Bengals Booth Podcast: Higher Ground

year's Bengals. My one on one player conversation this week is with Evan McPherson, coming off one of the greatest debuts by a kicker in NFL history. Dave Lapham joins me to discuss the latest Bengals news and share some keys to this week's game. And finally, it's our Know the Faux segment as we discussed the Bears with their outstanding radio voice, Jeff Joniac. The Bengals Booth Podcast is

presented by bud Light Seltzer. Refresh 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 new smoke

belching Tigers at Paul Brown Stadium. The Bengals have put a lot of time, effort, and money into adding fun and excitement to the game day experience at Paul Brown Stadium, including the ruler of the Jungle ceremony that takes place shortly before kickoff. I'm also a fan of the new twelve foot tall tiger sculptures that the players run through when they exit the tunnel and take the field. It makes for a great visual as the Tigers exhale smoke as the players come charging out. I suppose we can

call them who end day. Now, let's get to my guests. Up first, a former colleague of mine more than twenty years ago at WTVHTV in Syracuse, New York, after we both graduated from Syracuse University. Now you can watch him for seven hours every Sunday during the NFL season. He is the man who made your TV remote obsolete on NFL Sundays, the indefatigable host of NFL Red Zone. My friend Scott Hanson. So Scott, the Bengals and Vikings gave

you the perfect NFL Red Zone game last Sunday. Well, first of all, to the one and only Dan Hoore, the man who helped usher me in to this crazy business that is sports broadcasting. Hello, and good to see your old friend. Yeah, they provided the greatest Red Zone game of the week for us in a couple of regards. One drama on the field, of course, and a toss up game in overtime. But you might not have thought about this. We had nine games in the one o'clock

Eastern window. Okay, we had four games in the four o'clock Eastern window, but this week, Week one, they were all four twenty five Eastern kickoffs, meaning we were We went into the show thinking there's gonna be like a twenty minute gap when these games end at four o'clock. There's gonna be twenty to twenty five minutes that we're gonna have to fill of like dead space, and old Boy, the Bengals and Vikings when they got going and when they we couldn't decide a winner, we were like, we

just need one to go to overtime. The whole NFL Red Zone crew was cheering for it, and yeah, y'all delivered, and especially by the way, this is inside information here our coordinating producer, our our top producer on the entire show. Die hard Bengals fan. Alan Flowers is his name. We call him Flow and he runs the show and he loves himself some Bengals, so he was he was thrilled that overtime and a Bengals victory. Shout out to Alan Flowers.

It's good to know well represented a NFL headquarters. We're chatting with Scott Hanson, the host of NFL Red Zone. You can follow him on Twitter at Scott Hansen. So you are a college athlete, you're on the football team at Syracuse. How physically taxing is seven hours of commercial free football? It actually is. I will I try and keep myself in good shape. I'm fifty years old now, try and keep myself in good shape, keep my energy high and whatnot. I'll be doing like Cardio in May

or June. And I literally think this is for this is for the late the last hour of NFL reds pushed through because I want to have energy and enthusiasm commensurate with the action in the last hour like I

did the first hour. Because my form of sportscasting is everything I do is usually a big highlight that someone is living or dying with, either in reality football, rooting for their favorite NFL team, or in fantasy football because their guy just scored a touchdown or their opponent just scored a touchdown or drop the pass or gave up something. So I try and have that energy all the way through and Dan, at the end of the show, I

legitimately am fried. I am fried. I take my earpiece out of my left ear because I only have one earpiece in so I take it out of my left ear. And because there's been stimulus in my left side of my brain for seven straight hours, I pull that earpiece out and I almost lose my balance, no joke, because it's so it's so constant. But hey, I just like, just like your favorite NFL players, I try to give you everything I've got on an NFL Sunday, and you succeed.

So when you're not working and you're watching Monday night football or Thursday Night football or a college game on Saturday, can you watch one game without having all of the screens going yeah, yes and no. So as you and I are speaking, we were coming off the heels of the spectacular Ravens Ravens Raiders Monday Night game. And I actually have five TVs on my media wall, which I know some people are listening to this, but if there's people that can see the camera, let me just turn

the camera here. There's my media wall is over my shoulder. It might not look big, but that's a seventy inch screen surrounded by four fifty inch screens. And for Monday Night football, I had the Monday Night broadcast on the main screen. Then I put the Peyton and Eli simulcast broadcast that people are talking about on one of the screens. I had NFL Network on another screen, and then I had a movie on one more screen, and I had

a news network on another screen. So I guess my brain is there's a groove cut into my brain that I need multiple, multiple streams of stimulus to enjoy even one football game. I thought the kitchen was good, the media wall is even better. We're talking to NFL Red Zone host Scott Hanson. So NFL Red Zone started in two thousand and nine. On Opening Day that year, your first show, the Bengals are hosting the Denver Broncos. Cincinnati scores with forty one seconds to go to take the lead.

Seven seconds later, a deflected pass winds up in the hands of Brandon Stokely from the Broncos. He takes at the distance eighty some yards to give Denver a dramatic win. Did you know at that point this channel is going to be gigantic. Yeah, that's an astute observation because and that was the moment in week one of episode one in season one for NFL Red Zone where we said, this is going to change the way people watch football. Because keep in mind, they were on the negative side

of the fifty yard line. But we cut to that game and caught lightning at a bottle at that moment in a way that previously football fans were not able to see that not lie, not in real time, right, And when we cut to it and the past one in the air, and Gus Johnson was broadcasting the game too, and he always throws a little extra verve into his play by play calls, we were like, Wow, this is we have seen the light. This is going to change

the way people watch football. And there's not a week that goes by in football season that someone doesn't tweet me or message me, or bump into me somewhere and say, hey, Scott, NFL red zone has changed the way I watched football. It's very gratifying. So let's talk about the twenty twenty one Bengals. What are your impressions of Joe Burrow one game into a second season, let's go. I mean, I figured I liked what wasn't to like prior to the

knee injury. He was throwing for about three hundred yards a game, right, And granted they had been trailing in games and whatnot, and Mixon had missed some time in the offensive line was kind of a mess shuffling guys in and out for a while, but he was able to have success in his rookie See, he's in clearly

the hardest season for a quarterback to have success. And I don't know him personally, but looking at him from the outside, I figured he would attack his rehab in a way that he has that energy and enthusiasm for sixty minutes on an NFL Sunday, So I figured he would come back strong. I didn't know he would quite perform the way that he did in Week one, but I did really believe that the diversified weapons that the

Bengals have, specifically on the outside, I don't think. I think you're gonna have seventeen games this year where the three main wide receivers could go one after another. Oh, Higgins leads the yard, it leads in yards this week, Chase leads it in this week. And I thought Tyler Boyd, who was going to be the guy, maybe he might end up with the best statistical numbers at the end

of the season. So for defenses facing the Bengals this year, and if Burrow is on and sharp as he was in Week one, it's gonna be like trying to stop water with your fingers. You know, you can get some of it, You're not going to get all of it. What else caught your eye in the Week one went over the Vikings. They were able to close the deal when it looked like maybe previous Bengals teams might not have been able to do. Now they caught a little bit of a break, but they also forced some of

the breaks that they capitalized on. Right, But you've been around the team longer than I have. We've both been watching obviously for years decades. But that's the type of game where some Bengals fans were probably like, here we go again, Right, we had this thing. We had it and we're giving it away again and all of that, and they didn't. They found a way they closed it out. So that was something that would if I was a Bengals fan, that was something that would give me hope

going forward. We are talking to Scott Hanson, the host of NFL Red Zone, So Bengals fans are obviously hoping this is the year that the team can take a quantum leap forward. Do you have a key or a couple of keys for what you think will help the Bengals improve this year. Balance on offense, and we just talked about the wide receivers. That's balance within the passing game.

But if Joe Mixon can beat Joe Mixon, and if he gets this rhythm with the offensive line where they can get ahead of the sticks, oh, play action is going to be lethal. Lethal. You got three guys they

could get behind many safeties in the league. And if they've got to creep up a little bit more, if Mixon's running at four and a half yards a clip or something you know somewhere around there and is gashing occasionally where they've got to commit more to the box, there's no reason to think that the Bengals could not be a top top twelve, top ten scoring offense this year.

And then it goes to get a lead, play opportunistic defense, get some sacks, create some turnovers, and that's a winning formula. In the NFL. It's gonna be a it's a brutal division, though we all know the division is brutal, no question, but great call with Joe. He is leading the NFL and rushing through Week one. So this week the Bengals head to Chicago be reunited with Andy Dalton as he starts for the Chicago Bear. What are a couple of

things that you're interested about in that matchup? Well, I wish that game was in Cincinnati, first of all, because it would be pretty fascinating to watch. We've already seen quarterbacks going against their old teams and whatnot. Sam Darnold with the with the Panthers just this first week against the Jets. I think this I was at So I'm talking to you from Los Angeles, where NFL Media is headquartered, and I live and work out here, and I went to the Rams game on Sunday night. After red zone.

I wasn't tired of football, so I went back to it, and he got three more hours of football after the seven hours of red zone. And I went to the Rams Bears game in person. All you all watched it on TV. The Bears defense can get got deep, right Stafford. Had he hit the two deep shots that were both touchdowns, there were other passes that were that were there to

be made. And it goes back to what I was just telling you hit him up front, hit him with some mix and make them respect the run and burrow with some play action and pick one of those wide receivers is going to be on their third defensive back right, And like I would expect at this point to see a fifty yard bomb be there for the Bengals. Whether or not they hit it, it's going to be there, and that could be a determining factor as to whether

or not it's a win or a loss. If you're able to score seven points on that and not have to go on an eleven play drive, I hope to call it. Be ready. You're gonna have to hit a lot of high notes this year, or you're gonna have to hit hit a lot of those big plays. High vocal chords are ready. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by bud Light Seltzer. It's light and refreshing with a

hint of fruit flavor. And last week's win over the Vikings, Evan McPherson became the youngest player in NFL history to kick a game winning field goal in overtime. I spend five minutes with Mick Fearless this week discussing his debut and potential nicknames Evan. As soon as c j Uzama made that fourth down catch, we all knew it was going to come down to a game winning field goal attempt. I went back and timed it. You had two minutes and forty seconds to think about it. Did the butterflies

start to get big? No, I wouldn't say the butterflies really started to get big. I was super confident and walking out there about the field goal. I felt really good about it, and I knew if I just I guess, put a good stroke on it, hit it well, that there's a really good chance it was going through. So you said after the game you had never had a game ending field goal attempt before, But how many times did you practice that? How many times have you done that?

Three to one? Thing? In your mind? No, I mean I think that's something that every kicker does at least once every I guess practice session. You could say your last kick is a quote unquote game winner in your mind. So I've done that probably, yeah, probably thousands of times over I guess my time kicking. You wore a watch in training camp that measured your heart rate. What did you learn and has it been helpful? Yeah, No, it's been super helpful. Um, I learned that early during training camp.

It was kind of high, which I felt like was hard for me to perform to the best my ability. And so just feeling that, knowing whenever it's rising and just kind of taking a couple of deep breaths, just whenever I feel it kind of rising, and just lowering them back down and and just I guess you could say thinging happy thoughts or or thinking back to to field goals that I've made, you know, either a couple of minutes ago or in the last practice. Um, you know I've done it before, so I know I can

do it. You know, in the moment we're talking to rookie kicker having McPherson, so you make the kick and fellow rookie Jackson Carmen hoist you in the air. Did he catch you by surprise? And what was that moment? Like? Yeah, no, I'd say you definitely caught me by surprise, UM a little bit, and uh that moment was surreal, and uh it's definitely one that I won't forget. UM, just to be putting out up our position. UM. I'm just super thankful and grateful for this team and organization to U

to trust me, U to win the game. UM, And you know, I just hope I can help this team win a lot more games. UM, hopefully made to the playoffs and and ultimately to the Super Bowl. I was watching you during the pregame warm ups. You hit a fifty seven yarder in the same direction that you hit the fifty three yarder in the game. Does stuff like that matter? Yeah? I mean I think it definitely matters in pre game just seeing your limits and obviously testing

the wins in both directions. UM. I knew with the fifty three yarder, I was at the win kind of behind my back, um, and with the game winner on us a little into it, so it just kind of hit it pure and I was gonna fly straight. So I was at a University of Incinnati practice a few weeks ago, and they're kicker. Cole Smith came running up to me all excited because he noticed the in your first preseason game, on your first field goal forty yards or at Tampa Bay, you kick the ball over the

net behind the goal post. And he said, in his words, that's next level, dude. What was that like? And was the equipment staff annoyed that you cost him a ball? Honestly, I didn't know it went over the net until Um Trunk came up to me. It's like, you know, you're like, you lost the k one ball or our one ball. And I was like, how, He's like, it went over the net, so you can't get it back. No, the fans just take it, um, And so we we were down the ball that game and it was pretty funny.

But um no, yeah, I mean just knowing that I hit a really good ball, UM, I think that, uh, you know, hitting over the net is not out of the question for me. So let's review your first NFL game. Youngest kicker in NFL history to boot a game winning field goal and overtime, you received a game ball. You were named the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week.

That's a pretty good debut. Yeah it's not bad. Um, Like I said, I'm super I guess, blessed and thankful to be a part of this team and just the position that they put me in and the games and and just knowing I have great guys you know that have my back whether I make it or miss it. Um, I know that you know, they're they're always going to be there right right there for me. And um, yeah, I mean I'm just super excited of how my career started.

And you know that really means nothing. Now. Um, you know, we're onto Chicago and um, you know, we just got to go in and repeat the same thing we did against Minnesota last thing. There seems to be an obsession among Bengals fans with coming up with the best nickname for you haf An, Almighty mc, fearless, Kick Fearson, Money,

mick any thoughts. I think all the all the nicknames are pretty catchy, pretty funny, and it's made me think a lot about, you know, maybe coming out with a merch line, you know, maybe with T shirts with some nicknames on it, and maybe the fans would like that. We'll see, um, maybe something maybe we can work on that and get those kind of pushed out to everybody. But no, I think all the nicknames have been pretty unique and funny. I was bummed I didn't come up

with nick fearless. That would have been perfect. After the game winning catch a kick rather, congratulations on a great start, best of luck this week. Yeah, thank you. By the way, the kicker that Evan beat out for the starting job in Cincinnati, Austin Seibert, is kicking for the Detroit Lions. He went one for two in Week one, hitting from

forty nine yards but missing from fifty one. Now time to discuss some of the key storylines heading into Week two with my broadcast partner Dave Lapham lap Let's start with the news of the day on Wednesday. Safety Ricardo Allen suffered a hand in last Sunday. He is going to go on ir He'll be out for at least three weeks. He's the third safety, so you wouldn't think that would be a huge loss. But he played twenty one snaps ad safety last week. He played nineteen on

special teams. He had five tackles. He was actually the Bengal's highest graded defensive player according to Pro Football Focus, So how big of a loss, is it? I think it's I think it's a loss. I think I think it hurts him. And there's a trickle down effect, a ripple effect in that, you know, they decided to bring up Trent Irwin at this point from the practice squad, which kind of puts the balance of the player distribution out of whack a little bit. Too many receivers, too

few in the secondary, and that means Brandon Wilson. I think Darren Simmons is thinking, you know, well, if if he's going to go on ir Brandon Wilson's going to be playing some more safety, how much can I use him as a returner? Trent Irwin has done some return work, so maybe he's just kind of leveraging that a little bit. But they also brought Sean Davis onto the practice squad, originally a second round pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers, So

maybe the roster manipulation hasn't ended yet. But I think they're trying to figure out how they're gonna handle that. That loster Ricardo Allen, he's got a little bit of a hamstring issue. He had it at training camp as well, and exacerbated the problem on top of the hand, So you have three weeks now to get that hamstring taken care of and squared away. So the hand and the hamstring. But he's got more problems than run over dog right now.

Tray Von Henderson is also a practice squad option, a guy who played pretty well in the preseason at safety. No question yep's he would have been. You know, you'd think logically, well, you know, just one for one Trayvon Hempson, and who knows it may end up how it's gonna what's going to be the final roster configuration, you know,

going into the Chicago Bears game. But like you said, Ricardo, Allen is lu and Ruma loves him in terms of not only is play on the field, in terms of how hard he plays and effrety gives and all that, but his football intelligence. And I think lou and A rumor would probably hire him as an assistant coach right now. I think he feels that strongly about, you know, his understanding of the game of football and everything that needs

to be taken care of him the back end. All right, let's talk about some interesting things from the Pro Football Focus grades, beginning the tackles Riley Reef and Jonah Williams thirty one pass blocking snaps, no sacks, no hits, no pressures. Were they that good? They were good? You know, watching the tape again, boy, they they played at a very high level. You know, there were some problems inside. Trey Hopkins had a very difficult time inside. And you know,

Mike Zimmer, I'm going to give him credit. He said, Joe Barrow is not the only guy recovering from an ACL got a center recovering from an ECL trying to come back in a very very short timeframe, a lot shorter than Joe Barrow. Let me do something I haven't done very much and put a nose guard over him, cover the guards up a little bit so the guards can't help, and put him one on one against a behemoth beast in Pierce. And he had a couple of difficulties,

There's no question about it. But knowing Trey Hopkins and how dedicated he is, and you know he's going to bounce back quickly from this, and he had his share of good plays, but you know, all it takes is a couple of plays. He was basically the reason and part of the reason for the two sacks. The offensive line gave up two, and then the running backs and tight ends and the and the pressure packages gave up

three more. And that Zimmer and Paul Gunther, they break protections down, They're going to try to work their schematic and their magic and their schematic until they find the right matchups. And they found some of those right matchups. And right now, the Cincinnati Bengals are a dead lass in the National Football League in sacks per pass attemptum five sacks and twenty seven pass attempts to sack every

five point four dropbacks. So you know, part of it is the opponent you played against, and you know you got to got to solve that issue. But the good news is Riley Reef and Jonah Williams played in an dreamly extremely high level. There's no doubt. Only two quarterbacks got sacked more than Joe Burrow in Week one, Zach Wilson from the Jets, Ryan Tannehill from the Titans. Let's move to defense. Guys that got high grades included DJ Hill,

DJ Reader, Josh Tupo, Larry Yogan Jobie. That seems to suggest that the interior of the defensive line played pretty well. They built the Great Wall of China man there. They

were good, They really were. They get pushed um and I think I was surprised seeing how Ogan Joby the Bengals had difficulty blocking him and his first step quickness, and how I can tell you as a former lineman that when you have a big guy three hundred pounds plus that has that suddenness to him and that quick first step get off man, that's a that's a that's a load to handle. And they really took advantage of the Minnesota Vikings interior and they did a lot of

the same things. He's not a very powerful guys or the very athletic guy, so they covered guards and put a nose tackle over him and got him in some one on one matchups and he got he got physically pushed around a little bit manhandled. The guards did at times as well. The defensive tackles were able to get a quick shoulder, a quick edge and upfield rush on the on the guards, and you know, then they started drawing holding penalties left and my DJ reader drew three

of them. Um so and Trey Hendrickson drew a couple. His matchup on Hill on the outside was another factor. I thought that he was consistently, you know, Beaten Hill up the football field, so you have the defensive ends and Harvard getting up the field too, and then you

push inside. It's it's really kind of I have to tip my tap to Kirk, tip my captor Kirk Cousins, because he put up some serious numbers, you know, based on the pressure that he was he was getting so because they shut the running game down and that gives you the right to rush the passion, they rushed him well. Cousins got the ball out of his hand and found some plays, but not when he was throwing to the

guy that chittabey A Wuje was covering. For the most part, he was targeted ten times in coverage, gave up five completions for forty nine yards, no touchdowns. He was often matched up against Justin Jefferson. We've been blabbering on and on throughout training camp about how good this guy looked, and for people that don't have access to watch him at practice, he backed it up in week one. He did,

didn't you know? And I thought I thought defensively as a whole, they played well, you know, and all training camp were like, boy, the defense is winning. More of these competitive battles against the Bengals offense. The defense keeps winning. They're winning, you know, well over half of them. They won practice yesterday, and oh the offense thought to come back today, but they really didn't. The defense did a

pretty good job. We talked about how good the coverage was all through training camp, talked about the defensive line, you know, how much improved they looked. Well, it was it was a fact, you know, it wasn't. It wasn't that the Bengals offensive line was struggling to the point where you know, we thought they might be struggling, or Joe Burrow was having difficulty. The offense in general was having difficulty. Defensive playing damn good. And then when you

get up against opposition. They didn't play a ton of snaps in the preseason. When they did, they didn't give up anything. And in this football game, Cook, Dalvin Cook is legit, and they shut that running game down under seventy yards rushing three point one or carry. I mean, that's that's that's getting after it. And Minnesota stayed with it. They didn't abandon the running game. The Bengals just stopped it and controlled it. So I think across the board.

You know, you mentioned, you mentioned more than a handful of defensive lineman there. For all of them to play at that level is pretty pretty impressive. And you got to give a lot of credit to bj Hill in terms of how he grasped in a very short period of time. You know what was going on, what's his responsibilities were upfront. You know, it's it's not rocket science or anything like that. I don't want to, you know, make it sound like he's a football linstein, but you know,

for a defensive lineman, it's not that complicated. Is sophisticated, but it can be you know, terminology and all those kind of things you have to sort your way through. And he performed well. And another guy that has a good first step boy has first step quickness and over three hundred pounds himself two sacks. That's a I think I think the Billy Price trade might work out. That's a pretty good return for Billy Price. I'm with you.

Let's talk about Eli Apple. He had a stretch of four plays where three of them went poorly for him. Whipped on that tackle on third and twenty four, got called for pass interference in the end zone, negating his sake by a sack by Larry Ogan Jobi. Then he got beaten on the Adam Feeling touchdown pass. Other than that, was he okay? Or might Darius Phillips start to get more time on the outside. I think the coaches feel like he was okay when they when they looked at

the at the overall tape. But that drive obviously was an achilles heel for him, and the old axium goes, he can't let one bad play turn into two or three, and he did and that drive it just you know, turned it into It was catastrophic for him. It was a nightmare. The only other thing is I remember a play where he turned down contact and that's not what you want to see, and that's not what his defensive teammates want to see. So you can have, you know,

problems everybody. The other guys are getting beaten, you know, getting paid as well. I should say to beat you, and they will beat you every once in a while, but turning down contact is is not a good thing to do. So hopefully he gets all that out of his system and um, you know, it's a he had a short sample size of of difficulty and because you look at him and physically, he passes the eyeball test, so you wind up being the tenth pick in the draft, No doubt, big long, strong. But I think he has

laugh you know, I mean his focus or whatever. It's the consistency. That's what you know. Every coach talks about. Got to be consistent. It's like you don't want to be a coach on the sideline with the player out there where you just keep flinching. Is when's the train wreck happening. I know it's going to happen at some point. Oh I hope it doesn't happen on third and twenty four, you know those kind of things. All right, we've had

a few days to think about it. Let's go back to fourth and one at their own thirty with three thirty left in the third quarter, up by fourteen points. I was pretty critical in real time on our broadcast. I think the expression I used was I find it hard to believe that they did There's something like that. I remember exactly what I said. I still think it was a bad decision. I've softened on it a little bit. To me, had it been closer to midfield, I would

have said, yeah, absolutely, go for it. They've still got to get a few first downs, and if you do get the first down, you might be able to end the game right here like that, Zach said afterward, add your own thirty. At that point, I still think it was a mistake, agreed. You know, I think the risk reward didn't balance the way you wanted to balance to take that shot. And the biggest reason is the field position. Their kicker hit a fifty three yard or as well.

And these guys in the NFL, you take a chance of your own thirty, you're automatically given up three, you know. And then four plays later lou and a Ruma went zero coverage and fourth and four and they get a twenty four yard touchdown pass and there's no safeties in

the middle of the field to help. You know, the pattern that was run by theelan who's a very good route runner and a touchdown maker, and he gets he gets, you know, matched up, you know with Mike Hilton has a size advantage and everything that goes along with and there's no safeties to help. So that was a very aggressive call. You have a very aggressive call on fourth and one, and then on the offensive side and then the defensive side, a very aggressive call on fourth and four. Man,

keep him out of the end zone. Don't don't let him have seven. If the offense put in that situation, like I said right away, they could probably score three. Make sure they don't get any more than three. So, but how do you how do you criticize each other? You know, the offensive quoting to look at the defense coorer? Why did you limp? You? You can't talk to me. Why'd you go for it on fourth and one at

the thirty yard line. But the thing that Zach said after the game is it's all about an aggressive mindset. We're going to be aggressive with our calls. He supported the inter room was call on that play. So you know it's I guess that's the way it's that's the way it's going to be. And sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you. Speaking of the bear, let's talk about the Bears. It's off to Chicago this

week to face the Red Rifle. Andy Dalton, who was mediocre in Week one when they lost thirty four to fourteen to the Rams, through for two hundred and six yards, no touchdowns, one pick pass a rating of seventy two point nine. What did you see as you watched Andy Dalton a Bear's uniform the first time. By the way, Red Rifle, that was your designated name for Andy Dalton, and it's become it's stuck out. It's one of those

nicknames that's going to be perpetual, stead the test of time. Absolutely, absolutely, just a great call by Dan Horde, one of his better calls of all time. But every time I see and hear other people saying red Roads, I cause, come on, give my man from credit. If I was, he should have patted that bedboy. Yeah. At any rate, Um, what I saw from Andy Dalton is things that we saw in Cincinnati. Um, very intelligent sees things quickly, gets the

ball out of his hand. I mean the ball is coming out in two point one two point two seconds. The reason that that feels isn't playing is in the preseason against non starters, he had the ball in his hand almost four seconds because he's having trouble diagnosing zone defenses where he doesn't feel tentative. Dalton's got it, you know, He's got the answer to the test and it's out now. With that said, because of the way the Rams were playing defense and Aaron Donald and all the other things,

We've seen this with Andy Dalton. He stretches the field horizontally, but not vertically. I mean, nothing was going down the football field. He finds holes and seems to throw into But you know, you look at the thing. The thing about the Chicago Bears, they averaged five point four yards per pass attempt, thirtieth in the National Football League, and then defensively they got just ripped apart twelve point three

five per pass attempt, dead last in the NFL. Stafford just hit him for multiple gashed him from multiple big plays. But it was such a contrast in offensive style. Um, but that that's that's Andy. Um. Andy completed over seventy percent of his passes, but for less than the first half per first down per attempt. Yeah. Just you know he's gonna they are are going to buy formation and designer for else. They will stretch you horizontally and you know,

thinks and dunks. It's like when he makes an intermediate throw, it's like, oh he ripped that one down the field. You know it's it's it's it's very different watching him. But it'll be interesting to see um naggy, you know, scheme this a little bit um and say well, you know, I wonder, can we throw the ball down the field? Bill Laser, former offensive coach here in Cincinnati, And you know,

he's got some incentive. Andy Dalton has some incentive. I wonder if they'll try to stretch the field a little bit more. I would think they would have to. But at that point, will that interior pass rush, will the edge rush affect Andy Dalton? He every every human beings affected by the rush. But one thing you better know is Andy's gonna get the ball out. He's going to

get it out right away. So if you can somehow, you know, take his first couple of options away from him and if he gets to the third one pretty quickly. I mean, he's talented in that regard. He's mentally about as sharp as any quarterback in the National Football League realizing what he sees. So it's going to be an interesting matchup. So the Bears traded four picks to move up in the draft and take Justin Fields. He got five snaps in Week one against the Rams. That number

is going to go up this week, isn't it. I would think so. I would think so. And a lot of his own read you know, he scored a touchdown rush for a touchdown on the zone read concept, and I think he probably will. They will. I think they will increase his package of plays, but I think they're gonna make it simple for him. Then they're not gonna be real sophisticated and the amount of reads the est

to make and all that. They're gonna put together a package of players that will emphasize his athleticism and tie them together. You know, a running game, a quarterback run game, you know, like a mini Lamar Jackson type game plan, a quarterback run game, where's plaquestion off of that quarterback run game and the zone reason I think that, you know, wouldn't surprise me if he plays fifteen twenty snaps, wouldn't

shock me at all. So we've got a matchup this week between the top two rushers in the NFL after Week one, Joe Mixon leading the way with one hundred twenty seven yards and Cincinnati native David Montgomery second with one o eight. The former Mount Healthy High school quarterback played college football at Iowa State. Is that the key of the game, whichever one of those two guys has the bigger day, I think it is. I think it's a big factor in the football game. Both these teams

in Week one ran the ball well. The Bears rushed it for one hundred and thirty four yards, tenth in the NFL, and they average five point two yards per in so doing second best in the NFL. In Montgomery on sixteen carries went for a buck eight second most yards six point eight yards per carry, fourth best average by a running back. I'm not talking about the running quarterbacks and receivers went and reverses and all that, just

a peer of running back. He had a forty one yard jaunt which is the second longest of the week on the opening weekend. So yeah, they both teams ran the football as we know Joe Mixon and in the running game, the Bengals rushed one hundred and forty nine

Joe had one hundred and twenty seven of it. Bengals were seventh in the NFL rushing after Week one and Joe leading the NFL and carries and yards so and then on the flip side of it, both teams stopped the run, which you know in that phase of it is interesting to Bengals sixty seven yards allowed, sixth few us in the league. Three yards per attempt fourth best

in the league. And then Chicago seventy four yards allowed to the Rams tied for eighth few us in the league and three point two yards per rush allowed tied for seventh in the league. So both, you know, both teams realized going to make the opponent one dimensional. The

only problem is Stafford's one dimension was pretty can. They ended up allowing seven point seven yards of play because you know, they're allowing twelve almost twelve point four per pass attempt, so there's seven point seven yards per play allout is last in the league, and those twelve point three five yards allowed per passes last in the league. They gassed him in the pass game even though they couldn't run it. And the thing is the Rams didn't

abandon the running game. The Rams were in it twenty three times for seventy four yards. You know, they just they wanted to try to be but it was like man throwing, it's pretty easy. Let's just let's just dial it up and chuck it down the field. Stafford's passer rating against the Bears last week one fifty six point one. A perfect score is one fifty eight point three, so

not bad. One thing that scares me are the dudes that the Bears have up front on defense, Khalil Mack, former NFL Defensive Player of the Year, Robert Quinn, who's got eighty two and a half sacks a team. Hicks is a good player. I don't know if Eddie Goldman is going to play. He did not play last week. They're good nose tackle. So this was a playoff team last year. I'll be at a five hundred playoff team. But the strength of that team, in my mind, would

be those guys up front on date. Yeah, I mean, I think the Bengals defensive line was as good as any unit on their football team. And the opener and I think the Bears defensive line is as good as any unit on their football team unhealthy. I agree with you, Dan, I think a Kiem Hicks is he's a beast. I mean, he's big, he's long's he's he's physical. Khalil max six straight Pro Bowls. You know, over the last last three years, he's forced fourteen fumbles. I mean, he's a he's a

turnover machine. I agree, you have to you have to locate him. Uh. Roquan Smith is is a Pro Bowl caliber linebacker. I think they have Pro Bowl type players, Eddie Jackson on the back end, Jalen Johnson's a good player at corner. They have excellent players, you know, at every level of their defense. But I agree with you. I think it's it's what's up front. It gets it all started. And uh, it'll be interesting. Goldman opted out last year and then you know, I wasn't able to

play in the opener, so I think I agree. I think if he does play, it makes it even even a tougher dynamic in there. And you know, Trey Hopkins goes from Pierce to Goldman Man. That's a life in the National Football League. It's going to be interested to see which defensive line, which defense takes control of the football game and makes life tougher for the opposition offense for sure. Final hard hitting question. Your thoughts on Andy

Dalton's red beard. I don't think it's a natural. I think there's a lot of I think there's a lot of purchase color that's in that beard because it is the richest red I've ever seen. And normally, normally guys when they start to lose some of the color, it

starts in the beard more so than anywhere else. And but if if that's the real deal, very impressive, Andy Laska Nadley, It's time to take a closer look at the Chicago Bears, a team that's gone eight eight in each of the last two seasons and lost its open or thirty four to fourteen to the Rams. The voice of the Bears, Jeff joni Ac, joined Lapping Me this week on the Bengals Game Plan Show and says we shouldn't draw too many conclusions from how the Bears looked

on opening night. I just feel that there's a lot of great unknowns early in the season, especially now with the seventeenth week, maybe teams feel a little bit comfortable in the knowledge that they got that extra game to kind of sort things out a little bit. You don't know what you're going to get from the opposition. They certainly didn't know with you we're going to get against the Rams defense being the reigning number one unit, and they played to that level, and the Bears game plan

showed that they went with a short passing game. I don't think that is going to be their offense by and large, and I don't think yet we've seen what the concoction is going to look like with Eddie Dalton and a sprinkling of Justin fields and eventually when the time comes, Justin fields to take over eventually at some point, but defensively uncharacteristic breakdowns in this game, you know, I go back to the twenty fifteen maybe one or two

big plays in the fifty hard range. They give up two and a one game, which I have not seen from a Bears defense in a while. And have a new defensive coordinator who's never called NFL plays until Sunday night in La So a guy who's bet with the organization and Sean decide for nine years. But until you're actually making those decisions, you just never know what you're

going to get. But I think there's a lot of respect for him and special teams aside from the operation that's the kick care of the putter and the long snapper. They've been standard for the Bears. There's a lot of new faces on special teams, a new kick returner, new farm returner, cell still a lot to sort out. A long answer, Jeff, do you think that the sprinkling of Justin fields will increase on a weekly basis? Can the Bengals expect more Justin fields? Snaps? Than they saw on

tape against the Rams. Or do you think, okay, Andy Dalton a lot of incentive playing against this former team, Like you said, M probably a totally different game plan. Well will it? Will it be Andy Dalton's game with a little bit of Justin Fields or will Justin Fields sprinkling more? You know, I don't know how to answer that one because I you know, man Naggie's going to be very suspicious on that one. He just grins every

time you bring it up. And you know, the sad part for me is, I really do love Andy dalk As. You guys know you know him better than I do. But I've interviewed him enough times and had time spent talcket to him. He's just, uh, you know, the humility is just oozing through his pooris He's a nice guy,

stop spoke and players love him. And you know he's gonna walk into Soldier Field on Sunday and you know this fan base has been whipped into a frenzy since Draft night because of Justin Fields, and you know there will be booze. There will be you know, the slightest vibration of trouble for Andy will result in a lot of chance for Justin Fields, and it's it's it's really unfortunate. That's the way it is though. That's you know, fans,

I've ever right to do that. The media is also part of this day have whipped most fans into a frenzy as well, because every single day they ask about Justin Fields, and they'll ask Andy every single day about Justin Fields. And at some point it's like, Okay, let the man just have his chance, let him play. Brought here to start the sprinkling will be based on I'm sure of this, and Dave, you know better than anybody,

and Dan a football veteran like yourself. On both sides, it's about matchups and situational football, and so if there's something that might benefit the Bears, you know, maybe Justin's gonna get a few more, but I have no way of knowing that right now. Sure our guest is the voice of the Bears, Jeff Joniak, I'm with you one hundred percent on Andy Dalton. I think the three nicest people in the history of the world are mister Rogers,

Ted Lasso, and Andy Dalton. That's the big three. We are going to see the top two rushers in the NFL after Week one. In this game, Joe Mixon, who's currently number one, and the Bear's great running back David Montgomery who's currently number two. I think David Montgomery is the most underrated player in the NFL, and he's only appreciated in two cities, Chicago and Cincinnati, because he's great for the Bears and he went to high school here at Mount Healthy. But tell us a little bit about

David and what he means to the Bears offense. Well, iOS are some very very great compliments, and you're not far off in any way, shape or form. I'm in Iowa State grad so in addition to Mount Healthy and being a Bear, I had my eye on him for a long time. I watched every snap of his at Iowa States. The content balance of this guy has really been outstanding in college and it's transitioning to the pros in the same fashion. I love his attitude. He wants

to be great. He's very serious about it. He goes to the end zone and every practice snap, every single day, doesn't matter if it's ninety yards or nine yards. He's merging leader. He is absolutely a guy that's going to fall forward and not you know, lose yards for you. He's really improved his hands. So yeah, I mean the underrated aspect of it. He knows it, he hears it. I mean, there's a great chemistry with him and Matt Neggie. They have a great relationship and a lot of great

things have blossomed because of that. And uh, you know, he turned the culture at Iowa State, and maybe he's the guy to help continue that culture change at the NFL level with the Bears. So the Bears defense, obviously, it's got some some players that are outstanding Pro Bowl calibal players. I really like Hicks. I think he's a beast. Mac is obviously six straight Pro Bowls, super beast. I like Smith at linebacker. I think I think he's a you know, Pro Bowl caliber player at that level. And

Eddie Jackson, Jalen Johnson. I mean there's some some players on this defense. Obviously, they shut the running game down against the Rams. Did a good job in the running game. But like you said, Jeff, the passing attack, the big plays in the passing attack, I couldn't really tell. Sometimes TV doesn't give you a real good sense of it. Was Chicago crowding the line of scrimmage, were they how are they playing defensively? Were they loading the box to

stop the run and make it one dimensional? How are they handling that? I mean, yeah, I mean and they did. They may hadn't want to mention it, but Matthew Stafford, you know there's all these discussions out there. The game may throw for six thousand yards. I mean, you know, that's that's the pie in the sky approach to it. But you know they have a brand new secondary essentially at the at the at the three cornerback positions. When you consider that Jayalen Johnson is I did not not

finish the season last year due to injury. He's done. He's the corner one Kindallville door, same draft classes, sixth rounder, brand new starter started the playoff game against the Saints last year, and Nicol was a competition that a veteran Marquis Christian, who was a versatile player, a former safety, place all over the field on special teams, beat out Duke Shelley at least for this one game against the Rams.

So there's a lot of newness to that secondary. And so there were some metal errors and you know, you can't have it obviously, and they are fixable though these are fixable situations and how they played that game. But like you said, they've got stars at every level. You got the great pass rusher, you got the great interior defender, you got real Kwan Smith. Eddie Jackson has not played to the level that I anticipated both last year and to start this year, tackling a bit of an issue

that has to change. And Dan knows how I feel about safeties and the importance of them. But then there's other players though, that are close to becoming very special. I'm talking about Bala Nichols, who's mentored by a key mix. I'm talking about, you know, getting somehow another pass rusher involved. There's a young guy, Kevin Gibson excuse me as Gibson as a guy from Tulsa that I'm very excited about. So they're in Jalen. Jalen has the chance to be

a very very good corner. So there's a lot of great elements to it, and I think in this league right now, the Nickel package is so significant. Getting that ironed out will be a step in the right direction. My final question for the voice of the Bears, Jeff joni Ac, what's the biggest question mark in terms of a position group in your mind on that roster. I

think I just you know, outline some of it. But you got to go to the left tackle position right now too, because you know they drafted Jenkins and he's out with a back injury. I don't know when he'll be back. Then you bring in Jason Peters. Larry Borm did a nice job, but you know he was not practicing today a quad injury for Peters. Elijah Wilkinson, a career right tackle that twenty one snaps at left tackle

last week. Borm looked good in his fifteen So you know it's hard when they began the season without a left taggle with any NFL experience, and you know that that is something that has to get shored up in the short term for a long term success for sure. So another great player that I think this guy doesn't get as much credit as he deserves. As well. Alan Robinson is as good at contested catch receiver as I've ever seen. I think they get the guy I really respect.

Alan Robinson. Am I crazy? Oh no, no, why would you be crazy? Big day? I don't know none of the about underrated? I mean, is he a speed? Didn't even know, but this guy gets open and he's always available. Last two years, three hundred targets and he may have had one or two drop passes, and he cleans up your quarterback. He is a prose pro the most I'll tell you what's most underrated because receivers come in like

corners with attitude, right, they come in. They gotta be they gotta be cocky, they gotta they gotta own it. And how many times have we seen receivers sucked themselves right out of a game or a position or a job. This guy is pure class. He knows what being a professionals and he's had his ups and downs, and he's had constant change at quarterback. He's had an acl tare. He didn't get the contract he wanted, but you know what,

he just goes to work every day. And this offseason he spent it trying to work on adding speed to his routes in terms of his brakes, browed away from the ball with yards after the catch, and just maintaining that speed on his cut. So, you know, working on things every year, and he wanted to you know, his own zone. You know, he was not part of the off season program. He did his own thing. I have respect for that, and he's always willing to find tune that engine, and I have a lot of respect for

Alan Robinson. Here's a quick reminder to join lapping me for the Bengals pepper Ally 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 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 thank you for listening to the Bengals Booth Podcast.