Speaker 1: Hike and everybody on Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booth Podcast. The I'm only human of flesh
Speaker 1: and blood. I'm made audition as the Bengals dropped some passes,
Speaker 1: caused the officials to drop some flags and wind up
Speaker 1: dropping their second preseason game to the Washington football team.
Speaker 1: Coming up, you'll hear radio replays from Friday's game, postgame
Speaker 1: comments from players and coaches, and analysis from my broadcast
Speaker 1: partner Dave Lapham. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by
Speaker 1: bud Light. Seltzer refreshed the game, and here's a quick
Speaker 1: reminder that you can have the latest edition of this
Speaker 1: podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by
Speaker 1: subscribing on iTunes, Stitch, your Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean.
Speaker 1: It's the greatest thing since Joey Vado. I hosted a
Speaker 1: talk show about a month ago and said something that
Speaker 1: didn't seem very controversial at the time. Nobody called in
Speaker 1: to argue, and listeners might have even thought I didn't
Speaker 1: go far enough. I said that Joey Vado, at the
Speaker 1: age of thirty seven, was a middle of the pack
Speaker 1: hitter among Major League Baseball first baseman, and that's what
Speaker 1: he was going to be over the final two years
Speaker 1: of his ten year, two hundred and twenty five million
Speaker 1: dollar contract. I am happy to admit that the Reds
Speaker 1: first baseman has not only forced me to eat a
Speaker 1: heaping portion of crow, but he's forced me to reconsider
Speaker 1: what he can still be in his late thirties and
Speaker 1: early forties. As I record this podcast, Vado has hit
Speaker 1: sixteen home runs in his last ninety one at bats.
Speaker 1: That's a home run every five and a half times up.
Speaker 1: And despite missing twenty eight games earlier this season with
Speaker 1: a broken thumb, he's now in a pace to hit
Speaker 1: thirty six homers and drive in one hundred five runs
Speaker 1: this season. Every Vado at bat has become must watch TV.
Speaker 1: I think most of us assume that while his best
Speaker 1: days were behind him, Joey could still somewhat productive at
Speaker 1: the end of his career because he would at least
Speaker 1: continue to get on base. Now, he looks like he
Speaker 1: can still be one of the game's best sluggers. Joey
Speaker 1: Vado's career ops that's on base percentage plus slugging average
Speaker 1: ranks ahead of Hank Aaron Frank Robinson and Albert Poohole's,
Speaker 1: among others. He's basically Wade Boggs with power, and like Boggs,
Speaker 1: Joey Vado is going to wind up in Cooperstown. Now,
Speaker 1: let's get to football and last week's win over Tampa Bay,
Speaker 1: the Bengals starting defense was only on the field for
Speaker 1: one series, sacking Tom Brady and forcing a punt. On
Speaker 1: Friday in Washington, the starting defense was on the field
Speaker 1: for three series. The first ended with a punt, the
Speaker 1: second ended with a fourth down stop near the red zone,
Speaker 1: and the third ended with a takeaway. It's third down
Speaker 1: in fourteen Fitzpatrick back to throw, has plenty of time
Speaker 1: whistles won over the middle that catches made, but it's
Speaker 1: short of the first down. Bengals picked up the ball
Speaker 1: at the end of the play. We'll see if it's
Speaker 1: a fumble or if the receiver was down before the
Speaker 1: ball came out. Bengals are pointing like it's their ball
Speaker 1: and the officials are going to confer. Sure enough, Logan
Speaker 1: Wilson punched the ball out and Mike Hilton recovered the fumble.
Speaker 1: Forcing turnovers is critical, but another stat is even more important.
Speaker 1: To Zach Taylor zero points. You know, that's the one
Speaker 1: that matters, you know, two games and Rosier points that
Speaker 1: that's all I really care about. The fumble recovery led
Speaker 1: to a short field goal by Evan McPherson, but that
Speaker 1: was it for the Bengals offense in the first half.
Speaker 1: There were penalties, there were lousy throws, and there were
Speaker 1: drops by Jamar Chase. In fact, he dropped all three
Speaker 1: passes that were thrown his way. Here are Zach Taylor
Speaker 1: and Brandon Allen. We just expect our siperscutt the ball.
Speaker 1: It's as simple as that, you know. I don't attribute
Speaker 1: to any rhythm the balls coming at chup, catch it,
Speaker 1: and that's what we need to improvement from. He's a
Speaker 1: good player, and he's still getting his feet well with
Speaker 1: the game experience in the NFL and all that. And
Speaker 1: I think, you know, I've seen him make some unbelievable
Speaker 1: plays in practice and that'll translate it will He'll make
Speaker 1: the He'll make the easy ones, and he'll make some
Speaker 1: spectactic ones as well. So I'm not worried about him.
Speaker 1: I know he I know what he can do and
Speaker 1: what he will do once he gets going. The Bengals
Speaker 1: trailed six three at the half before finally showing some
Speaker 1: life on their opening drive of a third quarter shotgun snap.
Speaker 1: Alan's throw back, shoulder throw, juggling, leaping catch penalty flags
Speaker 1: are down on both sides of the field. Aud and
Speaker 1: Tate went right over the defender to make that grip.
Speaker 1: Audum Tate's eighteen yard catch on third and five was
Speaker 1: the Bengals' first third down conversion in seven tries. A
Speaker 1: few plays later, they faced third and six. Alan waits
Speaker 1: for the shotgun snap, catches the ball from Hill, looks
Speaker 1: to throw his pass a slat caught by trend Irwin
Speaker 1: inside the ten. Inside the five has the ball punched
Speaker 1: out from behind, and Washington recovers at the one yard line,
Speaker 1: David Mayo falling on the ball. It looked like the
Speaker 1: Bengals are going to have it first in goal inside
Speaker 1: the five and Trenton Irwin had had punched out at
Speaker 1: the four. There are two penalty flags near the goal line,
Speaker 1: and the first one came out at the point of
Speaker 1: contact where that ball was knocked away from Irwin. The
Speaker 1: penalty was unnecessary roughness for a helmet to helmet hit
Speaker 1: by former UC Bearcat Derek Forrest. Here's Trenton Irwin. You know,
Speaker 1: it was a blessing that there was a foul there,
Speaker 1: but I mean I got to hold on the ball.
Speaker 1: I was just I was excited to get an end
Speaker 1: zone there. But it all worked out, got the touch
Speaker 1: down on the end it came I'm the next play,
Speaker 1: Allan lines up under center, he runs a quarterback sneak,
Speaker 1: gets shoved from behind, and it's a touchdown for the
Speaker 1: Bengals as Brandon Allen scores on a one yard quarterback
Speaker 1: sneak and Cincinnati has the lead in the third quarter.
Speaker 1: That made it ten six Bengals. But that was one
Speaker 1: of only two rives all night where Cincinnati had more
Speaker 1: than one first down out of rhythm. You know that
Speaker 1: that's the key thing for me. You know, early on
Speaker 1: we had a penalty on the first play the game
Speaker 1: that set us back, and then they just played some
Speaker 1: man coverage. On critical downs, you gotta thrown catch, and
Speaker 1: when you don't thrown catch, I think we had some
Speaker 1: opportunities that were there, and you're out there on three
Speaker 1: and out, so again we don't convert those third down
Speaker 1: It's hard to get into a rhythm and get a
Speaker 1: chance to do a lot of things that we wanted
Speaker 1: to do on the call sheet, and that was unfortunate.
Speaker 1: That was frustrating. Those are things that we're gonna have
Speaker 1: to correct when we get home. Too many drops really
Speaker 1: in the game as well, that was frustrating as well.
Speaker 1: And then late in the game, just too many penalties.
Speaker 1: You know, there was a driver, we had a fall start,
Speaker 1: we had an legal formation, we had a holding, we
Speaker 1: had a snap on the wrong cadence, and we had
Speaker 1: a fumble on the same play which they turned into
Speaker 1: seven points. And so that's just the stuff that that
Speaker 1: leaves us bad taste your mouth. And the snap on
Speaker 1: the wrong cadence turned out to be the key play
Speaker 1: of the game. With a ten nine lead in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, rookie tray Hill snapped the ball while the
Speaker 1: other four offensive linemen stood there like statues shot gun
Speaker 1: snap Shermer in trouble, manages to avoid a hit, but
Speaker 1: now he's brought down. Paul pops out. You know, it
Speaker 1: looks like Washington recovers. That led to a one yard
Speaker 1: touchdown run by Jared Patterson plus a two point conversion
Speaker 1: that gave the football team a seventeen ten lead. Fourth
Speaker 1: Team quarterback Eric Dungee saw his first action in the
Speaker 1: Bengals uniform and drove the team within the long field
Speaker 1: goal range of McPherson from the right house. Huber with
Speaker 1: a put down. McPherson with the kick length is not
Speaker 1: a problem, and the kick is good as he hammers
Speaker 1: one home from fifty yards away, taking another big step
Speaker 1: toward winning the kicking job as a Bengals rookie. But
Speaker 1: that was Cincinnati's last hurrah as Washington held on for
Speaker 1: a seventeen thirteen win. Here's Allan on a rough night
Speaker 1: on offense. I mean it starts with me not being
Speaker 1: accurate with a lot of those passes, a lot of
Speaker 1: contested plays that I can put the ball in a
Speaker 1: lot better aitions for the guys to at least make
Speaker 1: a play on. I think I sailed at least two
Speaker 1: out of bounds that I can think of on top
Speaker 1: of my head that I can easily put those either
Speaker 1: back shoulder, at least give a guy a chance to
Speaker 1: make a play for me. So a lot of that
Speaker 1: starts to maybe being more consistent in getting them catchable balls.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it was just tough to find a rhythm
Speaker 1: after that. I called Friday's game on the radio with
Speaker 1: a good friend and a great broadcaster, the voice of
Speaker 1: the Ohio State Buckeyes, Paul Keels. Dave Lapham had to
Speaker 1: miss the game due to NFL COVID protocols. Lap watched
Speaker 1: it on TV and join me for some postgame analysis.
Speaker 1: How concerned should we be about Jamar Chase's drops. It's
Speaker 1: something that went from the practice field to the playing field,
Speaker 1: you know. That's that's the thing. It's like, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: now it's happen. That has to be broken. There's no
Speaker 1: question about that, and I think it can be. I
Speaker 1: think that it's a you know, just focus on the details,
Speaker 1: the final points, you know. And to have three of them, though,
Speaker 1: three fur down balls that could have extended drives and
Speaker 1: to go over is not a very good thing in
Speaker 1: a very short time frame. Yeah, I'm worried that it
Speaker 1: gets in his head a little bit. And the thing
Speaker 1: I will say for Jamar Chases, I don't remember ever
Speaker 1: seeing a receiver, whether it's the fifth pick in the
Speaker 1: draft or an undrafted free agent from a tiny college,
Speaker 1: spend more time after practice catching balls off a jugs machine.
Speaker 1: So it's not a matter of not putting in the work.
Speaker 1: I mean, this guy is incredibly dedicated, and I'm really
Speaker 1: confident that he'll come out of it. I just hope
Speaker 1: it's soon. I agree Dan, and I think the other
Speaker 1: thing about him is he's extremely coachable. I mean, Coach
Speaker 1: Walter's he's a sponge. Everything to Coach Walters is saying
Speaker 1: he's taken in. It's not like he's, you know, shunning
Speaker 1: coaching and you know, the other veteran receivers when they
Speaker 1: talk to him, he seems to be willing to listen
Speaker 1: to everybody. So maybe he's just in a little bit
Speaker 1: of a slump. I don't know if he's ever had
Speaker 1: this issue before. Obviously he and Joe Burrow haven't experienced this.
Speaker 1: When here at LSU, it didn't seem to have drops,
Speaker 1: did not seem to be a problem back then, So
Speaker 1: hopefully they'll they'll get remedied. Here it seemed like the opposite.
Speaker 1: I mean, the reputation at LSU is unbelievably strong. Hands
Speaker 1: there was no track record of the drop season there,
Speaker 1: So again, hopefully this is a rookie who missed a year,
Speaker 1: who's thinking about it a little bit too much, and
Speaker 1: hopefully after a couple of good catches under game conditions.
Speaker 1: That will be something we'll laugh about eventually. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think sometimes, you know, one happens, you start to press,
Speaker 1: then the second one you press more, you know. And
Speaker 1: I think the best thing that happened was he was
Speaker 1: done for the night, you know, in the early stages
Speaker 1: of the football game. And I'm sure he was. He
Speaker 1: probably had a long night the rest of the night
Speaker 1: thinking about it, and I'm sure coach was talking to
Speaker 1: him about a Teammates were trying to encourage them and
Speaker 1: the best thing is now just to go back to work,
Speaker 1: put it behind them, and get onto the next preseason
Speaker 1: game against the Miami Dolphins. So let's talk O line.
Speaker 1: The starting guards in Washington or quintin Spain on the
Speaker 1: left side, Xavier Sue of Philo on the right side.
Speaker 1: So they went with the Vets. Those guys the first
Speaker 1: team unit on the O line, only in for eleven snaps.
Speaker 1: The offense wasn't very productive, but it's kind of hard
Speaker 1: to fault the O line when you've got drops and
Speaker 1: penalties killing drives. Yeah, and I guess the harbinger of
Speaker 1: things to come was the very first play of the game.
Speaker 1: You know, they bust Joe Mixon for sixteen seventeen yards
Speaker 1: on the screen in Quentin, Spain is called for a
Speaker 1: hold in space out there, and so that negated that play.
Speaker 1: And it seemed like whenever they would get a trunk
Speaker 1: play of some sort, just to kind of get them
Speaker 1: off to schnide a little bit, a penalty were to occur,
Speaker 1: be an illegal formation and then and then the penalties
Speaker 1: that you don't want to have a you have a
Speaker 1: veteran player that's highly respected, Riley Reith, you know, just
Speaker 1: false starts stuff, so that the mental the mental mistakes,
Speaker 1: the physical things, holding penalties, things that nature are going
Speaker 1: to happen. Guys are gonna get themselves in bad position
Speaker 1: and uh, and then you know the technique is going
Speaker 1: to be compromised. But the mental errors not lining up properly,
Speaker 1: you know, not remembering the snap count, the fumble that occurred,
Speaker 1: I mean that was that was with Schremer. That was
Speaker 1: basically the center of Hill. Trey Hill snapped the ball
Speaker 1: account early, he forgot the snap count. Here comes the
Speaker 1: pass rush, and you know, the whole thing's an aborted
Speaker 1: play at that point. Then it's compounded by the fact
Speaker 1: that Schremer doesn't exercise ball security, But I mean that
Speaker 1: two guys the battery, the center on the quarterback are
Speaker 1: two guys that cannot forget the snap count. I'm telling you.
Speaker 1: It causes major issues. And they're the two that are
Speaker 1: handling the football, so they have to be very very
Speaker 1: precise with respect to the snap count. And that was
Speaker 1: a tragedy that occurred. So it just seems like the
Speaker 1: focus overall just just wasn't there for whatever reason. They
Speaker 1: were just just to tick off in terms of, you know,
Speaker 1: being able to ca hone in on what was going
Speaker 1: on that particular night. Going back to the Bengals first
Speaker 1: offensive play, did Quentin Spain hold there? In your opinion?
Speaker 1: You know, technically he had the hands inside the framework,
Speaker 1: you know, and he grabbed the shoulder pad. The thing
Speaker 1: is when cloth stretches, officials are going to throw the flag,
Speaker 1: So you just have to be aware of letting go,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, it's one of it's it's one
Speaker 1: of those things where if you employ that technique and
Speaker 1: a pass rush where you know there you were treating
Speaker 1: they're coming up the football field, It's it's a little
Speaker 1: bit different than if you're in space and running laterally,
Speaker 1: and he's faster, and he starts to pull away, and you,
Speaker 1: you know, you retard his ability to run by by
Speaker 1: grabbing even if visiting the framework. I thought, boy, that's
Speaker 1: a little ticky tack. But then when I saw a
Speaker 1: different angle, he played the one that I thought the
Speaker 1: official was looking at. I can see why the official
Speaker 1: through the flag, but it was it egregious No, but
Speaker 1: can it be called? Yeah? And it was. I think
Speaker 1: Brandon Allen, by and large has had a very solid camp.
Speaker 1: I didn't think he was very good in Washington. There
Speaker 1: was a third down pass for t Higgins where he
Speaker 1: was open early in the game. He missed him way
Speaker 1: too high. Later, Trent and Irwin was open for which
Speaker 1: should have been a third down conversion, missed him wide.
Speaker 1: Even the drops by Chase a couple of those throws
Speaker 1: weren't quite where they probably should be. It just not
Speaker 1: a very good game in my opinion from Brandon Allen,
Speaker 1: I agree. I think he fell into the category of
Speaker 1: the entire offense. They just worn't sharp, you know, weren't
Speaker 1: sharp physically mentally. It just they never got in a rhythm.
Speaker 1: They never never got anything, you know, a coordinated effort.
Speaker 1: One player was the offensive line, another play it was
Speaker 1: a quarterback, another player was a wide receiver, and pretty
Speaker 1: soon the damn has got holes sprouting all over the place,
Speaker 1: and you don't have enough fingers to plug up all
Speaker 1: the holes. So you just have that kind of performance
Speaker 1: and hopefully it's a it's a one time thing, and
Speaker 1: it happened in the preseason and they can get over
Speaker 1: it move on. But it just there really really was
Speaker 1: never any synchronization of all three phases, you know, in
Speaker 1: terms of position groups quarterback, offensive line, running back, receivers,
Speaker 1: four phase. It's just it just it was disjointed. There's
Speaker 1: no question about it. All. Right, let's turn to defense.
Speaker 1: It's been great at practice and in the first two
Speaker 1: preseason games, particularly the first teamers on defense have been outstanding.
Speaker 1: They really have dan I mean, you look at it
Speaker 1: in the first six quarters of of preseason football, giving
Speaker 1: up a grand total they gave up the grand total
Speaker 1: of four field goals, you know, and so that's number ones,
Speaker 1: weren't that's ones and twos. I mean, they just they
Speaker 1: really played very well. They gave up their first play
Speaker 1: of twenty yards more in the first play of the
Speaker 1: game because there was a brain cramp in terms of coverage,
Speaker 1: and there was a there was a free free runner
Speaker 1: tight end Thomas was running wide open and took a
Speaker 1: five yard pass to a twenty six twenty seven yard
Speaker 1: play whatever it was. But after that, they went back
Speaker 1: to playing the type of defense that they they'd been
Speaker 1: playing and uh and and really faced some adversity. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, they have a great stop on fourth down,
Speaker 1: oj Ogan Joby, I should say, um shows himself well
Speaker 1: and that fourth down play and you know, you think,
Speaker 1: boy that that that could be a spark for the offense.
Speaker 1: What does the offense do one, two, three and out?
Speaker 1: So you know, they don't answer with any kind of
Speaker 1: a you know, they just didn't respond whatsoever. It wasn't
Speaker 1: complimentary football, um, But you know, the takeaway by Wilson
Speaker 1: was good guys. Guys that had been playing well in
Speaker 1: the first preseeing game continued in the second. Arrius Hodge,
Speaker 1: Jalen Davis camp sample flashed and he's got that dinged
Speaker 1: up shoulder. But it's encouraging to see, you know, the
Speaker 1: same guys like you mentioned Trent Irwin. You know, he
Speaker 1: made some plays for the second game in a row.
Speaker 1: Jockos Patrick made some plays for the second game in
Speaker 1: a row. Some of these young defensive players two games
Speaker 1: in a row. So now they're they're not only stacking practices,
Speaker 1: they're starting to stack games a little bit, which is
Speaker 1: a good sign. I'm getting pretty excited about Darius Hodge.
Speaker 1: Then I look at the roster situation on the defensive
Speaker 1: line and I'm like, well, how does he make the
Speaker 1: fifty three. It's it might take an injury. They would
Speaker 1: certainly keep him on the practice squad, There's no question
Speaker 1: about that. But he's proving to be a pretty intriguing
Speaker 1: pass rusher, and given the opportunity, I agree. I think.
Speaker 1: I think this kid, this kid's got something. Man, he's
Speaker 1: got some explosive this He's got some juice. The thing is,
Speaker 1: he did and I couldn't really see how many special
Speaker 1: teams snaps that he was part of. He didn't. He
Speaker 1: wasn't part of any in the first preseason game. And
Speaker 1: I think that Darren Simmons was thinking about how am
Speaker 1: I going to get him involved in special teams because well,
Speaker 1: that's a very specialized thing to just be a switch
Speaker 1: situational edge rusher and not be able to give you
Speaker 1: anything else in terms of snaps, I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: making the fifty three. I'm talking about being active on
Speaker 1: game day. So it's going to be interesting to see
Speaker 1: if Darren Simmons starts to incorporate him a little bit more,
Speaker 1: maybe in special teams against the Miami Dolphins and make
Speaker 1: that part of the evaluation process. Speaking of special teams,
Speaker 1: Evan McPherson took another step toward winning the kicking job
Speaker 1: the fifty yard or late in the game that sword
Speaker 1: passed the goalpost from fifty yards away, telling you, Dan,
Speaker 1: dude's got dynamite caps in his toe. It's unbelievable. That
Speaker 1: thing explodes off that toe. And he does. He kicks
Speaker 1: the ball straight. I mean he doesn't have you don't
Speaker 1: You don't see his ball, you know, fading or hooking
Speaker 1: or anything. And he kicks. He kicks a very straight ball.
Speaker 1: And when you're dealing with some potentially you know, bad
Speaker 1: weather conditions in terms of wind and things like that.
Speaker 1: Being knowing that boy I not only have to play
Speaker 1: factor in the wind here, I have a natural draw,
Speaker 1: I have a natural fade or whatever. Those kind of
Speaker 1: things can be a little bit of an issue. He
Speaker 1: cranks it straight as an arrow and I mean high.
Speaker 1: Like you said, boy, he just that thing was just
Speaker 1: a majestic looking shot. You know. He got it up
Speaker 1: there quickly and it cleared. It would have been good
Speaker 1: from between fifty five and sixty easily. It hit halfway
Speaker 1: up the net. Was crazy. Almost a memorable night for Marcus.
Speaker 1: Bailey almost had two interceptions. He had one briefly that
Speaker 1: got reversed on replay and then he almost had another
Speaker 1: one earlier than that. He's been having a good camping
Speaker 1: and that was almost his breakout of preseason game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was. He was around the football, and that's another thing.
Speaker 1: I think he's a he's an example of the defense
Speaker 1: that he's running to the ball, he's hustling and defense defensively,
Speaker 1: they've gotten their hands on quite a few footballs and
Speaker 1: just you know, eight quarters of football. Louanna Room and
Speaker 1: all the coaches have to be excited about that. And
Speaker 1: he obviously will be a big contributor special teams for
Speaker 1: Darren Simmons with the athleticism that he has and he
Speaker 1: has shown so I think that he's had a very
Speaker 1: very solid camp. I can remember, you know, multiple times
Speaker 1: during practices us looking at each other. You know, hey, boy,
Speaker 1: Bailey made another play. Bailey made another play. It's not like, boy,
Speaker 1: how's this happening in games because he hasn't been doing
Speaker 1: it on the practice field. He has so a ton
Speaker 1: of snaps for the second string offensive line in this game,
Speaker 1: Isaiah Prince left tackle, Michael Jordan left guard, Trey Hills, center,
Speaker 1: Jackson Carmen right guard. Fred Johnson is in right tackle.
Speaker 1: Anybody catch your eye or did that unit stand out
Speaker 1: in any way to you? I thought Trey Hill didn't
Speaker 1: play anywhere near at the level that he played at
Speaker 1: in preseason game number one in this preseason game, not
Speaker 1: just the the ill advised snap in the ball early
Speaker 1: in the snap count, but he had he had other problems,
Speaker 1: you know, at the line of scrimmage, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: Fred had a typical first outing. There were some positives,
Speaker 1: but then you know there were some head scratchers as well,
Speaker 1: and that that was the situation up and down the
Speaker 1: line of scrimmage of those guys. Um, you know, it's
Speaker 1: they all show the ability to do it. When you
Speaker 1: look at snaps, none other snaps, It's like, where did
Speaker 1: that come from? So those have to be eliminated or minimized.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying you're not gonna be perfect every snap,
Speaker 1: but you can't, you know, you just you just can't
Speaker 1: fall off a cliff almost from a from an execution standpoint. Um,
Speaker 1: you know it's like, well then then coaches to wonder
Speaker 1: can I trust you? And when is that they start
Speaker 1: flinching and cringing on the sideline something bad. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: due So and so's due for one of those brain
Speaker 1: cramps or one of those play that comes out of
Speaker 1: nowhere and you start to start to flinch about it
Speaker 1: a little bit, and coaches aren't comfortable at that. So
Speaker 1: until until that gets a self sorted out where everybody
Speaker 1: is and you know, it's it's impossible. They're not going
Speaker 1: to be five robots up there that are going to
Speaker 1: be controlled by Frank Pollock with a joystick or anything
Speaker 1: like that. But um, you know they do have to
Speaker 1: exhibit more consistency and uh and avoid the train wrecks.
Speaker 1: So one preseason game left next Sunday afternoon at home
Speaker 1: against Miami Dolphins. And the big question this week we'll
Speaker 1: involve Joe Burrow. Will he get to play in that game?
Speaker 1: We know the risk. We know the reason why he
Speaker 1: wouldn't play. Can you articulate what the benefits would be
Speaker 1: to get think Joe Burrow his wish and throwing him
Speaker 1: out there for a few snaps. I think you know,
Speaker 1: there are a few boxes left to check. He hasn't
Speaker 1: been on the football field since the injury, in a
Speaker 1: game condition in the huddle, looking at his teammates and
Speaker 1: getting the call from Zach Taylor in his headset and
Speaker 1: then you know, communicating that to everybody break the huddle
Speaker 1: to get up to the lines. Just to be in
Speaker 1: that environment again is a box that can be checked.
Speaker 1: And I remember the juice down there in Tampa when
Speaker 1: the Goat went out there for that series. I mean,
Speaker 1: the place was excited. The last time they'd all been
Speaker 1: together was a Super Bowl victory, and how sweet is that?
Speaker 1: And then when the Goat ran out there after winning
Speaker 1: a seventh Super Bowl, everybody went knots. I mean, the
Speaker 1: energy was pretty good, and I thought the Bengals really
Speaker 1: responded that on the road. That was exciting to see
Speaker 1: the Bengals kind of respond to that type of scenario.
Speaker 1: But I think what about the fan base here and Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow Trot's out there for the first year he's
Speaker 1: a place, will be off the hook. It'll be great.
Speaker 1: And uh so, you know, to do that for the
Speaker 1: fan base and to reward the players for you know, okay,
Speaker 1: last preseason game, you've gone through a training camp. Let's
Speaker 1: make it as good an environment as you possibly can
Speaker 1: and um and then there are you know, there are
Speaker 1: things you can do if you decide to do that.
Speaker 1: It makes sure that Joe's not tested whatsoever physically. If
Speaker 1: you are fearful of that situation and hand the ball
Speaker 1: off a couple of times and throw a screen past
Speaker 1: to Joe Mixon and be very careful, and you don't
Speaker 1: want to go three and out, that's for sure. But
Speaker 1: you don't want to have a seven play drive where
Speaker 1: you've got him taken a three or five step or
Speaker 1: seven step drop whatever in the shotgun and pockets closing
Speaker 1: around him and necessarily taking a hit. But I think, honestly,
Speaker 1: I think Joe might even not be against that, honestly,
Speaker 1: although probably the organization and the coaches might be. But
Speaker 1: that would be the final check box to be checked
Speaker 1: is get hit and go to the ground, get up,
Speaker 1: thush yourself off, yep, good and surgery held up. Everything's good,
Speaker 1: Let's go play. So it'll be interesting to see. I
Speaker 1: don't think if Joe's out there, he won't be out
Speaker 1: there very long. And if they do go on multiplay
Speaker 1: extended drive, I'm not sure you'll see him for that
Speaker 1: entire drive. You know, he may he may come out
Speaker 1: during the course of that drive. It may be, you know,
Speaker 1: just a cameo appearance with a curtain call and let
Speaker 1: the fans go nuts again. It also might be the
Speaker 1: first situation in football history where the quarterback lines up
Speaker 1: in the shotgun twenty seven yards behind the center have
Speaker 1: to have a howards the shotgun staff, Gray Hawkins is
Speaker 1: going to have to fire that thing about half a
Speaker 1: football field. That's hilarious. They'll line up in like a pistol.
Speaker 1: They'll snap it to somebody else who then relays it
Speaker 1: backward to Joe and then he hands it off. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they have a little little tier of like four players
Speaker 1: just keep pitching it back to him. Well. I still
Speaker 1: have mixed feelings as to whether I want to see
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow play against the Miami Dolphins, but I do
Speaker 1: want to see Dave Lapham to my right, in the
Speaker 1: broadcast booth. Hopefully NFL protocols allow you to be back
Speaker 1: behind the mic this week. If it's not this week,
Speaker 1: it'll certainly be the game after that. But we missed
Speaker 1: you badly in Washington and looking forward to being back
Speaker 1: together in the booth hopefully this week. Oh same here, Dan,
Speaker 1: listen to you and Paul and you guys are you guys?
Speaker 1: Are both You talked about some Dulsted tones. Man, you've
Speaker 1: talked about unbelievable radio voices, and that was like, Wow,
Speaker 1: this is like radio heaven. Dan Horde and Paul Keels
Speaker 1: listening to these guys. Man, you guys did a great job.
Speaker 1: And you know pros pros, There's no question about it.
Speaker 1: And boy, I really missed it. I really missed being
Speaker 1: there in the booth with you. And I was thinking
Speaker 1: about it that the first time or the last time
Speaker 1: before this, and I watched the Bengals on TV where
Speaker 1: I wasn't on another you know, I simon covering another
Speaker 1: football game or whatever, where I was actually at home
Speaker 1: watching the Bengals play on TV. Was nineteen eighty five. Um,
Speaker 1: that was that was the the after the USFL season
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty eighty four. Um, that's that fall season.
Speaker 1: I went to games with my son and then watch
Speaker 1: games on TV when they're on the road. That's the
Speaker 1: that's the last time I watched the Bengals on television.
Speaker 1: And uh started doing the games in the eighty six
Speaker 1: and haven't watched the Bengals game on television since then
Speaker 1: until until this one against the Washington football team. And man,
Speaker 1: it felt weird. I can tell you that weird. Well,
Speaker 1: thirty six years from now, we'll let you miss another one.
Speaker 1: Another one. Yeah, oh boy, yeah that thirty six years
Speaker 1: from now. Man, I can't even I can't even think
Speaker 1: about that. All right, Well, appreciate your time, see you soon.
Speaker 1: Thanks for the info. Appreciate you, Dan. You best. That's
Speaker 1: going to do it for this episode of the Bengals
Speaker 1: Booth podcast, brought to you by Bud Light Seltzer. It's
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Speaker 1: you haven't done so already, please subscribe and if you
Speaker 1: have a minute, give it a rating or share a
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Speaker 1: Dan Horde, and thank you for listening to the Bengals
Speaker 1: boot Podcast.