Bengals Booth Podcast: Under Pressure

Plus in this week's fun Facts Conversation, we'll meet the person under the pads as I'll talk to Bengals tight end and soccer fanatic cj Uzama. 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 thing

since the telestrator. One of the highlights of my week is seeing Lap use the telestrator to break down the Bengals next opponent in his lapse look segment on Bengals dot Com. It's always informative and normally I just stand there nodding and soaking it all in but this week they handed me my own stylus. I get to doodle as well. My contribution is likely to be very limited, but it's fun to have that telestrator pen in my hand for the first time. Now, let's get to football.

If you are a regular listener of this podcast, you know that the normal routine after each game is to provide a detailed recap with all the highlights and then comments from the players explaining exactly what happened. There's really no need to do that after Monday's twenty seven to three loss to the Steelers. It can be summed up in this montage of Andy Dalton getting sacked over and over again on second out in five play action fake Dalton in trouble. He is sacked back at the fifty

yard line. Dalton waits for a shotguns app stops the right foot, catches the football, gets hit from behind, football bops out, and the Steelers recover at the twenty nine yard line. Man Dalton back to brow again and he will be sacked back at the twenty eight yard line. And that might be the last grasp for Cincinnati here in the first half. Yeah, they met at the quarterback that time, ducking down in ten from the twenty five

yard line. Dalton back to throw again. He's under pressure, he's in trouble, and he is sacked back at the thirteen yard line. Right now, it is not a fair fight. Dalton takes the snap, fakes a handoff and gets sacked by what Back at the forty five yard line. Dalton, we'll be sacked again, and back at the thirty one yard lines. Jay von Hargrave applying the heats and it's just a case of all four guys feeding at the quarterback. They're just teeing off. Dalton back to pass again. He

gets smashed from behind and loses the football. Oh, he's hurt. Fourth down and ten. Dalton back to throw and he is hit and sacked and that is appropriate. Hallu Alu sacking Andy Dalton on the Bengals last offensive play of the game. Andy Dalton was sacked a career high eight times. The Bengals team record for mo sachs allowed is ten.

It was Pittsburgh's ninth straight win over Cincinnati, going back to the game in twenty fifteen where Andy Dalton broke his thumb tacklings to Fontuitt after an interception prior to that play. Here's what the Bengals had done in the regular season with Dalton at quarterback. They had gone nine and seven, ten and six, eleven and five, ten to five and one, and were ten and two and the number one seat in the playoff race at the time

of his injury. Add that all up and you get fifty wins, twenty five losses, and one tie among the best records in the NFL during that time period. Head But since then, the Bengals are twenty one thirty four and one. And it all started with a loss to the Steelers. After Monday's loss, the atmosphere in the locker room was grim. Here are Drake Kirkpatrick and Preston Brown. You know, we gotta just figure it out. We gotta get wins. They don't pay me to lose, you know

what I'm saying. And it is unstuffable to me. I don't know how everybody else feeling about it, but just Frustram Bro's frustrating man. Like I said, I'm trying to be cool about everything, but this hot to hell. Man, we going four Let's just sit this is this the hottest he felt on four man. And then and then that's to be said, Bro, can you describe the emotion right now? Oh, it's tough to go onto a game

like this Monday night. You know everybody's watching you. You're trying to get a big winner so that you're not that team as you showed the first three weeks. But we showed that we are that team. So we got to keep fighting and show everybody that we can get better. If not, we're gonna keep losing a lot of games. So we got to change it. Right now. The Bengals

are one of six teams without a win. The Dolphins, Broncos, and Raiders are also oh and four, The Jets are oh in three, and this week's opponent, the Arizona Cardinals, are O three and one. Time to take a look at where things stand with my broadcast partner Dave Lap them lap frustration is mounting. It was palpable in the locker room after the Steelers game. Do you see a team that is starting to get a little bit fragile?

You know it's in my mind having been through a season like well, hopefully it's not going to be as bad as the one I went through a four and twelve season where we started off on and eight The one thing that used to piss me off royally was teammates that would come out of the shower and before their last drop of water on them was dry, they had forgotten about the game already. They were worried about

where they're going party, what were they gonna do? I mean, they didn't give a damn about the football game, and that used to drive me crazy. I don't see that with this group, you know, and the fact that they're frustrated, I think is that, you know, a decent sign. But yeah, I think the longer they go without winning a football game, you do become more and more fragile. And it's like you're thinking, Okay, oh, forced fumble? Is this? Is this?

The game? Is this? And then don't take advantage of it? She's maybe this isn't the game. You know, you feel like you have no margin ferry. You have to capitalize on everything, and when you don't, you have to fight that mental tug of war of like there's gonna be other opportunities in this football game. That's not the only opportunity, you know, Like it didn't work out, Move on, you know,

see how how else you can play? You know, a complimentary football you weren't very complimentary that takeaway by the defense that puts you at the fifteen yard line. You know, you got to do a better job than that. But it is, it's it's it's very it's Uh, that's where sports psychologists make a lot of money because because you you do. You come home and I just remember, you know,

sleepless nights. The said up many times looking at the ceiling, and the ceiling becomes you know, a movie screen and you're just seeing all these things that you remember about the football game. And you know, when you're when you're married with children, Um, it's it's a it's a good distraction. You come home, they're smiling. No matter what, you know, they still like you, although you feel like nobody does. You don't want to see neighbors, you don't want to

see friends, you don't want to see anybody. You're embarrassed. And then also your kids go to school and uh, they're the butt of jokes and so it has a big effect on on the dynamic of families. And that's what people You know, people don't understand, you know, when when they have problems at work and it affects their family, nobody else knows about it. But this the reason the

guys make big money. It's such a public deal. Everything that they do is uh, is seen by everybody, so there's no hiding and UH and it does have a ripple effect on families at times, for sure. So if you're listening to this podcast and your kids go to school with the kids of Bengals players or coaches, tell your kids to be nice exactly. Laughter. Are six winless teams in the NFL right now. Five have new head coaches.

Looking back historically Sam White and five. To begin his tenure as the Bengals head coach, Bill Walsh turned out to be pretty good. He started his tenure in San Francisco, oh and seven. It's a complicated game. I know people don't want to hear this, but does it take time to implement new systems? It does, you know, And sometimes the system you want to implement, you don't quite have the personnel to implement it the way you want to implement it, So then you have to massage your system

to fit the personnel. You know, you don't want to say this is what I'm going to do, no matter what, if you don't have the players to do it, you know we said this more times than one. The great Don Shula Bumfields was talking about him. He said he can take his and his and and beat your, and he can take urn and beat his, and he could adapt and adjust to whatever he's got. If he's got you know, Larry zunc and Jim Kick, he's gonna run one style of offense. He has Dan Marino and Nate Moore,

he's gonna run, you know, another style of offense. So you know, uh, you have to adjust, and the coaches have to find out what the players can and can't do, and the players have to really understand the expectations of the coaching staff um what they want out of them. And it does, it does take some time. I think. You know, if you'd won the Seattle game, I wonder if you know they'd be one and three or if they'd be two and two, three and one. You just

never know. But the fact that they didn't get that one under their under their belt and then had that performance, you know, they played pretty well and then really struggle played pretty well in Buffalo or you know, recover really struggle in Pittsburgh. You know, how will they respond this one in Arizon? You don't like to have that pattern,

know of up and down, up and down. All you hear players and coaches talk about in any sports consistency, and right now they're the model of inconsistency with these up and down performances. Individually and collectively, they've been very consistent with their inability to stop sideline to sideline misdirection type plays. Since the San Francisco game, teams are pulling out anything they have in their playbook that kind of

fits that description. Are their fundamental flaws in the Bengals defensive personnel that makes it hard for them to stop those kinds of place. You know, I think everybody talks about trying to get people in space, and those kind of plays a lot of times will get people in space. And it was the darnest thing watching the Steeler game. They never stretched the defense vertically except for a couple

of times, but they stretched them to death horizontally. They made them defend you know, fifty three and a half yards whatever. With the football fields, they had to defend every bit of it. And that's what that's what teams are doing. They're not they're stretching them more horizontally than they are vertically. Even in the passing game, you know, it's short throws to the to the perimeter, you know, horizontal stuff, play action screens, and I mean Pittsburgh Steelers.

I don't know what their average ball thrown past the line of scrimmage because more than half of them, I think we're either at or behind the line of scrimmage. I think their average attempt on however many throws they had in that football game, might have been five yards down the football field. The ball wasn't down the field very much, but man, they had stretched that defense out with motion, like you say, Dan, you know, jet sweeps and and then you know the shovel passes they were thrown.

That's that's an extension of the running game. Instead of you know, handing the football off, you know, you're just letting it leave your hand for a yard to somebody else's possession. So um, you know, you look at it in Pittsburgh. Oh, they didn't really run the ball all that great. Well, you throw those shovel passes in there. They ran the ball pretty darn well. And it was amazing to me that Fickner decided even with as good an offensive line I have as I have in Connor

and Samuels and we have to do it differently. I mean he abandoned all their power running game stuff that didn't done over the years and did all this trickeration stuff, so that that's going to be interesting. And you know, at some point they're gonna have to throw the football down the football field. They didn't have to do it Monday night, but at some point they're gonna have to, uh, you know, take the training wheels off Mason Rudolph and let them ride a two wheeler for a little while.

Does any Bengals position group get a decent grade at this point? I mean, you know the game number one, you say, man, the defensive line. Wow. But you know they've got I think one sack in the last eight quarters. You know that that part of it. And it's not just sacks, it's tackle for loss. It's the consistent pressure that they put on Seattle, put on Seattle's running game, put on Seattle's passing game. You know that hasn't that

hasn't really materialized since now there have been injuries. They have three guys down, you know, the last last couple of games, they've only get seven defensive linemen in the rotation. So they have been limping a little bit there. But you know, the linebacker group is the one that people attacking with these misdirections and making them run you know, uh, and getting them in space and trying to make them

miss in space and those kinds of things. So, you know, the linebacker group, I don't know if you it's defensively, you know, I can't give any group wide. Receivers would probably be the closest group in my mind offensively the offensive line, and you just can't give them any kind of a passing grade after the Pittsburgh fiascou So, yeah, that's that's that's part of the problem is the reason

they haven't won a football game. They don't have any position group that every single game has competed at, you know, the highest level that you have to compete at. Three touchdowns and eleven red zone trips for the season. That's unbelievable. What's the biggest problem in the red zone? You know,

not not running the football. I think when when the field compresses, um, it's harder to find holes, you know, in coverage a lot of times, and you do have to have some sort of a presence in the running game to tighten the linebackers even more so to the line of scrims to create some kind of cavity, you know. And and right now, um, the linebackers aren't feeling like they have to creep up and crawl up there. So you know, they're just and then they're they're they're making mistakes,

you know, they're they're having protection problems. Um, you know, they're just just not executing. Again, it's they're just sputtering, stammering. Um. They have not had one red zone possession that you know, say from the seventeen yard line. They ran three really good cris plays were like, wow, that was that was impressive. The three plays they ran inside the twenty there that led to that touchdown, you know, one set up another

and they finished it off with this. It's just been so piecemeal and so like you know, and I know, they spend a lot of time on situational football. I mean, they spent a lot of time on red zone preparation. And last year the one thing they did do well is they were third in the NFL seventy one conversion percentage and touchdown on the red zone. Not so much to start off this season for sure, And and not only you know, not scoring touchdowns. Two of the three

red zone possessions against Pittsburgh. Nothing Squad Douche. You know, you fumbled the ball in a sack they were covering, and thrown interception on fourth down from the twelve yardline I think it was or sixteen yardline, whatever it was. I mean, just trying to make a play. Those are those are desperation scenarios there. That's that's that's tough. Laugh. The Arizona card those are coming to town on Sunday.

They were three and thirteen last year, earning the number one pick in the NFL Draft, and they used it on Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Kyler Murray out of Oklahoma. He has five ten that would have been unheard of a few years ago. What are the Bengals going to see from Kyler Murray and the Cardinals offense on Sunday? Well, I think five ten might be when he's on his

tippy toes. I mean, he's a generous five to ten And hopefully what Kyler Murray is going to see from the Bengals, there's a lot of people in his space, you know, I mean, that's what they have to do. His shotgun is a little bit deeper than most. He wants to get that separation, kind of like Russell Wilson that they have that longer shotgun deal in Seattle, and I think he's right now aspires to be where Russell Wilson is. I think Kyler Murray is even a little

bit quicker than Russell Wilson. I'm not saying is clever at this stage of his career, but he has a very accurate thrown on him like Russell Wilson as well. So I think that the Bengals got a good dress rehearsal quote as such by how they contain Russell Wilson. But this is going to be a different looking offense than Seattle put out there. Cliff Kingsbury's going to run his air raid stuff that he did at Texas Tech, and it's going to have a lot more sizzle to it.

It's not going to be lining up and say I'm going to out muscle you and you know I'm better than you. He's going to have some dipsy do to it. Because trickerations in missdirections killing the Bengals right now. Lap the Bengals allowed eight sacks on Monday Night in Pittsburgh, and now the Cardinals are coming to town on Sunday, featuring the duo of Chandler Jones and Terrell Suggs. Jones has had ten plus sacks each of the last four years. Terrell Suggs is about to turn thirty seven, but he

still gets after the quarterback. He leads the Cardinals with three and a half so far this year. How did the Bengals neutralize the pass rush this week? Yeah, Sugs has three and a half, Jones has three. Pretty good out of that duo. And then don't sleep on a guy named Zach Allen, this kid from Boston College, third round guy. He brings it. He brings the pass rush as well. So yeah, the Bengals are going to have to do a much better job obviously in their one

on one matchups than it did in Pittsburgh. I think the biggest way to neutralize the pass rush is to play with the lead. You know, you get down you know two three scores in the National Football League, and these guys are just pinning your air's back and no regard for the run whatsoever. I can tell you that is brutal to try to get done. You know, pass rush drill in practice when you're going one on one and they have all this space to operate in. That's what it feels like, you know, in a game, it

feels like one on one pass rush. They have all the advantage. You really don't have any you know, maybe a drawer or a screen to maybe keep them off balance a little bit, but that is it's like trying to block a great player with one hand tied behind your back when you're in that situation. So you're gonna have to, you know, make sure that it is a competitive game or you're playing with a lead, because you don't want to be you know, a score or two

behind trying to pass block these guys. It's it's it's danger written all over that last thing. I feel like we need to practice this because it's been a while. When the Bengals make the play that essentially clinches the win, I'm going to say coffin nails and you are going to say bam, bamm. Let's hope that lap is belting that out around four o'clock 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 tight end, who got a three year contract extension in the off season, earning him a lot of money and a second appearance on this segment. Time for an updated edition of fun Facts with Bengals tight end CJ Uzama. We did one of these your rookie year, and I asked you what CJ stands for, because it's not in your bio, it's not in your Wikipedia page. You told me Christopher James. But then also that your birth name is Christopher Michael

Charles Timpson Junior. Before you were adopted by the Uzamas. When did they come into your life? So it was my step dad and he came into my life when I was seven and he's been my dad my entire life. I called him dad, So it was only right that, um, you know, I incorporated the last name and so you know my name and change my name up and kind of show him the respect that, you know, I think that he deserves. It seems like you are extremely close

to your folks. You're an only child. I'm the father of an only child, so I kind of identify with what that's like. Yeah, it's for them, they probably want to be closer now, but yeah, I am close with them. I mean, I am their only kids, so they, I'm sure, like you, tried to keep their my best interests at heart, and I was just saying small things, sending me a text every day, so I am very close with them. For sure. You were a high school quarterback. Why did

you switch to tight end? I think mainly colleges were going back and forth saying that I might play quarterback, but they might switch me. And Auburn came in and said, hey, look, we'd just going to be straight up with you. You're not going to play quarterback here. I just appreciated them being straightforward, and I knew that I wasn't the best quarterback per se, but I could be able to do other things, so I kind of switched positions and press as sister. I guess from then, did any big time

schools recruit you as a quarterback? Northwestern, I know for sure said quarterback and that would be it, And it was cold, and so now I really appreciated that, and so I talked to them a little bit um and but I just kind of wanted to sit down South. The year before you got to Auburn, they won the national championship with Cam Newton at quarterback. You were being recruited that year. I assume did you attend games that

year and did you have any interaction with Cam? So, actually, I had committed before that, so I went to every home game. I missed. I left early one game and it was when they were playing LSU. Other than that, I was at every home game. I got to witness all those amazing games, all those high schooling games. I got to watch Cam and it was awesome. Yeah. So I did get to meet them and kind of have a little relationship with him, and it was awesome. I mean, coming in I was like, dude, this is no way

this guy plays quarterback. Is a dinosaur. That's what one of the coaches to calm dinosaur that don't make them like him anymore. So, um, now, I was honestly for a high school kid to be able to watch that. Coming into a college, I'm like, man, this is this is amazing, this is this is easy. We could do this every every year. So it was it was truly a unique experience. We're doing an updated round of fun Facts with c j Uzama. Your sophomore year at Auburn, you didn't win a game in the SEC and the

coaching staff got whacked. The next year, you make it to the National Championship game. How was that possible? I think just you know, having a fresh mindset coming in, um, you know, you we have a whole new coaching staff, whole new strength and conditioning staff, whole new you know, we just kind of put everything beside us behind us

and kind of came together as a team. It was a tied, a snit team that had that had my four years at Auburn, and the leaders really stepped up and kind of just propelled us and put us in a position to win games late in the game. But then you know also early on and doing our bubble drills and doing our two days and things like that. So it was really like the competitive edge of all right, we're not we we know what we went through last year and that's not going to ever happen ever again,

Like we can't let that happen. So again. That was I mean, I think one of the biggest turnarounds in college football history of I can't imagine they're being a bigger one, but it was. That was sick. It was awesome. In that year, you played in one of the most memorable games in college football history, the Iron Bowl game against Alabama with a one hundred nine yard return of a miss field goal to win the game, the famous kick six. What are your most vivid memories of that day?

Of that day? So it's crazy, actually, So I'm running on the field. I think I'm the only one who's running towards the pile, also looking back and looking back to make sures no penalties. Everyone else is just sprinting to this pile, and I'm like, wait, they're better not They're better than not. Be a blog him back a holding I'm looking back. I'm like, yes, get onto the pile. And I had hurt my shoulder that game, so I kind of get off immediately, like this is stupid. Get up.

I start running back and I get to the you know, maybe the thirty five, and I see one of my high school teammates who played for Alabama, and so I gave him a lfe little hug, which was cool to be able to see him. And through all the madness, I look up and there's a wave of students and the only thing I'm thinking is there's no way I'm getting back to the locker room. I'm gonna be out here for the longest time, and people got stuck out there. Chris Davis ended up getting stuck out there for like

an hour and a half. Like I made the return,

guy who made the return could not get back. And through all the madness, I saw my roommate Tate O'Connor, who is I'm you know, I'm his son's godfather, which was awesome, and all this madness, and my other roommate, Trey Mason, the running back at the time, comes up hugs me, so we all three got a picture, which is probably the more memorable thing of that night, just because through all these eighty thousand people on the field, we on each other and got to get a picture.

So it was it was awesome to me. One of the things that makes sports great is irrational sports hatred. How you feel about your rival. Do you have irrational sports hatred for Alabama? I have more so that towards Georgia. Being from Georgia, I I don't like Alabama, you know, like I But at the same time, I know so many of their players growing up and and and um, you know, even in high school we played against Alabama teams. Being from Georgia, we played against Georgia Alabama all the time.

You know, my high school did, so I knew a lot of their players. But Georgia, I just growing up in Georgia. All I heard I went to north Wind that we were the Bulldogs. I saw a red, black and white and just bulldog all day every day, and I I, there is, there is, and it cannot I

cannot describe it. So um, when we won uh the week before against you, to me, even though obviously the kicksakes most unbelievable play I think personally in college history, a week before to me meant more because I was like, I get to go home for the next year and I will not hear any Georgia fans say one word to me and I'm gonna love it. So yeah, Georgia

to me is more irrational hate. Good to know you moved to Nashville in the off season, so you're about halfway between where you grew up and where you work now in Cincinnati obviously the home of the country music scene and a lot of music in general. Do you get into that kind of stuff when you're living in Nashville in the off season. I do a little bit. I like all music. I've I said don't like country music, but I listened to country music more than probably a

lot of other people. I do enjoy it. I like going out. I don't really go to Broadway. Broadway is a very it's very hectic and crazy, but I like going to like more low key out of you know, just random spots where local music is being played. And I don't know a few people that are in the music industry, so we go to a lot of concerts and again it's more low key, it's not too crazy, not too hectic. I love it. I love music. Music to me is aside from football, family and God is

my life. I think that it just changes my mood or helps my mood or whatever it is. There's something that music can bring it to my life. So I couldn't be happier that I moved to Nashville and have that influence. Last thing, you're a soccer fanatic. Chelsea is your team They won the Premier League title in twenty seventeen. My team Leicester City one in twenty sixteen. What is your Chelsea routine? Do you get together with supporters to watch matches when you can, do you put on the jersey?

What is your routine. But I will say I watch almost every Chelsea match. It's kind of tough. There's a website that I use that no longer is working. So but I have two friends. One's name is DeAndre water Um. He went to Arrival High school of mine and work really close friends. And another kid went to Auburn with me. And we'll snapchat each other Wills. Wills and I will snapchat each other and white when the game begins. DeAndre and I will talk to each other after the match.

And obviously I follow CHELSEAFC in the USA, so there's a Twitter that I follow that I kind of contact every now and then as well. And now I depends. I can't. I can't wear clothes something like a jersey, I should say sometimes because I start sweating. I don't want I don't want to sweat in my jersey. You know,

it's a nice kid. I want to make sure it stays stays such, So um, I put on something else probably, but um, I'll sit down and there's no phones down unless they score, and then I'll tweet something maybe, but phones down and I am in it for forty five minutes or forty seven minutes at a time and nobody, my girlfriend, my parents. It does not matter what's going on. I'm blocked in to the match of the entire time. Have you made it there yet? I have not. I've

not made it there yet. I'm going I'm playing after the season. Appreciate your time as always, best of luck. I always enjoy it. Thank you very much. We want to remind you that you can join us and meet Bengals players at our on location radio shows. This week. On Wednesday night from six to eight, will be at Logo Sports Bar at eighty nine fifty four Blue Ash Road for the Bengals Game Plan Show. An all time Bengals great will join us in the first hour as

David Fulcher will be our on location guest. Then, on Friday afternoon from three to six, Lap and Wayne box Miller will be at Buffalo Wings and Rings in Crestview Hills, Kentucky for the Bengals pep Rally Show, with a current player joining in the final hour. 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, Stitch, your Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean, and if you have a minute, please 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 m