10/16/24 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
That is the name of the radio station. What's up,
kid Atternow Maleger, this is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you
for listening today. I hope you're having the greatest Wednesday
of your life. We have a lot to get to today,
a lot to get to today. I add nothing you care,
but I'll pull back the curt curtain. Pull back the curtain.

(00:24):
I've been swamped and so I didn't even have time
to shoot the video that we do before the show,
the show rundown. If I did do it, it would
be a service of Emory Federal Credit Union, your credit
union with hard since nineteen thirty nine. Go to EMORYFCU
dot org. We are busy today. We've got Bengals Browns

(00:45):
coming up this weekend. We've got a change a quarterback
necessitated by an injury for UC's opponent on Saturday and
some line movement as a result. We've got some Reds
offseason questions. We've got some college basketball. We've got some
people who are angry with me. We have a ton today.
But first first, well, Joe Burrow is going to talk

(01:06):
here in just about seven minutes. Bengals going through their
first practice of the week. Getting said for Sunday's tilt
against the Cleveland Browns. Cincinnati in this game a six
and a half point favorite. Here's what I want to
know the Bengals and Browns. Objectively speaking, if you look
at the two teams, Cincinnati is better. And yet there
are two things in play here. One is the games

(01:29):
the Bengals have quote been supposed to win they've played poorly.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
One of those games was against the Washington Commanders, and
I think most of us have come to realize that
Washington team is much much better, at least offensively than
we thought that they were going to be, or at
least gave them credit for being when they came to
Cincinnati week three. They also lost Week one as big
favorites to the New England Patriots, who right now look like,
along with the Las Vegas Raiders and maybe the Jacksonville Jaguars,

(01:55):
the worst team in Pro football. So Bengals, for the
third time, for a third time this season, are big favorites,
big favorites six and a half points. How much of
that track record do we keep in mind? And how
much does their track record, specifically playing in Cleveland come
into play? Here. I think every game should concern you.

(02:16):
It's the National Football League. There is a pensiveness, an
apprehension that I detect, and I won't claim that I
don't share some of those things. We'll get to that
coming up in just a little bit, but first we'll
step away a little bit early, so we're gonna be
on time. Joe Burrow recently has not been Hopefully he

(02:36):
is today and we come back. We'll hear from the
quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengals on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station, Cincinnati's Yeah, tonight, it's Bengals game Plan, Bengals
game plan, Dan Horror, Dave Lappham. As soon as we're done,
from six o'clock until eight o'clock tonight, wall to wall
Bengals NonStop, two big hours. It's gonna be humongous, perfect

(02:59):
for my drive home. All right, So Tarran and I
just made I don't know if it was a wager,
but we called our shot. It's three fifteen. Joe Burrow
chats with the assembled Pro football media at three fifteen
every day, or at least that's when they have scheduled
him to talk with the media. He has as good
of a season as he is having, and as great

(03:20):
of a quarterback as he is this season, not so
much last year or the year before. This season, he
has struggled with punctuality. And so Arran, did you guess
three minutes past?

Speaker 4 (03:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (03:33):
More?

Speaker 6 (03:33):
Three?

Speaker 2 (03:34):
All right, so you got three minutes, I said seven.
So Tarren has him showing up at the podium at
three eighteen. I've got Joe showing up at the podium
at at three twenty two. So we will see Joe
trying to exercise some demons. The first game of the
year last season, Joe and the Bengals went to Cleveland
and got smoked. And there were a lot of reasons

(03:56):
why they got smoked. It wasn't just Joe Burrow, and
Joe Burrow played poorlo and there are reasons for that
that you could attribute his performance to, not the least
of which was he had a calf injury and he
wasn't quite one hundred percent and he didn't look one. Now,
there were a lot of mental gymnastics that people did
in the aftermath of that game to you know, blame
the weather conditions and talk about, well, it's just a

(04:18):
bad matchup. I don't know what the weather is going
to be on Sunday. I don't care. This is a
game the Bengals need to win. You know, we talked
last week about well, it's a must win against the
New York Giants, so forget the records, forget well, you
could still bounce back from two to five. Just win
the next two and then we're at Moe's beloved four

(04:39):
and five. When the Bengals go to Baltimore, you are
playing a team that could not be in worse shape.
I don't know, like there are The Jets are a
soap opera, but I'm not convinced they're a bad team.
The Raiders are a train wreck, but they've been that
way for frankly most of my adult life. I guess

(05:00):
maybe the Browns have as well. But this is a
situation in Cleveland that's pretty unique, right. You have a
coach who has been the Coach of the Year twice.
You have a roster that there are some dudes on
that roster who are really good. One of them comes
back this week and Nick Chubb who had over one
hundred yards in that game again Cincinnati week one before

(05:20):
getting injured Week two last year. But you have a
quarterback who is historically unproductive. You have a quarterback who
is thoroughly unpopular, and you have a decision to stay
with him that I am convinced is not playing all
that well in certain corners of that Cleveland locker room,
because how could it. You have a one in five
football team, a fan base that is always seemingly at

(05:44):
least on the verge of being angry that I feel
like has reached its tipping point. You've got an environment
that could be toxic. Your season is still very much
hanging by a thread. You're supposed to go to Cleveland
as now six and a half point favorites, and we'll

(06:05):
extend your win streak to two, take a step toward
getting to four or five wins before they go to Baltimore,
and once and for all, punt the Cleveland Browns from
any sort of realistic contention this season. And if you
can't do that, that's a problem. And this week I
can't hear about how well that was the thing last

(06:25):
year against them. Well, they're a bad matchup, dude. You're
an NFL team that has Super Bowl aspirations. You're gonna
play a lot of different types of teams. Stop telling
me how you're a bad matchup. The Browns are on
the schedule every single year. Build the sort of team
that can match up with them. Have the Bengals done that?
Can they keep Chubb from taking the air out of

(06:46):
the football? Can they keep Deshaun Watson playing this week
without his most productive receiving target and Amari Cooper who
got traded this week to the Buffalo Bills? Can they
Can they extend his misery? Or does the lack of
pass rush that we saw for the first five games
show up again this week and give to Shaun Watson

(07:07):
a shred of confidence and allow him to play at
a level that he hasn't played at so far this season. Plus,
did the New York Giants offer a bit of a
blueprint to the Cleveland Browns that they could apply to
this game On Sunday? Joe Burrow got sacked four times,
but more than anything else, the pressure rate. The pressure

(07:28):
rate on Joe Burrow over forty percent, So he was
pressured on forty percent slightly over forty percent of his
dropbacks against New York. The Browns might not have in
total what the Giants bring to the table upfront, and
that is a good New York defense in front. They've
been good all season long. But they do have Miles Garrett,

(07:48):
and they do have a games worth of tape to
study and borrow from on Sunday. This is a really
interesting game, and you know, let's face it, you get
this one. We've done this now for over a week.
We've talked about the Baltimore game, the second one, which
is what three weeks from tomorrow, and being four and
five or five and four at that game and using

(08:10):
it as a jumping off point. I got the sense
for a lot of people when I talked about the
Bengals being four and five or maybe even five and four,
when they were sitting there at one and four, maybe
it felt a little unrealistic. Get this one on Sunday,
which is a game you need to get. And suddenly
back to back home games a Philly team that is

(08:32):
not great and a Vegas team that's an absolute dumpster fire,
maybe five and four can happen. Joe is at the podium,
very good. Here is the quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengals
talking live with the assembled Pro football media.

Speaker 7 (08:46):
Coming game. I guess Browns, you know, each game WUS
been different against them, and there's differs by outcome, but
how motivating is it to know that you guys haven't
won since you've been there in Cleveland and in terms
of getting the guys in a place where you can
go up there.

Speaker 4 (09:03):
And give them your much shot. Yeah, this is one
that we need. It's gonna be a very similar game
to last week. You know, really good defense. It's great front,
good secondary, So we're gonna have to be smart with
the ball, take our explosives when they're there, Uh, stay
on track, can't get behind the sticks because of how
good their front is. It'll be a challenge, but we're

(09:26):
we're gonna be ready.

Speaker 8 (09:27):
For sticking your crawl maybe a little bit kind of one.

Speaker 4 (09:30):
Yeah, of course, of course that's uh anytime, you know,
we haven't had success Cains this divisional opponent, so that's
always frustrating and something that we're always striving for. So
we need to go get this one.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Is there something you can about this match up beside
from maybe files and competed off patten as much of
suss to player.

Speaker 4 (09:55):
You know, they have really good players on defense, they
always have a good plan on offense, they always take
care of the ball against us, run it well. Uh,
so we're gonna have to you know, get physical, run
the ball really well, play action, uh and and just
play an overall team Gamey.

Speaker 9 (10:12):
When you were on the ball like it did last
week forty seven, you're a puchdown. First, you're looking at
the coverage obviously you know you can see and you're
reading that. When do your eyes drop down or do
they drop down? Just you just get a field that
you can know their twists and you have a a
space there, and then you're gonna take it to the
next level. How do you what's your process like when
you're doing that?

Speaker 4 (10:29):
What do you see? It's just instincts uh. You know,
you know the coverage and you see the pressure, and
you know the front and you know third and eighteen.
You kind of know that if you're gonna get it,
you're gonna have to extend and make a play. And
so it just depends on the situation. You know, certain situations,

(10:52):
I might have stayed in there and tried to make
it throw That one was a little unique. And so
this just kind of depends on game, situation, place, situation,
a lot of different things.

Speaker 10 (11:01):
I know it matters every week, but how important is
it getting up to a fast start this week against
that eponent.

Speaker 4 (11:07):
Yeah, it's very important. You know, we know what they
like to do offensively, we know like they do what
they like to do defensively. They they like to run
the ball and they like to rush the pass or
so if we can get out on them or really
kind of makes them play play the game a different
way than they have against us the last several years.
So you know, we'll we'll play the game. However it

(11:27):
ends up playing out, we'll be ready for. But just
like every week, you want to get off the fast start.
Go ahead.

Speaker 7 (11:35):
Last time you played them lush year his raining, you
had just gotten back to playing.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
I know you don't ever look at it when you
lose a excuses.

Speaker 9 (11:44):
But are you looking at this game?

Speaker 7 (11:45):
I mean, you guys are pretty healthy as a team.

Speaker 11 (11:48):
That's like, no excuses. We've got to go out and
take care of business.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
Yeah, this is, you know, one of those weeks that
we got to get We're we're two and four. We
gotta get to three and four. It's a divisional opponent.
So when whever you play a team like that is
gonna be a big, big game, especially in the NFC North.
Physical game. Uh, So it's an exciting challenge. It's been
tough sledting of the division wight beat for you guys.

Speaker 9 (12:11):
Do you think uh, some of the adjustment you made
over the off.

Speaker 4 (12:14):
Season and wait wait wait you think it would be
do you think it?

Speaker 12 (12:17):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (12:18):
Is it better fit for the division? Or are you
ready to be kind of get the first game? Yeah?
I think the way we're playing this year, uh, stylistically,
you know, fits this the division a little more. You know,
I think we'll be able to run the ball well
on on Sunday. I like the p I like the
the run game plan. You know, we'll see how it

(12:40):
plays out. We'll we'll be ready to draw back fifty
times if we need to, just like always. But uh,
you know, it'd be nice to have a big, big
time game on the ground.

Speaker 13 (12:52):
Do you think you like the most about the run
game and how it's what's change is kind of fit
in this year, how it is developed year over year.

Speaker 4 (12:59):
Yeah, I think you know, we're we're getting really creative
in in what we're doing in the run game. You know,
I think the coaches have put together great plans to
attack each defense differently depending on what they've liked to
show and made great adaptations in game. Uh in the
run game to to find some explosive runs. So, uh,

(13:20):
you know, credit to those guys obvious they're running backs,
are playing really well breaking tackles, and and our alliance
blocking really well in the run game. So it's been
a combination of a lot of things. Zach said that, uh,
one thing that makes you so good when the play.

Speaker 11 (13:34):
Breaks down and you have to go off schedule, off script,
whatever is you keep your head your.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
Eyes down feeling.

Speaker 11 (13:40):
How important is that when you're trying to you know,
create a play out of.

Speaker 4 (13:45):
The end there. Yeah, there's always a h a balance
between you know, you gotta you gotta vade the guys
and find your spaces, but uh, it's more about feeling
it and and understanding and seeing where where the guys
are downfield. So it kind of depends on the play.
You know, you have you have a feeling, you know

(14:07):
where the spaces are. You know, as the play is
playing out, if you have to, you know, drop your
eyes for a second and try to make somebody miss
an extend and then n just knowing when when you're
safe and you can get your eyes up as fast
as you can to go find people.

Speaker 11 (14:21):
Do you think that, in your opinion, that's improved in
your what your the course of your career over the last.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
Couple of years. I think I've always been pretty good
at that, Joe, and you mentioned on Sunday Happy Feet
the times you feel I think the Patriots team as well.

Speaker 14 (14:33):
You mentioned that, how do you as a quarterback kind
of that what's the best process for you do.

Speaker 13 (14:37):
When you know the team's cant after the pass rush,
when you're going into a game and kind of think
about that in advance.

Speaker 4 (14:41):
Will work through the ass mm? You know, you try
to go into every game thinking the same way, playing
the same way, and you adapt quickly depending on how
the game is going. After about a driver or to
you know, you get a feel for for how well
you're blocking them, how well you're gonna run the ball.
You know where the spaces and the zones are, so
pretty quickly in the game you're able to adapt.

Speaker 13 (15:03):
Do you like having all of these high stakes games
in a building year?

Speaker 4 (15:06):
Obviously with where your all.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Records at Elstow Goal Division? Do you like having that
kind of commercial on you? This early year was a
how's your feeling all.

Speaker 4 (15:14):
About you know, ideally we'd be six and oh, but
that's not where we're at. And that's just the way
this year has played out. There's a lot of urgency
in the building to to go and win games. I
think guys are are handling it the right way. You know,
we had had a good day of work today. It's

(15:38):
really just about practicing and and trying to get better
every day. It sounds cliche, but that's that's what it
comes down to.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
What's it like having that kind of see it this
point is seems dis compared. Maybe you know, other aspects
happen instead of being later to leave or mostly so,
what's it like happening now?

Speaker 3 (15:53):
Well?

Speaker 4 (15:53):
I think you know a lot of us have been there,
but I I think you know, for the young guys,
just understanding the level of urgency required, uh against teams
like this week to week, day to day, trying to
understand your assignment, understand your alignment, and you can't you

(16:14):
can't waste any place. So just trying to let let
that urgency rub off on guys.

Speaker 6 (16:19):
Jill l last week you talked about Tea having elite
body control.

Speaker 10 (16:23):
I'm curiously he knows him having a little more grit
to his game this.

Speaker 4 (16:27):
Year after the catch specifically US, I think he's gotten
better at that year to year. Uh you know, you
really saw him fine for extra yards on Sunday. He
he did a great job of doing that. And really
the last couple of years he has you know, rookie
rookie t his pop up game wasn't quite as good.

(16:47):
But now he gets hit and pops right back up.
You don't have to hold your breath every time. His
pop up game isn't improved a loss, So that's been
good to see.

Speaker 10 (16:55):
We kind of gets quantified and thought of, probably as
more of a finesse receiver just because of his act leticism.

Speaker 4 (17:00):
But you've seen him.

Speaker 15 (17:02):
Do you feel like that's a misnomer about his game.

Speaker 6 (17:04):
A little bit.

Speaker 4 (17:05):
I think he's playing with a chip on his shoulder
this year. I think his level of urgency since we
came back has been uh high. He's been excited about
his ability to go out and make plays this year,
and he's continuing to show that he can. He's gonna
continue to get a lot of opportunities and when he

(17:27):
gets the ball in his hand, he's been lowering his
his shoulder and getting those extra four or five yards,
which the way teams playoffs have has been big. So
big time player, makes big time plays and big time spots.
He's gonna continue to do that. Oh, how much are
they moving Miles Garrett Rond? Have they moving him around
as much as they did last year?

Speaker 5 (17:45):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (17:45):
I haven't got a third down yet, you know, first
and second down he kind of lines up where where
he lines up. So I'll have a better answer for
you after we get through the third down playing tomorrow.

Speaker 12 (17:56):
Yo, So what does PJ.

Speaker 4 (17:57):
Hill mean to this team? You know youve s you
s he had on on Sunday. He's been a reliable
part of that front for the last uh three years,
four years? You know, another guy that was kind of
overl overlooked early in his career and has really made
a name for himself here. Uh, he's been, you know,

(18:19):
a core part of this team. So b jamians a
lot jog go with your uh your fully held seasons.

Speaker 15 (18:26):
You guys have won the AFC title.

Speaker 12 (18:28):
What did you learn about?

Speaker 4 (18:29):
What it cakes to land uh the as North rather
or at least uh in this division? What does it
came to get that?

Speaker 6 (18:34):
Aloud?

Speaker 4 (18:35):
Takes consistency? You know, when you're at the halfway point,
pretty much everybody is around five hundred, and you know
that this divisions and championships aren't won in September October,
they're one in December and January. So you know, you

(18:56):
gotta find your footing and you know see how the
the lands gave is plan out or really and you
know you gotta hit your stride at a certain point
and rattle off some wins. So we're hoping that that's
that's us right now.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
Thank us, all right? Joe Burrow chatting with the assembled
Pro Football media live on ESPN fifteen thirty. A lot
more tonight on Bengals game Plan six to eight this
evening on ESPN fifteen thirty, and the game Sunday live
on ESPN fifteen thirty, with pregame coverage starting at nine
a m. We are guest and press conference free. I

(19:32):
believe until four thirty. That means there's room for you.
I have given you absolutely nothing to respond to today,
but I'll throw the phone number out. Nonetheless, you're not
supposed to do that. Five point three seven four nine
fifteen thirty and eight six six seven oh two three
seven seven six. I'm glad you're here today. My name
is Moegar. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN All.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
Right quickly, the sports headlines service Kelsey Chevrolet, Home of
lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family
to yours for life, kelseyshev dot Com. Bengals at work today,
getting Soma at work today, getting set for the game
on Sunday against the Brown. Cincinnati making a roster move,
they have signed defensive end Raymond Johnson, the third to

(20:20):
the practice squad. He is a second player, second year
player from Georgia Southern who was a college free agent
signee of the Giants in twenty twenty one. He played
in fifteen games as a rookie for New York. He
had four tackles in a sack. Spent the past two
seasons on the practice squads the Bengals in twenty twenty two.
I have zero recollection of that and the Lions last year.

(20:42):
He spent this past offseason with San Francisco and Jacksonville.
He was waived by the Jags on final cuts and
was not with an NFL team during the first six
weeks of the season. He takes a practice squad spot
which opened yesterday. When Isaiah Thomas, and there's obvious jokes
there if you're like me and couldn't stand Isaiah Thomas,

(21:02):
the basketball player, the one who played for the Pistons,
Isaiah Thomas got signed by the Detroit Lions. So Raymond
Johnson the third takes his place on the practice squad.
I'm sure Dan Hord and Dave Lappam we'll talk in
great detail about Raymond Johnson. IID on Bengals game plan
tonight six to eight live on ESPN fifteen thirty. A
college football note that matters if you're a Bearcat fan.

(21:26):
Arizona State announced today that they're starting quarterback Sam Levitt's
not going to start against Cincinnati. He was injured in
the Sun Devil's win against Utah, so Jeff Simms will
get the start. And there's always line movement oftentimes when
there's an injury like this or a development in the game.
You know, yesterday we found out that Amari Cooper has

(21:47):
been traded by the Cleveland Browns, and the line went
from Bengals minus four and a half to Bengals minus
six and a half almost instantly. This did the exact
same thing. I was surprised it went up too. Bear
Cat for now a six and a half point favorite.
On Saturday, they were a four and a half point favorite.

(22:07):
I think, and I could be dead wrong about this.
I think that actually opened at two and a half. Nonetheless,
you see in Arizona State homecoming Saturday at noon at
game is live on seven hundred WLW Baseball. This evening,
the National League Championship Series shifts to New York, where
it feels like everything in sports has been happening. Mets
were winners in Game two, so the series is tied

(22:29):
at a game apiece. Game three tonight, a little bit
after eight o'clock. I think that's all I got for
local sports headlines. I don't think I have anything else
of any major significance. Let's see here, five win, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. Let's do this. Because it had been a
while and I had folks asking Mike, it's been like

(22:51):
three weeks where you been.

Speaker 5 (22:56):
Tubes up my nose, up my ass, all kinds of
bad plays as.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
Oh, okay, that sounds hopefully not the same tube didn't.

Speaker 5 (23:04):
Yeah, yeah, I didn't mean to be too graphic. But
you know that's how it goes. And you got this stuff.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
You know what if you if you ask a question,
you should be prepared for whatever the answer is. I
am doing, well, how are you doing?

Speaker 5 (23:17):
It's not getting better so but you know it's not
getting real worse. So on the epitome of mindfulness. Now,
I live for the day, and that day is all
that matters to me.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
So very good. Well, it's nice to hear your voice.

Speaker 5 (23:31):
Guys like you and Tony. Well, if I could express
to you how much it means to me listen to
you guys, you I couldn't. I couldn't explain it to you.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
Well much. That's very kind of you. We obviously love
these jobs. It's a blast doing this. But what makes
it fun is when you hear from people who not
only say that they listen, but but make at least
make you feel like you're a big part of your day,
big part of their day. And you do that with us, Mike.
So it's good to have you. What's on your mind

(24:02):
this afternoon?

Speaker 5 (24:04):
All kinds of stuff. Well, beginning a few moments ago,
you said you gave us nothing to talk about. Well,
Joe didn't either.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
But that's that's kind of his job, though, right. I mean, look,
I certainly wish we had one of these, like shoot
from the hip quarterbacks who said a bunch of crazy
stuff during the course of their press conferences. It would
make my job a lot easier, it would be more interesting.
But that's for the most part, and there are exceptions.
That's not what quarterbacks do. And let's face it, if

(24:37):
Joe were to say something that would actually make waves,
chances are it wouldn't be good. So we carry them.
We carry them, part out of obligation, part because I
know there's a lot of folks who do hang on
every word that Joe Burrow says. But as a general
rule he doesn't say all that much, which is fine.
He's not supposed to, even though I wish he would.

Speaker 5 (25:00):
But I know interesting is important to you, Yes, yes,
very important. The second thing is I'm not sitting then
I want to get to baseball if you've got enough tons.
I'm not sure the NFC noris is in the best
division of football right now.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
It is with ease. I mean, look, you can't say
it's the AFC North anymore, although there are obviously some
still still some competitive games, and the AFC North might
still find a way to get three teams into the postseason.
I guess as that doesn't happen. I think there's a
lot of folks who thought it would be the AFC East.
The deflation of the Miami Dolphins has kind of taken
that away. And the Jets get talked about a lot,

(25:37):
and they have a positive point differential, but they have
a two and five record and they've already whacked their
head coach. If you look at the betting odds for
the NFC champion, San Francisco is still at three and three,
the odds on favorite right behind them, Detroit right behind
them Minnesota. Those two teams play this weekend. There's a

(25:58):
lot to really like about the Bay Packers. I think
Matt Lafleur might be the second best coach in the sport,
and the Caleb Williams thing is starting to work. The
Bears have won three consecutive games. They're probably never gonna
realize their full potential and offense, because people made it
out to sound like they were gonna play like the
O seven Patriots, but they're very good defensively. They've been

(26:19):
awesome at home this year. They got to figure out
a way to win away from Soldier Field and I
guess away from London. But uh, they're certainly formidable, and
it's not beyond the realm of possibility that all four
NFC North teams make the postseason. That could happen.

Speaker 3 (26:37):
I could.

Speaker 5 (26:37):
And it amazes me the importance and how we judge
these teams almost exclusively on quarterback play. Yeah, well, dam darn,
you know, he finally got the right place. I guess,
you know, is that what happened with this guy? Unbelievable?

Speaker 2 (26:55):
Yeah, you know, he's he's obviously found the right place.
But what nobody talks about with the Minnesota Vikings is
they might have the best defense in the NFL. Now
what I'm interested in with Detroit. So they were awesome
against Dallas, and it is just one player, Aiden Hutchinson
gets hurt. Aiden Hutchinson was their pass rush, wasn't their defense?

(27:15):
Was their pass rush? Now, offensively, they're probably still good enough.
And if you look at their schedule after they play Minnesota,
they've got Tennessee at home, But then they have a
tough game on the road against Green Bay. They have
a tough game on the road against Houston. Those are
good offenses, and the Lions I think are a little
bit susceptible in the secondary. And so how much does

(27:36):
the Aiden Hutchinson, He was the betting favorite to be
the defensive player of the Year at the time of
his injury, led the league in pressure percentage, led the
league in sacks, almost unblockable. His absence, I fear may
change the entire dynamic of that Detroit defense. You're right,
we talked about the quarterbacks. But like I said this
about the AFC North last year, and it, frankly hasn't

(27:59):
turned out to be true that you could look at
that division and say, well, every fan of every team
should feel okay about their team's QB situation. I think
you could say that right now about the NFC North.
If you're a Vikings fan, you're more than content right
now with Sam Darnold. Jared Goff is playing really well
in Detroit. The Lions have scored eighty nine points over
the last two games. Jordan Love, you know, Jordan Love

(28:22):
was sort of overshadowed last year by c. J. Stroud
until the Packers got in the postseason, and Caleb Williams
looks like the guy in Chicago. That division which was
ruled by the Green Bay Packers for a really long time,
looks like it might be really competitive for quite a while.

Speaker 5 (28:39):
I couldn't agree, and I have to admit I'm shocked
because preseason I just didn't see it coming. I guess
based on Wilson for Williams performance and Sam Donald's performance. Okay,
on to baseball. Feel wow, man, I know you gotta go. Yeah,
I'm ready to go find Nick Crawl. If I ever
can come back to Cincinnati and I have the strength,

(28:59):
I'm gonna find Nick Krawl and do something to him.
I mean, I'm just why, I'm just look at Luke Weaver.

Speaker 12 (29:10):
Look at this.

Speaker 6 (29:11):
How do you get now?

Speaker 5 (29:13):
Maybe you can rationalize this? And if you can, great,
they give up on Luke Weaver. My correct, they gave.

Speaker 6 (29:19):
Up on him.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, but could you blame him?

Speaker 5 (29:24):
Well no, not necessarily, But how do you make how
do you make a dramatic, one eighty flippant performance like that?
Because he's the best thing that's happened in New York
since since Mariollo Levera.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
No, he's he's been terrific. I don't to me, that's
not an indictment against the Reds. Or Nick Krawl as
much as it's a credit to him in the New
York Yankees. Now, if you want to blame anybody with
the Reds, it can't be Nick Krawl. Like Luke Weaver
pitched here and didn't pitch well. Luke Weaver's e ra
in Cincinnati when he was a starting pitcher was close
to seven. And by the way, this isn't the only

(29:56):
place he struggled. He went to Seattle from here and
he was terrible. His final few years in Arizona, he
was awful. So Luke Weaver. It wasn't like the Yankees
brought in Luke Weaver thinking he was going to be
this huge offseason acquisition. They brought him in as essentially
a camp arm. But he restructured his mechanics. He'd changed
how he was what his repertoire was, got rid of

(30:19):
some pitches, changed how he threw others, and working in
concert with the Yankee pitching people, sort of remade himself
as a pitcher. If you want to criticize anybody from
a Cincinnati perspective, well you might look at the team's
director of pitching, Derek Johnson, who's also the pitching coach
and go, well, why couldn't they unearthed in Luke Weaver?
What the Yankees found a way to on Earth? Because

(30:41):
the dude's closing out playoff games and it's I'm happy
for him. But if you're gonna blame anybody, it should
not be Nick Krawl.

Speaker 5 (30:49):
See now, as usual, you straighten me out. Now, that's
why I love talking to you, because you me out. Well.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
Listen, you hadn't called us. You had I get a
run here. You hadn't called us in like three weeks,
and I was I was getting concerned, and I had
people ask about you. So it's good to hear your voice.
Hang in there and we'll talk soon.

Speaker 5 (31:06):
Man, Okay, thank a lot.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
Mo All right, there you go. It's nine away from
four o'clock. Luke Weaver's era in Cincinnati last year was
six eighty seven. Six eighty seven. Dude gave up twenty
four homers in ninety seven innings. Like we laughed every
time they gave him the ball. Last year, he was
on the worst pitching staff in the league. He was terrible.

(31:28):
He went from here to Seattle and gave up nine
runs in thirteen innings. By the way, the year prior
to that, in two different places Arizona and Kansas City
and ERA of six fifty six in the shortened season,
the COVID year twenty twenty and ERA of six fifty eight.
I know era is only one stat. Luke Weavers stunk
for years. Good for him for reinventing himself and latching

(31:53):
onto something and finding something in New York. I can't
blame Nick Crawl for that. You could wonder what had
Derek Johnson miss though. Eight away from four. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Now your chance to
win a thousand.

Speaker 16 (32:08):
Fresh off their prime time victory over the Giants.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
Oh for the Bob Touchdown.

Speaker 16 (32:13):
Joel Burrow and his Bengals roaring to Cleveland to take.

Speaker 8 (32:17):
Down the primest Sacks stays an AFC North showdown. Well
into the touchdown, the Orange and Black are ready to attend.

Speaker 11 (32:27):
Damn Hobbard tackled the King at the end zone.

Speaker 16 (32:30):
And Hood and Dave Leven bring you the call. Coverage
starts Sunday morning at nine on ESPN fifteen thirty, The
Home of the Bengare you go?

Speaker 2 (32:39):
You know you heard that spot for OTR Premium Cigars.
I bought a lot of cigars yesterday. About Yesterday Monday.
I guess the days are running together this week for
reasons that are wholly on important. But it was victory.
We have victory Monday, a victory Monday, and we make
it a different cigar every week. The way it works

(33:04):
is if the Bengals went on Sunday, we celebrate. Excuse me,
that sounded good on the Earth. Professional train broadcaster clearing
his throat into the microphone. Well, you know, between the
Bearcats and Mangles, you had two victory cigars. Well, we
had two victory cigars. I smoke a victory cigar after
every UC victory, and let's be honest, Ice usually still
smoke a cigar after losses. But anyway, so we had

(33:28):
victory cigars on Monday. And what we do is we
put a different victory cigar this week. It was JC
Newman Brickhouse Toro, which is a great smoke. And the
way it works is on Monday, on Victory Monday, you
go to Over the Rhine OTR Premium Cigars right there
on Elm Street, just adjacent to Finley Market, and you
buy one of those cigars and I buy the other one.

(33:50):
I bought a lot of cigars on Monday. I'm hoping
to buy even more this coming Monday. Bengals and Browns.
Richard Skinner's gonna join us on the Bengals coming up
but at five po twenty. Don't forget Bengals game plan
as soon as word done at six o'clock tonight on
ESPN fifteen thirty. Of all the different types of people
in the world, the type of person I despise more

(34:14):
than any is a bully. Despise you know. I'm asked
all the time. I have a near seven and a
half year old daughter. Is she gonna be into sports?

Speaker 5 (34:26):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (34:26):
No, is he shown any interest in certain I don't know.
She'll figure that stuff out. Here's what I hope. I
hope she's healthy. I hope she's not a bully. I
don't know what I would do if I had a
kid who was a bully. I despise bullies. God rest
his soul. I was not a Bob Knight fan, despite

(34:47):
all of his accomplishments and any number of good deeds
that he did, because I thought he was a bully.
I despise bullies. I hated them as a kid. I
can't stand them now, and you will find bullies as adults,
you will. I despise bullies. I despise people who use

(35:07):
clout in an effort to undermine someone who's not of
equal stature. Perhaps there's nothing I despise more. I hate bullies.
I've run into them in sports, I've run into them
in radio. I go out of my way to distance

(35:30):
myself from them. The single this single biggest person I
hate as a bully. Why am I mentioning this. I
didn't get a chance to get to this yesterday because
we were loaded with a lot of different stuff, most
of which was really really good. But I know I'm

(35:52):
I'm in part doing this because it involves somebody who
has a job very similar to mine. And I know
I'm probably only the last person to weigh in on this.
But we're going to play the audio of Jerry Jones
going on one oh five point three the Fan, which
is the station the Cowboys are on in Dallas, and

(36:12):
he's on with a host by the name of Stan Shariff.
And you'll hear the exchange here. It's probably not the
first time you've heard it. You're gonna hear Jerry Jones
be a bully. Go ahead and hit it.

Speaker 3 (36:27):
Let me tell you what I'll do. Let me tell
you what I'll do about it. I will let us
sit down and look at the decisions we've made over
the last several years. Okay, I'll look at it now.
If you think I'm interested on a damn phone call
with you over a radio and sitting here and throwing

(36:50):
all the good at with the dishwater, you have got
to be smoking something over there this morning. I'm not,
and I really don't, and I don't need want our
listeners listen to me to talk about this is not
your job. Your job is to let me go over
all the reasons that I did something and I'm sorry

(37:10):
that I did it. That's not your job.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
Well, my job is to ask one job.

Speaker 3 (37:16):
Or I'll get another. I'll get somebody else to ask
these questions.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Man, Jerry, We're just we're trying to figure out why
the team out.

Speaker 5 (37:25):
I'm not kidding it.

Speaker 3 (37:26):
I'm not kidding it. You're not going to figure out
it's what the team is doing right or wrong. If
you are are any five or ten like you, you
need to come to this meeting I'm going to today.
There are thirty two teams. Here are your geniuses. Jerry,
y'all really think you're going to sit there with a

(37:47):
microphone and tell me all of the things that I've
done wrong and without going over the rights. Now, listen,
we both know we're talking to a lot of great
fans and a lot of great listeners. And I am
very sorry for what happened out there Sunday. I'm sick
about what happened Sunday. Now I'm not talking to these

(38:08):
days on end this phone. I'm talking to you, the
fans that are listening this morning, and we can spend
a lot of time going over zigging and wagging. One
of the stupidest things I've ever done that anybody has
ever analyzed is by the Cowboys. It was an idiot
that did that. So idiot things can turn into good decisions. Okay,

(38:35):
smart things can turn into bad decisions. The facts are
that when you make one, you don't really know whether
it's going to be good or not at the time.
So let's let's just go ahead. I'm trying to answer
you questions. Man, you want some you want some conversation
this morning.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
You're getting that Jerry Jones here, like we played more
of that than we needed to. The part that I
hate is when he said, this is not your job.
Your job isn't to let me go over all the
reasons that I did something and I'm sorry that I
did it. I'll get someone else to ask these questions.
I'm not kidding. So there's a couple of things about this.

(39:18):
Number One, I didn't realize Jerry Jones does a hit
on that radio station two times a week. Why I like,
I'm kind of asking as a radio host like that
by like the the third Friday segment, when you've had
him on twice in three weeks, or twice a week

(39:39):
for three weeks, what is there really to ask the
owner of the team, who I know has no final
say over the roster and his very hands on he
goes on twice a week. Secondly, here's what the host's

(40:01):
job is, to create good content, and if they have
people on in an effort to create that content, it's
to discuss subjects that are of interest to the audience
at large. And I would imagine if you have the
owner slash GM of the Dallas Cowboys on, what everybody

(40:24):
wants to know is in the aftermath of a blowout
loss to the Detroit Lions, is there some amount of
regret for not being more active with the roster during
the off season during a stretch of time where the
Cowboys really did nothing to the team but bring back
washed up Ezekiel Elliott. I would imagine, I'm not a

(40:47):
Cowboys fan that that is of interest to most people
in that audience. In your job, when you have this job,
which I'm lucky enough to have, and you have someone
like that on your show, your job is to ask
questions and discuss topics that are of interest to your audience.

(41:10):
That's it. That's your job, and make it entertaining and
make it compelling and give people a reason to stick
around for the conversation. That is your job. And there's
always if you do this, there's always there's an implied
agreement if you will such and such guests comes on,
and you know, if they come on when everything's going great,

(41:32):
then you know what, all the questions are going to
be right, It's all going to be good stuff. But
there are I think there are very clear boundaries that
establish what you can and can't discuss with a team
executive or a coach or a player, And within those
boundaries are things like team performance, player performance, and decisions

(41:55):
that lead to certain results. That's completely in bounds. But
it would be completely fair for Jerry Jones to let
those hosts know and advance, Hey, I'm not going to
discuss these things. And then if I was one of
those hosts, I would say, wellether, We're not going to
have yon because if I can't talk about what's of
interest to the audience, then there's no purpose in having

(42:16):
you here, none, none, whatsoever. This has only happened one
time in my career, but we had an executive that
was supposed to come on and we got a note, Hey,
you can't ask him about these two things. And I said, well,
then we're not going to have them on because those
are the two things my audience cares about. No disrespect,

(42:38):
but I'm going to ask about those things. And if
he doesn't want to, then we're not. We're not going
to do it. We're not, you know, there's no point
in having them on. And then the way things worked out,
the person relented, came on and we had a good
conversation and it was fine, but you're doing this, and
I've done this now for a while. What is completely fair,

(43:00):
completely in bounds, is anything related to performance and results.
What's not fair are personal attacks. These hosts were not
guilty of that. What's not fair asking questions about things
that have nothing to do with results, like Jerry's personal life,
Like that's that's that's that's out of bounds. If I

(43:24):
got a college basketball coach on the show and his
team was struggling and I started to ask about problems
with his wife, well that's totally out of bounds. But
if I asked about like, hey, you know your recruiting
has suffered and you know this kid didn't work out,
and that's that's completely fair. And if the coach loses
his mind, that's a poor reflection of him, not of

(43:45):
my questions. So yeah, it is totally the job of
the hosts, and you're supposed to understand this. They're asking
questions of me about the performance of my team and
the results we are achieving, and that's all they did.
But the part that I hate most and this is
I cannot even explain how much I hate this. And

(44:07):
you know, you run into this occasionally with people who
have money, or they've got certain social stature, or they're
really famous, or they're connected to the right people. They'll
try to threaten you with your job because they could
do something about it. There is, man, there is nothing
I despise. That's being a bully. There's nothing I despise more.

(44:29):
I'm rich, I'm powerful, and I could do something about
your employment status. That is pathetic. I don't care what
walk of life you're in. I'm gonna use my status
to threaten your job. I'm sorry. Man, Even if you

(44:50):
don't like the questions as a listener, that's indefensible. There's
nothing worse than a bully. What Jerry Jones showed us
is not only is he a bad owner, by the
way he is, he's a bully. It's a bully. Also
doesn't understand how the radio game works. Yeah, the Cowboys,
the Cowboys run their games are on that radio station,

(45:11):
just like Bengals games are on this radio station, and
as games are on down the hall. And you know,
there's always been a very implied understanding like anything that's
related to performance is totally fair game, totally fair game.
I put this on social media today not to drudge

(45:32):
up old topics, but Phil Castellini said, quote, where are
you gonna go or where else you're gonna go? To
a question that I asked him, and I asked the question,
he provided his answer and then had to deal with
the fallout. And I talked to Phil subsequent to that

(45:58):
that night, in a couple of days later, and uh
I said to him, Hey, man, just so we're on
the same page, my question was fair. And to his credit,
he might have said differently behind closed doors or behind
my back, but to me, he said, yeah, it was.
It was fair because you asked a question about the

(46:19):
performance of our team. Completely fair. You might I'm sure
he didn't like it, but it's a fair question. I
close questions those guys were asking. Jerry Jones could not
have been more fair. And they did their jobs and
did them well, and it is beyond lame to even
insinuate that you could do something about their jobs. You

(46:42):
could decide I'm not going to go on their show.
That's cool, like fine, Butch Jones decided in twenty ten
he was done with my show, and you know, okay, fine,
no big deal, not like he was being paid to beyond.
He just continued what Brian Kelly was doing, which he
would join us every single Thursday. The Bearcats were not
very good that season. I asked what I thought were
fair questions. Butch didn't like it. He didn't make a

(47:03):
public stink about it, but made it be known, Hey,
Butch isn't gonna come on anymore, which fine, whatever. Now
when they got good again, suddenly Butch wanted to come on,
and we kind of objected to that, because you can't
just come on when hey, I want to talk about
how great we're doing. Like no, no, no, no no no.
I could come on when things aren't so good, but
those questions could not. They were not personal in nature,

(47:27):
they were not unrelated to the success or lack thereof
of the team, and they were met with a guy
being a bully, a rich guy being a bully, who
I'm going to guess in doing so, gave us a
window into how he does things. And by the way,
there's being demanding. I've worked for very demanding people. There's
being demanding, and there's being a bully. There's confronting someone

(47:52):
about questions you don't like, doing it privately that's happened
to me, And then there's being a bully. I could
use who I am, I could use my business as
clouds to have something bad happen to you. That is despicable.
I've said for two decades I think Jerry Jones is

(48:13):
a worse owner than Mike Brown. You may have just
heard why uh five, three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty
is the phone number early Jerry Jones in the Hall
of Fame. He's not in the Hall of Fame because
he won three Super Bowls. Making the Hall of Fame
as an owner is not about winning Super Bowls. Robert
Craft would be, and if it was, He's in the

(48:33):
Hall of Fame because he made a lot of money
for owners. Because he is an awesome businessman that's undeniable
and a smart one at that. But that is less
important to me than are you or are you not?
A bully? Jerry Jones is. He also dramatically misunderstands how
this medium works. Twenty minutes after four o'clock. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 16 (48:55):
Cincinnati's escu's Football in the Nettie on the official home
of the Bengals, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
The Battle of Ohio is on Sunday. You should watch
with me in Kentucky to ticknas. We're the Bengals won.
We watched the game there on Sunday and they won.
So you know what to do. We got prizes. We
gave away jelly roll tickets, gift cards and cyclones tickets
so much more. So join us stickmun Sunday. If you're

(49:26):
a way of keeping your superstition up it is. Yes,
I'm not a superstitious person. But anything that I could
do to get people to watch the game with me,
I'll do it. Let's see here five fifteen thirty Steve,
You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon.

Speaker 12 (49:43):
How are you good afternoon? I am fine, thank you.

Speaker 4 (49:47):
Uh.

Speaker 12 (49:48):
My source for this information is Mike Greenberg this morning,
and the information is the guys that Jerry Jones was
talking to are not members of the press. They are,
in fact Boy employees, and so I took that as
the explanation for why he threatened their jobs, which I
admit is bullying. But they are not members of the press.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
I know one of those two hosts, he is not
paid by the Dallas Cowboys.

Speaker 12 (50:17):
Okay, well that's what Greenberg reported this morning was what
they were.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
The one oh five point three. The fan has a
guy by the name of Bobby Belt who works for them,
and Bobby has been on this show, and he'll be
on our show in early December when the Bengals play
the Cowboys, and he contributes to dallascowboys dot com. He
also works for one oh five point three the Fan,
And so you know.

Speaker 12 (50:38):
What he's about the other guys.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
Yeah, I know they don't work for the Dallas Cowboys.

Speaker 12 (50:43):
Okay, good, I'm glad to hear it. Then I agree
with everything you said. He's a bully.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
Yeah, no, I know those guys. I know Bobby better,
but I know those guys and actually went back and
forth a little bit in text with the guy that
I know better. Those two hosts do not work for
the Dallas Cowboys.

Speaker 12 (51:03):
Wow, Okay, well you're right and Greene's wrong.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
Here's the quote from Shan Sheriff, one of the hosts,
quote for damn sure, it's a fact. I don't get
paid or compensated by Jerry Jones, which I would love
to be. Odyssey, the company that owns the radio station,
signs my checks. I don't want to get too much
into station business. A lot of times, the financial agreement
as we get Jerry and Mike McCarthy and a player,
the team gets the commercial inventory. When the games are aired,

(51:30):
so there's no exchange of moneies. But those two hosts
of that show are not employees of Jerry Jones of
the Dallas Cowboys.

Speaker 12 (51:40):
Cool, Okay, Well, you're certainly right about Jerry in any events.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
Yeah, I mean, Steve, thank you very much regardless. I mean, look,
I'm sure there are situations, including perhaps Dallas, including perhaps
I don't know here, but I'm sure there are situations
where the owner of a team that has their games

(52:07):
on a radio station could be unhappy with something that
is being said about their team, and they could try
to get the host fired. Maybe that's happened here. I
have no idea. I'll just give you how things have
worked for me. Like you beat up on the Reds
all you want. Bengals are maybe a slightly different story
because I don't think they quite care as much. But

(52:28):
like when I've said things that most entities in town
have had issues with, they come straight to me. Now,
they may also go behind my back and go above
me and maybe in some cases try to get me fired.
But my experience has always been with the people in
town that I have upset, and when I've upset them,

(52:51):
I've never backed down. From what I've said, because I've
always played by the rules. I don't make it personal,
don't call names, don't talk about things that are unrelated
to performance. But you got an issue with me. I
ain't hard to get a hold of. And I mean
I've been called into the Castellini owner suite before and

(53:12):
we've had conversations, and I've always taken that as cool.
You reached out to me instead of I'm gonna call
your boss and try to get you fired. But Jerry
Jones did. First of all, those two guys do not
work for him. Second, he's using his status as owner
of the Cowboys and his status as owner of a
property that I'm sure is very important to that radio
station to flex just enough to make it seem like

(53:34):
he could do something to those two hosts employment status.
And that is cheap, It is lame, and it is
the epitome of bullying. And I'm telling you, man, those
who know me well know I could tolerate a lot
of stuff. I hate bullies. I don't hate Brandon say Hoo.

(54:01):
He is part of this initiative that is at the
center of Friday Night you see in Ohio State and
Sunday afternoon slash early evening Dayton and Xavier. And I
don't think you can talk about these two games happening
without talking about Brandon Sajo, formerly from Channel five and
what he's involved in. So he's going to join us
next on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 16 (54:24):
You've been listening to Football in Minetti on the official
home of the Bengals, Cincinnatis, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
Don't forget Bengals game plan at six on ESPN fifteen thirty.
We'll give you the Bengals injury report here in just
a bit. It's a busy sports weekend that includes a
pair of college basketball games exhibition games. On Friday night,
you SEE is hosting Ohio State at game will tip
off at seven pm. U SEE is hosting the game.

(54:53):
And then on Saturday on Sunday, I'm sorry, on Sunday,
a five o'clock tip off at ud Arena as the
Xavier Musketeers take on the Dayton Flyers. So a different
dynamic for the college basketball season, and I think a
lot of fun if you're a fan of any of
those four programs and the game's occurring against the backdrop
of care source and what they do for mental health.

(55:16):
And I can't think of anybody from our area who
has become a more well known, more tireless advocate for
mental health than Brandon Sajo, who once upon a time
worked here, worked for years at Channel five, and is
now the host of the Mental Game podcast where he
chats with a lot of people, very well known folks, athletes, celebrities,

(55:41):
even some folks that like I've never heard of, and
they talk about mental health and its importance and in
many cases people struggles with mental health, which Brandon talks
about in great detail as it relates to himself. And
there are some uplifting stories, and it's done often against
the backdrop of fun and then being engaging. But it's

(56:03):
in an era where we're talking more and more about
mental health. This is worth paying attention to, and it's
worth checking out Brandon's podcast. As we say, wherever you
get your podcast, he is going to be in attendance
and a part of what's happening on both Friday and Sunday,
and he's with us, Now, what's going on? My friend?
How are you?

Speaker 14 (56:20):
I'm good, b That was an amazing intro. I just
want to publicly say You're one of the first people
to reach out to me when I went through my
stuff a couple of years ago, so that means a lot.

Speaker 12 (56:30):
Man.

Speaker 5 (56:30):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (56:31):
Well, I was a long winded, long winded intro, which
we're not supposed to do, but thank you. Nonetheless, this
is going to be a lot of fun from a
basketball perspective, and I can't wait as a huge college
basketball fan. Sure these games don't count, but to see
these programs on the floor with each other is going
to be a lot of fun. But kind of walk
me through the mental health component to both the game

(56:53):
on Friday and the one on Sunday.

Speaker 14 (56:56):
Yeah, you know, mental health and suicide. Then I think,
you know, we've started to talk about a lot more
in the last five years in the sports world, and unfortunately,
you know, it touched close to home with coach Anthony
Grant and his wife Chris up at eight and they
lost their daughter Jada two years ago to suicide and
she struggled in silence. And when that happened, you know,

(57:20):
coach Grant and his family and the university reached out
to me and wanted to figure out how to help
them and help break the stigma in the community, and
so they created Jay's Light, which is a foundation that
helps raise money and resources for you know, underserved and
youth that need help with their mental health. And from
that came these Spotlight games that started with Ohio State

(57:43):
Styton last year and now it's grown to UC host
in Ohio State, UD and Xavier and then thanks to
Coach Cal down at Arkansas, Arkansas's hosting Kansas next week too.
So it's really about just raising awareness and starting that
conversation and it hits cloth at home. Like I said
for Coach Grant. You know, last week I was back

(58:03):
at UD in the arena and we had this incredible
town hall to kind of break that stigma with all
the University of Dayton teams, their fans, their community. And
so now we're doing it in Cincinnati and Arkansas too.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
You know, noticing this last year with Dayton and Ohio
State and now Xavier being involved. I had Sean Miller
on my show yesterday and you see being involved, and
Wes Miller talked about this with me when we had
him on maybe two weeks ago. It's really cool to
see how the heads of these programs have jumped aboard

(58:34):
and gotten behind these mental health initiatives.

Speaker 14 (58:37):
Absolutely, and I mean I have to give you both
Coach Miller's credit. They've both come on the mental game
and been really open with me. And they don't have
to do that. They don't have to play these games.
But I think when and you, being a UD grad,
know just how great of a guy coach Grant is
up in Dayton.

Speaker 5 (58:55):
You hear those stories.

Speaker 14 (58:56):
And I just had coach Shirley on last week and
he talking about his own struggles with suicide and struggling
even when he's got the peak of college basketball. I mean,
these guys look in this sport, you know, interview them.
Some guys have egos, some teams don't want to play
certain teams. But when you can have ten thousand plus
and three different arenas and raise I want to say,

(59:19):
over one hundred thousand dollars money like that to help
people and help save lives, I mean that's I mean, obviously,
these rivalries and basketball are fund I mean, who doesn't
want to see Xavier and UD play like the old
A ten days? And of course we're trying to get
Cincinnati and Ohio State every year. But I mean to
raise money, it's incredible. And to help break out stigma.
I'm really excited about.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
It's gonna be really cool. So for a fan attending
either one of those games and they want to know, okay, well,
give me an idea of how this component to the
game is going to be a part of my fan experience.
How will it?

Speaker 14 (59:54):
Yeah, I mean, obviously you're going to go watch a
great basketball scrimmage. But in each media timeout, you know,
we'll have clips from the mental game on the big
Screen show, and some of the clips from either maybe
coach either Coach Miller or Coach Hurley, different guests. But
then throughout you hear pas from these student athletes talking
about their own experience. I know in Cincinnati. The beneficiaries

(01:00:19):
of this game include the Joe Burrow Foundation and a
spotlight for Coach Brand's daughter and her name. So you'll
get to see a lot of mental health messaging. And
like I like to do on my show, it's kind
of hard to make mental health fun sometimes. That's the
struggle I had when I wanted to start this, and
I think we do it in a fun conversational way

(01:00:42):
where you might be there with your kids or maybe
with I don't know, your brother that you've never talked
to about mental health, and then you see one of
your favorite coaches talking about it, or a player rocking
a shirt that talks about, you know, feelings being temporary
or it's cool, and you go, wait, what does that mean?

Speaker 6 (01:00:59):
I mean, shoot, when you and.

Speaker 14 (01:01:00):
I first met ten plus years ago, I'd never imagined
I would ever talk about my mental health publicly.

Speaker 5 (01:01:06):
Two years ago.

Speaker 6 (01:01:06):
It was scary.

Speaker 14 (01:01:07):
So my hope is that someone's sitting in the crowd
and they see coach Grant or coach Miller talking about
this on the big screen and go, oh, okay, I
can ask for help too. This could happen to me.
I need to do something about it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
Now you're you're right about that. Brandon Sajo is with us.
It's going to be a lot of fun and very meaningful.
On Friday night, Cincinnati hosting Ohio State and then Xavier
heading up the road to take on Dayton. Brandon's host
of The Mental Game podcast. I know you're asked this
whenever you do one of these. Watching you get this

(01:01:40):
podcast started has been has been really cool. And I
would say that if it was a sports podcast, I
would say that if it was a podcast about pretty
much anything, but obviously it does attack something that's very
very important. Kind of walk us through how you started
something that has become such a success.

Speaker 14 (01:01:59):
I have no idea, man, I really didn't you know,
I didn't know what I was going to do. You know,
two and a half years ago, I was in a
mental health hospital in Cincinnati, you know, fighting for my
life with myself. I really had no clue what I
was doing. And when I got back to work at
Channel five, I loved my time at WLWT, but I

(01:02:20):
just realized I didn't have that same passion for sports
Atforteing as I did for this new mental health passion
that I found. And so I did what every twenty
nine thirty year old wants to do, and I lost
my job, left my job, moved in my mom's basement,
and started a podcast. And it's been a crazy couple

(01:02:40):
of years, starting with you know, Sam Hubber was my
first guest. I wouldn't have it without Sam. He was
kind of my test dummy, and that became the first episode.
And then you know, guys like Ricky Williams or Sean
Miller or West Miller coming on and now to live
in la and travel the country, and you know I'm
getting to speak at so many games and colleges and

(01:03:01):
high school is just like this in Cincinnati and Dayton.

Speaker 5 (01:03:05):
It's yeah, man, I had.

Speaker 14 (01:03:07):
No idea this is what I was going to be doing.
I thought I wanted to be a sports supporter my
whole life, but this really does feel like my true
purpose and my favorite thing.

Speaker 12 (01:03:15):
And it's sad, but it's true.

Speaker 14 (01:03:18):
Every single time I do an event, I hear one
on one. I always stay after and talk to people,
but I hear one on one at least once, usually
multiple times. Hy Man, I'm suicidal right now. I'm struggling
right now. I don't know where to go, what do
I do? And you know, we do a great job
making sure including these games will be mental health professionals around.

(01:03:40):
So when that conversation does happen, maybe, like I mentioned,
it's hard to make mental health fun or conversational, but
as they see me or their favorite athlete talking about it,
then they go, oh, wait, I can't ask for help.
And so for me, it's so cool to like sit
down with guys like Terry Crews or Coach Hurley or whoever.
But those conversations are why doing it? Because I never

(01:04:00):
had anyone to kind of lay it out like that
for me and give me a chance to ask.

Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
Check out the Mental Game podcast and the games on
Friday and Sunday serving a greater purpose. Cincinnati hosting Ohio State.
That game will tip off at seven o'clock. I know
tickets are available. And then Dayton and Xavier on Sunday
at five o'clock. Should be a lot of fun, should
be a very meaningful pair of basketball games. I hope

(01:04:27):
you enjoy it, enjoy being back in town, and we'll
talk soon. Man, thanks so much.

Speaker 5 (01:04:33):
Sound good.

Speaker 14 (01:04:33):
I'll see at the score table.

Speaker 5 (01:04:34):
No appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:35):
I look forward to that. Brandon Sayo, host of the
Mental Game podcast. Look, I wish, you know, we all wish.
If you're a fan of any of those programs. These
were regular season games, and maybe down the road this
initiative could be something that's applied to games that count
in standings or rankings or toward the NCAA tournament. That

(01:04:55):
would be awesome. But it's going to be a fun night,
going to be a meaningful night both on Friday and
on Sunday. We're a few minutes late, eleven away from
five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports station.
Hockey fans isn't here's the good news. That's not good.
We've done that about Daxel for a while. The Bengals

(01:05:17):
injury report is pretty remarkably thin. It's the Wednesday of
week seven, so we're more than a third of the
way through the season on the injury report. DJ Ivy
full go, Chris Jenkins, full go, Joe Burrow full go.
They excuse me, continue? That sounds really good? Done it?

