaching mel Steasons. So now at least they're zoning up
Speaker 1: a little bit. They're showing some quarterbacks different looks, and
Speaker 1: there were times I couldn't even believe it this past
Speaker 1: Sunday where Kirk Cousins looked a little confused. So that's
Speaker 1: been good. I think it's been a mix of scheme
Speaker 1: and guys kind of playing with a chip on their shoulder.
Speaker 1: But no, Dan, You're right, there's nobody having this room
Speaker 1: on this defense. Trey Flowers makes eighteen million a year,
Speaker 1: but I don't think he's a great defensive end. But
Speaker 1: he's a name that people know. He's played for the Patriots.
Speaker 1: But it's not This is not a propol caliber defense yet.
Speaker 1: So you talked about Jared Goff. Obviously the knock on
Speaker 1: him with the Rams turnover machine twenty nine interceptions over
Speaker 1: the last two seasons. His interceptions are down, He's only
Speaker 1: got three, but he's fumbled the ball six times and
Speaker 1: lost four of them. Wow, I mean, what the heck,
Speaker 1: What the Heck's going on, he's got no boss security
Speaker 1: in the pocket. Is it in the pocket? Out of pocket?
Speaker 1: Why is he fumbling the ball so much? Know, it's funny.
Speaker 1: I talked to some people in LA about goff and
Speaker 1: they said his hands are small, and I said, okay,
Speaker 1: so it's like, but then every game, Dave, he fumbles
Speaker 1: it in a key spot. And these aren't fumbles like
Speaker 1: at the fifty on a third and ten. These are
Speaker 1: fumbles inside the other team's ten yard line, inside the
Speaker 1: other team's twenty, when they've moved the ball. They're killers
Speaker 1: inside the red zone. And it's just it's baffling. I
Speaker 1: knew I was not one of these people that said, oh,
Speaker 1: Jared Goffs's been to a super boy, he's one more
Speaker 1: playoff games, Matthew Stafford, he's better. Wrong, I didn't think that,
Speaker 1: but I just I figured he'd be better now. Again,
Speaker 1: his receiving core is it very good. And teams are
Speaker 1: double and triple teaming Hawkinson. So goss a little bit,
Speaker 1: you know, stunted in his growth in that department. But
Speaker 1: my goodness, he threw a pick a pick this past
Speaker 1: Sunday in a triple coverage. Eric Kendricks made a great play,
Speaker 1: but it just is one of those throws where you
Speaker 1: went you don't need to try to thread the needle there,
Speaker 1: you know, try to roll out and make something happen.
Speaker 1: He's not one of these guys that I'm a third
Speaker 1: if it's third and two against the Bengals defense, the
Speaker 1: way the Bengals defense is playing, he looks at one
Speaker 1: guy and tries to make that throw. And that's why
Speaker 1: you've got to go. If that one guy's not open,
Speaker 1: I gotta maybe move the pocket and scramble or make
Speaker 1: a run. He just doesn't do that, and it's I
Speaker 1: think I've been I'll be honest, I've been disappointed at
Speaker 1: his play. I didn't expect all pro, but geez, you
Speaker 1: got you gotta do better than this. Everybody in Allen Park, though,
Speaker 1: tells me at the Lion's facility he's been a great leader.
Speaker 1: The guys are rallying around him. But I doubt that
Speaker 1: this Sunday, if he plays poorly, that David Blow is
Speaker 1: going to come in and they're gonna make a change.
Speaker 1: I think golf is there for this year, and then
Speaker 1: they'll look at the draft and maybe get to maybe
Speaker 1: get to Dan's buddy Desmond Ritter or something there you go.
Speaker 1: Third down really good defensively on third down, they've only
Speaker 1: allowed fifteen conversions, second fewest in the NFL thirty point
Speaker 1: six percent, second second lowest in the NFL. They've only
Speaker 1: been in forty nine third downs. So are people crushing
Speaker 1: them on first and second down? I mean, do they
Speaker 1: need to get people to third down more? And then
Speaker 1: third and one to four? That's been a problem for
Speaker 1: the Bengals last week They're horrible on third and one
Speaker 1: to four. Packers been there eight times, only giving up
Speaker 1: two conversions twenty five percent, leads the NFL. What's the
Speaker 1: deal on third down? And what's the deal on first
Speaker 1: and second down? Where they're not getting people the third
Speaker 1: down as much as they'd like to. I'll say this
Speaker 1: last week against the Viking guy who was it was
Speaker 1: stupefied by Clint Kubiak, who on every single second down
Speaker 1: ran the football for the Vikings. And look, I get it,
Speaker 1: Dalvin Cook was injured, but he's good, obviously great Alexander Madison,
Speaker 1: there's no slouch. But on every second down day they
Speaker 1: ran it didn't better if it was second and nineteen
Speaker 1: or second and one and so the Lions were like, oh,
Speaker 1: second down, we know they're gonna run, so they stacked
Speaker 1: a box. So I think they inflated the numbers a
Speaker 1: little bit. I think people will tell you again, Aaron
Speaker 1: Glenn has done a nice job with the scheme. I'm
Speaker 1: not quite sure as to why this is. There have
Speaker 1: been some big plays made against the Lion secondary this year,
Speaker 1: so those have been on first down play action passes.
Speaker 1: You know, Dan and I talked on my show the
Speaker 1: other day about Joe Burrow and the intermediate passes. But
Speaker 1: if I'm Burrow this week, I'm taking some shots down
Speaker 1: field Monio Rularier. They're really their best corner left has
Speaker 1: been pretty good and he's got good size. But I'd
Speaker 1: be picking on a guy like Jerry Jacobs or Bobby
Speaker 1: Price and trying to go deep teams for somebody and
Speaker 1: haven't been doing that because the Lions have had their
Speaker 1: safety so deep. But like Will Harris, the Lions free safety,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's very good, so I would take
Speaker 1: some shots deep. We saw this in the Steeler preseason
Speaker 1: game with deont Johnson. We saw this with early in
Speaker 1: the year with deem o' samuel, So that might be
Speaker 1: a little bit of where that's at. There have been
Speaker 1: some plaques and throws them first downs and have gotten
Speaker 1: where the Lions is haven't. You haven't even gotten a
Speaker 1: third down. But like we said that the defense has improved.
Speaker 1: I'm just not sure how they're doing this. Thanks to
Speaker 1: Matt Dairy and here's a quick reminder to tune into
Speaker 1: the Bengals pep Rally Show this Friday from three to
Speaker 1: six on ESPN fifteen thirty. That's going to do it
Speaker 1: for this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to
Speaker 1: you by Ultimate Bengals, the free to play Next Level
Speaker 1: Fantasy Football game, downloaded now from the App Store and
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Speaker 1: Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde, and thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast