Bengals Booth Podcast: Blue Christmas

Hi and everybody.

I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading the Bengals Booth Podcast.

The uh have a.

Blue Christmas addition, as the Bengals playoff chances take a significant hit with a thirty four to eleven loss to the dreaded, hated, but grudgingly respected Pittsburgh Steelers. Coming up radio replays, locker room comments and postgame analysis from Dave Lapham. Then, in this week's fun Facts Conversation, you'll get to know

Well.

Recently, Steve recorded a series of long conversations with writer Adam Gopnik, and they've put out a six part podcast called So Many Steves, looking at how Martin has flourished in so many different endeavors, including magic, comedy, acting, playwriting, banjo playing, and more. It's a revealing look at an incredible performer. And after listening to all two and a half hour, I'd like to meet Steve even more. Now, let's get to the radio replays from the Nightmare Before Christmas.

It is caught.

Pickens streaking up the middle of the field. Look out, he's at the fifty. The Bengals forty down to the thirty hangling towards the sideline at the ten and running into the end zone on eighty six yard touchdown on the first pass thrown today by Mason Rudolph. Third down and eight from the Steelers fifteen, Browning looking to throw begins scrambling right, being chased by Cam Hayward. Browning throws off his back foot and intentionally Hi I find he

Second and goal from the seven.

Here's a jet sweep Austin toward the goal line.

He's in.

Calvin Austen on the jet sweep sprints toward the left pylon. Han reaches the end zone. Four Pittsburgh's second TD done. First and ten, Browning from the pocket throws intercepted at the forty yard line. Second interception for the Steelers, this one being run back by Eric Rowe. He's to the twenty, tight ropes the sideline and gets belted by Orlando Brown Junior inside the twenty yard line. First and goal from the three. Receiver goes in motion behind the quarterback. It's

Down and a half a yard.

Joe Mixing a lineup to his right now mixing motions to the quarterbacks left, then goes back to his right, Browning ready for the shotgun snap. He has the ball, He's going to throw. Browning lofts it into the end zone. Higgins can't make the catch gets incomplete. The Bengals throw it on fourth and a half a yard and fail to convert Pittsburgh's ball. This will be a fifty yard try the final play of the second quarter. The snap, the placement, the right footed kick. It has the distance

Touch on T.

Higgins spreading to the fifty. He's to the forty. He's running away from the pack. He's gonna take it the distance. An eighty yard touchdown for T. Higgins, who finger rolls it over the crossbar after taking it to the house for an eighty yard TD Rudolph back to throw lofts one deep four pickins. It is taught on the run down the sideline to the fifteen ten five touchdown on fourth down and five running back to throw, looking firing deep for Higgins. He leaps and it is going to

Interception number three for Jake Browning.

It is a final coaches heading toward the fifty for the postgame hand shape. Final score. Pittsburgh thirty four, Cincinnati eleven. Jake Browning completed two thirds of his passes and threw for three hundred and thirty five yards. Unfortunately, his three interceptions were hard to overcome, especially the first one, where he lobbed the ball into a cluster of three Steelers defenders in the end zone with no Bengals receiver nearby. First pick.

I'm trying to throw the ball out of bounds, and I was even surprised that someone picked it off and somehow ended up in the middle of the end zone.

I don't know.

I was trying to throw the ball away and ended up in the end zone. In the DB's hands. I mean, I think the first two we're just dumb decisions, and then the third one was obviously dumb decision too, But third one there's a little bit more of you're trying to, you know, get something going, and you kind of got

The one big offensive highlight was t higgins eighty yard touchdown catch to begin the third quarter, the longest touchdown grab of T's career. T described the touchdown and discussed a rough day for the team in front of his locker.

Yeah, run of the little slant route. I think the backer tried to pass off, well, pass off and pick me up. I think he did a little too late. And then you know, obviously he had the room, the open field right there, saw green grass and you know the rest of his history. You know, we lost to Day.

Man.

It is what it is. Tough playing ride back home tomorrow, new day. Back at it this year.

You know, some highs and some lows for the team. How tough's the year been overall?

Very tough.

Obviously a lot of losses that we didn't expect. But I mean it's a tough league, you know, playing against the best of the best, and it happens.

So everybody knew the Steelers pride was wounded going into the game. Could you feel that when you took the field today.

I mean I wasn't paying no attention to them, you know what I'm saying. I'm just trying to focus on my game and my team to make sure we ready at the end of the day.

So how big a factor was momentum?

It's a big factor.

They got on this early and I saw they went up twenty one zero, twenty four zero, and it's hard to come back from twenty four deficits, you know, especially in the league, in this league.

So yeah, did you briefly feel like you had a shot after your touchdown catch?

Oh?

Yeah, I mean because we've been down a lot before and came back and won. Definitely felt like we had a shot. But just like I said earlier, it just wasn't enough.

You needed to win two out of your last three to have a chance going into this game. Now the margin era of era is going right.

Yeah, Yeah, definitely got to come out fine, He's next two weeks man, and try to get in the playoffs.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Bengals struggled to stop the combo of Ason Rudolph to George Pickens. He caught four passes for one hundred and ninety five yards, including sixty six and eighty six yard touchdowns. Here's my conversation with Mike Helton. My football is often a game of momentum, and it seems like once the Steelers got rolling today, they were really feeling it.

Yeah, they were.

You know, they hit us on some exposive plays early and they were able to get turnovers early and definitely just took the momentum and we were never ever really gained it back, and you know, they were able to just keep it going through out the whole guy.

How big of a blow was the first passing play for the eighty six yard touchdowns?

Oh that's tough man, you gut shouts him. He made a great play, was able to break a tackle and take it. But as the defense, we got to find a way to get him down.

And you know when.

That play happening, the sideline just you just kind of already feel that sideline kind of just energy go down and we were never never able to rebound for that.

You said it all week, you're going to be facing a wounded animal essentially in the Steelers, with the way that that they had struggled the last three weeks. Could you see that when you took the field today.

Yeah, for sure. I know those guys over there. I noticed coaches over there. I know they were gonna have them prepared and you know, fighting for their lives. And you know they played well today. We didn't execute it. You know, we took a loss.

You were one of the coin toss captains playing against your former team. Does it make it that much more difficult when the result goes that way.

Yeah for sure. You know, we're all competitive guys, especially personally. You know me, been being here for four years, I definitely want to beat them as much as possible, but we weren't able to get it done, and you know, we gotta just move on to get ready for Kansas City.

So going into the game, you guys needed to win at least two out of your last three to have a shot. You still got a shot, but the margin of era is gone.

Oh yeah for sure. You know, we still have everything in front of us, So we gotta find a ways to win. Win next week, even though it's gonna be tough. But I trust these guys and I know our confidence is gonna be high by the time we come back Sunday and would be ready to play.

Appreciate your time, Thank you, thank you. You're off to Kansas City next Sunday for a rematch of the last two AFC Championship games. The Bengals are an early seven point underdog. Now let's hear from head coach Zach Taylor, who spent a couple of minutes with Lap after the game.

Coach, one of those one of those tough days in the National Football League. That's the league.

I guess.

Yeah, we didn't do enough at the early part of the game to give ourselves a chance, you know, and so they jumped off pretty quick and then you had to react from there. So again it's just a humbling day for us, and we're gonna have to make the corrections and be ready to move on quickly.

Three turnovers, it's tough. It's tough for a quarterback on the road, Jake, I guess I know the first one who's trying to throw away, but it just stayed on the field to play on.

Yeah, you know, just get a little further out there, and then we need to rise up and get a stop after that. And they went down score a touchdown to go at fourteen to nothing. So again, we didn't play good complimentary football. We didn't play good enough in any phase. We didn't coach well enough in any phase, and that's the result that happens.

What do you think was I mean, I don't know if there was a turning point as such, but where do you think the game became something that you didn't anticipate.

Well, you had two turnovers and some explosives early on, you know, they had we had moved the ball to fifty, punted down there to the six. We're really good control right there. And then an eighty four yeard touchdown. You know, those are the things that you got to do a better job, you know as a team defending against. And then which didn't didn't put either side of the ball in good position.

On the explosives? Did they just catch you and man in most of those situations, Yeah.

Some of those are just one on one, you know, and it is they've made a play and we didn't. And that's that's that's when you're in some one on one situations, that's what happens.

You had won nine in a row in the month of December, which was the longest streak in the National Foota League, a club record, I mean, something to be proud of, eleven out of twelve in December games. Just pick yourself back up and head to Kansas City.

Yeah, that's we still got plenty to play for, you know. And and again we know what the outside always is going to be.

This week.

When you have a performance like this in a divisional game on the road, well on up to it will be accountable for it, and that won't prevent us from putting together good work and still trying to go achieve all the things that we've been trying to achieve all season.

Appreciate it, coach, Yep.

Thank you.

The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by pay Core, Proud to be the Bengals Official HR software provider, by Alta Fiber future proof fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health is the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. Now time for the radio guys recap.

Lap.

I think everybody expected the Pittsburgh Steelers to come out determined. They have been mocked from coast to coast for what's happened over the last three weeks. It's a proud franchise and they showed up ready to go tonight.

Yeah they did. I think basically they had enough, you know, enough of the talk. I think they wanted to go out and and do something about it physically, and they did. They were ready to play. I think Mike Tomlin probably gave him a heck of a heck of motivational talk more than once this week, and uh, but talks cheap. You know, they went out and made plays when they had to. They they played light years better than the Bengals did early on. That was the difference in the game.

You played pro football for twelve years, describe what it's like when the momentum is not going your way.

Yeah, it's it's it's hard. It's you feel like you have, you know, huge weight on your shoulders. Uh. Everything, everything seems to be monumentally tougher. Uh, for no apparent reason. And and it's interesting, I've been in games like this. You look at the stats and and it's like, they're not that terrible disparity wise in terms of yards and that sort of thing. But they you know, they they

I hate to be too critical of Jake Browning. He's been awesome to keep the Bengals in the hunt, but that first interception was so costly. I'm sure he'll look back at that film and think, why didn't I just throw it away?

I guess he was trying to, and I don't know if it slipped. I don't know what happened there. But Zach was asked that, and I asked him that, and he said he was trying to throw it away, but you know, kept it on the field of play, and obviously that was an issue.

Sure was defensively, three big passing plays surrendered to George Pickens. It's been a problem off and on all year getting up big plays, and those threes, those three plays the Pickens really really hurt.

Yeah, they were huge, and you know, you just get caught in a situation since where you're in man coverage in one on ones and he wins, and and uh, you got to give you got to give the quarterback his just due too. He put he put the ball in in good places. There's no question. I mean, Mason Rudolph played about it, probably as high level as he can play.

You spoke to your counterpart, the Steelers color analysts prior to the game, and he said, going back to training camp, he would have liked to have seen Mason Rudolph be the starter from the very beginning. And he said that publicly here in Pittsburgh.

He did. He went on the record saying that, you know, Mason Golf was the guy that he would have gone with. He believes in him. I think he's been probably around him longer than anybody. And he made he made it look like, you know, he was a Southsayer of sorts. But it didn't didn't happen until the very end of the season. But again, you know, oneon one game does not a season make. We all know that the boy he looked good today.

Again, I hate to be overly critical of Jake Browning, who's been great under difficult circumstances, but it did it feel a little bit like sooner or later he was bound to have a so so game.

Yeah, I mean, even the great ones, do you know? And you know is his situation obviously is not a huge sample size, But unfortunately today was not the day.

So going into the game, the Bengals needed to win at least two out of their last three to have a shot. Well, they can still win two, but the margin for error is gone.

It is. And you know, we've talked about the tiebreaker till at nauseum. Everybody else in the division has at least three wins. Two of the teams have three in Baltimore has four and Bengals rowing five. So obviously that tiebreaker it's not a tie breaker, it's tye broken. I mean, it's over in terms of that regard.

The person playing the music here at Akrasure Stadium had Rudolph the Red Noise Reindeer ready to go for the end of the game. Rudolph leads the Steelers to victory before Christmas.

And he was a beacon of light, not just a red nose, no doubt about that.

Merry Christmas to the Laphams. See if we can go to Kansas City and get a win.

Here we go very east of Christmas to the Hordes as well and go get a dub on the road.

Finally, it's time for this week's fun Facts Conversation. Sadly, this week's guest recently suffered a torn acl that ended his season with three weeks to go. Time for some fun facts with cornerback DJ Ivy from Florida City, Florida, just south of Miami. Let's start with your name. What is DJ short.

For DJ so forward, Demetris So full name is Demetris Ivy Junior.

Does anybody call you Demetrius.

H Maybe my mom sometimes, but for the most part, just Demetris. That means this DJ.

So you're one of three DJs on the team. DJ Reader got here first, you and D and her arrived together. How does everybody keep you guys apart?

Keep us apart by nicknames, last names? Big DJ, which is you know DJ obviously me and me and DJ turners in the same room. So uh, he goes by Drago, I go by Ivy DJ whatever whatever the group wants to, you know, ident identify us by. But for the most part we know who they're talking about.

We're doing fun facts with DJ Ivy. As I mentioned, you're from the Miami area. You said in an interview that there was a lot of violence in crime where you grew up. How bad was it and how did you stay out of trouble?

It was very bad. I mean even like people at the school, it was you know, uh into violence and stuff like that. But I'll just say my mom, she she helped help with that a lot. Keeping me busy in sports growing up. I did basketball, tracking football, so I really didn't have an off season, and I feel like that helped a lot.

Your mom seems like a pretty remarkable woman. She raised four kids while working in security. Describe your relationship with her.

She's sees my world. She's, you know, the best mom you'd asked for. Our relationship was very tight. You know, she probably called every day, if not, you know, twice a day. So yeah, my mom is mom is the heartbeat for sure.

After an excellent high school football career, you were recruited by a lot of the big time schools in the SEC and around the South. Did you enjoy the attention or was it stressful?

I enjoyed it for the most part. I kind of knew where I was going. My mom she wasn't really letting me leave home, so I kind of knew I was going to Miami. But uh, I enjoyed it for the most part. You know, it's once in a lifetime opportunity, so don't let us press you up.

Was it a lifelong dream to play at the U, the University of Miami?

Oh yeah, of course. I mean obviously growing up in Miami and watching it on TV. This this is what you grew up on. So being able to play for them and having my mom to actually come to each and every home game, that made a big difference for me as well.

You stayed there for five years, you played in fifty eight games, which I think is second on the all time list at that school. What were some of the highlights of your time with the Hurricanes.

I had a lot of highlights. Two interceptions versus Pitt against Kenny Pickett my sophomore year, test d them game my last year Clemson recovered Scoop and score interception versus fs FSU receivers. Now, it's a lot, it's a lot. It's a lot of memories that I could go through throughout my career. I'm just glad that I had to experience it at Miami and with those guys.

So after your great career there, prior to the draft, the Bengals brought you in for a top thirty visit. Obviously, they're only allowed to do that with thirty players. It's kind of like a job interview. Describe that experience. It was.

It was a great experience. I actually went to Minnesota first and then I came to the Viking, So I mean I went to Minnesota first and then I came over here to the Bengals. It was after the Minnesota visit. I kind of knew what to expect coming into the Bengals visit, but it was just a job interview. I mean, just just come and be yourself, show them who you are and what you could bring to the table. And I guess is what I did. You know, let's discuss

Do I remember correctly that Zach had a hard time reaching you after the Bengals decided they were going to pick you.

He did so probably you know, I know the guys that go later on, they know like how it gets after the like fifth round and you still haven't been drafted.

You know.

I had teams calling me left and right, like literally like left and right, probably over over fifteen teams calling me saying that they would like to have me as a undrafted free agency while they already had they still had picks on the board.

They was telling me this.

So who I was on the I was on the phone with the Cardinals, I believe, and I got Coach Taylor call. But I'm thinking Coach Taylor is calling to tell me the same thing that everybody else is telling me. So I was just gonna return his call, and then he actually texted me. So at this time I looked at my text messages and I'm outside with my my friend and he's like, bro, what you doing. You're hanging up on the Cardinals. I'm like, Bro, I think I'm

You know.

It's just just a relief and happiness for me and my family. So that's how I experienced went. But it was a it was a crazy, crazy, crazy day for sure.

All write some wild card topics now for dj Ivy. Who is your all time favorite athlete in any sport? And why?

I gotta go with Shaun Taylor man R and p Son Taylor. But growing up he was he's actually growing growing up where I'm from. He played little league football at flit Razorbacks, went to Gulliver, went to the U as well, and then played for the Redskins a bit. But man just growing up and seeing what he could do on the field just just gave me hope, like someone that's you know, where you're from and doing what he could do.

It was crazy.

But so I'll say he's definitely probably my top one for sure.

And am I correct in thinking that you know Shawn's family just I do?

I know Son's family. His dad coach coached me in basketball. His dad is also a trainer, played with his little brother a couple of times. But yeah, I'm familiar with.

The family other than being a professional football player. Have you had any other full or part time jobs? No?

Full, no part time. Well I don't know if this counts, but I did. I did work at this after it's not it.

Was a summer camp.

It was a summer camp, probably down the street walking distance from my I was when I was in high school. I worked there for the summer.

That's about it though.

And all we did was, you know, just play basketball, play sports with the kids. But other than that, no four time.

Job, DJ. What do you like to spend your money on? Clothes?

Shoes, just fashion for the most part. Food, That's about it.

Close.

Some fashion, some fashion stuff and some food.

Gotta eat. Do you have a big shoe collection.

Oh yeah, I'll be bund some with shoes. I'll be having to tell myself to slow down, Like I got a lot of shoes and it's like you can't wear them all. So but yeah, definitely a big shoe collection, big sugar.

What do you miss when you're not in the Miami area?

The weather, for sure, I'll say the weather, and sometimes the food. Sometimes the food. There's a variety of options of food that you could have in Miami, Like literally whatever you want you could get in Miami. So I would say those two for sure.

Is there an obvious thing that you like to eat first when you go home? Do you have a I gotta get myself blank.

I found a nice cube spot. Give me some Cuban food, probably some rice beans, some besticked a poo, and probably some stillness.

Sounds good. Do you have any hidden talents? Video game?

I like to play the video game, and nah, I haven't. No, I haven't discovered any other hidden talents.

What games do you like to play? So?

I have a PlayStation five, play Madden Fortnite. I try to play Call of Duty, but I just that's just not it for me. So Madden in Fortnite for the most part.

Or is it a thrill for you to be on Madden for there to be a dj ivy on the game?

Oh yeah, it's definitely a thrill. And it's like my so, my friend has has her god son and and he's been watching me since I was at Miami. So he facetimeed her the other day and I was on the phone with them.

And he's like, bro, you're you're actually oh man, Like he showed me the screen, like, oh snap, you know, man, Bro, he actually started playing with the Bengals, So you know, to even you know, have that you know effect on other people and young kids, you know, Uh, it's a big deal for me for sure.

All Right, final question, This one's kind of deep. If you could meet anybody in history, athlete, entertainer, statesman, who would that person be.

I'll probably meet an entrepreneur or somebody who like really started low in business and you know, made a lot of money in business. That's probably someone I would probably want to meet. But as far as like a single person, I don't know, because it's like, I mean, nowadays, you got you know, you know, jay Z, you got no Jeff Bezos, you got you got a whole bunch of people that you could, you know, choose from. So I

That would be a good room, all right, Thanks to Djivy and that's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to you by pay Core, Proud to be the Bengals Official HR software provider, by Alta Fiber future proof fiber Internet designed elevate your home, business and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health

I'm Dan Hord.

Thanks for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast.