Six nine in the Queen City of Cincinnati. Chicklag wigon seven hundred wl W. This is Sports Talk, a one hour sprint to seven o'clock tonight leading into the University of Cincinnati football at Oklahoma State. And what a night we have here in the Natty, and what a week it's been. We have FC Cincinnati hosting CF Montreal as we speak on Fan Appreciation Night at TQL Stadium. The
match can be heard on ESPN fifteen thirty. The Cincinnati Cyclones host the Wheeling Nailers with the puck dropping at seven thirty at the Heritage Bank Center.
But I want to go back forty eight hours to.
The Bengals thirty three to thirty one victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, and we bring in our good friend Mike Petralia of CLNS Media clnssince he dot com and the host of the Jungle Roar podcast. Mike, Happy sweetest day of your significant other, Debbie, How are you tonight?
That is very.
Lovely of you, and Debbie no doubt appreciates this. I'm sure she's listening, so I'm sure she's cackling, laughing and smiling, So I appreciate that let me also add I've never been introduced by the Raspberries bumper music so outstanding seven early seventies choice.
Thank you, absolutely fantastic. First off, how exciting was that game on Thursday night, Mike PETRELLI was? It was spectacular, It really was. It was well played.
Yes, there were a few penalties called chick, but you expect that on a short week when execution is not always at peak level. I would say, I think that's fair to say. But in terms of the offensive execution, it was great to see a gun slinging shootout for the final three quarters of that game. I must tell you early on I had my doubts ten to nothing Pittsburgh, and it felt like Pittsburgh was putting the Bengals in a meat grinder and kind of do the slow grind,
slow boil of the Bengals when that game started. But when the Bengals got the two runs from Chase Brown of twenty seven and thirty seven yards and started to pry open that Pittsburgh defensive line, eyebrows were raised and like, well, we haven't seen this before.
Really at all this year.
And when that started to happen and the Bengals started to get the short passing game going, and then Flacco found Jamar and t before halftime for touchdowns. I started to think to myself, well, now I think they have an offensive rhythm. And you know, the second half was just back and forth. Neither team could really stop each other in the third quarter, and then for the Bengals to give up the lead and then come right down the field and win the game. And you saw hetty
play from T Higgins. Kudos to Doug Rossveld, and I know Ted Kerris made mention in this to me after the game. They knew what they were doing situationally, and that's the reason they won the game.
They were able to kill.
Most of the remaining you know, minute and fifteen seconds, twenty seconds. When T Higgins made that sliding catch.
I've never been so happy.
Mike PETRELLI up to see Aaron Rodgers hook up with that tight end that kills the Bengals with two and a half minutes to go. I said, yeah, that hurts, but there's still plenty of time to go down and wipe out that wipe out that one one point lead.
Yeah.
And I had the same kind of feeling, chick that Pat Fryarmouth kills the Bengals two more touchdowns, both in the second half on Thursday night. I think he's had something like two hundred and twenty five two hundred and thirty yards against the Bengals in his last two seasons, and he's just been a Bengal killer. But when I looked up and saw whatever it was to eighteen to go in the game and thought to myself, well, Flacco
has an offensive rhythm behind him. This Bengal offense is finally playing with a degree of confidence and they only need a field goal. And Evan McPherson has his mojo back this season. That's another thing that I think kind of got lost on Thursday night. Evan McPherson was four for four and he's back to the form that he
was in twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two. But as soon as I saw that there was not much time left after the sixty eight yard touchdown pass, I thought, well, the Bengals definitely have a chance if they play this right, to kill out the clock and kick the field goal.
Mike Petralia with us following on Twitter at trags and loved your story on Clnssincy dot com Bengals beat for one night. Joe Flacco reignites the Bengals explosive offense. Now, Mike Petrellia, how can it continue for the rest of the season.
The offensive line needs to play the way they did. I mean, it's not going to be perfect for the rest of the year, but they need to play with physicality that was missing in the first five games of the season. There's no doubt for six games of the season, and there's no doubt that's why they struggled offensively in those games. And I think the other thing that needs to happen is they have to be committed to running
the football. If you can run the football effectively, doesn't mean you have to run it twenty five or thirty times a game. If you can run it effectively and with purpose fifteen to twenty maybe twenty two times a game. And give Joe Flacco the option of play action and he is maybe not Boomer a Sizin level, but he's pretty darn close in terms of his ability to sell play action pass. The Bengals are going to have a chance to really start to get their offense going, and
you're going up against the Jets and the Bears. Look, every team has a good defensive front, but those two teams are inconsistent. And I think with those two teams coming into pay Corps, you have a chance here to really get Flaco some offensive rhythm, get the defense. Well, they need to certainly work on some things during this mini buy and going into next week against the Jets.
But the thing that is going to get Flaco and the offense are allow it to continue what it did on Thursday night is the offensive line playing at the level it did Thursday night.
Totally agree Mike Petrellium. I can't the nickname Joe Cool is already taken by Joe Burrow. So love the Joe calm that the offensive coaches have labeled on Joe Flacco. Now, I will say that these two teams, the Steelers and the Bengals, they turned pay Course Stadium into Geriatric Park. That was just an unbelievable performance really by both quarterbacks. How much confidence does this give Joe Flacco and the Bengals.
It's a great point.
And by the way, may I add that Joe Cool, what Joe Flacco was Joe Cool originally? Just to be fair, It's just so we're actually and historically accurate here, chick. But the thing that I think we need to take from the two performances on Thursday night is that Aaron Rodgers was going to do what he did within the confines of throwing to his tight ends. He went deep a couple of times, but he loved the short passing game.
And I thought when we saw what Joe Flacco, yes, what Joe Flacco was able to do with Chase Brown and get the wide receivers open in space, you know, ten to fifteen yards down the field, the most important takeaway to me was if Flacco was not holding onto the ball. Joe Burrow is a gifted generational quarterback. He can read things before the snap that very few others that have ever played the game can do. And he can do it without a wristband. I mean, he has
just a photographic memory, there's no question about it. But he likes to hold on to the football, and he likes to hold onto it so he can see plays develop and wait till the last second. Joe Flacco is not that quarterback. He likes to one, two, maybe a third progression, but he's going to get rid of the ball and if he doesn't like what he sees. You saw it a couple of times Thursday night, He's going to throw it into the ground out of harm's way and live to play another down. And I think that's
the difference between the two. And everything went right for Flacco on Thursday night. And it's easy to say, well, why doesn't Joe Burrow get rid of the ball that fast? Well, it's not the way he plays the game. It's not the way he sees the game. So you know, before people, you know, jump the conclusions that you know, Joe Burrow needs to play the way Flaco plays. That's not realistic, and Zach Taylor doesn't want him doing that, but it is. It does show you that Flacco has the ability to
adjust his game and get rid of the ball. Most importantly, Chick activate the two most talented players on their offense, and that is Jamar Chase and t Higgins. Get the ball to them as quickly as possible and let them make plays up the field.
I can only imagine what Joe Flacco is thinking now that he's in Cincinnati for just over gosh, you know, coming up on just two weeks here. But to have those two guys and others tight ends, you know at his disposal in his arsenal. Gosh, finding the fountain of youth, man, it's awesome.
Well, well, you know what, I'll hope that fountain of youth youth is a couple of drops of Jamar Chase no pun intended. What other metaphor should I use?
A couple of.
Doses of Jamar Chase and T Higgins in that pond? Because if you have guys like that to throw the ball to which he did not have, uh in Cleveland, Uh, it's going to make you look that much better as a quarterback. And I think that's what Flacco and he acknowledged that after the game the other night. He has the ability to throw to two very very gifted receivers and put them in positions to make plays.
The front office has often taken a lot of heat with draft picks with the free agents coming in, but it's it's you mentioned it giving them credit for really scanning the you know, the entire NFL, who can help us the most and man to pull off that trade with Cleveland Browns, fans have to be absolutely up in arms. But to credit the front office because like you mentioned in your story. Flacco has something you can't teach, and that is a canon.
Arm, correct, And that is an arm that Joe I'm sorry, Zach Taylor was looking for to as he likes to say, and I've said this often, drive.
The ball downfield.
You want you not only want to get the ball to Jamar Chase, but you want to drive it vertically as much as possible, as much as the defense will allow you to do that.
Drive the ball up the field.
Uh so that uh Chase and t Higgins have momentum behind him when they catch the ball and have the ability to turn up field. Both of them have proven they can do that at the drop of a hat. And so that is tremendous. All you have to do to hear how upset Cleveland fans are is and personality sports radio personalities are in Cleveland has turned on the media up I seventy one and they are pretty outraged.
I don't know if there is outraged as Mike Tomlin was last Monday when he said, what are you doing, Andrew Berry? But Andrew Berry has to do what he feels is in his best interest and in the best interest of the Browns franchise going forward. And to be fair to Andrew Berry, Andrew Berry does not have Jamar, Chase and t Haiggins on his roster, and nor does he really have Chase Brown, and he doesn't have a
lot of speed weapons. The defense is terrific. The defense has lots of speed and playmakers, but the offense does not. And Jerry Judy is not what he should have been coming out of Alabama, and that's his best receiving option. And that's not going to make Joe Flacco turn into Tom Brady or Peyton Manning overnight.
So Andrew Berry had to take a look.
At what his roster was, pick up the best trading ship he could, and that was a fifth round pick, and move forward.
Unbelievable to think that Joe Flacco has thrown five touchdowns, no picks, in five hundred passing yards in two games in his first two starts with the Bengals, and like you mentioned in your story, hasn't happened before.
Ever.
When I read that, and I did some of my own research on that, I couldn't believe it. I mean, I was blown away that no quarterback over the course of the long the litany of quarterbacks that have played in the history of the National Football League. You would have figured some hot shot would have been that hot coming out in his first two starts. Not accurate, and it's never happened. I just think that's pretty amazing and good again for Joe Flacco. And you know, I don't
want people jumping off the bandwagon. If he has a bad quarter or a bad half kind of like he did in the first half against Green Bay. That can happen. But the important thing watching Joe Flacco is his ability not to put the ball in harm's way, and that was the fundamental problem with Jake Browning. He had six touchdown passes and he brought the team back in that critical win over Jacksonville, which could very much be proved to be a critical win towards the end of the
season if the Bengals are in it. He threw six touchdown passes, but he also threw eight interceptions, and that's not a ratio that any competitive contending team can live with at their starting quarterback position.
Mike Petrelli with us just for a couple more minutes, and you're absolutely right. The offensive line played its best game on Thursday night, got the running game going. The best friend for a quarterback and if that can continue, and if the defense can continue to improve and create turnovers, and that's how they've won.
You know, on defense, with the turnovers in their three victories.
Chick, they've got to be able to tackle better. They are one of the worst tackling teams in the National Football League. And combine that with they are one of the worst pass rush win rate teams in the NFL. In terms of defensively getting after the quarterback, that's disaster. And you saw what a quarterback like Aaron Rodgers that's going to do to you. He gave you two picks. One was a deflection. But again the Bengals made great plays.
DJ Turner's interception was clutch. I mean, I was a remarkable play.
On DK metcalf.
But you've got to be able to bring ball carriers to the ground.
They've done a poor job.
At the last couple of weeks, and that, unfortunately is a reminder of what got the Bengals into TRUP. In a lot of great portions, great segments of last year as well, they just didn't tackle well. And we thought, and I think early on that the Bengals had addressed that. But last couple of games they have allowed I think over three hundred yards and mistackled, miss tackles, and I think they've had something like thirty four miss tackles in the last two games.
That's got to be cleaned up one way or another by Al Golden, no doubt about that.
And gosh, I wish we had more time to talk baseball, because that's how good you have to be to get to the World Series, you know, facing the lost like the Los Angeles Dodgers, with the great season that Milwaukee had, They're gone in four games.
Just incredible. Mike.
I don't know about you, but Shohei Otani's performance last night has to be I'm not going to say it's the greatest, but certainly has to be in the discussion of top five performances all time, right up there with Reggie Jackson in Game six of the seventy seven World Series. That's what came to my mind anyway. But Reggie Jackson was not the winning picture, and he was not you know, in terms of great picture. He wasn't Roger Clemens in that game.
Was Reggie Jackson?
Last night, watching that game was like watching Reggie Jackson and Roger Clemens in the same game as the same player.
That's how great it was.
That's right. He may not be the greatest of all time, but it's sure. Don't take long to call roll. Didn't that right? Yes, Mike, fantastic stuff. Really appreciate your time tonight, All right, Chick, have a good one, you two. Mike Petralia. You can follow him on Twitter at trags, cl NS Media, CNS since eat dot com. It is a sports talk with your host, Chick luod We till seven o'clock tonight when you see rumbles with Oklahoma State and Stillwater on seven hundred WLW.
Six forty one in the Queen City of Cincinnati.
Chick Ludwig, seven hundred WLW, this is sports talk. We're going till seven o'clock and then University of Cincinnati football takes over these airwaves and the twenty fourth ranked Bearcats are bringing their five game winning streak, their five and one record three and zero in the Big Twelve. They're in Stillwater, Oklahoma to face the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Kickoff
is at eight o'clock tonight. And do we have the University of Cincinnati beat writer from the Cincinnati en Choir with us Scott Springer Scott, how are you tonight, chick.
I'm in the broadcast booth.
Man.
I came down and saw my friend Moe, and he hooked me up with a nice little connection here, so a little bit better than my cell phone there. But I always like coming to the broadcast booth. It's something that I did for fourteen years with these guys. Guys, and honestly, I always love coming to see Jim Kelly, and was talking with Moe not long ago. It's just surreal that he's not here. I'm so used to talking to him before a game, seeing him, hanging out with
him and all that. And I'm sure that the guys will talk about it during the broadcast, but Jim's really missed. It's a neat thing that you see is doing with their helmets today, the white helmets. They have the number seven on the back with the microphone logo. And I hope I don't have any say so, but I hope at some point in nipperd State you can seeing number seven with a microphone under the broadcast booth.
That is so true. Man, missing Jim Kelly Junior, no doubt. And on the broadcast tonight, of course, the voice of the UC Bearcats Stan hoard with Tony Pike and with Moeger looking forward to the broadcast tonight and Scott I find myself doing some scoreboard watching here Arizona State with in the final minute here the third quarter leads number seven Texas Tech sixteen to seven at Arizona State.
So Utah is at BYU tonight.
The number twenty three ranked Utes at the number fifteen rank Cougars, So man, there could be a little shaken up at the top of the Big Twelve standings here. This game is really important tonight for the UC Bearcats.
Well, it was important to begin with because this could be win number six, which makes you Bowl eligible. Now, that's not their goal, their long term goal. You walk into the Shafety Performance Center and every week they have three or four goals, but the last one is always get to Dallas, which technically Arlington, but Jerry's world, that's where the Big Twelve Championship game will be played, and that's December the sixth, on a Saturday.
That's their ultimate goal.
And if things like that happen, if Texas Tech gets knocked off, if you see takes care of business, if who knows what happens in the Holy War between Utah and BYU. That's probably where a game they should have been today, quite honestly. But that's a heck of a game. And I don't know. The Big twelve football is becoming as entertaining is VIC twelve basketball, and it's a neat league. It's I've told people to try to be patient because you were judging what happened here in the past from
the AAC. This is a much more difficult league. I'm not sure you know. And you can look at what Luke Fickle's done in Wisconsin, and Luke Fickle had great players here and those were great times, but I'm not sure those teams would have done as well in the Big Twelve. Certainly, some of those guys were pros, and they've got great reputations.
They've proved themselves.
But I think this league is a lot better than people realize.
No doubt.
Scott Springer with us from The Enquirer and Cincinnati dot Com of the opening lost in Nebraska twenty to seventeen, then Victory's over Bowling Green and Northwestern State, and then the Big Twelve Kansas, Ioways State and the Cyclones were ranked fourteenth at the time, and then UCF last week man a defensive struggle, twenty to eleven victory for the UC Bearcats. Now it's Oklahoma State team that's been down, that they've gotten rid of their coach, and man, this cannot be a trap game.
You see.
Has to come out strong early and try to put these guys away, punch.
Them in the mouth. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth, said Mike Tyson. He's a genius. I think, yeah, there may be some gamesmanship at quarterback. Sam Jackson, the fifth who was a wide receiver but played last week, is slated to start, but they put out their list injury list, you know, an hour and a half before game, and they've got Zane Flores as game time decision. So he was a kid that was questionable early. He was the starter early in the season,
so they could have two choices at quarterback. It might be a smoke sprain. It's hard to say, but that's something to look for tonight with if it's Zane Flora as a quarterback or Sam Jackson. Sam Jackson primarily ran, but he did throw. Okay, They've oddly had like eight different guys throw passes this year other quarterbacks. They got a dude playing quarterback for him that they pulled out a UCF that hadn't even played football for a year and he got into a game. But you know, it's homecoming.
Weather's nice here. It's gonna cool down later on. But like you said, you mentioned the word trap, and this could be if you let them have momentum. The key is not letting them have momentum. Jump out to the quick start, get things done early, and you know, get the running game going, which they had a little problem last week against UCF. That was such an odd game. But you know, you held UCF to eleven points, which was the least amount of points they've had since twenty fifteen.
And today they put forty five on West Virginia. So the defense played decent. You're going to need more defense tonight and hopefully a lot more offense. And you know, two years ago they're here against a really good team. It's ten to seven at halftime and then got out of control. Ollie Gordon's still running. Yeah, but dude, Carter Brown was the uc kicker, missed the twenty three yard field goal before or half, could have been ten to ten at halftime and then it winds up. I think
it was forty five thirteen. So certainly that was a nightmare on you know, on Elm Street or whatever street we're on here around boon Picking Stadium. But it was Halloween, it was wet, it was nasty. It's around the same time of year here. But this is a game that U see really had to take care of business. And from a pal Jim Kelly, I.
Hope they do.
Whenever you bring in, you know, new players, especially the wide receivers that you see has this year, you know there's gonna be some It's going to need time to get in sync with Brendan Soresby the quarterback. They seem to just be kidding better each week.
Yeah, and then you saw last week where they shut down Cyrus Allen, who kind of had been the go to We only got you know, one pass last week. But then Jeff Caldwell stepped up and made some plays there in the first half. And Caldwell's kind of a freak with his length and the jumping ability, and Caleb Goody can and burn guys. And you know the sad thing is you go back to that Nebraska game and had that pass been you know, if you led Caleb Goodie a little bit more on that, maybe that's a
touchdown and there's six and zero. But you don't get to go back in those things. You have to go on. But you're right. I think the receiving has been a lot better. I think Joe Royer is a thread every time he gets the ball, and the poor guys stumbled and missed a touchdown last week, and he nearly had a long one also, but I think he was disappointed he didn't get into the end zone. So maybe this is when he does.
Arizona State goes to the fourth quarter at home with a sixteen to seven lead over Texas Tech. This could be just monumental here and so gosh, scoreboard watching tonight, But what are some keys here tonight for UC to pull out this win over Oklahoma State?
Scott just obviously get him early, and you know, take the crowd out of it. This is a crowd that they've had parades and stuff. Eskimo Jo's is near so that they might be well fortified. So take them out of the game, send them home, send them back Eskimo Joes. They have great cheese, right, so maybe they can get
a halftime special or something like that. But yeah, you got to take the crowd out of the game and take care of business and and don't act like you know they're going to be jumping up and down if they do win and if you are Bowl eligible, but you know that's not the end goal. You want a better Bowl. You want eventually to be in the Big Twelve championship game. So you know, I'll give you Barry Sanders reference and s he's a former Oklahoma State player,
But to act like you've been there. You know, I've always always envied the way Barry Sanders scored touchdowns handed the.
Ref of the ball.
But just act like you do this every day, don't don't get all worked up about it.
Well, play with a victory tonight for the Bearcats, and just looking ahead at the schedule with Baylor coming in, anything's possible.
They've lost today. Yes, yeah, Baylor lost to TCU forty two thirty six. Watch some of that game and those are two teams that you see has to play that. You know, the schedule ahead is not necessarily easy. You got Baylor next week, you wind up the season at TCU, you go to Utah, November first, and then you've got BYU in there also, so you might as well take care of business now and then give yourself confidence for
those games coming up. But you know, they're undefeated at Nippert this year so far, so maybe they keep that going next week. The first things first, got to beat the Cowboys and Pistol Pete, that guy with the big head and he's kind of.
Oh yeah, seen him in a lot of college basketball games, in tournament games over in Indianapolis, no doubt. Well, Scott Man, thanks so much for taking time out here, and we'll be listening to the broadcast tonight with Dan Hoard and Tony Pike and Moeger, and we'll be reading you all your good tomes.
Well hopefully, and the broadcast should be excellent. Has always. Mo's been up here in show prep for some time.
Hey, appreciate it. Thank you so much, Scott Springer, appreciate you so yeah. All right, take care. It's UC and Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State is one in five overall, oh and three in the Big twelve. U se at five and one three and oh in the Big twelve, looking for their sixth straight victory.
We're taking a break we'll.
Come back and put a bow on this show before u SE takes on Oklahoma State. It's chick Ludwig seven hundred WLW six point.
Fifty six in the Queen City.
Chick Ludwigs seven hundred WLW. The Ohio State University, the number one ranked Buckeye shut out Wisconsin today at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, thirty four to nothing.
And with last night's Louisville.
Twenty four to twenty one upset victory at number two Miami, that opens the door for the Indiana who users to move up from number three to number two, with Indiana putting a thirty eight to thirteen Whoopin' today in Bloomington on the Michigan State Spartans.
How about that.
Two Big ten teams, Ohio State and Indiana one and two. Incredible And then Uce fans Man getting ready for tonight's game at Stillwater, Oklahoma against Oklahoma State.
Man.
Arizona State holds a nineteen to seven lead at home over Texas Tech, and the Red Raiders are six and oh three and oh in the Big Twelve, So a lot of movement at the top of the Big twelve standings tonight with number twenty three, Utah at number fifteen BYU. So a lot of scoreboard watching going on in the Big twelve.
Now.
Last night in Major League Baseball, the Los Angeles Dodger swept past the Milwaukee Brewers, winning five to one, and it was a performance for the ages by sho hey O Tani at the plate three for three with three home runs and he gets the victory pitching six innings, two hits, no runs, three walks, ten strikeouts, absolutely unbelievable. And then the Seattle Mariners with a six to two victory over the Toronto Blue Jays for a three games to two lead for the Seattle Mariners and former Red
au Haneo Suarez with two home runs. His second was a go ahead grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning, powering the Seattle Mariners to a six to two victory over Toronto. And in the postgame news conference, au Hanio with his daughters with him, man a very emotion postgame with his daughters Nicole and Melanie, he said, having days like this for me is very special. Emotion is always high. The crowd keeps us in the fight. They expect something good for us. I've been waiting for
games like this my whole career. Today I had it today. I had it in front of our crowd, in front of my family, my two daughters, my wife. The moment is very special right now. My emotion right now is very high. I feel so grateful that God gave me the ability to do something good for this city. Seattle really deserved this. It brought tears to the eyes of the media in the post game news conference.
Incredible.
Well, I appreciate all the loyal listeners out there, and next up is U see football with the Voice of the Bearcats, Dan Horde, Tony Pike, and your host of tonight's show, Moeger. It's all coming up on the Home of the Reds and the best Bengals coverage until next time. Chick Ludwig signing off on seven hundred WLW