Bengals Booth Podcast: Let's Get It On

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 making Nick

Cosgrey an honorary captain. When the Bengals took the field for the opening coin toss on Sunday, three captains headed to the fifty yard fine Trey Hopkins coming back from a torn ACL, Joe Burrow coming back from a torn ACL, and mcl and a key person who assisted in their comebacks, the Bengals Director of Rehab, Nick Cosgray. Here's Burrow, and I think it was a great way to honor Nick, who Who's the guy that you know works really really hard for us, and you know, it's really an unsung

hero of the team. He's a guy that gets a lot of guys right. Whether whatever injury you have, you go to Nick, He's gonna he's gonna get you right and tell you what you need to do to minimize the effects of that injury. So you know, Nick's a very important part of this organization that no, I'm really glad we were able to honor him in that way. Now, let's get the Sunday's game. The big story going in was Joe Burrow's return forty sundays after being carted off

the field in Washington. Joe was told he would be in for three plays. The first was a jet sweep hand off to Tyler Boyd. The second was his only pass of the preseason Goyle. The Bengals line up in a pistol, Burrow five yards behind Trey Hopkins, Bixon directly behind him to fake to mix in a wide receiver screen dropped by Jamar Chase. That's right. In the Bengals final two preseason games, Chase dropped all four passes thrown his way. His quarterback says he's not concerned. I'm not

worried about it. I know kind of got Jamar is the kind of player he is, He'll be ready to go. Week one. After a handoff to Joe Mixon, Burrow's day was done. The Dolphins didn't play either of their top two quarterbacks two a Tungo Vyloa and Jacoby Brissette. Instead, third stringer Reid Sanett got the start and directed a thirteen play drive in the first quarter to give Miami the lead. From the three yard line. He takes the

snapsticks it in the belly of Dokes. Dokes, lowers his pads and fights his way into the end zone from Miami touchdown. Dokes, his former UC bear had Jared Doakes, who gave the Dolphins a seven nothing lead. Brandon Allen replaced burrowind quarterback and promptly drove the Bengals right down the field. Allen, ucker center, takes the snap, fakes a

hand off to trade theon. Williams fires down field. It is caught by Trenton Irwin gets nailed at the Miami thirty two yard line, but holds on to the football after the big hit by Nick Needham. That's two weeks in a row. Two weeks in a row he's caught the football, taking a major shot and held onto the football. Irwin finished with two catches for thirty nine yards, putting the finishing touch on a strong training camp and preseason. It's wild. I mean, it's it's two years of grinding

for more and more opportunities. You know, it's a beautiful thing. Really in the end, you look at it and just trying to go down there day in day out in grind to make plays and catch someone's eye to get an opportunity, and just one more opportunities is all you need to compile those. The Bengals tied the game on the first play of the second quarter. Brandon Allen throwing toward the end, so he drops it into the bucket,

hit his cock for a touchdown. Chris Evans lining up and receiver and streaking down the sideline and Brandon Allen threw it just over the inside shoulder, right into the bread basket for the score, right on dan ball placement. It's everything in the National Football League. Good protection, clean pocket, un obscured vision, and Chris Evans, Like we said, they knew that he could run routes and catch the football,

and he just burned people. That was a twenty nine yard strike on a play that's been working at practice. According to Evans, I'm running it all camp just to be able to it in the game, and they called it and already knew. I've been going over it in and seeing him myself catching it, and a walk through yesterday at night. I'm dreaming about it. That tied the score at seven, and a few minutes later, the Bengals

defense made a big play. Shotgun snaps Sinette throws and he's intercepted a deflected ball that's picked off by Since add the Bengals are running it back. The tackle made at the Miami forty four on trey Von Henderson his second interception in three preseason games. It led to a thirty six yard Austin cyberd field goal in a ten seven Bengals lead, but Miami answered with another long scoring drave.

Jared Oakes already has one touchdown run, they give it to him and Doakes takes it into the end zone for his second TD, so Miami takes the lead with one eighteen left. In the half, not a one yard touchdown run by Jared Doakes. It was fourteen ten Dolphins, and after a holding penalty on the kick return, the Bengals had to start from their own seven with one

thirteen on the clock. Fortunately, with rookie kicker Evan McPherson on the roster, the Bengals only needed to drive to the Miami thirty nine to be within field goal range. Harris snaps to Hubery, puts it down the swing of the leg. The kick is long enough and it is yes good. Evan McPherson from fifty seven yards away ends the first half with a booming field goal, cementing his status as the bengals number one kicker in twenty twenty one. With Kyle Shermer at quarterback. In the second half, the

Bengals got lucky and took the lead. Fourth down and fourth to Miami forty six. Shermer cox the en throws deflected Cock off the deflection, Trent Taylor streaking down the far sideline inside the twenty, down to the ten, inside the five and tackled at the one. First and goal from the one. It's a handoff to Jock first Patrick and he goes into the end zone with ease to

give the Bengals the lead. After the forty five yard pass completion on a deflection to Trent Taylor, the Bengals took a twenty to fourteen lead to the fourth quarter, the third straight preseason game that they led going to the fourth, and they added to their lead with roughly ten minutes to go. Shotgun snapped to Shermer's back to throw. Now scrambling, le cocks the arm, throws into the end zone and his cat for the touchdown by Scottie Washington.

The Bengals went for two and failed to convert, meaning they had a twelve point lead. It didn't last. Senet, back to throw from the pocket, flings a deep pass merit open over the shoulder catch at the ten, and he runs into the end zone for the score. That forty four yard pass came on a second and twenty two play and cut the Bengals lead to five. The worst was still to come. Fourth and fifteen, with one thirty two to go. Senet waits for the shotgun snap.

He has three receivers right, one left. He catches the ball deep drop, being chased by Spence, gets away from him. Runs away from Hodge, points deep steps into a deep ball throw into the end zone and it is for a touchdown by Merit who spikes the ball and make it Myrick with the catch. Unbelievable. Here's Zach Taylor and allowing two long touchdown passes and the fourth quarter to

squander a double digit advantage. I think today there was plenty of opportunities to finish the game, you know, particularly on the defense there in that last round. Guys, the plenty shots we need to finish it. We didn't do it. I just told the teams just smarting lessons here in preseason game three as opposed to two, three, four or five weeks from now. You got opportunities. You got to take advantage of them. You never know what's gonna happen next. And then so again we should go on from this.

The Bengals could have tied the game and avoided a loss since there's no overtime in the preseason, but with less than thirty seconds to go, they passed up a fifty yard field goal attempt to go for it. On fourth and ten, Shermer back to throw the pocket closes, he throws it deep, it is battered away at the five yard line, incomplete, and that should wrap it up for the Dolphins. As Igbanagan he broke up that deep

ball intended for Washington. The final score Miami twenty nine, Cincinnati twenty six, as the Bengals finished the preseason one and two. Here's Burrow. I'm just excited for preseason to be over and get ready to play the first game. You know, we're tired of going against each other in practice every day and hitting each other and getting in fights because we see each other every day. It's gonna

be nice to go out there and hit someone. When accounts, the Bengals out gained Miami four thirteen to three eighty eight, including one hundred twenty rushing yards to only sixty nine for the Dolphins, but the Bengals hurt themselves with penalties. They had eleven to just five by Miami. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Bud Light Seltzer. It's light

and refreshing with a hint of fruit flavor. Now time for postgame analysis from Dave Lapham lap I don't want to make too big of a deal of blowing a twelve point fourth quarter lead when the second and third string is in the game. But the Bengals had the lead in the fourth quarter of all of their preseason games they only won one, And going back to last year before Joe Borrow got hurt, they had the lead

in the fourth quarter six times and won twice. So regardless of first string, second string, or third string, that is a habit they need to break it is And I think if you go back over Zach's entire career, they've had a fourth quarter lead probably sixty sixty five percent of the time and not being able to hold on to it. So finishing games continues to be an issue.

And I remember Bill Tiger Johnson, a legendary offensive line coach with the Bengals and head coach for a period of time here, had a saying that there's going to be a handful of players or less that are going to decide football games, and you never know when they're going to occur, and you have to be ready to make the play when the opportunity for that play presents itself. This game ended up a fourth and fifteen. They made

the play. Bengals on fourth down couldn't make a play, and that decided in the football game basically, But there was Ying and Yang long before that. And you have to take advantage of your opportunities, and the team that takes advantage of a bigger percentage of them usually wins the football game. In Zach Taylor's first two seasons, they've had a lead, not necessarily a fourth quarter lead, but a lead in twenty four out of thirty two games.

That's seventy five percent. They've won six. That's nineteen percent. Yeah, it's, uh, you know, the game is four quarters for a reason. You know, it's it's it's sixty minutes long. There are four fifteen minute quarters, and you have to play the entire sixty minutes. And I guess nobody knows that better than the Cincinnati Bengals under Zach Taylor right now, that's for sure. All right, here's my favorite stat of the

three preseason games. The Bengals gave up one sack, and the only sack they allowed was when the offensive line wasn't even trying to block because the ball was snapped early. That's impressive. It is impressive, and I think, you know, everybody should should accept some of the some of the uh, the credit for it. I think the offensive line, I think, uh, you know, tight ends running backs, if there's blitz pick up responsibility, quarterback getting the ball out of their hands,

creating extending plays when necessary. But I think that's a major step forward that in that that play, you know, it was exacerbated. There was a problem by a rookie Trey Hill with an early snap and they get pressure as a result of it, and instead of just throwing the football away trying to make something happen, and now it turns into a fumble. So a bad play becomes a horrible play. So that quarterback sack was a was

a catastrophe. But really, I think I think the guys believe in what Frank Pollock's trying to teach, and I think that's you know, shows itself. I think they're they're definitely buying what he's selling. And I thought that the protection for the most part, you didn't see free runners. You know, you didn't see guys getting beaten on first moves at the line of scrimmage. I think I think

it's trending in a very good direction. I felt good about Jamar Chase's last three practices going into this game. He practiced well and I think he had one drop in three days and then sure enough in a game, first time the ball is thrown his way, he drops it again. The last four games, I'm sorry, the last two games, four targets, four drops. I don't want to panic. I'm not going to panic, but it's impossible not to be concerned. Yeah, he's going to get out of his

own head. You know, I think when that ball came his way, obviously, you know, Zach Taylor talked about after the game that Joe Burrow was coming out of the game and the number ones were coming out of the game. After three snaps that they generated a first down, they were still exiting the field. So there's no doubt that every single offensive player knew the sequence of the players

that were going to be called. So Jamar Chase knew for probably a few days that a ball was coming to him on a wide receiver screen, and you know, maybe it's a case. So I want to try to do too much. I'm going to peek and see where they are before I catch it because I want to make a big play. I want to have a big splash with Joe. First ball comes my way and I

want it to be special. And first thing you have to do is look the ball into your hands, and particularly with what he's going through, you can't you can't be not lazy, but you can't have your eyes everywhere. They have to be on the target, and that's the football, and look it in, catch it and then make your move, and don't try to speed up the process because things will happen that you don't want to happen, like dropping the football. So he's got to get out of his

own head. He's going to go back to the basic basic fundamentals, the one, two three of catching the football. And the first thing you have to do is keep your eyes on the football, look the football into your hands, don't take your head away before the football hit your hands, and try to locate defensive players too soon. Catch it first, you got to you gotta take baby steps and it's going to be an ABC process and he's gonna get

step bad down first catch the foot ball. Let's talk about some of the position battles going into this final preseason game, starting with tight end Mason Shrek, Thaddeus Moss, and Mitchell Wilcox. It's been a spirited competition all camp. They all bring something a little bit different to the table. Wilcox had a tackle in kick coverage, made a great catch on a third and long situation, then suffered a concussion.

Thaddius Moss had five catches in the game. You would think at least I think Moss and Wilcox have moved to the top of the totem pole. Now can you keep them both? Do you keep one? The other guy goes to the practice squad. It's gonna be very interesting to see it is. It's going to be very interesting because Thaddeus Moss has already experienced this kind of thing with one organization with Washington and let go and the

Bengals pick him up. And Joe Burrow was effusive in his praise of what a smart football player Thaddeus Moss is and what a reliable football player he is in terms of not making mistakes, understanding concepts, understanding you know, what his role is in the big picture scheme of the offense, and uh, you know, he speaks extremely highly of them. Of course they're good personal friends as well. But I think he's, you know, just a football player. I think he gets it. He gets the game of football,

and he's been around it his whole life. His dad was a superstar, So he's seen that part of it. He knows he's not that kind of player, but he understands that he can do some things in the game of football. So I think he's you know, I think he's somebody that is going to find a knitche somewhere and when he gets his opportunity, he's going to take advantage of it. Will it be here like you say, or will it be somewhere else. Wilcox is the most athletic of them. He can run the best, He's got

the most foot speed. I think Darren Simmons can work with that. And you know, he made a spectacular play, got lit up and got the concussion on that catch. But you know he'll make big plays like that, and then his plays are his big plays are big, his mistakes are big. So there has to be instead of North and South Pole, there has to be an evening of that graph, you know, and and coaches have to know what they can expect out of Wilcox on a snap by snap by snap basis not say is this

the one where it's going to be good Wilcox? Is this the one where it's going to be Oh my gosh, Wilcox. You know that's tough on a coaching staff. Another sack for Darius Hodge, the undrafted rookie out of Marshall leads the team with two and a half in the preseason with Joe's Fosi out as Darius Hodge made this team as a pass rusher, boy, and I think that's what

you have to look at as a pass rusher. You know he'll he'll give you, depending on how the game's going, ten to fifteen snaps as a pass rusher on second and long, third and long situations. You know, if it's more than that, you're really in good shape defensively with his role. If his role he gives you twenty snaps, that means you're getting the offense off schedule all the time and he's going to be making more and more plays. But you know his role is defined. Is that right now?

Darren Simmons, I think, is trying to find where that he can utilize him on special teams but hasn't found that yet. So it's it's going to be a case where, all right, a guy who came in as a linebacker, but they found this innate ability to rush the passer. Okay, linebackers shouldn't play some special teams or you know a tweener guy, you know a guy that can fit a couple of roles. What about special teams contribution. I think that's going to be the big discussion with Darren Simmons.

But man, when you have a guy that has that innate ability to rush the passer and he's shown it on a snap by snap basis against you know, not just twos and threes, but number ones, I think he's got to work with the guy. He has just a very natural Everything he does is leaning and advancing to the quarterback, and he's got that low center of gravity and it's just hard for the taller guys to you gotta bend to get that. He puts you in a

different position to pass protect than you normally are. Just everything has to be lower and tighter, and he's he's got he's got a skill set. So it's going to be interesting to see if, if, if he does make the team. I think he's made a case. So Noah Spence got signed about a week ago, got a few practices in, played quite a bit in the game against Miami, almost had a sack on the final play. What turned out to be the game. When he touchdown passed for

the Dolphins, did he make an impression? You know, I think he flashed a little bit. He flashed a few times in terms of his his rush, but again, um, it wasn't against you know, number ones, and he hasn't been here to go against number ones. But you got to remember, I think he's he's really just now shifting

it into drive, you know. I mean he was in neutral and I think he's just trying to get his wind and get his football conditioning, you know, right, So I think I think his NFL path has shown that he can do it. Um, I think you know, they're trying to get him ready to do it in a very very fast fashion, fast manner. And the things you fear about something like that is what if he pulls a himmy? What if he you know, he's trying to do too much before his body is ready to allow

him to do it. So you have to be smart about it. But you know, the circumstances are a little bit dire because of other injuries. So it's going to be interesting to see and it's going to be interesting to see how they address the edge rush position off the waiver wire if they try to make a trade for somebody's fourth or fifth guy that they feel might be better than their fourth or fifth guy. I think they're going to try to improve that portion of the

roster every way they possibly can. I hope Goled Karma is okay, because he got off to a tremendous start, got off to a very good start training camp before hurting his shoulder. Now he gets off to a great start in this game and has to exit due to injury. But he's a guy that when he's been on the

field this year has looked good. He really and I think it's one of those situations where you may have to just really monitor put him to pitch count in terms of snaps, because if if it's an arthritic condition, that's not necessarily you know, like a joint problem that surgery is going to repair. I mean, it's just something that you have to treat and take care of and um, you know, give it proper rest and all those sorts

of things. And then and then the player has to grit his teeth and kind of fight through it because there's going to be some pain there, but you're not worsening the injury as such. You just have to fight through and learn how to deal with, you know, playing with that type of a malady. And that's that's gonna be interesting to see if he can do that, because he does have some length, uh some some ability to

come off the edge and make plays. I mean, the first three snaps of the game, he was a factor in two of them with the deflection in the sack. You can't ask more than that. The longest field goal Enfranchise history is fifty seven yards. Mike Knugia did it in a playoff game, Randy Bullock did in a regular season game, and now Evan McPherson has done it in

a preseason game. Do you agree my bold prediction that the record held by your former teammate Horst Muleman of four fifty yard field goals in a single season, that's a Bengals record, not an NFL record, but that Bengals record is going to go down this year when Evan McPherson kicks more than four fifty yard field goals. I think there's a real strong chance. I think he's gonna beat the record two of a fifty seven yard field goal for the for the club record. I think he's

gonna he's gonna touch sixty or maybe surpass it. I mean, gosh, he made that fifty seven yard field goal such an effortless swing of the leg and cleared it by at least three yards. I mean it would have been good from sixty plus. So he's a he's a unique special talent. And the thing about him that is real impressive is those long field goals. He gets such a quick trajectory and it stays so straight. I mean, it doesn't it doesn't fade, it doesn't hook. I mean he is. It's

amazing how straight he hits. Uh, he hits his his shots. You know, it's like a golfer that just keeps, you know, piping the thing down the middle of the fairway and right to the pin, just piping everything. He seems to be able to do that from any distance. It's it's really remarkable to watch the kid, how pure he strikes the football. Did Kyle Schermer do enough to wrap up

third quarterback? Probably in the practice squad third quarterback? Or do you think they'll be scouring tape of rosters out there to see if there's a better practice squad quarterback available. I think you got to do your due diligence. But after the Washington game, I would have thought they're going to find something. But I thought he rebounded very well. I thought he put up some good numbers. I thought he was efficient in the way he played his decision making. Again,

I thought his protection was pretty good. Like you pointed out, I agree with you, but he has something to do with that as well. I just thought that the whole operation was much better than what took place out there in Washington. If the quarterback play had been like today in Washington, that would have been a victory in Washington, and it should have been a victory today. I mean, it's not like any one of these football games that the Bengals were manhandled and had no right being in

the football game. But I do thought I did think that the quarterback play was not good enough against Washington. I thought it was good enough to win football games today. Do you have the biggest positive overall from the preseason and training camp? I think the biggest positive two things. I think. I'm a big believer, and it starts up front and from what I saw of the number one defensive line and guys that are going to rotate in there.

The rotation guys in that defensive front and the young linebackers, you know, that front seven. I saw some things that I really liked, and I think that the offensive line has made some strides with Frank Pollock. So I think that you have to be able to compete on a consistent basis on gaming and a week on a weekly basis upfront in the trenches on both sides of the football to have a chance, and I do think that

I've seen improvement in both of those areas. I thought it was very, very suspect last year, and injuries were a big part of it. But everybody gets hurt. All teams get hurt in the National Football League, I do think they've done a good job on accumulating much more depth to their roster. I think they have more guys that can play at a higher level, and I think that it's going to be better on both sides of

the football. I can pretty much guarantee this. There's not a team in the NFL that had a better sack differential in the preseason. The Bengals had three more sacks in this game, six more quarterback hits. Like we said earlier, they only gave up one sack. The entire preseason deferential was incredible between the amount of pressure they generated and the amount they gave up. Yeah, and I think that speaks to you know, the numbers show what my eyeballs

are telling me, you know, watching these guys. We talked about it a couple of times during the course of the preseason games. Dan that the size of their defensive line interior. I mean, they're big inside. They have big body guys, and they're bigger than they're bigger than they've been for a while. And they're not stiffs. You know, It's like these guys stay on their feet. It's not like they're just big lugs and you know they're just

trying to blob people. I mean, these guys, these guys can take up space, they can two gap, they can move, they can stay on their feet, they can get off blocks. So I'm encouraged. It's built the right way. Big, strong, fortifying the inside. They've got some edge speed on the on the perimeter, and that's the way today's NFL and really a lot of NFL great defenses have been built. So um again, I think they have more guys that can give them quality snaps than they've had since Zach

Taylor's been here. Do you have the biggest disappointment or negative? Is it Jamar's drops? Is it something else? Yeah? I mean I think I think that, you know, again, it's it's it's limited snaps, it's small sample size, but Lamar's drops and Tea and Tyler Boyd, they just didn't play enough, you know, to be able to make a make a judgment. But uh, you know, I want to see the Big three get off to a really fast start, you know, and I think I think they can. I think Joe

Mixon is prime for a big year. And uh and I think you know that if they can, if they can run the football when they have to, you know, sometimes it's like, you know, it's not going to be easy, but you're still going to have to run the football. And if you if you can't run the football, you're gonna be in real trouble. There's gonna be days where it's going to be easier to run the football, and

then everything falls into place. Some days you know, you just can't run the football, and then it's going to be harder to throw the football and you're gonna have to figure out a way, you know, to be able to be able to run the football. So I think Joe Mixon is going to have a big impact on this on this football team. And and the best defense is an offense that you know, controls the clock, controls

the snap count. You know, if you're snapping the football and a consistent basis ten to fifteen snaps per game more than the opponent is, you got a shot. And I think I think this team can do that kind of thing. I think the defense can get off the field and cost some turnovers, get the football extra possessions of the football to the offense, and the offense take advantage and just play really good complimentary football. I think the roster is sound enough and deep enough to play

really sound, complimentary football. And in order to compete in this division, never mind, you know, win more games than you lose. Just to compete in this division, you dan well better play complimentary football because all the others will be This division is a beast, you know, set it before. You can be a decent football team and still go two and four or worse if you don't play complimentary football.

So you've better dan well play complimentary football. Uh and play good sound you know not you can't expect to play six perfect games, but minimize mistakes against the AFC North, or it could be miserable for you seventeen games to look forward to. The fun begins in two weeks. I can't wait. I can't wait either. I'm hoping at least eight and I get out of the double digit loss scenario. Win, you know, win eight and if I breaks fall your way, maybe you can get up to double digit wins. Who knows,

But I can't wait either. I think it's going to be interests to see how this whole thing unfolds. So now we wait to find out who makes the fifty three man roster. NFL teams have until four pm on Tuesday to make their final cuts. That's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to you by bud Light Seltzer. Refresh the game. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe, and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a

comment that helps more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde, and thanks for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast