Bengals Booth Podcast: Every Little Step

scene of his most famous NFL highlight. I'll discuss the Bengals running game woes with Dave Lapham and finally, it's our no the Faux segment as we visit with the voice of the Baltimore Ravens, Jerry Sandusky. The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by pay Corps. More than twenty nine thousand customers trust pay core to help them recruit, pay, engage,

and retain employees. 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 elevators at the Center at six hundred Vine every Tuesday, I go into an office building at six hundred Vine Street in downtown Cincinnati to tape a TV show for Bally Sports, Ohio. I'm here to tell you that I have never been

in a building with better elevators. I take one elevator from the parking garage to the main floor, and then another elevator to get to the Bally Sports studio, and when you hit the button, there's never a wait. So kudos to whoever designed the elevator system at six hundred Vine. It's like the elevators are clairvoyant. Now time for us to appear into the future and look ahead to Sunday's game in Baltimore, beginning with a former Bengals wide receiver

and current Bengals season ticket holder. It's Sunday Night Football this week, meaning that Chris Collinsworth will be in the booth for NBC instead of in his seat at pay Course Stadium. What did you think of the atmosphere last Thursday night for the white out and the record crowd against the Dolphins. I told the commissioner, actually because I was in the box with him, that I thought other than the Pittsburgh Steelers game way back when Carson Palmer

and the whole Chris Henry injury. And I thought, other than that game, that was the most electric I had ever seen that stadium. It was a it was I loved the unis rights so cool. I just loved it. It was like when I was studying the film of it getting ready for this game, I was like, it's white. It's like watching him run around in an X ray or something, just black and white. You just don't see that in the NFL, maybe other than Penn State kind of thing. But it was fantastic. That was a big

win too. You know for them that they needed every ounce of that crowd and they got it. Chris. When the Bengals opened and two, did you figure, no big deal, they would get this thing back on the tracks. You knew they had a better team than what they were showing. But I hate it when you lose Opening Day. There's something about especially how they lost Opening Day with they got dude making an extra point at the end of the game, and you know, now you're three and one,

you're in first place by yourself. But to jump out oh and two and start that way, I was definitely concerned, But you also had to figure that there had to be a little bit of time Joe getting back after the appen deck to me, the offensive line getting themselves in gear, and now you just hope to see him get a little uptick on with the running game. That

would be sort of the last piece of it. You caught passes from the Bengals two previous Super Bowl quarterbacks, Kenny Anderson and Boomer Assias, and compare and contrast Joe Burrow to those two Bengals qbs. Yeah, I think he's a lot more like Kenny Anderson. He's a lot more of sit in the pocket, understand exactly what's happening to him. One of the most impressive drives I thought that he

had all year was that opening drive last week. That the quarterback can do the best job of anybody of protecting himself with some quick throws, quick releases, get the ball out of his hands. And that was Kenny Anderson. You know, he understood all that Boomer was going to be in the wild West fish fight every week and

we never knew what he was going to do. But Kenny really manipulated the defense, manipulated the pass rush, and that's what I always thought Joe Burrow was, but I really saw it in that opening drive last week or visiting with Chris Collinsworth you mentioned the Bengals running game. Joe Mixon convened a meeting with his offensive line last week to try to get it untracked. What do you see when you watch the Bengals running game right now?

They're still getting there. There's a lot being thrown at Bolson at the left guard position. It seems like every stunt that anybody wants to ever run is always sort of run at him just to try and make him make a rookie mistake. Carris is the right person to be next to him, you know, to try and coach him along, and because I think he really gets the game. Lyle Collins is not close to what Lyle Collins has

been in the past. I assume that back injury is still a bit of an issue, and hopefully he's ramping up, you know, as they go along for the season, because he can be such a dominating presence in the run game and just overpowering. I really I think that most people hope that Kappa and Collins would be sort of that that run force on that side while they were getting Bolson up and running at the guard position, so yeah,

there's reason for hope. I thought, that is the first time I've really seen Hayden Hurst at the tight end in this offense. I thought, I think he's impressive. I just think he's really impressive that you know, former first round draft pick. He's some of the catch and run things he did. I thought he was an effective blocker. So there's a lot of upside left in this offense. The Bengals defense has given up four touchdowns in four games. Does Cincinnati belong in the discussion as one of the

best defensive teams in the NFL? And what impresses you about lou Ana Rumo's crew. First, I like lou I think lou Is he's the lifetime defensive back coach. And it shows. I mean, they do a lot of stuff on the back end, and you want to know, why is this rookie or that rookie not getting a chance to play? And I guess in this case Taxton Hill, there is a lot for them to know. And so when they have veteran players back there, they can do a lot of different things and a lot of different looks.

But yeah, when you have two players on the edge and We all talk about Trey Hendrickson and what he's done as a pass rusher since he's come here, and I agree with that, and Sam Hubbard's not quite the pass rusher that he is. But Sam Hubbard is one of the best football players that I've seen on tape. The game he had against the run against Miami was second to none. I'm telling you, a second to none. It was fantastic. And now he will have a huge role in trying to shut down Lamar because this is

a challenge and this guy can do things. And I know everybody wants to say he's not this, and he's not that. I say, boloney, he can throw it from the pocket. No matter what you try and do in the run game, You've got to sign two guys to him. He is one of the most dangerous threats in all of football, and I think very much in the discussion for the MVP, despite them blowing to seventeen point leads in the second half, they could easily be the four

node team that we're all talking about. They're two and two, the Bengals are two and two. You've got Borrow, You've got Lamar. It's going to be a great show. On NBC on Sunday Night. What are some of your keys to the matchup? You know, I really think it's going to come down to for the Bengal side, can they get him into passing situations where Lamar has to get

out of that? You know, three ring circus offense where they've got people running in seventeen different directions, and it's really hard to figure out because and who knows what they're going to do with their left tackle position. They've got a rookie over there. I'm not sure how to say his name for Lela or something like that. Another rookie had center. So your preference would be the Bengals edge passed rushers going against two tackles that art as

athletic as those guys that can be. And then on the offensive side, I just think it's simply can they balance out this offense because their three receivers can play with anybody, I'm telling you, with anybody in But the Ravens will have better poorners this time around. Marcus Peters to be back after he was out all year. Marlon Humphrey, I think is one of the better players in the

entire league. So I love the matchups It may come down a little bit and Tyler Boyd take off Brandon Stevens in the slot, but who passed for tex who gets their running game going is probably the winner here. Chris, I want to end with last Sunday's game against the Chiefs because you had a priceless reaction to Patrick Mahomes spinning shot put toss touchdown. Passing that game, you said it was like a dad playing with little kids in

the backyard. After all these years of playing and broadcasting NFL football, you seem to genuinely still just be amazed by some of the things that these guys do. Is that accurate. I'm dazzled by them, I really am. And you know what's kind of fun about it is that the players are allowed to have fun now. The Andy Reids of the world encourage personality, and so you see a little bit of that backyard flare. You know, you see it. You're going to see it again this week

with Lamar. I mean, they're going to be some plays you go, oh, you know what you do and stop it, don't do that, And then there are going to be some plays you go, I can't believe he just did that. And to me, football is still a show. It's still entertainment, and I think those guys are have more freedom to try to make plays, to try and create. I would have loved to have played in today's game. I really

would have. We were so disciplined and how we ran our routes and the way they study everything today people would have known everything he did an advance and prestaff But now there's this creative element to the game that really has made it more fun, more entertaining, a little NBA ish in some cases that they have a chance to create. So yeah, I do love it. I do really love it. It is tremendous entertainment. It's going to be great on Sunday night. We look forward to your

call and appreciate your time today. Thanks Chris, you're met Dan, Good talk it to you. Chris spends several hours at pay Course Stadium on Wednesday talking to people from the team. I'm sure he'll have some great insight on Sunday night. 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 new level. Elevate your connection with Alta Fiber. The Bengals have played

some memorable games in Baltimore over the years. Perhaps the most memorable was on New Year's Eve twenty seventeen. The Ravens needed a win to go to the playoffs and led the Bengals with less than a minute to go. Catches the football, he's back to throw, inches up in the pocket, throws spot bye boy the fifteen ten touchdown Tyler boy on fourth and twelve. It's a forty nine yard touchdown. He and the Bengals lead with forty four seconds to go. That was the final game of Tyler

Boyd's second NFL season. He's in year seven now and I caught up with him this week. Tyler, it's been nearly five years since you're famous touchdown that knocked Baltimore out of the playoffs. When you walk out onto that field on Sunday, will you have a brief flashback to

that moment? Yeah, you know, always, you know, because I kind of always looked back at that play because it's probably one of the most memorable plays of my life, you know, So just being able to continue to walk out on the field, I have another opportunity to create another special play, you know, is all I'm grateful for. How have Ravens fans treated you since? A lot of dislikes, you know, but at the end of the day, you know, I'm running for the Cincinnati Bengals, and we won't go

out there and and try to get this one. We're chatting with Tyler Boyd. Let's go back to last week's win over the Dolphins. You made two big plays in the second half, including a twenty three yard pass to Jamar Chase. Now, this wasn't a the defense was completely fooled. You just lob it up there and the guy's wide open type of play. You had to fire a bullet

for that to be complete. Describe that. Yeah, it was um basically we should have We only kept the play on because we thought they were given us a man look, which I really could have showed my arm all because it was a down the field throw. But once they see me in motion, they kind of showed what they were in and they went kind of two Tampa or

three buzz or whatever it was. And uh, I just being a football player, you know, I've seen Chase open in between high safety in the corner so I just had to figure out way to just just fit it in there for him, I drive throw good spiral. That had to feel good, definitely. You know. You know I played, I've played a little QB in my day, so I knew guys gonna make it through, all right. So let the record show you've completed three passes in the NFL.

You completed three passes in college, so this is nothing new for you. Two receivers around the league. No, which receivers can throw the ball? Well, no, not really, you know, But for those game planning at me, I'm pretty sure they're probably on alert because of my past history. But going into games, I'm pretty sure other teams or other receivers, they don't pass too much, you know, and when they do, it's going to be out the blue, some sort of trick plays, but you kind of don't know who's gonna

do it. We're chatting with Tyler Boyd. There are a lot of great leaders on this team, but I think your unselfishness has been a big key to the Bengal success because you're the veteran among the wide receivers. You had back to back a thousand yards seasons, but you seem perfectly fine if the ball is going to Jamar or Tea instead of you. Do you think your attitude

has filtered down to the other guys. Yeah, absolutely, you know, because I can be a guy that's that's selfish, you know, and kind of could bring the level of playing down to a lot of guys, especially with the guys in my room, you know, because if I feel the way towards them guys and complaining in the hudder or just complaining about less catches and things like that, then maybe they'll start stop having my back, you know, because they'll

look at me very selfish. And I know what I bring to the table, and I know what I can do when my numbers caught. So I mean, at the end of the day, every game won't go my way and I know that, and not now that they know about Chase, you know, he's starting to, you know, feel that the same thing I've been feeling. But now that he knows how connected and how un selfish we are,

he understands the position he's in. So now that I've been a veteran than been through this up and down and been around in the office, you know, I kind of know how how things are playoffs. Sometimes. I'm one of five kids. All of the kids are very different, different personalities. You three wide receivers seem like brothers, but your personalities are very different. It like a family, Yeah, it is, you know, because, like you said, all three

of us at different personalities, you know. But one thing about us we talked before. We're all and selfish, you know, but we all love to come into compete and we all push each other to see who's better. Not necessarily figure out who's the best receiver, but we push each other to do certain things to to drive us to make us even better, you know. So I think just having that type of chemistry and connection, which is just everybody in our room as a collective whole, you know,

I think empowers the whole unit as a whole. A couple more questions for Tyler Boyd. You beat the Ravens twice last year. Both games were lopsided at this level with veteran pros who play seventeen games a year, is there a revenge factor when you beat a team like that twice by twenty or more points? Absolutely, you know, despite how how the score was. You know, it's huge margins.

But at the end of the day. Just losing to any division team twice in a year, you know, hurt you, you know, because you gotta at least one wants to advanced to the playoffs, you know. So I know they'll come back with vengeance. But we're built for that, you know.

And we're not gonna take nothing for granted. We're not gonna sit back and reflect on how we beat them last year and come out lightly and I think we're gonna do again because they're talented team and the second game, you know, they didn't really had a key players and that was kind of a excuse or a reason how we did them like that the second time. But at the end of the day, that they go and get our our full potential each and every game with gardless

who's out there. The offense is getting better. You've scored twenty seven points in each of the last two games, but it's been a while since you've had thirty plus. I think it goes back nine games going back to last year if you include the playoffs. Is there anything specific you need to do better or something you need to eliminate in order for the offense to take off the way that you know, it's capable of taking off.

It's kind of a great area to say, because at the end of the day, I think if we just execute more plays, you know, on a third and shorts on a short yardage plays, execute it and get more first downs, and I think we absolutely surpass thirty points. You know. I think us as players in a unit, we had to do better job of doing our jobs. You know, we all have to be on Q on each each and every play, you know, and I think the points is just start coming because we're very very

fundamental offense and we all do the right thing. But you know, it's always gonna be certain plays where you get got. You know, you can't be perfect. It's not of such thing as a perfect, perfect office or a perfect team. So I mean, as much as we want to score that many points to lead to keep stressed off off our defense, then I mean we'll continue to figure a way. I hope you have another memorable game in Baltimore, and I always appreciate your time. Thank you.

I appreciate you. Tyler should have some opportunities to make plays this week because you have to think that the Ravens will be double teaming and or bracketing Jamar Chase all night after what he did to them last year. Jamar had eight catches for two hundred yards in Game one and seven catches for one hundred and twenty five yards in Game two. The Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals. They're free to play,

with tickets and signed merchandise up for grabs. Find both inside the Bengals app. After allowing thirteen sacks in their first two games, the Bengals gave up just two sacks and their win over the Jets and only one sack in their win over the Dolphins. So the offensive line is getting better, but the running game remains a work in progress. Of the top fifty rushers in the NFL through four games, Joe Mixon ranks last in yards per carry at two point seven. His career average going into

the season was four point one. Joe says he's confident that things will soon get better behind his rebuilt offensive line. Them boys, they put into work, and you know last week we even had a meeting. I'll call for a meeting with them to you know, just see what they think and on certain runs or what they think. Also do on certain runs, and I feel like that would definitely be beneficial down the road and taking that next step on you know, coming together and building that chemistry

on and off the field. And um, I think that's gonna take us a long way, especially you know, doing down the road. So I look forward to it. What came out of meeting? Then, what'd you learn from it? Um? Like I said, they're pretty much just building that chemistry and having them see what I'm seeing on certain blocks or you know, if they could just tork a guy a different way, or if they can just cut somebody off backside, or I could just hit this a little

faster or hit backside. Like It's just little things that you know, we didn't see over over the course of time. But I mean, like I said, man, I'm very optimistic. I mean, I I an't lost like nine near confidence in the run game and what I'm capable of and what I know they're capable. I asked my broadcast partner Dave Lapham about Joe Mixon calling for a meeting with

the old line. Yeah, they've done it before. I mean they've they've watched tape as an offensive line and tight ends with Joe that's not the first time that they've done it, and I think it's a good sign. I mean, I think it's like, look, we're not happy with where we are. Let's let's let's do everything we possibly can to improve it. Joe's a captain. Joe organized the thing and uh, you know a lot of guys. I think it was over at his house if I'm not mistaken.

I know Hayden Hurst was talking about being over at Joe Mixon's house looking at tape. So I think the tight ends were involved. And I think it's it's a it's a work in progress. And like like every situation when you're struggling, it's not there's not ten people breaking down and Joe is the only guy that is doing everything right. I mean, it's different. Things are happening at different times, and it might only be one thing. Front side's got a block, great, don't get the cut off

block boom problem, haven't blocked well. Joe doesn't see it exactly, clearly makes a wrong cut. The double team on the front side, the synchronous has to be perfect. You can't leave before the other guy has taken over the hitting surface of the down lineman or else the down lineman is going to split them. You can't leave too late or else the linebackers flowing and you can't get so the timing, the coordination, the rhythm of these double and

rubs and all that sort of thing is huge. So all it takes is one guy to break down, and you're gonna have some issues. And it's not the same guy. Every single player all stay just replaced the guy. And so it's this guy, one player, that guy. Another play. The running back right, it wrong this play. So if in some cases it's just an inch, it's really literally just inches where it got a couple of runs. Joe got tripped. The defensive lineman tripped them, no call, who happens.

But and if they didn't trip him, it was going to be some pretty good runs. The problem in Joe's situation the last game game against the Dolphins, he had twenty four carries. Ten of his carries went for zero one or twelve of his carriage went for zero, one or two yards. Coupled that with the fact that his longest rush was seven yards, So now you're gonna have

horrific average. If he had busted one for twenty five, it wouldn't look that bad on an average per carry, but it would still be a problem because twenty three out of twenty four runs it just wasn't good enough. So now the fact that he hasn't busted any explosives, it's claring. People are like, what the hell is wrong with the running game. So it's not like you're gonna, you know, throw it overboard and say, you know, this is a this is a hopeless cause they're so close.

They just have to keep grinding and it'll pop, and when it pops, it'll probably pop pretty big. Twenty nineteen was his third NFL season. It was Zach Taylor's first as the Bengals head coach. In the first half of that year, the running game was a bismo, a troop trocious, and then on the flight to London before taking on the Rams, they really tried to figure out what can we do to get something out of the running game.

They basically changed their primary runs, got away from the wide zone, tried to pin and pull, went to gap blocking attack and in the second half of the year he was incredible. He was more than eight hundred yards in the final half of the season. I think that's given Joe confidence that they will fix this and get

it going. Should they be looking at stuff like that about, you know, really changing the types of runs that they're going to Well, my stick my thought after watching Somaj p run and the offensive line operate, Let Joe go a little more north and south, make a quicker decision on the wide zone, on the stretch, play whatever you want to term it. I think it's like he's trying

to hit a home run every time. You know, take the single and double take those for a while, you know, don't try to hit a home run every time and make the perfect cut. And in those situations, you know, three guys will have their position properly. The fourth guy the guy works over his face and makes a play. You know, it's just like one one minor breakdown and

it turns into a problem. But I do think that when a running back is struggling, and in my opinion, the best thing to do for him is to have the offensive line come off the ball with some confidence and some spirit and gap blocking can do that and let Joe get north and south like Somaji did. Somaji,

he wasn't thinking about anything. He was like put a foot in the ground and go and he'd square his shoulder pads up and lower those shoulder pads and run with a good body lean and he was averaging over five yards of carry and on that drive and they get the ball with ten minutes and change left, he he has eight rushes of the twelve players in that drive, eight of his nine carries were in that drive. And their goal was to take a knee and run the

clock out, and they came close to doing it. Mister forty one yard field goal with just a little over two minutes to play. They want on an eight minute drive or thereabouts. That's what That's what Bills. I thought that might have been a turning point. I honestly, Dan thought when Joe rushed that five yard touched on the offensive line, it was like a body surf five yards under the end zone. They mashed everything and everybody and Joe, Joe could have scored from you know, ten yards out,

and I thought, yeah, that's that's a good sign. Keep coming downhill like that. And then it evaporated again. So they're they're are indicators, you know that they're close. They just got to get it over the top because if they can, if they can get a you know, it doesn't have to be spectacular, but a solid ground game going with the weapons they've got, they could be a real snoopful for any defense in the National Football League.

There's no doubt, because you know then you're looking at play action pass, you're looking at all kinds of things, and if you can stay ahead of the change, that's one thing they were doing Dan. They verse five third down conversions. With third and one, you can play action pass, you can run, you can do anything you want, and they converted all five of those. So if they get a running game going and stay ahead of the chains, they are dictating totally. They are punching and the defense

is counter punching. You don't want it the other way around, where the defense is punching you and it's third and eight, third and nine, here they come, and you gotta be counter punching. While Joe Mixon is averaging two point seven yards per run, Lamar Jackson is averaging eight point five. He's ninth in the NFL and rushing yards through four games, and he's one of only two quarterbacks in NFL history to rush for more than a thousand yards in a season.

Michael Vick did it once. Lamar has done it twice so far. So how does the team practice for a quarterback who might be the fastest guy on the field. In the Bengals case, they are using defensive back cam Taylor Britt, a former high school quarterback with four three eight speed the forty to play the role of Lamar

Jackson at practice. Tell us about trying to help the team by impersonating him as well as you can, honestly just watching the film on him and just trying to do everything possibly you know that he does, you know, so I can help his defense on and give him the best look possible for Sunday. Is it fun most definitely. Yeah. He's like a player that you you know, create on Madden, So you really have to kind of imitate that, you know, for a defense so they can get a real look

like the Bengals. The Ravens are two and two after playing four straight games against the AFC East. They beat the Jets twenty four nine and the Patriots thirty seven twenty six, but they blew a twenty one point lead in the fourth quarter and lost to the Dolphins forty two thirty eight, and they blew a seventeen point lead late in the second quarter and lost last week to

the Bills twenty three to twenty. The voice of the Ravens, Jerry Sandusky, joined us on the Bengals Game Plan Show this week and I asked him how Baltimore squandered those big lead. Kind of a combination of things won you know the Miami game, the secondary had three rookies on the field, There was a lot of mental mistakes, some communication errors. They left the back door wide open, and when you have to speed the Dolphins have they took advantage of it, and so it was costly rookie mistakes.

And then you know last week, have a similar situation with Josh Allen. And it's easy to point all the fingers in the defense, but the offense plays a role in this as well. In the fourth quarter of the season, Lamar doesn't have a touchdown path and he has three turnovers. There was, you know, the controversial decision do the Ravens kick the field goal at the end? Do they go for the touchdown? While they went they went for the touchdown, Lamar throws an interceptions and then it's you know, it's

game over from there. So to me, one of the biggest factors. Is unlike in recent years, the Ravens running game isn't putting games away in the fourth quarter the way they have the last couple of years. So, you know, it's it's easy to stand and say, oh, it's the defensive back, where it's this guy for the defensive coordinator. It's not that simple. It really he is a lot of variables to play. So you think about the Ravens, it's almost like, you know, the inverted wishbone. It's like

a college football running game. Three hundred and five pound fullback. Uh, you know, they've got, uh, the inverted bone. They've got all these different things they have. A quarterback is and is he really joint in thirty pounds? Jerry's he gotten that big I see in the listening in the roster he's six two two thirty and I mean he runs what's still sub four four. It's amazing with all of

that that they're struggling in the running game. Is it due to the offensive line still jelling a little bit, the injury it's a left tackle, the rookie center, all of that. So it's a little bit of that. The rookie fenter. I think Tyler lenardbaut Field a great job. I mean, you're gonna you're gonna love what he does. He's really every week he's progressively, so he's right on target. They are down to their fourth tackle, the rookie daniel Leila, who was a backup right tackle. He had to play

left tackle last week. So not having Ronnie Stanley has definitely been a factor, but an eque big factories. Until the last two weeks, they didn't have JK Dobbins for a second year in a row. They had running back to are either past their prime, aren't comfortable in the system, just aren't a great fit with this offense. And so now they got JK Dobbins back. Dobbins is getting back up to speed. They got Gus Edwards back on the

practice field today. I highly doubt you'll see him on Sunday, but at least the pieces are coming back under the chessboard that I've been missing for the Ravens. So, you know, you take too many pieces off the board, it's really hard to do what you've done in the past, and that's kind of where they've been. What about Ronnie Stanley, Jerry, I know he's practiced a little bit he only played in one game last year. Bengals defensive coordinator Louiana Rumo

said today they're expecting him to play. Is he right? Do you think he'll play on Sunday night? I think he will. He was really close to playing last week but did not play. And look, the Ravens have taken a very conservative approach with injuries this year because last year Stanley felt like he was he felt pressured to play in the first game of the season, he reaggravated

the injury, didn't play all the last year. He's only played in one of the last thirty one games, and I think there's a feeling of let's make sure it's right. And while he was it was really close. It was a game day decision last week whether he played or not. I think long term it makes sense to just air on the side of being conservative and make sure he is one hundred ten percent so that once Ronnie Stanley returns and I expect him back this week, he returns

for good. Defensively, John Wink Martindale is now a Giant defensive coordinator. Mike McDonald's was a coordinated with Michigan with Jim Harbad, John's brother, but he was on the staff with Wink Martindale. You know, he's noted the players, and players are familiar with him. But it seems like the defense is a little bit more multiple, doing some additional things, particularly coverage wise. They're less predictable with their blitz patterns.

They'll still blitz, I mean, but it's not one of those crazy things Bill blitz, and they'll bring like a linebacker, they'll bring a safety, they'll bring a nickel corner, those kinds of things, And it's a little bit it's a little bit different, but it's still pressure oriented, isn't it. It is pressure oriented, but you don't see nearly as much cover zero now. Wink Martindale's philosophy is this pressure

breaks pipes. Well, unfortunately in the second half of last year, the pipes that were getting broken were the Ravens and so, you know, I think they became predictably unpredictable was the phrase used around the castle. And so with Mike McDonald, you're seeing a lot more multiple. Look, you're seeing a lot more two three, cover four, different coverages, and you're seeing different blitz packages. You're not you know, you're not

seeing necessarily blitzess when you expected. They're trying. They're trying to reintroduce the element of unpredictability to when then where they pressure as they mix that. And one of the things I will say for you know, he's been taking the heat because of the two late end classes, but he's a thirty four year old defensive coordinator. He's in his first year. He's a young guy and he's learning

on the job. And one of the things we saw different coverages last week that we saw in the first three weeks of the season, which to me is a great time. You know, when you're feeling pressure, you tend to in life go back to what you know and not expand and not try new things. And he's still expanding. You know, he's trying new things. He's introducing things step

by step for his players. So I think in the long term it's going to work out, but there are short term growth pains and that's not uncommon with the young coaches. The voice of the Ravens, Jerry Sandusky, is our guest. Here's my final question that has to do with Lamar Jackson. Is his contract situation. The Ravens tried to give him a bundle of money. He did not ultimately accept the offer. Is that causing tension or or hanging over this season for the Ravens. I don't think though.

I don't think it's bothering the Ravens of the least. You know, if it's bothering Lamar, he doesn't let on about it. He handled himself very well. He was he was quite diplomatic. There was no acrimony, there was no of holding out. There's none of that. From an organizational standpoint. The Ravens know that they can't get a deal done. They've got the franchise tag they can use the next

two years. That's not what they want to do. But the team still has the leverage if Lamar puts together the kind of season he wants to play together wins the super Bowl, you know, I'm sure it'll be a much more engaging conversation at the negotiating table in the offseason. But because it doesn't have to be done tomorrow, because the team wants Lamar, Lamar knows he's wanted. It's really down to how big subsigning vote is going to be. I think both sides still feel like they will eventually

get it done. Last week, Third and One don't score forts and one throwing an interception at the just blew up on social media where Peters and John harborwor tchurff and back and forth at each other a little bit over you know, why didn't Why was it the field goal kicked? YadA YadA? Is there any lingering effect from that? Or how has John Harbaugh handled it? It's everything okay with Harball and Peters. Yeah, I think everything's fine there.

Peters did not talk with the media today, but Marlon Humphrey, is running mate at the other corner, did and he said, look, we're a family. He said, you know, families fight, but we're fighting because we all want to win. And that's the big thing. If John Hardball was an argument with a player because he thought the player didn't care or

wasn't giving his all, then you'd have a problem. But you know, game day, when a coach and a player get into it because they both want to win so much, and they might disagree on the player or the call that it's a lot, they are on the same page when it comes to do what it takes to win. I don't think you're gonna standing long term problems there. Hardball loves the competitiveness of Marcus Peters and he has

no problem with guys showing that level. And you know, John's a veteran coach, just fifteenth years, so he understands what guys do and say sometimes in the heat of the decision that a game hangs on is a little different than what they might think about or say on a win. Our thanks to Jerry Sandusky. And here's an invitation to join us at the Wings and Rings King's Mills location for the Bengals pep Rally show this Friday

from three to six. Rookie defensive end Jeffrey Gunter 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 Cattering Health, the official healthcare provider of

the Cincinnati 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