Bengals Booth Podcast: Wonderful Christmas Time

My one on one player interview this week is actually with a former player who started on the Bengals nineteen eighty eight Super Bowl team, and in our know the post segment, we'll find out what's gone wrong in Houston this year from one of the best NFL reporters out there, John McLean from the Houston Chronicle. The Bengals Booth Podcast

is presented by bud Light Seltzer. Refresh the game, and here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcasts delivered like Santa right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on Itune, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify,

or Podbean. It's the greatest thing since Darlene Love's annual Christmas appearance on Late Night with David Letterman for nearly every year from nineteen eighty six to twenty fourteen, when the show ended, the Great Darlene Love performed her signature song Christmas Baby, Please Come Home on David Letterman's final

late night show each year before Christmas. It was always fantastic and helped raise the profile of a nineteen sixties singing great who had never received the stardom she deserved. Even though the Letterman Show has been off the air for nearly six years, the tradition continues as Darlene belts out the song each year on the view. You can

check it out by searching for Darlene Love on YouTube. Now, let's get to football, beginning with my podcast partner Dave Lapham, and we start our chat by discussing Monday's win over the suddenly reeling Pittsburgh Steelers. Think about, all right, Bengals have to bring their A game, Pittsburgh maybe bring their C game. And that's what happened. I mean, Pittsburgh did not play well, but part of that was because the Bengals were bringing their A game. I mean, honestly, they suffocated.

The suffocating, stifling defense was the Bengals, not the Pittsburgh Steelers. Cincinnati Bengals ran the football, They controlled tempo. They frustrated the Pittsburgh Steelers by running the football the way they did. The quarterback run package a big part of it. They didn't turn the football over Cincinnati Pittsburgh did. Pittsburgh basically flipped the script. They ran the ball down your throat, they didn't make mistakes, and they played suffocating defense. Check

check check flipped the script on Pittsburgh win. So I was thinking about this today. Lap. The Bengals are three and one with two games to go. Right now, they've got the third pick in next year's draft. But if you really go back and look at the early portion of the season before Joe Burrow got hurt. In Week one, they threw a game winning touchdown pass with seven seconds to go. AJ Green got called for a tikie tack

offensive fast interference. Randy Bullock missed a chip shot field goal to four's overtime due to cramping in the calves. They're want a wink, yeah, Calfman. Week three, seven point lead, less than thirty seconds to go, Carson Wentz scrambles for a game tying touchdown. There goes another win. Game ends in an overtime tie. Week six, twenty one nothing second quarter in Indianapolis, still up by six in the fourth quarter,

wound up losing to the Colts. Week seven, three different leads in the fourth quarter, including a touchdown pass with one oh six to go. They allowed Baker Mayfield to beat them with a TD pass of his own with eleven seconds left. Week eleven, they go up and down the field in Washington Borough. Had twenty one pass completions in the first half, they had the lead in the third quarter when he blew out his knee. That's five games that could have been wins, really should have been wins.

I mean, those are what just happened type of losses. The Bengals probably should be eight and six with two games to go. Yeah, and that's that would be the best case if they win all the game, all those games. If they only win three of them, they still have six wins. I mean, you know, it's it's not as desperate or as desolate a seasons as it sounds. And in all of those wins, I mean, in the Philadelphia game, if Carlos Dunlap had played against the Eagles like he's

playing for the Seattle Seahawks. Carson Wentz does not score, Carlos Dunlap makes a play on him. Carlos Dunlap, he was in his mode where it's not that he couldn't play, he wouldn't play, and they that whole thing blew up and fell apart. But in that game, I can point to a handful of plays where it's like, come on, man, just give some kind of effort. And I'm not going to put that loss just on that play with Carlos Dunlap. But but you know, there were other players in that

football game, obviously. But I mean, if in fact, he had stepped up to his ability in the fourth quarter in any of those close games when he was still with the team defensively, they'd have handful more wins potentially. And again it's not all Carlos Dunlap, obviously, I mean, that would be ridiculous, that would be you know, small, to try to put it on a guy that's not even here anymore. But he was a factor while he was here. And because honestly, when you look at the

overall effort, it's not that they're not trying. It's that they weren't playing smart enough football, you know, And you can't when you're when you're in the situation that since then any Bengals are in, you have very little margin for error. You can't put yourself on your schedule so often and turning the ball over, turn it over, turn it over. I mean we're like a bakery. We're making

turnovers every Sunday, you know, and giving them to everybody. Now, the two games that they won, big games that they won it at Paul Brown Stadium against two playoff teams right now, playoff worthy teams, Tennessee in Pittsburgh. No giveaways, no turnovers, if you keep care of the football and then you can get it into the fourth quarter with a chance to win a football game and give your defense a chance to do their thing. And they get

takeaways against Tennessee and they get takeaways against Pittsburgh. So I mean, that's that's that's the formula. But the formula has been you know, just basically taken apart too many times by giving the football away. It just just can't do it. That's the Lottom line. So you know, it also is great about Monday's victory. It's caused major ajita in Pittsburgh. I mean the sky is falling from eleven

and zero to eleven and three. They were hoping and expecting to clinch the AFC North title on Monday night in Cincinnati. Well now it's a real question mark whether they are going to hold off the Cleveland Browns. Cleveland is one game behind. Pittsburgh has to play the Colts this week ten and four, then the Browns in the regular season finale. Cleveland plays the Jets this week. I don't see New York winning back to back games after beating the Rams last week. I want to listen to

something that I heard on Sports Center. This is former Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back Ryan Clark talking to host Kenny Maine after the game on Monday night. All Right, Pittsburgh was the last unbeaten team. Now they've done threes three? How far in your eyes have they fallen? When you look at the whole AFC playoffs which aren't too far away, Kenny, who can they beat? You tell me who can they beat? Can they beat the Coats? No? Right? Can they beat

the Tennessee Titans in the playoffs? No? Can they beat the Cleveland Browns. We know they can't beat the Kansas City Chiefs. We know they can't beat the Buffalo Bills. We look at this team play offense. They are playing at such a deficit each game. There is no way that they'll win. Tonight, they were getting stopped behind the line. You couldn't convert third and one, fourth and one. The

past game was any fishing. There weren't their drops, whether there were the incompletions, the passes that were blown up interceptions by the Cincinnati Bengals. They made the Cincinnati Bengals look like an All Pro Bowled caliber defense and they haven't been that all year. And so you think when you're playing the Kansas City Chiefs, the Buffalo Bills, the Cleveland brown some of the better teams in the AFC, that the Pittsburgh Steelers can win. They were eleven and old,

and that was fool's goal. You're now losing players on defense, you have injuries on offense, and you have a quarterback that can't seem to make the right decision when that is what you're expecting him to do as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. As an alum, i Am said, because I don't see them winning the game in the playoffs. So to summarize, you're not high on the Pittsburgh Steelers right now. Kenny Mayne putting the perfect capra on that so is

a Bengals fan. How great is it to hear the Steelers and their fans and their former players just absolutely depressed for a change after losing a game at Paul Brown Stadium? How does it feel? You know, it's like ashen was a great description. And I think rol Aids had a record sales week and it wasn't because of overeating pre holiday food. It's because of the Steelers. I mean, they're just trying to lessen that hard burn. I mean, it's it really is. It is amazing to watch the

Pittsburgh Steelers. Though offensively Dan, they're they're very hard to recognize. I mean, they look nothing like they looked before. It's it's almost like an impostor out there. And you know, now people are saying that the Steelers, it's Ben's done there. They're not going to extend Ben. They're not going to ask him. He's got forty some odd million dollar cap hit next year. What they normally do with them is they say Okay, we'll extend you and you know, lessen

the load. There, ll give you a little bonus money and help us give us some cap releaf. And now they're not doing that. They're not doing that with a quarterback like that. I mean, I love it. It's great. How does it feel? I mean, boy, welcome to the real world reality in the National football You can suck, can it? Honest? Question? Do they win again this year? Cults? This week, Brown's the week after that? They have clinched to playoff Berth. Not the way you're playing right now,

and not the way they're playing. And you think, all right, well they'll fix it. Well, I thought they'd try to run the ball against Buffalo. You know, you got to try to run the ball against Buffalo. No. I thought they try to definitely run the ball against the Cincinnati Bengals. Didn't do it against Buffalo. No. I mean, I guess they feel like they can't run the football. I mean Connor obviously is a factor in the equation. But I'll tell you, I mean running back is Snell. He was

far from their worst problem. They had much bigger problems than that dude. That dude ran hard. I thought i'd take him and my team is running back any day. That wasn't the issue. Wasn't the issue that Snell was in the backfield of o Connor. That's a bunch of crap. If that's what they're saying, that's that's ridiculous, um. And I'll tell you that three Pro bowlers in that offensive line, former Pro bowl getting up there in years. Yeah, they

ain't playing at that level anymore. And again, you know we talked about it before. Losson gives Villain a wave of fits, six quarterback hits in the quarterback sack, rolling a wave of the six fight inch bend at the waist tower of nonpower right now. I mean he got he got torched around the corner quite a few times by Carl Lawson. The Bengals finally beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the guy that led them to victory was Ryan Finley.

Statistically not exactly dazzling. He passed for eighty nine yards, completing seven passes in the game. He did run for forty seven yards, including a twenty three yard touchdown run, but hey, the guy got the job done. Here's wide receiver T Higgins on Ryan Finley's performance. You know, I feel like he was lay more confident. You know, you could tell he was running the ball, you know, really good, and you know he was just just calm during the

whole game, and that's what you wanted to use. Quarterback. Ryan Finley was moving on that touchdown run. Did you know he had those kind of wheels? No? I did not know he had those. That surprised me. So I mean, I'm glad. I'm glad it worked out, aren't we all? Ryan Finleys timed at four point six five and the forty yard dash when he was as Stella college student at NSE States, So he is faster, I think than

most people realize. Now, the question is going into this week's game against Houston, does he start again or if Brandon Allen's right knee is okay, is he back in the starting lineup? What do you think? I think if Brandon Allen's right knee is okay, Brandon Allen starts, I think that they're limited offensively to what they can do with Ryan Finley, and I think it worked defensively. They allowed it to happen. They allowed it to work if the defense wasn't playing the way they were playing, and

the Bengals had to throw the football more. Might have been a little more exposure, but the whole thing, I mean, every you talk about complimentary football, the ying and yang of that football game, the defense lifting up the offense, the offense responding, you know, and when the defense gave him opportunity with short fields, the offense capitalized two touchdowns in the field goal, seventeen points on the three takeaways. Those are the kind of things that you have to

do to pull off an upset like they did. But I do think two things. I think the Texans have to prepare for both quarterbacks. Now they're gonna have to spend some time on the zone read and all that sort of thing. So and also it's going to make them be a lot more assignment sound defensively instead of backside defensive and crashing and pulling Giovanni Bernard down from behind.

They're gonna have to stay home a little bit, particularly when Finley's a quarterback, because they've shown they're going to do that, so now they have to spend time in preparing for it. They have to make sure their real assignment sound, so they might not take as many chance as defensively. So your running gab with Giovanni Bernard may be better at the point of attack without extra clutter because of other things that you have to concern yourself

with in terms of reads defensively. So there's some positive. There's some positive trickle down to the next week when an opponent springs something on the league, like the Bengals did with Finley with a run package Nobody, I mean Pittsburgh. Tomlin was like, I gotta give those guys credit. And during the course of the game it evolved. Finley said that Zach Taylor during the game the touchdown run of twenty three yards, they never practiced that that run that

Giovanni Bernard ran. They never practiced him pulling it and having a read option from the thing. And during the course of the game, Zach saw what was going on. He said, look, if the backside guy crashed and Highsmith crashed, chased it down the line, scrims v crashes, pull it and run. That was just an adjustment, you know, And they're getting he's getting killed about not making adjustments in

game adjustments and all that sort of thing. That was a huge in game adjustment and it led to a huge touchdown in the beginning of the fourth quarter of twenty three yard John and Scamper. That was a big difference in the football game. So it's it's very interesting to see how Houston is going to handle it. But I do think that Brandon Allen, if healthy, will be the guy that they'll send out there. So they ran a one times last week against the Pittsburgh team that is,

you know, good at stopping the run. This week, they faced the Houston team that has given up two hundred and twelve yards to Derrick Henry one thirty eight to Clyde Edwards a layer one thirty, Dalvin Cook one twenty six, Nick Chubb one oh nine, James Conner one oh four Kareem Hunt in the same game where Chubb went for one twenty six. They're not stopping anybody. They're not one hundred and fifty and a half yards a game. They're allowing thirty first in the league five yards to carry.

They're allowing thirty second in the league. Did last teams are efficiently pounding the football on them. The Bengals rush for over one hundred and fifty yards against the Steelers, you know, and forty some out of them courtesy the quarterback. But I think that they are going to feature. No matter who the quarterback is, the Bengals are going to come out and say to the offensive line, who I think is going to return intact to play in this

football game. I think for the first time they'll they'll come off a good performance with an offensive line that is physically and mentally intact to try to do it again. That's the key. You don't just do it once in a while, do it again and again and again and see if they can control that Houston Texan front seven and Giovanni Bernard in company and p Running and everybody

involved get after him. You'd after him, run the ball down their throat and make it easy for the quarterback and keep the defense off the football field against Watson. Sean Watson's having an incredible year. Number one in the NFL in yards per pass attempt, number one in yards per pass completion. He is second in yardage to Patrick Mahomes. Here's Bengals head coach Zach Taylor on the Texans starting QB. Just watching some of the highlight reels of this guy,

or he's unbelievable. He's one of the best players in the league. There's no question about that. Every play is alive until you see someone get him on the ground or the ball hits the turf, because he just extends a lot of plays that you don't think there's any way they can be extended. And and really the other person I see that does that as Lamar Jackson's well, so all hands on deck for this guy. Tremendous playmaker. We got a ton of respect for him. You know,

it'll be a great challenge for a defense. Named a Pro Bowler earlier this week, third time in his four year NFL career, he took Houston to the playoffs each of the last two years, won a playoff game last year with a tremendous individual performance against the Buffalo Bills, and now the team has kind of collapsed around him. But he is having an incredible year. He is, I mean,

he's a one man show. And Sam Hubbard earlier today was talking about how hard it is to get him on the ground six two two fifteen, and he's got unusual strength for somebody that size. He's not a little quarterback, but he's not a big one either, but he has got unbelievable overall body strength and explosive this I've heard him referred to as magician, escape artist, fearless, resourceful, creative, He's all of it. I mean, his college coach called

him Michael Jordan. I mean that's about as high praise as you can get. And Dan, he's one of these guys where he extends and creates and ultimately the play that he comes up with ends up being a better play than what was called. You know, He's one of those kind of guys. And they will live with his sacks. They'll live with the forty four sacks because he makes so many big plays in doing that. The only thing that if he starts throwing a lot of interceptions, they'll

probably say time out, let's let's revisit this. But man on his career at this point, ninety four touchdowns he's accounted for seventy nine of them are touchdown passes, and then he's had touchdowns rushing obviously to twenty seven interceptions. Ninety four touchdowns he's accounted for seventy nine by air to just twenty twenty seven interceptions. That ratio they're going to continue to live with and let him play the

way he's playing. I think the Barras would like a do over back in the twenty seventeen draft, they trade it up to take Mitchell Trubisky number two overall, and later in that draft the Chiefs took Patrick Mahomes. Two picks after that, the Texans took to Shaun Watson. Man. I'm telling you, yeah, I think they'd want to do over a redo safe pet right. The Bengals have seen to Shaun Watson once before. That was his first NFL start.

It was Week two of his rookie year Thursday Night Football, and he led Houston to a victory at Paul Brown Stadium. He wasn't individually spectacular. He passed for one hundred and twenty five yards in that game. Do you know Atkins sacked him a couple of times, but he made one big play and that was enough of forty nine yard touchdown run in a thirteen to nine win. That was back in the early portion of the twenty seventeen season when the Bengals could not score a touchdown. Yeah, and

that touchdown run was are you kidding me, Serpentine? Yeah, nobody's gonna get him. I mean he was like it was a forty nine yard touchdown run, but he probably ran seventy yards back. I mean he was zigzag and serpentine is a good word. I mean, it was an incredible effort by him. The Texans started the year on four and whacked Bill O'Brien and interim coach Romeo Crennell is the oldest head coach in NFL his three he's seventy three. George Allis and Marv Levy coached until they

were seventy two. Romeo's first head coaching job was in Cleveland from two thousand and five to two thousand and eight, when the Bengals, Steelers, and Ravens all one Division titles. It's similar to what the Bengals are facing right now. So here is Crenell on the challenge of trying to rebuild in a division where the other three teams are loaded. Well, it's hard to compete versus an experience team who have pieces in place, who have guys who play well together,

you know. And now you're got a young team and young talent, and you're trying to figure out what they can do well. And but you've got to play the games to try to figure that out, and so you end up taking a whipping a little bit, you know, while that goes on and so through that education that they have to get. You know, like the third year we were able to win ten games in the third year and almost made the playoffs. So it takes time.

It just won't happen overnight unless you have the pieces in place already and then you can kind of build on that. But if you have to add the pieces, it takes time to add the pieces you need to be competitive. Romeo Cornell does not have a great head coaching record, basically two wins for every or two losses for every win, thirty two wins sixty one losses, but as he mentioned, he did have a ten win season in Cleveland back in two thousand and seven and they

did not go to the playoffs despite going ten and six. Yeah, one year we went ten and four and didn't make the playoffs. It was there, there weren't as many wildcard teams and the Pittsburgh Steelers went twelve and two, the Houston Oilers won eleven and three. We went ten and four and stayed home. I mean, what was the loss that year that You're like, how did we lose that game? Was there one or not? Necessarily? Now I think you know, we pretty much pretty much lost it. Lost games that

you know, it wasn't I get to really good teams. Yeah, there was no there was no guarantee. We didn't. We didn't. We didn't lose to like the one in eight Browns or anything like that. You know, nothing like that took place. But and that's that's probably you know, Pittsburgh and Tennessee probably right now scratching their heads of saying, what happened? What happened when we went to Cincinnati? What happened we did we? Uh? Did we have something that we shouldn't

have had in terms of food or drink? What happened up there? So Romeo Cornell's got this record of sorts oldest head coach in NFL history. It might not last very long. Pete Carroll's sixty nine years old. It looks forty five. Yeah, he's a they say young. He is a young sixty nine years old Romeo Cornell. Watch him walk, He looks his age. I mean, he's I understand what he's going through. I'm pushing that seven oh, that's seven

oh is coming sooner than I want. And boys, some some mornings and oil can you got to lubricate man, You got to loop up the joints. Man, it's there. It's no joke. Old age is not fun. It's happening to me in the fifties. It's awful. Bill Belichick is sixty eight. So you got a couple of guys and Carol and Belichick that could very easily surpass seventy three as head coaches if they choose to. They're obviously both still very much at the top of their games, very

much still there. I mean, and there's a little bit of a connection in history all three of them. Romerio Cornell and Bill Belichick have a history, and Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick do. I mean, it's it's interesting that coaching tree. When the when the really prime fruit falls, somebody picks it up, scoops it up, and it's going to cherish it for a long time. So the Texans are in the market for a new GM and a

new head coach. They've already started interviewing candidates. And I was listening to a kind of a team sponsored podcast about the Texans earlier today. They are pumping that up heavily as their kind of sales message to the fans. A new day is coming, a new year is coming. We'll have a new coach. We'll have a new GM. It's very interesting to hear a team just like openly advertise the fact that you know, we've cleaned house and

you know the new era is about to begin. And I'll tell you, if I'm a general manager or a head coach, my biggest asset, everybody wants to work with Deshaun Watson. If you have that, If you have that as a centerpiece, as a starting point, as a foundation piece, man,

you've got something. And you know that's the interesting thing Dan With Joe Burrow, you know two things, two boxes that as we talk about Zach Taylor and what's gone on with the football team, Mike Brown is going to think two things and it's going to be pretty early, pretty high in the list. Has he lost control of the football team? And I think based on the performance that he saw going into Pittsburgh, He's going to think he hasn't really lost control of the football team. He

hasn't really heard. I don't think anything internally that would suggest that he's lost control. And what's good for Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow couldn't have been more effusive in his praise of Zach Taylor. So if Joe Burrow is going to line up right behind Zach Taylor and push and support him,

that's a that's a big piece. So you know, a couple of boxes might be checked in Zach's favorite I'm not saying they're the only boxes, but I'm saying those are a couple of boxes as you're going through the the evaluation process and considering what to do, those are significant boxes. Yeah, if Joe Burrow was being honest and wasn't just being nice in front of the cameras, and I have no reason to think that, you know, that

wasn't the case. I think he was being a genuine That is a pretty important voice to have in your corner, it really is. I mean, I think he really liked working with with all of them. I think he really liked working with Zach, Bryan Callahan, Dan Pitcher. I think he really liked the trio of former quarterbacks and then Joe Burrow put in their heads together and coming up with game plans and they listened to him and his feelings and thoughts and opinions. He really liked it. He

really liked that whole process. Now, time for this week's one on one player interview, and this week it's a former player. I had a chance to discuss the current team with a member of the nineteen eighty eight Super Bowl squad who is currently working as an analyst for Pro Football Focus. When the Bengals celebrated their fiftieth season back in twenty seventeen, he was named the fortieth best

retired player in franchise history. A starting safety on the nineteen eighty eight Super Bowl team, the great Solomon Wilcot. It's always great to speak, Sally. I want to start with a guy on this year's team that plays your old position, Jesse Bates. Where does Jesse Bates rank among NFL safeties these days? Well, in our database, according to Pro Football Focus or PF as we had now been rebranded now, he ranks among the top safeties in the

National Football League, particularly when it comes to coverage. Had started off the season very well, but still has maintained his position among the top five safeties in the National Football League. We're talking about guys like Justin Simmons, guys like Minca Fitzpatrick, Jamal Adams. I mean, that's pretty good company. And so he continues to make plays on the ball. His ability to help the defense in pass coverage and lock him down receivers tight ends. That's where he really

tends to send himself apart. Love to get in, love to see him give a few more interceptions, but he still comes up with the football time and time again. Let's stick with a secondary and another guy having a very solid season, Will Jackson. What do you think of Will's play? You know, Will, after last year having a

down year, this year he's been much better. We love to see him get back to some of the numbers we saw him early in his career, particularly when it comes to locking down the top receivers weekend and week out. But still he's a really good cornerback and ranking the top half of corners around the National Football League. I still believe he could be a top ten shut down corner weekend and week out. We are visiting with Solomon Wilcox.

When the Bengals drafted Joe Burrow, you tweeted the following, Sally, good times are coming to the Queen City. So I know how you feel about Joe. What did you think of his play his rookie year? You know, I was very much impressed, and I think a lot of us

who from Afar. We analyzed the game, We critiqued the game to the eighth degree, and we were very much, i think pleasantly surprised with the fact that he could handle blitz protection, that he was a born leader, that every single guy on the football team and in the huddle and in the locker room sort of defers to him.

And the fact that if you take a look at the ten games that he played, he had him at every single game right up until the end, I think, with the exception of maybe the Pittsburgh Steeler in the Baltimore Ravens game. But the fact that you could see he tilt the competitive balance in the Bengals favor just by being under center and in the huddle and being the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback. He averaged about forty one pass

attempts per game. I don't know that we've ever seen a rookie throw the ball as much to start a career without going to training camp or preseason in the history of our league. So the arrow was pointing up for Joe Burrow. You referenced his leadership. You played with Boomers, Sias and one of the great leaders in franchise history. Do you see some of those qualities in Joe very much so. And I always said that that's where I believe Boomer sias had sat himself apart from all the

other quarterbacks around the National Football League. He played at a time when there was some great ones. There was Elway, there was Marino, there was Montana, But I'd take Boomer Siasen. I know what kind of leader he was. He was a guy that wouldn't back down, and he was the guy that everyone in the locker room with instantly follow And you could see that from the moment Joe Burrow arrived at Paul Brown Stadium, he was the guy in the room. Everyone knew he was the guy in the room.

There's no questions, no doubts about it. And then when he stepped onto the football field without a lot of work, without a lot of lead time, no training camp, no preseason, the fact that he was able to dive into the deep end of the pool and still help this team improve in every single facet of the offense. I think it tells you what kind of player he can be. We're approaching the end of the season. What should the

Bengals prioritize this offseason? I think you prioritize one thing, what's best for Joe Burrow, because what's best for Joe Burrow is what's best for the football team. What's best for Joe Burrow is gonna be what's best for the organization because I believe the wins will follow. If you improve the offensive line and you protect him. Not only does he play better, your running game gets better, your receiver get better. The overall productivity of the offense is

going to get better. If you go out and get an extra receiver, an extra running back, or extra tackle are tied in. You get better around the quarterback that is Joe Burrow, and now you're going to see his production spiked to the next level. You also can help a quarterback by improving defense, right, so you don't have to go out and score five six touchdowns a game, but your defense is getting stops putting Joe Burrow in the short field after getting turnovers. So I think that's

how you have to look at it. Everything you do is how do we play around Joe Burrow? How do we improve around him and help him be better. That's what the coachs did around Peyton Manning when he was a former first overall pick and you can see the ten win seasons just begin to stack up. The final road game of the year is coming up this week as the Bengals head to Houston. The Texans had been

much better since they made their coaching change. They started out oh and four, they've been close to five hundred. Sense what are a couple of things the Bengals would need to do to beat Houston in Houston this week? Well, first of all, you got to get pressure on Deshaun Watts. I think he is one of the top and most prolific quarterbacks in the National Football League. This guy is going to be a winner, but you have to put

pressure on him. You have to contain him in the pocket because he can break containment and he'll run while all over the field. He'll make plays. And then you have to be able to block JJ Watt on the other side. And that's two of the areas where the Bengals have struggled. One is getting pressure on the opposing quarterback. The other is protecting our quarterback from the opponent's best pass rusher. So you've got to be able to get after Deshaun Watson and you better block JJ Watt. Great

stuff is always Sally, appreciate the time. Happy holidays and thanks for joining us. Dan, Happy holidays to you and everyone with the Cincinnati Bengals. Thank you for having me. Those Booth podcast is presented by Bud Light Seltzer. It's light and refreshing with a hint of fruit flavor. Now

time for this week's Know the Faux Segment. Last year, the Houston Texans won their division, beat the Buffalo Bills in the first ground of the playoffs, and led the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs twenty four nothing in the second quarter before getting mahomes and losing that playoff game. Now Houston is four and ten and in the market for a new GM and a new head coach. John McLean from the Houston Chronicle joined Lapping Me on the Bengals Game Plan Show this week and I asked him

what happened. First of all, go back to the last game the last season against the Titans. The Texans have been behind in double figures six consecutive games, including two playoff games, and when they did it the first four games this year and lost all four, they fired Bill O'Brien. Now, in fairness to the Texans, they have played the toughest live seen in forty five years of covering the NFL.

Five teams they played are in first place. The teams they played at a combined record of Mike plus forty five. I've never seen anything like it. But still they have not played well. The only player who's been consistently good is Deshaun Watson. He's having the best season of this career. He's on the page to set personal best in every statest dig he leads the league and average per attempt.

Even though they traded DeAndre Hopkins, will Fuller suspended the last five games, Randall Cobbs injured the last five games. Don't matter who they put out there with him, he continues to play well. Now. One of the things interesting about that is their offensive line returned intact. It was in put it last year, and everybody had high hopes for this line coming back. They were ninth and rushing

last year, so they were really good. Past protection or run blotting was awful, and then in the last three games the past protection has been off. The two Shawn Watson creates some sacks because he holds the ball, but he also gets away from a lot of sacks. Kind of like Coodini. It's people are amazed the way he seems to have eyes in the back of his head, and that comes from pocket awareness. But he's now been sacked forty times and that's just been a bad habit.

And they don't have injury excuses up front like they do on their defense, where seven starters six have been injured and one Bradley Roby, was suspended. But last year they were nineteen rushing, this year their thirty second. They are one point four yards a game for being the worst rushing team in team history. That would be their expansion year two thousand and two. And then I wrote a column today they are on the verge of shattering

the team record for fewest turnovers forced. They have eight. If they don't get to eleven, they're going to have the second fewest since nineteen eighty. Last year they had twenty two. Year before, they had twenty nine. Romeo Canell's first season here as defensive coordinator, they had a team record thirty four. How many teams have a defensive linement tide for the team league with intersetting right, that would be J. J. Watt was one. They have three interceptions,

also lay Glow and one other thing. This team is on the pace to be worst against the run in franchise history. So they can't run, they can't stop the run, they can't force turnovers. Other than that, they're fine. Well that's a trifecta. There, can't run, can't stop the runner, and can't take take the ball away. Amen, let me ask you a question about O'Brien. In a two year period, traded Clowney traded Hopkins a year apart. Didn't get a first round pick in either of those trades, which to

me is almost mind boggling. Not one first rounder. Is that the biggest reason he's gone into There are other reasons or what are the reasons that O'Brien is no longer there? Well, that's nothing to do with clowning. You know, Clowney had done squats since he was traded from here, the guy that got Jacob Martin one of the three players, he's had more sacks than Clowney. Coli'S having more surgery now he's out for the year. But what the Hopkins thing.

Watson has played better without Hopkins, and he spread the ball around no matter who they put on the field, utilize his tight ends more. But where they miss Hopkins is down inside the ten yard line where they control him the ball. Now, Will Fuller was on a pace to have more yards and touchdowns and a better average per carry than Hopkins ever had when he got suspended, and that should have hurt should have hurt Watson, But I think the only place he's been hurt is when

they get close to the goal line. Defenses do not have to worry about them trying to run the ball inside the five yard line. They know it's going to be a pass or it's going to be a Watson RPO or watch and draw. And when you can't run inside the five, teams get to play a whole totally different defense, which is the only thing they don't do in their passing game is score more in close to the goal line. O' brien was fired because this organization at the point they were owing four, you can put

up the debut played. You know this. You guys know this. A coach can scream and yell at people consistently if you're winning. But when you scream and yell at other coaches and players and media and people in the office and you're losing, it goes in one ear and out the other and it teams to infuriate them, and some other than them lash out, and it was just a bad atmosphere over there. People didn't want to come to work. The organization was divided. So when they fired him, this

says it all. They fired him over for they elevated the popular Romeo Mail the interim coach. He was associate head coach, and J. J. Watt put on Twitter a picture of the roof and NRG Stadium open and sunshine shining on the no comment, And then I asked him the next day when we had him on the zoom, I said, were you insinuating that the sun is shining it NRG Stadium again? And he basically said, you guys can read into it whatever you want, but we knew

what that meant. And it was felt like that universally. It's like a dark cloud was lifted. What's O'Brian doing these days? Nobody's heard about him or from him. What's he doing it? Do you know anything what he's doing? Yeah, he's on the NFL radio every Friday doing a show with Pat Kirwin and Jim Miller. Okay, I think you. I don't know if he does predictions rundown or what. He walked away with a lot millions of dollars with two years left on his contract, and I think that

Bill will get another job. He won four divisions and six years one two playoff games. People here are saying, oh, man, now to hire Marvin Lewis. I said, Bill o brian won two more playoffs games than he did and won more divisions than he did. No, you don't want Marvin Lewis. And even though he has a totally different personality, but O'Brien wants to coach. Some people think you'd be better in college where you can get away with that kind

of dictatorship personality. He did a great job at Kent State, went into the worst situation in college football history and did a really good job. But his heart was always in the NFL. And people say, well, is he going to be an offensive coordinator? To give him another chance to be a head coach. Well, because of his personality, he would have to work for a really strong head

coach like he used to Bill Belichick. But now that he has a taste to coaching for going into the seventh year, and I don't know that he wants to do that. A couple more questions are John McClain in the Houston Chronicle, you mentioned Marvin Lewis. Houston is already conducting a coaching search for after this season. It came out publicly that the Jim Caldwell got an interview. I don't know if that was the first. What do you

think Houston is looking for? And although you don't sound like you would approve of Marvin Lewis being hired, do you think there's a shot that he would get an interview. Well, he might get an interview, but they're not good like Jim. The Texans will never say this. I think they're going to hire an offensive coordinator, somebody like Eric b Enemy, Arthur Smith a Tennessee, or defensive coordinator like Matt Eberklos from Indianapolis or Robert Salo from San Francisco was here

for six years under Gary qbac. They're not going to give the head coach of files say on personnel like O'Brien had the last two years. They're done with that. It's going to go back to the way it was with Charlie Cashley and Doc Capers, Rick Smith and Gary Kubiak and Rake Smith and O'Brien for a couple of years before O'Brien was al Is trying to wrestle away personnel from him and he finally got it. So they're interviewing guys that are able to interview right now. Lewis Riddick,

their own personnel director, Matt Bazzard, Jim Caldwell. He can interview, and I think it's smart to interview as many as you can. Learn as much as you can about the structure of an organization in case you don't know or here good ideas. Check out what are the people think about your players, your schemes. I would interview as many as I can. I don't think you can get too many opinions. And there's competition out there as well. But what the Texans have two offers and Sean Watson good receivers,

they'll resign Will Fuller. They have two offense and tackles. They need a running back on offense, and then they need an overhaul on defense. Final question, John, will really appreciate your carbon time. It's going to be defense. Defense be a two parter for you. J J. Watt how close is he to one? He was Defensive Player of the Year and the linebacker crew. I always thought the linebackers were damned good down there in Houston, you know,

led by Merciless, and I know you've had injuries. McKinney, I thought, hell of a player against the run. What's happened to the defense overall? And then I guess, more specifically, how was JJ watt plan? Two years ago? They were eleven and five. They gave up eighty two yards a game rushing. They were third in the league against the run. They had Clowney playing opposite Watt. Clowney's not a great pass rusher, but he's great against the run. And he

had nine sids a year. He's never had double digits. They had Tyring mad to you at safety. They didn't pay him. The Chiefs dead O'Brien got mad, didn't think Clowney was serious enough about football, and they weren't going to give him one hundred million. They were already playing Watt one hundred million. In retrospect, Clowney probably should have taken their seventy five million, because you're never going to

make that. And so DJ reader there no stackle, as you guys know that he to state here for the money they used to resign. Whitney merciless. Merciless like most of the players on this defense and a lot on offense have not played as well this year as last year for whatever reason, and so that's why they need the overall of the defense. Why is still their best defensive player. They're good at inside linebacker for next season,

they're good at safety. They need at least two corners, two outside linebackers, another nose tackle like DJ Reader, and maybe another defensive end. What is not the pass rusher he used to be? He can still get pressured, but without anybody else on their defensive line who's a legitimate NFL starter like Reader and Clowney. He's playing with guys

that are be really good backups. He gets double teamed on every play, and he's got five sacks, and he's not the pass rusher he was two years ago playing with those other guys when he had sixteen. You're in the car on Christmas Day afternoon, driving two or from a family gift ex change, join us for a special Christmas Day edition of the Bengals pep Rally Show from three to six on ESPN fifteen thirty. In addition to discussing the Houston game will feature some of this year's

best fun facts interviews. That's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to you by bud Light Seltzer. Refresh the game. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe, and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment that helps more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde. Merry Christmas, thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth Podcast.