It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every Day. Hi, I'm Jake from Locked On. What do the teams you root for, your music playlist, and your podcast feeds all have in common? Spoiler alert, They're reflection of you. And that's what the State Farm Personal Price Plan has in common
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they've gotten the last two weeks. You are Locked On Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast, part of the Locked On podcast Network, Your team every day Bengals fans, and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals Podcast. I'm your host, Jake Lisco. He's your host James Rapine. We're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. You can find us on YouTube or anyway you get your podcasts every day if you want to stay up to date. Is
Bengals make this playoff? Push playoffs? That's right. We're gonna talk about the playoffs later in this episode and get into some of the scenarios. We're also going to talk a lot about what's changed with this offense and reset the conversation around the coaching staff a little bit where it was in recent weeks where it is today. Lots to talk about with this team right now. Today's
episode brought to you by the game Time app. You can use promo code on NFL for twenty dollars off your first purchase of tickets and next time you need them, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. And Jan's let's start with the evolution of this offense with Jake running at quarterback, because I think we all can agree at this point there are significant differences we've seen the last
two weeks. There are significant changes, changes that have certainly helped him and made this offense it's fun to watch as it's been or put it like this, because I actually, come on, let's be honest here, it's been really fun. And people are comparing Joe Burrow and Jake Browning and the offenses and all of those things. They were really really good before Burrow went down.
They had a lead on arguably the top team in the league, and they beat the top They either beat the top team in the league or had a lead against the top team in the league when Burrow was in. So whatever they were doing was working. And I'm referring to San Francisco forty nine Ers and then the Baltimore Ravens. But Jake Browning isn't Joe Burrow. And we said that going into the Steelers game, and it took the coaching staff
a week. It took Jake Browning a week. It took this franchise a week to adjust, to make the changes necessary or to go to the part of the playbook that fit Browning best and fit this offense best. And it's clearly working. Thirty four points two straight games. The offense won them the
game in Jacksonville. The defense was great on Sunday against the Colts, but the offense held up their end of the bargain as well and gave them an early lead, which obviously helps the defense a ton, helps this team a ton, So this offensive staff deserves a lot of credit We can get into
that, but I know you pulled some stats. So how different is this offense right now compared to what we saw with Joe Burrow From a numbers perspective, you can pick stat a split and it significantly changed the last three weeks and compared to what they're doing with Joe Burrow. The most obvious thing, and we've talked about this is the dismissal of empty stuff that they love doing with Joe Burrow. The purpose of that, of course, is to flood
the coverage with concepts, and Joe Burrow does what he does. He's very good at identifying this is a concept that I need to read out on this play because this is a coverage I'm getting and this is a guy that's going to be open. That's what Joe Burrows very good at. That's why he likes empty so much. It lets him distribute the ball quickly, accurately, get the boll to his playmakers on time, sometimes in space, give them
yard after catch opportunities with his elite ball placement. Jake Browning doesn't really do all of that at the level Joe Burrow does, and you wouldn't expect him to write he's a backup quarterback, and he certainly has his strengths, but that type of quick processing of full field reads and concepts where he has to pick aside based on a look. He can't go through full progression. But you don't want him to do it the whole game. You don't want him
to live in it. You don't want to live in it out of empty in particular. So that's one big difference that we can just eyeball test. But you look at play action. For example, the last three weeks against the Steelers, eighteen point eight percent of the Bengals dropbacks for play action. In week thirteen against the Jaguars, noticeable uptick right we saw those boots. We noticed it up to twenty seven and a half percent in week fourteen.
Fewer pass attempts overall, but play action comprising forty two point three percent of the Bengals passing attempts this week against the Colts in week fourteen. Similar you look at screens from six point three percent to seventeen and a half percent, big jump right from twelve to thirteen, another jump up to twenty three percent in week fourteen. Again, fewer overall snaps, but play action and screens two numbers to start, and I have two more that you can look at
and see from a stat perspective in addition to those eye test things. Significant did shifts in a clear direction the last three weeks. And it's interesting because there's a lot of people that have said, all right, well, this offense is completely like rebuilt itself. Looks completely different and it looks different, and those stats back that up. But these are topics, not necessarily the screen game, but the play action stuff. We talked about it this offseason.
We've have multiple shows going back to OTA's watching Burrow work under center. Like I think that it was a goal of Theirs to be more diverse and maybe less empty all the time, and part of it, a big part of why they weren't, especially early in the season, I think had to do with that calf injury for Burrow. So to do it now and implement
it, I think it makes a ton of sense. Clearly, Browning is comfortable and you just want to make life easier, and you could go way back if you want to go to the Mark Sanchez versus the Bengals too, was a nine playoff game at pay Corps where awful, awful game. I hated it right, broke my heart at the time, but they made life easier Mark Sanchez. That's why he made it to back to back AFC title games. Really good defense, running the ball, play action, easy decisions,
make a couple of big throws each game. And this Bengals coaching staff they've shown that they can do that with Browning, and Browning as show that he's capable of making some big throws, throws that are necessary plays in important
moments and key spots, and so thus far it feels pretty sustainable. I don't know if the numbers will stay there right, Like the screen passes, I don't think they're going to average, you know, one screen per game that goes for thirty nine or more yards, which is the case over the past three games going back to the Pittsburgh game. I think that's unrealistic.
But they've found ways to get the ball to their playmakers in space and make Browning's life easier, and he should only get more and more comfortable, not less comfortable. So it's it's great that they've had that to lean on. Yeah, the screen game in particular is something that I think is very matchup specific. They have these defenses. The last couple of weeks that are sending guys up field, they're very aggressive on the defensive line. The defenses will
be different going forward. For example, Gus Bradley blitz maybe like two times the entire game. He doesn't blitz Flores defense coming up Minnesota Gonna blitz the heck out of Jake Browning next week, So there will be some differences in that way and blitzaying Hey, you can catch the blitz with the screen at the right time, you're gonna have a big gain off it. Just for a reference, the last couple of weeks, the play action rates twenty seven
and a half percent forty two percent. This week screen rate seventeen and a half percent twenty three percent with Joe Burrow. The play action rate this season was twenty point six percent, So we're a little bit hire the last couple of weeks with Jake Bridning to a lot higher. This week with Jake Browning's screen rate with Burrow at quarterback was twelve and a half percent. And I think the biggest thing in the screen game is they've been much more effective with
the screens. They're not necessarily running them a ton more. Although this week they did there's a little bit of an uptick in usage of screens and a big uptick and effectiveness of the screen game the last two weeks, and I said, I have two more numbers, and some of this is going to lead to a conversation about where we are on this coaching staff and their ability to adapt, as I think they've proven that yet again they do in fact
have that capability, they have that flexibility in their toolkit. So we will continue the conversation on this offense coming up next Today's episode of Lockdown Bengals sponsored by game Time. Who knows that with this playoff stretch getting a sighting for the Bengals, there are last few games of the season, a few more home games out there. You shouldn't have to worry when you're buying tickets.
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Shultz Jewelers. I do have two more numbers on the offense, James. But we're also gonna have to talk about this coaching stuff, right the flexibility they've shown, the major philosophical changes we've seen from them the last two weeks. What do you think First things first, the same people that came with the energy of what is Zach Taylor's record without Joe Burrow. And I get it because it was ugly without Joe Burrow. But this team, as bad
as they were in twenty nineteen, look at that roster. It would have been ugly with any coach in twenty twenty. I had my doubts, But Zach Taylor's done a lot since then, and some people anytime there's a struggle morph back into that mindset of twenty twenty. It's time to evolve. It's time to evolve Zach Taylor conversation and admit that, Hey, winning season in twenty one and oh wait, not only did they get to or win the AFC North, but they get to a Super Bowl that builds up equity.
Then they get to the AFC Title Game after winning the AFC North again. Okay, they're not going to win the division this year. No team has won it three straight years. But despite that, they're seven and six and we're talking about playoffs, even though Joe Burrow has been out for three games
now and was limited to start the season. So Zach Taylor deserves credit for evolving, for figuring this out and putting a more than competent effective offense out there and explosive offense out there, and Brian Callahan took a lot of heat too, and he deserves credit, and so does Frank Pollack. Because Frank Pollock was it felt like, from a fan base standpoint, scapegoat was what
everyone was pointing at and looking at. Well, if you want to point out how he's the run game coordinator when the run game stinks and they really struggle to run the ball eight times for sixteen yards against the Steelers, let's point it out now, because the past two weeks the offense is ran through the running backs and a lot of it and has produced a bunch of explosive plays and is a big reason why the offense has scored thirty plus points in
each of the past two games. So I'm not saying it's perfect. I'm not saying they're going to be great on Saturday against the Vikings. Hell, I'm no fortune teller. What I can tell you is that there are people that just jump off the moment it gets ugly for a second, and then I don't think they give proper credit. And that's fine if you want to jump off and be critical. I'm not even debating that that's not really the
point. The point is now they're coaching their asses off and they deserve cra and this offensive staff I should mention Dan Pitcher too, because they're doing a great job. It's been effective. Jake seems comfortable, this offense is working, Joe Mixon has been as effective as he's been all season. Like wherever you look, it makes a ton of sense and it's working. So coaching staff top to bottom deserves a ton of credit on the offensive side for figuring
this out without Joe Burrow. Yeah, you take it where you can get it. In the last couple of weeks against some defenses that aren't necessarily world beaters, and it will be a little bit harder down the stretch. They play three very very good defenses in their last few games of the season, finishing with Steelers, Chiefs, Browns. Those are three of the better defenses in the AFC, if not the best defense in the league of the Browns,
which they have been really for the entire year. So they have their work cut out for them, and we might be revisiting this again in a few weeks if they can't figure out some answers against those good defenses as well. But they do deserve credit, I think for being adaptable. And this is what I was talking about early this year when I said they figured it out, and they have. They have a track record, a consistent track
record that at this point of figuring it out. Sometimes it's frustrating because they've had these slow starts and it's like, why is it taking so long? Why can't they figure this out at the start of the season. Why are
they getting off to these slow starts and digging themselves these holes? This year, I think a lot of it was to do with Joe Burrow's calf, and I think that we would have seen way more of this play action game earlier this year, and probably more of the boot game as well as Joe Burrow specifically worked on his athleticism and being on the move and throwing on the run this offseason to prepare for this NFL season. I think we would have seen a lot of this stuff if not for that calf injury. So the
early season grade is around them not adapting properly. Maybe they should have played Jake Browning. I don't know, we'll never know that. That's like hindsight
analysis that I don't really think is worth the time. But they should get consistent for their track record of figuring things out over the course of the season, making changes, being adaptable, and finding the right buttons to push, whether that's taking the stress off the offensive line, going from a team that was about league average and true pass sets to the last three weeks being thirty five and a half twenty six percent and twenty nine percent in true pass sets,
meaning those are the ones that aren't quick game play action boot RPO where they have to sit there and just block a straight drop back. They're not doing that as much anymore with Jake Browning as they did with Joe Burrow. They're taking the stress off the offensive line. They found ways to do that. They've shown that they have that kind of offense in their repertoire, and
maybe overall it's like a twenty five percent different offense. I don't think it's like this night and day entirely different offense or running with Jake Browning, but that change is enough for it to be very effective, and I think to give them something to consider when Joe Burrow returns in the future too. No doubt, I think that there are certainly that will translate that they'll use with Burrow I do. I'm going to go down the hindsight path because I know
people will. I just want to address this and be very very clear of how I stand. There is not a world where anybody would have played Jake Brown and going into that Cleveland game because everyone thought Burrow was close to one hundred percent, everybody including Joe all Right. Then in the Baltimore game,
still good to go. He played really well in the second half before re injuring it season on the line eight days later, played pretty well against the Rams and they won, and then you had the awful outing against Tennessee, no doubt about it. But are you benching him after the Rams win? Probably not. You didn't know it was going to look like that against Tennessee, and then that's when the wind streak got rolling, and they got rolling
as a team that's starting in Arizona. So there was never really unless you would have said it he wasn't healthy going into the season, which no one thought. No one thought he was at sixty percent or whatever you want to say going into the year. Then I think that the hindsight is what it is, and people will go back and say, oh, what you should have They shouldn't have because it would have taken The other part is they it
would have taken Browning a few weeks to get comfortable. It would have taken this offense a few weeks to adjust and then what So I think they made the right call there, even though people might go back and say otherwise, that said, yeah, it's clearly working. The credit deserves to be there, and I think people should be able to I certainly did. I just did, and you probably feel the same way, even if you don't want
to go down the hindsight path. Is they clearly deserve credit for in the moment after the devastating injury, after an ugly loss to Pittsburgh, where it felt like things were collapsing and it was just going to be over and we were going to do mock draft Mondays within a week, flipping the script. And now they're seven and six after being five and six, and in a twelve day span, Jake, if they can handle business against Minnesota, which
isn't going to be easy. But if they can handle business against Minnesota, you win three games in twelve days. That's insane. And yet it's what the Bengals have a chance to do with Jake Browning on Saturday. That's right. We'll finish up the conversation including a look at that playoff picture for today's episode coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by door Dash. Door Dash, Well, it's my go to. The weather is really really
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vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. Last thoughts here on the coaching staff, and then we'll talk about those playoff scenarios. Defense also defensive staff. At least for one week. Lou Ana Rimo's guys and lou Ada Remo deserve credit for the performance against the Indianapolis Colts, and they well need more of that down the stretch at least is my belief. Maybe not against
the Minnesota Vikings, who looks dysfunctional. I didn't see how that game ended, but they won three nothing Are you kidding me? Against the Raid I mean, I know the Raiders can rush a passer, but come on, hey, hey, I'm not taking them lightly though, No, I'm just not. But the last few games against the Bears, they scored ten. Against the Raiders they scored three. The defensive is a job to do, but Minnesota needs to find some answers too. We'll talk with Luke about that
game coming up in the near future. But Steelers Chiefs Browns teams with fierce defenses of their own, the defense for the Bengals will need to answer in kind for the Bengals to necessarily have their best shot at winning those games. Barring the offense, I think exceeding expectations against good defenses. The last thing I'll say about this on the offensive coaches is, I don't think that this change I kind of hinted at it is necessarily super radical what they're doing with
Jake Browning. They're they're incorporating more concepts as Zach Taylor came from in the Sean McVay offense of Brian Callahan came from with his Gruden influence coaching tree. More of these boots, more play action this is stuff, and more diverse personnel groupings too. They're using two tight ends more, I think in the last couple of weeks with Drew sample, Tanner Hudson and Mitchell Wilcox getting the majority of the playing time. Actually this week, Irv Smith getting the least
naps for any tight end. So that's an interesting note. But this is just modernizing the offense. Evolving the offense probably the next step for the offense, and it's something that I think should be easy to incorporate with Joe Burrow in the future as well, taking a little bit off his plate, taking more of those easy buttons. And I don't think it's a wholesale change.
This is why, if you've talked to me about this on Twitter, I've resisted the idea that they can just quote unquote run this offense for Joe Burrow, but you do need to take a lot of element it's from it. It's a balance they need to strike of letting Burrow play to his strengths and also using offensive design to their benefit, which is something that we've clearly seen
in the last few weeks. They know how to do, and it's just finding the right buttons to push at the right time and getting into that rhythm in the future when it's Joe Burrow, who can do way more for you than Jake Brown Camp and I think that if there is a blessing in the Burrow injury, it might be that that this offense long term can hit a gear and evolve into something that we haven't seen yet. And there'll be plenty
of time to discuss that. But this coaching staff, they've been forced to evolve at least a bit or adjust, and we've seen them adjust over the years, and so I think you can only grow from that. And by the way, last thing, Jake Browning, he is restricted next year and will be a Bengal. So if anyone says, oh my god, he's gonna get paid else, I've gotten that a lot. I think a lot of people have, Jake. You probably have too. So Jake Browning will
be in Cincinnati next year. That's what he's essentially guaranteed. I think with these past couple of games, there's no doubt about that. Not only as he restricted, he's an exclusive rights free agent, which means that unless the Bengals go out and decide to reward him with a multi year contract and pay him, which will be a little bit surprising considering their control, that's a
less than one million dollar salary for Jake Browning next year. Just in case you're curious about the cap implications, restricted free agents will get paid a little bit more. Let's shift gears. Let's take a quick look at this playoff picture yesterday when we were recording the Bengals for the seventh seed, and then
the Broncos game finished and the tiebreakers got all weird. There are six teams at seven and six currently and from the sixth seed in the playoffs all the way down to the Buffalo Bills, who after beating the Kansas City Chiefs, are rewarded with the eleventh spot in the playoff rankings, which is actually just
one behind the Bengals. The Bengals dropped from seven to ten after the Broncos win because what ended up happening was you jumped into a four way tiebreaker for that seventh seed, and instead of it being a head to head Colts Bengals tiebreaker, it turned into a four way tiebreaker using conference win percentage, where the Bengals are three and six and pretty far behind in that tiebreaker with those teams. Yeah, it's a giant cluster. Let's call it what it is.
If you had to rank the Bengals games from like most important to least important, Saturday is the least important, which on the surface you could say because of the AFC, but just where the Steelers are, where the Browns are winning those two games is just so huge for their playoff chances in having a shot. But you got to get three. They have to get three somewhere. If you get four, well then you better book those playoff tickets,
Jake Lisco, because they're going to the playoffs. It's like ninety nine percent that they're in if they went out, and I think three or four is realistic. But they are going to have to evolve a bit in how they I don't think they're going to score thirty in Pittsburgh. I think that's tough to do. Or thirty against the Browns in Week eighteen, or thirty in Arrowhead with Jake Bryan. I think all three of those it's really really
tough. So this defense you mentioned the defense, I think the defense and lou probably knew it going into that game, and that's probably why they only gave up eight points and they could have given up twelve if the kicker showed up for the cult. So even so, that's why they played the way they did. I bet, oh, are you counting the two point conversion? I was like, how do we get to eight? And it's the
two point conversion? I got it. Yeah, the defense will need to to step up down the stretch, and it's just it just speaks to the muddle middle of the AFC this year that there's six teams at seven and six, there are three more teams at eight and five, including the Jacksonville Jaguars, who have lost to in a row, the Cleveland Browns, who just named Joe Flacco their quarterback for the rest of the season. I mean, we were really gonna have Joe Flacco and defense again. I mean that that's
the story we've seen before. But these are the teams ahead of the Bengals where the AFC just looks fallible. Baltimore Ravens needed a punt return touchdown in overtime to beat the Rams at home yesterday. Not taking anything away from the Rams, but they're currently six and seven, so it's you understand why their mentality in the building is like get to the playoffs. Anything could happen if they if they catch a heater at the right time, if they can play
well in these games any given Sunday. I think that's very true in the NFL right now, But the rest of the games are all important. Like you said, I think they need at least three There is a scenario technically where I think nine and eight gets in, but it's not a scenario you want to live in. If you're the Bengals, three should give you a pretty good shot. You still need a little bit of help, but it's
not like you're you have crazy asks. The one other thing that's not in their favor is I think their schedule is just harder than some of the other teams in the mix here. Not all of them, I think. I
think some of them have tough schedules too. But you're looking at a team that already has played the hardest schedule in the AFC this year, has the second highest now strength of victory in the AFC, third highest my apologies, third highest strength of victory in the AFC, And that schedule doesn't get easier down the stretch for the Bengals, and so it will be tough. But the path is there, and in a sense, they really do still control their own destiny if they can win out. Oh for sure, no,
they do. That phrase still works. The two most important games are the division games, and just looking at the way the percentages swing, we don't know what's going to happen. Things change really, really quick. But getting that game in Pittsburgh is such a huge, huge, huge opportunity, And at the same time, it's like you look back, you're like, man, if they had just played a little bit better against Pittsburgh a few weeks
ago, it wouldn't feel like this. They would feel they would be in the playoffs as of now, and there wouldn't be really zero margin for error because they have roughly if they go two and two down the stretch, and those two wins are against the Steelers and Browns, the two most important games, you only have a thirteen percent chance of getting in. So it's you need a lot to break your way. If you only go two and two
down the stretch here, it's gonna be tough. But they're interesting and they're fun, and that's good news for everybody who likes to follow this team. I think that's what you would hopeful with Jake Browning at quarterback, and so I'm still excited to watch the rest of the year. Tomorrow, we'll dive into the tape, then we'll get into the vikings with the first look with
Luke coming up on Thursday. In a couple episodes from now tomorrow, Mike Santagon will be with us to take a look at some of the film takeaways from the Bengals Week fourteen game. Until then, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast WHO Day and having a