Bengals Booth Podcast: Hell Yeah

Coming up radio replays from Saturday's win, my one on one conversations with two Bengals rookies who had impressive debuts, and postgame analysis from Dave Lapham. The Bengals 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, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since the Bengals

Booth soundtrack. My friend Jed de Musi, the former sports reporter from Local twelve in Cincinnati, listens to this podcast and did what he calls a labor of love. Others might call it an incredible waste of time, but I got a huge kick out of it and truly appreciate it. Jed took every song I reference at the beginning of

this podcast and created a playlist on Spotify. It's one hundred and fifty three songs and counting, beginning with One Last Time from the Hamilton soundtrack and ending with King of the Road recorded by Roger Miller fifty seven years ago. That is until Jed ads hell. Yeah. So, if you would like to see and or listen to all of the songs referenced on this podcast, go to Spotify and search for the Bengals Booth soundtrack, the only soundtrack with both Alice Cooper and New Kids on the Block. Now,

let's get to football. We knew going into Saturday's preseason opener that Joe Burrow would not play. He still might at some point in the preseason, but Zach Taylor said it would not be in Game one. Seven time Super Bowl champ Tom Brady, on the other hand, did play the opening series for Tampa Bay and took a hit the third time he dropped back to pass. Rookies Joseph

Osai and Cam Sample are both in to rush. Tom Brady On third down and ten, Giovanni Bernhardt packet and running back lines up to the right of Brady, catches a high shotgun snap, looking scrambling and sacked. Brady brought down at the thirteen yard line, and as the Bengals sack them on third and ten, rookie Joseph Osai got there first and shared the sack with the Bengal's biggest

free agent acquisition, Trey Hendrickson. It was an impressive debut for Osai, who had two other quarterback hits and to tackle for loss in the running game. You'll hear from him in just a bit, and he wasn't the only Bengals rookie who made an impressive play right off the bat. Fakes a toss to the right. Rosy receiver screen set up for Jamar Chase, runs for the first down and gets tackled inside the twenty five at the twenty three

sixteen yards on the receiver screen. First NFL touch for Jamar Chase that helped the Bengals reach the red zone on their opening drives. No score, first quarter, eight thirty eight left. Here's a stretch run to the left. P Ryan slices through a small hole makes it down to the eighteen for a two yard rid. I'm setting up third down in five. Tampa Bay says that that's a fumble, and they feel like they've got possession of the football. They're trying to walk off the field defensively and they're

saying it's Tampa Bay's ball. Following the p Rhyan fumble, the Buccaneers drove seventy nine yards to score still a two tight end formation for the Buccaneers. Here's a run play for bon running left. He gets a push from behind and he takes it into the end zone for the game's first score. He saw Vaughan made it six nothing. But the Bucks followed that with a comical mistake on

the extra point. They lined up in a trick formation at the two yard line as if they were going to attempt a two point conversion, then shifted into a kicking formation and booted the pat But since twenty fifteen, extra point kicks have started from the fifteen yard line. Therefore, the Bucks were too close and Ryan suck Ups kick didn't count. It was a preseason game for the coaches too.

On the Bengal second drive, quarterback Brandon Allen once again drove the offense into the red zone a trail six nothing shotgun snap Allan throws a little cut on the run by Mike TLAs Hey bubbles the football inside the twenty and the fucketeers recover at the twelve yard line. Two drives, two red zone fumbles. Not good. On the Bengals third drive, they turned it over again sort of shotgun snap to Alan sets up a pass. His row

is the intercepted picked off at the fourth wall. Now the ball is battered away by Mike Thomas and he plucks it out of the air unreal. Javon Hagen intercepted the pass and as he started to return following the interception, the ruling on the field is a double change of possession. First half. Boy, he just slipped out of his hand. I mean as he's returning it. I don't know if he's trying to change hands with the football or what.

But Hagan just lost possession of the football man and Thomas, like you said, Dan, hustle right there pluck it out of the air. Man. That that was one crazy play. Two turnovers on the same snap, and the Bengals took advantage. Closing out the half with their best drive of the night.

It's a handoff to Evans, he goes low, He's into the end zone, touchdown Bengals with thirteen seconds left in the first half, rookie Chris Evans scoring from the one to give the Bengals a seven six halftime lead despite committee three turnovers to just one for Tampa Bay. But that stat turned in the second half. Griffin gets ready to throw his pass over the big bable then pick

Henderson with the interception for the Bengals. He's running it back and Henderson makes it down to the thirty five yard line of Tampa Bay, where the Bengals take over. Jayalen Davis with a breakup and Trayvon Henderson with the pick. It led to a forty yard field goal by Evan McPherson and a ten sixth lead. More of the same

than next time. The Bucks got the ball, catches the shotgun, snap sets up and throws in the traffic dot Deer intercepted by Frasier running back to the thirty five, the thirty and Cavan Frasier catching the ricochet who goes out of bounds at the twenty six yard line. Again it was Jalen Davis deflecting a pass that was picked off by a teammate that led to an Austin Cybert field

goal in a thirteen six lead. The Bengals not only had the two picks in the second half, they put a ton of pressure on Tampa Bay's quarter backs, finishing with four sacks and thirteen quarterback hits. Darius Hodge, an undrafted rookie out of Marshall, led the way with five QB hits and one and a half sacks. Another Evan McPherson field goal gave the Bengals at ten point lead going to the fourth quarter, but a bad pass by third string quarterback Kyle Shermer gave the Buccaneers some hope.

Shotgun snaps Sherman Ustro intercepted at the fifteen It's going to be a pick six, Joseph Jones intercepting the pass and running it in untouched for the pick six, and just like that, the Buccaneers are back in this game. A two point conversion made it sixteen fourteen with eleven minutes to go, but rookie quarterback Kyle Trask was no match for the Bengals pass rush. The rookie quarterback has the ball he's back to throw, being chased running toward

the right side. I sacked brought down from behind by Darius Hodge. My man. Hodge is killing it on the edge since an. He closed out the game with a clock chewing drive highlighted by a twenty four yard run on third and two by Jaques Patrick and a twenty two yard screen pass to Chris Evans. Austin Cybert put the finishing touch on a nineteen fourteen win play clock at ten, game clock at twenty nine. This will be a thirty eight yard field goal try from the right

hash for Austin Cybert. The snap back to Huber, he puts it down. The kick is up and it is good. That should be coffin nails. I am Bam. Before we go inside the locker room, we remind you that the Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Bud Light Seltzer. It's light and refreshing with a hint of fruit flavor. The player who generated the most buzz was third round draft pick Joseph Osai, who left the game in the second

half with a wrist injury. There's no update on the severity yet, but he was in good spirits when I spoke to him after the game. We're in the locker room with rookie Joseph Oside. Part of the Bengals excellent performance in the preseason opener and in your case, a sack of Tom Brady on the Patriots opening drive. How big of a throw was that? It was awesome? You know, I grew up watching him and it was again play

before Robin Harcouse. He was lined up against me, So it was definitely dope seeing those guys and living a dream. But I just know we got to get back to work, so it'll be dope. We got great guys on that line all over. You know, for him to get moved, it was it was a team effort for him to get moved to me. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, so you know, it was a great effort. I can't wait to see how we grow as a team throughout the season. You're

being modest. I admire that technically a combined sack between you and Trey Hendrickson, but was it surreal to look down and see the goat after your first preseasons sack? It was definitely dope, man, it was awesome. I looked before the place started. I looked back and I saw him, and I was like, mine, that's that's Tom Brady. So it was definitely dope. But um, yeah, i'd be just hopefully there's many more of those to come, you know, And that wasn't your only good play. You applied pressure

on several occasions. How did you feel you did overall in your preseason debut. Um, I can always do better. I always like to could take myself like that. I'm sure we'll go back and watch the film and there'll be multiple players I could have made and things I could have done better. But um, coach Hobby does a great job of analyzing things on the sideline and letting us see it quicker so we can play faster. So props to him on allowing me to be loose and

just just do what I need to do. And then, um, a couple of I had a lot of games that allowed me to come free with my interior alignment camp sample and Monnie bled show. They did a good job of getting vertical so I could Uh, it's again, it's it's a team effort, man. I just be in the right place at the right time, that's all. It is. Man. We're talking to Josefo say, it's a preseason game. Ultimately it doesn't count in the standings, but anytime you play,

you want to walk off a winner. How does it feel? Sure, it feels great, you know, um, and it's uh. It definitely builds the team's confidence up. You know, we were able to come out here and play against h I don't know if anybody's heart, but those guys won the Super Bowl last year, so it's definitely. Um it it feels great to be able to come out here and performing. It wasn't pretty, but um, we did what we could

and to come out with a win. That's that's that's ultimately what you want to do, no matter what if they're if they're naming my college coach, Oller says, if they're naming winners and losers, we want to win the damn thing. So we're glad we won. Can you describe the feeling of running out onto the field for the first time in an NFL game? You know, it felt surreal. It did, and I tried all day to keep my nerves, and as soon as I got on that field, it

was just all went away. You know. Um, I was nervous, but again, the Vets, they did a very good job of reminding us that this is just another game. You know, we've been playing this game a lot of us since we were uh peewee, you know, little guys and then some of us, so a lot of guys maybe a little bit later, but it's another game of football. And the Vets, the vest did a really good job of reminding in this stat and then obviously helped me calm down.

And then it's again, it's just time to play. So I went on there did the thing. One game, one win, a sack of Tom Brady. Not a bad start on a best start at all. Hopefully we can keep going. Man, it'll be awesome. Congratulations, Thank you so much. The Bengals offensive standouts included running backs Jaquez Patrick, who finished with seventy one yards on fifteen carries, and Chris Evans, who

had sixty combined yards between rushing and receiving. They got extra work because of the absence of trey ViOn Williams, who missed the game with a hamstring injury. Evans has been impressive in training camp and it carried over to his preseason debut. In the locker room with rookie Chris Evans, who had an excellent preseason debut, scoring the bengals only touchdown. How do you feel about your first preseason game in

the NFL. I feel good. Played a lot of plays on special teams, in on offense, and I'm just you know what I'm saying, just trying to learn and get better, and I'm saying found a role on the team. Twenty five rushing yards, thirty three receiving yards. I mentioned the touchdown. You and jack Quez Patrick provided a nice one two punch when the Bengals needed to run it out, run out the clock at the end of the game. So yeah, we mean, we practiced every day. We practiced hard. Older

gods push us. We work on ball security, you know what I'm saying, And you know what I'm saying, Like our co say, We're just trying to add value to the team and do what we can for each other. Describe the touchdown run I could have the play before was close that I thought I was. I was gonna reach it out, but I didn't want to because I ain't want to know what I'm saying, risk of fumble. So we came back to next play and we were

saying punch it in. The old line was punch it in, punch it in, run the same play, and we did it and I got in. I thought the short pass to you at the end of the game was a great call. I'm sure Tampa Bay expected a run. You did a great job of scooting down the sideline and

staying in bounds to keep the clock running. Yeah. On one of my plays, one of my inside zone plays, I had run out of bounce I think the series before, and it was on the sideline telling me to stay and bound, so I'll try to cut it back in so I have to stand bounce, so keep the clock running. It's preseason game, doesn't count in the standings, but anytime you take the field, it's fun to walk off a winner, right,

it feels good. I was talking to one of the Shrimp coaches on the sideline and a winners a wind no matter who you play. And you know what I'm saying, Michael's talents before the game, you know what I'm saying. And we're using this motivation playing the Super Bowl chance before when we just moved through it and got a bunk. Thank you. That an excellent camp so far. Congratulations on a great first game tonight. Yes, I appreciate it. Here are a few eye opening stats. The Bengals held Tampa

Bay at twenty nine rushing yards on seventeen carries. That's one point seven yards per rush, and while the Bengals weren't super efficient in the run game, they did finish with one hundred and eighteen yards out on the ground. The Buccaneers four quarterbacks had a combined passer rating of thirty three point six and got sacked four times. The

Bengals did not allow a sack. Cincinnati's highest graded players according to Pro Football Focus, where Trenton Irwin on offense, he had three catches for thirty five yards, plus a thirteen yard punt return and a tackle on kick coverage. On defense, DJ Reader, Darius Hodge, and Joseph Osai all had exceptional grades in short If not for the two red zone fumbles in the first half, it likely would have been a lopsided Bengals win. Now a time for

postgame analysis with Dave Lapham Lap It's preseason game. It doesn't count in the standings, but being in the locker room after the victory, it's obvious it meant something to these guys to take on the defending Super Bowl champs and beat them on their home field. Yeah, and I think, you know their home field. Tom Brady came out there and the fans started roaring. I mean, the environment was pretty good and they had to respond to that and

they did. They did in a big way. And defensively, I thought the biggest story was no explosives that was allowed. You know, they just I think it was one play of twenty two yards was the only thing over twenty yards that I think occurred during the game. And then they had you know, they had the three takeaways. Unfortunately the four gives offensively, that has to be cleaned up.

But a lot of good things happened in the football game, and when you had to make plays to finish the game, they made plays to finish the game, particularly running the football. And let's face it, Tampa new they're going to run the football, and the guy still came off the ball and Patrick got his pads down and just ran some people over. A good night for several members of this rookie class. Jamar Chase touched the ball once, had nice gain on a screen passed early Jackson, Carmen played a

ton of snaps. Chris Evans was impressive at running back. Joseph Ossai sacked the goat. Tom Brady cam Sample had a sack at the end of the game to put

it away. Evan McPherson was perfect on his kicks. That's good production for these guys in the first time it is, and you know, it wasn't too big for him, as Paul Brown used to say, you know, and uh that to to get something like that um under their belts to work from and improve upon, you know, I mean, it's a good starting point and their miles to go before they rest. But it's and it's always better to

do it after a victory. And again, the Buccaneers, they may not have had their Super Bowl team out on the football field all that much, but it was the Bengals, you know, had guys that weren't necessarily going to be counted upon to play a ton of snaps either. And the fact is Tampa Bay's got a culture now, you know, and and and everybody is involved with that culture. I mean, they have sixty one guys on that roster that were Super Bowl members last year, so that kind of permeates everything.

And for the Bengals school out there and compete with them, I think means something. You know. I know, it's it's only a preseason game, it's the first preseason game, but they went out there and went toe to toe with a pretty good football team. One of the things we've talked about time and time again so far during training campus how good the coverage has been on a regular basis during practice. That certainly carried over to the game in Tampa Bay. And it wasn't just the starters top

to bottom. The coverage was excellent, I agree. And they had you know, they didn't have a huge number of bodies back there. They had some guys with soft tissue injuries, and the guys that played plaster people pretty darn well. I mean it was they suffocated that passing game and again, you know, just one play off over twenty yards in an NFL game, that's pretty impressive. I mean, all of these guys were out on the football field for a reason.

They all played at a high level of college football and be able to control and contain what they are trying to do out there schematically, which is a good scheme. You know, Byron Leftwich knows what he's doing as an offensive coordinator and they you know, I'm not saying that it was an unbelievable game plan. Everybody nobody's really a game plan and all that much at this stage, but you know, you match up with guys and it's like, you know, can I can I stay with you? You're

going to separate from me. For the most part, they didn't allow any separation. They stayed right with him. Anybody in particular really stand out to you, well, you know, I think I think Patrick obviously, you know, took advantage of a of a big opportunity. And the interesting thing with me is Evans his numbers aren't going to show the plays that he made. I mean, this dude was like a whirling dervish out there. Man. He looked like the Tasmanian Devil with those you know, three sixty spins

he was doing and going north and south. I mean, he was pretty impressive and made some plays. And again the rookie edge guys, you know, consistent, consistent pressure. There's a there's a lot of guys that contributed, and honestly, you know, watching McPherson kick of football, dude, that's like a clean up home run hitter. That's like going to batting practice when Ken Griffey Jr. Was with the Reds and watching him and listening the ball come off his

bat man. I remember going down there the first time to watch that. Dude. That was a show. I was seen a guy hit a baseball like he did, and Evan hits a football. You know that kind of crazy as well. He gets that quick elevation, he smokes it. So, I mean, yeah, there's a lot of you know, there's a lot of good things that you know that they

can certainly build on. Sometime in the last week, I asked somebody from the front office, Hey, give me a guy near the bottom of the roster or somebody that we're not even thinking about that's been impressive when you review the tape on a nightly basis, he said, number forty four Darius Hodge. And I'm sure a lot of Bengals fans have watched the game on TV tonight are going, Who's who's number forty four. I can't believe I didn't

mention him. With the edge pressure and watching him against the Bengals offensive lineman and one on one pass rostrils he carried it over. I mean, he's had a share of wins. There's no two ways about it. Thing about him, he's got a low pad level because he's got a low center of gravity anyway. And the dude's strong now, I mean, and he can The thing. The thing that I like about him is there's not a whole lot

of waste did motion in the moves he makes. He's always advancing towards the quarterback, and he's advancing, you know, with a good lean, and he's he's he's got some got some ability. I mean, there's he's got some physical ability that you'd like to develop. There's no question about it. He's he had he had himself a strong game tonight. He had a sack and had multiple pressures to boot, so that was a good definite on his part. I agree with you. The last time we were down here

for a regular season game was twenty fourteen. I'll never forget being on the field and ninety minutes before kickoff or something like that, Andy Dalton comes out of the tunnel and pukes into a garbage can and the Bengals went on to win. He was definitely ill that day, got three bags of ivs before kickoff and led the Bengals to a win. Well, nobody puked as far as I know, and the Bengals came away with a win.

They came away with a win. Osai has a little bit of a risk issue that they got to check out and make sure it's not anything, you know, significant, and I guess until I get the final world and that you hold your breath a little bit. But I'm not sure that there's anything else that you know, is mind boggling in terms of injury. And that was good. That's a good thing too, because it was physical. I mean, it was a physical football game. There's no question about it. Guys.

We were laying it out on the line out there, and there's no doubt in my mind the temp by Buccaneers did not want to lose the first game that they lined up in front of their home crowd. I have to winning a super Bowl in front of their home crowd. I don't give a damn if it's a preseason game or a scrimmage. They don't want to disappoint their fans. And it was physical, and the Bengals answered the bell and match the physicality. That's a good start.

Let's do it again next week in Washington. I'm with your coach. The Washington game is Friday night at eight. The football team opened the preseason with a nine point loss at New England. That's going to do it for This episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to you by bud Light. Seltzer refreshed 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 so much for listening to the Bengals Booth Podcast.