Bengals Booth Podcast: All I Need

week that wowed coaches and teammates. I'll discuss the Bengals offensive line issues with Dave Lapham and finally, it's our no the Faux segment as we visit with Rich Samini, who covers the Jets for ESPN. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Alta Fiber future proof fiber Internet capable of delivering multi gigabit speeds designed to take your home, business and community to a level. Elevate your connection with

all to Fiber. Now. Here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since the Rule of three. I love grilling, and I was recently introduced to the rule of three. When grilling steak. First, set up a two zone cooking system where one side of your grill has direct heat and the other side has

indirect heat. If you're cooking with charcoal, that means you pile all the charcoal on one side. If you're cooking with gas, one set of burners will be on medium high and the other will be on low. Here's where the rule of three comes in. You cook the steak over direct heat for three minutes, then flip it over and cook the other side over direct heat for three more minutes. That gives the steak a great seer. Then follow the same formula over indirect heat three minutes on

one side and three on the other. Remove the stake from the grill, let it rest for five minutes, and the result is juicy, mouthwatering perfection. But don't take it from me, try it yourself with the rule of three. Now, let's look ahead to Sunday's game against the Jets, beginning with one of my favorite broadcasters. He called the Bengal season opener, and he will be back in the booth for CBS this Sunday. My pal I an Eagle, So that season opening game was a broadcaster's dream, although Bengals

fans obviously did not like the finish. You had a classic what is happening here call in overtime on a missed Steelers field goal. But ian was that one of the wackier final stretches of a game you've had in a while. Dan, I've been doing this a long time now, It's twenty five years at CBS, and I don't know if I could come up with another roller coaster Rye

type of finish. I've had game winners, I've at Hail Mary, I've had flea flickers, But the sequence of events that led to where we ultimately got to, I'm not sure anybody could have possibly imagined it. It's rare that long snappers become parts of the narrative and the conversation, and we realized very much in the moment that this could play a big role in the final and it did

for Cincinnati. Obviously, that's a heartbreaking loss, but from a broadcasters point of view, it had just about everything that you look for in these Week one mysteries because that's what it feels like every year in the NFL, and we will never take the long snapper for granted. Again, let's talk about the Bengals. Through two games, they've surrendered thirteen sacks. They obviously addressed the offensive line in the offseason. Do you consider that to still be the biggest question mark.

I think it was the biggest question mark coming into the season. Clearly it's still an issue. I wouldn't pin everything on the offensive line. I think when you break things down and try to figure out how to make it better, it's a lot of different parts. Running game has to be better. I think there's probably a way to create a bit more in play action and movement in trying to put Burrow in positions where it's not all on his shoulders at all times and they're going

to get there. There's too much talent, there's too much belief in that locker room, there's too much shared success from last year for it to completely evaporate. But what ends up happening is every year in the NFL you get this very strong reminder it's hard to win. It's hard to win games, and when you have it rolling like the Bengals did last season. It's hard to imagine not seeing things go smooth and having everything work out

the way that you think it's supposed to. This is a league where you enjoy success, but you also have to deal with adversity, and the Bengals right now they're in the second part of that equation. They're trying to figure out how to bounce back from these adverse results. There's no such thing as a must win game in Week three, but there are critical games, particularly after an

O and two start. How critical is this game for Cincinnati in your opinion, Well, you just look at the numbers, Dan, and over the course of NFL history since the merger, if you start O and three, you have a two point five percent chance of making the playoffs. Can it happen yes? Does it happen often? No? So you need to win. You need to get that feeling back a just for your own locker room and for the guys and the staff to experience it. And then secondly, the

mathematic the stats don't lie. You put yourself in an O and three hole, it's going to be very difficult to climb out of this division. Still very much up in the air, Pittsburgh trying to figure things out. Cleveland clearly has dealt with a great deal of drama, coming off among the worst losses I've ever seen in Week two, and Baltimore, a team whose identity was very much entrenched in our brains as NFL observers, now redefining who they are just a little bit. So. The division's up for grabs.

You got to win football games to be part of the mix. We're chatting with I an Eagle. Let's talk about the Jets. The Jets were the team that handed Cleveland that unbelievable loss last week, scoring fourteen points in the last minute and a half. They only won four games last year. They're one and one this year. Joe Flacco is playing better. What stands out to you about the Jets through two games an injection of youth more

than anything else. They desperately needed an impact draft class, and they've gotten it with Wilson who emerged last week. And certainly they're Ohio fans that are very familiar with his work with Sauce Gardner, who you know quite well,

and Cincinnati fans know quite well. They just needed legit talent guys that step onto that field and you know on first glance that they're going to actually be good pros that you don't have to worry about what they're going to be in the next five to seven years. Bruce Hall, same deal. Really talented running back out of Iowa State who was highly productive, and you're seeing that at this level. His subtle movement, his burst, his abilities

in both running the football and catching the ball. That's apparent. They desperately needed young players to step forward, and they've gotten it in the first two weeks. They're seeing results. They know they're a better team than they were a year ago, but it's hard to evaluate them until Zach Wilson's under center and until their franchise quarterback is gaining the necessary experience. Just like Bengals fans needed to see it with Joe Burrow, Jets fans need to see it

with Zach Wilson. The injured right knee suffered on the second possession of the preseason. That's curtailed the timetable a bit, but that's why Joe Flacco was brought in. Veteran presence, been through everything, experienced and can still throw the football around a little bit. That was a huge win for their team, the question can they back it up and sustain success? That's tough to do in this league. You typically visit with some players and coaches before you call

a Bengals game. Is there anybody in particular on the roster on the coaching staff that you look forward to talking to? Yeah, I gotta tell you. Jamar Chase in just one year has come a very long way. When we sat down with them as rookie season, I think there was still the feeling out process. A he didn't know quite the success level that he was going to have, so there might be that trepidation of being yourself until you have the success to back it up. But this year,

sitting down with him week one, what a pleasure. Really smart, clearly mature, understands what the job is, what it entails. I think he is already one of the leaders on this team. He's going to emerge as an even bigger leader because of his production and because of the way that it carries himself. I just think that he's the whole package and the Bengals are fortunate to have him, and I think he wants to be great, And I

know that's an assumption in this leak. Everybody wants to be great, there's another level of dedication that's required to be among the best, and I think he happens to have that gene and that attribute that's going to put him above the rest very well. Put in twenty five years of doing this, is there anybody league wide in those meetings that stands out as the all time best? Peyton Manning was the first player I talked to when I got the CBS job. Dan nineteen ninety eight, I

did his NFL debut. It happened to be my CBS debut with Mark May Indianapolis, Miami, Dan Marino the QB for the Dolphins, and Peyton Manning making his first NFL start. We have our production meeting. First guy we meet with, Peyton walks in the room. First of all, he's bigger than you think. He walks in the room and you're like, oh wow, he's legitimately six foot five. He filled out over the course of his career. But he extends his hand and says, Hey, Ian I'm Peyton Manning. Nice to

meet you. So he knows my name. That means that he did a little research ahead of time, and there was a thoroughness and attention to detail and his answers. Even then, I'm filling up my yellow pad. I've got ten twelve things that I can use on the podcast. And he never disappointed in all those years. He might be the only NFL player that called me by my name, and it just happened to be the first one in

twenty five years of doing it. But I think if you were going to put a Hall of Fame together of production, meeting interviews, Peyton Manning is a first ballot Hall of Famer. All right, final question for I an Eagle, and it's a personal one. Your parents were entertainers. Your dad was an actor and a comedian. Your mom was a singer. When you are a little kid, at least some of the times you are part of their act.

I want to know how old you were, what the costume was, and what the act consisted of, Dan hard hitting. These are the answers the people want to know. I was six years old. I was the last part of their act for about ten months and then I retired. It was an emotional ceremony where I ended my reign. And entertainment act was five minutes long. It consisted of Impressions Howard Cosell conducting interviews with Muhammad Ali WC. Fields.

This was very topical humor at the time, nineteen seventy five, and my parents dressed me in a three piece suit. Three piece suit. Social Services came to our apartment about six months afterwards to question my parents as to whether or not they were putting me on the right track for life success. They say, he can find everything on YouTube. There is no amount of money I wouldn't pay to see six year old Iron Eagle in his three piece

suit doing his five minute act. Then I mentioned it was brown, The suit was brown, and dan last part I killed Iyan's dad. Jack Eagle started a famous Super Bowl commercial in the nineteen seventies. He played a month brother Dominic who was assigned to make five hundred copies of a handwritten document. After sneaking away from the monastery to use a xerox copy machine, he returns quickly with a giant stack of copies, and a fellow monk says it's a miracle. It was voted one of the top

ten Super Bowl commercials of all time. The Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals. They're free to play with tickets and sign merchandise up for grabs.

Find both inside the Bengals app. The Bengals players and coaches met with a media on Wednesday, and I felt like a time machine had taken me to Green Bay in twenty fourteen when the Packers started the season one and two and Aaron Rodgers said five letters for everybody out there in Packer Land R E L a X Relax Rogers and the Packers backed it up by finishing

that season twelve and four. Well. Joe Burrow has a similar message for Bengals fans after two straight losses to begin the season, everyone is frustrated, but like I said, we're not panicking. Two games in, we got fifteen games left. Let's all just take a deep breath and relax. We're gonna be fine. We got to go out and play well this week and get a win. Can't go down oh and three, But like I said, we're not panicking.

We're focused on one week at a time, so we're gonna go out there and get our best shot this week. We're gonna have a great game plan, we're gonna execute it well, and we've got great players, great coaches, understand our plan and know what we need to do to fix it. We did it last year. We were in here talking about the same exact stuff several times last year and everyone saw how it worked out. So now

we're focused on getting it right, getting better. But like I said, no panic, a lot of urgency, but no panic. Clearly that no panic message came from the top is Zach Taylor made nearly identical comments since the panic from others, and that's just not what's happening for us. So I think sometimes it's the easiest thing to say just to tell everybody to calm down. We're okay, We're a good football team. We'll get to where we need to be, and it's just about going and having a great Wednesday.

That's really what we are focused on today. Having tremendous energy, understanding the plan, asking questions of the plan, going out there and having our best Wednesday we can possibly have. To put ourself in a great position to go have a great Thursday and continue to piggyback on that and just gain some momentum, find our first win, and then take a deep breath and continue to get the ball roll.

If you go back to last season and don't count the regular season finale where coach Taylor rested his starters. The bengals last seven games have come down to the final minute before the Super Bowl. Last second interceptions and dramatic field goals allowed the Bengals to win, but in the Super Bowl. In the first two games of this year, the defense played well but could not get a stop when the game was on the line, and the other team won romatic fashion. I discussed it with Dave Lapham.

For the sake of two plays, they could be two and oh literally one playing either game, and they're two and o. And the truth is they still would have the problems that they have to rectify, but it's a much easier pill to swallow when you're two and oh as opposed to oh and two. And that's the problem, and that that's why everybody's like, oh my gosh, this guy's following what's going on, because the expectations after finishing

the way they finished. But like you described, Dan, they were winning games down the stretch and through the playoffs this way, but they were finishing them. They were the ones kicking the game winning field goals instead of the other team kicking game winning field goals against them. It's just a fine line. It's razor thin. And when you when you kind of tightrote that kind of a line, you know this kind of thing can take place. There's there's no two ways about it. That is life in

the National Football League. Life in the NFL also includes injuries, and we learned and when day the tight end Drew Sample is going to have knee surgery and will be out of action for months, if not the entire year. Devin Asiassi, who has claimed off waivers from New England just before the start of the season, is expected to join Hayden Hurst and Mitchell Wilcox as the Bengals active

tight ends. One of Drew Sample's strengths is blocking, and when he left the game in Dallas, one of the guys who helped fill his role was running back samaj p Ryan. In fact, if you watched the two point conversion passed the Tyler boyd p Rhyan wound up having to block Cowboys star Micah Parsons one on one and handled him like he was an all Pro tackle. That's not why you called the play to match up a

running back on Michael Parsons. I promise you that you know, a guy can line up on the left side of the entirety of the drive and then all of a sudden be on the right and you just got to call the protection the way you want to call it, trying to trying to help everybody there, and just the way he worked out. He lined up outside samaj and Smage did a great job holding him off. Refit in his hands. So that's just what he veteran player like

him brings the table. Smage did not practice that, you know, that was devas rue Sample and Hayden and Somaje get stornto the fire he's got at halftime or in the O two package and do a good job executing a unique play down there in the goal line that was really just meant for inside the three and steps up does it initially maybe lined up wrong, but but got

it fixed, tightened down. There was a little concern there for a moment, lines up right and then and then just blocks his tail off for you know, five seconds or whatever it seemed like, and allowed for us to tie the game. I talked to p Ryan about that block, the team Z and two start and the final offensive play of the Super Bowl this week? Let's start with the two point conversion last week against the Dallas Cowboys. You have the assignment of blocking Micah Parsons one on

one and did a great job. Gave Joe plenty of time to throw that ball. Describe that process when you know that you're matched up against that guy, You've got to keep them away from your quarterback blocking this ninety percent effort and ten percent technique. So just gave everything that I had and came out on the winning side of it. How does that satisfaction compared to a big

play with the ball? A big player is a big play where it's blocking, whether it's uh, you actually doing it, so you know the the end result is what we wanted it to be. So I can never complain about that. Do you consider blocking to be one of your strengths? I take pride in it, So you know, to be able to block block an elite player like that for as long as I did, you know it was it was a definite win for me. Was that enjoyable to

see again? When you guys watch tape on Monday? I mean, I guess it was cool that they showed it, but you know, it was just the end of the day, it's just me, you know, doing whatever I have to do to help the team be in position to win a game. We're visiting the my JP Ryan. The team has dropped the first two games and walk off field goals of fifty plus yards. How much of a gut punch has that been? Um, you never want to lose, whether it's getting blown out or whether it's like you said,

walk off field goals. So it's unfortunate, but you know, we know what kind of team we have. We just have to continue to come together and uh, you know, we've got to start faster. You know, these past two games we haven't started as fast we were like, so you know, we just have to come out and and start fast and finish faster because we know now we're gonna get everyone's best shot. You know, there's no more looking over the Bengals, there's no more circling the Bengals

and all. Yet this is a for sure win. Now we're the team that everyone wants to beat, So we have to come out and and act like it. You know, these past two games we haven't we haven't started like we wanted too, so you know, we just have to continue to put our heads down and grind and just trusting each other and you know, things will start coming

together for us. Other than talking about it and emphasizing it, is there any way to try to create a better start, a faster start, Uh, just not play behind the chains. You know, we've had penalties, we had breakdown protections, whatever it is. We've always just just found a way to shoot ourselves in the foot. And we just have to be you know, more sound and starts in practice. You know, we have to we have to continue to put together great practices. We can't go out and have okay practices

or good practices. We have to consistently have great practices because you know, like I said, we're gonna get everyone's best shot, and we have to match and exceed that intensity weekend and week out. Is the intensity different after you lose a couple in a row. I feel like it's up to us to set that intensity. Like the coaches aren't going to be able to do it, you know, whoever else is going to be able to. We have to go out and be intentional about technique and you know,

being on top of things. If someone messes up, we have to redo it and that's gonna come to come from us, because at the end of the day, we're the ones out there, We're the ones who have to play. So you know, we're really gonna have to step up and just be intentional about the little things, because that's what it always comes down to, you know, whether it's a little twitch and a false start, or you know, someone doesn't get the right call. We just have to

be intentional about the little things, all right. A couple more questions for some I JP Ryan. You celebrated a birthday last week, happy twenty seventh, and the Bengal social media team did something that I found hysterical. They created a Sami jp Ryan filter so that as your teammates went to wish you a happy birthday, they looked like you no hair and a big beard. Well, what was your reaction to the sma jp Ryan filter. It was

definitely interesting. I've never seen anything like that before. It definitely caught me off guard, but little school and you know, I enjoyed it and got a good laugh out of it, but you know, it was it was interesting for sure. Sam Hubbard was my person a favorite in the som jp Ryan filter. Did you have one I would say either Sam Archito, those two they got caught off guard. The most I would say that was it was pretty funny.

It was good stuff, all right. Final question. I haven't had a chance to ask you this since the Super Bowl final offensive play. Joe's getting hit by Aaron Donald. He kind of shot puts one in your direction that looked uncatchable from the TV angle. But was it close? Was it tantalizingly, you know, hanging in the air. I feel like if it was in the air for another half a second, it would have been close. And I've seen everyone, Oh yeah, if you would have no, you

would have caught it. If you would have did this, you would have caught it. But it's like if you weren't there, and if you weren't in that position, like, how you gonna tell me what I could have done? And even if I would have caught it, I still wouldn't have got the first down, so it wouldn't have mattered in the first place. But you know, I watched it, watched it again, thought about all the different things, talk to coaches, you know about if they saw something different,

and everyone here is on the same page. So I've moved on from it. You know, I haven't given any second thought because I know if I do, it's just gonna it's just gonna, you know, eat at me. And I ain't got no time for that. You know. We have to go out and trying to get back there, and that starts with, you know, getting our first win of the season. I appreciate your time, thank you very much, and best of luck against the Jets. I appreciate it. Thank you. Sabaj is averaged four point six yards per

carry since joining the Bengals in twenty nineteen. The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by Kettering Health, the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. With more than one hundred twenty care facilities and fifteen hundred care providers. Kettering Health is committed to guiding you to best health. Visit ketteringhealth dot org to learn more. Time to discuss the Bengals offensive line. Through two games, Cincinnati has surrendered thirteen sacks.

That's three more than any other team, and going back to the playoffs, Joe Burrow has been sacked at least six times in four of their last five games. L Collins had a tough time against Michael Parsons last week and did not practice on Wednesday due to a sore back. Here's Dave Lapham. He basically missed training him with the back probably, and honestly he has struggled because he's gone

against two really outstanding edge rush guys. All you have is t J. Watt Defensive Player of the Year in week one, and then in week two he had a guy who was runner up. He was the defensive Rookie of the Year and runner up to t J. Watt as Defensive Player of the Year, Michael Michael Parsons. And you know, it's like, that's pretty good tannem to start out with. But honestly, I'm wondering his bet. He looks to me like he's a little stiff, you know, like he's not as fluid as as he probably will be

as he takes more and more snaps. But they are gonna monitor how much they work him. I mean, obviously the back, it's it's I don't I'm not sure how much who knows. The only one that knows is LC. How much pain is there? There's probably some, but I think stiffness is a big issue. And uh, in watching them move, it looks that looks to be the case a little bit. I still think though, that this guy is a powerful man that can run, block and dry block.

I would I would not think it would be a bad concept to let him do that against the New York Jets. Let him come off the line of scrimmage, knock people backwards, knock him down, try to get that running game going. And you know, honestly, Joe Mixon, Joe Mixon leads the National Football League and carries and touches, so they are It's not like they're okay, we're not

We're not getting the ball to Jill Mixon. They're giving him plenty of opportunities, but players aren't being executed by all eleven guys regularly enough for him to put up significant yards. He's eleventh in the league in rushing with the most carries, you know, in the league. So it can all get better, There's no doubt about it. And I'd like to see alc just come, you know, let him be a road grader at that right tackle position

in the running game. The Bengals addressed the offensive line by signing three proven free agents and drafting Cordell Volson, but so far, the results have him been great. I ask Lap if he's seen anything that gives him hope that the line will eventually be as good as anticipated. I honestly think that the interior center and guards, particularly in this last game, I thought they played pretty decently

as a group. Now the problems came on the edge, and Michael Parsons was the biggest problem on the edge. But in the opening he had t. J. Watton Heads high Smith, who both were issues on the edge. So I think once that starts getting solidified, you know, it's like five playing is one. That's what you have to have. Film only got three playing as one or four playing as one. It's just it's not going to work. So you know, to me, it's all about unlocking a running game.

A running game would be a cure all because the offensive line would start to be the aggressor instead of retreating and trying to give ground grudgingly and counteract everything. You know, instead of a counterattack, you're attacking, and it's a it's a much different mindset, There's no two ways about it. So I think if you get them coming off the line of scrimmage, you get h you know, Joe Mixon into the second and third level of a defense punishing people a little bit, then you can mix

in play action pass and then everything opens up. It all opens up. So I'd like to see Joe Barrow under center, run that football and then play action pass off of it with Joe under center more than they've been doing, you know, I think it has to. You have to go back almost to not square one, but you have to go back a little bit and say, let's simplify, let's let's not overload anybody with too much mentally,

because that's another problem they've had is communication breakdown. You know, Drew Sample and LC had a communication problem that allowed Parsons just to come untouched. You know, I mean Michael Parsons number eleven. You you got to have at least one, maybe two, maybe three on them, not none, not none, and that uh you know that miscommunications and issues. So again, what what it is is the Bengals bottom line, have

to take themselves off their schedule. They have to do what they did last week in terms of not turning the ball over and get it off of the opponent. And they got one, but they could have gotten four. But that was an improvement from minus five. There's no doubt about that. Now you have to curtail the penalty problem, and you know, and then communicate, recognize, communicate properly. So it's all self destruction stuff. And you know, self destruction.

You're your own worst enemy. You're a bigger enemy than your opponent. You take yourself officer schedule, you get a chance. The Bengals are currently tied for last in the league in turnover margin at minus four, with the Indianapolis Colts another team still looking for its first win. The Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you by pay Corps. More than twenty nine thousand customers trust pay Corps to help them recruit, pay, engage, and retain employees. Learn more at

paycorps dot com. Time for a closer look at this week's opponent. The New York Jets have not gone to the playoffs in the last eleven years, a stretch that's featured four head coaches and four gms. But over the last two years they've been the league's third biggest spender in free agency, and they've had a bunch of high draft picks, including three first rounders this year. Rich Samini, who covers the Jets for ESPN, joined Lapping me on Wednesday night as we hosted the Bengals Game Plan Show

from Patrick Sports Bar and Grill. I do think they're on the right track. You know, they have a lot of young talent on the team, starting with the young quarterback who obviously won't play this week but could be back next week. You saw Garret Wilson against Cleveland just have a huge game with a couple of touchdowns. So they are building something I don't I don't know how

long it's going to take. If you ask a Jets fan, they feel like this has been happening since, you know, the Jurassic era, because it seems like a perpetual rebuild. But I do think there are some signs of progress. What about what about defensively? Rich, I know, offensively got some weapons. Defensively, they've been built through the draft and also free agency. What's the defensive improvement look like in your eyes? Yeah, they have a lot of younger players

as well, including you guys know him well. Saws Gardener from Cincinnati is starting. He's playing pretty well so far as a rookie. He has a really bright future. They're very high on him, and so it's a new look secondary. They have three new starters in the secondary, and they have had some miscommunications last couple of first couple of games, they've given up a touchdown in each game where they had a blown coverage in the secondary, So they're going

through some growing pains back there. They have a really good deep defensive line. They go about eight or nine deep on the defensive line. Now the results have not been there. They only have two sacks with the defensive line has only two sacks right now. I know they're disappointed with that. That includes Carl Lawson, obviously a familiar face to Bengals fans, coming back from a devastating achilles injury.

I don't think he's back one hundred percent yet. He's going through some skipping off some of the rust, so I think he'll get better as the season goes on. So I think this defense has not played up to its potential yet, but you know, I still think they're growing into it. ESPN's Rich Samini is our guest. The fact that the Jets only have a couple of sacks is well received by the Bengals fans here at Patrick Sports Bar and Grills. Since Cincinnati has surrendered thirteen right

in the first two weeks. But what about pressure? Sometimes the sack stats can be a little deceiving. Teams are still pressuring the quarterback hitting the quarterback. Is that deep defensive line at least applying a decent amount of pressure? As a very good question, Dan, and I wish I could give you like a great answer, like a positive answer, But the fact is, no, they have not been generating

a lot of pressure either. I checked all their analytics stats and the pressure numbers are down as well, and so they just haven't been producing. They openly admit that they just haven't been really clicking as a defensive line yet. I will say that they're well aware of the thirteen sacks or Joe Burrow. In fact, I was talking to a couple of them today and Sheldon Rankin's their defensive tackle.

I asked them, you excited to face Joe Burrow? And his eyes kind of lit up, and he goes, absolutely, Whenever you face a team that's given up that many sacks, of course you want to play them, he goes. So we're kind of licking our chops right now. So it's an interesting matchup. You got the two sack jets versus the thirteen stack allowed Bengals, something's got to give. As

they say, Joe Flacco not your typical backup quarterback. I mean a guy who was MVP of a Super Bowl winning team and who fifth in yards throwne for over forty two thousand close to forty three thousand yards, fifth among active quarterbacks, turning thirty two touchdown passes, sixth amongst active quarterbacks in the rally that he had in the final two minutes, but three of his five touchdown passes have come in the final two minutes of the first

two football games. That's that's almost unbelievable. It's almost unheard of. I don't think there's another quarterback in the league that has more than one. Yeah, it's been a strange two weeks for Joe Blaco. If you if you pulled Jet fans after the opening loss to Baltimore, they wanted him gone. I mean they wanted Mike White back in the lineup. Bengal fans, of course will not fomly remember Mike White

from last year, but they wanted White in. They were done with Blaco, they thought he was just washed up. And now those things. Fans have a different tune this week because Joe played great. It was the first Jet quarterback in twenty years to have three hundred yards passing and four touchdowns in a game. Gotta go all the way back to Vinny Testaverty for that. And so you

know he had he had a fantastic two minutes. I mean, he just was on fire in the last two minutes of Sunday's game and he will you know, obviously he's going to start again this week. And it's funny just how the wins that dipted in New York on Joe Flacco rich My final question has to do with c j Uzama finally remembered for his time in Cincinnati. I think Bengals fans were bummed when he wound up signing with the Jets, but understood why he got a big

contract from the Jets. I looked at Week one, didn't have a target in a game where Flacco completed thirty nine passes, didn't have that many snaps in comparison to Tyler Conklin. I know he was out last week with a hamstring injury, but if healthy, is he the number two tight end? What is the deal with c j

Uzama right now with the Jets. Yeah, that's a very interesting case because obviously the big contract I think I think it's like eight or nine million a year, and he had like twenty three snaps in the opener, no targets. I talked to him after the game. I mean he seemed a little frustrated by it. Tyler Conklin has been their number one receiver. When they're in eleven personnel with one back and one tight end and three receivers, it's

Tyler Conklin. Conklin has been there receiving tight end, So I think they see TJ as really more of a blocker and when they're in twelve personnel. So I don't know if that's the role he envisioned when he signed here, but I think that's the role they have planned for him. And I do think he will play this week. He missed last week with the hamstring, but he did practice today limited, and you have to believe he wants to play his former team, so I think things are trending

in that direction for him to play. On Sunday. You mentioned the game against the Jets. Mike White a quarterback. I remember him checking the ball down to run backs and them running forever after catch, and Lewis Rumo addressed it today and said, you know, that gave too much space to the running backs. You know, didn't press up close enough on the reception of the football, and that was a big issue. And I'm looking at Flacco and

the way he's utilizing his running backs. The running backs have twenty catches already tied for most in the NFL as a position group at running back, one hundred and eighteen receiving yards eleventh in the NFL. Joe Flacco, I mean, it's almost like an extension of the ground game the way he looks to be utilizing those running backs checking it down to him, doesn't it Absolutely It's a great point, you know, but Joe has been just throwing a lot.

You know, he's got one hundred and three pass attempts in two games. And I checked on that. That is at the astounding for any quarterback, let alone a thirty seven year old guy. It really doesn't move too well. It's like it's the second most for the first two games in the Super Bowl era. The only guy who's thrown it more in the first two games it was Brian's Sight had like one hundred and ten attempts way back in the early eighties, and so I think the

Jets really want to lower that. Obviously, they don't want to put Flacco in harm's way that many times a game, and so he does throw to the back. He likes to spread it around. Look, he's a smart quarterback. He's won a Super Bowl and he knows where to go with the football. Now, did he get it out all the time? No? Can he escape a pass rush No, So if the Bengals get pressure on him, they're liable to attack him or force him into a bad decision. But he knows when he has time. He's still an

effective quarterback. Joe Flacco started twenty games against the Bengals when he was still in Baltimore. The Bengals went eleven and nine in those games, and Flacco had a passer rating in the low seventies. Sunday's game kicks off at one o'clock. Our pregame coverage will begin at eleven thirty am. Before I wrap things up, here's an invitation to join us at the Wings and Rings Beach model location for the Bengals pep rally show this Friday from three to six.

Special Teams Captain Michael Thomas will join us in the final hour, and we'll have plenty of giveaways throughout the show. That's going to do it. For this episode of The Bengals Booth Podcast, presented by Alta Fiber future Proof Fiber Internet elevate your connection with Alta Fiber by Kettering Health, the official healthcare provider of the Bengals, by Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals. They're free to play with tickets and signed merchandise up for grabs, and by Paycorps, the official

HR software provider of the Bengals. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe to this podcast and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment that helps more Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast.