Speaker 1: Hig and everybody.
Speaker 2: I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading The Bengals Booth Podcast.
Speaker 2: The Working on Our Night moves addition, as we look
Speaker 2: ahead to Monday Night football at Paycorp Stadium, as the
Speaker 2: Bengals host the one and one Washington Commanders Coming up.
Speaker 2: Former Bengals safety Solomon Wilcotts, the host of the opening
Speaker 2: Drive show on Sirius XM NFL Radio, joins me to
Speaker 2: discuss how the Bengals can overcome their zero and two start.
Speaker 2: Tight Ends coach James Casey discusses a huge day for
Speaker 2: his position group at Kansas City, and in our no
Speaker 2: thea Faux segment, we get an in depth look at
Speaker 2: the Commanders from their radio voice, Bram Weinstein. The Bengals
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Speaker 2: I'm getting a middle finger instead. Now let's get to
Speaker 2: my first guest. Solomon Wilcott started its safety for the
Speaker 2: Bengals in Super Bowl twenty three and has gone on
Speaker 2: to have a highly successful career in broadcasting. He currently
Speaker 2: hosts the Opening Drive show on sirius XM NFL Radio
Speaker 2: in addition to hosting the Believe In Bengals podcast, and
Speaker 2: Sally joined me this week to discuss the team coming
Speaker 2: off that one point loss at Kansas City.
Speaker 1: I've had to check my blood pressure more frequently than
Speaker 1: I ever had. These games are taking more of a
Speaker 1: toll on me than than they used to. You know,
Speaker 1: it was one of those games that I felt like
Speaker 1: we wanted, except every time I go back and look
Speaker 1: at the final score, I was, you know, became more
Speaker 1: aware that we didn't win it. So look, I think
Speaker 1: the team played much better week two than week one.
Speaker 1: I love the fact that the defense came to play
Speaker 1: and may Patrick Mahomes look human, right, And man, I
Speaker 1: can't say enough about the energy of Trey Hendrickson that
Speaker 1: he plays with. He makes he makes you proud to
Speaker 1: be a Bengals fan.
Speaker 2: Have you seen a better interception than Cam Taylor BRIT's
Speaker 2: one handed snag? And what do you think of his
Speaker 2: development as the Bengals quote unquote shutdown corner.
Speaker 1: Well, I was talking about him on my show on
Speaker 1: Serious Xmnfield Radio in the opening drive after he had
Speaker 1: made his statements, and I tried to tell people, that's
Speaker 1: not trash talking for Cam Taylor Brit That's that's Cam
Speaker 1: being Cam like if you know him, very confident young man.
Speaker 1: He has a knack and a fair and a flair
Speaker 1: for making plays. And I told him, I said dude,
Speaker 1: you I said, you're one of the great playmakers that
Speaker 1: we've ever had here who just have a knack for
Speaker 1: finding the football. I mean, the ball finds hailm at times.
Speaker 1: And that play he made was one of the greatest
Speaker 1: interceptions you're ever going to see. And it was against
Speaker 1: one of the greatest quarterbacks you could ever intercept, and
Speaker 1: he made it look easy backhanded the ball with one
Speaker 1: hand while still having you know, just great relationship to
Speaker 1: the receiver. And so if you understand how you play
Speaker 1: in sequence in pass covers, particularly a press manda man covers,
Speaker 1: to get your head around find the ball but still
Speaker 1: not lose the receiver and make a play on the
Speaker 1: ball without losing relation to the receiver. That it clearly
Speaker 1: was one of the greatest press man demand cover interceptors
Speaker 1: that you're ever going to see. So kudos to Cam Taylor.
Speaker 1: Britt Let's move to.
Speaker 2: The other starting outside corner. How do you think Dax
Speaker 2: Hill is coming along as he makes that switch from
Speaker 2: safety to outside corner?
Speaker 1: Come along good, but could be better and more it's
Speaker 1: more about the angles in his run defense right and
Speaker 1: just coming up to make tackles and being in good
Speaker 1: relationship to where the ball is hitting at the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage. If you're at corner, you're an outside defender.
Speaker 1: Outside in at Saale when he was at the safety position,
Speaker 1: you're an inside out defender. It's like the first play
Speaker 1: with Madre Stevens week one. He bounces it and if
Speaker 1: you're the corner, you got to be there to make
Speaker 1: that play. Man, you got to even see that one
Speaker 1: coming and be there early, so there's better angles you
Speaker 1: can take and run defense. But you know, at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, Man, last week, I thought we
Speaker 1: did a really good better job in coverage. We're not
Speaker 1: giving up the explosive plays we're getting off the field.
Speaker 1: On third down. DJ Turner came in. He made a
Speaker 1: playing man. I think, just as young corners, you need
Speaker 1: to begin to stock consistent good plays where your confidence
Speaker 1: can grow. But there's no doubt they're getting taught great
Speaker 1: technique and now they got to trust that technique against
Speaker 1: some of the best wide receivers. You're gonna every week, Man,
Speaker 1: you're playing against some wide receivers who can embarrass you
Speaker 1: if you don't bring your technique and if you don't
Speaker 1: play with great deal of confidence in your pass coverage skills.
Speaker 2: Alvin Willcotts is our guest. You're in an NFL safety
Speaker 2: for six years. What's the teaching point for rookie Djon
Speaker 2: Anthony on that pass interference call at the end of
Speaker 2: the game.
Speaker 1: Play the ball. Play the ball you got You got
Speaker 1: there in time enough to play the ball too. You're
Speaker 1: in you're in zone coverage. So zone coverage, you know
Speaker 1: what it allows you to cheat. It allows you to
Speaker 1: see the quarterback. It allows you to see the ball
Speaker 1: when the ball's being thrown. You can still see the receiver,
Speaker 1: the quarterback and the ball simultaneously, something that Cam Taylor
Speaker 1: Britt did get to see on the interception he made.
Speaker 1: You're playing blind almost in that case, but in zone coverage,
Speaker 1: when you're top down, you get to see everything. You
Speaker 1: just play the ball's thrown. Now, go play the ball.
Speaker 1: Don't play the man because you're gonna end up hitting
Speaker 1: him before the ball arrives. Right when you get a
Speaker 1: chance to play the ball, man, you gotta play the
Speaker 1: ball because even if you knock it down or catch
Speaker 1: it right, if they could care less about the receiver
Speaker 1: at that point, if you bump into him while catching it,
Speaker 1: nobody's gonna care because you were playing the ball. They
Speaker 1: won't threw a flag for pass interference in that case.
Speaker 1: So he had a chance to get an interception in
Speaker 1: in the game. He had a chance to knock the
Speaker 1: ball down in the game. Unfortunately, the worst case scenario
Speaker 1: occurred and into the game for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 2: Lou Aniromo said the defensive tackles were completely exhausted, which
Speaker 2: was one of the reasons why he elected to rush
Speaker 2: three and drop eight. He said he would do it
Speaker 2: one hundred times out of one hundred times. Did you
Speaker 2: take any issue with that strategy under those circumstances with
Speaker 2: Mahomes and quarterback.
Speaker 1: No, I agree. Look, it's okay to give a quarterback
Speaker 1: all day to throw if he has nowhere to throw.
Speaker 1: He really didn't have anywhere to throw, because this should
Speaker 1: have been better defended. The defensive back arrived early. He
Speaker 1: didn't arrive on time. He got there early. The ball
Speaker 1: hit him in the head after he was hitting the receiver. No,
Speaker 1: I don't question because think about it, we were already
Speaker 1: depleted at the interior defensive line position. You already know that.
Speaker 1: Then we lost bj Hill, then we lost Sheldon Rankins,
Speaker 1: you can't play. You can't mount a pass rush. You
Speaker 1: know how I'm gonna tell you. Defensive linemen, that's why
Speaker 1: you need a rotation of guys, because defensive players you
Speaker 1: play to react. You gotta play off the offense. Right,
Speaker 1: there's keys that we read, but we are always in
Speaker 1: a reaction mode. There's more energy exerted when you're on
Speaker 1: the defense because you're reacting. You don't know what assignment
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to carry out on any given play.
Speaker 1: You gotta wait for the offense to show you and
Speaker 1: then you jump into whether it's a pass rush or
Speaker 1: your run. You're playing the run or you're playing the
Speaker 1: pass and what you're actually I'm not dropping and my rushing.
Speaker 1: You've got to wait for the offense to kind of
Speaker 1: to get your clues, to get your reads, to know
Speaker 1: what to do because you're always in this reactionary mode.
Speaker 1: That's why you rotate defensive linemen. But you never rotate
Speaker 1: offensive lineman, do you, Because they play from the offense.
Speaker 1: They don't use extra energy trying to react to what
Speaker 1: other people do. They're not chasing bunny rabbits all over
Speaker 1: the field like these big defensive linemen. They're chasing running
Speaker 1: backs and quarterbacks and wide receivers, so you have to
Speaker 1: rotate those guys. Well, we had no rotation. They were
Speaker 1: all hurt and so on a fourth and sixteen, you
Speaker 1: know what you're doing. You're playing the sticks. You're playing
Speaker 1: the first down marker because that's where they got to
Speaker 1: get to for a new set of downs and if
Speaker 1: they don't get their game over, So you don't put
Speaker 1: all the energy in the backfield or chasing a quarterback
Speaker 1: who's hard to catch anyway, you want to use those
Speaker 1: resources to defend the first down marker. We had it
Speaker 1: well defended. The play call was perfect. The execution is
Speaker 1: where they fail. And that's why we say coaches have
Speaker 1: all the power and no control. You know, it has
Speaker 1: the control dan the players. The players have to execute
Speaker 1: the plan. It was a great plan, failure of execution
Speaker 1: on fourth and sixteen that that really falls on the players.
Speaker 2: Sally, let's talk about Joe Burrow. Two touchdown passes, no picks,
Speaker 2: a passer rating of one oh three point seven. What
Speaker 2: stood out to you about his play at Kansas City
Speaker 2: the fumble?
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm the biggest Joe Burrow fan there is,
Speaker 1: and I look players aren't perfect, none of us are,
Speaker 1: and we all make mistakes. But what we cannot do
Speaker 1: is turn the ball over, especially when you're on the
Speaker 1: road against a championship team. That's the takeaway. If we
Speaker 1: are trying to become a championship team. That's so I'm
Speaker 1: speaking from that perspective because I believe that Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: is a championship quarterback even before the trophy arrives. He's mind.
Speaker 1: He's a championship quarterback, and the championship quarterbacks protect the football.
Speaker 1: That's that's rule and priority number one. You talk to
Speaker 1: Tom Brady and I've met with him and talk with him,
Speaker 1: and if you listen to him, he won seven Super
Speaker 1: Bowls because he protects the football and not that he's perfect,
Speaker 1: not saying it never got away from him. You know this,
Speaker 1: Joe Montana played at four Super Bowls. In those four games,
Speaker 1: he never turned it over. But I will say this,
Speaker 1: Joe is getting into rhythm now. He's getting into a
Speaker 1: better feel for some of the new players around him,
Speaker 1: like andre Yoshi Vash the assortment of tight ends that
Speaker 1: he's throwing to. He found a deep ball, the biggest
Speaker 1: scrimmage play so far of the season to Jermaine Burton
Speaker 1: that getting in to have some comfort with these new
Speaker 1: players around him is not an easy thing. Playing quarterback
Speaker 1: in this league is not an easy thing. And I'm
Speaker 1: telling you we have one of the best. Even the
Speaker 1: quarterback playing for these other teams, they know we have
Speaker 1: one of the best. So I love Joe Burrow, love
Speaker 1: what he's doing, the way he's managing things, the way
Speaker 1: he's trying to manage through some tough situations, man and
Speaker 1: trying to nurture the relationships on this team to keep
Speaker 1: everything together, to keep it from falling apart, because some
Speaker 1: brinksmanship is being played right now and you don't want
Speaker 1: to do that as you're trying to make a run
Speaker 1: for a championship.
Speaker 2: Those tight ends combined for fourteen catches for one hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty one yards. They played two and three tight
Speaker 2: ends quite a bit during the course of the game.
Speaker 2: Did we see kind of the next evolution of the
Speaker 2: Bengals offense where they can do that more?
Speaker 1: Yeah? You know, Mike Oseeki's one of these guys. He
Speaker 1: just he makes you say wow one minute and he
Speaker 1: just haves you pounding the table to next. Heck of
Speaker 1: a player I always I loved him when he was
Speaker 1: at Penn State. I would go to Ohio State games
Speaker 1: and I watched him at Saquon Barkley and trace Mick Sorely,
Speaker 1: those guys all the quarterback they all played at Penn State.
Speaker 1: I love that team that they had at Penn State.
Speaker 1: So he's a huge find. He's great inside the red zone.
Speaker 1: He knows how to work off coverage very well in
Speaker 1: that knack that you see from Travis Kelps. He's gonna
Speaker 1: put up some big numbers this year. Hey, look, Eric
Speaker 1: All is as good as you could ever be at
Speaker 1: the position. I think you're watching a star in the making,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to speak too prematurely. He's got
Speaker 1: a bright future ahead of himself. And look in Tanner Hudson,
Speaker 1: despite the fumble from week one, we know he can
Speaker 1: make plays. Let's hope he learned from that and help
Speaker 1: us to protect the ball. And look, we even got
Speaker 1: deeper rotation than that at the tight end position. So no,
Speaker 1: I think we're rich there. Finally, I think we're rich
Speaker 1: at that position. There's an embarrassment of riches and I
Speaker 1: think it's just going to keep coming.
Speaker 2: The wash engine commanders come to town on Monday Night,
Speaker 2: led by the Heisman Trophy winner from last year, the
Speaker 2: second picking the draft, Jade and Daniels. He hasn't thrown
Speaker 2: a touchdown pass yet, but he's on a pace to
Speaker 2: run for more than eleven hundred yards where they're going
Speaker 2: to be some of the keys to limiting him on
Speaker 2: Monday Night.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this one, Like we know, Patrick Mahomes is a
Speaker 1: dual threat quarterback, but he's he's like, he's a dual
Speaker 1: threat quarterback, just like Joe Burrow's a dual threat. Joe
Speaker 1: can hurt you with his legs, he just rather throw
Speaker 1: it first. And Patrick Mahomes is the same way. These
Speaker 1: young guys they'll they'll kill you or whatever they got,
Speaker 1: you know, they'll slice and dice you with their arm.
Speaker 1: And Jade and Daniels, I watched him play for HERM
Speaker 1: Edwards and he was at Arizona State and I went
Speaker 1: out there and watched him play and just I remember
Speaker 1: he was a freshman. He was poised then and now
Speaker 1: you see him as a rookie, the guy. One thing
Speaker 1: he has now for a young quarterback. I know these
Speaker 1: other guys, they get deer in the headlights. Look We've
Speaker 1: seen it with Caleb Williams. I think we've even seen
Speaker 1: it with some of these other young quarterbacks right who
Speaker 1: are getting a chance to play. Bow Nicks. You saw
Speaker 1: it with him, we two. You don't see that with
Speaker 1: Jaydon Daniels. He's he's a guy that stays within himself.
