Bengals Booth Podcast: One Thing At A Time

Hi, get everybody.

I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading The Bengals Booth Podcast. The One Thing at a Time addition, as the Bengals look to earn that badly needed first victory as they face Andy Dalton and the Carolina Panthers. Coming up, did you know that andre Yosi vash is tied for the NFL lead and touchdown catches. We'll discuss that and whether he thinks he could have won an Olympic medal in

Yeah, I guess those statistics. You can't really fight those statistics. I would say, you know, me and Joe just have some sort of knack there of I don't know, just chemistry with each other there that can't be explained. So's I'm pretty lucky to pretty fortunate.

For that to be my stats. They've all come in the red zone. Do you think your size and your strength is a factor in that compressed area?

Definitely?

I think you know, my build, my size, my strength also like my quickness that people might or like smaller dbs might not know about. You know, I'm quicker than my people would think, so I can break it off at any point, just like against the Chiefs like that. That throughout the pilot, I broke them off with a couple of yard separation, and I only had a pretty small box to work in, So I think everything there that I have physically works in my favor.

Do you still save the touchdown balls at this point?

Nah?

No, I didn't say any of those.

Maybe if something happens like next to my birthday again, or if it's like a game winning one, then I'll save it.

Yeah, all right.

Visiting with andre Yosi vash on Monday night, it was the first time this year that you, Jamar Chase t Higgins were on the field at the same time. Did you see a difference in the defense with those two guys out there with you?

Yeah, I mean, I mean I saw a difference. I kind of felt a difference in the offense, to be honest. I felt like we were able to get into more of a rhythm. I mean, obviously we had a great game against Kansas City as well, but something just felt like it flowed and the energy felt like what it should have been when all three of.

Us were out there.

He scored ten points in week one, twenty five in week two, and thirty three in week three. Are you cooking now.

Yes, I think the offense is definitely cooking. You know, we're all you know, it's it's interesting because you lose some of your guys last year and then this year is still trying to find a rhythm and find out what works, what personnel groupings work, and so you know, once you find that rhythm, you know it's just got to keep going.

So I have a buddy that when the Bengals lose a tough game, he goes home, he pops on episodes of funniest home videos that he's saved just to take his mind off the game. Do you do after a tough loss?

You know, that's actually not too.

Like far off what I do sometimes, Like if I just want to decompress or something, I'll go on YouTube watch fales of the year like or an office episode that makes me feel comfort, you know what I mean. He's not too far off what I would do.

All right, I'm gonna pass that along.

What's the message this week among the players and coaches in the locker room?

You know, just keep the intensity high, hold people accountable, and just you practice more than you play in this in this sport, so if you practice just as hard as you play and with the right intentions, you know, good things will happen.

Carolina really struggled in the first two weeks, then they crushed the Raiders last week with Andy Dalton at quarterback. Did that eliminate any possibility of taking them lightly?

I would say, team wise, you don't take any other opponent lightly. You know, the NFL is a you know, coach Coach Taylor says all the time, it's a hard league to get wins in, and I think all of us are bought into that. You know, we have a lot of veteran leadership as well, and everybody knows how hard it is to get a w in this league. So I wouldn't say necessarily it was it we would have taken them any later.

That happens for the rest of us, not for the guys that actually are out there playing. All right, So I'm curious about something, Andre. You were fined for shooting an imaginary bow and arrow after scoring a touchdown in Kansas City. Forgive my ignorance, celebrations are allowed. Why would that be fined.

Well, they had said that it was an act of violence, but in I don't know, I was I felt like I was in Arrowhead playing the Chiefs. I mean, they have their stadium is Arrowhead. You don't you don't want me to shoot a bone arrow there? I mean that is asking for it to happen, so I'm going to appeal it. I didn't think it was too violent. I wasn't doing it at anybody. But you know I've seen I don't know I've seen worse.

So yeah, that one really confused me.

All right.

Final question for andre Yosibosh. At the Summer Olympics in Paris, the gold in the cafalon went to Marcus Ruth of Norway. The silver went to Leo neig Bauer, you know the name from Germany. The Brons went to Linden Victor of Grenada. Have you competed against any of them, and had you concentrated on the decathlon, could you have been a medalist this year?

Yeah?

So I competed against Leo my junior year of college at nationals. He got first. I got fourth there, but you know, the points weren't too far apart there. First, second, third, and fourth were all neck and neck, and I think that definitely. I mean I was competing with them at the national level, and you know in the NCAA. You have guys, you know, coming from all over the world. You know, Germany, I mean Leo's from Germany and he

For me there.

But I also think the sky's a limit for me here.

So yeah, I don't think any of those guys would have five touchdown catches in the last four games.

Yeah, I think I think I can put that. Yeah, Athletically, I have that over them for sure.

So yeah, all right, appreciate your time. Best of luck this week.

Yep, thank you.

Because he was playing football at Princeton Yosi, Vash mostly competed in indoor track in college, where instead of doing the ten event the kathlon athletes compete in the seven event heptathlon. Andre holds the IVY League record and was a first team All American as a hepta athlete in most NFL seasons, ten wins get you to the playoffs, and if you look at the Bengals schedule for the rest of the year, you can definitely see a path for going ten to four the rest of the way.

We can't start looking down to you know, the end of the season. There's fourteen games left. We can't be like, oh, we got to get ourselves in the dance right now. We got to go beat Carolina, a team that just came off a big win against the Raiders. So we have a lot of things that you know that we need to clean up, and guys are gonna be ready to work. Here's what it is. Owing three is reality, So let's be one and three.

They'll try to get there against the Carolina team that finished with the league's worst record last year at two and fifteen and got off to an abysmal start this year, losing to the Saints and Chargers to open the season by a combined score of seventy three to thirteen. But first year head coach Dave canal Let's change quarterbacks last week, pulling the number one pick in last year's draft Bryce

Always be grateful to Andy. He led us through a very difficult time, did it the right way. Was always really good with me with giving me feedback and especially as a first year head coach, and all the challenge is that we faced that year. And I'm not surprised that he keeps getting opportunities and makes the most of them because of how he prepares and the talent that he has and his experience in the league. I mean,

The Bengals are favored by four and a half. Sunday's game in Charlotte will be televised by Fox, and I spoke to a former pro bowler who will be in the booth. There is going to be a Moose sighting in Carolina this Sunday, as former Dallas Cowboys and Syracuse Orange full back Darryl Johnston will be in the booth for Fox.

Moose have to ask you this question.

You were on a Dallas team that started zero and two and won the Super Bowl, So share some wisdom with us here in Cincinnati. What did you and your Dallas teammates do to overcome that slow start.

Well, it was a difference of circumstances than what Cincinnati faced even at Owen two.

So emmittt had held.

Out that year, and after we started out oh and two, they got him signed and he was back week three. And I think we learned a hard lesson from the business side of football. We have somebody key to your offense and your team, make sure that he's he's involved and ready for the season opener.

So it's a little bit different circumstance.

I think the biggest thing for me watching Cincinnati has just been the inconsistency. I think they all had to be disappointed with the way they played at home against New England. They never really seemed to match the emotion. New England played extremely well, and so you go out to Kansas City and you have the heartbreaking loss and the past interference penalty, and you come back and we had Washington in week one and Jayden Daniels did not play at that level.

So I've watched Jaden week two, week three just continue to get better.

And I had a position coach of mine at Syracuse, Jim Hoffer, who was at LSU when Jayden was there, and I talked to him a lot going into that opener, and he was very confident Jaden was going to figure it out and have a really good season. So I think he's a lot further ahead of schedule than a lot of people thought. But I think if you're Cincinnati right now, you know that you've missed an opportunity because you had New England, a team that you should have beaten.

So I think that.

There has to be a lot different emotions for Cincinnati than there was for us. For us, it was really kind of em it's back We're going to be fine right now, it's what is wrong with us? Why are we not being able to play to the level that we think we should be able to play at, and why do we continue to let these games slip through our fingers. So that's one that you got to really work through and get beyond.

Ours was a little bit easier as you.

Look at the Bengals offensively and defensively, what are a couple of things that stand out that they must do better going forward?

Well, I think the big question is going to be, you know, the injury at right tackle this week.

You know that that's always a hard one, you know, to work around.

So you're bringing it a young guy, you know, Amari's Mims comes in to be able to step into that game last week, you know against you know NFL edge rushers. You know, I think you hold your own, but you've got to be smart when you're protecting your edges. So I think from an offensive standpoint, what's what's really kind of jumped out to me is the running game. You know that that's that's one of the areas where I think, you know that there's a little bit of a surprise

You know, Jason Zach have done a really nice job.

I think we're going through Dallas in a similar situation with Cincinnati's going through. You know, cdee Lamb has a contract holdout, doesn't go to training camp. You can train all you want away from the facility and become more dynamic, become faster, but when you're not working football and you're not working with your quarterback, it's a completely different thing.

You're talking about.

Carolina, who had a really tough start, had to make a really hard decision, and Andy Dalton comes in and plays really well. And now when I watched the film, it didn't match the excitement for me from the clips that I was reading. You know, from Carolina, he played well, he played better than Bryce Young has through the first two games. But I expected to see something a little bit more. I was actually probably more impressed with Cuba

We are visiting with Darryl Moose.

Johnston will be broadcasting the game for Fox this week. The Bengals don't have a fullback on the roster, but rookie tight end Eric All has been lining up a decent amount of full back over the last couple of weeks and he's not afraid to hit. Somebody has number eighty three jumped out on tape to you, And what do you think about teams that are incorporating the full back into their offense.

Yeah, it seems like we're getting ready to restart that cycle.

You know, with that position, it's kind of come and gone, you know, over the last you know, twenty thirty years, it's been very cyclical with the teams around the NFL that utilize it.

Obviously, it's my position. I know the value of it.

I think that the defensive linemen in this league are so explosive and so unique that the full back, the h back, you know, whatever you.

Want to call him.

He gives you that extra layer of protection when somebody gets beat really quick and your running back doesn't have to make a decision three yards behind the line of scrimmage. You know, you can be absorbed by that fullback, that h back. I still think you get favorable matchups when

He's he's as complete.

I think you heard Troy talk very very highly about him, he and Joe both during the broadcast on Monday night. So I'm always excited when we have somebody come in and I think for somebody like Eric in that position where you can play traditional tight end. You can play the tight end that goes out into the slot area and brakes formation. You can be a guy that can come off the wing go into the backfield, and the transition from line of scrimmage to the backfield is very different.

When you're blocking from the backfield.

So it's a completely different skill set and a completely different mental approach. So for somebody to be able to do that effectively in both areas, in both positions, it has always been extremely impressive to me.

So heading into the game, Carolina has given up the most points of any team in the NFL. The Bengals obviously have some injury issues on their defensive line. Does it kind of feel like this might be a shootout to you?

I was really surprised to see the number one they put up against Vegas. You know, Vegas's defense you got Antonio Peers as your head coach, you got Marvin Lewis there as his mentor.

You know, that's going to be a franchise.

It's going to be you know, kind of driven defensively and and as a team. That's you're putting Andy Dalton, and he's got a ton of experience. He played, he played well the last time he got a chance to start and put up some some big numbers in a loss. But I didn't I didn't anticipate seeing that. I was not sure how good the supporting cast was. I've kind of watched this team build their offensive line over the last three four years, and they've done a nice job

But I was I was really surprised.

We're doing our game, you know, Packers at Titans, and that score came across UH and it was really surprising to all of us.

So it very well could be.

It very well could be if if Cincinnati is is still struggling a little bit with with what's going on on the defensive side of the ball. You know, if if they still do don't have if Sheldon's not there, if BJ's not there, you know that that's a huge loss. And we talked about the running game for Carolina, you know, that could be a way to control things.

So it's hard to win games in the NFL.

It's hard to replicate an offensive performance like Carolina had last week.

It's a Cincinnati team.

It's you can say whatever you want, You're gonna you're gonna hear the guys talk about it.

It's it's gonna be a one week you know. Focus. You know, from from this point on, we can't we can't have any more mistakes.

And I've always believed that you can't win a championship in September, but you sure can lose one. And they're on the cusp of losing the opportunity to get into the playoffs and compete for a championship as a team. That was one of the ones talked about. You know, when who's going to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. Uh So this has to be extremely disappointing. And going all the way back to how we started this. You know, when we started zero and two, even though we knew

This is this is one week at a time, and.

He knows that there's fourteen more games, but we got a lot of work to do. It's not going to be easy getting enough wins in those fourteen to be able to get an opportunity to get into the playoffs.

They obviously need one this week, and we hope that you are calling it for Fox, Darryl.

I appreciate your time. Thank you so much, my pleasure.

Dan. Always good to visit with you.

I was part of the Syracuse University broadcast crew and move who's played there, and he helped the Orange go twenty one, two and one in his final two seasons. 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

Yeah, everyone saw that coming, right, Everybody saw that coming. You know, it's wild. I think there was this national narrative that was brewing and that was out there that, to be honest, was tough to refute when you're coming off two fifteen season that this was a team that didn't have a lot of pieces and wasn't very talented. And now the quarterback play was a result of the surrounding pieces, and then Andy Dalton comes in with those

Know you got to do what you have to do to win football games. Right now, the coach's careers and everybody's careers are on the line. Bryce young high draft pick, obviously the organization put a lot in a line with him. They bring in a head coach that can develop young quarterbacks, canals. I mean, he's elected a captain. Like you said, he's a great kid. He's elected a team captain, one of the four team captains, and then another one's picked on a weekly basis, So what is that like for him?

A lot of people, and I would say most people within the building and certainly pretty much the entire locker room, they love Bryce. The reality again was he just wasn't playing well. And is it a small sample size? Absolutely eighteen games, But go back to the tail end of last year. You know, Bryce hadn't thrown a touchdown, passed in something like nine of his last ten or ten of his last to left games. The previous two games

Yeah, the voice of the Panthers and E. Shrop is our guest. Let's talk about the defense a little bit. It's been getting better every week, but through three weeks has given up an average of just under thirty two points a game, which is last in the NFL. Where have they struggled on the defensive end.

Well, it's been stopping the run. And when your best player on the entire football team, Derek Brown, who set the NFL record for tackles by a d lineman last year, When he gives out Week one and he's done to the season due to a knee injury and wasn't really healthy that first week, that just decimates you. There's no one guy to step in and who plays Derek Brown number ninety five. Surprisingly, they actually held up okay against

Looking at at the numbers red zone defensively, opponents in the red zone nine times and scored eight touchdowns having kicked the field goal. There was no score on one of the possessions, but eighty eight touchdown percentage in the red zone. That has to be painful.

Yeah, And again, that goes back to not being able to stop the run. You get down there and you get close, and if teams know they can move the chains and make traction using the ground game, they're gonna do it, especially when the field condenses and the boundary of the end zone serfs as an extra defender. So they got to figure out some way to stop the run. But it's hard right now. You got Ashan Robinson, who's a veteran the Giants last year had success with the

Our guest is an e. Shrot, the boy said the Carolina Panthers. Let me ask you about your first year head coach Dave Canalis. I didn't know much about him before Carolina hired him the offensive coordinator for Tampa Bay last year and time with Seattle before that. I watched his news conference today, young, good looking, articulate guy. Tell us a little bit about Dave Canalis as you've gotten to work with him this year.

Extremely energetic, extremely optimistic. He and general manager Dan Morgan go way back to their Seattle days. Both were brought on. Morgan was his scout. Canalis was working as an analyst and then kind of worked his way up quarterbacks coach, wide receivers coach. Eventually left to go to Tampa to be the OC. But he's been described by Baker Macfield as an optimist, fully, and you see a lot of that. This guy when it's raining outside, walks in smile on

No offense.

We just want to see the punter once, yeah, right, at least Yeah, after a Monday Nights game against Wig.

I don't want to see ours though, just yeah, that's true.

Year, that was fine, That was fine, Ryan Rico think I saw a single There was not a single punch in that game, right.

There was correct, non first time since nineteen forty no punts, no turnovers. What it's worth If the Panthers Johnny Hecker has punted sixteen times this year, Ryan Rico of the Bengals is only punted six times. I think that eight to three ratio would be just fine. On Sunday, 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. If you're not in the Cincinnati area, just search for ESPN fifteen thirty on the free iHeartMedia