Speaker 1: Hi and everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast. The You Live, You Learn addition,
Speaker 1: as the Bengals tried to erase the taste of last
Speaker 1: week's frustrating loss to the Steelers as they head to
Speaker 1: Dallas to take on the Cowboys. Coming up, I'll go
Speaker 1: one on one with former Cowboy Lael Collins and talked
Speaker 1: to the Bengals new long snapper cal Adamitas. Andrew Ceciliano
Speaker 1: from the NFL Network and the broadcast partner Dave Lapham
Speaker 1: shared their thoughts on the Bengals performance in week one,
Speaker 1: and finally, it's our No the Faux segment as we
Speaker 1: chat with Todd Archer, who covers the Cowboys for ESPN.
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Speaker 1: here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest
Speaker 1: edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet,
Speaker 1: or computer by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's
Speaker 1: the greatest thing since your kids milestones. Sixteen year old
Speaker 1: Sam Horde got his driver's license this week. It's equal
Speaker 1: parts awesome and heartbreaking. It seems like one day you're
Speaker 1: reading your kid a nightly bedtime story and the next
Speaker 1: day you're tossing him the keys to the car. But
Speaker 1: seeing them reach their personal goals is great. I just
Speaker 1: wish I could stop the clock. Now. Let's get to
Speaker 1: this week's guests. There are two former Cowboys on the
Speaker 1: Bengals roster, chitubeya Woogie and Lael Collins. Collins was released
Speaker 1: by the Cowboys for salary cap purposes in March with
Speaker 1: three years and roughly thirty million dollars left on his deal.
Speaker 1: He promptly signed a three year contract with the Bengals,
Speaker 1: where he's been reunited with his first offensive line coach
Speaker 1: in Dallas, Frank Pollock. I spoke to Collins on Wednesday
Speaker 1: about facing his former team. I'll see he's spent seven
Speaker 1: years with the Dallas Cowboys, the team that probably has
Speaker 1: the largest following of any in professional sports. What was
Speaker 1: it like for you to play for quote unquote America's team? No,
Speaker 1: it was great. Um, you know, I'm I'm extremely thankful
Speaker 1: to this day, you know for everything that the Jones
Speaker 1: family has done for me up until this point. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, every everything that everybody's over there in that
Speaker 1: organization has done for me. Um. You know, I started
Speaker 1: off with Frank there, you know, my rookie year and
Speaker 1: you know, you know, he grew him in to be
Speaker 1: a pro and and and it's it's good to have
Speaker 1: him here. So you know, I'm just extremely thankful to
Speaker 1: being Dallas the last seven years. What was Jerry Jones
Speaker 1: like as a boss? He was great, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: a football guy. You know, he loves he loves his players, Um,
Speaker 1: and you know, just always was excited about football and
Speaker 1: you know, just try to do everything that he could
Speaker 1: to put the team in position to to go out
Speaker 1: and be their best. You were a cornerstone player on
Speaker 1: some great teams, but they ultimately did let you go.
Speaker 1: Does that add any fuel to the fire this week? Now?
Speaker 1: I think, you know, as far as letting me go,
Speaker 1: I think it was a mutual agreement. Thing more so
Speaker 1: than just you know, let me, let me go out
Speaker 1: and win. But um, you know, like I said, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just still just extremely thankful for everything that they've
Speaker 1: done for me, and and uh, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: for me, you know, it's os Ford and you know,
Speaker 1: focused on helping his team, you know, win and be
Speaker 1: the best team that we can be. We're chatting with
Speaker 1: LC L Collins. A couple of years ago, you were
Speaker 1: hurt and Dak Scott got hurt early in the year
Speaker 1: and missed most of the season. Now he's injured again.
Speaker 1: What kind of an emotional blow do you think that
Speaker 1: is for your former teammates? You know, for him, you know,
Speaker 1: I know that's you know, it's got to be heartbreaking
Speaker 1: because I know how hard that guy works, I know
Speaker 1: how committed and dedicated he is to his craft, and
Speaker 1: such a tremendous leader and the leader of that team.
Speaker 1: You know, for me, I think as that team went,
Speaker 1: you know, he was always the guy that kind of
Speaker 1: helped that team stay together and really lead that team
Speaker 1: by example. So, um, you know, I'm sure those guys
Speaker 1: are sad to see him. I mean I'm sad to
Speaker 1: see him, you know, go down you know this early
Speaker 1: in the season, because I know he's putting in a
Speaker 1: lot of work. Let's discuss the old line in week one.
Speaker 1: Experts that know more about old line play than I
Speaker 1: do say that despite the seven sacks, it was a
Speaker 1: pretty encouraging performance overall. How did you see it and
Speaker 1: how did you feel about your own performance? You know,
Speaker 1: I felt like uh as a as a as a unit. Um,
Speaker 1: I think we did some great things, obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: as our first time playing together. But we just got
Speaker 1: to go out and continue to build on the things
Speaker 1: that you know, we started, and you know that's just
Speaker 1: better communicating, just learning to play faster with each other
Speaker 1: and making sure that we're always on the same page.
Speaker 1: You were largely matched up against t J Watt in
Speaker 1: Week one. Jonah Williams will largely be matched up against
Speaker 1: Michael Parsons on Sunday. What advice can you give them,
Speaker 1: if any? You know, just go out and players game.
Speaker 1: Jone as a hell of a player. He's seen He's
Speaker 1: played against a lot of great players. You know, it's
Speaker 1: just another one, So just go out and take advantage
Speaker 1: of this opportunity. Last week was your first experience of
Speaker 1: playing with Joe Burrow, and it was quite an experience,
Speaker 1: a roller coaster ride. He overcame all those turnovers and
Speaker 1: put you in position to win the game. What was
Speaker 1: it like to be in the huddle with all that's
Speaker 1: going on? It was awesome. You know, he's a guy
Speaker 1: that that doesn't get too hot, it doesn't get too
Speaker 1: low kind of stage, does a great job of stand neutral. Um.
Speaker 1: And you know, for for me being in a huddle
Speaker 1: with him, I think just watching the way he's able
Speaker 1: to direct the whole thing up, running the whole show,
Speaker 1: be confident in what he what he's doing. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: communicate with the receivers, the bags and just get everybody
Speaker 1: on the same page. Um. He's a He's a hell
Speaker 1: of a player. He's going to be a really great player.
Speaker 1: When you've played as much NFL football as you've played,
Speaker 1: you probably think you've seen it all. Then you have
Speaker 1: a game like last week. Does it remind you just
Speaker 1: how crazy the game can be? Absolutely? I mean that's
Speaker 1: the beauty of the sport. Though. You know, you got
Speaker 1: to continue to fight into that to that clock his
Speaker 1: zero and there's no more opportunities, So you know you
Speaker 1: want to strain to finish every block for guys up
Speaker 1: friend and give the guys with the ball, you know,
Speaker 1: all the opportunity that they that they need to go
Speaker 1: out there and help us win. So um, this week
Speaker 1: we look to improve and take the next step. Will
Speaker 1: you accidentally step into the wrong locker room on Sunday?
Speaker 1: Do you have do you need a map to get
Speaker 1: to the visitor's side? Well, you know, I've never been
Speaker 1: to this side, so but I'm looking forward to going
Speaker 1: in there and us playing our best bars in union
Speaker 1: as a team, and you know, you know, just looking
Speaker 1: forward to really confident and everything that we're doing here
Speaker 1: and you know, believe in one and gonna lay it
Speaker 1: all on the line and leave it all on the field.
Speaker 1: Always great to visit with you. I appreciate your time.
Speaker 1: Best of luck this week. Appreciate you. Thank you man.
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow through fifty three passes in the Bengal season opener,
Speaker 1: and according to Pro Football Focus, Collins did not give
Speaker 1: up a sack and only allowed one quarterback pressure. Else
Speaker 1: was obviously impressed by burrows ability to shake off four
Speaker 1: interceptions and lead the Bengals on what should have been
Speaker 1: a couple of game winning drives. Here's Dave Lapham on
Speaker 1: Burrows result. See. I know a lot of people sour about,
Speaker 1: you know, Joe with the turnovers, and I can understand,
Speaker 1: But that game, the way he just put the first
Speaker 1: half away and executed in the second half, shows me
Speaker 1: his mental toughness, his resiliency, like you talk about and
Speaker 1: this guy I'm, like I said on our podcast after
Speaker 1: the game, I would get in a huddle with him
Speaker 1: to play anybody, anytime, anywhere, because that game should have
Speaker 1: been with five turnovers, should have been a three or
Speaker 1: four score blowout. That says something about the Bengals defense,
Speaker 1: but it also says something about the way Joe turned
Speaker 1: things around. I'd say about halfway through the second quarter
Speaker 1: to the conclusion of the football game, I thought he
Speaker 1: executed pretty darn well. The first quarter and a half
Speaker 1: was tough, and I think part of it. As great
Speaker 1: as he is, I think he was like anxious to
Speaker 1: get anxious to show I'm back the heck would the
Speaker 1: appendecked me, I'm back. I'm gonna I'm gonna prove to
Speaker 1: everybody that I'm better than where I was last year.
Speaker 1: And I think he got impatient because of that. I
Speaker 1: think he took chances he shouldn't have taken the first
Speaker 1: snap of the game. Looking at that again, I didn't
Speaker 1: get the I didn't watch the first series because I
Speaker 1: was working my way back to the to the booth
Speaker 1: from the pregame stuff. But they called a play where
Speaker 1: every there are a bunch of short routes. They just
Speaker 1: wanted him to complete the ball, get the butterflies out,
Speaker 1: you know, see the ball completed, and get it, get
Speaker 1: in the rhythm, get going, and he just held the football,
Speaker 1: just held out of the football. He had multiple places
Speaker 1: to go with the ball and just held it. Get sacked.
Speaker 1: And then the second play he tries to put it
Speaker 1: in a spot where, wow, you got other options. You're
Speaker 1: you're trying, You're trying too hard, You're trying to do
Speaker 1: too much. Looking at that, it's like they're they're giving you.
Speaker 1: They're giving you routes and options to make completions. Get confidence.
Speaker 1: And then when he threw it a spot where he
Speaker 1: shouldn't have and makeup Fitzpatrick jumped it. Then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, now oh you start, even as great as
Speaker 1: you use, you start to question yourself a little bit.
Speaker 1: And it kinds of kind of snowballs. But when you
Speaker 1: get in that kind of situation, it's hard to put
Speaker 1: a stop to it and reverse it. And he did it.
Speaker 1: He did it. That's not easy to do. And Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow did it and gave his chance, his team a
Speaker 1: chance to win win a football game. And with this
Speaker 1: guy at the helm, they're gonna win a lot of
Speaker 1: football games. I get no doubt in my mind. As
Speaker 1: I mentioned in my conversation with Collins, despite giving up
Speaker 1: seven sacks and eleven quarterback hits, the Bengals offensive line
Speaker 1: did not get terrible grades in Week one from PF
Speaker 1: and ESPN. Here's lap with his thoughts and how the
Speaker 1: old line measured up. If you're room for improvement, hell yeah.
Speaker 1: But I was talking to Brian Callahan a little bit
Speaker 1: today and I asked him, I said, you know, seven sacks,
Speaker 1: eleven hits, everybody's going to blow up the offensive line,
Speaker 1: and as you know, it's always the case. Initially it's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, they had to have sucked. You know, well,
Speaker 1: they probably gave up four of them, and that's not
Speaker 1: good enough. But you have the quarterback holding the ball.
Speaker 1: Like I said, in the first play of the game,
Speaker 1: they had plenty of place to go held it. You
Speaker 1: have backs not solid enough and there blitz pick up
Speaker 1: responsibility or helping or whatever. You have receivers not getting
Speaker 1: open and now having to hold the football. So it's
Speaker 1: always a collective thing. But sack totals and quarterback hits
Speaker 1: are always going to fall on the offensive line. Can
Speaker 1: they play better, yes, But I'll tell you a guy
Speaker 1: who I thought was pretty damn salty, Kappa. If I
Speaker 1: bade a Kappa brought it a little bit, I thought,
Speaker 1: I thought he uh. I thought he showed something of
Speaker 1: the line of Scrimmons, and I thought he showed a
Speaker 1: little edginess. And and you can see LC Collins too.
Speaker 1: I mean sustainability, consistency and sustainability of it. But he
Speaker 1: does some things that it's like, oh man, that's an athletic,
Speaker 1: powerful dude. Boy. You know. So I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: be okay. I remember and when we talked on podcasts
Speaker 1: and things we've done that the offensive line having not
Speaker 1: played together at all in the preseason, and I thought
Speaker 1: Mike Tomlin had the quote of the week if you're
Speaker 1: gonna if you're gonna box, you have to spar. They
Speaker 1: didn't spar They didn't hit in practice, They didn't play
Speaker 1: in any preseason games Pittsburgh did they when they put
Speaker 1: shoulder pads on, they took people to the ground, they hit,
Speaker 1: and they played their starters some in preseason games, so
Speaker 1: they were sparring, so they were more ready to hit.
Speaker 1: So my thing was, Okay, the offensive line, you have
Speaker 1: to see it live to get on the same level
Speaker 1: to pick up stunts and downhill blitzing and all that.
Speaker 1: And I said, I remember saying a couple of times
Speaker 1: two different people that we talked to, they'll be better
Speaker 1: in the second half than they were in the first half.
Speaker 1: They'll be better at the end of September than they
Speaker 1: are at the beginning of September. And I thought they
Speaker 1: were light years better in the second half than they
Speaker 1: were in the first half. And Joe Burrow played better
Speaker 1: in the second half than the first half. Not a
Speaker 1: coincidence that the offensive line played better. Joe felt a
Speaker 1: little more comfortable, the offensive line felt more comfortable with him.
Speaker 1: It's a reciprocal thing. So hopefully they played ninety four
Speaker 1: snaps counting penalty's one hundred snaps. Damn. They got up
Speaker 1: to speed quickly and how about Jamar Chase Dan played
Speaker 1: every one of them as a receiver. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: Ninety four snaps? You're running route, You're doing all that.
Speaker 1: And this kid he worked with a track coach in
Speaker 1: the off season to work on his stamina and his conditioning.
Speaker 1: He lost five pounds unintentionally, but he worked his tail up. Man.
Speaker 1: He is a machine, and the Bengals had a couple
Speaker 1: of guys cramp up. This guy played every single snap
Speaker 1: and never even showed a sign of a Yeah, he
Speaker 1: is a martian. Maybe not a martian, but he's certainly
Speaker 1: one of the best players in the NFL. Chase had
Speaker 1: ten catches for one hundred twenty nine yards despite not
Speaker 1: having t Higgins on the other side of the field
Speaker 1: for most of the game. Speaking of Chase, you've probably
Speaker 1: seen the photo by now that chose Jamar holding up
Speaker 1: one finger on each hand and directing that gesture towards
Speaker 1: Steelers safety Manka Fitzpatrick. I'm not condoning the gesture, but
Speaker 1: I will admit to being amused by Jamar's response when
Speaker 1: I asked him about the picture. This is a cool photo,
Speaker 1: actually is. I'll come back again later. We'll be planning.
Speaker 1: So that's cool. I hope they don't make none too
Speaker 1: big of it, but it's fun to see. Thought you
Speaker 1: were done that to an aponent. Nah. Nah, they just
Speaker 1: the first time they caught me doing it, and I
Speaker 1: just I just keep scrolling and seeing a picture and
Speaker 1: I just keep laughing. So it's pretty funny to see.
Speaker 1: So what did the national media think of the Bengals
Speaker 1: Week one performance where they lost the turnover battle five
Speaker 1: zip and still would have almost certainly won the game
Speaker 1: if not for an injury to long snapper Clark Harris.
Speaker 1: I caught up with the NFL Networks Andrew Ceciliano, who
Speaker 1: hosts The Red Zone Chattel on Direct TV. Andrew, you
Speaker 1: were in Cincinnati for a few days when the Bengals
Speaker 1: held their joint practices against the Rams, you called that
Speaker 1: preseason game. What takeaways did you come away with from
Speaker 1: seeing the Bengals up close and personal? Dan, It was
Speaker 1: great to see you there as well, and it was
Speaker 1: great to be in Cincinnati. I hadn't been there in
Speaker 1: a while. I came away from that, and obviously we
Speaker 1: could talk about the Steeler game at a second. I
Speaker 1: came away from that very much believing that the Bengals
Speaker 1: were still an AFC contender, and as much as we
Speaker 1: talked about Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, and they
Speaker 1: did look great, I was there for that last Thursday.
Speaker 1: The Bengals are still very much a force to be
Speaker 1: reckoned with. Now. I know we didn't see those guys
Speaker 1: on the field against the Rams that day, but the
Speaker 1: two days to joint practice, it was great to be
Speaker 1: able to stand there and watch Matthew Stafford in one field,
Speaker 1: and then after that snap, then you turn and you
Speaker 1: see Joe Burrow on the other field. I thought some
Speaker 1: of the deep shots they hit, you know, whether it's
Speaker 1: burrowed in Jamar Chase or just the work those two
Speaker 1: teams got in. You came away saying, these two teams
Speaker 1: both have a legitimate shot at making into Glendale the
Speaker 1: Monday after the first NFL Sunday as the ultimate overreaction Monday.
Speaker 1: Half of the fan bases in the NFL right now
Speaker 1: are in panic mode. What was your reaction to the
Speaker 1: Bengals lost to the Steelers in Week one. I was
Speaker 1: stunned and how poorly they started. But but, but but
Speaker 1: if you look around the league, there were a lot
Speaker 1: of teams in the same boat. The Colts were down
Speaker 1: two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to the Texans. The
Speaker 1: Saints were down two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to
Speaker 1: the Falcons. Joe Burrow and the Bengals were not the
Speaker 1: only team that came out of the gate slow. A
Speaker 1: lot of teams look like they had a lot of
Speaker 1: rust to shake off. I still think they're fine. But
Speaker 1: as Mike McDaniels said last week before Week one, the
Speaker 1: Dolphins coach, he said about the Week one over reactions,
Speaker 1: he said, half the league or fans are going to
Speaker 1: either want to crown you or say that you suck.
Speaker 1: Either way, you have Week two, and the Bengals have
Speaker 1: a Week two against Cooper Rush and the Cowboys, which
Speaker 1: makes things a heck of a lot different. So you've
Speaker 1: been hosting Direct TV's Red Zone channel for eighteen years.
Speaker 1: I believe the end of the one o'clock games last
Speaker 1: week was total mayhem. What was that like for you?
Speaker 1: I always say, Dan that we have a good show
Speaker 1: when we have good games. We had as great and
Speaker 1: early September twenty thirty minutes stretch as I can remember.
Speaker 1: We've had great stretches, always do. In December and January
Speaker 1: when playoffs are on the line early. Yeah, you always
Speaker 1: get good games, but just the way those played out,
Speaker 1: your game and overtime with the missed kicks and you know,
Speaker 1: all those shots in the red zone before they tied
Speaker 1: the game, with the touchdown to Jamar Chase, the end
Speaker 1: of that game in Indie, the end of the game
Speaker 1: between the Saints and the Falcons. What else are we missing?
Speaker 1: The Giants, Titans going for two. There was one other
Speaker 1: one as well, the Browns and the Panthers came down
Speaker 1: to the end and Cave you're kidding the fifty eight
Speaker 1: yard field goal. And then plus all of those games,
Speaker 1: your two overtime games bled into four twenty five kicks.
Speaker 1: You know they made those late kicks four twenty five
Speaker 1: so that you don't have that overlap, Well, we had
Speaker 1: the overlap. And then you have Mahomes driving down the
Speaker 1: field on the opening drive at Arizona to throw a
Speaker 1: touchdown pass. So all of that together, I think, Look,
Speaker 1: we keep my mic open when we have more than
Speaker 1: one game on the screen, so I don't have a
Speaker 1: chance to catch my breath because you want to go back,
Speaker 1: and if they never killed my mike, I think my
Speaker 1: mic might have been opened for thirty five straight minutes,
Speaker 1: which we've never had. I needed a drink after it.
Speaker 1: I had to wait a couple hours though. Andrew Ceciliano
Speaker 1: is our guest. So the Bengals head to Dallas this week.
Speaker 1: Were you surprised by how poorly the Cowboys played in
Speaker 1: Week one, even before Dak Prescott got hurt. Yeah, They're
Speaker 1: the only team that didn't score a touchdown this week
Speaker 1: of the thirty two, they were the only team that
Speaker 1: did not find the end zone. If you go back
Speaker 1: to last year, because it was Bucks Cowboys Week one
Speaker 1: last year as well, those two teams combined for like
Speaker 1: eight hundred yards and sixty points, so clearly it was
Speaker 1: a bit different. I saw the Cowboys up close. We
Speaker 1: did a joint practice when they were in LA at
Speaker 1: the Cowboys and the Chargers a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: and the big questions were O line and wide receiver,
Speaker 1: and the big questions are still O line and wide receiver.
Speaker 1: Tyler Smith kind of held his own, but he's not
Speaker 1: the only issue on that line and a wide receiver. Look,
Speaker 1: Michael Gallup is going to be okay. He started team
Speaker 1: drills today Wednesday, this week. So I don't know that
Speaker 1: he's going to play, but Michael Gallup will eventually get there.
Speaker 1: James Washington maybe another month, who knows. Until then, Ceede
Speaker 1: Lamb's got to do more. And Mike McCarthy called him
Speaker 1: out a bit today and then said I don't call
Speaker 1: out players, but then he called out players and said,
Speaker 1: Ceedee Lamb has got to get used to being the
Speaker 1: number one. They have some issues. Cooper Rush is a
Speaker 1: nice backup quarterback. I'm not trying to dump too much
Speaker 1: on Cooper Rush, but we said that day doing Chargers
Speaker 1: Chargers Cowboys joined practice that they need to go at
Speaker 1: least explore Jimmy Garoppolo long before the Niners kept decided
Speaker 1: to keep them. They have as suspect a backup quarterback
Speaker 1: situation as there is in the NFL, and now they
Speaker 1: have to tread water. I will defend Cooper Rush with this.
Speaker 1: He did in his only start previously last year against
Speaker 1: the Vikings, played reasonably well, played reasonably well in that game. Right,
Speaker 1: So what must the Bengals do to take care of
Speaker 1: business against the Cowboys number two quarterback this week? I
Speaker 1: would say, you know, the easy way is take away
Speaker 1: the run and make Cooper Rush beat you. Because the
Speaker 1: passing game with Dak Prescott didn't do a thing. Last week.
Speaker 1: I thought Zeke when he had the Bowl look pretty good.
Speaker 1: You would have to think they try to get him
Speaker 1: and Tony Pollard involved even more this week. The Bengals
Speaker 1: are the better football team, but let's just say that definitively,
Speaker 1: they are the better football team the Cowboys. I think
Speaker 1: this is an emotional test for them. Everyone wrote off
Speaker 1: their season, you know, idiotically Monday night. No one loses
Speaker 1: their season in one game Week one. I think there's
Speaker 1: a little more optimism there after finding out that Dak
Speaker 1: could only be back, you know, could only be out
Speaker 1: for a month. But it is a huge test, I
Speaker 1: think for the Cowboys this week. The Bengals come in
Speaker 1: the better team, and yes, disappointed, I know, but I
Speaker 1: think they proved in the second half they'll be okay.
Speaker 1: So at the NFL Network, you are surrounded by former
Speaker 1: players and former coaches. You're interacting with these guys just
Speaker 1: about every day. Do you get the sense that most
Speaker 1: of them consider the Bengals to be a legitimate contender,
Speaker 1: or that they see last year's Super Bowl run as
Speaker 1: a little bit flukey. Can both be true? I think
Speaker 1: when I say both can be true, meaning they had
Speaker 1: everything go their way last year. So yeah, they got
Speaker 1: there and they deserve to be there, but they had
Speaker 1: a million breaks. So do the Rams. The Rams were
Speaker 1: oh for November and then all of a sudden went
Speaker 1: their way down the stretch. I think everyone here thinks
Speaker 1: that the Bengals are a legitimate Super Bowl contender app solutely. However,
Speaker 1: everyone also is on the Bills. I mean, I know
Speaker 1: Bengals fans feel that Bills bandwagon, and there's probably a
Speaker 1: little bit of what about us, I get it, So
Speaker 1: they're they're on the Bills bandwagon. Yet at the same
Speaker 1: time believe in Joe Burrow and believe in the Bengals,
Speaker 1: and I don't. I mean, is there a team against
Speaker 1: which you would say you would you would call the Bills.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, the Bengals an underdog this year? I mean
Speaker 1: maybe the Bills. Like who do you say, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: Bengals against so and so. They're a dog in that one.
Speaker 1: I mean point spreads aside, you have Joe Burrow, You're fine.
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow, by the way, completed thirty three passes against
Speaker 1: the Steelers. That was the second most of any quarterback
Speaker 1: in Week one. Without looking it up, I'll give you
Speaker 1: five seconds to name the only quarterback who completed more
Speaker 1: go time's up. The answer Joe Flacco, who went thirty
Speaker 1: seven for fifty nine in the Jets lost to his
Speaker 1: former team Baltimore. For what it's worth, none of Flacco's
Speaker 1: thirty seven completions went to c j Uzama. One thing
Speaker 1: was abundantly clear and last week's lost to the Steelers,
Speaker 1: it's that we've probably all taken long snapper Clark Harris
Speaker 1: for granted. Yeah, I haven't had any to pay raise
Speaker 1: for years, but yeah, I mean it just shows it's
Speaker 1: it's not just uh, not taking anything away from an
Speaker 1: offensive center, but you know, it's not the same thing.
Speaker 1: It's not just you know, tossing the ball back in
Speaker 1: the general vicinity. It's being very precise and you know,
Speaker 1: on time and everything. So yeah, it just shows it
Speaker 1: that we are specified, you know, a position, and we
Speaker 1: are needing. It's not just a position you can put
Speaker 1: by the wayside. Harris injured his right bicep will trying
Speaker 1: to make a tackle in punt coverage. Zach Taylor isn't
Speaker 1: necessarily calling his injury season ending, but says that the
Speaker 1: team's long snapper since two thousand and nine will definitely
Speaker 1: be out for months. The Bengals had to use tight
Speaker 1: end Mitchell Wilcox as an emergency long snapper last Sunday,
Speaker 1: but fortunately the Bengals have a talented replacement waiting in
Speaker 1: the wings. Since Clark Harris is thirty eight years old,
Speaker 1: The Bengals signed the number one rated long snapper in
Speaker 1: college football as an undrafted free agent this year and
Speaker 1: had him on the practice squad. Now, twenty four year
Speaker 1: old cal Adamidas out of the University of Pittsburgh has
Speaker 1: been promoted to the fifty three man roster. Life comes
Speaker 1: at your fast. What's what's your reaction now to being
Speaker 1: promoted to the fifty three man roster and being an
Speaker 1: NFL long snapper? Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, I
Speaker 1: feel for Clark. You know, he's been he's been a
Speaker 1: class act for me my whole time here, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's been the best situation a young snapper can ask
Speaker 1: for to you know, come and learn, learn from a
Speaker 1: guy like that. Um. But you know, with that being said, UM,
Speaker 1: having the chance to be here OTAs in camp and
Speaker 1: learn from him and Coach Simmons. You know, I'm ready
Speaker 1: for the job. How difficult was it to act yesterday
Speaker 1: seeing Mitch thrust into that situation? Yea, it's it's tough,
Speaker 1: but I mean he did his best and he got
Speaker 1: did what he needed to do. Um, you know, that's
Speaker 1: something we talked about. You know, he did he did
Speaker 1: his job in the situation that he was thrust into,
Speaker 1: and we're all proud of him for that. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to my chance to come in and
Speaker 1: you know, obviously get Mitch doing back to doing his
Speaker 1: main stuff and me doing my main thing. His snaps
Speaker 1: were playable. I mean, should he be getting credit as
Speaker 1: opposed to Shade. I absolutely think you should be getting credit. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, that's that's a that's a tough spot to
Speaker 1: be put into. And you know, uh, something Coach Simmons
Speaker 1: always says is everyone wants to be the snapper on
Speaker 1: you know, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday during practice and then when
Speaker 1: Sunday comes around, there's you know, less guys are as
Speaker 1: as gung ho to to be that guy. But he
Speaker 1: did his job. He snaps are good in the preseason
Speaker 1: I know the thing that they've been working with Duane
Speaker 1: is blocking, right, because it's different from college to be
Speaker 1: in a film. Absolutely, and early on at pitt we
Speaker 1: ran a pro pro style scheme, so I have experienced blocking. Obviously,
Speaker 1: it's a you know, it's certainly a step up from that.
Speaker 1: But um, you know, I feel I'm ready for the
Speaker 1: situation and we'll get a you know, a couple good
Speaker 1: days of practice into you know, put the finishing touches on,
Speaker 1: and we'll be ready to go on Sunday. Did you
Speaker 1: gain confidence from how smoothly things went in the preseason
Speaker 1: and camp? Certainly, I mean definitely had a lot of
Speaker 1: things you know, thrown at me throughout camp, during practices,
Speaker 1: in the games, and definitely was a confidence booster, you know,
Speaker 1: showed me that I definitely can play at this level.
Speaker 1: There's still things I want to improve on and I
Speaker 1: will continue improve on, but I'm you know, I definitely
Speaker 1: feel that i'mcapable. Adam. I just got a lot of
Speaker 1: work of training camp and in the preseason games. And
Speaker 1: Clark Harris says his replacement will be fine. He's a
Speaker 1: good snapper. I mean he was the best in college
Speaker 1: last year. He's a good snapper, and uh, I just
Speaker 1: kind of keep trying to tell him to have confidence,
Speaker 1: you know, go out there, and uh, just he's good enough.
Speaker 1: I knew that he had a chance to take my
Speaker 1: job this year in camp. I thought he was that good.
Speaker 1: So I believe that he's going to be just fine
Speaker 1: and he'll get the job done. Just have the confidence
Speaker 1: to go out there and do what we trained to
Speaker 1: do all the time. He's got the demeanor he when
Speaker 1: he when he was the guy for the preseason games,
Speaker 1: he never really had a He didn't really look nervous, didn't,
Speaker 1: you know. He didn't give off any nervous energy. He
Speaker 1: was real calm, collected, and he went out and did
Speaker 1: a great job. So I got all the confidence in
Speaker 1: the world. And Adamidas got a ton of opportunities at pit.
Speaker 1: He was the long snapper for sixty four games over
Speaker 1: five seasons. Now let's turn our attention to Sunday's game
Speaker 1: in Dallas. The Cowboys will not have two time Pro
Speaker 1: Bowl quarterback Dak Prescott, who injured his right hand above
Speaker 1: the thumb in a nineteen to three loss to Tampa Bay.
Speaker 1: Twenty eight year old Cooper Rush will start in his place.
Speaker 1: He's made one NFL start in his career and beat
Speaker 1: the Vikings last October when he threw for three hundred
Speaker 1: twenty five yards and two touchdowns. The biggest star in
Speaker 1: Dallas these days is jack of all trades defender Micah Parsons,
Speaker 1: who has fifteen sacks in his first seventeen NFL games.
Speaker 1: He's listed as a linebacker, but he's frequently positioned on
Speaker 1: the defensive line and occasionally lines up at cornerback. Here's lap.
Speaker 1: This kid is ridiculously skilled and versatile both defensive ends.
Speaker 1: He'll kick in and rush at defensive tackle against a
Speaker 1: garner as a three technique. He'll line up as a
Speaker 1: stack linebacker in back of the three technique and blitz.
Speaker 1: He's got explosiveness quickness, but also he can run like
Speaker 1: a deer side line to sideline. Everybody's like, why don't
Speaker 1: you just put him keep a defensive end and let
Speaker 1: Hi marks the passer Because he's the Swiss Army knife
Speaker 1: and you can do so much with him, and dan
Speaker 1: Quinn's so creative what they do. Believe it or not,
Speaker 1: Michael Parsons, because of all the places he can line up,
Speaker 1: they get mismatches on a running back with the guy
Speaker 1: I've seen you know, tape where and running mans have
Speaker 1: no chance against a guy like this. So you know,
Speaker 1: it's like, all I've just got to recognize okay, identify
Speaker 1: him and somehow block. Well, once you're setting in a formation,
Speaker 1: you may not be able to get a good matchup
Speaker 1: on what dan Quinn's doing with Michael Parsons, or he
Speaker 1: may move in somewhere late to get the matchup on
Speaker 1: the running back. So this kid is and you say,
Speaker 1: all right, well, what ifbaccoes out in a route and
Speaker 1: he's gotta cover. He can do that. He can run
Speaker 1: and cover people. That's the thing about him. He is
Speaker 1: a freak. And here's a guy that was drafted with
Speaker 1: the eleventh pick in the draft. You get an interesting
Speaker 1: matchup and they won't be going against each other. But
Speaker 1: just the fact that the fifth pick of the draft
Speaker 1: by the Bengals jamar Chase good offensive Rookie of the Year,
Speaker 1: the eleventh pick of the draft by the Dallas Cowboy
Speaker 1: He's got defensive Rookie of the Year and would runner
Speaker 1: up for Defensive Player of the Year, runner up to
Speaker 1: t J. Watt. So you get t J. Watt and
Speaker 1: the opener defensive Player of the Year, and you get
Speaker 1: the kid who's the runner up Defensive Player of the
Speaker 1: year in week number two. And this kid, this kid
Speaker 1: can do even more, you know, do more things than
Speaker 1: t J. Watt. It's crazy. Todd Archer covers the Cowboys
Speaker 1: for ESPN and joined lapping me on the Bengals Game
Speaker 1: Plan show. Dak Prescott is out, Cooper rushes in. But
Speaker 1: here's my question. Even before Dak got hurt, the Cowboys
Speaker 1: offense looked terrible against Tampa Bay on Sunday night. What's
Speaker 1: the problem with Dallas's offense? How long is this segment everything?
Speaker 1: You know, let's let's start at wide receiver, right, Ceedee
Speaker 1: Lamb the moving him to the number one role, number
Speaker 1: one draft pick a couple of years ago. Obviously talented
Speaker 1: and there's no issue with him, but you take him
Speaker 1: out of the mix. Dak Prescott hadn't thrown a touchdown
Speaker 1: pass to any other wide receiver that was playing last week,
Speaker 1: so that's an issue. Their third round pick, Jalen Tilbert
Speaker 1: was inactive while they had an undrafted free agent active.
Speaker 1: You know, you go back to when they traded Amari
Speaker 1: Cooper to Cleveland twenty million dollars receiver. They just didn't
Speaker 1: think was worth it. They went out and signed James
Speaker 1: Washington in free agency. He broke his foot on the
Speaker 1: first padded practice a training camp. So there's really no
Speaker 1: one on this offense that scares you. And just go
Speaker 1: back to last season when you had Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup,
Speaker 1: Ceedee Lamb. There's a lot of guys that scared you.
Speaker 1: And now you know the field is shrinking on these guys.
Speaker 1: And then let's talk about the offensive line. No, Tyrant Smith,
Speaker 1: he's out until least you know, the November December issh
Speaker 1: with a tornham string. They got Tyler Smith their first
Speaker 1: round picks. Now playing left guard they start. They lost
Speaker 1: their starting left guard after seven plays against Tampa Bay
Speaker 1: and brought in a guy who had never really played
Speaker 1: last year and their right tackle, Terrence Steel were replacing
Speaker 1: your good buddy LC Well. He had four penalties in
Speaker 1: the opener, so you know, this was not the way
Speaker 1: to start the season for the Cowboys. One often a
Speaker 1: year after they led the NFL or second in the
Speaker 1: NFL and points per game. Cooper Rush has been there
Speaker 1: a while. Cooper Rush lit up the Vikings. Cooper rushed
Speaker 1: through for over three hundred yards against the Vikings. If
Speaker 1: Cooper rushed Throllstrover three yards against the Bengals, that'll be
Speaker 1: the first quarterback in Dallas history to throw for over
Speaker 1: thirty yards in his first two starts, and only the
Speaker 1: fourth one in NFL history. What do they think about
Speaker 1: Cooper rush down there? Typical backup guy right, smart, doesn't
Speaker 1: need a lot of snaps to get ready. He knows
Speaker 1: the offense not gonna put you and put you in trouble,
Speaker 1: will make the smart decisions, all that kind of stuff. Now,
Speaker 1: I'll go back to the start against Minnesota last year
Speaker 1: that he did win and he did a good job.
Speaker 1: The game winning touchdown pass went to Amari Cooper. I
Speaker 1: just said he's not around. His other touchdown pass went
Speaker 1: to Cedric Wilson's he's not around either. So you know,
Speaker 1: this offense that he had in October to what he
Speaker 1: has now is completely different. But they do feel a
Speaker 1: sense of confidence, as confident as you can be. I
Speaker 1: guess when you have a backup quarterback going in. He's
Speaker 1: only played the one game, but how he wasn't afraid,
Speaker 1: probably lifted some spirits coming into this one knowing that
Speaker 1: Dak was going to be out here for a little
Speaker 1: bit doesn't mean he's gonna win. But they don't think
Speaker 1: he's gonna implode either. And that's how many teams in
Speaker 1: the league would you say, that's what you really want
Speaker 1: out of your backup quarterback? Right, Todd Archer from ESPN
Speaker 1: to cover as the Cowboys is our guests. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about defense. They've got Michael Parsons, who's awesome. They've got
Speaker 1: Trey Von Dick who had eleven interceptions last year to
Speaker 1: lead the NFL by a wide margin. Can the defense
Speaker 1: be good enough to you know, keep them in the
Speaker 1: hunt for a while in their division? It has to be.
Speaker 1: And even before Dak got hurt, it had to be.
Speaker 1: You know that. For as long as I've covered this team,
Speaker 1: maybe early couple of years when Parcels was the coach,
Speaker 1: back three or four or five around there, this team
Speaker 1: has been built around its offense. Think of all the
Speaker 1: stars that they've had, Romo went Dez, Bryant, Miles Austin,
Speaker 1: the guys that we've talked about already. That offensive line
Speaker 1: at one point was the best in football. Well, well
Speaker 1: they don't have that now, but they do have a
Speaker 1: defense that kept Tom Brady out of the end zone.
Speaker 1: They only scored one touchdown against the Cowboys last week.
Speaker 1: They do a decent job in the red zone. Their
Speaker 1: run defense is spotty, and that's concerning when when you
Speaker 1: look at what Fournette did him against them in Week
Speaker 1: one and how they're not a very big defense. And
Speaker 1: you know, but if they believe Michael Parsons can get
Speaker 1: after any quarterback, they move him around, do a lot
Speaker 1: of different things with the Trayvon Diggs will I'm interested
Speaker 1: to see how they use him if he's if he
Speaker 1: follows Chase around or not. They've done that a little bit,
Speaker 1: not a whole bunch. That might be something to watch
Speaker 1: on Sunday. But if it's not about this defense, then
Speaker 1: this is gonna be an awful long season for the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: And it might be an awful long season for him anyway.
Speaker 1: But the defense is definitely gonna have to carry the
Speaker 1: day talked about, you know, parsons abilities at all these
Speaker 1: different places. My thing is, all right, when you have
Speaker 1: a great player like even an Aaron Donald old school
Speaker 1: in me coaches in the past, that you've got to
Speaker 1: play and run at them, anchor them. He'll kill you,
Speaker 1: you know, chasing things down. You got an anchor him,
Speaker 1: you gotta beat him up a little bit, Michael Parsons.
Speaker 1: First you have to find him. Then you have to
Speaker 1: cover him up once you find him. This dude, I'm
Speaker 1: telling you, man, this guy, this guy's a game wrecker.
Speaker 1: I mean he is. He's one hell of a football player.
Speaker 1: And my question is to compliment him. Does DeMarcus Lawrence
Speaker 1: still have juice? It looked to me in the opener
Speaker 1: like he played decently. Yeah, DeMarcus Lawrence is their best
Speaker 1: sure defensive ends that they have if we're not going
Speaker 1: to count Michael as a defensive end because while they
Speaker 1: move around. But yeah, he had a TfL I think
Speaker 1: on the first drive. I mean, he's he's a really
Speaker 1: good player, does a lot of the dirty work, does
Speaker 1: a good job against the run. When the Cowboys gave
Speaker 1: him that contract a few years ago, it you know,
Speaker 1: they ain't get m one hundred and five million or
Speaker 1: whatever it was to be good against the run, which
Speaker 1: he gets him sacks and he's not had a double
Speaker 1: digit double digit sack season sin side in that contract.
Speaker 1: But he's still a good player, and I think lapole
Speaker 1: you see is Bill rotate everybody through there, like Dan
Speaker 1: Quinn is the believer in getting everybody in there and
Speaker 1: keeping him fresh. And you know they won't have Terrell
Speaker 1: bash him this week. But Sam Williams, their second round
Speaker 1: pick from oh Miss. They like him a lot. Dante Followers,
Speaker 1: a former Numbers three pick in the draft. He was
Speaker 1: productive in the offseason, didn't do much against Tampa. So
Speaker 1: you'll see them roll a whole bunch of guys through
Speaker 1: there to keep him fresh and keep him going at you.
Speaker 1: And you know, we'll see if it works. But the
Speaker 1: one guy who's not going to come up the field
Speaker 1: who didn't come up the field last week is Michael Parsons.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be out there as much as he can.
Speaker 1: Right How short is the rope for Mike McCartney. You know,
Speaker 1: Jerry Jones has only made one in season coaching change,
Speaker 1: and that was in twenty ten when they let go
Speaker 1: Wade Phillips and bumped up Jason Garrett from the offensive
Speaker 1: coordinator role. I don't see an in season move happening
Speaker 1: unless this team just implodes the way that team does.
Speaker 1: I don't think you'll you'll see that. But there's definitely
Speaker 1: the hot seat just because of the nature of the job,
Speaker 1: the nature of Jerry and everything that that entails. And
Speaker 1: there is talent on this team. Now they got to
Speaker 1: get dacked back ready to go. I know I've been
Speaker 1: negative about they're never going to score a point here,
Speaker 1: but there's still is a lot of talent. I don't
Speaker 1: even mentioned that Ezekiel Elliott. If I'm the Cowboys, they're
Speaker 1: Bill Parcels used to say, there are ways to win
Speaker 1: these games. The way the Cowboys can win these games
Speaker 1: is please just give the ball to Ezekie Elliott. He's
Speaker 1: your best running back. He can change the temple of
Speaker 1: a game. And the one thing they showed against Tampa
Speaker 1: they can run the block pretty good. Eight of his
Speaker 1: ten carriage went for five yards of war, so that's
Speaker 1: pretty good against that front. But McCarthy is definitely on
Speaker 1: the hot seat. I don't think Sean Payton is this
Speaker 1: team's next head coach, and very well could be Dan
Speaker 1: Quinn though. So with the offense projected to struggle a
Speaker 1: little bit, they don't have Dak Prescott, and like you said,
Speaker 1: the offensive line beaten up and fivers left and receivers
Speaker 1: that were there didn't get much separation that I saw
Speaker 1: against Tampa Bay. What about on the defensive side of things,
Speaker 1: dan Quinn is aggressive by nature anyway, and last year
Speaker 1: they had six defensive touchdowns, five interceptions in a fumble
Speaker 1: return for a touchdown, and then fastle on special teams,
Speaker 1: I mean two block punts returned for touchdown, a kickoff
Speaker 1: return touchdown, nine returns, nine touchdowns non offensive touchdowns. Wow,
Speaker 1: and that's when they had a real good offensive football team.
Speaker 1: Do you think they're going to try to pick up
Speaker 1: some of the slack trying to do some of the
Speaker 1: things they did last year with unconventional you know, unscripted
Speaker 1: scores as such. Yeah, I mean they kind of have to.
Speaker 1: And that's one the best thing about Treyvon Diggs is
Speaker 1: his ability to take the ball away and make a
Speaker 1: play afterwards. He's a former receiver. We all know his
Speaker 1: brother Stephan up in Buffalo. He's still learning how to
Speaker 1: be a cornerback in some respects, but when he gets
Speaker 1: the ball in his hands, he's dynamic. I can then
Speaker 1: on special teams, Fossil will do some quirky things like
Speaker 1: coming after you on third and eighteen when what are
Speaker 1: you doing? You don't need to do that and pick
Speaker 1: up a Luckily there was only a running into the
Speaker 1: kicker out of roughing the kicker penalty last week. They
Speaker 1: like this guy. Kavante Turpin is their return guy, return
Speaker 1: to kick in a punt against the Chargers in the preseason,
Speaker 1: which might have been the kiss of death in some
Speaker 1: respects because now everybody knows who he is. But they
Speaker 1: think he can be electric in the return game and
Speaker 1: do some things to help that offense. But they have
Speaker 1: to do a lot of They have to take the
Speaker 1: ball away, give the offense multiple possessions, and the special
Speaker 1: teams have to win field position, and that's where they
Speaker 1: think Turpin can make a difference. So I'm curious to
Speaker 1: see if the Bengals fallow the same pack that Tampa
Speaker 1: Bay did, or the kickoffs are about eight million feet
Speaker 1: in the air and just didn't give him any space
Speaker 1: to go anywhere, and then the punts were all by
Speaker 1: the sideline, so you know, but they have to get
Speaker 1: I don't want to call him cheap touchdowns, but the
Speaker 1: Cowboys definitely have to get some cheap touchdowns because I
Speaker 1: don't think you can predict this offense to do go
Speaker 1: on ten play drives when penalties are an issue, injuries
Speaker 1: are an issue, and in some cases the talent an issue.
Speaker 1: Sunday's game kicks off at four twenty five. Our pregame
Speaker 1: coverage will start at three o'clock before I wrap things up.
Speaker 1: Here's an invitation to join us at the Buffalo Wings
Speaker 1: and Rings location in Milford for the Bengals pep Rally
Speaker 1: show on Friday from three to six. Kevin Huber will
Speaker 1: join us in the final hour and we'll have plenty
Speaker 1: of giveaways throughout the show. That's going to do it
Speaker 1: for this episode of the Bengals Booth podcast presented by
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Speaker 1: Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to the Bengals Booth podcast