Speaker 1: Hike and everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booth podcast. The I Can't get no satiest
Speaker 1: fag Shun. Addition, as we look back at the bengals
Speaker 1: thirteenth loss in fourteen games at thirty four to thirteen
Speaker 1: home defeat to the New England Patriots. Coming up, you'll
Speaker 1: hear radio replays, locker room interviews, and Dave Lappam will
Speaker 1: join me for postgame analysis. Plus, in this week's Fun
Speaker 1: Facts Conversation, you'll get to know the person under the
Speaker 1: pads as we meet rookie linebacker Jermaine Pratt. All of
Speaker 1: that is straight ahead, but first, here's a quick reminder
Speaker 1: that you can have the latest edition of this podcast
Speaker 1: delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing
Speaker 1: on iTunes, Stitch, your Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean.
Speaker 1: It's the greatest thing since Christmas tree ornaments from family vacations,
Speaker 1: So whenever I travel with my wife and son, we
Speaker 1: pick out a Christmas tree ornament wherever we go as
Speaker 1: a lasting reminder of our vacation. For example, there's a
Speaker 1: little miniature saxophone from a trip to New Orleans, A
Speaker 1: tiny wooden lobster buoy from a journey to Maine, and
Speaker 1: a small pint of guinness from a more elaborate adventure
Speaker 1: to Dublin, Ireland. So, if you haven't done so, already
Speaker 1: turned decorating the Christmas tree into a travel scrap book.
Speaker 1: It's a great an inexpensive way to remember family vacations. Now,
Speaker 1: let's get to football. Sunday's game against the Patriots did
Speaker 1: not start well for the Bengals. New England got the
Speaker 1: ball to begin the game and reach the end zone
Speaker 1: in three minutes. In sixteen seconds, Brady waiting for a
Speaker 1: shotgun snap, Edelman goes in motion. They fake it to Edelman.
Speaker 1: Here's a swing pass to the left. It is caught
Speaker 1: by White. He makes it to the twenty fifteen ten
Speaker 1: five touchdown call. That's just a great misdirection call. They
Speaker 1: got the Bengals defense totally full. When the Bengals got
Speaker 1: the ball, they weren't looking to fool anybody. They were
Speaker 1: looking to run it down and the Patriots throats. Here's
Speaker 1: a pitch to the right. Mixon starts right, looks to
Speaker 1: cut back, breaks through a tackle, runs to the four
Speaker 1: d to fifty feet, cutting back toward the numerals and
Speaker 1: Mixon gets tackled at the Patriots thirty two yard line
Speaker 1: by Stefan Gilmore. That looked like it was going to
Speaker 1: be a three yard loss. Guess what, it's a thirty
Speaker 1: seven yard game. Should have been should have been a
Speaker 1: three yard loss. You should have been tackling the backfield.
Speaker 1: We've seen Joe Mixon do this multiple times. After running
Speaker 1: for a career high one hundred forty six yards last
Speaker 1: week in Cleveland, Joe ran for seventy two in the
Speaker 1: first quarter against the Pats and finished with twenty five
Speaker 1: carries for one hundred thirty six yards. And to my
Speaker 1: hatshops at all line, man, they played that today and
Speaker 1: you know it was getting down and dirty, and you know,
Speaker 1: salute the old line coach all week. You know that's
Speaker 1: what he wanted to do. You know, gotampose our wheel
Speaker 1: and for me, you know, I wanted to set the
Speaker 1: tone and I felt like that's what I did today
Speaker 1: even though we came up short. I mean it's eleven man, bab,
Speaker 1: but you know, like I said, man, i'm guys and
Speaker 1: the old line they did their thing tight ends was
Speaker 1: blocking hard, and you know the receivers that was blocking
Speaker 1: on the perimeter. Man, I was just making them play,
Speaker 1: so I said, my hats off to all of them.
Speaker 1: They did a great job. The Bengals first five plays
Speaker 1: of the game were runs by mixing. Their next three
Speaker 1: were runs by Giovanni Bernard, moving the ball inside the
Speaker 1: Patriots ten yard line. Eight straight runs to begin this drive.
Speaker 1: Now it's third down in three at the eight yard line,
Speaker 1: empty backfield, two receivers left, three out to the right.
Speaker 1: Dalton catches a shotgun snap, cocks the yard. Bros caught
Speaker 1: that boyd. It spends away from a defender and runs
Speaker 1: into the end zone for a Bengals touchdown. That's Sethan Carter.
Speaker 1: I beg your pardon eighty two, not eighty three, Sethan Carter.
Speaker 1: Chathan Carter spun away from Jonathan Jones, makes the catch
Speaker 1: and just tight spin move inside leaves Jonathan Jones in
Speaker 1: the dust. That tied the game at seven, and on
Speaker 1: the Bengals second drive of the day, they took the lead.
Speaker 1: Huber wiping his hands off on his pants. Now he
Speaker 1: catches the snap, puts it down, bullocks kick floating on
Speaker 1: its way. It is good and the Bengals have taken
Speaker 1: a three point lead with fourteen seconds left here in
Speaker 1: the first quarter, two drives, two scores, and the Bengals
Speaker 1: third drive looked promising as well. On fourth and less
Speaker 1: than a yard at the New England thirty, Cincinnati passed
Speaker 1: on a forty eight yard field goal attempt and decided
Speaker 1: to go for it. And he's in the shotgun Mixing
Speaker 1: to his left. Dalton gives it to Mixing and Joe
Speaker 1: did not get it. He stopped Danny Shelton plugging the
Speaker 1: metal to make the tackle and the Patriots will take
Speaker 1: over on downs. It's easy to second guess the play call.
Speaker 1: For example, why run out of the shotgun instead of
Speaker 1: either trying a quarterback sneak or have Andy Dalton under
Speaker 1: center and then turn and hand it to a charging Mixing.
Speaker 1: Here's Joel. I don't really care if I'm a shotgun
Speaker 1: or you know, under center, But I mean what I
Speaker 1: prefer being undersinder? Hell yeah, but I mean I don't
Speaker 1: really care about it, honestly. Why why why is it
Speaker 1: such a big difference. If it is under center, then
Speaker 1: it's not a shotgun. I mean, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, it's it's solid about an attitude, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying on how you going to approach. You
Speaker 1: know that next carry and you know when it comes about,
Speaker 1: you know, your mindset is in a shotgun. You know
Speaker 1: you gotta come across and then you gotta read how
Speaker 1: you got to read your keys out. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, when you're behind center, Eli r it's downhill.
Speaker 1: This is what we're doing. That's what we got to get.
Speaker 1: And you know that's just what it is. But I mean,
Speaker 1: shot I thought it was a great call. It's just
Speaker 1: you know, one of our men got beat up front,
Speaker 1: and you know them guys get paid on the other
Speaker 1: side too. They made a hell of it. They made
Speaker 1: a hell of a play. That's not what determined game,
Speaker 1: but it did help swing the momentum. A Patriots field
Speaker 1: goal tied the game at ten. Then, with less than
Speaker 1: two minutes to go in the half, the Bengals made
Speaker 1: a costly mistake. Jake baileywell punt catches at his own
Speaker 1: twenty steps into it. The Bengals came close to blocking it.
Speaker 1: Alex ericson calls for a fair catch. No, he lost
Speaker 1: the ball. We've got a pile at the twenty three
Speaker 1: yard line. Now the officials are digging in to see
Speaker 1: who came up with that football at the twenty three
Speaker 1: yard line. The Patriots had begun celebrating and they have
Speaker 1: the football. Well, let's see if they may. Can you
Speaker 1: review this and see if he was interfered with an
Speaker 1: opportunity to make a catch. Matthew Slater did make contact
Speaker 1: with Ericson just as the ball arrived, but no penalty
Speaker 1: was called. Ericson came out of the pile with the football,
Speaker 1: but the officials credited the recovery to New England's Justin
Speaker 1: Bethel that led to a field goal in five seconds
Speaker 1: left in the half, giving the Paytree. It's a thirteen
Speaker 1: to ten lead. Here's Ericson on his fumble. It was
Speaker 1: a bang bang play. My hands were on it under
Speaker 1: the pile and they kept saying Patriots ball, but I
Speaker 1: just kept hold on to it and then I came
Speaker 1: out of the stack with it. But I don't know
Speaker 1: what the ruling is on all that they gave the
Speaker 1: ball to the Patriots. Did the officials say anything after
Speaker 1: the fact about what they saw on the contact. I
Speaker 1: think they just said it wasn't he didn't interfere with me,
Speaker 1: and then I don't know what they said about me
Speaker 1: coming off the ball. I think they determined that they
Speaker 1: determined that he recovered it. I guess somehow. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know. It's obviously playing the game, you know, you
Speaker 1: can't make the mistake. The Bengals were only down by three,
Speaker 1: but the game quickly spiraled out of control in the
Speaker 1: third quarter. Third down in six, the Bengals hit their
Speaker 1: own twenty nine, trailing by a field goal thirty seconds
Speaker 1: into the second half. Shotgun snap five man Rush Dalton
Speaker 1: with time count and it is intercepted by Stefan Gilmore.
Speaker 1: He looked like the intended receiver he was in front
Speaker 1: of Tyler Boyd. Boyd tried to break it up and
Speaker 1: Gilmore was there to pick it off. Well. Andy Dalton,
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, ended up going a little bit back
Speaker 1: shoulder and Gilmore was playing back shoulder technique. So he
Speaker 1: goes back shoulder to throw the football the completion, but
Speaker 1: Gilmore is playing the road perfectly for that. Seven plays later,
Speaker 1: the Patriots lead was ten. Brady drops back to throw,
Speaker 1: looking looking, bouncing in the pockets, Still looking, Brady throws
Speaker 1: into the end zone, touchdown in the back of the
Speaker 1: end zone to nikkil Harry too much time Dan tom
Speaker 1: Brady was reading a class bied Ads, drinking a cup
Speaker 1: of coffee. The pressure has been good most of the day,
Speaker 1: but on that play, way way too much time for
Speaker 1: tom Brady. Brady's stats were modest fifteen for twenty nine
Speaker 1: for one hundred twenty eight yards with two touchdowns and
Speaker 1: no i nts. Here's Sean Williams. He doesn't have to
Speaker 1: force anything with a defense plan. The way to the plan,
Speaker 1: you can just run the ball and you can take
Speaker 1: your shots. When you can pick and choose, and when
Speaker 1: you take your shots, and that's what you do. And
Speaker 1: they were allowed. On the running game. The three backs
Speaker 1: did good today. They did enough to get him to win.
