Bengals Booth Podcast: Waiting On The World To Change

of the season on Monday Night in Pittsburgh. Coming up, I'll spend about twenty minutes with my broadcast partner Dave Lapham, as we discussed the emergence of Autumn Tate at wide receiver, how Billy Price did and his first started left guard, why the Steelers are off to an Owen three start, and since we're heading to Pittsburgh, we'll find out what lap thinks of the steel Cities legendary Fromante Brothers Sandwich.

We'll also hear from Sports Illustrated's Andy Benoit on this episode of the pod of the many things written about Zach Taylor after the Bengals hired him, I thought Andy wrote the best story. He spent time at Zach's house office and in the meeting rooms at Paul Brown Stadium, and you'll hear what Andy thinks of Zach Taylor and his chances of being a successful NFL head coach. And in this week's no the faux segment. We'll get the lowdown on the Steelers from pregame radio host and local

columnist Tim Bens. 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 Marty Brenneman. What do you consider to be the greatest streak in

baseball history? Joe Tomaggio's fifty six game hitting streak, Cal Ripken streak of playing in two thousand, six hundred and thirty two consecutive games, or maybe it's Derek Jeter's streak of dating nothing but perfect tens in his twenty seasons as shortstop for the New York Yankees. All impressive streaks, especially Jeters, but none of them is the correct answer. The greatest streak in baseball history is forty six years

and approximately seven thousand games old. It is Marty Brenneman's streak of never blowing a big call as the voice of the Reds. Take it from somebody who got completely fooled by Andy Dalton Zone read fake to Joe Mixon last Sunday, that streak is nothing short of miraculous. As a play by play announcer of live sporting events, you work without an e racer or a backspace key. You

get one chance to get the moment right. For Marty Brenneman, whether it was the final out of the World Series, a perfect game by Tom Browning, or the Jay Bruce walk off homer that clinched a division title back in two ten, there was never a stumble, never an incorrect name, never a botch detail. The words and the tone have

always been perfect. Marty Brenneman is one of the most important people in Red's history, as he has provided the soundtrack to summer throughout the state for more than four decades. He was the voice of the Big Red Machine and the Wire to Wire World Series champs, and has helped entertain us through the inevitable lousy seasons as well. Perhaps the biggest thing that makes Marty unique is that he is the most candid home team announcer in the history

of broadcasting. If the Reds are screwing up, Marty isn't afraid to say so. But that's not the only thing that makes him an all time great. He is effortlessly entertaining, funny, opinionated, quick to poke, funded himself, and an absolute masterd making his broadcasting partners sound good. And I speak from experience, having had the privilege of calling games with both Marty and the late Joe Knoxhall. This podcast is being posted on the same day that Marty concludes his Hall of

Fame broadcasting career. So here's to a friend, mentor, and broadcasting hero, the truly one of a kind, Marty Brennaman. Now let's get to football. Is I bring in my broadcast partner Dave Lapham to look back at last week's four point lost to Buffalo and look ahead the Monday night football between two teams still looking for their first win. The O and three start is obviously disappointing, but there

are some guys that have been playing well. Give me a guy on each side of the ball that stands out to you, I think for the exact same reasons in terms of no matter of the situation, haven't had many leads, but when they're in the lead, they play hard, and when they're trailing by you know, twenty four thirty one points, they're still playing hard. Tyler Boyd for the offense, Andy Dalton can count on him. The guy competes no matter what the situation. He's gonna he's gonna work hard

to get open. He's tough as there is, tough as nails, catches everything. Andy Dalton knows that Tyler Boyd's gonna give him every ounce of effort. And on the defensive side of it, Sam Harvard the same way, you know when you watch Hubbard play, can't tell if the teams ahead or behind. Playing with his hair on fire, running every play down, his pursuit angles are really good and his effort to get there unbelievably good and leads the team

in sacks. Disruptive player, and I think every single game after the football game, even though all three of them been defeats, two of them pretty close defeats, they can look in the mirror and say, Yep, gave everything I had emptied. The tank couldn't have done more physically out there, just didn't work out for us. At halftime of last week's game in Buffalo, I think both of us were

thinking the same thing, along with probably every Bengals fan watching. Yikes, this team's not very good, but they managed to turn around in the second half and at least come away with something positive from that game. I don't think I've seen in quite a while, particularly in the Bengals organizations. They've probably been cases of it around the National Football League, but a team that was so subpar in the first half,

I mean, couldn't get out of their own way. Uh didn't generate a first down until less than two minutes to go in the first half, oh for five on third down. Andy Dalton's first completion at the end of the play was a fumble. I mean, that's the exercise and futility if you'd ever seen or heard a one and and to regroup a little bit like they did at halftime and realize that, you know, we're our biggest problem. Buffalo's defense is good, and they are They're very good.

I mean they're they're well put together, and the players understand every nuance of it, and they understand how to take things away from the opposition offense. You know, they're right in line mentally with with what the coaches are trying to ask them to do. So that's a good defensive unit. But when they came out and in the second half and and put three straight scores on the board, three straight possessions and run a seventeen point total up there and take a lead. It was it was not stunning,

but it was surprising. You know that what we're were these guys to go from to go from the outhouse, not to the penthouse, but closer to the penthouse than you were. I mean, you were definitely in the outhouse, there's no question about that. For them to you know, pull themselves up individually and collectively by the bootstraps like

they did, I thought, I thought was pretty impressive. You know. Unfortunately, the defense, I honestly think that the number of snaps they took in the first half had a cumulative effect on them. They took forty six snaps in the first half. In the fourth quarter, you know, that's that's when you're tired. You're not only physically tired, your mind is a little bit tired. And you know, they made made a big assignment error on a forty nine yard completion to the

tight end Knox that killed them. Lap. Let's talk about wide receiver autumn Tate, who had the best game of his young career last week. Six catches for eighty eight yards against the Bills in the first two games, Damian Willis was getting those snaps. Last week they went to Autumn Tate. What I think you get healthy. You know, Autumn Tate had been fighting that foot ankle injury that that he sustained or nagasus was a knee injury that

he sustained during training camp. And you know he's rehabbing, you know, real aggressively, but he just wasn't able to make the dance, you know, in the first first couple of weeks. So I think that, you know, he just keeps working hard. I mean, I'd like everything about his work ethic and he's got he brings a lot to

the table. I mean six to five between two twenty five and two hundred and thirty pounds, long arms, big, huge catching radius, broad shoulders, huge frame, easy target to see in the middle of field, and he looks like a tight end to a quarterback when he's running routes in the middle of the football field. And he's not he's not going to run by you necessarily, you know, straight line speed, but he has way above average short space quickness for a guy his size, so he gets

in and out of cuts well. He can make people miss, you know, initially when they're trying to contact him after the catch, and because of his length and his size, he's a contested catch, you know, maniac. I mean, it's not a fifty fifty ball in his mind. It's one hundred zero ball in his mind. Every time it's up for grabs, he's going to get the thing. Big vice, grip hands. You know two things you want in a receiver. We've talked about a Lockdan Tyler Boyd gives it and

this kid does too. Is toughness and you know, good hands. The thing that impressed me most is he got screwed. No other way to put it. He got shafted on a holding call that nullified at ninety two yard touchdown return on a kickoff. He could have gone in the tank. A lot of guys would you know, man let that linger. You know, because of that play, you know, the next half dozen times you're targeted, it doesn't work out because your mind's messed up. He didn't do any of that

that impressed me as a young player. Put it aside. You know, I know I didn't do what he said I did. I'm going to put it aside and see if I can make plays other ways to help the team win the football game, because that play would have been a huge spark and it could have taken away unnecessarily, and he was the guy that was, you know, pointed the finger at and so doing it. Didn't do anything wrong really, So sometimes that's life in the NFL with

the Zebras. After three weeks, John Ross is third in the NFL and heaving yards, but number one in drops according to Pro Football Focus, five of them so far. He had a fumble last week against Buffalo. Is this just the John Ross experience, as we have kind of jokingly referred to it, You got to live with a few drops in order to get the big plays. I mean, his good has been exceptionally good, and as bad has

been frustratingly bad as it always is, you know. I mean it's like easy throws or boom right there in the hands and you know, not drop him. And yeah, I was on the overthrow from Andy Dalton to John Ross. My first reaction was, why don't you dive, you know, full extension, go for the football. Now I watched the trajectory of the throw from Andy and that you can't dive. You gotta put some marunder it and let him run

underneath it. And you know, if he did dive, he wouldn't have been able to get his hands up high enough to catch in anyway, because it was more of a direct line show. I mean, Andy was trying to just put it on him from that distance and the margin Farr is minimal at that point, and the overthrow him by yard if he just puts a little air in it, because you can't overthrow John Ross. It's like,

how do you overthrow John Ross? Put a little more error, and I think he would have been able to run underneath that thing, and that that's a you know, that's a touchdown right there, that that the Bengals didn't take full advantage of. So U you know, those kind of things can can be frustrating. And you know, five five drops a drop at least one drop every game. So it's not you know, something that is coming and going.

I mean, it's it's there. And you know, if I know the fans are crossing their fingers hoping every time it's thrown to him, he's gonna make a play. If his quarterback starts thinking that and the coaches start thinking that, you know, pretty soon as like man, do I throw it to him or not? You can't have those kind of thoughts. You just have to gun it and cut it loose. He just needs to uh. And I thought that the opposite of Odd and Tate one aud and

Tate faced the adversity of the holding call. He never wavered. I thought John Ross kind of checked out for a little while. I mean, he just wasn't, you know, he let it bother him for too long a period of time. You just have to have, you know, selective amnesia. Put it aside, move on. You can't let one mistake turn into not even being available for a period of time. You got to get yourself right back into the game.

You can't mentally say, oh, man, I can't believe I did that, and you know, pout and whine about it. You know, internally just can't do it. You just have to be the mental toughness that you know that Zach's talking about. You gotta come right back, you know, like he did when when he dropped the ball and then has a fifty yard touchdown pass the very next play and it makes a big play to make up for the drop. I mean, that's what you have to do. And in this case. I thought he'd let it linger

too long. I'm going to save this recording the next time I play golf, because nobody goes into the tank after a double bogie like Dan or what I'm telling you. My recovery skills are not great on the course. Let's talk about the offensive line. How did they do as a whole, and how did Billy Price do, in particular get his first studied left guard. Yeah, I respect the job that Billy Price did. I'll start with that one.

You know, the thing when something happens to a you know, a highly decorated player coming out of college, you know, everybody's all American in first round pick to play a center for the Bengals, and you lose that job, and then, you know, instead of moaning and pouting and grousing about it and putting your chin on your chest, he basically handled it pretty darn well. You know, he said all the right things. That's one thing, But then do all

the right things. Make sure you're working hard, make sure you're trying to overcome the deficiencies that cost you, you know, that starting position. And I do think that he's still not right physically. I still think he's got a little bit of a foot problem. I truly believe that. And you know it's it's not the Liz Frank, it's the planet face Siatis stuff. Liz Frank was last year, Planet face Siatis this year, and those things can hang on. I mean, I've had it, you know, not because the

distance running. I know you've had it from distance running, not me, but I've had but I've had plant of facey itis and man, it's nasty. Depending on the severity of it, it can be very nasty. So you know the fact that Billy worked hard physically and mentally even more so to be ready for an opportunity because it's some time. At some point, you know it's going to come. Somebody's gonna get nicked up in the interior of the offensive line and he's gonna have to step in and

them not miss a beat. And unfortunately it was Michael Jordan that went down with the knee injury. Not severe. You know, I think he'll be able to play this week. But Billy went in there and acquitted himself. Well. I thought he did. Thought he played played a solid football game. And I think up and down the line of scrimmage, I thought they all did you know, there was one

false start. Andre had a false start. So in two loud, boisterous stadium's toughest, you know, amongst the toughest in the NFL. There a silent staff count system that they installed was impeccable, you know. And and in the communication again, Trey Hopkins communicating calls really well. They picked up things from Andy Dalton they needed to pick up. So I thought the operation was, you know, pretty pretty darn efficient. And I didn't think that that the offensive line was the big

reason that they weren't in SYNK, you know. I thought it was other reasons that they weren't in SYNK. And I thought the offensive line pretty much from the entire game played at the same level of consistency. And that's that's what you want. Like we're talking with John Ross, you know, man to be impeccable one snap and putrid another. You just can't have that rise and fall. Your graft

can't be North Pole South Pole. You know, it's going to be a steady The coaches have to know what they can expect every single snap from he's a football player. Speaking of Trey Hopkins, he remains the highest graded player on the team. According to Pro Football Focus, he's no longer number one among centers, but he is still number four, which is obviously very good. On defense. Their highest graded player after three weeks is Andrew Billings, number eleven among

interior defensive lineman. It's telling they don't have anybody in the top ten after three weeks. But he had a good game against Buffalo. Five tackles, including two for losses. He did. I thought that he his penetration was you know, was consistent. You know. Yeah, I thought he was winning at a very high level. There's no question about it. Um. And I think the big thing is now he's healthy.

When he had that knee injury, such a big body, you know, and he's not a real tall guy, so he's got he's got a lot of weight packed on a you know, not a real long frame, and when you have a knee injury in that regard, I thought it really hurt his lateral movement, you know. I thought I thought he could still go ahead and pet you know, straight ahead and penetrate kind of thing, but then to stop and redirect it, that's where he was having difficulty.

Now he's got all that back where he can penetrate, he can move laterally, he's staying on his feet better. Um. You know, I think that now they're starting to see the Andrew Billions that when they draft him in the fourth round, they said, well, you know, we had him. He's great as a first round talent. You know, coming out of Baylor, he was a co defensive player of the Year in the Big Twelve. I mean, this guy was a player. And I think now they're starting to see,

you know, that type of player. You often talk about how the offensive line, you want the sum to be, you know, greater than the individual parts. How about the secondary Because I look at those guys individual and I'm thinking, all right, he's a decent player, he's a good player, he was an igh draft pick, etc. But that group as a whole has not played well, at least to my eyes, in the first three games. Yeah, I don't.

I don't think it's been up to up to standard that they the expectations they have of themselves, or their coaches have of them, or defensive coordinator Luana Rumo has of them. Um. I think that one of the bigger areas is inconsistent tackling, you know, I mean the when the edge when the edge is being captured, like it's being captured a lot of times the run support the run forces to be coming from that cornerback spot and uh, and it's not. It's not being you know, it's being

fulfilled from an assignment responsibility. So and when I know in the first in the first two games, I think it was eleven and eight tackles missed, nineteen tackles missed eight and the opener eleven in the second game or something like that, I know, I know against San Francisco there are eleven tackles missed Seattle, it wasn't that bad, but there are eleven tackles missed against against the San Francisco forty nine ers and a lot of them were

on that in that level, you know. So I think, yeah, it's in a perfect world, you have to have the two components. You have to have the pressure and in coverage. If you have both, you know you're in great shape. And good pressure will you know, lessen the burden on the back end. Great coverage can sometimes create sacks that you normally wouldn't expect to be there if a quarterback has to pull it down and start running around unless you're Josh Allen who fakes everybody out and throws them

all down the field. But I think I think there's room. There's room for growth, for sure, there's room for improvement on the back end. I think they can tighten things up big time. The Bengals head to Pittsburgh on Monday night and lap somebody sprayed a big old can of raid on the Killer Bees. Bell is gone, Brown is gone, Big Ben is injured. How good is the Steelers offense without those guys? Time for the Bengals defense to sting

the Steelers offense. Man, their numbers aren't very good. You know, who would have thought that they'd be thirtieth in the NFL and yards per game twenty sixth in yards per pass twenty ninth and rushing yards per game twenty fourth and rushing average twenty fifth and passing yards twenty seventh and passing average that is unsteelerlike, tied for twenty seventh and points scored. That's a different a different football team.

The thing is, though, Dan, as we know, you're as good as your guys up front in a lot of instant and the guys up front are still pretty good for the Pittsburgh Steels. They have three Pro bowlers. Pouncey has been a Pro Bowler, to Castro and Villaneueva. Sixty percent of their offensive line has been Pro Bowl participants, so you know that's something to work with. Um, they're all back. They signed Ramon Foster even though he's advanced

in years. They didn't want to break up the break up the band as such, and they're still operating, you know, I think pretty effective. They've only allowed four quarterback sacks, which is amongst the fewest in the National Football League. But their offensive line coaches in Denver and Mike Munchak, is as good as there is in the National Football League,

And in my mind that's that's a big difference. But when when those Killer Bees all lost their stingers or flew away, there's a ripple effects as a defense hasn't playing as well either. You know, the offense isn't holding up there under the bargain, so the defense has more pressure on them. They're more snaps out in the field, more exposure. So when the Killer Bees either died or flew away, really really hurt the football team in a

lot of ways. Lap In their last twenty games against Pittsburgh, the Bengals have not scored more than twenty one points one time. They've only won four out of those twenty games. Why does the Steelers defense always give Cincinnati so much trouble? I think that as an organization, they have a belief in the defensive scheme addict that they're running, and they run it very well, and they draft to fit that

defensive scheme. You know, they don't. They don't say, oh, this is a great player and we might be able to transition him into what we do. It's like, this guy is a solid player and does exactly what we need at this position or that position. Let's draft him and develop him. Many they've very rarely miss on, you know, somebody that they've targeted to fill a very very necessary role in that defensive structure. And you know it started

with Dick lebou. You know, the great Dick Lebau put together a package that was amazing and highlighted and accentuated the talents of his great defensive players, particularly the linebackers. I mean, Pittsburgh's had unbelievable linebackers for so long, amazing linebackers, and you know, Bush is the latest one they drafted. He's not quote in the starting lineup, but he's in

there on a lot of packages. And uh, you know, they've also had safeties like Troy Polamalo that was such unbelievable playmakers and they just traded for one, making Fitzpatrick who can fit that bill. So they've always been good. They have a defensive line in the middle, they have a linebacker, and they have a safety. We talk about in baseball you want to be strong catcher, shortstop, center field defensively, and they're strong up the middle defensively normally

with what they've done, and that's where it starts. They take take the middle of the field away from him, make you go to the outside in the running game and throwing the football, and that's that's been their their formula for success for a bunch of years. Let's talk about the Bengal Steelers rivalry. He has been spirited in a bad way in recent years. We've seen a lot of cheap shots. We've seen guys, you know, taken off the field unconscious, etc. Vontes Perfect isn't around anymore, Joey

Porter isn't around anymore. Do you think there is a reasonable chance that these two teams will will get after it without at crossing a line. Yeah, when you think about um, that that game in the playoffs, Um Vontes Perfect, Adam Jones, Joey Porter. The three prime figures in that in that drama are no longer with their respective football team.

So maybe with that turnover, um, you know maybe, but there's a lot of guys still on both teams that were part of that of that fracas, in the the ending of the fracas and everything that goes along with it. My my thing, one of my big keys this week is razor sharp mental focus and no no hidden agendas, no personal vendettasn't doing any good. It's past history. You gotta go win this football game on a snap by

snap basis period. You know, don't don't be like, yeah, this is for so and so that you knocked out out, This is for so and so who you knee, you wrecked or you know that that kind of stuff never ends up working out well for you. You know, playing football now now it can be part of your your overall you know, getting yourself adrenaline pump and getting ready for a game. You know all the pre pre but once the game starts, man, you still have you have to be. You know, I call it the controlled rage,

which is a delicate balance. You want to be able to pick the stadium up, but you want to be able to fulfill your assignments and not be out of your mind because you know, you're you know, adrenaline's pump is so of coursing through your veins and you're you're a wild man that didn't do anybody any good. You know you're gonna have unnecessary penalties, be a pre snap penalties because you're out of your mind and you're not focused or um you know, after the play, late hit,

whatever the case may be. Those are the kind of things you don't want to have. And in my mind, in the two things that have cost this football team dearly offensively staying on schedule, it's been penalties self destruction penalties defensively misdirection. Those are the if I had to pick one thing for each side of the football, that's what I would pick. And both of them require immense focus to rectify. You know, just you know you're gonna

you're gonna be in allowed place again. You've handled the noise and everything. It hasn't been false starts and those kind of things, but holding penalties, you know, sloppy hands, very opportune times. You know, you have to be real focused on that stuff and defensively and you Pittsburgh's gonna run misdirection. Everybody's gonna run misdirection. You're gonna see it once once the forty nine ers had the success they

had in week two. The other fourteen weeks remaining from there, everybody's going to do some of it, maybe not as much, but you're gonna see it until you stop it. You're gonna see it. So you better start sharpen your folks and getting your eyes right because everybody thinks that the Bengals defense man. All you have to do is get them running one way their eyes are fooled and misdirection the other way, and they can't get back to where

they need to be. Final thing, as we make our annual trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where do you stand on the Promante Brothers sandwich where basically they stick everything in between two pieces of Italian bread, The burger, the fries, the coleslaw, the whole bit stuffed inside those two pieces of bread. When it's freshly made and warm, I'm okay with it, but a cold greasy. I feel like I'm eating Crisco between They can usually give it to us

on the flight home, which is a lovely gesture. They try to tie the postgame flight home meal to whatever city you're in, which is a really cool concept. But it does tend to be a little chilly. Yeah, and at that point, I mean, forget the fries. I mean, there's nothing worse than like cold no cold fries that look like they have lard on him. You know, it's

like I'm going on that. But it is a nice gesture though, And I mean that is that is like, you know, the Montgomery and the greater is the skyline of Cincinnati that that sandwich is. That's Pittsburgh. Now, that's that's a slice of Pittsburgh. But when there's cold fries, they can keep the slice. One of our favorite guests on Bengals radio shows is Andy Benoit from Sports Illustrated and The MMQB. He's one of the best in the business at breaking down the tape and sharing what he

sees in an entertaining and informative way. Andy has written a couple of great stories about Zach Taylor. Last December, he wrote about Zach and his brother Press, who is an assistant coach with the Eagles, and the title of that story was the Brothers Taylor are Coaching's next big thing. Then this year during OTAs in June, and he spent twenty four hours behind the scenes with Zach and provided

a very illuminating look at the Bengals new head coach. Recently, Andy Benoit joined Dave Lapham and me to discuss Zach and his coaching staff. Well, I think very highly of him on a personal level, him and his brother. I'm big fans of both guys as people and as coaches. And one thing that really impresses me about Zach is and Sean McVay was the first that emphasized this to

me first. I mean, you notice that anyone notices it when he talked to him, but to hear McVay elocuted he has great emotional intelligence, and McVay talked about how good he was in meeting. There's a natural openness to the way everyone can communicate around him. There's no pretense at all with either of the Taylor brothers, and you feel like you can be vulnerable to make mistakes, which is in my opinion, that's a big deal. When you're trying to get creative minds in the room and thinking

about what's best to do for a football team. And that stood out when I spent time with him too. It's a group effort on that coaching staff, and Zach Taylor will never pretend that he knows something that he doesn't know. He wants to learn and the moment, and he doesn't care whose idea it is. He wants the best idea. Yeah. I mean that. That's one thing Andy that he mentioned to me early on. I said, you know, you obviously have not hired a bunch of yes men.

You have hired guys that have opinions. You want that? I mean, are you basically searching for that? He goes absolutely, I who want guys to look at me and nod in agreement with everything that I'm talking about. I remember hearing Cincinnati one of the best offenses ever put together, Sam White and Bruce Costlin battles fights, I mean, arguments over what to put in the game plan. They had different maybe ideas, and out of those, out of those

meetings came an unbelievable game plan. And I think you do have to have different opinions. There's no question about it. Right, absolutely, And one of the really cool things that I saw when I was what I was with them those well, people don't realize offensive staff in the NFL spend a lot of time trying to figure out ways to beat their defensive staff. These guys face each other all off season that these are some of the most competitive men

on the face of the planet. And as Bill Callahan once said to me, we want to beat the crap out of our own defensive coaches. Now you want those guys to succeed, but it's competitive. So Loui, Anna Rumo and Jack Taylor got in the conversation when I was there. Taylor's spend all day trying to figure out, Okay, here's what Lou's gonna do. We think he's gonna play this

route this way. They get into the practice and Anna Rumo's defense destroys the route and the plays at stack or whatever it was, and Taylor goes to Loui Anna Rumo afterwards and just said, hey, how did you know it was coming? Tell us because we need to know that. And to watch Anna Rubo break it down, and the aha look on Taylor's faith and the back and forth

that those two guys had. It's one of the really fun things about football because when you're learning that way, you're not just learning answers for the question you're addressing at that moment, and you're learning how to think together and think of other answers for questions that you don't even know exists yet. We are talking to Andy Benoy

from Sports Illustrated and the MMQB. He is a great Twitter follow at Andy Underscore Benoit b E n o I. Once again this year, Andy, the big question mark for the Bengals revolves around the offensive line. How much can a Sean mcvayh like offense might be a little bit different, but certainly that's a big part of it. How much can that type of offense help the offensive line? Well, that's a little bit of a chicken or an Ago question because when you had that offense, it's an outside

zone running scheme first and foremost. Just think elephants on parade, all these big men moving in unison off the snap, and in order to play that way, you have to have a certain threshold of athleticism up front. You don't need world beaters, but you you need guys who are a plus athlete that are nimble, that get off the ball,

and if you don't have that, you're gonna struggle. And if you're gonna struggle in your outside zone running game, then your play action game and therefore your passing game will struggle as well. And that's my big concern for Cincinnati. They have a good offensive line coach and Jim Turner. The system is a smart sound system, and it's still the NFL, and you have to have a thirtain level of talent ups front, and I don't know if they

have that taler not. They've had a lot of injuries so far, but you know, we'll find out through three games. One offensive lineman gets extremely high grades from the website Pro Football Focus, as Trey Hopkins has ranked fourth among centers. John Miller is tied for twentieth among guards who have been in there for at least fifty percent of their team snaps. Now time for this week's Know the Faux segment.

When the Bengals head to Pittsburgh on Monday night, it'll be the first time in fifteen years and ten months that they will face the Steelers without Ben Roethlisberger at quarterback. Over the first fifteen years of his career, big Ben missed twenty five starts, but none of them were against Cincinnati. He always played against the Bengals, and he almost always won, going twenty five and seven against Cincinnati, including a pair

of playoff wins. Instead of having big Ben back there, it'll be second year pro Mason Rudolph at quarterback, and there's an interesting storyline there. Last year, in the third round of the draft, Seattle had the seventy sixth pick, The Bengals had the seventy seventh, followed by Kansas City and then Pittsburgh. The Steelers made a trade, moving up three spots in order to take Rudolph, supposedly because they thought the Bengals were going to take the Oklahoma state quarterback.

I don't know if they're right, but I do know the Bengals were perfectly happy to get Sam Hubbard at number seventy seven. For a closer look at the Steelers, Tim Bens joined us on the Bengals Game Plan Show this week. He hosts the Steelers pregame show, and I started our conversation by asking him to describe the mood in Pittsburgh these days when the Killer Bees gone and

the team off to an O and three start. I think the fan base tried really, really hard to talk itself into everything would be fine with Levion Bell officially gone in Antonio Braun leaving, there was so much anger at those two guys as to how they treated the organization and Roethlisberger and the coach and the players in the way out the door that it galvanize the fan base to the point that maybe we kitted ourselves to believe that they could be okay with their absence. Unfortunately,

the negatives and manifested. Then it's just been exacerbated by think Ben's injury for sure. Let me ask a two part question your reference negatives. You know that you ended up kind of fooling yourselves a little bit with the effect that the killer bees going out the door by injury and other reasons. But what about the killer m Mike Munchak, the offensive line coach in his absence, is the offense some line playing as well? No, it isn't.

I think that the factors may be not limited to the fact that Munshack was a master technician and seeing a magic charge even with the ability to continue to

teach your veterans when their technique swift. Beyond that, I think he was a vocal component of how the run game should operate, and that is worth pattered at best here in Pittsburgh, just simple nuanced things like do you really want a perceived power back like James Connor speaking handoffs and the shotgun starting flat footed instead of running into the handoff and taking it from a quarterback that's

under center. You constantly want a run game that's kind of built for Levion' bell or a guy like James Conner. And if same Conner, is it getting it done that Mike munschac makes suggestment to better utilize deal and Samuels or Benny's Snell. I think Munshack's absence has really been

felt so far for those reasons. Daryl Drey, who was a wide receivers coach for the team that was beloved by his players guide during twenty Times and was replaced by Ray Sherman, and I think a lot of the things that have been said about how much he helped teach the young Waters Shivers, those intangible to have become tangibly obvious because they haven't taken a step without Antonio Brown. So I think that hurts. There's a mart wrong here,

no doubt. Steelers free game host Tim Benz is our guests, So no Bell, no Brown, no ben That helps explain some of the problems on offense. Why has the defense been so lousy? They'd given up four hundred plus in every game this season. Yeah, they did not take this scrudge that they thought they would in the middle third of the defense with better coverage from the safeties and linebackers.

I think there's one major blaring problem. Darrell Edmunds hasn't started to show that year two leap that try Paulamalu did when they were both kind of playing the same position that us try being tryer, but they had high hopes Stregmond not that degree, but better than what he's been. Also, I think the linebackers Devin Bush and Mark Barron haven't solved that big problem from last year. Vince Williams, who's

a run stuffer, has been hurt. Neither Bell nor Baron are great at getting off bocks of supporting the run, and they haven't been as a depth in coverage as the team at Hope when they acquired them to be a free agency in the draft. The Steelers have not fired a head coach since nineteen sixty eight. How safe is Mike Tomlin. Well, that's that's a great way to frame it, because you know what else they hasn't done in nineteen sixty seven is straight a first round draft

lace and they did that right. So you know, I'm glad if a certain astee's been thinking on some things, and I'm wondering if the coach is still in the hot seat, and that's why he endorsed the street form make it attraction to get up a first rounder. I think there is a built in excuse with Roofisberger being absent. I think that the Rooney's hate the idea of firing

the coach. I think they like Mike Comlin a lot, and I think unless it really goes bad, plays list of the judge mcdolphin, something like that, and he concerned about time as a coach without row with his further manifest before in our eyes, I think he'll be back. Yeah. I mean, he's never had a losing season as a head coach. I think it would be tough to cann them, you know, based on but you know, Pittsburgh's expectations are high.

They're seven and two at one point last year, wasn't it and didn't make Yeah yeah, seven two and one. So talking about Maker Fitzpatrick, first round pick for him, but you know, you want the Troy Paulamalo type, you know, playmaker on the back end. His first start against San Francisco, he has an interception on a deflection and uh and he also or he has an interception he and he also forces a fumble. So the last time that happened in the same game was two thousand and sixteen, William

Engage did it against the Colts. So in his first game he's involved with two turnovers. Is that what they expect out of make of Fitzpatrick? And is the fan base content with giving up that first round pick for Makeum Fitzpatrick. It's a tremendous question, and it's a tremendous debate. And the direct answer the question about fitspatric is yes, that's what they're anticipating and hoping for. He attacked the line of scrimmage with Blitz is a lot more than

what was anticipated last week. And that was a scheme specific thing. He told us to try to disrupt the Niners run game, which is what happened. At first, they adjust him and the Niners started to run better. But they do like him a lot, and they do think he can provide that. I thought it was a crystallization of the entire debate I who loved the player. If the Steelers had a chance to take Fitstatrick in the first round last year, I wish they could have done it.

I'm glad he's en. I don't, however, like the notion of giving up a first round pick to get him if this is in fact the first year the Steelers draft in the top ten or the top on eleven when they got Roethlisberger since two thousand and six. Because if you're drafting that high, as good as he is as a press team, if you're drafting that high, give me Roethlisberger's successor as a quarterback. Give me the next great pass rusher, you know, because Bud Dupree is gonna

leave it white outside linebacker. Get these replacements. Get a replacement for Joe Hayden mc corner. Get me a more impactful position if your team is drafted in that high. Bengals were interested in Devin Bush potentially in the draft this year, they took Jonah Williams. Unfortunately, he's hurt. He's got a labrom surgery done on a labrom ter. Devin Bush twenty nine tackles leads all rookies, sixth in the National Football League. He's recovered three fumbles in three games,

Number one in the National Football League. Are they happy with Bush? I noticed they don't list him as quote a starter, but he's playing a hell of a lot of snaps. Are they happy with him or is he got a lot of room to grow? Well, they should be listening to the starter now unless they're assuming that they're doing at the time to begin, because Vince Williams is hurt. So maybe it's just because they're not ruling out Williams that they don't list him that way. He's

getting plenty of snaps, especially with Williams. Joss is the last well for the most part, two games. Really, the way he's been playing a lot of those tackles are not to draw an analogy to last year's star and start a rookie life backer Darius Leonard did not Dennis Leonard tackles. The ball has fortunately bounced his way by virtue of good plays. Blacker guys to get those fourth tumbles, all those tackles are downfield, he's gonna be trouble getting

off the blocks. He hasn't looked quite at a depth in coverage as they've hoped. Um, you know, they didn't trust him initially to be the communicator with the green doubt, which forced him to put it on an outside learned doctor and T. J. Watt, which is the first time I've seen that happen in my years covering the team,

going back to two thousand and one. Now, and he's will guys, I mean he's he was lifted small, but he looked smaller than that, and he has had some trouble getting away from the lineman that have gotten out to the second level of him. Yeah, he's not when you look at him, I mean he looks the height of his safety, I mean he's not. I'm you about five ten, yeah, five ten. I think they list him

a little bit, always five ten and a half. If you look at the height comparisons between like him and She's Deer and James Barrier, they arn't all that different. But right I can tell you just being around him in the losh room like Farrier and she's here with bigger guys. Right, it doesn't feel like an inch and a half or two inches should make that much different, but it sure doesn't look that way, all right, thanks

to Tim Bens. And before we wrap this up, if you'll listen to this podcast before Friday afternoon at three, we invite you to come out and join us for the Bengals pep Rally show. We'll be at Buffalo Wings and Rings in Crestview Hills, Kentucky from three to six on Friday, and Tyler Eifford will join us for the final hour of that show. We'll have some giveaways too, but you have to be there in order to win. That's going to do it for this episode of the podcast.

If you haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe, and if you have a minute, please give it a rating or share a comment. Five star ratings help more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thank you for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast. H