Speaker 1: Hi again, everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast. The Don't worry about a thing,
Speaker 1: because every little thing gonna be all right. Addition, as
Speaker 1: we look back at Sunday's lopsided loss to the now
Speaker 1: nine and oh Pittsburgh Steelers. Coming up, you'll hear radio replays,
Speaker 1: postgame comments from players and coaches, and in depth analysis
Speaker 1: from Dave Lapham. And in this week's fun fact segment,
Speaker 1: you'll get to know the person under the pads as
Speaker 1: I go one on one with rookie linebacker Marcus Bailey.
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Bud Light Seltzer.
Speaker 1: Refresh the game, and here's a quick reminder that you
Speaker 1: can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right
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Speaker 1: Google Play, Spotify, or podb It's the greatest thing since
Speaker 1: The Master's theme music. Hello, friends, and greetings from Augusta National.
Speaker 1: It's Sunday at the Masters, a tradition unlike any other.
Speaker 1: I love everything about the Masters, and I enjoyed watching
Speaker 1: Dustin Johnson win his first Green jacket over the weekend
Speaker 1: The only downside of watching the tournament in November is
Speaker 1: that it gave me an overwhelming desire to golf. Just
Speaker 1: as the weather in the North is getting too cold
Speaker 1: to tee it up, I'll just have to crank up
Speaker 1: this theme music and dream of spring. Now, let's get
Speaker 1: to Sunday's game. For the Bengals to upset the NFL's
Speaker 1: last undefeated team, they were going to have to play
Speaker 1: with minimal mistakes. Unfortunately, they dropped the ball literally and
Speaker 1: figuratively less than two minutes into the game. The Australians
Speaker 1: punt is a line drive. Alex Ericson catches with a
Speaker 1: chance to run it back from the nineteen up the
Speaker 1: middle of the field of the thirty and he'll be
Speaker 1: knocked four. The all pops out near the thirty three
Speaker 1: yard line. The Steelers are celebrating, no signal from the
Speaker 1: officials yet as the tug of war goes on at
Speaker 1: the bottom of the pile. The Steelers came away with
Speaker 1: the ball at the Cincinnati thirty two, and even though
Speaker 1: they didn't pick up a first down, a Chris Boswell
Speaker 1: field goal gave Pittsburgh a three nothing lead. It was
Speaker 1: that kind of day and here's Zach Taylor. We were
Speaker 1: not good enough in any area today, offense, defense, special teams,
Speaker 1: and we really weren't good enough coaching, and that is
Speaker 1: with me. One. I feel like I let these guys
Speaker 1: down today, So it all starts with me. The Bengals
Speaker 1: could not pick up a first down on their first
Speaker 1: three possessions, and the Steelers took advantage of getting the
Speaker 1: ball five times in the first quarter. First, another field
Speaker 1: goal made it six nothing, and then Ben Roethlisberger struck
Speaker 1: first and ten at the Cincinnati twelve yard line, empty backfield,
Speaker 1: five receivers for Big Bend. Who catches the shotgun snap,
Speaker 1: quick pass cat touchdown. Beante Johnson was on the receiving end,
Speaker 1: and it was twelve nothing. After the Steelers failed on
Speaker 1: a two point conversion try. The Bengals finally picked up
Speaker 1: a first down with about a minute to go in
Speaker 1: the first quarter, but on the very next play, first
Speaker 1: and ten, Bengals at their own forty five, Steelers moving
Speaker 1: around on defense. Here comes the shotgun snap and a
Speaker 1: quick throw caught over the middle by t Higgins. Oh
Speaker 1: Balls ripped out and the Steelers recover ten yards down field. Unbelievable,
Speaker 1: secure the ball. After one quarter, the Bengals had two
Speaker 1: turnovers and one first down, but they came to life
Speaker 1: on their first drive of the second quarter. From the
Speaker 1: twenty four, Burrow looking to throw, He's going to finding
Speaker 1: a deep T Higgins wide open at the fifty catches
Speaker 1: near the sideline thirty twenty five and tackled out of
Speaker 1: bounds after a huge gain by Minca Fitzpatrick, a Fay
Speaker 1: blown coverage. Very uncharacteristic for the Pittsburgh Steelers. That fifty
Speaker 1: four yard pass was the big play on a ninety
Speaker 1: yard touchdown drive that ended with a gutsy call. The
Speaker 1: Bengals are an absurd twelve or thirteen on fourth down
Speaker 1: conversions this year, and they are going to go for
Speaker 1: it on fourth and goal from the two yard line.
