Now your host Ken Brew on news radio seven hundred wl WU.
Well, it would certainly seem to be him. Wherever you are, hellever you may be listening, Welcome, it is now TI three, You and me Bear Katz of course, play tonight. And there's a lot about college football that is percolating around the country today as well. We'll get to all of that, And of course the news of the day is Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow will not and OT will not play tomorrow against the New England Patriots. He will not and OT be activated. And we'll get into the whys and the
wherefores of that. And I'm sure what the metrics were for Zach Taylor and his staff and certainly the team doctors as to why he's not playing tomorrow. To me, it makes infinite sense. And I think it makes infinite sense for one reason. You have another game coming up
on Thanksgiving night. You have a player that is by most accounts, a month ahead of his recovery time, his projected recovery time from toe surgery, And so do you really want him on the field tomorrow for four hours and then coming back four days later and playing in a division game on the road against a team that everybody knows can beat you up. I think it's prudent and I think it's wise, not just from a physical
or medical standpoint, but also from a strategic standpoint. We'll get into that in a little bit, but that's the headline that has come out here in the last couple of hours. It has come out from national writers Ian Rapaport, Adam Schefter and folks like that. So there was great debate as to whether or not he would be put on the active roster in time for tomorrow's game. That had to happen by four o'clock this afternoon. But all of that is now moot. It will be Joe Flacco
tomorrow by Jake Browning, and so there you go. Now what that does to the Bengals strategically, I can't tell you. All I can tell to you is the hottest team in football is coming to Cincinnati, and that would be the New England Patriots. Tonight. It is finally Nip at Night. Nip at Night is tonight, and we have waited two years for this. If you're a UC fan, you know there is no greater atmosphere at Nippert Stadium than a night game NIP at night, and it hasn't happened for
a couple of years. It happens now. Obviously because of television. Folks that are televising this game dictate what time and where it falls and whatnot, along with what the conference says. But it makes infinite sense. You have BYU. BYU is number eleven in the country at six and one inside the conference, and you see is at five and two. If things fall the right way this weekend, you can have absolute chaos in the Big Twelve Conference for every
team not named Texas Tech. Texas Tech is seven and one. They've got to buy this weekend. But you could have you tadd six and two. You could have Houston at six and two. You could have BYU at six and two, and you see at six and two if it winds up with a win tonight, and that's what we're going to focus on right now. This is a big game
for you. See, they have not performed well the last couple of games, and to stay relevant in the conversation for things like a Big Twelve championship, as remote as that may be, or even god dare we think of a spot in the college football playoff. I know settled down, Ken does not get avent ourselves here. Just calm down for a minute. But if we are to think about things that are important over and above the football game tonight, it's going to be a win over BYU and Scott
Centerfield this week. The U see head coach. I mean, he knows what's up and he knows the lethality if indeed that's a word of the BYU offense.
You know, I just think they're very efficient in what they do offensively, and in Bachmeer is taking care of the football. You know, I think the one game they turned it over a couple of times, maybe against Texas Tech now was the one game they lost this year. So they just very efficient offense, and they're therefore, you know, when you play great defense, when the.
Fishing, you give yourself a chance to win. Bachmeyer the quarterback great first name, Bear Bachmeyer thirteen touchdowns, four interceptions, completing sixty three percent of his passes. So what about this and a few other nuggets in college football? We call upon one of the truly great sports writers in this country when it comes to all things college football.
He's a local boy that made good and now he is the chief college football writer for Theathletic dot Com, as I continue to say, it is the best sports investment you can make the Athletic dot Com. It is great journalism, no junk ads, no roll up videos. And I say that as a consumer, I get not a nickel from say that. And let's welcome him on and Stuart Mandell, how are you in this glorious game day.
I'm good, I'm well.
I am looking forward to Nip at Night. We haven't had a nip at Night here in two years, and of course tonight it's BYU that's in town. It has not gone so well for U see the last couple of weeks. But they've got a good b YU team that's in here thanks to a quarterback in Bear Bachmeier who seems to be taking at least his part of the country by storm. A little bit about b YU. You've seen b YU. I'm sure what stands out to you except their quarterback or maybe in addition to their quarterback.
Well, he's a big part of it for sure. He you know, came in as a true freshman and it wasn't even there in the spring, but it's Stamford in the spring and ends up winning the job, and he's played very well save for the one game against that Tech Texas Tech has made a lot of quarterback book. God, they have an amazing defense, right, so and then they can put by us, not just him. They can run the ball to and you can usually count on Cloney's pocket to have a pretty good defense.
Yeah.
L J.
Martin is there is their chief running back. Six touchdowns. But what I like about Blackmeier is that he distributes well. I was watching, Uh it might have been the Tech game, but Chase Roberts terrific player, Parker Kingston terrific player. This is a diverse offense. It's gonna be very difficult I think for for University of Cincinnati to defend this offense. If they get on a roll tonight. What are they doing defensively, b YU anything out standing?
I wouldn't say outstanding. I think they've been good, not so you know, dominant. They've had some really really good defenses there recently in the last few years. But to their credit, right, I mean, they only lost the one game. I think they've looked at defense or as the season got on. You know, I think it's good for UC that it's there that they're not traveling to Provo for a night game. You know, that would have been a tough tast.
Yeah, absolutely absolute. Brendan Sorosby's come back down to Earth the last couple of weeks, and what he's seeing a lot of is man coverage, and so far he has not handled it very well. You're you're just your impressions of Sorsby. I think he's a good quarterback. I think he has a chance to be a great quarterback if indeed he decides to come back here again next year. But the fact of the matter is this man coverage thing has been a problem for him the last couple
of weeks. I'm just wondering in college football as a whole, is man coverage that difficult for an elite quarterback in college football to handle? How does that work?
Well?
I think it more depends on the receivers, right. I mean, you a man coverage, you're betting that you can that your guys are not going to get beat one on one, Right. I would not recommend doing that, for instance against Ohio State, but these defenses seem to think they can handle you these receivers. The Utah game, you know, was one thing, right that was he played very poorly that game. But Utah Utah is very good. I mean you Stah had the misfortune to lose two games to the two most
important teams they've played. Otherwise I think they'd be in the stick of the playoff raase right now. The Arizona one surprised me. Arizona's obviously had a better year this year than they did last year, but I don't think they are known as a great defensive team necessarily, so that performance was a little puzzling. And you know what else is puzzling? Can is why for the second straight year or you see having a backslide over the backstretch
of the season right now? It's obviously they're far enough long. It's not like last year where they have mist a bowl game, right they got off to a much better start than that. But can they uh reverse this slid and to get a big win here against the team that in b i U is as of this moment, right on the cuff of a playoff berth.
Yeah, that's a great comparison from this from last year. This year. Yeah, they fell off off the cliff last year, but I'm looking here at the big twelve. I mean I guess there's a chance that the University of Cincinnati could win this conference. But I'm looking at Tech at seven and one, they got to buy this week they play West Virginia in their final game, that you would think that would be a win eight and one would you would think at the very least allow them to
tie for the conference championship. But there's a lot of teams. Two lost teams in this conference right now, Bearcats five and two inside the conference, Arizona five and two, Houston five and two, Utah five and two, And if BYU doesn't win here tonight at Nippert, they fall to five to six and two. So I'm just I'm just wondering, even though it's an outside chance for any of those teams, do you anticipate Texas Tech fumbling at this point this season?
First of all, I'm not good enough at math to know how those tie breakers would resolve. Like Cincinnati has a chance to throw the Big twelve into total ko outside of Tech.
With a win tonight.
Have Yeah, with a win, they're going to send the Big twelve into a five way tie and depending what the other teams do, obviously, but a five way high per second and then they don't play each other the next week. So you know, I do know that there is a there's a great site that does all these tiebreaker scenarios, and pretty much any of those multi team tiebreakers favorite Utah. So because the youth played the toughest
conference schedule. So that could be in a really interesting situation that BUYU loses, they beat Utah, but get beat out by Utah for the Big Twelve title game. Texa Tech is rolling. I think. You know, at this point it's clear they are the most talented team in the Big Twelve, but that doesn't mean they couldn't lose, for instance, to Utah in a rematch in the Big Twelve title game.
The thing about that is Texas Tech. I think at this point, once they lose twice, if tex Attack is eleven and two, they're going to go to the playoffs. And so it's going to take somebody knocking them off probably to get a second Big Twelve team in.
Yeah. I mean, and you look what Utah has left. I mean, they got Kansas State, uh later on the same afternoon, and they play at Kansas next week. You would think those are two wins for Utah, But yeah, I mean if Texas Tech, I mean, if they go to eight and one, I mean, obviously it's it's over. I love the Big twelve in this sense, and I know you will view all of this stuff globally, but
I love it in this sense. Is you see the ball up on any game in any week, and for the most part, you don't know how this conference is going to play out. It's got to be the most balanced, not only statistically but in terms of talent on the in the in the power for conferences. It's not it's not certainly the best conference, but I think it's the most competitive conference. Would you disagree with that statement, Yeah.
I think it's the for the most part, the flattest conference. You know, look at at Arizona State last year, you know, rising up and winning it, and they've fallen a little bit this year, but not too much. But you know, I think if you were if an NFL scout with the size of BYU's roster and let's say Iowa State's roster, I don't think they've too much difference there. But Iowa State haven't caught some breaks this year, including injury.
Now Texas Seconds.
Kind of come in and disrupted that formula, Like, they went out and spent the money and built themselves a roster that I think could compete for the top in any conference, not just the Big twelve. So they're not kind of stuck in that they're not in that log game, I guess, I would say, But you know, nobody knows if that's going to continue, Like are they going to be able to spend twenty five million dollars a year
after year after year in this new system? But most, for the most part, these programs are very evenly matched.
Yeah, it is. And what's interesting is you mentioned BYU on the cusp of a playoff spot. You've got three Big twelve teams right now in the latest rankings among the top twelve. Now, well three obviously aren't going to get in, but I mean, could you could see a scenario where two Big twelve teams would make the playoffs?
Right?
I think that to me has a lot of respect for those top three teams and the Big twelve, And you're seeing that they just don't have as much respect for them as they do the SEC. And so you see, you know, like in Oklahoma when at Alabama and moves
jumps up over them. I would love. I would be so to see what would happen if Frankly wouldn't take as many dominoes for this to happen, Vanderbilt and Utah competing for the last that large spot because people would automatically some people would automatically default to the SEC team. But they both have two losses now Vanderbilt two spots behind them. Is Vanderbilt beating Tennessee at the end of the season going to make me that much of your
difference that they would leave problem? In other words, if that were to happen, that tells me they're never going to the big tall team to benefit the doubt over the SEC. Because right now it's like does you saw have us? Can you taw keep moving up or do you or they have Utah right at the ceiling that they're not going to be able to move past.
You know, we're going to see stoops in Kentucky can throw a wrench into that later on this afternoon, right yeah, no, UK, it looks like we're going to get Ohio State Indiana in the Big Ten championship game. What would you expect in a game like that? And I mean you got I mean there are one two right now in the in the playoff rankings, But what would you expect if those two played in the Big Ten championship game.
Yeah, it would be fascinating, It really would because I think most people would say, well, I think Ohio State is the better team all christ Indiana, but you know, Ohigo State. I have watched them, they're at another level, and that may be true, but I have State's schedule has broken in a way that we really haven't seen them play. Honestly since the Texas game. Anybody that's near them, they didn't play. They haven't played AYU yet. They didn't
play Oregon. They're bout They're going to finally play Michigan here, they don't play usc They've just spent their whole season playing kind of the dregs of the Big Ten. So I'll be fascinated when they finally go up against the team on level. I'd be fascinated to see Fernando Mendos that go against you know, stay defense is unbelievable, right, go against them. Can Indiana handle those will have a state receivers? I don't think so, But I don't know that.
I don't know that any pretty much any team in the country.
Stuart Mandeltheathletic dot Com our guest, I'm hopscotching here. Is Brian Kelly ever going to have another college head coaching job? And if so, at what level would anybody be interested in him?
So?
I think it's a little bit different situation than James Franklin, who obviously he's got another job already. James Franklin wanted a very high level offense that he just couldn't quite get him over the top, right, And I feel like that Brian kelly lsu tenure was not was not that way they frankly underachieved. On top of that, he's a very polarizing guy. Uh, he reves a lot of people.
The wrong way.
If he if he coaches again, I would think it would be down the level or two. And he's he's been in that level before, Right, It's just how much does he want to keep coaching? Would he be willing after being in the SEC to go coach a team in the American right or the MAC whatever.
It may be?
And I don't know his at his point he might just stay him done. But if you want to lashue money, he's got to at least look for a comparable job.
Yeah, yeah, I I The only the reason why I ask is you talk about a polarizing figure. He's not polarizing in this town by any stretch of the imagination. He left on the wrong side of the equation. But he does. He does really kind of represent I think, kind of like a hired gun, if you know what
I mean. You know, you could you could, you could hire him at, for example, a MAC school or Conference USA school, and all of a sudden, your program is elevated to a point where maybe you can dream about getting into one of those slots if the playoff is expanded.
But I just I just think it's going to be very tough for any school to look at him and say, you know, this is our guy, knowing full well that if he has any success at that level, he's probably out the door for the next big job that comes down the pike.
But I kind of expect to see him on ESPN next year. Oh really, you know, I'm just guessing how the inside information. But you know, he's he's very charismatic. I think he'd be very good.
On TV, you know.
And he's at a point, and he's sixty four, he's at a point where like maybe he has one more coaching job in him, so we'll see. I haven't heard any inkling that he's in the mix for any of the more prominent jobs in the cycle.
But as you say, if he wants at LSU money, he better start looking right.
Yeah, those mitigating First of all, he's trying to come up with some reason the fire and for cause and that fame at all. Brian Kelly filed that lawsuit. Oh by the way, having a lawsuit against one of the schools is also not something that school, you know, another school would love to hang you over it. But yeah, he does if he wants to get that money and
follow the the you know, the contract it does. It has a mitigating clause where he has to at least seek a comparable child like James Franklin did.
Yeah. Yeah, he's a piece of work. Stewart, thanks again for your time, man, We appreciate it. Stuartmandeldyathletic dot Com great great coverage of college football, and he is obviously at the epicenter of it. All right, have a great Thanksgiving, Stewart will visit down the road.
Thanks all right, Yeah, I have a great Thanksgiving again.
Absolutely, So you got Ohio State on the field right now with Rutgers. It is up at the shoe with seven fifty to go first quarter, it is scoreless, and Ohio State is playing without their two top wide receivers, Tate and Smith. Later on this afternoon, you've got Kentucky at Vanderbilt. That is a three point thirty kickoff. We talked about college football playoff implications in that game for Vanderbilt, and then of course you have BYU and you tonight
at nip Indiana is off this weekend. They are at Purdue this coming Friday night. So there's local college football and of course all counting down to the college football Playoff. What twelve teams make. It seems to me that Indiana and Ohio State, barring they're really wild unforeseen, will both be in. But who knows. As a wise man once said, that is why they play the games. We are just getting started on this Saturday. It's great to have you with us as we press on TILL three News Radio
seven hundred WLW. You know, is there is there ever a bad time for scorpion? Klauss Mighty, Klaus mighty. It's plaut forty here on the East coast, and in particular the great city of Cincinnati. Welcome Black. I am ken Brew for what it's worth. In a big noon kickoff today, you know as that pregame show, they came to the friendly confines of Knippers Stadium today presented by Fox Television. Urban Meyer thinks you see is going to beat BYU tonite. So there you go. It's kind of a fun show.
It's always a fun show. It's really really well put together. And so they were there this morning, and then of course the game is tonight at eight o'clock and you see rolls into this thing needing a win for a number of reasons. One we just talked to Stuart Mandel about it. They they had that fall off last year, right, and so now they've lost a couple of games, and they need to they need to get this thing back on the rails. For nothing else than to stay in
the conversation. It's totally out of their control and it most probably is not going to happen, but at least stay in the conversation that if something happened is to Texas Tech the unthinkable losing it West Virginia I think would be kind of on thinkable at this point. But Nevertheless, if Texas Tech were to stumble that, they've got a chance to be in the conversation if Domino's fall the right way. But if nothing else, it stops the narrative from last year that things fell off the cliff on
Scott Caderfield's team. Now, there's been a problem the last several games, and that is opposing teams have been throwing man de man coverage up against the University of Cincinnati's offense, and Brendan Soorsby has not been handling it well, and neither have the wide receivers at the University of Cincinnati. Here is Scott Saderfield talking about Sworsby and that problem this week.
You know, we had four drops, potentially five drops in that game. If our guys catch the football, then his stats are going to look a lot different, you know, And I think, you know, I think that's part. It's not just Brndan. I thought I thought he had a really bad decision on the first play of the game, like that was awful, But really after that he really played pretty good. I mean, he threw the ball good. I mean, you know, that ball which has been forty
five to fifty yards added to his stats. I mean, you got to catch that ball yet, And I think got to catch you know, and our receivers will be the first to tell you, yeah, I got to catch that, you know. And I think so it it's not just on one player.
I mean, I think it's the whole team.
You got to protect good, you got to run the good routes, you got to make the catches and you know.
So, yeah, absolutely can bounce back. Yeah, Sowresby knows the rap too. He talked about it after the loss last week, and yeah, he knows he's going They're going to see.
Now.
Not every team can play great Manda man coverage. And I'd be lying to you if I said, yeah, I've watched BYU all year and they played great man dea man coverage. I have not. I've seen some of their games and they have played man, they have played zone. And my guess is that they've seen the tape of Sorsby and see how he struggles with it and the receivers in dropping passes. Here's the u SE quarterback earlier this week on just this issue. You know, we kind of.
Expected it, we expect you know, from the Utah game on kind of what we were going to get and you know, going back to there's a couple of decisions I want back, but overall, I thought, you know, decision making for the most part was pretty good. Some unfortunate, you know, mishaps and a couple of misthrows, but you know, at the end of the day, it's you just got to go out there and cut loose and whatever happens happens.
And you know, we got to type that with that mindset this week and you know, leave it all out there and I think we'll.
Like what what the results is at the end of the day. So you got five and two U see at home for this eight o'clock kick BYU comes in here at six and one. Those are conference records, not overall records. And the over arching thing though, is it's nip at night and we haven't had that in a couple of years, and it's something that red shirt defensive
lineman Micah Coleman is really looking forward to. He's been told about it, but he hasn't experienced it, so this would be a cool thing for him tonight.
Well, since I've got here, since I've came to campus, nip at night has been something that everybody talks about like the atmosphere. They say, it's a really the atmosphere. So I just can't wait to see how the crowd looks, how the fans go. You know, it's senior night, so it's gonna be emotional, it's gonna be loud, crazy, and I just really just want to send a seniors out on the right note.
So all the play by play begins at eight, the pregame show at seven with mo Egger, and then as I said, all the play by play at eight with Tony Pike and the now never resting Dan Horde did a basketball game last night. You see game tonight, Tomorrow's got the Bengals, and Monday night he's got another U see basketball game. Somebody should ask Dan, and if I have the opportunity, I will. But you know what, here's a question Tony Pike should ask Dan tonight in the booth.
How do you keep your voice in shape? Because there are things you can use, sprays, you can drink hot tea and honey. There's a lot of crud that's in the air right now. It's only going to get worse. He could do a whole thing, They could do a whole segment on Throat Health with Dan Horde, Dan Antony, and Mo tonight beginning at seven o'clock here on seven hundred a W WELW now three point thirty. It is
Vanderbilt and UK in Nashville. Vandy is eight and two, still very much in the conversation for a spot in the college football playoff. Oh yeah they are. UK is at five and five. It needs a win to get Bold eligible. It plays this game today five and five, and then finishes the regular season next week at Louisville. It's not been a great year obviously for Kentucky football. It wasn't even a great win last week against Tennessee Tech.
So this week Mark Stoops, who you know, has been kind of dour in his news conferences, to be honest with he was kind of kind of more jovial this week, but he also addressed the ongoing situation where his defense needs to be better. His team needs to be better, but his defense needs to be better. Here's Stoops this week.
You know, there's just there's we could we could finish better. You know, there's there's things, there's you know, plays out there where we just didn't finish the place. If we finished the place we finished the series and give up less points than we did. So there's a lot of things we could do better across the board and execution. You know, I appreciate our team's effort, you know the past. You know they been playing well, but there's things we
could have done better. Yeah, Indiana is off, by the way, this weekend. They play this Friday night at Purdue in a game that always draws a lot of attention. Right now, up in Columbus it is seven nothing Ohio State over Rutgers. Rutgers has the ball at midfield and they're fixing, as they say back in the old neighborhood, they're fixing to go to quarter number two in Columbus, seven nothing Ohio State after one. Now I don't want I'll get into
the Bengals later on. There is there is a game tomorrow night at TQL Stadium that if you're a soccer fan, you don't need to be told this. If you're an FC Cincinnati fan, you don't need to be told this. But even if you know this, it's good to hear it again. This is a huge and I mean huge football well it is football in some parts of a soccer game. This is win or go on, loser go home.
As the MLS playoffs continue, and it is FC Cincinnati against Inner Miami at TQL and you know who plays for Miami. Of course it's Messi. So there has been success with games against Miami. When FC Cincinnati takes them on, I believe they have a win and a tie over Miami this year, and so there's at least an air of confidence going into a game tomorrow that means more than any game they've played against Miami ever, and understanding that the opposition is led by Messi, so there's an
air of confidence. One of the best, if not the best player on FCC side as a vander and he was talking about that confidence that they have going into this match tomorrow.
He gave us a little bit of confidence because you know how to play, played against them two games and he were good games that we did. But it's it's a playoff, so it can be a total different game. So you've got to be ready for that. Even though you have like a lot of experience guys that can handle the game this game pretty well, we need to be aware of that everything can happen during the game.
This is a kick tomorrow night at TQL and as I said, they've had they've had success against Miami, success against Messi. They had a believe that had a six nil decision over Miami last season, but Messi wasn't in the lineup. He was out for some reason, suspension or whatever,
health I I don't know what it was. But Pat noon in this week, the FC Cincinnati coach was talking about how much those past games mean and what they could do in terms of strategy tomorrow night, and from listening to the coach, the answer to that is not much.
You know, we didn't spend too much of our preparation looking at those games, just based on.
What it looks like now.
And I think they're in really good form defensively, have continued to get better. Offensively have gotten better.
And that's why.
We have this matchup is because they've they've been really strong now.
They both finished with sixty five points in the season. FC Cincinnati had one more win then Inter Miami. Inter Miami had three more ties than FC Cincinnati, and Inner Miami outscored FC Cincinnati. Inter Miami had eighty one regular season goals. FC Cincinnati fifty two. In Miami gave up quite a few more than CINCINNATIFC Cincinnati in the regular season. Nevertheless,
that's the matchup tomorrow night. And Miles Robinson is back from his team, his stint with the national team and feeling pretty sassy, feeling pretty good about where his team is right now. A lot of confidence overall, probably just our intensity. We've got a good group of guys that are.
Played very intense and play together as one as a unit, and I think when we do that, we're at our best.
So that's a five o'clock kick tomorrow at TQL Stadium, five o'clock kick with in Miami. Winner moves on. These are the conference semis, so you'll go to the conference finals if you win. If you lose, of course you go home. So there's what's on the docket at this hour. It is twelve to fifty one on this Saturday afternoon, so much to get to. We want to get to a few other topics besides what's going on in the
world of sports, and we shall do. So you're listening to Saturday Afternoons and it's you and me and what else should it be? On seven hundred WLW seven hundred WLW. It is a little after one o'clock. Well, not a little. Let's want to wait on this Saturday. Great to have you with us. A lot on the horizon. I believe we have Sterling at three o'clock. In my gosh, you would not look forward to that. And then we have you see football at seven o'clock tonight, Nip at night,
you see against BYU. Stay tuned for all of that. It has been I think a bad week for the Democrats. There's no way to really craft it any other way. They thought they had Trump dead to rights on these Epstein files because they thought he wouldn't release him, and he didn't. I think I don't know why Trump played what he the way he played the files. But nevertheless,
there's nothing in there that's a smoking gun. If the Democrats knew that there was something in there about Trump, and it might have also included things about Bill Clinton or Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, they wouldn't have given a rats rear end about Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or Bill Clinton. They would have gone after Trump because there's nothing that unites Democrats in this world more than their
unabashed and unabated hatred of Donald Trump. They would have sacrificed plenty of their own if they thought they thought there was anything in those files. There's not. But for some reason, he sat on those files, and now that they have been released, most of the stuff that's coming out is either embarrassing or possibly incriminating for Democrats, and we've only begun to see the tip of it. I'm sure they're Republicans named in there as well, and some
high priced players, so we'll see where that leads. The second thing is there were a group of Democrats this week that put together a video led by Senator Moonbeam out of Arizona, suggesting that the people that work in intelligence in this country and our armed forces openly defy orders from the commander in chief. That would be pret Donald Trump. That would be nothing short of treason if those people did that, sedition. But yet they put this
video out and then they tried to backtrack. Well, you know what, we didn't we we know we didn't mean that, you know, we man in case there's something unlawful, Well, what did he say or order that was unlawful?
Well?
Nothing, nothing, but we're just saying that. And then when Trump threatened them with legal action that could lead to their execution, which is a possibility if you are convicted of treason or sedition. Just check out history. That's when, Oh, my gosh, how could he say he's going to kill people in the Senate. But he had to do that to get the media's attention because the media is corrupt. The people that deliver you the news don't want to deliver you any news that might be in any way,
shape or form poor reflections on Democrats. That's the way it is. I worked in that industry. I know what it's populated with. And then, of course you had to have a week where judge his way in. Judges like Judge Ga Cobb, whose roots are not far from where we're sitting right now. She declared that it's unlawful for that National Guard to remain in Washington, d C. It's unlawful despite the fact that Washington, d C. Is at
least a liveable city. Again. As a matter of fact, since Trump took office in January, more than one hundred federal court judges have ruled against the Trump administration. And my gosh, imagine that most were Democrats judges running around thinking they rule the world in their black robes with their gabbles in hand and It prompted a good guest of this program, Kennan Spivak from Real Clear Politics, to write a story that hit home with me this week.
The Imperial judiciary strikes back. When will this end? When will we finally get judges to stay in their lanes? Kenny and Spivak standing by to join us right now. Kennan, how are you on this glorious day?
I am just wonderful. God, this is a good day.
You sound good. You sound good. Now, let me ask you a question. Have you ever seen in your time observing politics the amount of judicial overreach that occurs in these lower courts when it comes to all things Trump. I go all the way back to the Kennedy. I've never seen anything like this. Have you ever seen.
Anything like this?
I have not, and I'm going to admit something terrible for the audience. I graduated from law school more than forty years ago. I have been looking at this for a very long time. I have tridecases, I've argued appeals. Listen, I'm a business person, but never have I seen anything like this. The judges, let me take a step back. They've been activist judges ever since the Earl Warren Court
in the nineteen fifties. These judges like Justice Douglas, who famously found penumbers emanating from the Constitution, and in these penumbers he found rights that had never been enumerated. And I love Justice Douglas is on LSD, which was the drug of choice in his era. But that was bizarre. What we're seeing now is different. We're seeing judges go
on and on about their feelings. This judge, Susan Illiston, who enjoyed the layoffs during the shutdown, said that the federal workforce has been under great stress ever since Donald Trump was elected, and these layoffs are just traumatizing to them, and therefore they can't seed. It's snowflakes and safe spaces. And I just don't feel good. It's just not nice. And that's not what federal judges are supposed to be doing.
Well, it's not And as you point out in your story on Real Clear Politics, it's political did in analysis and eighty seven of the one hundred and fourteen federal judges who have ruled against the administration were appointed by Democrat presidents. And it's this activism on these benches that seem to be unchecked unless you get to a court above them. It's just it's running a mark, and the average person walking around the street here in Cincinnati canon
feels that they're paralyzed. They can't do anything about these judges. They can't be removed. There's no vote that's going to be held, and it's like it's like the Imperial God handing down a judgment and then the old boys club above them just no, maybe so, maybe no. But when it's initially handed down, people are standing there saying, wait a minute, that's not the way this thing should operate. So if we know that, why do these judges know that? Can they not check their ideology at the door?
Well, most judges do, and most judges do know that. But that's why, so let's look away.
The system works.
A plaintiff, an anti Trump administration, anti coop administration policy plaintiff brings a lawsuit. Almost always, that lawsuit has proper jurisdiction in Washington, DC, because the agency is based in Washington, DC. Often is also proper jurisdiction in one of the other districts around the country, because the worker is there, the union is there, the nonprofit that didn't get its funding
is there. Any number of reasons at the beginning of this process, Normally, these lawsuits would have been filed in DC, San Francisco, and Boston, which were districts that were almost completely Biden Obama Clinton progressive appointees, because the cases were assigned by luck of the draw, and you were much more likely to get a progressive judge. As time goes on,
the system changes a little. Cases are assigned to it's called related cases, and a lot of the cases they're being filed now it's something to do with the case that's already been filed. So if it turns out that a case, let's just say, even in Boston went to a judge that's a conservative, you just don't file in Boston. You go file someplace where it went to the progressive.
We've reached the point by now because for ten months into the administration where these plantifs know exactly where a file because they know where the related case went to the judge that's their favorite. There's a reason we keep hearing the same five or ten judges over and over again coming up for a whole range of cases. It's a combination of the luck of the draw and they just that the plaintiff chooses and this related case activity.
So that's a long way of saying hundreds of hundreds and hundreds of federal court judges do the right thing. It only takes thirty or forty of them to be completely amok, like James Bosberg, who's publicly said that he thinks the Trump administrations run amock can act unconstitutionally and has to be contained, or most of the judges in the Washington d C. In the District of Columbia Circuit. It doesn't take that many judges to have a judicial insurrection against the elected president.
Sure, we've heard the name Judge Colleen Kohler Coatelli when the old proof of citizenship thing popped up. She's reared her head several times. We just got a judge Ga Cobb, who ironically is from just up the road here in Springfield, Ohio, who ruled that the National Guard's presence in Washington DC is quote unquote unlawful. Yeah, we're seeing the same judges because there's judge shopping that's going on. I am of the opinion, and this is I'm not a lawyer. You're
a lawyer. So I'm just someone that is just just looking at this that the Supreme Court has got to slap some of these people down, and not by referring to them as the court, but by referring to them as in name, name the judge and say your ruling was wrong. The Court is growing weary of having these cases in front of us. I just think if John Roberts would just stand up and just take charge of that court and just say no first of all or inundated second of all, these are the same kind of
acts that are coming in front of us. They're from the same circuit. Why won't the Supreme Court, and in particular John Roberts stand up and name names.
In deo sense, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas had effectively name names. I don't see John Roberts doing it. Why won't you do it? It's not who he is, it's not in his nature. I don't think he'll do it. I don't think that you'll see that in a majority opinion. However, even Elena Kagan, in a case where she disagreed with the outcome, had the fortitude and the honesty to join with the majority and slop down one of these judges who ignored one of their previous rulings and had clearly
run amook. So there is an integrity and there is an honesty even among some of the justices who don't agree with the ruling, but who do agree that precedent controls. Rulings run downhill, and federal judges have to have to follow it. You know, there's a joke that was in an opinion the other day, and I think this shows the problem with the federal judiciary in Texas. Texas registrict
hats starting this whole national redistricting tite. A three judge panel last week found that this redistricting violated Section two of the Voter's Rights Act because it was racially motivated. First, that's probably not true, but let me not spend a lot of time on that. And second, the strophe in court is about probably to rule that Section two the Voter Rights Act is itself unconstitutional. That's the case that
came up a few weeks ago. But if you were both of those, the descent, which is one of the stronger descents I've ever read, told a joke or two jokes. I don't know why he decided to put jokes. Maybe he's the heady young man of judges, But let me just read it, because it really does make the point. He said, there's an old joke. What's the difference between God and a federal district judge? Answer? God doesn't think he's a federal judge. Or he had said, here's another version.
An angel rushes to the head of the heavenly host and said, with a problem, God has delusions of grandeur. The head angel calmly replies, what makes you say that? And the first angel answers, he's wearing his robe and keeps imagining he's a federal judge.
That's okay, right.
So that's what we're seeing. I call it the imperial judiciary. Some call it a judicial insurrection. They're not wrong. We're seeing thirty or forty or fifty judges because not every ruling against the Trump administration is a judge run amok. They may be sustained or overruled, but not everything Donald Trump does is so clearly permissible that the overwhelming majority of these cases are nonsensical decisions where judges are substituting
their political judgment for that of the president. Courts don't even have jurism diction to rule on political judgments. They're supposed to say to a plaintiff, I'm sorry, I have to dismiss your case. That's a political question. We're here for judicial questions instead. These judges, whether they think they're God and they think they're the president, they think that their opinion is more important or better than the president because they have Trump derangement syndrome and they're smarter.
You. Yeah, And I think if I'm one of the Supremes right now, I don't care what side of the aisle or who nominated you, or what your political beliefs are, whether it's Kagan or whether it's Thomas. These lower court judges challenging, openly challenging Supreme Court decisions. You point out in this that now you've got judges like Boseburg and judges like Judge James Hoe and Judge Atlason Burrow, all in their own way challenging rulings that came down from
people they should answer to. There's almost an avenue for disrespect that's been opened up for the Supreme Court. I'm not saying the Supreme Court is infallible or they don't make the right judgments all the time, of course not. But I'm just saying at a certain point you have to defer to someone who's got a little more cloud than you do. And it seems like that avenue of respect is starting to get a little bumpy. Do you notice that as well? I do.
And let me say this. We live in a country governed by the rule of law, and it's actually not important whether a lower court judge believes that the analysis in the Supreme Court's decision was flawed. It's not even important if they correctly observe that there's a fact error in a Supreme Court decision that may have influenced their ultimate decision. Our system only works when lower courts follow the precedence within their circuit and ultimately the precedent set
by the Supreme Court. And that includes this so called shadow docket or emergency docket. It's the main docket. It's all the dockets. And when the Supreme Court says two plus two is four, and a judge, because he's adding one in three and comes to four, says, well, this is a completely different situation. I don't have to follow
the Supreme Court. That undermines the rule of law. And every judge took an oath to follow the rule of law, and no one should have accepted a job as a federal court judge who didn't intend to follow the rule of law. You don't have to like it. You don't have to like the decision.
You just have to follow it, you know, kenn And that's why we like you, not because you're articulate, but you make sense. You know a lot of people are articulate, but they don't make sense. You've married the two there. I don't know if anyone ever told you that, but I'm going to tell you that right now. And I think your story here on the Imperial Judiciary Strikes Back really struck a nerve with me, and anybody that's interested in having that same nerve struck can find it on
RealClearPolitics dot com. It's always great having you on the show. Stay well, Happy Thanksgiving, and I'm sure we'll visit soon before the next holiday. But for your time today, thank you.
You.
Bet I will I will Kenneth Spivack again. He can find them on RealClearPolitics dot com. Look, there's no great way to elect judges, and you go out, you have to raise money. Right if you're a judge, you're running for office, you got to raise money. Well, you're raising money from people that may wind up in your court. Think about that. Or you could appoint the judge. Well, who's appointing the judge, Well, it turns out to be somebody from a political party. Well what does that make the judge?
Then?
Well that judge is a Democrat or publican. There's no if there's a better way to elect judges than the only two options we have right now, Please somebody explain it to me. I don't know how you fix this, and I think therein lies the frustration. It's one twenty six News Radio seven hundred WLW.
Now your host Ken Brew on News Radio seven hundred WLW two to ten.
On this Saturday, will dive into the game tomorrow between New England and the Bengals. Coming up after the news at two thirty to day. Up in Columbus, Ohio State fourteen Rutgers three, ten thirty three to go, third quarter. It is yeah, it's a close game. Top two receivers for Ohio State are out and so its a quarterback. The two receivers are out because of injuries and the quarterback is given way to the backup Klinhold. So we'll
see exactly how this plays out. But right now it's a bit of a struggle up in the shoe for the number one team in the country. Stay tuned for details on that. Did you notice how nobody gave a rats rerand about the Epstein files until Donald Trump was re elected in November of last year. These files have been out there for most of the last fifteen years. Epstein was convicted in twenty eight. When George W. Bush was in office, he didn't give a rats ass about him.
Obama didn't. After Obama Trump came into office, and that's when Epstein allegedly offed himself in prison. And there was always these murmuring about files, and it was part of the campaign, right Trump. Donald Trump said I'm going to release the files the minute I get into office. Well, there was foot tracking after he got into office. But the only time Democrats seem to really care about them is after Trump was inaugurated. And that's where we heard
Epstein files, Epstein files, Epstein files. Because they knew that from an idea standpoint, it was a party that was simply broke, it had none, so they tried to stop Trump with courts and with files from Epstein. Well, finally the files were released this week and quite frankly, Donald Trump did not have to wait for congressional approval. He could have just released them on his own, but he did not. So why was that? You never know in Washington, d C. And someone that is trying to get to
the bottom of it is my next guest. His name is Lieutenant Colonel retired Pete Chin petershin War the uniform of this country, awarded the Bronze Star, served time in Afghanistan and now is part of a group that is trying to get the real information of these files out for no other reason than to help the victims and let them have their day in court, so to speak.
Epstein Justice dot Com is where you can find Peter Shen, but we have found him here now on seven hundred w welw to talk about all of this and Peter Shen, how are you on this glorious Saturday.
I'm fantastic, Ken, I'm glad to be with you again and it's a real pleasure to be here.
Well, I'm interested in the story that you wrote.
It.
It was written obviously before this interview that we're doing. It was written earlier this past week about why it took Donald Trump to send everything to Congress, when in actuality, all he had to do was by executive orders, say release these files, and then the files would have been released by the DOJ. What do you figure was the strategy behind all of that.
You know, it's difficult to look into the head of our chief executive and I would never presume to say what the president was thinking. But what I would say is that this is an issue that is an embarrassing
one for President Trump. The reality is that even though they apparently cut ties meant for an extended period of time in Donald Trump's adult life, apparently one of his best friends was Jeffrey Epstein, or perhaps it's more accurate to say that one of Jeffrey Epstein's best friends, to the extent that he even had a friendships, if you
could call him, that was Donald Trump. Now it's an embarrassment, obviously for the President to be associated with the most notorious child sex trafficker in American history.
And I get that.
And so you know, President Trump is a notoriously proud and a tenacious man. And I think that once he had made up his mind that he was going to avoid embarrassment by avoiding releasing these files, it's been very difficult for him to change course, and then he faced a pretty significant rebuke from Congress, and so you get ahead of that. He instructed Republicans to vote for it
versus being humiliated in a legislative sense. But you know, to me, I think it would have it would have made just as much sense for him to let Congress do his thing, do his thing, and then he could veto it if he wanted to. But I don't really know why the President is conducting his strategy related to
the Epstein files the way that he is. From my standpoint, the most embarrassing information about the relationship between President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein has pretty much already emerged, and if there's if there's more, well then that would be that would of course be disturbing. I don't believe that there is. But the answer your question directly, Ken, I really don't know why the president is doing a source of terrific speculation because the approach really did not make sense.
Well, he did sign, he did sign the bill when it came to his desk, and now it's out there. But you know, the narrative that I've heard from those that support Trump is well, Jeffrey Epstein really wanted to collect power, and he really wanted to cultivate people who had power, and there, in fact, is why he and Trump became I guess friends. But the fact of the matter is is the guy like power. But in the end, it sounded like when Trump did a one to eighty
on him, he kind of hated Trump. And it seems to me that there's more info in these files about Democrats at this point than there is about Donald Trump. I know we haven't seen everything, but so far what we've seen has been more, has been more implicating Democrats, and it has anybody that I've seen on the Republican side of this argument, do you have any information that might be different from what I've.
Seen, Well, first of all, I would just ain't clear that Epstein Justice doesn't approach this issue as a partisan matter. And it really doesn't matter to us as an organization whether it's Democrats implicated or Republicans implicated, or Libertarians or independence. What we want is everybody who's involved to be exposed.
You know, for example, you know some of the emails that have come out from some of the materials that have already been released by the House Oversight Committee, have you know, I think put Larry Summers in a very very who was a former treasury secretary for the Clintons, in an absolutely horrifying life.
And he's rightly.
Stepping back from his duties and all this sort of things. But a guy like that, I mean, he should be publicly humiliated. He associated with one of the most notorious child sex traffickers and asked him for advice on how to get into the pants a sense of one of the of his students. So this is the guy that, if he doesn't face any legal or or civil sanctions, should at least be publicly ashamed and humiliated and not
be allowed in public life ever again. And listen, I think I think all of the people that are involved need to be at the least exposed and brought to the light and publicly shamed. Sometimes in certain cases there may not be legal action that's available to take against people who are involved.
For I'm not a lawyer, but I know how.
Difficult it can be to bring actual charges and get convictions. But at a minimum, we should at least have the information, as an American people about who was actually involved, who did what, and who got what from it.
Oh, absolutely I don't. I don't think you're going to get pushed back from anybody except perhaps the people that are implicated in these things. You know what I what I what I'm having trouble with is is these files have been around for a long time time. They were around certainly when Joe Biden was president, and I just find it interesting and disturbing, quite frankly, that people are only getting religion on this since Donald Trump took office
in January. I mean before that, you know, Joe Biden, and even when he had controls of both House, US Congress and the US Senate, they had no interest in exposing the people that were in these files, let alone talk about them. I mean, I find that a little disingenuous by people on the left, don't you.
Well, again, I'm a nonpartisan, I'm a registered independent.
No, But I'm just saying, just as someone who is concerned about this, it would seem to me that if these things are as damning as they were, you know, why weren't they out there in twenty twenty at the very least. I think Epstein died in twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, why weren't they released at that point? That's a great question.
Why went or you can go back through each successive administration and asked the same thing. I mean why because we've been we've been fighting for disclosure for a long time. Uh. And and my partner, Nick Bryant, is the investigative journalists who both found and then took three years to get him to get anybody to publish but publish Jeffrey Epstein's Little Black Book.
Uh. You know.
The thing about that is that when he did that and when he got that information out into the public, even at that time when President Barack Obama was president, we were, you know, my partner and Nick was calling for disclosure, you know, more than a decade ago. So it's not just it's not just the Trump administration. It's not just the Biden administration. It's the Obama administration. It's the first Trump administration. It's the George W. Bush administration.
I mean, it's it's the George W. Bush administration that uh empowered you know, Alexandra Aposta to make the sweetheart deal with Jeffrey Epstein back in two thousand and eight that.
Basically let them go free for.
Instead of being put underneath the jail cell for child sex abuse. So I mean, I guess what I'm saying is that that's a question that can be asked of every administration, both Republican and Democrat, since two thousand and five, and certainly I agree with you that to me, it has certainly been I think a little bit.
I don't know if i'd use the word disingenuous.
Maybe one word for it, but another word may be just revolving, to mean, it's been revolting to watch Democrats who have taken and a Republicans do who heretofore, who have taken no interest in this matter, all of a sudden, when it's going to put the screws to President Trump. Now, i' mean this isn't about President Trump necessarily. This is about
getting justice for the victims. When the largest most horrific child sex trafficking network ever to be uncovered on humans on American soil is revealed but then covered up, well, you know, how can victims feel like they're ever going to get any healing? How can victims feel like they're safe if the entire thing continues to be pushed under the rug and the official position.
Of the US government still remains that the victims are liared.
Yeah. I mean, the thing that baffles me on all this is during the election of twenty twenty four, Trump said during that election that he wanted the files out. We're just going to get him out. We're going to release him. And then he's in office for three weeks and Pam Bondi is appointed general manager General Attorney General and she says, they're on my desk and I'm going to release him. And then there was all of this
foot dragging until this past week when they were finally released. Yeah, don't. I just don't understand that game, because if the Democrats had any thing on Donald Trump, we would have heard about it in the last election cycle or in the time that Joe Biden was in office. I mean, the one thing that unites Democrats more than anything else is this unabashed, unobated hatred of Donald Trump. They could care less about Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton. That's the
guy that unites Democrats in their hatred. And if they had something they would have, they would have this would have been out in the public long before right now. So I have, for the life of me, I can't figure out why Trump would drag his feet on this thing, knowing full well that you know, whatever he was implicated in was not anything that was going to get him impeached or deny him on an election in twenty twenty four. I just it just baffles me the way this thing
was played out. And I know you say you don't, you don't want to take sides politically, but at the very least you have to admit it strange.
Right, Oh yeah, well, but I'm so let's let's just think about this first and.
Ken, what would motivate the president of the United States, who's already been president once by the way, he's on the campaign trail. He says, look, I'm going to release the files. He's maybe never even seen these files, right, So he goes into office and then the information is
presented to him. Sir, what's in these files is that Jeffrey Epstein was a CIA asset and that his child sex trafficking network was in fact monitored by CIA handlers, who then helped eliminate him when he became too much of a pain in the neck to deal with.
Now, you're just speculating, speculating.
I'm saying that that happened.
What I am saying is that I would sure like to know if that was the truth, wouldn't you sure? I mean, I mean, does that explain the situation?
It certainly does.
But or worse yet, Hey, mister President, it turns out Jeffrey Epstein was in fact controlled by Masad. I mean, I'm not saying he was any of those things. Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I'm just saying when people don't know the answers, they make them up, don't they, And so especially when the answers are reasonable.
Yeah, well, in the absence of information, all theories can be true. As a wise man once said Peter Schen, associate director of Epstein Justice dot Com. I think, Peter, you and I are going to watch this thing unfold. It will be interesting to see what information actually gets out to us. But my guess is, regardless of that, Epstein Justice will be on top of it again. Epstein Justice dot Com. This is retired the tenant Colonel Peatschen.
Peter was someone who served this country for a very long time in uniform and won the Bronze Star or was awarded I'm sorry the Bronze Star. Peter it's always great catching up to you. Good stuff. Hopefully we can visit down the road. Until then, stay.
Well, Thank you, Ken, I appreciate it and always great to fit it with you.
No, no worries. Don't you find it odd that the minute the government shutdown ended, which was orchestrated by the Democrats, we now have the Epstein things. So now Trump kind of played this, He said, all right, you want the files. There they are. I don't care who's in them. There they are. My guess is in those files are a lot of high profile people, and I think you have
to follow the money. There have been some very very interesting financial transaction between Jeffrey Epstein and some of the major banks that may be exposed inside of those Epstein files. Keep your antenna up and always understand the answer to all of our questions in life is money. To twenty six News Radio seven hundred wl W SO waken twenty eight to three over Rutgers, Julian saying is back in the game, but their top two wide receivers aren't playing
in this game. Well, you know, there was this least bit of doubt about their top two players, and given what's coming up next, I think you defer on the side of caution. There Number three, Texas A and M is comfortably ahead playing at home today. I like A and M. I just think they're a really good football team. They're playing Sanford today. That is sam frd the one win Samford Bulldogs right now, early fourth quarter, Texas A
and M forty one and Samford zero. And then of course a lot of other games are occurring in and around the country today. The one we're keeping our eye on obviously, as you see in BYU, and that's tonight, Nipid night. And right here on seven hundred at WYLW tomorrow it's the Bengals against the Patriots. No Joe Burrow, he was not activated. He has of course been at least on the field practicing, but there was some thought that he might play. He is not. We'll see about
Thursday night in Baltimore. And de John Anthony, the safety who has been out, not playing tomorrow. And of course Jamar Chase is not playing tomorrow, sitting out the one game suspension for spitting on a player last week. I don't want to hear about who it was Jalen Ramsey, what Ramsey might have done, didn't do, and all that you never spent on another human being under any circumstance.
So anyway, he is out for tomorrow as well, and they will face one of the hottest quarterbacks in the country. That would be Drake May, who has experienced the resurgent under Mike Rabel, the head coach up there and his new coaching staff. Dax Hill, Bengal cornerback, talking about.
That this week, I really just have to contain him second year, and I felt like just putting pressure on him early and I'm just making a horror for him. I feel like, well Fluster's game a little bit, so just putting pressure on him and really just playing our game. The last couple of weeks, we've kind of just made absent flow and so we just kind of just focus on ourselves and just once we do that, I feel like everything else will come together.
Well.
Let's hope it would be refreshing to see a win anywhere, certainly at Pey Corpse Stadium. Someone who is coming to the game is someone who is so charged with covering the New England Patriots. He's been on the beat up there for several years and he works for the Athletic Dot Com and I say this every time I have a guest on from the Athletic. It is the best investment you can make if you want to see sports covered with good journalism, No roll up ads, no cheap videos,
just good solid writing. And my next guest is part of that reason. He is, I said, has been covering the Patriots for a while now, and it's great to welcome Chad Graft to the show. And Chad, how are you in this glorious Saturday. I'm doing well, what an intro? Thank you for having me. Well, you know, we kind of like the Athletic. It has its roots here in Cincinnati, and quite frankly, now, all you guys are big city, big time, big deal with the New York Times and everything,
so we should be nice to you. I suppose it should be.
Nice to you guys.
Well, thank you. It's been fun and kind of weird to be frank This season, I moved to New England to start doing the Patriots. I grew up in New England and I've only done the Patriots for four years, and so this is my first piece of like a good football team.
Let's start there. Obviously, there are a lot of reasons why a team plays well when it does not play very well the year before. But the biggest thing I look at is Mike Rabel. Coaches talk about culture. They talk about wanting to bring a new culture to the locker room, and a lot of that is just as you well know, is just coach speak. But has he done that? Is that the biggest difference from this team last year to this year? Yeah, it's truly crazy.
And to be honest, I kind of dismissed a lot of it as coach speak when he was talking about it in his introductory at press conference and along the way, just because I think that you did always knew what you were going to get from Mike Rabel, just from his time in Tennessee, from his demeanor, from the way he acts, from the toughness, from all of that being.
An Ohio guy.
And yet, you know, I just didn't think a turnaround would be able to be pulled off this click Like this is a team that won four games last year, They.
Won four games the year before.
They should have had the.
Number one pick. Last year. We all talked about them as.
A four win team.
Last year they were a three win team, and then Buffalo was They played Buffalo in the last week. All they to do was losing at the number take in Buffalo was like, whoa, whoa, We're gonna have the number one pick in division. Forget about that. So this was a terrible football team. And granted there are still questions. They've played, by far the league's easiest schedule, so it's not like, you know, a.
Nine to two team that's just blowing the doors.
Off of everybody.
And yet they have the best record in the NFL, which is crazy to think considering what the Patriots were the last couple of years.
Emblematic of all of that as Drake May who came out of college. He was a terrific college player, but he looked like he didn't. He was like that crazed dog last year. He didn't know whether to sick them or come here. I mean, it was just like he was completely lost. Now he's found what is able to quarterback whisper with this guy? Or is there something else going on with him?
Well, it's amazing because he had enough moments last year he thought Okay, there might be something in there. But here was my concern coming into this season for him was I didn't think the offensive line was going to be very good. I didn't think his wide receivers were very good, and it turns out the wide receivers have been great with Stefan Diggs. The offensive line has been much much better than I expected. And then here's the other wrinkle to all of this. They brought back Josh
McDaniels as offensive coordinator. And frankly, when they did that, I kind of thought, like, oh man, they're really just bring him back the retreads and playing all the hits from what worked in the Brady days. And like, we've seen Josh McDaniels in Denver, and we've seen Josh McDaniels in Vegas. This is the guy that they're going to bring in for Drake May. And I couldn't have been
more wrongly. He's been awesome as offensive coordinator. Once again, I think it just shows like some coaches probably should just remain offensive coordinators. He is an awesome, awesome, like as elite as it gets offensive coordinator. So even if the head coach Stintce haven't worked, I think what Josh McDaniels is doing with Drake May is really really special.
Well, who's doing it with Stefan Diggs? Because there's a resurrection in and of itself. This guy was damaged goods all of a sudden, now he's blossoming. I think he's got three touchdown receptions or about seven hundred receiving yards so far this season. What's going on with him? And why is there that chemistry with Drake May?
Totally And it's crazy because he's coming off with an apl tear that he suffered ten to eleven months ago, so it's not even like he's, you know, totally repaired. He didn't get a full training camp, They kind of limited his snaps early in the season, and yet in spite of all of that, he's having the season that he's happy. And it comes back to I think he's just such a smart football player, like he was one
of in his prime. He's probably the best route runner in the NFL, along with DeVante Adams during that kind of twenty eighteen nineteen run.
And that has lasted.
Like even if he may not have quite the same explosiveness, or even if he might not have quite as much speed as he once did, he's still very, very savvy as a route runner. And it's given Drake May somebody who's reliable, who's always going to be in the right spot. Like last year, Drake Man had wide receivers who didn't know how to line up or where to go and
so as nothing else. Stefan Diggs has brought some professionalism there of Hey, if you tell me to run an eight yard slant like I am going to do that, I will be exactly where you need me to be. And for a quarterback like Drake who likes to kind of move around the pocket and buy time, it's helpful for him to know exactly where everyone is.
I mean, it really is. It's stunning. We all know Traveon Henderson from this area of the country, and it would seem to me that the Patriots, if they're going to be successful in this game, are going to have to attack the perimeter with their run game. Teams that have attacked the Bengals with their run game have been plentiful, but those that succeed the most are the ones that can get the ball on the perimeter outside. Tell me about Henderson, who I remember more as a tackle to
tackle guy at Ohio State, and then Ramandre Stevenson. Do they do a lot of that? Is there a lot of perimeter or attack with their running game with their running game.
So I think it's an interesting matchup for this because I think the Patriots are probably licking their tops right now. Their running game has not been great lately. It's been boom or bust all season. They've really struggled, and they've used Ramandre Stevenson as more of, you know, the first and second down guy between the tackles, gonna get you four yards, but probably not a whole lot else, just
the consistent, steady guy, and then trade down Henderson for that. Hey, let's bounce it outside here, let's take advantage of this speed. Is a very fast runner, and he's been the home run threat. Stevenson has missed the last couple of games. He's been limited and practices, so we'll see what his status is. But Trebon Henderson, I think is finally starting to come into his own. It took a little bit
longer than I think the Patriots anticipated. There were some pass blocking issues, which was a bit of a surprise since he was very good at that at Ohio State.
But he has just been so so explosive.
He's so so good on those runs to the perimeter, and so you know, we talked about Josh McDaniels in the job that he's done an offensive coordinator. I think he's probably watched some of those Bengals games and though, boys, this is going to be a big Travon Henderson to the outside game. And remember Josh mccamis was the offensive coordinator for those years that were so frustrating for fantasy football earners with the Patriots when they would just use
different running backs dependent on the opponent. I think you could see that where this will be a big Travon Henderson game on Sunday.
Let's flip it to the other side of the ball. Let's talk defensively. They run a base three four. The other thing about New England I think that is interesting is Milton Williams, who looks like he's well, he won't be at the game. He's out, he's on ir Despite that that, they seem to have depth on the inside of their defensive line. I'm not discounting the loss of Williams. He's a great player, but they do seem rather stout on the inside, which allows those edge guys to get
out and get after it. Explain to me what's going on a little bit on that side of the ball.
Well, what's surprising to me is their plan has kind of worked perfectly better than I ever imagined, which has been they're going to put some real big bodies up front and in the middle and do everything to stop the run, to try to get you if you're running it on first down or second and long or whatever,
to get you in the more obvious passing situation. And then they want to play a bunch of man defense on the back end because they really like their two outside cornerbacks Christian zal Is, a former first round pick who I think is probably a top ten corner at this point, and then Carlton Davis on the other side. So they want to get you into obvious passing situations by stopping your running game. Now, I don't know if
that necessarily matches up great against the Bengals. Might just say, you want us to pass it forty five times, like, sure, we could do that, So we'll see how that matches up. But what has worked for the Patriots defense is stopping the run, and then they're getting teams into third.
And long, and that's just a tough way to live. Gonzalez. It would stand a reason in football sense that with Jamar Chase out that he would man up on Tee Higgins. But Gonzalez, from what I've seen, you've seen everything. But from what I've watched, he doesn't seem to travel as much. He doesn't seem to be blocked up on the other guy's number one am I am I right about that or wrong?
Well, it's interesting. Under Belichick and Gerrod Mayo, he traveled everywhere.
Here's your guy, go cover your guy.
I think Drabel would like to get to that point, but because of injuries and some other things, haven't quite gotten there. But because of the way the Bengals are constructed, because of the way that the Patriots as started to get healthier, it wouldn't surprise me if he does travel with te Higgins and Brabel just says, like Rabel's the introductory press comment, he said, I want to play cat defense, Like, hey, quarterbacks, you got that cat, You got that cat, go play defense.
And so it wouldn't surprise me if he says, hey, chrisian Gogald, you see that guy number five, Like everywhere he goes, you follow him.
Yeah.
Yeah, Well, actually, nothing has surprised me more than the fact that the Bengals offensively have put up a lot of offense in the wake of Joe Burrow's injury and still have not managed to win football games. But let's talk about Burrow for a second. Are they preparing for either Burrow or Flacco this week or is Rabel's attitude it really doesn't matter kind of both.
They said that they're preparing for both, but they're also saying that their game plan and preparation isn't going to change a whole lot. And you know, the Jamar chasing, I think is the real big one in terms of when you have two awesome wide receivers like Bengals do, it makes it hard to just say, hey, Christian Zalas, you know, go take this one guy, and then you
get burned by the other guy. And so I think that is a tough like that suspension is big for this matchup where the Patriots have one corner that they really like and can you know, have them travel, I
think that's going to be a big difference. And I think that's going to be a fascinating matchup of Key Higgins versus Christian Dales and how that goes, because as far as the passing game goes, the Patriots have said we're going to prep a little bit for flag Out, a little bit for Burrow, But at the same time, we don't think it makes a dramatic, dramatic difference.
You know, you mentioned this early in the interview, and I agree with you. I think people will look at a schedule, We'll say, well, they're playing a last place schedule, or look at how easy it is. Well, look, you that team has got some big wins this year. The Buccaneers were pretty damn good when they beat the Buccaneers in Tampa a couple of weeks ago. I think they're the Bills. You go to Buffalo and you beat the Bills by three and the other one. I think that
stands out. Although it wasn't against a premier team, that team put thirty two up on a Cleveland Brown's defense. So I think this thing about the soft schedule or last place, whatever you want to call it, I think oftentimes it's kind of overblown. I'm not so sure things translate as they were one year to the next, and the Patriots are an excellent example of that. It just because something happened the year before does not necessarily mean
that's going to happen the next year. I really don't put a lot into the soft schedule.
Do you.
Yeah, At the thought schedule, I think would matter more to me if they were barely beating the Jets and the Dolphins and the Browns and these teams that they've played. But they have one of the best point differentials in the NFL because they're beating up on these bad teams the way that you would think a good team should. And so, you know, if they were beating the Browns thirteen to ten, I would probably be a little bit worried.
They had the Jets on.
Thursday night football rest game, and if they only won that game by three points or something, maybe he'd be a little bit worried.
But it was a double digit win.
For them, and they're racking up the double digit wins, and so I'm not quite as worried, even though I think it is fair to note that they have had a bunch of cupcakes on their schedule, that they are taking care of business against the bad teams the way that a good team should and would all.
Right, Chad handicap this, Now, how does it play out? What will come four o'clock on Sunday afternoon? How does this thing look?
Yeah, Well, I'm super fascinated by this. I'm very curious what's going to happen because this Bengals defense is exactly what the Patriots would love to.
Play right now.
And so I think that the Patriots actually don't try to air it out, even though they have Drake May and even though he's having an MVP season. I think they'll pick their spots when to take eapshots. But I think they're going to want to control the clock in this one. I think they're going to bounce Travon Henderson to the outside quite a bit. And I've got the Patriots winning by more than a touchdown.
Well, they wouldn't be the first. Again, yet another reason why you need to subscribe to the Athletic dot com, good in depth stuff from Chad Graft. He covers the Patriots on a daily basis. All right, Chad, thanks for your time. We appreciate it, and hopefully we get a chance to talk down the road aving me. I don't know if it'll be this year, but hopefully down the road. No Joe Burrow tomorrow, no c J no, no Jamar Chase. It's going to be very difficult. It just is. This
team is red hot. Maybe the averages say they're due for a win for a loss, but after that streak that they've put together, it's going to be very difficult. But nevertheless, that's why you play the game, and that's why you try, and let's not forget that. Up until the last time out against Pittsburgh, Joe Flacco was putting up on goodly numbers on offense. They were just absolutely un believable. Of course, he needed to do that because
the defense was giving up ungodly numbers to the other team. Nevertheless, no, Joe one point zero, Joe two point zero. Here we go. It is two fifty four News Radio seven hundred wl W.
Is it true?
Tom Brand