12/9/24 - Ralph's American Grill Pre-Game Sports Talk with Mo Egger

Mo Egger gets you ready for the Monday Night Showdown between the Bengals and Cowboys!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's Sports Station versus Roun's American Grow Pregame
Sports Talk presented by your Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Toyota Dealers.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Pregame sports Talk is brought to you by Skyline Chile.
Feeling good, It's Skyline Time, a door and window company.
They sell the best and service the rest on core technologies.
Visit Encore dot Tech Cincinnati Asphalt where precision paves the way.
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(00:31):
Com for all Toyota offers, Toyota Let's Go Places, and
by a Rouf's American Grill in Wilmington, Ohio, just off
seventy one, Exit fifty inside the Holiday and at the
Robert Center.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
No pregame sports Talk.

Speaker 4 (00:46):
What's up?

Speaker 5 (00:46):
Good afternoon on Moegar. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Typically,
this is the Moegar Show on ESPN fifteen thirty. Today
is not a normal day because we've got a Bengals
game tonight, Monday Night Football Bengals in Texas getting set
to take on the Dallas Cowboys, which means today's show
is Ralph's American grill pregame Sports Talk. We are presented

(01:06):
by your Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Toyota Dealers. Right here
on ESPN fifteen thirty. We are five hours and ten
minutes away from kickoff. It's the Bengals, It's the Cowboys.
It's two teams that went into the season with massive
expectations and yet are and I think a little bit
more so Cincinnati than Dallas, playing out the string as

(01:27):
we wind down.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
Week what's this? This is week? This is Week.

Speaker 5 (01:31):
Fourteen in the NFL. Five games to go for the Bengals. Yes,
they still have a mathematical chance of making the postseason.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
But let's be honest. When we were when we were.

Speaker 5 (01:42):
Looking at the schedule back in May, and we were
doing the hall light seventeen games win, win, loss, win,
that thing we always do every single year when the
schedule comes out, we were looking at this as a
winnable game for the Bengals. I think a lot of
us were looking at this as maybe not so much
as possible Super Bowl preview, but a game between two
teams and had a chance to be pretty good. And

(02:03):
I think we were really looking at this as all right, now,
the month of September, starting with that Pittsburgh game. Here's
where they go on a run, and yet here they
are scratching and clawing, just trying to stay alive. Mathematically,
a countdown, A kickoff comes your way at six point thirty,
the game at eight to fifteen with Dan Hord and
Dave Lapham. Lots of changes for the Bengals tonight, new

(02:24):
kicker Cade York spelling, Evan McPherson, No Logan Wilson tonight,
No Orlando Brown tonight. Cody Ford is gonna start at
left tackle. He is going to be given the task
of keeping Micah Parsons off of Joe Burrow. No Sheldon Rankins.
Here's what I want to know. A year from now,
are we gonna be doing this again? Like you know,

(02:47):
sitting here in mid December talking ourselves into tonight's game,
mattering right, Are we gonna be doing this a year
from now watching the Bengals play games that, frankly, in
the grand scheme of things, don't matter all that much.
Like that's to me where the conversation is now, Like
Zach Taylor is probably gonna be the coach of the
twenty twenty five Bengals and Duke Tobin is probably gonna

(03:10):
be in charge of the roster of the twenty twenty
five Bengals a.

Speaker 4 (03:14):
Year from now.

Speaker 5 (03:14):
What's going to change to ensure that when the Bengals
are playing this weekend, whether it's on Sunday or Monday
night or Thursday, when the Bengals are playing a year
from now, will they be playing for anything? What is
going to happen to ensure that in fifty two weeks,
instead of playing out the string, the Bengals are not
only playing for something, but playing among the NFL's elite.

(03:41):
I'm not talking about being a game or two better.
I'm not talking about being in the hunt. You know
on that Graphic Day show that the Bengals were not
a part of yesterday if you watched NFL games on CBS,
NBC or Fox. I'm not talking about being in the
in the hunt column. I'm talking about being considered among
the teams that have a chance to win the conference
and thus the Super Bowl. What's going to change in

(04:05):
the coming months to ensure that next December we're not
getting ready for Bengals games that really don't matter all
that much. Do you trust the people in charge of
this organization to ensure that we're not doing that one
year from now. I was out late last week. My
thanks to Chad Brendle for filling in on Thursday. Obviously,

(04:27):
Bengals pep rally bumps us out of the way on Fridays,
and so I haven't had a chance to react to this.
I thought, in a year where Joe Burrow has looked frustrated,
where he has expressed I think more through his body
language than anything that he has said, frustration and exasperation

(04:48):
and exhaustion with the season and how it's unfolded. I
thought last week we heard some of his most pointed comments.
Yet I'm going to play two quotes for you. Here
is the first about learning who the Bengals have on
their team during these final five weeks.

Speaker 6 (05:07):
You know that we kept fighting. I'm gonna keep giving
it everything that I have. You know, I'm you're still
allowed to play for You know the playoffs are probably outreach,
but you know, personally and I know everybody in the
locker room feels the same way. There's these are valuable
reps to go and and improve yourself. Prove how hard

(05:30):
you've worked all off season. I prove that you could
be a guy that can be counted on going forward.
And you know, there's there's individual awards up for grabs,
there's you know a lot of things that that are
still there to to seize, and so I'm excited about
those opportunities.

Speaker 7 (05:50):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (05:50):
I thought it was interesting that Joe Burrow, who during
the course of his first four plus seasons nearly five
years as the Bengals quarterback, has usually been willing to
ignore the deficiencies around him. I think that was kind
of an acknowledgement that, you know what, we've got some
stuff to figure out, because there's a lot of stuff
to figure out. When you've got a lot of stuff
to figure out, you're not a championship caliber team. There

(06:13):
was also this, and this is the one that stood
out to me more than anything, Part two of I
Guess the two cuts I'll play Joe Burrow from last week.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
Yeah, you try to.

Speaker 8 (06:27):
Give your opinion in ways that you feel comes over
the best. You know, this is a tough season, and
you know, the cornerstones of this organization are going to
be remembered by more than just this season, and we

(06:48):
will be remembered by how we handled this. And you know,
it's still an exciting opportunity to go out and play
for this city and for this team every week in
and week out.

Speaker 5 (07:02):
I feel bad for Joe because he has to, along
with Zach Taylor, kind of be the spokesperson for things
he has nothing to do with. This is a team
that is massively underachieved. This is a team that is,
as Joe put it, not likely to be in the postseason.
This is a team that I think represents failure, failure
by the front office to build the sort of team
that could take advantage of a quarterback who's having an

(07:24):
MVP caliber season. And yet Joe is the one player
that is required to go out there and talk every
single week and speak to things that he has almost
no control over, speak to things that he has almost
nothing to do with. Joe Burrow is having the sort
of season that, if the Bengals were even slightly better,
would put him in the MVP conversation. And yet he's not,

(07:45):
and he won't be because the team itself stinks. Joe
Burrow is not the reason the team stinks. But he
used a word there. Cornerstones. The cornerstones of this organization
are going to be remembered by more than this season.
We will be remembered by how we handle this. There's
the question, who are the cornerstones? I mean, we know

(08:07):
Joe is one, we assume Jamar Chase is one. I'll
say Amrius Mims is one. I think that's fair. I'll
include Chase Brown and the conversation. I think he's a cornerstone.
What else you gott? Defensively, like, I'm certainly not willing
to give up on players like Chris Jenkins and McKinley Jackson,
and Chris Jenkins specifically is a guy who I think

(08:29):
has a lot of upside.

Speaker 4 (08:31):
What else you gott? Who are the cornerstones? Trey Hendrickson?

Speaker 5 (08:34):
Yes, although I would explore trades for Trey Hendrickson just
to see what I could get back in return, because
let's be honest, Bengals need to accumulate draft assets and
Trey's a guy you could do that with. There's my
question for you, who are the cornerstones? Isn't that kind
of a problem, Like there's asking the question and maybe

(08:57):
you have an answer, but I think the bigger issue
is we have to ask that question. This is not
a team that has a bunch of dudes who are
closing in on the expiration of their contract. This is
a team, especially on defense, filled with guys who have
just entered the NFL as in many cases high round

(09:18):
draft picks, as players who were drafted to be cornerstones,
like McKinley Jackson.

Speaker 4 (09:26):
Is that guy at cornerstone? He may be.

Speaker 5 (09:28):
It's hard to say that he is right now. Stax
Hill of cornerstone, he may be. It's hard to say
that he is right now. We're not going to find
out anything about him over the final few weeks because
he's hurt. Like that's kind of remarkable, it's also kind
of damning at the quarterback of the team using a
word that is that relates to this team, I have

(09:49):
a hard time wrapping my brain around how many cornerstones
are there, how many genuine building blocks for what's next
are there on this football team right now?

Speaker 4 (10:02):
Isn't it damning?

Speaker 5 (10:04):
And isn't it a an indictment against Duke Tobin in
the front office that for for all the players the
Bengals have acquired via the draft, for all the players
the Bengals have acquired via free agency, and by the way,
in some cases, at least for me, personally made acquisitions
or made draft choices that I was on board with,

(10:24):
And yet you look at this team and a whole
lot of guys that I would imagine you're all that
excited about moving forward with. So that's my question as
we start today. We've got extra time today to six
thirty here on ESPN fifteen thirty, and there's a lot
of ground to cover. We've got some non Bengal stuff
to get to react to the college football playoff. The
Wan Soto deal has me thinking about a red and

(10:46):
an answer to the question we're going to get all
summer long. We've got the Skyline CHILEI Crosstown shootout coming Bearcats.
With a less than inspiring first half performance yesterday afternoon
better in the second half, it doesn't feel like either
team is going into the shootout with a ton of momentum.
Musketeers obviously do play tomorrow.

Speaker 9 (11:05):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (11:06):
But there's my question for you today. Who are the
Bengals cornerstones? How many do they have? Five pinet three
seven four nine, fifteen thirty eight six six seven oh
two three seven seven six. The cornerstones of this organization
are going to be remembered by more than this season,
and he's right about that. He's right about that as

(11:27):
it relates to a guy like t Higgins who's had
a terrific Cincinnati career, and he's right about that in
relation to a guy like Jamar Chase, who's had a
massive impact on this team, And he's right about that
as it relates to players like Trey Hendrickson who's still
really good and Sam Hubbard who frankly hasn't been very
good at all this year. But moving forward twenty twenty
five and beyond, where are the cornerstones? And do you

(11:51):
trust Duke Tobin to accumulate cornerstones? At Mugger on X
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Speaker 4 (12:03):
Oh dot com.

Speaker 5 (12:05):
Uh five point three seven four nine fifteen thirty is
our phone number. Show preview video, by the way, also
up on X thanks to Emory Federal Credit Union, your
credit union with Hart since.

Speaker 4 (12:15):
Nineteen thirty nine. Go to EMORYFCU dot org.

Speaker 5 (12:18):
Like I could legitimately legitimately feel comfortable naming like six
players and even some of them, I'm not sure the
Bengals are gonna have more than six players on next
year's team from this year's team.

Speaker 4 (12:31):
How many of.

Speaker 5 (12:31):
Those guys are foundational pieces? How many of them are
building blocks? How many of them are cornerstones? Whichever verbiage
you want to use. Uh, we have a lot to
get to. Kickoff is just under five hours away. As
I mentioned before, Wayne box Miller has countdown to kickoff
at six thirty. My name is Malager. Uh, still ahead.

(12:53):
We're gonna go to Dallas coming up in just about
fifteen minutes and talk about a Cowboys season that went
sideways weeks ago, but they have won their last two games.
I have a promise for you, a promise in fact,
I rarely do this. Find something to record this on
and keep it because you could use it against me.

(13:15):
If I ever break this promise, I'll tell you what
that promise is. Next, it's Ralse American Grill. Pregame Sports
Talk presented by your Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Toyota Dealers
on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. So Pregame Sports
Talk we are presented by your Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky
Toyota dealers on my legger by the way good news

(13:35):
if you're a Bearcat fan, you see football. Dante Corleone
announces he is returning for his fifth season at the
University of Cincinnati. The Godfather is back.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
That is good.

Speaker 5 (13:47):
I'm gonna make a promise to you. In just a
few minutes, We're gonna go to Dallas at three thirty three.
Talk about the Cowboys, Bengals and Cowboys coming up tonight
again the game live on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 4 (13:56):
Thirty is we search for cornerstones? Cornerstone? Who are they?
How many do they need? And do we trust?

Speaker 5 (14:04):
Duke Tobin de fine it, which, by the way, that's
I was looking at since he jungled this week, and
there have been a few, you know, outlets, and this
is the natural byproduct of a season that has gone sideways.

Speaker 4 (14:14):
The blame game, right, And so is it Zach's fault?

Speaker 1 (14:16):
Is it?

Speaker 4 (14:17):
Is it Duke's fault?

Speaker 5 (14:18):
I don't think when a when a professional sports team
has a disappointing season or a losing season, I rarely
find that to be the fault of any one person
as it relates to Zach Taylor specifically, I'll be honest
with you, and I did a radio interview in Dallas
late last week and I said this, and I don't
think the hosts really understood. But like when it comes

(14:39):
to Zach Taylor, I don't feel that strongly like if
he's the coach next year, okay, and if he's not okay,
And by the way, that might be an indictment against
Zach Taylor, that's six years in. I don't feel compelled
to race to his defense where I'm still not really
sure if he's a good coach or not. Right, Like,

(14:59):
you can make those arguments, but I think it is
totally fair to look at the roster and look at
its deficiencies and wonder two different things. One can this
be fixed in a year? Can this be fixed in
one offseason? And number two, do we trust to Tobin
to fix it? And you know, from a defensive perspective,
what we're asking him to do is take a bad

(15:20):
defense and make it okay. Like that's That's kind of
the frustrating thing about this season, right. There's a lot
of frustrating things about this season. There's maybe not one thing,
but it's certainly on the list.

Speaker 4 (15:29):
To me, at least.

Speaker 5 (15:30):
We went into this year thinking if the Bengals had
a league average offense, this team had a shot. And
as it's turned out, if the Bengals had a league
average defense this year, they'd have a shot. I think
I might have said offense before this. If the Bengals
this season had a league average, middle of the pack defense,
we're talking about a playoff team. We might be talking

(15:50):
about a team contending for a division title. The chances
are we're gonna say the same thing about next year's team.
Can Duke Tobin build a league average defense next season?
We didn't ask him to build the two thousand Ravens.
We didn't ask him to build a top two or
three defense, just one that doesn't crush the efforts of

(16:10):
the offense. He couldn't even do that. So do we
trust him moving forward? Your phone calls are welcome at five, one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. So the college football playoff rankings came out yesterday.
I am a big fan of this process. I think
there was some suspense yesterday, which is always the beauty

(16:31):
of selection Sunday and college basketball, there's suspense, and there
was yesterday with Alabama and SMU, and I thought SMU
was deserving. I'm thrilled that SMU got in in a
sport that has often been kind of, I think in
recent years at least defined by sameness. It's neat to

(16:54):
see different schools competing for a national championship, which to
me was always the real goal of the expanded playoff.
So we get a chance to watch Indiana compete for
a national championship. Do I think the Hoosiers are going
to go to Notre Dame and win? I give him
a puncher's chance, but not really. But I think it's cool.
I think it's cool that a school like SMU, which in
the old way was gonna have to be perfect, gets

(17:16):
a chance to play a playoff game. That is awesome.
So I'm a big, big fan of this process. Now,
of course, a postseason where the teams are chosen based
on subjectivity by a committee, people are going to be unhappy.
Alabama fans are unhappy. SEC fans are unhappy. The Alabama

(17:37):
ad is unhappy. He's making what I think are pretty
empty threats about, well, we're not going to schedule anybody
in the non conference.