Speaker 1: He doesn't panic and just throw the ball to the
Speaker 1: opposing defense. We're gonna have to get confuse him a
Speaker 1: little bit. If he runs it, you gotta touch him
Speaker 1: up a little bit. But he's hard to corral. He's
Speaker 1: gonna remind you of a young Randall Cunningham. He's got
Speaker 1: that same sleek sort of physique and he can run
Speaker 1: like the win. He's hard to catch and he can
Speaker 1: sling it now. His arm is lively, but he's very poised.
Speaker 1: That's what I love about him as a young quarterback.
Speaker 1: His poise is on is uncommon for a rookie quarterback.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna have to get to him and touch
Speaker 1: him up. But we got Trey Hendrickson and Sayam Hubbard.
Speaker 1: These guys can get after it. Hopefully we have some
Speaker 1: guys to play on the interior part of our our
Speaker 1: defensive line. By the way, they had a kicker seeper
Speaker 1: he kicked seven field goals last week for a win. Seven.
Speaker 1: He's a weapon in and of himself. So I don't
Speaker 1: know that I've ever seen a game where I saw
Speaker 1: a kicker kick seven field goals and he scored all
Speaker 1: twenty one points, Sally.
Speaker 2: This year's Ring of Honor class will be inducted at
Speaker 2: halftime on Monday night and features your former teammate Tim
Speaker 2: Krumrie plus the Bengals all time leading rusher Corey Dillon.
Speaker 2: When I say those two names Crumrie and Dylan, what
Speaker 2: immediately comes to mind.
Speaker 1: I think Mike Brown, and I think the entire you know,
Speaker 1: brain trust got together to see it. Who are two
Speaker 1: of the baddest dudes to ever wear Bengal stripes on
Speaker 1: each side of the ball. And that's how they did it,
Speaker 1: because there's no like this. There's no question. The baddest
Speaker 1: dude to ever wear Bengal stripes on defense is Tim
Speaker 1: Krumro and his ain't even close. And I can tell
Speaker 1: you right now clock killing Corey Dillon. That dude was bad,
Speaker 1: I mean, and he almost had three hundred yards rushing
Speaker 1: in the game they took him out. This is a
Speaker 1: guy who can walk around to say I broke a
Speaker 1: record once owned by Jim Brown as a rookie, I
Speaker 1: once broke a record that was owned by the great
Speaker 1: Walter Paton. Who else can say that. There ain't another
Speaker 1: human being that could say I broke Waltteron Bathess record.
Speaker 1: I broke Jim Brown record.
Speaker 3: Now what.
Speaker 1: That's bad, man. You don't get any better than that.
Speaker 1: So these two guys are I mean, these are two
Speaker 1: special guys in terms of our Bengal legacy. I think
Speaker 1: there are two special guys in terms you can't tell
Speaker 1: the NFL story without Corey Dillon. That makes him a
Speaker 1: Hall of Famer. And I watched Tim Crumrae go toe
Speaker 1: to toe with the great Dwight Stevenson and win. And
Speaker 1: Dwight Stevenson is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: as the great center of the Miami Dolphins. And I
Speaker 1: think Tim Crumbrae deserves a bus in Canton. I know
Speaker 1: Roger Goodale would agree. I know a lot of guys
Speaker 1: around this league would agree with that.
Speaker 2: Sally, always great to pick your brain, Appreciate the time.
Speaker 1: Look forward to seeing you soon. All right, Dan, all
Speaker 1: the best to you. We will see you soon, my friend.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: As I mentioned in that interview with Sally, the Bengals
Speaker 2: tight ends combined for huge numbers last week. As Cincinnati
Speaker 2: had two or more tight ends on the field. I'm
Speaker 2: more than thirty percent of their offensive snaps. My broadcast
Speaker 2: partner Dave Lapham was nostra damis.
Speaker 1: Here was his.
Speaker 2: Number one key to the game on the pregame show
Speaker 2: just before kickoff.
Speaker 4: It's time to be physical, physical.
Speaker 2: I'm saying, Olivia Newton Lapham.
Speaker 4: I'm saying, you go three tight ends, and I'm saying
Speaker 4: you put Cody Ford out there as a sixth offensive lineman.
Speaker 4: And I'm saying you put Eric All at fullback, and
Speaker 4: I'm saying you put your Sample at the other tight
Speaker 4: end position. I'm saying that's how you can pound him.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 2: Lapp got his wish. The Bengals ran sixty four offensive
Speaker 2: plays at Kansas City. Drew Sample and Eric All were
Speaker 2: on the field for thirty three each. That's fifty two percent.
Speaker 2: Mike Kasiki got thirty snaps and Cody Ford got five
Speaker 2: as a sixth offensive lineman. I talked about it with
Speaker 2: Bengals tight ends coach James Casey James. Last week, the
Speaker 2: tight End trio of Mike Kasicki, Eric All and Drew
Speaker 2: Sample combined for fourteen catches for one hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: one yards. Was that the flow of the game or
Speaker 2: did you know going in that your guys were likely
Speaker 2: to be heavily targeted.
Speaker 6: I knew going into the game that we were going
Speaker 6: to have, you know, more opportunities. I didn't know it
Speaker 6: was going to be you know, that kind of opportunities
Speaker 6: with us. That's by far the most catches in yards
Speaker 6: that our guys have had, you know, in a game.
Speaker 6: But you know, credit to Zach and Dan and you know,
Speaker 6: and Roscottie and all, you know, the guys that are
Speaker 6: designing their game plan like it was a I thought
Speaker 6: it was a really good game plan and a lot
Speaker 6: of it was just based off of what Kansas City's
Speaker 6: shown on you know, on film, and we've played them
Speaker 6: a bunch of times in the past, so they you know,
Speaker 6: throwing throwing something different out there to them, and you know,
Speaker 6: there was Uh. I was real proud of the tight
Speaker 6: Ends just for you know, you know, obviously you know,
Speaker 6: making some you know good catches, some good run for
Speaker 6: the catch, but also just knowing where they were going
Speaker 6: to you know, line up and handle them the entire game,
Speaker 6: playing the run game, the pass protection, the routes, because
Speaker 6: there's a lot on their plate last game with lined
Speaker 6: up in different spots and all the different formations. We
Speaker 6: line up in a bunch of unique formations, and they
Speaker 6: handled really well, especially for a young guy like Eric.
Speaker 3: So there was always real proud of the guys.
Speaker 6: And but like I tell them, and just like overall,
Speaker 6: you know, you're you're not thinking about the good stuff.
Speaker 6: You're always thinking about you know, we lost the game,
Speaker 6: so none that stuff matters. It's about, you know, the
Speaker 6: places we wish we had back, the players that wish
Speaker 6: you know, we we know we can get better at
Speaker 6: and keep learning those lessons as we go and you know,
Speaker 6: and then you know, find ways to get wins. Now
Speaker 6: now we're you know, we're putting our backs stings the
Speaker 6: wall early in the season, but you know we've been
Speaker 6: there before. Now it's you know, hopefully we can keep
Speaker 6: getting those opportunities in the past game as tight ends.
Speaker 6: And but we also got a lot of stuff we
Speaker 6: got to do as a blocker and pass protection. And
Speaker 6: but I'm decided about where the group's at, like their
Speaker 6: they care, they're working hard, they're getting better and better,
Speaker 6: and you know, we just got to you know, just
Speaker 6: keep throwing our face in there and just you know,
Speaker 6: keep making plays and keep helping us win games.
Speaker 2: If I've got the numbers right, there were multiple tight
Speaker 2: ends on the field thirty one percent of the time
Speaker 2: in Week two and twenty nine percent of the time
Speaker 2: in Week one. That's higher than it's been in the past.
Speaker 2: Are we seeing the next devolution of the Bengals offense
Speaker 2: where the team will use that more to give the
Speaker 2: opposing defense more to worry about? I hope.
Speaker 6: So, you know, coaching the tight ends I'm in we're
Speaker 6: in our own world as you know, as a tight
Speaker 6: end coach and just tight ends like we're I like
Speaker 6: to say that we were kind of independent contractors because
Speaker 6: even within each play, we got our own separate rules
Speaker 6: on everything, and we're always in a you know, we're
Speaker 6: always overmatched on stuff. We're going against these elite defensive
Speaker 6: ends and as a blocker and going against like guys
Speaker 6: that are fastness in the past game. But I hope,
Speaker 6: so we got I think we got a really good
Speaker 6: group of guys this year, and they're they're all they
Speaker 6: come in all.
Speaker 3: Shapes and sizes.
Speaker 6: But it does cause problems for the defense too when
Speaker 6: you're able to play multiple personnels in a lineup, in
Speaker 6: multiple formations.
Speaker 3: So it'll be a game to game deal.
Speaker 6: And it's you know, I'm tying the coach like that's
Speaker 6: Zach Zach and Dan and Rascottie and you know, and
Speaker 6: all those guys they handle all that stuff. And I
Speaker 6: try to help any way I can, and but my
Speaker 6: main focus just make sure the tight ends are. I'm
Speaker 6: trying to coach those guys the best I can with
Speaker 6: their you know, their mindset, their technique and and and.
Speaker 3: When they get their opportunities, take advantage of it. But
Speaker 3: just be it.
Speaker 6: You know, a lot of our positions just being a
Speaker 6: trustworthy guy, just being consistent, be trustworthy, do all the
Speaker 6: little stuff right that nobody notices, you know, like I'm getting,
Speaker 6: you know, to talk to you today because they caught
Speaker 6: a bunch of passes. But there's a lot of other
Speaker 6: stuff too that's involved for us to win, and we
Speaker 6: didn't win. So the main the main objective is for
Speaker 6: us to win and do whatever we got to do
Speaker 6: to win, whether that's catch you know, ten passes a game,
Speaker 6: or whether that's catch no passes and just block really
Speaker 6: well and finish all your every play and be where
Speaker 6: he's supposed to ever play.
Speaker 2: We're visiting with James Casey. Let's talk about some of
Speaker 2: the individuals. Mike Kasicki had seven catches for ninety one yards.
Speaker 2: This is his seventh NFL season and his eight offensive coordinator.
Speaker 2: Do you think that helped him pick things up quickly?
Speaker 2: The fact that he's been exposed to so many systems
Speaker 2: in the NFL.
Speaker 6: I think it definitely has him just seeing so many
Speaker 6: different offenses, so many different schemes, and each each one
Speaker 6: of those different coordinators he's had to like, you know,
Speaker 6: change his you know, terminology to make it fit that. So,
Speaker 6: you know, just as you're doing that, you're starting to
Speaker 6: understand that, you know, all a lot of concepts are
Speaker 6: very similar. Everybody in the NFL runs the same kind
Speaker 6: of stuff. So he's just a really smart guy too,
Speaker 6: and he he understands that you can tell him something
Speaker 6: one time and he'll remember it, you know, and he
Speaker 6: can use all the past knowledge he had from the past,
Speaker 6: you know now melt you know, melting into our offense,
Speaker 6: and a lot of it's just getting Burrow comfortable with him,
Speaker 6: and you know, for Mike just to make you know,
Speaker 6: do everything he can to get earn that trust with Burrow,
Speaker 6: earn that trust with Zach and Dan to where he
Speaker 6: can be out there in the past game and then
Speaker 6: doing all the other little stuff right too as a
Speaker 6: blocker as you know, help it out in pass protection,
Speaker 6: and so we're not real predictable when he's out there.
Speaker 6: But he's he's a really smart guy and I'm you know,
Speaker 6: I'm excited to see kind of where's were the season
Speaker 6: goes with him.
Speaker 2: The first two plays of the game last week were
Speaker 2: passes to Drew Sample, which I'm guessing that a lot
Speaker 2: of people had on their Bengo card. He signed a
Speaker 2: three year contract extension in the offseason. Why is he
Speaker 2: so valuable to this team?
Speaker 6: He's extremely valuable, And it's the people that like really
Speaker 6: really understand football and like really understand what it's like,
Speaker 6: you know, what it takes to win, Like they really
Speaker 6: value those guys. There's a reason why, you know there
Speaker 6: you look around the league, like there's not a lot
Speaker 6: of great like blocking tight ends that that are that
Speaker 6: are smart and tough and can be trusted guys. Like
Speaker 6: there's there's guys that look great catching the ball and
Speaker 6: I know, like you know as a fan or you
Speaker 6: know in some some of the media, you're just really
Speaker 6: you're just falling the ball all the time, so you're
Speaker 6: just seeing who catches it. You don't really analyze the
Speaker 6: film and see all the stuff in the run game
Speaker 6: and the pass protection and just being a trusted guy
Speaker 6: that gets lined u where he's supposed to. And sometimes
Speaker 6: we're running routes and we don't get the ball, but
Speaker 6: we got to make sure we're running the right the
Speaker 6: route the right way too. You know, maybe that opens
Speaker 6: up Jamar or t or one of our other receivers.
Speaker 6: And he's that type of guy, like he's he's unselfish.
Speaker 6: You can put him out there in any spot. You
Speaker 6: know he's gonna, you know, give it his best effort
Speaker 6: and simple thing like that. But it's it is that
Speaker 6: goes into the human nature part of the guys that
Speaker 6: just really care and really want to work hard all
Speaker 6: the time and really try. And you see it throughout
Speaker 6: the NFL when you watch film, watch watch games, like
Speaker 6: certain teams lose sometimes it's just guys you're not, you know,
Speaker 6: doing what they're supposed to do. Like they may have
Speaker 6: a lot of talent, but if you don't do what
Speaker 6: you're supposed to do all the time, like then you're
Speaker 6: not You're useless, and you're you're hurting.
Speaker 3: The team a lot.
Speaker 6: So I you know, I love Drew and I you know,
Speaker 6: I know he doesn't get a lot of credit for
Speaker 6: hardly anything, and which he understands that. We understand our
Speaker 6: roles tight ends. We're not that's not we're we're not
Speaker 6: here to try to get a whole bunch of attention.
Speaker 6: We're trying to just do our job. And you know,
Speaker 6: similar to the offensive line, where you're not giving the
Speaker 6: offense line credits on a bunch of stuff, but they're
Speaker 6: really really valuable for everything within our offense. And just
Speaker 6: like first second down, you got to be able to
Speaker 6: run the ball, obviously, and you can't just be a
Speaker 6: guy as a tight end. It's really hard to be
Speaker 6: a guy as a tight end if you're out there
Speaker 6: in a normal situation on first second down and you're
Speaker 6: not you can't block or and you can't do certain things.
Speaker 3: The defense knows that smart too.
Speaker 6: There's a lot of money that goes into a lot
Speaker 6: of work, so they can scheme you up to know that, Okay,
Speaker 6: we don't have to worry about this run scheme or
Speaker 6: this past text of scheme. We can blitz this guy
Speaker 6: or our d line can be in a straight past
Speaker 6: rush mode on first and ten. When you got a
Speaker 6: guy that can do everything and you got an above
Speaker 6: average blocker that adds a huge value to your.
Speaker 2: Offense, it seems like Rooky eric All is one of
Speaker 2: those guys. Many people speculated that he wouldn't even be
Speaker 2: playing at this point after tearing his ACL in October.
Speaker 2: He's not only playing, he's getting rave reviews from his teammates.
Speaker 2: Are you at all surprised by his growth at this stage.
Speaker 3: Of his career.
Speaker 6: No, I was, you know, watching this film in college
Speaker 6: and then when we drafted him, I was. I was
Speaker 6: really surprised that he was there when we drafted him
Speaker 6: in the fourth round, even with the injuries, just because
Speaker 6: his film was that good and just talking to him
Speaker 6: pre draft and just getting to know the person. He's
Speaker 6: a uniquely like you know, you know, probably everybody can
Speaker 6: see like how aggressive he is like and he plays
Speaker 6: physical and that's just the person. Like, there's not a
Speaker 6: lot of people in the world that are just that aggressive,
Speaker 6: that are that will you know, they got pads on
Speaker 6: the stuff, but still some guys will kind of they'll
Speaker 6: they'll go in there a little timid, like he definitely
Speaker 6: not timid, Like he'll go hit people.
Speaker 3: Those kind of things.
Speaker 6: You can't coach the guys that are just that that
Speaker 6: kind of aggression to them, and they're and that kind
Speaker 6: of toughness and.
Speaker 3: The injury stuff.
Speaker 6: That's that's one of those as a coach that's kind
Speaker 6: of out of your out of my you know, above
Speaker 6: my pay grade. I just evaluate the players and when
Speaker 6: we get him, I just try to coach the best
Speaker 6: I can.
Speaker 3: And he but he's he's.
Speaker 6: Proven to be a really really tough, tough dude, like
Speaker 6: to be able to come back that fast from his
Speaker 6: injury and to step into practice right away and start,
Speaker 6: you know, and not be timid with things. And and
Speaker 6: he's he's a he's a really intelligent guy too too,
Speaker 6: you know, he's he's they're all got different personalities, so
Speaker 6: he's he's much different than Drew, much different than Mike.
Speaker 6: So he you know, like when you're talking to him,
Speaker 6: you know, but he's a really smart guy too. You
Speaker 6: got to be smart to be able to know all
Speaker 6: this stuff, and he puts a lot of work into it.
Speaker 6: And it is I I'm biased, but I think a
Speaker 6: rookie tied end is one of the hardest things to do,
Speaker 6: like in the NFL, because there's so many things I
Speaker 6: got to know, special teams wise, and for him to
Speaker 6: go out there and to perform like he's done so far,
Speaker 6: like it's you know, gives me a lot of excitement
Speaker 6: for the future and just for him to keep building.
Speaker 6: And I think it's you know, it's evident when you
Speaker 6: look at him, like he's got a chance to be
Speaker 6: a really really good player if he did. But it's
Speaker 6: you got to be consistent, you got to you got
Speaker 6: to stay motivated, you got to understand all the nuance
Speaker 6: to the position.
Speaker 3: And he's well on his way.
Speaker 6: But it's you know, it's game to game right now
Speaker 6: as a rookie and as he establishes himself and then
Speaker 6: you know, then we'll see how good he can actually be.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like he was a steel in the
Speaker 2: fourth round?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, I thought right away, Like I was, like,
Speaker 6: I was like baffled, that he was still there in
Speaker 6: the fourth round. But that's again it's above my pay grit.
Speaker 6: I'm just watching the guys, like but I've been doing
Speaker 6: this for like the last six years, watching everybody and
Speaker 6: seeing where they get drafted, and and just like self evaluating,
Speaker 6: like which guy's got drafted, which round that ended up
Speaker 6: being good? So for him to follow that far, I
Speaker 6: was like, you know what, you know, maybe you know,
Speaker 6: as I'm second guessing myself or something, I don't know,
Speaker 6: like that he get that he got that late, but
Speaker 6: you know, everybody, it wasn't just me, Like Zach loved
Speaker 6: him too. And then in the draft process and you know,
Speaker 6: our whole off and staff loved him, and in Duke
Speaker 6: Tobin and and would that that's what happened, And just
Speaker 6: really proud he's picked it up as fasts he has,
Speaker 6: and we still got a long way to go, but
Speaker 6: he's he's he's well on his way to being a
Speaker 6: really good player.
Speaker 2: We're visiting with tight ends coach James Casey. Tanner Hudson
Speaker 2: has proven to be a reliable pass catcher. Why do
Speaker 2: quarterbacks love throwing to Tanner Hudson.
Speaker 6: He's you know, he's a really competitive pass catcher, and
Speaker 6: he's really he does a really good job with his
Speaker 6: body language of the quarterbacks. No, you know, he's make
Speaker 6: sure he identifies to the quarterbacks, like what kind of
Speaker 6: angle he's going to take as he comes out of
Speaker 6: his break or when he's going to settle in his
Speaker 6: own And I used to think that stuff was kind
Speaker 6: of silly when I was younger about you know, the
Speaker 6: guy he understands owns really well.
Speaker 3: It's like, woll how hard is it? You just run
Speaker 3: to the spot and you sit down.
Speaker 6: But there is a lot that goes into that, like
Speaker 6: understanding leverage, understanding like the depth of certain routes and
Speaker 6: the timing of it and how you gotta sometimes you
Speaker 6: got to, you know, make the quarterback wait on you
Speaker 6: to get open. You have to understand how to get
Speaker 6: edges on defenders and get him flipped vertically to separate.
Speaker 6: You can't just run up and hit him and run
Speaker 6: away like you gotta. There's there's a bunch of stuff
Speaker 6: that goes into past game stuff too, that he's he
Speaker 6: does a really good job at And he's long, you know,
Speaker 6: he's long, he's got good hands. And hopefully Tanner comes
Speaker 6: back from his injury soon and we can get everybody
Speaker 6: back together again. And that way, we got multiple guys
Speaker 6: that can go out there and we all can stay
Speaker 6: fresh and we all can make plays throughout the game.
Speaker 2: The other Tanner, rookie Tanner McLoughlin, also made the fifty
Speaker 2: three man roster. What gives him the potential to be
Speaker 2: a productive NFL tight end.
Speaker 6: He's big, he's fast, like he ran a good time
Speaker 6: for his size. You know, he can run routes. He
Speaker 6: showed he can catch it, catch the ball really well
Speaker 6: in college and run for the catch really well. And
Speaker 6: those are really really valuable now in the NFL's the
Speaker 6: guys that can run for the catch and can make
Speaker 6: the contested catches. And he showed that in college. And
Speaker 6: now he's just got to keep progression and he's doing
Speaker 6: a great job. But just keep you know, understanding all
Speaker 6: the blocking stuff and being the you know, playing nasty
Speaker 6: as a blocker and you know, being a jerk out
Speaker 6: there as a blocker. You have to It's just like
Speaker 6: the nature of the job. It's a gentleman's agreement. You
Speaker 6: got to be a jerk to be good at a
Speaker 6: tight end. You can't just go out there and getting away.
Speaker 6: You gotta be you got to go after people and
Speaker 6: understand like when you can go after people aggressively, and
Speaker 6: when you got to you know, play play a little
Speaker 6: more cautious because he's about to move or he's a
Speaker 6: jump around guy. And but he he's got a potential
Speaker 6: to be a great player, and he's doing a great
Speaker 6: job right now. He's got good size, good speed, he's
Speaker 6: got good feet as a blocker to start with. And
Speaker 6: now it's just you know, just put you know, really
Speaker 6: like as a tight end. You're you're younger. It's just
Speaker 6: putting your face in there, putting your face in there,
Speaker 6: putting your face in there until you start feeling like
Speaker 6: how it feels to like not lean too far forward,
Speaker 6: not be undertowes too much. You know, keep your cleats
Speaker 6: in the ground, get your hips in the guys, like
Speaker 6: roll your hips on contact strain to finish, like understand
Speaker 6: hand placement. But he's getting it, he's getting there, so
Speaker 6: you know, we're just gonna he's he's in a great
Speaker 6: spot right now to be able to just keep working.
Speaker 6: He hasn't gotten in the game, but just keep working,
Speaker 6: keep working, because we're gonna need everybody and he's he's
Speaker 6: working really hard, doing everything right, and excited for him
Speaker 6: to to get out there and get his opportunities at
Speaker 6: some point.
Speaker 2: This is not a team looking for moral victories. But
Speaker 2: were you encouraged by the performance at Kansas City?
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was, you know, because we didn't we didn't
Speaker 6: we come out you know, week one. As always you
Speaker 6: never know, but we you know, we knew we were
Speaker 6: way better than what we did week one, and to
Speaker 6: go off, you know, defending super Bowl champions, and you know,
Speaker 6: we were very confident going into the game. We knew
Speaker 6: we were gonna respond. We knew we were gonna come
Speaker 6: out swinging. They knew it too, and but to see
Speaker 6: us actually do it was encouraging that you know, we
Speaker 6: were moving the ball, you know, we were we were
Speaker 6: making plays, we were converting on third down. Like it
Speaker 6: was just we're getting back to like how we are.
Speaker 6: And so you it's you're never like moral victories or whatever,
Speaker 6: but you do go into next game saying, okay, we
Speaker 6: you know, just validate said you know, we know we
Speaker 6: can move the ball, we know we can make plays.
Speaker 6: We know we got a good offense, we have a
Speaker 6: great quarterback, we got great position players we get, you know,
Speaker 6: great offensive line, like we just got to go out
Speaker 6: there and do our job. It's like gives us confidence,
Speaker 6: but it also just you know, just fully transparent to everybody.
Speaker 6: We just have to be on top of every little
Speaker 6: bit of detail and everybody has to do exactly what
Speaker 6: they're supposed to do on every play. And if we're
Speaker 6: all doing everything around, all eleven of us, like we're
Speaker 6: gonna make plays and we're gonna be really successful, but
Speaker 6: all of us have to do it at all times,
Speaker 6: and then we have to be like systematic out there.
Speaker 2: Final question for James Casey get a primetime home game
Speaker 2: coming up on Monday against Washington. You've been around the
Speaker 2: NFL as a player and a coach. Are night games
Speaker 2: here in Cincinnati about as electric as it gets?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 6: The I'll never forget when we played Buffalo on whatever
Speaker 6: game that was a Monday night or something not whatever
Speaker 6: it was when dMar Hamling got hurt. But before that,
Speaker 6: I mean, it was like the most electric crowd I've
Speaker 6: ever seen, like in any level. And I played in
Speaker 6: playoff games and we you know, it was the most
Speaker 6: electric I've seen, Like you could just feel it in
Speaker 6: the on the field. You could feel it, and you
Speaker 6: know that our fans do a great job on when
Speaker 6: it's when it's not. And now I think now we
Speaker 6: got the the lights go on and off kind of
Speaker 6: thing like that gets everybody hipped up. Like there's always
Speaker 6: some kind of seems like there's always some kind of
Speaker 6: you know, like something going on during the game with
Speaker 6: certain colors, or everybody's got glos sticks or something.
Speaker 3: There's it's always something. So it's it is electric atmosphere.
Speaker 6: And I think, you know, we catch teams off gard
Speaker 6: when they come here because you know they're Cincinnati whatever,
Speaker 6: but when they get here, see.
Speaker 3: How like the electrical environment is. It's a huge advantage
Speaker 3: for us.
Speaker 2: It's going to be a good one against the commanders.
Speaker 2: Best of luck, appreciate your time.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Let's keep getting them tons bull.
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Speaker 2: is the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. Now time
Speaker 2: for this week's Know the Faux segment. Last week, the
Speaker 2: final score of Washington's game against the New York Giants
Speaker 2: was twenty one to eighteen. One team scored three touchdowns,
Speaker 2: the other didn't score any, and that was the team
Speaker 2: that won. Giants kicker Graham Ganot hurt his hamstring on
Speaker 2: the opening kickoff and was done for the rest of
Speaker 2: the day. The Giants had their punter attempt the pat
Speaker 2: after their first touchdown, and he missed. The next two
Speaker 2: times the Giants scored, they went for two and failed.
Speaker 2: As a result, three touchdowns added up to eighteen points. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: the Commanders won the game with seven field goals. Dave
Speaker 2: Lapham and I discussed it with Commander's radio voice Bram
Speaker 2: Weinstein on the Bengals Game Plan Show.
Speaker 5: Maybe the most unusual game I've ever been a part of.
Speaker 5: This is only the fifth time since World War Two
Speaker 5: that Washington won a game where they didn't score a touchdown.
Speaker 5: You mentioned the three touchdowns for the opponent in Washington
Speaker 5: not scoring one. I think it's the first time since
Speaker 5: World War Two that that's happened in the regular season
Speaker 5: ever anywhere so it was bizarre. The reality is Washington
Speaker 5: could have scored forty They scored on every true drive
Speaker 5: that they had in two games. They are if they
Speaker 5: hadn't had a couple of missfield goals, they would have
Speaker 5: scored on twelve or fifteen true drives. I don't count.
Speaker 5: I had a kneel down at the end of the
Speaker 5: first half, so I don't count that. Seven of seven
Speaker 5: true drives they scored the red zone miss aps were
Speaker 5: the issue, and it's why they did not end up
Speaker 5: with touchdowns. On three occasions they had procedural penalties inside
Speaker 5: the five yard line and on two occasions Jim Daniels
Speaker 5: tried to extend to play and took a sack. So
Speaker 5: it really was the one thing they did wrong on
Speaker 5: offense was when they got down in the scoring position.
Speaker 5: They ended up with three. And the really funny part
Speaker 5: is this is the fifth kicker they've had here since
Speaker 5: the start of the league year, for a variety of reasons,
Speaker 5: mainly because of inaccuracies over the last over camp over
Speaker 5: the week one and so he had been here for
Speaker 5: five days and this is the ninety plus year old
Speaker 5: franchise and he broke a single game record by kicking
Speaker 5: seven field goals.
Speaker 7: That's crazy. As a former offensive lineman, when I think
Speaker 7: about and look at the Washington Commanders, it comes down
Speaker 7: to ninety four in ninety three, Payne and Allen how
Speaker 7: they played, so they were the job.
Speaker 5: It's double teamed them consistently, so you're not gonna see
Speaker 5: a lot of them on the stat seat, you know,
Speaker 5: like and that's like a source of that's been a
Speaker 5: source of for the fans around here, and this has
Speaker 5: been this way for a long time. Like this that
Speaker 5: unit is as far as they'll take them, as far
Speaker 5: as they go. It's a little different now that Chase
Speaker 5: Hung and Monteswett aren't there as well, where that was
Speaker 5: really a very strong narrative around here. You know, they've
Speaker 5: been run on two weeks in a row. They've been
Speaker 5: run up the middle on two weeks in a row,
Speaker 5: the Commanders. You know, coming into the season, one of
Speaker 5: the there's two perceived weaknesses on the defense. It's edge
Speaker 5: rush because they don't have these premier pass rushers anymore,
Speaker 5: and their corners, which is undermanned without Emmanuel Forbes and
Speaker 5: one of their weaker position groups to start with. But
Speaker 5: the hope was that they would be very good against
Speaker 5: the run with what they have in the middle of
Speaker 5: the field. Between the hash marks Payne Allen, the improvement
Speaker 5: at the linebacking corps with Frankieluvu, Bobby Wagner, Jeremy Chit
Speaker 5: and Kwon Martin. They look good between the hash marks.
Speaker 5: On paper, it has not been the case. The Buccaneers
Speaker 5: and the Giants both ran the ball very effectively against them.
Speaker 5: We are concerned about the passing game this week two,
Speaker 5: but trust the pain and Alan are hearing it, even if,
Speaker 5: like some of the people that analyze the film say,
Speaker 5: give them a break. They're fighting off double teams every
Speaker 5: other play.
Speaker 2: Commander's radio voice Bram Weinstein is our guest. Let's talk
Speaker 2: about your Heisman Trophy winning quarterback from lsu Jad and
Speaker 2: Daniels statistically looks pretty good, completing three quarters of his
Speaker 2: passes so far past the rating of ninety seven. He's
Speaker 2: on a pace to run for more than a thousand yards,
Speaker 2: but no touchdown passes yet. How quickly is he processing things?
Speaker 5: So he I would describe the first game in the
Speaker 5: first half and this was Tampa Bay, so they blitz
Speaker 5: a lot exotic pressures. Todd bowles and he was vacating
Speaker 5: the pocket like immediately, so the internal clock was clearly
Speaker 5: sped up. We saw a little bit of it, and
Speaker 5: I think when you rewatch and you guys prepare for
Speaker 5: the game, you're gonna see it against the Giants too.
Speaker 5: That he's using his legs a little, not even a
Speaker 5: little bit, more a lot more than the coaches really
Speaker 5: want him to. But the good news for them is
Speaker 5: instinctually he likes he makes no mistakes with the ball.
Speaker 5: He has yet to even come close to turning it over.
Speaker 5: All of his decision making is ahead of the curve.
Speaker 5: And I kind of describe you know him from day
Speaker 5: one because he came in with this like obviously he's
Speaker 5: an extremely athletic player, very high ceiling with his ability,
Speaker 5: but he came in with this kind of notorious work
Speaker 5: ethic and he had done all this work with VR
Speaker 5: and he's first in the building, last to leave. But
Speaker 5: he hear that about a lot of people, but it's
Speaker 5: true in his case. There's this famous story like after
Speaker 5: he got drafted and they called him, he said, please
Speaker 5: send me the playbook because I want to start reading
Speaker 5: it on the plane. And he did, you know, like
Speaker 5: so this really matters to him, and it's showing here early.
Speaker 5: And I would describe this kind of like I've see
Speaker 5: a day where I thought he looked like a rookie,
Speaker 5: and he's just improving day to day, game to game,
Speaker 5: half to half. Like the internal clock slowed down against Tampa,
Speaker 5: it was slowing down against the Giants. He just had
Speaker 5: his first game winning drive. You know, they got the
Speaker 5: ball back under very odd circumstances because the Giants couldn't
Speaker 5: kick a field goal because they get the kicker got
Speaker 5: hurt last week. So he got the ball back two
Speaker 5: minutes ago. He drives him right down the field and
Speaker 5: gets them in field goal range. So had his first
Speaker 5: fourth quarter comeback. You know, like everything that's happening so far,
Speaker 5: if this is ground zero, we're very excited about what
Speaker 5: the future is and what his ability is because the metrics,
Speaker 5: the eye test, all of it. He's passing all of
Speaker 5: it with flying colors.
Speaker 7: So you have a new quarterback. Last year, your quarterback,
Speaker 7: howl Sam Howell gets sacked NFL high sixty five times,
Speaker 7: rebuilt the offensive line. What's the result.
Speaker 5: The result is better and partially because and you know,
Speaker 5: I think it's funny. I think when people think about,
Speaker 5: you know, the Commanders with what they had a year ago,
Speaker 5: they were the highest past the run ratio team in
Speaker 5: the NFL, with a weak offensive line and a very young,
Speaker 5: inexperienced quarterback and a receiving corps that nobody is particularly
Speaker 5: scared of down the field. They don't have the duo
Speaker 5: like you guys have, and so this was mismatched badly
Speaker 5: early and Hal took a tremendous beating and took a
Speaker 5: lot of stacks. And then you know, Cliff Kingsbury comes in,
Speaker 5: and I think people have this perception of air raid
Speaker 5: and they're gonna spread it out. And if you really
Speaker 5: look at the kind of makeup and profile.
Speaker 1: Of the team, you'll see that this.
Speaker 5: Is or logically they're going to become more of a
Speaker 5: run team. Obviously their quarterback can run, so there's gonna
Speaker 5: be design runs in any game plan every single week.
Speaker 5: He may be scrambling a little more than they like,
Speaker 5: but there's going to be design runs. How could there
Speaker 5: not be with his abilities? Brian Robinson and now Austin Eckler,
Speaker 5: who looks like the player from a few years ago,
Speaker 5: turned out to be a tremendous tandem. Sam Coby just
Speaker 5: got an extension. He's really emerged as their best offensive
Speaker 5: lineman by far. They brought in Tyler Biattis from Dallas,
Speaker 5: who Dan Quinn knew. They brought in Nick Allegretti from
Speaker 5: Kansas City, so they've revamped their offensive line, and so far,
Speaker 5: the play calling has led them more towards what felt
Speaker 5: logical about what they have on the outside. Maybe not
Speaker 5: deep threats, but very physical and willing blockers on the outside,
Speaker 5: and it's led to at least in one week, two
Speaker 5: hundred yards on the ground. And I don't think anyone
Speaker 5: looks at this team and would think that that's what
Speaker 5: they're gonna be. And I wouldn't expect that to be
Speaker 5: a norm to have numbers like that, But them becoming
Speaker 5: closer to fifty to fifty run team at once this
Speaker 5: final fifty three came out, and you just look at
Speaker 5: the makeup of their roster. It makes too much sense
Speaker 5: that they're going to be a power run team and
Speaker 5: it's gonna be something you guys are gonna have to
Speaker 5: deal with on Monday night. They held the ball for
Speaker 5: thirty seven minutes last week. That's the other they help
Speaker 5: the ball for thirty seven minutes, and they didn't have
Speaker 5: the lead until there were four seconds left. They didn't
Speaker 5: turn them all over, had the ball for thirty seven
Speaker 5: minutes and barely won. So, you know, we've had a
Speaker 5: strange start to this year. But I do think out
Speaker 5: of the road map towards whatever level of success they're
Speaker 5: going to have in this kind of whole new program,
Speaker 5: it is going to start and end with their run game,
Speaker 5: and I think you're gonna see a heavy dose of
Speaker 5: it on Monday Night.
Speaker 7: To your point, last year, three and fifty nine rushes.
Speaker 7: Three in fifty nine rush attempts by far the fewest
Speaker 7: in the National Football League. That's really an amazing number.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it is. And you know, I don't think the
Speaker 5: NFL world knows how good Brian Robinson is.
Speaker 3: Like.
Speaker 5: He is a very very good, leed, punishing, physical running back.
Speaker 5: And the fact that they weren't profiling him when clearly
Speaker 5: pass blocking wasn't their strength. Their quarterback was inexperienced, they
Speaker 5: don't have a lot of downfield threats on their team.
Speaker 5: It made no sense what they were doing last year
Speaker 5: and this year, at least from the start, it appears
Speaker 5: that they're leaning into who are our best weapons, and
Speaker 5: our best weapons are coming out of our backfield one
Speaker 5: of three players, Robinson, Daniels, or Eckler. And as things
Speaker 5: progress with Daniels, who I think what they really like
Speaker 5: about him is he's not justin field, not Kyler. Murray's
Speaker 5: not run first like he actually is passed first, but
Speaker 5: he's learning on the fly. And I'll go back to
Speaker 5: something I said earlier. The internal clock has been a
Speaker 5: little sped up here in the first couple of weeks,
Speaker 5: but we see it even game the game he slows down,
Speaker 5: another feels too big to him. He makes no bad
Speaker 5: decisions with the ball, and I just I have to
Speaker 5: believe that he's going to become more of an accomplished
Speaker 5: passer as things go along. The run game is just
Speaker 5: there for support of it right now, but in the
Speaker 5: end it probably is their best attribute with the way
Speaker 5: that the team is constructed.
Speaker 2: The UC Bearkatz made the fourteen Playoff a few years
Speaker 2: ago and lost to Alabama. Brian Robinson ran for two
Speaker 2: oh four in that game, so Cincinnati knows about Brian Robinson.
Speaker 2: Here's my final question for Bram Weinstein, the voice of
Speaker 2: the Commanders, he talked about some the issues on defense.
Speaker 2: In week one, Baker Mayfield had a passer rating of
Speaker 2: one forty six. Last week Daniel Jones one oh nine.
Speaker 2: Which is the bigger problem the lack of pass rush
Speaker 2: or poor play in the secondary or is it equal.
Speaker 5: It's a combination. It's definitively a combination. The first week
Speaker 5: one again, like we've had a really weird year. Like
Speaker 5: if you go to an advanced metric site like Pro
Speaker 5: Football Focus, I don't know if you guys care about
Speaker 5: that stuff, but like they and this is zel. Just
Speaker 5: go watch the Tampa game. They could have sacked Baker
Speaker 5: Mayfield six times and they missed five tackles. They didn't
Speaker 5: finish the plays. They were winning at the line of
Speaker 5: scrimmage and they were graded out that way. They just
Speaker 5: didn't finish the plays. And given time, he smoked them,
Speaker 5: you know, like, and he was terrific and really executed well,
Speaker 5: especially in the red zone against them. He was he
Speaker 5: was very good and really kind of was their MVP
Speaker 5: of the game because he got it out of what
Speaker 5: should have been sex This past week to me is
Speaker 5: more an indictment of the weaknesses of this defense. They
Speaker 5: were not able to get any kind of sustained pass
Speaker 5: rush on Daniel Jones. And when in the pocket, I
Speaker 5: know people don't perceive them this way, but we play
Speaker 5: him twice a year. You know, when in the Pockety's
Speaker 5: actually highly effective and highly accurate if you don't bother
Speaker 5: him and move him off his spots. And they didn't,
Speaker 5: and Milik Neighbors had a huge day against them, because
Speaker 5: we frankly do not have what I would describe as
Speaker 5: a quote unquote number one corner who could like lock
Speaker 5: up with number one receivers. So this team's got something
Speaker 5: to figure out. Like these are the two questions coming
Speaker 5: in about the defense. Is their secondary and specifically their
Speaker 5: corners good enough and now they're down one of them
Speaker 5: in Emmanuel Forbes because he had thumb surgery. And secondarily,
Speaker 5: can they generate a consistent pass rush? They had it
Speaker 5: in week one, they just didn't finish the plays. They
Speaker 5: definitively did not have it in week two. And so
Speaker 5: even though they had the ball for thirty seven minutes
Speaker 5: and never turn the ball over, and we're playing a
Speaker 5: team that couldn't kick a field goal if they wanted
Speaker 5: to because they didn't have a kicker. They barely won,
Speaker 5: and it's attributed to not touring touchdowns and not being
Speaker 5: able to pressure the quarterback when you need to. And
Speaker 5: trust me, we're a little concerned about the opponent this
Speaker 5: week if we're not going to get any pressure on
Speaker 5: that quarterback with that receiving corps.
Speaker 7: Final question for me, and I appreciate you giving us
Speaker 7: so much of your time. The all important special teams
Speaker 7: part of it, Larry Izzo has been around a while.
Speaker 7: Punt returns is only the returner has one, but it's
Speaker 7: a twenty four yard return. I mean he doesn't show
Speaker 7: up in the ranks because he doesn't have enough returns.
Speaker 7: But twenty four yard punt return average is number one
Speaker 7: in the NFL, kickoff return average nine in the National
Speaker 7: Football League. Your top ten in both the return of
Speaker 7: the coverage teams aren't quite as good. Obviously, the punt
Speaker 7: return is tied for thirtieth in the NFL, giving up
Speaker 7: fifteen yards. What about your special teams overall, that all
Speaker 7: important third phase? How is that progressing? Well?
Speaker 5: I mean we're hoping now we found a kicker. Like
Speaker 5: as I told you before that that's been a journey
Speaker 5: throughout the entire offseason into the regular season. They had
Speaker 5: two miss field goals in Week one, but Austin Cyber
Speaker 5: seven for seven, so he's Steth Curry of of.
Speaker 3: The way.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so that's that's off to a good start. We
Speaker 5: have a Pro Bowl putter in this way for a
Speaker 5: very long time. We had a snapper situation a year
Speaker 5: ago with Cameron achievement. It was all over the map.
Speaker 5: They they brought in the new snapper, Tylert. Everything's settled there.
Speaker 5: Everything's been perfect so far. Alida Zakias took over the
Speaker 5: punt returns this path week. Jamison Crowder did it in
Speaker 5: the first week. I think you could see either one
Speaker 5: of them, and I think both are very effective. And
Speaker 5: last week they had the opening kickoff was returned for
Speaker 5: a touchdown. It was called back by penalty. Austin Eckler
Speaker 5: is one of our returners. He had a ninety nine
Speaker 5: yard kioff return for a touchdown that was called back
Speaker 5: on a very light call. So, like I would describe
Speaker 5: it as the special teams outside of the issues with
Speaker 5: the kicker, have really have really gone off very well
Speaker 5: here early and the covered units. There's a couple of
Speaker 5: guys guys that are standing out that really made the team.
Speaker 5: You guys probably have this too, but we had a
Speaker 5: couple undrafted free agents that made the team based on
Speaker 5: how they were covering kicks in camp and it's carried
Speaker 5: over into the regular season.
Speaker 2: All right, thanks to Bram Weinstein. And here's a quick
Speaker 2: reminder to join lapp in me for the Bengals pep
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