Speaker 1: They spread out empty backfield, five wides, three left, two right,
Speaker 1: Burrow standing at the seven catches, the shotgun snap throw
Speaker 1: left car touchdown T Higgins, who dunks the football over
Speaker 1: the goal post as the Bengals score on fourth and
Speaker 1: goal from the two. Higgins had a big day, overcoming
Speaker 1: the fumble to finish with a career high seven catches
Speaker 1: for one hundred and fifteen yards. His second one hundred
Speaker 1: yard receiving performance of the season. I haven't fumbled in
Speaker 1: who knows when, and it really got to me and
Speaker 1: the guys just like, keep your head up, stay stay positive,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna come. And sure enough, Nick Series you know,
Speaker 1: made the big played in a squat to touchdown. The
Speaker 1: Bengals were back in it, trailing twelve seven, but not
Speaker 1: for long, as Pittsburgh answered with a seventy eight yards
Speaker 1: scoring drive. Roethlisberger ready for the shotgun snap, tightly bunched formation,
Speaker 1: He's back to throw, blitz coming. Roethlisberger throws touchdown. Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: shoot Juice Smith Schuster in the back of the end
Speaker 1: zone as Roethlisberger saw the rush closing in, inched up
Speaker 1: just a bit and delivered a strike that made it
Speaker 1: nineteen seven, and after a Bengals punt, the Steelers added
Speaker 1: another field goal to make it twenty two seven with
Speaker 1: one forty eight left in the half. That gave Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow enough time to run the hurry up and he
Speaker 1: completed four straight passes to drive to the Pittsburgh thirty
Speaker 1: five From here, it would be a fifty three yard
Speaker 1: field goal, so the Bengals would love to get about
Speaker 1: ten more yards for Randy Bullock. They trailed twenty two seven,
Speaker 1: twenty nine seconds left and a half empty backfield for Burrow.
Speaker 1: Extends the hands, catches the shotgun snap, he's back to throw,
Speaker 1: He's in trouble and he's sacked by what back at
Speaker 1: the forty eight yard line. That took the Bengals out
Speaker 1: of field goal range, and a couple of plays later,
Speaker 1: Burrow got pushed out of bounds by Bud Dupree and
Speaker 1: went flying into the bench, twisting his ankle in the process.
Speaker 1: I mean, it wasn't a hit or anything. He might
Speaker 1: have pushed me a little late, but it wasn't a hit.
Speaker 1: I just, you know, he gave me a little extra
Speaker 1: boost and I ended up rolling my ankle on the sideline.
Speaker 1: Were you still feeling it in the second half? There
Speaker 1: doesn't matter? Perhaps not, But after throwing for one hundred
Speaker 1: eighty nine yards with a passer rating of one hundred
Speaker 1: point two in the first half, Burrow went five for
Speaker 1: fifteen in the second half for twenty four yards. Furthermore,
Speaker 1: the Bengals finished the game oh for thirteen on third
Speaker 1: down conversions. I just played terrible in this second half.
Speaker 1: You know, we missed a lot of throws and that
Speaker 1: I usually make. Um, No, that's that was the game.
Speaker 1: You know I missed. I miss a lot of those
Speaker 1: in the second half. For thirteen on third down. I
Speaker 1: think it might have been thirteen something like that. Obviously,
Speaker 1: that's that's not gonna win your football games. What was
Speaker 1: the biggest reason in your mind that it worked out
Speaker 1: that way? I missed throws? Um, that's all came down too.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm You're not gonna be able to win
Speaker 1: football games against a team like the Steelers, as good
Speaker 1: as they are when your quarterback plays like I did
Speaker 1: in the second half. Pittsburgh's quarterback, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: did not struggle in the second half. He's thrown for
Speaker 1: two hundred ninety four yards and two touchdowns. He catches
Speaker 1: the shotgun snap pump fakes, throws it into the end
Speaker 1: zone in traffic, caught for a touchdown by Chase Claypool.
Speaker 1: Big Ben as ready play clock at two, catches the
Speaker 1: shotgun snap quick throw, caught touchdown Claypool with his second
Speaker 1: touchdown catch of the game, touchdown pass number four four,
Speaker 1: Big bad Boy. It almost looks like, you know, we've
Speaker 1: seen this movie before. It's a horror movie that Bengals
Speaker 1: fans have been forced to watch for seventeen years. Ben
Speaker 1: Roethlisberger through for three hundred thirty three yards with four
Speaker 1: touchdowns and no picks as the Steelers improved to twenty
Speaker 1: six and seven. In the games that Big Ben has
Speaker 1: started against Cincinnati, here's Sam Hubbard's great Claire, and he's
Speaker 1: Big Ben for a reason. And he knew what he
Speaker 1: wanted to do and where he was going with the ball,
Speaker 1: and they had a good plan and he made a
Speaker 1: lot of great throws and good decisions. Although the Bengals
Speaker 1: were behind thirty six to seven in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: Burrow kept playing despite the twisted ankle. Zach Taylor was
Speaker 1: asked about it after the game, like, what was the
Speaker 1: thought process leaving Joe in that last drive he took
Speaker 1: a couple of hits, you're down, you know, thirty six
Speaker 1: to seven or whatever? Did you think about taking him out?
Speaker 1: You know, we tried to manage it some with the runs.
Speaker 1: We wanted to get some points, get some momentum going,
Speaker 1: you know, to be honest with you, and and just
Speaker 1: we left him in their and Burrow was happy they did. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not not a quitter. I'm not going out of
Speaker 1: the game. No, it doesn't matter if we're down one hundred,
Speaker 1: down ten, down twenty, I'm not going out. A thirty
Speaker 1: nine yard run on a fake punt by Sean Williams
Speaker 1: helped the Bengals tack on a late field goal to
Speaker 1: make the final score thirty six to ten. They're eleventh
Speaker 1: consecutive loss to Pittsburgh. Here are Zach Taylor, Joe Burrow,
Speaker 1: and Sam Hubbard. We don't overreact to this. It was
Speaker 1: not our best performance. We went on the road. We
Speaker 1: didn't really win in any phase, any statistical category in
Speaker 1: terms of the turnovers, the penalties, the exposive players, we
Speaker 1: didn't win any of them. And so you go on
Speaker 1: the road, there's no way you're gonna win a football
Speaker 1: game doing that way against a good football team. And
Speaker 1: so we know what the reasons were. We know that
Speaker 1: we could have played better, and we got to put
Speaker 1: this game behind us quite frankly, move on, you know.
Speaker 1: And that's the biggest key, because we still got seven
Speaker 1: games left, a big one next week at Washington. We
Speaker 1: can't let Pittsburgh beat us twice. That's the biggest key.
Speaker 1: And again It's disappointing because this is how we thought
Speaker 1: we're gonna come out and play, but it's what happened,
Speaker 1: and so we just got to take it like a
Speaker 1: man and move on and and go focus on the
Speaker 1: next game. It's never good to lose like this, but
Speaker 1: it's always a good learning experience. Um, you know, I
Speaker 1: told I was talking to the sideline. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I think we're we're in that game if if I
Speaker 1: don't suck in the second half, and I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: suck a lot. So We're gonna come back to work
Speaker 1: every day, and I'm excited to go go back to
Speaker 1: practice on on Tuesday or on Wednesday and stuck getting
Speaker 1: these kinks worked out and move on to Washington. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think we got a great locker room. We gotta
Speaker 1: got a lot of guys that you know, are gonna
Speaker 1: feel the pain of this loss, and we're gonna come
Speaker 1: right back and go to work and try and go
Speaker 1: on a run here these last seven games. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I definitely want to be a leader, but like I said,
Speaker 1: we got a good locker room with a lot of
Speaker 1: good guys, and you know, we want to We're doing
Speaker 1: things the right way. We're we're getting better and we're
Speaker 1: just gonna keep climbing up. Next a road game against
Speaker 1: the Washington football team, who fell to two and seven
Speaker 1: with a three point loss in Detroit as the Lions
Speaker 1: kicked a fifty nine yard field goal as time expired.
Speaker 1: But it was quite a day for Alex Smith, who
Speaker 1: has come back from his gruesome leg injury that required
Speaker 1: seventeen surgeries to regain the starting quarterback job in Washington.
Speaker 1: He threw for a career high three hundred ninety yards
Speaker 1: in Sunday's loss. Remarkable. Now time for postgame analysis from
Speaker 1: Dave Lapham Lap. The Bengals did not play well, that
Speaker 1: was obvious, but right now the two teams are not competitive.
Speaker 1: The Bengals have been outscored sixty three to ten in
Speaker 1: their two games against Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Absolutely. I mean,
Speaker 1: if it's a litmus test, it's shown they're not ready
Speaker 1: measuring stick. They're way down the bottom of the measuring stick.
Speaker 1: So they have miles to go before they rest. And
Speaker 1: the disappointing thing, and this one was they were understaffed
Speaker 1: by coaches. You know, not having when you don't have
Speaker 1: all those eyes that are eliminated. I mean, the more
Speaker 1: feedback you get, the better off you are. When guys
Speaker 1: kind of the sideline, they're used to talking to a
Speaker 1: particular coach and getting feedback and then I'm not. These
Speaker 1: aren't excuses, these are facts. That was different. But it's
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen era, so that's the different part of it.
Speaker 1: There are players that are affected by COVID nineteen. They're
Speaker 1: you know, guys brought off the practice squad. It's they were.
Speaker 1: They were undermanned theoretically at the tackle position, at the
Speaker 1: cornerback position. I thought the tackle stepped up and played well.
Speaker 1: Two guys that I thought I Dentergy showed himself well.
Speaker 1: I think he belongs. Spain has been in the league
Speaker 1: six years. We already know he belongs. So I thought
Speaker 1: those two guys I quitted themselves well. On the back end,
Speaker 1: I think they had their issues. And there's no question
Speaker 1: about it. But you know, special teams didn't play well.
Speaker 1: Offense didn't play well. Defense didn't play well. You go
Speaker 1: over thirteen on third down, third downs, the money down,
Speaker 1: they were bankrupt at every position there was Offensively, they
Speaker 1: made no money. I mean they were broke. They were
Speaker 1: turning their pockets inside out. Nothing fell out, So they
Speaker 1: gotta get that rectified. Fourth down obviously, use their money down,
Speaker 1: that's the down. They're thirteen out of fourteen now and
Speaker 1: they scored on more than one fourth down. Maybe they
Speaker 1: should forget about third down, go right to fourth. It's crazy,
Speaker 1: but this was There's not very much positive you can
Speaker 1: take out of a performance that took place today. You know,
Speaker 1: you fall behind too early in the turnover department, you
Speaker 1: have penalties, you have turnovers, you don't convert one conversion
Speaker 1: on third down. I mean, you're not gonna win a
Speaker 1: football game and you're gonna be blown out by a
Speaker 1: good team like they did. Zach Taylor used the term
Speaker 1: I blame myself, it's my fault, something along those lines
Speaker 1: several times in his postgame news cop. Do you think
Speaker 1: he's specifically blaming himself for his play calling on third down?
Speaker 1: Do you think that was the biggest thing about his
Speaker 1: own performance that he was self critical of. I think
Speaker 1: he was self critical of everything, and uh, like a
Speaker 1: good quarterback like he was, he's accepting all the blame
Speaker 1: and deflecting all the credit, you know. And uh, because
Speaker 1: he said, you know, we took a sack in a
Speaker 1: two minute Drow that was I shouldn't have called that play.
Speaker 1: That's on me, you know, so I think I think
Speaker 1: situational stuff. I think he was probably disappointed in the
Speaker 1: calls that were made in hindsight when he's able to
Speaker 1: go back over them. But they just, uh, there was
Speaker 1: just a lack of lack of execution. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow makes uh makes the throw um, you know
Speaker 1: many times down the sideline. That would have been a big,
Speaker 1: big play, could have been another you know, thirty five
Speaker 1: forty yard player to add to the add to the
Speaker 1: yards of te Higgins and doesn't happen. So and Joe,
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow himself said he played pretty well in the
Speaker 1: first half, but in the second half he just said,
Speaker 1: I just didn't throw it well. I didn't play well.
Speaker 1: I missed too many throws. I missed throws that I've made,
Speaker 1: you know, over and over again. Tee Higgins said that
Speaker 1: he and Joe on that play that he overthrew, had
Speaker 1: you know, worked and repped in practice more than one
Speaker 1: time and done it successfully. And you know, sometimes you
Speaker 1: have a stinker, and they had a full fledged stinker.
Speaker 1: I did like the fact that. Joe Burrow said afterward,
Speaker 1: I won't suck like that very often, which I found amusing.
Speaker 1: He was twenty one for forty two hundred and thirteen yards,
Speaker 1: one touchdown, no interception. Do you have any issue with
Speaker 1: him staying in the game at the end of the game,
Speaker 1: you know, I guess to me, it looks like when
Speaker 1: a guy's limping, you know. But Joe, Joe obviously convinced
Speaker 1: everybody that he was okay to go, particularly the medical staff.
Speaker 1: Do you think it was brought up. I think I
Speaker 1: think it was probably brought up. Yeah, And to me,
Speaker 1: Paul Sparrowing, he made he errs on the side of
Speaker 1: caution all the time, so they must have done a
Speaker 1: quick examination. Joe said it was a minor you know,
Speaker 1: roll the ankle or twisted the ankle. Obviously he wanted
Speaker 1: to be in there and finish it. He just his
Speaker 1: whole thing. And the you know in the zoom call
Speaker 1: after the game is I'm not a quitter. I don't quit.
Speaker 1: He didn't want to go out under those circumstances take
Speaker 1: him out of a game like they took Ben out
Speaker 1: and Mason Rudolph finished. And he do that all day
Speaker 1: every day. He didn't want to go out in a
Speaker 1: situation feel like he's deserting his guys, and uh, and
Speaker 1: give give the ar or the impression of quitting. So
Speaker 1: I guess, uh, you know, I guess that that ruled
Speaker 1: the day. And then you know, Zach said, they're still
Speaker 1: trying to score points and trying to create momentum, and um,
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's just the one. The biggest thing
Speaker 1: that I took out of Zach's talk after the game
Speaker 1: was a good point. Don't let the Pittsburgh steal his
Speaker 1: beat you twice. Make sure you pay attention to things
Speaker 1: you did wrong. And that's going to be a litney.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be a long, long, legal sized pad list.
Speaker 1: But make corrections and then get ready for the Washington Redskins,
Speaker 1: because that defensive football team is pretty damn good. And
Speaker 1: Alex Smith let it up, he's a great store. Um,
Speaker 1: it's you know, you can't you can't assume we're gonna
Speaker 1: you know, we're gonna go to Washington beat the Redskins. Man,
Speaker 1: you gotta go play Washington football team. I keep saying, Redskins,
Speaker 1: you have the football team, gotta go, gotta go to
Speaker 1: Washington and uh, and win and beat that football team. Uh.
Speaker 1: You just you can't make assumptions, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: who who the Bengals to make an assumption like that anyway,
Speaker 1: So you gotta make sure you get that out of
Speaker 1: your head. Uh. It's like, okay, now now we start
Speaker 1: to get don't you think that other teams in the league,
Speaker 1: like the Washington and others, are saying, here, come to Bengals,
Speaker 1: that's a win, that's a w I mean really honestly,
Speaker 1: I mean everybody's saying, let's schedule them for homecoming where
Speaker 1: here it is, let's let's get after the Bengals. So
Speaker 1: you don't make any assumptions like that. You just gotta
Speaker 1: go back to square one, work prepare. Hopefully you have
Speaker 1: all your coaches back. Um. You know, um, anybody that
Speaker 1: tested positives out ten days. Anybody that is contact tracings
Speaker 1: out five, So you gotta figure Golden and Duffner would
Speaker 1: only be five days. But I mean, those guys, how
Speaker 1: about that situation. You know, they traveled. Bob mcdell didn't travel,
Speaker 1: but those guys traveled, and they're in rental cars driving
Speaker 1: back in the afternoon before the football game, getting back
Speaker 1: to Cincinnati, so they can watch as much as they
Speaker 1: can on TV and before they study taping everything. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's a that's a crazy dynamic. Only in the year
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, Pittsburgh finished with nine quarterback hits and four sacks.
Speaker 1: That's almost exactly what they averaged per game. And obviously
Speaker 1: they had a huge lead in the second half, which
Speaker 1: helps you get after the quarterback. But I thought this
Speaker 1: was interesting. It wasn't Blitzburg. They were not doing what
Speaker 1: Baltimore did. They rushed four, sometimes three, occasionally five. But
Speaker 1: I thought that their secondary one against the Bengals wide
Speaker 1: receivers with the exception of te Higgins. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: think unfortunately Hayden had another big game. Joe Hayden was
Speaker 1: very good. He get his hands on a lot of
Speaker 1: footballs and disrupted timing of routes and he was very good.
Speaker 1: I do think that Baltimore. The difference between Baltimore and
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh is Baltimore has multiple Pro Bowls on the back end,
Speaker 1: so they feel like they can bring tons of people
Speaker 1: and really get after the quarterback and mess him up
Speaker 1: because they're so good in the back end. Pittsburgh is
Speaker 1: sound solid, but their coaching staff feels like our strength
Speaker 1: is in the front, so we're gonna rush for and
Speaker 1: we're going to get there with those four we're gonna
Speaker 1: keep seven back there. And that's what they did for
Speaker 1: the most part. And like guys were saying after the game,
Speaker 1: they don't run a ton of different coverages back there.
Speaker 1: They have a couple of three things they do and
Speaker 1: they know to do it very well. Every single route combination.
Speaker 1: They get studied and they're they're tough, but they have
Speaker 1: seven bodies back there, so they can double multiple people
Speaker 1: if need be and still get pressure on the quarterback
Speaker 1: with their four man rush. That's so extraordinary with wat
Speaker 1: and Dupree. So that's the biggest difference is where the
Speaker 1: strength those Baltimore and Pittsburgh defenses are and their coaches,
Speaker 1: you know, proceed accordingly with game plans that that kind
Speaker 1: of accentuate the positives and kind of help along with
Speaker 1: things that they're not as strong in. In a sixteen
Speaker 1: game regular season, the Bengal special teams will outperform the
Speaker 1: other squads special teams twelve times out of sixteen. I mean,
Speaker 1: they usually win the special teams battle. Not on Sunday
Speaker 1: in Pittsburgh a fumble on the first punt returned by
Speaker 1: Alex Ericson. Then he seemed to get a little gunshy
Speaker 1: catching punts. Two got downed inside the ten. As a result,
Speaker 1: they gave up a forty two yard punt return. They
Speaker 1: had the fake punt late in the game, which I
Speaker 1: guess helps even things out a little bit, but by
Speaker 1: and large, they got outperformed significantly in special teams. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, as we know Darren Simmons looks
Speaker 1: at the average drive start and you factor in turnovers.
Speaker 1: Those are going to be short fields sometimes, and they
Speaker 1: were a couple of turnovers were a factor in that,
Speaker 1: but multiple times to half a dozen times. I mean
Speaker 1: they're starting inside their twenty yard line sometimes aside their ten.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's long field. They scored a touchdown
Speaker 1: on one of those drives, you know, eight plays ninety
Speaker 1: yards for a touchdown on fourth down, the two yard
Speaker 1: touchdown reception that Tee Higgins had. But yeah, I think overall,
Speaker 1: on a snap by snap basis, after having the worst
Speaker 1: special teams game that Danny Smith and his team has
Speaker 1: had for a long time down in Dallas, Pittsburgh was
Speaker 1: horrible in Dallas on special teams. Dallas stayed in that
Speaker 1: game because of special team's excellence, and that was a
Speaker 1: big point of contention. I'm sure prepared for this game.
Speaker 1: We got to bounce back. If we play like this
Speaker 1: against the Bengals, it'll be even worse. So I think,
Speaker 1: you know, players responded. Coach Danny Smith responded, and they
Speaker 1: put together a pretty good game. I agree with you.
Speaker 1: I think the you know, the fake fake punt kind
Speaker 1: of you know, it's kind of like, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: meaningless yards or immediately stick miss picking. Yeah, exactly, but
Speaker 1: they got to look they you know, that they were
Speaker 1: working against and they took full advantage of it, and
Speaker 1: Sean Williams got the big benefit from it. But yeah,
Speaker 1: snap on a snap by snap basis, Darren Simmons is
Speaker 1: going to be in the grill of his special teams players.
Speaker 1: They punted the ball way too much and had some
Speaker 1: way too many mistakes and problems and special teams pen
Speaker 1: Roethlisberger three hundred and thirty three passing yards, four touchdowns,
Speaker 1: no picks, pass a rating of one ten. He improved
Speaker 1: to twenty six and seven head to head against Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: I said it late in the broadcast. He's thirty eight
Speaker 1: years old, he's in his seventeenth season. If and when
Speaker 1: he decides to retire and they have some sort of
Speaker 1: retirement ceremony in Pittsburgh for Steelers fans, I am going
Speaker 1: I will be so happy when he has done tormenting
Speaker 1: my teams. First of as you see three and oh
Speaker 1: against Gino GOODOULI when Gino was great. And now, as
Speaker 1: I mentioned, twenty six and seven against the Bengals and
Speaker 1: Mike tom was twenty five and five. Come on, I mean,
Speaker 1: Ben though the state of Ohio, his record on the
Speaker 1: road against the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals, and
Speaker 1: while he was at Miami of Ohio had an undefeated season.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's ridiculous. He owns the state of Ohio.
Speaker 1: Living in Finley, Ohio, he loves to come back home.
Speaker 1: The whole State's is home, not just Finley, Ohio. The
Speaker 1: state of Ohio is true comfort food for Ben Roethlisberger,
Speaker 1: and he feasts. He has a buffet every time he's
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati or in Cleveland. And it is unbelievable how
Speaker 1: Ben Roethlisberger has owned the Bengals during the course of
Speaker 1: his career, it really is. Are you going to watch
Speaker 1: that YouTube serious bigger than Ben, featuring him and his
Speaker 1: wife about his comeback from the torn tendons in his
Speaker 1: right elbow. I think I may have to miss that one.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's gonna be musty TV in the
Speaker 1: Lapham household. I don't know how many videos there are
Speaker 1: on YouTube, ten million, fifty million. That is the very
Speaker 1: last thing I would watch on YouTube. It would just
Speaker 1: make me that much angrier. I'll tell you though, to
Speaker 1: look at how he has recovered from that type of
Speaker 1: that's severe an injury, It's remarkable. He is a tough
Speaker 1: son of a gun, but he definitely wants you to
Speaker 1: know he's a tough son of a gun. He has
Speaker 1: a drama queen as well as well as being a tough,
Speaker 1: tough ombre. And his teammates know it. Ryan Clark with
Speaker 1: ESPN rips him all the time. Even Mike Tomlin has
Speaker 1: tongue and cheeked at a few times. How Ben is?
Speaker 1: You know, Ben's Ben? The drama of Ben. Ben feeds
Speaker 1: off of it. Ben wants to be the drama queen.
Speaker 1: He wants the story to be you know, the John
Speaker 1: Wayne rides off into the sunset after a rescue in
Speaker 1: the day. That's Big Ben in a nutshell, and I
Speaker 1: think the man is under rated. He's rarely mentioned as
Speaker 1: one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. He's got
Speaker 1: two Super Bowl rings, He's been to a third Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Now he's ninth all time and eighth all time and
Speaker 1: touchdown passes seventh and yards he's approaching sixty thousand yards.
Speaker 1: I kid because I respect the guy. He has had
Speaker 1: an unbelievable career. Incredible, incredible. I mean, like we talked
Speaker 1: about Joe Burrow being a rookie quarterback. Check in boxes, man,
Speaker 1: find me a box that Ben Roethlisberger does not check.
Speaker 1: That gold jacket is going to go on his shoulders
Speaker 1: as soon as it possibly can upon his retirement, and
Speaker 1: he will be a proud member of the Pro Football
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame and deservedly so. The guy is spectacular.
Speaker 1: Hopefully very soon like tomorrow. Here's a quick reminder to
Speaker 1: join Lap and Lance McAlister for Bengals Line Monday Night
Speaker 1: from six to nine on seven hundred WLW. The Bengals
Speaker 1: Booth podcast is presented by Bud Light Seltzer. It's Light
Speaker 1: and refreshing with a hint of fruit flavor. Now time
Speaker 1: for this week's fun Facts segment, where you get to
Speaker 1: know the person under the pads. Time for some fun facts.
Speaker 1: A linebacker Marcus Bailey from the Columbus suburb of Hilliard, Ohio,
Speaker 1: about ten miles away from the Ohio State campus. Marcus,
Speaker 1: I think most of us assume that any young football
Speaker 1: player growing up near Columbus is obsessed with the Buckeyes.
Speaker 1: Were you? I think you're You're right on the money there.
Speaker 1: It's kind of inevitable, Like everyone just has Ohio State
Speaker 1: plastered everywhere. It's kind of like all you're exposed to
Speaker 1: growing up. So, I mean, it's just you have no
Speaker 1: choice but to be an Ohio State fan. And you know,
Speaker 1: the fan base there is great, Like they you know,
Speaker 1: they're really passionate about it, about their buck eyes and
Speaker 1: about Ohio State football. So yeah, I was an Ohio
Speaker 1: State fan growing up, but obviously that that changed, that
Speaker 1: changed quickly once I got a guy exposed to the Boilermaker.
Speaker 1: So was your childhood bedroom a shrine to Ohio State?
Speaker 1: Did you dress up as Buckeyes for Halloween? How bad
Speaker 1: was it? No, it wasn't like that. There were definitely
Speaker 1: like at least kids and in elementary schools in central
Speaker 1: Ohio or definitely like that. But now that wasn't that
Speaker 1: wasn't that wasn't me we I mean we watched the
Speaker 1: games and stuff, but I wasn't like a diehard fan,
Speaker 1: you know, you just a kind of a kind of
Speaker 1: a fan by default. You know, we're doing fun facts
Speaker 1: with Marcus Bailey Aside from sports, Did you have any
Speaker 1: other interest as a kid. My first like athletic experience
Speaker 1: at all was like with martial arts. Actually, so the
Speaker 1: elementary squad I went to was actually in Dayton, Ohio,
Speaker 1: and Tralwood was called Trotwood Prepp and Finnish Academy, and
Speaker 1: every day we had like an hour of like either
Speaker 1: gym or martial arts. It was taekwondo, and I kind
Speaker 1: of got attached to it. Like I was only five
Speaker 1: or six when I started, but I ended up being
Speaker 1: really good at it, I mean it good. Ended up
Speaker 1: getting my black belt and uh competed in the in
Speaker 1: the Arnolds, you know, you know the Arnold tournament in
Speaker 1: Columbus they have every year. Ended up you know, doing weapons.
Speaker 1: I was good with the bow staff. I did compete
Speaker 1: with the you know that size, I was nunchucks and
Speaker 1: then sparred. I have some trophies now I'm talking about show.
Speaker 1: I have some trophies back in my room in Columbus,
Speaker 1: a little bit of those, like third grade, second grade
Speaker 1: taekwondo tournament, uh, trophies for winning winning stuff there. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so that was that's I guess that's a little bit
Speaker 1: of like a fun fact. That's kind of how I
Speaker 1: started my my athletic experience. So maybe it's helped me
Speaker 1: not being a linebacker, being flexible and all that. Who knows.
Speaker 1: Is there some sort of great picture or video from
Speaker 1: your childhood of you, like breaking six boards or any
Speaker 1: naz that's like, that's all show. I don't think we didn't.
Speaker 1: We didn't really do the board breaking or anything like that.
Speaker 1: That's all like the that's like the smoking whistle stuff.
Speaker 1: That's all for show. It's all for show. Yeah, some
Speaker 1: of those boards are not even Y're easy to break comparently,
Speaker 1: But I don't know if I have any video of
Speaker 1: me sparring or not. I'll have to see if I
Speaker 1: can get access to some of that. For chatting with
Speaker 1: Marcus Bailey, your hometown is about an hour and forty
Speaker 1: five minutes from Paul Brown Stadium. Did you come down
Speaker 1: to Cincinnati as a kid for any reason? I definitely
Speaker 1: didn't go to any Bengals games. I didn't really, I
Speaker 1: didn't go to any NFL games growing up. Actually, I
Speaker 1: don't think I really visited Cincinnati a lot. My first
Speaker 1: time really there was back in twenty eighteen. I was
Speaker 1: I was still at Purdue. I came to Riverbend for
Speaker 1: a concert and visited some friends here that went to UC.
Speaker 1: But I didn't, you know, I didn't really spend a
Speaker 1: lot of time to Cincinnati. Actually, what was the shell?
Speaker 1: It was a Whiskalifa concert. Whiskalifa concert. Yeah, yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was pretty fun. It was good. You chose Purdue
Speaker 1: and you were recruited by a young coach who is
Speaker 1: now one of the rising stars in college coaching. You
Speaker 1: sees defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman. Aside from sharing her first name,
Speaker 1: why did you two guys connect? He was a younger
Speaker 1: coach and he related to us, and you know he
Speaker 1: was I recognized the name from him playing at Ohio State,
Speaker 1: and I remember him having a lot of like being
Speaker 1: really high energy and being passionate and building like a
Speaker 1: genuine relationship with me as a recruit. You know, I
Speaker 1: thought he was gonna, you know, bring the best out
Speaker 1: of me as a player, and uh, you know, I
Speaker 1: liked him a lot, so I definitely contributed to me,
Speaker 1: you know, committing to perdue back then. I imagine you
Speaker 1: are not surprised by his success, not at all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm super happy for him. I was able to reconnect
Speaker 1: with him over over the summer, and after I got drafted,
Speaker 1: he congratulated me, and I was able to go actually
Speaker 1: do a couple couple of little linebacker workouts with him,
Speaker 1: you know, when everything was like, you know, I wasn't
Speaker 1: able to get workouts in with with the Bengal stuff.
Speaker 1: So we're chatting with Bengals linebacker Marcus Bailey October twenty,
Speaker 1: first twenty eighteen, Perdue forty nine undefeated, second ranked Ohio
Speaker 1: State twenty and it was like a Hollywood script. You
Speaker 1: had fifteen tackles in a forty one yard pick six
Speaker 1: off Dwayne Haskins. Is that the single best day of
Speaker 1: your life so far? Besides yeah, besides getting drafted, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it probably is. That was definitely a highlight of my
Speaker 1: college career, you know, getting the chance to play against
Speaker 1: my hometown team, and all the hype that was going
Speaker 1: into it. You know, like at this point it's for
Speaker 1: the past two years. That's that's always that's always brought
Speaker 1: up in everything because it was obviously such a you know,
Speaker 1: a spectacle, But yeah, it was. It was one of
Speaker 1: the highlights of my college career for sure. Did people
Speaker 1: back home give you crap about it? It was mixed.
Speaker 1: It was mixed. Yeah, it was mixed. Like it was
Speaker 1: like kind of like, you know, they wanted Ohio State
Speaker 1: to win, but they wanted me to do good and
Speaker 1: say it was like, you know, it was a little
Speaker 1: bit of nix there, Marcus. That night, much of the
Speaker 1: nation got to know a young cancer patient and Produce
Speaker 1: super fan named Tyler Trent, who has since passed away
Speaker 1: at the age of twenty. What impact did Tyler have
Speaker 1: on you? Tyler was a pivotal part to our team
Speaker 1: that year. We were motivated by his resiliency, by his will,
Speaker 1: by his strength, and he made the most out of
Speaker 1: a terrible situation. And it made you have gratitude and
Speaker 1: made you have perspective over the things that you do have.
Speaker 1: And I realized that that, you know, things could be
Speaker 1: a lot worse, and someone that's in a lot worse
Speaker 1: situation made the most out of it is doing an
Speaker 1: amazing things. So I was definitely inspiring for our football team. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was. I was glad to get to meet him.
Speaker 1: You had to overcome hardship at Purdue. You tore your
Speaker 1: ACL early in your college career, and then early in
Speaker 1: your senior year you tour the ACL in the other knee.
Speaker 1: At that point, you knew there was a good chance
Speaker 1: you'd have an NFL opportunity. How devastating was it? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it was super devastating because after the twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen season, I had my stock was super high, and
Speaker 1: I just wanted to solidify my spot as one of
Speaker 1: the top linebackers in the country in the twenty nineteen season.
Speaker 1: So I was super devastated after that injury happened. But
Speaker 1: this just talking about perspective, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like I you know, it was early in the season.
Speaker 1: I still had a chance to get rehab before for
Speaker 1: the draft and everything, so I had to stop being
Speaker 1: sorry for myself and just look forward at that point,
Speaker 1: and um, you know, I was fortunately able to have
Speaker 1: my rehabbly successful and work my way back into a
Speaker 1: position where I could get drafted. We'll wrap up fun
Speaker 1: facts with a few wild card questions for Marcus Baileys.
Speaker 1: At Big Ten media days prior to your senior year,
Speaker 1: you were decked out. Yeah, I was clean Haisley jacket
Speaker 1: with your initials and uniform number embroidered down the pocket,
Speaker 1: a bow tie and Purdue colors. Are you a fashion hound?
Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a like opportunistic fashion hound. Like I'm
Speaker 1: not always there's too much effort to do it all
Speaker 1: the time, so I'm not gonna say that, but like
Speaker 1: on the top of the days that like like the
Speaker 1: big time, like the opportunities you've got to show out.
Speaker 1: I could show out on those days, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So yeah, Big ten Media Day or like
Speaker 1: a or like I remember we had this, or like
Speaker 1: a Halloween or something like that. I'll try. I'll try
Speaker 1: to go a little extra on those type of days.
Speaker 1: You know. It's very impressive. You have a lot of
Speaker 1: fun posting humorous videos on TikTok. Do you have a
Speaker 1: little class clown in you? I was never a class
Speaker 1: clown because I used to always get irritated by class clowns.
Speaker 1: But I mean I try to have a you know,
Speaker 1: a good sense of humor when and find humor and
Speaker 1: situations to it helps you kind of deal with the stress.
Speaker 1: And uh, it's always it's always good when you have
Speaker 1: people around you that have kind of a similar sense
Speaker 1: of humor to you, like a sarcastic or satirical sense
Speaker 1: of humor. You can kind of bounce that off each other.
Speaker 1: But the TikTok has been has been put on postpone
Speaker 1: for a little bit until until after until after the season.
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll see. But yeah, that was that was fun
Speaker 1: to get into that just you know, that was something
Speaker 1: new and that was kind of by everyone was getting
Speaker 1: hyped u about TikTok. So I was like, let me,
Speaker 1: let me see what's going on here. And then I
Speaker 1: realize you can kind of get like you can you know,
Speaker 1: build a good little fan base outside of the sport
Speaker 1: with it. He posts some some videos that get a
Speaker 1: lot of views and everything. So that was just something
Speaker 1: I just try to do to my free time back then.
Speaker 1: All right, A tough one. If you could meet any
Speaker 1: athlete in history, who would it be? Lebron James One
Speaker 1: of my favorite athletes, so, like, I would definitely want
Speaker 1: to try to meet him. If we're talking about football.
Speaker 1: One of the best linebackers I played, Luke Keekley. I
Speaker 1: mean he's not he's in your history. You think about
Speaker 1: someone has maybe passed away, but he's still alive and well.
Speaker 1: But I would want to meet him to get his
Speaker 1: perspective on football, IQ and everything. So or Lebron James.
Speaker 1: When it comes to food or snacks, what's your weakness
Speaker 1: oatmal cream pies? I like, Oh, I love some some
Speaker 1: oat milk cream pies actually, or some double stuff oreos.
Speaker 1: Do you indulge or do you have good will power? See?
Speaker 1: I would like to say I have good willpower, but
Speaker 1: sometimes sometimes you break. Sometimes you break, sometimes you eat.
Speaker 1: The whole role, you know, join the club happens to
Speaker 1: us all you're off the hot seat. I appreciate the time,
Speaker 1: best of luck the rest of the year. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1: That's fun Facts with Marcus Bailey. Thanks to rookie Marcus Bailey.
Speaker 1: And that's going to do it for this episode or
Speaker 1: the Bengal Booth podcast brought to you by Bud Light Seltzer.
Speaker 1: Refresh the game if you haven't done so already, Please
Speaker 1: subscribe and if you have a minute, give it a
Speaker 1: rating or share a comment that helps more Bengals fans
Speaker 1: find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thank you for
Speaker 1: listening to the Bengals Booth podcast