Speaker 1: And that's that's all that matters. It doesn't matter how pretty,
Speaker 1: how ugly it is. As long as you get to
Speaker 1: win all that people remember, that's all that matters. Gilmore's
Speaker 1: interception set up that score, and a few plays later,
Speaker 1: staffind Gilmore became happy. Gilmore Andy ready for the shotgun.
Speaker 1: Snappy has the ball, a blitz coming quick throw and
Speaker 1: it is intercepted Gilmore streaking down the sideline. He's gonna
Speaker 1: take it to the house for a pick six. On
Speaker 1: his second interception in his many possessions. I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1: He bade it a big time. That made it twenty
Speaker 1: seven to ten, and the Patriots secondary wasn't finished. One
Speaker 1: deep safety for New England. Dalton drops back to throw
Speaker 1: against the four man rush, chucks it deep down field
Speaker 1: and it is picked off at the ten yard line
Speaker 1: by J. C. Jackson, a little bit over for thrown
Speaker 1: Dalton chucking it off his back foot and that's interception
Speaker 1: number three all in the second half. That was three
Speaker 1: in the third quarter, and that pick came in a
Speaker 1: pass intended for Alex Ericson. We gotta make a play
Speaker 1: for the ball. We gotta run better routes, we gotta
Speaker 1: get separation, so I you know, I know, as a
Speaker 1: receiving corps, we're taking those three. And it wasn't good
Speaker 1: enough from us today, and you know the scoreboard reflected that,
Speaker 1: and um, you know, we gotta we gotta get back
Speaker 1: to work and you know, figure it out. And it
Speaker 1: just wasn't good enough as a receiving corps to day,
Speaker 1: and we gotta be better as a group. A Randy
Speaker 1: Bullock field goal cut the deficit to fourteen in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, but after a comically bad on side kick
Speaker 1: spun to a stop after traveling just five yards. A
Speaker 1: former Bengal put the game away. Burkhead, the running back
Speaker 1: on first and ten at the thirty three yard line,
Speaker 1: Brady hands it to him. Berke finds a haul up
Speaker 1: the middle east to the twenty oh running at the fifteen,
Speaker 1: the ten, the five, and he races into the end
Speaker 1: zone for a thirty three yard Patriots touchdown. That made
Speaker 1: it a twenty one point lead, and the Bengals would
Speaker 1: get no closer. Dalton's going to air it out deep
Speaker 1: down the left sideline for Ross. It is intercepted again.
Speaker 1: This time it's picked off by J. C. Jackson and
Speaker 1: he'll run out of bounds at the twenty five yard line.
Speaker 1: Oh Man Andy Dalton tied a career high with four interceptions,
Speaker 1: and the Patriots won the turnover battle five nothing. Here's
Speaker 1: Sean Williams. They want to turnover battle, and when you
Speaker 1: win that seventy percent at the time, you win the game.
Speaker 1: And the rate that they did it, that's one hundred
Speaker 1: percent of the time where you have five turnovers five takeaways,
Speaker 1: you should not lose the game. The final score thirty
Speaker 1: four to thirteen. Patriots. New England clinched it's eleventh straight
Speaker 1: playoff appearance, while the Bengals fell to one and thirteen.
Speaker 1: Here are Joe Mixon and Alex Ericson. Do you know what?
Speaker 1: They feed off of turnovers and they make you pay
Speaker 1: for him And they've been like that since I probably
Speaker 1: first started playing football. I mean, I don't really know
Speaker 1: too much behind that, but you know them guys, I
Speaker 1: mean they've been like that since I was little man.
Speaker 1: And you know that's a discipline football team. Autumn guys
Speaker 1: gonna be in their gap. They all gonna play. They
Speaker 1: they all gonna do their job and they do it
Speaker 1: to the best of their ability. And uh, you know, I,
Speaker 1: like I said, I tipped my hat off to him.
Speaker 1: And they created a lot of turnovers and they didn't
Speaker 1: make not one, you know what I'm saying, So we
Speaker 1: gotta be better. You respect the success that they've sustained. Um,
Speaker 1: you know the way they do it year after year. Um,
Speaker 1: obviously you gotta respect that. UM, but you know it
Speaker 1: was a competitor too. You gotta we gotta find a
Speaker 1: way to you get If you want to be the best,
Speaker 1: you gotta beat the best. And um, they came in
Speaker 1: today and uh, they beat us, and we UM gotta
Speaker 1: look ourselves critically see how we can fix it and
Speaker 1: get better from it. And UM obviously are a good
Speaker 1: football team. We know that. We knew that coming in.
Speaker 1: But you can't you can't turn the ball over, you
Speaker 1: can't make critical airs like we did today and to
Speaker 1: expect to win the game. There were positives. The defense
Speaker 1: held the Patriots to two hundred ninety one yards and
Speaker 1: only seventeen points that weren't the direct result of turnovers,
Speaker 1: and Joe Mixon topped one hundred yards rushing for the
Speaker 1: second straight week. He needs seventy five yards over the
Speaker 1: final two games to reach one thousand for the season.
Speaker 1: But the bottom line for the Bengals is the league's
Speaker 1: worst record by two games since the Giants beat the
Speaker 1: Dolphins on Sunday. Following the game, Dave Lapham spent four
Speaker 1: and a half minutes with head coach Zach Taylor. We're
Speaker 1: just talking to Joe Mixon coach for a little bit.
Speaker 1: And man twenty five carries one hundred and thirty six
Speaker 1: yards five point four. Care you guys came out eight
Speaker 1: runs in that first drive. You were you were making
Speaker 1: a statement, and you were living by that statement you
Speaker 1: were making. Yeah, it's unfortunate that we couldn't finish their
Speaker 1: game the same way, you know, and we got down
Speaker 1: too far, and in the fourth quarter of the run game,
Speaker 1: you know, we're down three scores, we guys start throwing it.
Speaker 1: That's unfortunate because we went in this game, no one
Speaker 1: was gonna be bloody, no one was going to have
Speaker 1: to be some ugly runs in there. I thought Joe
Speaker 1: and they all line and Joe did a great job
Speaker 1: mashing up in there. A tight ends were involved, and
Speaker 1: we just unfortunately couldn't sustain the whole game with that
Speaker 1: philosophy because of the way it turned out. I thought
Speaker 1: your tight ends, as you mentioned, Sethan Carter, cj Z,
Speaker 1: they were doing a good job on the edge. I thought,
Speaker 1: with those two stand up guys, it's gonna be hard
Speaker 1: to run outside on the Patriots, and you guys, you
Speaker 1: guys got outside on them pretty darn well. I was
Speaker 1: impressed him. And then you were hammering them up inside
Speaker 1: as well, So I mean they were kind of on
Speaker 1: their heels a little bit. You guys were attacking them
Speaker 1: multiple ways. I thought Jim Turner had had a great
Speaker 1: plan in the run game, and Bron Callahan and our
Speaker 1: guys executed it well. They believed in it, they knew
Speaker 1: what they were doing, they executed it. Again, it's just
Speaker 1: some fortune that we couldn't find a way to be
Speaker 1: able to rely on that throughout the game. We had
Speaker 1: to start throwing themll in the fourth quarter, and that's
Speaker 1: what hurt us obviously. In the number that jumps out,
Speaker 1: you don't have to be a football line stein to
Speaker 1: figure out that you can't go minus five against the
Speaker 1: Patriots and expect to win a football game. Oh That's
Speaker 1: that's what it came down to. You know. That's um
Speaker 1: They've they've led the league in turnovers for a long time,
Speaker 1: and that's what they did to us today. You know,
Speaker 1: when it was a lot of them were just one
Speaker 1: on one. It wasn't I wouldn't say they were bad throws.
Speaker 1: It was just we had some one on ones that
Speaker 1: we had to take some chances at and those guys
Speaker 1: went and made the plays and we didn't. So you're
Speaker 1: looking at your offensive line, I think is really starting
Speaker 1: to build some confidence and I think you know in
Speaker 1: a season like your experience and you're looking for things
Speaker 1: to hang your hat on as a as a group,
Speaker 1: and I know as an offensive lineman, I want to
Speaker 1: get Joe mix in a thousand yards next week against Miami,
Speaker 1: and I want to get it for him early in
Speaker 1: that football game. Our guys kind of rallying around that.
Speaker 1: Do you think it's not something we've talked about. We're
Speaker 1: just trying to win a football game and and be
Speaker 1: successful enough on offense to give ourselves a chance. And
Speaker 1: because our defense is really playing their tails off right now,
Speaker 1: and they're they're playing winning football and you know, we
Speaker 1: put them in a buying today, and so that that's
Speaker 1: what our focus has been. Tom Brady fifteen or twenty nine,
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty eight yards now, he did have
Speaker 1: two touchdowns, he didn't turn it over, no no turnovers,
Speaker 1: and you sacked him twice and hit him. I bet
Speaker 1: you hit him at least eight times. I mean you
Speaker 1: were making everybody was making their presence felt around him.
Speaker 1: Even you get rid of it's like, yeah, Tom, we're here.
Speaker 1: I thought the defense, the plan was great, the guys
Speaker 1: executed it. They got the run run off at the
Speaker 1: end of the game of Burkehead there that scored. That
Speaker 1: was disappointing, but they again, they gave us a winning
Speaker 1: effort and they probably scored seventeen points off the turnovers.
Speaker 1: They had the onside cake in which they capitalized on
Speaker 1: which led that big round. There's twenty four points right there.
Speaker 1: So our guys, our guys did enough to give us
Speaker 1: chance to win this game. No, no sacks and one
Speaker 1: quarterback hit. Based on that running game, you know, you
Speaker 1: get the line of scrimmage established hard for guys to
Speaker 1: tee off, and the pass rush although like you said,
Speaker 1: you get down the number of scores you have to
Speaker 1: throw it. And I thought the offensive line still hung
Speaker 1: in there pretty well. Protection wife, I thought our guys
Speaker 1: up front gave us a chance to win the football game.
Speaker 1: And again it just comes out of the turnovers. But
Speaker 1: they executed the plan that we had in place. We
Speaker 1: felt good about it going in a halftime and came
Speaker 1: out the second half, just had too many turnovers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so what do you what do you tell guys after
Speaker 1: a game like this, because like you said, it wasn't
Speaker 1: lack of effort, played hard, just didn't play intelligent enough.
Speaker 1: What do you tell the guys that's the championship teams
Speaker 1: win the Turnamer Battle, and that's that's what happened to day.
Speaker 1: You might have walked out of here feeling like you
Speaker 1: had a winning effort, but we can't be pointing fingers.
Speaker 1: You gotta you gotta still look deep down and figure
Speaker 1: out what what could I have still done better that
Speaker 1: could have made this game to go the other way.
Speaker 1: And it's just it's a hard lesson for us to
Speaker 1: learn right now, but we need to learn it. We
Speaker 1: need to learn from this experience. Defensively, you had the
Speaker 1: fourth down stop and then you moved it and they
Speaker 1: stopped you on like fourth and a foot, and then
Speaker 1: it just seemed to fall apart from there. They didn't
Speaker 1: fall apart after they're stop on fourth down, but it
Speaker 1: seemed like fell apart a little bit after that stop
Speaker 1: on fourth down. Is it? It seemed like momentum really
Speaker 1: shifted back. Is that accurate? Yeah? I mean we had
Speaker 1: that one last drive after that at the end of
Speaker 1: a half. We went three and out punted and then
Speaker 1: came out the second half and just had two turners
Speaker 1: right away, And so that's I felt like we were
Speaker 1: still being a phishing on offense on the first and
Speaker 1: second down plays for the most part, it's just we
Speaker 1: had too many turners. Yeah, in the first half, your average,
Speaker 1: like I think it was five point five per play
Speaker 1: on first down and eleven runs one passed. I mean,
Speaker 1: you guys were pounding them on first down in that
Speaker 1: running game with regularity. I thought our guys really responded
Speaker 1: the challenge up front and again believed in what we
Speaker 1: were doing, understood what we were doing. Joe and ger
Speaker 1: were doing a great job running and so that part
Speaker 1: was really good to see earlier. The Bengals have two
Speaker 1: games left, on the road at Miami next week and
Speaker 1: a home game against Cleveland to end the season. If
Speaker 1: they lose either of those games, the Bengals will have
Speaker 1: the number one pick in next year's draft. Now time
Speaker 1: for postgame analysis with lab If people want to know
Speaker 1: how the Patriots have wrapped up a playoff berth and
Speaker 1: how they can be eleven and three despite the fact
Speaker 1: that Tom Brady has the poor statistics of his NFL career,
Speaker 1: this was the game. They followed the formula to a
Speaker 1: t Oh, don't have to be a football Einstein to
Speaker 1: digest this one. They were plus five in the turnover battle.
Speaker 1: The Bengals mine five. I mean game ball game. I
Speaker 1: don't care. You'd have to outgain them by three hundred
Speaker 1: yards to make up that difference. I mean, you win
Speaker 1: the turnover ratio plus five, it's ninety nine point nine
Speaker 1: nine nine if done one hundred percent time you win
Speaker 1: the football game. You know, the Bengals may have out
Speaker 1: distanced them with yards might out of this out that
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. You go minus five and you give them
Speaker 1: extra possessions, and you give them short fields. With those
Speaker 1: extra possessions, you're just barking up the tree of defeat.
Speaker 1: And it's unfortunate because the defense continues, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: to play winning football. Brady was under fifty percent or
Speaker 1: just over fifty percent, four hundred and twenty eight yards.
Speaker 1: You know, two touchdown passes, no interceptions, no turnovers by
Speaker 1: the New England Patriots. So they're saying, we're winning with
Speaker 1: our special teams in our defense and we're just aren't
Speaker 1: going to screw it up offensively. They are now plus
Speaker 1: twenty four in the turnover department the Bengals on the
Speaker 1: season or minus sixteen. That's a forty differential that I mean,
Speaker 1: that says why one team's in first place, why the
Speaker 1: other teams in last place. It's interesting and looking at
Speaker 1: this Patriots defense. Most teams prioritize pass rushers edge rushers.
Speaker 1: The Patriots not so much. They spend their money on
Speaker 1: linebackers in corners. Their linebackers can move up front and
Speaker 1: play on the defensive line. And it's a formula that
Speaker 1: works incredibly well. For New England. They prioritize two things,
Speaker 1: intelligence and versatility. You have to be smart as a
Speaker 1: whip because Bill Belichick gives you a lot. You have
Speaker 1: to be able to digest a lot of things. And
Speaker 1: then he wants position versatility because he gives you so much,
Speaker 1: he wants you to be able to do more than
Speaker 1: one thing. You know, he's got linebackers playing defensive end.
Speaker 1: He's got safety's playing linebacker and vice versa. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, he basically breaks a lot of your rules
Speaker 1: that you've got from a blocking assignment standpoint. You can't
Speaker 1: go buy numbers anymore. You have to go buy positions.
Speaker 1: That's not a safety anymore, that's a linebacker. That's not
Speaker 1: a linebacker anymore, that's a defensive end, and adjust accordingly.
Speaker 1: And he puts a lot of pressure on you. And
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, I mean Joe Mixon goes twenty
Speaker 1: five carries, you know, over one hundred and thirty yards
Speaker 1: five point four carry. He's got overtunityy yards rushing in
Speaker 1: the last two football games. I thought the offensive line
Speaker 1: played winning football. They no quarterback sacks, one quarterback hit,
Speaker 1: and it's easier to pass walk when you have Joe
Speaker 1: Mixon getting off like he is. But man, you know,
Speaker 1: I think some of the interceptions Dan were a two
Speaker 1: pronged thing. Did Andy make the greatest rows? No, not necessarily.
Speaker 1: Did his receivers fight like hell to make sure he
Speaker 1: didn't have an interception, No, not necessarily. So the only
Speaker 1: guy that I thought reverse roles and played defensive back,
Speaker 1: Tyler Boyd, prevented another interception, prevented a fifth interception and
Speaker 1: a sixth turnover by reversing roles because the defensive back
Speaker 1: had better position on him at the end of the
Speaker 1: route than he did. But he made sure he didn't
Speaker 1: come up with it. Spoke to Alex Eric sit after
Speaker 1: the game about one of the key plays, the punt
Speaker 1: that he was not able to handle that was recovered
Speaker 1: by the Patriots borderline, whether there was interference as he
Speaker 1: tried to make the catch, it wasn't called he comes
Speaker 1: up with the ball at the bottom of the pile.
Speaker 1: It was credited to the Patriots on their recovery. That's
Speaker 1: a key play that that helped the Patriots wing this game.
Speaker 1: Two things happened in that play, and it's in the
Speaker 1: last two minutes of the half, so the Bengals can't challenge.
Speaker 1: It comes, you know, from the booth down rather than
Speaker 1: the field up to the booth, and it goes back
Speaker 1: to New York City. Did Slater get his hand on
Speaker 1: Ericsson before he fielded the football? Did he grab him
Speaker 1: prematurely to interfere with his opportunity to make a play
Speaker 1: on it? Again, it is his bang bang, but it
Speaker 1: looked like it could have been called. And then you
Speaker 1: can't blow. You can't decide too soon about possession because
Speaker 1: sometimes the strongest hands and the strongest risk win in
Speaker 1: the tug of war in the bottom of a pile,
Speaker 1: particularly a guy that's got adrenaline pumping because he's so
Speaker 1: upset that he fumbled the football. You know, I'm sure
Speaker 1: he's like, I gotta get that football, and you're doing
Speaker 1: everything you can to get that football. So they blew
Speaker 1: it dead before obviously before he came up with the
Speaker 1: possession of the football. So there was a two part
Speaker 1: series to that turnover. In both part went against the Bengals.
Speaker 1: There were two fans in attendance at Paul Brown Stadium
Speaker 1: today wearing Patriots jerseys that traveled here from Hawaii because
Speaker 1: they wanted to see Tom Brady in person at age
Speaker 1: forty two, just in case they won't have many more opportunities.
Speaker 1: They didn't see him have a great statistical game, but
Speaker 1: they did see him improved a seven and one against
Speaker 1: Cincinnati seven and one courtesy of the secondary. Each cornerback
Speaker 1: had two interceptions. Those guys were unbelievable. I mean their
Speaker 1: secondary you talk about blanket coverage, my goodness, you know,
Speaker 1: it was like it was like they were spray painted
Speaker 1: on them. I mean there was a velcrow, there was
Speaker 1: no separation. A lot of times they ran the route
Speaker 1: better than the receivers did. I mean they would take
Speaker 1: over and be I'm the guy running the round, I'm
Speaker 1: the primary receiver run this football play. So that comes
Speaker 1: with film study, good coaching preparation. They made plays they made,
Speaker 1: They made plays they had to make to win the
Speaker 1: football game. They got stopped on fork down equivalent to
Speaker 1: a takeaway for the Bengals defense. They didn't panic. The
Speaker 1: Bengals get on the field, they get stopped on fourth
Speaker 1: and a foot out of the shotgun instead of under center,
Speaker 1: which is going to be questioned forever, but at any rate,
Speaker 1: they make a play and at that point the game turned.
Speaker 1: They didn't panic when the Bengals stopped them on downs.
Speaker 1: They stopped the Bengals on downs. And then a floory
Speaker 1: of turnovers and maladies and everything else followed for the Bengals,
Speaker 1: and the Patriots just keep their poise, take snapper after snap,
Speaker 1: finish the game go eleven and three. Bill Belichick improved
Speaker 1: a sixteen and four in his career against the Bengals,
Speaker 1: and it hasn't mattered whether he was coaching in Cleveland
Speaker 1: or New England. He was eight and two as the
Speaker 1: Browns head coach, and now he's eight and two as
Speaker 1: the Patriots head coach. Now time for this week's fun
Speaker 1: facts conversation as we get to know the person under
Speaker 1: the pads. This week, it's a third round pick in
Speaker 1: this year's draft out of NC State. Time for some
Speaker 1: fun facts with Bengals linebacker Germaine Pratt from high Point,
Speaker 1: North Carolina, not too far from Greensboro. I read an
Speaker 1: old interview where you said you grew up in a
Speaker 1: rough part of high Point. Tell us a little about it.
Speaker 1: I mean like every city had like a rough part
Speaker 1: of somewhere. You know, grow up in property, growing up
Speaker 1: with my mom and my brothers and my grandma. I mean,
Speaker 1: things tough for us, like all of us of a
Speaker 1: time pit. You know, you go through lights, rough times,
Speaker 1: and you learn from an experience and apply it to
Speaker 1: your life. So old time learn how to get through. Adversely,
Speaker 1: like I'm dealing through now. Just's learn how to get
Speaker 1: through it and still find that joy and love for
Speaker 1: the game He's and every day. Your mom worked three
Speaker 1: jobs to try to make two for you and your brothers. Correct, yes,
Speaker 1: she write three jobs, like to help us to get
Speaker 1: what we wanted when we was on. How much respect
Speaker 1: and admiration do you have for her for what she
Speaker 1: did when you were a kid? I have a two
Speaker 1: minutes like it's unconditional much of respect I have for
Speaker 1: unconditional love I have for my own. I read that
Speaker 1: one of your goals in trying to get to the
Speaker 1: NFL was the hope of being able to provide a
Speaker 1: better life for her. Yes, absolutely, that's my main focus,
Speaker 1: like in college, is providing a new family, like a
Speaker 1: new place for us to live safety. I can go
Speaker 1: back home if you feel comfortable where we live at.
Speaker 1: And I had the opportunity to do this before the
Speaker 1: season started to get how I move her to Charlotte
Speaker 1: now Carolina and better to give her a safe place
Speaker 1: when my niece and them can come out and be
Speaker 1: able to play in the backyard and stuff without anything
Speaker 1: going around. How great is that? I mean, that must
Speaker 1: be the greatest feeling in the world to be able
Speaker 1: to do that. I mean, yeah, it's great. It's a
Speaker 1: great feeling. You know, unreal. We're doing fun facts with
Speaker 1: Jermaine Pratt. Tell me some of the things you were
Speaker 1: interested in as a kid. Football, of course, like sports.
Speaker 1: I liked basketball, I like baseball, and I played and
Speaker 1: I went a little bit of track. Were you the
Speaker 1: best player on the team and pretty much anything you played?
Speaker 1: I would say I was like the most athletic, like
Speaker 1: fast and quick and like grass the thing just like
Speaker 1: catch up on things, quit and not to play. So
Speaker 1: after a great high school career, you elected to go
Speaker 1: to NC State which isn't too far from where you
Speaker 1: grew up. You could have gone just about anywhere. I'm sure,
Speaker 1: why did you choose NC State close to home? Like
Speaker 1: from a mom and my family who comes to the game.
Speaker 1: I thought it would be a great place. Isn't it
Speaker 1: too far? Because I was like a moment's boy, like
Speaker 1: I was. I didn't want to leave home, but I
Speaker 1: didn't want to love to fly, so I just went
Speaker 1: to NC State. So you show up there at one
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety five pounds if I've read correctly, and
Speaker 1: it didn't take you long to start adding weight and muscle.
Speaker 1: I went in earlier. I got away high school early
Speaker 1: in the nine row. By the spring semester of spring
Speaker 1: while I was like two thirty, so I gained a
Speaker 1: lot of weight fast. And was it strictly a matter
Speaker 1: of you've got the training table that a college athlete
Speaker 1: has access to, and really, for the first time in
Speaker 1: your life, you were able to to feast on on
Speaker 1: some of these healthy foods. Yeah, I would say that,
Speaker 1: like they had a great program over there, you know,
Speaker 1: just and be able to eat three times a day
Speaker 1: was something I wasn't used to. Most of the time,
Speaker 1: I eat like once or twice. Because I played football throughout.
Speaker 1: I didn't like being at home because it wan't really
Speaker 1: much to do at home, so I always played football
Speaker 1: or basketball or rand track, so I was gone most
Speaker 1: of the day, so I was always on the run.
Speaker 1: Like you know, when you little, you having fun, you
Speaker 1: forget eat. So yeah, that was the most of the part.
Speaker 1: You started out, this is safety. Did you like it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I liked it. Athy I mean, I like it to
Speaker 1: be back there and having fun, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Because I liked every the way he played. He was
Speaker 1: a ball hall, so I would love the way he
Speaker 1: played a game. So I always wanted to be a safety,
Speaker 1: and then I didn't. Then they switched me to linebacker,
Speaker 1: which was a great decision. Were you happy about that
Speaker 1: decision right off the bat or were you initially a
Speaker 1: little bit reluctant. I really didn't know too much about linebacker,
Speaker 1: but I was a little bit edited. But I knew
Speaker 1: for me to make it to this level, I had
Speaker 1: to switch to linebacker. So then I got injured going
Speaker 1: to the juniors on season, so I embraced it. Started
Speaker 1: embracing it, started working with the string coaches like you
Speaker 1: get rehabbing stuff and then moving the linebacker was the
Speaker 1: best thing I did. How did you juggle football and
Speaker 1: school work at NC State? I say, they got a
Speaker 1: great program over there, so they'll get you all the
Speaker 1: twols that you need to be successful. It's up to
Speaker 1: you to do it. You know, we got the academic
Speaker 1: system is hug was there. You know most of the
Speaker 1: all people that I went to college when I first
Speaker 1: got there, they least got a degree. So it's huge there,
Speaker 1: Like he'll get your degree before you leave as at
Speaker 1: a program like that. Describe your draft experience. My drafts friends,
Speaker 1: was crazy. I mean I would say like it was
Speaker 1: something I always prepared for all my whole life. But
Speaker 1: it's hard and real, like you just waiting, then you
Speaker 1: finally get that call and then joy, You're just so
Speaker 1: happy for a team to believe in you and this
Speaker 1: wants you to be successful and people just call you.
Speaker 1: The coach ca your phone and telling hey, we're going
Speaker 1: to pick you at third round and save me two
Speaker 1: pick I was so, you know, it was unreal. Just
Speaker 1: get your name called on TV and then there's bad
Speaker 1: to work. Basically, we're doing fun facts with your main
Speaker 1: prat what's the best part in your opinion about being
Speaker 1: an NFL player, I mean the game. I mean, the
Speaker 1: best part is just always just playing football. You know
Speaker 1: what I meant coming to work and each and every
Speaker 1: day comes to work something that you love to do,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Matter if things going wrong
Speaker 1: or not, you're still playing the game you love. You know,
Speaker 1: you got a group of guys and they're still fighting.
Speaker 1: You know, things that going right for us this season,
Speaker 1: but they they're still in that fighting, still loving the
Speaker 1: cone work, and still have joy in their life. You
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Some people get down and stuff
Speaker 1: because what they go through at work and stuff. But
Speaker 1: you have a group of guys and they still love
Speaker 1: this game and this game bringing so much to them
Speaker 1: that they don't never let loose sight out of it.
Speaker 1: You're a goal setter, correct? Yeah? Did you write them down? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I was writing it down and then I just started
Speaker 1: like this, this is how to go day by day.
Speaker 1: Now do you check them off when you reach them?
Speaker 1: I did in college? I did. Yeah, a few more
Speaker 1: fun facts for Jermaine Pratt. What do you like to
Speaker 1: spend your money on? My money? I say, most of
Speaker 1: my money go to my family. I say I haven't
Speaker 1: spent that much because it ain't I don't really do
Speaker 1: that much. So I'll just be like food and then
Speaker 1: like just give my mom money like stuff, and then
Speaker 1: my nieces. I actually went shopping for them for Christmas.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, most of my money go to my my family.
Speaker 1: Do you have a guilty pleasure when it comes to food?
Speaker 1: Is there's some unhealthy thing that you just have a
Speaker 1: hard time saying no too? I say sweets like little
Speaker 1: Debbie Kate, like Omel Kates, and then like honey moneys
Speaker 1: and stuff. You work it off, you'll be fine. If
Speaker 1: you could meet anybody in history, famous athlete, politician, historical figure,
Speaker 1: religious figure, whoever it might be, who would that person be?
Speaker 1: Lebron James Lebron is who's romandling today's society. The way
Speaker 1: he carried hisself and the way he give bet to
Speaker 1: the community. Ohio. On this building the foundation for kids,
Speaker 1: you know, the school is a huge part. Getting that
Speaker 1: foundation early. You're learning how to read and write and
Speaker 1: how to add and stuff. That's huge. I appreciate your time.
Speaker 1: You're off the hot seat. Best of luck. All right, thanks,
Speaker 1: that's your main pratt. Here's a quick invitation to join
Speaker 1: us on location this week on Friday afternoon from three
Speaker 1: to six, we'll be at Buffalo Wings and Rings back
Speaker 1: at Ridge Location for the Bengals pep Rally show. A
Speaker 1: player will join us in the final hour and we'll
Speaker 1: have plenty of giveaways too. That's going to do it
Speaker 1: for this episode of the podcast. If you haven't done
Speaker 1: so already, don't forget to subscribe, and if you have
Speaker 1: a moment, give it a rating or share a comment.
Speaker 1: Those five star ratings help more fans find this podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Dan Horde. Thank you for listening to the Bengals
Speaker 1: Booth Podcast.