Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody, I'm Dan Horden. Thanks for downloading the
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth podcast. So Close, So close, and yet so far. Addition,
Speaker 1: as we take an in depth look back at another
Speaker 1: heartbreaking loss for the Bengals, as a field goal on
Speaker 1: the final play of the game gave the Arizona Cardinals
Speaker 1: a twenty six twenty three win at Paul Brown Stadium.
Speaker 1: Coming up, you'll hear radio replays, locker room comments from
Speaker 1: players and coaches, and Dave Lapham will join me for
Speaker 1: postgame analysis. Plus, in this week's Fun Facts Conversation, we'll
Speaker 1: meet the person under the pads as I'll talk to
Speaker 1: the best ping pong player on the Bengals roster. Stay
Speaker 1: tuned to find out who it is. All of that
Speaker 1: is straight ahead, but first, here's a quick reminder that
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Speaker 1: since the Wilson Junior size football. I've got a thirteen
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Speaker 1: backyard and catching passes from his old man. We are
Speaker 1: currently using the Wilson brand Junior size football for ages
Speaker 1: nine and up, and I am here to tell you
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Speaker 1: a slightly smaller size and has a very tacky grip.
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Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady and Kenny Anderson when I use it.
Speaker 1: So a big thumbs up to the Wilson Junior size football.
Speaker 1: Let's get to this week's game. For approximately five minutes
Speaker 1: on Sunday, the Bengals did exactly what they and we
Speaker 1: have been hoping for. The defense got a three and
Speaker 1: out on Arizona's opening possession, and then Joe Mixon, remember him,
Speaker 1: went to work after an incomplete pass by Andy Dalton
Speaker 1: on the bengals first play. Their next six were handoffs
Speaker 1: to Joe Mixon for nine, three, thirteen, five, eighteen, and
Speaker 1: nine yards to put the Bengals in the red zone. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: that's where the drive stalled, an all too familiar theme
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen. It'll be a chip shot of twenty
Speaker 1: three yard try for Randy Bullock. Out of the hold
Speaker 1: of Kevin Huber. He catches a high snap puts it down,
Speaker 1: bullocks kick is on its way, it is good, and
Speaker 1: the Bengals score inside the gold star red zone. So
Speaker 1: the Bengals had an early lead but left four points
Speaker 1: on the board. Here's Andy Dalton, we have to score touchdowns.
Speaker 1: You can't keep kicking field goals. You're not gonna win
Speaker 1: games if you've kicking field goals. So Fro, we gotta
Speaker 1: look at it. We gotta see what we can do
Speaker 1: better in the red zone because I mean, you gotta
Speaker 1: score touchdowns on there. On that opening drive, it felt
Speaker 1: like Mixon was going to have a career day, but
Speaker 1: after rushing for fifty seven yards on his first six carries,
Speaker 1: his next seven went for a total of six yards.
Speaker 1: I talked to offensive lineman Trey Hopkins about Nixon's fast start.
Speaker 1: We finally got a consistent string of runs and we
Speaker 1: ran on first down and we're a fishing with this,
Speaker 1: so we were able to keep keep going with that.
Speaker 1: With that drive, m it was nice, and I mean
Speaker 1: we had a couple of instances of that, uh this game,
Speaker 1: just you know, being efficient on first down, run or
Speaker 1: pass um helps a lot, helps a lot. But as
Speaker 1: the offensive lineman, of course, being a run or being
Speaker 1: able to run the ball is nice. Did they make
Speaker 1: big changes x's and o's wise up front to slow
Speaker 1: that down, or did their guys just start making better plays? Um? No,
Speaker 1: I mean they're they're they're good front. They get paid also,
Speaker 1: and they just they just made some place um and
Speaker 1: slowed us down a little bit. But you know, it's
Speaker 1: a long game, and I mean, both sides of the
Speaker 1: ball are getting paid. Both sides of the ball have
Speaker 1: good athletes, so it's it's a battle. The Bengals early
Speaker 1: three nothing lead didn't last time. Their second possession, the
Speaker 1: Cardinals drove to the Cincinnati six, where they faced fourth
Speaker 1: and two. Rather than kick a tying field goal, head
Speaker 1: coach Cliff Kingsbury elected to go for it. Fourth down
Speaker 1: and two at the Bengals six yard line, Cincinnati leading
Speaker 1: three nothing, Murray hands it faked it to Johnson, sprints
Speaker 1: out to the left. He's got the first down. He
Speaker 1: lurches toward the end zone, and it's a Cardinals touchdown.
Speaker 1: That's the first lead of the season. The Cardinals were
Speaker 1: the only team in the NFL that had never held
Speaker 1: a lead this year. Yes, even the Dolphins led for
Speaker 1: nearly four minutes in the first quarter before losing by
Speaker 1: twenty last week to the Chargers. The Bengals and Cardinals
Speaker 1: traded field goals in the second quarter before Arizona added
Speaker 1: another one on the final play of the first half,
Speaker 1: one second left in the half, a chip shot field
Speaker 1: goal for Gonzales. Game kick is good and Arizona will
Speaker 1: take a seven point lead to the locker room. Arizona
Speaker 1: led thirteen six at the half, and that field goal
Speaker 1: means that Bengals opponents have scored in the final two
Speaker 1: minutes of the first half in twenty eight of the
Speaker 1: bengals last thirty seven games. That's seventy six percent of
Speaker 1: the time. Hard to believe. Stat courtesy of Jay Morrison,
Speaker 1: who covers the Bengals for the Athletic. Andy Dalton was
Speaker 1: four for ten for a paltry twenty two yards in
Speaker 1: the half, but the Bengals got their passing game going
Speaker 1: to begin the third quarter. Andy was seven for ten
Speaker 1: on the opening drive of the second half, but after
Speaker 1: having first and goal at the eight, the Bengals failed
Speaker 1: to score a touchdown again. The snap, the put down,
Speaker 1: the spin of the laces, The kick is up and
Speaker 1: it is good for the season. The Bengals have scored
Speaker 1: four touchdowns on fourteen drives into the red zone. That's
Speaker 1: twenty nine percent. Not nearly good enough. According to Tyler Boyd,
Speaker 1: I can't really you know, open my finger on it,
Speaker 1: you know, but that's a difference in the game, you know,
Speaker 1: not scoring touchdowns. You know, game three three point three points.
Speaker 1: I ain't cutting to any how you went football games
Speaker 1: to any how you get to the playoffs. Despite the
Speaker 1: red zone war, the Bengals were only down by four
Speaker 1: with less than two minutes to go in the third
Speaker 1: quarter when a curious play call proved costly. On fourth
Speaker 1: down and one, Dalton is in the shotgun mixing. Now
Speaker 1: we'll shift from the quarterbacks left to his right, Dalton
Speaker 1: fake to Mixon. He does not get back to the
Speaker 1: line of scrimmage. He has lifted off the ground like
Speaker 1: he was crowdsurfing short of the first down. All right,
Speaker 1: I know that hindsight is twenty twenty, But why teams
Speaker 1: don't just run a quarterback sneak on fourth and short
Speaker 1: is a mystery to me. It seems like a shotgun
Speaker 1: snap increases the defense's chances of getting penetration into the backfield.
Speaker 1: But what do I know? The fourth down stop gave
Speaker 1: Arizona great field position, and a former Bengal made them
Speaker 1: pay third down and seven for Arizona to thirty nine
Speaker 1: of Cincinnati. Murray clapping his hands, he catches the shotgun.
Speaker 1: Snapp he floats it down the middle of the field.
Speaker 1: I'm diving attempt. What a catch. Wow at the eleven
Speaker 1: yard line by Pharaoh Cooper. The former Bengal, albeit briefly,
Speaker 1: just made a spectacular diving catch Farrell. Cooper played for
Speaker 1: the Bengals in Week one, then got waived after Week
Speaker 1: two when they needed an extra offensive lineman. Here's safety
Speaker 1: Jesse Bates on Cooper's great catch. The hell of a
Speaker 1: catch by whom, hell of a throw by Colin Murray
Speaker 1: as well. Those players that we can we can live
Speaker 1: with long they don't score on those. Now there's the NFL.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of good athletes, good players. They're gonna
Speaker 1: make plays, but we just gotta, you know, make sure
Speaker 1: those aren't happenings as much that catch was the difference
Speaker 1: between punting and kicking a field goal, and the Cardinals
Speaker 1: took a seven point lead early in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: Things looked bleak for the Bengals when The Cardinals scored
Speaker 1: again on their next drive, first and ten at the
Speaker 1: thirty seven years, a toss sweep to the left, Edmond's
Speaker 1: running breaks through an ankle tackle. He's down the near
Speaker 1: sideline inside the ten. The five three two one touchdown Arizona. Well,
Speaker 1: that's a blow right there. That is just a shot
Speaker 1: right to the chin. And again faked the handoff on
Speaker 1: a jet sweep and then just pitched it back the
Speaker 1: other way, and they get blocking on the edge. Larry
Speaker 1: Fitzgerald gives a block and then just sloppy tackling, missed tackles.
Speaker 1: I mean, the blocking is good in the perimeter, but man,
Speaker 1: when you're the when you're the unblocked guy, make the
Speaker 1: tackle like Bates was, you cannot miss that tackle. Unfortunately
Speaker 1: he did, and the Bengals were down twenty three to nine.
Speaker 1: At that point. Between the Pittsburgh game and the Arizona game,
Speaker 1: the Bengals had gone seventeen drives without scoring a touchdown,
Speaker 1: a street they finally ended by driving seventy nine yards
Speaker 1: on ten plays. Three receivers out to the left, Audent
Speaker 1: Tate out to the right, Bernard in the backfield of
Speaker 1: the right of Andy Dalton Dalton throws it into the
Speaker 1: end zone, touchdown to Audent Tate. Nice the first touchdown
Speaker 1: in two games for Cincinnati, as Auden Tate cut inside
Speaker 1: of his defender and reeled in the touchdown catch from
Speaker 1: two yards away, his first NFL touchdown of his career.
Speaker 1: That made a twenty three sixteen and the defense probably
Speaker 1: got a three and out to put the ball right
Speaker 1: back in the hands of Andy Dalton. Bengals are gonna
Speaker 1: line up quickly. They're ready to snap it at the
Speaker 1: Arizona forty two. This drive started back at the Cincinnati nineteen.
Speaker 1: Dalton back to throw. The protection is good, fires dot
Speaker 1: Field boar. He catches it to ten and runs into
Speaker 1: the end zone for a Bengals touchdown. Me Tyler Boyd
Speaker 1: damn middle of the football field. He made the play
Speaker 1: earlier in the drive and then he made that play.
Speaker 1: Outstanding throw. The first play of the drive was a
Speaker 1: twenty nine yard pass to Boyd and the last play
Speaker 1: was that forty two yard touchdown pass. Tyler finished with
Speaker 1: ten catches for one hundred twenty three yards. Sick of
Speaker 1: losing Siga, you know, not finishing the way we want to.
Speaker 1: You know, we always finished wrong. But we never started.
Speaker 1: He's gotta just stayed of course, man, and just believing
Speaker 1: each other the whole four quarters. Man. Just continue to
Speaker 1: fight and execute and don't wait till the last minute
Speaker 1: to finally get a going. The game was tied with
Speaker 1: exactly two minutes to go, but two big plays by
Speaker 1: Kyler Murray won the game for Arizona. The first was
Speaker 1: a twenty four yard pass. The second was this twenty
Speaker 1: four yard run second down in six at the Cincinnati
Speaker 1: thirty nine with fifty three seconds to go, Kyler Murray
Speaker 1: catches the shotgun snap. Now, he takes off and runs
Speaker 1: all sorts of running room down the middle of the field.
Speaker 1: He's at the twenty five the twenty and Clayton Federlum
Speaker 1: saves the touchdown by tackling Kyler Murray at the fifteen
Speaker 1: yard line. The Heisman Trophy winner finished with two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty three yards passing and ninety three rushing. Here's
Speaker 1: Sam Hubbard. Can you describe what it's like to try
Speaker 1: to contain Kyler Murray when he takes off. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: tough because you pick a side trying to win a
Speaker 1: pass rush and he sees lane. He's gone really gotta
Speaker 1: rush with vision, which you know slows down how you're rushing. Um,
Speaker 1: it's a tough task and what makes them so dangerous? Um,
Speaker 1: you know it's hard. Do you think that's what kind
Speaker 1: of stopped the pass rush was? Who're trying to make
Speaker 1: sure you guys are trying to make sure you're trying
Speaker 1: to keep him in the pocket and make him throw
Speaker 1: the ball and uh, you know, just try to not
Speaker 1: give him lanes to get out of there, because as
Speaker 1: soon as he saw something, he was out. After Murray's run,
Speaker 1: the bengals only hope was that Zane Gonzalez would choke
Speaker 1: on a game winning field goal, try to allow the
Speaker 1: Bengals to take the game to overtime. So here we go,
Speaker 1: two seconds on the clock, a thirty one yard field goal,
Speaker 1: try to win the game for third year pro Zane Gonzalez.
Speaker 1: Lee is ready for the snap, he puts it down,
Speaker 1: the kick is up, the kick is good, and the
Speaker 1: Arizona Cardinals get their first win and drop the Bengals
Speaker 1: to oh and five. The final score twenty six twenty
Speaker 1: three Arizona. Here are two second year Bengals, Jesse Eights
Speaker 1: and Sam Hubbard on falling two Owen five. You know,
Speaker 1: we can't just keep patting ourselves on the back for
Speaker 1: you know, having close games and fighting at the end
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. We gotta win. I know, that's
Speaker 1: what the fans want, that's what the guys upstairs want,
Speaker 1: that's what everybody in this locker room wants. So you know,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a lot of people that continue to
Speaker 1: bash us about being owned five. All that matters is
Speaker 1: what's in this locker room, and it's about us. So
Speaker 1: there's no option. You know, we got a lot of
Speaker 1: games left to play, and it's a team game. You
Speaker 1: can't go out there and win the game by yourself.
Speaker 1: So we have to stick together and you know, just
Speaker 1: keep fighting, try and get some wins. That's all we
Speaker 1: can do. We can't we can't fall apart. Since the
Speaker 1: Cardinals and Broncos both picked up their first victories on Sunday,
Speaker 1: there are now four winless teams left in the NFL.
Speaker 1: The Bengals and Redskins are owing five, the Jets and
Speaker 1: Dolphins are owing four. After Sunday's three point loss, Lap
Speaker 1: spent about four minutes with head coach Zach Taylor, coach
Speaker 1: the NFL three of the five games. You know, you
Speaker 1: got a tie football game later, a lead late in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarters, just can't close it out, just can't
Speaker 1: quite finish it. You're right there on the on the
Speaker 1: doorstep on the brink. But man, it's something has to
Speaker 1: happen to just finish it. Right. You're right, we get
Speaker 1: someone's just gotta step up and make that play. And um,
Speaker 1: it's coaches. We gotta keep fighting to put ourselves and
Speaker 1: opportunities where guys can step up and do it. We
Speaker 1: just haven't done it yet, And um, it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: We keep believing, and no one's no one's pointing fingers.
Speaker 1: We know we got to earn these wins, and when
Speaker 1: we earn it's gonna feel good. This game, it was
Speaker 1: a matter of just digging a hole. It was too
Speaker 1: hard to crawl out of. And you know, you got
Speaker 1: to give the credit about fighting back and doing that
Speaker 1: and digging out of that hole. But and that's hard
Speaker 1: when you dig that big a hole in the NFL,
Speaker 1: isn't it. Yeah, A bad team that's given up digs
Speaker 1: himself in that hole and the game's over. And that
Speaker 1: wasn't what we were today. Our guys fought back, believed
Speaker 1: they were gonna win. We scored that last touch time
Speaker 1: to tie it up, and we felt like, hey, we're
Speaker 1: gonna get this stop and we're gonna go win this game.
Speaker 1: That was the common theme on the sidelines, and unfortunately
Speaker 1: they made some plays and they got that field goal
Speaker 1: and they got away with one their quarterback. You made
Speaker 1: mention of it during the course of the week, Kyler Murray.
Speaker 1: He's got like quick twitch now. I mean he's short
Speaker 1: space quickness. I mean, some guys can make him miss
Speaker 1: but can't run away. Some guys can run away but
Speaker 1: can't make you miss. This dude can make him miss
Speaker 1: and run away. I mean, he's he's a special guy
Speaker 1: that we're rushing for ninety yards like he did. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you can make a steady diet living
Speaker 1: of that being a quarterback running the football like he is,
Speaker 1: But man, he makes plays. He's dangerous. He's the first
Speaker 1: pick in the draft for a reason. He's a unique talent.
Speaker 1: Really stresses the defense, and he made some place today. Again, Horizontally,
Speaker 1: it seems to be everybody's trying to challenge, you know,
Speaker 1: your defense, making it defend from one sideline to another
Speaker 1: with motion, missdirection, counters, all that sort of thing difficult
Speaker 1: today as well, wouldn't it. But I go back, we
Speaker 1: need to score with once the first half, take the
Speaker 1: pressure off him because really we go in a halftime,
Speaker 1: they're they're routinely keeping these guys to ten points and under,
Speaker 1: and you know, we gotta be a little bit more
Speaker 1: aggressive on offense and get things going and score some
Speaker 1: points and take the pressure off him going in the
Speaker 1: second half. I know it's never one thing, but in
Speaker 1: your mind, as you as you will reflect back on
Speaker 1: not just this game, but other games, red zone seeming
Speaker 1: like the twilight zone a little bit. What do you
Speaker 1: what do you think the biggest things are in the
Speaker 1: red zone? Well, when the up twos come our away,
Speaker 1: we gotta we gotta take advantage of the players that
Speaker 1: they're there. And so far we kind of had two
Speaker 1: weeks from a row. We've left some points in the
Speaker 1: field that we feel like, uh, we just got to
Speaker 1: step up and make that play and keep working to
Speaker 1: get us in the best calls that give us opportunities.
Speaker 1: And but you're right, that's been frustrating leaving all those
Speaker 1: points on the field. You guys do a good job
Speaker 1: of controlling those edge rush guys. But there were times
Speaker 1: where it was like two three man routes. The touchdown
Speaker 1: to tile it looked like it was maybe a two
Speaker 1: possibly a three man route. I mean, you had that
Speaker 1: schemed out pretty well. You wanted to make sure you
Speaker 1: had time to get the ball down the field vertically
Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, you're right, that was one that takes
Speaker 1: a little bit more time. So we don't make sure
Speaker 1: we keep people in protection. And you know, we got
Speaker 1: two receivers out plus the back plus you know, um
Speaker 1: that that group is they're pretty good edge rushes. We
Speaker 1: talked about I think Andy get hit and the touchdown
Speaker 1: drive before the drive that tied it. They were blitzing.
Speaker 1: They weren't playing pre event. They were bringing bringing pressure
Speaker 1: and he's getting rid of the ball, you know, and
Speaker 1: taking taking a hit and uh, you know he was
Speaker 1: when you blitzed. There's there's areas of vacated and he
Speaker 1: was finding those things. Yeah, there was he had some.
Speaker 1: They were bringing their best stuff. They got a pretty
Speaker 1: good blitz package. That's where our third down package were
Speaker 1: trying to move the ball on the perimeter a little bit.
Speaker 1: Take the pressure off those guys. Up front. He stood
Speaker 1: in there. Yeah, they brought their best stuff. We protected
Speaker 1: as best we could. He took a couple of shots,
Speaker 1: but m guys started making plays there in the fourth quarter. Finally, coach,
Speaker 1: I don't expect you to tell us what you're telling
Speaker 1: your team. You know, that's that's between you and your
Speaker 1: football team. But what what kind of message you know,
Speaker 1: do you give your football team right now? Working like
Speaker 1: they're working, and just coming up short like they are.
Speaker 1: Keep fighting. We believe in each other, We believe in
Speaker 1: what we're doing. The wins are going to come. It's
Speaker 1: frustrating that hasn't happened yet, But but we got the
Speaker 1: right people in this building. That's good that help us
Speaker 1: get it done. Now time for some postgame analysis, and
Speaker 1: we start with an obvious point. The Bengals can't show
Speaker 1: up in the last five minutes and expect to win games.
Speaker 1: That was Zach Taylor's mesters of the team. The guys
Speaker 1: that I saw in the last five minutes, you got
Speaker 1: to do it earlier than that. Fifty five minutes of
Speaker 1: not getting it done, very very disappointing. I mean, they
Speaker 1: dug too big a hole. That's a huge hole in
Speaker 1: the National Football League. How about Arizona throwing the football
Speaker 1: in their last two drives. They gave the Bengals a chance.
Speaker 1: They ran the ball for two hundred and sixty six yards.
Speaker 1: You know, I would have had my two threats, Murray
Speaker 1: and Johnson just run the ball, run the clock. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're giving the Bengals a chance by throwing the ball
Speaker 1: and throwing in completions. You know, I couldn't believe that
Speaker 1: they were allowing that to happen. But you know, the
Speaker 1: Bengals took advantage of it and scored two touchdowns to
Speaker 1: make it a game, tie the football game up, and
Speaker 1: then you know when they had to, Arizona ran the
Speaker 1: football again a little bit and ran the clock down
Speaker 1: and kicked the field goal. So very unfortunate. I mean,
Speaker 1: two hundred and sixty six yards rushing average over seven
Speaker 1: yards to carry. They had Murray and Johnson both run
Speaker 1: the ball for over ninety yards. Joe Mixon ran it
Speaker 1: for over ninety yards. He came one rushed sword and
Speaker 1: I said if he had twenty carries, they'd win the game.
Speaker 1: He had nineteen, but you know, could have won the
Speaker 1: football game. Just didn't play well enough, you know, made
Speaker 1: their value had come back effort, obviously, but you can't
Speaker 1: rely or depend on something like that in the national
Speaker 1: football You're gonna come up short more times than not.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Joe Mixon's day. Six straight running plays
Speaker 1: on the opening drive for fifty seven yards. It looked
Speaker 1: like he was going to have the biggest game of
Speaker 1: his NFL career. Then for the next two and a
Speaker 1: half quarters, the Cardinals completely shut him down before he
Speaker 1: got it going again late in the game and wound
Speaker 1: up with ninety three yards on nineteen carries, six rushes
Speaker 1: for fifty seven. Then he goes seven rushes for six,
Speaker 1: then he goes three for twenty three to start the
Speaker 1: second half. So he's you know, it's a little bit
Speaker 1: of a roller coaster ride. I do think after that
Speaker 1: first drive, you know, Arizona said, all right, look, we're
Speaker 1: not gonna let you run the football. You're gonna have
Speaker 1: to throw the football. You're down a bunch of receivers.
Speaker 1: You know, we've got two good edge pass rushers. We're
Speaker 1: gonna make sure that you don't get that running game
Speaker 1: going the way you've got to go on that first drive.
Speaker 1: They stayed in based defense, but they did. They made,
Speaker 1: you know, some minor adjustments. I think that in terms
Speaker 1: of technique and attacking line of scrims, raving catching at
Speaker 1: the line of scrimmage that looked like to me. And
Speaker 1: they got a lot more aggressive and said, you know,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to throw the football some and not
Speaker 1: just run the ball down our throats. But again, Dan,
Speaker 1: red zone, I mean, it's the twilight zone. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: They just can't can't get it done in the red
Speaker 1: zone when they needed to get it done. And last
Speaker 1: year they're converted over thirty one percent of the time
Speaker 1: for touchdowns in the red zone. They were third in
Speaker 1: the NFL in that category, and now they're in danger
Speaker 1: of being, if not dead, last, second last in the NFL,
Speaker 1: I think in red zone touchdown percentage. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: the offensive line lap After giving up eight sacks and
Speaker 1: twelve quarterback hits against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Andy Dalt was
Speaker 1: not sacked. Did you see significant progress? I saw a
Speaker 1: significant scheme change. Tyler Eifert was in too pass protect gives,
Speaker 1: Vanni Bernard was in too pass protect. I mean, they
Speaker 1: did a lot of max protection and they did not
Speaker 1: want those edge rushes to control the football game, which
Speaker 1: I can understand. The running game I think helped out
Speaker 1: a little bit too. But on you know, the drive,
Speaker 1: the last touchdown drive and ty Or Boyd caught his
Speaker 1: forty two yard touchdown pass, they had two receivers in
Speaker 1: a route and just leaked it back out late. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, they had you know, seven maybe six or
Speaker 1: seven defenders covering two guys. It was, it was crazy.
Speaker 1: But the scheme of the play, you know, one the
Speaker 1: day they gave the route that was going to take
Speaker 1: some time, so they wanted to max protect to make
Speaker 1: sure that they had the time and hope that the
Speaker 1: that the scheme of the play would would work. And
Speaker 1: it did. Tyler Boyd was wide open. They blew coverage
Speaker 1: and score forty two yard touchdowns. So you know, I
Speaker 1: think I think that at times when guys were asked
Speaker 1: to block one on one, they did a good job.
Speaker 1: But I think schematically they changed things up a lot
Speaker 1: where you know, the defensive end getting slammed by a
Speaker 1: tight end one time, chip by running back another time
Speaker 1: and hitting him from all angles and didn't just not
Speaker 1: a tie off straight line to the quarterback like that
Speaker 1: all day long, we have seen fast running quarterbacks in
Speaker 1: the NFL before Michael Vick obviously comes to mind. Lamar
Speaker 1: Johnson right now, I'm not sure that I've seen one
Speaker 1: as shifty when he takes off and runs as Kyler Murray.
Speaker 1: I think Michael Vick falls into that that category a
Speaker 1: little bit. I mean RG three was a straight line
Speaker 1: track guy. He was a hurtle champion. You know, he
Speaker 1: didn't have the you know that short space quickness that
Speaker 1: you know that dipsy due to him. I mean, this
Speaker 1: this guy is fast twitch. You know, some guys can
Speaker 1: make him miss but can't run away. Some guys can't
Speaker 1: really make him miss but can eventually run away. This
Speaker 1: guy can make him miss and runaway. I mean he's special.
Speaker 1: He's like, he's as good as a lot of running
Speaker 1: backs in the NFL. You know, you wonder though at
Speaker 1: the quarterback position. He's got some design runs and some
Speaker 1: runs where he's just scrambling. I mean, the one run
Speaker 1: that was huge was when Lawson went up field hard
Speaker 1: and Gino took an inside rush and he saw a
Speaker 1: lane that just was too tempting. I mean he saw
Speaker 1: a green grass and just hit it, and I mean
Speaker 1: hit it. He hit it right now. He is explosive
Speaker 1: in terms of his feet and his strong arm, and
Speaker 1: he's accurate. I mean he put the ball in some
Speaker 1: tight spots and got to tip your cap to the kid.
Speaker 1: He's he's really you know, he's really a fine quarterback.
Speaker 1: But you know, you just can't give up two n
Speaker 1: in sixty six yards rushing in the National Football League.
Speaker 1: I don't care who is a quarterback and running back.
Speaker 1: You just can't do it. The Bengals didn't score a
Speaker 1: touchdown in the Pittsburgh game and didn't score one in
Speaker 1: this game until four minutes and eight seconds to go.
Speaker 1: Then they scored two in a span of two minutes
Speaker 1: and eight seconds. Is there a logical explanation for why
Speaker 1: they were able to just flip a switch and suddenly
Speaker 1: be productive on offense? You know, I asked that the
Speaker 1: same thing. And you know the touchdown drive before the
Speaker 1: one that tied it up. I mean, Arizona was bringing
Speaker 1: their blitz packages. I mean they were coming and he
Speaker 1: was taking hits and just getting rid of the football.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like they were playing pre event defense. Is
Speaker 1: saying check it down. I mean they were they were
Speaker 1: bringing their stuff and the Bengals picked it up, and
Speaker 1: you know, then Tyler Boyd has two big plays and
Speaker 1: you know, one of them forty two yard touchdown. Two
Speaker 1: receivers were out in that route. They were so concerned
Speaker 1: with blocking the edge guys and they should sugs and
Speaker 1: Chandler Jones, and then the backs slid out late, slipped
Speaker 1: out late. But there's a little roll to the right,
Speaker 1: little throwback to the left, you know, beyond the middle
Speaker 1: of the football field, and fooled to safety. And he
Speaker 1: could fooled badly. Tyler Boyd was huge. Jette last drive.
Speaker 1: You ended up with ten catches for one of one
Speaker 1: hundred yards, but his first five catches I think went
Speaker 1: from like twenty five and then he really turned it
Speaker 1: on at the end, as did Andy Dalton. I mean,
Speaker 1: Andy Dalton's first half numbers nothing to right hold home about.
Speaker 1: But as the game ended, he's got a quarterback or
Speaker 1: any one oh seven point six twenty seven out of
Speaker 1: thirty eight two sixty two, two touchdowns, no interceptions. After
Speaker 1: the game, Zach Taylor made a point to walk around
Speaker 1: the locker room to go up to every guy in
Speaker 1: front of his locker, embrace him, say something to him.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I've seen that before. What does that
Speaker 1: say to you about Zach Taylor and the relationship he's
Speaker 1: trying to build with these guys. Yeah, I think that's
Speaker 1: the big word is, you know, relationships and culture and
Speaker 1: all the things that go along with that. But man,
Speaker 1: just got to win games. At some point, you have
Speaker 1: to win a football game. And three of their five
Speaker 1: games they've either had a lead or have been tied
Speaker 1: late in the football game. Two on the road, one
Speaker 1: at home, and right now they're over. They're gonna have
Speaker 1: to really examine. Every player's gonna have to examine it.
Speaker 1: Every coach is gonna have to examine it. What can
Speaker 1: I do to that one more player that we need?
Speaker 1: And so far it hasn't happened. And you know, as
Speaker 1: everything's a habit, winning is a habit. Losing can be
Speaker 1: a habit, and you fall into the bad habits. It's
Speaker 1: hard hard to get rid of those bad habits and
Speaker 1: then start establishing the good habits. The first thing you
Speaker 1: have to do it establish a good habits to winning game,
Speaker 1: you know, and right now they're in a you know,
Speaker 1: a vicious cycle of a bad habit of losing football games.
Speaker 1: Whether it be close football games or games that aren't
Speaker 1: so close. Up next, a road game in Baltimore and
Speaker 1: another speedy quarterback in Lamar Jackson, not Johnson. The Ravens
Speaker 1: are three and two after an overtime win in Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: on Sunday. Now time for this week's fun Facts interview,
Speaker 1: where we get to know the person under the pads.
Speaker 1: This week, it's a member of this year's rookie class, who,
Speaker 1: among other things, is known for being the best ping
Speaker 1: pong player on the roster. Time for some fun facts
Speaker 1: at Bengals quarterback Ryan Finley, and it takes about five
Speaker 1: minutes of lazy internet research to find out that you
Speaker 1: basically have excelled in any sport that you have ever played. Football, basketball, tennis,
Speaker 1: ping pong. But let's start with hockey, specifically roller hockey.
Speaker 1: You were on Team USA as a kid. That sounds
Speaker 1: like a pretty big deal. Tell me about it. I
Speaker 1: just grew up. That was kind of my first sport.
Speaker 1: Grew up playing hockey. My dad played. He grew up
Speaker 1: in Minnesota, so that was kind of his sport played
Speaker 1: since I was a really young age and loved it,
Speaker 1: and I don't I don't really even remember when what
Speaker 1: age I was when I was on Team USA, it
Speaker 1: was I was pretty young, but it was fun. I
Speaker 1: think actually hockey has helped me a lot and kind
Speaker 1: of just uh, you know, playing sports throughout my life.
Speaker 1: So I think there's a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: really great things about playing hockey. So that was a
Speaker 1: fun time. Did Team USA travel a love it? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we actually went to we went to Canada. Was kind
Speaker 1: of like our big international tournament that went over, So
Speaker 1: that was that was that was a big deal at
Speaker 1: the time. Does your dad still play hockey? Absolutely, he plays, Um,
Speaker 1: he plays a lot. He plays ice hockey most of
Speaker 1: the time, but he also will play roller hockey too.
Speaker 1: Roller hockey is a little bit more fun, uh And
Speaker 1: and I think me and my dad's opinion just because
Speaker 1: you play four and four and there's it's a lot
Speaker 1: more um, a lot more puck handling and kind of
Speaker 1: a more I think more skill. I guess you could
Speaker 1: say at that at their level, um, you know, in
Speaker 1: ice hockey is just a little bit more kind of
Speaker 1: bashing and dumping the puck in and you know, more strategy,
Speaker 1: I guess where or roller hockey is a little bit
Speaker 1: more of just the skill set behind it. You're from Arizona,
Speaker 1: You're on a state championship basketball team, had a thirty
Speaker 1: seven point game apparently where you didn't miss a single shots.
Speaker 1: You did miss one shot, so that that has been
Speaker 1: incorrectly reported. That was I don't know where that came from,
Speaker 1: but I missed one shot. Yep. I was like thirteen
Speaker 1: for fourteen or something like that. All right, we are
Speaker 1: setting the records. Great for people to see that online.
Speaker 1: But in any case, it sounds like you could have
Speaker 1: played college hoops. Why did you choose football? In my mind,
Speaker 1: I like to tell myself I could have. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go with that. The other day I die. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if if I really could have or at what
Speaker 1: level I could have, but um, we're gonna go with that.
Speaker 1: So we're definitely gonna go with that. Well, you definitely
Speaker 1: chose wisely. You had a great college career and now
Speaker 1: you're playing in the NFL. You started your college career
Speaker 1: at Boise State, and before you ever got started there,
Speaker 1: you had to have rotator cuff surgery. Freshman year of
Speaker 1: college is hard period when you go there and you
Speaker 1: can't really take part in the thing that you're going
Speaker 1: to school to do. How difficult was that? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think just the you know, the timeliness of kind of
Speaker 1: what happened, just being hurt in that time period where
Speaker 1: you want to be making friends and showing what you
Speaker 1: can do, you know, at the next level and kind
Speaker 1: of being in that red shirt program and lifting weights
Speaker 1: and getting strong. So I kind of I kind of
Speaker 1: missed out on that, which was deaf only hard on
Speaker 1: me kind of starting so I got off to a
Speaker 1: rocky start, but you know, it's all worked out and
Speaker 1: my shoulders you know, been healthy, so it was it
Speaker 1: was a very successful recovery. So you know, everything happens
Speaker 1: for a reason. So I was definitely looking back on
Speaker 1: it was a it was a good experience. You overcame
Speaker 1: that and then your red shirt sophomore year, you won
Speaker 1: the starting job only to break your ankle in week three,
Speaker 1: and I read an interview where you more or less
Speaker 1: admitted you didn't handle that very well. No, I mean
Speaker 1: I just had I had tried, you know, so hard
Speaker 1: to come back and recover and then it's just like
Speaker 1: game three getting hurt. Um. You know, just the kind
Speaker 1: of the situation was was one that, uh, you know Brett.
Speaker 1: We we knew, you know, I was going to play well.
Speaker 1: We knew Brett was going to play well, and so
Speaker 1: it just kind of it turned out how it did.
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, having said that, it was one
Speaker 1: of the best things I think has ever happened to
Speaker 1: me because I wouldn't have ended up an Anti State
Speaker 1: and my career a Ncy State, and just the people
Speaker 1: I met there was was awesome. So I had to
Speaker 1: break my ankle to get there. But we're doing fun
Speaker 1: facts at Ryan Finley. So you transferred Anti State, you
Speaker 1: start there for three years. What did the fresh start
Speaker 1: do for you emotionally? Um? I did a lot. I
Speaker 1: think just going in I just went in with a
Speaker 1: with a different perspective. I was hurt, and at that
Speaker 1: point I just wanted to play. It was pretty simple,
Speaker 1: so I was just gonna do I was necessary to play.
Speaker 1: I think I took some pressure off myself and that
Speaker 1: in that regard and just kind of wanted to literally
Speaker 1: just play football. And I didn't have really, you know,
Speaker 1: many goals outside of that, so I was just I
Speaker 1: think I was just able to focus, and um, I
Speaker 1: was able to you know, use some of the things
Speaker 1: I learned at at Boise State and my new start
Speaker 1: and also just um yeah, just kind of a new focus.
Speaker 1: And it helped that I knew the offense, um, and
Speaker 1: that wasn't something that I had to spend a lot
Speaker 1: of time on. Uh, just you know, because my coach
Speaker 1: went from Boise to North Carolina State, so I could
Speaker 1: kind of just come on and come in and focus
Speaker 1: on other things. So that helped a lot. After a
Speaker 1: couple of really good years at NC State, you could
Speaker 1: have gone pro. I'm sure you would have been drafted.
Speaker 1: You already had a couple of degrees at that point,
Speaker 1: but you decided to go back with a sixty year
Speaker 1: eligibility and play another year at NC State. Why did
Speaker 1: you want to do that? We just had we just
Speaker 1: had a lot of a lot of guys coming back
Speaker 1: on offense, and I thought it was just it was
Speaker 1: kind of a special opportunity, and uh, why why not
Speaker 1: one more year in college? So you know, just had
Speaker 1: friends coming back. Had you know, guys like Garrett brad
Speaker 1: Bear center at the time, A J. Cohler punter, and
Speaker 1: just s Woody Cornwall quarterback. So just just a lot
Speaker 1: of friends and um, I was just a weird deal.
Speaker 1: I think you know when you when you have that
Speaker 1: decision to leave earlier or not, I feel like you
Speaker 1: can get behind the process with just you know, picking
Speaker 1: an agent. There's all kinds of stuff, just like mentally
Speaker 1: where I feel like you can get a little bit
Speaker 1: behind h if you haven't made up that decision. Um.
Speaker 1: So it was just, I don't know, it just it
Speaker 1: felt better. I felt better about going back, and I
Speaker 1: obviously knew there was a lot to improve on. There
Speaker 1: was a lot of team goals that we had yet
Speaker 1: to accomplis so worked out well for the Bengals. They
Speaker 1: drafted you in the fourth round, and after you got
Speaker 1: to Cincinnati, quarterbacks coach Alex van Pelt made a change
Speaker 1: in your footwork. When you take a shotgun snap, you
Speaker 1: have your left foot forward now instead of your right,
Speaker 1: which sounds like nothing to most of us, But it's
Speaker 1: a big deal to a quarterback, isn't it. Yeah? I
Speaker 1: think it is. It's helped for me. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of guys just kind of fine what they're comfortable with.
Speaker 1: But I've been back and forth throughout my college career
Speaker 1: and kind of found that I like the left foot better.
Speaker 1: And then you know, Alex has really helped me with
Speaker 1: just kind of honing in on kind of what happens
Speaker 1: after the stance, kind of just the timeliness of the
Speaker 1: NFL game, which is a lot different than college. Just
Speaker 1: everything's kind of based off of the timeliness of your feet.
Speaker 1: So that's helped me a lot, just be on time
Speaker 1: and kind of just helps you get through your progressions
Speaker 1: and with a little bit more ease, just kind of
Speaker 1: knowing that your feet will talk to you. A few
Speaker 1: more fun facts for Ryan Finley. Rumor has it you
Speaker 1: are the number one ping pong player on this Bengals team.
Speaker 1: Is that the case? And? Uh? If so, who can
Speaker 1: provide competition? Well, it's it's definitely the case. Um I
Speaker 1: I play Andy a lot. Uh So Me and Andy,
Speaker 1: especially during OTA's training camp, we were playing quite a
Speaker 1: bit um and then we actually we went out and
Speaker 1: we ordered we needed to elevate our game, so we
Speaker 1: went on ordered some paddles, some nice paddles from this
Speaker 1: website called Killer Spin, and um it, my game's really
Speaker 1: taken off even more since I since I got that
Speaker 1: new paddle. So I'm looking to in the offseason join
Speaker 1: like a like a ping pong club or some some
Speaker 1: sort of where I can go play some pickup table tennis. Um,
Speaker 1: because really the only person I can really play is
Speaker 1: is Andy here. So and Andy doesn't always he's got
Speaker 1: other stuff going on. Sometimes I'm always looking for a game.
Speaker 1: So uh yeah, I love ping pong and it really
Speaker 1: our locker rooms really into it, which is fun. So
Speaker 1: they got they got like a board back there where
Speaker 1: they're they're keeping tillies of hoops who and who on
Speaker 1: what date and by how many? So it's pretty fun.
Speaker 1: If I start playing again, I'm going to kill her
Speaker 1: spin to make sure I have a good paddle. You've
Speaker 1: got a younger brother, Ben. He's a high school senior
Speaker 1: and he's going to follow in your footsteps and play
Speaker 1: at NC State. How exciting is it for you to
Speaker 1: follow him? Uh, it's gonna be super exciting. His plan
Speaker 1: is to graduate early after he finishes this year strong, um,
Speaker 1: and so that'll be fun to just have him there.
Speaker 1: Kind of in back my mind, my plan has always
Speaker 1: been to kind of um in the off seasons, be
Speaker 1: be close to Raleigh, if not in Raleigh. So you know,
Speaker 1: that's all the more reason for me and kind of
Speaker 1: my family to be out that way more so, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be. It's gonna be. It's gonna be a lot
Speaker 1: of fun, all right. Last fun fact for Ryan Finley.
Speaker 1: Your birthday is December twenty sixth. My little sister was
Speaker 1: born on the twenty eighth, and all we hated the
Speaker 1: fact that her birthday and Christmas we're so close together.
Speaker 1: What about you? Um, I like it now and I'm
Speaker 1: cool with it now. And you know, my parents they
Speaker 1: never shorted me. I never felt like I got shorted.
Speaker 1: But there were a couple of years when I was
Speaker 1: younger that you know, obviously having no money, being you know,
Speaker 1: twelve thirteen years old, it's basically just the money you
Speaker 1: get is the money you got for Christmas or your birthday.
Speaker 1: So there was a couple of years where I celebrated
Speaker 1: my birthday in June, like with my sister, just so
Speaker 1: I would have like kind of a more of a
Speaker 1: steady income. I guess of of Dick sporting goods, gift
Speaker 1: cards and gift cards. So but I you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's fine now. I like having my birthday in December.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like the you know, you wait for
Speaker 1: Christmas for so long and then it's kind of that
Speaker 1: like calm down when it's like, damn, we waited for
Speaker 1: two months and now it's over. That's my birthday, so
Speaker 1: I get to I don't get quite as sad when
Speaker 1: Christmas is over. Remember to wish you a a happy birthday
Speaker 1: in the final week of the season. Appreciate your time.
Speaker 1: Thank you. All right, that's Ryan Finley. We want to
Speaker 1: remind you to come out and join us on location
Speaker 1: for a radio show this week on Friday afternoon from
Speaker 1: three to six we'll be at Buffalo Wings and Rings
Speaker 1: in Fairfield for the Bengals pep Rally Show. A Bengals
Speaker 1: player joins us in the final hour and we'll know
Speaker 1: who that is later this week. That's going to do
Speaker 1: it for this episode of the podcast. If you haven't
Speaker 1: done so already, don't forget to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher,
Speaker 1: Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean, and if you have
Speaker 1: a minute, give it a rating or share a comment.
Speaker 1: Those five star ratings help more Bengals fans find this podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Dan Horde and thank you for listening to The
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth Podcast.