Bengals Booth Podcast: Something In The Orange

Hi, gain everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading the Bengals Booth Podcast. The Something in the Orange edition as the Bengals open the season in Orange but come up short on the scoreboard, losing to the Patriots sixteen to ten. Coming up radio replays, locker room comments and postgame analysis from Dave Lapham. Then, in this week's Fun Facts Conversation, I'll discuss some humorous moments in franchise history with team president Mike Brown. You will enjoy our trip

Us to the five, chip us toward the pylon and just barely goes into the end zone that would.

Have been at the one foot line.

It's an eighty yard punt had traveled seventy yards in the air. It's still sixty net yards despite bouncing into the end zone.

Howard's a shot there.

Boy.

That was the longest punt in team history, but not the longest ever for Rico.

I think I had an eighty three at YU three. Yeah, but that was a little while ago too, and they come around every so often. It's fun, but yeah, definitely couldn't be more grateful.

The previous Bengals record was seventy five yards, shared by Kevin Huber and Kyle Larson. Rico averaged sixty four and a half yards on four punts in the game, and that is also a new single game team record. The Patriots took a seven to nothing lead on a three yard touchdown run by Romandre Stevenson on the first play of the second quarter. But a few minutes later, the Bengals offense started to cook Burrow in the shotgun. Moss lines up to his right, Tanner Hudson motions out to

It if baby caught for the touchdown.

Mike Kasiki against his former team with his first touchdown in a Bengals uniform. He does his version of the gritty, which isn't exactly perfectly executed, but the Bengals have scored their first touchdown of the year.

Or so we thought. As the Bengals lined up for the game tying extra point, the officials studied the replay and determined that Kasiki did not complete the catch as he went to the ground no touchdown, but the Bengals still had the ball in the red zone. They're down in eleven four the fifteen Burrow quick pass over.

The minute cut by Tanner Hudson loses the football picked up in.

The end zone by the Patriots. They are running it back to the ten to the fifteen and the tackle is made at the seventeen yard line. Tanner Hudson, on the verge of going into the end zone for a touchdown, had the ball knocked away. Marcus Jones scooped up the ricochet right at the goal line and ran it back to the seventeen. Before Jamar Chase could make the stop.

He exposed the football and Douger made him pay.

Instead of being a tie game, the Patriots were still up by seven, and a field goal on the final play of the half made it ten to nothing New England. The Bengals defense promptly got a three and out to begin the second half, but Cincinnati made another costly mistake. The long snapper Cardona fires it back. Baringer launches a

Man.

That led to a field goal in a thirteen to nothing lead. It was time for the offense to deliver and the Bengals quickly drove into New England territory. The Bengals line up to go for it on fourth and two at the New England thirty six. Three receivers out to the right burrow in the gun. He catches his shoulder high snap, throws a screen out to the right. Yo see Bosh tackle it to thirty five? What not

Moss right up the medal touchdown down Baby Bengals sack Moss up the gut head into the end zone for his first Bengals touchdown.

What I liked on.

That I saw a blocker finishing a defender into the end zone on his backside. The Bengals were starting to catch you control of the minus scrimmage. A little bit mosses up the football field and boy, I'll tell you watching this well, take him to the ground, finish him, put him on his backside.

Good stuff.

It was thirteen to seven going to the fourth quarter. A Patriots field goal made it sixteen to seven, but the Bengals scored for the second drive in a row. Shotgun snapped to Burrow four man rush throws down the minute of the field, Chase with a catch in Patriots' territory and he gets tackled in the middle of the field at the thirty six huff New England by Jabril

You them rushing for one hundred and seventy rushing yards.

We've talked about all off season how we're going to clean that shit up, and it's we didn't.

So obviously we still I worked too. We gotta tackle better. That starts with tackling.

Yeah, I was going to say, it seemed like there were several of those running plays where you guys were in position to get them down and maybe got two more yards, four more yards, six more yards, whatever it might have been.

Yeah, it's seen those issues that were from last year.

I mean, we still have time to clean up.

Obviously, we had sixteen more games, but we got to let this one sting quite a bit, just because we got to clean that that stuff up up the bath. We gotta be better on defense. We gotta get turnovers. We had no turnovers today, and when you win the turnover battle, I think plus plus two in this league is like winning percent, just like seventy eight.

So odds are high. When you get turnovers, you forced to fumble.

Unfortunately, at the bottom of the pile, they guess they willed that Stevenson held on long enough.

Yeah, yeah, I got he did. I thought Joseph came up with it. I wasn't really sure who came up with it. Everyone was seeing Osai came up with it, and so I was hoping that we were. They were letting him play through. But unfortunately it didn't go away.

Put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into trying to get off to a better start this year. Is it a little bewildering it? For whatever reason, Week one just has not gone well.

Yeah, I don't know.

I mean, I'm not I'm not gonna panic, that's for sure. You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna look myself in the mirror. See, but I gotta do better.

And then because the defense gotta sue we can do better.

Especial teams offense is do the same, and we gotta put our best foot forward because it's not like we're going into an easy environment, going to Ahead and playing in Kansas City.

Appreciate your time Offensively, Joe Burrow was twenty one for twenty nine, that's seventy two percent, but he had to settle for short passes with the Patriots taking away the deep ball. Joe threw for one hundred and sixty four yards and had a passer rating of eighty six. Zach Moss was the team's leading rusher with forty four yards. Jamar Chase was the leading receiver with six catches for sixty two. For more on the offense, here's tight end

What did you think.

Yeah, I don't know. I haven't seen a replay of it yet, so unfortunately I can't really comment on it too soon. But definitely thought I had it. You know, Obviously I wouldn't have, you know, celebrated like I did. Yeah, if I didn't, But unfortunately, I mean, that was the call and it is what it is.

Kind of a frustrating day for the offense. Arded slowly from the fourth possession on you moved the ball well, but for whatever reason, those first three drives just couldn't get it going.

Yeah, it is, like you said, unfortunate. You know, we got a lot of good players, a lot of great coaches, and I think the right people in this in this locker room. So you know, we'll go back watch the tape, uh, see what we can do better improve on, and come back next week ready.

To feel like t was badly missed today.

Uh. Yeah, me and a guy of his caliber and talent, Uh, that's always gonna you know, affect the offense. But you know some other guys got to step up, including myself, and you know, next week's a new week.

You were a Patriot last year, that game kind of felt like a bella check performance to me. They didn't turn it over, they led the clock, They did the things that the Patriots had historically done well when they went.

Yeah, yeah, you know, we've lost the turnover battle and they won the time in possession battle and all that kind of stuff. So uh, you know, at the end of the day, you know, we got some things that we have to clean up, and we know that, and you know we'll be ready to come back in tomorrow and get to work.

Half of the league got a bounce back in week one.

That's where we are unfortunately.

Yeah, no doubt, it's a long season. It's only September eighth, so plenty of time.

Mike, appreciate you time.

Appreciate it.

Now. Let's hear what Zach Taylor had to say as he spent a couple of minutes with Lap after the game.

We got to tackle better and we got to get the ball of them losing the turn of battle two to nothing, you know, and the chart Troy three to nothing with a failed first fourth down. But that's not unacceptable in week one. That's not gonna win you any games.

Last year ten Fumbals lost two of them all season long Clubber only losing two fumbles none to lose two and like just a little bit over half had to be disappointed.

Yeah, two loose with the ball. I mean it's very simple there. There's not a big mystery to what I happened, and so we'll certainly address it and do a better job moving forward.

When when something happens like that, funnel like that in a low red zone going into score, I mean, it just picks the ear up of the balloom, doesn't it.

Well, that's you talk about contrimary football. You know, that's where another side's got to rise up and get a big stop. Unfortunately, they got ten points off of our turnovers, three of them. The defense did a great job off of a sudden change on a pump fumble held them to a field goal. Excellent job. We just we obviously can't fumble in the red zone and then we got to get stopped once they get the ball.

Controlling the line of scrimmage. Winning in the trenches is such a big deal. Did the Patriots move guys out of gap control responsibilities? Did they not hit them right? Was a combination? I know you haven't had time to check it.

Yeah, we'll I have to watch the tay see that.

So what the.

Spot running the football as well? And want to get that on tracks as well.

Well.

We certainly got a ton of momentum there in the second half. You know, it felt like we were moving the ball well, finished with the ball in the end zone on a great run, great drive. We'd run the

Coach, what what did you What did you tell the guys after the game? What was your What was the biggest part of your message?

That's what I told you to turn of a battle and tackling. You know, you can't expect to one week one when they get two more possessions than you do. You take points off the board, you know, from one on the two yard line and and you know, so it's just in the way we tackle it. At the end of the game, particularly, it wasn't good enough.

And I and finally, I know a big key for you was, you know, getting off to that good start and you did a lot of things to get that accomplishment, and that just didn't work out. Has to be really frustrating.

You just got to take a deep breath. This is what we wanted. Uh, we have to be accountable for why it happened. For row and one, we got sixteen left to play, tremendous opportunity to go on the road next week and flip all this momentum. And so again that's that's how we got to look at it. We got to handle ourselves internally, not worry about the external noise. We know we'll be there and I know our guys will do a great.

Job of that.

And final, final, how did you think Jamar Chase played?

I thought he gave us enough to make some plays and and we got to continue give him opportunities.

Appreciate you, Thank you.

So the Bengals are zero and one, just like the Ravens and Browns. The only team in the AFC North to win its opener was Pittsburgh. Chris Boswell kicked six field goals, including three from fifty plus as the Steelers beat the Falcons eighteen ten. Up next for the Bengals a road game next Sunday afternoon against the two time

No doubt, Dan, he had one hundred and twenty of them on twenty five carries. He had ten carries of five yards of more. So it wasn't he wasn't just like you know, Nicol and Diamondum. He hit one for fourteen yards, it hits one for sixteen, the next carry for seventeen two carries later, nineteen yard run. I mean he had multiple carries of nine yards or more. He had another twelve yard run. I mean he was consistently

Against the team with a questionable offensive line. Left guard out, left tackle not thought to be very good. Right guard rookie dominated in the run game, only surrendered one sack. That's a very disappointing performance for Cincinnati against that line.

Absolutely because they never got them to where they had to pass protect. And when they did, I mean four times, Jacoby Brissett tucked it and ran the football for thirty four yards. I mean, he was his legs were a factor. We talked about him. I mean, he's a grown man. The guy sixty four and thirty five pounds, and he's got a very quick first step. When he decides to step up in the pocket, he's sudden, and he's strong, and he breaks through arm tackles. You know, when you're

This was the first time in twenty five years that Bill Belichick was not the Patriots head coach. If you watched this game with no video of who was on the sideline, you would have said it was a Belichick win. Win the turnover battle to nothing, control the clock, no silly penalties. I mean, Gerrod Mayo coached for the guy, played for the guy, and today his team won like he was still the coach.

At halftime, he came off the field and told the TV crew were winning in the trenches. Well, you know, as a former lineman, that's all I was saying the whole game. I mean, it was so evident, so obvious. You didn't have to be a football einstein. I mean, this guy is obviously a brilliant football coach. But yeah, I mean everything that had to be done, the boxes that needed to be checked to beat a team like the Bengals, they did. And the thing that's unbelievable to

Worst case scenario, get tackled at the one exactly.

I mean, it's like, you know, make sure that you secure the pig man. I mean, don't don't hold it out there. You know, in the in the low red zone, they're coming, there's not that much ground to cover. They're there if you hold it out there, man, it's like a big old bulls eye on it, and they're going for it. And they did and they got it out, you know, and then I mean everybody's guilty. Special teams, you know, crucial fum will give them a short field.

I'm really mystified by the first three drives. I mean, you come out, Joe Burrow's gone through camp. Yeah, you're missing t Higgins. But one, two, three point one, two, three point one, two three point on your first three drives of the season.

Stunning, totally, you know, and you're you're looking at a Patriots defense that's finished in the top ten to four out of the last five years. They were number seven last year, and they were returning nine to eleven stars. But the two stars they lost were significant, but particularly one a jew Done is a rusher. But man, I mean they had a lot of guys returning that gave up only ninety three yards a game on the ground last year, which was fourth in the league but third

Let's talk about it. Mr Chase targeted six times, six catches, sixty two yards. I mean, it wasn't the greatest game he's ever played, but that's pretty impressive considering his lack of training camp snaps.

No doubt. And the last catch he had was twenty eight yards, you know, and it looked, you know, in the middle of the football field. He found a found an alley, found a lane in there, and he had a couple of catches double digit yards. You know, I think he started to climb into a rhythm a little bit.

Uh.

It's when you're going against a defense that good, that has that good players in the secondary as well, those guys stopping the run. That's just a very well put together defense by players that totally understand what they're trying to do inside out in terms of disguise and you know, confusion, chaos, all the things that they try to do. It's it

No complaints about Ryan Rico. In his Bengals debut as punter, he set a franchise record with an eighty yarder that traveled seventy yards in the air before going into the end zone. Averaged more than sixty yards per punt. Very very impressive work by the young man from BYU.

I asked him if he had one any longer eighty three he had at BYU, and uh, that's rarefied air, you know, I mean, that's I'm not saying everybody can punt the ball eighty three yards of Byu or anywhere, but for him to an eighty yard here and it was within a whisker of going out at the foot line, it could have been an eighty yard net. I mean it's a sixty yard net, but man, it could have been an eighty yard net. You talk about flipping the field, man, you know, and Uh talked to him in the post game.

Though.

But man, and I kidded with him, I said, you know those Nikes, they got a dynamite cap in that toe, and you know what did Nike do for you to get you to explode that ball off your off your toe, off your foot like that? And he goes, now here's a standard Nike order, you know, but it's he is. Uh. He's a big kid. I mean solid six ' four ish, i'd say two hundred and thirty five pounds. I mean he looks like a like a linebacker or you know, something of that tight end, something of that ilk and

So the Bengals open with a loss against the team most of us thought they would beat. Now they've got to try to beat a team in Week two that not many people think they're going to win, at least down the road in Arrowhead against Kansas City.

Yeah, Kansas City has a dogfight against the Baltimore Ravens. I mean could have been either team's football game. Kansas City comes out on top. That's good. You know, Baltimore has a loss in the AFC unfortunately, now so of the Bengals. So, I mean, you're gonna go to Kansas City and try to give them, you know, an AFC loss. And Joe Burrow has beaten Mahomes three times. He's three and one. He's the only guy I think with a winning record against Mahomes. Hopefully he can build on that.

Man.

The Bengals certainly know what to expect. This is the fourth straight year they've played on the road at Kansas City. All right. So far, this hasn't been the most enjoyable podcast, but I promise we are ending with a segment that you will thoroughly enjoy. Season fifty seven is about to begin for the Cincinnati Bengals, and it's always a treat

Not?

Really, I knew how supple he was. He was an extremely well coordinated man, and that stayed with him until very close to the end. He was athletic as a youngster. He could pull ball, played baseball, played center field, he played football, he played basketball. That part of it never left him. As a kid. I would get involved with him out in the backyard shooting baskets, and I thought, you know, we got this old guy here. He won't be able to do much in the heck, he could

It than.

I know I should have been. I didn't look at it like others did. I said, oh my god, he's not doing that.

He did you ever attempt the icky shuffle yourself?

Not even to this moment were there any plans to do shit, it's.

Not too late.

One year later, in December of nineteen eighty nine, after fans threw snowballs on the field at Riverfront Stadium, Sam Whitch took the microphone into his hands and said, you don't live in Cleveland, you live in Cincinnati. When he grabbed that microphone, did you instantly think.

Oh, oh, Sam was Sam and he had these moments that would come upon him when he would act in unexpected ways. I'll put it, and that was one of them. I don't think it was pre thought or pre planned. I think it just blurted out and it was absolutely perfect because our audience responded to that. They thought it was funny, they thought it was appropriate, and they stopped

For the moment.

Here's another Samwich moment, the time he ran up the score on a coach he didn't like, Jerry Glanville. Sam successfully tried non side kick up forty five nothing. He kicked the field goal in the final thirty seconds up fifty eight to seven. Needless to say, there was no postgame handshake. Were you amused or horrified?

Oh?

I thought it was probably not the thing to do. But that was also Sam being Sam. He could have those moments again. This one I would not have been so approving.

But.

It didn't mean anything.

It was maybe just.

Being let's say, unpolite.

Any list of amusing moments in Bengals history has to include something about Chad Johnson I've got a couple of things. First, the two thousand and nine preseason game, after kickers Shane Graham strained his groin, Chad drilled a game winning extra point. Did you have any idea he could kick well?

He always said he was a great soccer player, and that was a preseason game, if I remember right up in Boston. He went out and kicked the extra point through. I think he did a kickoff which went fairly well, and he did it with never having practiced doing this sort of thing. Belichick noticed it, and in my mind the years later he picked up Chad. I thought, maybe I'm wrong on this. That Chad's performance that day des grabbed his attention and made the Chad register in his mind.

In two thousand and four, Chad sent bottles of pepto bismol to the Browns defense backs before a game, implying that they would be sick to their stomachs after facing him. Harmless fun or bulletin board material.

I'd put that in the rather stupid department. If you're going to go toe to toe with somebody, you don't need to pretend it's professional wrestling. Don't rev them up. That was what I was taught, and when he did things like that, I probably wished he had not.

For many fans, the greatest win in franchise history was the Freezer bowld in nineteen eighty one AFC Championship game. What was your reaction when my broadcast partner Dave Lapham convinced his fellow offensive lineman to go sleeveless despite the minus fifty nine Winshill.

Well, you're bringing up all these stupid actions, that question, and that was cold. That was so cold that it didn't feel cold. It felt like burning sensation almost. And I know the Army books say that you can withstand that kind of cold if you're appropriately dressed. Well, being short sleeved as not being appropriately dressed. Our guys thought it sent a message. Maybe it did. I think that sent the message was when that door went up and chargers came out on the field. It was cold. They

Claim, didn't the Charger's owner generously offer to move the game to San Diego.

Yeah. He came up to me and said, I have a good idea. He wanted to move the game out to San Diego, and I said, I don't think so. Our fans would be disappointed.

They said, all right, I know. This next one probably was not amusing at the time, but Tim Crumrai broke his leg in four places in Super Bowl twenty three and refused to go to the hospital, insisting on watching the game in the locker room for as long as he was allowed. This was before cell phones. Were you aware that that was going on?

I don't think so. It might have been aware later on, but not immediately, as I recall, And Timmy is a tough nut, about as rough and tough as they come. If anyone could have he would have played with that. But it was obviously an impossibility. It was a serious injury. The turf was bad. We went down there and that was a grass field, but it was on a sand

Before drafting Anthony Munio's number three overall in nineteen eighty, you sent Forrest greg to Los Angeles to work him out, and in a pass rushing drill, Anthony slammed him so hard that he knocked Forrest to his backside. Was that the final confirmation you needed to know that Anthony Munoz was healthy and your guy.

That was for Forrest the final cont For some of the rest of us, it probably came along at different points. I remember at the Rose Bowl game, I was with my dad and brother and we were sitting watching it on TV. Anthony played and he just dominated the Ohio State guy in front of it. That's when I became convinced.

Forrest Gregg wanted players to wear suits on road trips, so Harvard educated punter Pat mcinally showed up in a limo wearing a tuxedo complete with top hat and cane. Do you remember seeing that?

I fortunately do not, and I wouldn't have cared if I had. Pat was a live wiren he meant to be funny and have fun. Forrest would have laughed. I think, if I remember right, he did. He wouldn't have taken exception to it at all. It was just any funny moment for the guys.

All right.

Final one, This one is more touching than amusing. You gave Adam Jones a chance to revive his career.

He had eight.

Fine seasons with Cincinnati, and he was so appreciative of your support that he commissioned an artist to do a sketch of you and your father watching practice together. What was your reaction when you receive that gift.

I like Adam Jones. I know he had these incidents off and on, but Adam Jones is quite bright. He's smart, he's quick minded. He didn't come up the easy way, and some of the discipline.

That you lose that you learn with the.

Normal average upbringing. He didn't come across the so there be times when he would flare out instantly and suffer the consequences. But if you knew him as a person, you would admire him because he was fun to talk to, quick a mind, and I'll never forget how he was when his little daughter was a premie and it was predicted that the odds were against her. We were down

Mike, I always enjoy our visits.

Thank you so much for your time and best of luck this year.

Thanks very much.

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