Bengals Booth Podcast: Reminiscing

Podcast is presented by bud Light Seltzer. Refresh the game and here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitch, your Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since Prisma. About a week ago, I posted a humorous picture on Twitter and Paul Dayner Junior, who does a phenomenal job of covering the Bengals for The Athletic, jokingly responded that he

would like that picture as an oil painting. That got me thinking, surely there's an app out there that can turn your photos into paintings, or at least images of paintings. As it turns out, there are many, but the one I used is called Prisma. Pr I s m A. You can get a three day trial before having to pay for it. Here's how it works. You upload a picture and then select from a variety of filters to

basically transform it into a painting. I did it with several pictures that were on my phone and they turned out great. In fact, my Twitter avatar now looks like a painting of me on the Fox Sports Ohio anchor desk. So I highly recommend a three day free trial of the Prisma app. You'll wonder how Picasso and Van Goh got a hold of your pictures. Now time for football. This week, we're going to take a break from the

draft agency for something a little different. As Dave Lapplom and I look back at our decade together in the broadcast booth. Since we just completed our tenth year together, I reached out to Lap and proposed the following idea, ten years, ten Plays, where we would each pick out a most significant and or favorite play from each season, share the radio call, and then reminisce about each year. We did not discuss our selections in advance, so in some years they're sure to be the same and another

year's very different. It's time to find out. As Lap joins me for ten years, ten plays lap. Our first year together was two eleven. The Bengals were coming off of four and twelve season. Everybody will remember the Carson Palmer said, I'm done. I'm retiring before I play for the Bengals again. So what did the Bengals do? They drafted aj Green and round one. They drafted Andy Dalt in round two. After a one who start, they won five straight games to get to the halfway point of

the season at six and two. They eventually went nine and seven during the regular season, earned a playoff berth as a wildcard team before losing at Houston thirty one to ten. So we're going to pick out a highlight or possibly two if we disagree on the twenty eleven season. I'm going to pick Christmas Eve, a home game against the Arizona Cardinals, a game the Bengals eventually won twenty

three to sixteen. Who could forget Jerome Simpson with the forward somersault and sticking the landing on a spectacular touchdown catch from Andy Dalton. Second down, Dalton back to pass, good pocket for Andy he Thried. Simpson makes the catchies to the town. The five goes flying into the end. Zoe Superman style. Oh, Mark Jerome Simpson sixteen nothing Bengals. Well, I'll tell you what the Russian judge gives at a ten point. Oh, he stuck the landing. It was unbelievable.

I'm thinking it was Reggie Walker that he basically did like a front flip over. I mean he goes airborne and just flips himself over. Reggie Walker. I seen him do these kind of things in warm ups. This guy is like athletically a gymnast. I mean the way he goes up in order and over and sticks that landing. Mah goodness, Nadia Coleman each would be proud of that flip that he did. It was such an athletic play, and it was on highlight after a highlight all season

long that particularly year. It's it's it's very rare to involve gymnastics, I think in the National Football League, although they are you know, they're so fluid, so gifted, so athletic, and Simpson no exception of that rule. So that was the biggest highlight in both of our opinions in the twenty eleven season. A couple of other things stood out

to me. Bruce Gradkowski and Week one coming out the bench, for an injured Andy Dalton forty one yard touchdown passed to aj Green with less than five minutes to go, giving the Bengals a win that got them off to a great start in the post Carson Palmer era. That was AJ Green's only catch in his NFL debut, but it was a game winner. In Week four of that season, they were in danger of falling to one in three. They fell behind Buffalo seventeen three at the half. Andy

Dalton rallied them back. Mike Nugent hit a field goal at the gun to win that game twenty three to twenty and started a five game winning streak in Andy's rookie year. That basically was the key to making that rookie year playoff appearance, and that as a rookie quarterback to make the playoffs. And there was a work stoppage, so it was not an easy off season, you know. Andrew wittworked doma top Pecco, took the charge and organized

the team. They had practices, workouts and that sort of thing, but without any coaching staff for Andy Dalton and aj Green to be able to lead their offensive side of the football team of the playoffs as rookies, is quite an accomplishment. And as you mentioned, Andy Dalton leading a fourth fourth quarter drive in a field goal at the gun. That was one of many game when he drives at the engineered I mean Andy Dalton was strong in that

area as well. He had a great career with the Bengals, no doubt, Dan, all Right, we moved to our second season together, two and twelve. The Bengals started that year three and one, and they lost four in a row. They were three and five at the midway point of the season. At that point it didn't seem likely that they would go to the playoffs for the second consecutive year, but they went seven and one in the second half of the season to finish ten and six. That meant

another wild card playoff appearance. They went back on the road to Houston for the second year in a row. Much closer the second time around, but they lost a tight one against the Texans to drop their second straight playoff appearance with Andy Dalton at quarterback. Looking back at highlights from that season, what's your number one pick? Well, it would be the Washington football team as they're known now. The Bengals on the road against Washington and wide receiver.

Mohammed Sanu had played quarterback, even at the collegiate level. At Rutgers, he had played quarterback, and he had a howitzer man. He had a very powerful, strong throwing arm. Could throw it a mile. Maybe not pinpoint accuracy all the time, but he could lay it out there. And the very first offense, the snap of the game, they ran a little gadget gimmick play. Jay Gruden, known for his creativity. He came out of the box with one here and Mohammed Sanu AJ Green seventy three yards later,

touchdown Bengals. Here's how it sounded. Week three in Washington. Mohammed Sanu ready to take a shotgun snap on the first play from scrimmage for Cincinnati. This is an interesting look. He fakes a handoff, he fired field for J. Green. He's a sprinting to the ten. He'll take it into the end zone for a touchdown. A seventy three yard pass from Mohammed Sanou to Adriol Chair on my H. Green. So I was a little surprised you selected that lap. I thought you might pick a play from week twelve.

It was the return of Carson Palmer to Paul Brown. Stadium. The first time he dropped back to pass, he didn't even hit his back foot before Geno Atkins plastered him into the turf at ball Brown Stadium. Yeah, I think I think that was welcome back, you know, welcome home, and they really were motivated to to put it to Carson Palmer, and they did, I mean right away. As you say, Geno Atkins, in this prime of his career, Carson Palmer barely had time to look down the football

field and try to look up any intended receiver. He was on his backside quickly. Bengals won that game thirty four to ten. Carson had a passer rating of sixty four point one, Andy Dalton three touchdown passes and a passer rating of one oh nine. So I thought that that was a day where Bengals fans officially said, you know what, Carson Palmer had his moments, but we've got our guy. Andy Dalton is going to be our guy going forward. And obviously Andy was the man for nine seasons.

My pick, however, from that twenty twelve season, comes from the next to last game of the regular year. It was two days before Christmas in Pittsburgh. If the Bengals won the game, they would clinch a playoff berth and they would knock the Pittsburgh Steelers out of the playoffs on their home field. At that point, Dalton and Green did not have a win over Pittsburgh. But you'll recall late in that game, Reggie Nelson came up with an

interception with twenty four seconds to go. On the next play, Andy Dalton hit aj Green for a twenty one yard game and that set up Josh Brown taking over at kicker for an injured Mike Nugent with a chance to boot the Bengals into the postseason. The target is forty three yards away, eighteen feet six inches wide, ten feet off the ground, shaped like a U, and it spells at W if Josh Brown can split it. Huber is the holder. Harris is the snapper from the right, Hashbark

snap is good. The kick is up plenty on it, yes, four seconds to go, and the Bengals have a thirteen to ten league. Oh man, how about that clutch kick right there? That was a thrilling win at Hinz Field. Bengals obviously didn't have a lot of victories over Pittsburgh during the Adalton Green era. That was the biggest againting it to propel them into their second consecutive playoff appearance. Unfortunately, they wound up losing for the second straight year in Houston.

So we move on to twenty thirteen, a year that began with the return to hard knocks for the Bengals. We learned that Giovanni Bernard drove a minivan after being a second round draft pick. We learned that James Harrison, who joined the Bengals that year, basically intimidated everybody on the roster. The Bengals got off to an excellent start that year. They were seven and two with a four game winning streak. They finished eleven and five to win

the AFC North. They were eight and oh at home that year during the regular season, earning them the opportunity to host the Chargers in the playoffs, and they lost to Philip Rivers and then San Diego twenty seven to ten. I thought, of Marvin Lewis's seven playoff losses, that was the most difficult one to stomach. I thought that was a game the Bengals clearly should have won. Yeah, I thought they were the better football team as well, Dan and just did not execute the way they should have

in that football game. I don't know if playoff performances or a bad playoff performances were in their heads or whatever at that point in time. You know, there's it's easier to say no, but haven't haven't been uh, you know an NFL player, sometimes things goog get in your head, you know, likely as a football team. So the only way to erase that kind of thing is to get off to a good start and win a football game. And they weren't able to get that done with Marvin

Lewis unfortunately. So we'll pick out a couple of memorable plays from that season. My selection comes from Week nine. It was Thursday night football, Halloween Night in Miami. He was actually a game the Bengals lost, but I'm picking

this play anyway because it was so spectacular. Giovanni Bernard, on a run from the thirty five yard line, gets slowed down at the forty five yards behind the line of scrimmage, escapes, runs five more yards backward to the forty five, and then eventually turns it up field, goes to the sideline, cuts to the middle of the field, does a somersault on his way into the end zone. Let's listen back to the most spectacular play Giovanni Bernard's

tenure in Cincinnati. Bernard running to the right in trouble, gets away from a tackle. He's going the wrong way. He's way back at the forty six. Now it turns up field, the thirty, the twenty five, the twenty down to the fifth. Coming back to the touchdown, Giovanni Bernard, there are no flags. He went backward ten yards, turn the quarter, broke tackles, weaved his way through traffic, and in the end as a thirty five yard touchdown that could tie this game. I think he won one hundred

yards to run thirty five. All right, lap, I selected a play from a loss. How about you? Which play stands out for you in that twenty thirteen season, Well that one play. One more comment on the play you picked out, Dan, I mean, it's one of those deals where the running back runs twice as many yards and only gets credit for half of them, you know. I mean Giovanni Bernard was he was serpentine and everywhere on that on that touchdown run, that was incredible. I picked

a defensive score play. You're playing against an NFL playoff caliber team, the Green Bay Packers with the legendary Aaron Rodgers at the quarterback position. When you can get an unscripted, unconventional score in a football game like that, it makes a big difference, and they were able to do that. Terrence Newman picked up a fumble in in race to the end zone and it stunned Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers a little bit in that football game. And I thought it was a, you know, a big

turning point in their victory in that game. Bengals fans will remember that play. Guess ball is out? Ball is out. The Bengals had a fourteen nothing lead. The Packers scored thirty straight to take a thirty to fourteen lead in the third quarter, and then the Bengals rallied. Green Bay still had the lead. With four minutes to go, they were up by three. They decided to go for it on fourth and one at the Cincinnati thirty. And here's what happened. Rodgers has it, gives to Franklin. He dies,

I don't think you got it. I don't think you got it. Out skipped it off running back to the thirty twenty ten ye touchdown. Will it stand? Terence Newman takes it back nearly seventy yards. Franklin dove trying to pick up the yard on fourth and one, the ball spurted out. Newman comes up with it, takes it back, and for the time being the scoreboard shows thirty three thirty Cincinnati. Let's move on to the twenty fourteen season again.

The Bengals got off to a great start lap They were three and oz with Hugh Jackson calling up some creative plays as the offensive coordinator. After Jay Gruden moved on to Washington. They wound up that year ten five and one, went back to the playoffs as a wildcard team. But you'll recall that though the wide receivers and tight ends were battered at the end of the regular season, they had to go to Indianapolis with basically no receiving weapons left. Rex had lined up as a slot receiver.

I think Kobe Hamilton's started that playoff game at wide receiver, even though he did not have a catch during the regular season. Won that playoff game twenty six to ten, the bengals fourth consecutive playoff loss in the Dalton Green Horde Lapham era. Yeah, that season certainly was a was a roller coaster. To say the least. And you know, injuries are one thing, but injuries to keep personnel at the most inopportune times, that's that's, you know, quite another.

And that that's where the Bengals ended up. You talk about limping and dimping to the finish line, man, they were just they were just flat out out of gas. There's no doubt about it. I suspect we're going to select the same play from that season. There are a lot of great moments. In Week one, Andy Dalton through his seventy seven yard touchdown pass to aj Green in the fourth quarter after they had fallen behind against Baltimore.

That was the season where Andy had his two point quarterback rating against Cleveland on Thursday Night Football and then rallied with three straight road wins after that, where he played great at New Orleans, at Houston, at Tampa Bay that featured Johnny Manziel's first career NFL start. The Bengals taunted him with his money rubbing gesture. They had three sacks, two picks, Johnny Manziel only threw for eighty yards in

the game. The Bengals won thirty nothing. But I think we will agree that the play that stands out from the twenty fourteen season came in the next to last game. It was Monday Night football at home against the Denver Broncos. At that point, the narrative had been established that the Bengals could not win in primetime with Andy Dalton at quarterback.

That had basically been going on for four years. But Andy Dalton outdueled Peyton Manning in a thirty seven to twenty eight Bengals win, and the big play came on defense with less than three minutes to go and gestures Pie Manning as he waits for the shotguns out. Peyton has the football, fakes it inside handoff, throws to the right right, hit six sick dray kerk Patrick, Henry back

the ten, the five touchdown. Dray pat track picks up Peyton Manning and takes it to the house for a potential clinching text out, Yeah, that that was dray Kirkpatrick. Great route recognition, great break on the football, and that's

tough to do against Peyton Manning. You know, he doesn't usually give you that kind of a tip stare receiver down, give you that kind of an opportunity to read his eyes and jump, you know, with route recognition, jump throughout like Dray Kirkpatrick did, but he picked that bad boy off and took it to the house. Massive play again, unscripted, unconventional score against a great quarterback, a Hall of Fame quarterback, and those are the kind of things that can decide

football games for you. Drey had two interceptions in that game. Jeremy Hill also had an eighty five yard touchdown run in that game. He was so great that year. Again. Unfortunately, the next week on the road at Pittsburgh trying to win the AFC North, the Bengals wound up with a bunch of injuries, so did the Steelers. Heard both of the teams in the playoffs, and as I mentioned earlier,

the Bengals lost at Indianapolis twenty six to ten. We move on to twenty fifteen, our most enjoyable season together in broadcast booth. It was an incredible year for the Bengals. They started eight and o, best start in franchise history. They were ten and two. They were the number one seed in the AFC at the time. When Andy Dalton broke his thumb against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and while AJ McCarron did a great job in helping them finish twelve and four and win the division title and earn a

home playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. We remember what happened on a rainy night at Paul Brown Stadium, the infamous brawl at the Pall against the Steelers as the Bengals season came to an end eighteen sixteen, and unfortunately they have not returned to the playoffs since. Yeah, that that playoff game is such such bad memories overshadow or overflow, you know the good ones in the hill fumble um pac,

Dan Jones and Vantes Burfott, losing their poison composure. I mean, all those kind of things just put an absolute damper, to say the least, on a very very successful season. They started eight no that season, finished twelve and four, win the division. The game. The player that I like is Andy Dalton AJ Green beating Pittsburgh to go seven or ozho to remain undefeated. And anytime you can beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, that that that gets a vote. It

was a well timed, well thrown football. AJ Green got himself open tight quarters, not a very long touchdown pass, but it was well executed on both ends, throw and catch Sean Williams set it up with an interception of Penn row the spurger. Here's how that game winner with less than three minutes to go sounded at Hines Field in Week seven, Dalton takes a shotgun snap quick throw Green. It has a touchdown Adrill Sharemiah Green from nine yards out and the Bengals have the lead with two fifty

seven to go. All right, lab My most memorable play from that season came in the playoff loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. I've got to pick this moment provided by Vantes Perfect. First in ten, Pittsburgh down by a point. Landry Jones back to throw from his five over the middle, Hi Perfect, Ntest Perfect comes away with a football. The Bengals have the ball with one minute and thirty six seconds to go. Yeah, fun, test Perfect. He's sprinting toward

the locker room. He has running in cycle locker room, which makes no sense. He'd better come back out before there's a penalty flag. The Bengals will have the ball. There was an injured Bengal around the ten, Wallace Kilberry. He's on his feet, Paul sparling out to take a look. Wallace limping toward the sideline, but a leaping interception by Vontes perfect in front of Marcus Wheaton gives the Bengals the ball with one thirty six to go. Do you

remember how you felt after that interception? I mean I thought it was over. The Bengals had won less than two minutes to go. With the lead and the ball, the playoff drought in my head was over. Yeah. I remember Vontes Burfage ran up the runway into the locker room basically with the football and it was thunderous. I mean,

Paul Brown Stadium was shaking. People were going absolutely bonkers, and you did you know you had You had a big feeling that that football game had ended, but obviously not obviously have unfolded, and that football game is still when you think back on it, the things that had to go wrong for them to lose that football game, that did go wrong in losing that football game are still almost incomprehensible. From that game alone, we could have selected a J mccarn's touchdown pass to AJ Green that

gave them the lead. Obviously, on the negative side, the Jeremy Hill fumble, which goes down as maybe the single most destructive play in franchise history. That didn't involve an injury, but for that Vontes perfect interception. Briefly, the playoff droute was over in my brain. That lasted for about ninety seconds before the very next play was the Jeremy Hill fumble, and unfortunately, what should have been Marvin Lewis's first playoff

victory slipped through their fingers. We move on to two sixteen. Unfortunately, that's when the playoff streak ended. The Bengals went six nine and one, one close loss after another. They had five losses. Their last five losses that you were by a total of sixteen points. That was the year where Mike Nugent, who had been so good the previous six years, kind of had an inexplicable slump where he missed six pats. He also a miss six field goals. Those were significant

in some of those close losses. Oddly enough, he's still kicking. He kicked this year for the Arizona Cardinals, but he just had a terrible stretch in two sixteen. If I've got to pick out one play from that season, there are a couple of possibilities. You may recall. In Week one, they played on nine to eleven in New York against

the Jets. They visited the site of the Twin Towers when they arrived in New York the day before, and then on nine to eleven, they beat the Jets on a Mike Nugent field goal of fifty four seconds to go, but for just one play. The one that stands out to me came at Paul Brown Stadium Week seven, at home against the Cleveland Browns. Just before the half, they broke Hugh Jackson's heart with a hail Mary that was answered in the end zone. Dalton back to throw. We're

down to five seconds left in the half. He's gonna throw a high, deep hail Mary pass into the JJ and it is boy makes the catch. I'm the ricochet hail Mary half forty nine yard touchdown pass as a prairie is answered in the end zone. Bi Adril Jeremiah Green. Yeah, that hail Mary was full of grace, and the grace was maybe one of the most graceful athletes in Cincinnati Bengal history. AJ Green, I mean he is poetry in grace, poetry,

he really is. And the thing, the thing everything that Aj Green, all the qualities, the redeeming quality he had as a receiver that Aj Green was all about showed itself and on that his ability to time his jump, the ability to high point, you know, a ball, the ability to have the eye hand coordination, the juggling action to secure that football. Just an amazing play. I mean, there's very few people in the world that can do what AJ Green did on that particular play. Because you know,

it was one of those hail Mary. There's always coverage, tight coverage, a lot of bodies around you, a lot of interfere a lot of people interfering with what you're trying to get done, and he's still got it done. And it's just a spectacular effort by by AJ Green to make that play right before the half. Unfortunately, that was the first year twenty sixteen where aj had significant injury problems. He only basically played nine games that year.

He had nine hundred and sixty four receiving yards basically in nine games. Who he's averaging more than a hundred yards per game this past year, played the entire season, had five hundred and twenty three receiving yards, so you know, unfortunately, he did come back the next year and stayed healthy, But twenty sixteen is kind of the start of the deterioration in terms of injuries for AJ Green. Yeah, it's

it's been a tough stretch for for aj Green. Um is, I think all the things we talked about, a lot of those physical traits. Uh, he still has the eye, hand coordination, all those sort of things. But man, when your feet and your legs start to go and you're at that at that position, that's when you can you can start to have some problems, obviously, and that's what

Aj Green is experiencing a little bit. Uh. If you have a crack in the foundation and uh, you know you have to run and plant and cut violently, you know, like he does, issues can can crop up, for sure, and he has not been able to perform at the level that Aj Green is accustomed to performing at. For sure. I'm sure. I'm sure it's been extremely frustrating for aj Green to go through what he's gone through, There's no

question about it. We move on to two seventeen. The obvious highlight happened in the final game of the year.

We'll get to that in just a second. But the most memorable thing about that season for me, lap was that it was the celebration of the bengals fiftieth season, nearly all of the team's all time greats made it back to Paul Brown Stadium for halftime ceremonies that year, and those special Saturday night dinners before all of the home games where you and your former teammates and other players that came after you would would reminisce about their

times in a Bengal's uniform. That was awesome. It really was Dan on a lot of levels, because, you know, guys stay in touch with each other, but actual, you know, face to face contact is not easy to accomplish a lot of times. Sometimes you know, guys live a good distance away and you can't make schedules coincide where you know, gon to be able to spend any time together. And honestly, every single one of those dinners was literally a reunion.

It was unbel I mean, there was always at least one player that I hadn't seen forever, you know, see guys like like Mike Reid. Uh. You know, I obviously followed his career, the songwriting success and all that, and had seen him, had seen him on television, various reports and that kind of thing, but just had never been able to go up, shake his hand, you know, and talk to him for a while, and and to catch

up with with with people like that. It was just it was just remarkable and I think a lot of guys, a lot of guys were touched, you know, a lot of guys were moved by that. And every every single player really relished at opportunity that experience, and they felt, you know, they felt like they were special. The organization you could, you could really feel it, and I thought it was really really well done. And uh meals dinners were always great. Stories and company and Tremoditie is even better.

It was a great year, There's no doubt. The unfield highlight came in the final game of the year, New Year's Eve in Ball Baltimore. The Bengals were six and nine. They didn't have much to play for. The Ravens, on the other hand, needed a win to go to the playoffs. The Bengals were looking at fourth and twelve at the Baltimore forty nine with less than a minute to go. And here's how it sounded. Catches the football, he's back to throw, inches up in the pocket, throws pot Bye boy.

The fifteen ten touchdown Bler Boy on fourth and twelve. It's a forty nine yard touchdown. He and the Bengals lead with forty four seconds to go. Oddly enough, Lap that play is probably more finely remembered in Buffalo than it isn't Cincinnati. Yeah, there's no doubt. I mean, Bill's mafia. They opened their pocketbooks. Man. I mean that that ended on an eighteen years seventeen French without making the playoffs. That's that's a big, big time in Bill's mafia. They

showed their appreciation. They donated a hundreds of thousands of dollars to Andy Daltons Foundation and Tyler Boyd's Foundation. So that was great. The residual effect of that play for both of those players in the platform that they used to try to help people with their foundations all benefited and man, you can't ask for more than that. That's what the National Football League and the power of the

National Football League's all about. The Bengals finished that year with back to back wins over Detroit and Baltimore, even though they werot of contention. That was one of the reasons why Mike Brown elected to bring Marvin Lewis back for another year in twenty eighteen. Looked like that decision was a wise one when the Bengals started four and one, but their defense really struggled that year. They wound up firing defensive coordinator Terrell Austin during the season, than Andy

Dalton got hurt, Jeff Driscoll finished up at quarterback. The Bengals went six and ten, and the Marvin Lewis era came to an end, and it was an unfortunate, unfortunate ending. Like you said, the fact that they finished twenty seventeen on an up note and start two eighteen off well, but again, things that you can't foresee. I mean, if every coach was assured that the roster he broke training camp, what was going to be available to him for every single game of the season. To be interesting to see

how seasons would play out. But a big part of the National Football League is that old next man out because you're gonna get injuries, and again, like we said earlier, you just hope that the injuries aren't to people that you cannot afford to lose. And when you start losing those kinds of bodies, you're struggling for on field highlights. I will choose one from Week four, the Bengals and Falcons in a shootout in Atlanta. The Bengals won the game and a game winning touchdown pass Dalton to Green

with less than ten seconds to go. Here's how it sounded. From the thirteen yard line, twelve seconds to go, Dalton back to throw, Yeah, Jake Grin touchdown Bengals. The clock is winding down, but it should be stopped. With five seconds to go, Joe Mixon ran down the sideline and jumped on top of aj Green. So Joe Mixon was excited. We were excited. The Bengals won that game to improve

to three and one. That was their last road win until the final road game of this season in Houston, so they went through a long droute on the road after that victory in Atlanta. Oddly enough, that touchdown pass with seven seconds to go is one of two touchdown passes in Bengals history in the last ten seconds of a game to win. The other one was thrown by

Achille Smith in his first start the Bengals quarterback. A two yard touchdown pass to Carl Pickens with five seconds to go in a one point victory over Cleveland turned out to be about the only passing highlight for a Keiley Smith in his tenure with Cincinnati. Do you have a highlight that stands out for you in that twenty eighteen season. I do, Dan, but that play the biggest thing that I remember about the AJ Green touchdown catches. Normally used to AJ jumping timing at high point in it.

That was a sliding catch and he's had such body control in such awareness of how to time things up with his body. I mean, he timed that slide perfectly, made a great catch. I mean, that was a spectacular play that you pick right there. I'm gonna go a game against the Miami Dolphins during that season. The Bengals are down two touchdowns seventeen to three, and they got not only one unconventional, unscripted score defensively, they got two in one quarter. And that is an unbelievable rarity and

that was a big factor in the football game. Michael Johnson defensive end has a pick six of twenty two yards in distance, and then Sam Hubbard courtesy of Carlos Dunlap, knocking the ball out of the quarterback quarterbacks hands, has a nineteen yard fumble return and in the Bengals have fourteen points on the board and almost back to back series, I think it was for the Miami Dolphins. All of a sudden boom, Cincinnati's defense explode, explodes for two touchdowns

and turns the game around. So we'll put those two defensive touchdowns together and count it as one highlight. Back to back a defensive scores in the fourth quarter. Here's how they sound. Hannahill takes the snap, fakes a hand off to the under pressures, steps up his pass, bat it down, picked up Baba Bengals, and Michael Johnson runs it into the end zone and touchdown Bengals. Two deep

safeties for the Bengals. About thirteen yards back. Tannahill back to throw under pressure moving up, got hit from behind. The ball comes those I'll stooped up. Sam Hubbard runs it into the end zone, but there are two penalty flags near the ten yard lins Haulding on the Dolphins man, all right, lap. Let's move on to twenty nineteen, the start of the Jack Taylor era in Cincinnati. Obviously, it was a tough year for the Bengals. They started ozen eleven,

the worst start in franchise history. They finished two and fourteen. The most memorable play of that season was probably well, not even probably undoubtedly against the Bengals, the famous Lamar Jackson spin move touchdown run at Paul Brown Stadium. But as for Bengals highlights, I think we agree it came

in Week twelve the Bengals got off to schneide. Andy Dalton returned from a three week exile as the Bengals starting quarterback, led them to their first win of the year, twenty two to six over the Jets, and his first touchdown pass in that game allowed him to pass Kenny Anderson as the franchise is all time record holder for

career touchdown passes. Here's how it sounded. First and ten at the seventeen of the Jets, Dalton fakes a handoff from the pocket, throws over the middle of it is caught for a touchdown by Tyler boyd Andy Dalton threading the needle between two New York Jets defenders, and with that touchdown pass, the red rifle stands alone career touchdown pass number one ninety eight in his NFL career, more than any other quarterback in Bengals history. They both wear

number fourteen. Kenny Anderson, Andy Dalton and I'll tell you what, this throw is unbelievable. I mean threading the needle. You have a defender dropping back underneath coverage in a safety over the top, and Andy Dalton said, I trust Tyler Bloyd. I'm gonna zip it in there. And literally, if he was an inch either way, it would have been incomplete. But man, great catch by Tyler Bloyd maintained possession for that record breaking touchdown pass to be of that variety

certainly far from mundane. It's nice when you break a record like that lap for it not to be like an easy routine play where you know, you dump it off to the running back and he runs in from six yards. Andy Dalton, he lived up to the red rifle nickname on that touchdown pass. Yeah, he definitely threaded the needle. And Tyler Boyd is so good in those in those type of situations, and you know, you look at Tyler Boyd Dan The thing about him that stands out in his great career as well, is he adapts

to almost any quarterback. He can find a rhythm in timing very very quickly, but just about any quarterback, they all seem to be able to get in concert with him very very abruptly and very very you know, in a timely fashion. It's just something about the wave, runs routes, the way he carries his body. And I think part

of it is he played the quarterback position himself. And receivers that have played quarterback and see that position through a quarterback's eyes, I think normally have that type of attribute, you know, where they can adjust to two quarterbacks quickly. And Andy Dalton and Tyler Boyd they made some big, big plays. Obviously, Andy Dalton and AJ Green connected at

the hill. They came in first and second round picks, you know, back in twenty eleven and that the Indian AJ Show was on and it was on big playoffs first five years of their career. Like we talked about, but man, Tyler Boyd and and Adult made some beautiful music together as well. And Tyler Boyd has done it with just about every Bengal quarterback that he's played with. So we move on to this past season, our tenth year together. Unfortunately, another year out of the playoffs, as

the Bengals finished four eleven and one. It'll be remembered as the start of the Joe Burrow era. The highlight that we should be able to play came in Week one, a touchdown pass with seven seconds to go to AJ Green that should have given Joe Burrow a game winning touchdown drive, game winning touchdown pass in the final ten

seconds in his NFL debut. Unfortunately, there's no point in playing the highlight because it didn't count thanks to kind of a tickie tack offensive pass interference call on aj Yeah, that was they call him for a pushoff. I mean, he's grabbed from Jump Street as soon as he comes off the line of scrimmage running his route and it was more than five yard route and he was still being grabbed and he finally got frustrated and pushed off a little bit to separate from that grab and he

gets called. You know, it's the retaliatory guy. A lot of times they see and that's what happened there. They didn't see the entire play. They saw the end of the play and threw a flag and it was unjust and it took a touchdown off the board and ultimately cost the Bengals the football game. And when Bullock obviously missed a chippy and it went into overtime. But unfortunately, you know that that that game did not end the

way it should have. It should have been a game winning touchdown drive at the end of the football game in his first NFL start for a rookie quarterback by the name of Joe Burrow that has an extremely bright future. There's no question Joe certainly provided plenty of highlights before

he suffered his knee injury. There was the quarterback draw in that game for his first NFL touchdown, the four hundred and six passing yards in a game at home against the Cleveland Brown's great victory over Tennessee in Week eight, when he threw a couple of fourth quarter touchdown passes. Aside from Joe Burrow, I think of samaj p Ryan's long touchdown run and the win at Houston Chrip sacked by a Sam Hubbard late in that game. But if I've got to pick anything out, and I think you agree.

It came just before Christmas. Four days before Christmas, on Monday Night Football, the Bengals about a two touchdown underdog against their nemesis, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Juju Smith Schuster had danced on the logo prior to the game and then put it on TikTok, his habit leading up to that game and Von Bell said, or not going to dance on our logo, Juju. Here's what happened in that game. Roethlisberger back to throw short pass over the middle, cut

by Juju Smith Schuster. The ball is popped away by Von Bell. It's looked up by the Bengals a right and returned to the twenty. But they're saying it's an incomplete pass. Question is did Smith Huster make a football move? Did he have possession and make a football move? That's close. I think that's a football move. I think that's a fumble. After reviewing the play, the receiver completed the process of

a catch. As a result, it was a catch in a football It was immediately after that game lap that Juju Smith shoots are announced that he would no longer be dancing on team logos prior to games. Yeah, Mike Tomlin, I think it was a big reason they made that announcement. I think Mike Tomlin said not maybe not no more of that. And the great thing about that is Von

Bell called his shot prior to the game. In zoom call conferences during the course of the week, he said, you know, people think that that's disrespectful and coming into our house doing something to that effect that, you know, the best thing you do is take care of business, put a hit on, you know, And he did exactly exactly what he said. It's just unfolded. He let his words turn into physicality and actions on the football field. There was a big hit and a big play in

that football game. Takeaways they're enormous when you're, you know, the underdog, and the Bengals have had their troubles against the Pittsburgh Steelers. That snapped a drought of eleven straight losses to the Pittsburgh Steelers and then beating them on national TV like that Monday night football in front of the whole nation. That had to be a sweet feeling for von Bell and every Cincinnati Bengal for sure. All Right, So that pretty much wraps up our ten years together.

Some great moments over the course of ten years. And there's a symmetry there lap playoffs in our first five years together out of the playoffs in our next five years together. So that can only mean one thing. The Bengals are about to start a stretch of five straight playoff appearances in twenty twenty one, no question, and five straight years where they win at least one playoff game. Perfect. Great, that would be awesome, man, that would be That would

be extraordinary. And uh, I will say though, with Joe Burrow at quarterback, to get get him surrounded with people that can let that guy operate. The thing that I respect most about Joe Burrow Dan is how much he loves the grind, you know, the work that he puts in. You know, you're a Hall of Fame broadcast, You're you're a talented guy. You've got a lot of a lot of ability, but you don't take it for granted. I mean, you work your tail off. That's what Joe Burrow does.

Joe Burrow has some physical abilities, he doesn't take it for granted. He's the first one in the last to leave. He works his tail off. I mean he's gonna he's never gonna say I'm just gonna I'm just gonna show up. I'm just gonna you know, check it, check out and just show up and not put in the work. He loves to put in the work. And that's what makes good players great, great players, the greatest, you know, hall of Fame type guy. So I'm excited about seeing his

whole career unfold over the years. Because he's got the tangibles and the intangibles. You better include yourself on that hard working list because I can't even read the hieroglyphics that you write down in tiny pencil. I'm your note sheets prior to every game. It's funny that was that's hereditary. My dad was an artist, went to Annoiningless School of Art. There's a technical illustrator by trade, so he'd do these little tiny rocket engine parts you'd have to diagram and

all that. I think you could write the Gettisburg address on a penny, you know, so I inherited that a little bit. I guess all right, Well, ten years have flown by. It's been awesome. It's been such a joy to spend my Sundays and sometimes Mondays and Thursdays with you, and let's help the next ten are just as fun. Here here I'm with you, my man. Toast to that, cheers to that. We hope you enjoyed that. Look back at our decade. In the broadcast booth, brought to you

by bud Light, Seltzer refreshed the game. 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