Speaker 1: Hi, gain everybody. I'm Dan Hord and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booth Podcast. The I Can't Tell You addition,
Speaker 1: as the Bengals fall to three and five overall and
Speaker 1: zero and four at home with a thirty seven to
Speaker 1: seventeen loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, coming up radio replays,
Speaker 1: locker room comments and postgame analysis from Dave Lapham. Then
Speaker 1: in this week's fun Facts Conversation, you'll learn why Dejon
Speaker 1: Anthony is a very easy player to root for. The
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Speaker 1: business and community to a new level, and by Kettering
Speaker 1: Health the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health
Speaker 1: is the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. Now here's
Speaker 1: a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition
Speaker 1: of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or
Speaker 1: computer by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's the
Speaker 1: greatest thing since caffeine. I am incredibly fortunate to broadcast
Speaker 1: NFL and college football games on a weekly basis, but
Speaker 1: the schedule makers aren't always kind. This weekend, the University
Speaker 1: of Cincinnati's game at Colorado kicked off at ten fifteen
Speaker 1: Eastern on Saturday night, and the Bengals game the next
Speaker 1: day was moved up from four point fifteen to one PM.
Speaker 2: That meant a.
Speaker 1: Quick turnaround for yours, truly. The UC team plane landed
Speaker 1: back in Cincinnati just before seven am, and unfortunately, I'm
Speaker 1: not great at sleeping on planes. The solution coffee, lots
Speaker 1: of it. Caffeine is definitely my drug of choice. Now,
Speaker 1: let's get to football and the radio replays from Sunday's
Speaker 1: game in the Jungle this afternoon here in Since the
Speaker 1: sky is blue, the field is green, and the Bengals
Speaker 1: and their fans are wearing white, it is White Bengal
Speaker 1: Day in the Jungle. The Bengals are a perfect four
Speaker 1: and oh when wearing their icy cool white helmets, and
Speaker 1: they will look to remain perfect today as they host
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia Eagles. Burrow catches, drops back to throw, begins
Speaker 1: rolling to the right. He's at the twelve yard line,
Speaker 1: throws into the end zone on leaping catch and a
Speaker 1: touchdown by Jamar Chase, and the Bengals take more than
Speaker 1: nine minutes off the clock and score a touchdown to
Speaker 1: begin the game.
Speaker 3: Oh about it, man, They go five for five On
Speaker 3: third down.
Speaker 1: This will be a fifty four yard attempt for Evan McPherson.
Speaker 1: He's missed three field goals this year. Two of the
Speaker 1: three have been from fifty plus from the right. Hash
Speaker 1: Adam Midas ready to snap it back to Rico. The snap,
Speaker 1: the placement and the right footed it is blasted by
Speaker 1: McPherson and it is wide left. Burrow hands it to
Speaker 1: night Brown. Night flying up the middle of the field.
Speaker 2: Had the search takes him.
Speaker 4: Into the end zone.
Speaker 1: Touchdown. Bengals on second down and eight Hurts fakes to Barkley,
Speaker 1: rolls right, wants to launch it deep downfield toward the
Speaker 1: end zone. Caught by Devonte Smith, touchdown Philly.
Speaker 4: Jordan Battle in coverage.
Speaker 3: That's a uh, that's a matchup that that right there.
Speaker 3: Jalen Hurt says, I've got one of my speed receivers
Speaker 3: on a safety in Battle did not have terrible coverage.
Speaker 3: It's just an outstanding throw by Jalen Hurt.
Speaker 1: Now the Bengals are probably going to have to throw
Speaker 1: it on fourth and one. Philadelphia is showing pressure. Chase
Speaker 1: goes in motion. Burrow will look to pass, throws it
Speaker 1: for Chase makes the catch, loses a yard, tackled by
Speaker 1: Cooper de Gene. The Bengals failed to convert on third
Speaker 1: and half a yard, then fourth in a full yard,
Speaker 1: and Philadelphia takes over at the Cincinnati thirty eight with
Speaker 1: a chance to really put Cincinnati in a bind. On
Speaker 1: first and ten from the forty six, Burrow fires deep
Speaker 1: down the right sideline incomplete. Was it picked off or incomplete?
Speaker 1: It is intercepted. It got deflected into the hands of C. J.
Speaker 1: Gardner Johnson by Isaiah Rodgers. Here comes the brotherly shove
Speaker 1: as Hurtz looking for his third touchdown run of the game.
Speaker 1: He charges forward. It's a touchdown and the fans can
Speaker 1: stream for the exits. Philadelphia is going to hand Cincinnati
Speaker 1: it's fourth consecutive home loss. Burrow to throw on first
Speaker 1: and ten. His pass caught about four yards up the field.
Speaker 1: The ball comes out. Philadelphia is celebrating, Wow, Kaziki fumbled.
Speaker 1: The Eagles recover. They'll take over at the thirty two
Speaker 1: of Cincinnati thirty seconds to go. Another handoff to Chase
Speaker 1: Brown looks like he picked up enough for the first down.
Speaker 1: He did, but that's going to be the final play
Speaker 1: of the game. A long frustrating walk toward the center
Speaker 1: of the field for Zach Taylor as his team gets
Speaker 1: outscored twenty nothing in the final twenty minutes of the
Speaker 1: game and loses at home to the Philadelphia Eagles. The
Speaker 1: final score today thirty seven to seventeen Philly. After scoring
Speaker 1: thirty three or more points in three straight games, the
Speaker 1: Bengals have managed seventeen, fourteen and seventeen on offense in
Speaker 1: their last three. I didn't count the kick return touchdown
Speaker 1: by Charlie Jones against Cleveland. The offense was good for
Speaker 1: two and a half quarters on Sunday. On their first
Speaker 1: four drives, the Bengals scored two touchdowns, made a field goal,
Speaker 1: and missed a field goal. But the game turned late
Speaker 1: in the third quarter. Down by seven points. On third
Speaker 1: and less than a yard their own thirty nine, the
Speaker 1: Bengals handed the ball to Zach Moss, who lost to
Speaker 1: half a yard. They went for it on fourth and one,
Speaker 1: and a swing pass to Jamar Chase lost two more
Speaker 1: yards that led to a Philly field goal and the
Speaker 1: Bengals never threatened. Again, here are Zach Taylor and Ted
Speaker 1: Karris on that sequence.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I felt like we needed to be aggressive there.
Speaker 5: It didn't work out, So that's frustrating, you know. And
Speaker 5: so again I put that on myself situation where I
Speaker 5: felt like we need to be aggressive and go score
Speaker 5: in that possession, given we were down seven, and anytime
Speaker 5: it doesn't go well, obviously you're gonna think a long
Speaker 5: and hard about that decision.
Speaker 6: He used to being about to play call on fourth
Speaker 6: and one, other screening to Marls the idea.
Speaker 5: There, Yeah, he's one of the options. And you know, again,
Speaker 5: the point didn't work, and that's one hundred percent on me.
Speaker 7: We got to get on third and one, so I'm
Speaker 7: not even worried about the pass. I think the the
Speaker 7: run on third and one.
Speaker 4: You know, we gotta have that.
Speaker 7: It's gonna gonna eat at me for twenty four hours,
Speaker 7: and then we got to get onto Vegas.
Speaker 1: The Bengal entered the game tied for twenty eighth in
Speaker 1: the NFL and rushing yards per game and tied for
Speaker 1: twentieth and rushing yards per attempt. They are not going
Speaker 1: to climb in the rankings after averaging two point nine
Speaker 1: yards against Philly. Their longest run by a running back
Speaker 1: and seventeen attempts was five yards. I spoke to Ted
Speaker 1: Karris after the game, who says, it's not time to
Speaker 1: panic yet.
Speaker 4: I don't think three and five is a panic mode.
Speaker 7: You know, two games back with nine to play, you
Speaker 7: know that's a that's a lot of time. There's a
Speaker 7: lot of football to be played. You know, season not
Speaker 7: even halfway over. Again, hate having to keep saying that,
Speaker 7: but you know, no one's panicking. And we have you know,
Speaker 7: credit to the to the organization for the quality of
Speaker 7: young men that we have in this locker room. And
Speaker 7: guys are gonna come tomorrow ready to go, and then
Speaker 7: Wednesday ready to go. We got to get our first
Speaker 7: home win, and that's what we're focused on. You know,
Speaker 7: we can we can talk about January.
Speaker 4: All we want. What we need to do is win
Speaker 4: in Paycorps.
Speaker 1: You know, right after Halloween, even with Joe and as
Speaker 1: good as the passing game is, do you feel like
Speaker 1: you need a dependable running game? Is that a must
Speaker 1: going forward?
Speaker 4: It is a must. I mean, it's always a must.
Speaker 4: I mean I would like to give that to Joe.
Speaker 7: One time in his career, it'd be nice, you know,
Speaker 7: and we got to execute up front, and that's we
Speaker 7: didn't today. I don't think we ran the ball very
Speaker 7: well at all, but a few, but not enough to
Speaker 7: spark any confidence in increasing the value.
Speaker 1: I think you converted your first eight third down conversion
Speaker 1: something like that, which is great obviously, But is that
Speaker 1: also what Philadelphia does. They force you to convert third
Speaker 1: after third after third by you know, kind of taking
Speaker 1: away the deep ball and forcing you to nickel and
Speaker 1: dime your way down the field.
Speaker 4: I guess that's what they did today.
Speaker 7: But we were converting and you know, sustaining drives mean
Speaker 7: to open up the game with a ten minute drive,
Speaker 7: I thought that was pretty encouraging and it was gonna
Speaker 7: be one of those games where you know, we had
Speaker 7: to get get ourselves down there and score on possessions
Speaker 7: because they're doing the same thing. You know, they had
Speaker 7: I think they had a ten minute drive as well.
Speaker 7: So it's just it's just a show game. You know,
Speaker 7: we only have three possessions in the first half. Usually
Speaker 7: you get about six, I would say, So you know,
Speaker 7: the game is shorter, so points are at a premium,
Speaker 7: and we got to end in touchdowns. They did and
Speaker 7: we didn't, and that's ultimately the difference in the game.
Speaker 1: Maybe a stupid question, I'll ask it anyway, Why doesn't
Speaker 1: every team do the tush push?
Speaker 7: They don't have a quarterback and squad six hundred pounds,
Speaker 7: I'd say is probably the most obvious answer. You know,
Speaker 7: I don't think we've seen other teams do it to
Speaker 7: no success. I think a lot of teams have tried
Speaker 7: it and got out of it right away. Again, who
Speaker 7: their quarterback is. You know, they have a quarterback who's
Speaker 7: built like a running back.
Speaker 4: So not to say he's running, but he's a good quarterback.
Speaker 7: But I think that just you know, and they had
Speaker 7: Jason Kelcey very you know, smaller center, good leverage athlete,
Speaker 7: you know, the Cam Jurgens. Now, obviously they've studied it,
Speaker 7: they practice it a lot, they know what they're doing.
Speaker 7: And again, it doesn't it's not one hundred percent, but
Speaker 7: you know, it's a war of Yeah, it's.
Speaker 4: A war of attrition in there.
Speaker 7: And I just think that personnel wise, we've seen other
Speaker 7: teams try it and fail.
Speaker 4: So I think it's you know.
Speaker 7: That's a that's a unique Philly thing that they do.
Speaker 1: You feel like you keep reaching a point where you're
Speaker 1: just kind of like on the verge of flipping things
Speaker 1: five hundred or whatever, and then it's a step backward.
Speaker 4: I mean it's the NFL.
Speaker 7: I mean, this is uh, you know, this is this
Speaker 7: is the big, big boys league. So you know you
Speaker 7: better be ready to go and come out, you know,
Speaker 7: come out in the second half, you know, traded touchdowns
Speaker 7: and then didn't convert a fourth down and the game.
Speaker 4: Got busted open. So that's that's what it is.
Speaker 7: I mean, I don't even know how many positions we
Speaker 7: had in the second half by four, maybe five if
Speaker 7: you count the last one. So again, points started a premium,
Speaker 7: especially in a shortened game, you know, playing against a
Speaker 7: rushing team like Philly. So no, I don't feel it's
Speaker 7: a step back. We're three and five, Thank you Cleveland.
Speaker 7: My goodness, two games back with nine ago. Oh, we
Speaker 7: better get a home win against We gotta give the
Speaker 7: fans a pay course something because they keep showing out
Speaker 7: for us and we're not putting on a great show.
Speaker 1: Thank you Cleveland was a reference to the Browns beating
Speaker 1: the Ravens twenty nine fourteen with Deshaun Watson out for
Speaker 1: the rest of the year with an achilles injury. Cleveland
Speaker 1: turned to Jamis Winston at quarterback, and in his first
Speaker 1: start in more than two years, the former Tampa Bay
Speaker 1: QB threw for three hundred and thirty four yards and
Speaker 1: three touchdowns. Deshaun Watson has not passed for three hundred
Speaker 1: yards in any of his nineteen starts with the Browns.
Speaker 1: Baltimore fell to five and three with the loss. The
Speaker 1: Browns are two and six with the win, and the
Speaker 1: five and two Steelers host the two and five New
Speaker 1: York Giants on Monday night. Now, let's hear from Zach Taylor.
Speaker 1: Dave Lapham began their postgame conversation by mentioning how the
Speaker 1: Bengals converted nearly eighty percent of their third down opportunities
Speaker 1: and still didn't score any points against the Vic Fangio
Speaker 1: coached defense.
Speaker 8: Coach tough one out there. I mean, you guys go
Speaker 8: ten for thirteen. That's mind boggling to me. You convert
Speaker 8: on third and twenty two and it just doesn't work out.
Speaker 8: They make you earn everything, don't.
Speaker 5: They They do, you know, And I felt like we
Speaker 5: had a good performance and then second half it wasn't
Speaker 5: good enough. You know, we had a fourth down call
Speaker 5: that certainly when it doesn't go that way, I regret.
Speaker 5: I got to put us in a better position and
Speaker 5: then two consecutive turnovers after that. So that's the story
Speaker 5: of the second half there and stuff to swallow.
Speaker 8: So the running game, I mean they got their running
Speaker 8: game on track, particularly in the second half. Sa Quon
Speaker 8: Barkley to finish the game was very strong run in
Speaker 8: the football. What's your assessment. I know you've got tape
Speaker 8: to watching all that. What's your knee jerk reaction? How
Speaker 8: you ran the ball?
Speaker 5: Well, we got to take the pressure off our team
Speaker 5: by by not being two scores down and being able
Speaker 5: to get more runs off in the second half, and
Speaker 5: so eventually you break one cat's kind of what happened
Speaker 5: to them a little bit. So we didn't get four
Speaker 5: shelves of that opportunity. I thought we were doing well
Speaker 5: in the pass game in the first half, so leaned
Speaker 5: more into that because it felt like we were doing
Speaker 5: a nice job there and didn't give ourselves as many
Speaker 5: opportunities in the run game.
Speaker 8: From an explosive standpoint, had you had three pass plays
Speaker 8: of fifteen yards and more, no runs of ten yards
Speaker 8: and more. And when they on their explosives, they had
Speaker 8: five runs of ten yards and more and eight passes
Speaker 8: of fifteen yards and more. So that's a big part
Speaker 8: of their game. And then just getting those explosives.
Speaker 5: And those explosives came when they were up you know,
Speaker 5: two scores, and that's where the runs come, and that's
Speaker 5: typically what happens. And again that's on us to fin
Speaker 5: that off in the second half and not put ourselves
Speaker 5: in that position where they can just lean on their
Speaker 5: run game, which is traditionally pretty strong.
Speaker 8: It's amazing to me ten for thirteen on third down,
Speaker 8: don't punt the football and the score is way I mean,
Speaker 8: football continues to just boggle my mind. I mean I can't.
Speaker 8: It's hard to figure out sometimes.
Speaker 5: Yeah, turnovers, you know, we essentially lost three to nothing.
Speaker 5: The failed fourth down and then the two turnovers back
Speaker 5: to back. That's the that's how it turns into a
Speaker 5: from a seventeen all game or twenty four seventeen game
Speaker 5: to thirty seven to seventeen and you're sitting there looking
Speaker 5: at what went wrong and again those three straight possessions
Speaker 5: and not being able to get the stops on the
Speaker 5: other side of the ball.
Speaker 2: It was difficult for us.
Speaker 8: I think it was thirteen straight games going back to
Speaker 8: last year, they had not won the turnover battle, the
Speaker 8: turnover ratio, and they did get that done today. In
Speaker 8: a game like this year, right, I mean two possessions
Speaker 8: where you know, give them them extras and taking them
Speaker 8: away from you. That's that's huge in a game like this.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's not good enough. You know, we got a
Speaker 5: better job protecting the ball, better call on a fourth
Speaker 5: down to get us in a better spot. And you
Speaker 5: know we all gonna taken ownership for that.
Speaker 8: So now you've got to put this one, this one
Speaker 8: to bed and the income the Raiders, I mean, what
Speaker 8: are your thoughts at this jonture.
Speaker 5: We put ourselves a hole that we can dig out of,
Speaker 5: you know. And so again we're not even at the
Speaker 5: halfway point of this season yet, play eight, we got
Speaker 5: nine and left. There's going to be opportunity for us.
Speaker 5: We stick together, we take ownership, ignore the noise, find
Speaker 5: ways to start pulling out wins, and we'll still be
Speaker 5: in this thing at the end.
Speaker 8: Appreciate your time as always.
Speaker 5: Thanks siv Up.
Speaker 1: Next a home game against the two and six Las
Speaker 1: Vegas Raiders, who lost to the undefeated Chiefs twenty seven
Speaker 1: to twenty. Gardner Minshew might have held down to the
Speaker 1: starting quarterback job for another week by throwing a pair
Speaker 1: of touchdown passes with a passer rating of one seventeen
Speaker 1: point nine in the loss to KC. The Bengals Booth
Speaker 1: Podcast is brought to you by pay Corps, proud to
Speaker 1: be the Bengals official HR software provider, by Alta Fiber
Speaker 1: future proof Fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business
Speaker 1: and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health
Speaker 1: the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health is
Speaker 1: the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. Now time for
Speaker 1: the radio guys recap. Let's start with the running game.
Speaker 1: Twenty carries fifty eight yards for the Bengals today two
Speaker 1: point nine yards per carry, one sixty one for Philly
Speaker 1: on the ground. A lot of that came late as
Speaker 1: they put the game away. But can the Bengals be
Speaker 1: the team that we thought that they were going to
Speaker 1: be if they can't get some sort of consistent running
Speaker 1: game going.
Speaker 8: No, they have to pose some sort of a threat
Speaker 8: in the running game at least has to be respected.
Speaker 8: In the last couple of weeks, I don't think you
Speaker 8: know either of those defenses of Cleveland Browns or the
Speaker 8: Philadelphia was really respected what the Bengals were trying to
Speaker 8: get done. Twenty carries for fifty eight yards. They had
Speaker 8: thirty nine carries for one sixty one. They threw it
Speaker 8: twenty times. Last week, he threw at fourteen.
Speaker 2: This week he.
Speaker 8: Throws at twenty.
Speaker 2: Wow, he's the twenty mark.
Speaker 8: Sixteen for twenty two hundred thirty six yards, one thirty
Speaker 8: two point five quarterback rating. With that one touchdown pass
Speaker 8: of forty five yards, I mean the Bengals ran it
Speaker 8: twenty times for fifty eight they throw it thirty seven times.
Speaker 8: It's just a reverse once two to one run and
Speaker 8: once two to one pass the football. And at the
Speaker 8: end of the particularly, like you said, in the second
Speaker 8: half and the fourth quarter in particular, the Eagles said,
Speaker 8: you know, we're gonna Saquon Barkley you to death, and
Speaker 8: you're gonna have to stop him. And the Bengals weren't
Speaker 8: up to the up to the challenge. He had four
Speaker 8: point nine a rush in this football game. He came
Speaker 8: in averaging six point one. I mean, they are They
Speaker 8: are ridiculous. To me, Dan, It's like you go ten
Speaker 8: for thirteen on third down, ten for thirteen, don't pump
Speaker 8: the football and lose by twenty points. Turnovers, you know,
Speaker 8: they get stuffed on fourth down, that's a turnover. They
Speaker 8: have an interception of the funnels, so they went across
Speaker 8: the smorgas board, you know, one of each. So in
Speaker 8: my mind, they're minus three in a game like this,
Speaker 8: that's gonna be coffin nails for the Bengals.
Speaker 1: And a missfield goal near midfield that's like a turnover realistically.
Speaker 2: Very true.
Speaker 8: You know, it's a you give them that kind of
Speaker 8: field position, you know, the way they can handle things offensively,
Speaker 8: it's a that's a that's a solid football team. I
Speaker 8: mean they just the Bengals. That's seventeen play drive to
Speaker 8: start the game, five straight third down conversions. I'm like,
Speaker 8: oh man, this this is encourageble. They just make it
Speaker 8: work so hard. I think the biggest thing in the game,
Speaker 8: and one of the keys that we talked about, you know,
Speaker 8: start the football game, explosives. I mean they had the
Speaker 8: Bengals had three chunks or explosives Bengals had no running
Speaker 8: plays of ten yards or more. They had three passing
Speaker 8: plays of fifteen yards and more twenty eight yard, twenty
Speaker 8: yards and more twenty eight yard or twenty four yarder,
Speaker 8: forty one yarder Philadelphia. They had five chunk running plays,
Speaker 8: five plays rushing players of ten yards of more twelve eleven,
Speaker 8: nineteen seventeen, and eleven. They had three seven plays pass
Speaker 8: players of fifteen yards and more twenty nine, nineteen seventeen, fifteen,
Speaker 8: twenty eight, forty five, twenty three. So they chunked us,
Speaker 8: They exploded us to death, and we couldn't meet the
Speaker 8: mustard there.
Speaker 1: The Bengals are a passing team, and that's understandable with
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow, but when t Higgins is out, they're owing
Speaker 1: three this year. They're so reliant on the combination of
Speaker 1: Chase and Higgins that when one of those guys isn't
Speaker 1: the field, as we said earlier, they don't have a
Speaker 1: reliable running game that they can go to that offsets
Speaker 1: the loss of one of those great receivers.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and I think, you know, Gaziki seemed to be
Speaker 8: the guy. You know, Te's six five, you know, two
Speaker 8: hundred and twenty pounds whatever. Well, Gaziki's he's six six
Speaker 8: and two hundred and forty five pounds, eight targets, seven catches,
Speaker 8: seventy three yards, heather a twenty four yard long. You know,
Speaker 8: he was very very bemoaning the fact that you know,
Speaker 8: he turned it over. That was something that was a
Speaker 8: tough pill for him to swallow. But yeah, T Higgins
Speaker 8: and Jamar Chase, it's like peanut butter and jelly man.
Speaker 8: They're good at part that they're better together, and when
Speaker 8: they're not together, you know, it's just peanut butter. It's
Speaker 8: a different kind of sandwich. It's a little drier.
Speaker 1: So the Bengals defense played well the last couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: but it was against the Giants and the Browns with
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson and quarterback for most of that game. For
Speaker 1: the Browns. The last three times they played really good offenses.
