Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty on Thursdays. Right around this
time we're joined by our buddy Robert weintraub. Is weekly
Bengals column at Cincinnati Magazine is excellent. The the current
edition is out. You can go find it at Cincinnati
Magazine dot com. I've also tweeted out a link, go
and get it. Rob kind enough to join us. As always,
what is going on?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Not too much, just still trying to get over what
was not only the worst call in NFL history, but
maybe you know of sports history.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Wow, okay, now was the worst call the pass interference
or the decision to not rush more than three or
the decision to have a guy in his eighth NFL
snap on the field. What was the worst call?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah? Well, in terms of that, I was being hyperbolic.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
There have been one or two other worst ones, and
it's just it breaks your back when a penalty like that. Yes,
the game, you know, it's not really so much about
what they call is right or gosh, I hate to
see it decide the game. You know, rushing three guys
against Patrick Mahomes is what the Bengals do. I mean,
that's how they've you know, really stuffed them, especially in
the second halves of all of these contests they've had
(01:07):
that have entered Bengals lower over the years now since
they've been our trivals. And he can't really blame him
for going back to the well, especially fourth and long.
I mean, you know, it's like, oh, okay, in this
one scenario, Mahomes escaped the rush and had a little
bit of extra time, but you know, they still got
close to him with three rushers and Lord to the
point you want to have as many pass defenders and
(01:28):
the ridiculous, you know, fourth and sixteen situation like that,
having the John Anthony out there. I mean again, listen,
he's a rookie, but he earned the trust of the
coaches and deserved.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Or proved that he couldn't be out there.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
You know, he actually made a good play, covering a
lot of ground to get over to the ball, and
he was, you know whatever, a couple of milliseconds too early,
a little hyper aggressive, you know, because maybe he was
a rookie or just that's because of the nature of
the game.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
I don't blame him particularly on that.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
It was just an influence of bad luck that really,
you know, gave us another bad taste in our mouth
when it comes to Kansas City. And that's why, you know,
the fact that they get all these calls is why
everybody hates them.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
All Right, I'm going to read a passage from this
week's column.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Okay, fair enough, you're right.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Can I dare ask the unthinkable question and revisit the exhausting,
mean dominated debate from the spring of twenty twenty one,
would you, as a fan base, if offered the chance
right now for a straight up trade deal Chase meaning
Jamar for Detroit Star tackle and would be Bengal drafty
piney soul. Now you know I have to aggregate this,
(02:40):
which means I have to go on the internet and
say that Robert Wintrob wants to trade Jamar Chase.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
By no, I'm not saying that the Bengals are not
certainly saying that.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I don't think either team would really do it.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
It's just, you know, I thought exercise and a fun one,
especially coming off a bitter defeat, that I wanted to
put out of my uh my mind as.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Quickly as possible.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
That it gets back to sort of the reason.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Why I admitted they wanted the Bengals to draft too
in the first place. Not that I'm you know, unhappy
with the way things turned out, obviously, but you know,
tackles of that quality are much more rare than tackles
than wide receivers are.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Even if Chase's quality.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
They tend to cost less, Uh, they tend to have
much quieter contract negotiations, and Trent Williams being the exception,
I suppose, and overall, they don't usually have the deva
personalities that craved the spotlight. You know, we didn't really
see Jamorrow for the past three years, and we never
even thought about that draft decision until all of a
(03:42):
sudden we are now.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
And because he's not signed, and.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Because you know, he got hip dropped and saw his
football life flash before his eyes without signing that rich
second contract.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
And who can blame them?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
But you know, maybe the bigger question is not whether
you would trade Chase for Sewell, but whether you would
say both sides have to get back to the negotiating
table and forget all this in season, We're not doing
it nonsense and get you know, pen to paper and
name on the dead line.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Because even though we.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
All thought Chase could compartmentalize this, and we compartmentalize this fan.
It's clearly affecting on the field. This tweks and are
always taken. Kind of the selfish penalty. Now that's across
the team, and boy, you know, I hate to see that,
and it's not the kind of thing you usually see
that the tackles, which is what got me thinking of
Chase for sewell thing in.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
The first place.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Obviously that's just you know, kind of a kind of
an internet thing to.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Do just to get you through the football this week.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
But you know, I think it's worth you know, thinking
about and discussing, and certainly you want to see Chase
improved his attitude and try and put this whole contract
thing out of his mind, if that's even possible.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, no, there's there's certainly something said about that. Robert
Win Trumps Cincinnati Magazine t Higgins practic today, So we're
inching closer to seeing him in game action, and you know,
time will tell how he reacts to practicing today, how
extensively they use him. But if there was a positive,
and there were more than one, but if there was
a positive from the game on Sunday in Kansas City,
(05:14):
you saw what the Bengals tight ends can do, and
then you add that to what we know Jamar Chase
can do, what we believe t Higgins can do. And
I think it's fun to talk about personnel groupings and
so walk me through kind of the preferred way you'd
like to see them use their guys, assuming Tea comes
back on Monday.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, well, it's what we talked about last week, really,
which is that you just the thing you took away
from the New England game was that they were at
their best at twelve personnel, which is obviously two tight ends,
one running back and not necessarily the three wide receiver
personnel that they are so accustomed to playing all these years,
and that showed out in Kansas City again. And they have,
you know, three guys in true sample, Mikasicki and now
(05:55):
Eric Hall, who are really distinct players who give defenses
different looks and different things to prepare for. And you
don't necessarily know what the Bengals are going to do
when one.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Or all are on the field. Sorry my dog going.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
That's in the background.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
But you know, that's important, I think, and it's important
for the Bengals. And we talked about this before that
they're in sort of a transition season, right and you know,
going ahead, they're not going to have t Higgins after
this year, forget about next week.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
So what you want to see.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Out of the team, you want to see them try
and win other ways, and by playing with multiple tight
ends and multiple formations and giving defenses much more different
looks to prepare for, that can only do well.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
And then when you.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Have Chase and Higgins on the field at the same time,
regardless that your tight ends are, you're always a threat obviously,
and it just maximizes that threat.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
And I think that's the way to go from here.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Is it time to flip flop how they use Zach
Moss and Chase Brown?
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Probably? I don't know if I'm ready to go that
far just yet.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I mean, you know, it's only been a couple of
games and most you know, by just success, which is
only one analytical stat out of many.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
He's actually been pretty good.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
He's got a better success rate than Joe Mixon, for example.
You know, listen again, with the multi I think there's
a couple of things to play here. One and we've
talked about this before again, you know, neither of these
guys are particularly big at the Classic Bell cow Backs.
It's a very long season and they're not deep and
running back, and they want to preserve both guys, right,
(07:26):
So you don't want to, you know, sort of use
either one in that capacity much less declare yourself a
number one back just yet.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And you know, also, they don't know exactly how they
want to play, and they're still working things out. As
we just talked about the tight end and which guy
fits the way they want to run better, and you know,
Brown's been mostly an inside zone. Both players have been
inside zone running backs. Is really so far as that's
the way they want to go forward, is.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
That fit the multiple tight end looks best. I don't
think they really know yet.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I don't think they're gonna all of a sudden, like
you say, flip flop their use rate just now.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
We could definitely see that as.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
The season goes along.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
But at the moment, you know, they paid the money
to Moss and Brown is stilling a rookie deal. I
think that's the you know, the sort of pecking order
to go forward, at least for the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
All Right, one more because I value your opinion on
all things football. The internet debate of the day started
this morning when mel Kiper went on TV. The Great
Mel Kuiper went on TV and said that the two
safety high the two high safety defense is ruining the
NFL because offense has stagnated. Teams are having a hard
(08:34):
time throwing deep, and he says it's ruining the most
popular sports league in America. Do you think the NFL
should ban the two high safety defense?
Speaker 4 (08:42):
I wait, I thought my revisiting Chase and sewell was.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
It was milk Kiper fair enough? Well, listen, I mean,
I know baseball took the steps of banning the defensive
shifts in order to juice offense, but I mean there's
been so many every single rule change in football, for
one thing has gone the offensives favor. And now two
weeks into a season, and it's not like, you know,
they haven't been playing two high safeties for decades, you
(09:09):
know in the NFL, and Mel was what harkening back
to the seventies when everything was either a long bomb
or an incompletion and you know, quarterbacks had fifty eight
percent completion percentages and I was considered all pro level
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
And you know, the.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Other thing to consider is that in those glorious days
of the seventies, you had basically safeties budgeting everybody who
came over the middle with you know, forearm shivers and
blows to the head. And a lot of the reason
why the game was so violent is because you didn't have,
you know, such a wide open game, and you didn't
have defenses playing like that in two high looks, where
(09:46):
they safeties were so worried about going over the top
they could crowd the line of scrimmage and just commit mayhem.
I don't think any anybody wants to see.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
The lead go back to that.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Well, maybe occasionally, but most mostly we don't want to
see the.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Lead go back to that.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
And you know, a couple of weeks if bad offensive.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
And bad quarterback play because of a lot of young
quarterbacks around the league, not necessarily all of a sudden.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Pull the uh pull the parishue parishe court.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Much as I respect Mal, he's been a little bit
reactionary in this case, I.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Would agree with that. We'll talk next week. Thank you
as always.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Yeah, I love it, mel Mo and me.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I've been calling you many, many, many may worse things
than that. NA, thank you so much since I'm magazine.
Sean Kilpatrick joins us next on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
You've been listening to football in Thennetti on the official
home of the Bengals, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty