Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody on Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast. The I believe, I believe, I believe, Hey,
Speaker 1: I believe, I believe, I believe Hey, I believe, I believe,
Speaker 1: I believe hey. Addition, as the Bengals climb into first
Speaker 1: place in the AFC North with a stunningly dominant win
Speaker 1: in Baltimore, coming up, you'll hear radio replays from the victory,
Speaker 1: postgame comments from players and coaches, and analysis from my
Speaker 1: broadcast partner Dave Lapham. And in this week's fun fact segment,
Speaker 1: you'll get to know a Bengals veteran who I truly
Speaker 1: believe will eventually be an NFL head coach, safety Ricardo Allen.
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Ultimate Bengals, the
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Speaker 1: thing since bold lettering on Hotel beauty care products. If
Speaker 1: you wear glasses, you know what I'm talking about. There
Speaker 1: are few things more annoying than climbing into a hotel
Speaker 1: shower and not being able to read which bottle is
Speaker 1: the shampoo, which one's the conditioner, and which one is
Speaker 1: the body lotion. So kudos to the Baltimore Marriott for
Speaker 1: big bold lettering on the various beauty products, and thanks
Speaker 1: for respecting your four eyed guests like me. Now let's
Speaker 1: get to Sunday's Baltimore beat down. Heading into the game,
Speaker 1: there were four quarterbacks in history who had started at
Speaker 1: least four games against the Bengals without ever losing. Listen
Speaker 1: to this list. John Elway went seven and o. Joe
Speaker 1: Montana six and oh, including a pair of Super Bowls.
Speaker 1: Dan Marino also went six and o, and to Sunday,
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson was five and zero. That list has been
Speaker 1: whittled to three. The Bengals and Ravens traded early field
Speaker 1: goals before Cincinnati ended a streak of two games against
Speaker 1: Baltimore without scoring a touchdown. Burrow under center mix and
Speaker 1: lined up seven yards behind. They fake a hand off
Speaker 1: to the laft, Burrow rolls to the right guts that
Speaker 1: deep down the middle of the field. Usama makes the
Speaker 1: canoe twenty five escapes a hit running between the hand
Speaker 1: barks touchdown. Bengals burrow deep to Uzama and Cincinnati takes
Speaker 1: the lead on a fifty five yard touchdown strike. Man,
Speaker 1: you talked about making the play down the football field
Speaker 1: to catch and then making Marlin Humphrey miss in space.
Speaker 1: Usama's long TD grab gave the Bengals a ten three
Speaker 1: lead and came on his favorite holiday. It's national side. Indo,
Speaker 1: you gotta make something happen right like you can't just
Speaker 1: can't let anybody else have all the fun. And I
Speaker 1: gotta say this too, even though I caught the touchdown,
Speaker 1: if you look at the play, Drew had to block
Speaker 1: Calias Campbell one on one and did a hell of
Speaker 1: a job. I mean, I gotta give it to him
Speaker 1: because that was if he didn't block him the way
Speaker 1: he did, then Joe would have not been able to
Speaker 1: get the ball off. So that touchdowns for Drew for sure,
Speaker 1: because that one on one that he had with Clias,
Speaker 1: that's that's what allowed me to get open and Drew,
Speaker 1: of course, being Uzama's fellow tight end, Drew sample. The
Speaker 1: Bengals lead didn't last, as the Ravens answered with a
Speaker 1: t D drive of their own. Lamar Jackson will move
Speaker 1: under center. We'll see if he keeps the ball on
Speaker 1: a run high formation backfield behind him. Second and goal
Speaker 1: from the one. Lamar hands it off and the Ravens
Speaker 1: run it into the end zone for the touchdown. DeVante
Speaker 1: Freeman scored tied the game at ten, but left one
Speaker 1: fifty one on the clock, abundant time for Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: and Jamar Chase to work their end of half magic
Speaker 1: very very noisy here at M ANDT Bank Stadium. With
Speaker 1: thirty two seconds left and the half, Burrow back to
Speaker 1: throw from the pocket, fires line drive over little by
Speaker 1: Chase running to the twenty five here sideline to the
Speaker 1: twenty hurdles a defender and goes out of bounds to
Speaker 1: stop the clock. With twenty four seconds left at the
Speaker 1: nineteen yard line, Chase, in the final two minutes of
Speaker 1: the half, strikes again. That twenty six yard catch led
Speaker 1: to a field goal by Evan McPherson that gave the
Speaker 1: Bengals a thirteen ten halftime lead. It's the fifth time
Speaker 1: in seven games that Cincinnati has scored in the final
Speaker 1: thirty seven seconds of the half, and Chase has either
Speaker 1: caught a touchdown pass or made a big catch to
Speaker 1: set up a field goal. Every time. Here's Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: and we were talking about it two minute before the half.
Speaker 1: Kids is going again. So we're playing all right. Up
Speaker 1: to that point, you know, we weren't playing great, and
Speaker 1: then you know that two minute drive really propelled us
Speaker 1: going into the end of the half. And after that,
Speaker 1: you know, we came into the locker room it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, we got him now, but before Burrow in
Speaker 1: the offense could get him. Baltimore opened the third quarter
Speaker 1: with back to back passes of thirty five and thirty
Speaker 1: nine yards to take the lead. As he's back to
Speaker 1: throw on first and ten, he's gonna fire for the
Speaker 1: end zone and Brown he calls it in and it
Speaker 1: is a touchdown. He got his feet down in the
Speaker 1: back of the end zone as LaVar Jackson floats won
Speaker 1: over the Bengals defense for a thirty nine yard TV.
Speaker 1: The Ravens were up seventeen thirteen, and while Lamar Jackson
Speaker 1: passed for two hundred and fifty seven yards and ran
Speaker 1: for eighty eight more, Baltimore did not score on its
Speaker 1: final seven drives. Here's Zach Taylor. He's so dangerous. You know,
Speaker 1: every time he extends a play, you know, he's capable
Speaker 1: of running for an exposive player, throwing it down the
Speaker 1: field from explosive play, and he's just such a tremendous player.
Speaker 1: But I'm really proud of the way that our whole
Speaker 1: defense responded, and you know, that was that was a big, big,
Speaker 1: big deal for them to play like that today. After
Speaker 1: Baltimore pulled ahead, Joe Burrow threw a seventeen yard passed
Speaker 1: to Chase, handed off to Joe Mixon for five yards,
Speaker 1: found Chase again for twenty one, and then gave the
Speaker 1: Bengals the lead for good. Three receivers right Chase out
Speaker 1: to the left. Burrow catches the shotgun snap, fires bound field,
Speaker 1: caught at the fifteen to tackle. Yeah, runs it into
Speaker 1: the end zone. Second touchdown of the game. U Zama
Speaker 1: fires the football against the wall in the end zone
Speaker 1: and the Bengals take the lead on a thirty two
Speaker 1: yards strike up the seam to cj Uzama. He said,
Speaker 1: you know what, you didn't stop it the first time,
Speaker 1: You're not gonna stop it the second time. The Bengals
Speaker 1: were up twenty to seventeen. The Ravens quickly drove into
Speaker 1: field goal range before Trey Hendrickson knocked them out of it.
Speaker 1: Jackson and the shotgun bell off his right hip. Lamar
Speaker 1: looking left now looks back toward the middle. He's running.
Speaker 1: He gets sacked from behind by Trey Hendrickson. The Bengals
Speaker 1: sacked Lamar Jackson five times. Burrow was only sacked once,
Speaker 1: and Hendrickson is up to six and a half sacks
Speaker 1: in his first seven games with Cincinnati. That's one thing,
Speaker 1: like you see five sacks, But I mean, I can't
Speaker 1: say enough about the guys in the back end. Mike Vaughan,
Speaker 1: Jesse cheeto elis stepping up. I mean, those guys are
Speaker 1: making opportunities for us to rush. And that's what complete
Speaker 1: defense is. It's we're one of these games, it's going
Speaker 1: to be we're hitting the quarterback and they're picking the
Speaker 1: ball off. So that's what you that's what you strive
Speaker 1: for as a defense. We're playing like a unit. Like
Speaker 1: I said for weeks now, this is special. We're building
Speaker 1: something that's special and h like I said, this is
Speaker 1: a stepping stone to where we want to go as
Speaker 1: a defense, and a team. The Bengals got the ball
Speaker 1: back and only needed three plays to score again. Bengals
Speaker 1: have three receivers left and went out to the right,
Speaker 1: burrowing the gun on third and two. He'll look to
Speaker 1: pass quick thrown slant caught by Chase, runs to the
Speaker 1: third breaks out the power jam, spreading down the middle
Speaker 1: of the filling away at the thirty twenty ten touchdown.
Speaker 1: Wow great his jamar Chase eighty two yards two fuh pous.
Speaker 1: Chase finished with eight catches for two hundred one yards,
Speaker 1: both career highs. His seven hundred and fifty four receiving
Speaker 1: yards after his first seven NFL FELL games are the
Speaker 1: most by any player in history. I can say today
Speaker 1: I surprise myself, you know, putting up those stats two
Speaker 1: hundred and one yards something you dream of, but you
Speaker 1: don't go into the game actually telling yourself you're about
Speaker 1: to do it, you know what I'm saying. So I
Speaker 1: just came out of hand, played the best bot I
Speaker 1: can today and try to make plays. Burrow finished with
Speaker 1: a career high four hundred and sixteen passing yards and
Speaker 1: didn't have any in the fourth quarter. His timing in
Speaker 1: chemistry with Chase is simply ridiculous. We've been together for
Speaker 1: a long time. I've been thrown with him on Saturday
Speaker 1: since I was twenty one years old. So that's that's
Speaker 1: what happens. When you get all those reps accumulated, you
Speaker 1: understand the kinds of throws against leverage. You know, they
Speaker 1: were playing on top and press, and so that's what
Speaker 1: opened up the back shoulder balls today. And we've we've
Speaker 1: thrown back shoulders for three years and throwing them over
Speaker 1: and over and over again. And that's what it takes
Speaker 1: to feel confident in those kind of throws is just
Speaker 1: reps and reps and reps. The Bengals turned the game
Speaker 1: into a route and send Baltimore fans streaming toward the
Speaker 1: exits with more than seven minutes to go with a
Speaker 1: pair of long touchdown runs. Second down in three on
Speaker 1: the verge of the red zone at the twenty one
Speaker 1: of Baltimore mixing back in a running back, Burrow hands
Speaker 1: it to Joe Starts left joy to hold up the
Speaker 1: middle of five full line hand touchdown, Chow Mixing racing
Speaker 1: up the middle of the field for a twenty one
Speaker 1: yard t D and the Bengals are on the verge
Speaker 1: of a seventeen point fourth quarter lead in Baltimore. Burrow
Speaker 1: hands it off, pe Ryan finds a hold off the middle,
Speaker 1: Smaa streaking into the forget about it, coffin nailam bam.
Speaker 1: And I'm telling you what, Dan, that was the most
Speaker 1: unbelievable double team I've ever seen. Trey Hopkins in Quentin,
Speaker 1: Spain took a defensive line in ten yards down the
Speaker 1: field and planted on. I mean, the cutback lane was
Speaker 1: humongous for samaj p Ryan. They dominated the interior the
Speaker 1: Baltimore Ravens defensive line, which I did not think was
Speaker 1: going to happen on any snap today. And holy Macarlandy,
Speaker 1: who what do you like more? Raven route or Baltimore
Speaker 1: butt kicking? They both apply. It is forty to seventeen unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Cincinnati ended his street because five straight losses to Lamar
Speaker 1: Jackson and the Ravens by the final score of forty
Speaker 1: one to seventeen. Let that sink in forty one to seventeen.
Speaker 1: Did that make a statement? Here are Joe Burrow, c
Speaker 1: j Uzama and Sam Hubbard. I think it was a
Speaker 1: big statement and we're two and owned the division. For
Speaker 1: the first time that I can remember, and you know,
Speaker 1: I was, you know, the most exciting thing were two
Speaker 1: of the last three drives were you know, they knew
Speaker 1: we were going to run the ball and the old
Speaker 1: Line really you know, took it to him. I was
Speaker 1: exciting to see. I know, those guys were fired up
Speaker 1: about that. So that's that's how you should finish a game.
Speaker 1: You start out throwing the ball, getting out up on top,
Speaker 1: and then the old Line finishes it off. On the
Speaker 1: side that I was, I was honestly a little emotional
Speaker 1: with how with how I connected we were. You know,
Speaker 1: you see everyone just I mean everyone's juiced for every
Speaker 1: single person out there, and I mean that's what it's
Speaker 1: all about, having fun, being with the boys and playing ball.
Speaker 1: So I think it's the start of something new, something good.
Speaker 1: We had a long period of time where we couldn't
Speaker 1: figure out how to win on the road, and we
Speaker 1: kind of got over that hump, and um, you know,
Speaker 1: these divisional games they're huge. You know. To to finish
Speaker 1: the way we did and not allow them to come
Speaker 1: back into it and have that killer instinct is just
Speaker 1: so huge for us as a team of what we've
Speaker 1: come from how we've progressed and you know where we've
Speaker 1: always envisioned ourselves getting and finally seeing it happened today.
Speaker 1: After the game, Dave Lapham spent five minutes with Zach
Speaker 1: Taylor coach forty one. It's twenty eight unanswered. I mean,
Speaker 1: your football team came to Baltimore and just made a
Speaker 1: huge statement, didn't you. They believe in each other, They
Speaker 1: believe that they can go on the road and beat
Speaker 1: really good football teams, and now this is just more
Speaker 1: evidence of that. And uh so again, I'm really proud
Speaker 1: of the collective effort of our entire team today because
Speaker 1: we were gonna need it and we got it from them.
Speaker 1: So your your LSU connection. Your quarterback throws for four
Speaker 1: hundred and sixteen and his receiver catches the ball for
Speaker 1: two hundred and one yards. Eight catches for two oh one.
Speaker 1: Joe's twenty three for thirty eight after starting like two
Speaker 1: for seven, He's twenty three for thirty eight. Unbelievable. What
Speaker 1: do you think about their their performance out there? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm glad we have them, you know, because they are
Speaker 1: They're one of the best connections in the in this
Speaker 1: league and they're just getting started. You know, and so
Speaker 1: again to be able to rely on that receiving corps
Speaker 1: in that running game and our quarterback who's who's as
Speaker 1: accurate as they call him, as really fun for a
Speaker 1: play caller to be able to enjoy those weapons. CJ.
Speaker 1: Yzama three catches for ninety one yards and two touchdowns.
Speaker 1: I know it wasn't the same play, but he did
Speaker 1: the same thing, you know, choke and a guy and
Speaker 1: taking it to the house. How well is he playing
Speaker 1: right now? You know, he's just misfreliable. His number is
Speaker 1: not always called. He doesn't have ten catches in the
Speaker 1: game or any of that. But he just does all
Speaker 1: the dirty work and then when his name's called, he
Speaker 1: makes the play. That's awesome to see. So they start
Speaker 1: the game with seven and eight guys in the box
Speaker 1: and they're bringing every you don't know which ones they're bringing,
Speaker 1: how many they're bringing, and all that stuff. But you
Speaker 1: over time got him out of that and then you
Speaker 1: somehow got the middle of the field wide open. You
Speaker 1: guys started abusing the middle of the football field. Take
Speaker 1: me through that progression. Well, we just had some miscommunication early.
Speaker 1: You know, some things that we know we're gonna be challenging,
Speaker 1: and they got us on the first drive there. But
Speaker 1: you know, we got a lot of weapons and so
Speaker 1: we can stay in attack mode and forced teams to
Speaker 1: have to respond to what we're doing. And that's what
Speaker 1: our guys just allow us to do. And we kind
Speaker 1: of stayed in that mode and our guys responded. Well.
Speaker 1: How about in a huge game, a division rival on
Speaker 1: the road, who's five and one and in first place.
Speaker 1: Your first penalty occurs in the fourth quarter, one penalty
Speaker 1: for five yards. Your first sack occurs in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: The first turnover occurs in the fourth quarter. You guys
Speaker 1: are playing like ever free football. That's what it takes,
Speaker 1: isn't it It is? You know, I get we get
Speaker 1: a smart, disciplined football team, and that's the kind of
Speaker 1: men we want in this locker room. And they've they've
Speaker 1: played that way and it helps you win games because
Speaker 1: there's those little moments during the course of the game
Speaker 1: when a penalty kills you or turnover, a sack kills you,
Speaker 1: and our guys stay away from that stuff and it's awesome.
Speaker 1: Twenty eight unanswered points. You know, when when you started
Speaker 1: getting on that role as a play caller, does your
Speaker 1: your sheet get huge. I mean it's like you can
Speaker 1: almost close your eyes and pick one out. Our guys
Speaker 1: were just playing with such confidence that it gets that way.
Speaker 1: We don't have to call some things we haven't called.
Speaker 1: We can just stick with what's working. But our guys
Speaker 1: at that point just have confidence that everything's gonna work
Speaker 1: and they know how to execute it and they have
Speaker 1: that confidence. And uh so that's a scary thing when
Speaker 1: you've got that. The one red zone drive, Joe took
Speaker 1: a sack and then he had the turnover. But the
Speaker 1: defense said, Joe, you've carried us the whole game. I
Speaker 1: got your back. And the fourth down stops they had
Speaker 1: like three of them down the stretch. I think they
Speaker 1: want one for four and fourth down and like three
Speaker 1: three turnovers. You actually lose the turnover battle minus one.
Speaker 1: But those three fourth down stops more than negate that.
Speaker 1: But how about your defense. The way they responded tremendous
Speaker 1: hold them in the seventeen points five sacks, I think
Speaker 1: that's the most tied for the most of themar has
Speaker 1: ever been sacked. So again, they just and that's top down,
Speaker 1: that's coverage all the way down to the front. That's coaching,
Speaker 1: putting those guys in a great plan and uh really
Speaker 1: going over the details all week, and our guys believe
Speaker 1: in it. And it's a special thing to watch when
Speaker 1: that happens, you know, it's interesting to watch watch the
Speaker 1: guys on the plane, on the buses, in the hotel,
Speaker 1: honestly going to take care of business. We're gonna go
Speaker 1: take care of this football game, every single guy just
Speaker 1: and I'm not I'm not saying it was like, you know,
Speaker 1: arrogance or anything. That's just we believe. Yeah, they believe,
Speaker 1: you know, and there's enough evidence that they should believe,
Speaker 1: you know, because they put in the work. They keep
Speaker 1: raising the standard each week on what it should have
Speaker 1: looked like and and we got much bigger days ahead.
Speaker 1: This is not We're gonna reflect back on this, and
Speaker 1: this is something we needed to do beat Baltimore on
Speaker 1: the road, but we know that we got to continue
Speaker 1: to win and put ourselves in position to do some
Speaker 1: really big things later on. If the playoffs were to
Speaker 1: start tomorrow and they're not going to, you have seven
Speaker 1: games in though, you guys, first place in NFC North,
Speaker 1: the number one seed in the AFC for the playoffs,
Speaker 1: tracking in the right direction, Coach, we put ourselves in
Speaker 1: a really good position through eight whatever how many games
Speaker 1: we've played. Seven games. We have to keep this up
Speaker 1: because plenty of teams have not handled this position the
Speaker 1: right way. We've seen them over the past couple of years,
Speaker 1: and we just got to make sure that we respond appropriately.
Speaker 1: Appreciate your time, Appreciate what you're doing. I know the
Speaker 1: fans of Cincinnati are jacked up, to say the least.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. We're happy for him, and again, we just
Speaker 1: got to keep it up. Thanks. Thanks. Up next the
Speaker 1: road game against the struggling New York Jets, who fell
Speaker 1: to one in five on Sunday with a fifty four
Speaker 1: to thirteen loss to the Patriots. The Bengals are an
Speaker 1: early nine and a half point favorite next weekend. The
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Ultimate Bengals, the free
Speaker 1: to play fantasy football game. Ultimate Bengals will be awarding
Speaker 1: a weekly winner during the course of the season, with tickets,
Speaker 1: autographed merchandise, and money can't buy experiences all up for grabs.
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Speaker 1: for postgame analysis with lap La. Words are the tools
Speaker 1: of our profession. But I find myself not quite sure
Speaker 1: what to say. Have the Bengals arrived after winning by
Speaker 1: twenty four points in Baltimore? Boy, if they haven't, they're
Speaker 1: well into the journey. They're on the way to arrival.
Speaker 1: I mean, they shook up a fifty five gallon drum,
Speaker 1: a butt whipping spring over the Baltimore Ravens. It was unbelievable.
Speaker 1: It was entertaining to watch them take a part to Ravens.
Speaker 1: The way they did offensively and defensively. I mean, they
Speaker 1: played complimentary football. They supported each other's efforts to the
Speaker 1: end degree. They played smart football. They didn't make mistakes.
Speaker 1: One penalty for five yards. The penalty occurs in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, first sack and the first they only turnover
Speaker 1: the game occurs in the fourth quarter when the games
Speaker 1: in hand. I mean they played they played really, really
Speaker 1: sound football. I think the date was December twenty second,
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, destined to go down as one of the
Speaker 1: most important days in franchise history. The Bengals losing overtime
Speaker 1: in Miami, they wrap up the number one pick in
Speaker 1: the NFL Draft, and they secure Joe Burrow. He is
Speaker 1: special in so many ways he is. I mean it's
Speaker 1: almost like it's almost impossible to say how important he
Speaker 1: is to what's going on here. I mean, his tentacles
Speaker 1: reach everything, everything. The ripple effect that he has on
Speaker 1: everybody in the organization, not just on his teammates, but
Speaker 1: everybody in the organization is astounding. I mean he's I've heard,
Speaker 1: you know, many times Mike Brown referred to Kenny Emerson
Speaker 1: is the most important player in franchise history, which is
Speaker 1: a very, very worthy designation. But this dude, after where
Speaker 1: they were, is most most important player Part two. I mean,
Speaker 1: he is the guy and he means everything to everything
Speaker 1: they're doing. He really does. They hold the Ravens to
Speaker 1: seventeen points. They were fifth in the NFL and scoring
Speaker 1: defense going in. They'll probably climb a spot or two
Speaker 1: after doing that. They haven't given up more than twenty
Speaker 1: five in a game this year. I think at this point,
Speaker 1: even though they haven't faced a bunch of prolific offenses,
Speaker 1: that we can safely say this is one of the
Speaker 1: better defenses in the NFL. Right, Yeah, I mean they
Speaker 1: even when they there was that little stretch where they
Speaker 1: gave up back to back thirty plus yard passes and
Speaker 1: a twenty five yard play a boot in there. You know,
Speaker 1: they recover from that. It's not like they don't collapse,
Speaker 1: they don't fall apart, they don't panic, you know, they
Speaker 1: stay they stay patient. I mean, I think it's, uh,
Speaker 1: there's so much trust and belief that's going on that
Speaker 1: that the players know what they're supposed to do. They
Speaker 1: know that, they feel like they know their teammates know
Speaker 1: what they're supposed to do. They feel like they know
Speaker 1: their coaches are going to give them a game plan
Speaker 1: that's going to put them in the best possible situation
Speaker 1: to win football games. I mean, the trust and belief
Speaker 1: is going at all levels back and forth, and that's
Speaker 1: that's what it That's really what it takes. Um And
Speaker 1: you know, when when teammates care about each other, that's
Speaker 1: when you can have special seasons, you know, and it
Speaker 1: seems like that's the case these guys. You know, if
Speaker 1: when a big play is given up, they're they're not Matt,
Speaker 1: They're just communicating to each other, you know, what do
Speaker 1: I need to do. Nobody's like, you know, chewing on
Speaker 1: anybody or anything like that. It's like, how do we
Speaker 1: prevent this from happening again, you know, And it's like,
Speaker 1: and I do. I've said this before, but I vividly
Speaker 1: remember it. It's like, Okay, on this play, if I
Speaker 1: don't do my job, you know, I'm going to let
Speaker 1: so and so down. I got to make sure that
Speaker 1: I get it done. And you know I'm at the
Speaker 1: point of attack. I got to get it done. I
Speaker 1: got to do it, not just for me, but for
Speaker 1: you know, this guy owned this side. I mean, this
Speaker 1: guy and this side, even this guy behind me. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's that's that's when you know that. You know, when
Speaker 1: guys are caring about each other like that, that's when
Speaker 1: you know you have a special group. Since the NFL
Speaker 1: went to eight divisions of four teams, if you start
Speaker 1: five and two, you make the playoffs seventy four percent
Speaker 1: of the time. Now that might change a little bit
Speaker 1: now that you've got a seventeen game schedule instead of sixteen.
Speaker 1: But the fact of the matter is teams that this
Speaker 1: position generally make it. And they've got road wins in
Speaker 1: the bank at Pittsburgh and at Baltimore. Are you shocked
Speaker 1: by where things stand after seven games? Like you were
Speaker 1: talking about Dan, they're double digit wins, you know. I
Speaker 1: mean it's not just eating them out. It's like got you,
Speaker 1: you know, and got you good. I'm really impressed. I
Speaker 1: thought I felt good about today's game, but I thought
Speaker 1: it was going to come down to, you know, somebody's
Speaker 1: going to make a player or two in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter here. You know, it's going to be one of
Speaker 1: those kind of games. It was worse than Detroit in
Speaker 1: terms of guys coming out and guys finishing up and
Speaker 1: you know, garbage time, and it's like, I can't believe them.
Speaker 1: I'm witnessing this in Baltimore against the five and one
Speaker 1: football team that was leading the division going in, just
Speaker 1: took them apart, I mean, disassembled them. It was as
Speaker 1: good an effort as I've seen from this organization in
Speaker 1: a long time. So about two series into the game,
Speaker 1: I think it was in a commercial break, he kind
Speaker 1: of turned to me and said, I don't know if
Speaker 1: this is going to work out. They're getting a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure on Joe Burrow and that rapidly got better
Speaker 1: with the offensive line do today, Yeah, I mean it
Speaker 1: was it was interesting. It was like they made they
Speaker 1: made a couple of plays. The offensive line progressively get
Speaker 1: better with the twists and the stunts and recognition and
Speaker 1: who who to pick up and why and all that
Speaker 1: sort of stuff. And then Joe started making some throws
Speaker 1: and one on ones to the outside. And at that point,
Speaker 1: you know, Wink blinked, you know, Wink changed a little bit.
Speaker 1: He changed what he was doing, and I was hoping
Speaker 1: he might see that again, you know. And I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that he took all his cards off the table,
Speaker 1: but he was much less aggressive. And then and then
Speaker 1: they started just attacking the middle of the football field.
Speaker 1: They made a bunch of plays in the middle of
Speaker 1: the football field once they started winning there, one on
Speaker 1: ones on the outside, because now it's like, oh, I
Speaker 1: got to help with the safety. They're not winning, you know,
Speaker 1: they're beating us over there. So now in the the middle
Speaker 1: of the field comes wide open and CJ starts making
Speaker 1: plays and Lloyd makes everybody's making plays in the middle
Speaker 1: of the football field. It's like they got a lot
Speaker 1: of weapons. I got a lot of weapons to the disposal,
Speaker 1: and you know, that's that's that's one thing. If you
Speaker 1: don't know how to use them, it doesn't matter. And
Speaker 1: they're starting to really figure out what the quarterback and
Speaker 1: you know, Zach communication with the quarterback all on the
Speaker 1: same page of how to use those guys. Now it's
Speaker 1: gonna get scary. Eight catches two hundred and one yards
Speaker 1: for Jamar Chase, including an eighty two yard touchdown. I
Speaker 1: can't believe how good he is. I mean, chased by
Speaker 1: Marlon Humphrey today, one of the best defensive backs in
Speaker 1: the NFL. It was no contest. I know. I talk
Speaker 1: to him a little bit in the locker room afterwards, Dan,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, you know, you know, are you surprised
Speaker 1: at this stage that you're putting up the numbers that
Speaker 1: you are And he goes, I'm surprised. I guess it's,
Speaker 1: you know, as easy as it seems to be. He goes,
Speaker 1: I know it's not that easy, but he said I'd
Speaker 1: heard Humphrey saying an interview this week that you know,
Speaker 1: it looks easy to him, you know, and it's it
Speaker 1: shouldn't be that way for a young guy like that.
Speaker 1: But he is so fluid and so smooth, and when
Speaker 1: he talks about stuff like he was talking about his
Speaker 1: match up with Humphrey and how he was getting him
Speaker 1: just to slightly flip his hips and doing this and
Speaker 1: setting him up with that. I'm thinking, man, this guy
Speaker 1: is thinking, you know, just a handful of games into
Speaker 1: his career and he's already at that level in terms
Speaker 1: of not only physically going out in next but understanding
Speaker 1: why he's doing the things he's doing, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Barrow was right. Barrow said, look, you know,
Speaker 1: you got to take this guy as special. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's he's like, he's the guy. And he was right
Speaker 1: on the money with this dude. He's he's incredible and
Speaker 1: they don't take him down one on one after the catch.
Speaker 1: We've seen it, Dan. I mean, he is stick from
Speaker 1: the waist down. This dude is a is a running
Speaker 1: back that has world class speed, you know, but he's
Speaker 1: a wide receiver, you know. And the thing the thing
Speaker 1: about about him is, you know, how he can track
Speaker 1: a football running full tilt like we talked about in
Speaker 1: his head's not bobbing around and stuff, and I mean
Speaker 1: he's just so fluid and so still. He really is remarkable.
Speaker 1: He's a very unique, one of a kind kind of guy.
Speaker 1: This becomes a big time how you can handle success
Speaker 1: story now because they take on a Jets team that
Speaker 1: has one win was not competitive against the Patriots on
Speaker 1: the road on Sunday, and he does have to go
Speaker 1: back on the road and show that they are not,
Speaker 1: you know, sniffing the roses after performance like they're winning Baltimore.
Speaker 1: That's true, and it was interesting. A lot of guys
Speaker 1: were like, you know, this, this is this is great,
Speaker 1: but we're moving on. You know, we got to do
Speaker 1: it again and again and again. You know, we have
Speaker 1: to go one and all every week. I mean, they're
Speaker 1: they're all, they're all. The first step is to verbalize it,
Speaker 1: and then you verbalize it enough you start to understand
Speaker 1: it and believe it and uh and they're already in
Speaker 1: that process of like this is over with. But the
Speaker 1: thing that I was telling a lot of the guys
Speaker 1: in there, seeing them on the bus, on the plane,
Speaker 1: in the hotel lobby, they're they're not cocky, they're just
Speaker 1: they believe. They just believe. I mean, it was like,
Speaker 1: we're coming here to take care of business, get a win,
Speaker 1: and go home. Nothing nothing more than that. Let's just
Speaker 1: go get it done. I mean, it's like it's really
Speaker 1: good to see it, really is. I mean, you certainly
Speaker 1: don't see anybody, you know, whistling in the cemetery or
Speaker 1: anything like that. You know, you see guy is out
Speaker 1: there that know that if they play well, they can
Speaker 1: beat anybody. I am going to give you a little
Speaker 1: helpful advice as we wrap this up. And my advice
Speaker 1: is you're gonna have to screen your phone calls this
Speaker 1: week because every sports radio host in the country is
Speaker 1: gonna want to have Dave Lapplemant his show to talk
Speaker 1: about this five and two Bengals team. I don't know, Dan,
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna have to share the same screen.
Speaker 1: You're gonna You're gonna get hammered as well. There's no
Speaker 1: question about it. Them. That's a good a good thing,
Speaker 1: a good problem to have, isn't it? No questions? And
Speaker 1: I'll say yes, five and two is fun. Five and
Speaker 1: two is our great time, great time for sure. The
Speaker 1: last time the Bengals won in Baltimore and in Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: in the same season was two thousand and fifteen, not coincidentally,
Speaker 1: the last time that Cincinnati went to the playoffs. Now
Speaker 1: time for this week's fun facts segment, where you get
Speaker 1: to know the person under the pads. Time for some
Speaker 1: fun facts with Bengal safety Ricardo Allen from Daytona Beach,
Speaker 1: Florida city for the Daytona five hundred and also known
Speaker 1: as the spring break Capital of the World. But I
Speaker 1: don't know anybody that has lived there. What was life
Speaker 1: like in Daytona Beach for you growing up? Oh? Life was?
Speaker 1: It was amazing. It was It's kind of like a
Speaker 1: you say, it's kind of like a big city, but
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of like small. A lot of people
Speaker 1: coming from vacation, and like you said, a lot of
Speaker 1: tourists coming down there all the time, so he was
Speaker 1: able to bump into people from all different, you know,
Speaker 1: areas of the world, all different walks of life. But
Speaker 1: it was just really like a small town and I
Speaker 1: was able to just walk around and kind of experimentum
Speaker 1: within anything I want to. The beach side was always there,
Speaker 1: so I was able to always have that to occupy
Speaker 1: my time and stuff. And just a small town that
Speaker 1: I really enjoy. You attended Mainland High School, the alma
Speaker 1: mater of basketball star Vince Carter, who in two twenty
Speaker 1: retired after a record twenty two years in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Like Vince, you had your uniform number retired at Mainland.
Speaker 1: What did that honor. Mean, that was a blessing because
Speaker 1: there's been so many very talented players come through my
Speaker 1: high school and for me to be next to, you know,
Speaker 1: Vince Carter as one of the players to come out
Speaker 1: of Mainland High School to you know, do something great
Speaker 1: for the community and just to get my my jersey retired.
Speaker 1: In general, man, just to even be next to a
Speaker 1: guy like Vince Carter is just, uh something that I
Speaker 1: can never even you know, like dream of because I
Speaker 1: remember when I was little and he's to having football
Speaker 1: his basketball camp there. I never was able to go.
Speaker 1: But just being able to like watch him and just
Speaker 1: watch the way he moved, it was something that I
Speaker 1: always like, uh dream of and it's kind of cool that, uh,
Speaker 1: like I'm a professional athlete like you know, he was
Speaker 1: at one point in time to we're doing fun factions
Speaker 1: with Cardo Allen. Because you're five to nine, the college
Speaker 1: football powerhouses in the state of Florida did not offer
Speaker 1: you a scholarship per due dead In fact, current Bengals
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator Louanna Ruma recruited you there was moving to
Speaker 1: West Lafayette, Indiana and Io Penner. Yes, it was such
Speaker 1: a culture shock, but I think it was one of
Speaker 1: the best culture shocks that I think I've ever had
Speaker 1: in my life. And um, and then all it was
Speaker 1: there was corn Field and I'm coming from a sunny
Speaker 1: beach and just tons of things to do and when
Speaker 1: you go down to Purdue, it was it was. It
Speaker 1: was great for me at the time because it made
Speaker 1: me single in my focus. I was able to just
Speaker 1: focus on football and myself and uh getting my grades
Speaker 1: right because coming from a you know, Florida education, with
Speaker 1: no disrespect, it's nothing like a Midwest education. So just
Speaker 1: being able to you know, try to up my game
Speaker 1: and you know, my education level, and also just you know,
Speaker 1: being on my own for the first time in my life,
Speaker 1: it was it was it was so different. Um, if
Speaker 1: I would stay for my first eighteen years of my life,
Speaker 1: I never left a five or ten mile radius of
Speaker 1: Daytona Beach. So going to Purdue, going to West Lafia, Indiana,
Speaker 1: I'm leaving there to get on the plane with my
Speaker 1: first time ever getting on a plane. So it was
Speaker 1: it was, it was a change for me. And now
Speaker 1: I'm here and it's it's been good. You headed to
Speaker 1: the NFL before you had finished your degree, but you
Speaker 1: eventually went back and earned it. Why. Um, it's just
Speaker 1: something that I want to be able to, you know,
Speaker 1: I can't be that parent at home. That's kind of
Speaker 1: like being tough of my babies and letting them know that,
Speaker 1: like everything that you start, you should finish, you know,
Speaker 1: even if you don't want to do it, even if
Speaker 1: it's in the middle of a season and you don't
Speaker 1: really want to finish it and you start playing sports
Speaker 1: or anything. Just anything we start in this family, we're
Speaker 1: gonna finish. And it was important for me to later
Speaker 1: on if I want to be the one who's leading
Speaker 1: my my babies and leading my family and letting them
Speaker 1: know that they need a degree and they need to
Speaker 1: go out and do some you know, writ in this world,
Speaker 1: I want to be the one at least leading away.
Speaker 1: We're visiting with Ricardo Allen. The Atlanta Falcons drafted you
Speaker 1: in the fifth round. At the end of training camp
Speaker 1: your first year, they cut you and put you on
Speaker 1: the practice squad, and that in and of itself is
Speaker 1: not unusual, but were case. The world saw it because
Speaker 1: it happened on hard knocks. Did that make it even tougher? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was it was really tough because it's not like
Speaker 1: getting the door slammed in your face. It's not like
Speaker 1: hard enough already, it's like getting the door slammed in
Speaker 1: your face, and everybody in the world is like also
Speaker 1: watching it. And um, and I happened to be like
Speaker 1: one of those, uh, the characters in the show that
Speaker 1: they follow until like the end. So I was one
Speaker 1: of the ones that everybody kind of was hoping to
Speaker 1: make the team and then it didn't happen. But it
Speaker 1: also I've been cut on hard knocks and I've also
Speaker 1: lost the super Bowl, you know. So, um, I've had
Speaker 1: really tough things happened to me. And so I'm not
Speaker 1: really afraid of, you know, being embarrassed. I'm not really
Speaker 1: afraid of, you know, really like what my current situation
Speaker 1: may be, because it's not always like that. It's you know,
Speaker 1: if you just keep you know, grinding, and you just
Speaker 1: keep your head down and you you know, keep refining
Speaker 1: your goals and know what you stay into. You know,
Speaker 1: it's never about what the people are saying on the outside.
Speaker 1: The majority of the time is about like what you
Speaker 1: truly are doing, you know, behind the closed doors and
Speaker 1: trying to make the most of the opportunities and stuff.
Speaker 1: So it was tough at that time, but it has
Speaker 1: built me to kind of like be calloused in a sense,
Speaker 1: to you know, the outside and like distractions in a sense.
Speaker 1: Bengals fans unfortunately know all about losing Super Bowls to
Speaker 1: greatest of all time type quarterbacks, in your case, Tom Brady,
Speaker 1: after he had a twenty five point lead in that game.
Speaker 1: I know that pain never goes away. But what do
Speaker 1: you remember finally about being on a team that made it.
Speaker 1: It was a collective effort from everyone within the organizations,
Speaker 1: the players, the fans, just everybody was all in all
Speaker 1: year and it was it was a kind of detailed
Speaker 1: attention that you typically sometimes just get at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the season until let's say, five to ten games
Speaker 1: roll around in the records like so out that intensity
Speaker 1: that we had no matter the wins are the losses
Speaker 1: that kind of like kept through the whole time. Everybody
Speaker 1: was making sure they were focusing on their diets, they
Speaker 1: were focusing on their bodies, how much sleep they were getting,
Speaker 1: Do they know they played? Are they playing as hard
Speaker 1: as they can? And you know, also what I remember
Speaker 1: about that team we called ourselves the misfits because it
Speaker 1: was a bunch of people that we see, they just
Speaker 1: picked us from all different parts of the world and
Speaker 1: put us together, and we kind of like just made
Speaker 1: the most of it. Like we always said that, like
Speaker 1: we none of us supposed to be here, but we're
Speaker 1: gonna make the most of it every chance we get.
Speaker 1: So it was we just kind of took like to
Speaker 1: bring it on kind of attitude. All right, a few
Speaker 1: wildcard categories to wrap things up with Ricardo Allen. Ten
Speaker 1: years from now, are you an NFL head coach? Yes,
Speaker 1: I believe that. I write that down in my notebook
Speaker 1: actually right now. I refine it all the time, and
Speaker 1: I write my goals down. I was listening to something
Speaker 1: and they said that you should have five one year goals,
Speaker 1: three year goals, and five ten year goals. And in
Speaker 1: my ten year goals, it is to be an NFL
Speaker 1: head coach and to be you know, one of the
Speaker 1: better ones at it too. So that's something that I'm
Speaker 1: always refining. I'm always working at it, even as a player.
Speaker 1: Right now, I'm I'm always studying, Zach. I'm studying um
Speaker 1: Lou and a room. I'm studying when why and where
Speaker 1: you know they call it plays like why they like it?
Speaker 1: You know what type of team they're trying to build. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, just the smallest of details that I can
Speaker 1: while being on the inside. And I'm not the one
Speaker 1: who actually have pressured to put a team together. So
Speaker 1: I'm just studying as much as I can while playing football.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I know for sure, I know I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be a coach. For sure. I pray that at that
Speaker 1: time i'm a head coach. I believe it's going to happen.
Speaker 1: As long as it's not Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland, I will
Speaker 1: be rooting for your team. You are clearly good at
Speaker 1: a lot of things. What are you terrible at a
Speaker 1: lot of things. I'm not the best basketball, I'm terrible
Speaker 1: at golf. I needed for work on that. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: actually not a natural at anything in life. So if
Speaker 1: I haven't, like, I got like an assess of personality.
Speaker 1: So whatever I really like, I go all into it.
Speaker 1: So that's why I haven't started golfing or anything, because
Speaker 1: I know if I get a set of golf clubs,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be in my backyard tearing up the grass
Speaker 1: all the time. So It's like, right now, I'm just
Speaker 1: kind of trying to save it as as much as
Speaker 1: I can. So I'm bad at a lot of things
Speaker 1: right now, but I give a little better soon then later.
Speaker 1: That golf bug is bad, trust mean, it's cost me
Speaker 1: a lot of time. Final thing for Ricardo Allen. If
Speaker 1: you could meet anybody in history, athlete, actor, statesman, religious figure,
Speaker 1: whoever it might be, who would that person be? Maybe
Speaker 1: jay Z? I really like jay Z just because he
Speaker 1: comes from kind of like a background like myself. You know,
Speaker 1: I come from the projects. Uh my mom when we
Speaker 1: first moved to Daytona, be Florida. I'm actually born in Louisiana,
Speaker 1: but when I was six months old, I moved to Daytona,
Speaker 1: be Florida. So I always say that I'm born and
Speaker 1: raising uh Daytona, be Florida, because that's like my roots
Speaker 1: and stuff. But when we first got down in the
Speaker 1: Daytona Beach, my mom, single parent mom, started off in
Speaker 1: the projects. And during those times, it was a lot
Speaker 1: of families in the projects that ended up, you know,
Speaker 1: families maybe hooked on, like you know, bad things and um,
Speaker 1: and they didn't make it out of there. So even
Speaker 1: so my mom just was able to get us to
Speaker 1: a better neighborhood and get us to a good school
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. Was she put us in the
Speaker 1: right direction. And you know, jay Z comes from the
Speaker 1: projects and now I think he's one of the most
Speaker 1: influential people in the world. You know, he's uh, you know,
Speaker 1: he kind of like as a maverick in the sense
Speaker 1: of his own trailblazer. So you know, he he inspires
Speaker 1: me because you know, he's achieved some things that a
Speaker 1: lot of people don't even think it's like capable of
Speaker 1: a human being to achieve. So he is one of
Speaker 1: my guys. And probably warm Buffett two. I know those
Speaker 1: two Warm, but I like warm Buffett a lot too.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we'll give you two plenty of room at
Speaker 1: the table for that dream ludge, so to speak. This
Speaker 1: has been great. It's awesome to have you on this team,
Speaker 1: and I look forward to rooting for the team that
Speaker 1: you're the head coach of as long as it's not
Speaker 1: the AFC North in the years to come. Thanks your time,
Speaker 1: Thank you appreciate you having me on. Here's an invitation
Speaker 1: to join lapping me on location for the Bengals Game
Speaker 1: Plan show. This Wednesday night from six to eight, we'll
Speaker 1: be at Logos on Blue Ash Road and we'll have
Speaker 1: lots of giveaways during the commercial breaks. That's going to
Speaker 1: do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast,
Speaker 1: brought to you by Ultimate Bengals, the free to play
Speaker 1: Next Level Fantasy Football game. Download it now from the
Speaker 1: App Store and Google Play. If you haven't done so already,
Speaker 1: please subscribe to this podcast and if you have a minute,
Speaker 1: give it a rating or share a comment. I'm Dan
Speaker 1: Horde and thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth Podcast.
Speaker 1: M HM.