September 12, 2024 • 7 mins
Shawn Syed of Sumer Sports writes an excellent weekly "Monday Mashup" column that this week included some good analysis of the Bengals' season-opening loss to New England.
Shawn joined us on ESPN1530.
Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
Shawn joined us on ESPN1530.
Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Because I'm an idiot. You know, we tweet out stuff
happening every hour, and I left this one in my drafts,
so I will send this out. There's a terrific football column,
and you know we love the folks at Summer Sports.
Sean Sayaed his Monday Morning mashup is terrific. It's smart,
(00:21):
it's analytical without being too wonky, like over the head
of someone like me who leaves tweets in his drafts.
And there's there's a good breakdown of stuff in Week
one that may matter, might not matter, might matter, does matter,
doesn't matter at all. One of the things that might
matter is how the Bengals struggled in Joe Burrow's return,
(00:43):
and we've obviously talked about that almost NonStop since Sunday.
Sean has a really good take on it. Go read
it now, Suomer Sports, s U M E R. And
I'll throw the link out there here in just a
few minutes. Sean nice enough to give us a few
minutes excuse me thisun It's good to have you, Sean,
what's going on?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
You know, I know that Bengals fans may not be
feeling the best going into this week. But I'm hoping
that after we talked, you know, maybe they'll feel a
little bit more relieved.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Well, let's hope. So I want I want to focus
on on one passage, or at least one phrase you
put in your piece, because we all obviously focused on
how Joe Burrow looked and the unwillingness to throw the
ball downfield and what that might suggest regarding his wrist.
At the same time, I don't feel like the coaching
staff did him any favors. When he would complete a pass,
(01:35):
the guy who caught the ball was tackled almost instantly.
That tells me they're not scheming to get guys open,
which is exactly what you wrote. So when you did
a critical kind of deep dive into how the game
plan unfolded, what did you see.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah, I was a little bit bummed by what the
yards aftor catch looked like.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
And there were certainly situations.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Where you know, you have the receivers kind of running
five yards, turning around really quick.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And I will say that the Patriot defense is good.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
So I think that by the end of the season,
we'll look back at this game and say, this was
a really, really strong unit. At the same time, the
Bengals offense did try a few different things. Really, what
I was excited about was actually what they were doing
in the run game and going into Kansas City. I
think it's actually a game plan where they should be
looking to run the ball a whole bunch. When Joe
Burrow is in that shotgun, Look, you get some of
(02:22):
those linemen pulling around that can help you out at
different times.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So you know, it didn't all.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Pay dividends just in this game, but I do think
there were some things that I felt good about that
showed me that the coaching staff is looking at the
film from last year.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
There are trying a few.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
New things that hopefully as things get going, you know,
you get Higgins back there, you have just more threats.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
On the outside. That run game I think can actually explode.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
You know, there's something else that you pointed out, And
as you well know, we've wondered often about the offensive
line here, and I think we all went into this
season thinking, all right, Joe's gonna play behind the best
offensive line he's been behind, even if it's still not
a great line, And you point out he was only
pressured on on six out of thirty five dropbacks. If
(03:07):
that's the rate on a week in a week out, basis,
who's not gonna take that? So put the offensive line
on film for me, tell me what you saw.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, this was.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Really really a positive thing for the Bengals where every
year it feels like your concern is, Okay, how much
pressure are teams going to be able to get on
Joe Burrow? And if you keep on having performances like that,
I think that's gonna be a great situation for the
Bengals because no one's stopping Joe Burrow, T Higgins and
Jamar Chase when he has all that time.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
My concern was there were a few times.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Where it felt like, you know, maybe Burrow was just
kind of going through his head just a little bit
too quick where pressure didn't really happen yet, but he
was already kind of moving off the spot. So an
overall takeaway for me there, Look, this is Joe Burrow's
first game back in so long. If the offensive line
is going to continue to be able to perform like that,
I mean, hey, you got Chris Jones coming up this weekend.
(03:58):
If you could, if you could handle him and some
of the other things that see Spagnolo is.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Throwing at you.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
You're just hoping that Burrow gets that comfort back, gets
that feel back where now we're pulling the trigger.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
On some of those deep throws that Bengals fans love
to see it.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
So you talk about what you like from the running game,
and I think there's a lot of people who looked
at it and said, all right, they were fine, But
the guy they traded away, Joe Mixon, was awesome for
the Texans, and so big deal, that's what they could
have had. Joe didn't fit here anymore. I'm gonna guess
he doesn't have thirty carries in a game again for
the Texans. And if he does, more power to him.
(04:30):
What would you say to someone who sort of frames
it that way?
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yeah, I think that the important point here is Nixon's
running style is different than what the Bengals want to do.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Right now, we're in that game for.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
The Texans, Mixon is you know, cdfrous under center. He's
running that kind of outside zone. Look over and over
again that Mixon is.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
He's good at that. And the line in Houston played well.
But now where Joe Burrow's superpower.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Is being in that shock and he can see things
that only he can see. It really is a superpower.
And to do that and be a successful offense. Having
someone that can execute the run game from shotgun particularly,
that is a big deal. Where the steps are different,
the feel is different, the whole entire approach is different
for a running back.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
So you know, whatever Joe Mixon does to me, it.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Kind of doesn't matter, just because his skill set is
different and what he's being asked to do in Houston
is different. Where now, I think Cincinnati is comfortable with
the running back group that they have.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Sewan Sayed's with us, by the way, get him on
at Sayaed's schemes. Writing the Monday Morning Mashup column for
Sumer Sports, Defensively, you know, there's a lot of retooling
that went underway this offseason. Some of that didn't manifest
itself by what we saw on Sunday because they had
a lot of guys who were hurt, but they also
had thirteen or depending on how you count, fourteen misstackles. Now,
(05:49):
the way a lot of people look at it is
this is a function of not hitting in the preseason
or not playing the starters as much as they should have.
When you look at it a little bit more analytically,
what was the reason for all the misstackles?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
To me, look, well, I'm not the tallest guy. I'm
not the biggest guy.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
When if there is someone that when I was playing football,
I played cornerback.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
And there's a big running back running at you, that
is so so hard to do.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
And the Patriots did a really really good job of
over and over get Ramondrous, even a big physical back
on one of the Bengals cornerbacks in the run game,
and yeah, it led to too many misstackles for the Bengals.
If you're going to miss that many tackles, you're just
not going to be able.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
To win that many games.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
So that is certainly going to be a point of
emphasis where for me, you know, he doesn't even feel like,
oh this is a situation where this can be kind
of solved in training camp. It's really a way that
the best offensive attack defenses.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Then obviously the Patriots, they're.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
They're draining the heck out of the clock snap after snack.
So it was just some unfortunate situations where you got
a big running back on a smaller cornerback just in
a really tough spot.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Awesome stuff. Man. I hope we can do it again
this season.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Thanks so much, thanks so much, looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
You got it. You could read more of A. Sean
Sayed's work at suomer sports dot com
Because I'm an idiot. You know, we tweet out stuff
happening every hour, and I left this one in my drafts,
so I will send this out. There's a terrific football column,
and you know we love the folks at Summer Sports.
Sean Sayaed his Monday Morning mashup is terrific. It's smart,
(00:21):
it's analytical without being too wonky, like over the head
of someone like me who leaves tweets in his drafts.
And there's there's a good breakdown of stuff in Week
one that may matter, might not matter, might matter, does matter,
doesn't matter at all. One of the things that might
matter is how the Bengals struggled in Joe Burrow's return,
(00:43):
and we've obviously talked about that almost NonStop since Sunday.
Sean has a really good take on it. Go read
it now, Suomer Sports, s U M E R. And
I'll throw the link out there here in just a
few minutes. Sean nice enough to give us a few
minutes excuse me thisun It's good to have you, Sean,
what's going on?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
You know, I know that Bengals fans may not be
feeling the best going into this week. But I'm hoping
that after we talked, you know, maybe they'll feel a
little bit more relieved.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Well, let's hope. So I want I want to focus
on on one passage, or at least one phrase you
put in your piece, because we all obviously focused on
how Joe Burrow looked and the unwillingness to throw the
ball downfield and what that might suggest regarding his wrist.
At the same time, I don't feel like the coaching
staff did him any favors. When he would complete a pass,
(01:35):
the guy who caught the ball was tackled almost instantly.
That tells me they're not scheming to get guys open,
which is exactly what you wrote. So when you did
a critical kind of deep dive into how the game
plan unfolded, what did you see.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah, I was a little bit bummed by what the
yards aftor catch looked like.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
And there were certainly situations.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Where you know, you have the receivers kind of running
five yards, turning around really quick.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And I will say that the Patriot defense is good.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
So I think that by the end of the season,
we'll look back at this game and say, this was
a really, really strong unit. At the same time, the
Bengals offense did try a few different things. Really, what
I was excited about was actually what they were doing
in the run game and going into Kansas City. I
think it's actually a game plan where they should be
looking to run the ball a whole bunch. When Joe
Burrow is in that shotgun, Look, you get some of
(02:22):
those linemen pulling around that can help you out at
different times.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So you know, it didn't all.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Pay dividends just in this game, but I do think
there were some things that I felt good about that
showed me that the coaching staff is looking at the
film from last year.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
There are trying a few.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
New things that hopefully as things get going, you know,
you get Higgins back there, you have just more threats.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
On the outside. That run game I think can actually explode.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
You know, there's something else that you pointed out, And
as you well know, we've wondered often about the offensive
line here, and I think we all went into this
season thinking, all right, Joe's gonna play behind the best
offensive line he's been behind, even if it's still not
a great line, And you point out he was only
pressured on on six out of thirty five dropbacks. If
(03:07):
that's the rate on a week in a week out, basis,
who's not gonna take that? So put the offensive line
on film for me, tell me what you saw.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, this was.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Really really a positive thing for the Bengals where every
year it feels like your concern is, Okay, how much
pressure are teams going to be able to get on
Joe Burrow? And if you keep on having performances like that,
I think that's gonna be a great situation for the
Bengals because no one's stopping Joe Burrow, T Higgins and
Jamar Chase when he has all that time.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
My concern was there were a few times.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Where it felt like, you know, maybe Burrow was just
kind of going through his head just a little bit
too quick where pressure didn't really happen yet, but he
was already kind of moving off the spot. So an
overall takeaway for me there, Look, this is Joe Burrow's
first game back in so long. If the offensive line
is going to continue to be able to perform like that,
I mean, hey, you got Chris Jones coming up this weekend.
(03:58):
If you could, if you could handle him and some
of the other things that see Spagnolo is.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Throwing at you.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
You're just hoping that Burrow gets that comfort back, gets
that feel back where now we're pulling the trigger.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
On some of those deep throws that Bengals fans love
to see it.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
So you talk about what you like from the running game,
and I think there's a lot of people who looked
at it and said, all right, they were fine, But
the guy they traded away, Joe Mixon, was awesome for
the Texans, and so big deal, that's what they could
have had. Joe didn't fit here anymore. I'm gonna guess
he doesn't have thirty carries in a game again for
the Texans. And if he does, more power to him.
(04:30):
What would you say to someone who sort of frames
it that way?
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yeah, I think that the important point here is Nixon's
running style is different than what the Bengals want to do.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Right now, we're in that game for.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
The Texans, Mixon is you know, cdfrous under center. He's
running that kind of outside zone. Look over and over
again that Mixon is.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
He's good at that. And the line in Houston played well.
But now where Joe Burrow's superpower.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Is being in that shock and he can see things
that only he can see. It really is a superpower.
And to do that and be a successful offense. Having
someone that can execute the run game from shotgun particularly,
that is a big deal. Where the steps are different,
the feel is different, the whole entire approach is different
for a running back.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
So you know, whatever Joe Mixon does to me, it.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Kind of doesn't matter, just because his skill set is
different and what he's being asked to do in Houston
is different. Where now, I think Cincinnati is comfortable with
the running back group that they have.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Sewan Sayed's with us, by the way, get him on
at Sayaed's schemes. Writing the Monday Morning Mashup column for
Sumer Sports, Defensively, you know, there's a lot of retooling
that went underway this offseason. Some of that didn't manifest
itself by what we saw on Sunday because they had
a lot of guys who were hurt, but they also
had thirteen or depending on how you count, fourteen misstackles. Now,
(05:49):
the way a lot of people look at it is
this is a function of not hitting in the preseason
or not playing the starters as much as they should have.
When you look at it a little bit more analytically,
what was the reason for all the misstackles?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
To me, look, well, I'm not the tallest guy. I'm
not the biggest guy.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
When if there is someone that when I was playing football,
I played cornerback.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
And there's a big running back running at you, that
is so so hard to do.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
And the Patriots did a really really good job of
over and over get Ramondrous, even a big physical back
on one of the Bengals cornerbacks in the run game,
and yeah, it led to too many misstackles for the Bengals.
If you're going to miss that many tackles, you're just
not going to be able.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
To win that many games.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
So that is certainly going to be a point of
emphasis where for me, you know, he doesn't even feel like,
oh this is a situation where this can be kind
of solved in training camp. It's really a way that
the best offensive attack defenses.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Then obviously the Patriots, they're.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
They're draining the heck out of the clock snap after snack.
So it was just some unfortunate situations where you got
a big running back on a smaller cornerback just in
a really tough spot.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Awesome stuff. Man. I hope we can do it again
this season.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Thanks so much, thanks so much, looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
You got it. You could read more of A. Sean
Sayed's work at suomer sports dot com
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