Bengals Booth Podcast: Everything's Gonna Be Alright

Hi and everybody.

I'm Dan Hord and thanks for downloading the Bengals Booth Podcast. The Everything's Gonna be ah right. Addition, as the Bengals open the season with a lackluster performance, to put it nicely, losing their opener at Cleveland twenty four to three. Coming up, you'll hear radio replays and locker room comments from players

That hurt us a lot.

Does We've got ourselves on stand out there and converted, you know, and third down especially because we know that's when man covers is gonna come in. That's when the one on one upportunities come in. That's when we make the big plays. Let's us see, and you didn't say because they got the best of us.

The Browns weren't much better in the early going. Their first six drives included four punts and a fumble, but they did manage to get on the scoreboard early in the second quarter. The snap, the placement, the right footed kick, a high spinning and over end kick, and it was given the Cleveland Browns a three to nothing lead. It was still three to nothing late in the half when the Browns put together the best drive that either team

Our defense was executing. They gave us a lot of chances to win the game.

We didn't do it.

Second half highlights in a moment, But first reminder that the Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you by Alta Fiber, future proof fiber Internet capable of delivering multi gigabit speeds. Design to take your home, business, and community to a new level. Elevate your connection with Alta Fiber. The Bengals offense came to life to begin the second half, getting help on a pass interference penalty to drive within field

There's a penalty flight, but the passes intercepted. Dax Hill has the ball running up the near sideline and he goes out of bounds at the fifty yard line.

But after driving to the Cleveland thirty three Joe Burrows deep ball to t Higgins was broken up at the last instant by Cleveland safety Grant Delpit. Here's Higgins on that key defensive play.

I mean, at the end of day, it was a great playful. He put his hand up at the right time. If he didn't do that, that's a catch.

If he hadn't, it probably would have been a game tying touchdown. Instead, the Bengals had to settle for a fifty one yard field goal try. Bengals trying to score field goals on back to back possessions in the second half after being shut out in the first to kick his Oh no is wide right. It is no good. It was money Max, first missed from fifty plus since

Right, sacked by Miles Garrett inside the twenty. Miles Garrett with his first sack of the season, and it comes at a great time.

It'll give the Browns the ball in the red zone, and four plays later they were in the end zone.

Watson throws a pass caught in the end zone by a sliding Harrison Bryant for a Cleveland Brown's touchdown.

And Deshaun Watson is doing is uh. He's skipping to the fifty yard line and now coming back to celebrate with his teammates. This game means a lot to Deshaun Watson.

The Browns won it twenty four to three, and it was a brutal day for Joe Burrow. Unlike last season's opener, where he threw four interceptions, Joe didn't have any turnovers, but he only completed fourteen of thirty one pass that's forty five percent, the first time Joe has ever completed less than half of his throws in fifty NFL starts, including playoff games. Joe finished with eighty two passing yards.

They got really good corners. You know, Denzel and Emerson are two of the better corners in the league. I think, you know Newsom is a is a great nickel too, So they got a great secondary. Obviously, we weren't good enough in me putting the ball in the right place and in our one on one situations. We just didn't come out on top today.

But as good as the Browns were defensively, Burrow just looked off. The five weeks of training camp that he missed surely was a factor.

The quarterback doesn't perform in training camp. You know, that was obviously something that I would have liked to have done. But there's no excuses. It's obviously not very good today, so we got to be better.

Consider the Joe threw eight passes for t Higgins and didn't complete any of them. He threw nine for Jamar Chase and completed five for thirty nine yards. And Chase is now public enemy number one in Cleveland after making a crack about the Browns fifty yard line ELF logo last week that was turned into bulletin board material. I was among the reporters who talked to Chase after the game. We're not accustomed to seeing the offense struggle to the

Went too good on offensives. I fell into some conditions who weren't ready for for real, so they got to be ready to execute the next time.

Conditions as in weather yep? Did you just feel flat? How would you describe how it felt out there?

None just was going always for real. We had good Lott Hag opportunities they play man, I mean, we had good looks. We just didn't execute on'em.

Jill missed about five weeks. Were you guys are little out of sink?

Probably that's probably what it was. Probably that, you know what I'm saying, I don't, don't. Nobody really knows to we look at the film. You gotta execute. I'm gonna keep blaming that on the conditions, but that's what they looked like for us and play.

Do you think the offense was just out of sync aside from the other the just things that normally don't happen for all happened.

I mean, we didn't get a lot of stuff going our way, you know what I'm saying. We had a couple of drop passes on boats on our end, which was getting rested a couple of times. They just didn't execute when we had the looks.

What about their defense? They seemed to be real aggressive in what they were doing in terms of pressure and coverage. With was the weather of factor there? Did you decide to get more aggressive?

Do you think the game plan for what they defense what we had we already was expecting it. They did exactly what we was expecting. Like I said, we just didn't take advantage of the opportunities that they gave us.

More exact said after the game that this was not you, This performance was not this team. Yeah, what do you think when you put your finger on why you guys just worked yourselves today.

I don't know if he I don't know. I don't know how to answer that.

Bro.

Honestly, we saw this team last year started to go and too, and you guys still in the AC Championship. We know slow starts are going to derail the season, which is how frustrating is it to have the build up start the season to come here and.

Not play well.

It's frustrating because I called the ass l's and we just lost to some ls. So I'm pissed on my party. I'm not I'm pissed on that. And like I said, man, we got missed opportunities. We didn't capitalize on that and we lost. So that's how we lost. John, I guess.

Bullet and more Maiturion with all the el stuff and all that, what do you what did you make of all that?

Did you drop the league?

Made up?

He just want to have some attention, so he just you know what I'm saying.

How prepared are you for the for the blowback that might come with the comments you made and then the result of this game.

We'll blow back. I mean, did you say, if he got me saying something I'm saying right now, he's soft. If they soft with me saying l's and that the soft.

Then there's a gigantic ELF in the middle of the field in Cleveland. It's not like Chase just randomly called the Browns elves. But whatever, Cleveland won the game, their players, coaches, and fans get to gloat until they meet again in the final game of the regular season. Meanwhile, the Bengals overcame an zero and two start last year, but they can ill afford another one. Here are Burrow, Orlando Brown Junior, and Tyler Boyd.

Week one doesn't define anybody's season. Obviously, not very good out there, but anybody that watched saw that. But we've been in the spot before. We've come back stronger and had great years. So that's what we're going to do.

Yeah, you know, I don't want to use the word frustration. Then it's definitely disappointing, but at the end of the day, that's football, and it's not always going to be perfect, you know what.

I mean, It's it's other games and we'll have other opportunities to prove ourselves right, because I think overall we played great difference heck of a game offense. We started getting things going, but we never got consistent at moving the ball. And say whatever you want about the weather, but Day was out there making plays. The Browns made plays enough plays to win SAM So we didn't make enough play. That's what it gonna come down.

So it's one week obviously not up to our standard, not up to my standard, but you got sixteen more of them, so we're it's gonna keep trucking.

Speaking of trucking, Brown's running back Nick Chubb finished with one hundred and six yards on eighteen carries in ten career games against the Bengals. He's top to one hundred yards six times. There aren't many running backs that have that much success when DJ Reider is on the field for Cincinnati. I spoke to the Bengals defensive tackle about the dismal opener. I'm sure that was the total opposite

Yeah, I think we came out we were a little flat this was the team in general.

But that's tough for you. Got to get back to.

The drawing board. I know it's such a cliche you're saying. I hate saying that obviously, but we got I'm not going to to do a thing a lot of guys. I'm in our team. On our team, that good guys played a.

Lot of good balls.

So I mean, we not tripping off.

Who we are.

We just gotta go out there and do it. The guys can't start flat.

Is it fair to wonder if the Bengals need to change the preseason approach and play some guys more. Do you think that's a factor at all.

I don't know if that's it. I think it's more so like you know, if you don't, I know.

You need the reps.

I don't.

I know people talk about that, but the fu Yeah, you wake up on Sunday, it's snow, the grass, everybody's ready to go. I don't think that's the thing, Like you know what I'm saying, Oh, we blame it on There is language. Nobody has like a what happened? We came out flat? We got meat? They need us? How goes sometimes?

Man?

And unfortunately that's how it's going on our opening the last couple of years, so we just we gotta really get on it.

The touchdown late in the first half, did you feel like that was a a a big momentum swing for Cavelent It was three nothing at the.

Time, Nah, cause we came out and gotta stop. So I don't. I wouldn't call it that, you know what I'm saying, like, Oh, it's just the end of the world.

Now.

We came out and gotta stop three out the next So I didn't think it was a big momentium shift. I think, well, we just didn't do it. His great guy and they got put in some tough spots and didn't find a way out of them, you know, So that's just really what happened.

I don't.

I don't think that that kind of that moment was the momentum shift.

You didn't play in the game here last year, but the Bengals obviously have had a lot of trouble in this building. Is it frustrating to come here and just play poorly again things.

Yeah, that's really frustrating. You never wanna go anywhere and play powardly. We talk like you didn't start riding fortunately in our division. We'll get to see him twice, so we gotta come to us next. You can't really gotta scrap this game, you know, I can't really think.

About it anymore.

We know with this offense, it's only a matter of time before they get it rolling. Is it almost hard to believe when they struggle as badly as they struggle today, you.

Know what they're used to and you know, we just go out there encourage them to get back to that and they'll get back to it. It's not it's definitely different when they don't, you know, but get that people out of the days. Man, it happens, and you can't expect you to be perfect every day. Fortunately, might this lead it expect you to be perfect other Sunday And I just wentting this Sunday. So guys gotta get back

Does appreciate your time, Thank you to out no Doubt. The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you 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 Now time to hear what Zach Taylor had to say after the game, as he spent a couple of minutes with Dave Lapham coach.

Obviously, twenty four to three outcome wasn't what you were looking for, but coming out of this football game, just the good news just seemed to come out of it pretty darn healthy.

Yeah, we'll look at that, but obviously we want to come out of here with a win and healthy. You know. But it's a long season, so we got to make the corrections that we can control and be ready to go next weekend's Baltimore.

In your mind, what are some of those corrections that you feel like need to be made that you can't control.

There's gonna be a lot of hidden yardage in just all over the field, you know that presented us with field position and then third down clearly on offense, we were two fifteen or three fifteen, and that's that's not going to beat anybody. So there's gonna be a lot of things we can.

Clean up defensively, particularly in the first half. Two takeaways. You didn't turn the football over, you went plus two. You know, that's that's going to win you some football games when other things are ironed out.

There's no question, you know they did. They did what we needed them to do, and we went for on fourth down in their territory and they gave up seven points right after that, had the two turnovers. They really had field position working against some of the entire game and held up for us well. So you know, I thought that there was there was a lot of winning things that are defense did today.

If I'm not mistaken, I think Joe put a glove on. I mean, what was it that bat out there with that reign. I mean, if it's just drizzling a little bit that can make a football Darren slick with that rozin on it.

It was as bad as as we've had since I've been here, you know. So that's an element that factors into the game. And we got to be ready for as team and start to adjust and again win on those little small thrings in all three phases to help ourselves and just didn't do good enough job of that today.

Did Cleveland do anything defensively that surprised you at all, or they were very aggressive in their posture on just about everything they did.

I guess, yeah, sure, and you should be. You know, they're the first half when it gets wet and it's gonna be hard to throw it and we're gonna have to lean on the run game. So they did a good job of that stuff.

So now as you get ready for the for the Baltimore Ravens, you get them at home. And I mean, what did you tell your football team in the locker room right after this football game?

We got to clean this thing up tomorrow, put this one behind us, and be ready to see the team that we know we are next week when we play Baltimore at home.

Yeah, and you're exactly right. I mean, the last two years this team went to the Super Bowl, went to the SC Championship Game, and last in Cleveland both years. I mean, it's not like you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, right.

Yeah. People will make a lot of it because it's Week one and there's been a lot of focus on this game, but again, we know that this can be a long season and we just got to put it behind us and make the corrections and get ready for next week.

A home game against the Ravens is coming up next. Baltimore opened the season with a twenty five to nine win over the Houston Texans, and it was a tough weekend for football fans in Pittsburgh. The pitt Panthers lost a home game to the UC Bearcats on Saturday night, and the following afternoon on the same field, the Steelers lost to the San Francisco forty nine Ers thirty to seven. Before we get to this week's fun Facts interview, here are a couple of takeaways from Sunday's loss. Number One.

I know better than to have expectations. We've played well the last two years. We had good teams. We went to the Super Bowl, too, AFC championship games, and we won the divisional title back to back. That's pretty good recognition that we had a good team. But when you look forward, you have to be careful not to claim too much. You have to go out and do it again.

It's not in your nature to make bold proclamations. Was your dad the same way, Oh?

He was much more so. He used to as a coach always make sure that if they won a game, that was a great victory and everyone should recognize. It is the case that some of the people in the NFL, the league, they go out and beat their own tub, hoping that people won't come. I've seen that done by some very successfully for some reason. When they go down, it's been so long since they were bragging about their future that hardly anyone remembers it. But to me, that

Your daughter, Katie has been praised league wide for her ability to manage the salary cap. Are you amazed by her grasp of a very complicated matter?

Well, I know, Katie, I'm not amazed. She was a math major and an economics major in college. She's quite bright enough. She can figure that stuff out. Sometimes I think she thinks I'm too dumb to understand it. But anyway, I rely on her, the team countseling her to handle this.

The NFL is approaching twenty billion dollars a year in annual revenue. What do you make of the popularity and scope of the NFL in twenty twenty three.

Well, I can't count to twenty billion, But I don't think about the money. I honestly got down. I just think about having it run the right way. That means you win. It means you people behave and live the way they should and are part of the community. It means you keep the contentious stuff restrained, and money seems to have a way of being contentious. The less said about it, the better. As far as I'm concerned, Let's just focus on the games. That's what people really are interested in.

You've been known over the years to read and respond to the letters sent to you. We're living in an email world. Now do you still get letters and respond to them?

Well?

I do. Just a short while ago, lady that I wrote back to said, well, you like maps, so here here's a map, and it's a map of the settlement of Ohio. And how that was, how that went forward, and it's really quite fun for me to look at it. I do like it. Also sent a book to read. I hesitated getting books from people because I like to pick my own. But anyway, yes, I correspond to people and occasionally I run aground, but more often not it works out.

Okay, the NFL allows cameras everywhere. In this day and age, we've got hard knocks. Netflix recently had a multi part quarterback show that was very entertaining. Do you watch any of that.

Stuff less than I probably should? I watched some of When we were on the Hard Knock Show. It got to be a trial. You'd be in your office and these guys would just march right in and PLoP down and take pictures of whatever you were doing. Then a lot of it. Most stuff with me just got cut out because there wasn't anything that anyone wanted to say. But it could be Oh, I wouldn't say annoying, surprising. Let us say you knew what was going on, so

We're having this conversation just before the beginning of training camp, which obviously takes place across the street from pay Course Stadium. Do you miss going to places like Wilmington and Georgetown?

I do. I happened to like the old ways. I don't know at this stage whether I would be up to it, but training camp had a way about it that was integral to the life, the football life, and it was fun to be around the players. And quite honestly, if you talk to the old ones, they liked it. They talk about what they did at training camp and the pranks they played on each other and stuff like that. It's conducive to wonderful memories. I'll say that. Yet I

We've all heard the staying patience is a virtue. Many of your fellow owners aren't very patient with their coaching staffs. You historically have been. Do you feel like you were rewarded with your patients. For Zach Taylor and seeing how he's grown, was acs.

An excellent coach. The first two years here were hard. He was a young coach. He's probably getting hold of himself, but it took a while for him to put the team together the way it worked for him, and I think that's been accomplished. We have some good players. The problem going forwards will be to how do we keep the good players enough of them? That's what I worry

Part of the fun of being a sports fan are the rivalries. Who do you consider at the Bengals' biggest rival these days?

Whoever we play next? But our natural rival is Cleveland, But somehow Cleveland has drifted off to consider the Steelers their natural rival Baltimore and we pound on each other pretty good, yet we're sort of far away. And now Kansas City Mahomes told Joe that I guess we were going to have a rivalry or something like that, So now we have another one to be a rival with.

You said to reporters earlier today, this is a time for Cincinnati sports to shine. Clearly, you're cognizant of the Reds' recent success. I know how closely follow the Reds, but also FC Cincinnati. You see going to the Big twelve xavior basketball's historical success. You seem to be kind of caught up in all of it.

Well, it's quite extraordinary. A lot's going on in Cincinnati in sports, good things, and I think that this adds to the life here in town. I like sports. I think a lot of men doing women as well. It just lifts the spirits of the community when it goes right, and right now it looks like it's going right.

It's always a pleasure to pick your brain. Appreciate the time. Thanks Mike, good to be with you. That's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth podcast, brought to you by Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals. They're free to play with tickets and signed merchandise up for grabs by pay Corps, the official HR software provider of the Bengals. By Alta Fiber future Proof Fiber Internet elevate your connection with Alta Fiber, and by Kettering Health, the