Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody on dan Horde, and thank you for
Speaker 1: downloading the Bengals Booth podcast Dundun Dundunt under Pressure. Addition,
Speaker 1: that certainly describes Andy Dalton's night against the Pittsburgh Steelers
Speaker 1: on Monday, and it also describes how the Bengals are feeling.
Speaker 1: With an Owen four record coming up, you'll hear radio replays,
Speaker 1: locker room comments, and Dave Lappham will join me for analysis.
Speaker 1: Plus in this week's fun Facts Conversation, we'll meet the
Speaker 1: person under the pads as I'll talk to Bengals tight
Speaker 1: end and soccer fanatic cj Uzama. All of that is
Speaker 1: straight ahead, but first, here's a quick reminder that you
Speaker 1: can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right
Speaker 1: to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher,
Speaker 1: Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing
Speaker 1: since the telestrator. One of the highlights of my week
Speaker 1: is seeing Lap use the telestrator to break down the
Speaker 1: Bengals next opponent in his lapse look segment on Bengals
Speaker 1: dot Com. It's always informative and normally I just stand
Speaker 1: there nodding and soaking it all in but this week
Speaker 1: they handed me my own stylus. I get to doodle
Speaker 1: as well. My contribution is likely to be very limited,
Speaker 1: but it's fun to have that telestrator pen in my
Speaker 1: hand for the first time. Now, let's get to football.
Speaker 1: If you are a regular listener of this podcast, you
Speaker 1: know that the normal routine after each game is to
Speaker 1: provide a detailed recap with all the highlights and then
Speaker 1: comments from the players explaining exactly what happened. There's really
Speaker 1: no need to do that after Monday's twenty seven to
Speaker 1: three loss to the Steelers. It can be summed up
Speaker 1: in this montage of Andy Dalton getting sacked over and
Speaker 1: over again on second out in five play action fake
Speaker 1: Dalton in trouble. He is sacked back at the fifty
Speaker 1: yard line. Dalton waits for a shotguns app stops the
Speaker 1: right foot, catches the football, gets hit from behind, football
Speaker 1: bops out, and the Steelers recover at the twenty nine
Speaker 1: yard line. Man Dalton back to brow again and he
Speaker 1: will be sacked back at the twenty eight yard line.
Speaker 1: And that might be the last grasp for Cincinnati here
Speaker 1: in the first half. Yeah, they met at the quarterback
Speaker 1: that time, ducking down in ten from the twenty five
Speaker 1: yard line. Dalton back to throw again. He's under pressure,
Speaker 1: he's in trouble, and he is sacked back at the
Speaker 1: thirteen yard line. Right now, it is not a fair fight.
Speaker 1: Dalton takes the snap, fakes a handoff and gets sacked
Speaker 1: by what Back at the forty five yard line. Dalton,
Speaker 1: we'll be sacked again, and back at the thirty one
Speaker 1: yard lines. Jay von Hargrave applying the heats and it's
Speaker 1: just a case of all four guys feeding at the quarterback.
Speaker 1: They're just teeing off. Dalton back to pass again. He
Speaker 1: gets smashed from behind and loses the football. Oh, he's hurt.
Speaker 1: Fourth down and ten. Dalton back to throw and he
Speaker 1: is hit and sacked and that is appropriate. Hallu Alu
Speaker 1: sacking Andy Dalton on the Bengals last offensive play of
Speaker 1: the game. Andy Dalton was sacked a career high eight times.
Speaker 1: The Bengals team record for mo sachs allowed is ten.
Speaker 1: It was Pittsburgh's ninth straight win over Cincinnati, going back
Speaker 1: to the game in twenty fifteen where Andy Dalton broke
Speaker 1: his thumb tacklings to Fontuitt after an interception prior to
Speaker 1: that play. Here's what the Bengals had done in the
Speaker 1: regular season with Dalton at quarterback. They had gone nine
Speaker 1: and seven, ten and six, eleven and five, ten to
Speaker 1: five and one, and were ten and two and the
Speaker 1: number one seat in the playoff race at the time
Speaker 1: of his injury. Add that all up and you get
Speaker 1: fifty wins, twenty five losses, and one tie among the
Speaker 1: best records in the NFL during that time period. Head
Speaker 1: But since then, the Bengals are twenty one thirty four
Speaker 1: and one. And it all started with a loss to
Speaker 1: the Steelers. After Monday's loss, the atmosphere in the locker
Speaker 1: room was grim. Here are Drake Kirkpatrick and Preston Brown.
Speaker 1: You know, we gotta just figure it out. We gotta
Speaker 1: get wins. They don't pay me to lose, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And it is unstuffable to me. I
Speaker 1: don't know how everybody else feeling about it, but just
Speaker 1: Frustram Bro's frustrating man. Like I said, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: be cool about everything, but this hot to hell. Man,
Speaker 1: we going four Let's just sit this is this the
Speaker 1: hottest he felt on four man. And then and then
Speaker 1: that's to be said, Bro, can you describe the emotion
Speaker 1: right now? Oh, it's tough to go onto a game
Speaker 1: like this Monday night. You know everybody's watching you. You're
Speaker 1: trying to get a big winner so that you're not
Speaker 1: that team as you showed the first three weeks. But
Speaker 1: we showed that we are that team. So we got
Speaker 1: to keep fighting and show everybody that we can get better.
Speaker 1: If not, we're gonna keep losing a lot of games.
Speaker 1: So we got to change it. Right now. The Bengals
Speaker 1: are one of six teams without a win. The Dolphins, Broncos,
Speaker 1: and Raiders are also oh and four, The Jets are
Speaker 1: oh in three, and this week's opponent, the Arizona Cardinals,
Speaker 1: are O three and one. Time to take a look
Speaker 1: at where things stand with my broadcast partner Dave Lap
Speaker 1: them lap frustration is mounting. It was palpable in the
Speaker 1: locker room after the Steelers game. Do you see a
Speaker 1: team that is starting to get a little bit fragile?
Speaker 1: You know it's in my mind having been through a
Speaker 1: season like well, hopefully it's not going to be as
Speaker 1: bad as the one I went through a four and
Speaker 1: twelve season where we started off on and eight The
Speaker 1: one thing that used to piss me off royally was
Speaker 1: teammates that would come out of the shower and before
Speaker 1: their last drop of water on them was dry, they
Speaker 1: had forgotten about the game already. They were worried about
Speaker 1: where they're going party, what were they gonna do? I mean,
Speaker 1: they didn't give a damn about the football game, and
Speaker 1: that used to drive me crazy. I don't see that
Speaker 1: with this group, you know, and the fact that they're frustrated,
Speaker 1: I think is that, you know, a decent sign. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the longer they go without winning a football game,
Speaker 1: you do become more and more fragile. And it's like
Speaker 1: you're thinking, Okay, oh, forced fumble? Is this? Is this?
Speaker 1: The game? Is this? And then don't take advantage of it?
Speaker 1: She's maybe this isn't the game. You know, you feel
Speaker 1: like you have no margin ferry. You have to capitalize
Speaker 1: on everything, and when you don't, you have to fight
Speaker 1: that mental tug of war of like there's gonna be
Speaker 1: other opportunities in this football game. That's not the only opportunity,
Speaker 1: you know, Like it didn't work out, Move on, you know,
Speaker 1: see how how else you can play? You know, a
Speaker 1: complimentary football you weren't very complimentary that takeaway by the
Speaker 1: defense that puts you at the fifteen yard line. You know,
Speaker 1: you got to do a better job than that. But
Speaker 1: it is, it's it's it's very it's Uh, that's where
Speaker 1: sports psychologists make a lot of money because because you
Speaker 1: you do. You come home and I just remember, you know,
Speaker 1: sleepless nights. The said up many times looking at the ceiling,
Speaker 1: and the ceiling becomes you know, a movie screen and
Speaker 1: you're just seeing all these things that you remember about
Speaker 1: the football game. And you know, when you're when you're
Speaker 1: married with children, Um, it's it's a it's a good distraction.
Speaker 1: You come home, they're smiling. No matter what, you know,
Speaker 1: they still like you, although you feel like nobody does.
Speaker 1: You don't want to see neighbors, you don't want to
Speaker 1: see friends, you don't want to see anybody. You're embarrassed.
Speaker 1: And then also your kids go to school and uh,
Speaker 1: they're the butt of jokes and so it has a
Speaker 1: big effect on on the dynamic of families. And that's
Speaker 1: what people You know, people don't understand, you know, when
Speaker 1: when they have problems at work and it affects their family,
Speaker 1: nobody else knows about it. But this the reason the
Speaker 1: guys make big money. It's such a public deal. Everything
Speaker 1: that they do is uh, is seen by everybody, so
Speaker 1: there's no hiding and UH and it does have a
Speaker 1: ripple effect on families at times, for sure. So if
Speaker 1: you're listening to this podcast and your kids go to
Speaker 1: school with the kids of Bengals players or coaches, tell
Speaker 1: your kids to be nice exactly. Laughter. Are six winless
Speaker 1: teams in the NFL right now. Five have new head coaches.
Speaker 1: Looking back historically Sam White and five. To begin his
Speaker 1: tenure as the Bengals head coach, Bill Walsh turned out
Speaker 1: to be pretty good. He started his tenure in San Francisco,
Speaker 1: oh and seven. It's a complicated game. I know people
Speaker 1: don't want to hear this, but does it take time
Speaker 1: to implement new systems? It does, you know, And sometimes
Speaker 1: the system you want to implement, you don't quite have
Speaker 1: the personnel to implement it the way you want to
Speaker 1: implement it, So then you have to massage your system
Speaker 1: to fit the personnel. You know, you don't want to
Speaker 1: say this is what I'm going to do, no matter what,
Speaker 1: if you don't have the players to do it, you
Speaker 1: know we said this more times than one. The great
Speaker 1: Don Shula Bumfields was talking about him. He said he
Speaker 1: can take his and his and and beat your, and
Speaker 1: he can take urn and beat his, and he could
Speaker 1: adapt and adjust to whatever he's got. If he's got
Speaker 1: you know, Larry zunc and Jim Kick, he's gonna run
Speaker 1: one style of offense. He has Dan Marino and Nate Moore,
Speaker 1: he's gonna run, you know, another style of offense. So
Speaker 1: you know, uh, you have to adjust, and the coaches
Speaker 1: have to find out what the players can and can't do,
Speaker 1: and the players have to really understand the expectations of
Speaker 1: the coaching staff um what they want out of them.
Speaker 1: And it does, it does take some time. I think.
Speaker 1: You know, if you'd won the Seattle game, I wonder
Speaker 1: if you know they'd be one and three or if
Speaker 1: they'd be two and two, three and one. You just
Speaker 1: never know. But the fact that they didn't get that
Speaker 1: one under their under their belt and then had that performance,
Speaker 1: you know, they played pretty well and then really struggle
Speaker 1: played pretty well in Buffalo or you know, recover really
Speaker 1: struggle in Pittsburgh. You know, how will they respond this
Speaker 1: one in Arizon? You don't like to have that pattern,
Speaker 1: know of up and down, up and down. All you
Speaker 1: hear players and coaches talk about in any sports consistency,
Speaker 1: and right now they're the model of inconsistency with these
Speaker 1: up and down performances. Individually and collectively, they've been very
Speaker 1: consistent with their inability to stop sideline to sideline misdirection
Speaker 1: type plays. Since the San Francisco game, teams are pulling
Speaker 1: out anything they have in their playbook that kind of
Speaker 1: fits that description. Are their fundamental flaws in the Bengals
Speaker 1: defensive personnel that makes it hard for them to stop
Speaker 1: those kinds of place. You know, I think everybody talks
Speaker 1: about trying to get people in space, and those kind
Speaker 1: of plays a lot of times will get people in space.
Speaker 1: And it was the darnest thing watching the Steeler game.
Speaker 1: They never stretched the defense vertically except for a couple
Speaker 1: of times, but they stretched them to death horizontally. They
Speaker 1: made them defend you know, fifty three and a half
Speaker 1: yards whatever. With the football fields, they had to defend
Speaker 1: every bit of it. And that's what that's what teams
Speaker 1: are doing. They're not they're stretching them more horizontally than
Speaker 1: they are vertically. Even in the passing game, you know,
Speaker 1: it's short throws to the to the perimeter, you know,
Speaker 1: horizontal stuff, play action screens, and I mean Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 1: I don't know what their average ball thrown past the
Speaker 1: line of scrimmage because more than half of them, I
Speaker 1: think we're either at or behind the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 1: I think their average attempt on however many throws they
Speaker 1: had in that football game, might have been five yards
Speaker 1: down the football field. The ball wasn't down the field
Speaker 1: very much, but man, they had stretched that defense out
Speaker 1: with motion, like you say, Dan, you know, jet sweeps
Speaker 1: and and then you know the shovel passes they were thrown.
Speaker 1: That's that's an extension of the running game. Instead of
Speaker 1: you know, handing the football off, you know, you're just
Speaker 1: letting it leave your hand for a yard to somebody
Speaker 1: else's possession. So um, you know, you look at it
Speaker 1: in Pittsburgh. Oh, they didn't really run the ball all
Speaker 1: that great. Well, you throw those shovel passes in there.
Speaker 1: They ran the ball pretty darn well. And it was
Speaker 1: amazing to me that Fickner decided even with as good
Speaker 1: an offensive line I have as I have in Connor
Speaker 1: and Samuels and we have to do it differently. I
Speaker 1: mean he abandoned all their power running game stuff that
Speaker 1: didn't done over the years and did all this trickeration stuff,
Speaker 1: so that that's going to be interesting. And you know,
Speaker 1: at some point they're gonna have to throw the football
Speaker 1: down the football field. They didn't have to do it
Speaker 1: Monday night, but at some point they're gonna have to, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, take the training wheels off Mason Rudolph and
Speaker 1: let them ride a two wheeler for a little while.
Speaker 1: Does any Bengals position group get a decent grade at
Speaker 1: this point? I mean, you know the game number one,
Speaker 1: you say, man, the defensive line. Wow. But you know
Speaker 1: they've got I think one sack in the last eight quarters.
Speaker 1: You know that that part of it. And it's not
Speaker 1: just sacks, it's tackle for loss. It's the consistent pressure
Speaker 1: that they put on Seattle, put on Seattle's running game,
Speaker 1: put on Seattle's passing game. You know that hasn't that
Speaker 1: hasn't really materialized since now there have been injuries. They
Speaker 1: have three guys down, you know, the last last couple
Speaker 1: of games, they've only get seven defensive linemen in the rotation.
Speaker 1: So they have been limping a little bit there. But
Speaker 1: you know, the linebacker group is the one that people
Speaker 1: attacking with these misdirections and making them run you know, uh,
Speaker 1: and getting them in space and trying to make them
Speaker 1: miss in space and those kinds of things. So, you know,
Speaker 1: the linebacker group, I don't know if you it's defensively,
Speaker 1: you know, I can't give any group wide. Receivers would
Speaker 1: probably be the closest group in my mind offensively the
Speaker 1: offensive line, and you just can't give them any kind
Speaker 1: of a passing grade after the Pittsburgh fiascou So, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's that's part of the problem is the reason
Speaker 1: they haven't won a football game. They don't have any
Speaker 1: position group that every single game has competed at, you know,
Speaker 1: the highest level that you have to compete at. Three
Speaker 1: touchdowns and eleven red zone trips for the season. That's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: What's the biggest problem in the red zone? You know,
Speaker 1: not not running the football. I think when when the
Speaker 1: field compresses, um, it's harder to find holes, you know,
Speaker 1: in coverage a lot of times, and you do have
Speaker 1: to have some sort of a presence in the running
Speaker 1: game to tighten the linebackers even more so to the
Speaker 1: line of scrims to create some kind of cavity, you know.
Speaker 1: And and right now, um, the linebackers aren't feeling like
Speaker 1: they have to creep up and crawl up there. So
Speaker 1: you know, they're just and then they're they're they're making mistakes,
Speaker 1: you know, they're they're having protection problems. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: they're just just not executing. Again, it's they're just sputtering, stammering. Um.
Speaker 1: They have not had one red zone possession that you know,
Speaker 1: say from the seventeen yard line. They ran three really
Speaker 1: good cris plays were like, wow, that was that was impressive.
Speaker 1: The three plays they ran inside the twenty there that
Speaker 1: led to that touchdown, you know, one set up another
Speaker 1: and they finished it off with this. It's just been
Speaker 1: so piecemeal and so like you know, and I know,
Speaker 1: they spend a lot of time on situational football. I mean,
Speaker 1: they spent a lot of time on red zone preparation.
Speaker 1: And last year the one thing they did do well
Speaker 1: is they were third in the NFL seventy one conversion
Speaker 1: percentage and touchdown on the red zone. Not so much
Speaker 1: to start off this season for sure, And and not
Speaker 1: only you know, not scoring touchdowns. Two of the three
Speaker 1: red zone possessions against Pittsburgh. Nothing Squad Douche. You know,
Speaker 1: you fumbled the ball in a sack they were covering,
Speaker 1: and thrown interception on fourth down from the twelve yardline
Speaker 1: I think it was or sixteen yardline, whatever it was.
Speaker 1: I mean, just trying to make a play. Those are
Speaker 1: those are desperation scenarios there. That's that's that's tough. Laugh.
Speaker 1: The Arizona card those are coming to town on Sunday.
Speaker 1: They were three and thirteen last year, earning the number
Speaker 1: one pick in the NFL Draft, and they used it
Speaker 1: on Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Kyler Murray out of Oklahoma.
Speaker 1: He has five ten that would have been unheard of
Speaker 1: a few years ago. What are the Bengals going to
Speaker 1: see from Kyler Murray and the Cardinals offense on Sunday? Well,
Speaker 1: I think five ten might be when he's on his
Speaker 1: tippy toes. I mean, he's a generous five to ten
Speaker 1: And hopefully what Kyler Murray is going to see from
Speaker 1: the Bengals, there's a lot of people in his space,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, that's what they have to do.
Speaker 1: His shotgun is a little bit deeper than most. He
Speaker 1: wants to get that separation, kind of like Russell Wilson
Speaker 1: that they have that longer shotgun deal in Seattle, and
Speaker 1: I think he's right now aspires to be where Russell
Speaker 1: Wilson is. I think Kyler Murray is even a little
Speaker 1: bit quicker than Russell Wilson. I'm not saying is clever
Speaker 1: at this stage of his career, but he has a
Speaker 1: very accurate thrown on him like Russell Wilson as well.
Speaker 1: So I think that the Bengals got a good dress
Speaker 1: rehearsal quote as such by how they contain Russell Wilson.
Speaker 1: But this is going to be a different looking offense
Speaker 1: than Seattle put out there. Cliff Kingsbury's going to run
Speaker 1: his air raid stuff that he did at Texas Tech,
Speaker 1: and it's going to have a lot more sizzle to it.
Speaker 1: It's not going to be lining up and say I'm
Speaker 1: going to out muscle you and you know I'm better
Speaker 1: than you. He's going to have some dipsy do to it.
Speaker 1: Because trickerations in missdirections killing the Bengals right now. Lap
Speaker 1: the Bengals allowed eight sacks on Monday Night in Pittsburgh,
Speaker 1: and now the Cardinals are coming to town on Sunday,
Speaker 1: featuring the duo of Chandler Jones and Terrell Suggs. Jones
Speaker 1: has had ten plus sacks each of the last four years.
Speaker 1: Terrell Suggs is about to turn thirty seven, but he
Speaker 1: still gets after the quarterback. He leads the Cardinals with
Speaker 1: three and a half so far this year. How did
Speaker 1: the Bengals neutralize the pass rush this week? Yeah, Sugs
Speaker 1: has three and a half, Jones has three. Pretty good
Speaker 1: out of that duo. And then don't sleep on a
Speaker 1: guy named Zach Allen, this kid from Boston College, third
Speaker 1: round guy. He brings it. He brings the pass rush
Speaker 1: as well. So yeah, the Bengals are going to have
Speaker 1: to do a much better job obviously in their one
Speaker 1: on one matchups than it did in Pittsburgh. I think
Speaker 1: the biggest way to neutralize the pass rush is to
Speaker 1: play with the lead. You know, you get down you
Speaker 1: know two three scores in the National Football League, and
Speaker 1: these guys are just pinning your air's back and no
Speaker 1: regard for the run whatsoever. I can tell you that
Speaker 1: is brutal to try to get done. You know, pass
Speaker 1: rush drill in practice when you're going one on one
Speaker 1: and they have all this space to operate in. That's
Speaker 1: what it feels like, you know, in a game, it
Speaker 1: feels like one on one pass rush. They have all
Speaker 1: the advantage. You really don't have any you know, maybe
Speaker 1: a drawer or a screen to maybe keep them off
Speaker 1: balance a little bit, but that is it's like trying
Speaker 1: to block a great player with one hand tied behind
Speaker 1: your back when you're in that situation. So you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to, you know, make sure that it is a
Speaker 1: competitive game or you're playing with a lead, because you
Speaker 1: don't want to be you know, a score or two
Speaker 1: behind trying to pass block these guys. It's it's it's
Speaker 1: danger written all over that last thing. I feel like
Speaker 1: we need to practice this because it's been a while.
