Bengals Booth Podcast: Only Human

bud Light. Seltzer refreshed the game, and here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitch, your Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since Joey Vado. I hosted a talk show about a month ago and said something that didn't seem very controversial at the time. Nobody called in to argue, and listeners might have even thought I didn't

go far enough. I said that Joey Vado, at the age of thirty seven, was a middle of the pack hitter among Major League Baseball first baseman, and that's what he was going to be over the final two years of his ten year, two hundred and twenty five million dollar contract. I am happy to admit that the Reds first baseman has not only forced me to eat a heaping portion of crow, but he's forced me to reconsider what he can still be in his late thirties and

early forties. As I record this podcast, Vado has hit sixteen home runs in his last ninety one at bats. That's a home run every five and a half times up. And despite missing twenty eight games earlier this season with a broken thumb, he's now in a pace to hit thirty six homers and drive in one hundred five runs this season. Every Vado at bat has become must watch TV.

I think most of us assume that while his best days were behind him, Joey could still somewhat productive at the end of his career because he would at least continue to get on base. Now, he looks like he can still be one of the game's best sluggers. Joey Vado's career ops that's on base percentage plus slugging average ranks ahead of Hank Aaron Frank Robinson and Albert Poohole's, among others. He's basically Wade Boggs with power, and like Boggs,

Joey Vado is going to wind up in Cooperstown. Now, let's get to football and last week's win over Tampa Bay, the Bengals starting defense was only on the field for one series, sacking Tom Brady and forcing a punt. On Friday in Washington, the starting defense was on the field for three series. The first ended with a punt, the second ended with a fourth down stop near the red zone,

and the third ended with a takeaway. It's third down in fourteen Fitzpatrick back to throw, has plenty of time whistles won over the middle that catches made, but it's short of the first down. Bengals picked up the ball at the end of the play. We'll see if it's a fumble or if the receiver was down before the ball came out. Bengals are pointing like it's their ball and the officials are going to confer. Sure enough, Logan Wilson punched the ball out and Mike Hilton recovered the fumble.

Forcing turnovers is critical, but another stat is even more important. To Zach Taylor zero points. You know, that's the one that matters, you know, two games and Rosier points that that's all I really care about. The fumble recovery led to a short field goal by Evan McPherson, but that was it for the Bengals offense in the first half. There were penalties, there were lousy throws, and there were drops by Jamar Chase. In fact, he dropped all three

passes that were thrown his way. Here are Zach Taylor and Brandon Allen. We just expect our siperscutt the ball. It's as simple as that, you know. I don't attribute to any rhythm the balls coming at chup, catch it, and that's what we need to improvement from. He's a good player, and he's still getting his feet well with

the game experience in the NFL and all that. And I think, you know, I've seen him make some unbelievable plays in practice and that'll translate it will He'll make the He'll make the easy ones, and he'll make some spectactic ones as well. So I'm not worried about him. I know he I know what he can do and what he will do once he gets going. The Bengals trailed six three at the half before finally showing some life on their opening drive of a third quarter shotgun snap.

Alan's throw back, shoulder throw, juggling, leaping catch penalty flags are down on both sides of the field. Aud and Tate went right over the defender to make that grip. Audum Tate's eighteen yard catch on third and five was the Bengals' first third down conversion in seven tries. A few plays later, they faced third and six. Alan waits for the shotgun snap, catches the ball from Hill, looks to throw his pass a slat caught by trend Irwin

inside the ten. Inside the five has the ball punched out from behind, and Washington recovers at the one yard line, David Mayo falling on the ball. It looked like the Bengals are going to have it first in goal inside the five and Trenton Irwin had had punched out at the four. There are two penalty flags near the goal line, and the first one came out at the point of contact where that ball was knocked away from Irwin. The penalty was unnecessary roughness for a helmet to helmet hit

by former UC Bearcat Derek Forrest. Here's Trenton Irwin. You know, it was a blessing that there was a foul there, but I mean I got to hold on the ball. I was just I was excited to get an end

zone there. But it all worked out, got the touch down on the end it came I'm the next play, Allan lines up under center, he runs a quarterback sneak, gets shoved from behind, and it's a touchdown for the Bengals as Brandon Allen scores on a one yard quarterback sneak and Cincinnati has the lead in the third quarter. That made it ten six Bengals. But that was one of only two rives all night where Cincinnati had more than one first down out of rhythm. You know that

that's the key thing for me. You know, early on we had a penalty on the first play the game that set us back, and then they just played some man coverage. On critical downs, you gotta thrown catch, and when you don't thrown catch, I think we had some opportunities that were there, and you're out there on three and out, so again we don't convert those third down It's hard to get into a rhythm and get a chance to do a lot of things that we wanted to do on the call sheet, and that was unfortunate.

That was frustrating. Those are things that we're gonna have to correct when we get home. Too many drops really in the game as well, that was frustrating as well. And then late in the game, just too many penalties. You know, there was a driver, we had a fall start, we had an legal formation, we had a holding, we had a snap on the wrong cadence, and we had a fumble on the same play which they turned into seven points. And so that's just the stuff that that

leaves us bad taste your mouth. And the snap on the wrong cadence turned out to be the key play of the game. With a ten nine lead in the fourth quarter, rookie tray Hill snapped the ball while the other four offensive linemen stood there like statues shot gun snap Shermer in trouble, manages to avoid a hit, but now he's brought down. Paul pops out. You know, it looks like Washington recovers. That led to a one yard touchdown run by Jared Patterson plus a two point conversion

that gave the football team a seventeen ten lead. Fourth Team quarterback Eric Dungee saw his first action in the Bengals uniform and drove the team within the long field goal range of McPherson from the right house. Huber with a put down. McPherson with the kick length is not a problem, and the kick is good as he hammers one home from fifty yards away, taking another big step toward winning the kicking job as a Bengals rookie. But that was Cincinnati's last hurrah as Washington held on for

a seventeen thirteen win. Here's Allan on a rough night on offense. I mean it starts with me not being accurate with a lot of those passes, a lot of contested plays that I can put the ball in a lot better aitions for the guys to at least make a play on. I think I sailed at least two out of bounds that I can think of on top of my head that I can easily put those either back shoulder, at least give a guy a chance to

make a play for me. So a lot of that starts to maybe being more consistent in getting them catchable balls. And yeah, it was just tough to find a rhythm after that. I called Friday's game on the radio with a good friend and a great broadcaster, the voice of the Ohio State Buckeyes, Paul Keels. Dave Lapham had to miss the game due to NFL COVID protocols. Lap watched it on TV and join me for some postgame analysis.

How concerned should we be about Jamar Chase's drops. It's something that went from the practice field to the playing field, you know. That's that's the thing. It's like, yeah, man, now it's happen. That has to be broken. There's no question about that, and I think it can be. I think that it's a you know, just focus on the details, the final points, you know. And to have three of them, though, three fur down balls that could have extended drives and to go over is not a very good thing in

a very short time frame. Yeah, I'm worried that it gets in his head a little bit. And the thing I will say for Jamar Chases, I don't remember ever seeing a receiver, whether it's the fifth pick in the draft or an undrafted free agent from a tiny college, spend more time after practice catching balls off a jugs machine. So it's not a matter of not putting in the work. I mean, this guy is incredibly dedicated, and I'm really confident that he'll come out of it. I just hope

it's soon. I agree Dan, and I think the other thing about him is he's extremely coachable. I mean, Coach Walter's he's a sponge. Everything to Coach Walters is saying he's taken in. It's not like he's, you know, shunning coaching and you know, the other veteran receivers when they talk to him, he seems to be willing to listen to everybody. So maybe he's just in a little bit of a slump. I don't know if he's ever had this issue before. Obviously he and Joe Burrow haven't experienced this.

When here at LSU, it didn't seem to have drops, did not seem to be a problem back then, So hopefully they'll they'll get remedied. Here it seemed like the opposite. I mean, the reputation at LSU is unbelievably strong. Hands there was no track record of the drop season there, So again, hopefully this is a rookie who missed a year, who's thinking about it a little bit too much, and hopefully after a couple of good catches under game conditions.

That will be something we'll laugh about eventually. Yeah, I think sometimes, you know, one happens, you start to press, then the second one you press more, you know. And I think the best thing that happened was he was done for the night, you know, in the early stages

of the football game. And I'm sure he was. He probably had a long night the rest of the night thinking about it, and I'm sure coach was talking to him about a Teammates were trying to encourage them and the best thing is now just to go back to work, put it behind them, and get onto the next preseason game against the Miami Dolphins. So let's talk O line. The starting guards in Washington or quintin Spain on the left side, Xavier Sue of Philo on the right side.

So they went with the Vets. Those guys the first team unit on the O line, only in for eleven snaps. The offense wasn't very productive, but it's kind of hard to fault the O line when you've got drops and penalties killing drives. Yeah, and I guess the harbinger of things to come was the very first play of the game. You know, they bust Joe Mixon for sixteen seventeen yards on the screen in Quentin, Spain is called for a hold in space out there, and so that negated that play.

And it seemed like whenever they would get a trunk play of some sort, just to kind of get them off to schnide a little bit, a penalty were to occur, be an illegal formation and then and then the penalties that you don't want to have a you have a veteran player that's highly respected, Riley Reith, you know, just false starts stuff, so that the mental the mental mistakes, the physical things, holding penalties, things that nature are going

to happen. Guys are gonna get themselves in bad position and uh, and then you know the technique is going to be compromised. But the mental errors not lining up properly, you know, not remembering the snap count, the fumble that occurred, I mean that was that was with Schremer. That was basically the center of Hill. Trey Hill snapped the ball account early, he forgot the snap count. Here comes the pass rush, and you know, the whole thing's an aborted

play at that point. Then it's compounded by the fact that Schremer doesn't exercise ball security, But I mean that two guys the battery, the center on the quarterback are two guys that cannot forget the snap count. I'm telling you. It causes major issues. And they're the two that are handling the football, so they have to be very very precise with respect to the snap count. And that was a tragedy that occurred. So it just seems like the

focus overall just just wasn't there for whatever reason. They were just just to tick off in terms of, you know, being able to ca hone in on what was going on that particular night. Going back to the Bengals first offensive play, did Quentin Spain hold there? In your opinion? You know, technically he had the hands inside the framework, you know, and he grabbed the shoulder pad. The thing is when cloth stretches, officials are going to throw the flag, So you just have to be aware of letting go,

you know. I mean, it's one of it's it's one of those things where if you employ that technique and a pass rush where you know there you were treating they're coming up the football field, It's it's a little bit different than if you're in space and running laterally, and he's faster, and he starts to pull away, and you, you know, you retard his ability to run by by grabbing even if visiting the framework. I thought, boy, that's

a little ticky tack. But then when I saw a different angle, he played the one that I thought the official was looking at. I can see why the official through the flag, but it was it egregious No, but can it be called? Yeah? And it was. I think Brandon Allen, by and large has had a very solid camp. I didn't think he was very good in Washington. There was a third down pass for t Higgins where he was open early in the game. He missed him way

too high. Later, Trent and Irwin was open for which should have been a third down conversion, missed him wide. Even the drops by Chase a couple of those throws weren't quite where they probably should be. It just not a very good game in my opinion from Brandon Allen, I agree. I think he fell into the category of the entire offense. They just worn't sharp, you know, weren't sharp physically mentally. It just they never got in a rhythm.

They never never got anything, you know, a coordinated effort. One player was the offensive line, another play it was a quarterback, another player was a wide receiver, and pretty soon the damn has got holes sprouting all over the place, and you don't have enough fingers to plug up all the holes. So you just have that kind of performance and hopefully it's a it's a one time thing, and it happened in the preseason and they can get over

it move on. But it just there really really was never any synchronization of all three phases, you know, in terms of position groups quarterback, offensive line, running back, receivers, four phase. It's just it just it was disjointed. There's no question about it. All. Right, let's turn to defense. It's been great at practice and in the first two preseason games, particularly the first teamers on defense have been outstanding.

They really have dan I mean, you look at it in the first six quarters of of preseason football, giving up a grand total they gave up the grand total of four field goals, you know, and so that's number ones, weren't that's ones and twos. I mean, they just they

really played very well. They gave up their first play of twenty yards more in the first play of the game because there was a brain cramp in terms of coverage, and there was a there was a free free runner tight end Thomas was running wide open and took a five yard pass to a twenty six twenty seven yard play whatever it was. But after that, they went back to playing the type of defense that they they'd been

playing and uh and and really faced some adversity. I mean, you know, they have a great stop on fourth down, oj Ogan Joby, I should say, um shows himself well and that fourth down play and you know, you think, boy that that that could be a spark for the offense. What does the offense do one, two, three and out? So you know, they don't answer with any kind of a you know, they just didn't respond whatsoever. It wasn't complimentary football, um, But you know, the takeaway by Wilson

was good guys. Guys that had been playing well in the first preseeing game continued in the second. Arrius Hodge, Jalen Davis camp sample flashed and he's got that dinged up shoulder. But it's encouraging to see, you know, the same guys like you mentioned Trent Irwin. You know, he made some plays for the second game in a row. Jockos Patrick made some plays for the second game in a row. Some of these young defensive players two games

in a row. So now they're they're not only stacking practices, they're starting to stack games a little bit, which is a good sign. I'm getting pretty excited about Darius Hodge. Then I look at the roster situation on the defensive line and I'm like, well, how does he make the fifty three. It's it might take an injury. They would certainly keep him on the practice squad, There's no question about that. But he's proving to be a pretty intriguing

pass rusher, and given the opportunity, I agree. I think. I think this kid, this kid's got something. Man, he's got some explosive this He's got some juice. The thing is, he did and I couldn't really see how many special teams snaps that he was part of. He didn't. He

wasn't part of any in the first preseason game. And I think that Darren Simmons was thinking about how am I going to get him involved in special teams because well, that's a very specialized thing to just be a switch situational edge rusher and not be able to give you anything else in terms of snaps, I'm not talking about making the fifty three. I'm talking about being active on

game day. So it's going to be interesting to see if Darren Simmons starts to incorporate him a little bit more, maybe in special teams against the Miami Dolphins and make that part of the evaluation process. Speaking of special teams, Evan McPherson took another step toward winning the kicking job the fifty yard or late in the game that sword passed the goalpost from fifty yards away, telling you, Dan, dude's got dynamite caps in his toe. It's unbelievable. That

thing explodes off that toe. And he does. He kicks the ball straight. I mean he doesn't have you don't You don't see his ball, you know, fading or hooking or anything. And he kicks. He kicks a very straight ball. And when you're dealing with some potentially you know, bad weather conditions in terms of wind and things like that. Being knowing that boy I not only have to play factor in the wind here, I have a natural draw, I have a natural fade or whatever. Those kind of

things can be a little bit of an issue. He cranks it straight as an arrow and I mean high. Like you said, boy, he just that thing was just a majestic looking shot. You know. He got it up there quickly and it cleared. It would have been good from between fifty five and sixty easily. It hit halfway up the net. Was crazy. Almost a memorable night for Marcus. Bailey almost had two interceptions. He had one briefly that got reversed on replay and then he almost had another

one earlier than that. He's been having a good camping and that was almost his breakout of preseason game. Yeah, he was. He was around the football, and that's another thing. I think he's a he's an example of the defense that he's running to the ball, he's hustling and defense defensively, they've gotten their hands on quite a few footballs and just you know, eight quarters of football. Louanna Room and

all the coaches have to be excited about that. And he obviously will be a big contributor special teams for Darren Simmons with the athleticism that he has and he has shown so I think that he's had a very very solid camp. I can remember, you know, multiple times during practices us looking at each other. You know, hey, boy, Bailey made another play. Bailey made another play. It's not like, boy, how's this happening in games because he hasn't been doing

it on the practice field. He has so a ton of snaps for the second string offensive line in this game, Isaiah Prince left tackle, Michael Jordan left guard, Trey Hills, center, Jackson Carmen right guard. Fred Johnson is in right tackle. Anybody catch your eye or did that unit stand out

in any way to you? I thought Trey Hill didn't play anywhere near at the level that he played at in preseason game number one in this preseason game, not just the the ill advised snap in the ball early in the snap count, but he had he had other problems, you know, at the line of scrimmage, and uh, you know, Fred had a typical first outing. There were some positives, but then you know there were some head scratchers as well, and that that was the situation up and down the

line of scrimmage of those guys. Um, you know, it's they all show the ability to do it. When you look at snaps, none other snaps, It's like, where did that come from? So those have to be eliminated or minimized. And I'm not saying you're not gonna be perfect every snap, but you can't, you know, you just you just can't fall off a cliff almost from a from an execution standpoint. Um, you know it's like, well then then coaches to wonder can I trust you? And when is that they start

flinching and cringing on the sideline something bad. Uh, it's due So and so's due for one of those brain cramps or one of those play that comes out of nowhere and you start to start to flinch about it a little bit, and coaches aren't comfortable at that. So until until that gets a self sorted out where everybody is and you know, it's it's impossible. They're not going to be five robots up there that are going to be controlled by Frank Pollock with a joystick or anything

like that. But um, you know they do have to exhibit more consistency and uh and avoid the train wrecks. So one preseason game left next Sunday afternoon at home against Miami Dolphins. And the big question this week we'll involve Joe Burrow. Will he get to play in that game? We know the risk. We know the reason why he wouldn't play. Can you articulate what the benefits would be to get think Joe Burrow his wish and throwing him out there for a few snaps. I think you know,

there are a few boxes left to check. He hasn't been on the football field since the injury, in a game condition in the huddle, looking at his teammates and getting the call from Zach Taylor in his headset and then you know, communicating that to everybody break the huddle to get up to the lines. Just to be in that environment again is a box that can be checked. And I remember the juice down there in Tampa when the Goat went out there for that series. I mean,

the place was excited. The last time they'd all been together was a Super Bowl victory, and how sweet is that? And then when the Goat ran out there after winning a seventh Super Bowl, everybody went knots. I mean, the energy was pretty good, and I thought the Bengals really responded that on the road. That was exciting to see the Bengals kind of respond to that type of scenario. But I think what about the fan base here and Cincinnati. Joe Burrow Trot's out there for the first year he's

a place, will be off the hook. It'll be great. And uh so, you know, to do that for the fan base and to reward the players for you know, okay, last preseason game, you've gone through a training camp. Let's make it as good an environment as you possibly can and um and then there are you know, there are things you can do if you decide to do that.

It makes sure that Joe's not tested whatsoever physically. If you are fearful of that situation and hand the ball off a couple of times and throw a screen past to Joe Mixon and be very careful, and you don't want to go three and out, that's for sure. But you don't want to have a seven play drive where you've got him taken a three or five step or seven step drop whatever in the shotgun and pockets closing

around him and necessarily taking a hit. But I think, honestly, I think Joe might even not be against that, honestly, although probably the organization and the coaches might be. But that would be the final check box to be checked is get hit and go to the ground, get up, thush yourself off, yep, good and surgery held up. Everything's good, Let's go play. So it'll be interesting to see. I don't think if Joe's out there, he won't be out

there very long. And if they do go on multiplay extended drive, I'm not sure you'll see him for that entire drive. You know, he may he may come out during the course of that drive. It may be, you know, just a cameo appearance with a curtain call and let

the fans go nuts again. It also might be the first situation in football history where the quarterback lines up in the shotgun twenty seven yards behind the center have to have a howards the shotgun staff, Gray Hawkins is going to have to fire that thing about half a football field. That's hilarious. They'll line up in like a pistol. They'll snap it to somebody else who then relays it backward to Joe and then he hands it off. Yeah, they have a little little tier of like four players

just keep pitching it back to him. Well. I still have mixed feelings as to whether I want to see Joe Burrow play against the Miami Dolphins, but I do want to see Dave Lapham to my right, in the broadcast booth. Hopefully NFL protocols allow you to be back behind the mic this week. If it's not this week, it'll certainly be the game after that. But we missed you badly in Washington and looking forward to being back

together in the booth hopefully this week. Oh same here, Dan, listen to you and Paul and you guys are you guys? Are both You talked about some Dulsted tones. Man, you've talked about unbelievable radio voices, and that was like, Wow, this is like radio heaven. Dan Horde and Paul Keels listening to these guys. Man, you guys did a great job. And you know pros pros, There's no question about it. And boy, I really missed it. I really missed being

there in the booth with you. And I was thinking about it that the first time or the last time before this, and I watched the Bengals on TV where I wasn't on another you know, I simon covering another football game or whatever, where I was actually at home watching the Bengals play on TV. Was nineteen eighty five. Um, that was that was the the after the USFL season in nineteen eighty eighty four. Um, that's that fall season. I went to games with my son and then watch

games on TV when they're on the road. That's the that's the last time I watched the Bengals on television. And uh started doing the games in the eighty six and haven't watched the Bengals game on television since then until until this one against the Washington football team. And man, it felt weird. I can tell you that weird. Well, thirty six years from now, we'll let you miss another one. Another one. Yeah, oh boy, yeah that thirty six years from now. Man, I can't even I can't even think

about that. All right, Well, appreciate your time, see you soon. Thanks for the info. Appreciate you, Dan. You best. That's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth podcast, brought to you by Bud Light Seltzer. It's light and refreshing with a hint of fruit flavor. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a

comment that helps more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde, and thank you for listening to the Bengals boot Podcast.