Bengals Booth Podcast: Get Ready

My one on one player interview this week is with one of the Bengals highest graded players so far this year according to Pro Football Focus, Defensive tackle DJ reader Dave Lapham joins me to discuss the latest Bengals news and answer some questions you submitted via Twitter. And finally, it's our noa Fox segment as we discuss why the Lions don't have a win with the host of the Locked On Lions podcast, Matt darry The Bengals Booth Podcast

as is presented by Ultimate Bengals. The free to play Next Level Fantasy Football game downloaded now from the App Store and Google Play. And 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 on iTunes, Stitch, your Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest

thing since The official trailer for Get Back. This week, a three minute, fifty eight second trailer was released to preview a three part documentary about the Beatles called Get Back. Just when you thought there couldn't possibly be anything new out there about the band, they've unearthed never before seen crystal clear footage gathered from nineteen sixty nine leading up to the beatles final live performance on a rooftop in London. If you haven't seen it yet, check out that trailer

for Get Back. The three part series should be incredible for lovers of the original Fab four. Now time to go from the Beatles to the Bengals, beginning with one of the guys who will call this week's game in Detroit. He was the best fullback of his era and he'll be in the booth for Fox this Sunday. Former Dallas Cowboys great Darryl Moose Johnston, Darryl, you had the Bengals in Week one, that overtime victory against the Minnesota Vikings.

What stood out about Cincinnati when you called that game. Really the big thing for me was the resiliency you know through that game. You know, a team that's that's made a lot of splash in the off season with some of the free agent acquisitions and then the draft, there's expectations coming in and then you get into a game and those are the areas where you want to see if you've taken that next step. You know, how quickly has that talent that we assembled in the off

season come together? And that was really the one thing that I was impressed with. You know, there were moments there for a Minnesota team that's been together for a long time and had some high expectations for their own team coming into that opener, and at times it looked like there was a chance that they could kind of

take that game away. And I thought the resiliency of the Bengals was very impressive in Week one with everything that they've done in the offseason to kind of validate that not only do we have talent, but we're starting to come together as a team. We're gonna be able to fight through some of this adversity. Let's talk a little bit about Joe Burrow. You were drafted in the second round by the Cowboys in nineteen eighty nine, the

same year they took Troy Aikman number one overall. So you saw his growth from one in fifteen as a rookie to Super Bowl champion in year four. Do you see any parallels where Joe Burrow is concerned? You know, That's It's funny you ask that because in the production meeting, and one of the reasons that, you know, I wanted

to come up to Cincinnati. You know, a lot of a lot of times we're gonna do things via zoom nowadays in our preparation, but I really wanted to be able to sit across from Joe Burrow and Zach Taylor and really kind of get a feel for who they are is men as much as who they are as football coaches and quarterbacks. And I was really impressed with Joe. Uh, you know, I thought he was very purposeful. Um he reminded me of Troy that which where he's very serious

when it comes to the game. You know, it kind of seemed like he was already kind of sliding into that that pre game mentality, you know, on a Friday afternoon, and that was very similar to Troy. Uh. You know, he got more and more serious as we got through the course of the week and moved into the weekend. So I thought, just from a personality standpoint, you could see, uh, you could see the seriousness, the purposefulness. But but then also you know, very very conversational with us, very open

to sharing information. So you know, for a younger guy in the NFL here in season two, for him coming off that big injury, I was impressed and I'm glad we got to see that face to face because I don't know if he would have staw that Vida zoom call. So that was something that that I felt was very beneficial coming out of Week one. Our guest is three

time Super Bowl champ Darryl Johnston. As you prepared for Week one, you heard about and read about Jamar Chase's pregames, a preseason struggles with dropping the football, and then he was great against the Vikings and he's been outstanding in the first five weeks. What do you think of Jamar and the Bengals receiving group as a whole. Well, I think that that's going to be probably the big tide turner this weekend against the Lions. Yeah, you know, Jamar

Chase to going through camp, you have some drops. I think we all go through drops at a certain point in our career. You know, I had a training camp where I stayed after practice for three consecutive days. I mean it was just simple things and it gets into your head and you just continue to work and grind and try and get it out of there. And I

think that that's exactly what happened to Jamar Chase. It was just odd that it was, you know, in his training camp of his rookie season, with all these expectations that were placed on him. So I think a lot of people, me included, might have made out made that out to me in a little bit more. But you could hear his teammates talk about it. Hey, listen, we watch always working at practice. He's doing everything to kind

of work himself out of this. You know. That was the big thing I think in Week one was his performance there kind of solidified that the work he had put into kind of remedy that situation, you know, had paid off. And since that time, we've seen him make a number of fantastic catches. Uh. You know, there was one, you know, the go route down the left side. The one time when he caught the back end of the football. Uh, you know that that was outstanding. UM. So yeah, his

confidence is just going to continue to grow. I think when you put him together with everybody else that they have there. Uh. You talk about trios of wide receivers being able to you know, kind of roll out that thirteen personnel, you know, the three wides on the one running back, one tight end. That's become very very popular in the NFL. When you've got the wide receiver group that that Cincinnati does. Um, you know, that's that's gonna

be very difficult for people to defend. And I think it was something that we saw last week in Minnesota, Uh, you know, being able to roll out feeling uh and Justin Jefferson against Detroit. But they've also got that identity of wanting to run the football and we thought maybe they'd back off that a little bit with Dalvin Cook out, but they got a little bit stubborn with the run game. UM. And the great matchups were in the past game. I mean, Justin Jefferson got off to a tremendous start. He had

a hundred yards by halftime. UM. So I expect Cincinnati to do the same thing. I think they're going to challenge Detroit in their secondary because of the injuries that they've had and how young they are and how much their margin for air to win a football game is is so razor thin. You know, that's where the matchups are going to be for Cincinnati, and how much do they commit to that. Frank Pollock coached in Dallas after

your playing days. So I don't know how well you know him personally, if at all, but do you see the Bengals offensive line making progress under his coaching? Absolutely? Absolutely, And it's actually, you know, on my to do list, I'd love to have the opportunity to maybe visit with coach Pollock, you know, away from the production meeting, just

to kind of pick his brain a little bit. You know, he's one of those those coaches at the offensive line position that you hear about that just seems to make a huge difference when he gets into an organization, kind of like Bill Callahan has done throughout his career in the NFL. It seems that his offensive lines are are just always very very technique sound, you know, very very physical. We're really really well as as a group of five, and you can see that. You can see the growth

from week one till now already. You know, I went back and watched, you know, the Pittsburgh game just to see how they did there. You know, for for that group to break that street. You know, Pittsburgh had had a sack in seventy five consecutive games, and they kept Joe Burrow clean that entire game. That's impressive. You know, Pittsburgh was you know, kind of in the midst of kind of figuring things out. But but that's still a

very very sound defense, very very strong defense. So I think that that's a huge stepping stone for that group on the offensive line. And when you watch them run the football, you know, one of the big things that that's the most important for an offensive line is to stay on your feet. You know, continue to push, continue to stay on your feet, don't get on the ground. You know, we used to call him otgs. You know.

Sometimes you know, your offensive lineman can can create as much of distraction as a defensive player who's in the running lane because they're on the ground. So I think that that Frank does a great job and his guys do a great job of just staying up, keeping their feet moving the zone blocking schemes are very effective. Um, you've got good runners behind with Joe Mixon and j p. Ryan. So it's just it's it's impressive to watch, you know,

when that unit really starts to come together. And from week one until now, just kind of going back and watching the film, you can see the growth of those those five guys. Former Pro Bowl fullback Darryl Johnston is our guest. As you noted, you had the Lions game last week in Minnesota. They're o and five, but in two out of their last three games they had the lead in the final minute and lost on a really long field goal sixty six and fifty four yards. What

are the strengths of the Lions right now? Their resiliency, their grit um. You know, there's there's always a little bit of a talent deficiency when you're going through a rebuild um, and the Lions are in the middle of that right now. And to to you know, to add to that, they've had some key injuries, uh, you know, rush in secondary. It's just it's made a really challenging

for them. Uh, you know, the Taylor Decker they're starting left tackle, got hurt, you know, getting ready for Week one, Uh, they're starting center who some people consider to be, you know, one of the best centers in the NFL all you know, got hurt the week before Minnesota's games. So it just it seems like every week it's a similar scenario for Detroit where they're they're losing heartbreaking games, they're losing key players on the team, Yet every Monday they come back

to work and get ready to play. You know that that's a testament to Dan Campbell and what he's building in Detroit. So you know, as as opponents, when you're getting ready for the Detroit Lions, you have to understand that they will give you everything they have for sixty minutes. Your your talent level may be superior to what they have right now, but if they play a clean game, they are going to stretch you to the end. And

that's what I think we're seeing. And even without these clean games, and that's one of the things that Dan will say is we keep shooting ourselves in the foot. So you know, if Detroit catches somebody on a Sunday afternoon where they're playing a clean football game, it's gonna be a tough It's gonna be a tough out for people. They remind me a lot of my nineteen eighty nine

team here in Dallas. They finished one in fifteen. You know, I never believe that we were one in fifteen team because there were there were opportunities for us to win games. We should have been four and twelve or maybe even five and eleven, but we just did not know how to win a game. And I see a lot of that with the Detroit Lions right now. You know, there's a ton of fight in them. There's talent that you're going to see grow down down the road, but but

they just don't know how to finish those games. They don't know how to close them out and get that victory. You certainly learned how to win in Dallas with three Super Bowl titles. Final question for Daryl Moose Johnson. I appreciate your time. If you were an NFL GM or

head coach, would your roster include a full back? Absolutely? Absolutely, m I still think it's a very valuable position, and we're starting to see guys, you know, around the league do what I think is necessary to really bring it back. I think the full back in today's game has to be able to break formation and go outside and give the give the defense a challenge in a matchup. You know who you're gonna put out there. You're gonna put a linebacker out there and is he athletic enough that

that's considered a mismatch on the outside. But then you've also got to be able to come in and be an effective lead blocker because that's that's the bread and butter or the fullback position. But we're starting to see that Kyle Uschek is a great example of that out in San Francisco. Uh, we're seeing teams that are coming off that that Kyle Shanahan tree um, you know, going back years to his dad, going back all the way

to the to the Kubiak era um. You know that that offense that that values that running game and for formational flexibility. You know, I think that that's a great opportunity, uh, you know for the fullback position to start to make a resurgence in the NFL. But the problem is we've gotten away from it so much at the collegiate level that there's not really a pipeline coming to the NFL with a true traditional fullback that can do the things

that we talked about. So you're trying to convert. You're trying to convert an outside linebacker, you're trying to convert a tight end. Uh. And the full the fullback position is very unique. Uh. You know, you're you're not close to the to the people you're blocking. It comes from from distance you're separated by anywhere from you know, six to eight to ten yards. Uh. And and those collisions

can be violent at times. So you know, really, you know, the fullback position is not all about technique as much as it is about mentality. And if you haven't been in that position and learn how to do that and develop that mentality of that style of play, it's it's hard to convert somebody who's work at the line of scrimmage with only about you know, you know, six inches to a yard of separation for those those collisions in

that contact. So hopefully we'll see some of the collegiate teams start to bring back the fullback position, which will help the NFL teams find valuable guys to fill that role. But absolutely I'll scolet the entire country if I ever get an opportunity to make sure I've got a good fullback in that offense. Well, I know that Emmett Smith is happy he had a great one in Dallas. I appreciate your time, have a great call this Sunday. Thanks

appreciate it. Good luck to you guys. Up next, my one on one visit with defensive tackle DJ Reader, who is part of a position group that's been dominant in the first five weeks of this season. Dj, I want to start with Pro Football Focus rankings for defensive accles in the NFL. You're number six, Josh Tupo is number fifteen, b J Hill is number eighteen. That's three Bengals in the top twenty. Do you think people realize how good

the middle of the Bengals defense is playing so far? Um, You know, I think people recognize that we're playing well. Those are nice to have and not something that we paid too much attense too. But you know, I think we're playing good as a group together. I think a lot of guys are going They're given great effort and playing very hard. You know, they're proudful about what they do. They come to work to work hard every day and it's something that we're really trying to correct. Here's a

number that does matter. Your seventh in the NFL and points allowed. That includes a pick six and a field goal in the Chicago game where the Bear started at the nine yard line. Take those ten points away and you're number four in the NFL and points allowed. What has the Bengals defense done especially well in your opinion? I think we do a good job, Bendon not breaking. I think in the red zone we do a good job. You know, we have a lot of longer we've for

as soon as to make long drives. We don't give up too many big plays, you know, try to do a good job of living of those and forcing long drives. And I think, you know, when I'm back against the wall and the road zone especially, we blow up. We're chatting with DJ reader. Is there anything on defense that disappointed you so far? No, you know, just not getting wins. I feel like a couple of games has been on us and we've done a good job, but we just

got to take that step forward and get cold. Those turnovers at the end to go our way or things just to go our way. Settling a thing I think on third day, and we got to do a lot better of getting off the field. I think we've done a decent job, but sometimes, you know, I think we give up big third downs that we should be correcting. So I think that's a that's the thing as a team that we got to get better at. You've played

in a lot of football games. Have you ever played in one with more emotional swings as that game had last week? If I have, I can't remember, but you know, it was fun to play and you know, you know, it was one of those fights and it's kind of crazy after watching that backs boxing match night before that Wilder and Food match and then coming back and having that game and just kind of everybody just throwing punches back and forth, and there was a fun game to

play in. You know, guys play hard. We're chatting with DJ reader. You missed the last eleven games last year with the torn quad recepts. Where was your tear and how severe was it? Ruptured the tendon um? So it's pretty severe. It's a beginning of surgeries. First six weeks can't move. It's a nine month ree have So it was just it was a long little process. It's kind of at fifty percent return rate, it's not very high, but you know it's it's gotten better, you know, with

modern medicine and you know, just everything. You know, surgeons have gotten a lot better. So it was just one of those things that you know, we attacked and it was it was crazy. It was a hard journey, but you know, it came back and I feel really good and confident, Like could you stand up and sit down? Could you sleep? What? Normal activities became impossible? Not really at the beginning of Like I said, the first six weeks, you can't move it like it's straight because the tendon

has to repair. And then you know, after that, the tending strong, so then you start being then maybe twenty five degrees and fifty degrees and it just it sucks all the way up until that point. Like it's just it's really really rough. But you know, I think sleeping was probably the hardest thing, you know, because you can't move at all. You gotta sleep on your back, you gotta sleep straight, you're gonna brace you know. So that's a little rough. All right. You got the Lions this week.

They're rowing five. They're in the rebuilt, rebuilding stage. But based on everything I've read and heard, they are playing extremely hard. Does that stand out when you watch them on take? Yeah, they played tough, they played physical. Um, they really brought into what their coaches saying, Um, you know it's a team that's rebuilding, but you know there's there's a lot of guys over there who played ball

and they've won. They understand the game, so they're playing really, really hard, and you know, you can't look at it as anything like that anty given sound to. Anybody can be beaten. So you gotta go in there, and you gotta really put up your dukes, and you gotta go in there for a fight, because that's just what's gonna happen. The coach broke down in tears after the game last week because he wanted his guys to win so badly. If you were playing for that guy, how would you

feel this week? You want to run through a wallfare guy. You know, you'd be amped up to go out there and play. And I think that's that's just how it feels, you know, especially losing tough games and you can't really seem to get things right and you want to win so bad. I think, you know, similar to how we felt in our locker room last week. You know, it's tough, it's got rich, and you gotta want to go back

out there and be hungry. The next Sunday to go out there and really still and win an A dub last question for DJ Reader at a topic I've never asked you about. You're David Vernon Reader Junior. So DJ is short for David Junior. Your son is not David the third. He's Rocky, as in Rocky belbow Hunter. How did that come about? Me and my dad always watched those movies. We watched all the Rocky movies. Um, that was the thing that me and my dad did a lot.

And I was home school to a sixth grade so I spent a lot of time with my dad and so you know, I really want to name him Rocky, and that's really what we went with. And if you see him, he really it fits his names and bunches, he moves around. He's a wild kid, he's fearless. So, um, I mean, here's a lot that he has a name. And you know, kyr really fits him. Rocky Reader sounds like an athlete. Yeah, hopefully he is. He's got some decent coordination right now, but we'll see. You know, he's

a smart kid and I just love him. He's always got a good smile on his face and he's a funny kid, just like that. Appreciate your time. Best de flect this week, I'm problem. Thank you. DJ is twenty seven years old and in the second year of a four year, fifty three million dollar contract. It looks like money well spent by the Bengals. The Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Ultimate Bengals, the free to play fantasy

football game. Ultimate Bengals will be awarding a weekly winner during the course of the season with tickets, autograph merchandise, and money can buy experiences all up for grabs. Find Ultimate Bengals in the app stores. Now now time to bring him my broadcast partner Dave Lapham to discuss the latest Bengals news and answer some of the ask lap questions you submitted on Twitter. Lap The Bengals are three and two. They're on a pace to go ten and seven.

If the season ended today, they would be the AFC's fifth seed in the playoffs. The Browns and Chiefs would be out. Schedule is obviously a huge factor so far. I wish the season did end today if that were the case. But here's the interesting part to me, They've got a winning record despite a below average offense. Joe Burrow is seventh and passer rating. Jamar Chase is seventh and receiving yards. Joe Mixon is fifth and rushing yards.

But they haven't scored more than twenty four in regulation yet. What are a few things you would like to see them do better or differently? A lot more consistency, obviously, you know they're they're streaky. You know they're they're up and down. They've only scored twenty eight points in the second quarter. All of them have come in the final two minutes of the second quarter. They've only scored fourteen

points in the first quarter. So that's that's a lot of time over five games, first quarter and up to the final two minutes of the second quarter, where you've scored fourteen points. They scored twenty eight points in the finals two minutes. That's great, that's tied for second best in the NFL. But man, you can't make a living doing that. You know. A good example is, uh, you know this this past football game against a good Green Bay Packer team. Six possessions in the first half, four

three and outs, and then two touchdowns. So it's like it's like all or nothing. It's like peaks and valleys, highs and lows. It's it's the graph isn't isn't very very you know, even and consistent. So I think consistency is probably the biggest thing in almost every position group level. And if if the consistency improves up front, I think

it'll have a big trickle down effect. And for whatever reason, the level of play, uh, you know, when you when you look at how they played against Pittsburgh and how they played against Jacksonville, and the offensive line it was they only have a one sack and eight quarters. Green

Bay for whatever reason, gave them trouble. They just as as a group offensively, the offensive line had issues, given up edge, everybody got on a shoulder on an edge and just caused all kinds of grief, all kinds of issues. So that that's that's going to pick up And um, I'd like to see, you know, I get I guess, more consistent performance in the running game and then there be might be more of a commitment to the running game.

If there's more consistency in the running game, they're going to have to particularly as you get into the second half of the season where the schedule does get tougher, they're going to have to be a lot more effective, you know, established in some kind of monicum of a ground game. What was green Bay's blueprint defensively last week? And is that what the Bengals are likely to see going forward until they have more success against it? Yeah,

that's that's you wonder. Um, you know, teams around the National Football League or copycats and if they see something, you know, there's the blueprint, there's there's how you stop there, there's how you stop that. Some teams modify their the way they do something based on success they saw, and they'll study three games very closely, the prior three games, and if they see some kind of trend or something that has worked on a consistent basis, they'll modify their

stuff a little bit to copycat that. A lot of times teams they won't wholesale change it. I mean, they've established an identity. They're not going to say, oh, because we're playing the Cincinnati Bengals, we're going to do this when we never done it before. But they were going to be there'll probably be some modifications. And really, what the what the green Bay Packers decided to do as

they played, They didn't have a very full box. They had two safeties deep a high percent, or two safeties out of the box a high percent of the time. Sometimes they were deeper than other times, and they would come down quickly as soon as they saw that the ball was going underneath, you know, short intermediate routes. They wouldn't just hang back there. They'd come down and rally up and make players on the football. So when it's

it's simply count in the box. I mean, if it looks like you have a light box, you're gonna be able to run against that and make them commit, um, you know, start to bring somebody down into the box and have have you know, have have some opportunities in the middle of the football field. Plus they decided to double Tyler Boyd. They took him away. They said, you know, we're gonna we're gonna basically crowd the middle of the

football field with bodies. We're taking away the middle of the football field from an opportunity standpoint, and that makes the quarterback make longer throws. You know, the balls in the air longer. If you're thrown from the left hash mark, you can't even there's really nothing in the middle of the football field over that right side. That ball's in the air a while, so you know it's a it's a sound um, a sound scheme. If you've they had

confidence he went out their best corner. They had confidence that they can you know, stand up to it on the outside because they they they doubled Tyler Boyd. Uh that they also, I mean the guy that was left and one on one was Higgins. They double Boyd. They double Chase quite a bit as he started to make plays. And then Higgins had the most one on one coverage and you know he didn't make as many plays as he could have made. He admitts to you know, some

big couple of big drops that were problematic. Whoever it is, whoever they decide to leave in single man coverage, you know they can move around who they're going to double. If Tyler Boyd, for every reasons, left in single coverage in the slot, he's going to have a feast. He's going to just make them pay a big time. And whatever outside receiver faces single coverage, he's got to win a high percentage of time. Not just half the time, you have to win three quarters or more of the

time in your one on one coverage. And so the quarterback then has confidence to go to you. We are recording this on a Wednesday. As of today, Jackson Carmen is on the COVID list. Xavier Sophila started the first two games of the year at right guard. He's out with a knee injury. Carmen started the next three at right guard. He's possibly out due to COVID nineteen. Up next rookie Deante Smith. He started thirty games at ECU

twenty nine at left tackle, one at left guard. How should we feel about the possibility of him making his first NFL start at right guard this week? Yeah, that's that's going to be an interesting thing to watch. Um. You know, he played more left guard even in training camp than he did right because of Sueflo and you know, the high draft pick Jackson Carmen playing that right guard position.

But Frank Pollock does move everybody around. I mean, you know, it's a it's an equal opportunity scenario for Frank Pollock with with respect to position versatility, it is interesting. The right guard position is the only one that's been musical chairs the others everybody started every played every snap basically at left tackle, left guard, center and right tackle. Right guards the place right guards the it's that's that's got the black cloud over it or whatever for whatever reason.

The good news is just like with Jackson Carmen, he's got Hopkins on one side and Riley Reef on the other. So I think that gives you a sense of come for when it's your first NFL start at a position that you haven't played a whole heck of a lot, but you understand, you know the techniques at the at

the guard position. Haven't played some left guard and haven't played quite a bit of guard actually, you know, through preseason game, preseason preseason games and training camp and and so hopefully he's he's ready, he's up to the task. I think I think he'll mentally be ready to go, and I think the two veterans will help him, and we'll see how it how it pans out. I'm I'm glad he's not going against you know, some Pro Bowl, you know, Cameron Hayward type that would be, oh my gosh,

welcome to the NFL. Son. You know, maybe he can he can break in a little bit and knee's into it. Although I think the strength of the Detroit Lions defense and maybe of their football team, one of the strengths is is how how hard their defensive line plays. So he's certainly not going to have any kind of picnic. It's going to be a challenge a day at the It's going to be a grind a day. You will never hear me get snarky about NFL players with injury problems.

I respect all of you guys who are willing to jeopardize your long term health by playing this game. So that's kind of my prelude to Trey Waynes, who unfortunately has had horrible luck when it comes to injuries and signing his big contract with the Bengals. How big is this loss at that position? I think it's big, you know.

I think that they were feeling pretty good about having, you know, two guys that can play the corner position, that are both long and athletic and can flip their hips and aren't afraid to tackle people, you know, in Waynes and Cheeto, and they don't have Waynes, and you just you just start to wonder, It's like, all right, some guys are just tighter muscle wise, the attachments or whatever the case may be, because you end up having a pectoral injury just lifting waste and then both your

hamstring start to give you problems. It's like, man, some guys physiologically you're just you know, put together a little bit differently, and you think we'll just continue to stretch, do yoga, do whatever, you know, work on your flexibility. I'm sure he's doing all of that. I'm sure I saw him with the bands you know that you use to use negative resistance and all that, and stretching and trying to strengthen you know, quad's hamstrings, all that sort of.

He's religiously and diligently using those things at training camp. It's just and sometimes guys get in a situation where that's the way there their structured. And I talked about this before Paul Brown with Isaac Curtis. He was like, look, whatever you need to do to keep your hamstrings loose, you know, if you need to hop out of a drill and stretch for ten minutes, do it. So you know, I understand you have world class speed and you're you're

cut high. You know, you get those long legs, those long hamstrings, and you're a high wasted guy and that you know, we're gonna make sure you're right with that world class speed. So yeah, everybody's different in that regard. And the thing is, you know, there was never any tag on him on anything like that when he came down from Minnesota. You know, it's like he hadn't had these issues. Now all of a sudden, every muscle in his body seems to be really tight and he's pulling

him or a ripping him or tearing him. Took a look at some Pro Football Focus grades earlier today. Here are the highest rated players on the roster relative to their position group on offense and defense. Joe Mixon number four among NFL running backs. DJ Reader number six among interior defensive linemen. When it comes to Reader, his job doesn't come with gaudy's statistics. Do you consider him one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL? Is what he is told to do and what his assignment is

to do. He does his job. You know here coaches all the time, just do your job, don't try to be a hero, don't try to do too much. Do your job, and then other people around you will be able to do their job. And that's DJ Reader. It's not going to show up necessarily in a bunch of statistics. You know, in terms of tackles, assists and all that sort of thing. But if they kept a stat on successful double team consumption, you know, he'd be right up there.

And Logan Wilson's tied for ninth in the NFL in terms of total tackles because of DJ Reader or a big part of it is DJ Reader allowing him to be untouched and come downhill and quick, quick diagnosis, go down and explode, blow it up. Um, So it's it. Does you know the glove has to fit the hand, as OJ said, you know, I mean it's one of those kind of one of those kind of deals there. So I think I think he is playing at a very very high level, and I thought he got shafted

as I looked at the game again. On the third and one, when they stopped Dylan and Uh on the he DJ basically threw a leg up up there and and trying he was trying frantically to just throw something up up there in that area as part of the stop in the play, and he could call for tripping, which you could see why the referee called that, but he missed the hold in the throw down. I mean, the offensive lineman tackled him through to the ground. And DJ's at that point just you know, trying to get

something done. So when you only see the end of the plane you make the call, that can be really frustrating. And I'm sure he was really when he got up and he was so vociferous about the call, I thought, Tea, you know, he really did that. But then when I saw the whole thing, I'm like, oh, no, wonder. I mean, he's going he's going nuts because what about the holding

penalty that occurred. You know, you didn't see, you didn't see the whole thing, and you know, in his mind it should have been an offset if worst case scenario, but it cost his football team big time. Instead of putting away the Green Bay Packers, you know, continue to drive and get points out of it. Lap, let's spend a couple of minutes on the lines before we get to some questions from Twitter followers. They're on five, they're in rebuilding mode. What are the big concerns for the

Bengals in this game? I think the big concerns. Don't take it for granted. You know, they've they've been in a lot of football games. They they're gonna play hard. Their head coach is very emotional, you saw him be very vulnerable after the loss they just they suffered to the Minnesota Vikings nineteen to seventeen. They lost to the Ravens nineteen to seventeen on a historic sixty six yard field goal that shouldn't have even happened because there was

a you know, the clock expired. It should have been a seventy one yard attempt. And then Minnesota beat him at the down as well. So they've they've been in, you know, just about every football game. They've lost two road games in the division, lost to the Bears by ten and the Green Bay Packers by double digit figures as well eight point lost to San Francisco. I mean, it's not like they've been destroyed. They were in those football games for a good period of time. You Know.

The thing the Bengals have to do is we talked about earlier how they haven't come out out of the gate. Well yet they have to do do in this football game because if they don't, the Detroit Lions are going to have the feeling this is the week, you know, looks like we might be able to get this done here. You're gonna have to squash that any any hope of that you know to just jump on them with both feet right away and say it's not going to be this week, and guy's gear up for next week because

it's not happening today. And you know, I think I think the way you've got to do that is defensively. They the Lions utilize their running back in their tight end pretty exclusively. They're leading receivers by a good margin and a lot of yards after catch, yards after contact. Tackling is going to be a big deal in the football game. You can't leave your teammate out there one on one. You're gonna have to get you know, run to the football gang, tackle, leverage properly, you know, all

those kind of things. If you're having trouble in the secondary with communication like you had against the Green Bay Packers, simplify. Paul Brown used to say, I thought you guys understood. I thought you guys could grasp all this. Obviously you've shown me you can't. We're gonna shrink it down to these couple of things, and if you show me you can handle these, we'll add another one and we'll add another one. But we're not going to do all this,

you know, five different things. If you can't handle them so and that always worked. You know, you think it's too simple. If you're doing it right, I mean, you're gonna you're gonna be better off than trying to get too cute and not do it right at all. That's you know, it's it's self defeating, there's no question about it. So I think I think that's going to be a big factor. I think third down is going to be a big factor. I was looking at third down Dan.

The Lions are fifteen of forty nine, I mean, their second in the NFL thirty point six percent, but they haven't been in third down very much. I guess teams would beating them on first and second down. That's what the Bengals should be thinking about doing, because you look at the Bengals numbers, they're thirty one of seventy three

as opposed to fifteen to forty nine. The Bengals been in third down a ton offensively, third and short of time, but I mean third down defensively a ton, and uh, they're allowing over forty two percent, eighteenth in the league. So I mean, I think third down is going to be a big deal. Um, you know, I think that's gonna be a factor in the football game. And uh, you know, I think I think, like I said, you just can't. You can't let a trap game occur. I

think that's the biggest thing. The mindset has to be right. You can't let a tough loss against the Green Bay Packers turn into you know, a two game losing streak or god forbid of three or four game losing streak. You have to nip it in the bud and just rebound, compartmentalized and roll. All right, I shine the ask lap signal into the Twitter sky. Here are a few questions from Twitter followers. We start with Pete, what's the problem

with the screen game, specifically running back screens. I feel like we have the players to be successful, but they seem to get blown up every time. Yeah, you know, that's something that Detroit does exceptionally well. They'll screen to their running back, they'll screen to their tight end Hawkinson, they'll screen to receivers. They've run every screen known to man. So that's a key. Another key in this football game.

Handle the screen game. And I'd like to see the Bengals be the best screen team in this football game as well, because it's a screen game. Is a very good weapon because it's a completion for the quarterback. He sees the throw being caught, and you know, the whoever the screen receivers is in space, hopefully with blockers to you know, just get some yards after catch, yards after contact.

The screen game. I believe in the screen game, particularly if you're having trouble with pressure, a big way to skill to slow it down as a screen game and draws, draws and screens. That goes back to you know, Pop Warner football. So yeah, it's just they have to be better with their execution. You know, get out in a timely fashion if you if you don't, you know, thousand and one, thousand and two, release, get out in front

of the screen. If if that gets buggered up somehow, you know you're out there with free runners at your at your receiver of the football, whoever that may be. It's just just like any other play. It has to be well coordinated, time to write, executed properly. And Detroit's done a much better job of it, I think to this point than the Bengals have. I'd like to see that trend reverse this week. Dustin writes the following, it looks like the pass rush win rate is among the

lowest in the league. Does that align with what you're seeing and is it a concern long term? I looked it up. That's an ESPN stat They have the Bengals number twenty eight in the NFL and pass rush win rate, even though the Bengals have a respectable sack total of fourteen. Yeah, it's it's interesting, you know, because I like the pass rush win rate. I think can be subjective. I think, you know, sacks obviously they're either on the ground or

or not. I do like sacks per pass attempt. Sometimes raw sacks don't really show because you know, you look at it. The Detroit Lions again, for example, have eleven sacks,

that's tied for thirteenth in the NFL. Their sack per pass attempt is six though, because you know the opposition they've only thrown the ball one hundred and thirty five times and they've got eleven sacks, whereas you know, on the Bengal side of it, the Bengals have on the year have thirteen sacks, which is tied from ninth in the NFL, but their their sack per pass attempt is that is thirteenth in the league. Because the opposition is

throwing one hundred and ninety five times. So it's it's the ratio how many times you're getting them on the ground as opposed to how many times they're putting the ball in the air. Do I think that the pass rush has been inconsistent as well? Yes? I do. I mean I think there have been there have been games where the pass rush has been a significant factor on

a on a very high percentage of snaps. In this football game against the Green Bay Packers, I should say the last football game they had against the Packers, you had an unusual guy in that his first move is to retreat. He'll he'll back up. He'll back up as much as ten yards because of his arm strength. He didn't care. You don't care about adding that distance. U. He's he's a little bit of a nightmare to have your win pass rush rate be that high and that effective.

But in my mind, if if I don't know how it's subjective, how however they do the grading. If in my mind, if a guy is beaten uh in less than three seconds, that was a that was a win pass rush rate by the defensive lineman. Even if you didn't get the quarterback off the spot. If you got the quarterback off the spot, that's that's an obvious one. But yeah, I mean Ken the pass rush win rate improve. Heck yeah, just like everything else in this defensive football team.

This question comes from Tom. What are your thoughts on Trey Hopkins. It seems he's playing poorly. Is it physical limitations after his knee injury or reps needed to get him in a groove? Yeah, I mean I think I think, um, you know, physically and like you said, uh, after certain that's all related. I mean you have to remember this guy, um had an ACL reconstruction. He tore it in January.

Joe Burrow played ten games. Trey Hawkins played all the games, he played sixteen and he had it done in January. Joe had it done in October. Um December for Joe for the surgery. December surgery, and so Treys was, you know, like a full month later. Um, So you know, if that four weeks is a is a big deal. Um, you know, and and look at it, looking at it, everybody's concerned. You know. Joe gets some pile. Joe gets this,

gets that. I can tell you as an offensive lineman, you're there's so much pressure, leverage, pounding that goes on your legs, and then you're in cotton piles. You might be caught awkwardly in piles. And for him to be doing what he's doing is really remarkable. I think. I mean, I took my cap to the guy. Now. Is he playing like he played before where he had the ACL reconstruction? Now? Can he play like he played after the ACL reconstruction? Yeah? And I do think repetition he's had. He's had his

down games and he's rebounded and had better games. He's up and down from a consistency factor as well, and I think the more reps he gets, the better he's going to be. But I just I have nothing but plotteds for him for doing what he's doing. You know, he's he's he's a heck of a teammate. He'll sacrifice everything he needs to sacrifice for the betterment of the football team. And I'll take all the Trey Hopkins I can get. This question comes from Eric and has to

do with the other team's center. How significant is the loss of Frank Ragnow for Detroit? I think it's big. Frank Ragnow is the guy that I was hoping would come here to Cincinnati, and he picked before he goes to Detroit, and he's he made the Pro Bowl. He's made the Pro Bowl. He's he's long, strong, he's a very good player. So yeah, that toe injury is definitely

a factor. But I will say the Green Bay Packers had a patchwork offensive line, and I thought that they performed very admirably, definitely well enough to win the football games. Since they won it. They executed the techniques that the offensive line coach wanted them to execute the way he wanted them to execute them, and the old line coach and the players were on the same page, and they played well. That offensive line as a unit played well.

So you know, I'm not going to sleep on anybody, anybody's backup players because if you're if you're on a roster in the National Football League, you're good enough to play. And players that aren't starting are waiting for an opportunity to show they belong. So don't take anything for granted, Brad asks. Should we be concerned with a number of snaps the defense has played through five games. I think that's a I think that's a legitimate concern. There's no

doubt about it. You know, I think that's four three and outs in six possessions in the first half. If you're a defensive player, that it's like you kidding me. I mean, we barely have time over here to make adjustments on the greef board between series. You know, it's like, oh, no, forget it, we'll talk about it the next get get up, get ready. They're putting the football. Oh my gosh. Again that that that complimentary football is huge and they're not

playing good enough complimentary football yet. And I totally totally agree with that. That the defense has to take pressure off the offense and limit their number of snaps. I mean, the offense has to take pressure off the defense limiting the number of snaps there. I think when you consider all of that, I think that makes the defense performance

even that much more remarkable. You know, I think that they're for them to have enough gas in the tank to make stops they make at the end of football games, I think is admirable to say the least, you know, and they have they have a never say die attitude. That defense is a extremely resilient on an individual player basis and collectively as a football team. They're not gonna They're not gonna quit on you. Nine times the Green Bay Packers had the ball inside the Bengals forty yard line,

they scored two touchdowns. Are you kidding me? Aaron Rodgers twenty two points? If you hold him to twenty two points in a game, I'm gonna win that football game regular, you know, in the regulation time twenty five points with the field goal. After the tremendous exhibition of missus that took place, all right, final ask lap question comes from Dan h as in Me. I said on Twitter this week that it would be really cool if Jamar Chase and Pinney Sewell did a jersey swap after the game.

I think Bengals Twitter would explode if that happened. Here's my question. Do you ever get another player's jersey? You know, we didn't even do it? Think about that, you know, I mean, I honestly I would have done that. I would have gotten a bunch of players jerseys. I literally the first time I was on the same football field as Joe Namath, I was like, start, I wanted to have my autograph book out there. I was star struck. The first time, you know, lined up against Bob Lily,

I was like, are you kidding me. This is my boyhood idol. I was just staring at him, like, wow, that's Bob Lily. Oh my god, what am I doing out here? I mean, I wanted to have, you know, autograph books, so I would have just I wouldn't expect them to want my jersey, but I would have collected as many as I could if that tradition were back in the day. And yeah, I just I wish I had a few of them. To tell you the truth, I'm gonna bring this to the broadcast world. I'm going

to swap golf shirts with the other teams. Announceders do we call the games? What do you think? What do you think of that? That's pretty cool? Yeah, pretty cool. Maybe use some intensified tie to make sure they're clean. Hey, mister Musburger, can I have your shirt? I'm sure that's gonna go over well well, Dune, I think, yeah, that's pretty good. That's that's real good. I like that. Now time to take a closer look at this week's opponent.

There are four current NFL franchises that have never made it to the Super Bowl, the Browns, Jaguars, Texans, and Lions. Detroit has one playoff win since nineteen fifty seven. The team is in rebuilding mode again under new head coach Dan Campbell, and lap and I were joined on the Bengals Game Plan Show this week by the host of the Locked On Lions podcast, Matt dry. I started our conversation by asking Matt where the O and five Lions are weakest? Well, first and foremost, I mean, they just

can't finish games. I mean, you guys all saw it a couple of weeks ago. They have the Ravens, uh, you know, beaten and then just Tucker kicks like an eighty yard field goal to beat them, which is his classic Lions And in this past weekend, you know, they just couldn't get over the hump at the end of the game. The offense is not very good. Jared Goff

is very low rated. When it comes to quarterbacks. They're not putting up a ton of points a receiver wise, you look at the Bengals roster and you go, oh my gosh, it's like, you know, you make a poster and put it up on a kid's wall of the receivers that you have, and I'm the Lions receivers nobody's ever heard of. It's a really poor, poor young group.

But it's not very good. So you know, mix that with a roster that was very depleted to start the year, and then you take the best player off the offense, Frank rag now a pro bowler, a center, but he's the best player they have. He's out for the year. Their best defensive player, Romeo a'quara, defensive end out for the year on a rebuilding team. That's tough. Yeah, there's no doubt. After the game, Dan Campbell was vulnerable and emotional.

If he had been coaching in the game, the Bengals played with five miss kicks in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime, he wouldn't need a box of Kleenex. I mean he would have been crying alligator tears. The way that thing finished it, it was emotional roller coaster. Dan was, you know, what are they doing? What are they struggling with? I guess my question would be what are they doing best? If there's something they're doing best, can you name a couple of things? Well, Dave,

let me say this first and foremost. Everybody nationally, of course, is going to jump all over this Dan and Campbell crying thing. And look everybody jumped all over Dan Campbell's first press conference when he said the team was going to bite people's kneecaps. I liked it, and I'll tell you why. The last couple of years and the last couple of coaches that have come through Detroit, Jim Calbo was a very good man and the players loved him. But he never told you anything. He never showed you

any emotion. He was stoic. Matt Patricia was as a phony, all right, Matt Patricia was a phony. This guy is crying after week five. I get why people can jump all over him and say, if you're going to cry in October, what happens if your ow and eleven in November or December. The players have rallied around him the problem that he has. And you know this, Dave, as a former player, you have to have players. You can

have the greatest coach in the world. You can have Vincelbardi, you canna have Chuck Nole, You're gonna have Sam Weish, whoever it is. You gotta have material, and he did. You know, Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes a new general manager, just having inherited a roster that's very good and so players like Quandre Diggs and Darius Slay and t J. Lange and Golden Tate and Calvin Johnson and Matthew Stafford, they're all gone and they didn't win with those guys.

How do you expect to win with Jared Goff and some cast some characters? And you asked me the question. I mean, you know this weekend, you're gonna have two undrafted free three I'm sorry, undrafted free agent rookies having to guard your receivers. Bobby Price, Jerry Jacobs and AJ Parker. None of those guys were drafted this year and they're all playing and starting. So that's a tough That's a tough thing for any defensive coordinator at coach when you

fare all over your secondary. We are chatting with Matt Darry. He is the host of Lockdown Lions podcast. In the first two weeks of the year, the Lions gave up forty one and thirty five. Since then, the defense seems to be playing pretty well nineteen points, twenty four points, nineteen points last three games. I look at this roster on defense, I don't really know these guys except for a linebacker Derek Barnes, who's from here. But the guys

they're trotting out there right now, who's good. Tracy Walker's coming on. Their strong safety has really really had a great game the other day against the Vikings. I've been a little bit hard on him because I know how talented he is, and I thought he regressed in year two last year, but he's starting to come on, and that's a guy number twenty one that Bengals fans should watch. Charles Harris has come around the edge over the last four games and as a sack of game, which has

been nice. Owns Rique and McNeil in the middle. Two rookies that they're expecting a lot of a lot out of and have improved. Sanzeloni is kind of a throwback linebacker with long hair, wears the Sea on his uniform as a good leaders. It's not a great defense by any stretch of the imagination, but I like what Aaron Glenn is doing. Scheme wise, there's more zone being played. Remember when Patricia was here for three years, it was we're gonna play man or we're gonna do it the

Patriot way. And it's like, hey, bro, like you don't you don't have the guys to do it you're throwing Jeoffrey o'cuter a rookie and having him played man against DeVante Adams in his first game last year. That was coaching mel Steasons. So now at least they're zoning up a little bit. They're showing some quarterbacks different looks, and there were times I couldn't even believe it this past Sunday where Kirk Cousins looked a little confused. So that's

been good. I think it's been a mix of scheme and guys kind of playing with a chip on their shoulder. But no, Dan, You're right, there's nobody having this room on this defense. Trey Flowers makes eighteen million a year, but I don't think he's a great defensive end. But he's a name that people know. He's played for the Patriots. But it's not This is not a propol caliber defense yet.

So you talked about Jared Goff. Obviously the knock on him with the Rams turnover machine twenty nine interceptions over the last two seasons. His interceptions are down, He's only got three, but he's fumbled the ball six times and lost four of them. Wow, I mean, what the heck, What the Heck's going on, he's got no boss security in the pocket. Is it in the pocket? Out of pocket? Why is he fumbling the ball so much? Know, it's funny.

I talked to some people in LA about goff and they said his hands are small, and I said, okay, so it's like, but then every game, Dave, he fumbles it in a key spot. And these aren't fumbles like at the fifty on a third and ten. These are fumbles inside the other team's ten yard line, inside the other team's twenty, when they've moved the ball. They're killers

inside the red zone. And it's just it's baffling. I knew I was not one of these people that said, oh, Jared Goffs's been to a super boy, he's one more playoff games, Matthew Stafford, he's better. Wrong, I didn't think that, but I just I figured he'd be better now. Again, his receiving core is it very good. And teams are double and triple teaming Hawkinson. So goss a little bit, you know, stunted in his growth in that department. But my goodness, he threw a pick a pick this past

Sunday in a triple coverage. Eric Kendricks made a great play, but it just is one of those throws where you went you don't need to try to thread the needle there, you know, try to roll out and make something happen. He's not one of these guys that I'm a third if it's third and two against the Bengals defense, the way the Bengals defense is playing, he looks at one guy and tries to make that throw. And that's why

you've got to go. If that one guy's not open, I gotta maybe move the pocket and scramble or make a run. He just doesn't do that, and it's I think I've been I'll be honest, I've been disappointed at his play. I didn't expect all pro, but geez, you got you gotta do better than this. Everybody in Allen Park, though, tells me at the Lion's facility he's been a great leader.

The guys are rallying around him. But I doubt that this Sunday, if he plays poorly, that David Blow is going to come in and they're gonna make a change. I think golf is there for this year, and then they'll look at the draft and maybe get to maybe get to Dan's buddy Desmond Ritter or something there you go. Third down really good defensively on third down, they've only allowed fifteen conversions, second fewest in the NFL thirty point six percent, second second lowest in the NFL. They've only

been in forty nine third downs. So are people crushing them on first and second down? I mean, do they need to get people to third down more? And then third and one to four? That's been a problem for the Bengals last week They're horrible on third and one to four. Packers been there eight times, only giving up two conversions twenty five percent, leads the NFL. What's the deal on third down? And what's the deal on first and second down? Where they're not getting people the third

down as much as they'd like to. I'll say this last week against the Viking guy who was it was stupefied by Clint Kubiak, who on every single second down ran the football for the Vikings. And look, I get it, Dalvin Cook was injured, but he's good, obviously great Alexander Madison, there's no slouch. But on every second down day they ran it didn't better if it was second and nineteen or second and one and so the Lions were like, oh, second down, we know they're gonna run, so they stacked

a box. So I think they inflated the numbers a little bit. I think people will tell you again, Aaron Glenn has done a nice job with the scheme. I'm not quite sure as to why this is. There have been some big plays made against the Lion secondary this year, so those have been on first down play action passes. You know, Dan and I talked on my show the other day about Joe Burrow and the intermediate passes. But if I'm Burrow this week, I'm taking some shots down

field Monio Rularier. They're really their best corner left has been pretty good and he's got good size. But I'd be picking on a guy like Jerry Jacobs or Bobby Price and trying to go deep teams for somebody and haven't been doing that because the Lions have had their safety so deep. But like Will Harris, the Lions free safety, I don't think it's very good, so I would take some shots deep. We saw this in the Steeler preseason

game with deont Johnson. We saw this with early in the year with deem o' samuel, So that might be a little bit of where that's at. There have been some plaques and throws them first downs and have gotten where the Lions is haven't. You haven't even gotten a third down. But like we said that the defense has improved. I'm just not sure how they're doing this. Thanks to Matt Dairy and here's a quick reminder to tune into the Bengals pep Rally Show this Friday from three to

six on ESPN fifteen thirty. That's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to you by Ultimate Bengals, the free to play Next Level Fantasy Football game, downloaded now from the App Store and Google Play. 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 this podcast. I'm Dan Horde, and thanks for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast