Bengals Booth Podcast: Keep Your Head Up

Hi again everybody. I'm Dan Hord and thanks for downloading The Bengals Booth Podcast. BA you gotta keep your head up. Oh oh. Addition, as the Bengals dig an zero to two hole for the second straight season, losing their home opener to the Baltimore Ravens twenty seven twenty four coming up, you'll hear radio replays, locker room comments from players and coaches,

Tosses the ball. The pangos fall on it. At the eighteen yard line.

Trey Hendrickson punched it out and a teammate recovered at the eighteen Logan Wilson with the recovery.

I'll tell you boy, just what the doctor ordered.

There's a penalty flag down at the fifteen yard line.

Illegal use of hands to the face defense.

Number nine oh many.

Pendley would be enforcement in the previous spot.

It's bout the whole ball plus down.

Man.

That's a very very painful penalty.

Zach Carter did get his hands up on under that face mask.

Second year punter Jordan Stout is in. Charlie Jones waits to return. Here comes the punt, a very high, wobbly kick. Jones will at it at the nineteen starts toward the near side. Is at the thirty penalty flag down. Cross is the fifty. He's gonna take it to the house. But there's a penalty flag down.

Wow, that one's coming back too.

Would have been an eighty one yard touchdown return for Charlie Jones, so.

A penalty has nullified.

A takeaway would have been short field and then another penalty shortly.

There's no fall on the play. It's a touchdown, all right. How about it? How about it? And the other penalty didn't occur. No foul on the plane. Pick that bad boy up, give a special teams touchdowns.

It'll be a forty yard try for Justin Tucker to try to give Baltimore the halftime lead. The snap, the placement, the kick is on its way. It is hooking, but it is good and Baltimore will head to the locker room on top by three thirteen ten. At the half, boy goes out to the left and Jamar Chase lines

Higgins touches it. Touchdown. Bengals has t.

Higgins used his size advantage over five foot eight inch nickel corner ar Darius Washington and made the catch for the bengals first offensive touchdown of the year. Third down and five for Baltimore at the Cincinnati seventeen yard line. Lamar and the gun. He'll to his left. Jackson has the ball. He's back to throw. He'll float it for the end zone over the shoulder, catch, touchdown. Nelson Agalore empty backfield for Burrow. The Ravens showing pressure. Burrow ready

Bengals.

Burrow retreating to avoid the rush and he made a great throw off his back foot to t Higgins for the touchdown. Victory formation for the Ravens. Lamar takes the snap, takes a knee, and.

That is that.

The Baltimore Ravens open the season two and oh as they come to Cincinnati and beat the Bengals twenty seven to twenty fourth. The Ravens are two and oh. The Bengals are zero to two with both losses in the division. Up next a Monday night home game against the Rams. The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by Kettering Health, the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. With more than one hundred and twenty care facilities and fifteen hundred care providers.

Looking back, we moved it really well. It came down to the turnover in the red zone.

When you're playing that team, you can't you can't have that that mistake because they're gonna run it. Well, they're gonna keep it away from you. They're gonna score points. Lamar is a great player. He's gonna make plays, So you gotta take advantage of all your rezone opportunities.

And that was my mistake.

What did you see on that?

It was a good play by the safety.

Yeah, really good play by him, good disguise, but I gotta I gotta see.

That to make matters worse. After throwing a touchdown on his last pass of the day, Burrow could be seen on the bench using a thera gun to massage his calf. Back up. Jake Browning even started warming up on the sideline. I've edited together everything Burrow had to say about his calf after the game.

Let's treat it a little bit again and we'll see where it is.

Ma.

Yeah, I was gonna come back out did you let.

Yourself think it up long term or is it just strong need to make faces.

It's gonna have to wait and see. Yuh, I'm not sure how it's gonna feel the next couple of days. Uh, it's pretty sore right now, but no no telling how it's gonna feel.

Sorrow.

I think we're gonna take a date to day. How did you tweak it?

Uh?

It was on the it was on the play before the last touchdown.

Since you heard your cat id you had good days and bad days.

Has it felt like it does now on any of those bad days?

Or is this different?

Again?

It's tough to tell you have some of those days. But it's hard to give you guys an answer on that until you know the next couple of days. We give it a couple, a couple of nights, couple.

Of sleeps, and we'll see you. We'll go from there.

Just the first time you tweet the gap or has just been kind.

Of on the one thing that frustrated for you?

You know, whenever you have these kind of things, it's it's always ongoing. It's always something that you're managing.

Uh. Like I said, I don't know how I'm gonna feel the next couple of days. Uh, we'll have to wait soon. Go I I mean, I don't know. I don't know. It's tough to tell. It's tough to.

Look into the future and see that I'm doing everything I can to get healthy and get that thing the way I needed to so I can go out and perform the way I need to to win.

We'll see.

We'll all have to wait and see. But the Bengals are certainly going to be cautious with their franchise quarterback. As for Baltimore's QB, Lamar Jackson was twenty four for thirty three for two hundred and thirty seven yards with two touchdowns no picks at a passer rating of one

It was a great ball on his outside shoulder. I'm running with him. I'm getting ready to look back and then I see that guys getting big the balls coming, and you know, it was just, you know, a great ball. But on my part, I felt like I could have anticipated it way better, kind of got there sooner. He gave me a look in the beginning where you know, I kind of you know, s third and five, third and short, thinking he may do a short route, and then he kind of burst it out of there and

Lamar didn't have a ton of rushing yards, but it seemed like when they needed and they get a few, he did. Yeah, and I guess that's what he does.

Yeah.

I mean, he's the MVP of there a team for a reason, you know, one of the best players in our league, and all the all all the props to him. Obviously, you know, we wish he would have tackled a little bit better, but you know, guys like that, we kind of have to just know that they're gonna extend plays and you know it's gonna take all elevens, so you know, we guys, you gotta do a better job of everybody rolling to the ball when he does break loose.

I think did it hurt that have that takeaway in the red zone and that haven't wiped out by the penalty.

Yeah, that was kind of ridiculous. I don't know what they called. I don't wanna disrespect any refere anything like that. I obviously didn't see it. I just know they called hands to the face, and when the replayed, I didn't see a hands to the face.

So obviously we.

Should have got more takeaways, but that one, I feel like we should have.

Been a takeaway.

I don't have third down numbers in front of me, but it seems like you had chances to stop them on third and just could get those key stops.

Yeah, I think we kind of did a We didn't do a get enough job of getting them to third year old. You know, it was a lot of third and shores. They were able to run the office that they're comfortable in the times that we did get them in third and plus third and plus third a long. We kind of made our stocks. But when it was like five six or less, it's very hard to stop the type of offense.

So we'll just do a little bit.

Better job of you know, playing first down defense, second down defense to hopefully get third and longs.

So Rams at home next Monday, we gotta happen, right.

Yeah, when we were looking forward, you know, this is a seventeen game season for a reason. Every season has its different tribulations, different highs, different lows. You know, one thing we can't be doing is thinking that we're the same team as last year. So we're the same team as before I start having these expectations. You know, all we could do is to stay in the moment and keep building our chemistry as a team. Right now, I forget the history, forget all the bs what we did in the past.

I don't care about none of that.

We got more new team and we just got to keep building from the ground up obviously, you know, to hopefully get our first win, and once we do, just build that foundation and keep it rolling. So that's what I'm looking forward to, is going against the Rams.

Cheatout, thank you, yep, for sure. Unfortunately, the Bengals loss took some of the shine off of a great individual moment for rookie Charlie Jones. Nearly sixteen years to the day after the Bengals last punt return touchdown an eighty one yarder by Adam Jones in the twenty twelve home opener. Charlie Jones, no relation, also ran one back the same distance and I talked to him about it after the game. Charlie, congratulations an eighty one yard punt return touchdown in your

Yeah, it was pretty sweet, you know, especially coming off a week like last week. I'm just tryna, you know, bounce back from a week like that. I was struggling last week. Teammates, you know, all week were you know, keeping me up, encouraging me, and then come out in front of the home CROWBM just do that. Was was pretty sweet, just trying to help out as much as that possible can.

There was a penalty flag throwne Did you think it was coming back?

I did.

I even I even gave the ball to the ref thinking it wasn't gonna be good, so I don't even have the.

Ball come on.

Yeah, yeah, that's so.

I've seen a couple of teammates come up and congratulate you. Uh, just kind of share the vibe from uh the other guys on the squad after you do that.

Yeah, they've been.

They've been amazing. Like I said, this past weekday, you know, they've been they've been building me up, making sure I'm confident back there, encouraging me, you know, telling me to just keep doing my thing back there. So you know, they they were definitely hyped up. It's been you know, a lot of ah ah the team effort this past week, trying to get tryna bounce back, special teams wise, so you know, and then they came out and they made it for every block possible for me to just run through.

You made a guy miss early in the return, and then it seemed like it was wide open down the sideline. Yeah, it was.

It was wide open. They did a great job blocking and it made my job pretty easy.

Does the end result take some of the joy away?

Yeah, I mean, obviously the most important thing is getting to win, and we didn't get that. But I know his team's gonna, you know, bounce back, and I know we're gonna have a good week of practice and get in the film room and make our corrections. And I don't think anyone in here is worried at all.

After two punts early, the offense moved the ball well basically for the rest of the game. Did you see the Bengals offense picking up the way that we kind of all expected to perform.

Yeah, I did.

Started started moving it pretty well, getting the crowd into it, and just making plays like like, I know this offense can so I think we just need to come I need to build on that.

Sorry you didn't get the ball by congrats on the TV.

Thank you appreciate.

The Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you by Alta Fiber future proof fiber Internet capable of delivering multi gigabit speeds designed to take your home, business, and community to a new level. Elevate your connection with all to Fiber. Now, time to hear what Zach Taylor had to say after the games. He spent a few minutes with Dave Lapham.

Second half seemed like offense getting a little bit better rhythm. Joe through for like over one hundred ninety yards. I think he and t started hooking up, starting to get some chemistry and rhythm. What'd you think overall?

I thought those some good things that we're going to continue to build on. You know, turn rebettals one and nothing. You was by one possessions, that's not a shocker when you play the Baltimore Ravens and you only get seven possessions. That's just the way it goes.

That's their mo isn't it. I Mean they want to hold onto the football, they want to get their running game going. They get a quarterback that is like Gale Stairs with a thrown arm. I mean, that guy is with the ball in his hands. He's a unique, unique individual. What goes through your mind when you know you have such limited number of possessions? I mean, do you a game plan differently or how do you approach it?

Oh, you got to be mindful of that. That's the way it goes. But again, you stressed the term of battle and they got us on that one. You know, we got one from him. They got called back for hands the face, and then that's just usually what this game comes down to.

The fact that you get a special team's touchdown out of Charlie Jones was a kind of an equalizer, A nice a nice situation there. What was the thought process when you saw that taking place?

Well, it was it was a good jolt for us because we'd had seven plays on offense up to that point, we had a holding, we'd been really efficient and had a holding call that took us back to second long. So we needed a jolt there and he gave it to us.

What about from an injury standpoint, Nick Scott a concussion protocol and there were a couple of other guys who got nicked up a little bit. Is there any you have any update in terms of their status?

No, nothing yet that I've heard on everybody.

In terms of where do you go from here? You have another dead Joe was using that. I don't know what you call that opera, what that piece of equipment is, but he was trying to work in that calf a little bit. Is it good to have a Monday night game and maybe have an extra day or so and let Joe work through that.

It probably doesn't hurt, you know a bit. A long week we'll be good for us. It was hot today. Our guys got a lot of snaps, a lot of difficult snaps, you know, especially offensively there at the end and that two minute drive that we were in and we've done a score, those guys were pretty worn out. So I think it'll be good to get that extra day in here.

Coach appreciate it.

I know that from a scheduling standpoint, guys, will they get will you give him a full extra day off trying to like lick wounds and everything from this football game physically.

You just get a little bit of an extra bonus walk through in there.

Appreciate your time, yep, thank you.

So the Rams are up next. They beat Seattle in Week one thirty to thirteen, before losing at home to the forty nine ers this week thirty to twenty three. In that loss to sand wide receiver Puoka Nakua, a fifth round draft pick out of BYU, had fifteen catches for one hundred and forty seven yards. That's a single game record for receptions by a rookie, and in the opener he had eleven catches for one nineteen. So after two weeks, Pooka Nakua has twenty five catches for two

We'll go back and reevaluate that we need to get him involved.

He's our best player on offense, so we need to find a way to get him off.

Now, time for the radio guys recap lap. That is not a happy locker room that we just emerged from.

No, it's not, and rightfully so, they're just not close

T Higgins wound up having good numbers, including two touchdown catches. The Bengals still have not been able to get the ball deep in the first two games of the year.

Haven't and in the first game it was pressed man coverage and safety deep. In this football game, they just played two safeties very deep and said, you know, we're going to keep everything in front of us and have not been able to make connections. So still have work to do for sure, and be interested to see how the Rams play it. The Rams will do what the Rams do. I don't know what the Rams have done in the early stages of the season, but teams will

You made the point during the broadcast. The Bengals have not had the lead in the first two games of the season. That has such a big impact on what you wind up calling as a play caller. Joe Mixon lines up getting very few carries. You just you can't have balance if you're constantly behind trying to catch up with the opponent.

Yeah, that's what I hope that the Bengals go down the field in the first possession against the Rams on Monday Night Football and score, because I think that'll just like you know, all of a sudden, the doors will open and be nice, nice breeze and everything will beautiful again. That's a factor. And I asked players and coaches after the game. Knowing that you're going to have a limited number of possessions the way Baltimore plays the game, I asked the coach, does that affect how your game plan?

The defense couldn't get off the field on third down, and that was typically third and short. There weren't a bunch of third and long, so obviously that's a huge factor. And when Lamar Jackson had to make a play with his legs, as he has for six seasons, that's what he did.

He's incredible. He's a gifted talent. Ravens are now seven to one against the Bengals when he plays, and they're row and five when he doesn't.

What does that tell you?

Tells you a lot. I mean, dudes, Gail Stayers with a throwing arm with the ball in his hands, he's remarkable. He's got acceleration, he can change speeds, he can you know, cut violently, he can make you miss, and he can spin. We've seen him do everything. And like Mike Hilton was saying when I talked to him after the game, he's got a better throwing arm to people give him credit for. You know, he gets the ball down the field. The deep ball he threw today fifty two yards or whatever,

The Bengals were near the bottom of the NFL in sacks last year, but their pressure was okay, I think middle of the pack in pressure. What have you thought of the pass rush in the first two weeks?

Spotty? You know, like everything. I mean there were moments where oh yeah, I mean that looks looks pretty good. I will say though, as a form alignment, and I never really do even if it's an opponent. Those guys are the gravviest suckers man.

And the Ravens.

Yeah, the Ravens, well, they're very handsy, they're very gravvy, but they know how to get away with it. I mean, it does not get called. It's pretty incredible. You know. You'll see cloth stretch, you'll see them grab and they know when to let go and all that good stuff, you know. And I don't want it to sound like crying in your milk or whatever because it wasn't called. It's not called. It's not a penalty. That's what I looked at it as a former offensive alignment. But there

So for the second straight year, the Bengals have to try to overcome an zero and two. Start talking to Chidabayo Wuji after the game, He's like, that was last year, this is this year. It's different guys. Everything's different. And you know, obviously they got a lot of the same guys back, but from year to year, there's no carryover, is the point he's trying to make. They need to go out on Monday night next week and win.

There's no doubt. I mean, the circumstances of how they lost these first two football games are much different than the circumstances of how they lost the two football games last year. And it is it's a brand new year.

And you look at it.

Though, and it's like, man, the AFC, gosh, there's like twelve thirteen of the sixteen teams in the AFC potentially playoff worthy. So you fall into an oh and two hole. There could be a lot of teams you have to jump over, or as last year that may not have been as many teams to jump over in an H and two hole as you might have to this year. So again, I think that's a big difference between this year and last year as well.

I sure would like to call a win next week.

Man, we need some coffin nails, baby, not to.

Mention a bam bam bam. The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by Paycorp. More than twenty nine thousand customers trust paycor to help them recruit, pay engage, and retain employees. Learn more at paycorp dot com. Now time for this week's fun Fact segment, where you get to know the person under the pads to some fun facts with wide receiver andre Yosi Vash from Honolulu, Hawaii. I've read that your dad is of Romanian descent. How did your family wind up in Hawaii?

After World War Two?

The wall fell, you know, Communism fell, and my dad need to get out of there, you know, And he finished college around that same time, and he got a job opportunity in Japan just off some whim. I think he knewed one person there who got him a job and it was like obviously an astronomical amount compared to what he was making in Romania, so he took it.

A snap of a finger.

And then that's where HI met my mom, who was who's a Filipino descent, but she was working and studying in Japan, you know, she was like translating part time, she was modeling, she was studying, and so she actually lived in Japan at that point more years than she had lived in the Philippines, so she was like really accustomed with Japanese culture. And so they met in Japan

So it's been it's been a good ride so far.

What if anything do you miss about island life.

I could say almost everything.

Uh, you know, the weather, the beach, the food, the people, I mean the people in Cincinnati are similar in essence, just because it's like a small town vibe. You know, you walk past people, you smile, you say hello, whereas like in New Jersey when you're there, or in New Jersey or New York when you're there for four years, can you kind of forget that people are like that? You know, you're walking past people, you're not even looking at them. You know, it's but it's kind of a

We're chatting with Andrea Yosi bosh you went to the Punaho School in Honolulu or Barack Obama graduate from high school and played on a state championship high school basketball team. Is it a point of pride to have gone to his high school? And have you ever crossed paths with the former president.

No, I haven't cross paths.

I've had multiple friends who was like, he golf sometimes in Hawaii and he's been on the West side playing golfer, but I haven't had the chance or the opportunity to cross paths with him. But yeah, I mean, it's a great thing to come from the school that he's come from. It it's a great academic institution and athletic institution, and a lot of great minds and athletes come out of that school, which is one of the reasons why I went there, because it's like the best of both worlds.

From there, it was on to Princeton. As you noted, you went to school in New Jersey, roughly five thousand miles from home.

Why Princeton, Well, you know, my dad was always hard on me for academics. You know, that's what he grew up and that's what got him out of the trenches to go to Japan. And so he knew how much academics would at least be the base of or like the foundation of how I would be successful. And so the goal was always to go to Stanford. But because they were you know, the perfect mass of sports and education,

That I wanted.

What's the biggest misconception about the IVY League.

I think that we don't have good athletes. You know, people are like, oh, because we don't go to the FCS playoffs either, so it's not like we can play North Dakota State, South Dakota State things like that. So even at that point we are kind of looked down upon. But people say, oh, you a bunch of yacht dwellers, you know, all that kind of stuff. But it's like, you know, to be a person that does football at a face like Princeton, like you're a true student athlete,

But we have great athletes.

I've seen a number of people that I think can play or at least try to play in the NFL.

So you weren't all American in two sports, football and track. People have heard that you participated in the heptathlon, which is the indoor track version of the dcathlon, and seven events instead of ten. The Olympics are coming up next year in Paris. Had you focused on the catalon, do you think you could have been an Olympian.

I think that I would have definitely been a contender in the US trials. You know, the US is a super competitive so basically if you go to the Olympics from the US, you're always in contention to meddle just because of the competition that you have here. So I think I would have definitely tried for the US trials

So one event that the haptathlon and the decathlon have in common is the pole vault, which amazes me. I don't know how anybody runs down a path, sticks a pole in the ground and jumps sixteen feet off the ground as you did. What's it like when you first try to do the pole vault?

It's it's chaotic. I mean, the hardest part is just being kind of confident with your plant because everything comes from the plant, so if you're even off a little bit, you're going to fly to the side I had. I remember one time in college I had a practice where I literally almost didn't even hit the mat because I just planted completely wrong, and I flew like my life flashed before my eyes. But you know, once you get

We're doing fun facts with andre Yosi Vash who are a six round draft picked by the Bengals. What was your draft experience.

Like I would say, I mean, I had the impression that I was go kind of in the mid rounds. So you know, obviously Day one, I was just watching to see how many receivers were taking. Day two, I kind of maybe was expecting a call, and then I thought, at least if I didn't go on day two or early day three. But as Day three went, it was a really long time before my name was called, and you know, the only people that were talking to me

So that's that's the goal.

Why did you really want the Bengals to draft you.

Well, they were the only one who took me in a thirty visits, kind of like Princeton, to be honest, it's like a similar vibe.

You know, they seem to like, you know a lot.

They were the ones who put the effort to reach out and ask me to come on a visit. And I love the receiver room, I love the offense, and I like the coaches a lot. And that was very similar to how my process was at Princeton. So it kind of maybe it was nostalgic. I didn't even realize it until now. It's to be honest, I'm talking to you.

A few wild card questions now for Andrea Yosi Bosh. Your last name is spelled iOS I v A s. What are some of the all time worst mispronunciations of your last name.

Uh, this is funny story.

Actually, I remember my freshman year of college where I was like fourth string wide receiver, just a freshman, wide eyed freshman, and you know, they were calling in the four strings and then my.

OC goes, I receive this, I receive this. Get in. I'm like, who, Like, who is he talking to? Like? Because I was like, who is he talking to? And he runs up to me that I see this. Get the f in there. I was like, oh, shoot, he's talking to me.

So I'll say that's the only time I actually didn't know if someone was calling my name.

Yeah, ioce this we will avoid. Ioces who would be the second best heptathlete on the Bengals roster.

That's interesting. I'm thinking t is a great athlete. You know, Te's strong, fast, athletic, grey hand eye coronation. Chase Brown might be a good hypt athlete, but I'm not sure how you far in the pope some pop volt are He's not sure. But Chase Brown's pretty athletic too, So I would say maybe those two.

I'm the subject of great athletes. Who is the greatest athlete of all time in any sport?

People know that I think Messi is the best person. Like when people compare him Ronaldo to me, I think it's almost like, don't get me wrong, Ronaldo is a great athlete, but Messi has won every after this past year, He's won every big championship in every league that he's been in, and he just when you watch him, he just dominates people. Like I'm a Messy fanboy. Like there's not much people that I found boy over or like even follow on Instagram. Just athletes wise unless I know them.

Did you go see him when he was in town to take on FC Cincinnati.

I did not.

I wish I was there. Was great, but yeah, I missed.

Out on that.

Final fun fact for andre Yosi Bosh, this one's kind of deep. If you could meet anybody in history, living or deceased, athlete, entertainer, statesman, whoever it might be, who would that person be?

For some reason, the first thing I think of is like like rulers, Like I'm thinking like Alexander the Great, or like Cleopatra or someone who is just you know, els Under the Great was like nineteen years old when he started to rule the world, which is insane, so it's like you kind of want to meet someone who's just so savvy, like there Cleopatrick, Like Egyptians had one of the greatest kingdoms in all all of time, so it would that would be interesting. But maybe Jesus, maybe Jesus too.

Yeah, I'll put tough to you.

We'll have three people at the table for you. This has been great. Congratulations on a great preseason and best of luck in the regular season.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

That's Andre Josie Bosh. Here's an invitation to join us for our radio shows this week. We'll be at Bucketheads on Harrison Ave but the Bank Game Plan Show on Wednesday night from six to eight, and we'll be at the Wings and Rings location in Oakleigh on Friday from