Bengals Booth Podcast: Runnin With The Devil

guitarists of all time. Coming up, Dave Lapham joins me to discuss why Joe Mixon was so effective last week and if Alex Redman should remain at right guard even after Xavier sue Philo returns from injury. This week's one on one player interview is with safety Von Bell as we find out who gets more done before ten am, Bell or Horde. And finally, it's our no the Faux segment as we get an in depth look at the Ravens from a guy known as Nasty Nestor in Baltimore

talk show host and author Nestor Apparichio. 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, Stitch, your Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since all of the great Bengals content out there. Here's a shout out to all of the folks all

over the world producing tremendous content about the Bengals. And I don't mean the traditional outlets. I'm talking about the website creators, the podcasters, the film study analysts, and the message board operators. You guys are awesome. I just wish I had more time to read, watch, and listen to all of your content. But please know that your hard work and passion for the team is truly appreciated. Now

time to bring in my broadcast partner, Dave Lapham. All right, let's start with some news that broke on Wednesday morning. Joe Mixon was name the AFC Offensive Player of the Week after his great game against Jacksonville. Twenty five carries, one hundred and fifty one yards and two touchdowns, six sketches thirty yards and another touchdown, one hundred eighty one total yards which is a new career high. My question for you is why, and here are your options. A.

Jacksonville stinks. B Alex Redman in the offensive line, we're really good. Ce. Whatever they did at the hospital on Saturday night when he had chess pains was powerful or d it was simply a matter of time. I think that the hospital is a little bit of a factor. I like from Joe said the doctors loved on him a little bit. That's a little injection. That's a little bit of relief right there. You get loved on a

little bit, so you're able to play freely. I do think that as far as Joe run the football, it was a bunch of guys, you know, the offensive line, the receivers. They did a great job in the perimeter of the tight ends, uh, sealing edges when they had to,

and you know, setting an edge. I think that it was it was an upgrade in performance across the board from a running game standpoint, because Joe has has had issues, you know, make having to make his first cutting his own backfield, you know, between the tackles, just outside the tackles multiple places, so there've been breakdowns everywhere in the receivers again, that's what makes a five yard run a fifteen yard run, or makes a five yard run a

fift yard run and a touchdown, or like in Joe's case, when he busted outside bounced it. You know that was supposed to be between the tackles run. Giovanni Bernard bounced for eleven and then he bounced for thirty plus for a touchdown. Tyler Boyd was great on both of those. And now you put the cornerback in a sweat because he's you know, he wants to keep leverage and pinch

you if you're going between the tackles. Well, he was going too far down inside to pinch him, way too far inside, never set an edge, and Giovanni made him pay. Then Joe made him pay. So once you start getting everybody doing what they're supposed to do and how they're supposed to do it, it can look like that for sure. Plus, I mean, you gave in all your choice, you gave a little bit of a little bit of reason for everything. Jacksonville's not up to snuff from what they've been going against.

There's no question, absolutely no question. We will specifically get to Alex Redman's impact in just a bit, but did anything stand out about the offensive lines performance in general? I think Jonah is getting better on a weekly basis, and you know, he was lining up against the best guy and Alan was not well. I mean, we weren't talking about him, So when you're not talking about a guy, he's being held in check. He had the most bogus sack in history right when Joe got down at the

end of the game. The whole post game, I'm saying it wasn't sacked at all, And then you look at the stats and technically he lost about two inches when Joe Burrow is trying to kill the quod right right.

And you know, Joe, if Joe knew that was going in the books as a sack, he would have made sure even if he took a hit, he would have made sure to gain another foot to make sure his offensive line didn't get nicked with a sack because he knows that they've been under the heat big time, and he was obviously very proud of their performance and they made his life a lot easier during the course of that football game. I mean, Alan, Alan was responsible. He

was the guy on the twist. He came inside on a super loop instead of just a tackle end twist with a tackle penetrates the end loops. He looped all the way inside to Trey Hopkins, and that was the guy that Trey Hopkins held that took the Tyler Boyd touchdown off the board. So he had an impact play there, you know, by forcing a penalty and again got a bogus sack, but on a snap by and Jonah had nothing to do with that one. You know, he came from the opposite side. Jonah went on that on that

particular play. So every time that he lined up I think against Alan, I think it went pretty well for him. And and that's that was their best guy coming off the end for sure. So I think his his graphs going up. And he's that kind of guy, you know. I think he's not a guy that makes the same mistake over and over and over again. He learns from it and he compartmentalized it. And I think he's almost got you know, he's got like a computer like mind.

He'll just click into that. I've been in this situation. Here's the tendencies here. My percentage of doing this is that, I mean he's got that uh, that computer like mind. I think that's really going to help him. He certainly looked good late in the game, getting out as the lead blocker on that one run around the left by Joe Mixon and literally taking the cornerback that he was blocking out of bounds. Yeah, chopped him down and you know, took him off his feet and rolled him out of bounds.

It was like make that spare. You know, he knocked that pinned out and took it all the way through the gutter, you know, I mean, way to go. Yeah, exactly, exactly, Yeah, he was. He was that. That showed his athleticism. I mean he was. He was running with and really, Dan

and I've been there. You're out in space and you're an eighteen wheeler and you're trying to stay with a fra a. It's got rack and pinion steering and it's changed in directionally whoa, whoa, you know I can't change and he's changed direction with him pretty well and uh and really made it. Made a hell of a play

in space against a defensive back. I mean there, that's what they're That's what impressed me when I when I see Joe Burrow with unblocked free runner linebackers, unblocked free runner cornerbacks on blitzes, and he does his little pirouette and tight spin and spin away from these guys. Dude. Some athleticism, that's some short space ability, short space quickness, some suddenness to him. And Jonah was very good in

short space, no doubt. On the other side of the ball, the Bengals defense finally held an opponent under one hundred rushing yards. Jacksonville had eighty nine in the game. It obviously helps to have the lead and forced Jacksonville to throw it down the stretch. But what did you think of the run defense in particular? Yeah, I thought it was better. Again, a forty yard run was nullified by penalty,

you know, and that's that's helpful. That would that would have changed the dynamic of it, you know, pretty extensively. And uh, you know Robinson's he's a he sold me he's a legit that kids, that kid's a good football player. Instead of seventeen carries for seventy five yards, you would have had eighteen for one fifteen, which is almost six and a half you know a carry he ends up at four point four, which looks good, looks better than

you know than it has. That's for sure, but I do think they you know, they did a better job. They did a nice job with the mush rush of controlling Minshew, you know, not getting yards. He does a great job of finding a lane and abusing it and

getting yards up in the middle. He's more of a between the tackles runner and when he scrambles rather than he's not a real speed guy busted the outside, and they did a good job of preventing, you know, some of that because they've had their issues with quarterbacks, you know, rushing for yardage against him. Of course their face and the best of the NFL has to offer him this week.

For the year, through four games, which is a quarter of the schedule, the Bengals are twenty seventh in the NFL and rushing yards allowed sixteenth and passing yards allowed. But I was looking at football outsiders because they have that dvoacetistic which takes into account the quality of the opposition and then the game situation. A five yard gain on third and ten is not as bad from a

defensive perspective as a five yard gain on first and ten. Correct, So looking at that statistic, the Bengals defense actually checks in at sixteenth in the NFL, according to Football Outsiders, right in the middle of the pack. Are we starting to think that maybe the Bengals defense is closer to the middle of the pack than the bottom of the pack, You know, I do like I do like that they try to give you criterion. Instead of just five yards, there's five yard runs and then there's five yard runs.

They're not all born the same and built the same, right, and the quality of opposition is figured in as well, And I like that, you know, I mean, look, look what Cleveland's doing. Cleveland went for over three hundred against Dallas, you know, all of a sudden, the two hundred yards given up against Clean Right, it's not good, but hell it's one hundred yards better than what Dallas did, you know. And they were supposed to win their division and be

a playoff contender and everything else. So that's that's my point. Dan, this AFC North. If the Bengals had won the two games they should have won, they lose to Cleveland, but they'd be three and one, still be fourth in the division because a tiebreaker with a division loss, but everyone in the division would have three wins and nobody have more than one loss. In Pittsburgh, wouldn't have lost yet

because they have a game that hasn't been played. But I mean the AFC North and the Bengals have, you know, two games against everybody. The AFC North is no joke. Ten four and one unbelievable, unbelievable. Can the Bengals petition the NFL to join the NFC East three twelve and one as a division on Philadelphia with the same one and two record one two and one record? Is the Bengals currently alone in first with Washington and Dallas tied for second at one and three and the Giants bringing

up the rear and four? Yeah, I mean the Bengals would be in a virtual tie with the Eagles, both with one two and one records the top the division because they tied us a division rivalry game there if they were in that division, That's that's sick. That just tells you, you know, there's the penthouse and there's the outhouse,

and there's there's houses in between. And I don't know how these you know, stats are going to be factored by you know, how you incorporate a variable that that says this team is exponentially better than that team or not even necessarily the team. This defensive lineman is on a crap team. But this defensive lineman is a Pro Bowl guy, and this one guy, it's hard for anybody to block this guy. So if you play against this guy, your numbers aren't going to be as good as you

if you play against some schmo. You know, and I don't know how they ever factor that in. To me, there's nothing more true than looking at tape and trusting your eyeballs. And guy's doing a pretty good job against high caliber competition and more than handling his own against guys he should. That's a good football player because that guy that he's having just you know, a little bit more difficult time with. That guy's a Pro bowler. He's been there five times. There's a reason he's been there

five times. He's not doing it just against this guy, he does it against almost every guy. So that's why those things, in my mind are so so tough to so so off to buy into. I mean, I think they're all great tools. And plus the other thing is sometimes coaches, honestly, I mean it's like the scheme put you in tough spot. How do you factor that in?

He didn't block that guy that way because he was coached not too and you're taking points away from him, you're giving him demerits because he didn't get that guy block. That's what he's supposed to do. And the coach was like, don't worry about that. Well, don't worry about it, but pro football focused. And everybody's ripping my ass because you know they're saying that I didn't get this done. So it's hard. There are some variables that are still almost

impossible to factor into those equations. They really are. We know the Bengals won't have Mike Daniels again this week. He's going to miss at least three games at the elbow injury. Gino Atkins will see. He's doing a little bit of individual stuff at practice, but it's still very much a question mark. There are some veteran accomplished defensive tackles out there, Marcel Darius, mister big stuffy snacks, Harrison,

Oh yeah, Demata Peco. Normally I would say they won't do it, though, wait a few weeks with the guys that they have on the roster, and you know, hope that Geno's playing soon and Mike Daniels is back in three weeks, but as aggressive as they were this offseason, and they obviously acted quickly to get Mike Daniels before the season began. What do you think, do you think that they might nibble at one of those veteran defensive linemen.

It all depends on how veteran they are. I think if I think there's an age cut off, I think if they feel like they bring in another veteran guy who hasn't really been doing that much and it's vulnerable to injury, that why take on another one? Yeah, slap another one, you know, on injury reserve or keep on

the roster and hope he gets healthy. So I think the one that makes the most sense to me is Darius because he's not you know, he's the he's the younger one, he's played the most recently, you know, recent football. That's the AJ Green Andy Dalton draft class right right. And he's not a kid obviously he's not a kid, but I mean snacks and some of these I mean, don't dematas up there. You know, he's he's been around.

So I think that's the that's the fear. I think that a lot of teams in the league have not bringing these guys in because you're bringing a guy that hasn't hasn't been playing football, and again there's shape and then there's football shape. And look at out. There's been like three or four achilles tears. I mean, the achilles tendon is the vulnerable thing after this coronavirus. It seems like tight ends, defensive backs. I mean they've they've been

tearing achilles. The Bengals know all about it with CJ and uh. Tampa Bay lost Howard two an achilles tear, and I know there was a safety that I lost, going to lose the season two an achilles tears. So I think I think all of that is is part of it. But um, it's going to be interesting to see, you know, if they do decide to bring somebody in like that, and you know what, Dan Geno Atkins and hindsight, I R three weeks you could have put him on

IR and maybe done something else. Then obviously they didn't think it was that serious. And now all of a sudden, here it is a month plus and he's it's you know, fifty fifty if he's going to be available this week? Man, what is what really would have been better to just have surgery or whatever? Would have taken to put him and then slap him one ir and as many weeks it took to give him back. I mean, hindsight's always twenty twenty with this stuff. But obviously this thing was

more significant than what they initially thought. I think they put him week to week like right away, and man, it's been a lot of weeks, a lot of weeks. The Bengals had their fourth right guard in their first four games. Last Sunday, Alex Redman getting his first start of the year, and the Bengals passed for three hundred yards, ran for two hundred and five yards, and only gave up one sack. So how good was Alex Redman? Here are Jonah Williams and Zach Taylor. Alix is a great player.

He's got a lot of He's got a lot of violence and physicality. I think that's the first thing that the coaches and his teammates ever knowses about him. As you know, he wants to call off the ball and just dominate people every play. And you know he did it. He did a lot of that, and so it was good to have him back. He fit in well, you know, he had good, good chemistry there with Trey and with Bobby and brought up physicality there and again, it wasn't perfect.

I think he'd be the first one to tell you that, but there were some things that he did a nice job of, and he was the first person to tell us that. Immediately after the game last Sunday, Alex Redman said, I didn't play all that well, but he played better than Fred Johnson or Billy Price had been playing the previous couple of weeks. He did Dan and the very first looking looking back at the game, the very first run play, wif I thought he was so geeked out.

I'm sure you know. Redman was like, I'm sure he had all his weight for the defensive times, a little old lay move, I mean he went whip. It was like, okay, choke it down a little bit. Let's let's let's calm. Let's calm this down. And then he started doing some of the things that that Alex Redmand does. He when I talk about finishing, it's like a lot of times guys hit and stalemate and a lot of people just

stay in the stalemate. He will finish. He'll manipulate his hands, he'll roll his hips, he'll do things to get a second movement on a player and finish him, and he'll pancake people, knock him right on their backside, you know, knock him over, throw him down, whatever the case may be. That's where the you know, like the violence and the physicality that that guys are talking about, and that's what that's what he does. You know. He's a he's a

martial arts guy, you know, and he's a wrestler. So every wrestle if played against me, and they would hunker down, knees, over the ankles, hips, over the knees, and was like a rooted tree. When Redmond kind of hunkers down, he's all load. You know, he's got that part of it, and he's got he's got the hands with the martial arts stuff. I mean, he'll like, you know, kung full you're in a heartbeat kind of thing with his hands.

He just has to physically, he's nfl. He has to make sure that you know, he doesn't get overly geeked, you know, and just staying composed. Control and again that controlled rage, which I know every time I say it sounds stupid, but it is what you have to try to four and again, like we talked about Bobby Hart, Trey Hopkins. They know everybody's a simon and every play,

not just theirs. So I think that was a big comforting thing for Alex Redman if he had any questions in the huddler at the line of scrim and she just leaned over those guys in like you know, and let me double check this. And that's that's big. And as a result, and see any assimon I was in there with him. You had the whiff like I talked about, but I didn't see him blocking wrong people. It didn't look like to me. I think Bobby and you know,

and training need to take a bow with that. The Bengals signed Xavier Suefhila in the offseason to be the right guard. He was coming back from a broken leg last year and then he got hurt in Week one. He will be back at some point this year. But you know, Alex Redman's an interesting guy because he got into the NFL at a really young age. He's in his fourth year, he's only twenty five. Is a healthy head straight. Alex Redman a better right guard than Xavier Suephila.

Do we know? Yeah? Do you think so? I think for what. I Yeah, from what I've seen for when I've seen a Xavier, and again it's just training camp, I thought he played best in the scrimmage. But I think I think Alex Redmond, if Alex Redman stays healthy and you know, plays at his highest level, I think his highest level might be higher than Xavier. Xavier Suefilo is.

He's got a lot of intangible leadership. He's unbelievable in terms of all that you know, and that gives him, that gives him some some some juice, you know, in terms of what coaches think about. I mean with players like that, you're looking for added value, and he gives that added value and Alex hasn't given that added value at this point in time. But based on just pure physical abilities, I think Alex's upside is that much. Because Xavier has been injured. He broke his leg, now he's

got an ankle injury. I mean, those are starting to pile up. When you start, I don't care if the house has a crack in the foundation, you know, like Bill Walton, his career into because of foot injuries, breaking the feet and all that you have footing, you know, ankle and knee injuries and stuff. Man all of a sudden it can't support the rest of the building. That's when you start to have some issues. And in honest Lee Dan Alex Redman hadn't done anything for so long.

This is I mean. To go in and play as well as he did, in my mind was kind of remarkable. He's going to only get better. He better because he's going against Baltimore. Now, he's going against Klais Campbell and Brandon Williams. He's not going against you know, the guys he went against in Jacksonville, you know, Brian and whoever else they had inside there. It's a different ball game in Baltimore against those two beasts. NFL Next Gen Stats

tracks something called average separation for wide receivers. It's on a catch or on an incompletion, so it doesn't take into account the passing route. It doesn't take into account plays where they weren't the person that the ball was thrown too, and maybe they were wide open, but this is strictly how much separation they have on balls thrown to them. Well, so far this season, AJ Green is tied for last in the NFL with former Bengals teammate

Marvin Jones. Earlier this week, Zach Taylor was asked about AJ Green so far this year, that's not a concern for us or AJ. Aj is doing the right things and we got a lot of really good receivers. We got tight ends that can get targets, backs that can get targets. There's times where AJ is opening the balls going elsewhere for explosive plays, and I think that's the key to our success, is not forcing the ball to any weapon, just let it play out naturally. His attitude's unbelievable.

You know, you watch that third and one tight zone run to mix him for the touchdown. You just watch his energy there. You know, that was in the third quarter and at that point he'd had one catch and just to see his celebration, the way he responded to when his teammates made a big play just says everything you need to know about AJ. And his time will come.

You know, there's gonna be moments where he has unbelievable games and he's gonna help us win here, and you know, it's just it's a it's tremendous to have that guy as a captain and part of this offense and this team coach. When you watch AJ Green on film, does he look like the same player that you know he's been for the past decade. Oh yeah, yeah, he's he's a you know, he comes off the ball and you can see the respect that he gets from the DBS

and UM. Again, there's opportunities there where we're you know, you call the ball thinking it might go there number one, and all of a sudden it pops off somewhere else for UM a big game somewhere else. So again, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna second guess those decisions. One catch three yards for AJ Green last week on the first play from scrimmage. Yeah, it's it's been a it's been a tough run for aj in the first month of the season, first four games. I asked John Harbaugh

during the pressor that he had about AJ Green. I said, when you watch AJ on tape, you know, do you still see the same guy? And remember the on NFL films or NFL Network John Harrows saying we were going to cover this guy. I mean, AJ was just that's when he's just ripping the Ravens apart multiple times, and he said, you know, yeah, he's ripped. It's the same. He didn't. He wasn't effusive in his praise. He didn't

rip him. Didn't think he was gonna rip him. But he didn't really throw all lavish praise out there like I thought. He just stayed away from the totally, which I don't know. I will say, get my COVID test this week and I was in the I was right behind Aj in the trailer and I'm telling you, looking at him, he's unbelievable looking athlete. I mean he is if you put requirements into a computer, would spend our

Aj Green physically. The Bengals face the reigning unanimous MVP this week for the first of two times this year, Lamar Jackson. So far this year, he leads Baltimore in rushing yards two hundred and thirty five through four games. He's averaging six yards to carry. He has a passer rating of one eleven point three, seven touchdown passes, and

one pick. Some of the Bengals will be seeing him for the first time, including rookie linebacker a Keen Davis Gaither, who has asked this week if it's a little bit overwhelming to face the prospect of taking on Lamar Jackson. Now, I want to say, oh, women, just football, how do you prepare for that? Though? This stick? And so you'd satany We all know that he's fast, he can cut, and he just got trying to take away something not

gonna take away to spee. So having great angles, trying to give him a one way route and to try to give him on a grown How many times did you see Lamar's spin move that long touchdown he had against the Bengals last year before you even came here. I'll send it quite a bit trying to send it. He's tired of seeing it. He's not alone in that Bengals locker room, obviously, every guy who was on the field in that game last year at Paul Brown Stadium

has been tired of seeing that replay. The Ravens are three and one, the one loss at home to Kansas City, and the Chiefs did a great job against Lamar Jackson, particularly in the passing game, ninety seven passing yards, a

passer rating of seventy three point one. Any sort of formula provided by the Kansas City Chiefs, you know my thing is, and I'm not sure I'd have to study the Chiefs tape a lot more than I did but if you can get a lead, play with the lead and then make them think they have to throw the football, because I mean, they're human. Greg Roman's human in that regard. I mean, if they fall behind by a couple of scores, you know, he'll probably try to throw the football a

little bit more. You have to make Lamar Jackson throw outside the numbers. He with his RPO. A lot of his passing yards are off the RPO in the middle of the football field. And that's where Andrews, the tight end will gash you because linebackers are sucking up. Safeties are nosy because of that great running game. And then he's killing you in the middle of the football field. So and that's the ball's not in the air very long.

You know, attack in the middle of football field. Make Lamar Jackson throw it outside, make him throw it toward the numbers, and and you know, get a lead and try to expand on that lead. The thing about Lamar Jackson that's so tough in the running game. Coaches work all week in the running game trying to scheme how they can out gap the opponent, get one more person at the point of attacking the opponent. When it's eleven on eleven football. That's one more gap, that's one more person.

And normally in the NFL because normally quarterback hands off and watches. Now this guy is running it, so you can get an extra helmet at the point of attack and you can get out gap. So you have to defensively, you have to play your gap control responsibility. And can I just jump in when you say eleven on eleven football, somebody out there is going, well, what's he talking about?

It's always eleven on eleven football. No, if you picture a normal running play, quarterback hands it off, running back gets the ball, quarterback stands behind the play twiddling his thumbs. Sure, so now you've got nine guys trying to block. Eleven people removing the person who has the ball and the quarterback who's doing nothing. Right, if the quarterback runs the ball, now you've got an extra person, got an extra get

can block, got an extra gap. You know next like gap they call power counters, it's gap run game instead of you know, inside outside zone. Now you're blocking down. You're trying to get extra bodies at the point of attack. So now when you have him running the ball, you have extra he's the point of attack, like we just describe, plus the guy that's running it might be the most athletic,

fastest guy in the field. When he's definitely the most athletic of almost anybody in the National Football League, and he's probably in the top five in terms of raw speed. When you have that running the football with extra blockers in front of him by scheme, and I mean recard that big defensive linemen slash fullback, three and eleven pound guy that's an extra helmet at the point of attack.

He's crushing people. The only guy in the NFL last year they had over one hundred snaps offensively, defensively and special teams. This guy, Patrick Ricard. This guy is a gem, I mean, the unsung hero that football team. So you have big tight ends, you got a three hundred eleven pound fullback, and you get that that son of a gun behind them. You know, Orlando Zeus Brown can eclipse

the sun. You know, you get these big offensive linemen on the edge, Zeus Brown poom, you know, coming off the ball, tight ends, fullback, and then here comes this little fleet footed son of a gun. Is you know, he makes you miss. I mean, you know, he's like he's ripping your acls MCLs lcl's everything. Your knees are ripping up as you're trying to change direction with this guy.

The Ravens defensive coordinator is Wink Martindale, Not Winston Conrad Martindale, the legendary host of such game shows as Tik Tag Doe and High Rollers. No, this is Don Wink Martindale, the linebackers coach at u See for three years under Rick Minter, and this guy loves to blitz. On most plays, there will be six guys right up there at the line of scrimmage, filling all the gaps. Sometimes all six will go after Joe Burrow. More often than not it'll

be five. Sometimes it might be as few as three. What you don't know from snap to snap is how many are coming and where they're coming from. Right, That's the bottom line. It's all about confusion, uncertainty, being unsettled. You know, make the offensive line makes some sort of mistake, either from an assignment standpoint or a technique standpoint, setting for the wrong person, taking a false step the wrong way, you know, not being able to trust your eyes. You know,

defensive players talk about trusting their eyes. I can tell you when a team's doing what the Baltimore Ravens do. As an offensive lineman, you have to trust your eyes as well, and Link Martindale makes that tough. I mean, they are definitely a challenge. And but if you can beat him, if somehow you can make a couple of plays and make him a little bit hesitant about doing that, he'll go when you're inside the twenty, he's bringing it.

It's automatic. Just just count on it. It's happening inside the twenty, inside the twin, inside the ten yard and he'll go zero coverage. Nobody in the middle of football field. He'll just go zero coverage and just and try to knock you backwards. He is as an aggressive a defensive coach as there is in any level of football, honestly, And like I said, almost fifty five percent of the time they blitzed last year. That led the league. It's a Baltimore in Pittsburgh are one and two, both over

fifty percent of the time bringing it. And maybe they're onto something. They're the two best on two of the best defenses in the National Football League. They just so happened to both be in the AFC North and you got a rookie quarterback Joe Burrow trying to figure it out. It's going to be very very interesting dynamic when he faces those defenses. And yet, so far this year, Baltimore only has one more sack than the Bengals do. Now. Last week against Washington, the Ravens had three and they

hit Dwayne Haskins nine times. Matthew Judon number ninety nine, had five of those quarterback hits. But up until then, Cleveland, Houston, Kansas City had done a nice job of at least avoiding sacks and interceptions. They only have two interceptions, but they've forced six fumbles and recovered five of them. That's where they've done their damage as a defense. They've knocked the ball out of people's hands five fumble recoveries, tied

for second most in the National Football League. And another thing that this Ravens defense has done, they've pitched a shout out in the third quarter. They've they've not allowed one point in the third quarter. Even the Kansas City Chiefs in the third quarter scored squadouche. I mean, they've outscored the opponent twenty to nothing in the third quarter. So you know there's multiple circumstances and reasons for that.

If the Baltimore Ravens had lost a bunch of tosses and they got the ball to start the second half and they go on one of their patented seven and a half eight nine minute drives, the quarter is almost done anyway, So you have minimal possessions in that quarter, depending on how well the offense is played. But I mean to not give up a point in four games in the third quarter. That's saying something about a defensive

football team. After allowing Joe Burrow to get hit seventeen times in the Philadelphia game, the Bengals offensive line cut that number down to five last week against Jacksonville. That was excellent looking at the season so far, Burrows dropped back to pass two hundred and three times, second most in the NFL to Dak Prescott. He's been pressured seventy

five times, according to Pro Football Focus. That is thirty six point nine percent of the time that he's dropped back to pass, he's been pressured, and that is the eighth highest rate in the NFL. Other guys who have been pressured more frequently Kirk Cousins forty one percent. Fellow rookie Justin Herbert forty one percent, Daniel Jones from the Giants forty one percent, Sam Donald forty percent. None of those guys are doing very well, at least in terms

of wins and losses. Then you've got Russell Wilson thirty seven point seven percent, slightly ahead of Joe Burrow, And of course right now he's probably the leading candidate to be MVP. Sixteen touchdown passes in the first four games, first time it's ever happened, sixteen touchdown passes four game. And when you look at the numbers, Joe Burrow one hundred and sixteen four hundred and seventy seven, second most attempts and completions in the National Football League, Jackson sixty

seven for ninety eight. He's almost half of Borrow's numbers in both categories. And that's why they he's been sacked eleven times, they're thirty first in the league and sacked per pass attempt because he hasn't been dropping back as much obviously in eleven sacks. The Bengals have given up fifteen sacks. But Borrows thrown at one hundred and seventy

seven times and Jackson's only thrown at ninety eight. So Jackson obviously is not making quick reads with the football, holding on to it, you know, creating, extending and doing all the things like an athletic guy like him want. I mean, they're not Their game is not for Jackson to be in the pocket, two reads in the front side, get to the backside, check it dot. Now that's not That's not Jackson's game at all. So it's going to

be contrasting styles. And I wonder how aggressive the Bengals will be in terms of blitzing Jackson if they get in favorable down in distant situations, do you blitz them? I know one thing, if you blitz and play man. If the blitz doesn't get there and the guys their backs turn trying to cover people down the field, he'll rip you. He will rip you. So do you play

like soft zone and don't blieve? I mean, these are some of the problems that start to happen if you don't get some sort of lead against these Baltimore Ravens. One update on one of the veteran defensive tackles we were talking about, Damon snax Harrison is no longer on the market. The thirty one year old run Stopper was signed to the Seahawks practice squad on Wednesday. Now time for this week's one on one player conversation. This week, Zach Taylor said there are two keys to slowing down

Baltimore's lethal rushing attack. Discipline and tackling. Those words are perfect for safety Von Bell. He's one of the best tackling safeties in the NFL and his discipline on and off the field is legendary. We're spending a few minutes with Bengal safety Von Bell. We are recording this on Wednesday morning at ten am. I got up a few two hours ago. I've had coffee and toast. I've done some reading and research. When did you get up and

what have you accomplished today? Yeah, but like a fourth fifteen, did my little workout this morning, did my you know, had my breakfast made and ready to go. Hit the weight room with the fellas this morning, and I got it going and did a couple of meetings and ready to go. Von Bell won Dan Horde. Nothing in the scoreboard of what's been accomplished on a Wednesday morning. Who are some of your fellow early birds? Oh yeah, Tony Brown, Yeah,

Winston Rose. Yeah, a couple more guys on there, but a couple of my dvs, but a couple of linebackers too. So you know, they're getting up with me a little bit. Meet me in the weight room. Uh you know, still some crusted eyes, but they're getting up and going and they're just trying to get better each and every day. And I appreciated and doing that making a team better. For visiting with von Bell. The first time you met with the Cincinnati made you were wearing a baseball hat

that said no bull. That's a company that makes athletic gear. But is there a message there about your approach to football and life? For sure as everything that's who I am as how I was raised, and well, go ahead and get it every day. And we just challenge ourselves each and every day to find that one percent to get better. And that's where that had comes in and play. But no bull, no bs, and just keep going buying.

People that are watching the games on TV will notice that you are the guy on defense with that little green dot on the back of your helmet, meaning that you are the person that's in communication with defensive coordinator lou Anna Rumo. And then relay the play call to your teammates. Have you done that before? And do you

like the responsibility. This is my first year doing it, but I've always been a big communicated on the defense, and but as an honor to have it this year and I love the role, love being in charge, and love having my troops out there listen to me and ready to go to Warwell does it take any getting used to to have that voice in your ear as

you're getting ready for the play. For sure, we gotta create anticipate the play in the situation high is you gonna call the game and get a look tough when you know two million drives or if they're doing harry up offense trying to get a call in. But we just trying to use our signals then. But other than that, everything's pretty smooth. Comma collected and reason. Just get to play in and just reiterated throughout the whole defense, so everybody get to play call so we could play fast.

We're spending a few minutes with von Bell. When you signed as a free agent with the Bengals, I reached out to UC's head coach Luke Fickle, who is your defensive coordinator at Ohio State, and he said, from the day you arrived on campus at OSU, you had a presence, an it factor that commanded respect. Is that an intentional thing on your part or does it just come naturally? I think it a little both. You know, coming into the league now everything is earned. It's not just given.

Out there and show what you can do and what you can bring, and that's how you gain respect on the locker room and throughout the league. And there's just being you every day, just going to work, putting your hard head on and really just going out there just taking care of what you could take care of. And it's really just going out there being you and just making the plays that come to you, and just really just having given everybody respect and really just being you,

having a outgoing personality and just challenging everybody. And this is being me, and I think it just comes naturally. But also I'll work at it every day. Were getting up every morning with my routine and I really just sticking to it and sticking to the process and just trusting the process and just letting myself just be myself and everything else gonna take care of yourself. So this

week you face the Ravens and Lamar Jackson. You got a little taste of facing him a couple of years ago when you were still with the Saints and he was a rookie. He wasn't starting yet, but he did get in for several plays in that game. Did it make a big impression? Oh, for sure. We know what he could do. His legs could beat you and um, and that's what why he's so special. He's could dual threat, he could throw it, he he could do it all. And what really, you gotta make him play left handed?

And I'm I'm excited the guys that excited on the defensive side for this challenge. We'll build him momentum each and every week. We're getting better each and every week at practice, and uh, we just keep on stacking them. And it was a challenge we go to have this week, and uh, I can't wait get to it. When you say make him play left handed, you obviously not being literal there. What do you mean? Oh yeah, make him

drop back passing. Um that bread and butter is running gap scheme runs and uh, you know they got him. They got a bunch of running backs. Say they can run the ball pretty well and and that, and that's what they do well, and that's how they get guys on their toes with the run game, and they can set the boot game off that and the past game off that. So you gotta stop the run and make them play and back uh drop back passing game and

really just make them play left handed. There's no other team right now that plays it's quite like they do. They'll line up with two tight ends most of the time. They've got a three hundred and eleven pound fullback in there. How challenging is it just to face the team that's a little bit different from everybody else. It's very different. You know, they're in the pistol offense, and they got a lot of the gap scheme runs and a whole bunch of turble emotions and they always just trying to

draw your eyes. You just got to reach your keys and just play fast and get down in there as it go be a big runt emphasis gets passed higher early, make go plays and tackle, and we just got sworn to the ball, get all eleven hands to the ball, and we're just to go out there and just have fun to reach keys. You're answering these questions with a smile on your face. It sounds like you relish this

challenge for sure. Every week it's a new opponent, a new challenge, and you just trying to hit from the head coaching and defensive coordinator and rally the troops and give us a mission and we got to go accomplish that. And that's the beauty of this NFL life. You get sixteen weeks to that and you just go out there with your soldiers. Is you get ready to go getting the foxhole? Let's go to walk last thing for Bengal safety.

Von Bell. Your four games into your Bengals tenure, are you still adjusting to team and scheme or does it feel like you're pretty much, you know, entrenched in this organization at this point. Oh, you know it's still different from me. But you know I got that very well. So everything and some nuances at times, but I'm trying to stick to it, keep on growing within the system and within the locker room. And I'm really just taking it, honed it in and writly, just enjoying a moment. It's

the nobul philosophy. God, I appreciate the time. Best of luck this week, Thank you so much, Yes, sir, now time to turn our attention to this week's opponent, the three and one Baltimore Ravens, And few people know the team better than Nestor Apparisio from w NST Radio and the author of two books about the team. He joined Dave Lapham and me this week on the Bengals Game Plan Show. So, the Ravens are three and one, they're three wins, are all by at least two touchdowns. They're

one loss, fourteen points to Kansas City at home. Why can't John Harbob beat Andy Reid? Well, I don't know. You know, some people would say, why can't Lamar Jackson beat Patrick Mahomes. Maybe they're not on the field at the same time, But look, they played three times and the games are getting the differences in the games have gotten more wide, is not closer together. And you know, Lamar is going through the sophomore thing. He's gonna, you know,

see everybody this time around. The Bengals spent much of the offseason right worried about those ankles that were broken

in the middle of the field there. Last year he embarrassed a lot of teams, a lot of defenses embarrassed these d LA rams last year a lot of teams had extra time on their hands, and that no one was out socializing in the spring, and I'm sure the coaches everywhere were scheming up a way to stop him, specifically in this division right where you guys in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, that he's the league MVP, and what the Titans did last year to him, and what the Chargers did the

year before, not just in frustrating him, but getting the Ravens behind. This is this offense has not yet come from behind. Now you'd say, well, they were fourteen and two, right, you don't have to come from behind often. But this isn't the John Elway down ten points, four minutes left to go, pull the rabbit out of the hat kind of offense. This is the offense that gets up on you.

That's a defense the forces a turnover, plays a little field position, plays a lot second and one because they run the ball aggressively and do it well with Lamar Jackson and a three headed monster. And then they're up on you thirteen to three, and they're up on you twenty to ten, and then they just run the ball

and shorten the game. It's different when the other team gets the lead and as much as the defenses have played well, and the Chargers in that playoff game had a great scheme sort of a ninety two defense, and the Titans just matched up well and frustrated Lamar early and stopped them on a four down. And you know, Harball will go for it on his own thirty two yard line fourth and one. We're gonna go for it. When you don't make it, then you have a problem.

And that is really what happened the Titans game last year. The Chiefs, however, was more about just getting up on them and making the Ravens play differently than they want to play. And if you can do that, you might have some success, because this offense has had built to chuck it around and have a second half where they

throw the ball twenty eight or thirty times. Interesting this morning, John Harbaugh, when he had his conference call with the local media here in Cincinnati, you know, I asked him about how many different defenses have you seen over the last couple of years, how many twists and wrinkles and everything else have you seen in an effort to stop Jackson?

And he said, you know, we know going into the game that they're not going to run the defense they've run all year long, necessarily, and that's not easy for us. He goes, as coaches, we're basically trying to look at what they're doing dee sensively and what would be the next adaptation they would do to handle Jacksons. So he said, we're guessing. We don't know what they're going to run. So he said, it's not easy for us. Sometimes game planning as well, I'm thinking that it's not easy maybe

to necessarily game plan specifically against certain defenses. But man, this offense you can call it old school, you can call it revolutionary, but it's contrarian to what everybody else is doing in the NFL, and it's hard to prepare for in a short week, and it makes people do things they haven't done, and that's where mistakes happen. And that's where Baltimore gashes people when those defenses that they're

not running things they are comfortable with, make mistakes. Well constructed defenses who've communicated, who've been together for a period of time are going to fare better because for me, it's all about communication right and trying to stop him. You need to identify the ball, and I tell my audience in Baltimore this and I'll tell your audience. I was out in LA last year and you guys are all fans. You remember the groofy purple uniforms out there,

and Eric Weddle looked like standing mustard, you know. And I know I know well from his years in Baltimore, and he's playing for the Rams, and he had spent a year, you know, a watching Lamar, being Lamar's teammate, trying to win. He was a part of that team when the Chargers came into beat him and he said to several Baltimore reporters up in the you know, after they lost forty five to six, Eric Wedel said, I practiced against it. I preached it to everyone what we

needed to do. And then you didn't know where the ball was and and you had no idea where the ball was going. So even in a communicative defense, that's an issue. Then you need to make sure there's there's two three bodies wherever the ball's going and flowing to the ball, and you better be able to cover on the backside, because Hollywood Brown will get behind you, Mark Andrews will get underneath you. All the things that we've

seen Patrick Mahomes do. We've seen the Ravens do to be effective offensively, but that's when they're getting after you in second and one and second and two and grinding you down. And that's quite frankly, we're at the quarter pole, guys. There's no Marshall Yamda in this offense anymore. So it has looked differ and there were questions for John Harball and Wednesday about why it's looked different. Will you take a Hall of Fame guard out, Dave, I know you'd

have a few things to say about that. Oh, that's my guy, Marshall Yonda. Well, we've wondered from what fourteen years now what we looked like without Marshall Yonda in the same way that you guys are trying to figure out post Wentworth and post you know, the offense that you have when Marvin was around. Everyone's in a transitional phase and the Ravens have really good football players. I mean, this is a really good team. This isn't about Lamar

or just about Horrorball. This is about them drafting Well, this is about them stealing Marcus Peters and signing him. This is about them signing Marlin Humphrey last week to a Laaren term deal. This is about them playing now without Flacco's cap number and playing with a rookie contract with Lamar. So they have some benefits of being able

to sign Kalaiscampbell, who's a very large man. But they're the better team most weeks, and they push you around on offense, confuse you, and out athletic you most weeks. But then the Chiefs show up. And you asked me at the beginning, what happened against the Chiefs. Chiefs are a better football team right now. That's what happened against them. And I'm waiting to see what happens to the Ravens when there is a fumble or there is a mistake, or there are some mistakes and they get down against

an inferior team quote unquote inferior team. Will they be able to come back from a deficit, because they haven't been able to do that yet, because they win a lot and they're up a lot, and that would maybe solve a little bit of what happens when they play a better team. And I don't know that home field means anything yet. We don't have any fans anywhere enough

to make enough noise, But when those things happen. And let's say Lamar has to go out to Kansas City in January and we solve COVID and miracle happens, and there's seventy thousand people there and he's down fourteen points. That's going to be the true test for Lamar at some point to be able to lead a team back from a couple of touchdowns down, doing it in the air, doing it on on the ground when things go wrong.

Because so many things have gone right, guys, I mean, this has been a juggernaut over a year and a half. It really has been. We're visiting with Nestor Apparicchio from Baltimore. You mentioned Marvin Lewis, Nestor and lap and I have great respect for Marvin for what he did to elevate this franchise, and he certainly had a solid working relationship with him when he was here, but you became his close friend. How is Marvin these days and has he

determined to be a head coach again? You know when I spend time with him, ideld talk to him about that sort of stuff. I mean, I guess the Arizona State thing when we were talking was very much like we're going to work every day and hoping to play football. You know. I mean, he's a football coach, and I don't know that that there really is an achender to go back and coach in the NFL, that that is

burning at him. I think this is a marriage of he lives there, it's convenient, he knows everyone involved, his daughter's five minutes away, his son is five minutes away, and he loves coaching football, and quite frankly, I think Golfwood bore him, you know what I mean, Like, I just think he loves football that much. And you know, I don't know about you guys. You're traveling or are

you not traveling to these games? Not traveling? Okay, well, then you're getting tested on how much you love football, because I had it taken away from me. Like I've done this for twenty four years, and I own a sports radio station, and you know, I've written books and all these things, and I've had life experiences above and beyond sports or going to a game. And I love baseball. My last name's Apparisio. The reason I'm in Baltimore is Louis brought a cousin from Venezuela and here I am

a freedom fighter. I was born in sixty eight. Louis came here in sixty four, brought my father in sixty five, met my mother in sixty six, and here I am so all these years later. So you know, I you know, I'm a baseball guy, right and I'm a football guy. And having sports taken away from all of us right for six months, I could never imagine being, you know, April May July would know sports anywhere in our culture.

What would have to happen? You know, what kind of a war, what kind of a plague that would have to happen. And I missed the first game against Cleveland because I go to home and road. I've only missed seven games in twenty four years. Wow. A couple of them are because my wife was ill in fourteen and fifteen, and so you know, I missed the first game and I watched it on TV. First things first, the game's

not the same in person. So anybody that comes down and you know, to the stadium in Cincinnati that sees football, it's different in person. It's better in person if you love the game, you study the game a little bit. You can't really see the game as well on TV. Dave. I know they brought you in at all twenty two, but you know, I watched the game with my cat the first week. I thought, well, this is a plague and sports is um you know, for when a functioning

society right the reward of a functioning society. And then I went down to Houston and I flew and I put a mask on, and I stopped and saw a special future friend of ours out in the desert and tried to get away from people for a couple of days at a pool and take advantage of one hundred

dight degrees. And I went into Houston and I sat on the roof with a maskman, and I thought it was gonna make me feel like lonely or sad or you know, it made me more sort of resolute that we're not going down like this right, like this better be one of the very very few football fanless games that I attended Houston, Texas on the roof of that stadium where I seeing two Super Bowls play right, incredible games. I was a big Houston Oiler fan during the thirteen

years when we didn't have a team in Baltimore. I just loved the Oilers that they were the team I adopted. When you lose your football team, you know. And having said that, I went down there and watched the game, and I realized how much I love it, how much I love football. So you asked me about Marvin. He asked me about me, and you asked me about two guys drinking wine on a canyon looking down into a

desert a couple of weeks ago. I guess he gets up every morning and drives down the canyon, not for money, not because he thinks he's gonna coach the Cowboys one day or whatever. I think he loves football. And I think, having had football taken away from me, having sports taken away for me for six months, I love sport. It's a love football. I love being at the game, and I don't love being there when there's nobody there. I

love it a lot more when there's fans. And I've learned that I love music even more like I missed concerts even more than I miss fanless football and land over Sunday. You know, final question, And we appreciate your carving the time for us. You're you're a heck of a heck of a guest. Don Wink Martindale defensive coordinator Blitz just under fifty five percent of the time. Last year sent five players and more, and people thought, you know, the pass rush suspect or whatever worked on it in

the off season. Now he's splits in fifty one fifty two percent, Pittsburgh and Baltimore two highest splits percentages in the league. No surprise is it still because questionable pass rusher is don Wink Martindale can't help himself. He's just gonna send five no matter what. Well, I think he's got the ghost of Buddy in his year, right, Send them all, Send them all. But they've gotten up the

field too much, right, and they've gotten burned. And you know, when you're very very capable coaches, and you're very capable Number one wonder con quarterback, get together. This team has not defended the screen pass yet and a tight ends.

But if if you don't, if they get to you first or get the quarterback off the spot, and you don't have receivers getting separation down the field and you don't have a quarterback making quick reads, it becomes three and out pretty quickly if that pressure gets to you. And you know part of that's the crowd noise and different things that happen at home in a way that create different things. Certainly for Patrick Mahomes coming into our stadium, my wife wasn't in the upper deck streaming at him.

You know, that creates confusion and those those kinds of things that the line of scrimmage that you know, neither side has a competitive advantage on the road anymore, right or at home anymore, I should say for the defense, but I would say they've been very aggressive because they don't have any they don't have a Michael McCrary, they don't have a specialist, they don't have an Elmis Stoomerville anymore. Right, So they're trying to create it in this way because

he believes so much in his back end. They've invested so much. You know, they invested so much. Guys. They told Earl Thomas, they just tapped him and said get out. Yeah, that's unreal. You know, they just said leave, we don't need you anymore. Because Chuck. They believe in Chuck Clark so much, and he's been such a good quarter means, you know, he's got the beautiful football mind and wearing

the helmet and aligning the defense in the back. Patrick queen comes in with a nice background than that, so they're hoping to get better. But they didn't practice much, right, I mean, they didn't have any of that going on. And I do think a lot of this is instinct, and I think it's winked that if we get after that young quarterback, you know, and we startle him and move him around a little bit, and our offense day and now we're up seventeen to three, then then we win,

you know. And I think that that's part of being aggressive, that's just it's bred in him. But I think he wishes he had a couple more real pass rushers and he could maybe be a little bit more creative on the back end. But the back end so solid. These guys cover well. They don't have much more on the game This Friday afternoon on the Bengals pep Rally Show

from A six on 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.