Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast. The I See the Bad Moon arising. Addition,
Speaker 1: as the Bengals lose their sensational rookie quarterback Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: for the rest of the twenty twenty season. Coming up,
Speaker 1: you'll hear radio replay from Sunday's loss in Washington, postgame
Speaker 1: comments from players and coaches, and in depth analysis from
Speaker 1: Dave Lapham. And in this week's fun fact segment, you'll
Speaker 1: get to know the person under the pads as I
Speaker 1: go one on one with defensive lineman Xavier Williams. The
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by bud Light Seltzer Refresh
Speaker 1: the game, and here's a quick reminder that you can
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Speaker 1: Now let's get to Sunday's game. The first eighteen minutes
Speaker 1: might have been the most frustrating stretch that the Bengals
Speaker 1: have played all year. On their opening drive, they started
Speaker 1: at their own ten, marched to the Washington fifteen, and
Speaker 1: didn't score when Randy Bullock missed a thirty four yard
Speaker 1: field goal try. After Washington scored a touchdown to take
Speaker 1: a seven nothing lead, the Bengals did it again. They
Speaker 1: started at their own twenty five, drove to the Washington three,
Speaker 1: and came up empty when they went for it on
Speaker 1: fourth and goal, and Joe Burrow fumbled after being hit
Speaker 1: by Chase Young while trying to scramble into the end zone.
Speaker 1: After two drives, they had one hundred forty four yards
Speaker 1: and no points, But the third time was the charm
Speaker 1: second out and goal from the four for Cincinnati. Burrow
Speaker 1: is under center now p Ryan is the running back.
Speaker 1: Burrow fakes a hold off throws before getting hit right
Speaker 1: caught hey j Green touchdown Cincinnati as Adriel Cheryl Maiah
Speaker 1: Green finds the end zone for the first time in
Speaker 1: seven hundred and fifty six days and first touchdown passed
Speaker 1: between Joe Burrow and AJ Green. Obviously, and Burrow get
Speaker 1: rid of the football with a player defensive player draped
Speaker 1: on his legs. AJ Green just stays with it. Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow throws the ball in a tight window and that's
Speaker 1: with a defensive player at his legs. He delivers that
Speaker 1: football just before being taken to the ground. Tremendous effort
Speaker 1: by career touchdown catch number sixty four for AJ Green,
Speaker 1: just two behind Chad Johnson's franchise record. Unfortunately, Bullock missed
Speaker 1: the extra point and the Bengals trailed seven to six,
Speaker 1: but Randy atoned late in the half from long distance
Speaker 1: as long as fifty five so his leg is strong enough.
Speaker 1: Here comes the swing of the leg. This kick looks good,
Speaker 1: and it is good. Randy Bullock comes through from fifty
Speaker 1: three yards away and the Bengals take the lead nine
Speaker 1: to seven with one thirty nine left in the half.
Speaker 1: The Bengals got the ball back on a Jesse Bates
Speaker 1: interception and had a chance to score again on the
Speaker 1: final play of the half, but Bullock's fifty eight yard
Speaker 1: field goal try, which would have been a new club record,
Speaker 1: hit the right upright and the Bengals went to the
Speaker 1: locker room up nine to seven. Burrow was fantastic in
Speaker 1: the first half, going twenty one for twenty nine for
Speaker 1: one hundred and ninety five yards, the one touchdown and
Speaker 1: a passer rating of one oh one point nine. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: less than four minutes into the second half, his rookie
Speaker 1: season came to an end. Third down and three, the
Speaker 1: Bengals at their own nine. They have three receivers in
Speaker 1: a tight cluster to the right, close to the right tackle,
Speaker 1: single receiver out to the left. Drew Sample Burrow back
Speaker 1: to throw from the two loops at high down field.
Speaker 1: Sleeping attempt by Boyd broken up by Fuller and after
Speaker 1: gaining seven yards in the first play chart, Burrow is down.
Speaker 1: He's grabbing his left knee and he's in pain. Oh God, Alan,
Speaker 1: I think put the hit on him. And Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: released this football they brought. They had seven up at
Speaker 1: the line of scrimmage. Giovanni Bernard went up to the
Speaker 1: line of scrimmage and picked up his rusher and blitz pickup.
Speaker 1: Finley's gonna have to get ready in a hurry. Looks
Speaker 1: like Joe Burrow's in trouble. The biggest nightmare for Bengals
Speaker 1: fans this season was an injury to rookie quarterback Joe Burrow,
Speaker 1: and he was and serious pain at the end of
Speaker 1: that play, reaching for his left knee. Burrow was taken
Speaker 1: off the field on a cart and before the game
Speaker 1: was finished, sent out a tweet with a following message,
Speaker 1: thanks for all the love. Can't get rid of me
Speaker 1: that easy, SIA next year. With his left leg planted
Speaker 1: after making a throw, Burrow got hit just above the
Speaker 1: left knee, causing it to cave inward. It wasn't a
Speaker 1: dirty play. The lineman trying to get to him was
Speaker 1: falling forward while battling with left guard Michael Jordan, and
Speaker 1: they wound up crashing into the Bengals quarterback. CBS elected
Speaker 1: not to show a replay. The Bengals were understandably shaken
Speaker 1: and played poorly the rest of the game as Washington
Speaker 1: scored thirteen unanswered points to win twenty to nine. Backup
Speaker 1: quarterback Ryan Finley struggled. He went three for ten with
Speaker 1: one interception for a passer rating of zero and got
Speaker 1: sacked four times. Here are Zach Taylor and Ryan Finley
Speaker 1: to who's your quarterback? Is tough, but that's that's the
Speaker 1: way it goes, you know, and next man up and Finley.
Speaker 1: Finley came up and we got to help him and
Speaker 1: I gotta call put him in some better situations there,
Speaker 1: um to give him some confidence going early, and we
Speaker 1: just didn't get it done all the way around. Obviously,
Speaker 1: my thoughts right now are with Joe and just um
Speaker 1: hoping he's gonna be okay and I have a speedy recovery.
Speaker 1: That was that was tough to see. So we've grown close.
Speaker 1: That was that was hard to see, but um, you know,
Speaker 1: I gotta be ready. That's my role. So UM, I
Speaker 1: got a week to get a lot better, um and
Speaker 1: be able to put this team in a position a
Speaker 1: one football game. So that's kind of one of my
Speaker 1: mind's up. Joe Burrow is not sacked on Sunday and
Speaker 1: wound up being sacked thirty two times this year. Only
Speaker 1: Carson Wentz with forty and Russell Wilson with thirty three
Speaker 1: have been sacked more often Burrow was hit roughly eighty times.
Speaker 1: After the games, Zach Taylor was asked if he could
Speaker 1: have done more to protect his quarterback this season. All
Speaker 1: we can do is make progress. This is this season,
Speaker 1: and we gave up a lot of pressure early in
Speaker 1: the season. In these last couple of weeks, our guys
Speaker 1: have done a great job of keeping people off Joe.
Speaker 1: He's had a great pocket. You know, he did not
Speaker 1: have a sack in the first half, and the hit,
Speaker 1: as I saw it wasn't when he had the ball
Speaker 1: in his hand. And so, you know, people keep talking
Speaker 1: about the offensive line without it seemingly watching the film
Speaker 1: from the last four weeks, and so again, those guys
Speaker 1: have done a good job. It's been a revolving door
Speaker 1: of players. They're doing a great job. Joe's done a
Speaker 1: good job moving down the field, and we felt like
Speaker 1: we were making a lot of progress over the last
Speaker 1: five weeks. And we're not gonna apologize for any of that.
Speaker 1: After the game, the NFL networks ian Rappaport tweeted that
Speaker 1: Burrows suffered a torn acl based on the initial diagnosis,
Speaker 1: with the possibility of additional damage. So Burrow finished his
Speaker 1: rookie year by completing sixty five percent of his passes
Speaker 1: with thirteen touchdowns, five interceptions, and a passer rating of
Speaker 1: eighty nine point eight. He averaged two hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: nine passing yards per game. Here are teammates Ryan Finley,
Speaker 1: Karl Lawson, and AJ Green. You know, I talked with him.
Speaker 1: I sat with him for for a little bit. Um.
Speaker 1: I didn't really have many words. I didn't know what
Speaker 1: to say, um, other than um, you know, I hope
Speaker 1: he recovers very soon because he's a he's a hell
Speaker 1: of a player, and it's been it's been a lot
Speaker 1: of fun watching him play, um, you know, this first
Speaker 1: half of the season. So I'm excited for when he's back.
Speaker 1: You could tell just the way he carries himself, his
Speaker 1: or Um, he's just trying to get better. I mean
Speaker 1: after the Ravels game, he was like, yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: never gonna happen on me, Like, you know, he's damn
Speaker 1: you're crying because he didn't feel like he played that well. Um.
Speaker 1: And and that's something I can relate to because that's
Speaker 1: kind of that's how I am. So I no doubt
Speaker 1: in my mind that dudes will be okay. And he
Speaker 1: just a guys. Guys man, He just just wanting to guys,
Speaker 1: you know. Just that's the biggest in front of union.
Speaker 1: You see these quarterbacks at number one, they don't talk
Speaker 1: pilos like quiet, but Joe is a guy. Guy. That's
Speaker 1: the guy that you want in the huddle with them.
Speaker 1: He was obviously a devastating blow for Zach Taylor, who
Speaker 1: was tasked with developing the number one pick in this
Speaker 1: year's draft. He handled everything like a professional from day one,
Speaker 1: and to be voted to captain just speaks everything you
Speaker 1: need to know about the guy. And that the players
Speaker 1: have responded to him, the coaches have responded to him,
Speaker 1: the city has responded to him, and all that is
Speaker 1: equally as important, you know. And so again he energizes
Speaker 1: this team and and you know, he's been a tremendous
Speaker 1: player everything we hoped he'd be. And we'll get him
Speaker 1: back at some point, you know, we don't know when
Speaker 1: that is. But for now, we got we gotta transform
Speaker 1: that energy and put it somewhere else in this team.
Speaker 1: But again, we got plenty of guys we can rely on.
Speaker 1: I thought our defense showed us some really good stuff today.
Speaker 1: In some areas we didn't do enough in the second
Speaker 1: half on offense, you know, so they got us some
Speaker 1: stops where you got you gotta transfer that and you're
Speaker 1: having to score points and regained that momentum, and we
Speaker 1: didn't do that today. And so again it was just
Speaker 1: we weren't solid enough in all three phases to come
Speaker 1: out of here with a win. And now they turned
Speaker 1: to Finley, who went oh and three as a rookie
Speaker 1: starter last year with the Bengals, averaging eleven points in
Speaker 1: those three games. With no offseason program and no preseason games,
Speaker 1: then he hasn't received the practice reps that a backup
Speaker 1: quarterback normally would. You know, this week in practice will
Speaker 1: be good, getting reps with those guys and getting timing
Speaker 1: and getting some confidence. But um, you know, you got
Speaker 1: to you gotta get ready for the starting quarterback each week.
Speaker 1: So obviously Joe's special talent, so you know it's been
Speaker 1: his show. But I'm ready for my role and I'm
Speaker 1: ready to I'm ready to play well. The Bengals are
Speaker 1: two seven and one with wins by the Chargers and
Speaker 1: Cowboys on Sunday. They're currently number three in next year's
Speaker 1: draft order, behind the Jets and Jaguars. But that's the
Speaker 1: last thing on Zach Taylor's mind. The objective is to
Speaker 1: go win and and that's that's been the objective since
Speaker 1: day one, regardless of who's playing on the field. For you,
Speaker 1: we got to do more to win football games. We
Speaker 1: have not won enough. And um, you know it's it's
Speaker 1: I tell these guys. I love going about it with
Speaker 1: these guys, I really do because they give us everything
Speaker 1: they got and today was disappointing day for all of us,
Speaker 1: but been to answer question that the goal is to
Speaker 1: go win football games. Next week up next home game
Speaker 1: against the three and seven New York Giants, who had
Speaker 1: a bye this week. After winning their previous two games.
Speaker 1: The Giants are right in the thick of things in
Speaker 1: the NFC. Least, Philadelphia is on top at three six
Speaker 1: and one, the Giants, Cowboys, and Washington Football team all
Speaker 1: just a half game back at three and seven. Now
Speaker 1: time for postgame analysis with my broadcast partner Dave lappam Lapp.
Speaker 1: We're referred to it on the broadcast as the ultimate
Speaker 1: nightmare for the Bengals and their fans this year, and
Speaker 1: that's the way it played out. Joe Burrow suffers a
Speaker 1: season ending injury ten games into the season, ten games
Speaker 1: into a tremendous rookie season. He has energized the fan base,
Speaker 1: his teammates one in his corner, feeling very confident about
Speaker 1: the Bengals future. But unfortunately we will not get to
Speaker 1: watch Joe play for the final six games of the year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, he obviously the impact that he had on
Speaker 1: the football team was obvious when he did get hurt.
Speaker 1: How everybody came off the sideline, every member of the sideline,
Speaker 1: from assistant equipment people to the assistant trainers to everybody
Speaker 1: in between. Coaches, players, all of them and quite a
Speaker 1: few Washington Football team members were there as well. So
Speaker 1: he has impacted the entire league, and rightfully so. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's done an amazing job. He's as great a football
Speaker 1: player as he is, He's even got better people skills.
Speaker 1: The way he impacts people, I mean, it's he's got
Speaker 1: the if factor. You know, we talked about it all
Speaker 1: the time, whenever that it is all the intangibles, all
Speaker 1: the abstracts, and all the concretes. He's got all of it,
Speaker 1: he really does. We do not know the extent of
Speaker 1: the injury as we do this for the podcast, but
Speaker 1: I still feel confident in thinking he's going to be fine.
Speaker 1: Tom Brady tore his ACL and MCL in two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight, has not missed the start since. Carson Palmer
Speaker 1: suffered his injury in the playoffs in two and fifteen,
Speaker 1: did it again in two and fourteen, came back both times.
Speaker 1: Adrian Peterson tore his ACL and MCL and Christmas Eve
Speaker 1: one year. The next year he ran for more than
Speaker 1: two thousand yards. So again we don't know the extent
Speaker 1: of the injury, but with modern medicine and rehab and
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow's work ethic, I feel very confident in thinking
Speaker 1: he is going to be fine. Yeah. The thing that
Speaker 1: hit me is look at the quarterback and the other
Speaker 1: team in that football game. Look what he came back from,
Speaker 1: and there was no penalty on his injury. JJ Watches
Speaker 1: sacked him, took him to the ground, snapped his leg.
Speaker 1: No penalty on this injury. That that's the life of
Speaker 1: the quarterback when you're in the pocket and there's all
Speaker 1: kinds of traffic around you. That's why I mean, almost
Speaker 1: every time Alex Smith stays in the pocket and people
Speaker 1: are closing in on him around him. I'm worried about
Speaker 1: him having the plant foot, you know, hit and the
Speaker 1: knee buckle and all those kind of things. That's what
Speaker 1: happened to Joe is Joe transferred his weight and he's
Speaker 1: planted and he gets hit and just does serious damage
Speaker 1: to that leg. The foot was planted in the ground.
Speaker 1: That's when the injuries happened. It was very, very similar
Speaker 1: to the injury the Carson Palmer suffered on the side
Speaker 1: of him as he transferred his way to throw a football.
Speaker 1: There was no penalty flag on Carson Palmer's either. Now
Speaker 1: they change the rule. But all these guys are hurt
Speaker 1: just playing quarterback. It's the it's the you know, that's
Speaker 1: what they get paid the big bucks for. And I
Speaker 1: want to what's going through Alex Smith's head when he
Speaker 1: saw that happened to Joe Barrow and it just it
Speaker 1: didn't seem like think of the hits that Joe has taken,
Speaker 1: and that hit was obviously significant. But it's all about timing.
Speaker 1: If you if your foot's planted, it's terrible. If your
Speaker 1: foot's not, it's no big deal, you know, you just
Speaker 1: just your leg just kind of brushes it off. So there's,
Speaker 1: as the old saying goes, every single snap, every single
Speaker 1: player is vulnerable and susceptible to an injury, and quarterbacks
Speaker 1: certainly aren't immune from that. And Joe Theisman's no penalty,
Speaker 1: Lawrence Taylor's just taken him to the ground and his
Speaker 1: leg snaps. You know, it just gets torked and contorted
Speaker 1: the wrong way by powerful people, and as a result,
Speaker 1: things like this happened. Unfortunately, the blame game has started.
Speaker 1: I've seen on social media the Bengals who are criminally
Speaker 1: negligent for not putting a better offensive line in front
Speaker 1: of Joe Burrow or they shouldn't have played him this
Speaker 1: year the line wasn't good enough. You were part of
Speaker 1: the brotherhood, you played offensive line in the NFL for
Speaker 1: ten years, in the USFL for two. Does that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff tick you off? I can tell you that
Speaker 1: nobody feels worse right now than Michael Jordan and other
Speaker 1: guys who you know had had an issue finishing a play.
Speaker 1: And if it's you're I know. Eric Steinbach might have
Speaker 1: been one of Carson Palmer's better friends. Eric Steinbach. The
Speaker 1: last thing he wanted to do is have kimover and
Speaker 1: off and fall to the ground as he's blocking him
Speaker 1: and scrambling smash into Carson Palmer's leg. He's devastated. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's just unfortunately it's part of the game.
Speaker 1: And Zach Taylor addressed it in the post game. In
Speaker 1: the first half we talked about it there when no sacks.
Speaker 1: You know, the first I thought their protection was pretty good,
Speaker 1: and at that point Jack del Rio had to start
Speaker 1: bringing a lineback or a safety and on that particular play,
Speaker 1: it was just the pocket at that time when he
Speaker 1: was throwing that football collapsed. I mean he got hit
Speaker 1: just as significantly on the touchdown. He threw it to
Speaker 1: aj Green, but his foot was off the ground. You know,
Speaker 1: if it all it all, it has a bearing on
Speaker 1: where your weight is, how you transferred, or you're on
Speaker 1: your back foot, your front foot, have you finished your throw,
Speaker 1: are you in the middle of your throw? I mean,
Speaker 1: all of that is it split second timing, And sometimes
Speaker 1: you avoid injury and sometimes you get hurt. And that's
Speaker 1: that's just part of the part of the beast in
Speaker 1: the game of football. And I thought, like everybody else
Speaker 1: in the beginning of the season, the protection was tough
Speaker 1: I mean it was it was they were getting overpowered
Speaker 1: and Joe was taking a lot of big hits. And
Speaker 1: he'll be the first one to tell you that he's
Speaker 1: been proud and not just lip service. He's been proud
Speaker 1: of the way the offensive line has stood up for him.
Speaker 1: You know, over the last month, guys did well, and
Speaker 1: particularly the juggle makeshift offensive line, guys stepping up and
Speaker 1: doing what they were doing. So, yeah, is it whenever
Speaker 1: a quarterback gets hurt, there's a reason he got he
Speaker 1: got hit. There's a reason he got hurt. Very rarely
Speaker 1: is it just out in space, you know, a non
Speaker 1: contact injury. It doesn't happen all that much with quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: and the guys that are normally involved in that are
Speaker 1: the offensive lines. So they are going to catch a
Speaker 1: tremendous amount of heat. And it's tough, There's no question
Speaker 1: it's tough. Those guys feel lower than low can be
Speaker 1: about the whole thing, and they're going to have to
Speaker 1: endure and bounce back through it themselves. I came a
Speaker 1: d energy, started at right tackle after starting the previous
Speaker 1: two games at left. In the second half, he was
Speaker 1: taken out of the game for Bobby Hart you obviously
Speaker 1: haven't had a chance to study tape or anything like
Speaker 1: that yet, but just from your viewing up the game
Speaker 1: line of live, did anything stand out? Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I thought they were really really teeing off and he
Speaker 1: was having trouble finishing. They were being able to cut
Speaker 1: the edge pretty short, you know, on him as he
Speaker 1: was trying to finish. And to me, that is a
Speaker 1: product of him being very comfortable at the left tackle
Speaker 1: position and not as comfortable at right. He finishes and
Speaker 1: widens much easier at left tackle than he does at
Speaker 1: right tackle, and Bobby Hart has taken a Bill Koo
Speaker 1: snaps at the right tackle position, and they felt at
Speaker 1: that point in time that it might be better to
Speaker 1: get Bobby Hard out there to finish, you know, the
Speaker 1: set and to finish the protection part of things. And
Speaker 1: I mean, Hachimadenigy was very very honest and open about
Speaker 1: it himself. And zoom conference calls that he's much more
Speaker 1: comfortable at left tackle than he is at right, but
Speaker 1: he'll go play right tackle. And I think that it
Speaker 1: was just the finish of the set and the finish
Speaker 1: of the protection was where he's having just a little
Speaker 1: bit of a problem and they didn't want that problem
Speaker 1: to intensifire or magnify. And he'll learn from it. He'll
Speaker 1: learn from it, definitely. And I thought for the most part,
Speaker 1: and in the first half, I thought he played really well,
Speaker 1: pretty darn well. But then when you get behind by
Speaker 1: two plus scores, it turns into a different type of
Speaker 1: pass protection. I mean, there's so much I can speak
Speaker 1: from experience. All of a sudden, you've gone from driving
Speaker 1: around your neighborhood to driving on the Audubon and man,
Speaker 1: they're flying at you one hundred miles an hour or more.
Speaker 1: It's crazy out there. You were, undoubtedly in situations like
Speaker 1: this where a teammate suffered what appeared to be a
Speaker 1: season ending injury while you were out there, I mean,
Speaker 1: just broadcasting the game. I felt deflated when it happened.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine what it's like to be on the
Speaker 1: field when that happens. What is it like. It's brutal.
Speaker 1: When Kenny got his neck, you know, almost think Keith
Speaker 1: Gary grabbed his face mask and tried to twist his
Speaker 1: head off his neck like the Exorcist. At that point,
Speaker 1: we weren't really sure what the heck happened. You know,
Speaker 1: we were in our backs to the whole thing. We
Speaker 1: got to the sideline forest, Greg was he was ready
Speaker 1: to kill us. You know that we didn't. Basically all
Speaker 1: mall Keith, Gary and you know, beat the other living
Speaker 1: dog out of him. But we really didn't know what
Speaker 1: took place. I mean, we knew he was hurt and
Speaker 1: we felt terrible that he was hurt. And it's it's
Speaker 1: a it's as bad a feeling as you can experience
Speaker 1: because the guy who is the most important guy on
Speaker 1: the offensive football team, the engine of the car is
Speaker 1: down and out, and man, you feel like, what what
Speaker 1: did we do? What happened? What do we do now?
Speaker 1: And it is shocking. It's a shock to your system,
Speaker 1: and you know, you end up going into this into
Speaker 1: this weird space, and you have to snap yourself out
Speaker 1: of it because right away, I mean, they're lining up
Speaker 1: and there's another snap happening, and everything's coming one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty miles an our agon. You better be ready
Speaker 1: to go or you might be the next one laying
Speaker 1: on the ground. We've talked about how difficult this year
Speaker 1: was going to be for somebody like Joe Burrow. No
Speaker 1: offseason program, no preseason games. In a sense, it might
Speaker 1: be even tougher for Ryan Finley because at least Burrow
Speaker 1: was getting all of the practice time with the first
Speaker 1: teamers and tons of reps in practice. Ryan Finlay didn't
Speaker 1: get preseason games and he hasn't been getting those reps.
Speaker 1: Now he's got to take over with six games to go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and what the Bengals decided to do, and rightfully so,
Speaker 1: Joe Barrows our guy. Let's sit down head coach, offensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: quarterback coach, and Joe, what do you like? What do
Speaker 1: you like from what you do at LSU? What should
Speaker 1: we add? What should we delete? You know, where should
Speaker 1: we put a point of emphasis? And it was all
Speaker 1: about Joe and getting Joe comfortable and getting him playing well,
Speaker 1: and it worked. He's been playing great. He has a
Speaker 1: great understanding of what his offense is. He has a
Speaker 1: great understanding what defenses are trying to do to take
Speaker 1: away his offense. He can get to the right play
Speaker 1: the right protection, do all those things. He's as sharp mentally. Honestly,
Speaker 1: he's as sharp mentally as any quarterback that I've seen.
Speaker 1: He really is. He's a brilliant football guy. Now, Ryan
Speaker 1: Finlay is like, this is Joe's offense, and Joe's been
Speaker 1: running this offense, and you know, I had no mini camps,
Speaker 1: no OTAs, no preseason games, no nothing. I mean, and
Speaker 1: I mean I'm studying and I understand the game plan,
Speaker 1: but I haven't run it with the number ones. I mean,
Speaker 1: he was in a He's in a brutal spot, as
Speaker 1: is Zach Taylor, Dan Pitcher and everybody involved. Because now
Speaker 1: it's like we had all this, you know, this big
Speaker 1: universe of stuff that we wanted to do with Joe,
Speaker 1: and we have to cut it down to one planet,
Speaker 1: you know, for Ryan Finley, until we start to practice
Speaker 1: and get things going and sit down with him and
Speaker 1: Ryan of what we've got installed offensively, what do you like?
Speaker 1: What do you not want? Any part of They have
Speaker 1: to go through the whole process again, and it has
Speaker 1: to be really compressed and sped up. And Ryan Finley's
Speaker 1: no dummy. I mean, he's an intelligent guy. So that
Speaker 1: part of it, I think they'll they'll get through. But
Speaker 1: to the only the only way you can get the
Speaker 1: rhythm and timing is time and reps. Just you can't
Speaker 1: just take a rhythm and timing pill and be like
Speaker 1: I'm ready to go, you know, in a matter of
Speaker 1: less than a week. Just doesn't work that way. So
Speaker 1: it's a challenge for sure, there's no question about it.
Speaker 1: Finley went three for ten off the bench for thirty
Speaker 1: yards last year. In the three games he started, he
Speaker 1: completed forty seven percent of his passes four hundred seventy
Speaker 1: four yards, two touchdowns, two picks, passer rating of sixty
Speaker 1: two point one. So he's got a lot of a
Speaker 1: room for improvement based on those three starts. Last year,
Speaker 1: the Bengals had one other quarterback in the building, Brandon Allen,
Speaker 1: who was on the practice squad. He'll get promoted, you
Speaker 1: would assume to the regular roster. Started three games for
Speaker 1: the Denver Broncos last year, beat the Cleveland Browns, lost
Speaker 1: the other two, completing forty six percent of his passes
Speaker 1: in the brief time that he played for the Denver Broncos.
Speaker 1: Then you assume they've got to go out and get
Speaker 1: somebody else to have another quarterback in the building. In
Speaker 1: case you're wondering about Jake dola Gala, who was on
Speaker 1: the roster last year and was in training camp this year,
Speaker 1: He's been picked up by the Patriots on their practice squad,
Speaker 1: So maybe they go and get him back, although in
Speaker 1: order to do that, I guess they'd have to put
Speaker 1: him on the regular roster in order to take him
Speaker 1: up the Patriots practice squad. Yeah, they would. They'd have to,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously move a guy. Would it be place
Speaker 1: kicker Cyber who would be the guy that would be moved?
Speaker 1: So there's some interesting decisions to be made there. And
Speaker 1: that's assuming the Patriots do not make him one of
Speaker 1: the four weekly protected guys on the practice squad exactly
Speaker 1: exactly and U and could you move a guy from
Speaker 1: you know, your regular roster to the practice squad to
Speaker 1: make room and all those things that go along with us. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're they're grinding right now, Duke Tobin and his entire staff,
Speaker 1: or or hitting the phones, hitting the wires, trying to
Speaker 1: find out who's out there, who's And the thing is,
Speaker 1: there's there's no preseason games to evaluate, there's no scrimmages
Speaker 1: to it, there's no nothing to evaluate. It's just a
Speaker 1: matter of who's out there, what names, and then trying
Speaker 1: to go back. I can look, do they have any
Speaker 1: kind of prior hurst in the National Football League what
Speaker 1: do we think about this guy if he has no
Speaker 1: in the NFL coming out of college, go back to
Speaker 1: the college team, go back to the college reports on him,
Speaker 1: and all those kind of things. So they'll be burning
Speaker 1: up a lot of hours tonight, there's no doubt about it,
Speaker 1: as they try to get themselves ready for the New
Speaker 1: York Giants, New York Football Giants coming to Cincinnati. So
Speaker 1: Zach Taylor was asked about it after the game, what's
Speaker 1: the objective now with six games to go? And he said,
Speaker 1: you know what would you expect him to say? Our
Speaker 1: goal is to win as many games as possible. Is
Speaker 1: it that simple? Yeah? I mean that's that's the ultimate goal.
Speaker 1: And what you have to do is figure out the
Speaker 1: way to get that done. How do you do that?
Speaker 1: I mean you have to have realistic expectations of I
Speaker 1: mean it changes everything. It changes lu and Ruma's approach
Speaker 1: to the game. It changes how he maybe thinks through
Speaker 1: situations and possibilities during the course of the game. Because
Speaker 1: the offense is more hindered than they were when Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow was out there, you can take maybe more chances defensively,
Speaker 1: maybe you don't take any chances defensively maybe. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's what you have to do is try to inspire
Speaker 1: your defense to buckle up and put on big boy
Speaker 1: pads and extra chin straps and just got to shut
Speaker 1: down points. I mean, you just can't be given up.
Speaker 1: You you think right now, as a defense, if I
Speaker 1: give up twenty one, we're in trouble. Can't give up
Speaker 1: twenty one and the defensive goal it always was. Now
Speaker 1: the NFL has changed. But when I was a player,
Speaker 1: seventeen was a number on the board. All the goals,
Speaker 1: you know, limit this number of yards, rushing, this number
Speaker 1: of yards passing. The points were seventeen, and rushing and
Speaker 1: passing yards, particularly passing yards were less back then. Because
Speaker 1: now it's a passing league. With those passing yards changing,
Speaker 1: you know, points probably changed too. I would assume there's
Speaker 1: probably twenty one instead of seventeen, but you almost have
Speaker 1: to go back to seventeen, and that's that's going to
Speaker 1: be a little bit of a challenge. I mean, the
Speaker 1: New York Giants have an offense that hangs thirty five,
Speaker 1: forty and everybody every week. No, but they have a
Speaker 1: quarterbacks drafted damn high, and he's a pretty good athlete.
Speaker 1: There's no question about it. They don't know sae Quon Barkley.
Speaker 1: They've got some their offensive lines, not one of the
Speaker 1: top ten in the league, and all those kind of things,
Speaker 1: but you know they've got an ability to hang twenty
Speaker 1: one points on anybody. So you're gonna have to be
Speaker 1: at your best, at your best, and then special teams,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to own field position. You're gonna have
Speaker 1: to create takeaways. Defense is gonna have to create takeaways.
Speaker 1: There's no way you can go minus in the turnover
Speaker 1: department now and expect to win a football game. You
Speaker 1: didn't win any of them before. Now, if you if
Speaker 1: you think about if you're turning it over now, that's
Speaker 1: when it's not it's not just lose the game, it's
Speaker 1: how you lose a game. And you know this year,
Speaker 1: the Bengals have lost a lot of close games and
Speaker 1: we're competitive and people are okay, then you look at
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh and Baltimore and how they lost those football games.
Speaker 1: People had major problems. So now down the stretch, it's like,
Speaker 1: you're gonna try to figure out a way to win.
Speaker 1: But if we don't, how we how are we losing
Speaker 1: this football game. What are we looking like? We have to,
Speaker 1: you know, look at big picture of that whole thing.
Speaker 1: It's been a bad day, it's been a bad year.
Speaker 1: But I do have one positive thing to mention to
Speaker 1: maybe put a little smile on your face as the
Speaker 1: day comes to an end. This is the last time
Speaker 1: this year you will have to worry about saying a
Speaker 1: team's nickname that know that they no longer use. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you, I think see the Miami RedHawks used to
Speaker 1: be the red Skins. I knew them as the Miami
Speaker 1: red Skins. I know a lot of teams I couldn't
Speaker 1: get rich. And then of course once it starts, man
Speaker 1: a chev it's I I was back back a bunch
Speaker 1: of years. But I'm glad the Washington Football Club is
Speaker 1: at the airport as we speak, flying out of this place. Man,
Speaker 1: it was, I mean, I was glad the Bengals are
Speaker 1: at the airport, flying back here and getting out of
Speaker 1: that city because I've had enough of the Washington Football
Speaker 1: Club otherwise known as that bad our word. Here's a
Speaker 1: quick reminder to join Lap and Lance McAlister for Bengals
Speaker 1: Line Monday night from six to nine on seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Bud Light Seltzer.
Speaker 1: It's light and refreshing with a hint of fruit flavor.
Speaker 1: Now time for this week's fun Facts segment, where you
Speaker 1: get to know the person under the pads. Time for
Speaker 1: some fun facts with defensive tackle Xavier Williams, a native
Speaker 1: of Kansas City, a city known for the Chiefs, the Royals,
Speaker 1: and some great barbecue. Let's start with that. When you
Speaker 1: go home, where do you go for barbecue? And what
Speaker 1: are you piling on your plate? Oh? Man, there's a
Speaker 1: couple of spots you'll like to hit for different things,
Speaker 1: but number one spot is gates And what's going on
Speaker 1: that plate? Oh big rib guy, barbecue, beans and burn
Speaker 1: Endsta Burnians. If you're going to Kansas City, love the
Speaker 1: burn Ends. I'm with you. You're from a football family, Xavier.
Speaker 1: Your older brother, Rodrick, was part of a Division two
Speaker 1: national championship team and got an NFL tryout with the Chiefs.
Speaker 1: But did I read correctly that your sister and mother
Speaker 1: played football too, Yeah they did. My sister played in
Speaker 1: high school. Actually she played a couple years after college
Speaker 1: in the semi pro league down in Texas. My mom
Speaker 1: played in the Semi pro women's league. I think that
Speaker 1: league started in Kansas City when she was about forty,
Speaker 1: actually right as she was forty years old. As she
Speaker 1: played four years. Mom was a quarterback, and your sister
Speaker 1: was a linebacker. Yeah, linebacker, running back. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: We're speaking with Xavier Williams. You attended Grand View High
Speaker 1: School in the Kansas City area. You played football, you wrestled.
Speaker 1: Did you have any other interests or activities. I come
Speaker 1: from a basketball family, actually, so I attempted basketball and
Speaker 1: never the sports just really didn't like me as much
Speaker 1: as I tried to like it. So what that was
Speaker 1: about it a little bit of tracking. Big video game guy.
Speaker 1: We're doing fun facts with Xavier Williams. Your favorite player
Speaker 1: growing up in Kansas City was the late grade Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame linebacker Derek Thomas. Why did you idolize him?
Speaker 1: I mean, even from a young age, you could just
Speaker 1: tell everything that he did was it was just special.
Speaker 1: Everybody talked about it. I got to meet him a
Speaker 1: couple of times growing up. One of my friends that
Speaker 1: I played on a little league team with, which was
Speaker 1: also the chief his dad worked security. He actually still
Speaker 1: works security there now. He's the head of security there now.
Speaker 1: But he convinced Derek Thomas and a couple of those
Speaker 1: guys to come and visit us, and he usually like,
Speaker 1: let us take us to games and stuff. We got
Speaker 1: to meet the guys, So, I mean, it was just
Speaker 1: it was just I get to see him playing on TV.
Speaker 1: I got to meet him in person. You know. I
Speaker 1: just love the tenacity in which you play, with the energy.
Speaker 1: It was just always great. Just count pull me in.
Speaker 1: We're doing fun facts with Xavier Williams. From there, it
Speaker 1: was out into the University of Northern Iowa, about a
Speaker 1: five hour drive from Kansas City. How'd you wind up there?
Speaker 1: They came, they got me. Unfortunately, my high school team
Speaker 1: wasn't that great and we're kind of tucked away in
Speaker 1: the south side of Kansas City, so not a big
Speaker 1: football powerhouse by any means. And they just kind of
Speaker 1: found me, invited me to a camp. I did really well.
Speaker 1: They offered me like right away and just kind of
Speaker 1: just kept building a relationships. So about time I was
Speaker 1: ready to sign, I kind of gotten a few more offers.
Speaker 1: But they have been there the whole time, took visits there.
Speaker 1: Love the coaching staff, and it's kind of all fit.
Speaker 1: What were some of the highlights of your college experience
Speaker 1: on or off the field. I really enjoyed the community there.
Speaker 1: One of my best friends, his family lived right in Waterloo,
Speaker 1: which is a town connected to Cedar Falls. So being
Speaker 1: able to spend like holidays where I couldn't go back home.
Speaker 1: They would like the whole defensive line overhe we have
Speaker 1: meals and everything on the field. They Probably the greatest
Speaker 1: game that we had was we played against the Dakota
Speaker 1: State whenever ranked number one of the nation, like a
Speaker 1: thirty three game win strick or something. We beat them
Speaker 1: at home and Cedar Falls like ye, it was always
Speaker 1: a fantastic experience playing at the Dome. Coming out of
Speaker 1: Northern Iowa, you signed as a college free agent with
Speaker 1: Arizona and spent your first three NFL seasons with the Cardinals,
Speaker 1: playing with Carson Palmer, Larry Fitzgerald, Calais Campbell, Patrick Peterson,
Speaker 1: and a lot of great players. How about some of
Speaker 1: the highlights of your time in Arizona. I mean those
Speaker 1: probably the most memorable years is for kind of what
Speaker 1: you were saying. You know, there was so much talent
Speaker 1: on that team just kind of like legendary guys. The
Speaker 1: opportunity to come in, be a young guy and just
Speaker 1: you know to sit around see how those guys operate,
Speaker 1: and you know, got to talk to Carson, talk to Larry.
Speaker 1: It was kind of like a shocking moment. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: why are you guys talking to me? You guys are
Speaker 1: like years in But it was so fun as being
Speaker 1: around there, hearing the stories that those guys told from
Speaker 1: just the years and years that they've played, and you know,
Speaker 1: being around the city also, it was just a fun time,
Speaker 1: a great place to live. I come from the Middlewest,
Speaker 1: always living to the Middlewest, didn't realize there was places
Speaker 1: in the world people didn't have to shove the driveway
Speaker 1: in like that was fantastic. After three years in Arizona,
Speaker 1: you became a free agent and went home. You signed
Speaker 1: it with your hometown team, the Kansas City Chiefs. Was
Speaker 1: it the best offer or was going home a big
Speaker 1: part of your decision? It was it was both, honestly,
Speaker 1: so it made it so much easier. It was the
Speaker 1: best offer that that guy, and it was my hometown
Speaker 1: team got in. It was a weird process because I
Speaker 1: was tendered from the Cardinals, so you know, there's a
Speaker 1: little negotiation. I have to go back and forth. So
Speaker 1: I think I took a visit to Kansas City twice
Speaker 1: before I officially signed, and I never told my mom
Speaker 1: about it because I didn't want to get her hope
Speaker 1: something in case it fell through. So but it was great.
Speaker 1: It all worked out to got to sign with the Chiefs.
Speaker 1: I moved back home. My mom toil for like the
Speaker 1: first two months to my apartment got finished. I mean
Speaker 1: she was she was happy, brought my daughter was there.
Speaker 1: It was a great time back in the childhood bedroom. Yeah,
Speaker 1: after three years in the NFL. You know, those hotel
Speaker 1: fees they get you. That's a good point. So if
Speaker 1: you didn't tell her those two times that you visited
Speaker 1: before you signed, what was her reaction when you broke
Speaker 1: the news, Mom, I'm coming home. Oh, she was a static. Actually,
Speaker 1: she knew before I even told her. Well, I kind
Speaker 1: of like messaged my brother because he, yeah, like somebody
Speaker 1: had told him randomly. He's like, hey, are you in town?
Speaker 1: And I was like, yeah I am. He's like, are
Speaker 1: you here for the Chiefs. I was like, well yeah,
Speaker 1: I was like, just keep it, keep it low. Up
Speaker 1: for a little bit and yeah, I'm at some point
Speaker 1: he must have told my mom, so I signed, and
Speaker 1: my mom was just kind of like, oh yeah, I
Speaker 1: was just waiting for you to say something like I
Speaker 1: say something back like okay, yeah. The whole family, like,
Speaker 1: I mean, all my family still lives there, so they
Speaker 1: were all just ecstatic, all of them huge Chiefs fans
Speaker 1: still you know, hopefully so we're Cincinnati fans now. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so everybody was just really excited and it worked out
Speaker 1: like a Hollywood script. Last year, in your second year
Speaker 1: with your hometown team, you won a Super Bowl. Ring
Speaker 1: you tell your grandkids about that. How are you going
Speaker 1: to describe that experience? Oh? Man, I mean it's something.
Speaker 1: It's it's a one of a kind of experience. I mean,
Speaker 1: the whole setup, from getting down there, playing the game,
Speaker 1: just the feeling of I think I was there for
Speaker 1: the first time they ever held an AFC championship game.
Speaker 1: So being there and winning at the second time ever
Speaker 1: that the hill an AFC championship game, you know, everything
Speaker 1: was just so monumental. There in Kansas City has been
Speaker 1: so long. I think my mom was like a kid
Speaker 1: three or four when they won their last Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: so I probably shouldn't put that on the air, but yeah, anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so everybody was just so excited. It was just a
Speaker 1: great time to be there. And I mean I couldn't
Speaker 1: even put into words how happy I was to be
Speaker 1: back home win the championship. Everybody got to everybody's kind
Speaker 1: of waiting to get a chance to try the ring
Speaker 1: on now, So I gotta walked out away for a while.
Speaker 1: But yeah, great super Bowl rings are ridiculous. You can't
Speaker 1: wear them. No, it's more like a belt buckle. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you kind of like everybody talks. He's like, no, you
Speaker 1: put it in a nice case and you just like
Speaker 1: stare at it, and everybody like, yeah, you know, I'll
Speaker 1: bring it out. All those guys like yeah, I'll probably
Speaker 1: on award like once or twice in my life. It's
Speaker 1: not something you just put on. It's pretty audacious. So
Speaker 1: it's like as a spectacle, right, word audacious. So people
Speaker 1: around here are interested in one of your former Chiefs teammates,
Speaker 1: Travis Kelsey, who played at the University of Cincinnati and
Speaker 1: obviously has become one of the best tight ends in
Speaker 1: the NFL. Describe Travis Kelsey energy and happy, Like that's
Speaker 1: really what that's all he's about. He goes out there,
Speaker 1: he can peach his butt off and he has a
Speaker 1: great time. I'm sure everybody remembers the interview after the
Speaker 1: super Bowler has to championship, the whole fight for your
Speaker 1: right to party. That's him, that's just him, that encapsulates him,
Speaker 1: like perfectly, that's what he's all about, working his butt off,
Speaker 1: going out there, being one of the best, and you know,
Speaker 1: just having fun doing it. All right, a few wild
Speaker 1: card questions to wrap up fun Facts with Xavier Williams.
Speaker 1: Are you a Star Wars guy? Big Star Wars guy?
Speaker 1: Read the books, watch the movies, everything got a Dog? Invaders?
Speaker 1: So you have a daughter named Phoenix. What do you
Speaker 1: love most about being a dad? You know, the excitement
Speaker 1: that she has on days like I finished playing a
Speaker 1: game and you know, win or loss or kind of
Speaker 1: beat down and you're tired, and then she can just
Speaker 1: come in the room, just smile, bright eye, jump on me,
Speaker 1: which sometimes that's a little more painful some days, but
Speaker 1: jumps on me and just kind of automatically gives me,
Speaker 1: push me in a better mood, no matter no matter
Speaker 1: how I'm feelings she can just always put me in
Speaker 1: a better mood, and I'll try to give her that
Speaker 1: energy the same energy back and help hopefully she feels
Speaker 1: the same way. But it's just a great feeling to
Speaker 1: come home. It's always somebody sitting there smiling, waiting on you.
Speaker 1: What do you like to spend your money on. I
Speaker 1: like to travel, really into camping, so I got something
Speaker 1: to me and my wife would both enjoy. We got
Speaker 1: out last year. We took advantage of the extra time
Speaker 1: that we had, went up to Wyoming a little bit,
Speaker 1: got out live in Arizona and would go out into
Speaker 1: the back country and just kind of commune with nature.
Speaker 1: And my daughter is really into it. My daughter likes it,
Speaker 1: so I pretty much all my money. We bought a
Speaker 1: camper who will pop up camper, So that's really the
Speaker 1: only thing I really kind of indulge you, all right.
Speaker 1: Final fun fact for Xavier Williams. If you could meet
Speaker 1: anybody in history, athlete, entertainer, statesman, you name it, who
Speaker 1: would that person be I allowed to meet myself? If
Speaker 1: I like when I was a kid, I think it
Speaker 1: would be really awesome to come back, like hey, just
Speaker 1: pop up like you're an NFL player. That's all. We
Speaker 1: need to hear it and disappear and then go back
Speaker 1: to my present time. And I just think like that
Speaker 1: would be the best feeling. This has been fun off
Speaker 1: the hot seat. I appreciate your time. Best of what
Speaker 1: the rest of the year. All right, thank you, have
Speaker 1: a good day. Hi. Thanks to Xavier Williams. And 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. Refresh
Speaker 1: the game. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe
Speaker 1: and if you have a minute, give it a rating
Speaker 1: or share a comment that helps more Bengals fans find
Speaker 1: this podcast. I'm Dan Horde, and thanks for listening to
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast