Bengals Booth Podcast: Hallelujah

Booth Podcast is presented by bud Light. Seltzer refreshed the game, 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 having a large loud crowd back at Paul Brown Stadium. After playing their home games at limited capacity last year, the Bengals welcome more than fifty six thousand fans into the Jungle

on Sunday, and they made a huge difference. The Vikings committed three false start penalties on their first seven attempted plays and were guilty of five false starts. In all, here's Joe Burrow strictly because of the fans. You know, that's why they give us such a big advantage. And you know we're gonna keep winning, and they're gonna keep coming, and it's gonna get louder and louder and louders. The Jungle truly lived up to the nickname. Now let's recap

the game. Neither team moved the ball in the first quarter. The Vikings had two first downs, the Bengals only had one. But Minnesota started rolling in the second quarter. Third down and twenty four for the Vikings, Shotgun snap Cousins with a quick pass caught and Osbourne breaks out of a dongal, streaks down the sideline and picks up the first down. The Bengals could not stop the Vikings on third and

twenty four simply because they good not tackle kJ Osborne. Man, that's just that's a sad state of affairs right there. You gotta finalize that play. Eli Apple not only missed the tackle, he was later called for defensive holding in the end zone, negating a sack by Larry Ogenjobi and setting up the game's first score. Vikings started at their own nine. They have it at the Bengals five first in goal. Cousins looking to pass fires wide open his Feeling.

He caught fourteen red zone touchdowns a year ago, and he has his first one in twenty twenty one. Eli Apple unable to stay with Adam Feeling. That was a fourteen play drive that took nearly eight and a half minutes off the clock. To that point, the Bengals had punted on their first three possessions, but things were about

to change. Two deep safeties for the Vikings, Burrow back to throw from the pocket, his pass cock by Jamar Chase half the Vikings forty five, a first down pick up on third and nine, and career catch number one fort numero Uno Chabar Chase. Chase finished with five catches for one hundred one yards and no drops. Zach Taylor

and Joe Burrows say they weren't worried about Jamar. I would have been concerned if his approach wasn't the right way, if he was sleeping in meetings and showing up late and not doing that, then I would have been concerned. But it was the exact opposite. Had a couple of guys come up to me, and so you know, I hope jam comes to play to day. I said, don't worry,

Sunday's game day. He's gonna come ready to play. Chase added a thirteen yard catch on third and seven to help set up the tying td empty backfield, Burrow looking to pass, throws it into the end zone, caught by t Higgins, touchdown Bengals. Burrows first touchdown pass of the year and a Bengal store with one forty seven left in the half that tied the score at seven, and the Bengals defense got a three and out to give the ball right back to Joe Burrow. Mix into the

quarterbacks left. Burrow drops straight back to throw again. He's gonna fire it long for Chase. Out of his shoulder catch at the fifty eight, he runs it hit into the end zone. Touchdown Bengals. Tobar Chase doing the gritty hit the end zone had Cincinnati gets up fifty yard touchdown pass with thirty five seconds left in the half. And for Shark Griland, he's not gritty, he's on his backside.

He got beaten. They are targeting Griland twenty one has a target on his back and when Joe Barrow saw a man coverage Breland on Chase, his eyes got big and he threw big down the football field. Here's Burrow on the fifty yard touchdown pass that made it fourteen

seven at the half two minute drill. And you know, they're playing soft the first couple of plays, and we were kind of dinking and dunking our way up the field, and so I knew that they're going to be a little more aggressive when we crossed the fifty because they didn't want to give up a field goal. And I knew that the Brilliant was the more aggressive corner, and so I was going to take that match up. And you know, I had feeling he was going to kind

of sit on a shore round this. That's what he did. After scoring two touchdowns in the final two minutes of the half, the Bengals got the ball to begin the third quarter and scored again. Burst in goal at the two. Burrow in the gun, mixing to his right, he hands it to Joe Mixon. Joe struggling, twisting trying to get in touchdown Bengals as Mixon takes it into the end zone and the Bengals have gone up by two tds.

That made it twenty one to seven, and after the defense forced the Vikings to pun again, the Bengals got the ball back and faced fourth down in one at their own thirty with three and a half minutes left in the third quarter. When Zach Taylor left the offense on the field, many of us figured he was simply trying to draw the Vikings offsides. Fourth in a yard deep in their own territory. They're at their own thirty.

I'd be surprised if they actually go forward. We'll see if the Vikings commit yet another penalty, but we'll see Burrow under center, the Vikings crowd the line, the Bengals do go for it, and Mixon spinning forward at it, he stopped at the thirty yard line. I am stunned, beyond belief that the Bengals went for that. Wow, it's fourth and one. I felt like we could go steal a victory right there. You know, we're up twenty one seven and if we can just bang home the momentum

right there with the fourth and one. I should have had a better play call. You know, they loaded at that front pretty good, made some substitutions. Not our best call there. That gave Minnesota Life, and the Vikings capitalized. Cousins catches the shotgun snap throws slat Cock by Feeling, running away from the Bengals defense into the end zone for a twenty four yard touchdown. Well, you knew he was going to feeling. I mean, that's the guy. That's the guy who goes to on third down. That's the

guy who goes to in the red zone. They were right there at the custom of the red zone, and on fourth down he didn't look anywhere else. So the Bengals took a twenty one to fourteen lead to the fourth quarter. Last year, in the nine full games that Joe Burrow played, the Bengals had fourth quarter leads in six and only one two against the Vikings. The Bengals added to their lead early in the fourth thanks to

the powerful right leg of rookie kicker Evan McPherson. His first NFL field goal try will be from fifty three yards away. Harris ready to snap it back to Huber. Huber extends the right hand, catches, puts it down. Evan McPherson's kick is going to be good from fifty three yards away, and the Bengals have taken a ten point lead in the first minute of the fourth quarter. To that point, the Bengals defense had been pretty dominant, but the Vikings have too much offensive firepower to shut down

all day. Cincinnati up by ten nine twenty six left, first down in goal from the one for Minnesota. Cousins under center. He'll take the direct snap toss sweep to the left, Dalvin cook slicing back toward the middle, and he goes into the end zone, standing up for the Minnesota touchdown. With a three point lead, the Bengals tried to drain the clock by running the ball, including a run on third and four with two minutes to go that failed, giving the Vikings the ball back at their

own five yard line with one forty eight left. Kirk Cousins completed six out of seven passes, giving kicker Greg Joseph a chance to force overtime from fifty three yards away. Barry is the holder. He just joined the team last week. Here comes the swing of the right leg. The kick is on its way, and it is good. We're headed overtime.

Tied a twenty four. In overtime, the Bengals had to punt on their first two possessions, and it didn't look like they were going to get a third as the Vikings were on the verge of reaching comfortable field goal range. Will the Vikings run it from the Bengals thirty eight with two minutes left in overtime? The answer is yes. Talvin Cook knocked down by the legs near the line of scrimmage a one yard and the Bengals are celebrating. Jesse Bates was the first guy there. Yes, it is

give it to him. Yes, the officials say, the Bengals have the football. Jermaine Pratt with the recovery. Jermaine Pratt ripped it out and recovered it, giving the Bengals one last chance to win the game. Three offensive plays gained nine yards, meaning it was fourth and one at the forty eight. The Bengals not only decided to go for it, they decided to go for Broke Burrow back to pass, has time, throws it downfield for you, zat he has it after thirty the twenty five about in the twenty

yard line? Who won a gutsy call by Cincinnati? And what a throw by Joe the Magician as he floated it down field to cj Uzama. The Bengals are well within field goal range with thirty one seconds on the clock, and Cjayuzava lined up at the tight end position on the right side of the formation and runs a crossing route all the way over to the between the numbers and that in the sideline to the left side, Joe Burrow feathers a ball in their perfect touch. What a call.

Burrow walked to the line with two plays to choose from and chose wisely. Here are Burrow and use Zamba on a thirty two yard passing play on fourth and one. You know we hit him with QB sneak early in the game, so they put a guy on the center and then two guys inside shade on the guards. You know it's gonna be tough to run the ball up in the middle, So you know we had the second

play call. That's what I got to And you know we've we've run that play multiple times over the last couple of years, and I don't think we've thrown into CJ one time, but credit to him, he was ready for it. And now now I think the last two years we've hit everybody on that play. So that's a that's a good play for us. I've gotten the ball one time in three years of that play, and it was this week in practice against the air because Joe

wanted to run it against the air. And so yeah, there's a little surprising the ball is in the air. But yeah, it honestly was the perfect look for it. So how would use Zamba describe that play? Call ballsy? But I can't. That's that's that's that's the trust, you know. I mean, I gotta say it. That's that's that's some big coona's there um by him. And again, unfortunately we practice that one because it usually goes a lot shorter than thirty uh and we just get the sticks so um.

But again that's the trust he hasn't in us. Joe hasn't me to loft it up and having you go get it. The Bengals ran the clock down to five seconds remaining and called down their twenty two year old kicker to win the game. The Bengals field goal unit is lined up and ready to go at thirty three yard try to win the game for Evan McPherson, fifth round draft pick rookie out of Florida. Clark Harris, thirteenth year pro, will snap it back to Kevin Huber, thirteenth

year pro. The snap, the put down, the swing of the leg, the kick on the twain. Yeah, he's good. The Bengals win it. I'm the final playoff overtime Evan McPherson poisted onto the shoulders of his teammates, has Cincinnati pulls it out twenty seven to twenty four? Are how many times has to have been a kick it the gun to tie it up, to put it into overtime, then to kick it the gun to win it and overtime, but the over team, I don't think that's been done

a whole lot. Good call, lap. It was the first regular season game in NFL history with a game tying score with no time left in regulation and a game winning score with no time left in overtime. Here's the hero, Evan McPherson and his head coach. That was actually my first I guess kind of walk off field goal. Um, it's super exciting, and uh, you know, I'm glad I

got to do it for this team. Uh, They've worked so hard for this game, and I think, you know, all of us want to succeed the season and make the playoffs and make a run for the for the Super Bowl, and you know this is where that started to own. I'm super happy that I could, Um, I guess give the team what we wanted and not to win a rookie kicker, special team stepped up first game. I don't care how far that field goal is. Um, that's that's a tense situation. And uh, he was nailed

as we expect him to be. I remember that coming up in draft night. You know, hey, somebody stood up on the table for him, and so this guy's gonna win his games. And here we are to want to know McPherson received a game ball, but Joe Mixon could have received one as well. Twenty nine carries for one hundred and twenty seven yards plus four catches for twenty three more. Man, it felt great. Um. I don't know if y'all feel with it, but I thought it was

electric out there with the atmosphere. It was crazy. We just just very pleased that we got to win. We worked real hard. We've been working real hard offseason. We've been working hard and trying to do whatever we can and get the chemistry going. And we was able to do that and made it happen. So you know, I'm just happy that we got to do it, and so is his head coach. After losing the opener last year when Randy Bullock missed a chip shot that would have

forced ot. The Bengals beat the Vikings and Mike Zimmer's formidable defense, that might be one of the best defenses we're gonna play all year. Best coordinated, best talent, best experience. They make things really really hard on you. I'm glad that one's over, you know, and our guys held up there. It's not always going to look pretty. You got to make some plays, which our guys did. Joe hung in

there and make some big time throws. They might not appear to be big time throws everybody in the moment. It was based on all the looks he had to manage. So again that's you know, it's people ask if week one is different, Week one is different. As I walked up the field, I thought, well, you know, it is different because we'd waited so long for this one opponent and you get a chance to think and overthink and

what if they do that? Okay, all that stuff, and now now it's passingers on that six day work week and you gotta go get ready for the Chicago Bears, and I'm thankful to turn the page and move on. Joe Burrow finished twenty for twenty seven for two hundred and sixty one yards, with two touchdown passes, no picks, and a passer rating of one twenty eight point eight. More importantly, it's the first game winning drive in the

fourth quarter or overtime of his NFL career. Here's a quick reminder that the Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Bud Light Seltzer. It's light and refreshing with a hint of fruit flavor. Now time for postgame analysis with my broadcast partner Dave Lapham White. A victory to begin the season, lap as the Bengals pull it out in the final play of overtime twenty seven to twenty four game that I think will be remembered for two fourth down decisions.

The third quarter decision to go for it on fourth and one that was a disaster. It'll allowed the Vikings to get back into the game. And then with the end of overtime, fourth and about a centimeter, Joe Burrow goes to a checks to a play where they throw it downfield to cj Uzama a thirty two yard game that leads to the game winning kid. Yeah, I mean, Zach said after the game, when I was doing the interview with him, he said that, you know, we're not

gonna We're gonna be aggressive. We're gonna go after people. We're not going to sit back. And the reason for those fourth down calls. One of them worked and one of them didn't. CJ. Zama said it wasn't even supposed to go to him for Joe to see it like he did and to make a throw that he did because I said, asked him, do you ever think the ball was going to come down? It's one of those things with the balls hanging, hanging, hanging, You just hope

it gets there. And he saw, well, in that situation, that was the perfect thing to do because you know, I could track it and I didn't have any problem into you know, waiting for the thing to come down. And it turned out to be a huge play obviously. But I really can't remember, Dan, and there's got to be other cases of it. But one team hits one of the gun to put it in overtime, and the opposite team hits one of the gun to win it in overtime. At the complete you know, at the final

seconds of overtime. So that's a roller coaster for sure, and a great win for the team that wins on a bitter defeat for the team that doesn't. Well, you said during the course of the week, your hope was that Joe Burrow wouldn't have to throw it a million times and an overtime game. He only attempted twenty seven passes. The Bengals wanted to try to keep the game on the ground, try to take time off the clock, try to use Joe Mixon, and that strategy work. Twenty nine

carries for Joe one hundred and twenty eight yards. He also had four receptions for twenty three so he accounted for one hundred and fifty yards of offense. Yeah, thirty three touches over one hundred and fifty yards in a touchdown. You know, you got you got a situation where Joe Burrow through for two touchdown passes and Jamar Chase five catches one hundred and one yards. He had a touchdown, so you know there was balance there and one hundred

yard rusher, one hundred yard receiver. You like that. You know it usually is accompanied by a three hundred yard passer. But again, Joe didn't throw the football all that much to get to that that kind of number. But the disturbing thing is quite a few sacks and a limited number of attempts. So that's got to that's gotta get rectified a little bit. Last year was thirty two sacks and nine and a half games, so roughly the same pace. Five sacks on opening day. That's even actually a little

bit higher than the average last year. But Mike Zimmer's defense is going to do that to the best of him. He h dials up those exotic looks on third down in particular, and I think any team that doesn't play the Vikings on a regular basis is going to struggle with that. Yeah, I mean, I think you know, the thing that concerns me is if I'm a lineman, five sacks in less than thirty attempts and that's you know, that's better than one perse six dropbacks. That's that's a number.

You know, when he was getting sacked five times last year, it was like thirty eight forty attempts, So you know, the ratio of number of attempts and number of sacks and hits is even a little bit higher. Than what Joe suffered, you know last year or so. Um, as a group, you got to got to tighten it up. And that's everybody offensive line, running bats and blitz pick up. You know, same old story. It takes eleven to run the ball, takes eleven to stop to run, eleven to

throw it, and eleven to stop it. So, um, everybody, everybody has some accountability there. But it does have to get a little bit better. The good news is, you know, Joe said afterwards that, um, you know, he's fine. The doctors checked the whole thing out. He's got no issues. You know, he's on that on the bicycle just to make sure that he kept it warm. He said, it wasn't that it was painful. Um, And he had, as we saw, was iPad the whole time and he was,

you know, he was just ready to go. So he's definitely a tough dude, There's no doubt about that, that's for sure. Twelve penalties for the Vikings, three for the Bengals. Four of those Minnesota penalties came on offense and their opening drive of the season. Joe Burrow said after the game it was absolutely due to crowd noise. I didn't really think that that was the case at the time. I mean, it was a good crowd, they were noisy. Maybe the fact that they played in front of empty

stands last year made it seem that much louder. I know one thing, I'm glad the Bengals did enough to go to Minnesota and face that crowd in that dome. Oh my god. If they thought this was loud here outside with a it wasn't quite a sell out, but it was darn close, imagine what it would have been like up there. So that's a that's a huge advantage for the Bengals to be at home rather than having to travel up to Minnesota. Yeah, but it does show that this town is definitely hungry to have a winner,

there is no doubt about it. And those thirteen penalties, I think five or six holding calls. DJ Reader drew three holding calls himself, and you know, Hendrickson drew a couple of holding calls on top of being involved in pressure and sack. So the defensive line got in the

Minnesota Vikings offensive Lemon's heads big time. So I think that physicality and the overpowering thing, plus the crowd noise, it's like, I mean, they could call through legal formations because the tax was trying to cheat, you know, get back far enough to be able to change the angle and pass rush can't do that. And I think crowd noise that, you know, the excellence of the players, all of it kind of snowballed a little bit on the

Minnesota Vikings at times upfront themselves. I don't think anybody in the stands, or on the sideline or in the broadcast booth doubted that Evan McPherson would make that game winning kick. It's a rookie. He's never had a walk off game winner at any level in his life. Drilled it. What a change, And the confidence that you have in your kicker from last year, or Randy Bullock thirty one yards to force overtime first game of the year, misses

and grabs his calf. Afterward, this kid steps up there like it's practice on a Tuesday afternoon and there's no pressure at all. Yeah, what a thing. It's what a thing it is to go from Kafman to the Bull strong like bull, kick like strong Bull. I mean, just just an unbelievable forms. That guy is incredible, Like we said many times, great hitters. I remember, you know, listening and watching Ken Griffi Jr. In the batting cage Adam Dunn. You know, when these guys hit the ball, it made

like a different sound. When he kicks it, it makes a different, much different sound. I mean, some guys just have that explosiveness, you know, whatever it is. You know, Tiger Woods making contact when he was right physically with his golf swing. It's just some guys are different, you know, and he's different. There's no two ways, two ways about it.

And in the AFC North when it can get dicey weatherwise, it's good to have a guy like that because he not only does he kick them extreme length, they're straight. I mean, he's very very accurate. He doesn't he doesn't push it, he doesn't hook it. I mean he hits it true and pure almost every time. It's incredible. So the Bengals think wound up with three sacks today, but they drew all of those holding penalties as well. I thought the defensive line in the pass rush, it was

pretty impressive. I agree with you. I thought that everybody made contributions. I thought the interior B J. Hill got a sack, you know, And I think they complimented each other. There was good edge pressure, and then the push of the pocket didn't allow him to step up. When there was pushing the pocket, you know, the ends would get there and make hits on him. And that's what it takes.

That's that's when you have something cooking. And uh, you know, they only had seventeen sacks all year last year, and to get three in the opener, plus all the disruption with respect to penalty holding, penalty guys lining up too far off the line of scrimmage because they're a little fearful of what's happening on the edge. I gotta I gotta get back. This guy's too quick, he's going to be around me, you know. And the officials line judge and side judge, good move by them not allowing them

to do that, you know. And and so they got caught with the hand in the cookie jar trying that that trick. But I thought overall, the dens of line played very well. This team needed a week a week one win after winning a total of six games the last two years and really squandering good performances on opening day each of the last two had they let this thing slip through their fingertips, and it looked like they were going to at the end of overtime. This would

have been a pretty devastating loss. One score games into two years under Zach going into this two thirteen and one. Now they're three thirteen and one. It would have been probably to go to fourteen and one, particularly with that, like you said, two score lead, Uh what six minutes to go in the in the in the second, in the first half of three minutes to go there up by fourteen points fourteen points, So yeah, I mean it's that's uh, you got you gotta finish those off. There's

no question about it. And and I think I think this will this will go a long way. I think they realize that there's going to be ebbs and flows, peaks and valleys, and you can't you can't let one play or you know, like a fourth and one not converting turn into multiple bad plays as a unit, defense, offense, special teams, or individually. Eli Apple had a drive in there that you know he'd like to forget. Well, you

can't just forget the drive. You have to forget the play because you can't make you know, like three mistakes like he did on that one drive one bad play can't turn into three bad plays. The same for unit. You know, one assignment mistake or bad play can't turn into two or three or are they going to score on you in a heartbeat. But I do think the thing I liked one of the things I like most about that game, And I talked to both of them

in the locker room after the game. When Jamar Chase and Joe Burrow saw Jamar Chase had breathing one on one, both their eyes get big and they're like, this looks familiar and downtown, huge touchdown, big play in a game like this, you can go back to so many players.

I remember Bill Tiger Johnson, my first line coach, saying, young man, these games in the NFL, for the most part, there're gonna be some mismatches, but for the most part, it's gonna come down to three, maybe five plays during the course of the whole game that's going to determine the outcome of the game. And you don't know if it's in the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, or fourth quarter. So you've got to play your tail off every single snap. You feel me, yes, sir, I got you.

And that's literally how it is. In the National Football League. There's there's no two ways about it. And the other thing was on this game, the turnover the takeaway that was massive obviously, and now they're five two and one under Zach. When they win the turnover margin, you know, small sample size unfortunately in thirty three games, but they're own sixteen when they don't. They haven't won when they're negative, so it's big to win the turnover margin and they

hopefully will continue that. I forgot to say it during the broadcast. I'll say it now. Coffin nails. That's right. Bam, bam, bam. And I'll tell you it took a while, but they finally got the hammer out to pound those nails and that's for sure. Next a road game in Chicago against Andy Dalton and the Bears. That's going to do it. For this episode of the Bengals Booth podcast, brought to

you by Bud Light Seltzer, refresh the game. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe 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,