Bengals Booth Podcast: Opportunity

that and all of the Bengals key storylines. This week's one on one player interview is with center Trey Hopkins as we discuss protecting Joe Burrow and opening holes for Joe Mixon. And finally, it's our No the Faux segment as we get an in depth look at the Jaguars from Gene Frenette, a straight shooting columnist from the Florida Times Union. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Prime Sport,

the official hospitality partner of the Cincinnati Bengals. And here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since the QB School. Remember JT. O'Sullivan the Bengals backup quarterback in two thousand and nine. He has a channel on YouTube these days called the QB School where he does in depth analysis

of quarterback play. On Tuesday, he spent seventeen minutes going over Joe Burrows performance against Philadelphia and it's excellent. I highly recommend checking out the video and then tune into the Bengals pep Rally Show this Friday afternoon. JT will be our guest at three fifteen. Now time to bring in my broadcast partner Dave Lapham. Let's discuss the number any issue on this team, and that is the play

of the offensive line. They gave up eight sacks against the Eagles and eighteen quarterback hits, although according to head coach Zach Taylor, the line was not responsible for all of those sacks. The offense lind didn't give up eight sacks, you know, they gave up four, and one of them was at the last play the half. You know, when I asked Joe to hold on the ball for about fifteen seconds. Um, you know, we had receivers involved, we were somewhere on naked, somewhere on the tight end, you know.

So there was a lot of people involved in No. Eight sacks. It's always going to be reflection on the offensive line, but that's just not the truth after this game, you know. And and again it's there are we we got to continue to improve up there. You know. We got two guys on the left side there that are played probably combined ten games of their NFL career, and um, we're only going to get better, you know, and those guys are are accountable to what they can improve on.

And so again I'm not I'm always. I'm always. Um, it's never as bad as you think it is. And there's some things that we're improving on, and um, we'll continue to improve on as the season goes. That being said, how how do you feel about the amount of times Joe was contact something? Did those differ from maybe some of the contacts that he had in Week one and

Week two? Yeah, I do, you know, it's we had two sprint outs where he got contacted on you know, out of bounds almost you know, and and his biggest hit of the day was on a naked you know, where he scrambled on a naked and the line's not really planning on him being there. You're faking to the right and you're keeping the ball the left. They're not expecting him to be back on the right hitting an explosive play. To TV, that's just what he brings to

the table. You know, it's anything's on the table on any given play call. And you know he got hit. We got the penalty there, and so you know, some of those that look really bad are on some plays where we don't necessarily intend on that happening. But again, that's that's what makes Joe the player that he is is he's not afraid to take those hits and put himself in those positions because it means explosive plays. And there's a balance there of being smart, you know, not

putting yourself in that position. But at the same time, I'm screaming out and throw the ball away. On the play where t got called out of bounds, I'm scrammed two feet from him, screaming throw the ball away. All of a sudden, he puts a spin move on somebody and gets us twenty five completion completion on the field and turns on sources of laughing at me, you know. So there's just some things with his offense that we're learning.

There's gonna be some explosives there that are unexpected, and we got we gotta be all the block for ten seconds sometimes and some things where you don't think the ball's coming back at you, but it is. And that's part of what's going to make this thing pretty exciting. All Right, we're gonna hear from Joe Burrow on that subject in just a little bit. Let's unpack some of the stuff that Zach Taylor had to say there. He said, I asked Joe to hold on to the ball for

fifteen seconds. He's referring to the Hail Mary at the end of the second quarter. Then he also talked about the biggest hit that he took, that shot, that wicked shot that knocked the wind out of him on a naked So he's rolling out to his left, there's a guy there. He stops, starts to run back to the right a little bit. And in the NFL, if you do that, you are setting yourself up to potentially just

get crushed. Le did You're on your own and Malik Jackson said, oh, I'm going hunting, and you put a big X on his chest and shoulder and smoked it. You can rationalize, You can build a case, almost like a lawyer, to say, oh, you know, eight sacks, they all weren't in the offensive line. And that's true, but you can find other plays where the quarterback save the offensive line from a sack, or a running back save the offensive line from a sack. I don't care what

the numbers say. I don't care how you try to rationalize it. All I know is one I'm watching a game as a former lineman. I don't see a clean enough pocket a high enough percentage of the time. And you can Billy Day all you want about you know this that I don't give a damn. It's like, is the pocket secure enough but with the center and guards for the quarterback to step up if he needs to, And is it wide enough from the tackles for the quarterback not to worry about getting hit? And way too

higher percentage of the time. It's not. And I'm not saying it's all five guys. I'm not saying that by any stretch, because I've been there and I know it only takes one guy, but there's way too many times where it's happening where one guy has an issue. And in some cases, you know, like Zach said after the game, his first reaction as a former quarterback after the game is when a three technique is coming up to feel like a free runner and that's the outside shoulder of

the guard. The right guard is coming up the field like he's hardly touched. That's disconcerting to the quarterback, no question about it. So the bottom line is it has to get better. I know what good protection looks like. I think almost everybody knows what good protection looks like. Right now, it's not good protection. It's not good enough. And you know, and Joe needs to make an effort

to not exacerbate the problem. He needs to make a decision where man if I start to take too many of these, I'm not going to be around for a very long time because these guys. The SEC is a great level of competition, but these guys are bigger, faster, stronger than the SEC. Has more offensive and defensive line

playing in the NFL than any conference. But all of these guys playing in the NFL right now on both sides of the line of scrimmage could play in the SEC, not just you know, two per team, maybe three on a team offensive defensive lineman. So it's just another jump up. I mean, you have defensive ends outside linebackers that are more athletic than running backs you played against in college.

It's crazy. That's just that's nature of the beast, and you're just going to have to decide I'm gonna put I'm not gonna put myself at unnecessary risk for the sake of one play. Not going to do it. Molie Campbell got penalized for that hit, and I'm sure he'll get fine, but I'm alike Jackson. I'm sorry, but I really haven't heard anybody talk about that as a cheap shot. If Vontest Berfect had hit a quarterback like that, it

would have run non stop. Right twenty four to seven, people would have been calling for him to be banned from the league. I'm not saying Malik of Jackson is a dirty player. I don't know of any history of that kind of stuff, but that was a dirty hit in my opinion, Yeah it was. It didn't launch himself

toward the shoulder neck area, he ran through him. You know, kind of you're right, if Vontes Berfet or Joe Green, or you know, pick a guy Dick Buckis, pick a guy with a reputation, so you know that can be a prejudicial scenario, There's no question about it. But he was flagged. I'm glad he was flagged because you know, one of those I wonder if you'se find he will be fined. I mean, the league find that out at

the end of the week. He wasn't ejected, obviously, but I'm sure he's looking at the final he was penalized like that. Bottom line is you got to protect quarterbacks. A Quarterbacks are the storyline of the National Football League and they're the most valuable asset you have in your company. So you gotta protect him. You gotta protect him. All right, Let's talk about right guard Xavier sue Philo was the starter in Week one. He got hurt. Billy Price finished

up that game. Fred Johnson started and played Game two. Fred Johnson started Game three, got yanked at halftime, Billy Price finished up. It didn't go particularly well. They've got Alex Redman on the practice squad. They promote did keep in Sutherland from the practice squad this week. What are they going to do a right guard. Before you answer the question, let's hear from offensive coordinator Brian Callahan. We're looking at all of them and the play there has

got to be better, and I think everybody can see that. Um. You know, I don't know that I felt at halftime. We kind of felt French struggling more than as you watched. The tape wasn't as bad as itself. There's just a couple of plays that make it feel bad. And then Billy kind of did some good things early and then he struggled late in the game there in passcrow. So we just we need better play there. And so all the options are on the table as far as the

players that are on our roster. Um. You know, I ultimately the chances of a Pro Bowl guard walking through your door and week through the season are real low. It's just there's just the nature of it. So there's really no cavalry comment in that sense. Um. So we gotta we gotta find ways to take it. The best guys on the field, and we're looking at all the options, especially who's here, and if there is somebody out there in the world that can help us, we'll sort of

look at that too. He sounded like Rick Petino and his Boston Celtics days, Larry Bird and Kevin McHale aren't walking through that door. And he's right, you're probably not going to be able to land a great guard right now at this point of the season. But but what do you think, what do they do? It's it's open competition, you know. And if I'm if I'm alignman, if I'm a guard, I'm like, this is my chance, you know. But the problem is, why the hell hasn't that happened

long before this? Why does it have to come to this desperate situation where it was so bad that the right guard was the biggest problem in the past, protection from more snaps than not. So why did it come Why does it come down to this? This is the fourth game of the season. Now, there was no training camp, now, ot is all that sort of thing. They thought they were better off than they were. Obviously once it got to live bullets, man, it certainly wasn't good enough anywhere

near good enough. And in my opinion, the guy that can handle the job the best is Alex Redmond. Alex Redmond has seventeen NFL starts. Alex Redman has played next to Trey Hopkins, He's played next to Bobby Hart. They know live action, where to set for stunts. They have a feel for each other. They they've communicated all those kind of things that are important. They're extremely important. You know. So if he's healthy. But that's the problem. You know,

Alex had the wrestling incident. I guess you know in the offseason right for training missus training camp. Now there's no preseason games, no OTAs, no mini camps, and he missed his training camp. What are you supposed to do? I mean, you know, he painted himself in the organization both into a corner and they decided, you know, he's

not ready for they let him go. And the and the thing is what has to go on the light that has to go on his head is nobody picked him up when the Bengals let him go, Nobody picked him up. The Bengals brought him back. Okay, so now when you're healthy, we know you can play, we know you can finish, we know you're a beast, we know you can you know, by finish, it's like not just block people, but then try to abuse him at the end of it and say, you know, you're not gonna

want to line up against me anymore. That kind of an attitude. He has got that saltiness. Now he has to make sure he doesn't take it too far. Don't let the pendult swing too far. You don't want any silly penalties. You don't want any false starch, you don't want mental errors. You know, those are the kind of

things he has to make sure. He has to make sure he is on point dot and I crossing the tea detail oriented proved to the coaches that he is not only ready to go physically, ready to go mentally. Because if that's the case, he's the best right guard they have in my opinion, bar none. You know, case closed. I'm not saying he's best in league or anything like that, but I'm saying from what they've got to choose from right now, he is their most viable and best option.

Joe Burrow has been sacked more often than any other quarterback in the NFL so far this year. He's been sacked fourteen times. Deshaun Watson of Houston right behind him with thirteen sacks. According to Pro Football Focus, if you measure the highest percentage of pressure, it's not at the top in terms of the Bengals. Former Bengals quarterback Jeff Driscoll has been pressured on forty seven percent of his

drop backs, that's number one. Joe Burrow has been pressured on roughly thirty eight percent of his drop backs, that is ninth most in the NFL. So here's Joe Burrow on the pressure he has been facing in his first three NFL games. You know my style, everyone talks about the hits and you know the sacks. My style of play, I'm gonna get hit. You know, I'm gonna try to extend the play as much as I can. And that's something that I'm gonna have to live with, and I've

I've lived with it. I understand that. You know that's going to happen. You know, there were a couple of times where I held the ball a little too long and you know at the end of half, end of game that you know, the eight sacks was kind of misleading because you end a half end of game, you don't want to turn it over, you don't want to the clock to stop. So I took a couple of sacks on purpose. Um, So the eight sacks was a

little misleading. So I remember one you you ran a naked bootleg, wasn't there You started to come back and try to make a play, you know, like you have, You've done a lot and uh, you're you're on your own then, I guess, aren't you. Yeah, you know That's what I'm gonna live with when I make When I'm you know, running about, running around out there trying to make plays. You know, I understand that I'm gonna take hits when I you know, naked to my left, roll

back right. But we completed the ball, made a play, got a first down. So I'm gonna live with that hit every day of the week. As you advance in your NFL career, there's a balancing act there between taking the hit, making the play. Taking the hit and making the play. Are you still in the process of going through evaluation part of it? Yeah? But like I said, I'm always gonna try to make a play. And now you know, I understand when and when not to. You

know the situations of the game. You know, if it's second and long, you know, getting closer, taking a sack, just get rid of the ball and play third and you know eight instead of third and fifteen. But you know, on the one, it was second and fifteen, and in my mind, there's not a lot of difference between second and fifteen and third and twenty. So I'm gonna extend that play a little longer than I would have otherwise.

After the game, Sacks said that, you know, when the three technique is getting big time pressure, it's almost like a free runner. It doesn't matter what play is called. You know, it's a tough dynamic. I mean, that's hard for you to see in that situation when the pressure is coming right in your face in the middle of the pocket, isn't it. Yeah, But you know it's my job to make that guy miss and make a play. You know, I don't get paid to take sacks. I get paid to make plays, and so that's my job.

Things are going to happen where you know, we got five guys blocking every single play, and they got pass rushers that are paid millions of dollars to come and sack me. So guys are gonna lose, Guys are gonna get beat. That's the nature of the league. It's my

job to limit mistakes and make plays. Let's talk about the sacks a little bit more lap right now, he's on a pace to basically tie the all times single season record that was set by David Carr number one overall, picked by Houston his rookie year, when he got sacked seventy six times. That's basically the pace that Joe Burrow is on right now. He got sacked eight times last week.

I went back and looked at the most sacks that the all time great Bengals quarterbacks took in a single game, Kenny Anderson eight, Carson Palmer six with Cincinnati, but yet sacked eight times once with the Arizona Cardinals, Boomer six, Andy Dalton eight last year, the all time record David Klingler in his first NFL start ten. That's the Bengals record. That's not the NFL record, which is twelve shared by

two great quarterbacks, Donovan mcnabbin Warren Moon. Yeah, and you wonder, Okay, those guys are athletic running around, you know, trying to hold the ball, make plays and everything goes along with it. You know. I wonder what Andrew Luck, how his career would have been if he can do now. The offensive line, though, is much different. I think Andrew Luck right now would be enjoying his life because Philip rivers Is and the Indianapolis Colts fixed that problem after Andrew Luck decided to retire,

which is unfortunate. But yeah, it's look like like Joe Burrow said, pass rushers are paid a lot of money. Defensive linemen paid a lot of money to rush the passer and pressure the quarterback. And the Bengals right now dan lasting the league in sacks with fourteen that's thirty second, one hundred and seven yards lost thirty second as well,

dead last. They've lost over a football field. They've given back over a football field of offense due to their quarterback sacks Denver who you mentioned, you know, with our with our good buddy playing a quarterback position, thirteen sacks, one hundred and six yards, one less sack, one less yard. They're thirty first in both categories. So when you're given up fourteen sacks and over a football field in yards, it's obviously it's it's something that has to be addressed.

But then on the other hand, Joe Burrows the only rookie quarterback since nineteen fifty that has back to back games thirty plus completions with no interceptions since nineteen fifty, So in the midst of all of that that's going on around him, you know, all the whirlwind, He's still executing and performing pretty darn well. So if things get better, think how much better Joe can be. He's not operating at a deficient level right now as a rookie quarterback

with all the friends going on around him. So if that can improve whatever percent, ten percent, twenty percent, Joe Burrow will improve as well. I mean it can only get better. I mean if if he's posting these numbers under these adverse conditions, when conditions improve, so should his numbers. He has one for sixteen on throws that have traveled twenty or more yards downfield. The one completion his first career NFL touchdown to C j Uzama, and that was

twenty three yards, So it's not like fifty. How much of that is not having time and space? I think a good bit of it. And you know the other thing is if you get ping ponged around when you do have an opportunity, you overthrow it. I mean I think I think the throw that overthrew it to AJ Green, he said himself, high school quarterback, it's got to make that throw ninety nine times out of one hundred Joe

Burrow hits Aj Green. I think on that pass now, you know, am I saying that pressure had affected him at that point that early in the season to where he didn't make a good throw. I don't know, Maybe, maybe not, but I do know that over time, when you're getting smacked around like that, it's like, oh, here's the the deep ball opportunity. Oh it might be, it might present itself here, get it out now. You're getting it out too fast. You're not as accurate as you

could be. If you if you feel like I mean the great deep ball throwers. You know you're throwing with the anticipation and accuracy everywhere deep ball as well, but the deep ball throws that really killed defenses over the years. Hold it that extra half a beat to make short and the boom laser you know, getting in there. I mean, it's it is. It's all about time and like we've talked about a million times, space, keep people arm's length away,

keep them away from Joe Burrow. So far this season, for lack of a better term, Aj Green has looked pedestrian. Not terrible, but not what you expect out of Aj Green. He's on a pace for sixty nine catches and six hundred nineteen yards this season. His longest catch so far this year is fifteen yards. Here's offensive coordinator Brian Callahan on the first three games of the year for Aj Green. You need to get more on Aj There's no question

about that, you know. And I think he's felt his way through three weeks here after not playing for two years, and I think every time he steps out there, he gets better and gets more comfortable. And you know, he really hasn't taken reps in the offense up until the season started. You know, he's been a right he's been meetings and he's been attentive and he understands and but you know, going out and doing it sometimes it's a lot different than it is sitting in a classroom, and

that part of it's. I think every day that goes by, he gets more comfortable, he gains more confidence, and you know, we need Ada to help us. And then we've called on him in some big spots already this year and he's made place for us, and we just you got to continue to find ways to get him the ball and get him give him more optus and make plays as well. Brian when you were talking about receivers stretching the field. I think you said that Aj can still

do a little of that. There was a time that he there was a time that he did a lot of that. Does that kind of reflect where he is at this stage of his career. I think he just he's just coming off of a hamstring injury that limited him for most of Camp. I think he feels finally feels like he's fully ready to open it up, and

he's done a lot of good things so far. He's put a lot of content the balls that have been first downs and good plays for us to move the chains down the field, and finding ways to get aged down the fields and more too, is something that you know, we need to keep keep prodding and pushing to get

to that spot. I don't know that it's effect of anything other than um, you know, kind of how the games have fallen, the types of scheme we've seen, and ultimately, you know, being able to get in a position to throw those balls down the field. You know, we missed him in the Chargers game. He was he was open. So I don't think it's a factive other than just just gotta gotta connect on some of the deep shots and then you've got to find ways to get them there.

In the last two weeks, at least when I've been watching, I don't see great separation between AJ Green and the guys covering him. And Denzel Warden Darius Slay are two to the better cornerbacks in the NFL, So that has something to do with that. But we're talking about AJ Green. It didn't matter who covered him in the past, the best corners in the game at least a few times during the game, he was going to fake them out

of their jock and be wide open. AJ Green's body language oozes with uncertainty in my opinion, you know, like I think Brian Callahan said, he's kind of feeling his way, you know, out there on the football field. And I concur one hundred thousand percent, and I've said it a million times and I'll say one more. He's a REP guy. He will tell you I'm a REP guy. I need to be on the football field doing it over and

over and over again. He's not a guy that takes it from the classroom and feels comfortable until he's out on the field actually going through the process with a defender and knowing exactly what he's doing, how he's supposed to do it, where he's supposed to be, how he's supposed to get there, all those kind of things. And there's no doubt in my mind that when opposing coaches and players watch tape of AJ right now, they say,

let's get our hands on him. In the past, AJ would, I mean, just destroy guys that we're trying to, you know, check him out the line of scrimmage, bump and run, he'd be he'd have a release and be buy him. Now they're getting their hands on him, and they're riding you know, they're riding them, you know, And I mean the touchdown passed a good example could have been called. Could have because he more than five yards down the field. Maybe he had his hands on him. You can chuck

within a five yard area. Was at the three yard line, so it was close, wasn't that? How much out of that? But you can't bear hug him, you can't put an arm around him, which is what happened. And then he could call for the push off, but he was so frustrated because of how he was bottled up. He pushed off to get to try to get separation because he knew they were going to him. They said, Aj, this is the biggest play of the game. You're our best player. We're going to you. And he knew it. So he

knew at the top of his route. Damn, this ain't working. I gotta I gotta do something to give some separation. So right now, watching AJ, I'm watching a player with a little uncertainty. You know, I'm not saying he doesn't know what to do assignment wise. What I'm saying he has not had enough repetition where he feels totally comfortable, where he's just ripping up the football field. You know, he's he's he's it all hang out to me, to me,

he's got a governor on him. You know, he hasn't he doesn't let he hasn't let it go to the to the top of his uh you know, auto bond type range. Yet he's got a governor, you know, And and hopefully he'll start to feel more and more comfortable and take that governor off. On defense, Carl Lawson had two sacks last week. He also had a pair of hurries, and according to Pro Football Focus, Lawson is currently tied

for eighteenth among edge defenders through three weeks. He also had a good game as a run stopper last week in Philly, and he embarrassed nine time Pro Bowl left

tackle Jason Peters. Here's Carl on last week's performance. I think me just being on the field more is just you know, that's kind of helped because it's like, you know sometimes when you gotta um sub in and get your motor running a little bit, you know, kind of but now you know, it's on something a bitter a better role this year where I get to play, you know, for a second and third down. I'm just getting the rhythm and I can you know, impose my will on the game a little bit more, you know, So I

don't not necessarily think that Peters was doing it. Just you know, just me being out there more and just having some experience I think helped with my play. Is Carl Lawson more than a situational pass rusher? I think he is now. He does have three quarterback sacks, tied for fifth in the NFL with Miles Garrett and Joey Bosa. Pretty good company. But he can play the run. I mean when he gets lined up on tight ends and some of the packages that lou An Rumo has. It's

a it's a mismatch. And the thing about him is he plays with low center of gravity anyway, and he does that in the running game as well. And he's got really good hip snap. He can roll his hips and man, when he strikes you and has that low pad level, he can be a load. I mean, he's got a very very quick first step. He's sudden, he's explosive. He can play with power, he can play with strength, he can convert power to strength. He's got a bunch of trade that that would translate to more than just

like an edge pass rush guy on third down. I think he can do more than that. For you, did lou Anna Romo basically let the front four go in passing situations last week? It seemed like it. Yeah, it seemed like they they thought we got some favorable matchups here. I mean, Peters is going in the Hall of Fame, but he's thirty eight years old, it's seventeen season. He's you know, I was kidding during the game, they're two statue of liberties, one in Philadelphia and one in New York.

Because he wasn't He's not moving like he was and Carl Lawson was the one one arm stab throwing him around. I mean he was, he was just having his way with him. But yeah, it's it's uh, they decided they could just beat him. Don't have to do anything fancy, don't have to overload the blitz action, don't have to twist as much. Just one on one pass rush, get up the field and get something done. And Carlos Dunlap had nine unassisted tackles. That's a that's a very productive

day out of the defensive end. Like I said a couple of times, I thought they let Lane Johnson get away with some action on the edge. I thought that Lane Johnson, I know, he's coming off an ankle injury. He looked a little diminished, and Peters looked big time diminished from where he was in his prime. Did Mike Daniels have an impact in his return? He did. You know, he's uh, he definitely you know, can invert the line of scrimmage. And he played another one plays with a

low pad level. He's you know, six to one and three hundred plus pounds. I mean that's like trying to block a you know, a mini fridge that's got some mobility, or a hydrant that can move around and he definitely he definitely shores it up for him up front. Hopefully the word is that he came out of it well, I was, you know, Okay, you come off a groin, you play twenty some odd snaps the next day after the game. Is the tale of the tape? How so

are you? How stiff are you? And uh, he went into the training when I might understand, you know, not in that serious scenario. So hopefully he'll be able to ramp up his snaps because he's going to help. And I don't know, I'm not sure about Gino. Doesn't look like Gino's gonna make the dance this week either, unfortunately. And you know how bad is this shoulder injury? What's going on here? You know it's get your best defensive player not playing the first month of the first four

games of the season. Man, you could use him. It's a team struggling to stop the run. He can help that. He and Daniel's in there together with DJ Reader and rotation. I'm dogging hunt right there. Gino Atkins did practice on a limited basis on Wednesday, so if he's not back this week, hopefully he'll return soon. Linebacker Logan Wilson missed Wednesday's practice due to the concussion protocol. The highest graded pass blocker through three games on the Bengals offensive line

has been center Trey Hopkins. Pro Football Focus ranks him tenth among NFL centers in that category so far this year. It's only his second year at the position, and I spoke to the twenty eight year old this week. Trey, you know how this works, regardless of how many pass at tempt your quarterback throws or if there are situations where he has to get rid of the ball, if he gets sacked, the offensive line gets ripped. How difficult

is that aspect of the job right now? I think we've made it more difficult than it needs to be. We just have to settle things down, and we have to We have to give each other tommy needs, no matter how many times it is in a game, matter where we throw it a hundred times, when we throw it once, um, when the plays called block it is our responsibility. So just let it stay that simple, I guess, and and and we just got to do a better job to share it up and be a lot firmer

up there. Following last week's game, both Zach Taylor and Brian Callahan said when they looked back at the tape, it was better than they thought. Did you feel the same way. It's difficult to find yourself get into that conclusion. It's a it's a very it's a difficult thing. It's a it's a thing that takes a lot of maturity because I mean a tie, it's still not a win.

So you still have that that you still have that same bitter taste in your mouth, and a lot of times it's easier to just to go go over the things that went wrong. Those things seem to stand out a lot more in your head when when you don't win a game, just like when you win a game, things that went right, since he seemed to stand down a lot more than they should, but they're both exactly correct.

When we sat down with the coach and actually watched the film and slowed down and watched play by play and watch assignments and steps and techniques, yes, there there has been an improvement um and throughout these three games so far, still not enough obviously to get the win, which is the ultimate goals. So he has to keep pushing towards that. Visiting with Trey Hopkins on the play last week where Joe Burrow had the win knocked out of him. Did that take the wind out of you

watching it? Yeah? Yeah, it it definitely. It's not a not a good feeling, not a not a good play, not something that you ever want to have happened, for sure, for sure it was. It was definitely disheartened. I want to go back to it. Joe Burrow quote from the preseason about his relationship with the offensive line. He said, those guys have to be my best friends. I have to make them happy so they'll fight for me. And then he went on to say they are going to

have some nice Christmas presents this year. Does Joe make you guys feel appreciated? Yeah he does. Yeah, he does. And one thing Joe does he makes it a point, which is something that's kind of new. He always speaks to the aligne first thing he doesn't he comes into the huddle Eastern series, he speaks to the olne and practicing in the games, and he's been a great presence.

Um he hasn't been a down. Bo's been an encouraging one and just letting us know, hey, I'm on board you guys and we got to get this thing right, and then I believe and he believes in us to get it right. So now it's just up to us to protect the guy and to do a better job at that all of us. Let's turn to the running game. It was excellent in the second half of the season last year. Can you put a finger on why you haven't been able to pick up where you left off?

Not exactly a finger. It's one of those things where you look at you look at the film and it's it takes all eleven on offense and even when you got ten doing it right, you got nine. Those pieces are critical, and that's one thing that's that's where we're at. That's what we're seeing with our run game. It's just small pieces or what you think are small pieces, actually play a huge role when it comes to live bullets.

So it's just making sure all eleven guys were all we're all on the same page, and we're all executing to the best of our abilities on each place. You never know when the big run could be. You never know when you're one block. Even if you don't get it right, there one extra that that little bit of strange just gets to get the defender of off balance just a little bit more to get Joe just firsting

through that hole, you know what I'm saying. So it just comes to all of us executing on every play, not each of us taking taking our turns and missing an assignment or missing a step or being behind or something like that. It hasn't been what you would have wanted so far, but it's been far superior to the first half of last year. Does the turnaround you had last year give you confidence that you will turn it

around him again this year? Sure? I mean I have confidence because the guys that are in this locker room one hundred percent now. We don't want it to take as long as last year. Obviously, we have a game coming up on Sunday that we have to be confident that we can win. We are confident that we can win, and we deserve too, and we're gonna work and prepare for it. Um So the turnaround, we're not giving ourselves that much time, We're not giving ourselves that much that

much leadway we need. We need this right now because the guys in this locker room deserve it. We work too hard, they put in a lot of time. We've got to turn this thing around. Now, you've played with three right guards in three games, partly due to injury, partly due to performance. How difficult is that. It's not the best situation, it's not optimal. It's not what you would go into the season and say, yeah, we're just

gonna rotate each one. But it's it's part. It's something that just happens, and like anything else, you gotta take it in stride and you gotta roll with the punches and the guy that gets called up, that guy just does the best disability. Everybody around him, rally around him, and we get this thing going. It's not something that you could really you can labor on too long or woe is me about? It's just it is what it is.

Let's play last thing for Trey Hopkins. You've got a three point loss, you've got a five point loss, you have a tie. Are you encouraged by how close these games have been or angry that you have not been able to seal the deal? Angry? We were close all last year in a two win season. We were close in pretty much all of those games. All said, there wasn't a game that I felt like we just could not have one. So It's not enough to be close. It's not enough to have a competitive game or to

not gonna get blown out. These are games that we can when we should win, and we have to figure out a way to win. Hope you get it done this Sunday. Thanks for the time, appreciate it trade so much. Now time to turn our attention to this week's opponent, but one and two Jacksonville Jaguars. It looked like they were in full tanking for Trevor Mode when they traded away defensive stars Jalen Ramsey, Klias Campbell, and Yunique and

Gockway and released running back Leonard Fournette. But lo and behold. The Jags opened the season by upsetting the Colts and had the Titans on the ropes in Week two before losing on a field goal in the final two minutes. But then Jacksonville laid a Terra dactyl sized egg last week,

losing by eighteen to the Dolphins at home. Gene Frenette, a columnist to the Florida Times Union, joined Lapping Me on the Bengals Game Plan show this week, and I asked Jean if the Jaguars had exceeded his expectations so

far this year a little bit. Certainly the last game gives you a little bit of a pause, right, I mean, it looked like a semblance of Jaguars teams we've seen in the past, and more to the point, it looked like a team that was very, very young and you know, maybe did not handle having a little bit of praise thrown their way the first two weeks, and for whatever reason, you know, put up a clunker. And now, now granted

they had some injury issues. I mean, their starting center was out for the game, their best receiver DJ Shark and best deep threat did not play, So that's you know, that's a little bit, a little bit of it, but you know, you certainly can't blame all of it on that, right at Plus, they lost their h you know, probably what may be the one of the top two place kickers in the league, and Josh Lambo, who's still on

IR won't and won't be there this week either. That, oh, you know, all those things factored in a little bit. But you know, none of that excuses the fact that the Jaguars defense for the third week in a row, looked absolutely hideous in the first quarter and put and put the and put their team in a fourteen point hole yet again. Yeah, that's the thing that is amazing to me. Thirty five points allowed in the first quarter, twenty seven in the second quarter, sixty three points allowed

in the first half, and three football games. That that makes it. That makes it some tough sledding for you. When you talk about how young thirty youngest team in the league, twenty five years, twenty and seventy four days average age of the football team, thirty six players with four years or less varience? Were all the changes made with the name players strictly economics or a segment earlier

here in the show, we were talking about culture. Were their culture issues that some of these veteran players were causing problems and concerns? Was of a combination of everything. Why did they decide to just strip it and get so young? Well, the accurate answer is it was a little bit of both. Some of it was salary cap related,

some of it was culture related. And by the way, the Jaguars the youngest team in the NFL, and I think the only reason it might have gone the third youngest is because they had to sign a veteran that bumped up their average. Because they were they were more like about twenty five years and one month. Okay there for a while, but you know, I mean this, yeah, this is going on going off of release from the league for this game. Yeah, yeah, point the point, the

point is obvious. But no, it was it was both culture and economics related. They you know, they they traded away Calais Campbell. That was certainly an economics issue. That certainly wasn't a production culture issue because he's the best leader you had in that locker room. So uh, Jawen Ramsey, that was pretty well documented what happened there, and they ended up getting two first round draft picks for it for him, so A. J. Bouier was probably a little

bit more economics. And then you've you know, there's an unique and goaqway. I mean, you saw with that situation evolved into he didn't want to play for the team anymore, and h you know, but he wasn't a bad guy in the locker room, but he just got to the point where he was shut up because he didn't think he was getting that he didn't think he was valued

as much as he valued himself. And consequently, uh, you know we've seen that you know, the pass rushers weren't getting the high market and deals they were getting two years ago, and he just, you know, he just got caught in a little bit of a timing thing and so so. But the point is when you let go that many veteran talented guys and you replace them with younger, cheaper players, you know every once in wow, that's going to come back and bite you. And I think that

was what we saw the other night. You know, you saw a young team on the big stage, had it all to him, to itself and just did not handle it well. Right. Jeane for Nett from the Florida Times Union is our guest Jean for nine years here, Andy Dalton was the quarterback and a lot of people felt like, well, clearly he's good enough to get you to the playoffs, but is he good enough to take you to a super Bowl or win a Super Bowl? What about Gardner? Minshew?

He's obviously proven he's good enough to you know, keep them in games. He has some terrific performances like he did in Week one, But can an NFL team win big with Gardner? Minshew? Well, the Jaguars are the Jaguars. I don't I don't know if he'll get. I don't know if he'll get that chance to find that out with the Jaguars. You know, as you know, the NFL

is a week to week league. You know, first two weeks go by and they're saying, hey, we got something really it looks like we might have something really special in Gardner Minshew. Then a game like Miami happened, and then all of a sudden you're tapping the breaks a little bit, and then you realize that you know, things are going to change from week to week. And in my opinion, Gardner Minshew is gonna be a quarterback in

this league for a long time. He's gonna he's gonna be in this league in some capacity for the next eight to ten years in my opinion. Now what is going to be his role over the course of that time, that I think is still to be determined. I think the Jaguars think they got something pretty good in him. But I also think that Gardner Minshew is the type of quarterback you've got to surround him with some really, really good and special talent if you're going to go

a long ways with him. That's just my feeling on it. I you know, and you know what that describes a lot of NFL starting quarterbacks, you know, if they don't have there's only like three or four guys in the entire league that can literally put a team on their shoulders and take them somewhere. Right. So, well, Aaron Rodgers, certainly Tom Brady and at a younger Tom Brady, a younger Drew Brees. But there's just not that There's just

not that many of those guys. You know. I'm Patrick Mahomes. Yeah, but you know what, I'd like to see how Patrick Mahomes would do if he had the job, if he had the Jaguars skill players. I mean, I'm not taking anything away from Patrick Mahomes, but he came into a perfect ready made situation in terms of the running back, in terms of the receivers, in terms of the tight end. Um, he's a special quarterback there. Yeah, he's a generational talent,

There's no doubt. Also he also benefited from you know, having Andy Reid and just a great situation. So uh, you know, I mean right now, I think Russell. I think Russell Wilson's the best quarter if you if you asked me to pick the best quarterback in the NFL, I'd be Russell Wilson, he'd be my first pick. But getting back to Minshew, I you know, it's it's still

it's a work in progress, that's what it is. You know, if he goes up this week and has a great game against the Bengals and the Jaguars win, you know, ten or fourteen, four points, well, does that validate him as the long term answer at the court at the quarterback position. No. I mean you're going up against a rookie and Joe Burrow who's taking fourteen sacks who sell

in the first three games. I don't know how many of those are covered sacks, how many of those are have either you know, got sacked immediately ort or held the ball too long. It's probably a little bit of both. Right, So you know, this week is certainly not going to be a you know, affirmation or otherwise on Gardner Minshew. He's just got to keep trying to progress as a quarterback and hope that he's good enough to win the job.

Because quite frankly, if if you know, if they only win three or four games this year and they get and they're able to get into the Trevor Lawrence sweep sing, I think the Jaggers will be good enough. It will be just good enough to stay out of the Trevor Lawrence Derby. Let's put it that way, right right. I think the fact that you're talking about the uncertainty of the player, Minshew, it's going to be about running the football.

And you go a free agent college free agent running back Robinson, who is very impressive to watch on tape. I'm not saying he's Maurice Jones Drew, but he's a poor man I don't know how poor man, but he's a poor man version kind of in my guys a little bit watching him. Three touchdowns rushing tied for seventh in the NFL, averaging four to nine to carry two

in ten yards, eleventh in the NFL. And last year Jaguars rushed for two hundred and sixteen yards against the Bengals and when so, I would think Jacksonville's game plan. I don't know what Jake Gruden's thinking, but I would

think he'd come in here and run the football. The Bengs are dead last in the NFL, not only this year, but over the last two years twenty nineteen and twenty twenty against the run, giving up over one hundred and fifty yards a game on the ground over the last year plus, so I would think that would be their big, big deal. Well, you certainly have to you certainly have to think that that has to be part of it.

I mean, listen, I know it's a passing league, right, I mean, that's that's that's what that's what the NFL evolved into for the last ten seen years. But you look at the teams that are running the ball, well, those are the teams that have got the better records in the NFL right now, and the teams that pass the ball a lot, including your Bengals, are not doing so well. You have to be able to You have to be able to have you got to have a

running game. I mean, you just do. I mean the Kansas City Chiefs are maybe a little bit of an outlier there, but for the most part, you've got to be able to run the ball when you want to

run it. And you know the Jaguars, you know, they've fallen behind early, and it'll be interesting to see what happens if they win the coin toss again, whether they'll defer or take the ball, because you know, Doug Maron has said he's going to maybe revisit the strategy of always deferring when he wins the coin toss, because you know, the Jaguars I've gotten off these terrible starts because of what the defense is, you know, basically sleepwalking in the

first quarter for whatever reason, or maybe they're just not good enough. It's possible that that that's the possibility as well. But you know, they're certainly not playing as bad in the fourth and third and second orders as they have been in the first. But yeah, I mean, James Robinson has just been He's been the most pleasant surprise of all. I mean, there's it's not even it's not even close. I mean, when you ask Jaguars, you know who, who's

who's been the biggest surprise? They weren't. Now, James Robinson was not a surprise to the coaching staff because they saw in camp, you know how well you know, particularly his vision. He just has seems to have a knack for making the first guy miss and for picking the right hole and being decisive and doing it. And you know that's the reason why his yards for terry average right now is as good as it is. Small sample size, I get it, three games, but yeah, I mean I would.

I would expect James Robinson has been averaging seventeen touches a game between receiving and rushing, and I would expect that that that trend would continue and maybe even get up a little bit. But you know, the Jaguar has got a lot of weapons. But if they don't have DJ Chark this weekend, and I think that's going to be a game time decision, and I think Lender the center will also be a game time decision. Chart does

change things a little bit. It may it's going to be a lot easier for defensive coordinators to defend the Jaguars if Chart's not in the lineup. Didn't they Jack go get a second opinion? What happened with that second opinion?

I've heard somewhere he's getting a second opinion on his chest. Yeah, I don't know what's happened with the second opinion, But you know he's back in practice today on a limited basis, and it just feels like to me that Jaggars are going to take this up all the way until Sunday,

and he'll be a game time decision. You know you got you when you've got chess issues and back, I mean that that's you know, that's quite a bit to deal with, and maybe they sit him out for one more week just to give him time to for cool breakers, you know. You know, if this was mid December, they probably have him out there. But you know, it's only week four and the last thing you want to do is aggravate that injury and then you'll have him out, you know, and then you'll have him on ir you know.

So I think that the Jaguars are going to play that with a lot of caution going into this Sunday. My last question for Jean for Net from the Florida Times Union. How does Tyler Eifford look? Uh, well, you know, I mean he's uh, he's a pretty pretty good looking guy.

Is he practicing much? But I mean from a football standpoint for now, I mean, to be perfectly honest with him, he looks like he's just a guy, you know, just to you know, okay, tight end, good, you know, decent blocker, I guess, but you know, I haven't seen anything for right now that makes me go, boy, Jaguards were smart to go get him now. I'm sure, you know, I bet Tyler might be a little bit more productive this

week facing his old employer. In fact, he actually I was I was somewhat impressed that he actually had a sarcastic, dead panning remark when asked about whether he had a conversation, you know, with with with Minshew about you know, being able to have more production this week, and yeah he said, yeah, I said, we talked about twenty targets. Of course, then he reverted back to, uh, you know, Vanilla Bland. Nice guy answer your question, Tyler effort, but nothing, you know

now he hasn't made it. Yeah, he hasn't made me go, oh wow. He looks like the guy. He looks like that tight end from you know, five years ago or whatever. Yeah, the twenty fifteen version. Unfortunately he took too many, too many shots, no doubt, no doubt. Final question. Final question here too, Gene, And thanks for all the time you carve for us. Um the guy who basically said, let's get Tyler right down here. He knows my system. Jay Gruden,

what kind of an impact has he had with the organization? Offensively, you can't begin to imagine how many rose pedals and bouquets were thrown at Jay Steep after the first two games in the season. Oh gosh. He was like, oh,

finally we got this play caller enough. And this is one of my pet peeves about NFL fans and even about the media to some degree that if something works really well, it's a great play call, and if something just is terrible, it looks like, you know, the first guy they want to blame is a play caller, you know, having no idea that you know, one guy could have missed an assignment or whatever. You don't know. There's a zillion factors that go into whether somebody's a good play

caller or struggles to be a play caller. Do I think Jake Bruden was a good higher? Yes, I do. I mean that they had to. They had to get something different because it's just it just didn't work with John d. Philippo last year and certainly with Nick Foles done. You know they was not going to work. But no, I think Jay is you know, for the most part, come in and done a nice job and is utilizing the weapons that they have. But you know, this, this NFL is plays. It's not I mean, it's players. It's

not plays. As much as fans want to bet yak about play calls, and you know, a third and seven, where the quarterback throws a three yard out not realizing that Hey went some three progressions that he had nobody, so he took his check down, hoping his guy could make a play. Right. I mean it just you know, you see this all this time, his criticism about sometimes

throwing behind the six or what have you. And there's so much going on on an NFL play, you got to depend on your quarterback to make the right decisions, go through his progressions, what have you. But I would, I would say that Jay Gruden was it was a logical hire for Doug Marone to make, and I do think it's I do think it's it will prove to be a good hire. Whether it's good enough to get Jay a head coaching job again next year, you know that. Only time will tell that, but I think it's I

think on paper, it's a very good hire. You'll have much more on the game this Friday and the Bengals pep Rally Show from three to six on ESPN fifteen thirty and Cincinnattie online at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com or on the iHeart Radio app by searching for ESPN fifteen thirty. That's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to you by Prime Sport,

the official hospitality partner of the Cincinnati Bengals. 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 Booth Podcast.