Speaker 1: I get everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast. The who I'm Still Alive addition,
Speaker 1: as the Bengals looked to bounce back from last week's
Speaker 1: disappointing loss to the Jets and had proved a six
Speaker 1: and three overall and three and oz in the AFC
Speaker 1: North by beating the Cleveland Browns, coming up, Dave Lapham
Speaker 1: joins me to discuss what went wrong last week and
Speaker 1: answer the ask lap questions you submitted on Twitter. My
Speaker 1: one on one player interview is with Jonah Williams, who
Speaker 1: faces the challenge of trying to block NFL sack leader
Speaker 1: Myles Garrett. On Sunday, I'll preview the game with one
Speaker 1: of three quarterbacks who played for both the Bengals and
Speaker 1: the Browns, Bruce Gradkowski, and I'll also tell you who
Speaker 1: the other two quarterbacks were. And finally, it's our No
Speaker 1: the Faux segment, as we discussed the four and four
Speaker 1: Cleveland Browns with long time Cleveland's sportswriter Tony Grossie. The
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Ultimate Bengals, the free
Speaker 1: to play Next Level Fantasy Football game downloaded now from
Speaker 1: the App Store and Google Play. And here's a quick
Speaker 1: reminder that you can add the latest edition of this
Speaker 1: podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by
Speaker 1: subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing
Speaker 1: since the Monday Night Football Manning Cast. Every Monday, I
Speaker 1: spend my evening doing prep work on the Bengals upcoming opponent,
Speaker 1: and the so called Manning Cast on ESPN two has
Speaker 1: proven to be the perfect background entertainment. If you haven't
Speaker 1: watched it yet, The Manning Cast is officially titled Monday
Speaker 1: Night Football with Peyton and Eli, and it's an alternate
Speaker 1: broadcast of the Monday Night football game. It's basically like
Speaker 1: hanging out in their living room as the Manning brothers
Speaker 1: and their guests watch the game. The football content is fine,
Speaker 1: but the best part is listening to Peyton and e
Speaker 1: Lie poke fun at each other. The guests this year
Speaker 1: have included a bunch of quarterbacks, Russell Wilson, Matthew Stafford,
Speaker 1: Tom Brady, Drew Breese, Bred Farv and most recently, Josh Allen.
Speaker 1: I've got my fingers crossed that will get a Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow appearance sometime soon. Now let's get to my guest list,
Speaker 1: beginning with my broadcast partner Dave Lapham Lap. Did the
Speaker 1: Jets provide a blueprint for the best way to attack
Speaker 1: the Bengals defense? I think that the Bengals can make
Speaker 1: adjustments to what they did. Dan. They gave a lot
Speaker 1: of space. You know, they retreated, and then when things
Speaker 1: start to go badly, when you're retreating, your instinct is
Speaker 1: to retreat more, you know, human nature instead of I'm
Speaker 1: not saying flight instead of fight, but I mean it's
Speaker 1: like the last thing you want to do is, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, this isn't working out. They're moving the ball.
Speaker 1: I gotta make sure they're don't throw it over my head.
Speaker 1: So you exacerbate the problem by dropping more a defense
Speaker 1: A coordinator who remained unnamed on this one, but he
Speaker 1: hit a cornerback that was you know, got beat in
Speaker 1: practice as training camp. So he kept giving space, giving space,
Speaker 1: giving space. Defensive corners up, kicks him in the button,
Speaker 1: pushes them up. The line of scrimmage goes, get up
Speaker 1: and press them, don't let them get a free release
Speaker 1: on you reround him. You're doing the opposite of what
Speaker 1: you should be doing, and I think that's what ended
Speaker 1: up happening in this football game. It was almost like
Speaker 1: the human nature was the reverse of what you should
Speaker 1: be doing. You know, your natural reaction was almost like
Speaker 1: contrarian and because you know one thing, offensively, you want
Speaker 1: to create space. Defensively, you want a shrink space, and
Speaker 1: the Bengals defensively, we're helping them create space. And it
Speaker 1: ended up kicking them in the butt and backfiring on them.
Speaker 1: And then compound that with the fact that they didn't,
Speaker 1: like Luna Rumo said, they block tackled, they didn't use
Speaker 1: their arms, they never wrapped up, and fifteen broken tackles
Speaker 1: in one football game. Over half of the offense came
Speaker 1: as a result of, you know, yards after catch because
Speaker 1: the space provided, or yards after contact because of mistackles. So,
Speaker 1: speaking of lou Anna Rumo, he's done a phenomenal job
Speaker 1: this year. He's right up there with Team MVP almost
Speaker 1: through eight games. But I thought that they stayed with
Speaker 1: their defensive game plan too long and didn't adjust to
Speaker 1: what the Jets were doing. Is that fair? I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm no experts, certainly, yeah, And I guess part of
Speaker 1: it is my reaction would have been you know, shrink
Speaker 1: the space, shrink the space. And maybe it was being said,
Speaker 1: but players just weren't doing it unless you're out in
Speaker 1: the field actually, you know, make that kind of correction.
Speaker 1: And then you look at the tape in gosh, it's
Speaker 1: even worse than I thought it was. And so it
Speaker 1: was just it was one of those scenarios where I
Speaker 1: think this is an oval simplification. But I thought out
Speaker 1: to look at it again that m lou wanted to
Speaker 1: to muddy up the middle of the football field. For White,
Speaker 1: you know, did a lot of some zero stuff and
Speaker 1: all that, and he wanted to you know, make that
Speaker 1: like you know, rush hour traffic, not be able to
Speaker 1: sort it out. And what Lafleur did and what White
Speaker 1: executor was get it to perimeter, you know, to the
Speaker 1: short passes, the screens though a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of routes that were to the outside, stay away from
Speaker 1: all that stuff in the middle. I thought they had
Speaker 1: a good game plan and they didn't have to adjust
Speaker 1: their game plan. And the Bengals, you know, if they
Speaker 1: did adjust, took them obviously a little bit too long
Speaker 1: and then did not execute either the game plan or
Speaker 1: the adjustment to the game plan well enough. I mean
Speaker 1: the Jets made more plays. That's what it boiled down to.
Speaker 1: And how about White, not only the yards but the
Speaker 1: Philly special he catch us the two point conversion. I mean,
Speaker 1: the guy's going to have a statue at the stadium.
Speaker 1: I mean after one game, he's I know one thing,
Speaker 1: He's not gonna be buying too many dinners or drinks
Speaker 1: in that town, which is good considering how much they
Speaker 1: cost to first quarter of the game, fourth and goal
Speaker 1: from the three after the Jesse Bates interception. I don't
Speaker 1: want a second guess just because it didn't work. But
Speaker 1: at the time, did you agree with going for it
Speaker 1: or would you kick the field goal? Yeah? I probably
Speaker 1: would have put points on the board because of the
Speaker 1: fact that, all right, I already got I already took
Speaker 1: a hit, I already get staggers as they went right
Speaker 1: down the field in the first drive and scored. Then
Speaker 1: your defense makes a play and returns it a bunch
Speaker 1: of yards, and it's rare to get tack to the
Speaker 1: one yard line interception return. You know, it's almost amazing
Speaker 1: that he did. That's that's just an unbelievble hustle players.
Speaker 1: It was a seven point play, as it turned out,
Speaker 1: But first and goal at the one you get knocked back,
Speaker 1: two straight downs, third down, your best receiver production wise
Speaker 1: in terms of yards and catches and touchdowns drops, the
Speaker 1: ball gets right in the chest at that point. It's like,
Speaker 1: it's a rocky start. Let's get something out of this.
Speaker 1: Let's get some points on the board, you know, and
Speaker 1: then and then okay, let's go attack again. But and
Speaker 1: that's easy to say, hindsight is twenty twenty. But with
Speaker 1: all the things that went on before that, I think
Speaker 1: I would have been and we both agree, you know,
Speaker 1: you gotta got kick it, get the points. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was with you at the time I take that field goal.
Speaker 1: I want to come away with something, avoid the risk
Speaker 1: of coming away with nothing. But it wasn't like I
Speaker 1: felt that way ninety to ten. I felt that way,
Speaker 1: you know, fifty three to forty seven, right right, No,
Speaker 1: you're right, because in the competitive part of you is like,
Speaker 1: are you kidding me? This is embarrassing, this is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: It's the Jets, the only one, only one a game.
Speaker 1: We gotta we gotta let's get even steven right now,
Speaker 1: Let's establish something. I mean, I can see both ways.
Speaker 1: I can see a case for both ways, but I've
Speaker 1: seen particularly the way their first three downs went. Now
Speaker 1: you expect to rise from the ashes and make something
Speaker 1: you know, really good happen. You know, I mean the
Speaker 1: odds say, I guess if you do analytics, if you
Speaker 1: have three bad players or oh it's you augs, you
Speaker 1: gonna have four in a row as opposed to have
Speaker 1: one good one, probably favoring the one good one. I
Speaker 1: don't know. You can analytic to death. All I know
Speaker 1: is the Bengals took a shot to the mouth when
Speaker 1: they went down the field and scored their first points
Speaker 1: of the season in the first quarter. They were so
Speaker 1: confident they wanted to toss instead of deferring. This so
Speaker 1: we want the ball because we feel so good about
Speaker 1: our game plan. We want the ball. They went right
Speaker 1: down the field and scored. It's like, whoo man. Now
Speaker 1: now it's like you get pushed off your spot here
Speaker 1: a little bit. You got to rebalance, recompose. So those
Speaker 1: are the reasons I would have done it. And they
Speaker 1: still had an eleven point leading the fourth quarter, so
Speaker 1: it's not like that decided the game. But still thought
Speaker 1: it was worth discussing all right. So far this year,
Speaker 1: the Bengals have scored fifty eight points in the second quarter,
Speaker 1: sixty five points in the third quarter, seventy points in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, but only twenty four in the first quarter.
Speaker 1: That's an average of three points a game. Now, part
Speaker 1: of that is they've won all these coin tosses and
Speaker 1: they defers, so they've got fewer drives the first quarter
Speaker 1: then the other ones. But why do you think the
Speaker 1: offense keeps starting slow? That's a million dollar question, you know,
Speaker 1: it really is. I just I don't know. It's almost
Speaker 1: like you think about it so much. You know, it
Speaker 1: starts to be a trend after like your third game,
Speaker 1: you know, for a game or two, it's like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you know it'll turn around. Now getting into the halfway
Speaker 1: point of the season and still an issue. So not
Speaker 1: it starts to take on a life of its own,
Speaker 1: and you really start to press and to try to
Speaker 1: maybe do too much or I don't know, I really
Speaker 1: can't explain it. You're trying to do too much as
Speaker 1: a play caller. You're trying to do too much, to
Speaker 1: be too perfect in your execution instead of just going
Speaker 1: out and relaxing and playing football. I mean, it has
Speaker 1: taken on a life of its own, just like scoring
Speaker 1: in the final two minutes of the second quarter is
Speaker 1: taken on a life of its own, and coming right
Speaker 1: out in the first drive in the third quarter and
Speaker 1: scoring like six out of eight games in both cases.
Speaker 1: There that's taken on a life of its own. So
Speaker 1: there's a negative life of its own, then a couple
Speaker 1: of positive life of its owns um but boy, if
Speaker 1: they could get that sword away, It's it's hard playing
Speaker 1: from behind, you know, in the national football again. And
Speaker 1: even though they haven't scored in the first quarter every
Speaker 1: every game, or if scored been the other team has
Speaker 1: scored first, probably more than them every in most games,
Speaker 1: they've been able to bounce back. I mean they've been
Speaker 1: able to you know. It hasn't necessarily been the biggest
Speaker 1: reason they lost the football game, but it's a reason.
Speaker 1: I think it's a factor. I think it's a factor
Speaker 1: for sure. Let's talk about the Browns. They're four and four.
Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield is playing with the left shoulder injury that
Speaker 1: will eventually require surgery. Kareem Hunt is out right dackle
Speaker 1: Jack Conklin is an excellent player. He's going to miss
Speaker 1: this week's game. Now they've got Odell Beckham junior and
Speaker 1: senior drama going on in Cleveland. How did the Browns
Speaker 1: look to you right now? And what are some of
Speaker 1: the keys to beating them? Yeah, I mean they're still
Speaker 1: they're still a physical football team. You watch you watch
Speaker 1: them on tape and you think, how does this football
Speaker 1: team not won more games? Because their offensive line is
Speaker 1: very good, their defensive line is very good. I mean
Speaker 1: just in the running the football alone, they have the
Speaker 1: best differential in the National Football League. They've outrushed their
Speaker 1: opponent by seventy six point three yards, best in the league.
Speaker 1: Their number one rushing it, the number one in yards
Speaker 1: per while they're rushing it, they're the third and stopping
Speaker 1: the run, and their second in yards per stopping the run.
Speaker 1: That's that's exactly what you want. They're a plus one
Speaker 1: point seven per attempt. That's one. Now, that's first in
Speaker 1: the National Football League as well. When you can run
Speaker 1: the ball and stop the run like that, I don't
Speaker 1: care what level of football you're talking about, you should
Speaker 1: be a winning football team. Now they're minustering in the
Speaker 1: turnover department, which is which is probably a little bit perplexing.
Speaker 1: The biggest thing is that their lack of takeaways, Dan,
Speaker 1: that's stunned me. Only five takeaways, tied for the second
Speaker 1: fewest in the league. You know, they've only got eight
Speaker 1: eight giveaways. That's not terrible, but being minus three with
Speaker 1: just the five takeaways, they've only recovered two fumbles, tied
Speaker 1: for the second fewest in the National Football League as well.
Speaker 1: So you know, you can always find a reason why
Speaker 1: they are what they are. But when you look at
Speaker 1: their personnel and you look at the way they've executed
Speaker 1: as a result they having that personnel, and they've had
Speaker 1: some injury issues. Chubb has been hurt, Hunt's been hurt.
Speaker 1: They haven't had their one two punch at the running
Speaker 1: back position together for a whole lot of snaps. They've
Speaker 1: got a tanement defensive ends that's as good as there
Speaker 1: is in the league. I mean, they've got players. They've
Speaker 1: got players. So the Bengals are gonna have to play
Speaker 1: at a very high level to get this thing taken
Speaker 1: care of. And I think you know, when you look
Speaker 1: at it, the Bengals are in such a good situation
Speaker 1: because they've won two division games. If they can win
Speaker 1: this one, they have Basically, they have their net three
Speaker 1: division games at home, three in a row at home,
Speaker 1: and then they have to go up to Cleveland the
Speaker 1: end of the season. But if they can take care
Speaker 1: of business on the division games at home and start
Speaker 1: five at all. And I'm getting way ahead of myself,
Speaker 1: but I mean, if you can win this home division
Speaker 1: game and your first two division games in the second
Speaker 1: half of the season or at home, man, that that's
Speaker 1: pretty high Cotton. That's you know, that's that's why you
Speaker 1: won in Pittsburgh and in Baltimore to put yourself in
Speaker 1: this position now you have to capitalize and finalize. Is
Speaker 1: stopping the run far and away the number one key
Speaker 1: this week? I think it is. I think I think,
Speaker 1: you know, being competitive with their run game in terms
Speaker 1: of running it and stopping the run, they're the best
Speaker 1: in the league in my opinion, you know, combined. That's
Speaker 1: I think that's the core of what the Bengal is
Speaker 1: going to have to be competitive in those areas to
Speaker 1: win this football game. I don't think they can get
Speaker 1: you know, just rush for seventy yards against the Cleveland
Speaker 1: Browns and give up one hundred forty and think they're
Speaker 1: gonna win the football game. I just I don't I
Speaker 1: don't see that being the case. I see that that
Speaker 1: rush differential as being a factor. The Bengal is gonna
Speaker 1: have to you know, narrow that margin. They can't be
Speaker 1: out rushed by seventy six plus yards like everybody else
Speaker 1: has been on an average basis. Myles Garrett leads to the
Speaker 1: the NFL and sacks. I think we all know that.
Speaker 1: I was surprised to see he's tied for second on
Speaker 1: the Browns and tackles. So he's doing the job in
Speaker 1: the run game as well. When you watch that guy
Speaker 1: on tape, what jumps out freak, I mean, so explosive,
Speaker 1: and I think he's even more effective. Probably two of
Speaker 1: his ten sacks have come from inside. But man, he's
Speaker 1: so explosive and they twist and stunt with them, and
Speaker 1: he's man, he hits gaps and you know, he just
Speaker 1: he just overpowers people. He grabs two, you know, and
Speaker 1: he's just so effective inside. That's big. Fred Fred Johnson
Speaker 1: gave up a you know, a sack last year. That
Speaker 1: was he lined up over Fred at Fred playing in
Speaker 1: a right guard position, lined up a defensive tackle, blew
Speaker 1: up the field sack Joe stripped him, recovered the fumble,
Speaker 1: I mean all of it. He got the he got
Speaker 1: the triple dip ice cream cone, the sacks, stripped, fumble
Speaker 1: and fumble recovery. They have a short field and they
Speaker 1: score big, big play in that football game. If I'm
Speaker 1: a guard and I think I think they were going
Speaker 1: to say, let's challenge the guards a little bit. Match
Speaker 1: up wise, I think we may see Garrett inside, maybe
Speaker 1: even more than people think potentially. But he's he's the
Speaker 1: son of a gun on the edge too though. And
Speaker 1: like you said, Dan, he and Clowney, Clowney to Clowney said,
Speaker 1: such a good solid edge in the running game. Garrett's
Speaker 1: doing it as well. I mean, they're they're just a
Speaker 1: very very sound football team. In Clowney. Remember we saw
Speaker 1: Clowney when we beat Tennessee, when Quentin Spain was his
Speaker 1: first game with this historic you know, doesn't even know
Speaker 1: the names and faces the guys in the huddle. He
Speaker 1: goes out there and plays the heck of a game.
Speaker 1: Clowney was in again. Clowney to me looked like look
Speaker 1: back nine ish. Now he's got juice. Now, now he's
Speaker 1: got a guy that you know, a duo, A tandem guy.
Speaker 1: He's playing with a lot more juice than he played
Speaker 1: with when we saw him last when Tennessee came here
Speaker 1: to Cincinnati in that game. Not what I wanted to hear.
Speaker 1: I pointed the lap signal into the sky above Paul
Speaker 1: Brown Stadium this morning. So I've got some asked lap
Speaker 1: questions that were submitted via Twitter. This one comes from Chris.
Speaker 1: Every player and coach knew the Jets was a potential
Speaker 1: trap game or a letdown game, and your experience what
Speaker 1: causes a team to still come out flat? Man? Chris,
Speaker 1: let me you give me an opportunity to talk about
Speaker 1: something to happen in our Super Bowl team in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty one, first time we went to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: This is unbelievable when I thought back to it, because
Speaker 1: I thought the circumstances were pretty close. We're five and two.
Speaker 1: We go to play the New Orleans Stain. It's one
Speaker 1: and six down in New Orleans Forest. Greg's like man, trap,
Speaker 1: tr ap, big trap until he was blue in the face.
Speaker 1: We go down there, Saints spank us seventeen to seven.
Speaker 1: I'll guarantee you all week, guys, I'm telling you they're
Speaker 1: gonna come out. They're embarrassed. They're embarrassed by the Patriot.
Speaker 1: This is gonna be a physical football game. You can
Speaker 1: talk to you blue in the face until you get
Speaker 1: out there and feel the trap and squeeze on you.
Speaker 1: You know you Sometimes you have to learn the lesson
Speaker 1: the hard way. And what did we do? Okay, well,
Speaker 1: you can go one of two ays. You can fold
Speaker 1: your tent or respond. That was the last game in October.
Speaker 1: Then we had the November to remember. Dan and I
Speaker 1: looked all the games up. November first against the Oilers
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati, thirty four, twenty one, thirteen point win. We
Speaker 1: go out to San Diego on November eighth, beat him
Speaker 1: forty to seventeen, and everybody's like, oh the freezer ball man,
Speaker 1: if you guys have played, we pumped them by twenty
Speaker 1: three points in their place. We're better than the San
Speaker 1: Diego charges now the Er charges. But then on the
Speaker 1: fifteenth the Rams come to town, Jack Youngblood and the
Speaker 1: second Fearsome forcemen as such, Fred Dryer, all these guys.
Speaker 1: We beat them twenty four to ten. Then the Denver
Speaker 1: Broncos come, Oh wait, I mean just to hell of
Speaker 1: a football team. It's when the Broncos. With the Broncos,
Speaker 1: we've beat him thirty eight twenty one, beat him by seventeen.
Speaker 1: Then we go to Cleveland on the twenty ninth. Five
Speaker 1: games in the month of November, the way that calendar
Speaker 1: worked out, on the twenty ninth of November, beat Cleveland
Speaker 1: forty one twenty one. The closest anybody came was thirteen
Speaker 1: points in a five game sweep of good football teams.
Speaker 1: Every one of these teams was a playoff contender. Then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, yeah, we are as good as
Speaker 1: we thought we are. This I'm not saying this football
Speaker 1: team is going to go on a five game winning
Speaker 1: streak or four game and winning streak or whatever and
Speaker 1: go to the Super Bowl. But what I'm saying is,
Speaker 1: don't let one stub your toe where you broke your toe,
Speaker 1: or don't let it break your toe. Stub your toe,
Speaker 1: don't let it break your toe. On recover, you know,
Speaker 1: all your goals is still ahead of you, particularly with
Speaker 1: respect to the division. You can bounce back against a
Speaker 1: division opponent, sweep the division in the first part of it,
Speaker 1: be three and all at the break at the bye
Speaker 1: week in the division in great shape. Like we said
Speaker 1: two out of the last year at home, this big game,
Speaker 1: stop your toe, don't break your talent. I like that.
Speaker 1: This question comes from r as have you ever seen
Speaker 1: players come to the podium together to answer questions? No, now,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't say that, because you know, when they have
Speaker 1: the big games that are network televised playoffs and all that,
Speaker 1: they'll have teammates out there together because of just the
Speaker 1: timing of it and all that. But they're not out
Speaker 1: there necessarily, you know, as one to answer questions. It's
Speaker 1: like they'll they'll be peppered questions just trying to get
Speaker 1: a sheer volume people out there. This is a situation
Speaker 1: where let's go out there and show united from we
Speaker 1: all believe in each other, we believe in the football team,
Speaker 1: and let's approach it that way. I thought that was
Speaker 1: that was a great idea. And I don't know who
Speaker 1: the idea it was, but all three of them should
Speaker 1: take a bow, I think for that. I think their
Speaker 1: teammates appreciated it. I know as a former player I did,
Speaker 1: and they all representing themselves and their football team very well.
Speaker 1: I thought it was a very very positive statement and
Speaker 1: I think it kind of it eased the fracture was.
Speaker 1: It wasn't as bad a break of the bone. You know,
Speaker 1: after losing that football game. The way they handled it,
Speaker 1: they stopped the damage. You know, they basically stuck the
Speaker 1: finger in the dike and stopped the leaking of the damn.
Speaker 1: I thought it was a good move. I agree, I
Speaker 1: thought it was great. This question comes from John in
Speaker 1: a season where the Bengals have been incredibly healthy so far,
Speaker 1: I'm knocking on something that sounds like wood. Should the
Speaker 1: Bengals have made moves at the trade deadline to position
Speaker 1: themselves for a playoff push. You know, you heard about
Speaker 1: all these potential deals that we're going to be made,
Speaker 1: and just a very very few of them are made.
Speaker 1: It's just hard. It's hard. It's hard to make deals
Speaker 1: that benefit both football teams enough where they both feel
Speaker 1: comfortable enough to do it. We don't know how many
Speaker 1: deals they kicked the tires on. We don't know how
Speaker 1: many deals they got into big discussions on, but none
Speaker 1: to materialize. I have no problem with the fact that
Speaker 1: they didn't make any trades. Now, I hope and I
Speaker 1: think there's number one focus still is signed. Jesse Bates.
Speaker 1: You know, I think their mindsets take care of their
Speaker 1: own and even and now that they didn't make any
Speaker 1: of these trades and have to mess with any salary
Speaker 1: cap deal scenarios in the in so doing, they know
Speaker 1: still exactly what they were going to be looking at
Speaker 1: you at the conclusion of the season and for future
Speaker 1: seasons on. So you know, maybe maybe the deal will
Speaker 1: come together for Jesse Bates before the end of the year,
Speaker 1: who knows, But I think that would still be my
Speaker 1: first priority. You know, when you have when you have
Speaker 1: a teammate like Mike Hilton, a conclusion of a press
Speaker 1: or say, signed Jesse Bates, it's powerful stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: those kind of things mean something, I think, and that
Speaker 1: would be my number one priority now is getting number
Speaker 1: thirty signed, followed closely by Larry Ogan Joby absolutely. Next
Speaker 1: question from governor chief, how do you think the defense
Speaker 1: will respond after an abysmal performance last week. I think
Speaker 1: they'll respond big time. I think that I think this
Speaker 1: one is gonna be a cage match. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be like MMA. It's it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a very very physical football game. It's a division rivalry.
Speaker 1: Cleveland Cincinnati are always physical football games with what's at
Speaker 1: stake now, and I mean the sports psychologists could have
Speaker 1: a field day. Bengals have the big win in Baltimore
Speaker 1: and they get full of themselves and they, you know,
Speaker 1: don't listen to everybody about the trap game deal. They
Speaker 1: go down to go up to the Jets and lose
Speaker 1: that football game, how are they going to respond? I mean,
Speaker 1: they had more to lose than the Jets obviously in
Speaker 1: that football game, and they'd lost it in the Jets
Speaker 1: one to Cleveland coming off a brutally physically tough football game,
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh Steelers lose five in the division by five in
Speaker 1: the division game, what's their mindset going to be? Like?
Speaker 1: I think both of them are going to come into
Speaker 1: this football game dan angry, upset, disappointed, wanting to make restitution.
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be really physical, particularly at
Speaker 1: the onset. And then then what you have to do is,
Speaker 1: all right, you get over that phase of it and
Speaker 1: now you get into the snap by snap grind of
Speaker 1: the game. But keep that intense and new level high.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what we're going to see out
Speaker 1: of the Bengals. We're not going to see that intensity
Speaker 1: level sag like it's sag in New York. This question
Speaker 1: comes from Willie, not Cunningham. Ken Hakima Dentagy be the
Speaker 1: first guard off the bench once he's activated to the
Speaker 1: fifty three manuster, assuming that happens. I want if that's
Speaker 1: Big Williamerson asking that old line question, Big will it
Speaker 1: wouldn't surprise me if But he has to be physically ready,
Speaker 1: and thing that he's fighting, like we talked about before
Speaker 1: right now, is not just getting ready physically for football.
Speaker 1: I mean, he hasn't had any contact so and he
Speaker 1: hasn't taken all the reps at OTA's Mini Camps training
Speaker 1: camp that all the other linemen took with Frank Pollock
Speaker 1: and his new new technique's new footwork and all that thing.
Speaker 1: So he's he's trying to catch up in a very
Speaker 1: very short time for him of thousands of reps that
Speaker 1: the other guys are taken. So it's not easy. And
Speaker 1: he hasn't played a lot of football in the National
Speaker 1: Football League, So you throw all that into the mix,
Speaker 1: and it's like, I don't know if you want to
Speaker 1: rush it necessarily, because that could be kind of productive
Speaker 1: and it could be a confidence buster in some way.
Speaker 1: Shape or for him. But he's got talent, and if
Speaker 1: it looks like he's ready to play, I'd see how
Speaker 1: well he can play. I really would. I'd find out.
Speaker 1: Another offensive line question comes from man, can you see
Speaker 1: Trey Hill getting snaps at center? Potentially? But I think
Speaker 1: I think the one thing that that Trey Hill has shown, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: is when a problem happens, he kind of loses his mind.
Speaker 1: You know, it happened to him, you know, in Baltimore,
Speaker 1: and he only lasted a couple of snaps before Frank said,
Speaker 1: all right, look this, you're gonna have to sit back
Speaker 1: down and chill a little bit. And then he did,
Speaker 1: and he came back. He played some lights, some snaps.
Speaker 1: But the one thing you can't have happen is the
Speaker 1: center who makes all the calls and everything that goes
Speaker 1: along with it. Trey Hopkins does an unbelievable job, super
Speaker 1: intelligent and doesn't never lose his you know, he's like
Speaker 1: he's always got his he knows the responsibility, so he's
Speaker 1: not gonna lose his mind. As such. Tray shown that
Speaker 1: can happen to the young rookie, so that that would
Speaker 1: be a concern of mine. That's somebody that I've I've
Speaker 1: got play in the center position that kind of orchestrates,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody's movements based on his calls. He would
Speaker 1: be a very clear minded, clearhead and all that sort
Speaker 1: of thing. So physically, yeah, I think he could. Mentally,
Speaker 1: maybe a little work to do there. The final two
Speaker 1: questions come from Bengal super fan and podcaster Zim Zim's
Speaker 1: a good dude. Here's the first question. With last week's
Speaker 1: injury to Carmen and the uncertainty of hopkins knee, coupled
Speaker 1: with the fact that the Bengals are likely to have
Speaker 1: a couple of extra draft picks next year, how do
Speaker 1: you justify not adding interior line help at the deadline? Well,
Speaker 1: I think that Carmen's injury was not anywhere near as
Speaker 1: bad as people thought, you know, at that point. And
Speaker 1: I think that they're at this point in time trying
Speaker 1: to develop a guy that they've added to the interior
Speaker 1: line to improve it and to make it make it
Speaker 1: a better unit inside. So I don't think they necessarily
Speaker 1: want to give up on Carmen at this point in time. Now,
Speaker 1: I know you're thinking because of injury, but again, the
Speaker 1: injury is not as severe as as initially could have been.
Speaker 1: So I think that's a that's a factor. And again, interior,
Speaker 1: really good interior offensive lineman. People don't just give him up.
Speaker 1: I mean it's he's say, yeah, yeah, I want to
Speaker 1: trade for an interior offensive linement. Well, I don't want
Speaker 1: to give you mine. You can't give me enough for
Speaker 1: what I think the value of my interior offensive lineman is.
Speaker 1: I remember that, Uh, Mike McCormick divulged to me that
Speaker 1: when I played center to finish out a season, I
Speaker 1: think it was a nineteen eighty season. I think I
Speaker 1: had to play Blair Bush Tours knee up and I
Speaker 1: had to play the last six games at center. And
Speaker 1: Mike McCormick was our line coach. And then he went
Speaker 1: to fill Ladelphia, and uh, and he said that they
Speaker 1: trying to work at trade to go to Philadelphia, and
Speaker 1: the Bengals wanted a first or second undraft pick for
Speaker 1: and obviously, you know, like eight years in the league
Speaker 1: or whatever. Debtok, Mike goes, hey, I love you and everything,
Speaker 1: but that that wasn't gonna happen. Those are the kind
Speaker 1: of things though, the people like somebody's uh trash is
Speaker 1: another person's treasure kind of thing, you know, in terms
Speaker 1: of what the values are. So that's why a lot
Speaker 1: of those deals don't come together, you know that quickly.
Speaker 1: It's like, now, man, that's unrealistic. I mean, yeah, I
Speaker 1: like the guy. I think he's a good player of it. Heck,
Speaker 1: I don't want to leverage my you know, my franchises future.
Speaker 1: So it's it's a lot easier than it sounds. And
Speaker 1: that's why thirty two teams all to talk about the
Speaker 1: trade deadline and what less than a handful of deals happened.
Speaker 1: If I'm the Bengals back in the day, I would
Speaker 1: have held out for Ricky Williams like package for day
Speaker 1: of Lapham. I want your entire draft or I'm not
Speaker 1: giving lap up all right, Second and final question from
Speaker 1: Zim what position would Dan play? I assume he means
Speaker 1: me in today's soft NFL. Well, the thing about Dan
Speaker 1: Horde is he's sneaky athletic. You got to you got
Speaker 1: to realize that he's very sneaky athletic. Plus, though nobody
Speaker 1: is more intelligent than Dan Horde. Dan Horde could I
Speaker 1: would I would have him somewhere on the field, you know,
Speaker 1: he's gonna have a green dot on his helmet wherever
Speaker 1: he is because I want to communicate with him, because
Speaker 1: I know what I communicate will be communicated to everybody
Speaker 1: else precisely. And uh so I would put Dan Horde
Speaker 1: in a position safety something like that where he has
Speaker 1: to he has to direct traffic and uh and take
Speaker 1: care take care of business. That way, I trust the
Speaker 1: man's mind as well as his body. I appreciate that
Speaker 1: very much, reiterating that that is in the soft NFL
Speaker 1: because you don't want Dan Horde trying to hit anybody.
Speaker 1: I can promise you that lap. Thank you kindly, pleasure
Speaker 1: as alis my pleasure, Damn the man. Great questions from
Speaker 1: zim Hu Day, who co hosts the Orange is the
Speaker 1: New Black podcast with Ace Boogey. I look forward to
Speaker 1: being their guest this week. Up next my one on
Speaker 1: one visit with offensive lineman Jonah Williams, who faces the
Speaker 1: challenge of trying to block Myles Garrett on Sunday, John,
Speaker 1: I want to start with something three of your teammates
Speaker 1: did after the loss to the Jets last week. Tyler Boyd,
Speaker 1: Joe Mixon and Jessee Bates chose to address the media
Speaker 1: in Unison. What should we take from that? I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that that says a lot about our team
Speaker 1: and the connectedness that we're showing. And it's important that
Speaker 1: when we win, we acknowledge that we want as a team,
Speaker 1: and when we lose, we lose as a team. So
Speaker 1: there's no pointing fingers. It's just accountability as a unit.
Speaker 1: I thought after they had been embarrassed the week before
Speaker 1: by the Patriots, the Jets played violently on both sides
Speaker 1: of the ball last week. Did you notice a little
Speaker 1: extra juice while you were trying to block those guys? Yeah,
Speaker 1: they were playing hard, but it's the NFL. You know,
Speaker 1: we expect everyone to play hard every week, so you know,
Speaker 1: they post challenges and we just didn't do enough to win.
Speaker 1: You did score thirty one points. That's the third straight
Speaker 1: week you've topped thirty all on the road. What do
Speaker 1: you think is clicking right now that maybe wasn't quite
Speaker 1: there early in the year. I just think that we're
Speaker 1: we've been together more, we've practiced together more, we've played
Speaker 1: together more. So I think that we're really starting to
Speaker 1: gel as a unit. And it's also the progression of
Speaker 1: the offense. You know, schematically, teams are adjusting to something,
Speaker 1: so we have to have good responses to that, and
Speaker 1: I think we've been doing a good job, and you know,
Speaker 1: for the rest of the season, it's going to be
Speaker 1: important that we continue to put up a lot of points.
Speaker 1: We're visiting with Jonah Williams. A key play and last
Speaker 1: week's game was the interception by the Jets with about
Speaker 1: four and a half minutes to go. It's a screen
Speaker 1: to Jamar Chase. The right side of the line goes
Speaker 1: to the right faking a run. You and Quinton Spain
Speaker 1: peel out to the left. You're gonna block for Jamar
Speaker 1: and it looks like if Shack Lawson doesn't tip and
Speaker 1: intercept the pass, that's going to be a huge game.
Speaker 1: Is that the way it looked on tape? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I think that it. You know, the play call
Speaker 1: made sense with that defense, and you know, if if
Speaker 1: we executed just a little bit better, I think it
Speaker 1: would would have been a big game or a big play,
Speaker 1: and unfortunately it was, you know, it just didn't work
Speaker 1: out that way. Sometimes the other guys make plays too.
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow has been sacked twenty times this year, but
Speaker 1: ten came in the first two games. You've only given
Speaker 1: up ten in the last six. What's been the key
Speaker 1: to protecting him so well? If light well, I think
Speaker 1: I mean any sacks or too many sacks. So I
Speaker 1: think it's been better, but there's a lot to there's
Speaker 1: a lot to clean up. You know. It's it's similar
Speaker 1: to what I said in terms of why the offense
Speaker 1: is scoring. I think that you know, we're working together,
Speaker 1: working together better as an OH line and as an
Speaker 1: offense as a whole. Everyone's on the same page, and
Speaker 1: you know Joe's making good decisions with the ball, and
Speaker 1: you know we're just doing a better job of protecting.
Speaker 1: So we've play a lot of good D lines coming
Speaker 1: up the rest of the year, and it's going to
Speaker 1: be important for us to, you know, player best game.
Speaker 1: Every week. We're visiting the Jonah Williams because you were
Speaker 1: selected three drafts ago. I'm not sure that people realize
Speaker 1: how young you still are. You don't turn twenty four
Speaker 1: for about two weeks. You're eleven months younger than Joe Burrow.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like you're still early in your NFL
Speaker 1: learning curve? I do. I don't look at that as
Speaker 1: a disadvantage, though. I just think that, you know, I
Speaker 1: have room to grow, and that's that's why I'm still here,
Speaker 1: you know, That's why I'm That's why I'm here at practice,
Speaker 1: working every day, and it's it's just a continue to
Speaker 1: get better and you know, hopefully have a long career
Speaker 1: ahead of me. So you face the Browns this week,
Speaker 1: and that means you will be matched up against the
Speaker 1: NFL sack leader Miles Garrett. He's also tied for second
Speaker 1: on the Browns and tackles so far this year, so
Speaker 1: he's doing a great job against the run as well.
Speaker 1: You faced him last year. What's the out. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's a he's a phenomenal football player, and I think
Speaker 1: that that's obvious to anyone who watches him. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: he's he's quick, he's powerful, he has a good arsenal
Speaker 1: of moves at his disposal. So it's it's on me
Speaker 1: and on the rest of the line to use great
Speaker 1: technique and you know, to just do what we can
Speaker 1: to to control them and neutralize him. And I think
Speaker 1: that that's gonna be one of the big keys of
Speaker 1: the game. Watching their last game, I thought it was
Speaker 1: striking how wide he lines up, he's almost even with
Speaker 1: the slot receivers as opposed to write over you what
Speaker 1: challenges does that present? I mean it gives him a
Speaker 1: running started, kind of a full head of steam by
Speaker 1: the time he actually gets to engage me. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: but it also opens up lanes in the run game.
Speaker 1: And you know, so there's there's advantages and disadvantages to
Speaker 1: everything in football. UM, so we just have to take
Speaker 1: advantage of that. Um. It is a unique alignment. Last
Speaker 1: week was disappointing, no question, but you are five and
Speaker 1: three if the season ended today, he a playoff team.
Speaker 1: Evaluate this team through eight games. I think that we've
Speaker 1: shown a lot of really good stuff that makes me
Speaker 1: excited and that you know, makes us believe that we
Speaker 1: can be a playoff team. It's just a matter of execution,
Speaker 1: because I think we saw this past week that you know,
Speaker 1: no matter how talented we are, how you know, how
Speaker 1: many good wins we have, any team can show up
Speaker 1: and take it to us on the weekend. And so
Speaker 1: I think that we know we have the ability to
Speaker 1: be a really good team and to be a playoff team.
Speaker 1: We just have to continue to prove that. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: for the rest of these games. Last question for Jonah
Speaker 1: Williams the bias coming up after this game? Anything fun planned? Um,
Speaker 1: just you know, recovering the body. Maybe it's some good
Speaker 1: food and and hang out and relax a little bit.
Speaker 1: But I'm I'm having a hard time thinking about that
Speaker 1: with these next four or five days in front of me,
Speaker 1: you know, so I'll be excited about when it comes understandable.
Speaker 1: Beat the Browns. First, enjoy the break. Second, appreciate your time.
Speaker 1: Best of lut this week. Thank you for having but
Speaker 1: one it's worth. The Bengals offensive line is currently tied
Speaker 1: for eighth in past blocking efficiency according to Pro Football Focus.
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay is number one, Indianapolis is dead last. The
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Ultimate Bengals, the free
Speaker 1: to play fantasy football game. Ultimate Bengals will be awarding
Speaker 1: a weekly winner during the course of the season, with tickets,
Speaker 1: autographed merchandise, and money can't buy experiences all up for grabs.
Speaker 1: Find Ultimate Bengals in the app stores. Now. Now time
Speaker 1: to bring in a former Bengals quarterback who is currently
Speaker 1: an analyst for Pro Football Focus and for Sirius XM
Speaker 1: NFL Radio. The perfect person to preview this week's game
Speaker 1: between the Bengals and the Browns. Is one of only
Speaker 1: three quarterbacks to play for both franchises, Bruce Gradkowski, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to name the other two at the end
Speaker 1: of this inner view, so people have to stay tuned
Speaker 1: until the very end. Bruce, Let's start with Joe Burrow.
Speaker 1: He's a little bit more than one year into his
Speaker 1: NFL career. What do you find extraordinary about what he's
Speaker 1: been able to do so far? Well, thanks for having me, Dan,
Speaker 1: and I just think Burrow what's so special and unique
Speaker 1: about him is what he brings in that locker room
Speaker 1: and just the leader he is, the mentality he has,
Speaker 1: and of course he has all the ability on the field,
Speaker 1: but I'll tell you when anytime I've been around him,
Speaker 1: he makes me a believer. And I knew the Bengals
Speaker 1: made some good pieces and acquisitions this offseason, but to
Speaker 1: watch how they're planning so far this year, watch how
Speaker 1: Joe Burrows playing, It's just really a compliment to him
Speaker 1: in his leadership and his mentality of what is resonate
Speaker 1: throughout that locker room. And that's what I have a
Speaker 1: lot of respect for, is how he approaches the game,
Speaker 1: his toughness, his mentality, and it's fun to watch. The
Speaker 1: Bengals have top thirty points in each of their last
Speaker 1: three games. The franchise record for consecutive games with thirty
Speaker 1: plus is four, so theoretically they can tie that this
Speaker 1: week against Cleveland. What stands out when you watch the
Speaker 1: Bengals offense right now? You know the thing that's unique
Speaker 1: and that I was kind of pulling up numbers from
Speaker 1: our PF data Burrow verse man and man. Last year
Speaker 1: his PF passing grade was seventy nine point three. In
Speaker 1: this year, verse man a man, his passing grade is
Speaker 1: ninety four point two. So I think Burrow's doing a
Speaker 1: great job. But you also have to look at his
Speaker 1: counterpart in Jamar Chase and what these two do well together.
Speaker 1: Jamar Chase on third down has two hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: two yards. This was before last week, and you know,
Speaker 1: second behind Justin Jefferson, and that just shows you know,
Speaker 1: Burrows third down grade as well, how that got better
Speaker 1: from last year to this year. And so just watching
Speaker 1: how Burrow continues to get better. Last year they opened
Speaker 1: up the offense, he was executing a ton of different
Speaker 1: concepts and now this year he's one year more experienced
Speaker 1: in it. They're giving him some flexibility at the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage. And when you have a quarterback that could
Speaker 1: do those type of things, he's gonna put your offense
Speaker 1: in a downhill play. Is Jamar even better as a
Speaker 1: rookie than you thought he would be? You know, he
Speaker 1: really is, especially the things we're hearing, you know, coming
Speaker 1: out of Bengals camp about drop passes and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But then you know, it goes back to you know,
Speaker 1: even quarterbacks when we studied these college guys or first
Speaker 1: year in the NFL, we're talking about, oh they're inaccurate,
Speaker 1: or or receiver dropping football, Oh he can't catch. Well,
Speaker 1: there's so much on their plate as a young player,
Speaker 1: you're trying to learn an offense. You're trying to know
Speaker 1: where to line up and what to do and get
Speaker 1: used to the speed of game, to the speed of
Speaker 1: the game. Then all of a sudden, the ball hits
Speaker 1: you in the hands. Here, Oh, shoot, that's right, I
Speaker 1: gotta catch it too, you know. So there's so much
Speaker 1: going on, and so to watch Jamar Chase in his
Speaker 1: progress so far from training camp till now, and what
Speaker 1: he's doing is very special. And I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1: Against the Ravens, I was impressed with his yards after
Speaker 1: the catch. I mean, this guy's this guy's tough and
Speaker 1: physical and explosive. I didn't know he could get away
Speaker 1: like that, and that's what was cool to see. And
Speaker 1: I think the more Jamar Chase does it, the more
Speaker 1: he's building his own confidence and be like, Wow, this
Speaker 1: is the NFL. I can dominate here. And it's pretty
Speaker 1: cool to see what he's doing. Already, we're talking to
Speaker 1: former Bengals quarterback Bruce Gradkowski. Let's talk about the Browns.
Speaker 1: A lot of people looked at Cleveland as a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl contender going into the season. I'm sure many people
Speaker 1: still do. But they're four and four so far. What
Speaker 1: stands out about Cleveland so far this year? You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's tough, you know, I know Mayfield going through
Speaker 1: this shoulder injury. I had a shoulder injury similar college
Speaker 1: that I had to play through times, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's not easy, and I know it's his non throwing shorter,
Speaker 1: but it's still something you're thinking about, something that kind
Speaker 1: of makes you a little hesitant. But Mayfield has to
Speaker 1: play cleaner football. And I think too when you look
Speaker 1: at the Browns, you know their playmakers have to step up.
Speaker 1: I know last week Jarvis Landry, you know, had to
Speaker 1: fumble and to keep position. He dropped a pass another time.
Speaker 1: And your leaders, your captains, that's when they have to
Speaker 1: make plays. Because this division, the AFC North, you know,
Speaker 1: it's tough, man and so if you have an opportunity,
Speaker 1: you have to take advantage of it. If you have
Speaker 1: a throw that's open, you gotta hit it. If you
Speaker 1: have a pass that should be caught, you got to
Speaker 1: catch it. And you can't turn the football over and
Speaker 1: that bit. You know, the Browns last week against the Steelers.
Speaker 1: But this is a competitive division. A lot of games
Speaker 1: still left in the season. So you know, if you're
Speaker 1: the Browns, you stuff to be optimistic in that sense.
Speaker 1: But you're coming in and gonna face a good, you know,
Speaker 1: Bengals football team, and the Bengals coming off, you know,
Speaker 1: a tough loss against New York. They're ready to rebound.
Speaker 1: So this is gonna be primetime football you know to watch,
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be an exciting game. Odell Beckham Junior's
Speaker 1: dad basically called out Baker Mayfield this week by posting
Speaker 1: video that showed times that Odell was open and didn't
Speaker 1: get the ball. How do you think that plays in
Speaker 1: an NFL locker room? You know, it's tough. I mean,
Speaker 1: I want to say, doesn't carry a lot of weight,
Speaker 1: you know, because these guys communicate on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: so you know, it could be something that hopefully they
Speaker 1: joke around with one another to lighten the mood and
Speaker 1: like come on, man, tell your dad to call me
Speaker 1: if he has an issue or you know, something like that,
Speaker 1: or let's get your dad on FaceTime and talk to him.
Speaker 1: But you know, I witnessed it last week as I
Speaker 1: was great in the game and Mayfield through a pass
Speaker 1: down the middle of the field to Obj. It was
Speaker 1: a little overthrow own and you know, the safety kind
Speaker 1: of was creeping over too, so kind of look like,
Speaker 1: what were you throwing me into here? And why would
Speaker 1: you leave it high and towards the safety And the
Speaker 1: way ob J got up after the round kind of
Speaker 1: gave a little stair back to Mayfield kind of had
Speaker 1: me intrigued, like, ah, yeah, I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of emotions going on when you're winning. You could slide
Speaker 1: this stuff under the rug. But when things get tough,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, this is when things come to light.
Speaker 1: How can you manage these situations? Kevin Stefanski, how does
Speaker 1: he do during this time? He did a phenomenal job
Speaker 1: last year during COVID. How do you continue bring the
Speaker 1: guys together. It's easy to lead during good times when
Speaker 1: you're winning, everything's gravy. But when you face some adversity,
Speaker 1: that's when you know the real testament stands out. And
Speaker 1: as a receiver, Dan look, I mean the great, the
Speaker 1: greatest of the great. They want the football, you know,
Speaker 1: because the receivers they want to be a part of
Speaker 1: the game and help the team. So I apre obj
Speaker 1: and wanting the ball, wanting to help. But he's got
Speaker 1: to do his job. He's got to run better routes,
Speaker 1: he's got to be in the right spot, and then
Speaker 1: when he is open, yeah, Mayfield has to hit it.
Speaker 1: So it's not just one guy's problem. Everyone plays a
Speaker 1: part in it, and they just can't seem to get
Speaker 1: in a rhythm. First, Kretkowski is our gas, all right.
Speaker 1: The Bengals are five and three, the Browns are four
Speaker 1: and four. This week's games at Paul Brown Stadium. What
Speaker 1: are a couple of keys in your mind? You know,
Speaker 1: it's turnovers. Turnovers stand out to me. You know, who's
Speaker 1: going to protect the football. But also up front, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think you have to stop the run if you're
Speaker 1: the Bengals, because that's what the Browns are gonna want
Speaker 1: to do. They you want to take some stuff off
Speaker 1: of Mayfield's played. Hope played better when you're running the football.
Speaker 1: So the Browns are gonna come off the bus trying
Speaker 1: to establish that run, getting back to what they're good at,
Speaker 1: what they're used to doing, and try to establish the
Speaker 1: ground game in a sense like that. And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, as far as the Bengals defensively, Joe Burrow,
Speaker 1: you know, Burrow did a great job last week through
Speaker 1: three quarters. Same thing defensively, it was that fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a mountdown in a sense. I
Speaker 1: think the Bengals just had to put a fourth quarter
Speaker 1: game together, play clean football in Burrow just being Burrow,
Speaker 1: kind of like that guy behind you in that photo.
Speaker 1: Remember we played the Browns in Cleveland. Don't goes down
Speaker 1: to a little hand injury or wrist and we come
Speaker 1: back to win. But a lot of good times. But
Speaker 1: I think I think the Bengals. I would love to
Speaker 1: see the Bengals rebound here because I think it would
Speaker 1: show a testament to their team character and that they
Speaker 1: are a good, tough football team. Hey, it happens you
Speaker 1: lose a game you shouldn't. Now you just have to
Speaker 1: bounce back. Well, you reference that game in Cleveland where
Speaker 1: you were the hero the opener in twenty eleven. You
Speaker 1: threw AJ Green's first career touchdown catch to win that game.
Speaker 1: That's one trivia question. It's time to answer the other.
Speaker 1: Do you know the other two quarterbacks to play for
Speaker 1: both the Bengals and the Browns? Man, it doesn't come
Speaker 1: to mind right now, you know? Should I know? This
Speaker 1: is this one that a probably should know right now?
Speaker 1: Not really? The other two quarterbacks to play for both
Speaker 1: the Bengals and the Browns are Jason Campbell and Todd Philcox. Gradkowski,
Speaker 1: Campbell and Philcox, the Big Three. Bruce, It's always great
Speaker 1: to visit with you. Thanks so much for your time.
Speaker 1: Keep up the good work. Yeah, thanks, Dan, you good luck.
Speaker 1: This week, Bruce became a high school football coach in
Speaker 1: his hometown of Toledo. This year and took Saint Francis
Speaker 1: de Sales to the Division two playoffs before losing to
Speaker 1: second seeded Avon. Finally, it's time to take an in
Speaker 1: depth look at the Browns with longtime Cleveland sportswriter Tony Grossi,
Speaker 1: who joined Lappinbe on the Bengals Game Plan show on
Speaker 1: Wednesday night. We started by asking Tony for his take
Speaker 1: on the Odell Beckham junior situation, after the former Pro
Speaker 1: Bowl wide receiver was told not to come to practice
Speaker 1: on Wednesday afternoon. Well, first of all, I think it's
Speaker 1: safe to say that the Bengals won't have to worry
Speaker 1: about defending Odell on Sunday. So no way can I
Speaker 1: see him reconciling the situation and playing in Sunday's game.
Speaker 1: More likely, I see them separating somehow. The means must be,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of negotiated. I don't think the Browns
Speaker 1: want to release O'Dell still pay him eight million dollars
Speaker 1: and have him, you know, join a contending team that
Speaker 1: the Browns make face somewhere down the line. So it's
Speaker 1: very possible, in my opinion, that we can see almost
Speaker 1: a Deshaun Watson situation here where the Browns pay Backham
Speaker 1: the rest of the year not to play. Wow, that's unreal.
Speaker 1: So he would be on the commissioner's list as such.
Speaker 1: Not No, I don't think any list. It's just that
Speaker 1: they won't give him his release. There there, you know,
Speaker 1: he's guaranteed his salary as a vested veteran even if
Speaker 1: they would release him. And I don't see it being
Speaker 1: a situation where he could play with them again whether
Speaker 1: he wants to or not. So just game day and
Speaker 1: active for the rest of the year. Like Deshaun Watson
Speaker 1: with Houston. Wow. Yeah, paying him to go away, that's
Speaker 1: pretty good, pretty good gig if you can find it.
Speaker 1: I guess that's unbelievable at any rate. So so he's
Speaker 1: he's going to be. He didn't practice today, and of
Speaker 1: course they they said quote shoulder injury or whatever, but
Speaker 1: I mean shoulder problem. But it's obviously the personal issues
Speaker 1: that he's dealing with. Fifteen other players were on the
Speaker 1: Wednesday injury report in varying degrees. Uh. Seven others didn't
Speaker 1: practice at all. Six practice limited too on the injury report,
Speaker 1: including Baker Mayfield. You know, practice bowl. How severe are
Speaker 1: a lot of these injuries I mean, I know, you
Speaker 1: play the Pittsburgh Steelers, you're always licking your wounds when
Speaker 1: you're done. How severe are some of these injuries? Now?
Speaker 1: These are all legit. Uh, they've they've been beat up
Speaker 1: for about I don't know, three four five weeks, and
Speaker 1: it's gonna stay with him, uh, the whole year. They
Speaker 1: don't have a bye week until December, and that they've
Speaker 1: they've been beat up, there's no doubt. I mean, now
Speaker 1: you mentioned Odell, he's got a legit shoulder injury in
Speaker 1: addition to this mass and all of the all of
Speaker 1: the injuries listed are fairly legit. They've played with him.
Speaker 1: You probably know Banker situation. He's got a totally torn
Speaker 1: left laborum and also a very small chip fracture in
Speaker 1: his uh humorous bone, and he's playing with that wearing
Speaker 1: a tight harness to keep the shoulder from popping out
Speaker 1: even without contact. So are banged up, and it's it's
Speaker 1: partly the reason they're four for him. So it is
Speaker 1: partly the reason. Tony Grossi from eight fifty ESPN Cleveland
Speaker 1: is our guest. Let me follow up on Baker Mayfield Tony,
Speaker 1: because he's played great against Cincinnati the six times he's
Speaker 1: played the Bengals, and last year with Kevin Stefanski coaching him,
Speaker 1: he was so great at those rollouts and just using
Speaker 1: the running game to create wide open lanes or in
Speaker 1: the in the passing game. Have they had to curtail
Speaker 1: that stuff because of the bad shoulder. Are they reluctant
Speaker 1: to have him rolling out and potentially exposing himself to
Speaker 1: hits to the shoulder. This will be a good test
Speaker 1: to that, because they surely limited him against Pittsburgh. But
Speaker 1: as you guys know, it's tough for quarterbacks to get
Speaker 1: on the edge. Against Pittsburgh, they played that wide defensive front,
Speaker 1: and yeah, it's just it's just tough to begin with.
Speaker 1: But clearly they had two fourth and one quarterback sneak
Speaker 1: possibilities and they didn't use the stake because they don't
Speaker 1: want to further injure him. So I do think he's
Speaker 1: more limited now and we'll see if they get him
Speaker 1: out on the edge. That's where he's more effective. To
Speaker 1: be able to see the field, even if you're only
Speaker 1: seeing half of it. When you do that, when he's
Speaker 1: in the pocket, it's very difficult for him to connect.
Speaker 1: You see him sailing the ball high down the middle
Speaker 1: on a lot of throws this year. So Nick Chubb
Speaker 1: is now back. I guess we won't see Hunt it
Speaker 1: doesn't look like but Chubb is back the offensive line. Conklin.
Speaker 1: Is he going to try to play with a big brace,
Speaker 1: a big contraption or no, he's out indefinitely. He's so
Speaker 1: he's not gonna have surgery, but he's out indefinitely. They haven't.
Speaker 1: They haven't cleared him out yet at this point. I
Speaker 1: guess are they going to put him in into reserve.
Speaker 1: That's to be determined by the end of the week.
Speaker 1: But they turned it a multiple week injury. So who
Speaker 1: goes for him? Is that Hants or is it Hudson?
Speaker 1: Now it'll be blank Hants, who's kind of emerged as
Speaker 1: their new sixth man. You know, they also have Chris
Speaker 1: Hobbard out, who was their sixth man. He's on ir right.
Speaker 1: So Hants has emerged as that guy who will fill in.
Speaker 1: He's skilled in at left tackle, he's skilled in at
Speaker 1: right tackle, and now he's the starter at right tackle. Uh, indefinitely.
Speaker 1: So the offensive line this the Cleveland Brown team, number
Speaker 1: one in the league, rushing number one in the league
Speaker 1: rushing touchdowns. You know, they just they pound people expect
Speaker 1: even you know, with Hants at the at the right
Speaker 1: tackle position, that's not going to alter their mindset. I mean,
Speaker 1: their whole offense is built around pounding the football, averaging
Speaker 1: over one hundred and sixty yards in the ground. Do
Speaker 1: you expect the same type of thing this week? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that's their bread and butter. And they were even to
Speaker 1: do They were even able to do that against Denver
Speaker 1: with Chubb and hunt out, you know, with his number
Speaker 1: three de Ernest Johnson the third back. So it's all
Speaker 1: based on the offensive line, and Hants has been steadily
Speaker 1: improving under you know, Bill Callahan, the offensive line coach,
Speaker 1: is known for improving players alonger they're playing for him,
Speaker 1: and Blake Hants is one of those. So I don't
Speaker 1: expect that to change, especially when you consider that Baker
Speaker 1: is restricted now playing with a tight harness, and and
Speaker 1: you know, knowing that shoulder has already been rehindred once already.
Speaker 1: How bad is Will's ankle injury and Trader's knee? How
Speaker 1: bad are those guys? Well, Trader is one of those
Speaker 1: guys who hardly ever practices, but hasn't missed a snap
Speaker 1: in four years. He's always going to have a legit
Speaker 1: knee injury on the injury list. The other one, Wills
Speaker 1: has probably survived the worst. He played when he probably
Speaker 1: shouldn't have during the initial stages of that ankle injury.
Speaker 1: He admitted that. But now he's much better after he
Speaker 1: missed two games, so he's closer to normal. A couple
Speaker 1: more questions for Tony Gross, who covers the Cleveland Browns
Speaker 1: for the Land on Demand dot Com. I'm looking at
Speaker 1: Miles Garrett stats. He's got two more sacks than anybody
Speaker 1: else in the NFL. He's got five more quarterback hits
Speaker 1: than anybody in the NFL. I kind of knew that,
Speaker 1: but then I see he's tied for second on the
Speaker 1: team and tackles. That tells me he's playing the running
Speaker 1: game great. Has he taken his game to the next
Speaker 1: level this year? I think so, although he is missing
Speaker 1: the element of strip sacks. Yeah. Last year he had
Speaker 1: four strips in four straight games. I think one was
Speaker 1: on Burrow early on. He hasn't done that, and of
Speaker 1: course he lost the band again last week in a
Speaker 1: type game. It wasn't able to affect that game. Um,
Speaker 1: he is collecting the sacks and he's a great player,
Speaker 1: don't you know. Don't get me wrong, but it seems
Speaker 1: every time he and TJ Water on the field together,
Speaker 1: TJ has the better game. So in terms of Clowney, jadeveon, clowney, ankle, knee, hip,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's pretty extensive. All all three of
Speaker 1: those are listed in Um. You know, he missed practice. Uh,
Speaker 1: but he seems to be watching him as compared to
Speaker 1: when I saw him play last year when he was
Speaker 1: with Tennessee against the Bengals and watching him on tape,
Speaker 1: this year, he seems to have more juice. I mean,
Speaker 1: is it because he's playing with a great player or what? What?
Speaker 1: What is his status physically, do you think? Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: got the hat trick of injuries right now, and again
Speaker 1: they're all legit. Um. Uh. Yeah. He started the year,
Speaker 1: the training camp, the preseason in a very happy state,
Speaker 1: basically because he started camp healthy for the first time
Speaker 1: in like three years. In his opinion, he had missed.
Speaker 1: He had missed training camps for the last three years
Speaker 1: of rehabbing injuries from the previous year. This year he
Speaker 1: started healthy, which made him happy. He liked the vibe here.
Speaker 1: He liked, you know, not being the number one guy,
Speaker 1: the batman, but being the robin to Garrett. Uh, and
Speaker 1: he knew the Browns should contend. Uh, he is when
Speaker 1: he's on the field, Uh, he's pretty pretty well. You know,
Speaker 1: he's he's best against the run and he had two
Speaker 1: tackles for loss against Pittsburgh on running plays. That's that's
Speaker 1: vintage Clowney there. But when he's on the field, he
Speaker 1: does help make Garrett more effective because they can't double everybody.
Speaker 1: Both teams chipped and used tight ends on Garrett. Um,
Speaker 1: he would wrecked a little more pass rush numbers out
Speaker 1: of clowning. But he's he's having a better year than
Speaker 1: Like he said that, you remember last year and maybe
Speaker 1: even the year before that. So what about Denzel Ward?
Speaker 1: How bad is the hamstring with Denzel Ward? I think
Speaker 1: he returned to practice today. I think I think he
Speaker 1: was limited on their report, which was improvement because he
Speaker 1: missed the last game. And usually with Denzel Ward, when
Speaker 1: he has a hamstring that forces in the miss a game,
Speaker 1: it's usually multiple games. So I wasn't We'll see if
Speaker 1: he gets into the game. It's going to be literally
Speaker 1: a questionable situation, but the fact that he was at
Speaker 1: practice and limited today was encouraging. So we'll see how
Speaker 1: that one goes. And finally, Tony and thanks for all
Speaker 1: your time. How big of a blow was losing the
Speaker 1: rookie from Notre Dame A woosue Cora. That guy is
Speaker 1: a freak. He does some freak is stuff to tape
Speaker 1: and I saw on him. I'm telling you what if
Speaker 1: he was in there with Clowney and Garrett, Are you
Speaker 1: kidding me? What was he? How big an addition was
Speaker 1: that dude? Yeah, well that's that's what they envisioned. Would
Speaker 1: you just expressed? And he was based how like a hybrid.
Speaker 1: He looks like a quarterback. He's so short and he
Speaker 1: wears a quarterback number two twenty eighth, so it's weird.
Speaker 1: But he's very quick. He was going to be the
Speaker 1: quick guy to help him defend Lamar Jackson. You know,
Speaker 1: Kyler Murray. They got some of those guys on their
Speaker 1: schedule homes. But and he was coming along really well
Speaker 1: as the weak side linebacker and uh and and had
Speaker 1: gotten to the point where he was on the field
Speaker 1: for three downs rather than just special packages. They loved
Speaker 1: the way he was developing and the impact he was having,
Speaker 1: So yeah, that was a blow. He'll be back in
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks, I believe, and it's not I
Speaker 1: don't think he's not done for the year, but he
Speaker 1: is on IR all right. Thanks to Tony Grossie. And
Speaker 1: here's a quick reminder to join lapping me for the
Speaker 1: Bengals pep Rally show this Friday from two thirty to
Speaker 1: five thirty on ESPN fifteen thirty. That's going to do
Speaker 1: it for this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought
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Speaker 1: more Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Horde and thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast.