Bengals Booth Podcast: So Close

postgame analysis. Plus, in this week's Fun Facts Conversation, we'll meet the person under the pads as I'll talk to the best ping pong player on the Bengals roster. Stay tuned to find out who it is. All of that is straight ahead, but first, here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest invention

since the Wilson Junior size football. I've got a thirteen year old son who loves running pass patterns in the backyard and catching passes from his old man. We are currently using the Wilson brand Junior size football for ages nine and up, and I am here to tell you it is the easiest football to throw ever made. It's a slightly smaller size and has a very tacky grip. At the risk of bragging, I am a mixture of Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady and Kenny Anderson when I use it.

So a big thumbs up to the Wilson Junior size football. Let's get to this week's game. For approximately five minutes on Sunday, the Bengals did exactly what they and we have been hoping for. The defense got a three and out on Arizona's opening possession, and then Joe Mixon, remember him, went to work after an incomplete pass by Andy Dalton on the bengals first play. Their next six were handoffs to Joe Mixon for nine, three, thirteen, five, eighteen, and

nine yards to put the Bengals in the red zone. Unfortunately, that's where the drive stalled, an all too familiar theme in twenty nineteen. It'll be a chip shot of twenty three yard try for Randy Bullock. Out of the hold of Kevin Huber. He catches a high snap puts it down, bullocks kick is on its way, it is good, and the Bengals score inside the gold star red zone. So the Bengals had an early lead but left four points on the board. Here's Andy Dalton, we have to score touchdowns.

You can't keep kicking field goals. You're not gonna win games if you've kicking field goals. So Fro, we gotta look at it. We gotta see what we can do better in the red zone because I mean, you gotta score touchdowns on there. On that opening drive, it felt like Mixon was going to have a career day, but after rushing for fifty seven yards on his first six carries, his next seven went for a total of six yards. I talked to offensive lineman Trey Hopkins about Nixon's fast start.

We finally got a consistent string of runs and we ran on first down and we're a fishing with this, so we were able to keep keep going with that. With that drive, m it was nice, and I mean we had a couple of instances of that, uh this game, just you know, being efficient on first down, run or pass um helps a lot, helps a lot. But as the offensive lineman, of course, being a run or being able to run the ball is nice. Did they make big changes x's and o's wise up front to slow

that down, or did their guys just start making better plays? Um? No, I mean they're they're they're good front. They get paid also, and they just they just made some place um and slowed us down a little bit. But you know, it's a long game, and I mean, both sides of the ball are getting paid. Both sides of the ball have good athletes, so it's it's a battle. The Bengals early

three nothing lead didn't last time. Their second possession, the Cardinals drove to the Cincinnati six, where they faced fourth and two. Rather than kick a tying field goal, head coach Cliff Kingsbury elected to go for it. Fourth down and two at the Bengals six yard line, Cincinnati leading three nothing, Murray hands it faked it to Johnson, sprints out to the left. He's got the first down. He lurches toward the end zone, and it's a Cardinals touchdown.

That's the first lead of the season. The Cardinals were the only team in the NFL that had never held a lead this year. Yes, even the Dolphins led for nearly four minutes in the first quarter before losing by twenty last week to the Chargers. The Bengals and Cardinals traded field goals in the second quarter before Arizona added another one on the final play of the first half, one second left in the half, a chip shot field goal for Gonzales. Game kick is good and Arizona will

take a seven point lead to the locker room. Arizona led thirteen six at the half, and that field goal means that Bengals opponents have scored in the final two minutes of the first half in twenty eight of the bengals last thirty seven games. That's seventy six percent of the time. Hard to believe. Stat courtesy of Jay Morrison, who covers the Bengals for the Athletic. Andy Dalton was four for ten for a paltry twenty two yards in the half, but the Bengals got their passing game going

to begin the third quarter. Andy was seven for ten on the opening drive of the second half, but after having first and goal at the eight, the Bengals failed to score a touchdown again. The snap, the put down, the spin of the laces, The kick is up and it is good for the season. The Bengals have scored four touchdowns on fourteen drives into the red zone. That's

twenty nine percent. Not nearly good enough. According to Tyler Boyd, I can't really you know, open my finger on it, you know, but that's a difference in the game, you know, not scoring touchdowns. You know, game three three point three points. I ain't cutting to any how you went football games to any how you get to the playoffs. Despite the red zone war, the Bengals were only down by four with less than two minutes to go in the third quarter when a curious play call proved costly. On fourth

down and one, Dalton is in the shotgun mixing. Now we'll shift from the quarterbacks left to his right, Dalton fake to Mixon. He does not get back to the line of scrimmage. He has lifted off the ground like he was crowdsurfing short of the first down. All right, I know that hindsight is twenty twenty, But why teams don't just run a quarterback sneak on fourth and short is a mystery to me. It seems like a shotgun snap increases the defense's chances of getting penetration into the backfield.

But what do I know? The fourth down stop gave Arizona great field position, and a former Bengal made them pay third down and seven for Arizona to thirty nine of Cincinnati. Murray clapping his hands, he catches the shotgun. Snapp he floats it down the middle of the field. I'm diving attempt. What a catch. Wow at the eleven yard line by Pharaoh Cooper. The former Bengal, albeit briefly,

just made a spectacular diving catch Farrell. Cooper played for the Bengals in Week one, then got waived after Week two when they needed an extra offensive lineman. Here's safety Jesse Bates on Cooper's great catch. The hell of a catch by whom, hell of a throw by Colin Murray as well. Those players that we can we can live with long they don't score on those. Now there's the NFL.

There's a lot of good athletes, good players. They're gonna make plays, but we just gotta, you know, make sure those aren't happenings as much that catch was the difference between punting and kicking a field goal, and the Cardinals took a seven point lead early in the fourth quarter. Things looked bleak for the Bengals when The Cardinals scored again on their next drive, first and ten at the thirty seven years, a toss sweep to the left, Edmond's

running breaks through an ankle tackle. He's down the near sideline inside the ten. The five three two one touchdown Arizona. Well, that's a blow right there. That is just a shot right to the chin. And again faked the handoff on a jet sweep and then just pitched it back the other way, and they get blocking on the edge. Larry Fitzgerald gives a block and then just sloppy tackling, missed tackles.

I mean, the blocking is good in the perimeter, but man, when you're the when you're the unblocked guy, make the tackle like Bates was, you cannot miss that tackle. Unfortunately he did, and the Bengals were down twenty three to nine. At that point. Between the Pittsburgh game and the Arizona game, the Bengals had gone seventeen drives without scoring a touchdown, a street they finally ended by driving seventy nine yards

on ten plays. Three receivers out to the left, Audent Tate out to the right, Bernard in the backfield of the right of Andy Dalton Dalton throws it into the end zone, touchdown to Audent Tate. Nice the first touchdown in two games for Cincinnati, as Auden Tate cut inside of his defender and reeled in the touchdown catch from two yards away, his first NFL touchdown of his career. That made a twenty three sixteen and the defense probably got a three and out to put the ball right

back in the hands of Andy Dalton. Bengals are gonna line up quickly. They're ready to snap it at the Arizona forty two. This drive started back at the Cincinnati nineteen. Dalton back to throw. The protection is good, fires dot Field boar. He catches it to ten and runs into the end zone for a Bengals touchdown. Me Tyler Boyd damn middle of the football field. He made the play earlier in the drive and then he made that play.

Outstanding throw. The first play of the drive was a twenty nine yard pass to Boyd and the last play was that forty two yard touchdown pass. Tyler finished with ten catches for one hundred twenty three yards. Sick of losing Siga, you know, not finishing the way we want to. You know, we always finished wrong. But we never started. He's gotta just stayed of course, man, and just believing

each other the whole four quarters. Man. Just continue to fight and execute and don't wait till the last minute to finally get a going. The game was tied with exactly two minutes to go, but two big plays by Kyler Murray won the game for Arizona. The first was a twenty four yard pass. The second was this twenty four yard run second down in six at the Cincinnati thirty nine with fifty three seconds to go, Kyler Murray

catches the shotgun snap. Now, he takes off and runs all sorts of running room down the middle of the field. He's at the twenty five the twenty and Clayton Federlum saves the touchdown by tackling Kyler Murray at the fifteen yard line. The Heisman Trophy winner finished with two hundred and fifty three yards passing and ninety three rushing. Here's Sam Hubbard. Can you describe what it's like to try

to contain Kyler Murray when he takes off. Yeah, it's tough because you pick a side trying to win a pass rush and he sees lane. He's gone really gotta rush with vision, which you know slows down how you're rushing. Um, it's a tough task and what makes them so dangerous? Um, you know it's hard. Do you think that's what kind

of stopped the pass rush was? Who're trying to make sure you guys are trying to make sure you're trying to keep him in the pocket and make him throw the ball and uh, you know, just try to not give him lanes to get out of there, because as soon as he saw something, he was out. After Murray's run, the bengals only hope was that Zane Gonzalez would choke on a game winning field goal, try to allow the

Bengals to take the game to overtime. So here we go, two seconds on the clock, a thirty one yard field goal, try to win the game for third year pro Zane Gonzalez. Lee is ready for the snap, he puts it down, the kick is up, the kick is good, and the Arizona Cardinals get their first win and drop the Bengals to oh and five. The final score twenty six twenty three Arizona. Here are two second year Bengals, Jesse Eights

and Sam Hubbard on falling two Owen five. You know, we can't just keep patting ourselves on the back for you know, having close games and fighting at the end and stuff like that. We gotta win. I know, that's what the fans want, that's what the guys upstairs want, that's what everybody in this locker room wants. So you know, there's gonna be a lot of people that continue to bash us about being owned five. All that matters is what's in this locker room, and it's about us. So

there's no option. You know, we got a lot of games left to play, and it's a team game. You can't go out there and win the game by yourself. So we have to stick together and you know, just keep fighting, try and get some wins. That's all we can do. We can't we can't fall apart. Since the Cardinals and Broncos both picked up their first victories on Sunday, there are now four winless teams left in the NFL. The Bengals and Redskins are owing five, the Jets and

Dolphins are owing four. After Sunday's three point loss, Lap spent about four minutes with head coach Zach Taylor, coach the NFL three of the five games. You know, you got a tie football game later, a lead late in the fourth quarters, just can't close it out, just can't quite finish it. You're right there on the on the doorstep on the brink. But man, it's something has to happen to just finish it. Right. You're right, we get someone's just gotta step up and make that play. And um,

it's coaches. We gotta keep fighting to put ourselves and opportunities where guys can step up and do it. We just haven't done it yet, And um, it's gonna happen. We keep believing, and no one's no one's pointing fingers. We know we got to earn these wins, and when we earn it's gonna feel good. This game, it was a matter of just digging a hole. It was too hard to crawl out of. And you know, you got to give the credit about fighting back and doing that

and digging out of that hole. But and that's hard when you dig that big a hole in the NFL, isn't it. Yeah, A bad team that's given up digs himself in that hole and the game's over. And that wasn't what we were today. Our guys fought back, believed they were gonna win. We scored that last touch time to tie it up, and we felt like, hey, we're gonna get this stop and we're gonna go win this game.

That was the common theme on the sidelines, and unfortunately they made some plays and they got that field goal and they got away with one their quarterback. You made mention of it during the course of the week, Kyler Murray. He's got like quick twitch now. I mean he's short space quickness. I mean, some guys can make him miss but can't run away. Some guys can run away but can't make you miss. This dude can make him miss and run away. I mean, he's he's a special guy

that we're rushing for ninety yards like he did. I don't know if you can make a steady diet living of that being a quarterback running the football like he is, But man, he makes plays. He's dangerous. He's the first pick in the draft for a reason. He's a unique talent.

Really stresses the defense, and he made some place today. Again, Horizontally, it seems to be everybody's trying to challenge, you know, your defense, making it defend from one sideline to another with motion, missdirection, counters, all that sort of thing difficult

today as well, wouldn't it. But I go back, we need to score with once the first half, take the pressure off him because really we go in a halftime, they're they're routinely keeping these guys to ten points and under, and you know, we gotta be a little bit more aggressive on offense and get things going and score some points and take the pressure off him going in the

second half. I know it's never one thing, but in your mind, as you as you will reflect back on not just this game, but other games, red zone seeming like the twilight zone a little bit. What do you what do you think the biggest things are in the red zone? Well, when the up twos come our away, we gotta we gotta take advantage of the players that they're there. And so far we kind of had two

weeks from a row. We've left some points in the field that we feel like, uh, we just got to step up and make that play and keep working to get us in the best calls that give us opportunities. And but you're right, that's been frustrating leaving all those points on the field. You guys do a good job of controlling those edge rush guys. But there were times where it was like two three man routes. The touchdown to tile it looked like it was maybe a two

possibly a three man route. I mean, you had that schemed out pretty well. You wanted to make sure you had time to get the ball down the field vertically like that. Yeah, you're right, that was one that takes a little bit more time. So we don't make sure we keep people in protection. And you know, we got two receivers out plus the back plus you know, um that that group is they're pretty good edge rushes. We talked about I think Andy get hit and the touchdown

drive before the drive that tied it. They were blitzing. They weren't playing pre event. They were bringing bringing pressure and he's getting rid of the ball, you know, and taking taking a hit and uh, you know he was when you blitzed. There's there's areas of vacated and he was finding those things. Yeah, there was he had some. They were bringing their best stuff. They got a pretty

good blitz package. That's where our third down package were trying to move the ball on the perimeter a little bit. Take the pressure off those guys. Up front. He stood in there. Yeah, they brought their best stuff. We protected as best we could. He took a couple of shots, but m guys started making plays there in the fourth quarter. Finally, coach, I don't expect you to tell us what you're telling your team. You know, that's that's between you and your

football team. But what what kind of message you know, do you give your football team right now? Working like they're working, and just coming up short like they are. Keep fighting. We believe in each other, We believe in what we're doing. The wins are going to come. It's frustrating that hasn't happened yet, But but we got the right people in this building. That's good that help us get it done. Now time for some postgame analysis, and

we start with an obvious point. The Bengals can't show up in the last five minutes and expect to win games. That was Zach Taylor's mesters of the team. The guys that I saw in the last five minutes, you got to do it earlier than that. Fifty five minutes of not getting it done, very very disappointing. I mean, they dug too big a hole. That's a huge hole in the National Football League. How about Arizona throwing the football in their last two drives. They gave the Bengals a chance.

They ran the ball for two hundred and sixty six yards. You know, I would have had my two threats, Murray and Johnson just run the ball, run the clock. I mean, they're giving the Bengals a chance by throwing the ball and throwing in completions. You know, I couldn't believe that

they were allowing that to happen. But you know, the Bengals took advantage of it and scored two touchdowns to make it a game, tie the football game up, and then you know when they had to, Arizona ran the football again a little bit and ran the clock down and kicked the field goal. So very unfortunate. I mean, two hundred and sixty six yards rushing average over seven yards to carry. They had Murray and Johnson both run the ball for over ninety yards. Joe Mixon ran it

for over ninety yards. He came one rushed sword and I said if he had twenty carries, they'd win the game. He had nineteen, but you know, could have won the football game. Just didn't play well enough, you know, made their value had come back effort, obviously, but you can't rely or depend on something like that in the national football You're gonna come up short more times than not. Let's talk about Joe Mixon's day. Six straight running plays

on the opening drive for fifty seven yards. It looked like he was going to have the biggest game of his NFL career. Then for the next two and a half quarters, the Cardinals completely shut him down before he got it going again late in the game and wound up with ninety three yards on nineteen carries, six rushes for fifty seven. Then he goes seven rushes for six, then he goes three for twenty three to start the second half. So he's you know, it's a little bit

of a roller coaster ride. I do think after that first drive, you know, Arizona said, all right, look, we're not gonna let you run the football. You're gonna have to throw the football. You're down a bunch of receivers. You know, we've got two good edge pass rushers. We're gonna make sure that you don't get that running game going the way you've got to go on that first drive. They stayed in based defense, but they did. They made,

you know, some minor adjustments. I think that in terms of technique and attacking line of scrims, raving catching at the line of scrimmage that looked like to me. And they got a lot more aggressive and said, you know, you're gonna have to throw the football some and not just run the ball down our throats. But again, Dan, red zone, I mean, it's the twilight zone. It's amazing. They just can't can't get it done in the red

zone when they needed to get it done. And last year they're converted over thirty one percent of the time for touchdowns in the red zone. They were third in the NFL in that category, and now they're in danger of being, if not dead, last, second last in the NFL, I think in red zone touchdown percentage. Let's talk about the offensive line lap After giving up eight sacks and twelve quarterback hits against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Andy Dalt was not sacked. Did you see significant progress? I saw a

significant scheme change. Tyler Eifert was in too pass protect gives, Vanni Bernard was in too pass protect. I mean, they did a lot of max protection and they did not want those edge rushes to control the football game, which I can understand. The running game I think helped out a little bit too. But on you know, the drive, the last touchdown drive and ty Or Boyd caught his forty two yard touchdown pass, they had two receivers in

a route and just leaked it back out late. I mean, you know, they had you know, seven maybe six or seven defenders covering two guys. It was, it was crazy. But the scheme of the play, you know, one the day they gave the route that was going to take some time, so they wanted to max protect to make sure that they had the time and hope that the that the scheme of the play would would work. And it did. Tyler Boyd was wide open. They blew coverage

and score forty two yard touchdowns. So you know, I think I think that at times when guys were asked to block one on one, they did a good job. But I think schematically they changed things up a lot where you know, the defensive end getting slammed by a tight end one time, chip by running back another time and hitting him from all angles and didn't just not a tie off straight line to the quarterback like that all day long, we have seen fast running quarterbacks in

the NFL before Michael Vick obviously comes to mind. Lamar Johnson right now, I'm not sure that I've seen one as shifty when he takes off and runs as Kyler Murray. I think Michael Vick falls into that that category a little bit. I mean RG three was a straight line track guy. He was a hurtle champion. You know, he didn't have the you know that short space quickness that you know that dipsy due to him. I mean, this this guy is fast twitch. You know, some guys can

make him miss but can't run away. Some guys can't really make him miss but can eventually run away. This guy can make him miss and runaway. I mean he's special. He's like, he's as good as a lot of running backs in the NFL. You know, you wonder though at the quarterback position. He's got some design runs and some runs where he's just scrambling. I mean, the one run that was huge was when Lawson went up field hard and Gino took an inside rush and he saw a

lane that just was too tempting. I mean he saw a green grass and just hit it, and I mean hit it. He hit it right now. He is explosive in terms of his feet and his strong arm, and he's accurate. I mean he put the ball in some tight spots and got to tip your cap to the kid. He's he's really you know, he's really a fine quarterback. But you know, you just can't give up two n in sixty six yards rushing in the National Football League. I don't care who is a quarterback and running back.

You just can't do it. The Bengals didn't score a touchdown in the Pittsburgh game and didn't score one in this game until four minutes and eight seconds to go. Then they scored two in a span of two minutes and eight seconds. Is there a logical explanation for why they were able to just flip a switch and suddenly be productive on offense? You know, I asked that the same thing. And you know the touchdown drive before the one that tied it up. I mean, Arizona was bringing

their blitz packages. I mean they were coming and he was taking hits and just getting rid of the football. It wasn't like they were playing pre event defense. Is saying check it down. I mean they were they were bringing their stuff and the Bengals picked it up, and you know, then Tyler Boyd has two big plays and you know, one of them forty two yard touchdown. Two

receivers were out in that route. They were so concerned with blocking the edge guys and they should sugs and Chandler Jones, and then the backs slid out late, slipped out late. But there's a little roll to the right, little throwback to the left, you know, beyond the middle of the football field, and fooled to safety. And he could fooled badly. Tyler Boyd was huge. Jette last drive.

You ended up with ten catches for one of one hundred yards, but his first five catches I think went from like twenty five and then he really turned it on at the end, as did Andy Dalton. I mean, Andy Dalton's first half numbers nothing to right hold home about. But as the game ended, he's got a quarterback or any one oh seven point six twenty seven out of

thirty eight two sixty two, two touchdowns, no interceptions. After the game, Zach Taylor made a point to walk around the locker room to go up to every guy in front of his locker, embrace him, say something to him. I'm not sure I've seen that before. What does that say to you about Zach Taylor and the relationship he's trying to build with these guys. Yeah, I think that's the big word is, you know, relationships and culture and all the things that go along with that. But man,

just got to win games. At some point, you have to win a football game. And three of their five games they've either had a lead or have been tied late in the football game. Two on the road, one at home, and right now they're over. They're gonna have to really examine. Every player's gonna have to examine it. Every coach is gonna have to examine it. What can I do to that one more player that we need? And so far it hasn't happened. And you know, as

everything's a habit, winning is a habit. Losing can be a habit, and you fall into the bad habits. It's hard hard to get rid of those bad habits and then start establishing the good habits. The first thing you have to do it establish a good habits to winning game, you know, and right now they're in a you know, a vicious cycle of a bad habit of losing football games. Whether it be close football games or games that aren't so close. Up next, a road game in Baltimore and

another speedy quarterback in Lamar Jackson, not Johnson. The Ravens are three and two after an overtime win in Pittsburgh on Sunday. Now time for this week's fun Facts interview, where we get to know the person under the pads. This week, it's a member of this year's rookie class, who, among other things, is known for being the best ping

pong player on the roster. Time for some fun facts at Bengals quarterback Ryan Finley, and it takes about five minutes of lazy internet research to find out that you basically have excelled in any sport that you have ever played. Football, basketball, tennis, ping pong. But let's start with hockey, specifically roller hockey. You were on Team USA as a kid. That sounds like a pretty big deal. Tell me about it. I just grew up. That was kind of my first sport.

Grew up playing hockey. My dad played. He grew up in Minnesota, so that was kind of his sport played since I was a really young age and loved it, and I don't I don't really even remember when what age I was when I was on Team USA, it was I was pretty young, but it was fun. I think actually hockey has helped me a lot and kind of just uh, you know, playing sports throughout my life. So I think there's a lot of a lot of really great things about playing hockey. So that was a

fun time. Did Team USA travel a love it? Yeah, we actually went to we went to Canada. Was kind of like our big international tournament that went over, So that was that was that was a big deal at the time. Does your dad still play hockey? Absolutely, he plays, Um, he plays a lot. He plays ice hockey most of the time, but he also will play roller hockey too.

Roller hockey is a little bit more fun, uh And and I think me and my dad's opinion just because you play four and four and there's it's a lot more um, a lot more puck handling and kind of a more I think more skill. I guess you could say at that at their level, um, you know, in ice hockey is just a little bit more kind of bashing and dumping the puck in and you know, more strategy, I guess where or roller hockey is a little bit

more of just the skill set behind it. You're from Arizona, You're on a state championship basketball team, had a thirty seven point game apparently where you didn't miss a single shots. You did miss one shot, so that that has been incorrectly reported. That was I don't know where that came from, but I missed one shot. Yep. I was like thirteen for fourteen or something like that. All right, we are setting the records. Great for people to see that online.

But in any case, it sounds like you could have played college hoops. Why did you choose football? In my mind, I like to tell myself I could have. I'm gonna go with that. The other day I die. I'm not sure if if I really could have or at what level I could have, but um, we're gonna go with that. So we're definitely gonna go with that. Well, you definitely chose wisely. You had a great college career and now

you're playing in the NFL. You started your college career at Boise State, and before you ever got started there, you had to have rotator cuff surgery. Freshman year of college is hard period when you go there and you can't really take part in the thing that you're going

to school to do. How difficult was that? Yeah, I think just the you know, the timeliness of kind of what happened, just being hurt in that time period where you want to be making friends and showing what you can do, you know, at the next level and kind of being in that red shirt program and lifting weights

and getting strong. So I kind of I kind of missed out on that, which was deaf only hard on me kind of starting so I got off to a rocky start, but you know, it's all worked out and my shoulders you know, been healthy, so it was it was a very successful recovery. So you know, everything happens for a reason. So I was definitely looking back on

it was a it was a good experience. You overcame that and then your red shirt sophomore year, you won the starting job only to break your ankle in week three, and I read an interview where you more or less admitted you didn't handle that very well. No, I mean I just had I had tried, you know, so hard to come back and recover and then it's just like game three getting hurt. Um. You know, just the kind of the situation was was one that, uh, you know Brett.

We we knew, you know, I was going to play well. We knew Brett was going to play well, and so it just kind of it turned out how it did. But uh, you know, having said that, it was one of the best things I think has ever happened to me because I wouldn't have ended up an Anti State and my career a Ncy State, and just the people I met there was was awesome. So I had to break my ankle to get there. But we're doing fun facts at Ryan Finley. So you transferred Anti State, you

start there for three years. What did the fresh start do for you emotionally? Um? I did a lot. I think just going in I just went in with a with a different perspective. I was hurt, and at that point I just wanted to play. It was pretty simple, so I was just gonna do I was necessary to play. I think I took some pressure off myself and that in that regard and just kind of wanted to literally

just play football. And I didn't have really, you know, many goals outside of that, so I was just I think I was just able to focus, and um, I was able to you know, use some of the things I learned at at Boise State and my new start and also just um yeah, just kind of a new focus. And it helped that I knew the offense, um, and that wasn't something that I had to spend a lot

of time on. Uh, just you know, because my coach went from Boise to North Carolina State, so I could kind of just come on and come in and focus on other things. So that helped a lot. After a couple of really good years at NC State, you could have gone pro. I'm sure you would have been drafted. You already had a couple of degrees at that point, but you decided to go back with a sixty year eligibility and play another year at NC State. Why did

you want to do that? We just had we just had a lot of a lot of guys coming back on offense, and I thought it was just it was kind of a special opportunity, and uh, why why not one more year in college? So you know, just had friends coming back. Had you know, guys like Garrett brad Bear center at the time, A J. Cohler punter, and just s Woody Cornwall quarterback. So just just a lot of friends and um, I was just a weird deal.

I think you know when you when you have that decision to leave earlier or not, I feel like you can get behind the process with just you know, picking an agent. There's all kinds of stuff, just like mentally where I feel like you can get a little bit behind h if you haven't made up that decision. Um. So it was just, I don't know, it just it felt better. I felt better about going back, and I obviously knew there was a lot to improve on. There was a lot of team goals that we had yet

to accomplis so worked out well for the Bengals. They drafted you in the fourth round, and after you got to Cincinnati, quarterbacks coach Alex van Pelt made a change in your footwork. When you take a shotgun snap, you have your left foot forward now instead of your right, which sounds like nothing to most of us, But it's a big deal to a quarterback, isn't it. Yeah? I think it is. It's helped for me. I think a lot of guys just kind of fine what they're comfortable with.

But I've been back and forth throughout my college career and kind of found that I like the left foot better. And then you know, Alex has really helped me with just kind of honing in on kind of what happens after the stance, kind of just the timeliness of the NFL game, which is a lot different than college. Just everything's kind of based off of the timeliness of your feet.

So that's helped me a lot, just be on time and kind of just helps you get through your progressions and with a little bit more ease, just kind of knowing that your feet will talk to you. A few more fun facts for Ryan Finley. Rumor has it you are the number one ping pong player on this Bengals team. Is that the case? And? Uh? If so, who can provide competition? Well, it's it's definitely the case. Um I

I play Andy a lot. Uh So Me and Andy, especially during OTA's training camp, we were playing quite a bit um and then we actually we went out and we ordered we needed to elevate our game, so we went on ordered some paddles, some nice paddles from this website called Killer Spin, and um it, my game's really taken off even more since I since I got that new paddle. So I'm looking to in the offseason join like a like a ping pong club or some some

sort of where I can go play some pickup table tennis. Um, because really the only person I can really play is is Andy here. So and Andy doesn't always he's got other stuff going on. Sometimes I'm always looking for a game. So uh yeah, I love ping pong and it really our locker rooms really into it, which is fun. So they got they got like a board back there where they're they're keeping tillies of hoops who and who on what date and by how many? So it's pretty fun.

If I start playing again, I'm going to kill her spin to make sure I have a good paddle. You've got a younger brother, Ben. He's a high school senior and he's going to follow in your footsteps and play at NC State. How exciting is it for you to follow him? Uh, it's gonna be super exciting. His plan is to graduate early after he finishes this year strong, um, and so that'll be fun to just have him there. Kind of in back my mind, my plan has always been to kind of um in the off seasons, be

be close to Raleigh, if not in Raleigh. So you know, that's all the more reason for me and kind of my family to be out that way more so, it's gonna be. It's gonna be. It's gonna be a lot of fun, all right. Last fun fact for Ryan Finley. Your birthday is December twenty sixth. My little sister was born on the twenty eighth, and all we hated the fact that her birthday and Christmas we're so close together. What about you? Um, I like it now and I'm cool with it now. And you know, my parents they

never shorted me. I never felt like I got shorted. But there were a couple of years when I was younger that you know, obviously having no money, being you know, twelve thirteen years old, it's basically just the money you get is the money you got for Christmas or your birthday. So there was a couple of years where I celebrated my birthday in June, like with my sister, just so I would have like kind of a more of a steady income. I guess of of Dick sporting goods, gift

cards and gift cards. So but I you know, it's it's fine now. I like having my birthday in December. It's kind of like the you know, you wait for Christmas for so long and then it's kind of that like calm down when it's like, damn, we waited for two months and now it's over. That's my birthday, so I get to I don't get quite as sad when Christmas is over. Remember to wish you a a happy birthday in the final week of the season. Appreciate your time.

Thank you. All right, that's Ryan Finley. We want to remind you to come out and join us on location for a radio show this week on Friday afternoon from three to six we'll be at Buffalo Wings and Rings in Fairfield for the Bengals pep Rally Show. A Bengals player joins us in the final hour and we'll know who that is later this week. That's going to do

it for this episode of the podcast. If you haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean, and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment. Those five star ratings help more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thank you for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast.