Bengals Booth Podcast: Ready To Go

it's my broadcast partner, Dave Lapham. We'll discuss the matchup, the possibility of the Bengals trading veteran players, and we'll do something a little different as each of us will pick the player on another NFL roster that we would most like to have in Cincinnati. With a qualifier, we weren't allowed to select Patrick Mahomes. That would have been

too easy. My locker room conversation this week is with wide receiver Auden Tate, who had his first NFL touchdown catch last week, but as he was quick to point out, he probably should have had two. We'll discuss his catch and his drop. And in this week's No The Faux segment, we'll get the lowdown on the Ravens from their longtime radio play by play man, Jerry Sandusky, that's Jerry with

a G. All of that is straight ahead. But first, here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since NFL Turning Point. My favorite football show on TV is NFL Turning Point.

It's a thirty minute show where they do a deep dive into a couple of games from the previous week, using highlights and on field audio provided by NFL Films. For my money, it's the best show out there that captures both the strategy of pro football and the emotional drama. New episodes are on FS one every Wednesday night, and I highly recommend NFL Turning Point. Now let's get to my conversation with Dave Lapham, and we started with something that isn't going to happen, but was fun to discuss.

Here's a question we are both going to answer. If you could add one player to the Bengals roster off another team, who would it be? With this qualifier, it can't be a quarterback because we would both pick Patrick Mahomes, you go first. A close second might be Russell Wilson for me, that dude, he just seems to make plays when he has to make plays. That son of a gun. He's amazing. As a former offensive lineman, I'm going to take the offensive side of the football and struggling up

front the offensive line. And the Indianapolis Colts went into Kansas City and beat the Chiefs and they were just physical with them, and they just you know, they mauled the Kansa City Chiefs up front. They kept Mahomes off the football field. And a guy that I think is the lead to the pack there is Quintin Nelson, kid out of Notre Dame. I just think I like everything about him. I like his demeanor. He's the policeman out there.

He's the bodyguard for everybody. Anytime there's a little skirmish, he's the first one in to support his teammates, pulling guys apart or doing what he needs to do to help his teammate. And h plus the fact that he's a hell of a football player. I mean, run blocker, great pulling guard, tremendous pass protector. Just need to start to improve that. That up front, you know, get get something done up front, and his style of play may

be contagious as well. Maybe that'll, you know, get get somebody like a kingpin up front that has that kind of mentality. As for me, if I knew he could stay healthy and would play eight to ten more years, I'd take Louke Keekley, But he's twenty eight and in his eighth year in the NFL, So I'm going to go with Quentin Nelson's Indianapolis teammate. Linebacker Darius Leonard, twenty four years old, second year in the NFL, led the league in tackles last year. Eight passes defended, seven sacks,

two interceptions. Give me a playbacking, a playmaking linebacker that can go sideline to sideline, reading stuff and making plays. When was the last time the Bengals defense was good when Vont's perfect was still good. The Bengals desperately need a guy like that. That's their two weakest positions, you know, offensive line and linebacker though, where they need the most

help for sure. Dan. We had Andy Benoit, formerly of Sports Illustrated, on one of our radio shows earlier this year, and I asked him if the Rams style offense that Zach was springing to Cincinnati would help the offensive line, and he said, not necessarily, because the best runs that Sean McVay likes to go to are outside zone runs, and Andy said they require a threshold of athleticism that

the Bengals don't have upfront. Is that preventing the Bengals from running the type of plays that Todd Gurley has been so successful doing. I mean, yeah, you could. You could say that the running game or the lackter of with respect to the running game, my theory as having played the position is I always love play action pass

because you're in max protection. It's very offensive line friendly and usually very quarterback friendly because you're you're basically in max protection of a fake, faking running back that basically consumes somebody potentially if he runs a good enough fake or can block the guy if he does blitz and he doesn't have the football. So that's your six blocker picking up of a you know, an extra rusher, and you're you're selling the run and that's making the defensive

line not too often rush the quarterback. So you know, normally, if your running game's going, play action pass is great. It's very very friendly. But if the running game gets a lack of execution or whatever the case may be, isn't working, or you're putting yourself and down in distances where the running game isn't a factor, and you're, you know, first in fifteen second and twenty too often like they have been, you're going to drop back and throw it.

And this offensive line strength is not you know, pass protecting, dropping back and throwing the football thirty times a game. That's not that's not who they are at all. So, you know, and he makes a great point. I mean, theoretically, if you can establish some sort of a pressure point with that outside zone or inside zone, they're much better inside zone blockers than outside zone for the reasons Andy said.

You have to be you know, you have to be able to move latterly, horizontally, athletically, you know, to be able to get the stretch in the in the outside zone that you're looking for. So until they get that running game going, the theory of it being a very offensive line friendly, quarterback friendly offense goes out the window because you're stuck in down to distances where you're just dropping back and throwing the football and people are teeing off on you. You have made no secret of your

desire to see Giovanni Bernard more involved. Yeah, I mean, I think whenever he plays, I like what he does. I mean, I think he can be a fact, a very positive factor the organization. They don't give a guy, you know, an eight figure contract, not seven figures, an eight figure contract because they just like you, and they do like him. What's not to like about him? He's a great guy. He's doing a lot of a lot of good for people that need help with respect to water,

you know, the bare necessities of life. You know, he's providing people. And you know, how can you not respect and like a guy like that. But you know, at some point, okay, you think he's he's really a good football player. You want him to be part of your your football team. How about giving him some snaps, you know, incorporate him. You're down in the game, the Bengals were down to four receivers. They lost Alex Erickson and you know,

no offense to the third and fourth receiver. But why why can't Gievarnie Bernard do at least what they're doing in some formations or you know, two back sets, you know, be a little creative, do some jets jets sweeps with him, do some shovel passes with him. He's a guy that could do this sort of thing and get on the perimeter for you. So yeah, I'd like to see a little more Giovanni Bernard involvement for sure, And I think I think it would pay dividends. And nobody wants to

win any more than Giovanni Bernard does. And I'll guarantee you he's frustrated, but you know the reason he was elected captain. He's not going to verbalize his frustration. He's frustrated about being oh and five, and I'm sure he's frustrated about not being more of a remedy to solve the problem. But you know, recently married, elected captain, eight figure contract. Life's good lap. Let's talk about this year's rookie class. Jonah Williams is obviously out. Nothing the Bengals

could do about that. Their second round pick, tight Andrew Sample is in for fifteen snaps last week. He's played sixty seven snaps on offense through five games. Third round pick linebacker Jermaine Pratt in for nine snaps last week. He's been in thirty four on defense through five games. Is it time for that to change? I think it is. I think it's time to take the reins off the rookies, or take the training wheels off the bike and let

the rookies ride. You know. Lu and Umu in our conversation that everybody in the media had with him earlier in the week, was pointing out the fact that, look what Arizona did. They ran ten personnel, one back, four wides, no tight ends, you know, just one back, four wide receivers a high percent of almost like sixty percent of the time. Well, they lost a couple of receivers to injury. They were going as much as twelve personnel, one back and two tight ends, and they didn't even they weren't

even playing a tight end. They would go eleven personnel with one of the tight ends twelve personnel and that changed the gap responsibilities and the assignments in the running game. And it took the Bengals a while to adjust, and they really did never adjust to it all that well, to the two to two hundred and sixty sixty yards. So why not Cincinnati do the same thing, I mean, why not give the Baltimore Ravens a little bit more to think about. I mean, Baltimore utilizes their tight ends.

Three of their top five receivers are tight ends. So they put them out there, they throw it to him, and they have more than one out there to block, and you know, why not go to a little bit of that style of offense. Give them a taste of their own medicine. I guess a little bit, because I mean, you draft a kid in the second round, you don't draft them just to block, you know, on short yarriage and goal line situations or whatever the case may be. And I think he's proven that. I think he can

be a factor. It can be a viable factor. So let let him roll a little bit. And then you know, at the linebacker position, with all the problems that there they have at the linebacker position, I mean, pratt Is is probably overall the most athletic of all of them. And obviously, you know, like Lewis talking about earlier again, you know, I'm telling them just this one gap, don't

worry about anything else. Just hit this gap. And it's not one hundred percent of the time that maybe maybe he's doing it, because you know, he's he said, he's a kid that wants to please people, and maybe he's trying to do too much, maybe he's press them a little bit. But at some point you get to let them get out there. And the only the only way you can improve in the NFL is to experience it.

To stand there and watch it is nothing. Believe me, it's nothing like being out there and experiencing what it's like, the speed of the game, how quickly you have to adjust all the things you have to do, both mentally and physically. So I think it's it's time to let these guys, uh, you know, step up and see what they can do. The Baltimore Ravens are a three four defense with two massive defensive tackles up front three hundred and forty five pounds and three hundred and thirty six pounds,

and they're probably bigger than that. If you were a defensive coordinator, philosophically, would you be a three four guy or a four three guy? It would depend on my personnel. I mean, if I if I came to an organization, you know, blank slate, I mean, I think the three four defense is you have you have to draft well for it. You have to draft the right guys. Um, you know, I see, I see benefits to both of them. Um, having played the center position, if you have a nose guard,

they can dominate. I can tell you that that that that makes it tough on everybody when you have it, when you have a big old beast that's inverting the center all the time. Um, you know, it's just like anywhere you want to be solid up the middle and baseball shortstops center field, you know, catcher and if you can be solid up the middle of a lacious nose guard, you know, in a like an inside linebacker at the next level to boot and a safety that's that's assaulting

in the middle of football field. Man, that you know, you're making people go side and the sideways go go outside. So I think, you know, unless like unless I have two beasts inside a defensive tackle, I mean that you know that that's that's great as well. But I just think that in a three to four it's I think

it's harder to run against. I think it's harder to get that initial push on him, you know, But you better have dan good linebackers to people in a throat on you, they're going to isolate your linebackers in a three to four defense. If you go base three four, they're going to isolate those linebackers, and you better better be able to be up to snuff. I'd be a three four guy for a lot of the reasons that

you just described. Secondly, it makes you better on special teams because you carry more linebackers, and they are ideal special teams guys. Darren Simmons wouldn't agree with with the with the Bengals right now. The linebackers agree with the philosophy. Not necessarily team, no doubt. But I mean, you know he's got some my JP Ryan. You know, he's got a running back making huge contributions. He has players at

other position groups. Darren Simmons, in my mind, does such an unbelievable I know we're getting off on a totally different subject, but he, of any special teams coach in the National Football League piece meals different positions into his special teams more so I mean others. It's cookie cutter.

You know, I got these tight ends, I have these linebackers, I have these defense about you know, it's it's like I've got X y Z. You know, Darren will he'll pull a receiver out of there, He'll pull a running back out of there if he has to. I mean, he's not a shy er embarrassed to try other things like that. But I agree with you. Usually linebackers are some of the best athletes on your football team from

a size speed ratio, you know kind of thing. They're getting smaller in the NFL, but they're also getting faster, smaller and faster. So special teams now they've taken away double teams, they've taken away the wedge. I mean, it's just all about matching up in space. The whole NFL is offense defense, special teams. Who can match up in space, who can block speed in space? Who can defeat blocks

in space? I mean, who can It is. It's all about spreading people out as wide as you can and in creating as much space as you can, and you need guys that have speed and the short space quickness. You know, you're looking for as many of those type athletes as you can find. The Bengals defense has struggled this year, and this Sunday they face Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens. Jackson has eleven touchdown passes so far. That is as many as Patrick Mahomes. He has also

rushed for three hundred and eight yards. That's a pace for nine eighty six this year. What is the formula for preventing Lamar Jackson from having a monster day? And he's rushed it in the first five games fifty times. Now, it's not all design runs. There's scrambles in there, but I bet half of it minimum is design runs. And we saw it. We were the first team to see it when he had his first NFL start. We saw quarterback sweep, quarterback draw, quarterback counter, quarterback power. I mean,

they used him as a running back. And the thing about it is when the quarterbacks running the football like that, it's eleven on eleven football. It's not ten on eleven quarterbacks not handing off and not doing anything. So you can get an extra helmet at the point of attack, pulling lineman and getting an extra helmet out there to outleverage the defense. And that's that's the problem he you know, he presents. He's averaging six point two yards to carry

on those fifty carries, so and that's part. That's a big part of his game. But I think his pocket presence is getting better. I think his ability to throw the deep ball with accuracy has gotten better. I think he's become a better quarterback, although I think he's thrown an interception in three out of the last fourth series that he's been on the field for the Ravens. But the Ravens were crying about a couple of the interceptions the Steelers had should have been a one should have

been a rule non catch on the interception. The other one should have been past interference. But you know they go on the record books as interceptions, so I guess they're not blatant interceptions where he's forcing into a spot where he shouldn't force, which he had done a little bit. I think he's becoming more of a quarterback and man. Two guys back to back that are basically the epitome of what you're looking for in the NFL quarterback today.

Feet and throwing on Kyler Murray last week, Lamar Jackson this week. There's no question it's hard to stop and very effective from an offensive standpoint. The question is is it sustainable? Can those guys do that week after week after week and stay on their feet? You know? The only the thing the thing that Michael Vick did RG three was a straight line runner, so RG three could not avoid contact. He got blown up. I mean it

was like you watch him running. Even at Baylor, I'd watch him running and there was no dipsy due to it. It was just I mean, he was an Olympic caliber hurdler. So I'd watch and I'd think, oh, man, this could be you know, like an AUTOBONND collision. I mean, the got there's two people on it, a high rate of speed in it, and he took some shots, you know, and he would stay in bounds and take the shots, and I'm like, uh, that's not gonna bode well. These guys.

You can't get a straight hit on them if you if it's like it's like James Brooks would say to me. I'd say, JB Man, pooh, gotta put a shot. That's me, man, that's my bad. I can't let guy take a hit like that on me. He said. I gotta I gotta make them. I gotta make it a glancing blow. I can't take a full force, you know, facial shot like that. That's what these quarterbacks do. They're so quick with short

space quickness. It's like and if you're hitting them, you don't run up there one hundred miles an hour, like they're run up to r G three. You have to break it down because they'll juke you. If you're going one hundred miles an hour and they juke you, you're you're off in space. So I think that they have a better chance because of those kind of things, but they're still gonna get cought in traffic, caught in a pile.

Those are the kind of things when you get you know, you get caught in something that you really can't control, and somebody falls on your leg awkwardly and stuff, and backs don't normally unless in the pocket, you know, when the protections collapse and they may find out, but they don't find that, you know, seven yards down the field where four guys are gang tackle. Now you got to worry about all these bodies in a pile and how

am I going to get contorted and twisted? So I just keep going back to the to the same thought. In the NFL, one hundred percent of the players are one hundred percent of injury risk one hundred percent of the plays. And the little you are, the more susceptible you are. But if you're quick as a cat, you know that that kind of balances it out a little bit, but man, the more you run them, the odds are increased and they're gonna get smoked. The Baltimore Ravens have

one of the best defenses in the NFL. That is usually the case, but Andy Dalton has historically done well against Baltimore as a winning record against the Ravens last year in two games, six touchdown passes, no interceptions. Why does the red Rifle do well against the Ravens? Well? The Thursday night game here and since and Andy last year, they were blitzing him to death and he was tearing them up. Aj Green had three touchdown catches in the first half and they just backed off the blitz because

Andy was destroying them. And I'd never seen Baltimore back off the blitz for as many snaps as they did. When you look at last week's game, you know against Arizona, the touchdown drive before the forty two yard touchdown to Boyd, they were blitzing like crazy. They were bringing all their pressure packages. That's when he played the best. He got rid of the football. He can really pre snap, diagnose the blitz pretty well and know the vacated spot that he has to go to. At the football and he

does it very well. He does it as well as most quarterbacks in the NFL. So I think it's going to be interesting to see if Baltimore comes out with as heavy a blitz percentages as they have in the past, because he torched them with it twice last year, really, particularly in that Thursday night game, and I thought his best drive of quite a few quarters came against a pot of we're gonna get after him, we're gonna blitz him,

and he made him pay. They went on a nice touchdown drive there where they mixed the run in the pass and as he's releasing the ball, he's getting stung. I mean, they're hitting him hard, but he realizes, you know, I got to stand in there and throw it and I'm going to throw it to where that guy should be. He was hitting me and he did it very well. The trade deadline is three weeks away. It's two days

after the London game in Week eight. What would it take for the Bengals to consider trading some of their best veterans. You know, in a league where it's very competitive, fifty percent of the games are decided by a touchdown or less. Twenty five percent of decided by a field goal or less, and the Bengals were looking at that kind of ratio. Unfortunately, they haven't won any of those close ones. So you're saying, what can we do to

get better? Everybody's always trying to get better, and not just necessarily the last third of your roster, the bottom third. What's wrong with improving anywhere in your roster? So to me, I mean, I certainly wouldn't disconnect my phone. I'd listen to phone calls. I mean, I'd listen to people. I'd

see what they're talking about. Anyway. That wouldn't necessarily mean I'd pull the trigger on anything, but man, I'd at least see what the market is bearing out there, you know, I mean, why not explore that and you know, and maybe initiate something. You don't have to do it, but call and say, anybody on our roster that appeals to you? And if so, what do you got for me? What are we talking about here? I mean, there's nothing wrong

with exploring it. You know, players understand, particularly the dollars in the NFL now fourteen billion dollar industry. The players know they're independent contractors on a weekly basis. It's a business. So I mean, if you know, if it's not here, it might be somewhere else. People move all the time. Trades aren't a real big, high percentage thing in the National Football League as the salary cap consequences and all those kinds of things. But I mean, you never know

till you explore. If you just if you sit idly by and do nothing, who knows what might have been a possibility Thanks Lap. The Baltimore Ravens have one of the top cornerbacks in the NFL and Marlon Humphrey, and he typically shadows the other team's top receiver. In the last two weeks, that's been Odell Beckham Junior of the Browns and Juju Smith Schuster of the Steelers, and they combined for a total of ninety five yards against the Ravens. That means it could be tough for Tyler Boyd to

put up huge numbers this week. If Andy Dalton looks elsewhere. One of his primary targets figures to be Auden Tate. I spoke to the second year receiver out of Florida State this week. We are in the locker room Bengals wide receiver Auden Tate, who caught his first career touchdown passed last week. How big of a moment was that for you? It was a big, big moment for me,

you know, getting that first says down. I hit a little bit of sweet because I dropped the first one, But no, it's good to get that first one out of the way. You've been very hard on yourself about that drop, A little slant on the opening possession. I guess in your own mind, if you hold under that ball, there's no question you're in. Oh yeah, no question, no question, I'm in right to two yards away that point, I could pretty much just try to care man, just getting

the ends on. So yeah, I was pretty sure I was gonna get in there. You're talking to y'ard and take. It was kind of shocking because since you've been here at the beginning of last year, the one thing you haven't done is drop anything. Uh yeah, you know. It was just thing, you know, a little high violations taking taking my eyes off the ball too soon, looking to get up Phil, I'm gonna get into pain just you know,

got to focus on the ball mode. Nay J. Green is obviously still out, Sean Ross is out as well. You've become a focal point of the passing game right now. I guess that's something that you dream of when you get the opportunity to play in the NFL. You know, definitely, you know, definitely, you know, coming into the NFL, starting to be more in a game planning and offense, you know, definitely something you know you work for and you know dream about, you know, since he was young. So you know,

I'm just happy for the opportunity. It's just ready to take full advantage of top two passing weapons right now have been you and Tyler Boy. Tyler had ten catches last week. He's on a pace for one hundred and eighteen this season. What do you notice most when you observe him, I says, mentality. You know, you gotta you gotta real kill mentality. You know anything as well, you know, you just try to kill it, no no matter how big, small, whatever it is. You just gotta real kill mentality. And

I think you know everybody see it. On Sundays, smile came to your face when you talked about that killer mentality. Yeah, yeah, because that that man is a funny guy. If you was around him, like, you don't know what I mean, but yeah, you gotta killer mindset. We're on that field. Ardy came from Florida State, won a lot of games there.