(01:05:38):
For some reason. I've cleared my throat on the radio
four times today broadcasting one on one. You're not supposed
to do that. There is a cough button here. The
only player listed as limited as DJ Turner with an ankle.
Everybody else practiced. Everybody else who can practice did practice.
This is a really crucial stretch for a lot of

(01:06:00):
different reasons. Obviously, it's when you're two and four. You
really can't afford to go two and five, two and six. Obviously,
they're playing right now a pretty forgiving schedule. Bengals are
now six and a half point favorites against Cleveland. They
will be favored against the Eagles next week. They'll be
heavy favorites at home against the Raiders on November the third.

(01:06:22):
But what makes this stretch critical for me is the health.
That to me was the takeaway from Sunday's game. Bengals
defense was good, but the Bengals defense was healthy, obviously
understanding they don't have Dax Hill, right, It was that
defensive line. Rankins played, Jenkins played, McKinley, Jackson played, bj

(01:06:44):
Hill played and played great like it was. It was
the wealth of bodies they had. It was the ability
to rotate, it was the ability to give Trey Hendrickson
some help. I've used this example before. In twenty fifteen,
the Bengals won their first eight games and there was
a stretch of time on their way to the the

(01:07:06):
the eight and no record they started with, but they
had nobody on the injury report. It was like of
just paramount importance that they stack wins while they're healthy,
because you want to insulate yourself against what may happen
when you're not. And you know, let's face it, it's football,
it's sports. Injuries are going to be a part of
the equation. There are not going to be that many

(01:07:27):
Wednesdays where I look at the initial injury report and
only see four guys and no names of players who
didn't practice. So while you have health, you've got to
take advantage, got to take advantage. I could give you
other examples. Twenty twelve reds Man like didn't didn't have

(01:07:48):
a starting pitcher, miss a start. Everybody made every single start.
Five guys pitch one hundred and sixty one out of
one hundred and sixty two games. And then Johnnyquido got
injured Game one, and I remember that season going like, dude,
they're remarkably healthy. You got to take advantage. What happened
the following year, all sorts of injuries, all sorts of injuries,
Johnnyquato miss twenty starts, got to take advantage of health.

(01:08:12):
And the Bengals are really really healthy right now. That
doesn't mean you can't win games when you're dinged up.
I don't view injury as an excuse as much as
others do. But what makes this such a critical stretch
of time is like offensively, they played six games. Injuries
have shaped the league dramatically, Like look around the NFL.

(01:08:36):
What's happened to the La Ram season, the San Francisco
forty nine er season to a degree because of injury.
It's just wreck some teams. All the great players who
have missed time. Nico Collins, Houston played better than any
wide receiver in the sport through five games and here
offensively with that unit, that group. We talked about Jermaine

(01:09:00):
Burt not being healthy, Jermaine or not being active. He
was a healthy scratch on Sunday night. He was a
healthy scratch because the Bengals at his position are really
really healthy, and they're more experienced with the other guys,
and the other players have Joe's trust more. But you
don't have to shoehorn a guy into a spot that
he might not be ready for because somebody got hurt.

(01:09:22):
Gotta take advantage of this. You go to Cleveland healthy.
The Browns are not injuries on the offensive line. No,
Jerome Ford just traded away Amari Cooper and Deshaun Watson's terrible.
Miles Garrett is still really good. It's gonna have to
have offseason surgery on his feet. When you're the healthier

(01:09:43):
team and when you're the better team, you have to
win that game. When you go into this stretch and
Bengals might have nine guys get hurt on Sunday and
it changes the conversation. But I value that so much.
I look at teams that are healthy. Can they make
a run with this guy with this health The answer
should be yes. Richard Skinner coming up at five twenty.

(01:10:05):
We are looking forward to that. Well have for you
by demand Zach Taylor's press conference at the end of
the show, taking you clear into Bengals game plan with
Horden Lapham coming up at six oh five, five one, three,
seven four nine fifteen thirty is our phone number. U
see gets a bit of a break for Saturday, and

(01:10:25):
I'm going to double down on something and I'm going
to say it again and again and again and again.
This Red's offseason coming up on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 17 (01:10:38):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center Mammograms Save Lives.
Call five to one three five eight four pink to
schedule your annual mammogram with UC Health's expert team. That's
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watch out for an accident that's on the right shoulder
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have a slowdown due to another accident that's on the

(01:10:59):
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I'm Nicole with traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:11:10):
This report is sponsored by alle.

Speaker 16 (01:11:12):
Coverage starts Sunday morning at nine on ESPN fifteen thirty,
the official home of the Bengals.

Speaker 2 (01:11:19):
Oh yeah, that's us. What's up? Good afternoon about eager?
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you for listening today.
Hopefully you're having an awesome Wednesday afternoon. It is the
bud Light five o'clock Happy Hour, a service of bud Light,
and I'm off the clock here in fifty four minutes.

(01:11:42):
It is not worth getting into, not at all because
nobody cares. But it's been a long couple of days.
I had nothing going on tonight except meeting some folks
for a happy hour, and it will include a bud
light when you work till six o'clo. Yeah, you kind
of catch the tail end of a lot of people's
happy hour. Ain't gonna be the case tonight. So no

(01:12:05):
matter what you're doing to celebrate the end of the work.
Maybe you're already like, you know what, it's Wednesday night.
We're gonna start the weekend whatever it is. Make Bud
Light a part of the experience. Richard Skinner will be
a part of our experience. Coming up at five twenty.
As we get to the Bengals and Browns, we talked
about Cincinnati's remarkable health. Don't forget Bengals game plan tonight
from six to eight Live on ESPN fifteen to thirty.

(01:12:28):
Dan Horde and Dave Lapham two hour wall to wall Bengals.
We've got the quarterback situation in Arizona State that we
have to talk about with the sun Devils coming to
town on Saturday. For I think this is a really
big game for the Bearcats. We'll spend a few minutes
on that coming up in just a bit. There are
a few different themes to the week for the Bengals.
One is, look, man, you can, as Dan Horde would say,

(01:12:52):
you can drive a coffin nail into the Cleveland brown season.
There's not much hope in Cleveland. They're one in five.
The offense has been terrible. Deshaun Watson's been terrible, but
it's not just him. They haven't blocked for him. They
haven't had Nick Chubb. Amari Cooper dropped a lot of passes,
so they traded him away. Now Nick Chubb is healthy,

(01:13:13):
they're sticking with Deshaun Watson for reasons that have nothing
to do with anything except money. And so it's an
opportunity to kind of revel in the misery that is
being a Browns fan, the misery of that franchise. You
can't do that on Sunday if you go there and lose.
And so there is that if you want to effectively,

(01:13:36):
if they're not already eliminated, you can effectively eliminate them
from the conversation if you go to their building and
beat them on Sunday. There's building upon what the Bengals
did defensively. Now you might argue, well, they should be
able to do so against a Browns team that hasn't
scored more than eighteen points in a game, hasn't gained
more than three hundred yards. But you know, we'll see.

(01:13:56):
Did the Bengals fix all of their defensive issues against
the Giants. I'm not sure they did, but I do
think they laid the foundation on top of which something
can be built, particularly because they are healthier, and they
got some good performances from players that we were waiting
to see more from, like DJ Turner and even to
a degree like Cam Taylor Britt And then they got

(01:14:17):
the breakout performance from bj Hill. If you could have
a breakout performance at his stage of his career, Jordan
Battle played a lot. The Bengals looked like a well coached,
fundamentally sound defense. It only really matters if they can
if they can build upon that foundation, so can they
Can the offense bounce back? Mechanically speaking? The New York Giants,

(01:14:39):
like Giants, have a good defense, played well against Seattle,
played very well against the Washington Commanders, the toast of
the league offensively right now, they hit Joe Burrow a lot,
pressured on forty percent of his dropbacks. That's a lot
hit seven times sacked four. Does that provide an opening
to the kleveland Browns? Can Cleveland figure out a way

(01:15:03):
to make the Bengals look as clunky as they did
on Sunday Night? Can the Browns take the air out
of the football? Is Nick Chubb ready to go from
a physical fitness standpoint to take the football and carry
it twenty to twenty five times and effectively be the
offense and ensure that Deshaun Watson really doesn't have to
do anything. These are all storylines, and then there's obviously

(01:15:24):
the Bengals' recent history. Last year, they went to Cleveland
and got clobbered. Joe Burrow's health and lack of comfort
was the main reason why. But the Bengals in that game,
as they have for many season openers, recently looked unprepared.
Joe has struggled in Cleveland, he has struggled against the Browns.
That Week one game last season he posted his lower

(01:15:47):
lowest ever passer rating twenty twenty one. Bengals go to
the Super Bowl, got smacked at home by Cleveland. They
have a hard time with this team. Halloween Night blown
out by the Browns. And so if I'm a Browns fan,
as frustrated as I am, as dejected as I am,

(01:16:11):
that I root for a team that has an owner
who's insisting on Deshaun Watson continuing to play, I can
cling to the notion that, well, the Browns just have
the Bengals number, and they've got something on Joe Burrow
that very few other teams have been able to expose.

(01:16:31):
How much should we consider the history. Here's what I
don't want to hear. I haven't heard it yet. May
hear it this week? You know the Browns are a
bad matchup for the Bengals. How many times did you
hear that? After that Week One lost last year? The
brown It's a tough matchup for the Bengals. It's a

(01:16:51):
really hard matchup for the Bengals. Okay, well, you play
them every single year or twice. You know they're going
to be on your schedule. You know all the other
teams are going to be but it's a given. You
got to figure out a way to compete with and
beat the teams in your division. The Browns being a
bad matchup for the Bengals is not an excuse that
holds water anymore. And like I understand it, Miles Garrett's

(01:17:16):
a load. The way they play offense is difficult to
defend if you're not a great run stopping team. I
cannot imagine how deflating it will feel, not only if
they lose the game, but if on Monday at Twin
Peaks in Westchester for the Tony and Mo Football Show,
we are continuing to talk about how the Browns see

(01:17:37):
they're just they continue to be a bad matchup. Weren't
a bad matchup for anybody else. Granted, the Philadelphia Eagles
didn't play great against them last week and their coach
was yelling at fans in the stands, which you're not
gonna get anywhere doing that, But it didn't look like
the Browns were a bad matchup for them. It hasn't
looked like any of the five teams that beat Cleveland

(01:17:59):
that any of those teams had bad matchups in the Browns.
They weren't a bad matchup for the Cowboys who stink.
They weren't a bad matchup for the New York Giants
who went to Cleveland to beat them, weren't a bad
matchup for the Washington Commanders who throttled them by twenty
one points. So it's about history, but it's also can

(01:18:19):
we eliminate hearing about how well the Browns are a
bad matchup that can't be the case. Thirteen after five
o'clock five win, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty I
mentioned this development the the Bearcats play at home on Saturday.
This you know, we used it last week, so I'm
not sure we could use it in consecutive weeks. We

(01:18:41):
talked about the UCF game being a swing game, and
Tony brought this up before I did, but I latched
onto it because I agreed there was I felt like
a major difference between being four and two coming off
of road wind and then coming home to be probably
a slight home favorite and losing consecutive games and then

(01:19:01):
having to win at home just to get back to
having a winning record. Four and two felt like the
difference between four and two and three and three felt
like more than just a game. It puts them in
an opportunity to play a game that they walked into
favored at home and jumped to five and two, And
if they're five and two, well, if the goal was

(01:19:24):
to get to seven wins, suddenly that becomes something we
can begin to talk about. Acknowledging that they're gonna be
underdogs on the road against Colorado, They're gonna be stiff
underdogs against Iowa State, and stiff underdogs against Kansas State,
those are going to be difficult games to win. Arizona
State is coming off a win against the rank Utah
team and they're five and one with one loss by

(01:19:45):
eight points to Texas Tech. Win this one, and it
really does feel like they can make something of the
season that most would be satisfied with. Most not all,
because I do know there are some folks for they're
just they're never gonna come around on Scott's Saderfield until
it doesn't matter what their win loss record is. I

(01:20:05):
think for most folks, you could use this game as
a springboard to get to maybe seven. Maybe he had victories,
and I'm gonna be honest with you, it would be
hard to sneeze at that. There was a development today
Arizona State. Their coach Kenny Dillingham announced that his team
starting quarterback Sam Levitt, who used to play at Michigan State,

(01:20:26):
is not going to get the start. He is out
with an injury. He's gonna miss anywhere from four to
six weeks, and so Jeff Simms will get the start
for the some Devils. He is a guy who has
a decent amount of experience. He played at Georgia Tech,
gott in some game action with Nebraska last year. He's

(01:20:47):
got some experience. The line has gone from Cincinnati laying
four and a half to now the Bearcats are six
and a half point favorites in this game against Arizona State.
A couple of questions that I have. Can Brendan Sores
go back to looking like the Brendan soreersby pre UCF?
I thought he was better in the second half, he
looked out of sorts in the first half, and then

(01:21:10):
I think, you know, for a team that plays in
a lot of close games, this really matters. The kicking
problem from the last couple of weeks. Nathan Hawks missed
two pretty long kicks against Texas Tech, and then he
missed another field goal try and a pat against UCF,
which kind of opened the door for the Nights in
the fourth quarter. Is the kicking game back to being

(01:21:35):
a problem. We'll spend some time on that tomorrow with
our buddy Chad Brendle coming out back to three forty five.
But first, our friend Richard Skinner from Local twelve and
Local twelve dot Com on the Bengals and more. Next,
bud Light five o'clock Happy Hour, ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 1 (01:21:53):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN.

Speaker 16 (01:21:56):
This is Football in the Natti. Run to you in
Pipe Bye, bud Light, and by Skyline Shiley on the
official home of the Bengals, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:22:07):
Twenty one after five o'clock. This is ESDN fifteen thirty
on my Leger. Bengals on the road against Cleveland Sunday
Live on ESPN fifteen thirty. Covering the game, of course
for Local twelve and Local twelve dot com. Is our
friend from Local twelve, Richard Skinner. How's it going, It's going?

Speaker 6 (01:22:26):
How are you?

Speaker 3 (01:22:27):
You know?

Speaker 2 (01:22:27):
I am, I'm really really well. I'm excited for this
game on Sunday because I want, I want, I want
the Bengals to go to Cleveland blow out the Browns.
I want to Shaun Watson to play the entire game,
and I just want to point northeast and laugh.

Speaker 6 (01:22:42):
Well, I will tell you this, I haven't had that
feeling of walking out of Cleveland with a win in
a long long time, though. I mean, Zach Taylor's never
won there, Joe Burrow's never won there, So that that
I think that feeling is muchel lou An Rouminos. Today
he got in the very first offensive meeting of the
week and reminded the veterans already due and I gotta
let these young guys know, we haven't gotten on the
bus happy yet. We need to get on the bus happy.

(01:23:04):
And you know, with all the stakes that are there,
trying to still dig out of that one for a hole,
getting an AFC North went on top of it, kind
of getting yourself back where you can maybe get the muddle.
Around the five hundred mark when the season kind of
gets real, there's a lot in its stake this week.
You know, they did enough in New York to kind
of take one step forward. This would be a second

(01:23:24):
step forward, but probably even a bigger one if they
go there and win.

Speaker 2 (01:23:27):
You know, when they've lost to the Browns in years past,
especially up there, we've heard, well, this is just a
tough matchup for them. Is this Browns team a tough
matchup for them?

Speaker 6 (01:23:39):
It is from the defensive side of them all, I mean,
mouth Garrett's a problem. They got, you know, all pro
players at each level, but the good Lord de Seaul
Watson is horrifyingly bad. It's it's just it's almost like
they're literally tanking for their next quarterback. By continuing to
play him, he gives them almost no chance to win games.
And then they trade a Mary Cooper on top of
all that. Yeah, they're an offensively challenge bunch. You know,

(01:24:00):
it sounds like, you know, Nick chubbill be back in
the fold, and he's a problem for this Bengals team.
But he put a problem in my opinion, if he
did a chance to try to gang up on him,
which I think they have the chance to do. You know,
I was I can't name another wide receiver off the
top of my head other than Jerry Judy on the
roster for them at the moment. So you know, is
Deshaun Watson in a suddenly spring to life. I guess

(01:24:21):
he could. He played pretty well in the second half
of the Philly game, But it feels like everything's a
six yard slant or a five yard hitch and in
and down the field. You can't throw it over top
of your head and can and complete it. So there's
a lot of things playing in the bengals favor. But
one thing is Miles Garrett has owned them. He's got
twelve sacks and twenty five quarterback hits and ten games
in his career against the Bengals. That's that's absurd.

Speaker 2 (01:24:42):
So with the Giants, it's the collective of their defensive front.
With the Browns. We talk about one guy. So can
Cleveland do the things New York did upfront on Sunday night?

Speaker 6 (01:24:53):
Probably not in the interior. I mean, that's so Lord,
it starts with you when you're having to worry about
an interior guy. I think that's a big deal. I
thought New York did a great up playing a bunch
of games up front. Two I will say, I mean,
I'm going to guess. You know, you know, Miles garrettill
line up all over the field on both sides of
the field. In fact, you line up at noseguard last
year early in the game and got a sack.

Speaker 15 (01:25:12):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:25:13):
You know, I'm guessing they're gonna say, all right, rookie,
what do you got and line him up over Marius
Mims the least not obvious passing down. But I'm gonna
guess the Bengals have a plan of how to attack that.
I wouldn't be shocked if you didn't see through sample
on passing downs alongside of Marius Mims or even Eric Hall,
and then you know he decided to want to send
all out or leave him into block to help. I
think that's that's a nice thing to be able to

(01:25:34):
lean on there for the for the Bengals is to
have maybe an extra helpers as a really good blocker
because you're you can't just leave the rookie out on
an island and hey, holpe are running back and help too.
That's that's too little, too late.

Speaker 2 (01:25:44):
At that point, I viewed Sunday Night as as a
foundation on top of which they can build with with
primarily on the defensive line, because they had everybody, they
had health and you got a chance to see what
that you and it can look like. And we we
all know what the Giants are on offense, but I
felt like you you you started to see what that
unit can be with all those guys. That's more of

(01:26:05):
a statement than it is a question. But I'll let
you go ahead and comment on it.

Speaker 6 (01:26:08):
No, No, it's a it's a good point, There's no
doubt about it. You got a chance to get some
snaps off Trey Henderson. You got a chance to get
some snaps off Sam Hubbard. I thought Sam had really
good moments in that game because he was probably fresher
you Satan said, you know, earlier this year they were
just trying to survive snap the snap because they were
playing way too much upfront, and then you got the
little rotation now Rankins and and and and Hill and

(01:26:29):
Jackson and Chris Jenkins. That's that's a that's a pretty
good rotation in there as well. So I think, you know,
and Rumore also found out a way to get some
snaps off of Mike Hilton and let you know, let
him get some plays off. And I thought Mike and
statistically as well, he had a great game uh in
New York. So the fact that they're as healthy as
they are, I mean, Dak Hill is the only one
really out because of the injury. He's got a chance

(01:26:52):
now to give some of these vets some snaps off,
get some younger eyes, get Jordan Balu here. Jordan Battle
got some snaps on Sunday and actually made a nice
play in the box tackling. So I think it's a
chance for Room would mix and match a lot of
different things too, and maybe lean on that depth a
little bit on defense.

Speaker 2 (01:27:07):
Where does bj Hill for Billy Price rank among good
or great Bengals all time trades.

Speaker 6 (01:27:15):
To steal? I mean, you know, Billy obviously was a
quick bust in this league. I mean, you're not going
to be a starter for this team and they were
able to salvage something out of it, and we honestly
didn't know. I don't think aybody knew that Bjo is
going to become a quality long term start. I thought they.
I think they tried to get him as just a
rotational piece, and that first year he kind of was
because they had Larry Ogan Jobi. But he flashed in

(01:27:37):
those in those situational opportunities and you know, he's become
a very solid three down starting defensive tackle in this league.
And unfortunately Billy Price, because of health, is out of
the league. But I'm not even sure if it would
have been help other than performance that knock Billy out
of the league. I mean, he was just a total
bust and you got you got a starter for at
least four years with this team, and who knows where

(01:27:57):
it goes beyond this for a guy who was never
in your play from the point that they were getting
ready to trade.

Speaker 2 (01:28:02):
Him, What does that drive up to Cleveland like with
you and Paul Danner Junior in the car together.

Speaker 6 (01:28:07):
Well, the thing is we may have a third passenger
because James Raupae may be going with us as well. Wow,
he is there's a there's a real legit chance of
some left right center being played, and I can't tell
you that Paul will played as he drives.

Speaker 3 (01:28:18):
So there's that too.

Speaker 2 (01:28:20):
So we'll have some wagering happening in the car with
the driver perhaps as one of the participants.

Speaker 6 (01:28:27):
That's correct, that that that is correct. I'm not telling
you we're safe. I'm just telling you it is what
we do.

Speaker 2 (01:28:33):
Well, give me a give me a recap next Wednesday.
Thank you as always. All right, it's our guy, Richard
Skinner follow on x at Local twelve Skinny cover thee
Bengals for Local twelve dot com. That time I cleared
my throat. I don't know what's happened to me today.
I've got like some sort of fall cold or something.
But I got cleared my throat away from the microphone

(01:28:56):
and then I just did it into the microphone. And
what just sounds great? Sports had lines are nax and
that we have in its entirety. Via Zach Taylor press
conference on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 16 (01:29:07):
You've been listening to football in thenetti on the official
home of the Bengals, Cincinnatis. ESPN fifteen thirty. It's the
Battle of Ohio, who fresh off their primetime victory over
the Giants shot for the pop touchdown. Joe Borrow and
his Bengals roaringto Cleveland to take down the prime Sachs.

(01:29:30):
It's an AFC North Showdown.

Speaker 2 (01:29:33):
Touchdown.

Speaker 16 (01:29:35):
The Orange and Black are ready to attack.

Speaker 11 (01:29:37):
Damn Hobbard tackle the King at the NME.

Speaker 16 (01:29:41):
Dan Hood and Dave Levin bring you the Call. Coverage
starts Sunday morning at nine on ESPN fifteen thirty, the
official home of the Bengals Sports Lines.

Speaker 2 (01:29:51):
Our service of Kelsey chevroleine home of lifetime powertrain protection
and guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for
life Kelsey chev dot com. Bengals injury report is pretty
clean as we get set for Sunday's tilt against Cleveland.
The only player with any sort of practice designation that

(01:30:14):
matters is DJ Turner limited with an ankle issue. Everybody
else full goill. Browns have a lot of guys on
their injury report. I'm not sure there's anything that really
stands out in terms of being a surprise. Unfortunately, you know,
I'm a Jerome Ford guy because of his time that
you see he injured his hamstring last week. He did
not go today. He's not gonna play on Sunday. Nick
Chubb is full go. Miles Garrett has had an achilles

(01:30:37):
issue most of the season. He has already said it's
going to require offseason surgery, so he has taken it
easy often at Brown's practice limited today more tonight. Bengals
game plan from six to eight live on ESPN fifteen
thirty and of course the game on Sunday on ESPN
fifteen thirty kicks at one bringame coverage starts at nine am.
Bengals did add a guy to the practice squad. Welcome

(01:30:59):
back to Cincinnat Raymond Johnson. Third is Raymond from Cincinnati. No,
did he go to school at UC or anywhere close by? No,
but he was with the Bengals practice squad in twenty
twenty two. Who doesn't remember that second year player from
Georgia Southern originally with the Giants in twenty twenty one
as a college free agent signing and played in a

(01:31:20):
bunch of games, fifteen of them as a rookie. That
spent two years on practice squads with Cincinnati and Detroit.
This past offseason with San Francisco and Jacksonville. Jaggs waived
him during final cuts. Hasn't been with an NFL team
during the first six weeks. Bengals had an open practice
squad spot because Isaiah Thomas got signed by the Detroit Lions.

(01:31:41):
There you go. Meanwhile, you see is getting set to
play Arizona State a noon kickoff homecoming game on Saturday
at Knippert Stadium. Arizona State is not going to have
their starting quarterback Sam Levitt. He got injured and so
he got injured in their over Utah on Friday night.
So Jeff Simms, formerly at Georgia Tech and Nebraska, will

(01:32:04):
get the start for the Sun Devils. What else do
we have? The baseball playoffs shift to Queens National League
Championship Series Game three, Dodgers Mets series tied at one.
That game starts at eight oh eight. Anything you might
have missed on this show anytime you can go get

(01:32:24):
on the iHeartRadio app. Also the podcast page of ESPN
fifteen thirty dot com. If you missed the Tony and
Mo Football Show. If you missed Our Our Hour Yesterday
with Paul Danner Junior. If you missed Sean Miller's appearance
on the show. By the way, Sean Miller invited me
on his podcast, And there's a lot of folks in

(01:32:45):
my timeline who are mad at me for saying, yes,
I tell you something. If I made my decisions based
on what people on my timeline want, I would literally
never do anything. But one was good on our show yesterday.
You listen to our conversation and you could also hear
my chat with our buddy Sean sayed SATs and schemes.

(01:33:07):
And if you're a Ucy or a Bengals fan or both,
and you haven't heard about Bill Cook's book about Greg
Cook no relation. Bill was on my show yesterday, you
could hear that conversation as well. iHeartRadio app or mypage
at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com. Podcasts of this show
are a service of Long Neck Sports Grill.

Speaker 3 (01:33:27):
You know it.

Speaker 2 (01:33:28):
Three places, three locations in northern Kentucky. You got Wilder,
you got Heubren, you got Richwood. No better place to
post up, hang out and watch football this weekend, eat
some wings, drink some beer, and enjoy fellowship. Long Neck
Sports Grill, Stay long, come often, there you go. I
had something else that I was supposed to mention and

(01:33:49):
I completely forgot what it is. So we'll tell you this.
You're gonna hear Zach Taylor's press conference. This is gonna
be exciting. Head coach of the Bengals talking with the
assembled Pro football media. Next on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati
Sports Station. I need a small order of sheep Metal?
Can you help yup at Metal? Supervid Bengals game plan

(01:34:13):
is coming up in just about fifteen minutes with Dan
Horden Dave Lapham as they go wall to wall Bengals
for the next two hours. Getting you said for Sunday
and the battle of Ohio Bengals and the Cleveland Browns.
By the way, it's the above light five o'clock Happy
Hour on ESPN fifteen thirty on Wednesday, Zach Taylor does
what every other NFL head coach has to do. He
sits at a podium like he's really important and answers

(01:34:35):
questions from the media. Here is the head coach of
the Bengals engaging in that exercise on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 15 (01:34:43):
I mean, there might be a couple of guests limited,
but nothing I'm concerned about.

Speaker 10 (01:34:50):
Is there any single player that you focus more on
or game planning with Miles Murger Moles Garrett.

Speaker 15 (01:34:57):
I mean, he's he takes a lot have time and
attention and he deserves it. He's a tremendous player. So again,
he's he's certainly a big focus this week. They've got
a lot of great players. Uh, you know, you focus
on the defense side of the ball. You know, Pro
Bowl players at all positions, all Pro players at all positions,
just collectively, it's a really tough group. They're really fast,

(01:35:20):
but certainly ninety five. You know, he grabs your attention.
You know that from the first snap you watch till
the final one. Over the years, he's always been a problem.
So great player.

Speaker 4 (01:35:29):
Why has it been such a challenge to run.

Speaker 15 (01:35:32):
Against them in the past, league guys, I'm not sure
it's just been us. I think they they've got a
really good defense, really fast, they're physical, so again they've
they've they make your own everything you get.

Speaker 4 (01:35:44):
Low said.

Speaker 10 (01:35:45):
He made it a point at the defensive meeting to
let everybody you know that the record up there that
you guys have not won in.

Speaker 4 (01:35:49):
Cleveland, and do you do the same thing with the offense.
I think we know that.

Speaker 13 (01:35:56):
He just seem to have an extra year is here
after the catch, strong.

Speaker 15 (01:36:00):
Play, He's had some really physical plays so far. I
can think of a lot of the past. You know,
you're pulling up old plays all the time, so I'm
always watching old tape. But I think this year he's
he's playing as well as he's ever played, you know,
And so again to continue to find ways to get
him opportunities. And we got a lot of good players.

(01:36:21):
You're trying to get him all touches. But when he
gets his, he certainly has made people pay for it,
and and really excited about how he's playing right now.

Speaker 4 (01:36:29):
And that twenty four yards catch.

Speaker 2 (01:36:31):
He had a seven yard catch back to back on
that one drive all Yeah, was that maybe one of
his better two play stretches that he's had where he
just went in and one on one gainst quarterback.

Speaker 15 (01:36:39):
Like banks for him to do that, do you remember
a better stretch?

Speaker 4 (01:36:42):
See what's for?

Speaker 5 (01:36:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 15 (01:36:43):
I mean it's he doesn't really worry so much about
who he's going against. He our guys expect to win
regardless of who the corner is. Honestly, I saw him
make the first play he made, and so I just
called another play for him where he was number one,
and then we got him out and gave him a
breathe the red after that. But just when you kind
of see a guy who makes a play like that,
you want to try to to keep them, keep them

(01:37:06):
going there, and I know it's exhausting play. He won
a one on one versus Bomb, broke a couple of tackles,
finished the run. He's tired, but I made him take
one more and to get one more catch.

Speaker 2 (01:37:15):
There are a lot of great pass rushers in the league,
and you guys have to deal with Dame week out.

Speaker 4 (01:37:19):
But are the Browns unique in the.

Speaker 10 (01:37:21):
Fact that they have Miles Garrett and the great rushers
and then also the secondary that they have as well.

Speaker 15 (01:37:26):
Yeah, and I mean six is a great rusher, So
you know it, They've got a lot of they have
a lot of talent. It's a great defense. That's that's
the easiest way to put it. And so again it's
it's an exciting task for our guys this week. I
know we're excited about the opportunity, but again, there you
gotta be prepared for HM because they're good group.

Speaker 11 (01:37:46):
What is this year Zach and Joe being able to
make so many off schedule plays, especially on the third.

Speaker 4 (01:37:53):
Down, what a play breaks down, and he's able to
you know, create.

Speaker 15 (01:37:58):
His understanding, his balance in the pocket, his ability to
see down the field and not just put his eyes down,
you know, and try to find an escape hatch and
get a couple of yards with his feet. He's trying
to buy time to get the big play. The next
part of it is the protection. Those guys have really
held up and given him the ability to move in

(01:38:19):
the pocket. And it's not always going to play. You know,
he took a sack on a third goal, whereas a
quarterback in the low red zone, you need to hold
on that ball as long as possible. It's a four
point play. You're not knocking to side a field goal range.
Ultimately it goes down as a sack. You know, ninety
seven got us on a sack, but really it was
an extended he's buying. The protection was good enough to
start and so there's going to be the pros and

(01:38:40):
cons with it. He knows when to do it, when
is the acceptable situation to do it, and sometimes it
creates a big spark for us. And you know, you
think of the one he hit Jamar down the field,
on where Jamar made the over the shoulder catch that
that really is a quick timing play to get the
ball out to Tee. The window wasn't there initially, and
so he just bought time and Jamar gott in phase
with them. So that was great protection, great awareness by Joe.

(01:39:03):
Good job, you know, creating an opportunity there by Jamar
of kind of figuring out how to win down the
field and and getting a big play for us.

Speaker 2 (01:39:10):
Give his records when you feel like that, you ever
get the sense that this feels. But there's something extra
when he wants.

Speaker 3 (01:39:15):
To ask that.

Speaker 13 (01:39:19):
For years, if we asked you about the rung Gam,
efficiency would be the first work you guys would burn
up this year. More good ones, maybe a few more
negative fronts the Serman ship maybe towards efficiency isn't the
the gold.

Speaker 15 (01:39:30):
No, it's always I mean, we always want to keep
the change moving forward. You know, if we can, if
we can second and eight, it's always better than second ten,
second eleven. But I just think, you know we've we've
done a really good job in the run game. Yeah,
there's there's been a couple of negatives in there, and
but I am excited about the directions going and have

(01:39:50):
a lot of belief there and our guys that are
doing it, and I think we've had some good plans
there and guys are believing in executent.

Speaker 13 (01:39:57):
And then maybe the negatives or you know, I'll step by.

Speaker 15 (01:40:01):
Yeah, I mean, that's that's gonna come with it.

Speaker 3 (01:40:02):
You know, you.

Speaker 15 (01:40:04):
Find yourself taking a couple more risks, you know, because
there's the opportunity for explosives with some of the speed,
we can get around the edge, and sometimes when you
do that, they might make the play, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:40:14):
So it's it's.

Speaker 15 (01:40:16):
That's just the pros and cons of doing it sometimes
and we'll continue to stick with it. And sometimes you're
never accepting of negative results. But the other team's on
scholarship too, and they make some ploys and put you
in a tough spot.

Speaker 2 (01:40:28):
You've seen the Chase Browns wall maybe increasing.

Speaker 15 (01:40:31):
As he continues to get a do We'll just continue
to do the things that are best for our offense.

Speaker 2 (01:40:35):
Here, he goes. Zach Taylor, Bengals head coach, Weekly Wednesday
press conference on ESPN fifteen thirty. Don't Forget. Sunday's game
kicks off at one pregame coverage on ESPN fifteen thirty
starts at nine am. We're back tomorrow. It's our last
show of the week, so a full look ahead to
the football weekend and maybe some college basketball as well.

(01:40:58):
My thanks to Terrum Bland for and to you for listening.
Have a great night. We return tomorrow in three h five.
Bengals game plan is next on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati
Sports Station. This report is sponsored by

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