Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booth podcast The Hell If I'm Stepping into
Speaker 1: the Twilight Zone addition, as we look back at a
Speaker 1: twenty seven to nineteen loss in Cleveland where the red
Speaker 1: zone became the twilight zone for the Bengals offense. Coming up,
Speaker 1: you'll hear radio replays, one on one, locker room interviews,
Speaker 1: and Dave Lapham will join me for postgame analysis. Plus
Speaker 1: in this week's fun Facts Conversation, it's rookie offensive lineman
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan who reveals that he almost went to Notre
Speaker 1: Dame instead of Ohio State because of the Macaronian cheese
Speaker 1: that he was served on his recruiting trip. And yes,
Speaker 1: the discussion of that topic is as entertaining as it sounds.
Speaker 1: All of that is straight ahead. But first, here's a
Speaker 1: quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of
Speaker 1: this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer
Speaker 1: by subscribe d on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or
Speaker 1: pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since maps or apps
Speaker 1: that calculate driving time. On Sunday afternoon, we learned that
Speaker 1: the UC football team is headed to the Birmingham Bowl
Speaker 1: on January second. I have a basketball game to do
Speaker 1: the night before, so I plugged Cincinnati and Birmingham into
Speaker 1: the Ways app and instantaneously learned that it's a six
Speaker 1: and a half hour drive from my house. Not bad.
Speaker 1: Two days later, I have a basketball game to do
Speaker 1: at two Lane, so I plugged Birmingham and New Orleans
Speaker 1: into Google Maps and that's a five hour drive. Again
Speaker 1: not bad. If like me, you're old enough to remember
Speaker 1: when you had to get out an actual map and
Speaker 1: try to guestimate driving time, you can appreciate just how
Speaker 1: convenient it is to have technology available that calculates that
Speaker 1: with a touch of a button. Now, let's get to
Speaker 1: the opening drive of Sunday's game in Cleveland. The Bengals
Speaker 1: have not scored an opening drive touchdown in twenty games.
Speaker 1: They did run the opening kickoff back for a score
Speaker 1: at Baltimore this year, but the last time the offense
Speaker 1: marched down the field and reached the end zone on
Speaker 1: its opening drive was Game nine last year against the Saints. Yesterday,
Speaker 1: the Bengals first play of the game was a twenty
Speaker 1: one yard pass the Tyler Boyd. Their second play was
Speaker 1: a twenty six yard run by Joe Mixon. Eventually the
Speaker 1: Bengals reached the Cleveland six yard line, but that's where
Speaker 1: the drive stalled. It becomes a thirty four yard field
Speaker 1: goal attempt for Randy Bullock to snap to put down
Speaker 1: the kick. It is high enough, it is long enough,
Speaker 1: and it is good. So an excellent start for Cincinnati
Speaker 1: as the Bengals drive down the field and take a
Speaker 1: three nothing lead on a thirty four yard field goal
Speaker 1: by Randy Bullock. When Cleveland got the ball for the
Speaker 1: first time, the Bengals picked off Baker Mayfield, former High
Speaker 1: Trophy winner, takes the snap, looks to throw guns it
Speaker 1: over the middle. Najoku bobbled it, but he pulled it
Speaker 1: in its taken away by Cincinnati. The Bengals are running
Speaker 1: it back, Nick Vigil running up the far sideline, and
Speaker 1: Vigil is taken down near midfield. So Vigil peeled the
Speaker 1: ball away from David Najoku. Not sure it'll if it'll
Speaker 1: be ruled a fumble or an interception, but it is
Speaker 1: a takeaway if it stands, and the Bengals will have
Speaker 1: the ball at their own forty nine yard lone. He
Speaker 1: just took it away from like they're gonna they're gonna
Speaker 1: say he's down before it got taken away. On the field,
Speaker 1: there is a fumble recovered by the defense, but first
Speaker 1: down Cincinnati. That's officially an interception because Vigil ripped the
Speaker 1: ball out of Najoku's hands before the Cleveland tight end
Speaker 1: hit the ground, but the Bengals failed to capitalize. Joe
Speaker 1: Mixon was called for unnecessary roughness when he scuffled with
Speaker 1: Brown's cornerback Greedy Williams after a two yard run. That
Speaker 1: fifteen yard penalty put the Bengals in to a bad
Speaker 1: down and distance dilemma. Third and twenty three, the Bengals
Speaker 1: at their own forty eight. Dalton throws a short pass accepted,
Speaker 1: and it's being run back down the near sideline by
Speaker 1: Denzel Ward. He's at the twenty. Andy Dalton gives at
Speaker 1: him at the ten, can't make the tackle, and it's
Speaker 1: a pick six for the Cleveland brown He's throw it
Speaker 1: behind d take, bad throw by Andy. Dalton throws behind
Speaker 1: on and take and the deflection the play by Ward
Speaker 1: and it's a pick six. Employ What a change of
Speaker 1: momentum that was. The Browns were up seven three, and
Speaker 1: here's mixing on his penalty on the previous play early
Speaker 1: on in the game, emotions is running high. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know even when my penalty, who came back apologize
Speaker 1: on my teammates. You know, I gotta know better than that.
Speaker 1: They they want to take me out the game, and
Speaker 1: they tried, but you know, didn't work. At the end
Speaker 1: of the day, Man, we just gotta keep on grinding,
Speaker 1: controlling mo we can control and we can't hide the
Speaker 1: penalties like that. I mean, it hurts the team and
Speaker 1: potentially that went right there at least from one. I
Speaker 1: mean it hurts. So like I said, man, it's got
Speaker 1: to do better and key control the control. The Bengals
Speaker 1: responded with another drive into the red zone, but for
Speaker 1: the second straight time, couldn't reach the end zone. Third
Speaker 1: down in seven at the eighteen yard line of the
Speaker 1: Cleveland Browns, the Bengals trailing seven three in the first quarter.
Speaker 1: Dalton catches a shot gun snap, sets up the throw,
Speaker 1: and gets sacked. An inside bull rush topples him back
Speaker 1: at the twenty nine yard line. Sheldon Richardson with his
Speaker 1: second tackle in the backfield on this drive. A Randy
Speaker 1: Bullock field goal made it seven six and One minute later,
Speaker 1: Cincinnati picked off Mayfield for the second time in the
Speaker 1: first quarter. Mayfield ready for the shotgun snap and the
Speaker 1: first pick in last year's draft has the ball sets
Speaker 1: up in the pocket, guns it down field and it
Speaker 1: isn't accepted by Jesse Bates at the forty of Cleveland
Speaker 1: running down the far sideline to the thirty, the twenty
Speaker 1: five stays in bounds, runs to the twenty and gets
Speaker 1: tackled at the twenty yard line. It was a ricochet.
Speaker 1: It floated into the hands of Jesse Bates and the
Speaker 1: Bengals have their second takeaway here in the first quarter.
Speaker 1: It's gonna come back dark Quest and Art had an
Speaker 1: illegal block appeal back block on the return. The interception
Speaker 1: is gonna stand, but on the return that's gonna be
Speaker 1: decated by another penalty. This time the Bengals overcame the penalty.
Speaker 1: Bengals go hurry up so that Cleveland cannot change personnel.
Speaker 1: On first down in goal, Dalton hands it off to
Speaker 1: Mixon and he runs it right up the gut and
Speaker 1: into the end zone far up Bengals touchdown. The Bengals
Speaker 1: had a thirteen seven lead and Nixon had an incredible day.
Speaker 1: Rushing for a career high one hundred and forty six
Speaker 1: yards and adding forty more on three pass receptions. Here's Joe.
Speaker 1: I think Coase did a grid job dealing him up,
Speaker 1: and our linement did a grid job ceiling and kicking
Speaker 1: out and doing what you know, it was tough to do.
Speaker 1: And I was just going in or finding him on
Speaker 1: the lot of host today and you know, I was
Speaker 1: just trying to explode through and finished my run strong.
Speaker 1: So you know, like I said, man, he's gotta keep
Speaker 1: getting better each and every week. And I felt like
Speaker 1: we had it in the right direction, but he's got
Speaker 1: to come out and finish. In the first half, Cincinnati
Speaker 1: outgained Cleveland two forty two to one thirty nine, and
Speaker 1: yet the Browns went to the locker room with a
Speaker 1: one point lead. Third down in goal from the seven
Speaker 1: shotgun snap blitz coming, Mayfield steps up. He's scrambling, laughed,
Speaker 1: Mayfield will tie for the pylon? Did he step out first? No,
Speaker 1: it's a touchdown for the Cleveland Browns. It was fourteen
Speaker 1: thirteen Cleveland at the half. I talked to Tyler Boyd
Speaker 1: about dominating the stat sheet but not the scoreboard. He
Speaker 1: went up and down the field all day. Were there
Speaker 1: times that you almost looked up at the scoreboard and wondered,
Speaker 1: how are we not winning? Fox? Absolutely because like I mentioned, Man,
Speaker 1: we outplayed them guys. You know, we just just the
Speaker 1: little plays that happened throughout the game that didn't go
Speaker 1: our way and we didn't execute. And a raise on
Speaker 1: both times, man heard us. You know, you've got to
Speaker 1: score in Uni raise on three point thin going win
Speaker 1: you games, you know, So we just gotta we just
Speaker 1: gotta do a better job of it, executing whatever the
Speaker 1: play calls. In the second half, the Browns did a
Speaker 1: better job of using the NFL's leading rusher, Nick Chubb.
Speaker 1: He had three carries for seven yards in the first half.
Speaker 1: He finished the game with fifteen carries for one hundred
Speaker 1: six yards. Looked like we had early movement. There's the
Speaker 1: penalty flag, gets a handoff to Chubb. He breaks through
Speaker 1: ankle tackles. He's sprinting down the middle of the field.
Speaker 1: He's going to take it inside the twenty fifteen, cuts
Speaker 1: back to the ten five. He gets tackled by Will
Speaker 1: Jackson at the three yard line. Will it come back
Speaker 1: or was it on Cincinnati? Well? The Bengals were definitely
Speaker 1: in the nutro zone. Will they drawn number ninety three
Speaker 1: defense tenets defined he's all for the play. First found
Speaker 1: Andrew Brown jumped offside. They called him on ninety three.
Speaker 1: He went in the nutro zone and all of a
Speaker 1: sudd down anemic running game looks great. All you do
Speaker 1: is need to break one like Chubb broke and he
Speaker 1: is something and else. Boy, he finishes every run as
Speaker 1: hard as he possibly can. From there, Kareem Hunt ran
Speaker 1: it in to give Cleveland a twenty one to thirteen lead.
Speaker 1: The Bengals answered with a sixteen play drive that included
Speaker 1: runs of six, eight, nineteen, and six by mixing, but
Speaker 1: on first and goal from the two, Joe did not
Speaker 1: get the ball. They trailed by eight. Dalton the shotgun
Speaker 1: drops back to throw looking and he gets hit from behind.
Speaker 1: Did he hold down to the ball. Yeah, he managed
Speaker 1: to hold on to the ball. I thought he was
Speaker 1: going to get stripped from behind. He goes down They'll
Speaker 1: say at the nine yard line. That's a bad place
Speaker 1: to take a sack. But the protection was horrible and
Speaker 1: everything just collapsed on him on the back side. Two
Speaker 1: incomplete passes later, the Bengals settled for another field goal
Speaker 1: after having a first down at the two yard line.
Speaker 1: The Browns didn't have to get close to the red
Speaker 1: zone to get the same results. From fifty three yards
Speaker 1: away with Cleveland up by five, the snap to put
Speaker 1: down the kick. It is long enough and it is good.
Speaker 1: The Bengals get to the two yard line and get
Speaker 1: three points. The Browns get to the forty yard line
Speaker 1: and get three points. Technically, the Browns made it to
Speaker 1: the thirty five, but you get the point. On their
Speaker 1: first four red zone drives, the Bengals scored one touchdown
Speaker 1: and kicked three field goals. On their final red zone drive,
Speaker 1: they didn't score at all. Fourth and goal from the four,
Speaker 1: Dalton waits for a shotgun snap, three receivers and a
Speaker 1: bunch out to the right. Two receivers go out to
Speaker 1: the left. Dalton stomps the right foot and he catches
Speaker 1: the shotgun snap looks to run. Talton, trying to find
Speaker 1: a running lane, tackled at the two and the Bengals
Speaker 1: get nothing that came with seven fourteen to go, the
Speaker 1: Bengals passing up a chip shot field goal that could
Speaker 1: have pulled them within five to go for it on
Speaker 1: fourth and goal from the four. Zach Taylor explained after
Speaker 1: the game that part of his thinking was that if
Speaker 1: the Bengals didn't get a touchdown, the Browns would be
Speaker 1: backed up deep in their own territory, and if the
Speaker 1: defense that played so well in the first half got
Speaker 1: another stop, the offense would get the ball back in
Speaker 1: good field position. That's almost how it played out. Mayfield
Speaker 1: waiting for a shotgun snap, Landry motions to the right.
Speaker 1: He's back to throw, He's looking left. His pass is
Speaker 1: intercepted a ricochet. The Bengals have it in the red zone,
Speaker 1: as that pass intended for Odell Beckham Junior was patted
Speaker 1: up in the air and intercepted, and the Bengals will
Speaker 1: have it at the sixteen yard line. Jessie Bates comes
Speaker 1: away with a pick. Half a review, there was pass
Speaker 1: interference hunder twenty two defense ball will replace at the
Speaker 1: start of the foul first out. A year ago, that
Speaker 1: would have been an interception, but the rule change that
Speaker 1: resulted from last year's Saints Ram's playoff game allows the
Speaker 1: officials to look for pass interference on replays even if
Speaker 1: there was no call on the field called on Will
Speaker 1: Jackson and gave the ball back to the Browns. Here's
Speaker 1: Tyler Boyd. Man today, I felt like that nothing was
Speaker 1: going our way. You know. I didn't feel a lot
Speaker 1: of cars that they made was bullcrap. Man. It wasn't
Speaker 1: the right calls. And I feel like they played with
Speaker 1: the rest was on their side. You know, I think
Speaker 1: that's the first game actually I felt that the rest
Speaker 1: was on their side. You know. But the end of
Speaker 1: the days that came in. Can't worry about that, you know,
Speaker 1: we got to continue to play our game and just
Speaker 1: make place. Following that call, each team kicked the field
Speaker 1: goal to make the final score. Cleveland twenty seven, Cincinnati nineteen.
Speaker 1: Here's Joe Mixon. You know, we had our opportunities out there.
Speaker 1: We could we couldn't capitalize on some and you know,
Speaker 1: some we just couldn't control. Man. So at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, like I said, we just got to
Speaker 1: come out and play better and hopefully, you know, come
Speaker 1: out and win them close. Once we got three more
Speaker 1: weeks to put it on tape, and I was, like
Speaker 1: I said, we just got to keep progressing and getting
Speaker 1: better with each other, EASi and every week. Now time
Speaker 1: for a pair of one on one locker room conversation. First,
Speaker 1: I spoke to Jesse Bates, who had two interceptions. Unfortunately
Speaker 1: only one of them counted. This is one of those games,
Speaker 1: Jesse were Statistically you'd think the Bengals won easily, but
Speaker 1: between the inability to score in some of the red
Speaker 1: zone and some really costly penalties, you wind up with
Speaker 1: the loss. Yeah, I think do we win the turnover battle?
Speaker 1: You did? Yeah, So, um, anytime you do that and
Speaker 1: you know you out gain them, Um, it sucks. But
Speaker 1: I think we played well enough to win, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't consistently enough to win today. So um, you know
Speaker 1: it sucks obviously, but um, we got another opportunity next
Speaker 1: week to gain some more momentum as a team going forward.
Speaker 1: We're there times where he almost looked up at the
Speaker 1: scoreboard and said, how are we not winning? Yeah, even
Speaker 1: when we're down on going into halftime, I felt like
Speaker 1: we were winning. Um. I don't know what it was.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's a good thing. We're having good vibes around here,
Speaker 1: so um, yeah, I mean we felt I felt confident
Speaker 1: that we're gonna win that game whole the whole time,
Speaker 1: start start from the beginning. So you didn't ultimately, you know,
Speaker 1: keep the street going of seventeen points or fewer. They
Speaker 1: had to pick six that contributed. But did you feel
Speaker 1: this was another solid performance by the defense? Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: obviously there's a lot of good things that we did,
Speaker 1: a lot of things I can get better. UM. Think
Speaker 1: in the third quarter they rushed the ball pretty well
Speaker 1: on us. UM. But you know, you gotta go into
Speaker 1: film tomorrow and you know make the corrections on the
Speaker 1: long run by Chubb. There was an offside on that play.
Speaker 1: Was there a brief hesitation on the defense where you
Speaker 1: wondered whether the play was going to go? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: actually missed that TAFA. Yeah, so un sucks. But I
Speaker 1: mean this, we can't control what the rest do. We
Speaker 1: got to control what we can make place. I think
Speaker 1: Joe Mixon had one hundred and eighty plus rushing receiving
Speaker 1: yards combined. U does it bum you out when he
Speaker 1: as an individual moments like that and it doesn't end
Speaker 1: didn't win. Um. You don't really think about it in individually.
Speaker 1: Who has a good game? UM? All that matters is, UM,
Speaker 1: what if it's a w or L at the end
Speaker 1: of the game. UM. And unfortunately we lost again. UM.
Speaker 1: But Yeah, it's exciting for Joe. I mean, he works hard, um,
Speaker 1: and he deserves all the success that he's having, So
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised at all for the season. You guys
Speaker 1: are one of the least penalized teams in the NFL.
Speaker 1: This is really the only time I can remember where
Speaker 1: penalty is really played a huge role in costing a game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we talked about it. Honestly, we talked about in the
Speaker 1: team meeting room that we knew that they were gonna
Speaker 1: be chirping a lot um, that they're gonna get penalized
Speaker 1: a lot um, and unfortunately that we were. We were
Speaker 1: kind of the same the same team today. Um on
Speaker 1: the on the penalty side. And now time to hear
Speaker 1: from head coach Zach Taylor, who spent four minutes with
Speaker 1: lap right after the game. Has to be a frustrating one, coach.
Speaker 1: I mean, you get four hundred yards offense, but in
Speaker 1: the red zone five times in the red zone one
Speaker 1: touchdown down, three field goals and no points on on
Speaker 1: downs one time that that was a big factor in
Speaker 1: the football game. Yeah, on the road, Uh, those are
Speaker 1: those four point players are critical. Um, we just didn't
Speaker 1: do enough, good enough job. You know, it's the first
Speaker 1: and second down. I thought we were efficient, did a
Speaker 1: nice job all game, but third down, the low red
Speaker 1: zone killed us. You win the turnover battle for the
Speaker 1: first time all year, you have two, they have one,
Speaker 1: but they get it. They get points. They get seven
Speaker 1: points on the pick six, So that that was an unfortunate,
Speaker 1: unfortunate deal when they get you know, unscripted points like that. Yeah. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: I thought in the first half our defense had played well,
Speaker 1: you know, held them seven points and gave us a
Speaker 1: good good um put us in a good situation there,
Speaker 1: and unfortunately the second half they came out and took
Speaker 1: it to us and we we just weren't good enough.
Speaker 1: Third down was another area where Bengals three for twelve.
Speaker 1: They are seven for twelve. Baker Mayfields tried to touchdown
Speaker 1: runs on third down they made. They had a third
Speaker 1: and nineteen they converted and you know, the pick six
Speaker 1: was on a third and twenty whatever it was. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, good happened for them on third down. Tough
Speaker 1: happened for the Cincinnati and third then that was a
Speaker 1: big factor as well. It's what it boils down to,
Speaker 1: you know, we've got to be better situationally, and today
Speaker 1: on both sides of the ball, we were not good enough.
Speaker 1: And then penalties was the other thing. I jotted down
Speaker 1: eight penalties for ninety nine yards. They had six for
Speaker 1: thirty and pretty frustrating when they look at an interception
Speaker 1: on replay to see if there's a penalty involved, and
Speaker 1: you know, maybe there was. I don't know, I just
Speaker 1: I just feel like in the NFL, these games are
Speaker 1: gonna take seven hours if they if they start looking
Speaker 1: at every play and trying to determine if there's a
Speaker 1: penalty anywhere, it's difficult to know what they're what they're thinking.
Speaker 1: So we just got to go with it. So obviously
Speaker 1: that coming into the football game, you were the least
Speaker 1: penalized team by yards, a totally yards in the National
Speaker 1: Football League, and they were they were worst. And then
Speaker 1: today that you know, to have it be unbalanced by
Speaker 1: my sixty nine yards, that that's not something you obviously expected.
Speaker 1: Especially in the first half. There were two there. First
Speaker 1: one on the drive right before the interception that, um,
Speaker 1: we got to do better job control in our emotions.
Speaker 1: We had a good drive there set us back, and
Speaker 1: then we had another one right there before the half
Speaker 1: and we were moving pretty well. We had the blindside
Speaker 1: block that really hurt us. So we just gotta do
Speaker 1: better job controlling our emotions and those situations. So I
Speaker 1: mean in the red zone, Um, I guess once you
Speaker 1: do have an issue with in the red zone possession,
Speaker 1: does it almost like putting more pressure on the next
Speaker 1: one to make up for the problems you had on
Speaker 1: the one priority to just try to treat everyone individually,
Speaker 1: treat each one individually. You know. That's we had a
Speaker 1: first and goal from the two and we take a
Speaker 1: sack and you're not normally anticipating that, but it happens,
Speaker 1: you know, And uh so we just gotta be able
Speaker 1: to recover from it. Ended up kicking field goal there,
Speaker 1: and then we went four on the fourth down there
Speaker 1: a couple of possessions later and felt like we had
Speaker 1: a good look. We just got to execute it. So
Speaker 1: this is the is it seventh game or is it
Speaker 1: eighth game? I've lost track now that have been decided
Speaker 1: by a score or less, you know, eight points or less,
Speaker 1: then another one by ten points or less. SA again,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like you're in all these football games.
Speaker 1: It's just a matter of not allowing them to make
Speaker 1: one explosive, you make in one more explosive. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's such a fine line in the National Football League,
Speaker 1: it is, you know, and we got we gotta find
Speaker 1: a way to make those plays and felt like they're
Speaker 1: in the late fourth quarter. We created an interception, felt
Speaker 1: good about it. I know they took it away from
Speaker 1: us and called a penalty on us, but those are
Speaker 1: the plays we're looking to create. We gotta be the
Speaker 1: team that makes those plays in the fourth quarter that
Speaker 1: let's just go win the games. So I know when
Speaker 1: you when you asked for them to take a look
Speaker 1: at the middle screen that Landry had, I thought maybe
Speaker 1: initially Petonio was downfield. He wasn't when I saw the replay,
Speaker 1: but man, it wasn't the tight end. It was a
Speaker 1: little looked like a little pick action going on there.
Speaker 1: Is that what you guys saw, Is that what you
Speaker 1: were looking at to see if that's what sprung the
Speaker 1: Landry in that middle screen? Yeah, they can't be walking
Speaker 1: down field before the ball scot And it's as simple
Speaker 1: as that. So what was their explanation? I saw that.
Speaker 1: I saw you out there, you know, leading the case
Speaker 1: to them, and it was it just deaf ears by them,
Speaker 1: or what kind of an answer did he give you
Speaker 1: if any couldn't see it, couldn't see it. I can't
Speaker 1: even see it on the tape man. When it rains,
Speaker 1: it pours. Huh, Thank Zach. The Bengals finished with a
Speaker 1: season high four hundred and fifty one yards of offense,
Speaker 1: one seventy nine rushing and two seventy two pat sing.
Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield, who had seven touchdown passes and no interceptions
Speaker 1: and two wins over the Bengals last year, finished eleven
Speaker 1: for twenty four for one hundred ninety two yards, with
Speaker 1: no touchdowns, two picks, and a passer rating of thirty
Speaker 1: eight point nine. And yet my only scoring sixteen points
Speaker 1: instead of thirty five points on five trips into the
Speaker 1: red zone. The Bengals fell to one and twelve. The
Speaker 1: twilight zone or red zone is where I began my
Speaker 1: postgame conversation with Laps. It's remarkable to me because on
Speaker 1: the season, the defense for the Cleveland Browns have allowed
Speaker 1: twenty two touchdowns and thirty seven opportunities fifty nine and
Speaker 1: a half percent of the time, better than a fifty
Speaker 1: fifty proposition. They were given up a touchdown today, one time,
Speaker 1: you know, touchdown and five opportunities. That's twenty percent. That's
Speaker 1: almost forty percent under the norm for the Cleveland Browns
Speaker 1: all season long. So I mean, I don't know if
Speaker 1: it was to Cleveland what the Cleveland Browns were doing
Speaker 1: or what the Cincinnati Bengals weren't doing, but it wasn't pretty.
Speaker 1: I mean, one touchdown from the one yard line, first
Speaker 1: and goal from the two yard line, had to settle
Speaker 1: for field goal, one touchdown, three field goals, one time,
Speaker 1: no points. Just can't win football games doing that. They
Speaker 1: were two for three. They get in the red zone
Speaker 1: three times and scored twice on a defense that was
Speaker 1: third in the NFL in touchdown percentage, and they scored
Speaker 1: sixty six point seven percent of the time testedown sort
Speaker 1: of me that was a big deal. In the condensed
Speaker 1: short field where the Bengals defensively had a big eight edge,
Speaker 1: it wasn't there today, and the offensively struggles that they've
Speaker 1: had in the fad struggles were magnified. I mean they
Speaker 1: struggles not the word for it. It was worse than that.
Speaker 1: The Bengals have been among the least penalized teams in
Speaker 1: the NFL all year. Today they had ninety nine penalty yards.
Speaker 1: But beyond that they were just gut punching penalties that
Speaker 1: wiped out big gains or in one case, took away
Speaker 1: an interception late in the game. It seemed like almost
Speaker 1: every penalty the Bengals had was devastating. Yeah, and on
Speaker 1: the season, they were averaging, you know, less than fifty yards,
Speaker 1: like forty some ode yards leading the NFL, and Cleveland
Speaker 1: was well over nine hundred, most in the NFL. And
Speaker 1: today they only had thirty you know whatever it was. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thirty thirty yards on six penalties. So I mean, you
Speaker 1: give up almost a football field and penalties, that's that's
Speaker 1: never good. And you know it's gonna it's gonna in
Speaker 1: negate some some big plays, and it certainly did. I
Speaker 1: thought that was a big factor. I think third down
Speaker 1: was another one. The Bengals were three for twelve and
Speaker 1: Browns were seven for twelve. And like you say about
Speaker 1: the penalties, I mean Cleveland made plays on third down,
Speaker 1: third and nineteen convert third down touchdown run by Baker Mayfield,
Speaker 1: third and a bunch for Andy Dalney throws a pick six.
Speaker 1: I mean it's like tragedy on the Bengals third down failures,
Speaker 1: big success on when the Cleveland Browns converted on third down,
Speaker 1: so that despair was huge. First time all year the
Speaker 1: Bengals win the turnover battle. They have two takes and
Speaker 1: Cleveland has has one. Should have been three takes, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't. But it was two takes to their one.
Speaker 1: And if somebody had told me, you're gonna go up
Speaker 1: to Cleveland win the turnover ratio, then they have four
Speaker 1: and fifty yards and Joe mix is gonna have one
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty six of them on twenty six touches.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking that's a win. That's not a win by
Speaker 1: just one score. That's a win. That's a significant win.
Speaker 1: Didn't turn out that way. What was so effective for
Speaker 1: Joe Mixon in this game? You mentioned the totals one
Speaker 1: forty six came on the ground on twenty three carries,
Speaker 1: three receptions for forty more. What were the Bengals able
Speaker 1: to do that led to that kind of day. Well,
Speaker 1: I'd say half a dozen or more of his twenty
Speaker 1: three carries. They were doing this little short toss where
Speaker 1: they toss it and they'd pinned the end of the
Speaker 1: line of scrimmage and they'd pull the center and guard.
Speaker 1: They either pull Miller and Hopkins or Jordan and Hopkins.
Speaker 1: Those guys get their blocks, and Joe was reading it
Speaker 1: out really well. They got a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of yards in that play. They ranted a few times
Speaker 1: as a play action passed because once you have your
Speaker 1: crease the running the football, now run the same look
Speaker 1: and throw behind it, which they did. So they did
Speaker 1: some good things. I mean, it was a track meet
Speaker 1: between the twenties, but inside the twenty man they were
Speaker 1: dropping the baton and every time they're trying to finish
Speaker 1: the relay in the track meet, they were dropping the baton.
Speaker 1: In ten years in the NFL, in two years in
Speaker 1: the USFL, you undoubtedly had games like this where statistically
Speaker 1: you dominated. You probably looked up at the scoreboard during
Speaker 1: the course of the game and thought yourself, how aren't
Speaker 1: we winning? What is that like as a player to
Speaker 1: have a day like that? Unbelievably frustrating? You know, it's
Speaker 1: um it seems like when it rains, it pours, and
Speaker 1: it's it's not just a you know, a thunderstorm, it's
Speaker 1: a fricking hurricane. I mean, it's not it's pouring. Mother
Speaker 1: Nature's treating you real bad. I mean, it's it is
Speaker 1: he's swimming against the current. You know, you're upstream all
Speaker 1: the time, and games like that. Next, a home game
Speaker 1: on Sunday against the New England Patriots, who are ten
Speaker 1: and three but have a two game losing streak after
Speaker 1: falling to the Texans and Chiefs. How much do you
Speaker 1: want to bet that Bill Belichick utters were onto Cincinnati
Speaker 1: at a news conference this week. Now time for this
Speaker 1: week's fun facts conversation as we get to know the
Speaker 1: person under the pads. This week, it's a rookie offensive
Speaker 1: lineman out of Ohio State with a discerning palette for
Speaker 1: macaroni and cheese. Time for some fun facts with Bengals
Speaker 1: offensive lineman Michael Jordan. Born in the Cincinnati area before
Speaker 1: moving away in middle school. Your grandfather was a Cincinnati firefighter.
Speaker 1: Your dad went to Roger Bacon High School. If you
Speaker 1: could have picked an NFL team to play for, would
Speaker 1: Cincinnati have been that team? It would have been Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 1: What Bengals memories do you have from your childhood? Let's
Speaker 1: remember watching Chad Johnson, Rudy Johnson playing a lot. T J.
Speaker 1: Hindsman's out of Carson Palmer, remember watching Andrew w Worth,
Speaker 1: just a lot of guys Pico who's still in the league.
Speaker 1: Was absolutely crazy to think about. Did I read correctly
Speaker 1: that you met some of those star players at a
Speaker 1: playground when you were a kid? Yes? I did. I
Speaker 1: got to remember meeting Chad Johnson and t J. Hismsida
Speaker 1: when I was an elementary school at Zion Timple Christian Academy.
Speaker 1: There's a part that opened up right across from it,
Speaker 1: and the Bengals players, some of the stars were there,
Speaker 1: were visiting with Michael Jordan. You told your mom when
Speaker 1: you were six that you were going to play in
Speaker 1: the NFL. Why did that become a goal at such
Speaker 1: an early age. I just, you know, I fell in
Speaker 1: love playing football when I first started playing, and you know,
Speaker 1: I see guys on TV looking like they're having fun.
Speaker 1: It just seemed like a bunch of fun move when
Speaker 1: I was a kid. So that's probably why it mainly
Speaker 1: became a goal of mine back then. You're a big man, now,
Speaker 1: were you always the big kid growing up? I was
Speaker 1: always the tallest. It wasn't necessarily the biggest when I
Speaker 1: was a freshman to high school. I was sixty four
Speaker 1: and one hundred and eighty five pounds. You wrestled in
Speaker 1: high school. I saw a picture of you with some
Speaker 1: poor kid in a headlock. Did you like wrestling? I
Speaker 1: loved wrestling. Wrestling definitely helped me with the mental toughness
Speaker 1: of any sport I played, you know, whether it be
Speaker 1: football or whether it was track or wrestling itself. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm really thankful to go through that experience. You were
Speaker 1: involved in martial arts as well, right, Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: for middle school. And do you have a black belt? Yes?
Speaker 1: I do. How did that help you? It helped me
Speaker 1: just become disciplined throughout my entire life. When you have
Speaker 1: goals that you need to accomplish, you have to be
Speaker 1: very disciplined. You have to tell yourself to how you're
Speaker 1: going to do it, and then you actually actually have
Speaker 1: to follow it. And I think taekwondo helped a lot
Speaker 1: with that. So I mentioned that you were born and
Speaker 1: raised here until middle school before moving first to South
Speaker 1: Carolina and then going to a high school in Michigan.
Speaker 1: Your high school wasn't too far from ann Arbor, twenty
Speaker 1: minutes away, but you went to Ohio State. How did
Speaker 1: the folks in your high school take that news? My
Speaker 1: best friends, you know, they get They showed a lot
Speaker 1: of love, But other people, like teachers and stuff, they
Speaker 1: were always giving me tons of crat. You're always a
Speaker 1: good student. What was your favorite course at Ohio State
Speaker 1: and why did you enjoy it? Probably either entrepreneurship or
Speaker 1: business management, just because it taught me a lot about
Speaker 1: myself and what I enjoy outside of football. I've read
Speaker 1: that you've taken courses in Chinese. What about learning that
Speaker 1: language appealed to you? To be honest, I didn't really
Speaker 1: wanted to take Chinese. I watch a lot of anime
Speaker 1: and I wanted to learn Japanese, but Chinese was offered
Speaker 1: out of school, so I just took it for the
Speaker 1: four years I was in high school. I'm probably gonna
Speaker 1: try to hear out in the next year to probably
Speaker 1: pick up on either Japanese or Mandarin, just because of
Speaker 1: the TV shows I watched. We're doing Fun Facts with
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan. You were fourth round draft picked by the Bengals.
Speaker 1: Describe draft night. Um, it was really special moment. I
Speaker 1: had all my family, but I wasn't called when I
Speaker 1: was wanted to, but I still had a lot of
Speaker 1: my loved ones there who supported me. And when I
Speaker 1: got the call from since Snap Bengals, I was actually
Speaker 1: asleep and the phone was ringing and I got really excited.
Speaker 1: So I've seen the video online of you getting the
Speaker 1: phone call, and you can hear a woman's voice in
Speaker 1: the background screaming, whoa, yeah, whoo. I'm not doing a
Speaker 1: very good imitation. Was that your mom or who was that?
Speaker 1: It's probably either my aunt or my mom. I don't
Speaker 1: remember the person's voice, but it was probably it was
Speaker 1: My aunt was the one who took the videos, so
Speaker 1: if it was really loud directly, it was probably my aunt.
Speaker 1: But the voice was far away. It's probably my mom.
Speaker 1: I think it was your aunt. Yeah. Well, if we
Speaker 1: hear screaming in the stands go number sixty, well, no,
Speaker 1: it's probably your aud all right. A few other questions
Speaker 1: from Michael Jordan. What is your guilty pleasure? What unhealthy
Speaker 1: food do you have a hard time saying? No too
Speaker 1: macaroni and cheese, no hesitation, No hesitation, mom's homemade version
Speaker 1: or another family member's homemade version or craft right out
Speaker 1: of the box. You know, my great Grandma's macaroni cheese
Speaker 1: the best I've ever had, and then second best probably
Speaker 1: my mom, and then third i'd probably saying a recruiting
Speaker 1: trip to Notre Dame, I really take macaroni very seriously. Clearly,
Speaker 1: despite that great macaroni and cheese that you're fighting, Irish
Speaker 1: could not secure your services close. I mean, I was
Speaker 1: like I was, I was ready to commit right off,
Speaker 1: and I was like, all right, attention, recruiters have good
Speaker 1: mac and cheese. What do you like to shop for.
Speaker 1: I'm really big in the tech, so I like to
Speaker 1: buy speakers. I listen to music a lot. Just about
Speaker 1: a game chair because I play PS four a lot too,
Speaker 1: all right, forgive my ignorance. I have a thirteen year
Speaker 1: old son who plays a lot of Xbox. But what
Speaker 1: is a game chair. It's just a chair that it's
Speaker 1: very comfortable. Minds has speakers in it so I can
Speaker 1: hear the game very loud and clear. But it's nice
Speaker 1: and it says Minds has a swollboment so I can
Speaker 1: turn through sixty. All right. Interesting to know. Aside from
Speaker 1: professional athlete, have you had any other jobs. I had
Speaker 1: an internship with Monster financials swimmer, just as an intern
Speaker 1: to a financial advisor. Did you learn anything that's useful? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I learned a lots, especially by managing money and what
Speaker 1: you should do with it. Hopefully that'll come in very
Speaker 1: handy if you have a long NFL career. If you
Speaker 1: could meet anybody in history, politician, athlete, actor, religious figure, whomever,
Speaker 1: who would that person be. Michael Jackson? Michael Jackson, the
Speaker 1: king of pop, lifelong fan since day one, music cranking
Speaker 1: in the Jordan household all the time when I was younger,
Speaker 1: Mom a fan, dad a fan, or everybody in the family.
Speaker 1: You know, my dad, he's more to run DNC and
Speaker 1: then my mom. It's kind of hard to say. I
Speaker 1: know when I was a little kid, my mom used
Speaker 1: always forced us to listen to country music. Shame on you, mom.
Speaker 1: All right, final question for Michael Jordan. You share a
Speaker 1: name with the most famous athlete on the planet. Did
Speaker 1: the basketball legend have anything to do with you being
Speaker 1: named Michael Jordan? I was known not to my father.
Speaker 1: It's his middle name, isn't it correct? How did you
Speaker 1: feel about sharing a name with the basketball legend? You know,
Speaker 1: I was a kid, of course, as like that's exciting.
Speaker 1: But as you get older and you figure out who
Speaker 1: you are and you realize you're not that great at basketball,
Speaker 1: kind of six and you're an old lineman, so you
Speaker 1: couldn't wear twenty three, so there's no problem there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: enjoyed this, appreciate your time. Best of luck the rest
Speaker 1: of the way. Thank you. That's Michael Jordan. Here's a
Speaker 1: quick invitation to join us on location this week on
Speaker 1: Friday afternoon from three to six, we'll be at Buffalo
Speaker 1: Wings and Rings in Oakley for the Bengals pep Rally Show,
Speaker 1: and we are tentatively scheduled to have Joe Mixon as
Speaker 1: our guest in the final hour. We'll have plenty of
Speaker 1: giveaways too. That's going to do it for this episode
Speaker 1: of the podcast. If you haven't done so already, don't
Speaker 1: forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and if
Speaker 1: you have a minute, give it a rating or share
Speaker 1: a comment. Those five star ratings help more Bengals fans
Speaker 1: find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thank you for
Speaker 1: listening to the Bengals Booth Podcast.