Hig and everybody.
I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading The Bengals Booth Podcast. The Working on Our Night moves addition, as we look ahead to Monday Night football at Paycorp Stadium, as the Bengals host the one and one Washington Commanders Coming up. Former Bengals safety Solomon Wilcotts, the host of the opening Drive show on Sirius XM NFL Radio, joins me to discuss how the Bengals can overcome their zero and two start.
Tight Ends coach James Casey discusses a huge day for his position group at Kansas City, and in our no thea Faux segment, we get an in depth look at the Commanders from their radio voice, Bram Weinstein. 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 to elevate your home, business, and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health
the Best Care for the Bests. Cattering Health is the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. Now here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered write to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since drivers that do the thank you wave. I consider
myself to be a very polite driver. If there's a long line of traffic and you're one lane over looking to merge in, I'm the guy that always slows down to let you pull in front of me. Well, all I hope for in return is a quick wave of acknowledgment through the back window, a small gesture to say thanks for your consideration. I always do it when a fellow driver makes room for me, and when I don't get the wave from another driver, it almost feels like
I'm getting a middle finger instead. Now let's get to my first guest. Solomon Wilcott started its safety for the Bengals in Super Bowl twenty three and has gone on to have a highly successful career in broadcasting. He currently hosts the Opening Drive show on sirius XM NFL Radio in addition to hosting the Believe In Bengals podcast, and Sally joined me this week to discuss the team coming off that one point loss at Kansas City.
I've had to check my blood pressure more frequently than I ever had. These games are taking more of a toll on me than than they used to. You know, it was one of those games that I felt like we wanted, except every time I go back and look at the final score, I was, you know, became more aware that we didn't win it. So look, I think the team played much better week two than week one.
I love the fact that the defense came to play and may Patrick Mahomes look human, right, And man, I can't say enough about the energy of Trey Hendrickson that he plays with. He makes he makes you proud to be a Bengals fan.
Have you seen a better interception than Cam Taylor BRIT's one handed snag? And what do you think of his development as the Bengals quote unquote shutdown corner.
Well, I was talking about him on my show on Serious Xmnfield Radio in the opening drive after he had made his statements, and I tried to tell people, that's not trash talking for Cam Taylor Brit That's that's Cam being Cam like if you know him, very confident young man. He has a knack and a fair and a flair for making plays. And I told him, I said dude, you I said, you're one of the great playmakers that we've ever had here who just have a knack for
finding the football. I mean, the ball finds hailm at times. And that play he made was one of the greatest interceptions you're ever going to see. And it was against one of the greatest quarterbacks you could ever intercept, and he made it look easy backhanded the ball with one hand while still having you know, just great relationship to
the receiver. And so if you understand how you play in sequence in pass covers, particularly a press manda man covers, to get your head around find the ball but still not lose the receiver and make a play on the ball without losing relation to the receiver. That it clearly was one of the greatest press man demand cover interceptors that you're ever going to see. So kudos to Cam Taylor. Britt Let's move to.
The other starting outside corner. How do you think Dax Hill is coming along as he makes that switch from safety to outside corner?
Come along good, but could be better and more it's more about the angles in his run defense right and just coming up to make tackles and being in good relationship to where the ball is hitting at the line of scrimmage. If you're at corner, you're an outside defender. Outside in at Saale when he was at the safety position, you're an inside out defender. It's like the first play with Madre Stevens week one. He bounces it and if you're the corner, you got to be there to make
that play. Man, you got to even see that one coming and be there early, so there's better angles you can take and run defense. But you know, at the end of the day, Man, last week, I thought we did a really good better job in coverage. We're not giving up the explosive plays we're getting off the field. On third down. DJ Turner came in. He made a playing man. I think, just as young corners, you need to begin to stock consistent good plays where your confidence
can grow. But there's no doubt they're getting taught great technique and now they got to trust that technique against some of the best wide receivers. You're gonna every week, Man, you're playing against some wide receivers who can embarrass you if you don't bring your technique and if you don't play with great deal of confidence in your pass coverage skills.
Alvin Willcotts is our guest. You're in an NFL safety for six years. What's the teaching point for rookie Djon Anthony on that pass interference call at the end of the game.
Play the ball. Play the ball you got You got there in time enough to play the ball too. You're in you're in zone coverage. So zone coverage, you know what it allows you to cheat. It allows you to see the quarterback. It allows you to see the ball when the ball's being thrown. You can still see the receiver, the quarterback and the ball simultaneously, something that Cam Taylor Britt did get to see on the interception he made. You're playing blind almost in that case, but in zone coverage,
when you're top down, you get to see everything. You just play the ball's thrown. Now, go play the ball. Don't play the man because you're gonna end up hitting him before the ball arrives. Right when you get a chance to play the ball, man, you gotta play the ball because even if you knock it down or catch it right, if they could care less about the receiver at that point, if you bump into him while catching it,
nobody's gonna care because you were playing the ball. They won't threw a flag for pass interference in that case. So he had a chance to get an interception in in the game. He had a chance to knock the ball down in the game. Unfortunately, the worst case scenario occurred and into the game for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Lou Aniromo said the defensive tackles were completely exhausted, which was one of the reasons why he elected to rush three and drop eight. He said he would do it one hundred times out of one hundred times. Did you take any issue with that strategy under those circumstances with Mahomes and quarterback.
No, I agree. Look, it's okay to give a quarterback all day to throw if he has nowhere to throw. He really didn't have anywhere to throw, because this should have been better defended. The defensive back arrived early. He didn't arrive on time. He got there early. The ball hit him in the head after he was hitting the receiver. No, I don't question because think about it, we were already depleted at the interior defensive line position. You already know that.
Then we lost bj Hill, then we lost Sheldon Rankins, you can't play. You can't mount a pass rush. You know how I'm gonna tell you. Defensive linemen, that's why you need a rotation of guys, because defensive players you play to react. You gotta play off the offense. Right, there's keys that we read, but we are always in a reaction mode. There's more energy exerted when you're on the defense because you're reacting. You don't know what assignment you're gonna have to carry out on any given play.
You gotta wait for the offense to show you and then you jump into whether it's a pass rush or your run. You're playing the run or you're playing the pass and what you're actually I'm not dropping and my rushing. You've got to wait for the offense to kind of to get your clues, to get your reads, to know what to do because you're always in this reactionary mode. That's why you rotate defensive linemen. But you never rotate offensive lineman, do you, Because they play from the offense.
They don't use extra energy trying to react to what other people do. They're not chasing bunny rabbits all over the field like these big defensive linemen. They're chasing running backs and quarterbacks and wide receivers, so you have to rotate those guys. Well, we had no rotation. They were all hurt and so on a fourth and sixteen, you
know what you're doing. You're playing the sticks. You're playing the first down marker because that's where they got to get to for a new set of downs and if they don't get their game over, So you don't put all the energy in the backfield or chasing a quarterback who's hard to catch anyway, you want to use those resources to defend the first down marker. We had it well defended. The play call was perfect. The execution is where they fail. And that's why we say coaches have
all the power and no control. You know, it has the control dan the players. The players have to execute the plan. It was a great plan, failure of execution on fourth and sixteen that that really falls on the players.
Sally, let's talk about Joe Burrow. Two touchdown passes, no picks, a passer rating of one oh three point seven. What stood out to you about his play at Kansas City the fumble?
And you know, I'm the biggest Joe Burrow fan there is, and I look players aren't perfect, none of us are, and we all make mistakes. But what we cannot do is turn the ball over, especially when you're on the road against a championship team. That's the takeaway. If we are trying to become a championship team. That's so I'm speaking from that perspective because I believe that Joe Burrow is a championship quarterback even before the trophy arrives. He's mind.
He's a championship quarterback, and the championship quarterbacks protect the football. That's that's rule and priority number one. You talk to Tom Brady and I've met with him and talk with him, and if you listen to him, he won seven Super Bowls because he protects the football and not that he's perfect, not saying it never got away from him. You know this, Joe Montana played at four Super Bowls. In those four games, he never turned it over. But I will say this,
Joe is getting into rhythm now. He's getting into a better feel for some of the new players around him, like andre Yoshi Vash the assortment of tight ends that he's throwing to. He found a deep ball, the biggest scrimmage play so far of the season to Jermaine Burton that getting in to have some comfort with these new players around him is not an easy thing. Playing quarterback in this league is not an easy thing. And I'm
telling you we have one of the best. Even the quarterback playing for these other teams, they know we have
one of the best. So I love Joe Burrow, love what he's doing, the way he's managing things, the way he's trying to manage through some tough situations, man and trying to nurture the relationships on this team to keep everything together, to keep it from falling apart, because some brinksmanship is being played right now and you don't want to do that as you're trying to make a run for a championship.
Those tight ends combined for fourteen catches for one hundred and fifty one yards. They played two and three tight ends quite a bit during the course of the game. Did we see kind of the next evolution of the Bengals offense where they can do that more?
Yeah? You know, Mike Oseeki's one of these guys. He just he makes you say wow one minute and he just haves you pounding the table to next. Heck of a player I always I loved him when he was at Penn State. I would go to Ohio State games and I watched him at Saquon Barkley and trace Mick Sorely, those guys all the quarterback they all played at Penn State. I love that team that they had at Penn State. So he's a huge find. He's great inside the red zone.
He knows how to work off coverage very well in that knack that you see from Travis Kelps. He's gonna put up some big numbers this year. Hey, look, Eric All is as good as you could ever be at the position. I think you're watching a star in the making, and I don't want to speak too prematurely. He's got a bright future ahead of himself. And look in Tanner Hudson, despite the fumble from week one, we know he can make plays. Let's hope he learned from that and help
us to protect the ball. And look, we even got deeper rotation than that at the tight end position. So no, I think we're rich there. Finally, I think we're rich at that position. There's an embarrassment of riches and I think it's just going to keep coming.
The wash engine commanders come to town on Monday Night, led by the Heisman Trophy winner from last year, the second picking the draft, Jade and Daniels. He hasn't thrown a touchdown pass yet, but he's on a pace to run for more than eleven hundred yards where they're going to be some of the keys to limiting him on Monday Night.
Yeah, this one, Like we know, Patrick Mahomes is a dual threat quarterback, but he's he's like, he's a dual threat quarterback, just like Joe Burrow's a dual threat. Joe can hurt you with his legs, he just rather throw it first. And Patrick Mahomes is the same way. These young guys they'll they'll kill you or whatever they got, you know, they'll slice and dice you with their arm.
And Jade and Daniels, I watched him play for HERM Edwards and he was at Arizona State and I went out there and watched him play and just I remember he was a freshman. He was poised then and now you see him as a rookie, the guy. One thing he has now for a young quarterback. I know these other guys, they get deer in the headlights. Look We've seen it with Caleb Williams. I think we've even seen it with some of these other young quarterbacks right who
are getting a chance to play. Bow Nicks. You saw it with him, we two. You don't see that with Jaydon Daniels. He's he's a guy that stays within himself. He doesn't panic and just throw the ball to the opposing defense. We're gonna have to get confuse him a little bit. If he runs it, you gotta touch him up a little bit. But he's hard to corral. He's gonna remind you of a young Randall Cunningham. He's got that same sleek sort of physique and he can run like the win. He's hard to catch and he can
sling it now. His arm is lively, but he's very poised. That's what I love about him as a young quarterback. His poise is on is uncommon for a rookie quarterback. So we're gonna have to get to him and touch him up. But we got Trey Hendrickson and Sayam Hubbard. These guys can get after it. Hopefully we have some guys to play on the interior part of our our defensive line. By the way, they had a kicker seeper he kicked seven field goals last week for a win. Seven.
He's a weapon in and of himself. So I don't know that I've ever seen a game where I saw a kicker kick seven field goals and he scored all twenty one points, Sally.
This year's Ring of Honor class will be inducted at halftime on Monday night and features your former teammate Tim Krumrie plus the Bengals all time leading rusher Corey Dillon. When I say those two names Crumrie and Dylan, what immediately comes to mind.
I think Mike Brown, and I think the entire you know, brain trust got together to see it. Who are two of the baddest dudes to ever wear Bengal stripes on each side of the ball. And that's how they did it, because there's no like this. There's no question. The baddest dude to ever wear Bengal stripes on defense is Tim Krumro and his ain't even close. And I can tell you right now clock killing Corey Dillon. That dude was bad, I mean, and he almost had three hundred yards rushing
in the game they took him out. This is a guy who can walk around to say I broke a record once owned by Jim Brown as a rookie, I once broke a record that was owned by the great Walter Paton. Who else can say that. There ain't another human being that could say I broke Waltteron Bathess record. I broke Jim Brown record.
Now what.
That's bad, man. You don't get any better than that. So these two guys are I mean, these are two special guys in terms of our Bengal legacy. I think there are two special guys in terms you can't tell the NFL story without Corey Dillon. That makes him a Hall of Famer. And I watched Tim Crumrae go toe to toe with the great Dwight Stevenson and win. And Dwight Stevenson is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as the great center of the Miami Dolphins. And I
think Tim Crumbrae deserves a bus in Canton. I know Roger Goodale would agree. I know a lot of guys around this league would agree with that.
Sally, always great to pick your brain, Appreciate the time.
Look forward to seeing you soon. All right, Dan, all the best to you. We will see you soon, my friend. Thank you.
As I mentioned in that interview with Sally, the Bengals tight ends combined for huge numbers last week. As Cincinnati had two or more tight ends on the field. I'm more than thirty percent of their offensive snaps. My broadcast partner Dave Lapham was nostra damis.
Here was his.
Number one key to the game on the pregame show just before kickoff.
It's time to be physical, physical.
I'm saying, Olivia Newton Lapham.
I'm saying, you go three tight ends, and I'm saying you put Cody Ford out there as a sixth offensive lineman. And I'm saying you put Eric All at fullback, and I'm saying you put your Sample at the other tight end position. I'm saying that's how you can pound him.
Well.
Lapp got his wish. The Bengals ran sixty four offensive plays at Kansas City. Drew Sample and Eric All were on the field for thirty three each. That's fifty two percent. Mike Kasiki got thirty snaps and Cody Ford got five as a sixth offensive lineman. I talked about it with Bengals tight ends coach James Casey James. Last week, the tight End trio of Mike Kasicki, Eric All and Drew Sample combined for fourteen catches for one hundred and fifty
one yards. Was that the flow of the game or did you know going in that your guys were likely to be heavily targeted.
I knew going into the game that we were going to have, you know, more opportunities. I didn't know it was going to be you know, that kind of opportunities with us. That's by far the most catches in yards that our guys have had, you know, in a game.
But you know, credit to Zach and Dan and you know, and Roscottie and all, you know, the guys that are designing their game plan like it was a I thought it was a really good game plan and a lot of it was just based off of what Kansas City's shown on you know, on film, and we've played them a bunch of times in the past, so they you know, throwing throwing something different out there to them, and you know,
there was Uh. I was real proud of the tight Ends just for you know, you know, obviously you know, making some you know good catches, some good run for the catch, but also just knowing where they were going to you know, line up and handle them the entire game, playing the run game, the pass protection, the routes, because there's a lot on their plate last game with lined
up in different spots and all the different formations. We line up in a bunch of unique formations, and they handled really well, especially for a young guy like Eric.
So there was always real proud of the guys.
And but like I tell them, and just like overall, you know, you're you're not thinking about the good stuff. You're always thinking about you know, we lost the game, so none that stuff matters. It's about, you know, the places we wish we had back, the players that wish you know, we we know we can get better at and keep learning those lessons as we go and you know,
and then you know, find ways to get wins. Now now we're you know, we're putting our backs stings the wall early in the season, but you know we've been there before. Now it's you know, hopefully we can keep getting those opportunities in the past game as tight ends. And but we also got a lot of stuff we
got to do as a blocker and pass protection. And but I'm decided about where the group's at, like their they care, they're working hard, they're getting better and better, and you know, we just got to you know, just keep throwing our face in there and just you know, keep making plays and keep helping us win games.
If I've got the numbers right, there were multiple tight ends on the field thirty one percent of the time in Week two and twenty nine percent of the time in Week one. That's higher than it's been in the past. Are we seeing the next devolution of the Bengals offense where the team will use that more to give the opposing defense more to worry about? I hope.
So, you know, coaching the tight ends I'm in we're in our own world as you know, as a tight end coach and just tight ends like we're I like to say that we were kind of independent contractors because even within each play, we got our own separate rules on everything, and we're always in a you know, we're always overmatched on stuff. We're going against these elite defensive ends and as a blocker and going against like guys
that are fastness in the past game. But I hope, so we got I think we got a really good group of guys this year, and they're they're all they come in all.
Shapes and sizes.
But it does cause problems for the defense too when you're able to play multiple personnels in a lineup, in multiple formations.
So it'll be a game to game deal.
And it's you know, I'm tying the coach like that's Zach Zach and Dan and Rascottie and you know, and all those guys they handle all that stuff. And I try to help any way I can, and but my main focus just make sure the tight ends are. I'm trying to coach those guys the best I can with their you know, their mindset, their technique and and and.
When they get their opportunities, take advantage of it. But just be it.
You know, a lot of our positions just being a trustworthy guy, just being consistent, be trustworthy, do all the little stuff right that nobody notices, you know, like I'm getting, you know, to talk to you today because they caught a bunch of passes. But there's a lot of other stuff too that's involved for us to win, and we
didn't win. So the main the main objective is for us to win and do whatever we got to do to win, whether that's catch you know, ten passes a game, or whether that's catch no passes and just block really well and finish all your every play and be where he's supposed to ever play.
We're visiting with James Casey. Let's talk about some of the individuals. Mike Kasicki had seven catches for ninety one yards. This is his seventh NFL season and his eight offensive coordinator. Do you think that helped him pick things up quickly? The fact that he's been exposed to so many systems in the NFL.
I think it definitely has him just seeing so many different offenses, so many different schemes, and each each one of those different coordinators he's had to like, you know, change his you know, terminology to make it fit that. So, you know, just as you're doing that, you're starting to understand that, you know, all a lot of concepts are very similar. Everybody in the NFL runs the same kind
of stuff. So he's just a really smart guy too, and he he understands that you can tell him something one time and he'll remember it, you know, and he can use all the past knowledge he had from the past, you know now melt you know, melting into our offense, and a lot of it's just getting Burrow comfortable with him, and you know, for Mike just to make you know, do everything he can to get earn that trust with Burrow, earn that trust with Zach and Dan to where he
can be out there in the past game and then doing all the other little stuff right too as a blocker as you know, help it out in pass protection, and so we're not real predictable when he's out there. But he's he's a really smart guy and I'm you know, I'm excited to see kind of where's were the season goes with him.
The first two plays of the game last week were passes to Drew Sample, which I'm guessing that a lot of people had on their Bengo card. He signed a three year contract extension in the offseason. Why is he so valuable to this team?
He's extremely valuable, And it's the people that like really really understand football and like really understand what it's like, you know, what it takes to win, Like they really value those guys. There's a reason why, you know there you look around the league, like there's not a lot of great like blocking tight ends that that are that
are smart and tough and can be trusted guys. Like there's there's guys that look great catching the ball and I know, like you know as a fan or you know in some some of the media, you're just really you're just falling the ball all the time, so you're just seeing who catches it. You don't really analyze the film and see all the stuff in the run game and the pass protection and just being a trusted guy
that gets lined u where he's supposed to. And sometimes we're running routes and we don't get the ball, but we got to make sure we're running the right the route the right way too. You know, maybe that opens up Jamar or t or one of our other receivers. And he's that type of guy, like he's he's unselfish. You can put him out there in any spot. You know he's gonna, you know, give it his best effort
and simple thing like that. But it's it is that goes into the human nature part of the guys that just really care and really want to work hard all the time and really try. And you see it throughout the NFL when you watch film, watch watch games, like certain teams lose sometimes it's just guys you're not, you know,
doing what they're supposed to do. Like they may have a lot of talent, but if you don't do what you're supposed to do all the time, like then you're not You're useless, and you're you're hurting.
The team a lot.
So I you know, I love Drew and I you know, I know he doesn't get a lot of credit for hardly anything, and which he understands that. We understand our roles tight ends. We're not that's not we're we're not here to try to get a whole bunch of attention. We're trying to just do our job. And you know, similar to the offensive line, where you're not giving the offense line credits on a bunch of stuff, but they're
really really valuable for everything within our offense. And just like first second down, you got to be able to run the ball, obviously, and you can't just be a guy as a tight end. It's really hard to be a guy as a tight end if you're out there in a normal situation on first second down and you're not you can't block or and you can't do certain things.
The defense knows that smart too.
There's a lot of money that goes into a lot of work, so they can scheme you up to know that, Okay, we don't have to worry about this run scheme or this past text of scheme. We can blitz this guy or our d line can be in a straight past rush mode on first and ten. When you got a guy that can do everything and you got an above average blocker that adds a huge value to your.
Offense, it seems like Rooky eric All is one of those guys. Many people speculated that he wouldn't even be playing at this point after tearing his ACL in October. He's not only playing, he's getting rave reviews from his teammates. Are you at all surprised by his growth at this stage.
Of his career.
No, I was, you know, watching this film in college and then when we drafted him, I was. I was really surprised that he was there when we drafted him in the fourth round, even with the injuries, just because his film was that good and just talking to him pre draft and just getting to know the person. He's a uniquely like you know, you know, probably everybody can see like how aggressive he is like and he plays
physical and that's just the person. Like, there's not a lot of people in the world that are just that aggressive, that are that will you know, they got pads on the stuff, but still some guys will kind of they'll they'll go in there a little timid, like he definitely not timid, Like he'll go hit people.
Those kind of things.
You can't coach the guys that are just that that kind of aggression to them, and they're and that kind of toughness and.
The injury stuff.
That's that's one of those as a coach that's kind of out of your out of my you know, above my pay grade. I just evaluate the players and when we get him, I just try to coach the best I can.
And he but he's he's.
Proven to be a really really tough, tough dude, like to be able to come back that fast from his injury and to step into practice right away and start, you know, and not be timid with things. And and he's he's a he's a really intelligent guy too too, you know, he's he's they're all got different personalities, so he's he's much different than Drew, much different than Mike. So he you know, like when you're talking to him,
you know, but he's a really smart guy too. You got to be smart to be able to know all this stuff, and he puts a lot of work into it. And it is I I'm biased, but I think a rookie tied end is one of the hardest things to do, like in the NFL, because there's so many things I got to know, special teams wise, and for him to go out there and to perform like he's done so far, like it's you know, gives me a lot of excitement for the future and just for him to keep building.
And I think it's you know, it's evident when you look at him, like he's got a chance to be a really really good player if he did. But it's you got to be consistent, you got to you got to stay motivated, you got to understand all the nuance to the position.
And he's well on his way.
But it's you know, it's game to game right now as a rookie and as he establishes himself and then you know, then we'll see how good he can actually be.
Do you feel like he was a steel in the fourth round?
Oh?
Yeah, yeah, I thought right away, Like I was, like, I was like baffled, that he was still there in the fourth round. But that's again it's above my pay grit. I'm just watching the guys, like but I've been doing this for like the last six years, watching everybody and seeing where they get drafted, and and just like self evaluating, like which guy's got drafted, which round that ended up
being good? So for him to follow that far, I was like, you know what, you know, maybe you know, as I'm second guessing myself or something, I don't know, like that he get that he got that late, but you know, everybody, it wasn't just me, Like Zach loved
him too. And then in the draft process and you know, our whole off and staff loved him, and in Duke Tobin and and would that that's what happened, And just really proud he's picked it up as fasts he has, and we still got a long way to go, but he's he's he's well on his way to being a really good player.
We're visiting with tight ends coach James Casey. Tanner Hudson has proven to be a reliable pass catcher. Why do quarterbacks love throwing to Tanner Hudson.
He's you know, he's a really competitive pass catcher, and he's really he does a really good job with his body language of the quarterbacks. No, you know, he's make sure he identifies to the quarterbacks, like what kind of angle he's going to take as he comes out of his break or when he's going to settle in his own And I used to think that stuff was kind of silly when I was younger about you know, the guy he understands owns really well.
It's like, woll how hard is it? You just run to the spot and you sit down.
But there is a lot that goes into that, like understanding leverage, understanding like the depth of certain routes and the timing of it and how you gotta sometimes you got to, you know, make the quarterback wait on you to get open. You have to understand how to get edges on defenders and get him flipped vertically to separate. You can't just run up and hit him and run
away like you gotta. There's there's a bunch of stuff that goes into past game stuff too, that he's he does a really good job at And he's long, you know, he's long, he's got good hands. And hopefully Tanner comes back from his injury soon and we can get everybody back together again. And that way, we got multiple guys that can go out there and we all can stay fresh and we all can make plays throughout the game.
The other Tanner, rookie Tanner McLoughlin, also made the fifty three man roster. What gives him the potential to be a productive NFL tight end.
He's big, he's fast, like he ran a good time for his size. You know, he can run routes. He showed he can catch it, catch the ball really well in college and run for the catch really well. And those are really really valuable now in the NFL's the guys that can run for the catch and can make the contested catches. And he showed that in college. And now he's just got to keep progression and he's doing
a great job. But just keep you know, understanding all the blocking stuff and being the you know, playing nasty as a blocker and you know, being a jerk out there as a blocker. You have to It's just like the nature of the job. It's a gentleman's agreement. You got to be a jerk to be good at a tight end. You can't just go out there and getting away.
You gotta be you got to go after people and understand like when you can go after people aggressively, and when you got to you know, play play a little more cautious because he's about to move or he's a jump around guy. And but he he's got a potential to be a great player, and he's doing a great job right now. He's got good size, good speed, he's got good feet as a blocker to start with. And now it's just you know, just put you know, really
like as a tight end. You're you're younger. It's just putting your face in there, putting your face in there, putting your face in there until you start feeling like how it feels to like not lean too far forward, not be undertowes too much. You know, keep your cleats in the ground, get your hips in the guys, like roll your hips on contact strain to finish, like understand
hand placement. But he's getting it, he's getting there, so you know, we're just gonna he's he's in a great spot right now to be able to just keep working. He hasn't gotten in the game, but just keep working, keep working, because we're gonna need everybody and he's he's working really hard, doing everything right, and excited for him to to get out there and get his opportunities at some point.
This is not a team looking for moral victories. But were you encouraged by the performance at Kansas City?
Yeah, it was, you know, because we didn't we didn't we come out you know, week one. As always you never know, but we you know, we knew we were way better than what we did week one, and to go off, you know, defending super Bowl champions, and you know, we were very confident going into the game. We knew we were gonna respond. We knew we were gonna come out swinging. They knew it too, and but to see us actually do it was encouraging that you know, we were moving the ball, you know, we were we were
making plays, we were converting on third down. Like it was just we're getting back to like how we are. And so you it's you're never like moral victories or whatever, but you do go into next game saying, okay, we you know, just validate said you know, we know we can move the ball, we know we can make plays. We know we got a good offense, we have a great quarterback, we got great position players we get, you know, great offensive line, like we just got to go out
there and do our job. It's like gives us confidence, but it also just you know, just fully transparent to everybody. We just have to be on top of every little bit of detail and everybody has to do exactly what they're supposed to do on every play. And if we're all doing everything around, all eleven of us, like we're gonna make plays and we're gonna be really successful, but all of us have to do it at all times, and then we have to be like systematic out there.
Final question for James Casey get a primetime home game coming up on Monday against Washington. You've been around the NFL as a player and a coach. Are night games here in Cincinnati about as electric as it gets?
Oh?
Yeah? Yeah.
The I'll never forget when we played Buffalo on whatever game that was a Monday night or something not whatever it was when dMar Hamling got hurt. But before that, I mean, it was like the most electric crowd I've ever seen, like in any level. And I played in playoff games and we you know, it was the most electric I've seen, Like you could just feel it in the on the field. You could feel it, and you know that our fans do a great job on when
it's when it's not. And now I think now we got the the lights go on and off kind of thing like that gets everybody hipped up. Like there's always some kind of seems like there's always some kind of you know, like something going on during the game with certain colors, or everybody's got glos sticks or something.
There's it's always something. So it's it is electric atmosphere.
And I think, you know, we catch teams off gard when they come here because you know they're Cincinnati whatever, but when they get here, see.
How like the electrical environment is. It's a huge advantage for us.
It's going to be a good one against the commanders. Best of luck, appreciate your time.
Thank you, Let's keep getting them tons bull.
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 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 the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. Now time for this week's Know the Faux segment. Last week, the final score of Washington's game against the New York Giants
was twenty one to eighteen. One team scored three touchdowns, the other didn't score any, and that was the team that won. Giants kicker Graham Ganot hurt his hamstring on the opening kickoff and was done for the rest of the day. The Giants had their punter attempt the pat after their first touchdown, and he missed. The next two times the Giants scored, they went for two and failed. As a result, three touchdowns added up to eighteen points. Meanwhile,
the Commanders won the game with seven field goals. Dave Lapham and I discussed it with Commander's radio voice Bram Weinstein on the Bengals Game Plan Show.
Maybe the most unusual game I've ever been a part of. This is only the fifth time since World War Two that Washington won a game where they didn't score a touchdown. You mentioned the three touchdowns for the opponent in Washington not scoring one. I think it's the first time since World War Two that that's happened in the regular season ever anywhere so it was bizarre. The reality is Washington could have scored forty They scored on every true drive
that they had in two games. They are if they hadn't had a couple of missfield goals, they would have scored on twelve or fifteen true drives. I don't count. I had a kneel down at the end of the first half, so I don't count that. Seven of seven true drives they scored the red zone miss aps were the issue, and it's why they did not end up with touchdowns. On three occasions they had procedural penalties inside the five yard line and on two occasions Jim Daniels
tried to extend to play and took a sack. So it really was the one thing they did wrong on offense was when they got down in the scoring position.
They ended up with three. And the really funny part is this is the fifth kicker they've had here since the start of the league year, for a variety of reasons, mainly because of inaccuracies over the last over camp over the week one and so he had been here for five days and this is the ninety plus year old franchise and he broke a single game record by kicking seven field goals.
That's crazy. As a former offensive lineman, when I think about and look at the Washington Commanders, it comes down to ninety four in ninety three, Payne and Allen how they played, so they were the job.
It's double teamed them consistently, so you're not gonna see a lot of them on the stat seat, you know, like and that's like a source of that's been a source of for the fans around here, and this has been this way for a long time. Like this that unit is as far as they'll take them, as far as they go. It's a little different now that Chase Hung and Monteswett aren't there as well, where that was really a very strong narrative around here. You know, they've
been run on two weeks in a row. They've been run up the middle on two weeks in a row, the Commanders. You know, coming into the season, one of the there's two perceived weaknesses on the defense. It's edge rush because they don't have these premier pass rushers anymore, and their corners, which is undermanned without Emmanuel Forbes and one of their weaker position groups to start with. But the hope was that they would be very good against the run with what they have in the middle of
the field. Between the hash marks Payne Allen, the improvement at the linebacking corps with Frankieluvu, Bobby Wagner, Jeremy Chit and Kwon Martin. They look good between the hash marks. On paper, it has not been the case. The Buccaneers and the Giants both ran the ball very effectively against them. We are concerned about the passing game this week two, but trust the pain and Alan are hearing it, even if, like some of the people that analyze the film say,
give them a break. They're fighting off double teams every other play.
Commander's radio voice Bram Weinstein is our guest. Let's talk about your Heisman Trophy winning quarterback from lsu Jad and Daniels statistically looks pretty good, completing three quarters of his passes so far past the rating of ninety seven. He's on a pace to run for more than a thousand yards, but no touchdown passes yet. How quickly is he processing things?
So he I would describe the first game in the first half and this was Tampa Bay, so they blitz a lot exotic pressures. Todd bowles and he was vacating the pocket like immediately, so the internal clock was clearly sped up. We saw a little bit of it, and I think when you rewatch and you guys prepare for the game, you're gonna see it against the Giants too. That he's using his legs a little, not even a little bit, more a lot more than the coaches really
want him to. But the good news for them is instinctually he likes he makes no mistakes with the ball. He has yet to even come close to turning it over. All of his decision making is ahead of the curve. And I kind of describe you know him from day one because he came in with this like obviously he's an extremely athletic player, very high ceiling with his ability, but he came in with this kind of notorious work ethic and he had done all this work with VR
and he's first in the building, last to leave. But he hear that about a lot of people, but it's true in his case. There's this famous story like after he got drafted and they called him, he said, please send me the playbook because I want to start reading it on the plane. And he did, you know, like so this really matters to him, and it's showing here early.
And I would describe this kind of like I've see a day where I thought he looked like a rookie, and he's just improving day to day, game to game, half to half. Like the internal clock slowed down against Tampa, it was slowing down against the Giants. He just had his first game winning drive. You know, they got the ball back under very odd circumstances because the Giants couldn't kick a field goal because they get the kicker got hurt last week. So he got the ball back two
minutes ago. He drives him right down the field and gets them in field goal range. So had his first fourth quarter comeback. You know, like everything that's happening so far, if this is ground zero, we're very excited about what the future is and what his ability is because the metrics, the eye test, all of it. He's passing all of it with flying colors.
So you have a new quarterback. Last year, your quarterback, howl Sam Howell gets sacked NFL high sixty five times, rebuilt the offensive line. What's the result.
The result is better and partially because and you know, I think it's funny. I think when people think about, you know, the Commanders with what they had a year ago, they were the highest past the run ratio team in the NFL, with a weak offensive line and a very young, inexperienced quarterback and a receiving corps that nobody is particularly scared of down the field. They don't have the duo like you guys have, and so this was mismatched badly early and Hal took a tremendous beating and took a
lot of stacks. And then you know, Cliff Kingsbury comes in, and I think people have this perception of air raid and they're gonna spread it out. And if you really look at the kind of makeup and profile.
Of the team, you'll see that this.
Is or logically they're going to become more of a run team. Obviously their quarterback can run, so there's gonna be design runs in any game plan every single week. He may be scrambling a little more than they like, but there's going to be design runs. How could there not be with his abilities? Brian Robinson and now Austin Eckler, who looks like the player from a few years ago, turned out to be a tremendous tandem. Sam Coby just got an extension. He's really emerged as their best offensive
lineman by far. They brought in Tyler Biattis from Dallas, who Dan Quinn knew. They brought in Nick Allegretti from Kansas City, so they've revamped their offensive line, and so far, the play calling has led them more towards what felt logical about what they have on the outside. Maybe not deep threats, but very physical and willing blockers on the outside, and it's led to at least in one week, two
hundred yards on the ground. And I don't think anyone looks at this team and would think that that's what they're gonna be. And I wouldn't expect that to be a norm to have numbers like that, But them becoming closer to fifty to fifty run team at once this final fifty three came out, and you just look at the makeup of their roster. It makes too much sense that they're going to be a power run team and it's gonna be something you guys are gonna have to
deal with on Monday night. They held the ball for thirty seven minutes last week. That's the other they help the ball for thirty seven minutes, and they didn't have the lead until there were four seconds left. They didn't turn them all over, had the ball for thirty seven minutes and barely won. So, you know, we've had a
strange start to this year. But I do think out of the road map towards whatever level of success they're going to have in this kind of whole new program, it is going to start and end with their run game, and I think you're gonna see a heavy dose of it on Monday Night.
To your point, last year, three and fifty nine rushes. Three in fifty nine rush attempts by far the fewest in the National Football League. That's really an amazing number.
Yeah, it is. And you know, I don't think the NFL world knows how good Brian Robinson is.
Like.
He is a very very good, leed, punishing, physical running back. And the fact that they weren't profiling him when clearly pass blocking wasn't their strength. Their quarterback was inexperienced, they don't have a lot of downfield threats on their team. It made no sense what they were doing last year and this year, at least from the start, it appears that they're leaning into who are our best weapons, and our best weapons are coming out of our backfield one
of three players, Robinson, Daniels, or Eckler. And as things progress with Daniels, who I think what they really like about him is he's not justin field, not Kyler. Murray's not run first like he actually is passed first, but he's learning on the fly. And I'll go back to something I said earlier. The internal clock has been a little sped up here in the first couple of weeks, but we see it even game the game he slows down,
another feels too big to him. He makes no bad decisions with the ball, and I just I have to believe that he's going to become more of an accomplished passer as things go along. The run game is just there for support of it right now, but in the end it probably is their best attribute with the way that the team is constructed.
The UC Bearkatz made the fourteen Playoff a few years ago and lost to Alabama. Brian Robinson ran for two oh four in that game, so Cincinnati knows about Brian Robinson. Here's my final question for Bram Weinstein, the voice of the Commanders, he talked about some the issues on defense. In week one, Baker Mayfield had a passer rating of one forty six. Last week Daniel Jones one oh nine. Which is the bigger problem the lack of pass rush or poor play in the secondary or is it equal.
It's a combination. It's definitively a combination. The first week one again, like we've had a really weird year. Like if you go to an advanced metric site like Pro Football Focus, I don't know if you guys care about that stuff, but like they and this is zel. Just go watch the Tampa game. They could have sacked Baker Mayfield six times and they missed five tackles. They didn't finish the plays. They were winning at the line of scrimmage and they were graded out that way. They just
didn't finish the plays. And given time, he smoked them, you know, like, and he was terrific and really executed well, especially in the red zone against them. He was he was very good and really kind of was their MVP of the game because he got it out of what should have been sex This past week to me is more an indictment of the weaknesses of this defense. They were not able to get any kind of sustained pass
rush on Daniel Jones. And when in the pocket, I know people don't perceive them this way, but we play him twice a year. You know, when in the Pockety's actually highly effective and highly accurate if you don't bother him and move him off his spots. And they didn't, and Milik Neighbors had a huge day against them, because we frankly do not have what I would describe as a quote unquote number one corner who could like lock up with number one receivers. So this team's got something
to figure out. Like these are the two questions coming in about the defense. Is their secondary and specifically their corners good enough and now they're down one of them in Emmanuel Forbes because he had thumb surgery. And secondarily, can they generate a consistent pass rush? They had it in week one, they just didn't finish the plays. They
definitively did not have it in week two. And so even though they had the ball for thirty seven minutes and never turn the ball over, and we're playing a team that couldn't kick a field goal if they wanted to because they didn't have a kicker. They barely won, and it's attributed to not touring touchdowns and not being
able to pressure the quarterback when you need to. And trust me, we're a little concerned about the opponent this week if we're not going to get any pressure on that quarterback with that receiving corps.
Final question for me, and I appreciate you giving us so much of your time. The all important special teams part of it, Larry Izzo has been around a while. Punt returns is only the returner has one, but it's a twenty four yard return. I mean he doesn't show up in the ranks because he doesn't have enough returns. But twenty four yard punt return average is number one in the NFL, kickoff return average nine in the National Football League. Your top ten in both the return of
the coverage teams aren't quite as good. Obviously, the punt return is tied for thirtieth in the NFL, giving up fifteen yards. What about your special teams overall, that all important third phase? How is that progressing? Well?
I mean we're hoping now we found a kicker. Like as I told you before that that's been a journey throughout the entire offseason into the regular season. They had two miss field goals in Week one, but Austin Cyber seven for seven, so he's Steth Curry of of.
The way.
Yeah, so that's that's off to a good start. We have a Pro Bowl putter in this way for a very long time. We had a snapper situation a year ago with Cameron achievement. It was all over the map. They they brought in the new snapper, Tylert. Everything's settled there. Everything's been perfect so far. Alida Zakias took over the punt returns this path week. Jamison Crowder did it in the first week. I think you could see either one
of them, and I think both are very effective. And last week they had the opening kickoff was returned for a touchdown. It was called back by penalty. Austin Eckler is one of our returners. He had a ninety nine yard kioff return for a touchdown that was called back on a very light call. So, like I would describe it as the special teams outside of the issues with the kicker, have really have really gone off very well
here early and the covered units. There's a couple of guys guys that are standing out that really made the team. You guys probably have this too, but we had a couple undrafted free agents that made the team based on how they were covering kicks in camp and it's carried over into the regular season.
All right, thanks to Bram Weinstein. And here's a quick reminder to join lapp in me for the Bengals pep Rally show Friday from three to six on ESPN fifteen thirty And if you're not in the Cincinnati area, just search for ESPN fifteen thirty on the free iHeartMedia app.
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 Alta 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 the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe to this podcast and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment that helps more Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast