Bengals Booth Podcast: In The End

Happy New Year everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading The Bengals Booth Podcast. The I got it so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn't even matter. Addition, as the Bengals are eliminated from playoff contention after a hard fought loss in Kansas City twenty five to seventeen. Coming up Radio replays locker room comments in postgame analysis from Dave Lapham. Then in this week's fun Facts Conversation, you'll get to know the multi

I just felt like, fourth and one, we need to go for it.

There.

They played a goal line front. Really, you know, in a little further situation than we expected. Is a good play by them. They did a good job making the play.

The Chiefs dominated the rest of the game, kicking field goals on four straight possessions and punishing Jake Browning with their pass rush. Once they had the lead, second down and sixteen, the Bengals hit their own forty nine. They trail by eight to go. Shotgun snapped to Browning sacked again, Chris Jones pouncing on the Bengals quarterback. This time it's back to the thirty eight yard line. The loss of eleven on the sack.

And now it's yeah again.

This is the most brutal time to try to pass protect because there's only one thing you're gonna do, and it's tough for me.

The Chiefs are coming with pressure.

Kansas City finished with six sacks and fourteen quarterback hits and wrapped up their eighth straight AFC West title with a twenty five to seventeen win. The Bengals fell to eight and eight and were eliminated from playoff contention. Here's Sam Hubbard.

We got a lot of great players that are going to take this adversity that we face this year and turn into a positive, work extra hard, come back hungry next year to do what we need to do.

I know I am.

We faced a lot this year, but like I said earlier, I'm just proud of this locker room. I love this locker room. I love how everybody carried themselves, how they treated each other, how they worked weekend, week out despite any circumstance stance to try and get the win, try to stay together, and like I said, I'm proud of the locker room.

Jake Browning threw for one hundred and ninety seven yards in a touchdown and ran for thirty two yards in another score. His passer rating for the season ninety six point five, and he's certainly proven to be a capable backup, but that didn't lessen the disappointment on Sunday.

Here's Jake It sucks to lose when you're in still in the race, and uh, you know, there's no real crazy, insightful comment there, just it sucks to lose anytime, and especially when you know you needed that win to keep battling. But uh, you know, I don't know what the playoff picture and all that looks like. But I think the standard that was established, you know, even before I got here, was to just keep battling, and so that's what we're

Defensively, the Bengals gave up four passes of more than twenty yards, including sixty seven and forty one yarders. They also allowed runs of thirty five and thirty seven yards by Isaiah Piciceco, who finished with a buck thirty, becoming the fifth running back to top one hundred yards against the Bengals this year. I talked to Cam Taylor Britt after the game. Joe got hurt on the second day of training camp. Did just feel like from the very beginning there was too much to overcome this.

I wouldn't say it's never too much to overcome because you know, with me and my teammates, we feel like, you know, in any situation, we come together as one. You know, we can find ourselves out of anybody battle, no matter the score, no matter you know, who goes down. You know it's always next man up for sure. But uh yeah, when he went down, most definitely you've seen a downfall and a lot of my teammates most definitely

Man.

That's when we play our best.

Felt like you approached this game like a playoff game today.

Yeah, anytime, man, I really say all my games, Man, it's playoff atmosphere, honestly, just because Man, you're in the NFL. Bro, everybody's good.

You're gonna play a.

Team who is two and eight and they have good players, and most definitely you gotta come in every day, every game and you know, just treated as such. We may never get the opportunity again.

There have been a lot of big plays against the Bengals defense this year. I guess that's kind of the common thread and the losses. Is it a head scratcher why other teams have been able to pull off so many big plays?

I think it's just in the room man with us, Man, A lot of people that don't get a lot, but when they do, man is meaningful and such such times in the game. But we need to get off the field on third and long and we get hit on a seven route number twenty five yards and he continues to run. You know, that's not team defense football, especially Bengals football. So Most definitely got to come in and you know, execute and fix all of it.

In this game, Patrick wasn't throwing it over your head, but he was hitting guys in stride to turn that ten yard play into a forty yard play.

You knows we're gonna try to man him up and try to get pressure on him. So they just try to run away from us, you know, try to pick pick everybody, you know, running through each other.

But yeah, that's about it.

So you're eight and eight with a game to go. Unfortunately, this one eliminates the Bengals from playoff contention. I guess what you have to still play for is to finish with a winning record. Is that a big deal?

That is a huge deal, man, Every game is a huge deal, especially this last one. Man, you're playing the Cleveland Browns, so why not. You know, you gotta go get it, man, put your best foot out there. They have everything to lose what we don't, So you know, Most definitely go out there and give them a fight.

And you don't want to go win less in the AFC North.

Now you can't go with it list, Man, So we gotta go out there and put our best foot for at Like you know, this is not the last game, you know, just continue to fight.

You kept them out of the end zone, but they moved the ball enough to kick field goals. That was I mean, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but that feels like the negative to me.

And man, we gotta get off the field and third down, you know, just as simple as that. Like you said, the explosives matter, and they won't be able to get down there without the kick the field goals without the explosive. So you know, most definitely we gotta keep that off the back end. Uh, the front end, they were doing their job, you know, getting to the quarterback making make some crazy decisions. So we just gotta hold up man as a as a team on the DAP on the back end, I said.

Okay, I appreciate your time, Thank you, thank you. Now let's hear from head coach Zach Taylor, who spent a couple of minutes with LAP.

Coach Keenan fought hard. I mean, give it everything. Yeah they did.

I'm proud of the way that the eyes showed up and played and did everything they could, and we just came up a little short today and credit to Kansas City, but again proud of the way you guys fought often on the.

Field in the fourth quarter. It became, you know, a real tough dynamic. Obviously ended up with eleven yards on fifteen plays after the fourth down stopped that they had thirty six yards on nineteen plays. Do you think the win was out of the sales a little bit?

I didn't feel that.

We just we just didn't maintain very good rhythm, you know, And that's it's a challenge when you come in here in a tough environment versus a really good defense. We obviously expected to produce more than we did and and we'll have to watch the tape and see what we could have done.

Better defensively, though they're playing at a very high level. And the first half, I thought the offense, I thought Jake Browning really acquitted himself well and to me, he was doing Patrick Mahomes type stuff. Really.

I thought he managed the game really well. You know what got difficult at the end was when they just pinned their ears back and came out after the passer. And that's the type of game we knew we didn't want to play. That's where they've been successful. We just didn't do enough in the third quarter to give ourselves a lead where we could stay out of that.

And when you were able to use the running game and be balanced. I you had fourteen first downs at one junction, was seven on the ground, six in the air and won by penalty, so it was very balanced in their pass rush. You guys were negating it. It wasn't really that big of a deal.

Yeah, I thought we had a good play on Our players believed in it and did a great job executing it and again just came up short through in the second half.

So no turnovers they had one, they had the fumble, but then the fourth down stop kind of negates that, you know, that turnovers, So it was even steven in that regard, And that's what these kind of games come down to, isn't it.

It does you know? And again I thought our defense stood up and played hard. Them did into the field goals when they could. Just as a team collectively, we didn't do enough to get to win.

Coach, I know, I guess officially eliminated from playoff contention at this point. The Pittsburgh Steelers winning in Seattle. But all you guys gave it a heck of a run and got another game against the Cleveland Browns.

And I lose.

Football team's going to show up and play it and play it hard. So everybody show up at Paycorn support this football team. They deserve it, no doubt. This team is fought hard. They represent this organization the right way. It's a meaningful game for us. It's a divisional game. It's a chance to finish with the winning record in front of our fans, and so they deserve our best and we're going to give them our best. Appreciate coach very much.

Yep, thanks Lom. We now know the game time next Sunday at one o'clock and since the Browns are locked in as the number five playoff seat in the AFC, they are expected to rest many of their starters. Cincinnati is an early four point favorite. The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by pay Corps, proud to be the Bengals official HR software provider by Alta Fiber future Proof Fiber Internet designed elevate your home, business and community to a new level, and by kettering health the best

Yeah, it is.

I mean it's in the fourth quarter. Offensively, it had a pretty good game for three quarters. Fifteen snaps eleven yards in the fourth quarter, and it all you know, from the when they had the fourth and one stop, when no turnovers, took care of the football that way. We talked about every possession ending with a kick fourth and one gets knocked back for a couple of yard loss, and from that point on, nineteen snaps thirty six yards. So obviously that took the wind out of the sales,

And I don't know.

I guess I'm conservative, but I'd always lean toward taking points.

I probably disagree with you on that. I'm okay with going for it. Obviously it didn't work, It really didn't work, losing three. At the time, I didn't really second guess it, But I know what you're saying. I mean, the way the game played out, it certainly seems like I would have been prudent to take three.

Yeah, I just I just think in a big game like that, the if you get it, you're not guaranteed to not kicking a field anyway. So to me, it's better to come away with points than what happened to them. They got so deflated when they got nothing that it's like, you know, Okay, maybe maybe you do convert on fourth and one in the low red zone, so now it's first and goal. Maybe maybe you get a touch on, maybe you don't, maybe kick a field goal and you just burn more clock or whatever. So I don't know,

I think that's where the former player factor maybe should be considered because the numbers. I'm sure they crunch these numbers, and the numbers say the right thing to do is to go for it. But those numbers have never been on the field and know what it's like when you go for it and don't get it, and how that affects you emotionally.

Right, well, I mean some of the numbers. It might be a really good football team working against the weak system and they convert x number of fourth down in shorts. This is not a week stich a situation. You're on the road, loud, hostile environment. You can't come off the football maybe as aggressively as you want to. I mean, there's so many factors involved where you know, in my mind, the analytics is just like a sterile numbers situation, not

So they gave up a pass of more than sixty, they gave up another pass of more than forty. They gave up a thirty five yard run, they gave up a thirty seven yard run. It's happened too many times this year to just be you know something, you're right off as one of those things. This is a major problem that has to be analyzed and fixed in time for next year.

Absolutely, I mean the team has been shredded. Was it seven or eight plays of twenty fe yards and water night count and run pass? I mean, that's that's crazy. I mean that that number, you just you just can't live with that number. And again it's not just seventy. It's like, you know, you get up into the forties, you get up into the into the uh you know, like last week the eighties, you get up into the sixties. I mean those those kind of numbers are are incredible.

They've really prioritized adding speed on defense in the last draft or two. Have they gone too far towards speed and little need a little bit more physicality.

You know, I don't know. I think I think speed is uh is a factor. We saw it tonight. Recoverability speed, I mean Ax Hill ran down places or touchdowns if not for him out in the football field running them down, and that's a that's a big, a big factor in the speed is the you know, the recoverability part of it, because if you're if you're a young guy that hasn't seen everything yet and you're not in the right position to make the plays, speed doesn't become as big as

Jake Browning did a reasonably good job today when he had time, threw a touchdown, pass, ran for a touchdown, and one hundred and ninety seven passing yards and passer rating mayighty five. He has certainly shown that he is a very solid backup quarterback. But I think we can see the difference between a Jake Browning Bengals team and a Joe Burrow Bengals team and the ceiling that they can reach when Joe's in the game.

Absolutely, I mean, there's there's there's no question. I mean, Joe Burrow is one of the highest paid guys in the league for a reason. You know, it's not it's not a small sample size. It's a sample size that he's proven himself for a period of time. But I will say, as a former lineman, I would go in a huddle with Jake Browning any day. I think the way he comports himself, the way he leads, the way he competes, his toughness, I would have no qualms, no issues,

Hey, knowing that you have a very solid backup quarterback is a big deal. You know, in a season like this one where your starter was really healthy for about five games, that's tough to overcome. But in a typical season, if your starter has to miss a game or maybe a couple, knowing that you have a guy that can win a couple of games if he needs to is huge.

Massive and Turk shown it's the guy that I look to. I mean, we had total faith in Turch showing it in his ability to win football games for us. Now, was he gonna play like Kenny? Was he gonna do it the way Kenny did or Boomer? But I didn't play. I wasn't playing in that era. But it started with with Kenny Anderson Turk showing it. You know, Kenny breaks his hand, Turk comes in and it's like he was always totally prepared. You knew that he knew his stuff.

The Ravens are the number one seed in the AFC, the Browns are the number one wildcard team in the AFC, and the Pittsburgh Steelers are back in the hunt after back to back wins over Cincinnati and Seattle.

And they all feasted on the Bengals. Hopefully Cluved doesn't feast on him one more time because zero to five in the division. I mean, when that occurred, you know, it's like this, this is uh, this is almost like a pipe dream. Get in the playoffs and and get a seated position in the playoffs with a one in five division record potentially that that would have been crazy.

So the Steelers clinched their twentieth consecutive non losing season within their win today. That's what's still. Let's take now for the Bengals, win the final game, have a winning record, make it three years in a row.

Absolutely and uh, and finishing at home on an up note is big. And you know, Forest Greg used to call it an uptick. Boys. We want to we want to play in front of our people and and go out and play some physical football that they'd be proud of and finish on an uptick. Let's get it done.

All right. That'll be the theme next week. An uptick finale, an uptick finale, and let's get that tick real high. Finally, it's time for this week's fun Facts conversation, where you get to know the person under the pads. Time for some fun facts with safety Dax Hill. Let's start with your name, and I don't mean your first name, Daxton, which is pretty unique, but your middle name is Jorel.

They weren't, actually, But I think my dad randomly just came across that name, and that was a pretty cool name obviously Superman Superman, and you know his father saw I guess he was like, yeah, minus, well, as you know, hopefully we get a Superman out of deck. So I think that's where that came from. But not comic book fans at all.

Kids can be sensitive about their middle names when they share them with the other kids, even if the name is really plain. Did you like it or were you sensitive about having an unusual middle name?

Uh? Not really. I mean a lot of people didn't really know my middle name, which which was crazy now that that you know, has that that that meaning behind it. But but yeah, I mean I I kind of just embraced it. I kind of liked that. Whenever my dad told me at a young young age, I would like, Okay, I'll rock with it.

We're doing fun facts with Dax Hill. You're from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I've been to Tulsa many times because you see in Tulsa used to be in the same conference. I think it's the windiest place I've ever been in my life, and it's considered a high risk area for tornadoes. Did you experience that as a kid?

Uh? Yeah, I actually been in two tornadoes, actually one at the house and then whenever I was at church service one day. You know, scary feeling. I mean, you hear all the wind right above you. Luckily the roofs didn't come out, come off or anything like that, but I mean you can hear everything swirling outside, the leaves, you know, branches and hitting the windows. I mean, it's a scary feeling. But you know, once you made it, make it out alive. I mean, you know it's you know,

Did you go into the basement or anything like that when you heard those high wins?

I forgot where I was at church where we went, but I think we kind of just stayed in the main part of it. But at home you kind of went underneath the underneath the house and make sure everything was good.

You have one sibling, an older brother, Justice, who is three years older than you are. How competitive were the two of you as kids?

We're competitive. I always wanted to one up him and everything. I knew I was a better basketball player. But you know, we always you know, played a game. At twenty one, he always you know won, But once I started getting a little bit older, that's when I started to get the wins. So we're definitely competitive at a young age.

Friendly competition or did your parents have to pull you apart from time to time?

I mean it was kind of just like, you know, just having fun. You know, sometimes I don't think it would get that crazy to where, you know, we're fighting or anything like that. Sometimes we probably every once in a while we may you know, you know, verbalize how we felt, but pretty much friendly.

He's obviously in the NFL as well with the Baltimore Ravens. When the Bengals face the Ravens.

What do your parents wear whenever? Our first guns in the NFL? One War one jersey other one war, you know, the Baltimore Jersey. Now it's kind of just been half so you know, you know a lot of people anticipated that happen, and it happened this year.

We're chatting with Dax Hill. You attended Booker T. Washington High School, which is considered one of the top public schools in the US, and your parents went there as well. There's an academic requirement to get in. You can study five world languages there. What did you gain from going to a school like that in high school?

Uh, I mean I learned a lot of I mean every subject was pretty tough at AP classes, IB classes. I mean it's a very like you said, very good school, top schools and you know, Oklahoma and the nation, and I mean I feel like they have to be prepared going into college, and you know, so I feel like they did a you know, pretty good job, you know with you know, me and my brother, they're both going there.

You were the Gatorade Player of the Year in the state of Oklahoma. You could have gone to any college in the country. Was the recruiting process a bit overwhelming?

Oh yeah, I mean I really had, you know, every college offer there was in the Power five. You know, first it was kind of hectic, but Jane, I feel like, uh, junior year, that's when it started to kind of just settle down for me. I kind of knew where I wanted to go from there. I just you know, focused on schools that I wanted to go had like a top five or something like that, I think coming out of you know, senior year, and so from there kind of just you know, committed to Michigan.

I read that your parents gave you this advice when you were choosing a school, where would you go if football was not part of the equation? Is that true? And did you take that advice?

I did. I mean it was kind of a drawn out thing. I feel like just because you know, my parents, they sat now with me kind of just we had like a pros and cons board, really just split it down the middle which side and kind of just outweighed the other one. And I feel like they were a key part of, you know, my decision going to Michigan and really just not focused on football, but kind of just the holistic view of just my life, you know, besides football. So they had a major part of that.

He played for Jim Harbaugh. Clearly a great coach, but he seems a little odd to me. Do you have a best Jim Harbaugh weird story?

I would say in my home visit. We had good conversations with him for a few hours, and I felt like one time he just kind of just not dazed off of kind of just staring off in the space as if we weren't talking. That was hilarious to me. I'm like, man, what's is he thinking about something else? Or is he worried about me right now? You know, it was just, you know, kind of just took me for a loop. I was like, Okay, he just kind of just went to his own world for a second,

So you had a great career for the Wolverines and played in one of the greatest rivalries in sports Ohio State Michigan. And in your final game in that rivalry, you were part of a Michigan team that ended a streak of eight straight losses to the buck Eys. What are your most vivid memories of that win? Uh?

Really just the atmosphere. I was like flirting the entire game, kind of like a snow game, and really just the energy of that game going into you know, that game, it was just you know, hyped up obviously. Uh, you know, we had that one circle on the board, you know, since we started, you know, that season. So I mean I feel like that was a great win for you know, the entire you know, state of Michigan, the university, Like everything about that win was just memorable.

It seems to have turned the tide in the rivalry.

Yeah, I feel like I mean, was it three years now, three years in a row, So I mean, I feel like we can keep it going just as long as they did. You know, I feel like we can do that in you know and some so.

So after your time at Michigan, you were selected with a thirty first pick of the first round by the Bengals. Describe your draft.

Night, have family friends over, you know, waiting the entire night, not knowing when I was gonna get picked. So, you know, my family they were there, supported me. You know, I was kind of just high and low throughout the time. Didn't know where I was gonna go. Thought I was gonna go like fifteen twenty, but ended up falling a little bit. But I'm thankful for where I'm at now.

You tied the knot this passed off season. What's more stressful Draft night or wedding night?

Ah, wedding for sure. Wedding for sure. Man, just really just getting the ring, which was stressful because we were trying to go out the country. We didn't have our passports at that time, so I was trying to get my passport at that time and didn't get the ring in as well. So the ring came in and then the passports they weren't in yet. So I'm like, okay, I have all this plan out of the country and hopefully we can still go. So once we got there, you know, you know, uh kind of just say what

How'd you pop the question? Do you have a good story?

I was kind of just out the country. I was in Saint Martin. Uh, wasn't anything special. She was kind of surprised by it. It was like the first night we got there, kind of just what did I do? I kind of just it was like a like a gazebo almost leaning out to the water, and it was just like the perfect view on the sunset, was like the sun was setting and kind of just walked out there.

Who's gonna say no with that setting? All right, a few wild card topics Now for Dax Hill. Who is your all time favorite athlete in any sport? And why?

I say? Michael Jordan. I mean, I feel like I grew up like him, But really, just watching the Last Dance Series, I feel like that kind of just made me even more more of a fan of him and his preparation. And I mean, I feel like he's the best basketball player to ever play. So so, Michael Jordan, for sure.

Tell us something about you that not many people know.

I played three instruments growing up. I don't know if a lot of people know that, but I mean I played the trumpet, violin, viola, a little bit of the bass, but not really. But I just say, three instruments. So I grew up going to you know, you know, lessons and doing all that. I went to a charter school, so they had like a musical like a music music school almost so uh so, yeah, I kind of just grew up playing instruments.

Violin your choice or your folks.

My choice. I mean I just enjoyed playing it. And then I kind of just switched over because I played that for years and then from there I was like, I'm gonna just you know, switch to something else. So that's how I went from violin to you know, trumpet.

Have you had any part time jobs?

H one? I was working in the warehouse for one summer. Was actually one of my dad's friends like years ago, which was funny just because he was like fifty years old and I was like fresh into you know, high school working. But that was a fun job, you know, kind of just woke up early in the morning. Wasn't like a nine to five, kind of just like nine till like two o'clock and kind of just did whatever we did, and the warehouse did different type of projects. So yeah, that was fun.

What do you like to spend your money on?

The usual clothes? Shoes? Have to pay the bills first and foremost, down payment on homes and whatnot.

So final question, this one's kind of deep. If you could meet anybody in history, living or deceased, who would that person be?

I don't I'm gonna just go with Chamberlain. I guess, uh, what do you have like one hundred points ones on? He did so I guess Will Chamberlain.

I like that. It's kind of an old school answer. I like it.

I mean, what one hundred points without a three point line, that's I mean, that's kind of crazy.

Averaged fifty a game one season.

Really wow, I didn't know that, So yeah, you got it me huh.

All right, an excellent answer. I appreciate your time, best of luck the rest of the year.

Appreciate you. Thank you.

That's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to you by pay Corps, Proud to be the Bengals Official HR software provider, by Alta Fiber future proof fiber Internet design to elevate your home, business and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health