Speaker 1: When the Bengals make the play that essentially clinches the win,
Speaker 1: I'm going to say coffin nails and you are going
Speaker 1: to say bam, bamm. Let's hope that lap is belting
Speaker 1: that out around four o'clock on Sunday. Now, time for
Speaker 1: this week's fun Facts Interview, where we get to know
Speaker 1: the person under the pads. This week, it's a tight end,
Speaker 1: who got a three year contract extension in the off season,
Speaker 1: earning him a lot of money and a second appearance
Speaker 1: on this segment. Time for an updated edition of fun
Speaker 1: Facts with Bengals tight end CJ Uzama. We did one
Speaker 1: of these your rookie year, and I asked you what
Speaker 1: CJ stands for, because it's not in your bio, it's
Speaker 1: not in your Wikipedia page. You told me Christopher James.
Speaker 1: But then also that your birth name is Christopher Michael
Speaker 1: Charles Timpson Junior. Before you were adopted by the Uzamas.
Speaker 1: When did they come into your life? So it was
Speaker 1: my step dad and he came into my life when
Speaker 1: I was seven and he's been my dad my entire life.
Speaker 1: I called him dad, So it was only right that, um,
Speaker 1: you know, I incorporated the last name and so you
Speaker 1: know my name and change my name up and kind
Speaker 1: of show him the respect that, you know, I think
Speaker 1: that he deserves. It seems like you are extremely close
Speaker 1: to your folks. You're an only child. I'm the father
Speaker 1: of an only child, so I kind of identify with
Speaker 1: what that's like. Yeah, it's for them, they probably want
Speaker 1: to be closer now, but yeah, I am close with them.
Speaker 1: I mean, I am their only kids, so they, I'm sure,
Speaker 1: like you, tried to keep their my best interests at heart,
Speaker 1: and I was just saying small things, sending me a
Speaker 1: text every day, so I am very close with them.
Speaker 1: For sure. You were a high school quarterback. Why did
Speaker 1: you switch to tight end? I think mainly colleges were
Speaker 1: going back and forth saying that I might play quarterback,
Speaker 1: but they might switch me. And Auburn came in and said, hey, look,
Speaker 1: we'd just going to be straight up with you. You're
Speaker 1: not going to play quarterback here. I just appreciated them
Speaker 1: being straightforward, and I knew that I wasn't the best
Speaker 1: quarterback per se, but I could be able to do
Speaker 1: other things, so I kind of switched positions and press
Speaker 1: as sister. I guess from then, did any big time
Speaker 1: schools recruit you as a quarterback? Northwestern, I know for
Speaker 1: sure said quarterback and that would be it, And it
Speaker 1: was cold, and so now I really appreciated that, and
Speaker 1: so I talked to them a little bit um and
Speaker 1: but I just kind of wanted to sit down South.
Speaker 1: The year before you got to Auburn, they won the
Speaker 1: national championship with Cam Newton at quarterback. You were being
Speaker 1: recruited that year. I assume did you attend games that
Speaker 1: year and did you have any interaction with Cam? So, actually,
Speaker 1: I had committed before that, so I went to every
Speaker 1: home game. I missed. I left early one game and
Speaker 1: it was when they were playing LSU. Other than that,
Speaker 1: I was at every home game. I got to witness
Speaker 1: all those amazing games, all those high schooling games. I
Speaker 1: got to watch Cam and it was awesome. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: I did get to meet them and kind of have
Speaker 1: a little relationship with him, and it was awesome. I mean,
Speaker 1: coming in I was like, dude, this is no way
Speaker 1: this guy plays quarterback. Is a dinosaur. That's what one
Speaker 1: of the coaches to calm dinosaur that don't make them
Speaker 1: like him anymore. So, um, now, I was honestly for
Speaker 1: a high school kid to be able to watch that.
Speaker 1: Coming into a college, I'm like, man, this is this
Speaker 1: is amazing, this is this is easy. We could do
Speaker 1: this every every year. So it was it was truly
Speaker 1: a unique experience. We're doing an updated round of fun
Speaker 1: Facts with c j Uzama. Your sophomore year at Auburn,
Speaker 1: you didn't win a game in the SEC and the
Speaker 1: coaching staff got whacked. The next year, you make it
Speaker 1: to the National Championship game. How was that possible? I
Speaker 1: think just you know, having a fresh mindset coming in, um,
Speaker 1: you know, you we have a whole new coaching staff,
Speaker 1: whole new strength and conditioning staff, whole new you know,
Speaker 1: we just kind of put everything beside us behind us
Speaker 1: and kind of came together as a team. It was
Speaker 1: a tied, a snit team that had that had my
Speaker 1: four years at Auburn, and the leaders really stepped up
Speaker 1: and kind of just propelled us and put us in
Speaker 1: a position to win games late in the game. But
Speaker 1: then you know also early on and doing our bubble
Speaker 1: drills and doing our two days and things like that.
Speaker 1: So it was really like the competitive edge of all right,
Speaker 1: we're not we we know what we went through last
Speaker 1: year and that's not going to ever happen ever again,
Speaker 1: Like we can't let that happen. So again. That was
Speaker 1: I mean, I think one of the biggest turnarounds in
Speaker 1: college football history of I can't imagine they're being a
Speaker 1: bigger one, but it was. That was sick. It was awesome.
Speaker 1: In that year, you played in one of the most
Speaker 1: memorable games in college football history, the Iron Bowl game
Speaker 1: against Alabama with a one hundred nine yard return of
Speaker 1: a miss field goal to win the game, the famous
Speaker 1: kick six. What are your most vivid memories of that day?
Speaker 1: Of that day? So it's crazy, actually, So I'm running
Speaker 1: on the field. I think I'm the only one who's
Speaker 1: running towards the pile, also looking back and looking back
Speaker 1: to make sures no penalties. Everyone else is just sprinting
Speaker 1: to this pile, and I'm like, wait, they're better not
Speaker 1: They're better than not. Be a blog him back a
Speaker 1: holding I'm looking back. I'm like, yes, get onto the pile.
Speaker 1: And I had hurt my shoulder that game, so I
Speaker 1: kind of get off immediately, like this is stupid. Get up.
Speaker 1: I start running back and I get to the you know,
Speaker 1: maybe the thirty five, and I see one of my
Speaker 1: high school teammates who played for Alabama, and so I
Speaker 1: gave him a lfe little hug, which was cool to
Speaker 1: be able to see him. And through all the madness,
Speaker 1: I look up and there's a wave of students and
Speaker 1: the only thing I'm thinking is there's no way I'm
Speaker 1: getting back to the locker room. I'm gonna be out
Speaker 1: here for the longest time, and people got stuck out there.
Speaker 1: Chris Davis ended up getting stuck out there for like
Speaker 1: an hour and a half. Like I made the return,
Speaker 1: guy who made the return could not get back. And
Speaker 1: through all the madness, I saw my roommate Tate O'Connor,
Speaker 1: who is I'm you know, I'm his son's godfather, which
Speaker 1: was awesome, and all this madness, and my other roommate,
Speaker 1: Trey Mason, the running back at the time, comes up
Speaker 1: hugs me, so we all three got a picture, which
Speaker 1: is probably the more memorable thing of that night, just
Speaker 1: because through all these eighty thousand people on the field,
Speaker 1: we on each other and got to get a picture.
Speaker 1: So it was it was awesome to me. One of
Speaker 1: the things that makes sports great is irrational sports hatred.
Speaker 1: How you feel about your rival. Do you have irrational
Speaker 1: sports hatred for Alabama? I have more so that towards Georgia.
Speaker 1: Being from Georgia, I I don't like Alabama, you know,
Speaker 1: like I But at the same time, I know so
Speaker 1: many of their players growing up and and and um,
Speaker 1: you know, even in high school we played against Alabama teams.
Speaker 1: Being from Georgia, we played against Georgia Alabama all the time.
Speaker 1: You know, my high school did, so I knew a
Speaker 1: lot of their players. But Georgia, I just growing up
Speaker 1: in Georgia. All I heard I went to north Wind
Speaker 1: that we were the Bulldogs. I saw a red, black
Speaker 1: and white and just bulldog all day every day, and
Speaker 1: I I, there is, there is, and it cannot I
Speaker 1: cannot describe it. So um, when we won uh the
Speaker 1: week before against you, to me, even though obviously the
Speaker 1: kicksakes most unbelievable play I think personally in college history,
Speaker 1: a week before to me meant more because I was like,
Speaker 1: I get to go home for the next year and
Speaker 1: I will not hear any Georgia fans say one word
Speaker 1: to me and I'm gonna love it. So yeah, Georgia
Speaker 1: to me is more irrational hate. Good to know you
Speaker 1: moved to Nashville in the off season, so you're about
Speaker 1: halfway between where you grew up and where you work
Speaker 1: now in Cincinnati obviously the home of the country music
Speaker 1: scene and a lot of music in general. Do you
Speaker 1: get into that kind of stuff when you're living in
Speaker 1: Nashville in the off season. I do a little bit.
Speaker 1: I like all music. I've I said don't like country music,
Speaker 1: but I listened to country music more than probably a
Speaker 1: lot of other people. I do enjoy it. I like
Speaker 1: going out. I don't really go to Broadway. Broadway is
Speaker 1: a very it's very hectic and crazy, but I like
Speaker 1: going to like more low key out of you know,
Speaker 1: just random spots where local music is being played. And
Speaker 1: I don't know a few people that are in the
Speaker 1: music industry, so we go to a lot of concerts
Speaker 1: and again it's more low key, it's not too crazy,
Speaker 1: not too hectic. I love it. I love music. Music
Speaker 1: to me is aside from football, family and God is
Speaker 1: my life. I think that it just changes my mood
Speaker 1: or helps my mood or whatever it is. There's something
Speaker 1: that music can bring it to my life. So I
Speaker 1: couldn't be happier that I moved to Nashville and have
Speaker 1: that influence. Last thing, you're a soccer fanatic. Chelsea is
Speaker 1: your team They won the Premier League title in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: My team Leicester City one in twenty sixteen. What is
Speaker 1: your Chelsea routine? Do you get together with supporters to
Speaker 1: watch matches when you can, do you put on the jersey?
Speaker 1: What is your routine. But I will say I watch
Speaker 1: almost every Chelsea match. It's kind of tough. There's a
Speaker 1: website that I use that no longer is working. So
Speaker 1: but I have two friends. One's name is DeAndre water Um.
Speaker 1: He went to Arrival High school of mine and work
Speaker 1: really close friends. And another kid went to Auburn with me.
Speaker 1: And we'll snapchat each other Wills. Wills and I will
Speaker 1: snapchat each other and white when the game begins. DeAndre
Speaker 1: and I will talk to each other after the match.
Speaker 1: And obviously I follow CHELSEAFC in the USA, so there's
Speaker 1: a Twitter that I follow that I kind of contact
Speaker 1: every now and then as well. And now I depends.
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't wear clothes something like a jersey,
Speaker 1: I should say sometimes because I start sweating. I don't
Speaker 1: want I don't want to sweat in my jersey. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a nice kid. I want to make sure it
Speaker 1: stays stays such, So um, I put on something else probably,
Speaker 1: but um, I'll sit down and there's no phones down
Speaker 1: unless they score, and then I'll tweet something maybe, but
Speaker 1: phones down and I am in it for forty five
Speaker 1: minutes or forty seven minutes at a time and nobody,
Speaker 1: my girlfriend, my parents. It does not matter what's going on.
Speaker 1: I'm blocked in to the match of the entire time.
Speaker 1: Have you made it there yet? I have not. I've
Speaker 1: not made it there yet. I'm going I'm playing after
Speaker 1: the season. Appreciate your time as always, best of luck.
Speaker 1: I always enjoy it. Thank you very much. We want
Speaker 1: to remind you that you can join us and meet
Speaker 1: Bengals players at our on location radio shows. This week.
Speaker 1: On Wednesday night from six to eight, will be at
Speaker 1: Logo Sports Bar at eighty nine fifty four Blue Ash
Speaker 1: Road for the Bengals Game Plan Show. An all time
Speaker 1: Bengals great will join us in the first hour as
Speaker 1: David Fulcher will be our on location guest. Then, on
Speaker 1: Friday afternoon from three to six, Lap and Wayne box
Speaker 1: Miller will be at Buffalo Wings and Rings in Crestview Hills,
Speaker 1: Kentucky for the Bengals pep Rally Show, with a current
Speaker 1: player joining in the final hour. That's going to do
Speaker 1: it for this episode of the podcast. If you haven't
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Speaker 1: find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thank you for
Speaker 1: listening to The Bengals Booth podcast m