Bengals Booth Podcast: Keeping The Faith

Hi, get everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading the Bengals Booth Podcast. BA yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Keeping the Fathe addition, as the Bengals even the record at three and three after beating Seattle seventeen to thirteen. Coming up, you'll hear radio replays, locker room comments from players and coaches, and postgame analysis from Dave Lapham. Then, in this week's fun Facts Conversation, you'll get to know one of the Bengals DJs. Is it Djivy, DJ Reader or DJ Turner?

It was thrown pretty early. It's holding on Seattle. That touchdown is gonna stand.

This will be a fifty five yard field goal try, and if he misses it, the Bengals will start from their own forty five. Jason Myers is the kicker, The punter is the holder. The fifty five yard kick on its way and it is good. Nine to twenty four left in the third quarter. The Bengals have a fourteen to ten lead. Gino Smith to throw fires downfield. Mike

He is good.

Gino Smith with sharbone in the backfield. Fourth and goal from the sixth Smith to throw pump face sud at the fifteen yard line. Sam Hubbard brings down Gino Smith and the Bengals takeover with two oh three to go.

How about the eh boys on that particular drive. Trey Henderson with a huge sack. Sam Hubbard with a huge fourth down sack. That's two red zone drives the Seattle Seahawks have scored.

Squad Dooche. There are more than sixty five thousand seats here at Bakhor Stadium right now, none of them are being used. Fourth and seven from the eight, Gino Smith back to throw finooking yeads. The ball squirts forward hel the Bengals fall on it at the eight yard line. That is coffin nail Bam, bam bam.

You have Sam Hubbard and Hill, Hubbard and Hill, two more age boys. You get Henderson, Hill Hubbard, all the age boys making plays pressure in the quarterback down the stretch of the game.

Bengals fans from coast to coast can breathe a sigh of relief. The Bengals are back to five and Joe Burrow gets another week to rest his calf as Cincinnati beat Seattle today by the final score of seventeen to thirteen. It wasn't a masterpiece, especially on offense. But this isn't figure skating. There are no style points. Here's head coach Zach Taylor.

Texaned Steve Speck yesterday, the Saint X coach, you know, they had to win on the road, and I said, a great job. He said, it's better to win ugly than lose pretty. And I mean that was the first thing that hit me when I walked off the field to day was at times it felt ugly, especially on offense. But again, our defense stepped up and made some big boys first out a lot.

Of to out there.

Here's a closer look at what the Bengals defense did in the low red zone in the second half. On the Seahawks first possession of the third quarter, they got to the three yard line and didn't score. On their next drive, they got to the four yard line and settled for a field goal. Then, trailing by four, on their final two possessions of the game, the Seahawks got to the six yard line and didn't score, then got

Had to hold up. We always realized, you know, yours no equal points, and I had the opportunity to be in the red zone, you know, four times. I believe it ended up with just three points of four. So you know, we just really harp on that. You know, we got a you know Stenson so os and you know standyard ground with it.

And it wasn't just the red zone. It was the low low red zone. They were like inside the five or inside the ten four times and six drives in the second half and got three points. That's amazing.

That's how you hold up, man, it's mingo defense.

Tell me about the interception, because not only did you come up with a diving peck, but your run back led to the field.

Yeah.

Man, Uh, it's something that I got early on in the game. I got the same route, and you know, once I just see the inside release, I felt the coming. He doesn't run too many routes, so you know, his roupture is very limited. So once he went out inside, I already knew what was coming, and I just literally you could see on a film. I just ran underneath it and yeah, the ball was coming.

Yeah.

Two weeks, two picks and what not.

Yeah, we gotta keep it going. I feel good.

How about being three and three after an on and two start and now going into the by with kind of a fresh start and a five hundred record.

It's about zero zero I look at it. I think that's how a lot of guys look at it, Like you said, a fresh start. You know, we got to come back after the by, you know, and just keep our foot on. You know a lot of people's next because it's not gonna be easy, as.

We can see today.

And we got to forty nine's coming up, you know, right after the bar.

There were so many plays in the low red zone where they got to Geno Smith as you're covering in those situations, do you hear a roar and realize they got to the quarterback?

Yeah, it's crazy. I was actually guarding d K on one of them, think a back line route, and they actually threw the balls to move. But the ball was altered because I think Sam Ritrade got back there. But I knew the ball got altered because I heard the crowd. Bad because I heard the crowd, So I look it and the ball was coming out. Oh all right, So you know it does give me a little tips in there and there I hear ball calls all the time. Man, maybe snapped ahead or.

A lot of guys were waving their arms to get the crowd to make a lot of noise. Did that make a difference in the red zone?

Man?

It was huge today. Man, I can honestly say I couldn't hear a thing. I believe that's great. You know, I was just going to line up, give me a signal and I got to play. Communications was real hard out there towards the end of the game. But you know that's why, you know, that's where the standing man. We live for those.

Moments brat twying to win and enjoy the bye.

Thank you, thank you, The.

Bengals finished with four sacks and thirteen quarterback hits. Sam Hubbard had one of the sacks and five of the hits on Geno Smith. Here's Sam Dave Lapham.

Five trips in the red zone three times, they scored no points. You guys had an interception in the red zone. You stopped them on downs twice in the red zone, they kicked the field goal, scored a touchdown. Five red zone possessions ten points.

It's gonna win you a lot of football games. We did it this week. We got a big challenge after the buy. We're gonna enjoy this one for twenty four hours and look forward to getting our bodies righty for San Francisco.

So this offense, what was the what was the key to shutting this offense down? What do you have to do to take this this offense out of their game.

You gotta be physical, we gotta be gaps sound. Their run game is an incredible you know, really great weapons on the outside. We had to play our best defense tackling wise, fundamental wise, and get some turnovers and we did that today.

You guys played complimentary football when the when the offense had to step up their first two possessions they did score. You you back the offense up when it needed you, defense the offense back to defense up when you guys needed them.

It was a good sign.

See complementary football like that today. Yeah, definitely.

We know there's gonna be a time where we're not playing our best and the offense is gonna pick us up. And that's the beauty of being on a good team with good players and good people that want to play for each other. And it's fun being out there with those guys.

How big is it, Sam to get a win like this and to go into the buy we like you talked about now you're three and three. You climb back out of the little bit of a hole. You three and three getting into that buy.

It's huge, man, That's what we need.

That's what we talked about, and I'm happy we got it done.

A lot of.

Football left, no question, a lot of football left you. You got a lot of football in you. Congratulations on a big game, man, Thank you well.

The defense was stellar. The offense was a bit of a head scratcher. The Bengals opened the game with two long touchdown drives, then really didn't do anything on their final eight possessions, not including a one snap kneel down at the end of the game. The Bengals had ten first downs on their first two drives, and at one

Defense won the football game today. Let's let's give a lot of shout out to them. The story going into bye week should be our defense is elite, like they've been for a long time.

Won the game for us today.

I thought we did some good stuff in the first half, didn't really get much.

Going in the second.

But you know, that's a good football team, that's a playoff football team coming into town. Really really grateful to even up our record going into a week off. Kudos to the d I mean, as much as I'll say that as much as I can.

This week, that was unbelievable performance by them.

I mean, there are backs against the wall on the ten yard line three times in a row.

To win the game.

So three drives in a row really to win the game, So that's unbelievable. We want to be able to do a little bit more for him.

Situational run game poor on us. I thought we did a good job protecting though.

I thought we had a pretty solid day against a really really good front.

I mean that's a good group over there.

That's a Pete Carroll defense with the Hall of Fame Mike linebacker.

So you know, glad we did enough to win. Still, some things that work on.

We're going to take a good look at ourselves this week, get some rest, get ready to go to San fran which is gonna be a big one.

So the first two possessions go exceedingly well, and then did they do anything different? Did they make any halftime adjustments that were extraordinaries? Was it just not quite just to tick off execution wise to the offense?

What was the deal they already think that. I'm sure they made some adjustments.

I mean that's also Hall of Fame coach over there.

I think probably the main thing. I'll look at the film.

They probably went for more of a too high shell to play in, you know, middlefield clubs blitzing a little bit more. They butzed Bobby quite a bit. But overall solid performance. I mean, left some things on there on offense, and you know we're gonna continue to improve, But kudos to the defense.

Unbelievable performance. Really proud of these guys.

Really, what a relief to get a win, even up our record to five hundred going into a week off, no question.

What does it mean to go into the buy at five hundred.

It means I can go to my dad's game a little bit happier.

Yeah, enjoyed the bye week. Thank you go Knights.

Ted's dad as the head coach at Marion University, an NAIA school in Indianapolis. The Knights are six and oh this year. Cam Taylor Britt was not the only Bengal to have a memorable birthday. Andre Yosi Vash also turned twenty four on Sunday and scored the bengals second touchdown on a three yard pass from Joe Burrow. After Andre got off the phone with Peter King for Peter's Football Morning in America column. In a few minutes with the rookie from Princeton, andre Yosi Vash caught his first NFL

Yeah, it felt awesome. You know, at first, I didn't know if it was going to stand or not because they threw a flag, but you know, they they said it was a touchdown, and I almost I mean I started to tear a little tear up a little bit once I once I started, after I was done dazzing with teeth.

But it was It was a great time.

You know.

It was a scramble drill.

You know, you're working that a lot, especially you know Joe Burrow, he can extend plays a bunch, so he's always gotta be ready. And he was actually nice enough to get me the ball after, you know, because I completely forgot about it. But you know, that's the kind of guy. He is, super thoughtful, So I was just really appreciative of set.

Yeah, he made a mad dash into the end zone to make sure that that ball was recovered.

Yeah, yeah, he did. And then I honestly completely forgot about it, and then he came up to me with the ball, and so it just shows, you know, how how thoughtful he is.

So, as you mentioned, he extended the play from your perspective, When do you realize, all right, he's buying time. I got to do something to get over Yeah.

I mean, you look at him.

You know my route took a little bit longer than it would have taken in the first place, so I already knew that there's a possibility of being a scrambled I look at him and he's already out of the pocket. So I tried to just find a hole. And you know, at that point you're just kind of you're just looking to see where something's open, and you know, lucky enough, you just put it right on me and I was able to score.

He wasn't able to do that much in the first four games because of his calf. We've seen a lot of it now in the last two weeks. Yeah. How important is that specifically in the red zone.

Yeah, it's super important because you know there's such a short field to work with, especially when you're in the red zone that you know sometimes plays need to be extended. You know, you need the extra factor for it to work because you're so confined. So it brings a different dimension to.

The offense for sure.

Let's talk about the defense for a moment. Four times in the second half Seattle had it in the low red zone and got one field goal. As you're watching that, how nerve racking?

Is it?

What's going through your mind?

Yeah, I mean it's I get nervous a little bit, But there's something about that defense that you know they're going to pull something out, you know what I mean, Like you always know they're all dogs in that defense, all ready to make a play. And so yeah, I'm nervous, but I'm also confident at the same time. So it's like a weird feeling that I don't want to know how to explain.

Yeah, the crowd was into it. The place was rocking. It was pretty remarkable when the defense kept making stop after stunt.

I mean it was incredible.

I mean, you know, they put us on their back, and it's just nice to see that we have the defense to rely on, especially if you know the offense is down or something else happens. And I love those guys you're making all those plays.

Congrats on the TD, Glad you got the ball. Congrats on the win as well. Thank you, appreciate the Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you by pay Corps, Proud to be the Bengals official HR software provider, by all to Fiber future Proof Fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health

Amazing, I mean five red zone possessions on the day, they get ten points out of a total two points per red zone possession. The low red zone defense was phenomenal. Think of all the snaps. I mean, they had to have fifteen snaps in the low red zone easily, and they didn't give up any points. I mean it was they did get a touchdown on their first red zone drive, but then interception, then they settle for field goal and then two back to back possessions where they lose the

And to me, it's always interesting to see, you every red zone drive is a little bit different. A lot of these. It was like first in goal at the five or the four, and whether it's a penalty or a sack or something, Seattle would get driven back and then the defense would come through when they had to.

Yeah, and when you look at it, I mean, Gino Smith, it seemed like he was holding the ball forever and the coverage never broke down. You know, he could never find any place to put the football in. You know, that kind of coverage will lead to quarterback sacks. Sometimes the pressure led to big plays on the other end defensively, when he put the ball in spots where he normally doesn't do it. He does normally keep the ball out

Sam Hubbard has been a great two way defensive end throughout his NFL career, not thought of around the league as a tremendous pass rusher. But he was today five quarterback hits and a keysack.

Incredible, and really you gotta tip your cap to him. I mean, he is a guy we've talked about his motor. It's NonStop. He's an overdrive. He doesn't put it in drive. He puts an over drive and keeps it there. He's a you know, unbelievably well conditioned athlete. His body's his temple, there's no doubt about that. And for him to do a lot of the things that he does, I mean, lou Anarumo will use him as a chess piece, drop him into coverage, He'll use him as a spy on

So the Bengals first two possessions were great thirteen plays sixty nine yards touchdown, seven plays seventy three yards touchdown, and then the offense was anemic after that. I don't think they had more than one first drive in any possession after that.

Yeah, first downs were hard to come by, there's no question about it. And asking guys in the locker room, did they make adjustments or was it just inefficiency in terms of execution offensively, you know, or just to tick off? And I guess probably what I derived from answers given kind of a combination of both, you know, was they did.

Three and oh against the NFC West and three against everybody else.

That's crazy.

Isn't it.

It's absolutely nuts. The winds. The winds all count. But man, it'd be nice to get one against the AFC because you know, tie breakers and all that sort of thing. That's uh, that's who we're looking at. The next game is the final component of the of the NFC West. You get four of them in a five week span. It seems like it's crazy. But and Cleveland proved that they're mortal, you know, I mean, they're there now. They played up in Cleveland and Bengals have to travel to

So at one point during the today, they put up on the video board the mile per hour that the fastest players had run during the course of the game. Whoever had been time fastest on the GPS. Joe Burrow is up there for one of his scrambles, he ran nineteen miles an hour. I think we have definitive proof that the CAF is in pretty good shape now. With an extra a week to rest.

No question, and two weeks before he has to play another game. You know, it's like he'll get a lot of rest this week and then have the weekend off and then you know, get into a normal practice again, practice habits, and I don't anticipate him having any issues during practice, and then you know, go out to San Francisco and try to whip up on the forty nine ers. Man, do I ever hope we beat the forty nine ers?

Got some bad memories about that team.

Oh Man, I can't stand those uniforms. I don't know if I vomit in the in the in the booth, it has don't take it personally.

It's just all about San Francisco. I'll bring a bucket just to be safe. Good radio show karma continues. Cam Taylor Brettline joined us last Wednesday night on our Game Plan show and had a huge interception and twenty three yard run back to set up Cincinnati's only points in the second half.

Exactly, I mean that field goal was him. The offense didn't move in an inch. And when you can get return yards like that, I mean the three interceptions that Seattle had coming into this football game, they had one hundred and fifty plus return yards. Two of them were for touchdowns, another one was over twenty yards. So I mean they're scoring points. The offense didn't have to worry.

Two straight, three out of four. Bring on the forty nine ers in two weeks.

Bring on the forty nine ers. Rest, relax, recuperate all those ours, and go out and rip the forty nine ers.

Butts Lapp, of course, played in the bengals first Super Bowl loss to San Francisco and was in the broadcast booth for the second. The Bengals did come away with a win the last time they played in San Francisco. Now time for this week's fun fact segment, where you get to know the person under the pads. Time for some fun facts with cornerback DJ Turner. After your first practice in Cincinnati, we discussed your real first name, Juan Drego.

I've gone Drego the most time. More announce Drego, cob, people call me one. Come, people call me Juan Drego, uh Drejo'drand called me dragon. I've gotten a lot of different versions of this already. I already knew it what happened, though.

So if you have a son someday, will he be one Drago the third?

Yeah, that's the plan. That's a good plan.

We're visiting the DJ Turner. You were the Bengals second round draft pick this year. Miles Murphy was the first, and in one of the great coincidences of all time, your dad was childhood friends with Miles' mom. He attended her wedding. They've remained friends over the years. How often did you two guys see each other growing up?

We saw each other once in a while, but you know, we both were so busy with football and re crud and stuff like that, so you know, we'll see each other once in a while, we played against each other something like that, So it was it was mainly more like football events, so stuff, you know, in that type of environment.

So I think many people have heard of the name Rape Buchanan, former Pro Bowl cornerback, had a twelve year NFL career. You started working with him at an early age. How did that come about?

I forgot how it came about, but yeah, I started working with him basically my freshman and sophomore your definit sophomore year of high school. And yeah, I forgot exactly how it came out, but yeah, I went to him, and yeah, I'm going him basically ever since.

It's pretty advanced training for a young kid who aspires to be a cornerback.

Yeah, yeah, I definitely installed a lot of stuff earlier into me.

How did you gravitate to defense as opposed to trying to score touchdowns with your athletic ability.

I didn't want to depend on the quarterback, Yes, it's really all. That's really all I came down. So I didn't want to depend on the quarterback.

So yeah, when you catch their passes. Now you can turn them into pick sixes.

Yeah, ex actually that's how you know, That's how I looked at it.

We're chatting with DJ Turner. In your senior year of high school, you elected to attend the IMG Academy, which is a prep school that has a great program for aspiring athletes. I've always been fascinated by the IMG Academy. It seems like an Olympic village to me. There are tennis and golf, prodigies, football, basketball, baseball, et cetera. What was that experience like and how did it prepare you for the future.

Oh?

Yeah, it definitely was good. IG's basically is college. That's really what it is. It definitely gives you prepare for next up and you're playing against the best people in the country, so it definitely is a good thing.

Speaking of college, you could have gone anywhere, Alabama, Notre Dame, Florida, you name it. You chose to go to Michigan. Did you enjoy the recruiting process or did you find it stressful?

I wouldn't say either those. I mean it was cool. You know, no colleges wanted to go, you know, I had them many offers, but it got to the point in time I was kind of tired of it, and so, you know, really just narrowed it down to a few schools, and yeah, I just chose Michigan, and yeah, it was the best decisions for me.

I heard you tell a story about Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh that I'm hoping you will repeat. There was apparently a whiteboard sign in his office that is the result of a conversation he had with your dad.

Oh. Yeah, before I committed it, might said he his son Jack Yead, his son named Jet, and he said, I want you to treat dej On how you treat your son Jack. And so he wrote that on the whiteboard live when I was a recruit, and to this day it's stilling his whiteboard.

So you were there at Michigan for four years and every time you'd walk into his office you would see what he wrote down as a result of that conversation with your dad.

Yeah.

Actually it's pretty good stuff. So in your final two years at Michigan, the team was great, qualified for the College Football Playoff both times you beat Ohio State in back to back years, and the first win over Ohio State ended an eight game head to head losing streak against the buck Eyes. What was the euphoria like after that game when you were part of the team that ended that streak.

Oh man, it was great. It was a great feeling. You know, that game is is huge. It's a lot of a lot on the line for that game, so so you know, change the dynamic of what's been going on or what was happening in the past previously games Devil was a great feeling.

How do you feel about Buckeyes.

I mean, I don't really know what to say about that. I mean mission, I got to beat them. That's all that's been I feel about them.

As long as the Wolverines tryumph you a happy man. So you left school with one year of eligibility remaining for the NFL, and at the NFL scouting combine, you ran the fastest forty yard dash of anybody, four point twenty six. When you crossed the finish line and saw the time up on the board. What went through your mind.

I knew I was gonna run that, so, I mean, I was gonna try to run another one to break try to break the record, But it just wasn't the best Where kind of stuff was going on. So uh but yeah, I mean that was that was I wasn't surprised anything. I knew it wasn't run that all.

Right, let's do some wild card topics now with DJ Turner. Who is your favorite athlete in any sport?

Girling up Lebron? Easy? You know Lebron James I was always.

Do you consider him to be the greatest player of all time?

Yes? Easy as I've been in the date except for me.

Said, The Michael Jordan argument carries no weight with you.

No, not at all. I mean, but I mean, obviously Minel Jordan is Michael Jordan.

But for me, Now, is there anything you're really bad at?

Bad at? I don't draw, so I probably said drawing would be the worst task I have. I don't.

I don't draw a lot stick figures or about the extent of it.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm a six figure type guy.

Join the cloud. I'm right there with you. What do you like to spend your money on.

I'm not always get clothes. I'll buy stuff with my dog like stuff like that. So my video games, you know, my streaming set up, stuff like that. So I'll say, like those type of things.

How long have you had a dog. What type of dog do you have and what is his or her name?

I got a dog. That was the first thing I did with my sign and bonus and uh so, as soon as I the first day we got out of ot As, I got my dog and uh all white Siberian Husky and I named her Island.

Sounds like a beautiful dog. Do you have any especially meaningful tattoos?

Yeah?

I actually have a lot of tattoos. They all mean something, So I mean every tattoo I have mean something on me, all part of your life story, Yeah, pretty much, pretty much. All right, final fun fact with DJ Turner. This one's a little bit deep. If you could meet anybody in history, who would that person be? I mean, I, of course I want me Jesus when he came that, I want to me Malcolm X No, those be probably my top two.

All right. Appreciate the time, Thank you so much. Best of the rest of the year.

Appreciate it, thank you, thank you.

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