Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody on Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast. The gonna keep on try until
Speaker 1: I reach my highest ground audition as the Bengals look
Speaker 1: to follow a thrilling season opening win over the Vikings
Speaker 1: by adding a road win over Andy Dalton and the
Speaker 1: Chicago Bears. Coming up, I'll talk to NFL Red Zone
Speaker 1: host Scott Hanson about the demands of hosting seven hours
Speaker 1: of commercial free football and get his thoughts on this
Speaker 1: year's Bengals. My one on one player conversation this week
Speaker 1: is with Evan McPherson, coming off one of the greatest
Speaker 1: debuts by a kicker in NFL history. Dave Lapham joins
Speaker 1: me to discuss the latest Bengals news and share some
Speaker 1: keys to this week's game. And finally, it's our Know
Speaker 1: the Faux segment as we discussed the Bears with their
Speaker 1: outstanding radio voice, Jeff Joniac. The Bengals Booth Podcast is
Speaker 1: presented by bud Light Seltzer. Refresh the game, and here's
Speaker 1: a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition
Speaker 1: of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or
Speaker 1: computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify or
Speaker 1: pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since the new smoke
Speaker 1: belching Tigers at Paul Brown Stadium. The Bengals have put
Speaker 1: a lot of time, effort, and money into adding fun
Speaker 1: and excitement to the game day experience at Paul Brown Stadium,
Speaker 1: including the ruler of the Jungle ceremony that takes place
Speaker 1: shortly before kickoff. I'm also a fan of the new
Speaker 1: twelve foot tall tiger sculptures that the players run through
Speaker 1: when they exit the tunnel and take the field. It
Speaker 1: makes for a great visual as the Tigers exhale smoke
Speaker 1: as the players come charging out. I suppose we can
Speaker 1: call them who end day. Now, let's get to my guests.
Speaker 1: Up first, a former colleague of mine more than twenty
Speaker 1: years ago at WTVHTV in Syracuse, New York, after we
Speaker 1: both graduated from Syracuse University. Now you can watch him
Speaker 1: for seven hours every Sunday during the NFL season. He
Speaker 1: is the man who made your TV remote obsolete on
Speaker 1: NFL Sundays, the indefatigable host of NFL Red Zone. My
Speaker 1: friend Scott Hanson. So Scott, the Bengals and Vikings gave
Speaker 1: you the perfect NFL Red Zone game last Sunday. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, to the one and only Dan Hoore,
Speaker 1: the man who helped usher me in to this crazy
Speaker 1: business that is sports broadcasting. Hello, and good to see
Speaker 1: your old friend. Yeah, they provided the greatest Red Zone
Speaker 1: game of the week for us in a couple of regards.
Speaker 1: One drama on the field, of course, and a toss
Speaker 1: up game in overtime. But you might not have thought
Speaker 1: about this. We had nine games in the one o'clock
Speaker 1: Eastern window. Okay, we had four games in the four
Speaker 1: o'clock Eastern window, but this week, Week one, they were
Speaker 1: all four twenty five Eastern kickoffs, meaning we were We
Speaker 1: went into the show thinking there's gonna be like a
Speaker 1: twenty minute gap when these games end at four o'clock.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be twenty to twenty five minutes that we're
Speaker 1: gonna have to fill of like dead space, and old Boy,
Speaker 1: the Bengals and Vikings when they got going and when
Speaker 1: they we couldn't decide a winner, we were like, we
Speaker 1: just need one to go to overtime. The whole NFL
Speaker 1: Red Zone crew was cheering for it, and yeah, y'all delivered,
Speaker 1: and especially by the way, this is inside information here
Speaker 1: our coordinating producer, our our top producer on the entire show.
Speaker 1: Die hard Bengals fan. Alan Flowers is his name. We
Speaker 1: call him Flow and he runs the show and he
Speaker 1: loves himself some Bengals, so he was he was thrilled
Speaker 1: that overtime and a Bengals victory. Shout out to Alan Flowers.
Speaker 1: It's good to know well represented a NFL headquarters. We're
Speaker 1: chatting with Scott Hanson, the host of NFL Red Zone.
Speaker 1: You can follow him on Twitter at Scott Hansen. So
Speaker 1: you are a college athlete, you're on the football team
Speaker 1: at Syracuse. How physically taxing is seven hours of commercial
Speaker 1: free football? It actually is. I will I try and
Speaker 1: keep myself in good shape. I'm fifty years old now,
Speaker 1: try and keep myself in good shape, keep my energy
Speaker 1: high and whatnot. I'll be doing like Cardio in May
Speaker 1: or June. And I literally think this is for this
Speaker 1: is for the late the last hour of NFL reds
Speaker 1: pushed through because I want to have energy and enthusiasm
Speaker 1: commensurate with the action in the last hour like I
Speaker 1: did the first hour. Because my form of sportscasting is
Speaker 1: everything I do is usually a big highlight that someone
Speaker 1: is living or dying with, either in reality football, rooting
Speaker 1: for their favorite NFL team, or in fantasy football because
Speaker 1: their guy just scored a touchdown or their opponent just
Speaker 1: scored a touchdown or drop the pass or gave up something.
Speaker 1: So I try and have that energy all the way
Speaker 1: through and Dan, at the end of the show, I
Speaker 1: legitimately am fried. I am fried. I take my earpiece
Speaker 1: out of my left ear because I only have one
Speaker 1: earpiece in so I take it out of my left ear.
Speaker 1: And because there's been stimulus in my left side of
Speaker 1: my brain for seven straight hours, I pull that earpiece
Speaker 1: out and I almost lose my balance, no joke, because
Speaker 1: it's so it's so constant. But hey, I just like,
Speaker 1: just like your favorite NFL players, I try to give
Speaker 1: you everything I've got on an NFL Sunday, and you succeed.
Speaker 1: So when you're not working and you're watching Monday night
Speaker 1: football or Thursday Night football or a college game on Saturday,
Speaker 1: can you watch one game without having all of the
Speaker 1: screens going yeah, yes and no. So as you and
Speaker 1: I are speaking, we were coming off the heels of
Speaker 1: the spectacular Ravens Ravens Raiders Monday Night game. And I
Speaker 1: actually have five TVs on my media wall, which I
Speaker 1: know some people are listening to this, but if there's
Speaker 1: people that can see the camera, let me just turn
Speaker 1: the camera here. There's my media wall is over my shoulder.
Speaker 1: It might not look big, but that's a seventy inch
Speaker 1: screen surrounded by four fifty inch screens. And for Monday
Speaker 1: Night football, I had the Monday Night broadcast on the
Speaker 1: main screen. Then I put the Peyton and Eli simulcast
Speaker 1: broadcast that people are talking about on one of the screens.
Speaker 1: I had NFL Network on another screen, and then I
Speaker 1: had a movie on one more screen, and I had
Speaker 1: a news network on another screen. So I guess my
Speaker 1: brain is there's a groove cut into my brain that
Speaker 1: I need multiple, multiple streams of stimulus to enjoy even
Speaker 1: one football game. I thought the kitchen was good, the
Speaker 1: media wall is even better. We're talking to NFL Red
Speaker 1: Zone host Scott Hanson. So NFL Red Zone started in
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine. On Opening Day that year, your
Speaker 1: first show, the Bengals are hosting the Denver Broncos. Cincinnati
Speaker 1: scores with forty one seconds to go to take the lead.
Speaker 1: Seven seconds later, a deflected pass winds up in the
Speaker 1: hands of Brandon Stokely from the Broncos. He takes at
Speaker 1: the distance eighty some yards to give Denver a dramatic win.
Speaker 1: Did you know at that point this channel is going
Speaker 1: to be gigantic. Yeah, that's an astute observation because and
Speaker 1: that was the moment in week one of episode one
Speaker 1: in season one for NFL Red Zone where we said,
Speaker 1: this is going to change the way people watch football.
Speaker 1: Because keep in mind, they were on the negative side
Speaker 1: of the fifty yard line. But we cut to that
Speaker 1: game and caught lightning at a bottle at that moment
Speaker 1: in a way that previously football fans were not able
Speaker 1: to see that not lie, not in real time, right,
Speaker 1: And when we cut to it and the past one
Speaker 1: in the air, and Gus Johnson was broadcasting the game too,
Speaker 1: and he always throws a little extra verve into his
Speaker 1: play by play calls, we were like, Wow, this is
Speaker 1: we have seen the light. This is going to change
Speaker 1: the way people watch football. And there's not a week
Speaker 1: that goes by in football season that someone doesn't tweet
Speaker 1: me or message me, or bump into me somewhere and say, hey, Scott,
Speaker 1: NFL red zone has changed the way I watched football.
Speaker 1: It's very gratifying. So let's talk about the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: one Bengals. What are your impressions of Joe Burrow one
Speaker 1: game into a second season, let's go. I mean, I
Speaker 1: figured I liked what wasn't to like prior to the
Speaker 1: knee injury. He was throwing for about three hundred yards
Speaker 1: a game, right, And granted they had been trailing in
Speaker 1: games and whatnot, and Mixon had missed some time in
Speaker 1: the offensive line was kind of a mess shuffling guys
Speaker 1: in and out for a while, but he was able
Speaker 1: to have success in his rookie See, he's in clearly
Speaker 1: the hardest season for a quarterback to have success. And
Speaker 1: I don't know him personally, but looking at him from
Speaker 1: the outside, I figured he would attack his rehab in
Speaker 1: a way that he has that energy and enthusiasm for
Speaker 1: sixty minutes on an NFL Sunday, So I figured he
Speaker 1: would come back strong. I didn't know he would quite
Speaker 1: perform the way that he did in Week one, but
Speaker 1: I did really believe that the diversified weapons that the
Speaker 1: Bengals have, specifically on the outside, I don't think. I
Speaker 1: think you're gonna have seventeen games this year where the
Speaker 1: three main wide receivers could go one after another. Oh,
Speaker 1: Higgins leads the yard, it leads in yards this week,
Speaker 1: Chase leads it in this week. And I thought Tyler Boyd,
Speaker 1: who was going to be the guy, maybe he might
Speaker 1: end up with the best statistical numbers at the end
Speaker 1: of the season. So for defenses facing the Bengals this year,
Speaker 1: and if Burrow is on and sharp as he was
Speaker 1: in Week one, it's gonna be like trying to stop
Speaker 1: water with your fingers. You know, you can get some
Speaker 1: of it, You're not going to get all of it.
Speaker 1: What else caught your eye in the Week one went
Speaker 1: over the Vikings. They were able to close the deal
Speaker 1: when it looked like maybe previous Bengals teams might not
Speaker 1: have been able to do. Now they caught a little
Speaker 1: bit of a break, but they also forced some of
Speaker 1: the breaks that they capitalized on. Right, But you've been
Speaker 1: around the team longer than I have. We've both been
Speaker 1: watching obviously for years decades. But that's the type of
Speaker 1: game where some Bengals fans were probably like, here we
Speaker 1: go again, Right, we had this thing. We had it
Speaker 1: and we're giving it away again and all of that,
Speaker 1: and they didn't. They found a way they closed it out.
Speaker 1: So that was something that would if I was a
Speaker 1: Bengals fan, that was something that would give me hope
Speaker 1: going forward. We are talking to Scott Hanson, the host
Speaker 1: of NFL Red Zone, So Bengals fans are obviously hoping
Speaker 1: this is the year that the team can take a
Speaker 1: quantum leap forward. Do you have a key or a
Speaker 1: couple of keys for what you think will help the
Speaker 1: Bengals improve this year. Balance on offense, and we just
Speaker 1: talked about the wide receivers. That's balance within the passing game.
Speaker 1: But if Joe Mixon can beat Joe Mixon, and if
Speaker 1: he gets this rhythm with the offensive line where they
Speaker 1: can get ahead of the sticks, oh, play action is
Speaker 1: going to be lethal. Lethal. You got three guys they
Speaker 1: could get behind many safeties in the league. And if
Speaker 1: they've got to creep up a little bit more, if
Speaker 1: Mixon's running at four and a half yards a clip
Speaker 1: or something you know somewhere around there and is gashing
Speaker 1: occasionally where they've got to commit more to the box,
Speaker 1: there's no reason to think that the Bengals could not
Speaker 1: be a top top twelve, top ten scoring offense this year.
Speaker 1: And then it goes to get a lead, play opportunistic defense,
Speaker 1: get some sacks, create some turnovers, and that's a winning formula.
Speaker 1: In the NFL. It's gonna be a it's a brutal division,
Speaker 1: though we all know the division is brutal, no question,
Speaker 1: but great call with Joe. He is leading the NFL
Speaker 1: and rushing through Week one. So this week the Bengals
Speaker 1: head to Chicago be reunited with Andy Dalton as he
Speaker 1: starts for the Chicago Bear. What are a couple of
Speaker 1: things that you're interested about in that matchup? Well, I
Speaker 1: wish that game was in Cincinnati, first of all, because
Speaker 1: it would be pretty fascinating to watch. We've already seen
Speaker 1: quarterbacks going against their old teams and whatnot. Sam Darnold
Speaker 1: with the with the Panthers just this first week against
Speaker 1: the Jets. I think this I was at So I'm
Speaker 1: talking to you from Los Angeles, where NFL Media is headquartered,
Speaker 1: and I live and work out here, and I went
Speaker 1: to the Rams game on Sunday night. After red zone.
Speaker 1: I wasn't tired of football, so I went back to it,
Speaker 1: and he got three more hours of football after the
Speaker 1: seven hours of red zone. And I went to the
Speaker 1: Rams Bears game in person. All you all watched it
Speaker 1: on TV. The Bears defense can get got deep, right Stafford.
Speaker 1: Had he hit the two deep shots that were both touchdowns,
Speaker 1: there were other passes that were that were there to
Speaker 1: be made. And it goes back to what I was
Speaker 1: just telling you hit him up front, hit him with
Speaker 1: some mix and make them respect the run and burrow
Speaker 1: with some play action and pick one of those wide
Speaker 1: receivers is going to be on their third defensive back right,
Speaker 1: And like I would expect at this point to see
Speaker 1: a fifty yard bomb be there for the Bengals. Whether
Speaker 1: or not they hit it, it's going to be there,
Speaker 1: and that could be a determining factor as to whether
Speaker 1: or not it's a win or a loss. If you're
Speaker 1: able to score seven points on that and not have
Speaker 1: to go on an eleven play drive, I hope to
Speaker 1: call it. Be ready. You're gonna have to hit a
Speaker 1: lot of high notes this year, or you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to hit hit a lot of those big plays. High
Speaker 1: vocal chords are ready. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented
Speaker 1: by bud Light Seltzer. It's light and refreshing with a
Speaker 1: hint of fruit flavor. And last week's win over the Vikings,
Speaker 1: Evan McPherson became the youngest player in NFL history to
Speaker 1: kick a game winning field goal in overtime. I spend
Speaker 1: five minutes with Mick Fearless this week discussing his debut
Speaker 1: and potential nicknames Evan. As soon as c j Uzama
Speaker 1: made that fourth down catch, we all knew it was
Speaker 1: going to come down to a game winning field goal attempt.
Speaker 1: I went back and timed it. You had two minutes
Speaker 1: and forty seconds to think about it. Did the butterflies
Speaker 1: start to get big? No, I wouldn't say the butterflies
Speaker 1: really started to get big. I was super confident and
Speaker 1: walking out there about the field goal. I felt really
Speaker 1: good about it, and I knew if I just I guess,
Speaker 1: put a good stroke on it, hit it well, that
Speaker 1: there's a really good chance it was going through. So
Speaker 1: you said after the game you had never had a
Speaker 1: game ending field goal attempt before, But how many times
Speaker 1: did you practice that? How many times have you done that?
Speaker 1: Three to one? Thing? In your mind? No, I mean
Speaker 1: I think that's something that every kicker does at least
Speaker 1: once every I guess practice session. You could say your
Speaker 1: last kick is a quote unquote game winner in your mind.
Speaker 1: So I've done that probably, yeah, probably thousands of times
Speaker 1: over I guess my time kicking. You wore a watch
Speaker 1: in training camp that measured your heart rate. What did
Speaker 1: you learn and has it been helpful? Yeah, No, it's
Speaker 1: been super helpful. Um, I learned that early during training camp.
Speaker 1: It was kind of high, which I felt like was
Speaker 1: hard for me to perform to the best my ability.
Speaker 1: And so just feeling that, knowing whenever it's rising and
Speaker 1: just kind of taking a couple of deep breaths, just
Speaker 1: whenever I feel it kind of rising, and just lowering
Speaker 1: them back down and and just I guess you could
Speaker 1: say thinging happy thoughts or or thinking back to to
Speaker 1: field goals that I've made, you know, either a couple
Speaker 1: of minutes ago or in the last practice. Um, you
Speaker 1: know I've done it before, so I know I can
Speaker 1: do it. You know, in the moment we're talking to
Speaker 1: rookie kicker having McPherson, so you make the kick and
Speaker 1: fellow rookie Jackson Carmen hoist you in the air. Did
Speaker 1: he catch you by surprise? And what was that moment? Like? Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I'd say you definitely caught me by surprise, UM a
Speaker 1: little bit, and uh that moment was surreal, and uh
Speaker 1: it's definitely one that I won't forget. UM, just to
Speaker 1: be putting out up our position. UM. I'm just super
Speaker 1: thankful and grateful for this team and organization to U
Speaker 1: to trust me, U to win the game. UM, And
Speaker 1: you know, I just hope I can help this team
Speaker 1: win a lot more games. UM, hopefully made to the
Speaker 1: playoffs and and ultimately to the Super Bowl. I was
Speaker 1: watching you during the pregame warm ups. You hit a
Speaker 1: fifty seven yarder in the same direction that you hit
Speaker 1: the fifty three yarder in the game. Does stuff like
Speaker 1: that matter? Yeah? I mean I think it definitely matters
Speaker 1: in pre game just seeing your limits and obviously testing
Speaker 1: the wins in both directions. UM. I knew with the
Speaker 1: fifty three yarder, I was at the win kind of
Speaker 1: behind my back, um, and with the game winner on
Speaker 1: us a little into it, so it just kind of
Speaker 1: hit it pure and I was gonna fly straight. So
Speaker 1: I was at a University of Incinnati practice a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago, and they're kicker. Cole Smith came running up
Speaker 1: to me all excited because he noticed the in your
Speaker 1: first preseason game, on your first field goal forty yards
Speaker 1: or at Tampa Bay, you kick the ball over the
Speaker 1: net behind the goal post. And he said, in his words,
Speaker 1: that's next level, dude. What was that like? And was
Speaker 1: the equipment staff annoyed that you cost him a ball? Honestly,
Speaker 1: I didn't know it went over the net until Um
Speaker 1: Trunk came up to me. It's like, you know, you're like,
Speaker 1: you lost the k one ball or our one ball.
Speaker 1: And I was like, how, He's like, it went over
Speaker 1: the net, so you can't get it back. No, the
Speaker 1: fans just take it, um, And so we we were
Speaker 1: down the ball that game and it was pretty funny.
Speaker 1: But um no, yeah, I mean just knowing that I
Speaker 1: hit a really good ball, UM, I think that, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, hitting over the net is not out of
Speaker 1: the question for me. So let's review your first NFL game.
Speaker 1: Youngest kicker in NFL history to boot a game winning
Speaker 1: field goal and overtime, you received a game ball. You
Speaker 1: were named the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week.
Speaker 1: That's a pretty good debut. Yeah it's not bad. Um,
Speaker 1: Like I said, I'm super I guess, blessed and thankful
Speaker 1: to be a part of this team and just the
Speaker 1: position that they put me in and the games and
Speaker 1: and just knowing I have great guys you know that
Speaker 1: have my back whether I make it or miss it. Um,
Speaker 1: I know that you know, they're they're always going to
Speaker 1: be there right right there for me. And um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I'm just super excited of how my career started.
Speaker 1: And you know that really means nothing. Now. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: we're onto Chicago and um, you know, we just got
Speaker 1: to go in and repeat the same thing we did
Speaker 1: against Minnesota last thing. There seems to be an obsession
Speaker 1: among Bengals fans with coming up with the best nickname
Speaker 1: for you haf An, Almighty mc, fearless, Kick Fearson, Money,
Speaker 1: mick any thoughts. I think all the all the nicknames
Speaker 1: are pretty catchy, pretty funny, and it's made me think
Speaker 1: a lot about, you know, maybe coming out with a
Speaker 1: merch line, you know, maybe with T shirts with some
Speaker 1: nicknames on it, and maybe the fans would like that.
Speaker 1: We'll see, um, maybe something maybe we can work on
Speaker 1: that and get those kind of pushed out to everybody.
Speaker 1: But no, I think all the nicknames have been pretty
Speaker 1: unique and funny. I was bummed I didn't come up
Speaker 1: with nick fearless. That would have been perfect. After the
Speaker 1: game winning catch a kick rather, congratulations on a great start,
Speaker 1: best of luck this week. Yeah, thank you. By the way,
Speaker 1: the kicker that Evan beat out for the starting job
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati, Austin Seibert, is kicking for the Detroit Lions.
Speaker 1: He went one for two in Week one, hitting from
Speaker 1: forty nine yards but missing from fifty one. Now time
Speaker 1: to discuss some of the key storylines heading into Week
Speaker 1: two with my broadcast partner Dave Lapham lap Let's start
Speaker 1: with the news of the day on Wednesday. Safety Ricardo
Speaker 1: Allen suffered a hand in last Sunday. He is going
Speaker 1: to go on ir He'll be out for at least
Speaker 1: three weeks. He's the third safety, so you wouldn't think
Speaker 1: that would be a huge loss. But he played twenty
Speaker 1: one snaps ad safety last week. He played nineteen on
Speaker 1: special teams. He had five tackles. He was actually the
Speaker 1: Bengal's highest graded defensive player according to Pro Football Focus,
Speaker 1: So how big of a loss, is it? I think
Speaker 1: it's I think it's a loss. I think I think
Speaker 1: it hurts him. And there's a trickle down effect, a
Speaker 1: ripple effect in that, you know, they decided to bring
Speaker 1: up Trent Irwin at this point from the practice squad,
Speaker 1: which kind of puts the balance of the player distribution
Speaker 1: out of whack a little bit. Too many receivers, too
Speaker 1: few in the secondary, and that means Brandon Wilson. I
Speaker 1: think Darren Simmons is thinking, you know, well, if if
Speaker 1: he's going to go on ir Brandon Wilson's going to
Speaker 1: be playing some more safety, how much can I use
Speaker 1: him as a returner? Trent Irwin has done some return work,
Speaker 1: so maybe he's just kind of leveraging that a little bit.
Speaker 1: But they also brought Sean Davis onto the practice squad,
Speaker 1: originally a second round pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers, So
Speaker 1: maybe the roster manipulation hasn't ended yet. But I think
Speaker 1: they're trying to figure out how they're gonna handle that.
Speaker 1: That loster Ricardo Allen, he's got a little bit of
Speaker 1: a hamstring issue. He had it at training camp as well,
Speaker 1: and exacerbated the problem on top of the hand, So
Speaker 1: you have three weeks now to get that hamstring taken
Speaker 1: care of and squared away. So the hand and the hamstring.
Speaker 1: But he's got more problems than run over dog right now.
Speaker 1: Tray Von Henderson is also a practice squad option, a
Speaker 1: guy who played pretty well in the preseason at safety.
Speaker 1: No question yep's he would have been. You know, you'd
Speaker 1: think logically, well, you know, just one for one Trayvon Hempson,
Speaker 1: and who knows it may end up how it's gonna
Speaker 1: what's going to be the final roster configuration, you know,
Speaker 1: going into the Chicago Bears game. But like you said, Ricardo,
Speaker 1: Allen is lu and Ruma loves him in terms of
Speaker 1: not only is play on the field, in terms of
Speaker 1: how hard he plays and effrety gives and all that,
Speaker 1: but his football intelligence. And I think lou and A
Speaker 1: rumor would probably hire him as an assistant coach right now.
Speaker 1: I think he feels that strongly about, you know, his
Speaker 1: understanding of the game of football and everything that needs
Speaker 1: to be taken care of him the back end. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk about some interesting things from the Pro Football
Speaker 1: Focus grades, beginning the tackles Riley Reef and Jonah Williams
Speaker 1: thirty one pass blocking snaps, no sacks, no hits, no pressures.
Speaker 1: Were they that good? They were good? You know, watching
Speaker 1: the tape again, boy, they they played at a very
Speaker 1: high level. You know, there were some problems inside. Trey
Speaker 1: Hopkins had a very difficult time inside. And you know,
Speaker 1: Mike Zimmer, I'm going to give him credit. He said,
Speaker 1: Joe Barrow is not the only guy recovering from an
Speaker 1: ACL got a center recovering from an ECL trying to
Speaker 1: come back in a very very short timeframe, a lot
Speaker 1: shorter than Joe Barrow. Let me do something I haven't
Speaker 1: done very much and put a nose guard over him,
Speaker 1: cover the guards up a little bit so the guards
Speaker 1: can't help, and put him one on one against a
Speaker 1: behemoth beast in Pierce. And he had a couple of difficulties,
Speaker 1: There's no question about it. But knowing Trey Hopkins and
Speaker 1: how dedicated he is, and you know he's going to
Speaker 1: bounce back quickly from this, and he had his share
Speaker 1: of good plays, but you know, all it takes is
Speaker 1: a couple of plays. He was basically the reason and
Speaker 1: part of the reason for the two sacks. The offensive
Speaker 1: line gave up two, and then the running backs and
Speaker 1: tight ends and the and the pressure packages gave up
Speaker 1: three more. And that Zimmer and Paul Gunther, they break
Speaker 1: protections down, They're going to try to work their schematic
Speaker 1: and their magic and their schematic until they find the
Speaker 1: right matchups. And they found some of those right matchups.
Speaker 1: And right now, the Cincinnati Bengals are a dead lass
Speaker 1: in the National Football League in sacks per pass attemptum
Speaker 1: five sacks and twenty seven pass attempts to sack every
Speaker 1: five point four dropbacks. So you know, part of it
Speaker 1: is the opponent you played against, and you know you
Speaker 1: got to got to solve that issue. But the good
Speaker 1: news is Riley Reef and Jonah Williams played in an
Speaker 1: dreamly extremely high level. There's no doubt. Only two quarterbacks
Speaker 1: got sacked more than Joe Burrow in Week one, Zach
Speaker 1: Wilson from the Jets, Ryan Tannehill from the Titans. Let's
Speaker 1: move to defense. Guys that got high grades included DJ Hill,
Speaker 1: DJ Reader, Josh Tupo, Larry Yogan Jobie. That seems to
Speaker 1: suggest that the interior of the defensive line played pretty well.
Speaker 1: They built the Great Wall of China man there. They
Speaker 1: were good, They really were. They get pushed um and
Speaker 1: I think I was surprised seeing how Ogan Joby the
Speaker 1: Bengals had difficulty blocking him and his first step quickness,
Speaker 1: and how I can tell you as a former lineman
Speaker 1: that when you have a big guy three hundred pounds
Speaker 1: plus that has that suddenness to him and that quick
Speaker 1: first step get off man, that's a that's a that's
Speaker 1: a load to handle. And they really took advantage of
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Vikings interior and they did a lot of
Speaker 1: the same things. He's not a very powerful guys or
Speaker 1: the very athletic guy, so they covered guards and put
Speaker 1: a nose tackle over him and got him in some
Speaker 1: one on one matchups and he got he got physically
Speaker 1: pushed around a little bit manhandled. The guards did at
Speaker 1: times as well. The defensive tackles were able to get
Speaker 1: a quick shoulder, a quick edge and upfield rush on
Speaker 1: the on the guards, and you know, then they started
Speaker 1: drawing holding penalties left and my DJ reader drew three
Speaker 1: of them. Um so and Trey Hendrickson drew a couple.
Speaker 1: His matchup on Hill on the outside was another factor.
Speaker 1: I thought that he was consistently, you know, Beaten Hill
Speaker 1: up the football field, so you have the defensive ends
Speaker 1: and Harvard getting up the field too, and then you
Speaker 1: push inside. It's it's really kind of I have to
Speaker 1: tip my tap to Kirk, tip my captor Kirk Cousins,
Speaker 1: because he put up some serious numbers, you know, based
Speaker 1: on the pressure that he was he was getting so
Speaker 1: because they shut the running game down and that gives
Speaker 1: you the right to rush the passion, they rushed him well.
Speaker 1: Cousins got the ball out of his hand and found
Speaker 1: some plays, but not when he was throwing to the
Speaker 1: guy that chittabey A Wuje was covering. For the most part,
Speaker 1: he was targeted ten times in coverage, gave up five
Speaker 1: completions for forty nine yards, no touchdowns. He was often
Speaker 1: matched up against Justin Jefferson. We've been blabbering on and
Speaker 1: on throughout training camp about how good this guy looked,
Speaker 1: and for people that don't have access to watch him
Speaker 1: at practice, he backed it up in week one. He did,
Speaker 1: didn't you know? And I thought I thought defensively as
Speaker 1: a whole, they played well, you know, and all training
Speaker 1: camp were like, boy, the defense is winning. More of
Speaker 1: these competitive battles against the Bengals offense. The defense keeps winning.
Speaker 1: They're winning, you know, well over half of them. They
Speaker 1: won practice yesterday, and oh the offense thought to come
Speaker 1: back today, but they really didn't. The defense did a
Speaker 1: pretty good job. We talked about how good the coverage
Speaker 1: was all through training camp, talked about the defensive line,
Speaker 1: you know, how much improved they looked. Well, it was
Speaker 1: it was a fact, you know, it wasn't. It wasn't
Speaker 1: that the Bengals offensive line was struggling to the point
Speaker 1: where you know, we thought they might be struggling, or
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow was having difficulty. The offense in general was
Speaker 1: having difficulty. Defensive playing damn good. And then when you
Speaker 1: get up against opposition. They didn't play a ton of
Speaker 1: snaps in the preseason. When they did, they didn't give
Speaker 1: up anything. And in this football game, Cook, Dalvin Cook
Speaker 1: is legit, and they shut that running game down under
Speaker 1: seventy yards rushing three point one or carry. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's that's that's getting after it. And Minnesota stayed with it.
Speaker 1: They didn't abandon the running game. The Bengals just stopped
Speaker 1: it and controlled it. So I think across the board.
Speaker 1: You know, you mentioned, you mentioned more than a handful
Speaker 1: of defensive lineman there. For all of them to play
Speaker 1: at that level is pretty pretty impressive. And you got
Speaker 1: to give a lot of credit to bj Hill in
Speaker 1: terms of how he grasped in a very short period
Speaker 1: of time. You know what was going on, what's his
Speaker 1: responsibilities were upfront. You know, it's it's not rocket science
Speaker 1: or anything like that. I don't want to, you know,
Speaker 1: make it sound like he's a football linstein, but you know,
Speaker 1: for a defensive lineman, it's not that complicated. Is sophisticated,
Speaker 1: but it can be you know, terminology and all those
Speaker 1: kind of things you have to sort your way through.
Speaker 1: And he performed well. And another guy that has a
Speaker 1: good first step boy has first step quickness and over
Speaker 1: three hundred pounds himself two sacks. That's a I think
Speaker 1: I think the Billy Price trade might work out. That's
Speaker 1: a pretty good return for Billy Price. I'm with you.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Eli Apple. He had a stretch of
Speaker 1: four plays where three of them went poorly for him.
Speaker 1: Whipped on that tackle on third and twenty four, got
Speaker 1: called for pass interference in the end zone, negating his
Speaker 1: sake by a sack by Larry Ogan Jobi. Then he
Speaker 1: got beaten on the Adam Feeling touchdown pass. Other than that,
Speaker 1: was he okay? Or might Darius Phillips start to get
Speaker 1: more time on the outside. I think the coaches feel
Speaker 1: like he was okay when they when they looked at
Speaker 1: the at the overall tape. But that drive obviously was
Speaker 1: an achilles heel for him, and the old axium goes,
Speaker 1: he can't let one bad play turn into two or three,
Speaker 1: and he did and that drive it just you know,
Speaker 1: turned it into It was catastrophic for him. It was
Speaker 1: a nightmare. The only other thing is I remember a
Speaker 1: play where he turned down contact and that's not what
Speaker 1: you want to see, and that's not what his defensive
Speaker 1: teammates want to see. So you can have, you know,
Speaker 1: problems everybody. The other guys are getting beaten, you know,
Speaker 1: getting paid as well. I should say to beat you,
Speaker 1: and they will beat you every once in a while,
Speaker 1: but turning down contact is is not a good thing
Speaker 1: to do. So hopefully he gets all that out of
Speaker 1: his system and um, you know, it's a he had
Speaker 1: a short sample size of of difficulty and because you
Speaker 1: look at him and physically, he passes the eyeball test,
Speaker 1: so you wind up being the tenth pick in the draft,
Speaker 1: No doubt, big long, strong. But I think he has
Speaker 1: laugh you know, I mean his focus or whatever. It's
Speaker 1: the consistency. That's what you know. Every coach talks about.
Speaker 1: Got to be consistent. It's like you don't want to
Speaker 1: be a coach on the sideline with the player out
Speaker 1: there where you just keep flinching. Is when's the train
Speaker 1: wreck happening. I know it's going to happen at some point.
Speaker 1: Oh I hope it doesn't happen on third and twenty four,
Speaker 1: you know those kind of things. All right, we've had
Speaker 1: a few days to think about it. Let's go back
Speaker 1: to fourth and one at their own thirty with three
Speaker 1: thirty left in the third quarter, up by fourteen points.
Speaker 1: I was pretty critical in real time on our broadcast.
Speaker 1: I think the expression I used was I find it
Speaker 1: hard to believe that they did There's something like that.
Speaker 1: I remember exactly what I said. I still think it
Speaker 1: was a bad decision. I've softened on it a little bit.
Speaker 1: To me, had it been closer to midfield, I would
Speaker 1: have said, yeah, absolutely, go for it. They've still got
Speaker 1: to get a few first downs, and if you do
Speaker 1: get the first down, you might be able to end
Speaker 1: the game right here like that, Zach said afterward, add
Speaker 1: your own thirty. At that point, I still think it
Speaker 1: was a mistake, agreed. You know, I think the risk
Speaker 1: reward didn't balance the way you wanted to balance to
Speaker 1: take that shot. And the biggest reason is the field position.
Speaker 1: Their kicker hit a fifty three yard or as well.
Speaker 1: And these guys in the NFL, you take a chance
Speaker 1: of your own thirty, you're automatically given up three, you know.
Speaker 1: And then four plays later lou and a Ruma went
Speaker 1: zero coverage and fourth and four and they get a
Speaker 1: twenty four yard touchdown pass and there's no safeties in
Speaker 1: the middle of the field to help. You know, the
Speaker 1: pattern that was run by theelan who's a very good
Speaker 1: route runner and a touchdown maker, and he gets he gets,
Speaker 1: you know, matched up, you know with Mike Hilton has
Speaker 1: a size advantage and everything that goes along with and
Speaker 1: there's no safeties to help. So that was a very
Speaker 1: aggressive call. You have a very aggressive call on fourth
Speaker 1: and one, and then on the offensive side and then
Speaker 1: the defensive side, a very aggressive call on fourth and four. Man,
Speaker 1: keep him out of the end zone. Don't don't let
Speaker 1: him have seven. If the offense put in that situation,
Speaker 1: like I said right away, they could probably score three.
Speaker 1: Make sure they don't get any more than three. So,
Speaker 1: but how do you how do you criticize each other?
Speaker 1: You know, the offensive quoting to look at the defense coorer?
Speaker 1: Why did you limp? You? You can't talk to me.
Speaker 1: Why'd you go for it on fourth and one at
Speaker 1: the thirty yard line. But the thing that Zach said
Speaker 1: after the game is it's all about an aggressive mindset.
Speaker 1: We're going to be aggressive with our calls. He supported
Speaker 1: the inter room was call on that play. So you
Speaker 1: know it's I guess that's the way it's that's the
Speaker 1: way it's going to be. And sometimes you get the bear,
Speaker 1: and sometimes the bear gets you. Speaking of the bear,
Speaker 1: let's talk about the Bears. It's off to Chicago this
Speaker 1: week to face the Red Rifle. Andy Dalton, who was
Speaker 1: mediocre in Week one when they lost thirty four to
Speaker 1: fourteen to the Rams, through for two hundred and six yards,
Speaker 1: no touchdowns, one pick pass a rating of seventy two
Speaker 1: point nine. What did you see as you watched Andy
Speaker 1: Dalton a Bear's uniform the first time. By the way,
Speaker 1: Red Rifle, that was your designated name for Andy Dalton,
Speaker 1: and it's become it's stuck out. It's one of those
Speaker 1: nicknames that's going to be perpetual, stead the test of time. Absolutely, absolutely,
Speaker 1: just a great call by Dan Horde, one of his
Speaker 1: better calls of all time. But every time I see
Speaker 1: and hear other people saying red Roads, I cause, come on,
Speaker 1: give my man from credit. If I was, he should
Speaker 1: have patted that bedboy. Yeah. At any rate, Um, what
Speaker 1: I saw from Andy Dalton is things that we saw
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati. Um, very intelligent sees things quickly, gets the
Speaker 1: ball out of his hand. I mean the ball is
Speaker 1: coming out in two point one two point two seconds.
Speaker 1: The reason that that feels isn't playing is in the
Speaker 1: preseason against non starters, he had the ball in his
Speaker 1: hand almost four seconds because he's having trouble diagnosing zone
Speaker 1: defenses where he doesn't feel tentative. Dalton's got it, you know,
Speaker 1: He's got the answer to the test and it's out now.
Speaker 1: With that said, because of the way the Rams were
Speaker 1: playing defense and Aaron Donald and all the other things,
Speaker 1: We've seen this with Andy Dalton. He stretches the field horizontally,
Speaker 1: but not vertically. I mean, nothing was going down the
Speaker 1: football field. He finds holes and seems to throw into
Speaker 1: But you know, you look at the thing. The thing
Speaker 1: about the Chicago Bears, they averaged five point four yards
Speaker 1: per pass attempt, thirtieth in the National Football League, and
Speaker 1: then defensively they got just ripped apart twelve point three
Speaker 1: five per pass attempt, dead last in the NFL. Stafford
Speaker 1: just hit him for multiple gashed him from multiple big plays.
Speaker 1: But it was such a contrast in offensive style. Um,
Speaker 1: but that that's that's Andy. Um. Andy completed over seventy
Speaker 1: percent of his passes, but for less than the first
Speaker 1: half per first down per attempt. Yeah. Just you know
Speaker 1: he's gonna they are are going to buy formation and
Speaker 1: designer for else. They will stretch you horizontally and you know,
Speaker 1: thinks and dunks. It's like when he makes an intermediate throw,
Speaker 1: it's like, oh he ripped that one down the field.
Speaker 1: You know it's it's it's it's very different watching him.
Speaker 1: But it'll be interesting to see um naggy, you know,
Speaker 1: scheme this a little bit um and say well, you know,
Speaker 1: I wonder, can we throw the ball down the field?
Speaker 1: Bill Laser, former offensive coach here in Cincinnati, And you know,
Speaker 1: he's got some incentive. Andy Dalton has some incentive. I
Speaker 1: wonder if they'll try to stretch the field a little
Speaker 1: bit more. I would think they would have to. But
Speaker 1: at that point, will that interior pass rush, will the
Speaker 1: edge rush affect Andy Dalton? He every every human beings
Speaker 1: affected by the rush. But one thing you better know
Speaker 1: is Andy's gonna get the ball out. He's going to
Speaker 1: get it out right away. So if you can somehow,
Speaker 1: you know, take his first couple of options away from
Speaker 1: him and if he gets to the third one pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's talented in that regard. He's mentally about
Speaker 1: as sharp as any quarterback in the National Football League
Speaker 1: realizing what he sees. So it's going to be an
Speaker 1: interesting matchup. So the Bears traded four picks to move
Speaker 1: up in the draft and take Justin Fields. He got
Speaker 1: five snaps in Week one against the Rams. That number
Speaker 1: is going to go up this week, isn't it. I
Speaker 1: would think so. I would think so. And a lot
Speaker 1: of his own read you know, he scored a touchdown
Speaker 1: rush for a touchdown on the zone read concept, and
Speaker 1: I think he probably will. They will. I think they
Speaker 1: will increase his package of plays, but I think they're
Speaker 1: gonna make it simple for him. Then they're not gonna
Speaker 1: be real sophisticated and the amount of reads the est
Speaker 1: to make and all that. They're gonna put together a
Speaker 1: package of players that will emphasize his athleticism and tie
Speaker 1: them together. You know, a running game, a quarterback run game,
Speaker 1: you know, like a mini Lamar Jackson type game plan,
Speaker 1: a quarterback run game, where's plaquestion off of that quarterback
Speaker 1: run game and the zone reason I think that, you know,
Speaker 1: wouldn't surprise me if he plays fifteen twenty snaps, wouldn't
Speaker 1: shock me at all. So we've got a matchup this
Speaker 1: week between the top two rushers in the NFL after
Speaker 1: Week one, Joe Mixon leading the way with one hundred
Speaker 1: twenty seven yards and Cincinnati native David Montgomery second with
Speaker 1: one o eight. The former Mount Healthy High school quarterback
Speaker 1: played college football at Iowa State. Is that the key
Speaker 1: of the game, whichever one of those two guys has
Speaker 1: the bigger day, I think it is. I think it's
Speaker 1: a big factor in the football game. Both these teams
Speaker 1: in Week one ran the ball well. The Bears rushed
Speaker 1: it for one hundred and thirty four yards, tenth in
Speaker 1: the NFL, and they average five point two yards per
Speaker 1: in so doing second best in the NFL. In Montgomery
Speaker 1: on sixteen carries went for a buck eight second most
Speaker 1: yards six point eight yards per carry, fourth best average
Speaker 1: by a running back. I'm not talking about the running
Speaker 1: quarterbacks and receivers went and reverses and all that, just
Speaker 1: a peer of running back. He had a forty one
Speaker 1: yard jaunt which is the second longest of the week
Speaker 1: on the opening weekend. So yeah, they both teams ran
Speaker 1: the football as we know Joe Mixon and in the
Speaker 1: running game, the Bengals rushed one hundred and forty nine
Speaker 1: Joe had one hundred and twenty seven of it. Bengals
Speaker 1: were seventh in the NFL rushing after Week one and
Speaker 1: Joe leading the NFL and carries and yards so and
Speaker 1: then on the flip side of it, both teams stopped
Speaker 1: the run, which you know in that phase of it
Speaker 1: is interesting to Bengals sixty seven yards allowed, sixth few
Speaker 1: us in the league. Three yards per attempt fourth best
Speaker 1: in the league. And then Chicago seventy four yards allowed
Speaker 1: to the Rams tied for eighth few us in the
Speaker 1: league and three point two yards per rush allowed tied
Speaker 1: for seventh in the league. So both, you know, both
Speaker 1: teams realized going to make the opponent one dimensional. The
Speaker 1: only problem is Stafford's one dimension was pretty can. They
Speaker 1: ended up allowing seven point seven yards of play because
Speaker 1: you know, they're allowing twelve almost twelve point four per
Speaker 1: pass attempt, so there's seven point seven yards per play
Speaker 1: allout is last in the league, and those twelve point
Speaker 1: three five yards allowed per passes last in the league.
Speaker 1: They gassed him in the pass game even though they
Speaker 1: couldn't run it. And the thing is the Rams didn't
Speaker 1: abandon the running game. The Rams were in it twenty
Speaker 1: three times for seventy four yards. You know, they just
Speaker 1: they wanted to try to be but it was like
Speaker 1: man throwing, it's pretty easy. Let's just let's just dial
Speaker 1: it up and chuck it down the field. Stafford's passer
Speaker 1: rating against the Bears last week one fifty six point one.
Speaker 1: A perfect score is one fifty eight point three, so
Speaker 1: not bad. One thing that scares me are the dudes
Speaker 1: that the Bears have up front on defense, Khalil Mack,
Speaker 1: former NFL Defensive Player of the Year, Robert Quinn, who's
Speaker 1: got eighty two and a half sacks a team. Hicks
Speaker 1: is a good player. I don't know if Eddie Goldman
Speaker 1: is going to play. He did not play last week.
Speaker 1: They're good nose tackle. So this was a playoff team
Speaker 1: last year. I'll be at a five hundred playoff team.
Speaker 1: But the strength of that team, in my mind, would
Speaker 1: be those guys up front on date. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think the Bengals defensive line was as good as
Speaker 1: any unit on their football team. And the opener and
Speaker 1: I think the Bears defensive line is as good as
Speaker 1: any unit on their football team unhealthy. I agree with you, Dan,
Speaker 1: I think a Kiem Hicks is he's a beast. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's big, he's long's he's he's physical. Khalil max six
Speaker 1: straight Pro Bowls. You know, over the last last three years,
Speaker 1: he's forced fourteen fumbles. I mean, he's a he's a
Speaker 1: turnover machine. I agree, you have to you have to
Speaker 1: locate him. Uh. Roquan Smith is is a Pro Bowl
Speaker 1: caliber linebacker. I think they have Pro Bowl type players,
Speaker 1: Eddie Jackson on the back end, Jalen Johnson's a good
Speaker 1: player at corner. They have excellent players, you know, at
Speaker 1: every level of their defense. But I agree with you.
Speaker 1: I think it's it's what's up front. It gets it
Speaker 1: all started. And uh, it'll be interesting. Goldman opted out
Speaker 1: last year and then you know, I wasn't able to
Speaker 1: play in the opener, so I think I agree. I
Speaker 1: think if he does play, it makes it even even
Speaker 1: a tougher dynamic in there. And you know, Trey Hopkins
Speaker 1: goes from Pierce to Goldman Man. That's a life in
Speaker 1: the National Football League. It's going to be interested to
Speaker 1: see which defensive line, which defense takes control of the
Speaker 1: football game and makes life tougher for the opposition offense
Speaker 1: for sure. Final hard hitting question. Your thoughts on Andy
Speaker 1: Dalton's red beard. I don't think it's a natural. I
Speaker 1: think there's a lot of I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of purchase color that's in that beard because it is
Speaker 1: the richest red I've ever seen. And normally, normally guys
Speaker 1: when they start to lose some of the color, it
Speaker 1: starts in the beard more so than anywhere else. And
Speaker 1: but if if that's the real deal, very impressive, Andy
Speaker 1: Laska Nadley, It's time to take a closer look at
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bears, a team that's gone eight eight in
Speaker 1: each of the last two seasons and lost its open
Speaker 1: or thirty four to fourteen to the Rams. The voice
Speaker 1: of the Bears, Jeff joni Ac, joined Lapping Me this
Speaker 1: week on the Bengals Game Plan Show and says we
Speaker 1: shouldn't draw too many conclusions from how the Bears looked
Speaker 1: on opening night. I just feel that there's a lot
Speaker 1: of great unknowns early in the season, especially now with
Speaker 1: the seventeenth week, maybe teams feel a little bit comfortable
Speaker 1: in the knowledge that they got that extra game to
Speaker 1: kind of sort things out a little bit. You don't
Speaker 1: know what you're going to get from the opposition. They
Speaker 1: certainly didn't know with you we're going to get against
Speaker 1: the Rams defense being the reigning number one unit, and
Speaker 1: they played to that level, and the Bears game plan
Speaker 1: showed that they went with a short passing game. I
Speaker 1: don't think that is going to be their offense by
Speaker 1: and large, and I don't think yet we've seen what
Speaker 1: the concoction is going to look like with Eddie Dalton
Speaker 1: and a sprinkling of Justin fields and eventually when the
Speaker 1: time comes, Justin fields to take over eventually at some point,
Speaker 1: but defensively uncharacteristic breakdowns in this game, you know, I
Speaker 1: go back to the twenty fifteen maybe one or two
Speaker 1: big plays in the fifty hard range. They give up
Speaker 1: two and a one game, which I have not seen
Speaker 1: from a Bears defense in a while. And have a
Speaker 1: new defensive coordinator who's never called NFL plays until Sunday
Speaker 1: night in La So a guy who's bet with the
Speaker 1: organization and Sean decide for nine years. But until you're
Speaker 1: actually making those decisions, you just never know what you're
Speaker 1: going to get. But I think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: respect for him and special teams aside from the operation
Speaker 1: that's the kick care of the putter and the long snapper.
Speaker 1: They've been standard for the Bears. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: new faces on special teams, a new kick returner, new
Speaker 1: farm returner, cell still a lot to sort out. A
Speaker 1: long answer, Jeff, do you think that the sprinkling of
Speaker 1: Justin fields will increase on a weekly basis? Can the
Speaker 1: Bengals expect more Justin fields? Snaps? Than they saw on
Speaker 1: tape against the Rams. Or do you think, okay, Andy
Speaker 1: Dalton a lot of incentive playing against this former team,
Speaker 1: Like you said, M probably a totally different game plan.
Speaker 1: Well will it? Will it be Andy Dalton's game with
Speaker 1: a little bit of Justin Fields or will Justin Fields
Speaker 1: sprinkling more? You know, I don't know how to answer
Speaker 1: that one because I you know, man Naggie's going to
Speaker 1: be very suspicious on that one. He just grins every
Speaker 1: time you bring it up. And you know, the sad
Speaker 1: part for me is, I really do love Andy dalk As.
Speaker 1: You guys know you know him better than I do.
Speaker 1: But I've interviewed him enough times and had time spent
Speaker 1: talcket to him. He's just, uh, you know, the humility
Speaker 1: is just oozing through his pooris He's a nice guy,
Speaker 1: stop spoke and players love him. And you know he's
Speaker 1: gonna walk into Soldier Field on Sunday and you know
Speaker 1: this fan base has been whipped into a frenzy since
Speaker 1: Draft night because of Justin Fields, and you know there
Speaker 1: will be booze. There will be you know, the slightest
Speaker 1: vibration of trouble for Andy will result in a lot
Speaker 1: of chance for Justin Fields, and it's it's it's really unfortunate.
Speaker 1: That's the way it is though. That's you know, fans,
Speaker 1: I've ever right to do that. The media is also
Speaker 1: part of this day have whipped most fans into a
Speaker 1: frenzy as well, because every single day they ask about
Speaker 1: Justin Fields, and they'll ask Andy every single day about
Speaker 1: Justin Fields. And at some point it's like, Okay, let
Speaker 1: the man just have his chance, let him play. Brought
Speaker 1: here to start the sprinkling will be based on I'm
Speaker 1: sure of this, and Dave, you know better than anybody,
Speaker 1: and Dan a football veteran like yourself. On both sides,
Speaker 1: it's about matchups and situational football, and so if there's
Speaker 1: something that might benefit the Bears, you know, maybe Justin's
Speaker 1: gonna get a few more, but I have no way
Speaker 1: of knowing that right now. Sure our guest is the
Speaker 1: voice of the Bears, Jeff Joniak, I'm with you one
Speaker 1: hundred percent on Andy Dalton. I think the three nicest
Speaker 1: people in the history of the world are mister Rogers,
Speaker 1: Ted Lasso, and Andy Dalton. That's the big three. We
Speaker 1: are going to see the top two rushers in the
Speaker 1: NFL after Week one. In this game, Joe Mixon, who's
Speaker 1: currently number one, and the Bear's great running back David
Speaker 1: Montgomery who's currently number two. I think David Montgomery is
Speaker 1: the most underrated player in the NFL, and he's only
Speaker 1: appreciated in two cities, Chicago and Cincinnati, because he's great
Speaker 1: for the Bears and he went to high school here
Speaker 1: at Mount Healthy. But tell us a little bit about
Speaker 1: David and what he means to the Bears offense. Well,
Speaker 1: iOS are some very very great compliments, and you're not
Speaker 1: far off in any way, shape or form. I'm in
Speaker 1: Iowa State grad so in addition to Mount Healthy and
Speaker 1: being a Bear, I had my eye on him for
Speaker 1: a long time. I watched every snap of his at
Speaker 1: Iowa States. The content balance of this guy has really
Speaker 1: been outstanding in college and it's transitioning to the pros
Speaker 1: in the same fashion. I love his attitude. He wants
Speaker 1: to be great. He's very serious about it. He goes
Speaker 1: to the end zone and every practice snap, every single day,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if it's ninety yards or nine yards. He's
Speaker 1: merging leader. He is absolutely a guy that's going to
Speaker 1: fall forward and not you know, lose yards for you.
Speaker 1: He's really improved his hands. So yeah, I mean the
Speaker 1: underrated aspect of it. He knows it, he hears it.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a great chemistry with him and Matt Neggie.
Speaker 1: They have a great relationship and a lot of great
Speaker 1: things have blossomed because of that. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: he turned the culture at Iowa State, and maybe he's
Speaker 1: the guy to help continue that culture change at the
Speaker 1: NFL level with the Bears. So the Bears defense, obviously,
Speaker 1: it's got some some players that are outstanding Pro Bowl
Speaker 1: calibal players. I really like Hicks. I think he's a beast.
Speaker 1: Mac is obviously six straight Pro Bowls, super beast. I
Speaker 1: like Smith at linebacker. I think I think he's a
Speaker 1: you know, Pro Bowl caliber player at that level. And
Speaker 1: Eddie Jackson, Jalen Johnson. I mean there's some some players
Speaker 1: on this defense. Obviously, they shut the running game down
Speaker 1: against the Rams. Did a good job in the running game.
Speaker 1: But like you said, Jeff, the passing attack, the big
Speaker 1: plays in the passing attack, I couldn't really tell. Sometimes
Speaker 1: TV doesn't give you a real good sense of it.
Speaker 1: Was Chicago crowding the line of scrimmage, were they how
Speaker 1: are they playing defensively? Were they loading the box to
Speaker 1: stop the run and make it one dimensional? How are
Speaker 1: they handling that? I mean, yeah, I mean and they did.
Speaker 1: They may hadn't want to mention it, but Matthew Stafford,
Speaker 1: you know there's all these discussions out there. The game
Speaker 1: may throw for six thousand yards. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's the pie in the sky approach to it.
Speaker 1: But you know they have a brand new secondary essentially
Speaker 1: at the at the at the three cornerback positions. When
Speaker 1: you consider that Jayalen Johnson is I did not not
Speaker 1: finish the season last year due to injury. He's done.
Speaker 1: He's the corner one Kindallville door, same draft classes, sixth rounder,
Speaker 1: brand new starter started the playoff game against the Saints
Speaker 1: last year, and Nicol was a competition that a veteran
Speaker 1: Marquis Christian, who was a versatile player, a former safety,
Speaker 1: place all over the field on special teams, beat out
Speaker 1: Duke Shelley at least for this one game against the Rams.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of newness to that secondary. And
Speaker 1: so there were some metal errors and you know, you
Speaker 1: can't have it obviously, and they are fixable though these
Speaker 1: are fixable situations and how they played that game. But
Speaker 1: like you said, they've got stars at every level. You
Speaker 1: got the great pass rusher, you got the great interior defender,
Speaker 1: you got real Kwan Smith. Eddie Jackson has not played
Speaker 1: to the level that I anticipated both last year and
Speaker 1: to start this year, tackling a bit of an issue
Speaker 1: that has to change. And Dan knows how I feel
Speaker 1: about safeties and the importance of them. But then there's
Speaker 1: other players though, that are close to becoming very special.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about Bala Nichols, who's mentored by a key mix.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, you know, getting somehow another pass rusher involved.
Speaker 1: There's a young guy, Kevin Gibson excuse me as Gibson
Speaker 1: as a guy from Tulsa that I'm very excited about.
Speaker 1: So they're in Jalen. Jalen has the chance to be
Speaker 1: a very very good corner. So there's a lot of
Speaker 1: great elements to it, and I think in this league
Speaker 1: right now, the Nickel package is so significant. Getting that
Speaker 1: ironed out will be a step in the right direction.
Speaker 1: My final question for the voice of the Bears, Jeff
Speaker 1: joni Ac, what's the biggest question mark in terms of
Speaker 1: a position group in your mind on that roster. I
Speaker 1: think I just you know, outline some of it. But
Speaker 1: you got to go to the left tackle position right
Speaker 1: now too, because you know they drafted Jenkins and he's
Speaker 1: out with a back injury. I don't know when he'll
Speaker 1: be back. Then you bring in Jason Peters. Larry Borm
Speaker 1: did a nice job, but you know he was not
Speaker 1: practicing today a quad injury for Peters. Elijah Wilkinson, a
Speaker 1: career right tackle that twenty one snaps at left tackle
Speaker 1: last week. Borm looked good in his fifteen So you
Speaker 1: know it's hard when they began the season without a
Speaker 1: left taggle with any NFL experience, and you know that
Speaker 1: that is something that has to get shored up in
Speaker 1: the short term for a long term success for sure.
Speaker 1: So another great player that I think this guy doesn't
Speaker 1: get as much credit as he deserves. As well. Alan
Speaker 1: Robinson is as good at contested catch receiver as I've
Speaker 1: ever seen. I think they get the guy I really respect.
Speaker 1: Alan Robinson. Am I crazy? Oh no, no, why would
Speaker 1: you be crazy? Big day? I don't know none of
Speaker 1: the about underrated? I mean, is he a speed? Didn't
Speaker 1: even know, but this guy gets open and he's always available.
Speaker 1: Last two years, three hundred targets and he may have
Speaker 1: had one or two drop passes, and he cleans up
Speaker 1: your quarterback. He is a prose pro the most I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what's most underrated because receivers come in like
Speaker 1: corners with attitude, right, they come in. They gotta be
Speaker 1: they gotta be cocky, they gotta they gotta own it.
Speaker 1: And how many times have we seen receivers sucked themselves
Speaker 1: right out of a game or a position or a job.
Speaker 1: This guy is pure class. He knows what being a
Speaker 1: professionals and he's had his ups and downs, and he's
Speaker 1: had constant change at quarterback. He's had an acl tare.
Speaker 1: He didn't get the contract he wanted, but you know what,
Speaker 1: he just goes to work every day. And this offseason
Speaker 1: he spent it trying to work on adding speed to
Speaker 1: his routes in terms of his brakes, browed away from
Speaker 1: the ball with yards after the catch, and just maintaining
Speaker 1: that speed on his cut. So, you know, working on
Speaker 1: things every year, and he wanted to you know, his
Speaker 1: own zone. You know, he was not part of the
Speaker 1: off season program. He did his own thing. I have
Speaker 1: respect for that, and he's always willing to find tune
Speaker 1: that engine, and I have a lot of respect for
Speaker 1: Alan Robinson. Here's a quick reminder to join lapping me
Speaker 1: for the Bengals pepper Ally Show this Friday from three
Speaker 1: to six on ESPN fifteen thirty. That's going to do it.
Speaker 1: For this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to
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Speaker 1: Horde and thank you for listening to the Bengals Booth Podcast.