Speaker 1: Hig and everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booth Podcast. The and you know it don't
Speaker 1: come ease. Addition, as the Bengals fall to one in
Speaker 1: three with a twenty seven to three loss at Tennessee.
Speaker 1: Coming up, you'll hear radio replays, locker room comments from
Speaker 1: players and coaches, and postgame analysis from Dave Lapham. Then,
Speaker 1: in this week's fun Facts conversation, we'll hear from a
Speaker 1: Bengals tight end who is on the boat in Tampa
Speaker 1: Bay when an ineviated Tom Brady tossed the Lombardi Trophy
Speaker 1: to the guy right next to him. The Bengals Booth
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Speaker 1: the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. Now here's a
Speaker 1: quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of
Speaker 1: this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer
Speaker 1: by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest
Speaker 1: thing since overly dramatic Ryder Cup commentary. The Ryder Cup
Speaker 1: is one of my favorite sporting events, and I can
Speaker 1: only imagine how much pressure the golfers are under shoot.
Speaker 1: I get jittery standing over a two foot putt with
Speaker 1: a beer on the line with my buddies. Still, the
Speaker 1: overly dramatic commentary during the Ryder Cup cracks me up.
Speaker 1: The announcers use terms like courage and fortitude so often
Speaker 1: that you would think the golfers were rushing into burning
Speaker 1: buildings to save babies instead of trying to hit fairways
Speaker 1: and greens. So congrats to Europe on this year's win.
Speaker 1: Based on the broadcast, the golfers were roughly as heroic
Speaker 1: as the Apollo eleven astronauts. Now let's get the football
Speaker 1: and the radio replays from Sunday's loss at Tennessee. It
Speaker 1: is a sweltering Sunday afternoon here in Nashville, Tennessee. The
Speaker 1: temperature is expected to climb into the mid to upper
Speaker 1: eighties today. It's going to be much hotter than that
Speaker 1: on the field turf as the Bengals try to beat
Speaker 1: the heat and the Tennessee Titans, and it is time
Speaker 1: for the pigskin to fly here at Nissan Stadium. Second
Speaker 1: down and one for Cincinnati at the thirty seven yard
Speaker 1: line of Tennessee. Burrow stomps the right foot, catches a
Speaker 1: chest high snap, swings it out into the flat, caught
Speaker 1: by Chick great downfield blocking as he tight ropes the
Speaker 1: sideline and goes out of bounds at the twenty one
Speaker 1: of Tennessee. Here's money mack Evan McPherson looking to give
Speaker 1: Cincinnati an early lead. This will be a twenty one
Speaker 1: yard try. He hit from fifty seven in the pregame warmups.
Speaker 1: Brad Robbins, the rookie punter, will hold the placement the
Speaker 1: right footed kick and the line drive boot is good,
Speaker 1: giving Cincinnati a three to nothing lead, which is the
Speaker 1: shotgun snap. Five man rush and Burrow gets smashed to
Speaker 1: the ground. Oh, all five guys were getting close as
Speaker 1: Burrow gets sacked at the thirty nine yard line.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was just you talk about shrinking the pocket,
Speaker 2: I mean they just collapsed that pocket on Joe Burrow.
Speaker 1: Tannehill back to throw, flings it deep for DeAndre Hawkins
Speaker 1: catches at the Bengals forty five and Cam Taylor Britt
Speaker 1: makes the stop at the Cincinnati thirty seven. He beat
Speaker 1: Cam Taylor Britt and beat him badly. First down and
Speaker 1: ten at the Bengals thirteen. After back to back big
Speaker 1: passing plays, here's a short pass Westbrook at Keene toward
Speaker 1: the pylon touchdown Tennessee on second and ten. It's a toss.
Speaker 1: Sweepy bubbles the ball. It's on the ground. He picks
Speaker 1: it up while he's running and it's going to be
Speaker 1: a big play for the Titans. Tannehill running to block
Speaker 1: for him, and Cincinnati has to chase down Taja Spears
Speaker 1: from behind. Dax Hill able to tackle him at the
Speaker 1: forty nine yard line. And that was a lucky play
Speaker 1: for the Titans. No other way to describe.
Speaker 2: It, no question. Was like he was dribbling the football,
Speaker 2: dribbling the oblong ball.
Speaker 1: Tannehill in the gun, Henry to his rights. Tannehill fakes it, No,
Speaker 1: he gives it to Derrick Henry, breaks through a couple
Speaker 1: of tackles, still running down to the ten hangling toward
Speaker 1: the pylon, touchdown Tennessee. Twenty nine yards for Derrick Henry
Speaker 1: as he was bouncing off Bengals like a pinball. Jeffrey
Speaker 1: Simmons is an eligible receiver. For what it's worth, the
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl defensive tackle stays out there offensively. Can't rule
Speaker 1: out the jump pass for the King. Derrick Henry Tannehill
Speaker 1: is going to be under center. I formation backfield. Now
Speaker 1: they shift Tannehill goes out wide to the right. Simmons
Speaker 1: moves to the right as a wing. They're going to
Speaker 1: direct snap it to Derrick Henry. Henry looking to pass
Speaker 1: throws caught touchdown Tennessee. Josh Wiley with his first NFL touchdown,
Speaker 1: burrow back to throw against the blitz pump packs gets
Speaker 1: stripped and then falls on the ball and then somebody
Speaker 1: jumps on top of him, and the Titans say they
Speaker 1: have it.
Speaker 2: They're saying, I think the official saying was down five contact.
Speaker 2: He was down. He's down by contact.
Speaker 1: And now they're changing the call and it is a
Speaker 1: Titans takeaway. For the second time this year, the Bengals
Speaker 1: failed to score a touchdown. They've scored the fewest of
Speaker 1: any team in the NFL, and they lose in Tennessee
Speaker 1: today by the final score of twenty seven to three.
Speaker 1: The Bengals have scored three offensive touchdowns in four games.
Speaker 1: The forty nine ers Christian McCaffrey scored four on Sunday
Speaker 1: after driving seventy two yards and kicking a field goal
Speaker 1: on their opening drive. The Bengals final seven possessions, not
Speaker 1: including a one playnel down at the end of the half,
Speaker 1: never even reached the titans thirty five yard line. Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow completed twenty out of thirty passes, but he can't
Speaker 1: extend plays due to his strained calf, and the bengals
Speaker 1: longest passing play went for seventeen yards. Here's Zach Taylor
Speaker 1: on his QB.
Speaker 3: He's playing, you know, he's playing through it, but there's
Speaker 3: still limitations he's got, certainly, and that's probably very difficult
Speaker 3: for him. But again, he's he's getting hit, he's having
Speaker 3: to move, and he's doing a great job getting up
Speaker 3: on the next point and responding. You don't feel, you know,
Speaker 3: sometimes quarterbacks can get rattled by that stuff. You don't
Speaker 3: feel that from him at all. You feel like the
Speaker 3: next play is gonna be successful even if he does
Speaker 3: take a hit. So again, I don't He's fighting through
Speaker 3: it and I'm proud of him for that.
Speaker 1: Burroughs passer rating after four games is sixty nine point one.
Speaker 1: He's averaging fewer than five yards per attempt. Frustration is growing.
Speaker 4: Whenever you're one and three, you're gonna be frustrated, You're
Speaker 4: gonna be angry, you're gonna be, you know, wanting to
Speaker 4: win games, and we haven't been and we're not gonna
Speaker 4: let anything like that, you know, come between us. That's
Speaker 4: how you end up having a bad season. Sod bad
Speaker 4: start about first quarter, so we got three more quarters
Speaker 4: of the year to get through and go from there.
Speaker 1: Jabar Chase had seven catches for seventy three yards, but
Speaker 1: t Higgins left the game early with a rib injury
Speaker 1: and was primarily replaced by Trenton Irwin. I talked to
Speaker 1: Trenton after the game. Tough team for the offense today, Trent,
Speaker 1: you guys went down the field on the opening drive,
Speaker 1: Dowt to the three, kicked the field goal, and they
Speaker 1: just couldn't get anything going after that. Describe just how
Speaker 1: you guys are feeling right now.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: We got into better on offensive, we got into better
Speaker 6: all around. We got to sell ourselves love it for
Speaker 6: opportunities to make players, and we got a lot to improve,
Speaker 6: and that's that's why we're watched him so too.
Speaker 1: It feels like the offense is kind of operating in
Speaker 1: a box. Joe doesn't have his usual mobility for understandable reasons,
Speaker 1: and opponents know it. It doesn't feel like the margin
Speaker 1: of error is kind of small.
Speaker 6: We've been playing in the pocket, you know, and he
Speaker 6: can he can do anything there. I think that, you know,
Speaker 6: we just got to learn from our film there. I
Speaker 6: don't think there's a whole lot that I know exactly
Speaker 6: went wrong right now. We looked great in the first drive.
Speaker 6: I thought we were gonna be able to keep that
Speaker 6: up the whole game, and we just weren't. So I
Speaker 6: don't know exactly when went down that made so we couldn't,
Speaker 6: But I think our one of our goals was gonna
Speaker 6: be first down efficient. In that first drive, we were
Speaker 6: exactly that. I don't think we got any third downs
Speaker 6: except for that one on the three, So hopefully we
Speaker 6: can learn from what we did there and take it
Speaker 6: on to the next one. And it was a game
Speaker 6: on momentum and we just never really found any of it.
Speaker 1: Seemed like in the second quarter, when the game was
Speaker 1: still three to three, the Titans had that one good
Speaker 1: drive and that seemed to create the momentum you're talking about.
Speaker 6: They made some place, They had some dudes make some plays.
Speaker 7: They got after us there. They played physical.
Speaker 6: You know that that's a physical team, and you know
Speaker 6: we'd probably see them again later, but it's it's one
Speaker 6: of those games. We just got to let go learn
Speaker 6: from it and and just come out.
Speaker 1: Fight, appreciate your time.
Speaker 6: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Defensively, after shining on Monday Night and the win over
Speaker 1: the Rams, the Bengals allowed the Titans to score on
Speaker 1: five of their first six drives. Derrick Henry finished with
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty two yards on twenty two carries,
Speaker 1: and Ryan Tannehill had a passer rating of ninety eight
Speaker 1: point eight. Here's chittabe Owuje on the play of the
Speaker 1: defense really shut him down in the first quarter. In
Speaker 1: the second quarter, they had that one good drive and
Speaker 1: it seemed to swing the momentum. Is that how it
Speaker 1: felt out there?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 8: And then something different, you know where I think we're
Speaker 8: still fiting on our identity. You know, we know there
Speaker 8: were resilient bunch because we have the guys that have
Speaker 8: done it before.
Speaker 7: But every year is different. I think this year.
Speaker 8: It's like momentums playing a big factor in how we play.
Speaker 8: You know, one of the momentum swings.
Speaker 7: Obviously the direction, it's kind of hard for us to
Speaker 7: capture back.
Speaker 8: So yeah, you know, they had that drive, had a
Speaker 8: couple of e supposed to plays, and since that drive,
Speaker 8: it became, you know, pretty ugly. You know, our rhythm
Speaker 8: was all off, and you know it was embarrassment, to
Speaker 8: be honest, and you know, we're sorry with the fans
Speaker 8: that traveled that came and watched. But obviously, you know,
Speaker 8: it hurts even more for us as you know, brothers
Speaker 8: and teams have to go out there and play. But
Speaker 8: you know, we we're gonna use this as a stepping
Speaker 8: stone hopefully to get better to lock to lock more
Speaker 8: in sc We know we're we're close, bunch. We just
Speaker 8: gotta play this to the details, like back to the dog.
Speaker 8: You know, the dog mentality is just football, you know,
Speaker 8: like move all the distractions and just play.
Speaker 1: So yeah, got shut down Garret Kennery each of the
Speaker 1: last two years he wound up having good numbers today.
Speaker 1: So much of it in his case is if they
Speaker 1: have the lead, they're gonna feed it to him and
Speaker 1: feed it to him and sooner or later he's gonna
Speaker 1: wear you down.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, he had a good game.
Speaker 8: Obviously, It's one of the top guys in the league
Speaker 8: at his position and also one of the guys we're
Speaker 8: focused on the most coming into this week.
Speaker 7: You know, unfortunate that he was able to have a
Speaker 7: great game like he did.
Speaker 8: You know, we have the guys that could stop him,
Speaker 8: but he and you know, we're gonna go back and
Speaker 8: look at the film and just look at the details.
Speaker 8: Abous I can speak for me myself, and you know,
Speaker 8: just fitting Quicker off of cracks, you know, when the
Speaker 8: receiver cracks down on the safeties or niklas, you know,
Speaker 8: fitting Quicker and doing stuff like that, I feel like
Speaker 8: we could do a great job because you know, a
Speaker 8: lot of the team are trying to get to the perimeter.
Speaker 8: We're trying to get to the perimeter on these runs,
Speaker 8: so we have to have an edge to the defense.
Speaker 8: So I think we as a cornerback group, we've been
Speaker 8: working on that and we're gonna continue to work on
Speaker 8: that and hopefully, you know, everybody kind of everybody plays
Speaker 8: a part in it, and we'll figure out how to
Speaker 8: you know, start to limit those runs.
Speaker 1: Your disappointment is palpable. I'm guessing that after the Monday
Speaker 1: night win, you guys probably felt, all right, we've got one. Now,
Speaker 1: let's start stacking wins.
Speaker 8: Yeah, But, like like everybody always says, the NFL is
Speaker 8: never easy. You know, the other team has to chip
Speaker 8: on my shoulder as well.
Speaker 7: They came in here more hungry.
Speaker 8: They come up with a big loss last week, and
Speaker 8: I was talking to some of the players over the game.
Speaker 8: They said they were on their beat all week. So
Speaker 8: they responded, now start trying to respond, you know. Moving
Speaker 8: forward to Arizona, you know, we have to get on
Speaker 8: each other and make sure that everybody's on details and
Speaker 8: just feed off each other's energy. You know, this is
Speaker 8: also an early start game, you know, twelve pm, you
Speaker 8: know versus Monday night when it's home game.
Speaker 7: All that energy.
Speaker 8: We have to find a way to find our own
Speaker 8: juice and our own energy as well. So these are
Speaker 8: things we're gonna be working on, you know, throughout the season,
Speaker 8: and hopefully now that we identified it, kind of nip
Speaker 8: it in the bud and use it to our certain.
Speaker 1: Joe Burr's given everything he's got, but he's not running
Speaker 1: around like he normally would. It's limiting his superpowers, so
Speaker 1: to speak. Do you sense that it's you know, difficult
Speaker 1: for the offense right now without Joe being able to
Speaker 1: do some of the things he would normally do.
Speaker 7: Well, you know, I don't wanna talk anything really about
Speaker 7: that offense.
Speaker 8: You know, I know that, you know, you know the
Speaker 8: dogs that we have over there, they've been together for
Speaker 8: three four years now and have been very consistent for us.
Speaker 8: And I know the rhythm is gonna be found. You know,
Speaker 8: there's no doubt about that. You know, that's my quarterback.
Speaker 7: It was with my sheivers, tight ends, running backs, a
Speaker 7: line like. I believe in all of that.
Speaker 8: So I just think that you know, the time will
Speaker 8: things will come to how they're supposed to go, and
Speaker 8: we know the talent we have on that side. Really
Speaker 8: just focus on the leaf can focus on on defense.
Speaker 1: Appreciate your time.
Speaker 7: Yeah, thank you brother.
Speaker 1: On their final three drives of the second quarter, the
Speaker 1: Titans had six plays of twenty or more yards and
Speaker 1: outscored the Bengals twenty one nothing in the quarter. That's
Speaker 1: where Dave Lapham started his postgame conversation with head coach
Speaker 1: Zach Taylor.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't see that coming. You know, I thought
Speaker 3: we thought we'd respond better, play better, coach better. So
Speaker 3: really you can point the finger at each individual person.
Speaker 3: There's certainly plenty things I could have done better to
Speaker 3: get the team ready to put us in a better
Speaker 3: position to win. And now we just gotta suck it
Speaker 3: up and go on the road in Arizona and find
Speaker 3: a way to win.
Speaker 2: When it starts snowballing like that, I mean, how hard
Speaker 2: is that to try to stop that snowball from coming
Speaker 2: down the side of the mountain like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you still believe that you can get in this thing,
Speaker 3: and even down seventeen at halftime, We've been in that
Speaker 3: position before, We've overcome that before. There was a lot
Speaker 3: of belief in the locker room that we could do that.
Speaker 3: You know, he had an opportunity starting the second half.
Speaker 3: You got him in third and seventeen and got him
Speaker 3: off the field, and then they got called for we
Speaker 3: got called for penalty.
Speaker 2: So that's tough.
Speaker 3: Extends it puts points on the board, took eleven minutes
Speaker 3: off the clock, and then offense, didn't you know, we
Speaker 3: resmonded with the turnover and so you know, just just challenging.
Speaker 3: They really did a great job at the time of possession.
Speaker 3: They did a good job playing physical and keep enough
Speaker 3: off balance, and we just didn't respond the right way.
Speaker 2: Three of the four first down third down conversions that
Speaker 2: they got would do to penalty. And it's not like
Speaker 2: it's not like there's a ton of penalties. He came
Speaker 2: into the game, you were tied for seventh feust and penalties,
Speaker 2: third and penalty yards. But it's just, man, there's such
Speaker 2: a painful penalty when they happen. It takes away a turnover,
Speaker 2: takes away a sack, takes away a big play.
Speaker 3: It is it's tough, especially when they come on third down.
Speaker 3: And and that's that's disappointing. You know, we had one
Speaker 3: on special teams that really flipped the field. I really
Speaker 3: thought the guy that got called for the penalty US
Speaker 3: was the guy that was going to be the receptor
Speaker 3: of the penalty, you know, And and all of a
Speaker 3: sudden it went the other way. So instead of the
Speaker 3: ball being on the five, the balls on the forty five.
Speaker 3: And and that's that's a challeng lenging part there in
Speaker 3: the second half. That gave them auto momentum as well.
Speaker 2: I couldn't figure that out because they declared that it
Speaker 2: was an illegal block by somebody covering the punt. Now
Speaker 2: why would he be delivering a block? I mean, I
Speaker 2: don't understand how that whole thing unfolded.
Speaker 3: If you find out, let me know.
Speaker 2: So you didn't get a great explanation either. No interesting,
Speaker 2: So you've got to, like you said, you travel to Arizona.
Speaker 2: Did the short week have any bearing on it? You
Speaker 2: feel like the guys were rested and ready to go.
Speaker 2: You really took care of him this week big time.
Speaker 3: We've done a good job playing on short weeks. We
Speaker 3: still went pads on Thursday and knowing it was going
Speaker 3: to be a physical game, and so again I didn't
Speaker 3: see any warning signs during the week. We have to
Speaker 3: coach better.
Speaker 2: Number one.
Speaker 3: I've got to do a better job putting us in
Speaker 3: position to score points. So that's a big starting point
Speaker 3: I think with this team, and then each guy's got
Speaker 3: to fix the things that we can control. We've got
Speaker 3: to be better on third down on both sides of
Speaker 3: the ball, and we've got to be more disciplined when
Speaker 3: it comes to penalties.
Speaker 2: How challenging is it you know, watching Joe in the pocket,
Speaker 2: I mean, he's close to one hundred percent from when
Speaker 2: I see but you know, when he has to try
Speaker 2: to do something out of the pocket, pick a percentage.
Speaker 2: I don't know what that percentage might be, but it's
Speaker 2: not you know, he'll say it's not one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: How challenging is that To try to gain plan around that.
Speaker 3: You can't look at as a challenge. You got to
Speaker 3: find ways to put the offense in great position to
Speaker 3: go to score points. And scoring three points in the
Speaker 3: first half is not good enough, which we've done several times.
Speaker 3: Scoring three points in the game is not good enough.
Speaker 3: I'm the poy caller, I'm the head coach. I've got
Speaker 3: to do a better job of finding ways till I
Speaker 3: was to find some rhythm.
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by pay Corps,
Speaker 1: proud to be the Bengals Official HR software provider, by
Speaker 1: Alta Fiber future proof Fiber Internet designed to elevate your home,
Speaker 1: business and community to a new level, and by Kettering
Speaker 1: Health the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health
Speaker 1: is the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. Now time
Speaker 1: for the radio guys, recapla, we have just emerged from
Speaker 1: the Bengals locker room. Disappointment and frustration is palpable as
Speaker 1: you might expect. I think coming off the Monday night
Speaker 1: went over the Rams, they thought they had everything going
Speaker 1: in the right direction. But if the offense continues to
Speaker 1: be as limited as it's been, it's going to be
Speaker 1: hard to win games.
Speaker 2: It really is. Dan. You know, you get a quarterback
Speaker 2: that's medically limited. He's gotten it out, but like we
Speaker 2: talked about before the game, in the pocket he's probably
Speaker 2: close to one hundred percent, But anytime he has to
Speaker 2: move in the pocket or get out of the pocket,
Speaker 2: pick a percentage, he's just not there. And the other
Speaker 2: factor is that defenses know that if he tries to
Speaker 2: goose it down the football field, it's bothershlome to him.
Speaker 2: And so their short intermediate passing game is pretty much
Speaker 2: the extent of their offense, and teams are playing accordingly.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's tough dynamic to game plan around
Speaker 2: a little bit, but you know, they feel like they
Speaker 2: can do much better than they did obviously. I mean
Speaker 2: the second quarter of this foot it was just incredible.
Speaker 2: How you know, the domination. I mean, when you when
Speaker 2: your defense is struggling, the thing you need to do
Speaker 2: offensively stay on the field. They went oh for four
Speaker 2: and third down and there was no support there. I mean,
Speaker 2: the complimentary football was non existent today, There's no question
Speaker 2: about it. Offense couldn't get anything done. Defense was struggling,
Speaker 2: was trying to, you know, ask for a life preserver,
Speaker 2: and the offense didn't have anything to throw them.
Speaker 1: It's a dream come true for opposing defensive coordinators because
Speaker 1: they know Joe is not going to extend plays. He's
Speaker 1: not going to scramble left and right if what he's
Speaker 1: looking to do out of the pocket isn't there. The
Speaker 1: defense has a gigantic advantage.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and you know that. You know you can't get
Speaker 2: behind by two scores, three scores, four scores. If that's
Speaker 2: the case, you just can't do it. It's impossible. I mean,
Speaker 2: the only way you're going to win football games is
Speaker 2: to stay stay in the football game and make it
Speaker 2: a you know, a contested battle, and have a running
Speaker 2: game that will support that short intermediate passing game. But
Speaker 2: it is it's hard. I mean you're playing in a box. Basically,
Speaker 2: you're playing in a closet. It's like you're playing in
Speaker 2: the red zone or the low red zone, you know,
Speaker 2: a lot of times. Then teams get a two or
Speaker 2: more score lead and they play real soft, you know,
Speaker 2: zone coverages and will let you take the underneath stuff
Speaker 2: and then they'll rally up and make tackles. It'll pad
Speaker 2: your numbers, but it's not going to win you football games.
Speaker 1: This is a passing team, and the NFL is a
Speaker 1: passing league. There's nobody out there that's successful and runs
Speaker 1: it forty times a game. But Joe Mixon has been
Speaker 1: pretty efficient this year. He averaged four point eight year
Speaker 1: carries in this game. Do they have to run it more?
Speaker 1: I don't think they're going to start giving it to
Speaker 1: them twenty nine times, but it wound up being fourteen today.
Speaker 1: Some of that's due to the fact that they were behind.
Speaker 2: What do you think, Yeah, I mean, I think, honestly,
Speaker 2: from a game planning standpoint, when I watch a lot
Speaker 2: of the passing attack, it's an extension on the running game.
Speaker 2: It's the outside running game. I mean, they're they're running screens,
Speaker 2: they're running swing passes, they're they're doing a lot of
Speaker 2: you know, stuff that is almost an extension of of
Speaker 2: of a running game as such. So I think in
Speaker 2: their mind they'll probably think, like, you know, we're we're
Speaker 2: kind of covering it that way. That's our that's our outside,
Speaker 2: our outside running game. I think when they probably do
Speaker 2: stats at the end of the game, they'll take those
Speaker 2: passing yards and kind of you know, slice them and
Speaker 2: dice them between. This is really a lot of these
Speaker 2: are just an extension of what we're trying to get
Speaker 2: done on the permanent or in our running game and
Speaker 2: that and that's a problem because I mean, at some
Speaker 2: point you have to challenge the defense. You have to
Speaker 2: stretch it. You have to you know, at least make
Speaker 2: them think that there's a chance you're going to go
Speaker 2: over the top.
Speaker 7: One.
Speaker 1: The defense really won them the game on Monday night
Speaker 1: against the Rams. The offense did not, but the defense
Speaker 1: started in this game. Gave up a lot of big plays,
Speaker 1: some really costly penalties. They could not make up for
Speaker 1: the offensive struggles.
Speaker 2: Teen plays of fifteen yards or more in the first
Speaker 2: three football games. Tonight, they gave up seven of them
Speaker 2: in one quarter in the second quarter, seven plays of
Speaker 2: fifteen yards or more. I mean, that's that's that's getting gashed.
Speaker 2: There's no no two ways about it. And I know,
Speaker 2: you know, sometimes it's hard to hard to stay motivated,
Speaker 2: hard to keep saw on wood. You know, it's like
Speaker 2: you're banging your head up against the wall. You're not
Speaker 2: getting the support that you feel like you should be
Speaker 2: getting or need to get. It can it can get
Speaker 2: tough that way, But that's the way it's going to be.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's the way it's gonna looks like it's
Speaker 2: going to be for a while. You just you just
Speaker 2: don't know how long it is going to be that way.
Speaker 2: So yeah, but they they obviously it's just it's snowballed.
Speaker 2: Snowballed on them in the second quarter and the only
Speaker 2: reason that it didn't continue is halftime game.
Speaker 1: There are two games away from the by a road
Speaker 1: game against Arizona, a home game against Seattle. Is it
Speaker 1: the strategy basically, see if you can cut out a
Speaker 1: couple of wins like you did against the Rams, and
Speaker 1: hope and pray that Burrow's calf makes, you know, dramatic
Speaker 1: improvement during the bye.
Speaker 2: Is that it? I guess that's it sounds like that's it.
Speaker 2: I will say that the opponent that's spanked the Bengals
Speaker 2: twenty seven to three. The Tennessee Titans lost in Cleveland
Speaker 2: by the exact same score the week before, and they
Speaker 2: reversed it. They made restitution, they did something differently, but
Speaker 2: they came home. They were on the road and came home.
Speaker 2: The Bengals get spanked on the road and they're still
Speaker 2: on the road going to Arizona. It does make a difference,
Speaker 2: there's no question about it. But there's no substitute for
Speaker 2: getting back and sticking your nose on the grindstone, because
Speaker 2: that's what you have to do. I mean, you can
Speaker 2: talk about things all you want, talks cheap. You got
Speaker 2: to go to work. You know, there's no answers that
Speaker 2: you can come up with just by conversing. You to
Speaker 2: go out and put in the time, put in the snaps,
Speaker 2: put in the reps, the time on task, and everybody
Speaker 2: just has to get better. That's the bottom line.
Speaker 1: How hard would it be to pass block right now
Speaker 1: with a compromise Joe Burrow frequently playing from behind, it.
Speaker 2: Would be difficult. But the thing that the advantage or
Speaker 2: the one thing that is in your favor, they're getting
Speaker 2: the rid of the ball. So quickly. I mean it's
Speaker 2: it's almost like a three step drop almost every time
Speaker 2: he throws the football because he's in the shotgun and
Speaker 2: he's getting it out. But you know, if you do
Speaker 2: a decent enough job when I'm just rushing four men,
Speaker 2: everybody's bringing pressure now too, and uh, you know they're
Speaker 2: bringing a lot of times, maybe one more than you
Speaker 2: can block, and that becomes an issue. So there's there
Speaker 2: are solutions. But but the thing number one thing you
Speaker 2: have to do is on a snap by snap basis
Speaker 2: execute better. I mean, they weren't in third and miserable
Speaker 2: situations and they went oher for six. You know that
Speaker 2: that that puts you in a tough in a tough spot. Offensively,
Speaker 2: in your defense is thinking, man, you know, give me
Speaker 2: a conversion here, stay on the field. So they have
Speaker 2: a lot of work to do, no doubt.
Speaker 1: A lot of people build last Monday's games must win.
Speaker 1: We're going to hear those words again heading into Arizona
Speaker 1: this week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the one in three start. You look
Speaker 2: back again, how many one and three teams make up Lass.
Speaker 2: It's like sixteen seventeen percent something like that end up
Speaker 2: making the playoffs. So now you've you know, you've you've
Speaker 2: dug a deeper hole, and it's against another AFC team.
Speaker 2: Your only winners against an NFC team, You're going to
Speaker 2: play another NFC team. So you know, I mean you
Speaker 2: get too and all against the NFC. Whoopee, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean big nothing really much to celebrate there. You
Speaker 2: got to start winning some division game and you have
Speaker 2: to start winning some conference games if you want to
Speaker 2: dig yourself out of the hole, because other than that,
Speaker 2: it's like when you win these NFC games, you're shoveling
Speaker 2: dirt out. It's not all going out all the way,
Speaker 2: and a bunch of it's trickling back in that hole
Speaker 2: continues to be a problem up.
Speaker 1: Next road game at Arizona. The Cardinals are also one
Speaker 1: in three after losing at San Francisco, but the Cardinals
Speaker 1: did beat Dallas by twelve points in their last home game.
Speaker 1: Elsewhere in the AFC North, the Ravens beat the Browns
Speaker 1: in Cleveland and the Steelers lost at Houston, so Baltimore
Speaker 1: is three and one, including two road winds. In the division,
Speaker 1: the Browns and Steelers are two and two, and the
Speaker 1: Bengals are one and three. Now time for this week's
Speaker 1: fun Fact segment where you get to know the person
Speaker 1: under the pads. Time for some fun facts with tight
Speaker 1: End Tanner Hudson from Big Sandy, Tennessee, a town of
Speaker 1: about five hundred people I think two hours west of Nashville.
Speaker 1: Describe Big Sandy and what you did for fun growing up.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Big Sandy is a pretty small town. We used
Speaker 5: to go to Spillway, go down and fish with my
Speaker 5: dad and my grandpa. We would friends would come over.
Speaker 5: We'd go in the backyard, grab the twenty two's and
Speaker 5: you know, just go out and see what we could find.
Speaker 5: A lot of a lot of basketball in the backyard
Speaker 5: with my sister as well, you know, beating up on
Speaker 5: her every once in a while. But yeah, just just
Speaker 5: a lot of things outside. Really. You know, I played
Speaker 5: my fair share of Xbox.
Speaker 6: I'm not gonna lie, but uh.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we we like to get out and do some
Speaker 5: things outdoors.
Speaker 1: You attended Camden Central High School, where I've read that
Speaker 1: you had to be talked into playing high school football
Speaker 1: and would only do so if you could be the
Speaker 1: kicker and punter. Was that in fact the case?
Speaker 5: That is that is true?
Speaker 6: You know?
Speaker 5: Growing up the junior high and the high school kind
Speaker 5: of played. Uh, they were really close as far as
Speaker 5: practice was. And looking over at the high school every day,
Speaker 5: seeing those bigger guys, I wasn't always six for you know,
Speaker 5: so looking over seeing those bigger guys, I was like,
Speaker 5: I don't I don't know if football is for me.
Speaker 5: But then my freshman year, my buddy Cody Hassel, he
Speaker 5: eventually talked to me into coming out and I did
Speaker 5: the kicking for them, and it was fun to be
Speaker 5: out there. And then eventually, you know, I grew grew
Speaker 5: a little bit and worked my way into actually wanting
Speaker 5: to play a little bit more, and then ended up
Speaker 5: playing quarterback my junior starting at quarterback my junior year.
Speaker 5: So from there on it was it came pretty.
Speaker 1: Fun, so high school quarterback, and you also averaged eighteen
Speaker 1: points and twelve rebounds in hoops. But I'm guessing there
Speaker 1: weren't a ton of college scouts and coaches that came
Speaker 1: to your small high school. Did you have many or
Speaker 1: any college opportunities.
Speaker 5: I remember the Memphis Tigers came out and I did
Speaker 5: like a small type of workout for them. One of
Speaker 5: the coaches came out and just watched me throw, but
Speaker 5: ended up my senior year last ready my spleen, I
Speaker 5: think the third game, and so that kind of crushed
Speaker 5: any scholarship hopes.
Speaker 1: That I had.
Speaker 5: Still had a few opportunities walk on wise, but now
Speaker 5: as far as scouting and you know, teams offering scholarships,
Speaker 5: it was it was non existent.
Speaker 1: For visiting the Tanner Hudson. So you walked on at
Speaker 1: Memphis as a quarterback, and after redshirting there for a year,
Speaker 1: you transferred to Southern Arkansas the Mule Writers, where you
Speaker 1: excelled as a tight end and also punted. When did
Speaker 1: it start to seem possible that you could be an
Speaker 1: NFL player?
Speaker 5: Probably after my junior year. I had had a really
Speaker 5: good junior year, and even even then, honestly, I knew
Speaker 5: that there was a whole two divisions, you know, above
Speaker 5: me with D one Double A and then D one,
Speaker 5: So I knew the possibility of making it to the
Speaker 5: NFL with slim, but I would I'd really like to
Speaker 5: say my offensive coordinator, Landon Kepple, he helps me out
Speaker 5: a lot, just kind of building that confidence and showing
Speaker 5: me that I could play in league and being able
Speaker 5: to go out and play my senior year. With that confidence,
Speaker 5: I think helped me a lot along with I had
Speaker 5: a great quarterback in Barrett Runner, and then a lot
Speaker 5: of very very skilled receivers around me as well.
Speaker 1: You weren't drafted, but you signed originally with the Tampa
Speaker 1: Bay Buccaneers in twenty eighteen, and in twenty twenty you
Speaker 1: were on a Super Bowl team. You're a tight end.
Speaker 1: That team included Gronk, Rob Gronkowski maybe the best tight
Speaker 1: end of all time. How would you describe Gronk on
Speaker 1: and off the field.
Speaker 5: The same exact person? You know, He's just he's a
Speaker 5: very fun, going, outgoing guy, goofy as ever, always wants
Speaker 5: to have a good time. He knew when it was
Speaker 5: signed to be serious, and he knew when he had
Speaker 5: to get his job done.
Speaker 7: But he's just what you see.
Speaker 5: I mean, it is what you get like, he's goofy.
Speaker 5: He's fun to be around. Just a great all around,
Speaker 5: all around.
Speaker 1: Go Gronk caught two touchdown passes and that Super Bowl
Speaker 1: went over the Chiefs. You almost caught one as well.
Speaker 1: In the third quarter, Tom Brady threw a nineteen yard
Speaker 1: pass into the end zone for you. That was just
Speaker 1: a tiny bit beyond your grasp. What do you remember
Speaker 1: about that moment.
Speaker 5: We ran So we ran the same play three times
Speaker 5: and it had a can on it, and we canned
Speaker 5: at both times, and the third time we ended up
Speaker 5: running the pass off of it, and uh yeah, I
Speaker 5: just remember being like, oh wow, I'm kind of open.
Speaker 5: Let's let's make this happen. And then you know, it's
Speaker 5: just a little bit outside of our reach. I could
Speaker 5: have been a little further more towards the back pol
Speaker 5: On maybe had a better chance at it. But it
Speaker 5: was a cool experience. I'm gonna of shout out to
Speaker 5: barn Left, which we're going to do.
Speaker 1: That chance, the offensive coordinator for the Bucks at the time.
Speaker 1: So Tampa Bay celebrated that Super Bowl victory with a
Speaker 1: victory boat parade and we all remember the video Tom
Speaker 1: Brady famously tossing the Lombardi Trophy from one boat to another.
Speaker 1: Did you have a view and what did you think
Speaker 1: of that?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was actually setting repside cam Braid who caught it.
Speaker 2: And yeah, so it was it was crazy in the moment,
Speaker 2: but yeah, just to be a part of something like
Speaker 2: that was so special. Be a part of that that.
Speaker 5: Memory with those guys being on that boat getting to
Speaker 5: celebrate that moment and then yeah, Cam catching it and
Speaker 5: holding it above his head like that was That was
Speaker 5: a memory that I'll cherish and remember forever.
Speaker 1: Cam Braid's had a lot of catches. That was the
Speaker 1: all time best, I'm guessing. Describe your Super Bowl ring.
Speaker 2: I think it's indescribable.
Speaker 5: It's just big and beautiful and just perfect in all aspects.
Speaker 5: The way you open it, and it has all the
Speaker 5: details inside with the stadium where we run out the
Speaker 5: scores to all the playoff games. Just the amount of
Speaker 5: you know, diamonds that are in it corresponding with things. Yeah,
Speaker 5: it's something that's very very special.
Speaker 1: I hope your Bengals ring that you eventually get is
Speaker 1: even better. You joined the Bengals in December of last
Speaker 1: year after spending most of the year with the New
Speaker 1: York Giants. Now, as we said off the top, your
Speaker 1: hometown has about five hundred people. Now you're in a
Speaker 1: city or close to a city with eight point five mil.
Speaker 1: What was that experience like?
Speaker 2: It was a lot, not a lot.
Speaker 5: We were actually in New Jersey, so it was fun
Speaker 5: to have some of my friends come down and we
Speaker 5: would go explore the city, you know, get a taste
Speaker 5: of that. But you know, me and my wife are
Speaker 5: not not big city folks. So we hungred down in
Speaker 5: the room a lot, just a lot of hanging out
Speaker 5: between us. But we would we would get out and
Speaker 5: see this. We'd like to get out and see the city,
Speaker 5: find some cool places to eat. So it was we
Speaker 5: talked about it as it was a really great experience,
Speaker 5: but something we like to just have the experience and
Speaker 5: not really live there full time.
Speaker 1: As they say, nice to visit, not a place you
Speaker 1: want to live necessarily. So when you joined the Bengals
Speaker 1: last year, I thought Tyler Eifert was making a comeback.
Speaker 1: The resemblance is uncanny. Have people in Cincinnati legitimately mistaken
Speaker 1: you for Tyler Eifford.
Speaker 5: I haven't gotten to anybody outside the facility mistaken me.
Speaker 5: Granted I don't go outside much, but no, I haven't.
Speaker 5: I haven't gotten anybody outside. Darren he when I first
Speaker 5: came around, started coming around, he noticed the resemblance and
Speaker 5: mentioned it to me. So then I looked him up
Speaker 5: and I was even shocked at how similar we do look.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it is two tight ends that look very
Speaker 1: very much alike. All right, a few wild card topics.
Speaker 1: Now for Tanner Hudson. Who is the greatest athlete of
Speaker 1: all time in any sport?
Speaker 5: Lebron James. I'm a big Lebron fan. I understand, you know,
Speaker 5: old George me and my but he's go back and
Speaker 5: forth with the whole Joan Lebron debate. But yeah, I
Speaker 5: think he's one of the probably the greatest. And then
Speaker 5: Tom Brady is right there. Tom Brady just brings a
Speaker 5: whole whole different aspect to a team, which I assume
Speaker 5: Lebron does the same thing. It's just Tom Brady just
Speaker 5: brings that you don't want to mess up around him,
Speaker 5: You don't want to be that guy. He just elevates
Speaker 5: your team to a whole another level.
Speaker 1: What do you like to spend your money on golf?
Speaker 5: Probably? I mean, yeah, golf, hunting every once in a while,
Speaker 5: do a couple of things with that, but uh yeah,
Speaker 5: we just recently bought a farm, so that's where a
Speaker 5: lot of it will be going.
Speaker 1: Very nice. Do you have a bucket list activity that
Speaker 1: you would like to do in an off season?
Speaker 5: I would say any kind of trip to Montana, Wyoming.
Speaker 5: I think somewhere in Canada like a nice It wouldn't
Speaker 5: be off season doesn't really go with my hunting seasons
Speaker 5: that I like, so, but anything to do with just
Speaker 5: traveling getting to see those those areas. My brother went
Speaker 5: elk hunting in Montana, or he went elk hunting in
Speaker 5: Wyoming and just talked about how beautiful it was there,
Speaker 5: and so I think visiting those places is something that
Speaker 5: I look forward to.
Speaker 1: Final question for Tanner Hudson, if you could meet anybody
Speaker 1: in history, actor, athlete, statesman, whoever it might be. Who
Speaker 1: would that person be, So.
Speaker 5: It wouldn't be anybody famous. I would like to meet
Speaker 5: my wife's dad. Yeah, he passed away when she was young.
Speaker 5: And to be able to hear from him, and you know,
Speaker 5: I get stories from her mom, and you know those
Speaker 5: are fun to hear, but to be to hear the
Speaker 5: stories that she tells me about him from him, I
Speaker 5: think would be something really special.
Speaker 1: That is a great heartfelt answer, Tanner Hudson. I appreciate
Speaker 1: your time. Best of luck this season. Percent that's going
Speaker 1: to do it for this episode of The Bengals Booth podcast,
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Speaker 1: for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast.