Bengals Booth Podcast: On With The Show

Dave lapp Them will join me for postgame analysis. Plus, in this week's Fun Facts Conversation, I'll chat with rookie quarterback Jake dola Gala on a wide variety of topics, ranging from the injury he suffered as a high school senior that jeopardized his career, too just how far he

can throw a football. All of that is straight ahead, but first, 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, Stitch, your Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest invention since the heated butter knife. There are few things worse than a hard chunk of butter that rips up your toast when you try to spread it. The heated butter knife solves the

problem and works without electricity. The knife actually transfers heat from your hand to the blade, making spreading hard butter a breeze. I'll admit I haven't purchased one yet, but the concept is genius. Now let's get to football. In the Bengals final preseason game, nearly half of the team had the night off, some due to injury, most to

avoid the possibility of injury. As a result, most of the guys that did play were out there for the entire game, and many were desperately trying to hold onto a job, either on the fifty three man roster or the ten man practice squad, like undrafted wide receiver Ventell Bryant out of Temple, who finished with nine catches for eighty three yards and hopes to still be on the Bengals after Saturday's roster cut down. What are the next

couple of days going to be like for you? I have no idea, you know, I'm just gonna sit by my phone. You know, I know what the reality could be. So you know, I'm just thankful for this opportunity. You know, not too many people can say they played in the NFL preseason game, you know, and I played in all four. So I'm very happy with what I accomplished and what I did and what I showcased. Roster or practice squad

are good livings. I mean, even the practice squad is a six figure living and a chance to remain with an NFL team, and at some point during the year, most of the guys typically get a chance to play. How would you feel about that? I would love it. You know, I love this game of football. You know, since I've been a little I wanted to be in the NFL, you know, and you mentioned the practice squad.

You know, if I'm blessed with the opportunity to make the practice squad, you know, I would be all in for you know, former team in him on Keith Kirkwood with the same teams on the practice squad. He got moved up Week nine and now he's on the fifty three man roster and he's one of the starting gossip of Saints. So I know, just talking to him and him being in my ear every day, just telling me, you know that I can do it. You know I belong in this league. You know it means a lot

to me. And today I just wanted to come out and showcase everything that I had and leave everything out on the table. That sums up just how meaningful Thursday's game was for Bryant and many of his teammates. It started well for the Bengals as they came up with a special team's takeaway midway through the first quarter. Punt returner Penny Hart waits at the twenty five. This is a very low returnable kick. Heart starts from the thirty four.

He muffed it. He dropped it. A Bengal dives and recovers at the Indianapolis thirty two yard line, long snapper Dan Godsill sprinting down the field and launching himself onto that football. The Bengals drove to the twenty three and could have tried a forty one yard field goal to take the lead, but elected to go for it. On fourth down and a yard and a half, Dolla Gala hands it off to Anderson and he's tackled or a loss.

The running game has been abysmal, and Anderson has tackled for a two yard loss, so that takeaway didn't lead to points, But a few minutes later the Bengals got another one one fifty six left in a scoreless first quarter. Shotgun snap Kelly with Tom He's gonna fire deep the Paris Campbell and it's intercepted at the five yard line by Darius Phillips, who had inside position on the former Ohio State Buckeye. Timed it perfectly and came down with

the I NT. I mean Kelly looked to that spot immediately and he saw that Phillips was in good position. He ran the route better than the receiver did. Here's Darius Phillips on the pick. I kind of knew that it was coming my way then once I see him look up, I lift up and went up for the ball as my first, my first NFL pick. Even though it's in the preseason, I'm still excited about it. It was a great play. How important did you feel tonight

was for you? Oh? I feel like it was very important for me, just because I didn't put it, really put the whole game together. Like first game, I had a good defensive game in the best special teams game, same game, I had a say game. I had a good speed team game, but he couldn't finish due to injury, so I missed a third game. In this fourth game, I just wanted to go out in the showcase what

I can do, Moron Phillips. A bit later after his interception, the Bengals drove from their own five to the Indianapolis four thanks to two long passes by rookie Jake Dola Gala. Shotgun snapped Dola Gala against a four man rush. It's gonna float one deep down the right sideline, and it is called a huge game. Cody core reeled it in, then hit the ground and the ball popped out. They

are giving him the catch, at least for now. It stood for a thirty nine yard gain, and later on the drive, Big Jake hit Ventel Bryant for twenty six more. The drive stalled in the red zone, and a short field goal by Tristan Viscano gave Cincinnati a three nothing lead. It didn't last, as Chad Kelly, thephew of Buffalo Bill's Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly, led the Colts on a seventy five yard drive third down in two from

the Bengals seven. Kelly rolling left, He'll look to take off and run, and he'll run into the end zone untouched for an Indianapolis touchdown. Little zone read right there, and Kelly kept it Bengals defensive responsibilities not fulfilled. Somebody has the quarterback and nobody had the quarterback. At the half, the Colts had a seven three lead. Two minutes into the third quarter, the Bengals reach the end zone for the first time. Darius Phillips will be the return man

for the Bengals. He waits at the twenty two yard line. Here comes the right footed punt. It's got an awkward looking spin to it. Phillips catches at the twenty eight, makes the gunner miss looked out. He's off to the races at the forty five the fifty. There's a penalty flag down to the Colts forty the thirty near sideline twenty ten five. He takes it into the end zone for a touchdown, but there's a penalty flag back at

the twenty seven yard line. Sure enough, an illegal block on Trey Von Henderson wiped out the score, but it was still a great return by Phillips, who had fumbled twice on punt returns in the preseason opener at Kansas City. Like you said, I went out the Chiefs game and had two months, So I just want to thank them for keep for keep believing in me and staying after practice with me to catch puntson. Just keep having faith

in me, and that's doesn't kept me going though. Some people you'll drop balls and give up turnovers and they just get down. But them showing me that they have faith in me kept me going in I didn't want to discipline. After a costly mistake by the punt return team, the punt coverage team made up for it. Hubert punts from his own ten hits it very very high. Penny Hart back penals catches, has the ball knocked out. The

Bengals dive and recover again. Long snapper Dan Godsil for the second time recovers, this time at the twenty five of Indy, and it looks like the penalty is going to be on Indy. It was four illegal block that did not prevent Davante Harris from forcing the fumble once again. The Bengals drove into the red zone, only to come away with nothing as Viscano missed the thirty seven yard field goal try. At that point, the Bengals had three takeaways to none for the Colts and still trailed seven

to three. A few minutes later, Indianapolis forced to fumble second down and eight, Dolagala fakes a handoff, he gets stripped hit from behind and the ball is out at the seventeen yard line. The officials come running in and the Colts have recovered it led to a field goal in at ten three Indie lead. The Colts drove for another field goal to make it thirteen three going to the final quarter. Early in the fourth, the Bengals drove into the red zone again, this time making it all

the way to the Indie six. Dolagala, standing at the twelve waiting for the shotgun, snap, catches the ball he's back to throw, now has to run backward and he will be sacked way back at the wy yard line. Instead of scoring seven, the Bengals settled for three to make it thirteen to six. Jake dola Gala played the entire game, going twenty seven for forty two for two hundred and fifty three yards with no touchdowns or picks for a passer rating of eighty two point seven. Yeah,

I thought I did a decent job. Obviously, I think I left some plays out there on the field, But as a whole you know, there's a couple of mental mistakes that I would want back, and there were simple stuff too, But you know, I think that's just I got to do a better job of refocusing after each play, forgetting about the next one and just moving on. You feel like you went out there and when you look in the mirror after you take your shower tonight, you're

gonna say, I gave it everything I had. Yeah I did. I didn't give it everything I had. You know, I hope they look at the film and you know, they see some of my talent and then you know, we'll see what happens, honestly, because it's all to them, not up to me. The Bengals will certainly try to keep Dola Gala on the practice squad, if not the fifty three man roster. The six foot seven inch quarterback appeared to put the Bengals in position to possibly win the

game with about four minutes to go. Tightly clustered formation, Dola Galla crows he's got a man wide open at the two young line, and Flowers knifed his way into the end zone for a Bengals touchdown with four or one to go. As the Bengals were getting set to line up for a two point conversion in hopes of

taking the lead. The officials went to the replay monitor, presumably to make sure that Flowers had reached the end zone before his knee hit the ground, but after studying the play, they called offensive pass interference on tight end Mason Shrek for setting a pick at the goal line, wiping out the touchdown catch for Quentin Flowers. When did you realize it was going to be taken off the board? Honestly, when I said, when I see on the jamotron, I

seen that I wasn't down. I was like, yeah, I told coach way before it even half, I say, coach on school. But at the end of day they came back and say it was passing inference, which that wasn't what they would looking for. But you know, at the end of the day, is nothing I can do about that is nothing I can control, you know, I just me and offense. We just foughts in the air and that's what we came out with. Al So at the

end of day, we just got to keeping nights. The Bengals still had a chance after the penalty, as they drove to the one yard line before going for a touchdown on fourth and goal. Shrek and Core out to the left, Bryant and Malone out to the right. Flowers in the backfield to the left of Jake Dolla Gala, who waits for a shotgun snap fourth and goal from the one, Dolla Gala with his zone read, he handed it off and Flowers gets tackled for a one yard

loss at the two yard line. In case you weren't keeping track, the Bengals drove into the red zone four times. They kicked two field goals, missed the field goal, and turned the ball over on downs. Here's Dolla Gala. That was kind of a sore spot for us tonight. When you get down there, you expect to score or at least come away with three. But we didn't do a good enough shob you know, actually being successful with what

we were trying to accomplish on each play. You know, I think it was a combination of a bunch of things. But you know, obviously I could have played better down there, and you know, as a whole, I think we could have meshed a little bit better and you know, put a touchdown on the board that would have been nice. The final score Indie thirteen, Cincinnati six. The Bengals finished the preseason one in three. But there was something that

hurt more than Thursday's loss. Early in the second quarter, rookie running back Rodney Anderson, who was so impressive in his preseason debut last week, injured his right knee, the same knee that was surgically repaired after an ACL tear early last season at Oklahoma. According to Bengals dot Com editor Jeff Hobson, the team fears that he tore the ACL again. After the game, Dave Lapham spent three minutes with Zach Taylor and the first topic was the bengals

inability to score more touchdowns in the red zone. Disappointing. You know, the first fourth and one and a half call we got out. We expect to get that and we just we didn't get it done. And then you had the one on the goal on especially that we had a shot there and didn't happen. So tough to win regular season games. We cannot lead points on the field like that. And that's just the way went tonight. Offensive pass interference, I mean, my understanding was there's a yard.

If you more than a yard, you can't run through him. If he's pressing within a yard, you can run through him. I right on that or and that was dicey. Even with that, if they're talking about a yard or a yard plus, I mean to me, I don't know, how do you what do you tell your player to do

differently than he did? People are gonna have sub call pass plays on the one yard line, I mean quite frankly, because it's always going to be tight coverage like that, and when they confront you at the on of scrimmage and then you're trying to fight to work at edge and get off of them, there's either stopped running them out or you got to try to work at edge

on the day and it becomes difficult. So I don't know that that's really what we want with all this stuff, to lose ten yard when we're when we're down there on the goal line. And you know, so that was that tough. So you mentioned before the game, we were talking to the pregame that tonight is this tape is resume for a lot of guys. I mean, they're trying to put out as good a resume as they possibly can,

and quite a few guys took advantage of opportunities. Bryant, you know, nine catches for eighty three yards I think it was. And Flowers you know down the stretch, had some plays. Doula Gala you know, had his moments. He was kind of up and down. But guys really stepped up. Yeah, they did, you know, and it was good to see that. Whether they whether these guys make our team or somebody else's team, Um, there are ours right now and you're

proud of all of them. And after they put in and so see those guys go out there and make plays was really encouraging. And we're really excited for all those guys. Um, people are texting and whatever. Can you give us any update on Malik Jefferson? What was going on there? Ah yet non football related and we'll just we'll check into over we had an update tomorrow. Any any word on Anderson's injury. I mean if that that's heartbreaking.

I mean the kid rehabbing the way he did, and I mean it's the right knee any worked on theirs early it is. I don't have an update yet, but hopefully tomorrow would have some news. So all in all, preseason you know, is complete, it's it's put away. What are your overall thoughts how the preseason went for your first time the guys made progress each and every week, and we needed all these games, and I feel like

we're gonna be prepared next Sunday in Seattle. Excited to start game planning and Sierra players kind of start to think the way we think when it comes to attacking an opponent and just excited to get next week underway. Coach, the guys that didn't play, they're out in the field busting it at three thirty. I mean, you're getting their heart rate up. I mean that was an endurance deal out there. They probably got more from that than they

would have played a series or two in this football game. Well, we needed simulate as best we can. Then playing in a game. Today was a game day, and the way that we have the schedule structured for the next ten days, they needed the work that they got today. And so if they're not gonna play in the game, we're gonna make sure that they get it some other way. Time for more postgame analysis with LAP and we start with

a significance of the final preseason game. Before the game, they knew this was their final opportunity to get video resume, and guys put things on a videotape resume they could be proud of, you know, Bryant for one, Flowers for another, Dola Gala, you know, and both teams. I mean, the

Colts players were doing the same thing. Might not have been important to a lot of people watching and listening, but to the players, they're out here playing, they're trying to, you know, get one of the final roster spots of fifty three men roster or ten spot practice squad deal,

which is a six figure income. That's significant. There's pressure there and you want to try to continue your NFL career, and more than half of those practice squad guys wind up getting activated at some point during the course of the season. Let's get back to Jake Dola Gala. He played the entire game. We knew that Andy Dalton would

not play. Ryan Finley also did not play, and the undrafted rookie out of Central Connecticut State twenty seven for forty two, two hundred and fifty four yards, no touchdowns, no picks. He did us out on a few opportunities where the easy pass was wide open, and he tried for the bigger game. Yeah, Ellis. A couple of times Ellis probably came back to him and said, bro, what

have I done wrong. You know, I'm wide open. One of them would have been a touchdown, third down in the red zone on the in the end zone going up towards the city, away from the river. That baby was was potentially six. So and I asked him, you know, after the game, assess your performance. And he said, because I said, you guys start you started hot. It was a lull fourth quarter. Pick things up again and you know,

a little bit choppy up and down. And he said that, you know there were some staffs I like top back, pre snap reads, you know, uh, coverage, he said, you know I was seeing the field okay, but I'm sure when he sees the checkdowns that were there to Ellis and some other things. But he's very honest in his assessment. You know he knows that that it was. He. I said, when you look in the mirror after your shower, you're going to be pleased with the performance. And said, yeah,

I did all I could do. I know it wasn't perfect, but you know I tried my best. Darius Phillips had an interception and seventy two yard punt returned touchdown that unfortunately was wiped out by a penalty. So he did some great things. I thought Cody Core had a solid game. I don't know for sure if those guys were on the bubble or not. If they were, are they guaranteed roster spots after what they did tonight? Yeah? I think

Cody Core and Josh Malone were in a battle. You know, they both played quite a bit in this fourth preseason game. And you know, Josh Malone started the preseason as as the guy and you know other players passed them by, so he was he's in a battle and corp with his special team's ability and he made some players tonight. I you know, you got to think that, uh he's he's he's a guy that's that's going to be in

the mix. Do they keep six? I think they probably keep seven on the fifty three and uh so there you know as the room for Jake, you know, are you exposing the waivers and hope nobody claims and bring them back put them on your practice squad. I mean, but Anderson, that's that's the big story of the night,

you know, unfortunate injury to Anderson. I asked UH coach Taylor about both Anderson and Malik Jefferson, and you know he said, non football sickness or non football issue with Malik and then no injury you know, update yet Anderson. But that's the guy that we're counting on, and that's an unfortunate It is the right knee, the one that he had reconstructed after the ACL. Tare Rodney Anderson has had the worst injury luck possible in his football career

since high school. In four years at Oklahoma, he suffered three serious season ending injuries. Broken leg, fractured vertebrae in his neck, torn ACL. The one year he played he was great, and he looked so good last week. He can only hope that it's not as serious as fear and it's not nicks. I mean these are like you know, injuries you get from automobile accidents. I mean, these are serious, serious injuries. I mean some guys, unfortunately, are cursed by

the football gods. You know. Hopefully his curse ends soon. Hopefully this isn't as bad as people think it might be. Cross your fingers and say a prayer for Anderson. Lap The Bengals went to one in three in the preseason, and as you look back at training camp and those four preseason games, what were the biggest positives in your mind. Well, I think it started out as a negative when Aj Green went down forty five minutes into training camp up

in Dayton, and he's elite. You know, he's still one of the top handful receivers in the National Football League and you don't want to lose him, and they're gonna lose him for three maybe four football games, hopefully at the max. With that said, young guys said, all right, you know AJ's down, other guys are nicked up. You know Ross is not practicing. How about me? And I give Bobby Bicknell and the players a lot of credit. They got better every single day. They made plays in

practice when the opportunity presented itself. Willis secured the starting x X position, the split in position at the in the opener against Seattle, and they made it very, very difficult for the coaching staff to decide which of these guys are we going to let go because they are all deserving. That says a lot to me that that was a very big positive. I think the defensive line was another positive. I think eleven guys made a case

they could make the football team. It's too many, They're not gonna be able to keep that many obviously at any point during the course of the season on a fifty three man roster, but you know, they tough decisions to be made, and even during the course of this week, they're still going to be tweaked for the roster. This roster's not done. They're still gonna be making decisions to improve the back end of the roster and practice squad players. What are the biggest question marks you still have lap

going into the season offensively the offensive line. You know, it's probably game day they're going to only have seven guys dressed. I think Jim Turner did a great job of establishing position versatility. He rolled in, like he said, it was a kaleidoscope of matchups that, you know, of pairings that he had to try to see what was the best possible combination of players. And when you only can go into a football game in the NFL with just seven players, you have a lot of position versatility.

And I think that's what the plan is. But you know, will they be effective enough as a group. In my mind, a really good offensive line, the sum total of the offensive line is better than any individual part, and that's what has to happen with this group because there's no offensive allowing you go, Wow, that guy's unbelievable. That guy knocks your socks off. That's a perennial pro bowler. But you have to hope that as a group they play even higher. It's like one plus one plus one plus one.

It doesn't equal five, at equals eight or something like that. So but that's the big biggest question offensively. Defensively linebacker, the linebacker position. It's like, you know, I still they still may be tweaking both of these position groups as we speak. I don't think they're done with their work. Last year, Dan, we saw it, teams isolated the linebackers, and in today's NFL, seventy five eighty percent of the time you're in multi multiple receiver formations where you're only

playing two linebackers. If i'd the Bengals, I only play one. I mean, you know, it's like unless unless you other guys step up. I try to limit the number of snaps I have linebackers on the field, you know, and see if these smaller guys can hold up in the running game. And you'll find out right away. Because Seattle led the league in rushing last year one hundred and

sixty yards a game. So you know, maybe against Seattle, you're gonna have to go with more traditional you know, two linebacker sets and unickel package, and they may line up and make the Bengals go base defense because they know linebackers the weakest position. It's going to be interesting to follow that matchup. We want to remind you that

our Bengals radio shows get underway next week. Bengals Line every Monday night from six to nine, the Bengals Game Plan Show Wednesdays from six to eight, and the Bengals pep Rally Show Friday afternoons from three to six at a Buffalo Wings and Rings location in the area. Next Friday, we'll be at the King's Mills location with a current player joining us in the final hour of the show. We'll let you know who as soon as that's finalized. Now time for this fun facts segment, because we get

to know the person under the pads. In this case, it's Big Jake, the rookie quarterback who took every snap in the preseason finale against the Colts. Time for some fun facts with quarterback Jake. Dola Gala from Hamburg, New York, not far from Buffalo less than five miles from New Era Field, the home of the Buffalo Bills. How Bills crazy? Is the Dola Gala family or were they? Until now? They were crazy? I'm about the Bills. You know, I

got some blood from the Bills. My grandfather played back in the sixties for them, so we were, you know, pretty gung ho on on the Bills growing up. Your grandfather, LB Miller, I think I'm saying that right. It's part of a national championship team at Syracuse, my alma mater nineteen fifty nine, played on two AFL championship teams. In Buffalo. He blocked for OJ Simpson in OJ's rookie year, so

he had quite the career. How did that impact you? Well, I guess, you know, it was just something I could always look up to. Um My dream I was growing up was, you know, to be in the NFL and to have somebody like a relative you know, have gone through that. Um, you know, it's just something to look up to. And you know I was people to ask him questions, you know what he was able to do to get there, and you know, he just he would always tell me he was just a very lucky, lucky boy.

And um, I'd like to think I'm you know, one of the same. You know, I'm just very lucky to be here. And um, you know, it was just it was it was a blessing to have, you know, a relative in the in the league we're tracking too. Quarterback Jake do Lagala. You went to Saint Francis High School in Buffalo. Other than football, what kinds of activities or other sports you involved in? Well, it's Saint Francis. I didn't do much other than football. Um, kind of you know,

try to focus focus on that one skill there. But prior to I mean I played every sport in another sun. Really. Um My dad wanted to, you know, have like us kids, be well rounded and in any any sport. You know that he kind of threw us out there. Um, you know outside of football, Um, I love golfing, I love to go fishing. I'm big fly fishermen. So you know, those are just some things that you know, kind of take my mind off it doing fun facts with Jake

dola Gala. As a high school football player, there was a good quarterback at your high school, so you weren't the full time starter until your senior year and then Unfortunately, you suffered a serious injury in your third game. Describe how it happened and just how bad it was. A third game my senior season. It was the third drive. I believe We're down in Erie, Pa. We're playing Cathedral Prep and I throw a ball tipped, end up getting picked.

I go trying mctackle totally with I'm a guy, and it was kind of just a fluke thing that happened. I just landed like weird on my shoulder, on my arm, and I kind of felt like it was just like locked in like a certain position, and you know, I was kind of bent over, and as I was walking to the sideline, you know, I just felt like swivel like back into its position, and UM, you know, I kind of knew something was up. I just didn't know

what it was. You know, my older brother had already gone through shoulder stuff, and you know, I kind of made me nervous. So I go over to the sideline and you know, our trainer did a couple of tests on me, and you know, he sat me for us the game, but he knew exactly what it was and UM ended up being a torn laboram So how long was it before you could throw normally again. It took forever, it felt like, Um, it was like four months until

I started, like just to try uphill the ball. Um. You know, in those first couple of months, I wasn't throwing it more than ten yards. And then um, progressively over that summer, you know, I was able to you know, ramp up the velocity and the distance. Um, where I was able to play at Milford Academy. And even then, um, it wasn't where it needed to be. It doesn't even

it wasn't even close to where it is now. But um, you know I worked through it, and UM, I would say, you know, it took probably a year to get back to you know, throwing like I once was. He wound up at Central Connecticut State, had a great career started for four years. When did the NFL begin to seem like a possibility. Well, when the scouts started coming to practice, like my sophomore year. They weren't there for me at the time, as far as I know, Um, they were

there for our tackle, Tyler Hurd. He was an athletic kid, and you know, I think for them coming to practice to watch him a little bit, they kind of caught a glimpse of me and then before I know it, you know, they're starting to show up at you know, more and more practice, you know, just following two years. That was when I was like, all right, this this could be reality, and you know it. It created some excitement. You know, every practice kind of felt like, you know,

I was being Hawkeye view. Um, so I had to be you know, on point every practice. I think that helped me, you know, throughout the seasons. But I would say junior year was was the time I was like, yeah, this could be a thing. We're talking to Jake Doladala. That's the FCS level their home stadium seats about fifty five hundred. I believe. Were there times that you thought, man, I should be in the SEC or the big ten? Yeah,

of course. Um, you know I watching other guys you know, play at that level, and UM, you know, obviously you'd like to think that you could do with the job better. Um, but you know, you don't know what those the you know, what the play calls are or anything like that. But um, you know, I thought I was confident enough in myself that, you know, if if you would have put me head to head with any guy in the you know, in the SEC or whatever. Um, you know I would have

been able to compete for that spot. So you got invited to the pro day at the University of Buffalo, and this is an opportunity to do your thing in front of NFL scouts. Going into that day, were you thinking this is the biggest day of my life to this point? Ah, yeah, just about was. Um. You know, I had prepared as best as I could. UM with my quarterback coach back home, Jim Kubiak, and you know, he had kind of gone through He had bounced around the NFL for a while, so he kind of knew

what what it was about. So him and I, UM, you know, I thought we did the best job we could have to get to get ready for that day. And I thought I had a great day. Um. You know, I thought I showed my arm talent. You know, I thought I tested as well as I could have. Um. You know, I think I did everything I needed to to put myself in the best position on draft day. Um. But you know, like you said, FCS level, you just don't see the talent around you, like you don't play

the talent that you know. These NFL coaches like to see. So the Bengals and Giants brought you in for pre draft visits. What was your trip to Cincinnati? Like, what did you do while you were here? Mine was quick actually, so my my layover in Washington got delayed three hours, so everything I did here was kind of cut down, way down. Um, you know, I got to meet with

with everybody I needed to, but it was just very brief. Um. You know, they did some memori imaging on my shoulder and um, you know, I did some of the medical tests with the doctors and that was about it. That was the extent and then I flew home the next day. So, um, it wasn't the full like gam I guess of what it should have been, but um, yeah, I got everything done I needed to. So a few more fun facts with Jake Dola Gala. The Bengals signed you as an

undrafted free agent, and Alex Van Pelt was involved. The Bengals quarterbacks coach. He played for the Buffalo Bills. He was wildly popular when he was in Buffalo. Was that a factor at all? Um? Yeah, for sure. You know,

Alex is a great coach and a great great person. Um, so you know, me haven't known of him, and um, you know the people some of my coaches back home, you know, close friends, they they know, they knew of Alex and you know they they said, you know, he's a man of integrity, and um, you know this would be a great spot for you, you know, and not like that, but you know, I had a you know, I have a great opportunity here, um, you know, and I think as this preseason goes along, um, you know,

I'm I'm making the most of it. Your first opportunity to play came in week three of the preseason. First drive, you go right down the field and throw a touchdown pass. Later in the quarter you throw another touchdown pass. Was it almost surreal to get your first opportunity and have a quarter like that? Oh? Yeah, it was cool for sure. It was everything I expected it to be. Everything I dreamed of it, you know, and it was awesome. It was, you know, a dream come true. Last thing, how far

can you throw football? I don't know, A Jonalin Pumpin, who knows? Who knows? Honestly, I read seventy five yards somewhere? Yeah, probably, Yeah, I think. Yeah, that's all gonna say, because I don't really know. I haven't done it at all, all right. It doesn't matter how far you can throw it. Accuracy is far more important and it's looked great so far. Congratulations on a terrific debut in Bestiflu that's Jakelagala Dola.

Gala completed seventy percent of his passes in the preseason, with two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of one hundred point one. Best on the team that's going to do it for this edition of the podcast. If you haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean, and if you have a minute, please give it a rating or share a comment. Five star ratings help more Bengals fans find this podcast.

I'm Dan Horde. Thanks for listening to The Bengals Booth podcast.