Bengals Booth Podcast: You Learn

to the Bengals new long snapper cal Adamitas. Andrew Ceciliano from the NFL Network and the broadcast partner Dave Lapham shared their thoughts on the Bengals performance in week one, and finally, it's our No the Faux segment as we chat with Todd Archer, who covers the Cowboys for ESPN. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Alta Fiber future Proof Fiber Internet Elevate your connection with Alta Fiber, by Kettering Health, the official healthcare provider of the Bengals, by

Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals. They're free to play with tickets and side merchandise up for grabs and by pay Corps, the official HR software provider of the Bengals. And now here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since your kids milestones. Sixteen year old Sam Horde got his driver's license this week. It's equal

parts awesome and heartbreaking. It seems like one day you're reading your kid a nightly bedtime story and the next day you're tossing him the keys to the car. But seeing them reach their personal goals is great. I just wish I could stop the clock. Now. Let's get to this week's guests. There are two former Cowboys on the

Bengals roster, chitubeya Woogie and Lael Collins. Collins was released by the Cowboys for salary cap purposes in March with three years and roughly thirty million dollars left on his deal. He promptly signed a three year contract with the Bengals, where he's been reunited with his first offensive line coach in Dallas, Frank Pollock. I spoke to Collins on Wednesday about facing his former team. I'll see he's spent seven years with the Dallas Cowboys, the team that probably has

the largest following of any in professional sports. What was it like for you to play for quote unquote America's team? No, it was great. Um, you know, I'm I'm extremely thankful to this day, you know for everything that the Jones family has done for me up until this point. Um, you know, every everything that everybody's over there in that

organization has done for me. Um. You know, I started off with Frank there, you know, my rookie year and you know, you know, he grew him in to be a pro and and and it's it's good to have him here. So you know, I'm just extremely thankful to being Dallas the last seven years. What was Jerry Jones like as a boss? He was great, Um, you know,

a football guy. You know, he loves he loves his players, Um, and you know, just always was excited about football and you know, just try to do everything that he could to put the team in position to to go out and be their best. You were a cornerstone player on some great teams, but they ultimately did let you go. Does that add any fuel to the fire this week? Now? I think, you know, as far as letting me go, I think it was a mutual agreement. Thing more so than just you know, let me, let me go out

and win. But um, you know, like I said, you know, I'm just still just extremely thankful for everything that they've done for me, and and uh, you know, you know, for me, you know, it's os Ford and you know, focused on helping his team, you know, win and be the best team that we can be. We're chatting with LC L Collins. A couple of years ago, you were hurt and Dak Scott got hurt early in the year and missed most of the season. Now he's injured again.

What kind of an emotional blow do you think that is for your former teammates? You know, for him, you know, I know that's you know, it's got to be heartbreaking because I know how hard that guy works, I know how committed and dedicated he is to his craft, and such a tremendous leader and the leader of that team. You know, for me, I think as that team went, you know, he was always the guy that kind of helped that team stay together and really lead that team

by example. So, um, you know, I'm sure those guys are sad to see him. I mean I'm sad to see him, you know, go down you know this early in the season, because I know he's putting in a lot of work. Let's discuss the old line in week one. Experts that know more about old line play than I do say that despite the seven sacks, it was a pretty encouraging performance overall. How did you see it and how did you feel about your own performance? You know,

I felt like uh as a as a as a unit. Um, I think we did some great things, obviously, you know, as our first time playing together. But we just got to go out and continue to build on the things that you know, we started, and you know that's just better communicating, just learning to play faster with each other and making sure that we're always on the same page. You were largely matched up against t J Watt in Week one. Jonah Williams will largely be matched up against

Michael Parsons on Sunday. What advice can you give them, if any? You know, just go out and players game. Jone as a hell of a player. He's seen He's played against a lot of great players. You know, it's just another one, So just go out and take advantage of this opportunity. Last week was your first experience of playing with Joe Burrow, and it was quite an experience, a roller coaster ride. He overcame all those turnovers and

put you in position to win the game. What was it like to be in the huddle with all that's going on? It was awesome. You know, he's a guy that that doesn't get too hot, it doesn't get too low kind of stage, does a great job of stand neutral. Um. And you know, for for me being in a huddle with him, I think just watching the way he's able to direct the whole thing up, running the whole show,

be confident in what he what he's doing. Um, you know, communicate with the receivers, the bags and just get everybody on the same page. Um. He's a He's a hell of a player. He's going to be a really great player. When you've played as much NFL football as you've played, you probably think you've seen it all. Then you have a game like last week. Does it remind you just how crazy the game can be? Absolutely? I mean that's

the beauty of the sport. Though. You know, you got to continue to fight into that to that clock his zero and there's no more opportunities, So you know you want to strain to finish every block for guys up friend and give the guys with the ball, you know, all the opportunity that they that they need to go out there and help us win. So um, this week we look to improve and take the next step. Will you accidentally step into the wrong locker room on Sunday? Do you have do you need a map to get

to the visitor's side? Well, you know, I've never been to this side, so but I'm looking forward to going in there and us playing our best bars in union as a team, and you know, you know, just looking forward to really confident and everything that we're doing here and you know, believe in one and gonna lay it all on the line and leave it all on the field. Always great to visit with you. I appreciate your time. Best of luck this week. Appreciate you. Thank you man.

Joe Burrow through fifty three passes in the Bengal season opener, and according to Pro Football Focus, Collins did not give up a sack and only allowed one quarterback pressure. Else was obviously impressed by burrows ability to shake off four interceptions and lead the Bengals on what should have been a couple of game winning drives. Here's Dave Lapham on

Burrows result. See. I know a lot of people sour about, you know, Joe with the turnovers, and I can understand, But that game, the way he just put the first half away and executed in the second half, shows me his mental toughness, his resiliency, like you talk about and this guy I'm, like I said on our podcast after the game, I would get in a huddle with him to play anybody, anytime, anywhere, because that game should have been with five turnovers, should have been a three or

four score blowout. That says something about the Bengals defense, but it also says something about the way Joe turned things around. I'd say about halfway through the second quarter to the conclusion of the football game, I thought he executed pretty darn well. The first quarter and a half was tough, and I think part of it. As great as he is, I think he was like anxious to get anxious to show I'm back the heck would the

appendecked me, I'm back. I'm gonna I'm gonna prove to everybody that I'm better than where I was last year. And I think he got impatient because of that. I think he took chances he shouldn't have taken the first snap of the game. Looking at that again, I didn't get the I didn't watch the first series because I was working my way back to the to the booth from the pregame stuff. But they called a play where

every there are a bunch of short routes. They just wanted him to complete the ball, get the butterflies out, you know, see the ball completed, and get it, get in the rhythm, get going, and he just held the football, just held out of the football. He had multiple places to go with the ball and just held it. Get sacked. And then the second play he tries to put it in a spot where, wow, you got other options. You're you're trying, You're trying too hard, You're trying to do

too much. Looking at that, it's like they're they're giving you. They're giving you routes and options to make completions. Get confidence. And then when he threw it a spot where he shouldn't have and makeup Fitzpatrick jumped it. Then all of a sudden, now oh you start, even as great as you use, you start to question yourself a little bit. And it kinds of kind of snowballs. But when you get in that kind of situation, it's hard to put a stop to it and reverse it. And he did it.

He did it. That's not easy to do. And Joe Burrow did it and gave his chance, his team a chance to win win a football game. And with this guy at the helm, they're gonna win a lot of football games. I get no doubt in my mind. As I mentioned in my conversation with Collins, despite giving up seven sacks and eleven quarterback hits, the Bengals offensive line did not get terrible grades in Week one from PF and ESPN. Here's lap with his thoughts and how the

old line measured up. If you're room for improvement, hell yeah. But I was talking to Brian Callahan a little bit today and I asked him, I said, you know, seven sacks, eleven hits, everybody's going to blow up the offensive line, and as you know, it's always the case. Initially it's like, oh my god, they had to have sucked. You know, well, they probably gave up four of them, and that's not good enough. But you have the quarterback holding the ball. Like I said, in the first play of the game,

they had plenty of place to go held it. You have backs not solid enough and there blitz pick up responsibility or helping or whatever. You have receivers not getting open and now having to hold the football. So it's always a collective thing. But sack totals and quarterback hits are always going to fall on the offensive line. Can they play better, yes, But I'll tell you a guy who I thought was pretty damn salty, Kappa. If I bade a Kappa brought it a little bit, I thought,

I thought he uh. I thought he showed something of the line of Scrimmons, and I thought he showed a little edginess. And and you can see LC Collins too. I mean sustainability, consistency and sustainability of it. But he does some things that it's like, oh man, that's an athletic, powerful dude. Boy. You know. So I think they're gonna

be okay. I remember and when we talked on podcasts and things we've done that the offensive line having not played together at all in the preseason, and I thought Mike Tomlin had the quote of the week if you're

gonna if you're gonna box, you have to spar. They didn't spar They didn't hit in practice, They didn't play in any preseason games Pittsburgh did they when they put shoulder pads on, they took people to the ground, they hit, and they played their starters some in preseason games, so they were sparring, so they were more ready to hit. So my thing was, Okay, the offensive line, you have to see it live to get on the same level to pick up stunts and downhill blitzing and all that.

And I said, I remember saying a couple of times two different people that we talked to, they'll be better in the second half than they were in the first half. They'll be better at the end of September than they are at the beginning of September. And I thought they were light years better in the second half than they were in the first half. And Joe Burrow played better in the second half than the first half. Not a

coincidence that the offensive line played better. Joe felt a little more comfortable, the offensive line felt more comfortable with him. It's a reciprocal thing. So hopefully they played ninety four snaps counting penalty's one hundred snaps. Damn. They got up to speed quickly and how about Jamar Chase Dan played every one of them as a receiver. Are you kidding me? Ninety four snaps? You're running route, You're doing all that.

And this kid he worked with a track coach in the off season to work on his stamina and his conditioning. He lost five pounds unintentionally, but he worked his tail up. Man. He is a machine, and the Bengals had a couple of guys cramp up. This guy played every single snap and never even showed a sign of a Yeah, he is a martian. Maybe not a martian, but he's certainly

one of the best players in the NFL. Chase had ten catches for one hundred twenty nine yards despite not having t Higgins on the other side of the field for most of the game. Speaking of Chase, you've probably seen the photo by now that chose Jamar holding up one finger on each hand and directing that gesture towards Steelers safety Manka Fitzpatrick. I'm not condoning the gesture, but I will admit to being amused by Jamar's response when I asked him about the picture. This is a cool photo,

actually is. I'll come back again later. We'll be planning. So that's cool. I hope they don't make none too big of it, but it's fun to see. Thought you were done that to an aponent. Nah. Nah, they just the first time they caught me doing it, and I just I just keep scrolling and seeing a picture and I just keep laughing. So it's pretty funny to see.

So what did the national media think of the Bengals Week one performance where they lost the turnover battle five zip and still would have almost certainly won the game if not for an injury to long snapper Clark Harris. I caught up with the NFL Networks Andrew Ceciliano, who hosts The Red Zone Chattel on Direct TV. Andrew, you were in Cincinnati for a few days when the Bengals held their joint practices against the Rams, you called that preseason game. What takeaways did you come away with from

seeing the Bengals up close and personal? Dan, It was great to see you there as well, and it was great to be in Cincinnati. I hadn't been there in a while. I came away from that, and obviously we could talk about the Steeler game at a second. I came away from that very much believing that the Bengals were still an AFC contender, and as much as we talked about Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, and they did look great, I was there for that last Thursday.

The Bengals are still very much a force to be reckoned with. Now. I know we didn't see those guys on the field against the Rams that day, but the two days to joint practice, it was great to be able to stand there and watch Matthew Stafford in one field, and then after that snap, then you turn and you see Joe Burrow on the other field. I thought some of the deep shots they hit, you know, whether it's burrowed in Jamar Chase or just the work those two

teams got in. You came away saying, these two teams both have a legitimate shot at making into Glendale the Monday after the first NFL Sunday as the ultimate overreaction Monday. Half of the fan bases in the NFL right now are in panic mode. What was your reaction to the Bengals lost to the Steelers in Week one. I was stunned and how poorly they started. But but, but but if you look around the league, there were a lot of teams in the same boat. The Colts were down

two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to the Texans. The Saints were down two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to the Falcons. Joe Burrow and the Bengals were not the only team that came out of the gate slow. A lot of teams look like they had a lot of

rust to shake off. I still think they're fine. But as Mike McDaniels said last week before Week one, the Dolphins coach, he said about the Week one over reactions, he said, half the league or fans are going to either want to crown you or say that you suck. Either way, you have Week two, and the Bengals have a Week two against Cooper Rush and the Cowboys, which makes things a heck of a lot different. So you've been hosting Direct TV's Red Zone channel for eighteen years.

I believe the end of the one o'clock games last week was total mayhem. What was that like for you? I always say, Dan that we have a good show when we have good games. We had as great and early September twenty thirty minutes stretch as I can remember. We've had great stretches, always do. In December and January

when playoffs are on the line early. Yeah, you always get good games, but just the way those played out, your game and overtime with the missed kicks and you know, all those shots in the red zone before they tied the game, with the touchdown to Jamar Chase, the end of that game in Indie, the end of the game between the Saints and the Falcons. What else are we missing?

The Giants, Titans going for two. There was one other one as well, the Browns and the Panthers came down to the end and Cave you're kidding the fifty eight yard field goal. And then plus all of those games, your two overtime games bled into four twenty five kicks. You know they made those late kicks four twenty five so that you don't have that overlap, Well, we had the overlap. And then you have Mahomes driving down the field on the opening drive at Arizona to throw a

touchdown pass. So all of that together, I think, Look, we keep my mic open when we have more than one game on the screen, so I don't have a chance to catch my breath because you want to go back, and if they never killed my mike, I think my mic might have been opened for thirty five straight minutes, which we've never had. I needed a drink after it. I had to wait a couple hours though. Andrew Ceciliano is our guest. So the Bengals head to Dallas this week.

Were you surprised by how poorly the Cowboys played in Week one, even before Dak Prescott got hurt. Yeah, They're the only team that didn't score a touchdown this week of the thirty two, they were the only team that did not find the end zone. If you go back to last year, because it was Bucks Cowboys Week one last year as well, those two teams combined for like eight hundred yards and sixty points, so clearly it was

a bit different. I saw the Cowboys up close. We did a joint practice when they were in LA at the Cowboys and the Chargers a couple of weeks ago, and the big questions were O line and wide receiver, and the big questions are still O line and wide receiver. Tyler Smith kind of held his own, but he's not the only issue on that line and a wide receiver. Look, Michael Gallup is going to be okay. He started team

drills today Wednesday, this week. So I don't know that he's going to play, but Michael Gallup will eventually get there. James Washington maybe another month, who knows. Until then, Ceede Lamb's got to do more. And Mike McCarthy called him out a bit today and then said I don't call out players, but then he called out players and said, Ceedee Lamb has got to get used to being the number one. They have some issues. Cooper Rush is a

nice backup quarterback. I'm not trying to dump too much on Cooper Rush, but we said that day doing Chargers Chargers Cowboys joined practice that they need to go at least explore Jimmy Garoppolo long before the Niners kept decided to keep them. They have as suspect a backup quarterback situation as there is in the NFL, and now they have to tread water. I will defend Cooper Rush with this. He did in his only start previously last year against

the Vikings, played reasonably well, played reasonably well in that game. Right, So what must the Bengals do to take care of business against the Cowboys number two quarterback this week? I would say, you know, the easy way is take away the run and make Cooper Rush beat you. Because the passing game with Dak Prescott didn't do a thing. Last week. I thought Zeke when he had the Bowl look pretty good. You would have to think they try to get him

and Tony Pollard involved even more this week. The Bengals are the better football team, but let's just say that definitively, they are the better football team the Cowboys. I think this is an emotional test for them. Everyone wrote off their season, you know, idiotically Monday night. No one loses their season in one game Week one. I think there's a little more optimism there after finding out that Dak could only be back, you know, could only be out for a month. But it is a huge test, I

think for the Cowboys this week. The Bengals come in the better team, and yes, disappointed, I know, but I think they proved in the second half they'll be okay. So at the NFL Network, you are surrounded by former players and former coaches. You're interacting with these guys just about every day. Do you get the sense that most of them consider the Bengals to be a legitimate contender, or that they see last year's Super Bowl run as

a little bit flukey. Can both be true? I think when I say both can be true, meaning they had everything go their way last year. So yeah, they got there and they deserve to be there, but they had a million breaks. So do the Rams. The Rams were oh for November and then all of a sudden went their way down the stretch. I think everyone here thinks that the Bengals are a legitimate Super Bowl contender app solutely. However,

everyone also is on the Bills. I mean, I know Bengals fans feel that Bills bandwagon, and there's probably a little bit of what about us, I get it, So they're they're on the Bills bandwagon. Yet at the same time believe in Joe Burrow and believe in the Bengals, and I don't. I mean, is there a team against which you would say you would you would call the Bills. I'm sorry, the Bengals an underdog this year? I mean maybe the Bills. Like who do you say, oh, yeah,

Bengals against so and so. They're a dog in that one. I mean point spreads aside, you have Joe Burrow, You're fine. Joe Burrow, by the way, completed thirty three passes against the Steelers. That was the second most of any quarterback in Week one. Without looking it up, I'll give you five seconds to name the only quarterback who completed more go time's up. The answer Joe Flacco, who went thirty seven for fifty nine in the Jets lost to his

former team Baltimore. For what it's worth, none of Flacco's thirty seven completions went to c j Uzama. One thing was abundantly clear and last week's lost to the Steelers, it's that we've probably all taken long snapper Clark Harris for granted. Yeah, I haven't had any to pay raise for years, but yeah, I mean it just shows it's it's not just uh, not taking anything away from an offensive center, but you know, it's not the same thing. It's not just you know, tossing the ball back in

the general vicinity. It's being very precise and you know, on time and everything. So yeah, it just shows it that we are specified, you know, a position, and we are needing. It's not just a position you can put by the wayside. Harris injured his right bicep will trying to make a tackle in punt coverage. Zach Taylor isn't necessarily calling his injury season ending, but says that the team's long snapper since two thousand and nine will definitely

be out for months. The Bengals had to use tight end Mitchell Wilcox as an emergency long snapper last Sunday, but fortunately the Bengals have a talented replacement waiting in the wings. Since Clark Harris is thirty eight years old, The Bengals signed the number one rated long snapper in college football as an undrafted free agent this year and had him on the practice squad. Now, twenty four year old cal Adamidas out of the University of Pittsburgh has

been promoted to the fifty three man roster. Life comes at your fast. What's what's your reaction now to being promoted to the fifty three man roster and being an NFL long snapper? Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, I feel for Clark. You know, he's been he's been a class act for me my whole time here, and you know, it's been the best situation a young snapper can ask for to you know, come and learn, learn from a

guy like that. Um. But you know, with that being said, UM, having the chance to be here OTAs in camp and learn from him and Coach Simmons. You know, I'm ready for the job. How difficult was it to act yesterday seeing Mitch thrust into that situation? Yea, it's it's tough, but I mean he did his best and he got did what he needed to do. Um, you know, that's something we talked about. You know, he did he did his job in the situation that he was thrust into,

and we're all proud of him for that. And you know, I'm looking forward to my chance to come in and you know, obviously get Mitch doing back to doing his main stuff and me doing my main thing. His snaps were playable. I mean, should he be getting credit as opposed to Shade. I absolutely think you should be getting credit. Um. You know, that's that's a that's a tough spot to

be put into. And you know, uh, something Coach Simmons always says is everyone wants to be the snapper on you know, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday during practice and then when Sunday comes around, there's you know, less guys are as as gung ho to to be that guy. But he did his job. He snaps are good in the preseason I know the thing that they've been working with Duane is blocking, right, because it's different from college to be in a film. Absolutely, and early on at pitt we

ran a pro pro style scheme, so I have experienced blocking. Obviously, it's a you know, it's certainly a step up from that. But um, you know, I feel I'm ready for the situation and we'll get a you know, a couple good days of practice into you know, put the finishing touches on, and we'll be ready to go on Sunday. Did you gain confidence from how smoothly things went in the preseason

and camp? Certainly, I mean definitely had a lot of things you know, thrown at me throughout camp, during practices, in the games, and definitely was a confidence booster, you know, showed me that I definitely can play at this level. There's still things I want to improve on and I will continue improve on, but I'm you know, I definitely feel that i'mcapable. Adam. I just got a lot of work of training camp and in the preseason games. And Clark Harris says his replacement will be fine. He's a

good snapper. I mean he was the best in college last year. He's a good snapper, and uh, I just kind of keep trying to tell him to have confidence, you know, go out there, and uh, just he's good enough. I knew that he had a chance to take my job this year in camp. I thought he was that good. So I believe that he's going to be just fine and he'll get the job done. Just have the confidence to go out there and do what we trained to

do all the time. He's got the demeanor he when he when he was the guy for the preseason games, he never really had a He didn't really look nervous, didn't, you know. He didn't give off any nervous energy. He was real calm, collected, and he went out and did a great job. So I got all the confidence in the world. And Adamidas got a ton of opportunities at pit. He was the long snapper for sixty four games over five seasons. Now let's turn our attention to Sunday's game

in Dallas. The Cowboys will not have two time Pro Bowl quarterback Dak Prescott, who injured his right hand above the thumb in a nineteen to three loss to Tampa Bay. Twenty eight year old Cooper Rush will start in his place. He's made one NFL start in his career and beat the Vikings last October when he threw for three hundred

twenty five yards and two touchdowns. The biggest star in Dallas these days is jack of all trades defender Micah Parsons, who has fifteen sacks in his first seventeen NFL games. He's listed as a linebacker, but he's frequently positioned on the defensive line and occasionally lines up at cornerback. Here's lap. This kid is ridiculously skilled and versatile both defensive ends. He'll kick in and rush at defensive tackle against a

garner as a three technique. He'll line up as a stack linebacker in back of the three technique and blitz. He's got explosiveness quickness, but also he can run like a deer side line to sideline. Everybody's like, why don't you just put him keep a defensive end and let Hi marks the passer Because he's the Swiss Army knife and you can do so much with him, and dan

Quinn's so creative what they do. Believe it or not, Michael Parsons, because of all the places he can line up, they get mismatches on a running back with the guy I've seen you know, tape where and running mans have no chance against a guy like this. So you know, it's like, all I've just got to recognize okay, identify

him and somehow block. Well, once you're setting in a formation, you may not be able to get a good matchup on what dan Quinn's doing with Michael Parsons, or he may move in somewhere late to get the matchup on the running back. So this kid is and you say, all right, well, what ifbaccoes out in a route and he's gotta cover. He can do that. He can run and cover people. That's the thing about him. He is a freak. And here's a guy that was drafted with

the eleventh pick in the draft. You get an interesting matchup and they won't be going against each other. But just the fact that the fifth pick of the draft by the Bengals jamar Chase good offensive Rookie of the Year, the eleventh pick of the draft by the Dallas Cowboy He's got defensive Rookie of the Year and would runner up for Defensive Player of the Year, runner up to

t J. Watt. So you get t J. Watt and the opener defensive Player of the Year, and you get the kid who's the runner up Defensive Player of the year in week number two. And this kid, this kid can do even more, you know, do more things than t J. Watt. It's crazy. Todd Archer covers the Cowboys for ESPN and joined lapping me on the Bengals Game Plan show. Dak Prescott is out, Cooper rushes in. But here's my question. Even before Dak got hurt, the Cowboys

offense looked terrible against Tampa Bay on Sunday night. What's the problem with Dallas's offense? How long is this segment everything? You know, let's let's start at wide receiver, right, Ceedee Lamb the moving him to the number one role, number one draft pick a couple of years ago. Obviously talented and there's no issue with him, but you take him out of the mix. Dak Prescott hadn't thrown a touchdown pass to any other wide receiver that was playing last week,

so that's an issue. Their third round pick, Jalen Tilbert was inactive while they had an undrafted free agent active. You know, you go back to when they traded Amari Cooper to Cleveland twenty million dollars receiver. They just didn't think was worth it. They went out and signed James Washington in free agency. He broke his foot on the first padded practice a training camp. So there's really no

one on this offense that scares you. And just go back to last season when you had Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, Ceedee Lamb. There's a lot of guys that scared you. And now you know the field is shrinking on these guys. And then let's talk about the offensive line. No, Tyrant Smith, he's out until least you know, the November December issh with a tornham string. They got Tyler Smith their first

round picks. Now playing left guard they start. They lost their starting left guard after seven plays against Tampa Bay and brought in a guy who had never really played last year and their right tackle, Terrence Steel were replacing your good buddy LC Well. He had four penalties in the opener, so you know, this was not the way to start the season for the Cowboys. One often a year after they led the NFL or second in the NFL and points per game. Cooper Rush has been there

a while. Cooper Rush lit up the Vikings. Cooper rushed through for over three hundred yards against the Vikings. If Cooper rushed Throllstrover three yards against the Bengals, that'll be the first quarterback in Dallas history to throw for over thirty yards in his first two starts, and only the fourth one in NFL history. What do they think about Cooper rush down there? Typical backup guy right, smart, doesn't

need a lot of snaps to get ready. He knows the offense not gonna put you and put you in trouble, will make the smart decisions, all that kind of stuff. Now, I'll go back to the start against Minnesota last year that he did win and he did a good job. The game winning touchdown pass went to Amari Cooper. I just said he's not around. His other touchdown pass went to Cedric Wilson's he's not around either. So you know, this offense that he had in October to what he

has now is completely different. But they do feel a sense of confidence, as confident as you can be. I guess when you have a backup quarterback going in. He's only played the one game, but how he wasn't afraid, probably lifted some spirits coming into this one knowing that Dak was going to be out here for a little bit doesn't mean he's gonna win. But they don't think he's gonna implode either. And that's how many teams in the league would you say, that's what you really want

out of your backup quarterback? Right, Todd Archer from ESPN to cover as the Cowboys is our guests. Let's talk about defense. They've got Michael Parsons, who's awesome. They've got Trey Von Dick who had eleven interceptions last year to lead the NFL by a wide margin. Can the defense be good enough to you know, keep them in the hunt for a while in their division? It has to be. And even before Dak got hurt, it had to be.

You know that. For as long as I've covered this team, maybe early couple of years when Parcels was the coach, back three or four or five around there, this team has been built around its offense. Think of all the stars that they've had, Romo went Dez, Bryant, Miles Austin, the guys that we've talked about already. That offensive line at one point was the best in football. Well, well they don't have that now, but they do have a defense that kept Tom Brady out of the end zone.

They only scored one touchdown against the Cowboys last week. They do a decent job in the red zone. Their run defense is spotty, and that's concerning when when you look at what Fournette did him against them in Week one and how they're not a very big defense. And you know, but if they believe Michael Parsons can get after any quarterback, they move him around, do a lot of different things with the Trayvon Diggs will I'm interested to see how they use him if he's if he

follows Chase around or not. They've done that a little bit, not a whole bunch. That might be something to watch on Sunday. But if it's not about this defense, then this is gonna be an awful long season for the Cowboys. And it might be an awful long season for him anyway. But the defense is definitely gonna have to carry the day talked about, you know, parsons abilities at all these

different places. My thing is, all right, when you have a great player like even an Aaron Donald old school in me coaches in the past, that you've got to play and run at them, anchor them. He'll kill you, you know, chasing things down. You got an anchor him, you gotta beat him up a little bit, Michael Parsons. First you have to find him. Then you have to cover him up once you find him. This dude, I'm telling you, man, this guy, this guy's a game wrecker.

I mean he is. He's one hell of a football player. And my question is to compliment him. Does DeMarcus Lawrence still have juice? It looked to me in the opener like he played decently. Yeah, DeMarcus Lawrence is their best sure defensive ends that they have if we're not going to count Michael as a defensive end because while they move around. But yeah, he had a TfL I think on the first drive. I mean, he's he's a really good player, does a lot of the dirty work, does

a good job against the run. When the Cowboys gave him that contract a few years ago, it you know, they ain't get m one hundred and five million or whatever it was to be good against the run, which he gets him sacks and he's not had a double digit double digit sack season sin side in that contract. But he's still a good player, and I think lapole you see is Bill rotate everybody through there, like Dan Quinn is the believer in getting everybody in there and

keeping him fresh. And you know they won't have Terrell bash him this week. But Sam Williams, their second round pick from oh Miss. They like him a lot. Dante Followers, a former Numbers three pick in the draft. He was productive in the offseason, didn't do much against Tampa. So you'll see them roll a whole bunch of guys through there to keep him fresh and keep him going at you.

And you know, we'll see if it works. But the one guy who's not going to come up the field who didn't come up the field last week is Michael Parsons. He's gonna be out there as much as he can. Right How short is the rope for Mike McCartney. You know, Jerry Jones has only made one in season coaching change, and that was in twenty ten when they let go Wade Phillips and bumped up Jason Garrett from the offensive

coordinator role. I don't see an in season move happening unless this team just implodes the way that team does. I don't think you'll you'll see that. But there's definitely the hot seat just because of the nature of the job, the nature of Jerry and everything that that entails. And there is talent on this team. Now they got to get dacked back ready to go. I know I've been negative about they're never going to score a point here, but there's still is a lot of talent. I don't

even mentioned that Ezekiel Elliott. If I'm the Cowboys, they're Bill Parcels used to say, there are ways to win these games. The way the Cowboys can win these games is please just give the ball to Ezekie Elliott. He's your best running back. He can change the temple of a game. And the one thing they showed against Tampa they can run the block pretty good. Eight of his ten carriage went for five yards of war, so that's pretty good against that front. But McCarthy is definitely on

the hot seat. I don't think Sean Payton is this team's next head coach, and very well could be Dan Quinn though. So with the offense projected to struggle a little bit, they don't have Dak Prescott, and like you said, the offensive line beaten up and fivers left and receivers that were there didn't get much separation that I saw

against Tampa Bay. What about on the defensive side of things, dan Quinn is aggressive by nature anyway, and last year they had six defensive touchdowns, five interceptions in a fumble return for a touchdown, and then fastle on special teams, I mean two block punts returned for touchdown, a kickoff return touchdown, nine returns, nine touchdowns non offensive touchdowns. Wow, and that's when they had a real good offensive football team.

Do you think they're going to try to pick up some of the slack trying to do some of the things they did last year with unconventional you know, unscripted scores as such. Yeah, I mean they kind of have to. And that's one the best thing about Treyvon Diggs is his ability to take the ball away and make a play afterwards. He's a former receiver. We all know his brother Stephan up in Buffalo. He's still learning how to be a cornerback in some respects, but when he gets

the ball in his hands, he's dynamic. I can then on special teams, Fossil will do some quirky things like coming after you on third and eighteen when what are you doing? You don't need to do that and pick up a Luckily there was only a running into the kicker out of roughing the kicker penalty last week. They like this guy. Kavante Turpin is their return guy, return to kick in a punt against the Chargers in the preseason, which might have been the kiss of death in some

respects because now everybody knows who he is. But they think he can be electric in the return game and do some things to help that offense. But they have to do a lot of They have to take the ball away, give the offense multiple possessions, and the special teams have to win field position, and that's where they

think Turpin can make a difference. So I'm curious to see if the Bengals fallow the same pack that Tampa Bay did, or the kickoffs are about eight million feet in the air and just didn't give him any space to go anywhere, and then the punts were all by the sideline, so you know, but they have to get I don't want to call him cheap touchdowns, but the Cowboys definitely have to get some cheap touchdowns because I don't think you can predict this offense to do go

on ten play drives when penalties are an issue, injuries are an issue, and in some cases the talent an issue. Sunday's game kicks off at four twenty five. Our pregame coverage will start at three o'clock before I wrap things up. Here's an invitation to join us at the Buffalo Wings and Rings location in Milford for the Bengals pep Rally show on Friday from three to six. Kevin Huber will join us in the final hour and we'll have plenty

of giveaways throughout the show. That's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth podcast presented by Alta Fiber future Proof Fiber Internet elevate your connection with Alta Fiber by Kettering Health, the official healthcare provider of the Bengals, by Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals. They're free to play with tickets and sign merchandise up for grabs, and by pay Corps, the official HR software provider of

the Bengals. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe to this podcast and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment that helps more Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast