Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast the let It Go, Let It
Speaker 1: Go Audition. As the Bengals open the season with a
Speaker 1: twenty three to twenty overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 1: Coming up, you'll hear radio replays, postgame comments from players
Speaker 1: and coaches, and analysis from my broadcast partner Dave Lapham. Then,
Speaker 1: in this week's fun Fact segment, you'll hear from a
Speaker 1: Bengals rookie who grew up in a town a fewer
Speaker 1: than thirty people and started on Sunday in front of
Speaker 1: more than sixty five thousand. The Bengals Booth Podcast is
Speaker 1: presented by All to Fiber future Proof Fiber Internet. Elevate
Speaker 1: your connection with All to Fiber by Kettering Health, the
Speaker 1: official healthcare provider of the Bengals, by Bengals Picks and
Speaker 1: Ultimate Bengals Free to Play with tickets and sign merchandise
Speaker 1: up for Grabs and pay Corps, the official HR software
Speaker 1: provider of the Bengals. And here's a quick reminder that
Speaker 1: you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered
Speaker 1: right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since Bob
Speaker 1: Huggins being enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame. I
Speaker 1: suspect that one day in the future, hopefully the very
Speaker 1: distant future, there will be an asterisk on my tombstone.
Speaker 1: It will list the year of my passing, and then
Speaker 1: after that asterisk there will be a line explaining how
Speaker 1: I would have lived five years longer if not for
Speaker 1: my friendship with Coach Huggins. When Huggs was at Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: there were many late nights after games and practices spent
Speaker 1: with him, our mutual friend Chuck Mayshock, and others where
Speaker 1: we would have a few beers, swap stories and laugh hysterically.
Speaker 1: Huggs is truly one of the great storytellers of all time,
Speaker 1: right up there with Dave Lapham, and despite being sleep deprived,
Speaker 1: it was a joy to be in his company. His
Speaker 1: basketball resume speaks for itself. Nine hundred sixteen wins and counting.
Speaker 1: That's fourth most among Division One coaches, two trips to
Speaker 1: the Final four, and hundreds of former players who speak
Speaker 1: of him with love and reverence. You won't find a
Speaker 1: more loyal friend, and I'm thrilled that he is officially
Speaker 1: Hall of Famer Bob Huggins. Now, let's get to Sunday's
Speaker 1: season opener. The Bengals addressed their biggest weakness in the
Speaker 1: off season by signing three free agent offensive linemen, but
Speaker 1: the Bengals first offensive play of the season resulted in
Speaker 1: a sack by five time Pro bowler Cameron Hayward. The
Speaker 1: Bengals second offensive play was even worse. Burrow and the
Speaker 1: gun mixing to his left. Joe is ready ted Karas
Speaker 1: snaps it back. Burrow back to throw fires toward the
Speaker 1: thirty where its inner set did. The Steelers are going
Speaker 1: to run it back for a touchdown. Joe Burrow hit
Speaker 1: after making the throw. There's a penalty flag down in
Speaker 1: the backfield. Mink the Fitzpatrick with a pick six. If
Speaker 1: it stands it did as the officials picked up the flag.
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh led seven nothing less than two and a half
Speaker 1: minutes into the game. The Bengals second drive was much better.
Speaker 1: They marched to the Steelers thirty four, but a seven
Speaker 1: yard sack knocked them out of field goal range. Whoops,
Speaker 1: I forgot that the Bengals have a sydeboord kicker. With
Speaker 1: a bionic leg Evan McPherson from fifty nine yards away,
Speaker 1: and here comes the ring Clark Harris ready to snap it,
Speaker 1: back fires it back to Huber. The ball is down,
Speaker 1: the kick is on its way. Becaus is not a problem? Yes,
Speaker 1: good Holy Cole fifty nine yards with ease on money
Speaker 1: Mack's first attempt of the season. You don't have to
Speaker 1: drive very far to get points from mc pherson, but
Speaker 1: you do have to hold onto the ball, and on
Speaker 1: the Bengals next three drives they didn't. Burrow back to Cloe,
Speaker 1: gets hit from behind, The ball comes out and the
Speaker 1: Steelers recover man Alex Highsmith with the strip sack and
Speaker 1: the ball floated right too. Teammate Cam Hayward or already
Speaker 1: for the shotgun snap back at the forty four. He
Speaker 1: has the ball. He's back to throw short pass picked
Speaker 1: off at the forty by t J Watch. Jeez Watt
Speaker 1: jumped up, grabbed the ball and the Steelers have their
Speaker 1: third takeaway in the first seventeen minutes of the game.
Speaker 1: Burrow waits for the snap from Keras has the ball,
Speaker 1: drops back five steps steps up, flints it deep down
Speaker 1: the middle of the field and As intercepted again, Sutton
Speaker 1: runs it back and goes out of bounds around the
Speaker 1: twenty five yard line. The Bengals turn the ball over
Speaker 1: on four of their first five possessions. The Steelers kicked
Speaker 1: the field goal after Joe Burrow's fumble and scored a
Speaker 1: touchdown after t J. Watt's interception to take a seventeen
Speaker 1: to three lead midway through the second quarter. With less
Speaker 1: than two minutes to go in the half, the Bengals
Speaker 1: had a fourth and one at the Pittsburgh thirty five
Speaker 1: and decided to go for it instead of attempting a
Speaker 1: fifty three yard field goal. Burrow takes the snap, gives
Speaker 1: it to Turst up the middle of the fields to
Speaker 1: the twenty with an angle at the ten five, and
Speaker 1: taken out of bounds inside the five at the three
Speaker 1: yard line. It was first in goal with less than
Speaker 1: a minute to go in the half, but the Bengals
Speaker 1: couldn't punch it in. They settled for a chip shot
Speaker 1: field goal and trailed seventeen six at the half. In
Speaker 1: the third quarter, the Bengals finally found the end zone.
Speaker 1: Burrow standing at the seven waiting for the shotgun snap.
Speaker 1: Mixon lined up to his right, Burrow catches the ball,
Speaker 1: drops back from the nine throws. It is cock by
Speaker 1: Tyler Boyd, touchdown Bengals as he curled toward the forward
Speaker 1: right pylon and Burrow through a perfect strike through a
Speaker 1: narrow window to Tyler Boyd. That two yard passed to
Speaker 1: Tyler Boyd was followed by a two point conversion throw
Speaker 1: to Mike Thomas, who played much of the game after
Speaker 1: t Higgins suffered a concussion in the second quarter. The
Speaker 1: Bengals were down by three heading to the fourth. Early
Speaker 1: in the final quarter, the Bengals had to punt, and
Speaker 1: on the return, long snapper Clark Harris suffered a right
Speaker 1: bicep injury that caused him to miss the rest of
Speaker 1: the game. It turned out to be a huge loss.
Speaker 1: A Pittsburgh field goal made it twenty to fourteen with
Speaker 1: eleven minutes to go. The Bengals promptly drove to the
Speaker 1: Steelers thirty six, but on fourth and six, rather than
Speaker 1: attempting a long field goal with third string tight end
Speaker 1: Mitchell Wilcox serving as an emergency long snapper, the Bengals
Speaker 1: elected to go for it. Burrow drops back to throw,
Speaker 1: he fires and it is intercepted the fourth of the
Speaker 1: game for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Unbelievable. Joe Burrow intercepted four
Speaker 1: times for the first time in his NFL career. That
Speaker 1: one goes to Akello Witherspoon. Four interceptions and a lost
Speaker 1: fumble for Burrow. That probably bothered him more than the
Speaker 1: ruptured appendix. But the Bengals QB didn't flinch. Obviously, you
Speaker 1: don't want to throw four picks, but I never panicked.
Speaker 1: We stayed even killed, and he came back and put
Speaker 1: us in position to win. He gave them multiple chances
Speaker 1: to win. With three minutes to go, Burrow hit Jamar
Speaker 1: Chase for what looked like a touchdown pass, but he
Speaker 1: was ruled out of bounds inches from the goal line.
Speaker 1: Rather than challenged the ruling, the Bengals rushed to the line,
Speaker 1: try to running play and lost two yards. Here's Zach
Speaker 1: Taylor on electing not to challenge the spot. That's the
Speaker 1: hardest place for us to see in the entire field
Speaker 1: is that spot. So I didn't think there was a
Speaker 1: chance there was a touchdown there initially, so we got
Speaker 1: on the ball to it in quickly. It's hard with
Speaker 1: all the craziness that moment, all the communication to get
Speaker 1: that hey stop, stop, let's evaluate this. We just couldn't
Speaker 1: get it done fast enough by the time we've seen
Speaker 1: a replay and realize, oh, shoot, he might have gotten
Speaker 1: in there. So I just gotta learn from those. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a fine line to get the ball in the end.
Speaker 1: You just want to punch it in real quick, and
Speaker 1: in hindsight, maybe he was in and we could have
Speaker 1: give ourselves a chance. The Bengals eventually had to go
Speaker 1: for it on fourth and goal from the two. Burrow
Speaker 1: ready catches the shotgun, snap, he's back to throw, he's
Speaker 1: looking passes into the end zone. It is incomplete and
Speaker 1: the Steelers stopped. The Bengals. They had it first in
Speaker 1: goal inside the one, they go backward and fail to score.
Speaker 1: The Steelers got the ball back with one fifty one
Speaker 1: to go, but they weren't even able to run thirty
Speaker 1: seconds off the clock before giving the ball back to
Speaker 1: Burrow and the Bengals at their own forty with one
Speaker 1: twenty seven left. Despite playing one of the worst games
Speaker 1: of his career to that point, Burrow drove the Bengals
Speaker 1: sixty yards for the tying score. The game comes down
Speaker 1: to this play. Four seconds on the clock, Cincinnati at
Speaker 1: the six yard line of Pittsburgh. Shotgun snap to Burrow.
Speaker 1: He fires toward the games caught by Jamar Chase, both
Speaker 1: feet down. Touchdown Bengals. No time left on the clock,
Speaker 1: and here comes Mitchell Wilcox, emergency long snapper to try
Speaker 1: to successfully fire it back to Kevin Huber for a
Speaker 1: game winning pat Imagine the butterflies in Wilcox's stomach. They
Speaker 1: were probably more like Tera dactyls. As he took over
Speaker 1: at long snapper on a thirty three yard extra point
Speaker 1: try to win the game. Mitchell Wilcox ready, Huber catches
Speaker 1: the snap, puts it down, The kick is blocked and
Speaker 1: it flutters into the end zone. Will go to overtime,
Speaker 1: tied at twenty minca fitzpa Rick blocked it. The snap
Speaker 1: from Wilcox a little bit high, didn't have a lot
Speaker 1: of steam off as the key, and as a result,
Speaker 1: the Steelers were able to block it. And that was
Speaker 1: the key. It had. It flooded back there and it
Speaker 1: disrupted all the timing a little bit and as a
Speaker 1: result they were able to come off the edge and
Speaker 1: maker Fitzpatrick who else. Wilcox would get another chance. On
Speaker 1: the Bengals first drive in overtime, they marched to the
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh eleven, and on third and eight, Zach Taylor called
Speaker 1: on the field goal unit. Van McPherson had five walkoff
Speaker 1: game winners as a rookie, looking to begin his second
Speaker 1: season with another to twenty nine yard try from the
Speaker 1: right hash Wilcox, the emergency long snapper is ready. Huber,
Speaker 1: looking back at McPherson, turns his head, snap is high.
Speaker 1: Huber gets it down. The kick is a line drive
Speaker 1: and it's no good man. Knowing that the field goal
Speaker 1: was hardly a sure thing, why didn't the Bengals run
Speaker 1: a play on third and eight from the eleven? Felt
Speaker 1: the right decision was to kick it on third down
Speaker 1: in case the snap was off from Kevin could just
Speaker 1: spike it and we could try to kick it again,
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, just didn't work out for us. Hubert caught
Speaker 1: the snap above his helmet and wasn't able to spin
Speaker 1: the laces, but McPherson says the miss was his fault.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, I just couldn't get
Speaker 1: it done. I mean, twenty nine yards is twenty nine yards.
Speaker 1: I can't hit that on my left foot, so there's
Speaker 1: really no excuse for me to not make that one.
Speaker 1: It's certainly hard to fault Mitchell Wilcox. I talked to
Speaker 1: him after the game. You had to serve as the
Speaker 1: emergency long snapper. When was the last time, if ever,
Speaker 1: that you had to do that in a game? In
Speaker 1: a game? Probably maybe one time in college. You know,
Speaker 1: I did in high school and was a backup in college,
Speaker 1: but I was on the punch shield and I always
Speaker 1: had that in my back pocket. And so I said
Speaker 1: on the broadcast, I can't imagine how big the butterflies
Speaker 1: must have been under those circumstances. You're trying to win
Speaker 1: the game for your team, doing something that you normally
Speaker 1: don't even practice. How nerve racking was it? You know,
Speaker 1: in the moment, I just was focused on snapping, and unfortunately,
Speaker 1: first the first one was a good snap, got blocked though,
Speaker 1: and then second one shade high. You know that's on me.
Speaker 1: I gotta give Kevin a better snap. But had a
Speaker 1: whole sunday. Anything can happen. None of them were unplayable.
Speaker 1: I know that's probably not great consolation for you, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't like you bounced it back there and you
Speaker 1: gave Kevin Huber a chance. Yeah, I thought my my
Speaker 1: first one, I think was was solid. What didn't have
Speaker 1: great velocity on it, but it was placed. We just gotta,
Speaker 1: you know, protect up front. And then the second one,
Speaker 1: you know, could should have gave him a better one.
Speaker 1: How did you learn that Clark was not going to
Speaker 1: be able to snap? I just heard people yelling to
Speaker 1: go get some snaps, and I didn't know what his
Speaker 1: status was. And then, you know, my heart's out to Clark.
Speaker 1: You know, he's had such a great, great long career
Speaker 1: here and done so much for this this team, in
Speaker 1: this program. And you know, but do you practice them
Speaker 1: much just in case? Or is I mean there's another
Speaker 1: long snapper on the team who's on the practice squad
Speaker 1: right now. It probably kind of negates the amount of
Speaker 1: time you would even work on it. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I'd say I work on the punt the punt snaps
Speaker 1: a bit more than the short ones, the place kicking snaps. So,
Speaker 1: like I said, I should have give Kevin a better
Speaker 1: one on the second one, and that's on me. Little
Speaker 1: Cox had to snap the ball one more time and
Speaker 1: this time it was a longer snap on a punt.
Speaker 1: With about a minute left, he snapped the ball to
Speaker 1: Kevin Hubert with thirteen seconds remaining on a running play clock,
Speaker 1: preserving valuable time for Pittsburgh. We snapped her thirteen seconds.
Speaker 1: I understand that, trust me, it's we would rather do
Speaker 1: something different, but again just trying to make sure the
Speaker 1: operation ran smoothly. It turned out that we sacrificed some
Speaker 1: seconds just to make sure that we were all on
Speaker 1: the same page. There it proved costly. Starting at their
Speaker 1: own twenty with fifty six seconds to go, Mitchell Trubisky
Speaker 1: completed two big passes to tight end Pat Friarmouth, giving
Speaker 1: Chris Boswell a chance to win it. A fifty three
Speaker 1: yard try to win the game. His kick is up,
Speaker 1: it is floating toward the goal post. It is good.
Speaker 1: As the clock hit zero and the Steelers win it
Speaker 1: in overtime twenty three two twenty. The Bengals outgained the
Speaker 1: Steelers by one hundred sixty five yards, burrowed through for
Speaker 1: three thirty eight and added a career high forty seven
Speaker 1: rushing yards. Jamar Chase had ten catches for a buck
Speaker 1: twenty nine and Joe Mixon had one hundred forty five
Speaker 1: combined rushing and receiving yards, but a minus five turnover ratio,
Speaker 1: seven sacks allowed, and an injured long snapper ultimately killed them.
Speaker 1: Here's offensive lineman Ted Carres. You know, we did everything
Speaker 1: we could to lose basically, um you know, five turnovers,
Speaker 1: you know, giving up sacks, not finishing drives, and it
Speaker 1: still had a chance to win. I think this team
Speaker 1: showed a lot of grit and we just didn't finished.
Speaker 1: We had the game in our hands three four separate times,
Speaker 1: so I got to finish that in close a division game.
Speaker 1: Out Obviously, very disappointed. I think it was one hundred
Speaker 1: and four plays. If you weren't in shape, now you are.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a week one thriller that we came
Speaker 1: out on the wrong end. So you know, we got
Speaker 1: Dallas in a week. I'm gonna, you know, learn from this. Obviously,
Speaker 1: there's a lots of coach off of I thought we
Speaker 1: did a lot of good things too, but overall disappointed
Speaker 1: we lost. After the game, LAP spend a couple of
Speaker 1: minutes with Zach Taylor, coach talk about fighting adversity. You know,
Speaker 1: you have the turnovers obviously that that was an issue
Speaker 1: of the self destruction of the turnovers, the biggest story
Speaker 1: in the football game. That's really the simplest thing. To
Speaker 1: boil it down to five to nothing. You know, we
Speaker 1: gave it away five times, didn't gain any had two
Speaker 1: poor operations on kicks, and and that's not recipe for
Speaker 1: winning football in this division. But with all of the
Speaker 1: all of the tough things you went through with giving
Speaker 1: the football away, they score a defensive touchdown, they get
Speaker 1: short fields, you still have a chance to win the
Speaker 1: football game. And like you mentioned, Clark Harris goes down,
Speaker 1: you're in a tough situation and miss kicks that could
Speaker 1: have won a football game for you. Yeah, there's going
Speaker 1: to be positives we can take away from this game,
Speaker 1: but but the immediate negative is that we're all in
Speaker 1: one and lost a divisional game to start it off.
Speaker 1: So that that's the part that hurts. But these guys
Speaker 1: will rally the right way. They understand it's a long season.
Speaker 1: They understand that they were places to be made that
Speaker 1: would have won us the game. I mean, so we
Speaker 1: know that we're gonna be a good football team. We
Speaker 1: just got a rally and refocus for next week. What
Speaker 1: are some of the positives that come to mind right
Speaker 1: now before you actually take a look at analyzed tape. Yeah,
Speaker 1: holding them to thirteen points there until the last field goal.
Speaker 1: On defense, you know, you just look at the total
Speaker 1: yards they had going into the final drives. I thought
Speaker 1: our defense played really well. I thought there was some
Speaker 1: opportunities we got the ball out or had our hands
Speaker 1: on the ball. We can take that away that those
Speaker 1: are things that we got to do better in the future.
Speaker 1: And then offensive, I thought we moved the ball really
Speaker 1: well in the second half. We just didn't always finish
Speaker 1: with points. There was a fourth down play we didn't
Speaker 1: end up leaving seven and three points on the field
Speaker 1: at the end, miss the field got the end. On
Speaker 1: another drive, we were in the little red zone. So um,
Speaker 1: there was there was some positives to takeaway, but overall
Speaker 1: we'll want to know, Yeah, that's a division a division loss,
Speaker 1: like you talked about at home, that's a that is
Speaker 1: a tough, tough way to start. You look at last year,
Speaker 1: Dallas led the league with interceptions, led the league in takeaways.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're a team that thrives on that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. So I got to take care of the
Speaker 1: ball security thing pretty quickly, don't you. Yeah, we'll get
Speaker 1: into them. We know that we've got to be plus
Speaker 1: plus one to plus two in the turnover battle to
Speaker 1: give ourselves the best chance to be minus five and
Speaker 1: still have a chance to win the football game. What's
Speaker 1: that say about your football team? Overall? We got a
Speaker 1: good team. They handled aversity the right way. There's no
Speaker 1: panic in these because they know that if there's still
Speaker 1: time on the clock, we had a chance to win.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes fall like we put ourselves in position to do that.
Speaker 1: Today we just didn't get it done. Appreciate your time, coach,
Speaker 1: so thank you. The Bengals were the only team in
Speaker 1: the AFC North to lose in Week one. Baltimore beat
Speaker 1: the Jets twenty four to nine, and the Browns top
Speaker 1: the Panthers twenty six twenty four, winning the game on
Speaker 1: a fifty eight yard field goal by rookie kde York
Speaker 1: with eight seconds remaining. York was the only kicker taken
Speaker 1: in this year's draft. Now time for postgame analysis. In
Speaker 1: this week's Radio Guys Recap lap, when you commit five
Speaker 1: turnovers and your defense does not come up with any takeaways,
Speaker 1: I imagine the winning percentage for NFL teams under those
Speaker 1: circumstances is like point ooo three or something crazy. The
Speaker 1: fact that the Bengals almost pulled out this game really
Speaker 1: was kind of a remarkable performance by the defense and
Speaker 1: some clutch late played by Joe Burrow and Jamar ches
Speaker 1: I mean, I think this football team has a lot
Speaker 1: of heart, you know, I do think that. You know,
Speaker 1: they're not going to stop playing football until the final gun.
Speaker 1: Then they're never gonna concede anything. They didn't play well.
Speaker 1: They made mistakes. They're all correctable mistakes. They do have
Speaker 1: to correct them and move on. Joe Burrow through it
Speaker 1: fifty three times thirty three or fifty three three hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty eight yards, two touchdowns with four interceptions and
Speaker 1: also lost a fumble. Jamar Chase ten catches one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty nine yards and big touchdown. It's but like
Speaker 1: you said, you go minus five, you're gonna lose ninety
Speaker 1: nine point nine percent of the time at any level
Speaker 1: of football, and particularly the better the level of competition,
Speaker 1: the tougher It is. The fact that they went minus
Speaker 1: five and could have won it multiple times at the
Speaker 1: end of regulation in and overtime, you know, speaks to
Speaker 1: it's a good's it's a good football team. But it
Speaker 1: proves in the National Football League you can't put yourself
Speaker 1: on your schedule. If you do, you're gonna lose football games.
Speaker 1: And that's what happened today. You know, I think the
Speaker 1: better team lost the football game because they had to.
Speaker 1: They beat themselves and the opponent beat him as well.
Speaker 1: As a result. I feel badly for Mitchell Wilcox. Those
Speaker 1: are tough circumstances. The Bengals have another long snapper on
Speaker 1: the practice squad, so it's not like they have Mitchell
Speaker 1: Wilcox doing a lot of practicing just in case he
Speaker 1: does some. But to go into the game under those circumstances,
Speaker 1: as Logan Wilson put it is a big ask. It
Speaker 1: is a big ask. And you know, I think about
Speaker 1: Ted Carross. I thought, all right, what about Ted Carriss?
Speaker 1: Can he snap maybe for an extra point? And if
Speaker 1: he hasn't been doing it, it's that's that's a brutally
Speaker 1: tough ask. The fact that Mitchell Wilcox had been doing
Speaker 1: it during the course of practices and he's had his
Speaker 1: reps and and all that sort of thing to you know, Carris,
Speaker 1: if he hadn't been doing any deep snapping at all
Speaker 1: during the course of training camp, that's that's a monumental ask.
Speaker 1: And I remember when I did have to play center
Speaker 1: because of the knee injury to Blair Bush. It's it's
Speaker 1: a different animal deep snap in the football, it really is.
Speaker 1: I never had to do it in a game. Fortunately
Speaker 1: we brought Bob Johnson back out of retirement to deep snap,
Speaker 1: but it was It's not an easy task. And you
Speaker 1: don't realize how valuable or solid deep snapper is until
Speaker 1: you don't have him anymore. What did you think of
Speaker 1: burrows performance? Obviously the numbers aren't great for interceptions as
Speaker 1: a new career high he also fumbled, as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: but down the stretch sure enough, when they absolutely had
Speaker 1: to have it, he takes him down the field sixty
Speaker 1: yards for what, under normal circumstances would have been a
Speaker 1: game winning touchdown. You know, as a as a teammate,
Speaker 1: as a former lineman, I look at him with nothing
Speaker 1: but admiration because, you know, like he said he would
Speaker 1: he'd like to have had more time to get ready
Speaker 1: for the opener. He felt like he was going to
Speaker 1: be ready, but in a perfect world, you'd like to
Speaker 1: have more time. Plus the fact that he had an
Speaker 1: appendected me. You know, his appendix ruptured and they had
Speaker 1: to make sure he didn't get toxic. And when he
Speaker 1: first came back, he was definitely weakened, you know, he
Speaker 1: was he had trouble walking around without you know, hitching
Speaker 1: over a little bit because of the pulling that was
Speaker 1: going on after the surgery. And he lost fifteen pounds
Speaker 1: and that's not easy to get yourself back and then
Speaker 1: back to play your first competition is against the Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: Steelers defense. It's you know, it's remarkable that he righted
Speaker 1: himself as quickly as he did. I mean, obviously his
Speaker 1: second half was much better than his first half, and
Speaker 1: that's that's understandable. But to do what he did and
Speaker 1: looking at how basically abnormal it was for him from
Speaker 1: preparations standpoint, I got nothing but admiration for the guy.
Speaker 1: I'd get in the huddle and they'll play football with
Speaker 1: that guy anytime, anywhere, against anybody. So after addressing the
Speaker 1: offensive line in the offseason, the very first snap of
Speaker 1: this season was a sack. Second staff was that second
Speaker 1: snap was a pick six, not a great start. Did
Speaker 1: you feel like the offensive line got better as the
Speaker 1: day went along? Yeah, I think they did. I think
Speaker 1: they did get better. But I know they're they're not
Speaker 1: going to be very satisfied at all with the overall performance.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they're going to be harder on themselves than
Speaker 1: anybody is. And they'll study that tape as a group
Speaker 1: and individually and as a group and you know, be
Speaker 1: real with yourself and with each other and make the
Speaker 1: necessary adjustments and improvements. And there has to be an
Speaker 1: improvement in ball security though before they played Dallas, because
Speaker 1: Dallas led the NFL in interceptions last year and led
Speaker 1: the NFL and takeaways. That's their whole deal, is their
Speaker 1: opportunistic defensively, and that's their defense coordinators mentality. So you know,
Speaker 1: you got to take care of the football. And you know,
Speaker 1: because look at Pittsburgh, basically they won that football game
Speaker 1: because they didn't turn the ball over. I mean, they
Speaker 1: were not prolific offensively binding stretch of the imagination. They
Speaker 1: just did nothing wrong. And they basically said defense, we're
Speaker 1: relying on you and eventually special teams. The third phase
Speaker 1: one it form. So the talk shows and TV debate
Speaker 1: shows are going to focus on this debate. Did the
Speaker 1: Steelers approach in the preseason playing starters, tackling in camp
Speaker 1: win the game against the Bengals team that did not
Speaker 1: play starters in the preseason and barely tackled in camp.
Speaker 1: What do you think? Yeah, I mean, honestly, I think
Speaker 1: the tempo of practice, physicality and you know, timing and
Speaker 1: rhythm and all that is much different than game, even
Speaker 1: in the preseason game because I always felt like, you
Speaker 1: go through that progression of playing the preseason, that's one
Speaker 1: speed of the game. You get to the regular season
Speaker 1: it's another. But having to go and skip that first
Speaker 1: phase of it, it was a little bit more of
Speaker 1: an adjustment. Um So, I you know, and I know
Speaker 1: I'm old school that way, but one thing that uh
Speaker 1: that that that Mike Tomlins said that kind of rang
Speaker 1: true to me. It's like, before you box, you have
Speaker 1: to spar, so you can't box until you spar a
Speaker 1: little bit. And you know that that that kind of
Speaker 1: rings true to me a little bit. Now, if the
Speaker 1: Bengals had won the game in any stretch down the stretcher,
Speaker 1: in overtime or whatever it would have been, you know,
Speaker 1: less of a you know, I guess maybe less of
Speaker 1: a question, but now now it's a it is it
Speaker 1: is more of a question because they didn't win a
Speaker 1: football game that they were favored to win by about
Speaker 1: a touchdown. Um so, But bottom line to me, as
Speaker 1: as a form alignment, I would like to see stunts
Speaker 1: and twists for speed with linebackers, you know, coming downhill
Speaker 1: and filling and just just to get the repetition of it,
Speaker 1: the rhythm, the timing, you know, anchoring your pads and
Speaker 1: all the things that go along with it in a
Speaker 1: perfect world. But they you know, all hands were on
Speaker 1: deck and they almost won the football game. I thought
Speaker 1: you did your job well as a ruler of the jungle.
Speaker 1: You got everybody fired up before kickoff. For whatever reason,
Speaker 1: the Bengals, even as a super Bowl team last year,
Speaker 1: have not been dominant at home five and four in
Speaker 1: the regular season. Last year they did win in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: but they lose their first home game this year. That's true,
Speaker 1: And then you look at the other side of it.
Speaker 1: You know, last year Pittsburgh only finished at half a
Speaker 1: game behind the Bengals at nine to seven and one.
Speaker 1: You know, but they they're obviously a different team. The
Speaker 1: Ben's not there and Trubisky is, but they want they
Speaker 1: want seven one and one in close games. Last year
Speaker 1: games decided by seven points or less, and they're one
Speaker 1: and all this year in games decided by seven points
Speaker 1: or less. So it says something about Mike Omlin, his
Speaker 1: coaching staff. You know, as players, their belief in their system,
Speaker 1: and that's a powerful thing. I mean, you've been there,
Speaker 1: done that, and done it successfully. I'm sure they've felt like,
Speaker 1: you know, we just this is business as usual. We're
Speaker 1: going to get this done. The journey begins, unfortunately with
Speaker 1: an l. See if the Bengals can bounce back in
Speaker 1: Dallas next week. The journey begins and got down to
Speaker 1: face the twelve and five last year, twelve and five
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys that were that reason last year damn, because
Speaker 1: they were plus fourteen. The Bengals were minus five after
Speaker 1: Week one. They've got a ways to go to dig
Speaker 1: out of that, you know. I mean during the regular
Speaker 1: season last year they finished even zero in the turnover ratio,
Speaker 1: when in the postseason they were plus seven. Got to
Speaker 1: get back to that up next the tough road game
Speaker 1: against the Cowboys. The Bengals have an all time record
Speaker 1: of one and six in Dallas. Now time for this
Speaker 1: week's facts interview, where we get to know the person
Speaker 1: under the pads. Time for some fun facts. The Bengals
Speaker 1: offensive lineman Cordelle Wolson from Baal four, North Dakota, a
Speaker 1: small town in the middle part of the state. I
Speaker 1: am from a small town in upstate New York. We
Speaker 1: had about three and a half acres. But tell me
Speaker 1: a little bit about where you grew up. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: grew up a really rural area. Um. I grew up
Speaker 1: grew up in the country between belfour and Drake. Um.
Speaker 1: I was about three miles east of Belfour. Um there.
Speaker 1: You know, it wasn't a whole lot there. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I think population was was in the twenties. Um. And
Speaker 1: then I grew up five miles west of Drake, and
Speaker 1: Drake is where I went to went to high school.
Speaker 1: You know that was that was kind of town. Um
Speaker 1: growing up. You know, had a grocery store and in
Speaker 1: a convenience store and um, you know some other businesses,
Speaker 1: bar and stuff. Um. So I was kind of I
Speaker 1: was kind of my hometown. Um. You know, like I said,
Speaker 1: grew up really rural area. Um. You know, everyone was
Speaker 1: everyone was involved in everything. Um, you know my parents
Speaker 1: they owned and operate a excavating company. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: so ever since I was little, I was I was
Speaker 1: part of that, helping out and it was a great
Speaker 1: way to be brought up, that's for sure. It sounds
Speaker 1: like your folks are quite a success story. They started
Speaker 1: that business that you referred to, they built it up
Speaker 1: into a nice family business. What did you learn about
Speaker 1: work ethic from them? Exactly what you said. You know
Speaker 1: they started off um, you know, just just them too
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, built into something that you know,
Speaker 1: does does really well. Um. Very fortunate to have been
Speaker 1: brought up that way, just you know, learning how to work.
Speaker 1: And you know, if you set your mind to something
Speaker 1: that that you know, you can accomplish it. And you know,
Speaker 1: I think one of the biggest things is, you know,
Speaker 1: you don't stop until the work is done. My dad
Speaker 1: was an upholsterer. I worked for him. The worst job
Speaker 1: was removing car seats from cars, which stunk. What was
Speaker 1: the worst thing that you had to do when you
Speaker 1: work for your dad? Oh, you know, probably the worst
Speaker 1: thing that you know, the thing that people would think
Speaker 1: would be the worst is you know, repairing sewers. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, because you know you're you're down in there.
Speaker 1: You know, whether they're they're jammed up or you know,
Speaker 1: broken pipes or septic tanks collapse, whatever it is. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, so you're down there and not quite the
Speaker 1: best work environment. Will say, um, but yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it definitely definitely builds character and it makes you learn
Speaker 1: how to work efficiently because you don't want to be
Speaker 1: in that in that for very long. So you know,
Speaker 1: you plan ahead and you and you know how to
Speaker 1: how to do it quickly so you can get out
Speaker 1: of that condition quickly. The first time we met after
Speaker 1: the draft, I shook your hand and you nearly broke mine.
Speaker 1: I think it's one of the two most firm handshakes
Speaker 1: that a Bengals player has given me over the years.
Speaker 1: Kevin Zeitler would be the other. In case you're interested.
Speaker 1: But where did that come from? I think you can
Speaker 1: tell tell a lot about a man by their hands shake. Um.
Speaker 1: You know it's I think if you got a firm,
Speaker 1: firm handshake that you know your words good. Um. So
Speaker 1: just um. I think that was that's a big part
Speaker 1: of you know, making a good first impression. I'm intrigued
Speaker 1: by the fact that you played nine man football in
Speaker 1: high school. You're from a small school, it didn't have
Speaker 1: a ton of players to try out for the football team.
Speaker 1: What's nine man football like? Is the field smaller? What
Speaker 1: positions are removed? In North Dakota, the fields the same. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, it's fifty three and a third and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, one hundred, one hundred yards um. But offensively,
Speaker 1: you get rid of your two tackles. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: at times there will be you know, some teams will
Speaker 1: have you know, bigger tight ends. It will virtually be
Speaker 1: a tackle. UM. But a lot of it just depends
Speaker 1: on how you want to how you want to scheme
Speaker 1: things up. Um. And then defensively, you know, we uh
Speaker 1: we didn't we got rid of we only played one
Speaker 1: safety and we only played with one corner um. You know.
Speaker 1: So just depends on how you want to you know,
Speaker 1: scheme things up that way. Um. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, it was it was playing football, you know,
Speaker 1: and that's the most important thing. It sounds like a
Speaker 1: fun brand of football. I guess it goes without saying
Speaker 1: that you play on offense and defense. You also kicked
Speaker 1: and punted, did you kick field goals. We did a
Speaker 1: few times. You know, I was our our place kicker
Speaker 1: when we did kick. UM. You know, it is more
Speaker 1: of you know, nine men, a lot a lot more
Speaker 1: teams goal for two just because of the less players
Speaker 1: and you know, more space. UM. You know, so to
Speaker 1: get two yards um, you know, should be should be
Speaker 1: UM pretty easy. But yeah, so once in a while
Speaker 1: we would kick some but you know, for the most part,
Speaker 1: not too much. We're doing fun facts with Cordell Vols.
Speaker 1: And you attended North Dakota State, where your older brother
Speaker 1: went and had a great college career as well. There's
Speaker 1: no major professional sports team in North Dakota. Is North
Speaker 1: Dakota State kind of the equivalent. Yeah, North Dakota State
Speaker 1: is UM. You know what everyone in the state watches. UM.
Speaker 1: You know what you grew up wanting to be a
Speaker 1: part of. And it's just, uh, it's a great university
Speaker 1: to have in our state. UM. You know, the winning
Speaker 1: and you know that all speaks for itself, but just
Speaker 1: the type of you know, support that North Dakota State
Speaker 1: gets from the state itself and the community surrounding UM
Speaker 1: far Ago, but you know, the things that North Dakota
Speaker 1: State does and gives back to you know, the state
Speaker 1: and the community as well. You were there for six years.
Speaker 1: You played in sixty five games. I don't know what
Speaker 1: the record is for a college football player for games played.
Speaker 1: That might be up there, but it's a school record.
Speaker 1: If you could have stayed for a seventh year, would
Speaker 1: you have? I I mean, I love my time there.
Speaker 1: It was. It was great. Um, you know I think that. Um,
Speaker 1: it's I'm very fortunate to be where I'm at. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, if this opportunity wouldn't have been presented to me, definitely, um,
Speaker 1: but um, you know, for me, it was I was
Speaker 1: excited for the next chapter of my life as well.
Speaker 1: The Bengal selected you in the fourth round with a
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty six to pick in this year's draft.
Speaker 1: Where were you when you got the call and describe
Speaker 1: that feeling. We had a little little gathering in our shop,
Speaker 1: my parents shop. Um, you know, so sitting there, I'm
Speaker 1: actually when when coach Taylor called, I was playing playing
Speaker 1: catch with my with my little cousin. Um. So the
Speaker 1: call came in and it was you know, it was
Speaker 1: a dream come true. You know, everyone everyone their whole
Speaker 1: life grows up wanting to want to get that phone
Speaker 1: call someday. So when it came in, I was extremely
Speaker 1: excited and very fortunate to have people that meant a
Speaker 1: lot to me there with me. Where do you get
Speaker 1: your size? I get asked that a lot. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: both both my parents, Um, you know, they have a
Speaker 1: lot of relatives that are that are bigger. Um you know, like, um,
Speaker 1: you know six six, Um, there's a couple that on
Speaker 1: both sides that are that tall. Um. But um, you know,
Speaker 1: I think just fortunate. Um you know where it came from.
Speaker 1: M I couldn't exactly tell you, but very fortunate to
Speaker 1: have received it. All right. A few wildcard topics for
Speaker 1: Bengals rookie Cordell Volson. Fargo is the home of North
Speaker 1: Dakota State. Fargo is a movie nominated for seven Academy Awards.
Speaker 1: Were you amused by the accents in Fargo or were
Speaker 1: you offended that they seemed to poke fun at the
Speaker 1: way folks speak. I'll tell you the truth. I've never
Speaker 1: seen it. Yeah, I've never seen it. I'm surprised. It's
Speaker 1: a great movie, but I guess, I mean, you're much
Speaker 1: obviously much younger than I am. That has been out
Speaker 1: for a while. Yeah. Yeah, Coach Paulock always tells me
Speaker 1: that I need to watch it. I guess haven't quite
Speaker 1: gotten around to it yet, but you know, hopefully I
Speaker 1: can get to it this offseason and see what I
Speaker 1: think about it. All right, do you have any hidden talents? No?
Speaker 1: We had to do the Talent show, you know, the
Speaker 1: Rookie Talent Show, and it took me a long time
Speaker 1: to think of something to do. And it wasn't very talented.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that. Do you want to share what
Speaker 1: you did? I just did a little singing. Um, it
Speaker 1: wasn't good. It was more of a more of a parody.
Speaker 1: Was trying to be funny. What are you terrible at?
Speaker 1: There's a lot of things. Um, I'm not very good
Speaker 1: with technology, to be honest. Um, so that's something that
Speaker 1: I need to improve on, especially in today's world. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess there's nothing that really jumps out to me. Um,
Speaker 1: when I know there are things, but yeah, technology is
Speaker 1: the one thing that you know, I'd definitely like to
Speaker 1: improve on. You made an appearance on my broadcast partner
Speaker 1: Dave Lapham's podcast. It was very entertaining. One of the
Speaker 1: things you told lap was that you try to read
Speaker 1: at least part of a book every day ten to
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. What kind of books do you enjoy reading. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I read a lot of a lot of self help stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: you know a lot of I don't want to say
Speaker 1: like motivation stuff, but just kind of mental how to
Speaker 1: how to you know, be in a good mental place
Speaker 1: and and you know, how to achieve the goals that
Speaker 1: you have. U. So yeah, right now I'm reading Can't
Speaker 1: Hurt Me by David Goggins. Um. You know, I just
Speaker 1: just books similar to that, just you know, try to
Speaker 1: better myself. And it sounds like the bookmark you use
Speaker 1: when you are reading has personal meaning as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just you know, write down the goals that I
Speaker 1: have that way, you know, every day when I when
Speaker 1: I opened the book up. But it's just a reminder, Um,
Speaker 1: you know why I do what I do, and you know,
Speaker 1: to continue to pursue those things. Final fun fact for
Speaker 1: cord Elvols, And this is kind of deep. If you
Speaker 1: could meet anybody in history, athlete, entertainer, statesman, religious figure,
Speaker 1: whoever that person might be, who would it be? You know,
Speaker 1: I think that's a great question. Um, you know, I'd
Speaker 1: really like to meet my dad's dad. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: fortunately never got the opportunity to meet him. Um. You
Speaker 1: know a lot of people say that him and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, my dad were very similar, and then a
Speaker 1: lot of people say that my dad and I are
Speaker 1: very similar, you know. So, so I think you'd be
Speaker 1: cool to kind of learn where it all came from.
Speaker 1: Great answer, Appreciate your time, best of luck this season.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much. Thank you. Appreciate you having me. That's
Speaker 1: going to do it for this episode of The Bengals
Speaker 1: Booth Podcast presented by Alta Fiber future Proof Fiber Internet
Speaker 1: elevate your connection with Alta Fiber by Cattering Health, the
Speaker 1: official healthcare provider of the Bengals, by Bengals Picks and
Speaker 1: Ultimate Bengals Free to Play with tickets and sign merchandise
Speaker 1: up for grabs, and by pay Corps, the official HR
Speaker 1: software provider of the Bengals. If you haven't done so already,
Speaker 1: please subscribe to this podcast and if you have a minute,
Speaker 1: give it a rating or share a comment that helps
Speaker 1: more Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Horde, and thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast