11-14-25 "The Voice of the Bengals" DAN HOARD

Dan Hoard joined Todd to discuss Joe Burrow's return to football activity and the Bengals game at Pittsburgh on Sunday. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bengals are back to work on Sunday as they take
on the Steelers, and the voice of the Bengals, Dan Horde,
is here to talk about that with us, and well,
oh boy, a lot of excitement in Bengals camp this week.
They didn't upgrade the defense at all, but Joe Burrow
showed back up for at least some workouts. That cost
some excitement. Dan, obviously, no doubt about it.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, I was stunned when he started practicing. I'll be
it on a limited basis on Monday. It had only
been fifty seven days since his toe injury, less than
two months for him to be back on the field.
We heard the original timetable of three months. So no surprise,
I guess that Joe Burrow came back ahead of schedule,
but maybe a big surprise by how much ahead of

(00:42):
schedule Joe is back on the practice field.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yeah, and you know, it's great to have him, and
he's their leader and all that and gives the Spirits
a lift. But let's face it, if he can't tackle somebody,
how much help is he going to be.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
He's not going to be any help on the defense.
And you know, nobody suggesting that he is, and he's
not going to play anytime soon either. He's not going
to play this week. I'd be stunned if he played
next week against New England. The earliest he could possibly
play would be Thanksgiving night against Baltimore, and I think
that's when he wants to play. But I don't even
know how realistic that is. This team is scoring plenty

(01:19):
of points with Joe Flackoy quarterback. They're averaging more than
thirty two. So again, nobody suggesting that Joe Burrow coming
back whenever that happens, is suddenly going to turn this
team around. But it is a reminder that they've got
that guy on the roster signed through twenty twenty nine,
and at some point he's going to be back on
the field, giving the Bengals one of the top three

(01:39):
quarterbacks in the NFL in my opinion.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, and you know, despite the fact that the Bengals
have struggled mightily, they are after an off week, just
a game and a half out of first place here.
So if they could somehow manage a win in Pittsburgh
on Sunday, it really brightens the prospects here.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Dan, It's amazing, Well, it's the only they have left
at this point at three and six, I think we
all know they're not going to win a wild card
playoff spot, but for whatever reason, it's been a down
year in the AFC North. The Steelers are in first,
they're only a game over five hundred and they've lost
three of their last four. The Ravens are coming on.

(02:17):
They've won three in a row, but they're still under
five hundred at four and five. So as poorly as
the Bengals defense has played, and it's been historically bad
in the team's fifty eight year history, they've still got
a shot because they're two to zero in the division.
They've already got one win over Pittsburgh. They've got a
chance to sweep the Steelers if they can win on Sunday,

(02:38):
and if they pull that off, then almost in spite
of the defense, they would still be in the hunt.
In the AFC North.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Well, as you mentioned, the Steelers have struggled of late,
the three losses you know they had recently, but they
do have on their resume that five and four record,
and there's some pretty decent wins this season, beat the Colts,
for instance, But boy, last week their offense looked really
bad against the Chargers. Of course, they figure the Bengals

(03:05):
defense is just the elixir for a struggling offense. But
can this Bengals defense maybe have a good day the
Steelers really not doing much lately.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
I guess it depends on what you mean by good.
So good as in less than fourteen points, probably not
good as in somewhere in the twenties maybe, And the
way this offense is playing, if they can hold the
Steelers to something in the twenties, they can win the game.
Because with Joe Flackwood quarterback, their point total just keeps

(03:38):
going up. They scored eighteen in his first game against
the Packers, then thirty three, then thirty eight, then forty two.
I don't think it'll go up again this week above
forty two, but I certainly expect the Bengals to be
able to put some points on the board because Joe
Flacco has shown the ability to throw the ball quickly
and get it to the right guys.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Well on The Steelers defense is surrendered thirty plus four
separate times this year, of course, including one against the Bengals,
so you know, who knows what can happen? And I
guess the other thing that we heard about Dan was
a lot of discontent with the Bengals. Obviously after those
two gut wrenching losses before the off week. Has there

(04:17):
been some imending offenses, if you want to put it
that way, or improved psyche with the week off?

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Here, Absolutely, and honestly that happened the next day. Immediately
after the loss to the Bears. Chase Brown said, just
get one freaking stop, and weren't we all saying the
same thing. I'm sure that's what the defensive guys were
saying as well. We just needed to get one bleeping

(04:44):
stop and we win that game. So that has been
portrayed as this huge rift between offense and defense. It
was solved the next day. That's just the heat of
the moment. You blow a game where you score forty
two points. I'm stunned that people expect to walk around
the locker room and hear guys, you know, saying, Kumbai,
isn't everything great? We scored forty two and lost. No,

(05:06):
they're frustrated, they're angry. One player on offense said, gosh,
if the defense could have just gotten one more stop,
we would have won the game. Well, duh, hell no,
that's the case. This was not a huge locker room rift.
It was blowing off a little steam after a brutally
frustrating game.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
Well, it's a strange season thus far, and the Bengals
could improve their prospects greatly if they can knock off
the first place Steelers on Sunday, kick off at one o'clock.
Dan Horde will have the call for us right here
on Wima. Dan thanks for joining

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Us, you bet, thank you