Speaker 4 (17:43):
I'll be honest with you. If this is where college.

Speaker 5 (17:46):
Football is going, where they're not going to schedule anybody
in the non conference I'm okay with that, and the
reason why is because of conference realignment, we get more
really good conference games.

Speaker 4 (17:58):
Awesome, So I.

Speaker 5 (17:59):
Get any expanded playoff, I get more really good conference games.
If that comes at the expense of good non conference games,
I'll make that trade. Also, I don't believe that schools
are gonna do that because they have to sell tickets.
I'm gonna make a promise to you. And I know
I have said this before, but we'll put this as

(18:20):
one of the social media clips we use.

Speaker 4 (18:22):
So you can hang on to it.

Speaker 5 (18:25):
Here is my promise, whether it be in the college
football playoff or in the NCAA tournament. I am a
die hard and lifelong UC fan both sports, both major sports,
football and basketball. I promise you, promise, vow you will

(18:51):
never hear me or see me lose my mind and
complain if my team is the last one on the
outside looking in. Now, let's be honest from a football perspective,
they've got to get a lot done before we worry
about the Bearcats being on the outside looking in. I

(19:14):
would have I would have I would have paid money
for that to be the case this year. But if
they if they ever get the program back to where
we're talking about them competing for a playoff spot and
they barely barely miss and they are Alabama or they're
the Miami Hurricanes, or they're for I don't know, Ole
Miss and they're just on the outside looking in.

Speaker 4 (19:35):
I promise you.

Speaker 5 (19:38):
I'm not gonna be one of those people that spends
the next twenty four to forty eight hours publicly or
privately complaining, crying about it a legend conspiracy, sending mean
tweets to the people on the committee.

Speaker 4 (19:55):
You know this, March. I think the Bearcats are going
to be a tournament team.

Speaker 5 (20:00):
And I know a lot of folks aren't enamored with
how they're playing right now, and I'm frankly not either.
But but you know, I think they're gonna be a
tournament team. But if they're not, let's say the bracket
gets revealed and their team number sixty nine on the
outside looking in. I promise you I'm not going to
complain that they weren't on the bracket, that they didn't

(20:21):
get included, that they didn't make the field, because at
the end of the day, the reason why a team
doesn't make it is you didn't win enough games. Alabama
didn't win enough games and lost games to teams it
shouldn't have lost to. Sorry, very good team, obviously awesome program.
I'm kind of a fan of the coach, Caitlin de Borr.

(20:43):
I think it's I think it's it's it's fun when
Alabama's in the playoff because there's such massive interest in them.
But dude, you didn't do enough. You put yourself at
the mercy of the committee. I do this in colleence
basketball every single year whenever I hear these coaches or
watch fans on Sunday night of selection Sunday or the
next day complaining their team didn't get in. You put

(21:04):
yourself at the mercy of the committee. If you do that,
you know what you're kind of You might be left
twisting in the wind. Sorry, I don't feel sorry for you.

Speaker 7 (21:15):
Now.

Speaker 5 (21:15):
It's easy for me to say if I'm not going
to make you know, if I'm if, I'm going to
back up those words when something like this happens to
my team, And maybe that'll happen one day, maybe it won't,
but if it does, I promise you I'm not going
to be one of those folks. I will point the
finger point the arrow at my team and why they
didn't do enough, and how they put themselves at the
mercy of the selection committee. And when you do that,

(21:38):
you have to accept whatever they give you. Sorry, Bama fan,
you have to accept whatever the committee gave you because
you put yourself in that position, didn't play for a
conference championship, lost games to teams that you shouldn't have
lost to. When you do that, I do not feel
sorry for you. It's an annual right of march. Man
right bracket comes out between six and seven and by

(21:59):
eight o'clock. Now there's one or two coaches going on
every conceivable network podcast radio show making the case for
their team, winding about it, crying about it, talking about
how they feel bad for their kids. I never share
that sorrow. You didn't do enough. Sorry, Alabama, you didn't
do enough. Easy for me to say, now, I promise
you mark the tape since we'll put this on social media.

Speaker 4 (22:23):
Bookmark this.

Speaker 5 (22:24):
If the Bearcats are ever in that position in either
football or basketball, I'm not going to be that guy complaining.
Three thirty on ESPN fifteen thirty will go to Dallas
Talk Cowboys. They play the Bengals tonight next. This is
Ralph's American Grill Pregame Sports Talk presented by Your Cincinnati
and Northern Kentucky Toyota Dealers on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati

(22:44):
Sports Station, Cincinnati's ESP.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
Two, ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's Sports Station.

Speaker 5 (22:54):
Ralph's American Grill Pregame Sports Talk presented by Your Cincinnati
and Northern Zucky Toyota Dealers on ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm
with you till six thirty when Wayne pox Miller takes
over countdown to kickoff, and then Dan and Lapp hat
the game live on ESPN fifteen thirty with kickoff from
Arlington at eight point fifteen.

Speaker 4 (23:15):
Bobby Belt.

Speaker 5 (23:16):
Whenever there's a Bengals Cowboys intersection, we call Bobby Belt.
I think the last time we had him on the show,
the Bengals had signed Leel Collins and we were all
excited about that and that was ended up being short lived.
Bobby is with one oh five three the fan in Dallas.
He is on X at Bobby Belt t X and
he's with us now. Jerry Jones best friend, Hi.

Speaker 10 (23:36):
Bobby, Ahi, Yeah, Jerry loves me.

Speaker 4 (23:40):
We're fififthyed I appreciate you doing this.

Speaker 5 (23:43):
How would you describe this season for the Cowboys so far?

Speaker 4 (23:48):
You know, in a lot of.

Speaker 10 (23:49):
Ways, it feels as stunning as it is I know
for a lot of people, and as disappointed as a
lot of it feels predictable, just in the sense that
they did do anything to replace the depth that they
lost this offseason, when they had so many different guys
get signed away to other teams, and when that depth
just got decimated, then yeah, as soon as they started

(24:11):
getting injuries, they were bad. And so I think what
you saw was they didn't do anything to replenish those reserves,
and as soon as they were in need of them,
everything fell apart. But even before they started getting hit
by injuries around week four or five, when Micah goes
down and then you've got, you know, DeMarcus Lawrence and
Brandon Cooks and Eric Kendricks and Dak Prescott and go

(24:32):
down the list, even when that stuff started hitting that
or even before that stuff starting and then they were
struggling really really bad. And so I don't know, I
think a lot of it is just Green Bay in
the playoff game last year exposed a lot of flaws
for this Cowboys team, they didn't do anything to repair them,
and then they didn't do anything to replace depth, and
you kind of get what you get, which is a

(24:53):
not very good football team that is actively trying to
beat the Bengals and ruin my better draft picks that
I get to cover in April.

Speaker 5 (25:03):
What has gone wrong that was maybe not quite as
easy to predict.

Speaker 10 (25:09):
You know, I don't think anybody anticipated that Dak in
the offense, the passing, it would look as bad as
it did. After Dak finished second in the MVP last
year and really looked to, you know, kind of click
everything into place in the second half of last year.
I don't think we thought it would be as prolific,
just because they had some different changes with the you know,
their weapons, and you had the offensive line missing some pieces.

(25:31):
But I don't think anybody anticipated that it was going
to be that that difficult with the offensive line for
them to excuse some of the past concepts they wanted.
And I don't think anybody anticipated Dak just not playing
very well. This was by far the worst year of
Dak's career. And you know, there's a there's a lot
of talk a couple of years ago when He led
the league in interceptions with fifteen and he only played

(25:52):
ten games or whatever it was twelve games, and there
was a discussion about, Wow, look at all these interceptions.
He grows and turnover prone. That's such a bad u.
That really wasn't a bad year Dak, because a lot
of those interceptions were the issues of balls, you know,
getting tipped off of a receiver's hand, or it was
an option route and the receiver broke the wrong way
and Dak was thrown to the right spot, but there

(26:12):
was no receiver there, so it just went right into
a defensive backs arm. So context matters, and so I
know there have been some other years where people thought
maybe he wasn't playing so well. I think that it's
more nuanced than that. This year he was objectively just
not very good, and I know some of that's resulting
from him. You got a rookie center and a rookie
left tackle, arguably the two most important positions on the

(26:33):
offensive line, And not only are they rookies, they're changing positions.
Cooper Beebe was moving from guard to center and Tyler
Geiton was moving from right tackle to left tackle. But
that would make sense as to why you would limit
certain things in the game plan, but it doesn't explain
the way why Dak just played poorly at times, and
so I think that was probably the thing that people
least anticipated.

Speaker 5 (26:53):
I think there's a lot of us who watching it
from a distance have seen the Cowboys struggle and you'll
see him get beat in many cases badly on a Sunday,
and you'll go, okay, well, today is going to be
a rough one for Mike McCarthy. He's going to be
on the chopping block. Dallas is going to be in
the market for a new head coach, and yet he
is still on the Dallas sideline. Is that surprising to
someone like you who's a little bit closer to it.

Speaker 9 (27:14):
You know.

Speaker 10 (27:14):
I felt like there were a couple different opportunities for
it to go sideways for him. If they would have
lost to Pittsburgh, for instance, when they went to three
and two then, and if they would have struggled coming
out of the bye week they were to get embarrassed
by the forty nine ers, I thought he could have
been fired. Then they would have been sitting at two
and five and just things falling apart and getting embarrassed

(27:39):
by essentially their chief rival, the team they've been chasing
for the last few years. I thought that could have
done it, but we never got quite the right ingredients
of things for that to happen. It came closest probably
when they got embarrassed by Detroit. That was really bad,
and I think Jerry was really upset by that game.
That was oddly enough, when when Jerry came through the

(27:59):
next week on our show I'm one a fucking fan
and threatened to fire us, even though he's not our employer.
So I think that that was the closest we got.
But Jerry's been insisted all year he's not going to
do it, and it sounded almost spiteful at times, like
just nope, I determined I'm not going to do it,
and you're not going to make me do it. And
so I've kind of felt like, all right, he's probably
hanging around through the end of his contract. It'll expire,

(28:21):
and then I would imagine Mike McCarthy will be on
his way.

Speaker 5 (28:26):
Has how much of the problem is on him? How
much of this season's failures are at the desk of
Mike McCarthy.

Speaker 10 (28:32):
Oh, you might be asking the wrong guy here. I
am stauntly anti Mike McCarthy, So so I will I
will just give that caveat before I go, But I mean,
I think a large portion of them. I mean, you've
got a lot of issues, like I said, with the
way the quarterback played, You've got issues with what they
were able to replenish in terms their death like I
mentioned earlier. But at the end of the day, they
should not be as bad as wild as it sounds.

(28:56):
You know, a lot of people were like, well, they
won twelve games three years in a row, and it's like, yeah,
there were a lot of people around who felt like, yeah,
those could have been fourteen win teams and they weren't
because of Mike McCarthy. But I think that just it's
been a struggle. I don't think the communication with the
offense is always strong in terms of Mike McCarthy's messaging
to the offense and then the player's receptiveness to that.

(29:16):
So look, I mean, at the end of the day,
a lot of the issues that they've had with execution, discipline, preparation,
all that that's got to fall on the guy who's
the head coach. So I'm in a large share of
this is on Mike McCarthy. A largehair this is on
Jerry Jones in the front office. And a large shair
this is on you know, rookie, he's not performed where
they needed to. And a big junk of it belongs
to Dak Prescott as well.

Speaker 5 (29:36):
Bobby belt one O five to three the fan in
Dallas for another minute, This is gonna maybe sound like
a weird question, and maybe it's one you've gotten before.
You know. Here in Cincinnati, the owner of the Bengals
makes himself available.

Speaker 4 (29:47):
One time a year. The idea of Mike Brown doing
a daily.

Speaker 5 (29:50):
Or weekly or bi weekly radio show could not seem
more foreign, either to us or to fans, I'm sure
to the Brown family itself. What is it like covering
a team that has an owner who is how many
times a week is he available? How many times a
week does he go on with you guys? How many
times a week?

Speaker 10 (30:08):
To Jerry Jones, He's on our station twice a week
during the season, and then he is He generally will
talk after every home game and occasional road games. So
I mean you're gonna hear from him during the season,
probably upwards of fifty times during the season. So I
mean it's a lot, but I've got a slightly different

(30:32):
perspective on it. Obviously, I'm not going to complain about
Jerry Jones coming on our airway. It was great, easy,
he got lots to say, and it's always there's always
something interesting that comes out of it. But I think
that the way I look at it, as as silly
as people think it is that he named himself general
manager thirty five years ago, thirty six years ago. He
is the general manager, and I don't think that when

(30:55):
when people I think they just think of it as
the owner and the reality it's like, no, this is
the general manager.

Speaker 7 (30:59):
And it's not totally unusual.

Speaker 10 (31:01):
It's not common, and it's definitely not as much as
Jerry does, but it's not totally unusual to have the
general manager speak to media frequently throughout the season. And
so that's kind of the way that I look at it.
As they say, it's definitely an odd structure here in Dallas,
and it's something where he talks more than most people
in his physician do. But I think people a lot

(31:22):
of times forget the general manager part of his title
because they just don't respect that part of it, which
that's their prerogative, But the reality is he is the GM,
and so the GM of your football team. Generally, we'll
talk to media frequently throughout the season.

Speaker 5 (31:35):
Is is he an unpopular figure among Cowboys fans?

Speaker 4 (31:40):
Is water wet?

Speaker 10 (31:41):
Yeah, he's pretty he's pretty unpopular about every interview we do.
I mean, it doesn't matter what. He could just be
joking about Thanksgiving with his family, and you know, we'll
get text on our listener line that are like, how
can this awful human being be joking about spending time
with his family at a time like this? You see
as football too, there's nothing he can say that will

(32:02):
please people, especially in a season like this. So yeah,
now that's why Jerry says, you know, I got big shoulders.

Speaker 7 (32:07):
I can take it.

Speaker 10 (32:08):
And he will take all of that blame and all
of that intense hatred in exchange for if they get
to the super Bowl and win it. He wants all credit,
So that's for him. He's he will constantly take that
in search of when we get that title, remember it,
Remember that you you gave me all the thing for it,
so you're gonna have to all the credit if we

(32:28):
turn it around.

Speaker 5 (32:29):
Yeah, it feels like it might be a while, but
we'll see you're actively rooting against the Cowboys tonight.

Speaker 10 (32:36):
I need I need a draft pick. I need a
better draft pick. And uh, i've seen five and seven
Dallas and four and eight. I need at the Reford
be evened out and for you guys to get the
tie breakers so we can bump us up a spot.
Because yeah, I definitely remember twenty twenty near the end
of the year when we beat Cincinnati and then it
was like, well, great, there goes Panasu.

Speaker 4 (32:55):
Well, thank you, I remember it.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
Well.

Speaker 5 (32:58):
I appreciate you doing this as all man appreciate it.
We'll talk soon.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
Thanks both persisting.

Speaker 5 (33:03):
Right there you go, I said appreciate it twice. Bobby
belt one O five to three. The fan in Dallas
follow him on X at Bobby belt t X. That
guy's good at what he does. It's a quarter to
four on ESPN fifteen thirty on Mowegger, we're here till
six thirty. It's Ralph's American Grill pregame sports talk. By
the way, you might be wondering, well, wait a minute,
it's Monday, Tony and Mo Football Show. Are you at
Twin Peaks? No, because of the game tonight. But the

(33:27):
good news is we will have a Tony and Mo
Football show at Twin Peaks. Will be in Florence tomorrow,
so a special I don't know if it's special, but
a Tuesday edition of the Tony and Mo Football Show
Twin Peaks in Florence tomorrow from three to six.

Speaker 4 (33:40):
We hope to see you there, win or lose.

Speaker 5 (33:44):
I'm not yet to the point that I'm I've actually,
in my life as a Bengals fan, I've only like actively,
and I mean like with fervor, rooted for the Bengals
to lose one game. And that was the game again
Dolphins in twenty nineteen where they had a chance to
wrap up the number one overall pick and they were

(34:05):
down by twenty two points and came back in nearly one,
which I always felt like was kind of endearing. But
it's the only time I've ever like actively rooted against him. Look, man,
I don't tell people how to live their lives. I
don't tell people how to fan. Don't get wrapped up
in what beer people drink and stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (34:27):
I just not what I do.

Speaker 5 (34:29):
So if you're watching this game tonight through that lens,
hoping they take the loss to take the best possible pick.

Speaker 4 (34:36):
Fine, that's you.

Speaker 5 (34:37):
I'm not there yet, but I'm not saying I'm not
going to get there at some point, perhaps when they
are officially mathematically eliminated, which, of course, right now they
are not. Fourteen minutes away from four o'clock. Five win, three, seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty is the phone number. We will
spend a few minutes celebrating something that I have wanted
to talk about on the air four years, and today

(35:01):
I finally get to talk about it. Plus, we're gonna
hear a question. We're gonna hear a lot of questions,
but we're gonna hear one question more than any other
this summer. We got the answer to it last night,
so we don't have to ask it anymore. A preemptive
strike coming up in the four o'clock hour, and I

(35:22):
have an idea. Might not be the best idea, but
I have an idea as it relates to the Bengals
and the current number one seed in the AFC. A
lot to get to between now. In six thirty, it's
Rause American Grill pregame sports Talk presented by Your Cincinnati
and Northern Kentucky Toyota Dealers on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati

(35:43):
Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (35:44):
Little Miami Brewing, you.

Speaker 5 (35:46):
Know, signed for a lot of money, which we're gonna
talk about a little bit later on. Hey, if you're
looking for a place to watch the Sien's game, I'll
be at Dickmans in Fort right.

Speaker 4 (35:56):
We hope to see you there.

Speaker 5 (35:57):
Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet. I know
I'm way late in doing this. Home of Lifetime powertrain
protection and guaranteed the credit approval from their family to
yours for life kelseyshev dot Com Bengals getting said to
take on the Dallas Cowboys. Bengals did make a roster
move a mere formality elevating Caid York to the active roster.

(36:17):
I did not know until I read Cincinnati dot com
the Kad York is dating a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.

Speaker 4 (36:22):
Good for him.

Speaker 5 (36:23):
Kickoff tonight eight fifteen. The game is live on ESPN
fifteen thirty. That slides some things around from a programming perspective.
The Mark Pope Show, God Knows, there's a lot to
talk about as it relates to a UK basketball the
Wildcats on Saturday Night one, a game where it felt
like for a while they were gonna lose by thirty
because that Gonzaga team is really good. They erase an

(36:44):
eighteen point deficit win in overtime by a point. The
college basketball this year, at the highest levels of the
sport has been awesome, awesome, And they played the game
without Lamont Butler. They fall behind by eighteen. They had
just lost on the road the previous game, you know,

(37:04):
much more so than the Duke game. Was trying to
you know, see if Kentucky was going to pack it
in and head home with back to back road losses.
I know they played the game in Seattle on Saturday night,
and instead they storm back and win by a point.
That will be fun to talk about if you're looking
for that show at airs tonight on Fox Sports thirteen
sixty The Shawn Miller Radio Show Tonight at seven on

(37:25):
fifty five KRC. Musketeers getting set to play Morgan State tomorrow.
UC falls to twenty second and twenty third in the
AP Top twenty five and coaches polls, respectively. Kentucky is
fifth in both major polls.

Speaker 4 (37:40):
What else do we have?

Speaker 5 (37:42):
Oh FC Cincinnati finalizing a deal to send Chodobi, Easiam
and Ian Murphy to the Colorado Rapids in exchange for
one million dollars in general allocation money. We have a
lot more to get to between now. In six thirty
it's Ralphs American Grill. Pregame Sports Talk presented by your
Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Toyota Dealers on ESPN.

Speaker 4 (38:01):
Fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
Can Grow Pregame sports Talk presented by your Cincinnati and
Northern Kentucky Toyota Dealtors. Pregame sports Talk is brought to
you by Skyline Chile.

Speaker 3 (38:12):
Feeling good.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
It's Skyline, Time Ador and Window Company. They sell the
best and service the rest on Core Technologies. Visit OnCore
dot Tech Cincinnati Asphalt where Precision paves the way Your
Cincinnati at Northern Kentucky Toyota dealtors Visit Toyota dot com
for all Toyota Hawfers, Toyota Let's Go places, and by

(38:33):
a Rolf's American Grill in Wilmington, Ohio, just off seventy one,
Exit fifty inside the Holiday and at the Robert Center.
Yeah no pregame sports talk.

Speaker 5 (38:43):
You know I've been at that Rouse American Grill. I
went up there this past summer. I was on my
way to Columbus for a concert. It was lunchtime. I
was hungry, and I'm pulling up on the Wilmington exit.
I'm like, dude, there it is. I'm rarely in Wilmington,
which is a lovely community. But I thought, man, I've
got about an hour to kill. I'm hungry.

Speaker 4 (39:01):
I've heard all about Ralph's American Grill.

Speaker 5 (39:03):
I'm going there. One of the best decisions I've ever made. Hi,
I'm aleg in a life where I really haven't made
all that many good ones. I'm oegar. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty. This is Ralph's American Grill pregame sports Soalk.
We are presented by your Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Toyota dealers.
We're getting set for Monday Night football Tonight Bengals and
Cowboys on ESPN fifteen thirty. Kickoff is coming up at

(39:25):
eight fifteen. We are with you until six thirty when
countdown to kickoff with the Hall of Famer Wayne Box
Miller comes your way. It's got a text from a
buddy of mine. You have been full of I don't
think I could say those words on the radio on
Twitter today, Uh kind, I've been more sugarh on the

(39:46):
iced tea, sugar on the iced tea. I have been
more engaging today, and I don't I don't often talk
about like my personal life, but I said this to
two people at the UC game yesterday. That's Saturday and
Sunday where the best I have felt physically in like
seven weeks. And it has continued to today for reasons

(40:08):
I'm not going to get into best I have felt
in weeks. So yeah, feeling a little bit on the
social media app of record, which is still X, whether
we like it or not, having fun conversations over there,
making some people mad. I don't know if you're getting
mad at what a guy says on Twitter, that's really

(40:28):
not the guy on Twitter's problem. How is it I
get to do a segment that I've wanted to do
my entire career coming up in just about fifteen minutes,
and we got an answer last night to a question
that we are going to ask all year long here
in Cincinnati. All of that plus a lot of Bengals Cowboys,
let's get to this player Spotlight. It is brought to

(40:49):
you by Furniture Fair, get the guaranteed low price or
it's free at furniture Fair. I'm going to put the
spotlight on Chase around tonight. Chase had a really good
game in the bengals last game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
And you know, he's been productive at one hundred yards

(41:10):
from scrimmage if you go back to his last four games,
one hundred yards one forty three, ninety four one p
fifty seven. These are combined rushing in receiving yards. And
you know, look, maybe he hasn't played well enough this
year to get people to stop talking about Joe Mixon.
And you know, a player being productive elsewhere when you're
having a losing season, you know folks are going to

(41:30):
revisit that decision. But Chase Brown has done a nice job.
And you know, we look at tonight's game. This game
for the Bengals is about a lot of different things. Okay, yes,
staying mathematically alive, fine, and yes, rewarding the offense for
what we hope is and what could be a really
good performance by getting some stops on defense. But what

(41:50):
this game is about to me more than anything else,
is Joe is gonna play hopefully Joe plays well. Uh,
we're kind of in the hold our breath portion of
the schedule. Let's be honest, the Bengals are not going
to win the Super Bowl this year. Let's be honest.
The Bengals are not going to be a playoff team
this year. And if I am wrong about that, then awesome.
But he is playing, and I don't have a problem
with him playing, at least right now. But you know,

(42:13):
these games matter a little bit less than a month
ago when the Bengals were playing in primetime against the
Baltimore Ravens, and they matter a little bit less than
early in the season when we were holding out hope
that they could vault into contention. There is a meaninglessness
to tonight that is deeply frustrating and that you cannot ignore.
And so if Joe, if something were to happen to

(42:34):
Joe in the course of a game that has meaningless
hovering over it, it's a little bit more difficult to
swallow than if he is hurt in a game that
has a lot of consequence. This game, frankly doesn't have
a lot of consequence, and so a lot of different
things have to happen. They've got to keep Micah Parsons
off of them. They've got to protect him from the inside.
I also think tonight at least maybe minimize them a

(42:56):
little bit, like keep your defense off the field. We
want the Bengals to score, and we want the Bengals
to score at every opportunity, and if this game follows
a similar script as so many this season, they're gonna
have to score almost every time they touch the football.
But I do think there's something about against the team
in Dallas that is not good against the run thirty
first and last in the league in a lot of

(43:18):
advanced defensive metrics. Get the run game going, get the
short passing game going. And while I am not going
to turn my nose up at a deep pass or
a quick strike or a drive that takes just two
or three plays to score, not a bad idea to
kind of draw things out a little bit, have some
extended drives, move the chains, keep the clock going. And

(43:41):
maybe it's not so much keep Cooper Rush off the field,
but it's keep your own bad defense off the field.
And the best way to do that is to utilize
Chase Brown the way they have. I think it's interesting
to me, I said this before when it comes to
Zach Taylor. If the Bengals fired Zach Taylor today, I
think I would shrug my shoulders, feel bad for him personally,

(44:03):
would feel like he was kind of scapegoaded, would feel like, God, Okay,
well maybe they can do better. They're not gonna go
hire Bill Belichick. Apparently North Carolina's on the verge of
doing that. And I love the idea of Bill Belichick
trying to coach college football, and we're gonna spend some
time on that a little bit later on.

Speaker 4 (44:22):
And if if Zach Taylor is the coach.

Speaker 5 (44:24):
Next season, and I think he will be, then Okay,
Like I just in this job, you are supposed to
feel strongly about everything. And one of my deficiencies is,
and I have many, one of my deficiencies is I'm
not capable of pretending to feel strongly about things that
I don't feel strongly about. I don't feel strongly about
Zach Taylor. Now, you might argue that's the biggest indictment

(44:47):
against Zach Taylor there is the dude has coached here
now for six years, and I don't feel strongly about him,
and so that might be reason to move on. If
they keep him, okay, And you know, I don't think
that that in itself was going to rerepeedo their chances
next season. And if they keep them, I don't think
that that's necessarily the main reason why they could be
good next year. And if they move on from him, okay,

(45:08):
you could probably do better. But it is interesting. The
biggest complaint about Zach for five plus years has been
play calling. And I'm not a huge blast play calling guy,
because most of us have no idea what goes into
calling of play. For me, it's been a little bit
more about situational football, and that's an area where Zach
has struggled. I think he has struggled with it this season.

(45:30):
But the biggest complaint about him has often been play
calling and the offense and why does the offense have
these lulls? I be honest with you, man, For all
the criticism you can aim at every corner of this franchise,
I've had no issue with how the offense has been run. Now,
most of that is Joe Burrow's excellence and Jamar Chase's excellence,
and when he's been on the field, T Higgins excellence,

(45:51):
and I just mentioned excuse me, Chase Brown, who has
a chance at a thousand yard season, for whatever that's worth.
But with a bad offensive line, and the offensive line
has not played well over the last eight or nine weeks.

Speaker 4 (46:06):
This offense has cooked.

Speaker 5 (46:07):
This offense has cooked, and I think it's often been
moderately well designed at least, and I think they have
found roles for players like Chase Brown. So if we're
gonna bang on Zach Taylor for all this stuff that
he gets banged on for when the team is four
and eight, and I'm with you for doing a lot
of that stuff, I think you have to acknowledge that offensively,

(46:28):
at least you know Zach's the primary play caller. They
have one of the league's best offenses, and I do
think they've done a good job of carving out roles
for individual players and is. As much as I do
wonder why it took so long for them to really
embrace Chase Brown and they kind of got away from
him in the last game, I do think they have
found a really nice.

Speaker 4 (46:49):
Role for him.

Speaker 5 (46:50):
I'm probably in the minority of people who want to
say that, because right now nobody wants to say anything
positive about the Bengals. Twelve minutes after four o'clock. If
you have listened to this show, first of all, thank you.
But if you have listened to the show since it's
been on, or if you know anything about me on
social media, I think you know that I love chaos

(47:14):
and anarchy, and that one of the great joys in
life I get is taking a step back and watching
chaos and anarchy unfold. And I along with that, like
I love watching people get mad at stuff that is
largely benign. I'm not talking about real world stuff. There's
real world stuff worth getting mad at. I'm talking about

(47:36):
in the toy department here sports. I love watching people
get all worked up and get mad at stuff. So
I'm watching last night Sunday Night football. The Kansas City
Chiefs with a third string kicker win and clinch the
AFC West on a kick that bangs off the left
uprighting goes in. And while I would be lying the

(48:00):
you if I told you that when Kansas City got
the ball down sixteen, down seventeen sixteen with just over
two minutes to go, I'd be lying to you if
I told you, actually they got the ball with a
little bit more than four minutes ago, down a point,
I'd be lying if I told you I knew they
were going to make a kick to win the game
with the ball going off the upright.

Speaker 4 (48:19):
But if you have watched that team this season.

Speaker 5 (48:23):
And seeing the number of improbable ways that they have
found ways to win, you just knew that there was
going to be something strange, quirky, goofy.

Speaker 4 (48:39):
That caused them to win.

Speaker 7 (48:41):
You just knew it.

Speaker 5 (48:44):
We've seen block kicks, and we've seen the Las Vegas
Raiders do the things that the Las Vegas Raiders do
on Black Friday. And we have seen the Chiefs all
season long snatched a feet from the jaws or snatched
victory for the jaws of defeat. I screwed that up,
so you just kind of knew. And every time it happens.

(49:06):
I love watching people lose their mind over it. I'm
no Chiefs fan by any stretch of the imagination. I
think the Chiefs and Bengals have a really good rivalry.
I'm on the Cincinnati side of it. But as a
lover of chaos and anarchy, watching people lose their minds
on social media every time the Chiefs win a game
like that provides me great amusement. I also think there's

(49:30):
something to admire. Look, are they getting lucky this season? Sure,
luck is a factor in sports. Luck is a factor
in life, more so than I think a lot of
us are willing to admit. Chiefs have been really lucky
this year. I believe their luck is going to run
out in the postseason. Actually, I think in the postseason
how they lose is going to be lopsided, and a
good team is going to take advantage of all of

(49:51):
their deficiencies. And that team right now has a bunch,
and maybe it doesn't happen and they win a third
straight Super Bowl. But like you watch them, there's nothing.
Jeff Schwartz, the longtime NFL analysts, put this on social
media last night that.

Speaker 4 (50:06):
There's nothing they do exceptionally well.

Speaker 5 (50:09):
Now, the counters in that would be well, the one
thing they do exceptionally well is find a way to
walk off the field with more points than the other team.
But if you watch them, they look like a very
average football team offensively and defensively. I asked this all
the time though, about sports teams and sports franchises, players
and coaches. How bad as you're bad, like we make

(50:33):
fun of the whole Mike Tomlin thing. You know, he's
never had a losing season. He's had years that aren't great,
He's had years with bad quarterback play or backup quarterback play,
still finds a way to win more than he loses.
Now he doesn't want a playoff game in forever, which
makes their postseason dynamic, I think, really interesting. But how
bad is you're bad? How good is you're good? This

(50:53):
is possibly the worst Chiefs team they've had since before
Patrick Mahomes came became the quarterback, and yet they won
their division. They're twelve and one and they have the
inside track on the one seed in the AFC. There's
something about that that speaks to what they do organizationally.

(51:16):
So we talk about the Bengals now and what they
can do organizationally to get this fixed. There aren't things
you can borrow from Kansas City's organization. They were really good,
really well run franchise at least until or I should say,
before Mahomes got there, and that started with Andy Reid

(51:38):
in twenty thirteen. Right, bring this up, Terron brought this
up to me today. Eric Penemy has done as the
offensive coordinator at UCLA. Now he and his people are
spinning it as well.

Speaker 4 (51:50):
This was the plan all along.

Speaker 5 (51:51):
The idea was for him to jump back into the NFL.
And he was obviously long time offensive coordinator in Kansas City,
but not the primary play caller because that's a big
deal to a lot of people. And then couldn't get
ahead coaching job and went to the Washington Commanders for
a year and that really didn't work out. And now
he's being talked about as a possible replacement in Baltimore
for Todd Monkin, who's got a chance to be a
head coach somewhere.

Speaker 4 (52:10):
I guess.

Speaker 5 (52:15):
I'd reach out, and maybe not to be the offensive coordinator,
but hey, man, if the job you're looking for in
the National Football League doesn't materialize, we've got a place
for you here because you know what we want. We
want some of that Kansas City doest sprinkled on us.
And again, you're not gonna like to hear this, but

(52:36):
they they're amassing a dynasty in the AFC, a dynasty
in the NFL. They've been good forever. Used to bring
this up with the Cardinals and Reds all the time.
You can cry about the Cardinal Way, or you can
try to emulate it.

Speaker 4 (52:47):
And maybe steal from it. So you've got a chance,
maybe on.

Speaker 5 (52:51):
The open market, to hire somebody deeply embedded with the
Kansas City chiefs for years and years and years and years.
You wouldn't be open to making that person a part
of your organization, even if it's not in the capacity
he's looking for. I know no one's gonna like that idea.

Speaker 7 (53:11):
What I do?

Speaker 4 (53:12):
Eighteen minutes after four o'clock? Uh, what do we have?
I get to do a segment that I have been
waiting to do for years.

Speaker 5 (53:19):
Next it's ralse American Grill pregame sports Talk presented by
your Cincinnati in Northern Kentucky Toyota Dealers on ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station, Cincinnatis.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
No, this is football Illinati, brought to you in part
by modern office methods, on the official home of the Bengals,
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 5 (53:41):
Thirty, Well less than four hours away from kickoff, Gangles
Cowboys Monday Night Football, ESPN fifteen thirty has it. We're
watching it tonight at Dickman's and for right, we've got prizes.

Speaker 4 (53:53):
You can win one, but you gotta be there. We
hope to see there I'm leaving here. I'm going there,
so we'll have some time pregame to hang out. I
have a cool one.

Speaker 5 (54:02):
A lot more of the Bengals and Cowboys coming up
here in just a bit. As we get said for
tonight's tilt, I've been waiting to do this for a
long time. I've been waiting to say this on the
radio for a long time.

Speaker 4 (54:15):
Here goes. Are you ready?

Speaker 5 (54:19):
Congratulations to the great Dave Parker for his upcoming induction
into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. One of the
greatest players to ever come out of the city of Cincinnati,
one of the great high school athletes from quarter Tech
in the history of Cincinnati high school sports, Dave Parker.
Last night I was thrilled. I will be completely honest

(54:43):
with you. I didn't give him much of a chance,
and I don't know why, so I didn't play. I
didn't pay very close attention to whether or not he
got in, But in fact didn't even know last night.
As much as I have followed this, I did not
know that the Classic Baseball Era Committee was releasing.

Speaker 4 (55:06):
It's ballad.

Speaker 5 (55:07):
So Dick Allen, the nineteen seventy two American League MVP,
with the White Sox, fear and slugger with the Philadelphia Phillies,
and Dave Parker the Cobra going into the Hall of Fame.
I've talked about this a bunch. You know. I grew
up in the eighties and Dave Parker was one of
my favorite players. And you know, there were few players,

(55:29):
and you know, I'm watching this and I'm talking about
this through the lens of a kid, but there were
a few players who just seemed as cool or as intimidating.
And the thing I used to love was, you know,
here was this giant man. You know, and when you're
a kid, you don't have a real sense of, you know,
what a large man's physical dimensions are. What I knew
was Dave Parker was a large man who stood really

(55:51):
close to the plate and hunched over it. And even
as a little kid, like nine ten years old, I'm thinking,
how do you throw inside to that guy? Like I
want to own the inside part of the plate? If
you miss, good luck, because that dude is coming out
to the mound. And then, you know, just as you
get older and you start to understand more about the

(56:11):
history of the sport and players, and you know, I've
long felt that Dave belonged, And there were two things that,
for me in recent years, kind of from my money
at least, kicked his candidacy into hyperdrive. One was the
fact that Harold Baines got in. That Harold bains was
a terrific hitter and no problem at all with him

(56:32):
being a Hall of Famer. But when he got inducted,
I remember going, wait a minute, So this guy who
started daching at the age of twenty seven, not that
there's anything wrong with daging, this guy who became a
dh at the age of twenty seven, he's in. But
a guy who excelled in the field deep into his thirties,
deep into his late thirties and was as good, if

(56:54):
not a better, offensive player, He's not going to get in.

Speaker 4 (56:57):
That doesn't make any sense. And the other was when
Tim Rain's got inducted.

Speaker 5 (57:02):
Now you would hear people say, look, one of the
reasons why Dave Parker's not going to get in is
he was involved in the Pittsburgh drug trials in the
mid eighties, which, knowing what I know about it, was
a total sham. Because what everybody knows about the Pittsburgh
drug trials is there were baseball players who testified that
they did cocaine, but nobody seems to really know who
they were testifying against, because nobody cared because the headline was,

(57:23):
here are these baseball players like Tim Rains and Dave
Parker and Keith Hernandez and Dale Barron a handful of others,
and Dave was one of those players. Well, when Tim
Rain's got inducted, my thought was a very well deserving
should have gone in years ago to be I guess
if we're not going to hold the Pittsburgh drug trials
thing against Tim, we can't hold it against the Cobra.

(57:45):
But you know, just as if you're a fan of
an athlete, it's really cool to see them go in.
Barry Larkin is my all time favorite. Read Dave Parker's
probably number two. Larkin went in in twenty twelve. That
was awesome, And now for Dave to go in years
after I think he should have been inducted is equally awesome.
And from a resume perspective, you know, one of the

(58:08):
arguments against him was, well he had he had a
pretty steep dropoff in years that should have been his
prime seasons. His last three years in Pittsburgh. He's spent
eleven years with the Pirates, you know, his age, thirty
thirty one and thirty two seasons. He didn't play a lot.
I think in eighty two he played in seventy three games.

(58:29):
He didn't play a lot. And when he did play,
he wasn't nearly as good as he had been back
in the late seventies. And so his peak was not
as long as it might have been for other Hall
of famers. And the counter to that is, all right, fine,
let's look at the overall body of work. The overall
body of work. Dude played for nineteen years. Dude played
for nineteen years, and his peak, like I don't know,

(58:51):
in the late seventies, if there was a better player
two batting titles. Was the best player on the seventy
nine Pirates who won the World Series. Now Willie Starred
was co MVP that year. Dave Parker had a better season.
It was a better player on that team, led the
league in batting, multiple time Gold Glove winner, seven time
All Star, and after the Pittsburgh years, and this is

(59:13):
where a lot of us, at least of a certain age,
got to become familiar with Dave Parker Is. He moves
on to the Reds at the age of thirty three,
and as a newspaper excuse me, newspaper dot com subscriber,
I could tell you there were a lot of skeptical
people in this town when it came to a Dave
Parker at his age joining a team that was really

(59:36):
all about youth. And yet he signs with his hometown team.
And while he only played four years in Cincinnati. You
know I've listened to if you watch the MLB documentary
Cobra and Twilight, there's Barry Lark and there's Eric Davis
talking about his influence on them. There's a great piece
on Antscape that came out about a year ago that

(59:58):
talks about Dave Parker's influence on a generation of African
American players, and it's awesome. Also, in nineteen eighty five,
he maybe should have been MVP, finished second in the
voting to Willie McGee. Nineteen eighty six, he plays in
every single game, finishes fifth in the MVP voting. Led
the league in doubles, one year, led the league in RBIs,

(01:00:18):
one year back to back seasons in a Reds uniform
where he led the team in total bases and then
leaves here and goes to Oakland. And you know, in
the late eighties, the A's were the coolest team around.
He was a big part of that team that won
the World Series in eighty nine, had three home runs
in the postseason as a thirty eight year old, hit
twenty two homers and drove in nearly one hundred runs.

(01:00:40):
Played until he was forty, helped the Blue Jays get
to the postseason in nineteen ninety one. That's a Hall
of Fame resume. Twenty seven hundred hits. Didn't hit five
hundred home runs or anything, but three thirty nine is
nothing to sneezeat. And so if you know anything about me,
you know this is something I have felt strongly about
for a long time. And part of it is that
ten year old in me, that nine year old of

(01:01:00):
me who love watching Dave Parker, who as I got older,
I got to understand how cool of a player this was.

Speaker 4 (01:01:06):
If you hear any noise, that's me and the boys bopping.

Speaker 5 (01:01:09):
The images of him which are out there on social
media smoking, you know, smoking heaters in the dugout, playing
with a Jason mask on, with a broken face. How
intimidating he was, how cool he was. One of the
most overused words we have in sports now is swagger.
Dave Parker had swagger, And so there's all of that.

(01:01:31):
But then for me personally at least, but I think
this could apply to well, anybody else watching Dave Parker
over the last decade or so, as he has been
stricken with Parkinson's and you know, it's interesting and they
tell you it.

Speaker 4 (01:01:50):
Never meet your heroes.

Speaker 5 (01:01:51):
And I've been blessed in doing this show that I've
had a chance to interview and have in studio and
talk with a lot of people that I grew up
idolizing or just you know, really sort of gravitated toward.
And Dave Parker was one of those guys. And in
many instances, you know, there's there's something about that, right, like, well,
what if he's a jerk, what if he doesn't like
my questions, what if he thinks I'm a clown? By

(01:02:12):
the way, he'd be justified and feeling that way. And
so Dave Parker was voted into the Reds Hall of
Fame in twenty fourteen, which was cool that year because
he went in with Ken Griffey Junior Cincinnati guy and
Ron Oster Cincinnati guy. And so he had these three
Cincinnati guys going to the Reds Hall of Fame, and
we reached out and said, like, can we interview Dave

(01:02:33):
Parker Probably weren't gonna get Junior had already interviewed Ron Oster,
which was really cool, and Dave came on with us.
If my memory serves me correct, he had just recently
made public his Parkinson's diagnosis and he was awesome. And
since then, on an annual basis, we have always had

(01:02:56):
Dave on our show. He always comes up in studio
and what we do is we talk about his foundation,
and his foundation exists to help and advocate for people
who are living with Parkinson's, and you know, we talk baseball,
and we talk about his career, and you know, watching

(01:03:17):
him physically slow down, I think this is the appropriate word.
Watching him physically slow down has not been the most
fun thing, but he has still maintained a sense of humor.
He still offers an incredibly awesome, strong Cobra like grip
when you shake his hand, and more than anything, he

(01:03:40):
seeks to help out people who are living with what
he lives with, and I believe that is incredibly admirable
because I'm not sure I would do that.

Speaker 4 (01:03:49):
I'm not sure most of us would do that.

Speaker 5 (01:03:51):
And so yeah, there's the baseball part of it, and
I just gave you the baseball part of it, the
baseball part of it that dude's a Hall of Famer,
And there's the fanboy part of it, because when I
was ten years old remember having arguments with my dad
about Dave Parker, but watching him as an adult and
watching him and you know, being a very very very
very very small part of helping spread the word about

(01:04:13):
the Dave Parker thirty nine Foundation. Have been lucky enough
to play in the Cobra Classic golf outing a few times,
having Dave come up and talk about the work that
the foundation does. There are a lot of foundations where
they raise money and you're not sure where.

Speaker 4 (01:04:26):
The money goes.

Speaker 5 (01:04:27):
Dave, along with his buddy Doug King, who does a
great job with the Foundation as well, communicating the initiatives
they put forth, the programs they are involved in, and
the work that they do, I think is awesome. And
so for years I have felt like Dave should be
a Hall of Famer. But I've been lucky enough to
get to know him a little tiny bit, have him
in studio and see what he does, and you know,

(01:04:50):
kind of get a load of the work that he does.
And I have felt even more strongly about this, And
you know, I'm thrilled that Dave gets in, thrilled for
his family.

Speaker 4 (01:05:00):
I know how much this meant to him. Dick Allen
is going to go in with him.

Speaker 5 (01:05:04):
Dick Allen passed away four years ago, and I think
it's I think Dick Allen is deserving as well. I
think it's cruel to the family to put a player
in after they die. I believe that with Pete Rose,
I think it twist the knife to put him in
after he's dead. I am really happy for Dave and
his family that they get to enjoy this very deserving

(01:05:26):
honor while Dave is still with us. And I cannot
wait to watch him go in. It's in late July
this year in Cooperstown. I can't wait for that. And
he's gonna go in as a pirate, which is fine,
he should, but he's a Red that goes in the
Hall of Fame. He's a Cincinnati native that goes in
the Hall of Fame. And I know there's a huge
chunk of my audience that did not grow up watching
Dave Parker. Don't know how good he is.

Speaker 8 (01:05:48):
Like it.

Speaker 5 (01:05:49):
Go read his autobiography. It's called colbrit It's awesome. Go
read that piece of Antscape. I tweeted it out this morning,
or watch the thing on MLB Network, which hopefully they
air here. Because of Dave Parker going in, I was
so happy last night and thrilled for the eleven year
old of me that loved Dave Parker, and thrilled because this.

Speaker 4 (01:06:10):
Is if you're a Reds fan, it's cool.

Speaker 5 (01:06:11):
It's cool to have one of your guys in the
Hall of Fame, even if he is is going to
go in as a pirate and happy as a Cincinnatian
because a guy who's one of the great players, great
athletes to ever come out of this city is going
to go to Cooperstown. But I'm really happy for Dave
and his family, his wife Kelly. I'm thrilled, and I
would be remiss if I didn't spend a few minutes
talking about it, because if you know anything about me,

(01:06:32):
you know this is one of those things I have
felt strongly about. So congratulations to the Cobra I am
so excited for him and his family. I cannot wait
to watch the induction and hopefully we can have Dave
again in studio with us this summer to talk about it.

Speaker 4 (01:06:49):
And equally important, if not more, the work that his
foundation is doing.

Speaker 5 (01:06:54):
By the way, the Dave Parker thirty nine Foundation does
an annual holiday gift auction and they launched it on Friday.
Go check it out Dave Parker thirty nine Foundation. Find
it on the internet. You'll see the holiday auction. Lots
of cool items, and I think the best way to
celebrate this is to make a donation or at least

(01:07:17):
check out some of the items. Congratulations to the Cobra.
It is twenty four minutes away from five o'clock.

Speaker 4 (01:07:24):
I am way late.

Speaker 5 (01:07:25):
My apologies, it was worth it. This is Ralph's American
Girl pregame Sports Talk presented by Kelsey's Chevrolet on seven hundred.

Speaker 4 (01:07:32):
No, we're not. We're presented by Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky
Toyota Dealers.

Speaker 5 (01:07:37):
Sorry, this is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati sports station.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
You've been listening to football in Thenetti on the official
home of the Bengals Cincinnatis.

Speaker 3 (01:07:48):
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:07:51):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic be aware of a ten
minutes loading lines.

Speaker 5 (01:07:58):
Are a service of Kelsey's cheval ralb Tresvan home, a
lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family
to yours for life, kelseyshev dot Com. Bengals Cowboys Tonight,
eight to fifteen. Both teams mathematically at least still live
for a playoff spot, which means this game tonight mathematically

(01:08:19):
at least a possible Super Bowl preview. We are with
you to account down to kickoff at six thirty. Kickoff
at eight fifteen, live on ESPN fifteen thirty. No Logan Wilson,
no Evan McPherson, No Orlando Brown as he continues to
deal with that leg injury.

Speaker 4 (01:08:34):
No Sheldon rankins with the illness. Good luck.

Speaker 5 (01:08:41):
Yeah, Bengals are a substantial favorite, and all things considered,
I do think they're gonna win the football game tonight.
There is no way in hell I would lay that
many points with a team this bat Cade York, by
the way, was expected has been elevated from the practice
squad to kick tonight in a place of Moneymack. Game
tonight will slide the Mark Pope Show to Fox Sports

(01:09:01):
thirteen sixty can talk all things UK hoops after their
stunning comfort behind win in overtime over a Gonzaga Wildcats
are fifth in both major polls. Cincinnati falls to a
twenty second AP twenty third in the coaches poll. Xavier's
unranked Sean Miller showed tonight at seven fifty five KARC.

(01:09:23):
Musketeers take on Morgan State tomorrow.

Speaker 7 (01:09:25):
I do have it.

Speaker 5 (01:09:26):
It's shootout week, and I know Xavier has a game tomorrow.
It is shootout week, so heavy Bengals focus today, but
as we start shootout week, Look, I make no bones
about who.

Speaker 4 (01:09:38):
I root for.

Speaker 5 (01:09:38):
I am an admirer of the Xavier program. I like
having Sean Miller on my show. He dropped to me
back in October that he was gonna have me on
his podcast, and that hasn't happened yet.

Speaker 4 (01:09:49):
Maybe after the shootout he'll have me on.

Speaker 5 (01:09:52):
I like going to Xavier games because I can go
to those games as a fan and I'm not able
to do that for UC games. And so nothing against
the musk of tears, but you know it's it's not
uh if you know anything about me, it's it's not
a mystery who I'm rooting for on Saturday. I just
have I have one favor if you're If you're a
Xavier fan, awesome, no issue, no no issue at all.

(01:10:17):
Some of my best friends are Xavier fans. Xavier sports
information guy Tom iSER is the best in the business.
Sean Miller is a friend of this show. So is
Travis Steele, so is Chris Mack. Like all the respect
in the world to that program. But if you're a
Xavier fan, I am gonna ask one favor of you.

(01:10:39):
In the five o'clock hour. UH locally tonight, Indiana takes
on Minnesota FC Cincinnati. This was originally reported by Tom
Bogert of give Me sport dot com and then confirmed
to a Laurel Failer in the Queen City Press, which
if you're an FC Cincinnati fan you should subscribe to.

Speaker 4 (01:10:57):
UH.

Speaker 5 (01:10:57):
The Orange Blue finalizing a plan to send Uobia Wasium
and Ian Murphy to the Colorado Rapids in exchange for
about one million dollars in general allocation money. I do
not know if they're gonna make the general allocation money
available to the media. It's time now to take a
look at Who's Hot in the NFL brought to you
by plump Type. Because you deserve better, you need to

(01:11:18):
call plump type plumbing, heating, cooling, and drains go to
plumb tight dot com. I mentioned the Kansas City Chiefs before,
So we're all supposed to hate the Chiefs and we're
all supposed to lose our minds every time that they
win a game because it's the refs and the league
is fixed. And I am an admirer of sustained excellence.

(01:11:40):
I don't think this particular Kansas City team is great,
which is what makes it frustrating that they might still
win the whole thing. They're not a great team. And
my prediction, and I've had billions of predictions go awry,
my prediction is the Chiefs are going to get into
the postseason and then their deficiencies are going to catch
up to them in a major way. Like this is

(01:12:01):
maybe not the best example, but it's the first one
that comes to the top of my mind. In two
thousand and nine, the NFL films did a Football Life
with Bill Belichick where they followed him the entire Patriots season,
and it was a good Patriots team that went ten
and six, but they got destroyed in the playoffs by

(01:12:21):
a good Baltimore team in Foxborough. And it was a
New England team that all year long, you know they
were good.

Speaker 4 (01:12:27):
But they just they couldn't. They just couldn't. You know,
the engine wouldn't turn over, so to speak.

Speaker 5 (01:12:33):
As the season went on and there was just this sense,
and it's easy to say in hindsight, the season plays
out and you know what, it's they're gonna get to
the postseason, play a good team with a lot on
the line, and it's gonna catch up to him. And
in that game it did, and I think they lost
like thirty six or fourteen or something. I'm betting that's
what happens to Kansas City this year. But you know what,

(01:12:54):
when you're not at your best and you still figure
out a way to win. Great teams, good teams at
least great organizations, they figure out a way to win
in spite of bad organizations, and bad teams.

Speaker 4 (01:13:06):
Lose because of.

Speaker 7 (01:13:09):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:13:09):
I don't think the Bengals are a bad organization. I
think Duke Tobin's done a really bad job putting this
team together. Like legitlement three years ago, talking everybody was
talking about how great an organization the Bengals were. They
weren't great, and they're not terrible now they're They've got
some things going for him and got some things we
all wish they would do better and different. But you
know what sign me up for the team that is

(01:13:31):
figuring out a way to win ugly and having luck
go their way versus what the Bengals are putting on
the field right now, which is a quarterback who is
awesome and offense which is really good ninety nine points
over the last three games, and yet still can't figure
out a way to win because pieces chosen to be
on this team aren't good. It's not just luck, man,

(01:13:52):
Jeeves aren't just lucky. So yeah, they're hot. They're twelve
and one. U five point three seven four nine fifteen
thirty is are phone number?

Speaker 4 (01:14:00):
Taren? How are we on time?

Speaker 3 (01:14:03):
We got about five minutes left in the hour.

Speaker 5 (01:14:06):
Five minutes left in the hour. I'll come to Scott, Scott.
You're on ESPN fifteen thirty high Scott, Hi, Mo, how
are you awesome?

Speaker 3 (01:14:15):
Man?

Speaker 4 (01:14:16):
What's going on?

Speaker 9 (01:14:17):
It's good to hear so I was taken aback getting
back to your Dave Parker. I happened to be on
the field when Mims and the tight end we're at
the red scheme, and I had no idea that that
was Dave Parker.

Speaker 4 (01:14:38):
Yeah, it sucks, it does it.

Speaker 9 (01:14:43):
It's very sad, And like you said, I am glad
that he's getting in while he hopefully is still around
with us and can enjoy that process.

Speaker 3 (01:14:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:14:57):
I have felt that way for a while, you know,
And I know I've used this example before.

Speaker 5 (01:15:01):
I when Barry Larkin got in, Ron Sanno got in
and Ron Santo had passed away, and I watched his
wife give the induction speech and it was beautiful, but
it was also heartbreaking and you could you could look
in her face and I know this sounds hokey, but
you could look in her face as she gave the
speech and just read and feel the heartache that I'm
giving a speech that Ron should have given. And so

(01:15:25):
I you know, I watched it with Ken Riley a
couple of years ago. His son gave a beautiful speech
up in camp. All due respect to Ken Junior or
it's Ken the second. I think shouldn't have been up there.
Ken should have been given that opportunity years ago.

Speaker 4 (01:15:39):
I hate it.

Speaker 5 (01:15:40):
I hate it when and I don't like it for
Dick Allen's family. And I'll be honest with you, aside
from him as a player, don't know much about his family.
But but somebody's gonna have to speak on his behalf
and and why not him five years ago? Why not
him ten years ago? I am certainly hopeful that Dave
can get there in late July and and participate. But

(01:16:01):
I'm at least thrilled that he was able to get
that phone call to find out that he has been
inducted or he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Speaker 9 (01:16:09):
Yeah, that is terrific. Now, I hope you have the
right answer for this one. Come December twentieth, which team
will you be rooting for?

Speaker 7 (01:16:20):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:16:20):
Cincinnati? Oh, come on, yeah, Cincinnati.

Speaker 9 (01:16:24):
You're alma mater.

Speaker 5 (01:16:25):
Yeah, Bearcats. I've been a Bearcat fan since November twenty eighth,
nineteen ninety and I've been a connected to the University
of Dayton since August of nineteen ninety five. You see
his grandfather, den I love my alma mater. I think
they have a really good team this year. It's on
a neutral floor, a Dayton should be favored the way
both teams are playing right now. Anthony Graham is one

(01:16:48):
of the most is one of the great gentlemen of
this sport. I hope Dayton has a great year, goes
to the NCAA tournament and win games. I hope they
lose to the Bearcats by forty.

Speaker 9 (01:17:00):
That is the biggest tragedy, The biggest sports tragedy that
there may ever have been, is the fact that the
ud Flyers did not get to play in the tournament
back when they were highly ranked.

Speaker 4 (01:17:15):
Ye would have been a one seed.

Speaker 5 (01:17:17):
Yeah, you know, as as a fan of both, I've
often compared it to Kenyan Martin, right, But at least
at least the remaining Bearcats got a chance to go
play and answer, Okay, well here's what we can do.
Without Kenyon, they at least got a chance to go

(01:17:37):
play in the tournament. Dayton was robbed at that opportunity,
and I'm always going to wonder what if.

Speaker 4 (01:17:43):
Yeah, whatever.

Speaker 9 (01:17:45):
So this is meant not as a criticism, but it
is what it is. When the Bengals lose, I can't
listen to either of you guys on Monday or Tuesday
because you joke around so much and you make it
seem like all things are hopeless, and well, we're.

Speaker 5 (01:18:05):
Not supposed to joke around what he want us to do,
like put on serious faces and act like we're talking
about world affairs.

Speaker 9 (01:18:10):
No, I get it. I'm talking about like when you
criticize Duke Tobin and say he's, you.

Speaker 4 (01:18:18):
Know, use the word moron, but it has never come
out of my mouth.

Speaker 9 (01:18:22):
You may get appear that he has no idea what
he's doing, and then the franchises rutterless.

Speaker 5 (01:18:28):
And I've never done no hope. I've never done either
of those things. I have criticized Duke Tobin for how
this team has been put together, and that criticism is fair.

Speaker 4 (01:18:37):
I have not called him a moron. I have asked.

Speaker 5 (01:18:40):
I have asked whether we should trust him to fix this,
and I think that's a fair question because he's not
going to be able to just throw money at it.
But I have not called him names, and I have
not said things are hopeless. As long as Joe Burrow
is there, there's some degree of hope.

Speaker 9 (01:18:54):
We've talked about this before, and I agree that it's fair.

Speaker 10 (01:18:59):
But give me the season.

Speaker 9 (01:19:00):
This roster was predicted to be pretty good. Yeah, so
players not playing up to their potential, and and those
players like TTV who who have regressed in some manner.

Speaker 5 (01:19:17):
I don't you don't, Scot if I If I say
to my wife, you know what, while you're out of town,
I'm going to clean the house, okay, and I predict
I'm going to clean the house really well and I
do a half assed job.

Speaker 4 (01:19:28):
Do I get credit for my intentions when she comes home.

Speaker 5 (01:19:31):
Do I get to say to her, well, hey, you predicted,
we predicted I was going to do a good job
and then I got sidetracked. No, I I am held
I am held accountable for the job that I did.
And that's how it works in life. You are you
are held accountable for the results you achieve. Duke Tobin
has achieved great results in the past when when he
was able to throw money at the defense, he built
a good one. Without the ability to do that, he

(01:19:53):
has achieved a defense that is losing games despite Joe
Burrow playing at a high level. If he doesn't deserve
some credit SYSM for that, then I don't know what
we do, Scott. I mean, I've not called for him
to be fired. I have not called him names. I
have not said let's run him.

Speaker 4 (01:20:08):
I think it's.

Speaker 5 (01:20:08):
Completely legitimate, completely legitimate to wonder do we trust Duke
Tobin for what's next? Because for what's next, it's not
gonna be twenty one where we could just throw a
bunch of money a DJ Reader and Trey Hendrickson and
chadobiya woozy. It's gonna have to be hit in the draft,
which recently they have not, and nail it in free agency,
which recently they have not.

Speaker 9 (01:20:29):
Right, well, I mean again, he does have some credit,
you know, back in the Andy Dalton years and when
they went to five state playoffs.

Speaker 4 (01:20:42):
Sure, but what he is being asked to do now
is different.

Speaker 5 (01:20:45):
All those years with Andy Dalton, Andy wasn't the highest
paid player in the sport or one of the three or.

Speaker 4 (01:20:50):
Four highest paid players in the sport.

Speaker 9 (01:20:51):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 5 (01:20:52):
I mean with with Andy Dalton, he was tasked with
billd a roster and he built some really good ones.
While you have the flexibility either either a quarterback under
a rookie contract or a quarterback under a value contract
gives you, he doesn't have that now. He's got a
quarterback who you know, even if you want to say, well,
a salary cap isn't real occupies this enormous chunk of

(01:21:13):
team payroll, right does and and and In his first
go round trying to build teams that they can win with,
he has failed. When you fail at something I can't
help but wonder well, Okay, we give you another go
at it. Are you going to succeed?

Speaker 7 (01:21:28):
Right?

Speaker 4 (01:21:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:21:29):
That?

Speaker 9 (01:21:29):
Now, to be fair, you gave a bad example because
as men, any effort we give to cleaning the house
is always good enough.

Speaker 5 (01:21:42):
Scott, you and I have different wives then, but it's
always good to talk to you. And I know you
won't be listening tomorrow, but maybe we'll talk to you
later this week.

Speaker 9 (01:21:50):
You know, I'll be listening tomorrow as long as we win.

Speaker 5 (01:21:53):
Well, like, we're not supposed to joke around. It was
supposed to just like act like we're talking about.

Speaker 9 (01:22:01):
I take things a little too personally because I do
have hope. I am an optimist. I do think that
this team is going to be better next year when
things the ship gets righted. We have dack Hill and
some of the other pieces that we're currently missing.

Speaker 5 (01:22:17):
Fine, but you know, I asked, who are the cornerstones?
And I get the sense and I got to run here.
You can name more than we can.

Speaker 7 (01:22:23):
So we have.

Speaker 4 (01:22:25):
We have plenty of months to talk about it. Scott,
have a good night, Yes, we do, all right.

Speaker 5 (01:22:28):
Four minutes away from five o'clock h It's Ralph's American Grow.
Pregame Sports Talk presented by your Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky
Toyota Dealers on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 9 (01:22:40):
That's attractor of Cincinnati's Cabota Headquarters.

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Speaker 3 (01:22:50):
This is the official home of the Bengers.

Speaker 2 (01:22:52):
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Pregame Sports Talk presented by your Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky
Toyota Dealers. Pregame Sports Talk is brought to you by
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(01:23:13):
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I just off seventy one, exit fifty inside the Holiday

(01:23:34):
and at the Roberts Center.

Speaker 3 (01:23:36):
No pregame sports talk.

Speaker 4 (01:23:38):
What's up?

Speaker 5 (01:23:39):
Good afternoon, five minutes after five o'clock y ESPN fifteen thirty.
This is as that guy just said, Ralphs American Grill,
pregame sports Talk. We are presented by your Cincinnati and
Northern Kentucky Toyota Dealers. Bengals Cowboys Tonight. Two teams frankly
going through disappointing seasons, but Dallas has won their last
two games. Cincinnati trying to break a three game losing

(01:24:00):
street kickoff tonight coming up at eight fifteen, that is
about three hours and ten minutes away.

Speaker 4 (01:24:05):
We take you up to six thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:24:06):
Wayne Box Miller, the Hall of Famer AKA Box has
countdown to kickoff and we'll get you set for a
game tonight that is you know, it's it's the Bengals
back in prime time. It's the Cowboys in a prime slot,
which we've gotten used to it. It really is two
teams that I'm sure they're saying the same thing in Dallas.

(01:24:27):
I know we are in Cincinnati. I said this back
during the summer that if Joe Burrow played seventeen games,
it was impossible for me to imagine that the Bengals
would miss the playoffs if he played seventeen games. Now
we're not there yet. He may or may not play
in every game. Hopefully, if he doesn't, it's because the
coaching staff and the organization chose to bench him to

(01:24:49):
keep him healthy. But he has played the entire season.
He has played every meaningful snap, and yet this team
is going into its thirteenth game four under or five hundred,
with a minuscule chance of making the postseason. I am
the first to admit, in an era where no one
wants to admit that they were wrong, that if Joe

(01:25:11):
Burrow I believed Joe Burrow played every game, this team,
at bare minimum, would be a playoff team. I said
it often during the summer. It's impossible for me to
imagine that if Joe plays the entire season, they're not
at least in might not be the division winner, might
not advance once they get there.

Speaker 4 (01:25:30):
I said it often. I'm willing to own this. If
Joe played the entire year.

Speaker 5 (01:25:37):
The Bengals were gonna make the playoffs, and you could
not I'm an open minded guy, right, You could not
have convinced me otherwise. You could not have convinced me
mo Joe might play the entire year. But the rest
of the team, the defense is going to be so bad,
so strikingly bad, that they're still gonna miss the postseason.

(01:25:58):
And yet we are dealing with that very real possibility.
And I would say likelihood, that's where we are. I'm
willing to admit there were things about this team that
I got wrong. I think most notably Geno Stone. That
was a player that I was really excited about because
I like players, you know, not that I'm necessarily in

(01:26:20):
love with seventh round draft choices, but I like players
that every year you ask them to do more and
they meet the challenge. And in Baltimore, that happened with
Geno Stone, and it felt to me, like we use
the term ascending, they were getting an ascending player at
a position where they.

Speaker 4 (01:26:34):
Badly needed help. He has been awful.

Speaker 5 (01:26:37):
I legitimately have never seen a defensive back, a safety
take worse angles when trying to make a tackle. I
thought this team was an eleven to twelve win team.
They are obviously not going to win that many games.
I thought they were a good bet to win the division.

Speaker 4 (01:26:52):
So there's lots about this team that I'm willing to
admit I got wrong.

Speaker 5 (01:26:57):
And I got plenty of company, now company because I
was on the air every single day in April and
May and June and July. Well that's much June, but
April and May and much of June and July and August,
I didn't I didn't get a lot of pushback.

Speaker 4 (01:27:12):
I didn't get I don't recall.

Speaker 5 (01:27:13):
Anybody telling me Bengals are going to be four and
eight through twelve games. So we all got this wrong.
But it's one thing for us to get it wrong.
It's another thing for Duke Tobin to get it wrong.
So we were just talking to Scott. Scott's a loyal listener,
loyal caller, enjoy and having them on the show, and
I hope he calls more frequently. But anyway, you know, well,

(01:27:35):
you know Duke Tobin built those teams and that they
had Andy Dalton, and he built the twenty one team,
and he built the twenty two team, and a lot
of us thought this team was going to be pretty good.
All those things are true, but so were these two things.
Number One, in life and business and sports, you are
you are held accountable for the results you achieve. I

(01:27:57):
mean I might go into I go into every radio
show with the best of intentions. Some are better than others.
I am held accountable for the results I achieve. We
all are. Show me a business where that's not the case.
You are held accountable for the results you achieve. Now,
that doesn't mean the Bengals are gonna fire Duke Tobin.
Doesn't mean the Bengals are going to demote Duke Tobin.

(01:28:18):
But putting him in the crossairs after the way this
season is unfolded is not only completely fair, it's inevitable.

Speaker 4 (01:28:27):
Team stinks.

Speaker 5 (01:28:28):
Guy who builds it gets talked about, not exactly the
most most earth shattering thing. Here's the thing. We have
to stop talking. We have to stop talking about we
have to stop talking about team building.

Speaker 4 (01:28:44):
That makes sense.

Speaker 5 (01:28:45):
We have to stop talking about team building. Easy for
me to say this would fall into the category of
a bad show. We have to stop talking about team
building the way we did in previous years. The Bengals
are changing. What's changing about him. Is the dollar figure
in the Joe Burrow block on the team spreadsheet. Now

(01:29:09):
Paying a quarterback the kind of money that Joe is
going to be getting moving forward certainly doesn't preclude them
from having good players, but it puts a premium on
nailing it in free agency with guys that you can't
just throw money at. It puts a premium on drafting,
It puts a premium on player development. They've never had

(01:29:32):
this before. You might argue in the latter years of
Carson Palmer being here when he was so highly paid
and then probably fairly so. But let's be honest, Bengals
weren't very good in most of those years. Right, They
are awesome in five good and nine. The rest of
them stunk because the team stunk because the rosters weren't
very good. This year's roster is not very good. So

(01:29:54):
I ask this question, do we trust Duke Tobin to
get it fixed? And do we trust Duke Tobin to
get it fixed in one off season?

Speaker 4 (01:30:06):
I think got Burrow.

Speaker 5 (01:30:07):
The idea was to win titles, multiple plural titles with
Joe Burrow while he's in his prime, which he is,
and yet we're talking about next season them just making
tiny improvements. No, the idea is, a year from now,
the Bengals are one of the best two or three
teams in the conference, leading the division, and in the

(01:30:28):
conversation to win a championship. Can they take this team
and do enough with it that we're doing that in
a year. If the answer is yes, Duke Tobin will
be considered one of the candidates to be the NFL's
Executive of the Year. And hell, who knows, I might

(01:30:49):
champion his candidacy. But the way the Bengals are building
their team now, you know our caller before mentioned.

Speaker 4 (01:30:57):
The Andy Dalton years.

Speaker 5 (01:30:59):
Andy Dalton was usually like the twenty first, twentieth highest
paid quarterback in the league. You could spend a little
bit more liberally. When Joe Burrow was in his first
couple of seasons. You can spend a little bit more liberally.
You can give Joe Mixon twelve million dollars a year.
You can make DJ Reader, who a lot of people
hadn't heard of before he came here. You can make
him the highest paid nose tackle in the history of

(01:31:19):
the sport. You can throw a lot of money in
a situational pass. Rutger and Trey Hendrickson. By the way,
the Bengals nailed it with those moves, like Hendrickson's been awesome,
DJ Reader was terrific. But how you build the roster
is going to change, and how you build the roster
moving forward is gonna look a lot like how you
built the roster this year. We're gonna sign free agents,

(01:31:41):
but they might not be the headline grabbing ones. We're
gonna play our homegrown players. We're gonna play them early
in their careers, or we're gonna try to get a
lot out of them while they're not making a lot
of money.

Speaker 4 (01:31:54):
It hasn't worked.

Speaker 5 (01:31:57):
So sure, Doeske Tobin deserve it for the roster construction
of a lot of different Bengals teams? One thousand percent?
God knows we've given it to him on this show.
But you are being totally unreasonable. I think if you
don't at least wonder, all, right, well, Duke's first crack
at building the roster this way hasn't worked. Do we

(01:32:21):
trust him to get it right next year? Because I'll
be honest with you, I do not. That's not based
on preseason expectations or predictions or what I felt about
the team going. It's based on results, the results from
what the Bengals have done to build. The twenty twenty
four Bengals are four and eight and a team that
has wasted an MVP caliber season from its quarterback, almost

(01:32:45):
historically bad on defense.

Speaker 4 (01:32:49):
If Duke fixes it, awesome. I don't know how you.

Speaker 5 (01:32:54):
Don't have at least some doubt as to whether or
not he can. He's not gonna have an unlimited budget.
He is going to have a huge amount of money,
not just this coming year, but moving forward. A huge
amount of money devoted to one player on the team
occupies a huge chunk of the team's payroll. And I'm
guessing still the same with Jamar Chase. He has to

(01:33:16):
make the offensive line better, and he's got to fix
nearly every area.

Speaker 4 (01:33:22):
On the defense. Can that be done over time?

Speaker 9 (01:33:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:33:26):
I think it can. I don't think we're patient enough
to want that to happen. I know I'm not.

Speaker 5 (01:33:33):
I don't want to watch the Bengals in December next
year hoping they're in the hunt. I want to watch
the Bengals next season going God. You know what, this
team is a two game lead in the division, and
they've got a shot to be the one seed, and
they're one of the few teams that can win the
whole thing. There is hope because Number nine's on the team,
and as long as they have Joe Burrow playing at
a high level in his prime, this team is always

(01:33:55):
going to be relevant. There are irrelevant NFL teams. The
Cleveland Browns are one. Quarterback situation's a mess. I would
just go ahead and cut loose, not Jamis Winston. I
would just go ahead and cut loose Deshaun Watson, but
you know, rudderless in terms of its quarterback situation, Bengals
are not one of them.

Speaker 4 (01:34:10):
They got one of the guys.

Speaker 5 (01:34:12):
If a dude who's having a better season than the
guy that a lot of people think he's the best
player in the league, it's not hopeless. It's reasonable skepticism
based on results. The results of Duke Tobin's work as
well intended as it was, as much as a lot
of us could understand the reasoning behind a lot of

(01:34:32):
his decisions in the draft and otherwise, the results are
four and eight. The results are a team that will
play meaningless games in December, and not because they've clinched
anything good. The result is a team where I cannot,
for you identify that many cornerstones. The result is a

(01:34:55):
team that has the longest offseason to do list it's
had in quite a while. There's not at least some
skepticism that Duke Tobin can get this thing turned around
in a year. If if that's where you are, I'd
love to hear from you at five point three, seven, four, nine,

(01:35:15):
fifteen thirty. There's a difference between giving someone credit for
what they have done and wondering if they can do
what's next. I give Duke Tobin all the credit in
the world for what he has done. He has been
rewarded handsomely for it. But what he has done is

(01:35:35):
different than what he's being asked to do. Assuming he stays.

Speaker 4 (01:35:39):
In his current role.

Speaker 5 (01:35:42):
The results of his work have been near disastrous. If
that doesn't give you at least some pause, you're looking
at this differently than I am. Sixteen minutes after five o'clock,
Juan Soto signed a contract that is given every small

(01:36:04):
baseball market newspaper columnist or blogger a free column. Those
folks had a really good day, so did someone else,
which means we could put to bed one of the
topics of the Summer. Next, this is Ralph's American Grill
Pregame Sports Talk. We are presented by your Cincinnati and
Northern Kentucky Toyota Dealers on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 9 (01:36:27):
Cincinnati's ES.

Speaker 2 (01:36:30):
This is football Inninnetti, run to you in part by
Blood Light and by Skyline Hiley on the official home
of the Bengals, Cincinnatis, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:36:44):
It's Ralph's American Grill Pregame Sports Talk.

Speaker 5 (01:36:46):
We are presented by your Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Toyota Dealers, Bengals,
Cowboys coming up, kickoff.

Speaker 4 (01:36:55):
And Tuddy excuse me eight to fifteen tonight.

Speaker 5 (01:36:58):
We are less than three hours away from the game tonight,
and we have it for you on ESPN fifteen thirty
with Dan Horde and Dave them.

Speaker 4 (01:37:09):
Time now to take a look at tonight's keys to
the game.

Speaker 5 (01:37:11):
They are brought to you by Cincinnati Asphalt, where Precision
paves the way so Orlando.

Speaker 4 (01:37:18):
Brown's not going to start.

Speaker 5 (01:37:19):
And frankly, after watching Orlando Brown limp around like me
waking up with the Charlie Horse last week, I think
that's a good thing. Can Cody Ford block Micah Parsons.
If the answer is no, and the answer probably is no,
how do the Bengals help Cody Ford? And if the
Bengals can't help Cody Ford and block Micah Parsons, how
much does he hit Joe Burrow? How much does he

(01:37:42):
put Joe Burrow on the run, how much does he
put Joe Burrow at risk? How much does he help
destroy everything the Bengals are trying to do in the
game offensively? And so that's what I'm gonna be paying
very close attention to.

Speaker 4 (01:37:55):
I think we all are.

Speaker 5 (01:37:56):
The other one is, you know, look, Cooper Rush is
a backup quarterback guy that Bengals played a couple of
years ago. He has helped the Cowboys to consecutive wins
over the Washington Commanders and last week against the New
York Giants that was on a Thursday, and played pretty
much mistake free football. He did have a fumble in

(01:38:16):
each game, but he recovered it, didn't throw any picks,
the worst thing you can do with a reasonably inexperienced quarterback.
And Cooper Rush has been in this league now for
a while, but you know he is attempted fewer than
five hundred passes, Hays give him confidence. Ceedee Lamitt looks
like he's gonna play. Bengals pass rush this season has
been mostly non existing, aside from Trey Hendrickson, mostly non existent.

(01:38:38):
And so you look at this game and you're like,
all right, Bengals are favored because they have Burrow and
the Cowboys are playing a backup. But what mitigates that
advantage putting Joe Burrow on the run, putting Joe Burrow
on the ground, and then giving Cooper Rush enough confidence
that he gets into rhythm, gets going and starts to
take advantage of a defense that is not that good.
I'm also gonna hit on a theme midway through the season.

Speaker 4 (01:39:01):
Punts.

Speaker 5 (01:39:02):
So the Steelers punted once last week. Bengals have recently
been awful on third down. Can they be good enough
on third down that we get four Dallas punts? This
is something we talked about back when the Bengals had
hope and they were playing the Giants and they were
playing the Browns. Punts for pizza, punts for pints, punts
for whatever. Can the Bengals force four puns tonight? With

(01:39:26):
the offense as good as it's been, I think If
they can do that, they're going to win this football game.

Speaker 4 (01:39:32):
In the absence of that, I don't know, So we
will be tracking punts tonight. That'll be a lot of fun.

Speaker 5 (01:39:38):
By the way, we're gonna be watching the game tonight
at Dickman's in Fort Right.

Speaker 4 (01:39:42):
We hope to see you there.

Speaker 5 (01:39:44):
Twenty three minutes after five o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty.
I got folks waiting on hold. Folks waiting on hold,
and I want to talk with them really quick here
before we do that. So last night we found out
not so much where Juan Soda was gonna go. We
all knew he was gonna end up in a big market.
He ends up going to the Mets, and he ends

(01:40:05):
up up getting a deal that Jeff Passing reports is
five years, seven hundred and sixty five million dollars.

Speaker 4 (01:40:13):
I put this on.

Speaker 5 (01:40:14):
Social media last night, and I did it without comment.
The Reds combined opening day payroll from twenty seventeen through
twenty twenty four seven hundred and eighty eight million dollars
seven sixty five m for fifteen years for Juan Soto.

(01:40:35):
It's not like we thought the Reds were gonna get
Wan Soto, and there are very point, very fair points
that will be made about the financial inequities in baseball
and small market teams versus large market teams. In my
response to that, as always, when it's time for a
new CBA, root for the owners to hold their ground,
which they never do and they won't all right, like
we all want the sport to have a salary cap.

(01:40:57):
I've been very slow to come around on that idea.
But if you want it to happen, you want the
owners to figure out a way to break the most
powerful union in the United States of America. That's going
to require more than an off season lockout. Now, Reds
have Elie Dela Cruz. Eli Dela Cruz is not yet

(01:41:17):
in Jan Soto's stratosphere, right, we understand that. But Ellie
is getting ready for year three. We're all hoping for
big things. We're all hoping for a major, major leap.
We're hoping that, you know, there's a little bit more
accountability when he screws up on the bases and in
the field. With Terry Francota and Frankly, we hope that
those screw ups are fewer and farther between. But the

(01:41:38):
Reds have Eli Dela Cruz, and with Elie Dela Cruz,
a lot of folks wondering can the Reds get a
long term deal done? Why haven't the Reds gotten a
long term deal done? Ignoring the fact that he's under
team control for the rest of the decade. When this
question is asked, the response is fifteen years, seven hundred

(01:41:58):
and sixty five million dollar. Because the race is on now.
The race is on to become Baseball's first billion dollar player.
Is it going to be Ellie Dela Cruz? Is it
going to be someone else? I have no idea, but
something that not long ago seemed almost inconceivable now feels
basically inevitable. Baseball will have a one billion dollar player.

(01:42:24):
Chances are that player will sign somewhere as a free agent,
likely not with the team that they came up with,
and not while they have years to go before they
can hit free agency.

Speaker 4 (01:42:35):
So when we do this, hopefully Ellie has an all
Star season.

Speaker 5 (01:42:40):
And by the way, if he were to sign, nobody
would be happier than me, and I think I'd have
a lot of company there. The answer is, because Ellie
Dela Cruz wants to be maybe Baseball's first one billion
dollar player.

Speaker 4 (01:42:57):
It's it's a matter of time now. Joey Vado got
his deal twelve years ago.

Speaker 5 (01:43:03):
Was what two hundred and thirty six million dollars folks
lost in their minds. This is more than five hundred
million dollars more, and it's a longer deal obviously, So
we're getting So if you're Ellie Dela Cruz, you want
to sign now or do you want to shot at
hitting free agency and attempting to become baseball's first one
billion dollar player? And by the way, at that point,

(01:43:25):
he might not be the first, he might be the latest.
He might be at a place where there's a bunch
of one billion dollar players and now he's trying to
become the first one point two billion dollar player, or
that sort of thing. There's the answer to the question
that is going to be asked all summer long. Can
they get a deal done? What would you do now
if the Red's offer him a billion dollars? That's one

(01:43:46):
thing they're probably not. If you're Ellie Dela Cruz, you
want to go ahead and sign away your free agency
rights or do you want to take a chance.

Speaker 4 (01:43:56):
Not becoming the first billion dollar player?

Speaker 9 (01:44:01):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (01:44:02):
Let's see here. Matt, You're on ESPN fifteen thirty, Good afternoon.
How are you?

Speaker 11 (01:44:08):
Did you said, Matt?

Speaker 4 (01:44:09):
I said, I said, Matt, are you? Matt?

Speaker 7 (01:44:12):
Sorry?

Speaker 11 (01:44:13):
I apologize. I was under a bridge and it just
cut out for us.

Speaker 4 (01:44:17):
What happens happens.

Speaker 11 (01:44:19):
That's been the most depressing ten minutes of team building discussion.
I think I've heard him quite a while. Sorry, but
it don't have a capable GM for the Bengals, and
we can't afford a capable GM or what a capable
GM would have to do for the Reds. But other

(01:44:39):
than that, life is good. So anyway, Yeah, but let's
talk about Duke Toby run. We need incremental change, and
we have no time for incremental change because we're in
the heat or in the peak. Joe Burrow fun you know,

(01:44:59):
is taking his career. But how are we going like
what you propose as a solution. If we can't, if
we fired Dukes Hobin, we'd still have to hire somebody.
It would be under the same constraints. That's what I
was trying to get to you. So the salary cap
constraints are going to be there, whether it's Duke Toobin

(01:45:20):
or the next guy. Yeah, Now we have to draft
better and we have to scout better. I mean, you know,
I've heard some of the statistics that our scouting department
black or the Bengals scouting department lacks. That's where a
little bit of money could go a long way as
far as I could tell. And uh so that would

(01:45:40):
be my thought. So that that's all I had and
I'll let you coll.

Speaker 5 (01:45:43):
It all right, Matt, Thank you, drive safely. I guess
I would say this. I don't know that there is
an unattractive NFL job. Now, some are more attractive than others,
Like I wouldn't want to run the Las Vegas Raiders.

Speaker 4 (01:45:56):
No thanks.

Speaker 5 (01:45:57):
But you know, if you're looking for a job where
you're going to be in charge of the roster, and
maybe you get more leeway in some cities versus others,
but oftentimes you get one of those jobs, the first
thing you have to figure out is who is my
quarterback that is done for you here? And so I
think there are a lot of people who if you said,
all right, you have your choice of general manager gigs

(01:46:19):
and I know that's not Duke's title, but he's basically
the GM.

Speaker 4 (01:46:22):
Yeah, you have your choice.

Speaker 5 (01:46:23):
At general manager gigs, you don't have to figure out
who the quarterback is going to be for quite a while.
So don't worry about drafting one, don't worry about trading
for one. You're not stuck with a guy you know,
and you're not in quarterback purgatory. Let's start from there.
I think that in itself makes the job attractive. Now
there are you know, inherent challenges. They don't have the
world's biggest scouting department. One thing that I would know

(01:46:45):
I would want to know if I was a candidate
would be can I do something about that? Can I
hire some more people? I would want to know how
much say I have in hiring a coach? Right? Like,
if let's say we give Zach Taylor another year and
then we decide he's not the guy, Am I hiring
the coach? Which Duke Tobin, by all accounts, is the
guy who made the decision on Zach Taylor. But you

(01:47:06):
have the most important piece to work with, right Like
I I didn't watch it front to back while it aired,
but I had a lot of free time on Thursday
and Friday because I underwent a medical procedure, very benign one,
and so I watched because I was in a Hard
Knocks mood. I watched the Hard Knocks in season with

(01:47:27):
the Giants, and I'm watching this Joe Shane kat run
the club. He's the GM of the team. And you know,
one of the main storylines is are they going to
draft a quarterback? Do they believe in Daniel Jones? What
are they gonna do for him? Are they gonna get
him a weapon? Can they build a better offensive line?
Can they do this without Sakuon Barkley? And like, obviously there,
they've since moved on from Daniel Jones. So now this guy,

(01:47:49):
if he's still the general manager, has to start from
scratch after three years of building around Daniel Jones.

Speaker 4 (01:47:54):
That's really hard to do.

Speaker 3 (01:47:55):
That.

Speaker 5 (01:47:55):
That's not the case here, and so that's the good thing.
That's what makes the job attractive. Also, get all sorts
of time. It's the Bengals. It don't fire people after
a year or two. So I don't subscribe to the
notion that it's not an attractive job. Some jobs might
be more attractive because of larger scouting departments, or larger
control over the roster, larger control over hiring a coach.

(01:48:17):
But I think there are a lot of people, qualified
people that if you said all right, there are openings
to run a team and build a roster. There's Cincinnati
and there's other places. I think there's a lot of things,
namely the presence of number nine that would make Cincinnati
at least as desirable, if not more. But with number
nine comes challenges. So far, Duke Tobin has not risen

(01:48:39):
to that challenge. The question is do you trust him
to moving forward or would you rather that responsibility fall
to someone else. Twenty eight away from six o'clock on
Muhleger five point three seven four nine, fifteen thirty, we
are less than an hour away from countdown to kickoff.
It's Ralph's American Grill pregame sports talk presented by your
Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Toyota dealers on ESPN fifteen thirty,

(01:49:03):
Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (01:49:05):
You've been listening to football in thenetti on the official
home of the Bengals, Cincinnatis, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:49:14):
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's Sports Station.

Speaker 5 (01:49:18):
Sports Headlines a service of Kelsey Chevro Life. I'm a
lifetime power train protection and I guarantee credit approval from
their family to yours for life, kelseyshev dot Com. Bengals
Cowboys tonight. In the first ever Bengals game I watched
thirty nine years ago. Yesterday Bengals beat the Cowboys fifty
to twenty four. I was I just turned eight years old.

(01:49:43):
Watch that game with my dad. That is my earliest
Bengals memory. That is absolutely irrelevant as things. As things
relate to Tonight eight fifteen is the kickoff. Kate York
has been out. He has been elevated to the active
roster because Evan McPherson has heard. BEng won't have Logan Wilson,
they won't have Orlando Brown, they won't have Sheldon Rankins,

(01:50:04):
they won't have much of a prayer of making the postseason.

Speaker 4 (01:50:08):
But we're talking about him.

Speaker 5 (01:50:09):
Nonetheless, our guy Wayne box Miller has countdown to kickoff
at six thirty. If you're looking for the Mark Pope Show,
and if you're a UK fan, I can't blame me
if you are.

Speaker 4 (01:50:20):
That is tonight.

Speaker 5 (01:50:21):
Moving to Fox Sports thirteen sixty on the heels of
Kentucky's thrilling one point overtime win over Gonzaga, essentially a
road game which UK overcame an eighteen point deficit, Wildcat's
fifth and both major polls. Cincinnati slides to twenty second
ap twenty third in the coaches poll. The Skyline Chilli

(01:50:43):
Crosstown Shootout is Saturday. XU plays Morgan State tomorrow. Shawn
Miller Show tonight at seven on fifty five KARC, The
Shawn Miller Podcast. I just watched his episode with his wife,
which was that was a fun watch. The shootout is
this week. You know I'm a Bearcat fan. That's not

(01:51:04):
a surprising revelation, I'm sure. So I obviously have a
rooting interest in Saturday's game. I'm not going to pretend
that I don't. And there is not a UC fan
alive who isn't going to spend the week apprehensive, nervous, pensive, skeptical,

(01:51:28):
in large part because of, excuse me, the recent history
of the Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout. But the Bearcats really
aren't playing that well now. I liked a lot of
what I saw on the second half against Howard. I
liked very little what I saw in the first half
against Howard. I thought the Villanova game was sobering for
a bunch of different reasons, and they didn't play very

(01:51:50):
well in their game before that against Alabama State. Now,
I think if there's one thing we've learned about this game,
the UC Xavior game, is momentum is almost non existing,
and as it relates to what's going to happen in
the game itself. Last year Xavier lost to Delaware going
into the shootout. You See won a game by thirty
seven points, and the Musketeers beat the Bearcats for a

(01:52:10):
fifth consecutive year. You See is going to be favored
in this game, or at least I think they will be,
and you see should be favored in this game, and
I think they should be. But we're Pike and I
were talking about this this morning, and we both have
a fair amount of Xavier fans in our lives and awesome,
right Like, I'm I am never going to be one
of those people.

Speaker 4 (01:52:30):
I can't be. I can't be friends with you because
you don't root for my team, although I know people
like that.

Speaker 5 (01:52:37):
But it's already started like today today, from two people
I consider to be very good friends who are passionate
Xavior fans. One of them is a former player. Already
on Monday, almost a week before the game.

Speaker 4 (01:52:57):
Given us the.

Speaker 5 (01:52:59):
You're taking easy on us on Saturday. This has been
a thing over the last couple of years. Just I mean,
you guys, you guys are gonna destroy it. Look root
for your team. If your team wins by all means,
enjoy the spoils of victory, hit me up on Twitter,

(01:53:20):
call the show. Celebrate a six consecutive victory by all means,
you deserve it. And if you see wins by all means,
do what I would do and go, well, yeah, it's cool.
Every six years you get one like I'm do it.

Speaker 4 (01:53:33):
I'm all in. But please, please spare us, spare us.

Speaker 5 (01:53:39):
And there's there's not a UC fan who's hearing this
right now who doesn't know exactly what I'm referring to,
whether it be people you work with, people in your family,
your circle of friends, it's already starting. The Xaver's not
playing great either right lost to TCU the other night,
barely beats South South Carolina State. I thought that Michigan game,
I thought the final score was not totally reflective of

(01:54:01):
how the game was played, but still a lopsided Xavier loss.

Speaker 4 (01:54:04):
So neither team is playing great right now.

Speaker 5 (01:54:06):
It's almost sort of laughable to think that a couple
of weeks ago we were talking about both teams being undefeated.

Speaker 4 (01:54:12):
But if you're a UC fan, you know this, and
so I just I'm gonna put a stop to it.

Speaker 5 (01:54:16):
And like if if you are among my circle of
friends or you know people that I know, work with,
work for, you're a xavior fan by all means, man,
get get excited for the game, and if you win it,
do what you gotta do. Like winners, losers complain about
the behavior of winners. I am not gonna do that.
I don't do that, but spare me this week the

(01:54:36):
uh you guys, you guys that are taken easy on us,
but games not. I mean, I'm looking. I have a
I have an annual wager and it's not a heavy wager.
But Ryan Caldwell, I'll say his name, former muskie, and
he and I are friends and we get together once
or twice a year, and one of those nights is
the payoff of our Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout bet. And

(01:54:58):
it's nothing more than around a beer right bar tab
not for like a fourteen hour bender. But just you know,
go out watch a game or two and have a
few beers and that's it. And I've lost it every
year the last five years. My guy today already already
looking forward to paying off this year's bet. Stop stop,

(01:55:21):
Just do us a favor. Leave us alone, Leave us alone.
Can we just be nervous and apprehensive and uneasy with ourselves.
We don't need the added pressure of well you eh,
you know this year, you guys, just I mean, I
got it last year and the game was at the

(01:55:42):
Centa Center.

Speaker 4 (01:55:44):
So I beg you as somebody who is I think.

Speaker 5 (01:55:52):
Very equitable when it comes to coverage of both teams
and go out of my way to cheerlead for the
Musketeers when they're not playing the Bearcat tries to offer
fair commentary on them. I don't think there's a show
in this market that has had Sean Miller on more
than his actual podcast. Just do me that favor this week.

(01:56:14):
Spare me the preemptive Uh you know, you guys are
just gonna be too much for us.

Speaker 4 (01:56:20):
I mean, just please.

Speaker 5 (01:56:23):
There's not a Bearcat fan alive who is not imagining
the following couple of scenarios. Overly hyped team comes out,
crowd is just bananas. They're a little bit too hyped.
Sean Miller's team plays basketball leads twelve too at the
under sixteen Bearcats have to spend the rest of the
day fighting an uphill battle, or a player who's not

(01:56:47):
having a particularly good season shooting the basketball suddenly goes
five for six. These things happen in the shootout, and
it's part of what makes the game awesome. But they
always happen for Xavier, so we're all anticipating something similar.
Let us be apprehensive among ourselves. Sparis don't need it

(01:57:09):
because you don't really feel that way, right you legitimately
do not really feel that way.

Speaker 4 (01:57:15):
Just let me be, let me be, let me be
nervous about this game for a week.

Speaker 7 (01:57:19):
It's all.

Speaker 5 (01:57:23):
Let's see, Mike, go ahead. You've been hanging on forever.
Thank you for your patients. As always, you're on ESPN
fifteenth third.

Speaker 7 (01:57:31):
Thank you, Moll You're Your honoring of the Cobra was outstanding.

Speaker 11 (01:57:39):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:57:40):
I'm really really happy for Dave Parker and his family.

Speaker 7 (01:57:44):
I'm ecstatic. Being a local guy and.

Speaker 12 (01:57:49):
A giant of a man at that time in baseball,
especially when we didn't have guys as big as they
are now, he was He was the giant.

Speaker 7 (01:58:01):
Maybe with the exception of Kingman or somebody else, but he.

Speaker 9 (01:58:04):
Was the guy.

Speaker 5 (01:58:05):
Yeah, but he was ten thousand times a better baseball
player than Dave Kingman.

Speaker 9 (01:58:09):
Oh yeah, my goodness.

Speaker 4 (01:58:10):
I mean, you know, you could look.

Speaker 5 (01:58:12):
At the offensive numbers and you know, obviously everybody has
the Internet, and you could go, guy, this guy, the guy.
This guy was really good player. You could talk for
ten minutes about Dave Parker on the field and not
mention his batting. I don't know that I have seen
And Mike, you watched him more in his prime that
I did. I don't know that I have seen a better,

(01:58:34):
more powerful or accurate throwing arm. Oh and for a
man his size, I mean he had seasons seventy nine pirates,
he got Rob Stargell was the co MVP that season.
Dave Parker sold twenty two bases. I mean, look, that
is a large man charging down the line on you.
So he could run. He obviously hit a lot of

(01:58:56):
home runs, but he hit for average, was a two
time batting champion, was a very good fielder. But you
could talk all day about Dave Parker and just talk
about his throwing. His arm was that good.

Speaker 7 (01:59:08):
Yeah. I mean, you could talk about how great Paul
O'Neil wasn't in right field. You could talk about how
great Dwight Evans was in rightfield. But I don't know
that there was ever a stronger on than the Cobra.

Speaker 4 (01:59:19):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 5 (01:59:20):
And it's on YouTube and I was two years old
at the time, so it's not like I watched it live.
But every year when the All Star Game gets here
and they show highlights of old All Star Games, they'll
show Rose barreling over Ray Fosse, and they'll show Reggie
Jackson hitting the ball out of Tiger Stadium, and they
will show Dave Parker throwing out dudes in the seventy
nine All Star Game.

Speaker 7 (01:59:42):
Yeah, it's incredible. So thanks for the tribute him. And
it's funny. I met a guy out here today, mouth
from Forest Park, veteran cancer. He had his Bengals hat on,
strutting proudly around the clinic. Really, and I hadn't met
him before, and he knew Dave. They didn't go to
high school together, but they're about the same age. Anyway,

(02:00:04):
just motivated me. I almost got chilled when I was
talking to.

Speaker 3 (02:00:08):
Him about Dave.

Speaker 7 (02:00:11):
Here's another one. Your idea that you came up with
last week about the Hendrickson draft capital is the single
best idea I've heard. I haven't heard an idea even
close to it, and you validated it by saying you
don't want to break up the core of the Aufenense.

Speaker 3 (02:00:29):
No, and I'm not.

Speaker 5 (02:00:31):
You know this has been brought up nationally that maybe
they should trade Chase. I think that cuts too deep
into the core of the team. I think burw and
Chase are why your team has a chance regardless of
what you do next year. I think you can flip
Trey Hendrickson for something of value. I think there is
a better than average chance that he is And by
the way, other NFL teams might feel the same way

(02:00:53):
that his twenty twenty five is not going to be
as good as his twenty twenty four, So I'm kind
of selling high. I do think they have to get
creative need draft capital because they have a lot of
areas of need, they have a lot of holes to fill.
I think they've got to get creative, and so I'm
here for at least considering any and all ideas.

Speaker 9 (02:01:09):
I am too.

Speaker 7 (02:01:10):
What did you think of my rams?

Speaker 3 (02:01:12):
Last night.

Speaker 7 (02:01:12):
I thought they played very impressively. I mean a defense
so apart in the second half, but with Pooka Nakula
putting on a show, you my friend or what? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (02:01:22):
You know what.

Speaker 5 (02:01:23):
We talk a lot about the Bengals being a team
that if they get in, boy, you don't want to
play them. The LA Rams are a team that if
they get in, you don't want to play them. And
by the way they're scheduled down the stretch, you know,
they go they go to San Francisco, which that's.

Speaker 4 (02:01:40):
I think that's the Thursday night of this week.

Speaker 5 (02:01:42):
They go to San Francisco, if I'm not mistaken right,
And then it's the Jets who are awful, the Cardinals
who are beatable in the Seattle Seahawks who are beatable.
Right now, LA is on the outside looking in, but
with a coach like McVeigh and a quarterback like Stafford
and the weaponry they can bring to the table if
they could sneak in, they're a tough out.

Speaker 7 (02:02:03):
Now.

Speaker 5 (02:02:03):
I think Detroit and Philadelphia and the NFC and Taran
I'll go ahead and include your vikings because they were
awesome yesterday. I feel like there's a tier and then
a drop off and then another tier, whereas in the
AFC I kind of feel like the lines are a
little bit blurred between the really good teams. It just
still really feels like the NFC champion is gonna come

(02:02:24):
from Philadelphia, Detroit or Minnesota, and Minnesota's gonna have to
play a lot of games on the road. But you know,
on a week to week basis, you draw the Rams
your first playoff game. You know, the playoffs are supposed
to be hard, so all the games are supposed to
be difficult. But that's not an easy draw.

Speaker 7 (02:02:42):
Mo Is Kansas City gonna get their bubble burst here
sooner or later.

Speaker 9 (02:02:46):
It's got to happen, though.

Speaker 7 (02:02:49):
I know you've got to give them credit for one
of these close games down with that, But no, you
can't keep living on the edge like this and not
get whacked sooner or later.

Speaker 4 (02:03:00):
Yeah, I agree with you.

Speaker 5 (02:03:01):
I mean, I think if if we were to sit
down and pit a pick a team to bet on
to win the AOFC, frankly, I think there's insane value
on Pittsburgh, and I know no one here wants to
hear that. I think it's going to be really interesting
to see what happens on Christmas when Kansas City goes
to Pittsburgh. That is a Chiefs team with a lot
of warts. And if I am a Chiefs fan, I
am concerned about all of my warts bubbling to the

(02:03:24):
surface at the absolute worst time, because if it happens
in the postseason, they might play a game where they're
not competitive. Theirm o all year long has been not
intentionally keep it close and then take advantage of a miracle.
You can't take advantage of a miracle if you don't
keep it close. And I just I see them, and
I see a team that doesn't do any one thing

(02:03:46):
particularly well.

Speaker 7 (02:03:47):
And Harball gave them fitch last night, Herbert, I mean,
I was just real proud of my two LA teams
last night. They did very well. One more quickly if
you would. So, are you happy Soto went to the
Mets or you don't here?

Speaker 3 (02:04:00):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (02:04:04):
I think that's a fan base that deserves a win.
And I was listening to the Bill Simmons podcast, which
he has cousin Salon to predict NFL lines. Cousin sala
and he was enjoying the fact that his team got
to win over the Yankees. Look, he was gonna end

(02:04:26):
up with a big market team. I was always interested
in the structure of the contract, and so good for him.
Now I want to know who's the first billion dollar player,
and could it be Elie Dela Cruz.

Speaker 7 (02:04:38):
That's a great question. But still I'm still standing by this.
The Dodgers are the ones that really got to deal
with Otani because he is going to pitch this year
and nobody else in baseball has got that that skill
set that he's got.

Speaker 9 (02:04:52):
So we'll see.

Speaker 4 (02:04:54):
Thanks ball, all right, Mike, thank you. We are late
eight away from six.

Speaker 5 (02:04:58):
It's Ralph's American Grill Game Sports Talk, presented by your
Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Toyota Dealers on ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports Station. Thirty six year old QB nine time
Pro bowler in his first year in his Steelers' uniform.

Speaker 4 (02:05:13):
He's back to pass. His throat accepted. Turning it back
is Cam Taylor Britt.

Speaker 10 (02:05:17):
He's at the thirty five the thirty twenty five Tenny
Captain danfield Block get the.

Speaker 4 (02:05:22):
Five to the tow line touchdown down. Fangals Cam Taylor
Britt with a pick six to put Cincinnati on the scoreboard.
All right, there you go. Last week's delivery of the game.

Speaker 5 (02:05:35):
It is brought to you by Ralph's American Grill in Wilmington, Ohio,
just off High seventy one, Exit fifty inside the Holiday
Inn at.

Speaker 4 (02:05:42):
The Roberts Center.

Speaker 5 (02:05:44):
Cam Taylor Bread with a pick six to start the
game gave the Bengals a fleeting brief but still while
it lasted, fun seven to nothing lead. Last week in
the game over the Pittsburgh Steelers good and bad for
Cam Taylor Britt. Last week we have talked about cornerstones.
Who are the cornerstones? Is Cam Taylor Britt really won now?
I tend to think the answer is yes in terms

(02:06:05):
of him being on the team and being in the
defensive backfield and having a chance to show what he
can do. But we went into this season thinking, Okay,
CTB is gonna be CB one that has not happened.
I am not betting on that happening next year. I
don't think you are either. Let's take a look at
the performer of the week. It is brought to you

(02:06:27):
by Zimmer Tractor, the home of the tri States' largest
coboa inventory three locations Monroe, Brookville, and Aurora and online
at Zimmertractor dot com and by Crownroyal, the official whiskey
of the Bengals. It's not a kickoff without Crown Royal.
Follow the Royal rig for a taste of the generous
spirit and the chance to win tickets to Super Bowl

(02:06:48):
fifty nine. Go to Crownroyal dot com for rules and more.
Please drink responsibly. Well, I think we have to pick
a player on offense, and there were a lot of
guys who perform well. Last week, I'm gonna give it
to Chase Brown. We talked about the player spotlight before
Chase Brown had fifteen touches for one hundred yards.

Speaker 4 (02:07:08):
He ran for a score. Chase Brown has been.

Speaker 5 (02:07:10):
Used well I think this season, and I think he
is key tonight to keeping the Bengals defense off the field.
But isn't that a shame Like say what you want
about Zach Taylor, Zach Taylor, Dan Pitcher. You have to
design game plans, or at least I do think you
have to design game plans around the concept of we
can't let our defense on the field. That's not a

(02:07:34):
very good place to be if you're an offensive coordinator
or a play caller, It's Ralph's American Girl. Pregame Sports
Talk presented by your Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Toyota Dealer.
Is getting said for the Bengals and Cowboys on ESPN
fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (02:07:49):
There are over three hundred and fifty BMW six