Speaker 1: The defense has struggled. What is the biggest di in
Speaker 1: your opinion of the Bengals defense.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean lou and Arumo.
Speaker 8: The Bengals were had given up the fewest players of
Speaker 8: twenty yards and more coming into the football game. You know,
Speaker 8: that's that's the big thing in Philadelphia. They went on
Speaker 8: multiple play drives. I mean they have a ten play
Speaker 8: sixty two yard drive, twelve plays seventy three yard drive.
Speaker 8: Then they have like a three play seventy yard drive.
Speaker 8: They have a six play seventy yard drive. I mean
Speaker 8: they had had both. They pounded they you know, put
Speaker 8: you in a meat grinder and pounded you into submission,
Speaker 8: played bully ball when they needed to, and then they
Speaker 8: would complement it with a chunk. I mean, there are
Speaker 8: a lot of their passes, I'd say, if not all,
Speaker 8: a high percentage of their explosives in the passing game
Speaker 8: was off of play action because they had the line
Speaker 8: of scrimmage captured, you know, and they were running the
Speaker 8: play action you know, off the counters and pulling linemen.
Speaker 8: I mean exactly the same look. So all those linebackers
Speaker 8: and safeties have to do is take one step towards
Speaker 8: the line of scrimmage. Now you're in trouble. You're gonna
Speaker 8: have a hard time getting to where you're supposed to get,
Speaker 8: and you're coming up a little short and hurts is
Speaker 8: good enough where he's gonna gash you on it. So
Speaker 8: this this guy, he's a he's a uniquely gifted man.
Speaker 8: You know, he can hurt you with his throwing arm,
Speaker 8: he can hurt you with his feet. He had thirty
Speaker 8: seven yards. He had ten carries, and some of them
Speaker 8: were designed. Some of them were into quarterback draws as
Speaker 8: long as it was a twelve yarder. But I mean,
Speaker 8: the guy squats like six hundred pounds. So when they
Speaker 8: do the toush push, it's like having a you know,
Speaker 8: an extra alignment in there pushing from behind, never mind
Speaker 8: even a running back. And if Saquon's in there pushing
Speaker 8: my hand, Saquon squats about the same. These guys squatted
Speaker 8: the world for crying out loud. They're ridiculously strong in
Speaker 8: their legs and it's an interesting thing to have to
Speaker 8: deal with. And the Bengals defense had their hands full,
Speaker 8: there's no doubt.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Evan McPherson. Maybe I shouldn't make too
Speaker 1: big of a deal about missing a fifty four yard
Speaker 1: field though that's a long kick, obviously, but he's missed
Speaker 1: three out of his last four field goals after starting
Speaker 1: the year nine for he didn't suddenly become a mediocre kicker.
Speaker 1: He's one of the best in the league. There's something
Speaker 1: about the operation, snap, hold, kick, whatever, that's just not
Speaker 1: working as smoothly as we're accustomed to seeing.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean I think that there's you know, when
Speaker 8: a kicker approaches the football totally confident that it's going
Speaker 8: to be exactly where it's supposed to be, when it's
Speaker 8: supposed to be there, it's easy peasy, the doesn't even
Speaker 8: think about it. But he's had some instances where it's
Speaker 8: not so I think right now, you know, I'm not
Speaker 8: sure he probably would say, Look, I'm not struggling with
Speaker 8: that aspect of it. I am just anticipating the ball
Speaker 8: is going to be there and I'm going to go
Speaker 8: right through it. I thought the fifty four yard it
Speaker 8: looked to me like the operation was pretty good. I mean,
Speaker 8: there wasn't any bobb will get the hold down. Now,
Speaker 8: I'm not saying I don't know. I'm not saying that
Speaker 8: the hold is being held the exact way that he
Speaker 8: wants it held, or whatever the case may be. And
Speaker 8: sometimes in those long few that's all it takes, is
Speaker 8: a little thing like that. But man, he had plenty
Speaker 8: of height and plenty of distance on that bad boy.
Speaker 8: He just kind of pulled it a little bit and
Speaker 8: you know, maybe started out a little bit more of
Speaker 8: the right, but he's missed more field goals I think
Speaker 8: to the right than to the left. You know, he's
Speaker 8: pushed them. He doesn't like to you know, he doesn't
Speaker 8: like cooking the football, and he's hooked it a little
Speaker 8: bit too many times this year. I think probably his
Speaker 8: liking for sure. So yeah, it's just when it rains,
Speaker 8: it poors.
Speaker 1: I guess eight games done, nine to go. Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: in his postgame news conference said, well, to make the playoffs,
Speaker 1: we probably need to win ten games. That would mean
Speaker 1: going seven and two the rest of the way. Have
Speaker 1: we seen enough when the Bengals have had their good
Speaker 1: moments to think that, Okay, I can see a scenario
Speaker 1: where they go seven and two.
Speaker 8: As Force greg said, Paul Brown said it early on
Speaker 8: in my career. Force Gregg reiterated it. You are what
Speaker 8: your record says you are. Joe Burrow in the postgame said,
Speaker 8: we're not very right now, and it's hard to argue
Speaker 8: with you know, if you're a three and five football team,
Speaker 8: you are what your record says you are, and you're
Speaker 8: not very good right now. You're not good enough. Shoot,
Speaker 8: I got to beat Las Vegas here and get that
Speaker 8: first home when I cannot believe, cannot believe they're all
Speaker 8: for a pay Corps. It's like, and we knew that
Speaker 8: that New England game was going to be oh and
Speaker 8: everybody's still grinding, gritting their teeth over that one. But
Speaker 8: four games lost at pay Corps Stadium, and you know,
Speaker 8: right after that, you got to go to Baltimore on
Speaker 8: Thursday night and beat the Ravens and it's a division battle,
Speaker 8: and uh, they're gonna they're gonna have, you know, a
Speaker 8: little bit of dirt in their eye. So it's difficult
Speaker 8: to say the least, but they have put themselves behind
Speaker 8: the eight ball. They were crawling out of a hole.
Speaker 8: Then they fell back in and the hole got a
Speaker 8: little deeper. Instead of being five hundred, you're three and five,
Speaker 8: eight games in, four and four eight games in. It's like, okay,
Speaker 8: well there's not that many left, but we're hanging in there.
Speaker 8: But now you have to win two before you lose
Speaker 8: another football game, just to get back, even just to
Speaker 8: get your head and your eyeballs above the hole above
Speaker 8: the ground line. Tush lead men.
Speaker 1: Two losses at home where they haven't punted.
Speaker 8: Ridiculous, ridiculous, it's crazy, it is. I mean, the more
Speaker 8: games you watch, I mean ten of thirteen on third down,
Speaker 8: don't punt once and lose the football game by twenty
Speaker 8: My goodness, I just a plus B an equal C
Speaker 8: to me, I don't know what.
Speaker 1: It equals, and I ain't see unfortunately equals L.
Speaker 8: Capital L, no question underlying a few times.
Speaker 1: The Bengals are three and one on the road but
Speaker 1: zero and four at home. They open as an eight
Speaker 1: and a half point favorite against the Raiders for next
Speaker 1: Sunday's game. Finally, it's time for this week's fun fat segment,
Speaker 1: and it might be my favorite one so far this year.
Speaker 1: Time for some fun facts in safety Day. Jon Anthony
Speaker 1: from Richmond, Virginia, the capital city in that state. What
Speaker 1: does a kid do for fun growing up in Richmond, Virginia.
Speaker 6: Well, in my generation, we was outside and we used
Speaker 6: to play basketball, outside, football, hide and go seek.
Speaker 2: So we used to just hang out around the way
Speaker 2: and just have a good time.
Speaker 1: So Dejhon, your Instagram account begins with rip Nana and
Speaker 1: rip mama. You lost your mom when you're in fifth grade,
Speaker 1: you lost your grandmother when you're in college. Can you
Speaker 1: describe the impact those two women had on your life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, like my mom, she just was a soldier.
Speaker 6: Like she was sick for like three years and she
Speaker 6: just kept fighting and was always there, came to all
Speaker 6: my games and my dad was incocelerated, so she was
Speaker 6: really playing a big role. I had two other brothers
Speaker 6: and his sister, and she was just doing everything she could.
Speaker 6: And then on the back and like we always live
Speaker 6: with our grandmother, her mama to my grandma, and she
Speaker 6: was just like you know, a guyfaenir and woman and
Speaker 6: she just put everybody else before her. So like, uh,
Speaker 6: they they raised me. And the reason why, like I
Speaker 6: have the strength and to keep going every single day.
Speaker 6: So I just loved him to death and I just
Speaker 6: want to keep making them proud.
Speaker 1: Your college football career began at Shepherd University, which is
Speaker 1: a Division two school in West Virginia. It's about a
Speaker 1: three hour drive from Richmond. How did you wind up there?
Speaker 6: So? I had the transfer high schools my senior year
Speaker 6: and that's why I couldn't. Uh, that's why I kind
Speaker 6: of lost a lot of interest because I missed the
Speaker 6: first five games my high school career. Then I ended
Speaker 6: up catching like seven picks that year. Last again, I
Speaker 6: called four paces in one game and I thought I
Speaker 6: was gonna blow up, but I didn't, And it was
Speaker 6: a It was coach Sam Daniels. She was a Shepherd coach.
Speaker 6: He was down at my school and he came and
Speaker 6: touch to me. He was like, we want to bring
Speaker 6: you on a visit, and I went on to visit
Speaker 6: up there. I went on a visit to Virginia State
Speaker 6: and Shepherd, and I was like, I ain't want to
Speaker 6: stay close to home, so I picked Sheppard University.
Speaker 1: The quarterback your freshman year was Tyson Bagent, who started
Speaker 1: four games for the Chicago Bears last year and did
Speaker 1: really well. Did you have any inkling that you might
Speaker 1: be playing with a future pro at Shepherd U.
Speaker 6: I mean yeah, you could kind of see. Like we
Speaker 6: had a lot of D one bouncebacks too, and Shepard.
Speaker 6: I mean Tyson, he was like the Gatoray Player of
Speaker 6: the Year in high school like two years in a row.
Speaker 6: So it was like we knew he only wanted to
Speaker 6: stay at Shepherd stay because he wanted to be at home,
Speaker 6: but like he had a lot of offers.
Speaker 2: So I mean, like we always knew he was going
Speaker 2: to be great.
Speaker 6: You just don't know how far somebody can go, because
Speaker 6: sometimes it's not just you, it's like God might have
Speaker 6: another plan for you. But we knew he was going
Speaker 6: to be great, and he showed that even when we
Speaker 6: was young, like first getting out there, all of us
Speaker 6: did kind of me and Tyson, a couple other teammates
Speaker 6: that could have kept going just didn't have the opportunities
Speaker 6: that we did.
Speaker 1: We're visiting with Dejon Anthony. I read an interview where
Speaker 1: you said that when you were at Shepherd, your grandmother
Speaker 1: treated it like you were playing at Alabama.
Speaker 6: Yeah, my grandma, she was just one of the biggest
Speaker 6: supporters I ever had in my life. My whole family
Speaker 6: is honestly, like if anybody like pay attention, like I
Speaker 6: didn't have probably twenty people at every game, like immediate family,
Speaker 6: dry party and hunted. Some people like my family just
Speaker 6: such like they supported me so much. And my grandma
Speaker 6: that was just like like that was like my best friend.
Speaker 6: Like everything I did was with her. I told her everything,
Speaker 6: like everybody know, I was kind of her favorite, and
Speaker 6: like she used to get on that road every Saturday
Speaker 6: morning and come straight up to my d two games
Speaker 6: with her jersey on custom shirts Jordan's.
Speaker 2: And just have a good time.
Speaker 6: So uh, she just loved She just loved to see
Speaker 6: me getting out of you know, getting out of out
Speaker 6: of where where we grew up at, like just doing
Speaker 6: something that a lot of family members didn't do. A
Speaker 6: lot of my family didn't go to college. I'm the
Speaker 6: first one to graduate college, first one to play D
Speaker 6: one football college football period. So uh, I think that
Speaker 6: was just a blessing for her, just to see me away.
Speaker 1: Your second year, Shepherd was wiped out due to COVID
Speaker 1: and you walked on at Liberty. After that, it sounds
Speaker 1: like it didn't take very long for you to earn
Speaker 1: a scholarship.
Speaker 6: So in January, you know, it's just waits and like conditioning,
Speaker 6: it's just a winter conditioning.
Speaker 2: And then March, you know, we started springball. Uh, first
Speaker 2: day I was coach.
Speaker 6: They tried to put me on scholarship the first day,
Speaker 6: but I didn't have my transcripts, official transcripts on file,
Speaker 6: so we had to get them from Shepherd. So uh,
Speaker 6: I was a walk on, but I started one on ones,
Speaker 6: Like I jumped out there a corner first for one
Speaker 6: ones and had good rest, and Coach Freeze called the
Speaker 6: last one. He always called two people out, and he
Speaker 6: called me and another person out and I we just
Speaker 6: just having fun. Caught an interception that first day, So
Speaker 6: it was a good It was a good experience, Nick,
Speaker 6: and I just ran with it after that.
Speaker 1: While you were at Liberty, your grandmother was diagnosed with cancer,
Speaker 1: and every day after practice you would drive ninety minutes
Speaker 1: to spend time with her. There's not a lot of
Speaker 1: free time in the college student athlete experience. Why was
Speaker 1: it so important for you to do that every day?
Speaker 6: Just like I said earlier, that was my best friend
Speaker 6: and she had stage four cancer September.
Speaker 2: It's January. You don't know what it is gonna be.
Speaker 6: So I go to practice early morning, go to my classes.
Speaker 6: I'm probably getting done at like three o'clock, get on
Speaker 6: the road through thirty, gets on the eat, get on
Speaker 6: the road, get there around like five, beat traffic and
Speaker 6: chill with her to probably like two three in the morning,
Speaker 6: get back on the road, go write to practice. So
Speaker 6: it was just like like it won't even know sacrifice
Speaker 6: or nothing. That's something that's my grandma, Like that's the
Speaker 6: person that raised me. So like I just wanted to
Speaker 6: make sure I was there whenever the moment didn't happen,
Speaker 6: and knew it was coming.
Speaker 2: She had stomach cancer.
Speaker 6: It's for you to be there all the way to
Speaker 6: March from September with stage for a stomach cancer. All
Speaker 6: she was trying to do was just come to my
Speaker 6: spring game. So that's why she kept holding on. She
Speaker 6: just kept saying she wanted to see me play one
Speaker 6: time in D one. So uh yeah, I just kept
Speaker 6: driving back and forth.
Speaker 1: For you spent your final year of college football playing
Speaker 1: at all MESS. When you entered the transfer portal, did
Speaker 1: you finally get that experience of what it was like
Speaker 1: to be recruited.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that was my first time being recruited. Or when
Speaker 6: I hit the transfer portal, I kind of blew up.
Speaker 6: I kind of almost had like every SEC school, every
Speaker 6: ACC school I was getting called. I had like four
Speaker 6: visits set up. The first hour I was in the
Speaker 6: trans supporter schools was calling me left and right, calling
Speaker 6: my old coaches, like my coach that's at SMU, Coach Huntley,
Speaker 6: the one that got me the liberty. He called me
Speaker 6: like three times that day and it was just like
Speaker 6: I just got out the phone, like five different schools
Speaker 6: about you.
Speaker 2: So it was like that was it was a really good.
Speaker 6: Feeling, just you know, finally getting the credit and the flowers.
Speaker 6: But it's just all God timing and he know when
Speaker 6: it's right for you and when it's not.
Speaker 1: All Miss had a great year and show did you?
Speaker 1: The team went eleven and two and won the Peach Bowl.
Speaker 1: You had an interception in that game. What was the
Speaker 1: best part of your year at all?
Speaker 2: Miss?
Speaker 6: I'd say the LSU win, the big hit in LSU
Speaker 6: and I had the game winn PBu. We was down
Speaker 6: people don't know, like we was down by ten, well
Speaker 6: like three minutes left to the Heisman quarterback Wanner to
Speaker 6: you know, both of those top receivers that went top
Speaker 6: fifteen this year, like they had a explosive offense and
Speaker 6: being down by team with three minutes left, that that
Speaker 6: that and for us to win that game, that's that's
Speaker 6: brotherhood right there. That's the termination. That's like keeping your
Speaker 6: foot on the guys, that's trusting everybody. So right then
Speaker 6: I knew, like, man, this team's special. And we broke
Speaker 6: a record. They never won eleven games in Old Miss history.
Speaker 6: They never had eleven win season. So uh, that was
Speaker 6: just a really good experience. Just you know the LSU game.
Speaker 6: Man the teen they rushed the car, they rushed the
Speaker 6: field after like everybody rushed the field. I'm laying on
Speaker 6: the ground like wow, it just won, and everybody running
Speaker 6: over me. So I feel like that was probably my
Speaker 6: my favorite experience there. And then definitely the bowl game
Speaker 6: cause they had everybody had pans they beating us, and
Speaker 6: we went out there and beat like beat them, beat 'em.
Speaker 6: And I had like seventy family members there, so it
Speaker 6: was like this my last game of college.
Speaker 2: I went crazy. It had like three PPU's a pick.
Speaker 6: So both of those games was like you know, and
Speaker 6: then the old the rival game, the egg Bow versus
Speaker 6: Mississippi State. I had fifteen tackles that game, and that's
Speaker 6: a really lit game for you know, all old miss
Speaker 6: alumnis and Mississippi State guys.
Speaker 1: You reference the big hit, I need to follow up.
Speaker 1: You made a jarring hit on Jaden Daniels in that
Speaker 1: LSU game that forced to fumble. And if somebody types
Speaker 1: your name into a Google search and says, stay Jon
Speaker 1: Anthony hit, that is the first thing that's going to
Speaker 1: pop up. What was it like to have that that
Speaker 1: blow up moment?
Speaker 6: I mean it just you know, like you said, man,
Speaker 6: you put in all the work in the off season
Speaker 6: and for it to finally happen, like because I kind
Speaker 6: of was trending a lot like the first game I
Speaker 6: called a pick at Old Miss. Second game, I was
Speaker 6: PFF top three safeties. I had like eight argut is
Speaker 6: at nickel and strong safety and no catches. Played Georgia Tech.
Speaker 6: I had a really good game. Then we played Bama
Speaker 6: then LSU, so it was like I was blowing up.
Speaker 6: And then like after that, I really like like the
Speaker 6: hit was the viral thing. But I feel like the
Speaker 6: game winning PBu like that's what like kind of did
Speaker 6: it for me because I hit him twice like that
Speaker 6: that game. One got caught for a flag, then one
Speaker 6: and then and then just the PBu man like at
Speaker 6: the end, like when all the like stress and tension
Speaker 6: just left your body and we like there's no flags,
Speaker 6: the game is over. So uh it just felt good, man,
Speaker 6: It's just a blessing.
Speaker 1: I'm draft ed this year. You had a big party
Speaker 1: with friends and family, more than one hundred people looking on.
Speaker 1: It was so loud and festive, you couldn't hear Zach
Speaker 1: Taylor when he called you, correct.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I couldn't. I didn't know what he was saying,
Speaker 6: so I knew the right answer was just to say yes, sir.
Speaker 6: So I just kept saying yes sir because I didn't
Speaker 6: want to I didn't want to say like something, and
Speaker 6: he was like, what is he talking about? Like because
Speaker 6: I couldn't hear what he was saying. So I just
Speaker 6: was like, yes, sir, Yes sir.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yes sir, followed by I love your coach
Speaker 1: at the end.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's a life changing thing for you
Speaker 2: to be.
Speaker 6: You know a lot of people ain't think I could
Speaker 6: get here from being Division two, So you know, just
Speaker 6: coming from division two and working your way up the ladder.
Speaker 2: Like it's not easy.
Speaker 6: So that day, you know, I was projected to go
Speaker 6: way earlier than that, but I got a couple of
Speaker 6: trouble incidents, of which I said before. So you know,
Speaker 6: just waiting around all day, you see people that you
Speaker 6: feel like not better than you, and that car. When
Speaker 6: you get that car, it's like how I said with
Speaker 6: the LSU game, it's like it's just relief, Like all
Speaker 6: the tension, anxiety just go out the window.
Speaker 1: A few wild card topics now with Dejon Anthony to
Speaker 1: wrap things up. Did you treat yourself to anything after
Speaker 1: you signed your first professional contract?
Speaker 2: I just gotta chain. That's represent in my grandma.
Speaker 6: They said grandma baby, and then they got Nanna on it,
Speaker 6: and then it got the day she was born, the
Speaker 6: day she died, and the picture of me and her
Speaker 6: on the back.
Speaker 2: That's really it. The rest. I've just been trying to
Speaker 2: save up, you know, just keep investing in stuff like that.
Speaker 1: I'm sure she would be very proud of that. Other
Speaker 1: than sports, what are you good at?
Speaker 6: I'm good at I'm good at. I feel like I'm
Speaker 6: good at a lot of things, Like I played the game.
Speaker 6: I'm a competitive person, like I like doing a lot
Speaker 6: of stuff. But I definitely say the game.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 6: I'm kind of good like I like fashion, so like
Speaker 6: I'm good at dressing and stuff, you know, trying to
Speaker 6: put on.
Speaker 2: I could pick out office. I could be a stylist
Speaker 2: for people.
Speaker 1: I might need to take you up on that, all right.
Speaker 1: Final fun fact, this one's kind of deep. If you
Speaker 1: could meet anybody in history, living or deceased, who would
Speaker 1: that person be?
Speaker 6: I definitely want to say Kobe, but I probably I
Speaker 6: might say, like, you know, Nipsey Hustle or cause you know,
Speaker 6: just the solid type of guy he is and just
Speaker 6: take care of everybody. And you know he's always thinking big,
Speaker 6: thinking about what's next and not getting comfortable, like you know,
Speaker 6: that's what he preached. So like I say Nipsy and
Speaker 6: then uh probably like right now that's living probably a
Speaker 6: little baby the rapper just all the same thing as Nipsey,
Speaker 6: Like just a solid dude, great man, always take care
Speaker 6: of everybody. You'll never know if anything wrong with him.
Speaker 6: So those are the type of people I look up to,
Speaker 6: and I try to be like that. Just that's why
Speaker 6: I do this. So I can make sure everybody in
Speaker 6: my family don't have the struggle and stuff like that
Speaker 6: and just change you know, family last name forever, like
Speaker 6: like I'm setting the standard, like it's not just graduate
Speaker 6: high school no more, it's you're going to college. You're
Speaker 6: going to do this, like, so you know those type
Speaker 6: of people I really like to meet one day. Well, Nipsey,
Speaker 6: rest in peace with a little baby.
Speaker 1: For so this has been outstanding. I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 1: You're very easy to root for. We wish you nothing
Speaker 1: but the best best of luck the rest of the year.
Speaker 2: Thank you, man, I appreciate you for you for your
Speaker 2: time too.
Speaker 1: That's going to do it for this episode of the
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