Hey, to just stay up and watch it last night, to just stay up and see it. The Bengals win. Oh my goodness, how many times have we been able to say that this year? I'll tell you four. Joe Burrow was back and everything seemed right in the world. Everything seemed as it was supposed to be. The bizarro world that we have been living in for the last two and a half three months. The bizarro world has gone and now we are back on stolid t Era firma.
That's one game. I know, it's one game, and it was a matchup that probably came into four to two at his time for the Bengals Division opponent, a Ravens team that has been basically gasping on offense, and the Bengals pull out a thirty two to fourteen win. And it was Joe Burrow's return from two and a half almost three months of toe's surgery, and he and Chase not one hundred percent on that field last night, but you could just see it's going to be there sooner
than later. And now there's hope. I don't know if it's a false hope. All I know is this, if Pittsburgh loses this week, you got Pittsburgh at six and six, Baltimore at six and six, and the Bengals at four and eight. Very doable, very doable at that point, two games back with five games to go. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's spend some time reveling in what went down last night in the thirty two fourteen
win over the Baltimore Ravens. Standing by the way in as someone who knows more about football has forgotten more about football than most of us know, someone who chronicles it on a daily basis, several times on a daily basis for cbssports dot Com. It's our great friend from up near Columbus, Brian Diardo. How are you on this glorious Friday.
I'm doing good, Cat. I think the only person doing better than me today has to be Al Golden. Right, we can all agree on that.
I want to talk about Burrow, and I want to get into what happened in the comeback and all the excitement about that. But I'm glad you're going to start with defense. A couple of things about this defense. One, they took the ball away. I mean, you take the ball away as many times as they did last night. Odds are you're going to win the game. But I went back and I did a little math. I did a little, you know, a little research on this beyond maybe what showed up today in the box score or
maybe what we saw last night. So the way I've got it is the Ravens had the ball thirteen times. Thirteen times last night, Brian six drives started with no yards or less on first down. You put a team on its heels on first down, you're not only going to win the game, you're going to win that series. And that's what they did. Six of the thirteen times that Baltimore had the ball, they got zero yards or less on first down. And I think that was huge last night.
No, I entirely agree, and that I'm sure is a huge reason why they were three of ten on possession downs.
Because you and that's an old saying. I think the old Bill's.
Defensive coordinator they're going to all the Super Bowls in the ninety would always say, you went on third down, then you kicked bleep on third down. Bengals one first down, and they certainly did kick bleep on third down as well. But no, you're right, and you know they they really took advantage of the Bengals deficient or the Ravens deficiencies on offense. And that's what any any good, you know, coordinator does, right, They look at the weaknesses of the
opposition and you look to exploit it. And I think we can all agree that that lamar Is is really physically compromised. He seems like he's on the injury report with something new every week. I think this would get it was it was a foot or toe injury, so he's not going to run as much. And they absolutely exploited that. And and the Ravens really never made the
necessary adjustments. And you know, I was doing a little bit of notes this morning too, and this doesn't have anything to do with the defense, but I didn't want to.
Say one thing.
It was interesting, you know, And I'm sure everybody watching yesterday saw all the the honoring of John Madden, who loved Thanksgiving was such an integral part of this day. The final score last night of the game Bengals Ravens was the score of John Madden's won Super Bowl win with the Raiders way back in nineteen seventy seven, thirty two to fourteen. So thought that was kind of interesting, but Yeah, Ken, that defense has been coming for a
while and they showed it last night. That two historic.
Things they did they do last night.
First time Lamars had three turnovers in four years and the first time the Ravens put the ball on the ground four times since two thousand and seven. So that was the first time ever in the John Harbaugh era they have been that bad taking care of the football.
Yeah, that was two thousand and seven, was a game against the Bengals. Look at Brian. I'm going back to the second drive that the Ravens had in the first quarter. This is with about four fifty to go in the first quarter. The next in these ensuing drivesmbule punt, fumble, punt, fumble, end of half. First drive in the third quarter punt, then they score a touchdown, and then they end the game interception, downs, fumbles, end of the game. If that's not a stemied offense, I have no idea what it
would be. Now. I was looking at at Lamar Jackson last night. He is reticent to run. It's not the same Lamar Jackson we saw when he was completely healthy. But I think the other thing that absolutely mesmerized or lobotomized him was the packages that Al Golden put together. Look, Golden is still I think, in this town to a large extent, under the gun, but it seems like he has kind of paired that defense down a little bit, not grind to do too much, not trying to get
intricate in anything. Some of those are I mean, some of those are good zero blitzes, some of those are good stunts up front. All that's happening now, but it just doesn't seem to be, shall we say, confusing the players as much as it did in the first half of this season. What has he done that you can see that maybe has made this a less complicated defense to grasp?
Oh, I think you nailed it.
And I think and Jason Garrett said it on the broadcast last night, that that they're they're simplifying things. And again, you know, that's something that Tony Dungey said a very long time ago when his Colts defense and OH six was struggling and they asked him, you know you're going to add in more to try to help because no, if anything, we're going to take away things from them
to simplify things. So I think he is he has done that, And I think one thing too, he's And this is I think one of the reasons why lou Anna Rumo lost his job was the development of the younger players, and that might be one of the reasons why that that he ultimately benched Logan Wilson and and why they ultimately you know, traded him was because we let's get development from the younger players. Case in point,
Demetrius Knight, who they they drafted. And now with obviously Wilson being traded, he's and Jermaine Pratt being released, He's going to come up and play more. Had the interception, the big interception last night, and then he's developing. You know, guys like dak Still, who I thought, can that breakup on that deep path late in the game and it was still a two possession game.
That is not a turnover.
That was a massive play and he didn't give up on the play too. That was the catch all the way. And it was his arm that dis watched the ball was not a drop. So you know, they're getting really good play from younger players. And Joseph Osai right, every time I see him, can I think of that heartbreaking moment against Joe Burrow in the AC Championship game a few years ago, he has two sacks. Last night he's getting a turkey legs as one of the players of
the game. So I think he's getting a lot out of the underdeveloped players that haven't maybe reached fruition yet as far as their talent level. And he's simplifying things, which is making them react faster. And again, a lot of times it just comes down to, you know, putting your players in position to take advantage of the weaknesses on the other side of the of the ball. And they also they're not giving up on plays either. The fight in this team, and I do think that Al
Golden has a lot to say in that. You know, they gave up some popcorn plays, the twenty eight yard run by Henry early, the big play by Henry at the end of the third quarter. They never let it add up and multiply it. It was never the domino. They would fight continuously, and I think that was a huge reason for their success.
Let's talk about Burrow. I mean, you can't understate what he did in an attempt to come back early from surgery. As he liked to say, for mere mortals, it's three months and we'll figure out where we are, he said for me, I just knew I was going to be back sooner than that, and he came back. Now, you look at his line last night, and you know, twenty four completions, forty six attempts to sixty one in yards, two touchdowns. Here's the important thing. He wasn't sacked but
once in this game. So if you look at that, and you look at Joe Burrow as a player, say, well, those are pedestrian numbers, There's really not a whole lot you know that would stand out from that. Accept accept he threw the ball forty six times last night. Forty six times last night. For a guy coming off toe surgery to be able to drop back or work out of the gun or avoid the rush to throw forty six times to me is amazing. This team looked so
much more comfortable. No, this is not a slap at Flacco. Flacco energized this town and kept his team as best he could have flown. But that team just looked so much more energized and focused last night. It was almost like Daddy's home, you know, and all of a sudden it took on the look of what it's supposed to take on you can't. There's so many different levels of what Burrow brings to this team, but certainly that energy I think is right up there with anything he did
last night statistically. A little bit about that, because everybody looked like they were on top of their game last night because he was back.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. One other thing is super quick on the defense. They're also just tackling better, right, which is a simple thing to do, but it seems like they've improved in tackling. But I will say, ken, I think the only time myself eating last night is when I saw that on the TV. At one point he had forty two pass attempts. I was and here's the other thing too, on twenty one completions, that's fifty. To your point, he was playing so much better than
his numbers would indicate. And I dare to say last night was probably the most impressed I've ever been watching Joe Burrow play football. And I think I've seen all of his regular season games, in all of his final games the last year at LSU, it may have been the most impressive given how long it's been since he's played. Given you know, he started practicing what you know two
weeks ago on a limited capacity. And I know this, This Ravens defense isn't the Steel Curtain, but like it's still a formidable defense with a good secondary that's continuously gotten better, and he shredded them. And to your point, it was the way he he led the offense, the way, like you said, Daddy's home, everybody's on top of their game, the Christmas of the offense. And yeah, he throws were a little bit off earlier in the game, but that's
obviously to be expected. But and that's why a lot of times you can't just look at the box score to define how a performance you know, had he had gone. Anybody that watched that game last night was including myself obviously I was blown away. And that touchdown passed to Yoshiv Ostrich, I think was kind of the Kaffer of the game, you know, and the play that kind of punched it. You cannot throw a football better than that, And the line was great, his pocket presence was great.
And then also the sneak on fourth and one after they didn't score early in the game when they had ann in goal situation, that also I think showed the toughness of him and hey, I've got this foot, I've got the play itover.
But I'm still a football player.
But yeah, I mean the movement was great, the Christmas was great, you know, and not having T Higgins again, you know, they didn't have him, and you know p Ryan and the complimentary running game that he had with Chase Brown. It was it was a really cool thing to see. Was the best offensive performance I've seen from them in a very long time.
Nine different players caught passes from Joe Burrow last night, distributing the ball very well. We're chatting with Briandardo cbssports dot Com. In the NFL, it's always what's next, and this is kind of like a mini buy. They don't play again until a week from Sunday at Buffalo. But I was, you know, I'm scoping out remaining schedules here and I think nine and eight is still in play to win this division. Certainly after last night for the Bengals,
it's still nine to eight. I'm looking at the road ahead. Let's just take the big three Bengals, Baltimore, Pittsburgh. Baltimore has got a rough road. I mean, they get Pittsburgh next week in Baltimore. That's always I mean that's hand to hand combat right there. Then they have to come here. Then they go home and play maybe the best team in the AFC, the Patriots. Then they've got to go on the road and play a Green Bay team that looked terrific last night, and then they finished the season
at Pittsburgh. I don't like to handicap how many wins are left in those games, those five games that they have, but I'm telling you, compared to what Pittsburgh plays and compared to what the Bengals play, that's the roughest of the three roads. And if that offense doesn't get back on track for John Harbaugh, Baltimore may find itself not winning the division. It could conceivably finish third in the division.
Your thoughts, Yeah, I don't think they're they will make the playoffs given their their current trajectory and not taking anything away from the winning streak they just had, but they weren't facing murderers row And now the hard part of the schedules you allude to, it's coming up. I hope that their remaining schedule, the winning percentage is sixty percent. The Bengals is forty one, the Steelers is forty seven,
so they clearly have the hardest road ahead. And and to your point, I think obviously these Steeler games for them, they're of the division games obviously for them are huge. They win those three games, they could get smashed by the Patriots and the Packers, and and they're gonna, I would say, win the division. They beat those three teams, they finished with nine wins, they'll have the division. But yeah, I mean, those those games are obviously going to be
the games determinate for them. But just beyond that, if Lamar Jackson is not healthy and isn't running, and that receiving corps isn't stepping up for him, and that defense isn't isn't getting better, this team isn't isn't going to go anywhere.
So yeah, don't.
I don't think they will go as far as far as making the playoffs. I do think they'll probably finish somewhere in the eight win category. But but yeah, I mean, and I think the other big thing too, Ken, I mean, they barely used Derrick Henry last night. Sixty yards on ten carries, but half of that was basically on one carry, had the forty five yard catch and run. But they
don't have a complimentary back from anymore. Justice Hill and Gus Edwards used to do a lot of work for them in the running game to complement Henry and they don't have that anymore. So they're missing that element of a run. And you saw it last night with the Bengals. They were not afraid of Lamar Jackson running. Was the last time you ever heard anybody say that. So until they get those things fixed, I think that they could backselight here in the last five games of the season.
Now look at at Pittsburgh. You know, it's funny Buffalo made control who wins the AFC North Pittsburgh has got Buffalo at home on Sunday. Buffalo isn't the Buffalo of years gone by. They've got some real holes on that team. But it'll be interesting to see how Mike Tomlin's team comes out on Sunday. And who's a quarterback is obviously you know, the other issue there for them. But then they go to Baltimore Miami. You know, it looks like a layup, but who knows. And then at Detroit tough,
at Cleveland always tough, finished with the Ravens. That is a really difficult schedule, and you compared to what the Bengals have left. They're at the Bills, they've played, you know, traditionally, they've played well at Buffalo. They got the Bills, and they're back home against Baltimore. We'll see where Baltimore's had is that at that point. The last three games honestly, they look like layups at Miami, against Arizona here and then against Cleveland here. So yeah, I think the Bengals
have a pathway to nine wins. I think I think the I think Buffalo controls whether or not they get to nine, And obviously I think it is a large say in whether or not Pittsburgh gets to nine wins. But you know, who knows how these play these games play out. But I'll tell you this, as of this morning, compared to yesterday morning, at least the ray of sunshine is a little bit brighter here. Could you foresee a scenario of Cincinnati winning the AFC.
North, Yeah, especially if they get through these next two games. Bill's Ravens then to your point, Yeah, I mean Bill's in some ways kind of control potentially who wins the North. But they get through these two games, and they have three games left against you know, teams with four, three and three wins respectively. There's no way I can see them losing those games. Now, here's kind of the wildcard. And this is the name that everybody's been talking about
all year, Chaduere Sanders. So the Bagels play him week eighteen, and the Steelers play them late in the season as well. I think Week seventeen in Cleveland they just won. And that defense with Miles Garrett, he's gonna break the stack record this season, They've gotten a lot better. That defense has been good all year. So I'm not drinking the
Sanders kool aid. But there is the kind of that wildcard there of you know, what is he going to bring this Browns team that's been missing, and so that could be kind of they also, I think, are gonna have to say and who wins this division? But I will say, yeah, I think for the Bengals, these next two weeks are are imperative. You win these games, you're potentially in the driver's seat and the game to your point. With the Steelers, Aaron Rodgers at that cast, he's going
to try to play this weekend. But yeah, neither neither of these teams are trending this is such a winnable division as long as Bengals can get through these next two games.
Well, Brian Diardo, you have helped keep hope alive here in the Queens City. I think last night kept hope alive for everybody. We're at Leeds who knows. It just feels good to be able to talk about a win after every single day after game here for the last couple of months has been like Dresden. Now at least there's a ray of sunshine out there, and we thank you for helping us apply to sunblock this morning. You stay well. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and
we'll visit down the road. Brian, stay well, you as well.
Ken.
Thank you, Ryandardo cbssports dot com. I'm not ready to annoy anything. I'm not ready to say anything except that it's still got life. Nine twenty seven on this Friday, Good morning and good luck if you're out there trying to get Black Friday deals at any of these department stores. It's not as crazy as it used to be because of the Internet, but I imagine it's a frenzy. On news radio seven hundred w WELW. Whatever you do if
you go to a John Mellencamp concert. Make sure you sing the right words or John will stop the show and chastise you. I saw that happen at the Aradoff Center a couple of years ago. Yes, actually that I saw him again at well yeah, Riverbend two summers ago. It was Mellencamp opened and he was phenomenal. I mean, his band was tight, and he looked like he was having a good time. A lot of times he's on stage,
he doesn't look like he's having a good time. He was having a good time and looked good, looked in great shape. Bob Dylan came out after him. We were sitting six rows back and I couldn't tell you six words that Bob Dylan sang or said in that show. It's just a different Bobdoe on these days. And then it was Willie Nelson. And of course, if you can see Willie Nelson at any age, and I would suggest seeing him quickly, it's a fun show.
But there you go.
A little Jack and Diane on the show today. So how did this alleged assassin, this Afghan get into our country and shoot these two National guards men one woman, one man in Washington, d C. How did he get in and why was he in? And was anybody vetted when they had that catastrophic invasion of our country under Joe Biden. We'll get into that at ten oh six. Also getting laid off. It is going to happen, and it's going to happen a lot more in twenty twenty
six than it did in twenty twenty five. It just will. AI is beginning to sink its teeth into a lot of jobs, and it might be your job. But some companies are we out. Instead of bringing you into an office and telling you how much she meant to the company and thanking you for your service and giving you some sort of check, some money to get you through the next couple of months, which will be tough, this
would be life imitating art. Virtual layoffs. In other words, you sit down in front of a computer and you watch somebody at the other end of the computer tell you your services are no longer needed. Do you remember that movie with George Clooney in it about fifteen years ago called Up in the Air? Promise in the movie is he flies all over the country and just basically
lays people off. He's a hatchet man for a Corporate America, and he teams with, not teams with he has an affair with, but he teems and has this affair with a woman who is doing the same thing, but she's doing it virtually. One person is in a room, she's in another room. They never meet. Well, listen, it's life imitating art and it may bite you. How to know
what it might be happening. We'll get into that. And then if you're out shopping today, know that you are not spending as much money this year as you spent last year. You may think I'm gonna pretty much know there is now hard evidence that Black Friday is not going to be like Black Fridays of years gone by, and what does that mean for retail? And finally, the game is tomorrow Michigan Ohio State. The one team standing in front of Ohio State and an L perfecto regular
season is the Michigan Wolverines. This is a thorn in the side of Ryan Day. This is a big thorn in the side of Ryan Day, and he's going to have to overcome it tomorrow. He pulled it off last year, you know, he lost and then he won the College Football Playoff Championship. But if you don't beat Michigan, and the boys downtown, as they say, are not happy that
and a UC game tomorrow against TCU. If they get to eight wins, I think they get to a decent bowl, and not a bowl game where they have to play on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day all that before we're done. So this game last night, I'm watching it and I'm trying to stay calm. I don't try to get too high too low when things, you know, get get off
the rails. And I'm watching Burrow and I'm watching this guy, and I can't believe with each ensuing snap that this guy had major surgery on his foot less than three months ago, and he's out there running all over the field, throwing the ball downfield, spreading the ball to nine different receivers fourty six times twenty four of forty six, two sixty one. So after the game, during the scrum with the media, he was asked to great himself. Here's what he had to say.
You know, I thought second half, I started to put it more where I wanted and settled in a little bit. Certainly missed him throws early that I typically make. But you know, after that, I felt felt pretty comfortable back there. I thought the on line did great, We ran it well. Obviously defense played great, So I'm just gonna keep getting better.
Yeah, that's the thing. Last night was just the appetizer, and it was good that he had his buddy with him. You know, Jamar Chase. You know the old line that Burrow had all cleaned it up for radio. You know, with all else fails, just throw it up there, Jamar. Somewhere fourteen targets for Chase last night. Chase with seven catches one hundred and ten yards, that's about sixteen yards a catch. Didn't catch one in the end zone. Asked after the game, Degrade, how Joe.
Did overall feel like we could have capitalized a lot more. I'm pretty sure he could say the same, but I said, think he did a good job of just keeping him a minum going with he had opportunities to keep it going and Captain Roizen on those situation for the offense.
Late third quarter, late third quarter. This is a nineteen fourteen game, Bengals by six twenty nine yards out Burrow to andre Yosi Vash that was with about fifteen seconds to go in the third quarter. Made the finals, made the score twenty six to fourteen, even though that was a twelve point lead. With the way the Ravens were so an apt on offense last night, largely due to the Bengals defense, I thought that was pretty much ballgame.
And as Burrow grated himself last night, he said afterwards, it was that particular pass where he thought he was at his best.
That touched on to Yoshi. I felt pretty good about it. Was put it right where I wanted it. Didn't exactly spend it the way I wanted it, but that's all right. I put it, put in a good spot, and you know he was ready for the look.
Bowen was down cover.
Yeah, it felt good. And the other thing that I you got to look at, and I'm not trying to downplay Burrow coming back, but look at the field position they had all night. And this again is largely because of the defense. I mean, the worst field position that they had last night was their own twenty yard line. Their own twenty yard line, they were getting the ball out near the forty consistently all game, forty seventy yard line after an interception, forty eight after downs, thirty nine
after a punt. So when Zach was asked about Joe last night, he said.
Our defense gave us the ability to do that. Our defense gave him and our offense a chance to really settle in and find our rhythm to really explore there in the second half. And so Joe's done such a great job handling as rehab, handling, the preparation for this game gave us a lot of confidence. And then to go there and be able to play on the road in difficult circumstances, I thought was awesome.
All right, So as you might expect in the other locker room, it was a completely different story the Ravens just they were inept on offense, and again a lot of it was due to the Bengals defense. Harbaugh said, what the Bengals did defensively was not anything that they did not expect. But you have your quarterback who was intercepted once, you have four fumbles and you lose all of them, and your quarterback is responsible for three of them.
So you might imagine what John Harbaugh felt like after the game with all of those turnovers.
It's just one of those kind of games. I mean, we had a bad game with that. You know, we did not protect the football. It's not good. You know, it's it's on me. I'm a coach, you know, and my job is to make it clearity of the guys. That's not okay. You know, you put the ball away. You protected football. That's how it's done. And you know, you catch it, you put it away, you finish that, you finish the run, You do whatever you got to do to protect the football because that's job one. I mean,
that's that's what wins and loses games. Our guys know that. Everybody knows it, and it's my responsibility to make sure they understand that. And then we practice it that way every single day and it carries over to the game.
Yeah, but they've had problems protecting the football in Baltimore, I'm kind of historically. I mean, Derrick Henry has had problems protecting the ball. He didn't finish, he didn't fumble last night. And another thing, this goes back to what I was talking about with Yardo. Twelve times the Ravens got the ball last night. They got the ball last night in twelve was twelve or thirteen thirteen times? Thirteen times they got the ball last night. Six six drives
started with zero or fewer yards. You put a team in the hole on first down, chance says, ay you're winning on third down. The turnovers were bad, but a lot of it was because I think of this relentless pressure that they put on Lamar Jackson. You can almost tell that Jackson wasn't expecting it. You know, Harbaugh said, yes, we knew about it and all that. Of course, that's what a coach is going to say. He's not going to say you didn't see that coming and make him
look like a dummy. But it was just relentable, and Joseph Osai in particular was absolutely outstanding. You know, you wait for games like this and you hope that this becomes a consistency thing with him. But Osi last night four tackles, three solo, two sacks, two FuMB tackles for loss. He hit the quarterback, he hit Jackson four times, and he fought forced to fumble. Even he was crowing about the turnovers. Yeah, exactly, exactly, And it only takes one.
Everybody knows when it comes to the football, they come in a bunch of it only takes one.
And that's exactly what happened today.
And that's just giving the younger.
Guys hope to keep working at it, keep working other things.
You know that the top secure of the punch that tip.
Get your knnds up.
If you're not getting it to the rest, get.
Your hands up.
You can tip a past change the games.
And that's exactly what happened. So it's good to see for third, that's exactly what happened. And Lamar Jackson looked like a shell of himself. He's not right. I can tell you he's not right. He's not running as strongly as he is run in the past. And now he's got a toe problem. Now he's had an ongoing knee problem, just getting over a hamstring problem. But you look at his line seventeen to thirty two two hundred and forty six yards. Three times, he was sacked three times, he
gave the ball up and he was intercepted once. I mean literally, it looked like it was his first day in a football uniform yesterday. So here he was after the game.
I can't describe the level of frustration. You know, I'm ticked off. You know, it's not even fuss with them his mac like I said, okay, have to it turned over a bit part of winning losing games and turning the ball over giving them an extra possession.
This is the outcome. That was the outcome, and now it's on the Buffalo a week from Sunday. They have beaten Buffalo up there, regardless of weather. Buffalo is not the Buffalo of what we remember. They've lost some games this year and have looked poorly doing it. Josh Allen has looked suspect in several games this year. Buffalo is still a good team, don't get me wrong. And Buffalo has got to go to Pittsburgh this week and then
play the Bengals a week from Sunday. Buffalo is going to have a very large hand as to who wins the AFC North. But the Bengals now are four and eight. There are three and one inside the division, four and four inside the conference. Does nine wins win that division? If if Pittsburgh wins on Sunday, I think nine wins won't do it. I think Pittsburgh can get I think Pittsburgh can get the ten wins if they win on Sunday, because they played Miami, they played Cleveland, and they played
the Ravens twice. But Pittsburgh is a shaky team too, as we know, as for the Bengals, you know, I mean it's winning, move on, Just win and move on. It's just one more game. That's what Zach Panter had to say.
We're just gonna keep fighting one week at a time.
I know.
We got Buffalo ten days from now. That's our focus. We just try to control that. Don't worry about the big picture right now. Just keep taking one game at a time. This is the exact position we were in last year, you know, and so unfortunately we've been here. We know how to dig our way out of it, and that's what's going to take.
We'll see if they had lost last night, different conversation. But they win, it's still very much a possibility. Probability, maybe not possibility. Yes, Baltimore's schedule is ridiculously tough. They go to Pittsburgh a week from Sunday, then they're out here a week after that. Then they go home and play the best team at least at this point in the AFC, maybe the NFL, the Patriots. Then they got to finish the season at Green Bay and at Pittsburgh. Meanwhile,
the Bengals bill's next Baltimore here at Miami. Miamy's playing better, but that should be a win home against Arizona. They've already started to warm up the cars for the end of the season. And then here against Cleveland could be Shadoor Sanders probably will be, will be Miles Garrett. It won't be a layup. But you would think if they get by the next two, they're in pretty darn good shape in a division that is not as strong as everyone thought it would be. But all you got to
do is just win it. It is coming up on nine four. How did that alleged assassin from Afghanistan get and stay in this country? And how many more are running around this country just like him? Who do we blame for that? And how do we fix it? It is nine fifty five. It is Friday, ken Brew for Scott Sloan News Radio seven hundred WLW Black Friday. You're
out and about with the masses. Good luck. We feared this was coming when Joe Biden opened the borders and let anybody into this country, not just from the southern borders, but airlifts from Afghanistan. We feared that a lot of the people that came into this country were not here to say, let's just say, integrate themselves into the American Way and try to become good Sidney Sins. There was no vetting the southern border was invaded, all under the auspices of Joe Biden and his band of merry men
that presided over this country for four years. And then of course there was the airlived from Afghanistan, when there was just that absolutely horrific, tragic and embarrassing pull out from a country that we have been involved with militarily and financially, and from at least on a certain level, trying to tamp down terrorism over the course of the last forty years. And now we've seen what might have
been a fallout of that. Two National Guardsmen on duty for our country in Washington, DC were shot on Wednesday night. One Sarah bectram A Bekstrum of West Virginia, has died and the man accused of attache Bekskrum and another guardsman was identified as a twenty nine year old Afghan by the name of Rama Noula La Khanwall. He was taken
in to custody after the attack. He apparently drove from Washington State cross country to Washington, DC with the intent of shooting and killing Americans in the uniform and in this case National guardsman, he used the three point fifty seven Smith and Wesson revolver and quite frankly, who didn't see this coming? Now? Of course, the Democrats who hate Trump and everything is Trump's fault. If a dog takes a dump on your front lawn and the owner doesn't
clean it up, they blame Donald Trump. They're saying, well, wait a minute, wait a minute now, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, right, Joe Biden let him in the country. But forget about that for a second. Donald Trump and his administration greater than asylum, great of this person asylum and all these other Afghans that are in this country running around God knows where, thinking about God knows doing what it was. It was Donald Trump who gave them asylum. Really is
the story here? And is there someone to blame? And if it is, let's find out. Andrew Arthur is someone who is well esteemed, well versed in all things immigration. He writes for the Center for Immigration Studies CIS dot Org is where you can find his work, as well as others that are just absolutely terrific in chronicling what has happened to this country from an illegal immigration standpoint.
Over the last five years, and he's kind enough to carve out some of his time to be with us here today on seven hundred WLWWN Andrew Arthur, how are you on this glorious Friday.
Get I'm doing great. I wish we had a better topic to talk about. I wish we were talking about Ohio State versus Michigan. But unfortunately we're not.
We are not, Andrew, we are not all right. So look, we all saw the retreat from Afghanistan. It happened very early in Joe Biden's administration. Thirteen brave Americans were killed. They were brought back to Dover. That's how they arrived back in the country. Biden stood there looking at his watch trying to figure out how long it was until ice cream. And that happened very early in his administration. I want to say, August of twenty twenty one, and
now here we have on that airlift. We have a lot of people that were in Afghanistan that were just shoved into airplanes sent to this country, admittedly not vetted with in person interviews. That was an admission by may Orcus, who expertly presided over the demise of DHS over the last four years. And here we have what happened today.
Whose fault is it that this guy that had gotten down to National guardsmen in Washington, d C. This twenty nine year old Rama Nula la Conwell, Whose fault is it that he is in this country?
Well, Ken, you have to go back to the beginning. You have to go back to September eleventh. The reason that we were in Afghanistan was because Osama bin Laden was sheltered by the Taliban, by the religious fundamentalists who had taken over the country of Afghanistan. We went into Afghanistan and we allied with certain groups that were opposed to Taliban there and you know, by and large we managed to drive the Taliban out of Kabul, out of the major cities, but we never really had control of
the country. Again, we you know, allied with certain groups that were in that country, and you know, purportedly those
individuals were vetted. But if you remember a phrase that was common at the time, green on blue attacks, those were attacked by our purported Afghan allies who had purportedly been vetted, who you know, then attacked NATO forces, including American forces in the Hindu Kush and those were, you know, rather me your black eyes for the Department of Defense at the time, who were supposed to be doing all this setting Now, the vetting that you could do in
Afghanistan is only as good as the information that.
You have, and well, given the.
Parloist nature of Afghanistan since the nineteen eighties, there really was a lot of good information to go on, which is how we had those green on blue attacks. But nonetheless we began giving out visas special immigrant thesas to you know, Afghans who had served in the United States.
That brings us up to August to twenty twenty one, the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, when one hundred and twenty four thousand people putting six thousand United States citizens but under twenty four thousand, largely in vetted people were packed onto I think it was c. Seventeens and flown out of Kamid Karzai Airport. We'd actually abandoned our own airport
at that time in Afghanistan. So they were flown to what were called lily pads in the Middle East and in Europe, and vetting was supposed to take place, you know, before any of those people were sent on to what were called safe.
Havens in the United States.
The problem, as the Department of Defense Inspector General found in February of twenty twenty two, was that half of those people, the ones who were vetted by DHS not DoD, weren't actually thoroughly vetted. They weren't thoroughly vetted against DoD resources, and those people had already been released into the United States. Now, mister lockanal actually did you know? He was eligible for one of those special immigrant pieces, but he didn't get it.
That's a rather lengthy process. So instead of that, he applied for asylum in the United States and he was granted that in April. The problem, again, Ken, is that vetting is only as good as the.
Information that you have available.
And with respects to you know, a lot of those people, I can't tell you how many, because we're never going to know. We really don't have the ability to vet any of them, and you know.
We don't really know the background.
We don't really know whether they were with the towel ban or whether they were pro American.
This particular event hits very.
Close to home for me because the Farragut West Metro where this shooting took place is actually the one that I take when I go to my office on Key Street in Washington, DC. Very familiar with it and I always say hey to the to the National Guardsmen who are there, and I thanked him for being there, and you know, I'm more grateful now. I don't think that, you know, and again we're it's going to take us a while to figure this out. I don't necessarily think that he just meant to.
Kill National guardsmen.
That's a very busy metro and it's the one that serves the White House.
Well, okay, but he did, and although he came, he was although six thousand I think what you said were United States citizens that were on those planes that carried one hundred and thirty four thousand people out From what I'm from what I'm reading here, people were just being shoved into planes. There was no vetting. Then they went to these lily pads, as you mentioned, and they were all over Europe and some of them wound up here in the United States. So the Conwall dude was running around.
Nobody knew who he was. From what we were we're being told he was living in Squalor in Bellingham, Washington. There were no beds in the place. They were sleeping on floors. And the family that he brought over here with, and there were certainly a large number of people who are Afghan nationals that fought alongside the United States servicemen to try and preserve some order of peace in Afghanistan.
But by and large, this was an ideology of the Biden administration to just let anybody in and here come the Afghans. You know, well, you know, the Chinese and the Venezuelans and the Colombians are coming through the southern border. That's taken care of. Now let's get some Afghans over here. So he's running around the country doing god knows what he's in this country, and I believe you said in
April he was granted asylum. Now the Democrats are arguing that this is Trump's fault, that it was the Trump administration that granted him asylum. Trump is saying, well, wait a minute. I mean, the laws are structured the way they are. We had no choice, you can't find it. We had to give him asylum. So at some point the finger pointing has to intersect. And I'm hearing two different arguments here. So if Biden led him into the country.
Is Trump responsible for letting him stay inside the country? How does that work? Andrew?
Yeah, no, absolutely not.
You know, to be granted asylum, all you have to do is show well founded fear and well, if you served in any capacity with the United States, it's fair to say that the Taliban is probably going to harm you. But simply because you've been granted asylum doesn't mean you've been vetted. And those immigration judges, and remember I was one, they're relying upon the information that the government presents, and the government is relying upon the information that our intelligence
agencies present. And you know, I don't want to sound good about a situation in which you know, one person was wounded, one died, but that vetting process truly is a garbage in, garbage out process. If we don't know anything about these people, if we know the attacks have taken place on our servicemen in Afghanistan, and then we you know, load people higgleby Piggley and apparently you know, Biden had given the order he wanted those planes overloaded.
We didn't.
We weren't able to vet those people when we were bringing them out. You can remember the pictures, you know, This was a patchwork process, and it was one again that you know, not yesterday. Back in February of twenty twenty two, the Department of Defense Inspector General was warning that this was a danger to the United States. And I think that the Trump administration has taken the right
move here at this time. It's not really closing the barn door, but it's identifying that you've got a problem you need to resolve. Yeah, they want to loading down all of those asylum applications right now until we can get better information or move those folks someplace out.
Well, they want the the president wants to revet some people that weren't vetted in the first place. They want us to revent who's in this country. You're you're going to go ahead and find it was one hundred and thirty six thousand, less eight thousand that worked for the government, and maybe another two thousand, let's let's be more generous, there maybe another five thousand that fought side by side
with Americans. So if you're going to go ahead and try and find one hundred and twenty thousand Afghans that are in this country, some of whom may be here to do harm, some of whom may be here just to assimilate into society. Who knows he's not going to be able to do that, is he He's not going to be able to rout all these people up, is he?
No?
But the one thing that he can do is stop the process at this point, prevent them from getting permanent status in the United States. And you know, it's important to note en there's a lot of untapped DoD intelligence that we had. If there was an ied we would pick up fingerprints from it. There was intelligence that we had received on the ground. We spent trillions with the key in Afghanistan, and that's you know, probably one of the most shameful situations that came out of all of this.
But we do have information. It's now up to the Director of National Intelligence to you know, shepherd all of that information together, to take it from the various three letter agencies, and to you know, compile it for every person that comes across. Some of those people can are not going to be able to resettle in this country.
We will end up having to move them out. But compare this, contrast this to the way that this you know that a program like this would normally happen we wouldn't put these people on planes and fly them to the United States. We would send them to refugee camps that we would pay for in countries.
Like Pakistan, you know, which is a nominal ally of the United States.
And it's only at that point that we would actually, you know, go through that vetting process on the ground close to where all of this happened. We're going to be relying upon a lot of our allies in the region to give us additional information. We're also going to be relying upon a lot of our allies in the region to take these people, to put them into refugee camps so that they can be properly processed. Don't be surprised that that's not the next stage of this, of
this entire scheme that the President is crafting. And you know, I insistate that there will be a more fulsome vetting, and I got a feeling that we're going to find some pretty bad actors as a result of that point.
I think, I think you're right, and you're right when you said a couple of minutes ago, garbage in, garbage out on vetting. Where do you go to find information on a farmer who was in the hills of Afghanistan and nobody knows who the hell he is, and now all of a sudden he's running around the United States of America because he was airlifted here. I mean, the information on a lot of these guys and women have to be pretty sketchy at best.
Right, Yeah, absolutely, especially when you're talking about Afghans, because you know, you have a date of birth, and that is a marker that will follow you for the rest of your life when you talk about Afghanistan. And I've seen you know, keep in mind, I used to, you know, head up the National Security Law Division at the I and S. A lot of these people don't actually have dates of birth like you and I do. Their date of birth is January one, you know, because the year that you were born.
Is your birthday.
And so you know, we our ability to know anything about those people is difficult.
They can change their names very easily.
And you know, the Taliban isn't giving us any information out of Afghanistan today, So we are wholly relying upon the information that we gathered when we were on the ground. We're relying upon the information that our allies in the region, you know, are going to be giving us. But yeah, I mean this, this truly is one of those situations where you're looking for a black book in the middle of the night.
In a lot of these cases, Andrew Arthur, We're we are going to pay for what happened in the last five years with regards to what Biden did to this country in terms of who got in and no vetting and an open Southern board. We're going we are going to pay for this for decades. And it's not going to be every day. It just has to be one day every so often. And unfortunately that one day was in was in this week on Wednesday for those two
National guardsmen. I can't you and I have talked enough over the last few years to know that we're in a situation right now in this country. We've got to find out who people are and in the why they're here, what they want to do, and in the process we have to not only work around judges, we have to work around local officials like mayors and governors who don't want that kind of information out and want to keep these people here and are working not in concert with
the United States but against the United States. This is this is going to be a laborious, difficult process. I think Andrew that's going to take decad aid. Would you agree we lost Andrew? Okay, nevertheless, that's how I feel it will be. I hope I'm wrong. US Attorney General Pambondy said yesterday on Thanksgiving they will seek the death penalty for this rama. Noula Lachuanal, who is the alleged gunman in the shooting. One of the guardsmen, Sarah Beckstrom
of West Virginia, has already died. The other is in critical condition. His name is Andrew Wolf. She's going to seek the death penalty in the US District Court of Washington, d C. To Pambondi, I say good luck getting that, but at least you have to pursue it. It is ten twenty six on this Friday, news radio seven hundred WYLW got scared for a moment. I thought that was a readout of some ekg I was taking welcome back seven hundred well w ken Brew for Scott Sloan on
this day after Thanksgiving. But you are with us. I don't say that capriciously because without you, who would I be? I would be simply one man sitting in a room babbling to himself incoherently, Why would I have to leave home to do that eleven o'clock. If you're out shopping today, know this not just you, but everyone else spending less on Black Friday this year. And why, Well, I guess the easy answer is the economy. But we'll attempt to dive deeper into the wise coming up at eleven oh six.
It's never an easy day when you are laid off or fired, just isn't. In fact, it's probably one of the worst days in your life. You would like to think that it's not an easy thing for the person who is doing the laying off for firing, but they will have a job at the end of the day and you will not. But there's one way to deal with it that would be at least you, and another way to deal with it that is increasingly becoming more popular and less humane, and that is virtually laying off
or firing somebody. Amazon is an example. Amazon began laying off fourteen thousand employees last month, and a lot of the people who were being laid off learned of their fate by a text or perhaps a zoom call telling them that their services are no longer needed. Now The idea, of course, for the company is to communicate the bad news as quickly as possible, but it does seem a little inhumane to do it the way Amazon is doing it.
It is really life imitating art. Remember that movie back in two thousand and nine, I think it starred George Clooney called Up in the Air. He was basically a corporate hatchman, and he would hatchet man, and he would fly from city to city doing the dirty work that people in the C suite did not want to do. And it eventually came a part of the plot where it was being done by conference call, not even a
face to face meeting. Anyway. Amazon has had some problems with this, glitches and zoom calls and things like that, and it leads one to wonder, why don't you just have the compassion and offer the dignity of telling someone face to face that their services are no longer needed. Someone else who's wondering about this is my next guest.
He is John Bowerman. He is the co founder of Stealth Consulting, and he has written books about this, including one that was geared towards his children to help them understand what the big bad cruel world is like when you go out there, the book is, You're not lost, You're just starting. As we start our interview today with John Bowerman, how are you on this glorious Friday.
Yeah, I'm doing good.
Yeah, I'm glad you're with us here. Look, I'm sure you saw the movie back in two thousand and nine right up in the air. George Clooney was in it, and it was a movie built around the same topic where companies just virtually fire employees. They don't do it face to face. They do it either by a conference call or whatever it may be. When did we get to be so impersonal about telling somebody that their services are no longer needed.
I know, as soon as we tipped over the edge of.
Describing easy as efficiency, unfortunately, you know, unfortunately had to let go several hundred people, and over the course of a few decades. There's several different companies and in each one still I believe that you have to show up and treat people as human and even if that process only takes sixty to ninety seconds, you still owe it to the people at your.
Company as opposed to efficiency. Sometimes easy is efficient, as you well know. But this seems like the coward's way out to do this. You're right, these are people that have real lives and real people depending on them, and the network that goes out from those other people extends ad infinitums. So I'm just easy can be efficient delineate the two if you could?
For us, absolutely, And it's also very short sighted because in the short term it feels like, well, okay, we're going.
To be able to virtually.
Eliminate even if it was one hundred positions, and instead of having to have ten minute phone call set up, we're just going to send it.
Out in mass.
And what's really shortsighted about that is two things.
One is your reputation.
So if you are if someone has a great experience, they're going to tell one other person, if they have a awful experience, they're going to tell one hundred. So you're looking at just what is this, how is this going to affect one hundred people, and not thinking about how's this going to affect one hundred times one hundred people is one and two, what you're doing is also
opening up the door for very costly problems. So people we look at technology today as it never goes wrong, I've seen it numerous times, especially in these kind of circumstances where the wrong people get on the list, and now all of a sudden is you're opening yourself up to potentially losing great people that you never intended to in the first place, all in the name of efficiency.
That doesn't happen when you're showing up in person.
How prevalent is this? This virtual these virtual firings or layoffs. And I'm reading where Amazon laid off like fourteen thousand employees last month, and some learned of their faith by a text message telling them to consult their inboxes, which is pretty danged to cold. But I'm just are are more companies than not doing this? And I would guess
it would be larger companies. It would be hard. I would think for somebody that has maybe one hundred employees to do this, I mean they could, but it certainly would ramp it through that company and probably lead to a lot of other people leaving on their own. But these bigger companies, how prevalent is this, these these virtual firings in virtual layoffs.
Typically you only see this in large enterprises. I think in your medium, medium to small business you would rarely see a virtual laugh.
But you know people are But I see.
That shift happening where it's will become more common occurrence the smaller and smaller the company. And here's the excuse that's being put out there is that, well, this is what the next generation prefers. The next generation would prefer not to have a phone call, would prefer not to
be on camera, and so that represents the justification. All we're doing is giving the people what they prefer, and that is a you know, unfortunately, is a really misguided excuse, because no one prefers that one of the most pivotal moments in their in their life, uh to not be treated uh that is if they matter, and it should. It should correlate with the expectation that they've had every day.
Maybe they've been there for a year or two years and they've been expected to show up every day and this one very uh pivotal.
Moment you need to be able to show up for them.
Yeah.
It's a chicken crap way to end unemployment, it really is. I mean, it just shows it's cutlass, is what it is. And if you don't want that C suite position, then don't take the difficult things that come along with it, and the difficult things are always keeping the investors or
the board or whatever happy. You You have to create a workplace environment if you want people to buy in, to create an environment where they buy in and they're not constantly worried about whether or not they're they're going to have a job. But I'm going to offer something here, John, I don't even know if it's it comes out the way I wanted to. But we have become a less personal society since the invention of personal technology, whether it be Twitter, whether it be emails, whether it be i Ams,
whatever it may be. And the younger as as we become younger in the corner suite, we become populated in that corner suite, and therefore in middle management with younger people who grew up on two hundred and eighty characters as opposed to face to face meetings, for using a phone simply to text, as opposed to talk. And I'm just wondering if this isn't all a product of just where we are as a society. What do you think?
Yeah, that's interesting because in many ways it's contradictory. So we are, you know, we're past the age of industrialization. We're living now in the age of authenticity. People want authenticity more than ever. We don't want to see the stock photo. We want to see what we're really going to get. You see the emergence of craft versus mass production,
and it's what people want. They want the real thing this and while technology enables that, owing virtual on things like this really goes against what people are really craving, which is connection and authenticity.
We're you know, we're.
More connected and feel less connected more than ever.
You said something a couple of minutes ago. One of the one of the things that you said that that really stuck out with me is that when you have a bad experience, whether it's at work, whether it's at a restaurant, department store, wherever it may be, if you have a bad experience, you won't be shy about telling other people. If you have a good experience, chances are you're not going to tell anybody. You'll just have that experience, say hey, that was nice at all.
Leave.
If you have a company that is doing these kinds of things, and I'm not talking about you know, the companies that employ a million people worldwide or wherever, not not the Amazon dot coms of the world, but just the the companies that might have an employee base of one hundred one hundretten fifty two hundred people. You start doing something like this, not only will it create the unrest inside your company, but true to try and attract
good people to come and work or replace them. But whenever you're ramping up for more business, the work will be out on the streets. It's kind of it's kind of counterintuitive.
Is it not? Absolutely?
And I would venture to say there's probably a lot of companies that are doing virtual layoffs and they would send you a pamphlet on their core.
Values and it probably includes words like.
Integrity and people first, and you know, we're a family and in all of that, and then you know, this is the behavior that is actually projected unbelievable.
You're with Stealth Consulting. You started Stealth Consulting? What is that? What are are these some of the things you consult companies on.
Absolutely a past Life grew a very large digital agency and we were focused on large scale growth, exited that that industry and wanted to get a little more hands on with companies and so self was a way that we could do that to bring in fractional marketing teams to companies versus trying to go out and find.
That unicorn that's going to do everything.
And that's a that's allowed me to get, you know, real hands on with multiple C suite executive teams where behavior and decisions really need to start, you know, because there's a there's a lot of misguided perception that well, we can expect differently from the team than they can expect of us. And one of the big things we go in and do is shift that perception.
Yeah, absolutely, I mean, what what's all you know? Do as I say, not as I do? And it's you know, I've always found that to be interesting, particularly in the line of work I'm in, because it's it's not only
not always the most well run organization. You know, there's a lot of people out there that just get ascended through the ranks to management and then all of a sudden, because they were great at sales or some other niche part of the business, all of a sudden, here you go, there's your promotion and the man or the woman is sitting there and it's like, well, now that I'm here, what the hell do I do? I guess. I guess. The observation leads to a question, can you teach management?
I mean, if somebody doesn't really have great management skills, can you really teach management to anybody? Because this is what we're talking about here. I think, anyways, how you treat employees, how you manage those employees to get the most out of them so that the company becomes profitable.
But I think I think you probably would find too A lot of people just get promoted so the company doesn't lose someone they view valuable, but yet they get promoted to a position where they have no business being I think that happens a lot, don't you.
Absolutely, And it's you know what I would what I would inform people of it's a cover in the book, not lot you're just starting. Is that really everyone, even if you work for a company. So there's a big misconception around entrepreneurship that to be an entrepreneur you have to start a business. And my belief is that everyone in the world should show up like an entrepreneur. And what that means is that you're the CEO of yourself. So Ken is the CEO of the Keen Company. And
even if Ken works for another company. You show up as if the company you work for is one of
your clients. And when you look at your employer like a client, then you know that guess what I could that client I could lose at any time, And so you're better prepared for any moment, even if it's a virtual layoff that Okay, I've got a backup plan and I'm looking out, I'm going to negotiate on behalf of myself, and you just approach approach the world differently, and you're in a better position to have to have to change paths.
And as I was considering that for my kids, was that in helping coach them as to you.
Know, what should they go to college? What what career should they pursue?
In all likelihood, with the world that's ahead, they might have to change that a dozen times and they need to be prepared for that.
Yeah. Again, the book is You're not lost, You're just starting, and it's available on Amazon dot com. If indeed Amazon has enough employees to get it to you, that's true, that's a conundrum. You've got a great book. You gotta hope Amazon doesn't lay off as many people as they say they're going to. John Bowerman. It's it's been enlightening. We appreciate it. Stay well, yours is a voice that needs to be heard, and hopefully we can visit down the road.
Thanks all right, appreciate it again, Thank you.
Yeah, Amazon will see. But again, if you know, I know I'm preaching to the choir, but if you run a business and you have to let somebody go, do it face to face. And if if it's a cascading number of people, you have to let go. So that's why you employ managers that work for you face to face, not an email, not a zoom call. I mean, come on, what are we doing here? It is ten fifty six already on this black Friday, and we press on next. On seven hundred WLW, it is eleven ten on this
Friday morning. I am ken Brew for Scott Sloan. Top of the hour. Mike Allen is in. Take it right up till three o'clock this afternoon here on seven hundred WLW. If you're anywhere near the Kenwood Town Center, my condolences. It is absolutely going to be a frenzy inside that place today. Any shopping mall anywhere in America, it's not quite what it used to be. Because the majority of shopping in this country is done online, Cyber Monday always
tends to overshadow Black Friday. But there is still a large contingent of us, and I include myself that when I buy something, I really want to see it. If it's clothing, I want to try it on and see if it fits. I don't want to have to have it sent to my door. Up doesn't fit, Now, I got to go take it back, even though they'll take it back. And still, I mean, you got that hassle.
But it's not like it was even ten years ago in these big box stores where you could go in and find exactly what you want on the rack, try it on, it works, Okay, I'm buying it. I'm leaving. And we also know that tomorrow is what do they call it, small Business Saturday, which I think is important to a lot of the mom and pop stores need your business as well, and maybe there you can actually tangibly see something that you want to buy and then
physically buy it there. But whether we're shopping online or shopping in a store itself, apparently we're not spending as much money this year as we have in years past. There is new data out from Deloitte. It's surveyed shoppers and they say they plan to spend four percent less than last year between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, that would be this this weekend. Why will the higher cost of living fear the economy is not on the right track.
In fact, consumers making more than I'm sorry, less than fifty thousand dollars a year are expected to spend twelve percent less than last year. That's according to the business service Deloitte. Shoppers making an excess of two hundred thousand dollars a year say they're going to cut back almost twenty percent, and sixty nine percent of the people that were surveyed by the University of Michigan say they expect unemployment to increase over the next year twice the percentage
from a year ago. Well, AI is here, and it will cut into jobs and certainly starting was already started, but certainly starting in full force in twenty twenty six. Bottom line, we're not spending as much money for holiday gifts Christmas honekah, whatever it may be as we did eight years past. So that's bad for the economy as a whole. But really, and truly, why is there no
confidence in where the economy is. It seems to be doing just well if you're in some sort of four oh one K Wall Street has outperformed my gosh, it's outperformed its own expectations for this year and has for most of the last five or six years. But what's the problem here? Standing by the way in is Ron Glasgow. He is a financial strategist heads up Glasgow Investment Solutions. He started in the financial business about twenty five years ago.
He was in the United States Marine Corps. He's a veteran, which and we love veterans, but I thought his thoughts might be pretty good on this because we've had Ron on the show before and it's great to have him back. And Ron Glasgow, how are you on this glorious Friday?
Ah?
Very good, Thank you.
I appreciate you ever be on that.
Well, I'm glad you're here. Look, we hear this every year that the spending is going to be less than what it was the year before. It seems to be a warning signal every November when Thanksgiving rolls around, and I'm just wondering, most years it's not that way. Do you sense it will? Be this way this.
Year, you know, I really do you know it's Deloitte just did a big study. It shows that for the first time, there's twenty twenty one people's planning to spid less during the holidays than they do they have in previous years. But more than that, it's kind of being involved in the markets that in society in general, you can.
Just sort of feel the pinch.
To me, it feels an awful lot like a jack in the box, and every quarter that goes by, where we have the markets at all time highs with really you know, lacking underlying fundamentals.
It's that jack that it feels like that lever gets tightened a quarter term, as you know, the Jack Visley comes out of the box.
Yeah, it does. And I just we could just pause right there and talk about that, because I think it's interesting. Everybody talks about Wall Street and Main Street and Wall Street's doing well. I mean, you look at the down now compared to where it was in twenty twenty, and it's it's almost double, And I understand it. Just it's just a very few stocks that control the Dow. But the S and P is strong. NASDAK has been strong,
but that's great if you're invested. If you're not invested, if you're just somebody living paycheck to paycheck and try to buy food and gas and shelter your family. It's not translating there at this point, is it.
No, it's really hard.
You know, I go for very modestly, and I had a steel mill town in the Midwest, so you know, I still go back and I still try to try to stay with my ear to the street, as as they say, but it's it's really difficult. I think inflation has kind of been cast aside by the media, you know. I know I did a segment a month ago where everybody was happy because inflation came in at three percent or three point one as a stock market hit at
all time high that day. You know, that's insane that one point one percent would make a difference on a quarterly report and your everyday people don't really care about that. You know.
The thing becomes to mind.
To me, as silly as it seems, is we're that jingle five dollars foot long subway.
You know, I just stopped it.
I had to have my old chain, so it was a subway next joy, I stopped to have once a couple of weeks ago, and the cheapest sub on the menu was the Vega sub at ten dollars and twenty cents. So I don't know where that that commercial stopped running, but I know nobody did come as doubled since it stops allowed.
Inflation is tricky. Look, we know it was a disaster under Biden. They spent, spent, spent, and it just kept rising rising, rising three percent right now compared to where it was under Biden. Looks pretty good. But inflation is compounded, right, It's not like it's three percent, it's it's three percent over what it was last year, and last year, the
year before and the year before that. So it's when when you hear these numbers, all inflation's at three percent, well, yeah, that's better than where it was with Biden, but it's still compounded over what we had the year before.
Right, correct, And that's that's the thing.
I think.
It's Boston translation a lot.
You know, yes, lash is under control now, which is great, but we're not rewinding the clock.
So those those price reyseets that.
Are at all time highs for a lot of industries, they're still there and growing yout three percent instead of a nine or whatever crazy percentage there was under our last administration.
So why Okay? So then the basic question is I'm not an economist, but the basic question is that, okay, then why don't these companies bring their prices back down to where they were what inflation was two point nine three percent and not compound it out to where it is right now? Is it because it's corporate greed? Are we talking about corporate greed here?
You know, I think I think that you can make an argument for an element of that, But no. I mean, if one company will say, whatever business you're is that you're a furniture manufacturer, and you've decided, hey, I'm going to bring prices back down, well it's almost impossible because you've got to buy wood and fabric and everything to make their furniture. So all those companies would have to bring it down at the same time. You'd have to sort of have a reverse positive collusion, which is very
difficult to do. And you know, again, what's that jack kind of out of the box is out, it's hard to put it back in.
See something else here. In this report about holiday spending, PayPal found that half of the shoppers planned to use the old buy now, pay later services. In other words, kick the can down the road. Financially, that's just you're you're asking for a tsunami at some point if you buy now and pay later. It's not necessarily the best strategy. What would you do if someone asked you, hey, should I buy something now? And you know I'll worry about paying it off in April, May or June next year.
No, you know, there are very few things where I think it makes sense to take a loan at which is essentially what.
You're doing here.
You know, if you're buying a car, you're buying a home, or buy a college.
Education to an extent does make sense.
But this is my Christmas present.
It doesn't make sense at all.
And then you know that's part of the problem.
In today's economy. You could have the access to quick money very easily.
You know.
When I grew up, I remember we had something similar. It was called leile. You went and got it. If you want the store cup, you paid it off onlee until you can pick it up. So that was actually a better system. He took us out and get what you wanted with a tuble place above online.
Yeah, I you know, you're right. It is taking it is you know, comparable to taking out a loans just to buy Christmas presents. And nobody wants to, you know, nobody wants to be the granch Everybody wants to have
a present. So maybe if these numbers are right where you sided the Deloitte survey which said shoppers planned to spend four percent less than last year, and then as you as you as you break it down from an economic standpoint, people making less than fifty twelve percent less over two hundred thousand less than eighteen percent, This is not good news obviously for retail and even places like Amazon, which seems to be all over the place with its trucks and its its orders in this day and age.
So it looks like maybe some of these big box stores, and unfortunately, maybe some of these mom and pop shops are going to take it really hard this Christmas.
Yeah, I think I think so, And you know, I think you said it best for different mom of pop shops that I always worry about.
There's so few of them less and.
You know, they're typically great, they're typically embttered the fabricular communities, and you want those stores to succeed.
But you know, if you just think about the term Black Friday. You know, when you really.
Think about that, it's insane to think that you've got to wait until the day after Thanksgiving for most retail stores just to break even.
So you need very little time to make profit. And when you're in a situation like that.
Where people are starting to pull back a little bit, makes it even harder to make that profit in one.
Moment, which may explain some commercials we're seeing on television right. I mean, these Black Friday sales started I think right before Halloween. I mean, they're trying to they're trying their best, you know, to get our money. But if people don't want to spend their money, maybe some of these Black Friday advertisements are just a waste of money.
Yeah, I mean, and that's part that I think that is wellme of the twenty four hour recycle. Plus the fact that you could advertise anywhere. I mean a lot of online advertising, social media, so a lot of it's spiller. But yeah, and you know, these storts have to make their money somehow, and so they see the same data that we do, and they have even better data, and they're tracking it in real time with their own departments, so they realize what's going on and they're trying to make sure.
That they turn proper for a year. And you know, that's what the risk of retail.
It's a difficult business to be in cobus.
Right, Ron Glasgow is our guest financial strategist. Let's break it down then, if indeed this happens and people spend less, what does that do for our economy and what does that mean going forward in the early months of January, February, March, where retail spending is not as robust as it is in the final quarter of any year.
Yeah.
So, and we can go through times before where we're companies didn't necessarily hit home runs in the post Black Friday sales. But I think you get to nail on the head by saying what happens in Q one. That's really where I think people tuned in, especially economist and to look at say what is the state of our economy?
The holidays are over and I your back in normal life. Are people spending or are they not?
And I don't talking about holiday presents and gifts, but on every day things are people starting to pull back? And you know, once you get at Q one, of people across the border starting to pull back.
It becomes a master problem of the economy.
You know, America's business is business, and so when business starts to slow, it hurts a virtually every segment of the population.
All right, Ron, let's pretend you're a Jerome Pal just for this one moment. We'll call you Jerome Pal with brains, because I don't really have a lot of faith in.
That, dude.
But Ron glasshow is going to Washington, d C. That he is going to forecast the health of our economy for the first half year of twenty twenty six in the office of the President of the United States. What are you telling Donald Trump?
Yeah, well, boy, I'm probably for a first thing.
But you know, I think I think this a pal has actually done an okay job of the gore in the headlines, doing what he thinks is best. And remember he's just one man. It's the it's the board of governors. They don't have a vote. I say, he would have to say that things are starting are slowing. They reverse, President Trump would say, will lower interest rates?
Coming right?
As that sort of creates some other issues when you do that too rapidly. So there is a fine balancing act there. But I see the economy starting to slow and it's just kind of a feeling you have, or you're out in your own community, people that aren't spending as bus and they're not nearly as optimistic as they used to be. University missing and just put out a consumer competence study as said, the super confidence right now as low ofan it's been in the last five years.
So you know, those.
Things individually, they're not that telling. But when you start to pull the data police together, they're all play the same directly.
It makes a lot of sense.
Well, let's hope for the best, embrace for the worst. Ron Glasgow you can find him at Glasgow Investments dot com. He is a financial strategist and we salute him again for his time in the service with the United States Marine Marines. Ron, thank you so much. Stay well, have a happy holiday season, and hopefully we can visit down the road.
Yeah, thank you very much. I appreciate you having me, you bet, you bet.
I like people that make sense over what is happening in this country, be it financially, militarily, politically, or from a sports standpoint. Speaking of sports, there's a rather large game tomorrow in ann Arbor, Michigan. And even if even at Ohio State in the National Football Title again this season, if they don't beat Michigan, Ryan Day will feel the heat and the wrath of the boys downtown from Columbus. Yes, the game is tomorrow. That and a little bit on
UC and TCU is next. Ken Brew for Scott Sloan News Radio seven hundred w l W ken brewper Scott's flowed on this Black Friday. As retail tries to make up for what has been kind of a sluggish year. If you're out there shopping, you remember, it's not a battle, it's not a war. It's just clothing, just clothing. We have college football to deal with all weekend long. You've got Indiana trying to keep its unbeaten season alive at Purdue tonight. Purdue is two to nine. Indiana is eleven
and zero. That's a seven thirty kick today in West Lafayette. And of course, if he had a whole serve in that game, it will probably continue to be the number two team in the country. As we continue the countdown to the college football playoff noon tomorrow at Louisville, UK tries to get Bowl eligible again, there are five and six.
You need six wins to become Bowl eligible. And that's what UK is working toward tomorrow in that noonkick at Louisville and then of course tomorrow afternoon three point thirty right here on seven hundred WLW at Cincinnati the Bearcats at TCU. At TCU, the Bearcats are seven and four, looking for that eighth win. You get that extra win, maybe you get a better bowl game. TCU is no slouch, the fresh off and upset win at Houston last week, and they've got a terrific quarterback, a guy by the
name of Josh Hoover. Might remember Hoover from that game last year against UC. Anyway, he's completing sixty five percent of his passes this year, twenty five touchdowns, thirteen interceptions. He has thrown for over thirty one hundred yards. And you don't have to tell Scott Centerfield all about Josh Hoover.
Yeah, he's a talented quarterback.
I mean he is a true passer, like you know, you go watch him, and I mean last year, I think he broke the school record at TCU and he's had another fine season this year. He can make all the throws, deep throws, you know, your your deep out routes to the field. He puts pressure on you because of that. I think he's very competitive, you know. I think he's just an now he's an outstanding quarterback and has been, you know, ever since he's been playing. So you know, last year, you know did it. We did
a pretty good job of containing him. I think maybe the second half had something to do with it, because like a snow globe when you watch the film, it's snow everywhere. Probably had a little something to do with that. But you know, he's an outstanding quarterback. You know, he's he's another one in this league that you know, we knew was gonna be good and he's gonna be hard to contain.
And then of course to borrow. At noon, it's the game. Ohio State takes the short plane ride up to Ann Arbor and takes on Michigan, which has been a thorn in the side of course of Ryan Day recently. Day loss last year at Columbus flipped it around one the College Football National Championship. But in Columbus, if you're a head football coach at Ohio State, you have got to beat Michigan and I don't think this year is any different. Even though Ohio State is the clear number one team
in this country. You don't beat Michigan, You're in for a long ride unless you can pull off with Dave pulled off last year. Knowing all of that, we turn to someone who is charged with covering Ohio State for what I think is the best website to cover the Buckeyes, and that is eleven Warriors dot Com. And it's our good buddy Dan Hope, who's here to weigh in on the game tomorrow high noon. Michigan and Dan Hope, how are you on this glorious Friday.
I'm doing great. Can How are you?
I'm reasonably well, looking forward to, uh to what may go down here in ann Arbor.
Uh.
I'm just here's here's my question for you. Ohio State is the best team in the country. I don't think there's any argument about that. I I would even say Indiana would have to say that at this point. But nevertheless, in my opinion, they're the best team in the country. When the best team of the country is faced with a rivalry game and both teams are relatively close, although Michigan's not quite as dominating, this year as they have it in years past, These these these rivalry games can
go off the rails quickly. What's the theme been up there in Columbus around this team, knowing full well that the players don't have to be told the importance of the game, but knowing full well that these rivalry games can go off the rails quickly. What do you think the message has been.
I mean, we certainly thought last year when a last State was heavily favored to win that game and didn't win the game, that you know, this this game is different than any other. You know, on paper, Ohio State should win the game, but that doesn't mean that Ohio State will win the game unless.
It goes and plays its best football.
And so I think, you know, the message to a team has certainly been, you know, needing to be at their best this week, you know, understanding the challenge that is in front of them. But at the same time, Brian Day and his players have also talked a lot this week about keeping the routine the routine, about not trying to.
Change the way they do things.
I mean even as simple as just you know, keeping their practice schedule the same, even though it's Thanksgiving. Things like that. They've really tried to just keep the routines or the team this week because I think one of the things that's hurt this team in recent years is almost making too much of the game. And everybody understands how big a deal it is.
This game is extremely important.
For Ohio State and they desperately want to win it, but they also don't want to change the way they do things, get away from the things that has made them the best team in the country but have allowed them to dominate their competition all year long. So I think, you know, that's really been kind of the driving thing for Ohio State this week that it's gone through its preparation is Hey, you know, we know we have to
be at our best this week. We know there's more on the line this week, but let's not change what we do. Let's let's keep doing the things that have enabled us to have success all year and if we do that, we're going to have a chance.
Okay, So we know this about Michigan. Michigan can run the football. They can run it. Jordan Marshall, Justice Haines. They combined for over sixteen hundred yards. Now Haines is doubtful for this game, we'll see whether or not he answers the bell. But I'm just looking at some of these numbers that have been put up, and again you have to understand the teams they're playing. I mean, you've got Marshall. He has put up a buck thirty three against Washington. He put up a buck eighty five against
Purdue one hundred and forty two yards again Northwestern. My guess is Michigan is going to try and run at the early part of this game. And if they do and get Ohio State on its heels and get it off kilter a little bit on those early downs, it's got a chance. If it doesn't, I think this thing could implode on on Michigan. But stopping that run, certainly with Marshall, and whether or not Haynes is there or not, that's job one for Ohio State.
Is it not?
Absolutely?
Because I mean I think if you look at these teams you compare them, the one area where I think you could say Michigan has the advantage is its running offense versus Ohio States rushing offense. You know, Ohio State certainly, particularly if you assume that Jeremiah Smith and Carnel State will be back this week, which seems to be the way things are trending. Ohio State has a better passing offense, it has a better defense, it's been the best defense
in the country. But Michigan is better at running the ball than Ohio State is. And you go back again to the last year. I mean, it was the same story.
Last year.
Ohio State had the best defense in the country. Michigan had one of the worst passing offenses in the country, but Ohio State allowed Michigan to turn it into a battle of running games and that ultimately led to Michigan winning in the end. So if you're Ohio State, you can't let that happen. Like said, you've got to stop the run. But if you're Ohio State, you also have to play to your strengths. You have to remember you have a Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback, You've got two
of the best wide receivers in the country. If Michigan is probably going to try to bait them into running the ball again just like they did last year by dropping guys into coverage. But if you're Ohio State, you need to dictate the game. You need to go into this game saying we are of a better team. We are going to play our game. You can't allow Michigan to say we're not going to let you fro to four or seventeen and run the ball up the middle
against us. If you're Ohio State, you've got to say we have the best players on the field and we are going to find way for them to make plays.
That's interesting. Yeah, we all know what happened last year. There was a veteran quarterback there last year. Julians saying is a veteran of this season and has progressed well through this season. But what about that because a lot of that's going to fall on him too. I know he doesn't call the plays, but he's got to be able to have something if indeed that's what Michigan plays defensively this year. So what about him and his role?
Yeah, I mean, I think you know Julian obviously, this is his first time playing in the game, this rivalry, so you never know how a guy is going to perform in that stage when he hasn't done it before. It's also probably going to be the worst lever he's played at Zilvarvis Here. It's been lucky to have a lot of nice weather for its games this year. This game is going to be cold, maybe a little bit of snow. He's a guy from southern California, so how is he going to respond to all that? Those are
all questions At the same time. I don't go into this game really looking at Julian Saying as a you know, young puff who hasn't been tested, because you just look at what he's done all year long. I mean, he's played like a veteran all year long. He leads the
entire country in completion percentage. He's shown great composure, composer, and poise throughout the season, and so I don't feel like the stage is going to be too big for Julian, saying, I think the way that he's handled everything, starting with that first game of the year against Texas and his first start as a Buck Guy, suggests to me that you know, he will be ready to can't handle the stage. I think it's more a matter of just the the entire passing offense. You know, we saw it the last
couple of weeks with Jeremiah and Carnell Valley injuries. The passing offense did not look the same, and so will those guys be healthy, Will they be their usual cells, Will Julian saying get into a rhythm with that? And then you know, of course, you ever big factor is you know how a pass protection be. I mean, this is one of the best defensive fronts Ohio State staced all year. The offensive line has had its ups and downs this year. So will they give Julians say, in
consistent time to throw? Will they keep pressure often to allow Ohio State to make those big plays down the field. I think all of those things are what have to come together for Ohio State to be able to do what it should be able to do in this game, which is the even more explosive offense.
Yeah, and flip it to when Michigan has the ball. We talked about it early about their ability to run. I haven't seen every Michigan game this year. You know, we're kind of we have our own teams down in this area of the state. That what That's what consumes me most. But I've seen enough to know that's not
a good come from behind team. I saw their game against Oklahoma, I saw their game against Southern cal They didn't get to drop on those teams no points in the first quarter, I think seven points combined in those two games with Southern cal and with with Oklahoma. So you get you got to get the you got to get the jump on on Michigan because I think Michigan, if it's playing with the lead, is a far different team than Michigan trying to come out of a hole.
So I think that's probably a key as anything is play that first quarter, get some points, and then let's see if Michigan can run the ball as well as they have. Would you think that's a pretty good script.
Yeah, I agree with you completely because I mean, again, I mean not to keep bringing up last year, but you think about what happened a year ago.
That was kind of what happened.
Ohio State started off slow, Michigan dragged Ohio State into a dogfight, and the Buck guys were never able to respond. I think, you know, you go to this game, especially being on the road, especially with a lever forecast that's showing a higher chance of snow later in the game than there is early in the game. I think, if Ohio State can start fast and build a lead, I'm very confident in Ohio State's defensive ability to hold that lead.
I think if Michigan can take an early lead, Ohio State struggles out of the gate and they're in a tight game late. I'm maybe not as confident in how will Ohio State respond to what would be really its first real adversity of the season, especially playing on the road in bad lever and so I do think that you know from Ohio for both teams perspective, I think starting fast is going to be huge, and I think I think if Ohio State can start fast, I'll feel
really good about its chances. But I think if Michigan can keep the game tight going into the fourth quarter, as anybody's ball game, Dan.
Hope Elevinwarriors dot Com, it's the destination for all things Ohio State athletics, but particularly football. How big a game is this for Ryan Dade? I mean, we know what happened last year, he lost the game and then comes back and wins the National Championship. I get the sense that this guy lives year to year on the Michigan game, regardless of what happens in the playoff. But how big a game is it for him?
It's a huge game for him because this is really the one the lemish on his record, right now, I mean if he if he wins this game, you know, what's anybody going to say about now He's he's won a national championship. I mean he has you know, if you if you take you know, a qualifying number of games out of it, the best winning percentage in college football history. I mean, really will only knock on him right now is that he hasn't been able to beat Michigan.
So I think this is a huge game for him, particularly in terms of, you know, just his reputation as a coach. I think it's huge for him, you know, psychologically to get that monkey off his back. Now, you know, with that being said, you know, we should we should qualify it as like you know, Ryan is not going to be him a hot seat if Ohio State lose this game, it's a different conversation than it was a year ago because he's won a national championship and no matter what happens in this game, a lot.
Of it's going to be in a college football playoffs.
So you know, I think know anybody who might go to the draftic lengths of like fire Ryan da if Ohio State loses this game, We're not gonna.
We're not gonna We're not gonna We're not going to go there. That's not going to happen.
But you know, it's one of those things where it's like, you know, you want to play that dragon because until Ryan Day beats Michigan, the one thing that is going to hang over him is this guy can't beat Michigan. So I think this is a huge game for him, and I think that, you know, if he can win this game, I think he will firmly establish himself among college football's elite coaches, because really the only thing that's really holding him back from that has been his record against Michigan.
Dan Hope Elevinwarriors dot Com, all right, Dan, enjoy covering the game, and I know we'll be talking down the road.
Stay well, sounds good, Thanks Ken.
You bet. That is noon tomorrow in ann Arbor, uh Also tomorrow at noon ball State at Miami. The RedHawks are six and five, looking to finish seven and five on the regular season. They are, of course Bowl eligible, and today at noon up in windy Buffalo, the Ohio Bobcats look to go eight and four. They take on the Buffalo today at high noon. There's your college football
big weekend of that Bengals off. We can concentrate on all of that and everything else that goes down back in here tomorrow morning, actually at high noon to carry you through the early part of the afternoon tomorrow on Saturday. This is ken Brew for Scott's Loan News Radio seven hundred wl.
W meeting this one of ever shows. Because you looked a little too much like a wanted serial killer, don't worry. You can get the podcast of our shows and here what you miss check them out on the iHeartRadio ass.
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