Hi, gain everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading The Bengals Booth Podcast. The I'm a Survivor I'm Not Gonna give Up addition, as the Bengals look to get back on the winning track as they host the Las Vegas Raiders at pay Corp Stadium. Coming up, I'll talk to ESPN's dan Orlowski about the current state of the team and something unusual coming in a bottom month, A Simpson's themed telecast of the Bengals Cowboys game on Monday
Night Football. My one on one player interview is with special teams Ace Tyson Anderson, and in our nother faux segment, we get an in depth look at the Raiders from their radio voice, Jason Horowitz. The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by pay Corps, Proud to be the Bengals official HR software provider, by Alta Fiber future proof Fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business, and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health the best
care for the best fans. Kettering Health is the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. Now 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 wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since obeying signs. I went on a run the other day
and approached a sign that said the sidewalk was closed ahead. Well, I really wanted to keep going in that direction, and I could see past the point where construction workers were digging up the sidewalk. So I walked down a massive hill, went past the construction, walked back up the gigantic hill, and figured everything would be okay. I was sadly mistaken. In order to keep going, I had to scale one fence and twist my body through the opening in another.
Neither maneuver was safe. In fact, both were stupid. Moral of the story, the signs are there for a reason. Pay attention, moron. Now let's get to my first guest. ESPN's Dan Orlovsky is good natured about the most embarrassing moment of his twelve year NFL career, when he lost track of the back of the end zone and ran out of bounds for a safety. His Twitter profile includes the phrase that end zones should be eleven yards. Fast forward sixteen years, and Dan has become one of ESPN's
top analysts. He joined me this week to discuss the Bengals and an interesting project that he'll be involved in next month. In the Dancing Homer episode of The Simpsons, there's a sportscaster named Dan Horde, a buddy of mine, wrote the episode, and that's cool. But ESPN's Dan Orlovsky is going to be involved in something even cooler, the first ever Simpson's theme telecast of an NFL game coming up in December, when the Bengals take on the Cowboys.
Dan tell us what you know at this point about this alternative Simpson telecast of an NFL game.
Yeah, I don't know if what I know is as cool as that story that you just shared. It's you know. When they came to me, so I called actually the ESPN Plus game of last year when they did the Toy Story version of this, and I remember my wife calling me, going, like all our kids want to do is watch the Toy Story version and not your game. And so I've seen some clips of that and obviously
it was a massive success. And so when they came to me, I don't know, about a month or two ago and asked if I had interest in doing the Simpsons version. My immediate reaction was like, of course, I was a nineties kid, you know, so the Simpsons, you know, at least in my mind, were the most popular thing in the world outside of like Sports Center in the nineties, So growing up in many ways on the Simpsons, it was,
you know, an easy guest for me. And so we've actually had a meeting recently about kind of what it is. What I know is we're a little bit in the Simpsons world, Mina and I, and we're kind of taking vintage point of this game happening in that world, and there'll be interaction with the Simpsons characters, and it'll be a pretty pretty cool experience to not only be a part of, but to just kind of a watch. If you have any any background with the Simpsons.
It's about the longest running show in TV history. Are your wife and kids Simpsons fans?
Again, my wife's nineties kids, so for sure, you know, and I have my kids are Simpsons fans. I have one son who is a Simpson fanatic, so we have triplet so we have four kids. We have triplet sons, and my one son is who's a Simpson fanatic. Is super artistic, super creative. The way he looks at the world.
He's constantly drawing anything that has animation to it. My son is all about and so when he, you know, first saw The Simpsons and that being really animated, and there's not a ton that we watch in our house that probably is, you know it, Certainly he was gravita towards it. And so he is constantly writing into or drawing his own animations cartoons, and so he has had hours spent drawing the Simpsons characters and probably creating some
of his own, you know, I guess episodes essentially. So yeah, it's it's certainly a Simpsons household in some way. But I have a son who's very much so a Simpsons fan.
The ESPN's Dan Orlovsky is our guest. Your tape breakdowns are as good as it gets. And when you focus on Joe Burrow at times, I feel like I almost hear awe in your voice. Is that accurate? And if so, why that's accurate?
And why is because what Joe's capable of doing on a play by player consistent basis not capable of doing what he does. I understand how hard it is. And so when you watch a person, you know, because I have the vantage point of at least I was in that same league, you know, So I know how hard it is to do some of the things that he does all the time, and I marvel at someone with
their ability to do it all the time. And while you know, I know that I was in that league for a dozen years, there's times when I watch a player like Joan and I'm like, there's no way I was in the same league, you know. And so I think that when you there isn't awe it's been that way, you know. I'll share a little bit of a story. When Joe was coming out of school. It was Joe Trevor Lawrence kind of in that National title game type of thing, and and I was team Trevor Lawrence all
the way. And I called that game on a Mega cast on the sidelines, and I remember walking out of that game and being I've only seen one person that made me feel that way with his gravity and his poll and that was Matthew Stafford. And so I think that was the year that Zach Tator was getting hired and Brian Callahan, who was the longtime Cincinnati Bengals coordinator
I just remember was leaving Detroit. He was with me in Detroit with Matthew and I just remember reaching out to him shortly after that game when they were gonna have the number one pick and being like, it's Joe Burrow and it's not close, and he was like, what do you mean. I'm like, just this, it's Joe. Just take Joe at number one and don't hesitate, and you know, I remember him kind of throw out the process, being like,
this guy different. And so I've always had an appreciation and affinity for how good of a player Joe was.
Damn For three straight weeks the Bengals scored thirty three or more points, and then over the last three weeks, the offensive has only scored two touchdowns in each of those games. What would you like to see the Bengals do differently on that side of the ball.
Yeah, I actually like some of the scheme stuff that they've really deployed. I would say over the last five or six weeks, I think the balance and the complete element of their offense has grown a lot, certainly since the beginning of the season, and very much sold last year, and so I think a lot of the scheme stuff that they're doing I enjoy. I like there arepo stuff. I like their ability to run the football from undercent or maybe create some more big and explosive runs but
hard to do. I like their play action game, both under and from the gun when they like to get Joe on the move, and so I think there's a lot of stuff in their offense that schematically. I like some of the additions this past week. You know, I still think that, you know, team not being there took an explosive element away from their offense, and so you know, Cleveland's defense is probably a better unit than their team record indicates, especially when you know they're in games and
so you know red zone. They obviously have to score more touchdowns in the red zone. That's a very blanket statement. I think the better they could be on early downs down there is going to help them rather than it feels like a constant third and goal from the six. I mean, that's just a really hard thing to consistently accomplish.
You have been very complimentary toward lou Ana Roumo in the past. What do you think are some of the biggest issue shoes that he's dealing with on the defensive side of the ball.
Well. Number One, they've big tackled very poorly for the majority of this season. They just have not tackled well, specifically the secondary. I don't think has you know, as an offense, a lot of times defenses or as an offense a lot of times schemes or teams have said, we want to get the ball to the unblocked defender and meaning that's a corner or safety, and you know, they they want to get in those one on one situations, and I think just as a team, they haven't tackled
well in those situations. They haven't found that consistent pass rush that they've had in the past. Sam and Trey while have you know, been tremendous players, it just hasn't happened this year. Specifically over the past couple of weeks, they just haven't gotten home nearly as much. And so, you know, when you're not tackling well and you're not winning on early downs and you're not getting to the quarterback,
it's just really hard for everybody. Attach they've been given up big pass plays down the field, and so I think that you know, right now, Louis is still searching for that thing that go to scheme or tactic or person that he's had in the past.
The Raiders come to town this week with two wins, one of them was over the Ravens in Baltimore. What must the Bengals do to be successful at home this Sunday?
Number one? Stop Rock Bowers. Rock Bouwer is good, good young tight end, and they are gonna there's moments, well they'll try to throw them the ball four or five six times in a row. They don't sugarcoat it with the Raiders. They're trying to get into football. Two good receivers of Jacoby Myers and Tucker So like, you got to manage those guys. They're good players, but Brock Bauers is the foundational kind of playmaker piece of their offense. And then on the opposite side, it's very clear you
gotta handle Max Crosby. Every single play. Max can literally ruin the game. I mean, if anybody in your guys division wants to find out how go watch what he did against the Ravens this year. He won the football game for them. So I think you know, the Raiders sneaky have like a solid defense and good defense. This isn't going to be an easy task for their offense. You gotta on every single play have multiple bodies or
no one blocking Max Crosby. I don't think you try to block him one on one, and moments when you don't block him, you're putting him in conflict with like an RPO or something like that. Other than that, it's four hands and two sets of hands on him every time.
Dan, We appreciate your time, and let the record show that in two thousand and one, I was behind the mic when an eighteen year old freshman named Dan Orlovsky came into Nippert Stadium and threw for three hundred and eighty three yards and three touchdowns against the UC Bearcats. So I have seen you perform at the quarterback position.
That was a freshman. I think we lost. And while I may have been played played well, my bet is Gino played better.
Gino GODOOLI was also a freshman and had a great The Bearcats won forty five to twenty eight. But you played very well. Thank you, Thank you, appreciate time. Keep up the great word.
Yes, sir, thank you.
By the way, just to be clear that Simpson's themed telecast of the Bengals Cowboys game is an alternate broadcast you can still watch Joe Buck and Troy Aikman call the game or the Manning Cast. The Simpsons version will be a third option. The Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you by pay Corp, proud to be the Bengals official HR software provider, by Alta Fiber future Proof Fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health the best Care
for the best Fans. Kettering Health is the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. Rookie punter Ryan Rico is currently third in the NFL in net punting average at forty four point nine. That would break Kevin Huber's single season team record by about two yards. Rico's big leg is the biggest reason, but the coverage team, led by Special teams Ace Tyson Anderson, is a huge factor as well. I caught up with Anderson this week. Tyson, as we do this interview, it's basically a year to the day
since you toy your ACL at San Francisco. I think it was a year ago yesterday. I've heard you say you are faster now. Is that the case?
I like to think I'm faster now. For sure. I don't know what it is.
I don't know if this is a little rest recovery. I don't really know what it is, but I'll for sure feel as fast or faster.
Really know, is there any evidence of that?
Oh no, I hit twenty two yet, so I can't say.
That twenty two miles an hours the goal.
Yeah, that's to go.
What's the worst part of rehabbing a torn acl uh?
After you get past I mean, the worst part is, honestly just being away from the guys, really your day to day routine, coming in here, laughing and joking with the guys. But other than that, the pain for the first couple of days, it's really those first Once you get through those first like two or three nights, it's pretty first two nights, pretty tough.
And then once you get through that, I mean, it's kind of just baby steps.
The hardest part for me really seemed like it was figuring out how to walk again. I never thought, you know, when you're a kid, you just learn how to walk. I guess you don't really think about it. At least I don't remember learning how to walk, So being a grown man and teaching myself how to walk again, for sure, was probably the toughest thing.
You literally had to learn how to walk again.
No, see, literally had to learn how to walk again. He would have told everything had to make my quad fire. It was for sure challenging.
Did you have anybody who was also going through rehab that you did things together with?
Oh?
Yeah, my dj Ivy. Yeah, every day. That's why.
I mean we Didne got so much closer over the last year, and me just giving him advice because he was back probably even sooner than me. I was saying, I think I got back pretty fairly quickly. And for him to bounce back like he did, I mean we always just bounce ideas off each other. I told him where he would be feeling and pain and how can you avoid it? How could he just be better than I was?
And he did that.
So that was for sure somebody that we bounced a lot of ideas with and kind of iron sharp and iron we got back.
Right now that you mentioned it, it seems like you two guys are often the last two people to leave the stadium at the end of the day. Do you guys do physical training and things to maintain your body together? Now?
Yeah, for sure, I mean we got I like to call it BFR Tuesdays and Fridays, we do just kind of keep the strength up, keep the maintenance up, and we always hop it in the code to doing extra things in the training room just to make sure we stand on top of our injury, just so nothing like this ever happens again, even though it was a freak accident that you really can't only God knows really, but just trying to do as much as we can to make sure we go through seventeen and twenty weeks, twenty two.
Weeks visiting the Tyson Anderson. You're playing at a very high level right now on Special Teams. You're tied for the NFL league lead in solo tackles, You're the leaders in overall special teams tackles. Do you look at that stat and is it a specific goal of yours to lead the league in that category?
No, Yeah, for sure, I for sure look at it all the time. I mean, I just always like to see how other Special teams players are doing around the league. I get cut up since my iPad all the time. The best gunner tackles the most, who got the most gunner tackles? The gunner tackles of the week, things like that,
So that's for sure something I keep track of. Mike Thomas, my rookie year, showed me a cool little website that I can keep track of it all and always just every week, just look at it once a week just to see how am my climbing toward the top. Are people catching me? Or is the leader is he? Did he not have any tackles that week? So I'm always look at it for sure once a week.
Good old uncle Mike, your mentor and your friend. He's not playing this year, He's working for the Players Association. But what lessons resonated with you? What do you still hear in your head when you think of Uncle Mike?
I for sure remember just him.
He would always just tell me my rookie year, when I was going through everything, I was going through that and he was just telling me, in due time, keep putting the work in and due time when you get your next moment, don't let don't let go. I can for sure always hear him saying little things like that in.
Due time and due time and due time.
And it took me a year to get to that due time, but I got to it and capitalize on it. And Sally it was my season was cut short, but still in due time. I was telling myself that all the time and rehab in due time. As the months went on and went on, in due time, you.
Go be back. You'll be back to yourself in due time. So that's for sure something I'm always keep Tyson.
We've all heard the expression that a punter out kicked his coverage. You don't want Ryan Rico to even think about that, right, No?
Yeah, I always tell Ryan Ryan booted as far as you can. I promise you, I'm gonna make you right. Bro, Just keep booting as far as you can. I'm gonna make you right. And I just want him to have the utmost confidence in himself. And I got to know I have the utmost confident in him, because I mean, I've never been around a punter who's like, who's doing what he doing and hanging it up to how he
hanging it up. So it's for sure it taking me some adjusting just to know where the ball go be, how long the ball really is going to be in the air, so I can kind of time up some of my some of my stuff.
I ran into former Bengals punter Kevin Hubert recently, he was the punter here for more than a decade. He said, that guy's gonna break every record that I ever had. Are you just amazed by how far he punchs the ball?
Yeah, I'm amazed how far he punts it, But I'm more amazed how high the ball goes in.
The air when he punts it.
Like it's like I can't really see it until we get on film the next time, but it's like, the ball should not be that high in the air ever, and it's like, yeah, it's crazy. It's coming off his leg like a rocket really once he gets a real good hit on it.
So it's for sure he received the game ball after the winnow of the New York Giants. I'm sure it was meaningful for you. But how excited were friends and family when they saw the video of Zach Taylor giving you that?
No, yeah, for sure they was.
They was probably you can say they probably more excited than me, really, But it was just a cool experience. Just I mean, I've never gotten a game ball besides my game boys when I had to depict sixes in the in the preseason, but we lost that game, so it was no game Boys.
Giving out that. But it was just a cool experience.
The coolest part was just, uh my teammate celebrated me how they did, just knowing how much work out and put in to get to up to that moment, and it was just cool kind of to just hear their their their jokes and comments in the background.
For me, it was it was cool.
There are a lot of players that play special teams because they have to. That is their path to making a living in the NFL. You seem to genuinely love it, Am I right about that?
No?
Yeah, you for sure right.
I mean, at the end of the day, every team, I always tell people, every team is everybody got a role on the team, and the moment you find your role and maximize your role and have fun doing your role, that's when teams go great places for real. So when I was a freshman at UT I play especial of teams and brought brought everything to it and we wanted to MAC Championship my freshman year. I mean, more to do probably with Logan Woodside and Deontay Johnson and all
them dudes. But I like to think of my role on special teams. I just try to get the crowd going anyway that possible, get some momentum, make a momentum changing play, or keep momentum on our side and just keep the crowd engauge. So I just I just try to be electric, honestly every time I hit the field.
You have nine games left in the regular season, you probably need to win seven to make the playoffs. Why do you feel that's realistic?
I mean, just those dudes in the locker room. Really, that's the only reason. If those dudes in the locker room, the coaches upstairs, the organization. I mean, we've our back been against the wall before. I'm not It's not like it's not happen before, And every time it's happened, we've always just risen up to to those challenges, really, and I expect us to kind of do the same. Really,
And we got everybody in our on our schedule. I mean, we can we can contend and be everybody on our schedule, but we just got to go on with the right mindset and execute at a high level.
The Raiders are next. They've only won two games, but one of those wins was over the Ravens in Baltimore. They gave the Chiefs everything they could handle last week. What do you think are a couple of keys to being successful on Sunday?
Oh yeah, man, for sure. Can only speak for the defense and special teams. Defensively, I mean just stopping and run and stopping explosive plays and creating some turnovers. I mean, once you win the turnover battle in this league, usually you win the game. So I would say just stopping and run, stopping explosive plays, and getting off the field on third down two and then special teams somebody. We got to make a game changing play, whether that's a
forced fumble, a touchdown like we did against Cleveland. We got to bring the juice and bring the energy and had this place rocking for when our defense take the field or when our offense take the field.
Final thing for Tyson Anderson, this is something I thought to ask you before, but never have. Your first name is spelled unusually. It's t y ce N instead of t ys n. Is there a story behind the unusual spelling of Tyson?
Yeah, my mom was telling me back in the day there was a model named Tyson that was kind of I think his name was kind of spelled like mine. If I remember the story correctly, but that's pretty much the only thing. But that's crazy because I got another cousin whose name is Tyson and he spells his t y s o n so.
It's kind of funny.
Name for a model. I could see why your mom would one of you. Oh my goodness, appreciate your time, best of luck this week, No, I appreciate you. One of the most famous male models of all time is Tyson Beckford, and I'm guessing that's who he means, but Beckford spells it t yso n so the spelling part of the story remains a mystery. Now time for this week's know the faux segment. The Autumn Wind is the name of that iconic NFL film's anthem for the Raiders.
It includes the following lyrics. The Autumn Wind is a Raider pillaging just for fun. They'll knock you round and upside down and laugh when he's conquered than one. Well, the Silver and Black have only conquered in one twice in their first eight games this season, and their radio voice, Jason Horowitz, joined lapping me this week on the Bengals Game Plan show. I want to go back about a week or so ago when the Raiders picked up former
UC Bearcat Desmond Ritter. We wondered if in time for this game he might take over and be the starting quarterback. But Gardner Minshew played well last week. I assume Gardner Minshew's going to be the guy on Sunday. But where do things stand at the quarterback position for the Raiders.
Well, well, a couple of things. Number one, Desmond, they had a couple of plays for him. Unfortunately they didn't get to run that because they you know, Gardner was playing and he was playing well, but they ran in Desmond Ridder on what it would have been on a second and three, second and four on the plus side of the field, and then Raiders had a false start
and they took Desmond right off the field. So they had a plan, you know, four or five days after signing him off to Cardinals practice squad to get him in. I think if Gardner Minshew continues to turn the ball over, we will see Desmond Ridder. You know, even though statistically Gardner played one of his better games. He was eighty percent last week two hundred yards to touch down one hundred and sixteen or so qv rating, the reality is he still had a turnover late in the ballgame that
cost the Raiders a chance to tie the game. And he was also you know, leading an offense that was first in goal on the Chiefs three after an interception and they didn't score a point. So you know, statistically there was some good stuff. But also he took five packs. He's kind of been gun side. Turnover has been a problem, so we may see different rhetor.
On well, no matter who the quarterback is, they get a weapon in Bowers. I mean, this guy is as advertised. I remember the Bengals were extremely high on him. I think as was every all thirty two teams in the National Football League. This guy is legit at Georgia, and he certainly is proving himself to be legit in the early stages of his rookie career. He's of his rookie season,
I should say, he's leading the NFL and catches. He's number one obviously had catches with tight ends, number one in yards at the tight end position, eleventh overall in yards. I mean, this guy has been unbelievable. How many different places have they lined him up or motioned them to And the twelve yard rush that he has was that was he in the backfield or did he come from a slot wing back position to run it? How'd that unfold?
Yeah? Yeah, he was a wide receiver jet sweep, and so they had it was the Cleveland game. I think it was week four when Zamir White was out, and at that point Raiders were fifty two yards a game on the ground, worse than franchise history. It's for three weeks and they literally handed the ball off to everybody not named Jason Horwitz and Lincoln Kennedy. So and you know, Lincoln said he was suit up and run running fly steep himself. So let mean there's an opportunity there. But
you know, brocket five rushing touchdowns in college. He out ran SEC defenders regularly. So he's the guy that can line up anywhere. He does line up everywhere. It's not very often he's in the backfield. A couple of plays they'll they'll line them up, you know, as a fullback or kind of an offset in the backfield. But he is consistently motioning all over the place and trying to
get open. You know, there are lulls once in a while where we're not able to get him the football and I think that's kind of been a little bit of a frustration for the coaching staff because you know, he'll have i say, three catches in the first two drives or four catches in the first quarter, and you know they won't throw them the football again to the
fourth quarter. And so whether it's defense is taking that away or you know, inability for garden minsure or whatever it might be, that's something they're trying to figure it out. So his consistency is there from start to finish in the game.
Question, have you been able to notice or have you heard any discussion postgame or whatever that an opponent had a spy package or a shadow package and me and my shadow wherever Bauers went, a defender, either a linebacker or a safety or somebody was sure to follow. I mean, did you have you seen any of that?
Well, there's been a little bit of that because remember, you know, the DeVante Adams situation changed everything for the Raiders offense. You know, you go into this year and obviously the quarterback situation is unsettled, but you go in and you still have DeVante Adams, who's a you know, Hall of Fame type receiver. Jacobe Myers has been a one and he's been very good for the Raiders, and then you add rock power, so that so it's been it was harder at least going in to make that
type of arrangement. But then you know DeVante wanted to trade and had a hamstring injury and then was gone, and Jacoby missed a couple of games with an ankle injury. So yes, I would say a couple of time teams have said that was hey, guy number one and really their only concern. And yet even in those games, guys, he still had nine to ten catches. I think he's the I want to say he's the first rookie, either tight end or player period to have eight or more
catches in three straight games a rookie. So I mean, even within that, they've still been able to force him the ball. But some of those catches are coming late when they're you know, down fifty to twenty points and almost irrelevant at the stat aspect of it.
Right.
The voice of the Raiders, Jason Horowitz is our guest. Let's talk Max Crosby. Trey Hendrickson leads the Bengals with seven sacks. Max is right behind him with six and a half. I think Max missed the game this year. What kind of a year is Max Crosby having.
Yeah, he's I mean he missed the Cleveland game. It was the first time he's ever missed the game in his entire career. Uh and the Raiders found a way to win without him, which was which was pretty impressive from a defensive standpoint. You know, he's having a very great year. He's having a typical Max Rosby six and a half, ten and a half tackles for loss, you know, up towards the top of the NFL and all those categories.
You know, he disrupts a lot of plays. But in saying that, you know, there have been a couple of hals where teams have been able to control it a little bit better than they would have last year. And that I think is they're running away from him or you know, getting a second or third guy on him. You know, nobody has any success when they don't chip or try to block him with a tight end, or if they run away from him and they just believe him alone because they get an extra blocker to they
never have success. And so it'll be interesting watching him against you know, Amarius Mimus. This week, who is such a young guy and not as experienced I think a lot of rookies that come into the league. But the other thing that the Raiders has done a really good job of this year is they're lining up Max on both sides. You know, my first year two years ago, i'd say he was ninety five percent over the right tackle.
Last year is probably eighty twenty and this year it's it's more of a crapshoot about which side he's lining up on during the course of the game. So they're getting him in spots to make havoc and he's doing it as he always does.
Uh with your with respect to your defensive line, you're missing a premier defensive tackle. I mean that that hurts you obviously. In the former Bengals, Zach Carter is one of the defensive tackles. How much burn is he getting into rotation?
None?
Really?
You know when they signed him, yeah, he was inactive this past weekend. He was a healthy They added him to the active roster yeah, heading into last week and then made him an active for the game itself. So to this point, he hasn't taken a snap yet for the Raiders. I'm not sure what will be the case this weekend. My guess is he'll be active, but don't
know that for sure. You know, the crazy thing is, statistically, Raiders defense this year has been a disappointment because you go back to the last nine games last year when Antonio Appears took over and Raiders had the number one scoring defense in the NFL over that time period and finished top ten for the year, and it was the first time Raiders had finished top half in the NFL since the Super Bowl year, which has been twenty years ago. So it was that good.
Last year.
They added Christian Wilkins and everybody else returns, you assume they'd be even better, and unfortunately, there's been so many injuries between Marcus EPs going down for the year and Malcolm Coots being lost for the year before the season even started and Christian Wilkins, so there's been a lot there. But I'd say this so the defense, even though the points per game is up there, has played so well
in bad situations to keep this team in games. But the offense has given up forty four points off of turnovers over the last four weeks, and you just can't win that way.
Jason Horowitz is our guest. We've mentioned Desmond Ritter, we mentioned Zach Carter, we have not mentioned the most familiar name of all, Marvin Lewis. What is Marvin's role on the Raiders' staff.
Yeah, I mean, Marvin's the associate head coach and was brought in by AP. They knew each other at Arizona State, among other places, and he brought him in to check him to to be the guy to assist uh Antonio peers as game day operations and working through being a head coach. And you know he's not the only one. Tom Coughlin's on staff, and Joe Philbin's been a head
coach in this league and he's an offensive analyst. So there's guys on staff to help Antonio Piers because Antonio told us the preseason he doesn't he doesn't want these guys telling him what he's doing wrong on Monday after the game went by on Sunday, you know, he wants Marvin and those guys telling him what he should be doing in game if they're noticing things. So so Marvin
is an ear to bounce off of. Marvin is a guy to help him as a head coach and and and message with the players, and and and he is a big part of that, uh, with with that experience that Antonio Piers is trying to get.
You know, I got confirmation about Crosby by looking at the press release. He got twelve pages on the on the release from the from the Raiders, twelve pages defensive end. And I'm looking at Okay Bowers as well as he only got four you know in Bowers's lifetime. Yeah, he's and the quarterback Minshew, you know he's got like three or four. Crosby twelve pages, and I mean it's it's impressive. His his Uh how much.
Of that do you have memorized? You got most of your head? Or is that going to go in one ear and out the other.
It's pretty it's pretty crazy.
It's eight pages memorized to lap them.
It's pretty impressive. The one thing that statistically is a former offensive lineman that kind of intrigues me. Twenty six straight games with a sack, that's that's fourth best in the NFL. I mean, they they are consistently production in that area, aren't they.
Yeah, the team is and and that's why you know, with the Max Crosby thinking, and he deserves all the accolades he gets, you know, his energy, his production, what he does for the other guys on the front step. There's no question Max deserves everything that's been given to him as a guy who was a fourth round pick out of Eastern Michigan and you know, really burst onto the scene right right from the get go, and you know, off the field stuff that you're living the life of
her and things that he's so vocal about too. And you know now big in the media with his podcast and and let's go with Jim Grayham series exam so you know, he's big on a lot of different fronts and and very vocal about wanting to stay with the Raiders. As there's been you know, aspects of of this trade talk over the last couple of weeks. But I would say this, you know, one of the things that's been impressive.
And this is just my third year with this organization, and the defense two years ago was really bad, guys like really bad. Last year, you got some of those names that nobody talks about really coming to the forefront and playing well. And it's happening again this year. And you know, Roberts Fulane is a big part of that. The middle linebacker who came over from Pittsburgh who you know, it didn't really have a lot of people chasing after him when he was a free agent couple of years ago.
But man, it's he been awesome, uh, for this team and along the front seven. You know, Adam Butler's kind of been a journeyman Patriots and Dolphins, but he has played so well and his energy is beating off of Max Crosby, and you know, they're starting to get some stuff from Tyree Wilson, the number seven pick last year. He u you know, statistically it doesn't jump off of you, but there's a lot of plays where he's been really close.
He sacked Patrick Mahomes last week. He had another play where he forced Patrick throw it out of bounds, chasing him down. So he started to come along too on the opposite side, which is really helping the back end because our back end, again, not a lot of names back there, right, There's not a got bunch of guys on the defensive secondary who people around the NFL know, But they played so well and obviously there's credit to the front seven.
For that Splaine. How bad is that knee injury?
Did?
He didn't practice today? The two guys that didn't go, James didn't go. The center didn't go with an ankle injury, and he didn't go with a knee injury.
Yeah, you know, it's interesting with Andre James. You know, a lot of money went to different centers around the NFL in this offseason and Andre James is a free agent and they re signed him to a three year, I want to say, twenty four million dollar deal, which was a lot less than what a lot of guys around the league got. Because he has played, he has been a bellcoal for this team for the last few years.
He has struggled this year, and I wonder when they drafted Jackson Powers Johnson in the second round out of Oregon, who's been our starting guard the last five weeks. I wonder how much thought they were having him play center, because he was the Roomingtod Trophy last season right as a best center in college football. But it was really the first time he'd ever played center. And so it's interesting that if if in fact Andre James can't go, they have someone who has that accolade maybe slide over
and play center. Roberts Blaine's injury happened towards the end and he got rolled up on and you know, was helped off the field. He did come back after the injury last week, so you know, obviously he was able to play beyond that, but he would be a big loss. He is with Max Crosby, the epicenter of this defense and the guy who is just cleaning up everything and he comes on blitz this. He's got four picks since
the start of last year. He's a tackling machine. I think I think he's number six heading into this week and tackles in the NFL. So he really has been everywhere. So him not being there if he can't play Thunder big one right, thanks.
To Jason Horowitz, and that's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth podcast, brought to you by pay Core. Proud to be the Bengals official hr software provider by Alta Fiber, future proof fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business, and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health is the official healthcare provider of the Bengals.
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