How difficult it isn't one and five started for you personally? Um, you know, it's difficult to know, mostly for the summer fact of knowing that you know, we're not an O and five team, but you I mean, that's what I record, so so I mean that's what we are. But you know, knowing how easily you know, this easily could be three and two or you know, maybe something else. So that's really the only disappointing thing other than that, you know, we know what we can do, and you know we're

just ready to get back on track. We score touchdowns in your final two possessions in last week's game against the Cardinals. Did that generate any sort of momentum going into Baltimore this week? Oh? Yeah, I think it did. I mean, especially how fast we scoring, how effortlessly. It kind of looked, you know, it looked like we just kind of just planning, you know, we weren't thinking doing nothing, just planning. So I think it definitely does build up

something that we could use going into Baltimore. She get the Ravens this week. Historically, a very good defense. Not off to a great start defensively this year. But Marlin Humphreys playing great at cornerback. Where are you impressions of him? Got a good skill set, you know, it's talented a corner you know, it pays plays press, real physical, you know,

just want you know, just win against Himore Man. Maybe we're going against a lot of good corners here too, so I think you know we'll be there for and a veteran safety in the middle. Now that they picked up ear Old Thomas, who of course had so many great years out in Seattle, what do you notice about him? Real savvy. You know he ain't the biggest person on the field, but he played big. You know he got he got that killer, killer instinct type of mind, sat

too when he bat well. Like I said, you know, he's just going Now, just do what we gotta do, prepare ourselves. You know we'll be fine. A couple more questions for Auden take one of the big plays last week was the touchdown past the Tyler Boyd and you help make it happen with a block. It seems like that's a part of your game that you embrace. Oh yeah, yeah, I don't have a problem with, you know, going in out blocking some of the bigger guys. I was asked to do a lot of fluid state or something up

comfortable and congrats on that TV last week. I hope there are many more. And best of luck against the Ravens. Yes, sir, will be that's home to take. Now time for this week's No the Foe interview as we do a deep dive into the Bengals upcoming opponent with somebody that knows the team. This week it's the voice of the Ravens, Jerry with a G. Sandusky. He joined Lapping Me on the Bengals Game Plan show this week and made Bengals Radio Network history by doing the interview while getting his

hair cut. Our first topic the play off quarterback Lamar Jackson through Baltimore's first five games this season. Well, I think what you see with Lamar Jackson is pretty traditional what you see in the journey of a young NFL quarterback in that he opened up with much better skills than anybody anticipated. His development was far above what anybody thought from a year ago. And then in the last two weeks we have seen teams adjust what they're doing

defensively they've grown some different looks. He hasn't adjusted quite as well. This last week against the Steelers, he had his lowest quarterback rating, his highest interception count, and then most sacks he's taken in the game. So he did not have a particularly strong game, which is going to happen to young guys. But the thing I like the most about Lamar Jackson is he has a quality that

I haven't seen in young quarterbacks since Dan Marino. And I'll take get back to Marino in the eighties with the Dolphins because my dad was the offensive line coach and he used to always say Marino as a young player if he had a three interception game, which is rare, but on a third interception, he walked to the sideline be all mad, cussing my dad and say, bleeve be bleep, Now I've got to throw four touchdown passes to win. He always had the mindset up what he had to

do yet to win the game. And Lamar Jackson has that same thing. He doesn't get all hung up in his quarterback rating or I've thrown to three interceptions. It's always what do I need to do next to make

sure we win the game. So in the overtime of the Steelers game, he's in danger of his sixth sack that's going to knock the Ravens out of field goal range, and instead he just makes a quick heads up decision to scramble to the left where he can get back to the line of scrimmage and preserve the field goal range. So that's the thing I do like about him, even as he goes to his learning curve. By the way, your dad was a hell of an offensive line coach. I had him in one of the College All Star Games.

A great dancer too. He get up and cut a rug now at one of the one of the dinners. That was pretty outstanding. He had great feat was right, great, look my dad. Now you can hear the buzzers going, good now my dad. That I'm always of NBA three. Really he was a great coach. But he could dance and he could oh yeah, yeah, you're right, he was. He had he had like a Pavarotti caliber voice, and he could dance. And because I was always fascinated by the fact that my dad was this huge man, a

former pro player and he could dance so well. From that point forward, I personally think the combines a waste of time. If you want to find out who is eligible to play offensive line in the NFL, take him, put him on a dance floor, and see who's light under feet, because I think that is a truer test of who has the DNA necessary to be an NFL offensive lineman. Dancing with the stars NFL combine style. I

love it. Maybe that part of the exactly exactly so obviously the running game is making a life a lot easier for Lamar Jackson. He's a big part of the running game. Ingram has seventy four carries, He has fifty, Edwards has thirty eight. I mean that is a three headed monster in anybody's book. That all of them are averaging, you know, great yards per carry Ingram six rushing touchdowns,

tied for second most in the NFL. How good has that rushing game been, averaging over one hundred and ninety two yards a game and leading the NFL and points scored as a result of it. It's been spectacular because it's not just a one dimensional running game. When they were not got mark Ingram, they really completed their ability to run at any angle around the field. Mcgus Edwards is a wrecking ball. He's going to go between garden center. He's just going to He's one cut, he's gonna slam

right at the middle. Ingram takes you all the way out to the tackle, and then Lamar takes you all the way to the sideline. So the ability to stretched defenses out with very different styles of runners, you know, it makes it really hard for a defensive coordinator say, Okay, we're gonna take this area of the field away from this running back. You can do that, but you still are going to be vulnerable in other areas. We are

visiting with the voice of the Ravens, Jerry Sandusky. Statistically, Baltimore has struggled against the pass, giving up two hundred and eighty yards a game. But I wonder if that's just because teams have a hard time running against those gigantic tackles. How tell me how accurate the statistics are. They're unfortunately very accurate. Then the Ravens path defense has had some scaping holes, and the fluke of the running numbers was the one game when Brandon Williams wasn't able

to go because of a knee injury. He's the difference maker in the run defense. When he's in there, they give up on average about ninety four yards a game. When he's not in there, they gave up one hundred and seventy four yards a game. So the one game when he's not in there, Yeah, those numbers are a little bit misleading, but the secondaries numbers are I would say very accurate. I mean, they have not been good in the secondary. The effect communication breakdown, They've had coverage breakdowns.

Their pass rush has been inconsistent, quarterbacks have had way too much time to throw, and they have been beating that secondary for chunk plays, which is just so unusual for the Ravens on all levels that you know, the numbers are real and the concern is real as well. I want to go back to the offense for just a second and talk about the tight ends. You guys have had some great tight ends, you know, individual players in your franchise history. But this group of tight ends

is it as good as you've had. I mean, three of the top five receivers for Jackson or tight ends, and I'm looking at Andrews, He's got fifteen third down catches on twenty eight receptions. I mean that's you know, he's Number one in the NFL and third down catches. He's got three touchdown receptions. The tight ends seem to be, you know, not only a factor in the running game, but they can catch the football pretty damn well you

hit it right on the head. And that not only do they have three good tight ends, but just like the running backs, the three tight ends compliment each other. Nick Boyle is a power blocker. He is the kind of guy who can line up in the backfield on the wing as a fullback and bring the noise. Mark Andrews has a unique skill that only football players will understand. This he's ordinary. Looking at OTA's coming out of college, I even thought, why did the Ravens draft his kids

in the third round? There's nothing special about him. And then when you put them on pad pads put him in a game. He has the ability to find the open spot in the zone and to settle down better than anybody I've ever seen since maybe Todd Heap, Shannon Sharp that that good of a player, and then Hayden Hurst last years number one. Tick has really started to emerge. I think he probably is the best hands of the group. So you've got three different guys who can stretch the fields.

Who can do the blocking, who can really open up number to number for Lamar Jackson, And they're set up by Hollywood Brown Speed. So that's the conundrum, you know. Moving forward, we talked about the defense and making some adjustments. I think you'll see the Ravens make some adjustments starting this week. Look at you want to take Hollywood Brown Speed away. That means you've got to take your safeties far to on the field. You can't put him fifteen

yards off the line of scrimmage. And once you do that, then you open up that middle area. And that's why the tight ends are having so much success because you can't take away three tight ends and Hollywood Brown. There just aren't enough guys in the back end of a secondary to do that. Right. We're visiting with a voice of the Ravens. Jerry Sandusky will have a great looking haircut when he's in the booth on Sunday clippers in

the background. Hats My hair is great, but I don't have great hair, so you can only do so much. Trust me. I feel your pains unfair, Sorry about that, Yeah, that's all right. Justin Tucker is the best kicker in NFL. History. He hasn't missed a kick yet yet this year, field goal or extra point. But I'm intrigued by the kickoffs because he has become the best weapon at pinning teams deep in their own territory in the league. Describe what

the Ravens are doing when they kick off. So it's really a great move by Christ their special teams coordinator, and John Hardball, who has a special team's background, And we've all kind of grown customs the last couple of

years of the day rigger kickoff, touchback, kickoff, touchback. Well, then all of a sudden, the Raibos started to ship and they use this really high, short kickoff and the first time I saw it, I thought, whoa, he must have gotten too low under the ball, and then I realized, no,

that's totally intentional. They're using the punt mentality on the kickoff, and they're forcing teams to return kicks that they have to catch the five yard line, but they have no time to set up any kind of blocking, so the return is getting only out about the fifteen sixteen yard line, And instead of teams starting on the twenty five, they're starting inside their own twenty because of the way Tucker has been able to make the adjustment to pin people

back with a high short kickoff fifteen point six yards per kickoff return, second best in the NFL due to that strategy. And yeah, I mean leave it to John Harbaugh and others to utilize. You know this this guy's talents. He is without a doubt. I mean, the way he played that wind in Pittsburgh, all the fans in the end zon't going crazy. You think it's gonna go, you know, wide left, and just plays that plays that fade right back through the uprights and broke their hearts. I mean,

this guy is He's is dominant his position. I think as anybody is at their position in the NFL, I would agree. I mean, statistically he's the most accurate. But you know the statistics can lie. What doesn't lie about Justin Tucker is we were talking about my dad was a great singer. We Justin Tucker is an opera singer too, and he right the stage. He loves the spotlight, he

loves the performance. So when the spotlight is on him, when the game is on him, when that pressure that cracks a lot of kickers is on him, it brings him to live and he just kind of steps into it, and he's so natural. He loves that moment, and he has proven he is quite good at that moment. So in your I know, it's early in the week, and I don't know how many conversations you've had, you know, with members of the Baltimore organization, particularly the coaches. I

just curry. Has anybody said anything about the on five start and what they think of the Cincinnati Bengals at this stage of Zach Taylor's tenure. You know, it's really interesting, Dave, because if you were, let's say you were a team winner player all the time, say you were the Denver Broncos or maybe the La Rams, and you were off to an on five start, there'd be a lot of

talk about that, especially with a rookie head coach. But because you have so many players who are familiar that the Ravens have played against, and because the Bengals have been so successful against the Ravens and the Ravens frustrations have been consistent and enormous, there is literally nobody talking about the Bengals record. The only record they're focusing on is the record the Bengals have had against the Ravens. In recent years, so the respect is a lot higher

than you might expect with an on five record. Bengals and Ravens have split the regular season matchups in each of the last three years, but prior to that, Cincinnati beat Baltimore five straight times. That's going to do it for this edition of the podcast. If you haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe, and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment. Five star ratings help more Bengals fans find this podcast.

I'm Dan Horde and thank you for listening to The Bengals Booth podcast.