The Mo Egger Radio Show -- 12/26/24

Mo is back Buffalo Wild Wings at Harper's Point! He talks with Chad Brendel, Jay Morrison, Dan Clasgens, Robert Weintraub, and more on ESPN 1530!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you're having an awesome holiday season. We are broadcasting
this afternoon live. This is not a best of show
live here at Buffalo Wild Wings Harper Station, typically broadcast
from b Dubs on a Tuesday. We move things around
this week because of Christmas Christmas Eve falling on Tuesday,
and so instead we're spending a gorgeous Thursday afternoon. It

(00:23):
is awesome outside. For December twenty six, we are spending
it here at the Harper Station location, Buffalo Wild Wings.
We're here until six o'clock. Now here's the main reason
you want to come on out. Okay, it's not me.
It really actually a couple of things. Number one wings, right,
you can't beat it. They still have these six for
nineteen ninety nine deal happening, which that's two entrees and

(00:46):
two sides and two fountain drinks for nineteen ninety nine.
We've got five dollars bud light talls. You can't beat that.
And a great place to post up and watch college
bowl games. There are a few today. There's a game
tonight Seattle in Chicago. If you're looking ahead of the
weekend and maybe watching the Bengals game on TV, this
is a great spot to do that here. Speaking of

(01:08):
Saturday's Bengals game, we have a pair of tickets Bengals Broncos,
a de facto playoff game for Cincinnati and Denver Bengals
looking to stay alive. It's an elimination game for the Bengals.
Speaking of weather, and I know they're expecting rain on Saturday,
but i've seen the high maybe reaching sixty. So you're

(01:29):
not going to freeze your face off. You might kid we,
but you're not going to freeze your face off. If
you have tickets. Awesome. If you're looking for tickets, we
are going to give away a pair here at Buffalo
Wild Wings Harper Station. Yes, you must be present to win.
You know, we've had folks this year that have come
to Buffalo Wild Wings and we appreciate them. They write
their name down, they put it in the box and

(01:50):
we've drawn their name and they're not here, and well,
guess what. You can't win the tickets if you're not here.
So you have until six o'clock and we hope to
see you if you're in the Montgomery Blue As Sycamore
Township area coming out to a Buffalo Wild Wings Harper Station.
This is a location when I lived in Sharonville, this
was like, this is like my home beat ups right here.

(02:10):
I've watched a lot of sporting events, in this particular
Buffalo wild Wings. So get here between now and six o'clock.
We also have the bud Light Bengals hoodies for giving
away their nikeing off Bengals hoodies, some other bud Light
swag as well. We have a lot to get to
get to today. The Bengals news for Orlando Brown good
good to go for Saturday's game. Cody Ford is set

(02:32):
to start in Cordell Vohlson's place. Joseph Osi and Gino Stone,
who have missed time with illness, could be ready to
go on Saturday, per Zach Taylor, reading that from Ben
Baby of ESPN. Obviously Bengals need to beat the Broncos.
The path to the postseason is obviously littered with roadblocks

(02:55):
for Cincinnati. I think by now we've all memorized what
has to happen this week and next for Cincinnati season
to continue into the postseason, and maybe the path became
a little bit more difficult to navigate because of what
happened yesterday in Pittsburgh, where the Kansas City Chiefs set
a bit of a message that was as good and

(03:16):
as completed game as Casey has played all season long.
They blow out the Steelers in Pittsburgh. They're now fifteen
to one. They have wrapped up the number one overall
seed in the AFC. The dynamic for them in Week
eighteen is interesting. Obviously, the Bengals need the Broncos to
lose their final two games clearly, including the one they

(03:36):
have against Cincinnati on Saturday, and then their Week eighteen
game is against the Chiefs, and so the question is, well,
how's Andy Reid going to manage this? And this is
a little bit different set of circumstances. Kansas City's history
has been with Andy Reid as head coach, if they
have clinched their seating, he rests Gys twenty thirteen, twenty seventeen,

(03:58):
twenty twenty, and twenty twenty three. In each of those instances,
Kansas City has sealed its playoff seeding. So that's four
different years. In every single one of them, Andy Reid
chose to rest his starting quarterback as well as other
key players. Now, this is obviously going back before Patrick
Mahomes became the starting QB. So Alex Smith in twenty thirteen,

(04:22):
Alex Smith in twenty seventeen, which obviously his being benched
gave Patrick Mahomes a chance to make his first NFL start.
Of the seventeen, twenty and twenty three games included Travis Kelcey,
who was really good yesterday not playing for Kansas City,
and so that has typically been Casey's m oh what's

(04:43):
different this year is the timing. Kansas City has clinched
a buy so they wouldn't play in the postseason until
January eighteenth or nineteenth. That's still over three weeks away.
They're looking at a three and a half week layoff
off for their key guys if they just choose to

(05:04):
not play any of them. By the way, it's worth
mentioning in those four games twenty thirteen, twenty seventeen, twenty
twenty and twenty twenty three, Kansas City rested and started quarterback,
starting quarterback, rested a lot of its key players. They
actually still won two of those games. They didn't go
and just tank and fall down and lay down and

(05:24):
lose every single game. They went two and two in
those four games, and so they were still competitive players
that were on the field still tried again. One of
those was Patrick mahomes first NFL start. But it's gonna
be interesting. Just forget the Bengals for a second here,
it's gonna be interesting to see how Andy Reid handles this.
Kansas City will have basically had twenty five days between

(05:47):
games from Christmas Day to their Divisional round game, and
so you've got to wonder how much are they weighing
rest versus rust. How much are they also weighing the
ability to help eliminate the Cincinnati Bengals from the postseason.
Like we've done this a lot over the last couple

(06:07):
of weeks. We've talked about how, well, boy, if they
got in, you wouldn't want to play him, And on
one hand, you go, well, I'd like to play the
Bengals defense. On the other hand, if you're a Kansas
City fan, you're not gonna play the Bengals on wild
Card weekend because you're not gonna play Wildcard weekend. But
if Cincinnati gets in as the seven and they win
their first round game and you're Kansas City and now
you're gonna play the lowest remaining seed and it's the Bengals,

(06:30):
I'm not sure how how could you feel about that,
especially in relation to the other options the Broncos with
a rookie quarterback, the Indianapolis Colts with their warts, or
the Miami Dolphins with their warts. And so there's a
part of me that wonders. And you know, the next
week and a half, I guess will tell not how
motivated are they to lay down against the Denver Broncos

(06:53):
in an effort to eliminate the Bengals. But I don't know.
Is that at all a part of Andy Reid's thinking
as he approached what he is going to do with
his team. Let's get this part out of the way
now because it may be a talking point next week.
Can look first things first, Bengals have to win on Saturday.
Have to beat the Broncos. Have to beat a team
with a winning record for the first time this season.

(07:13):
Have to frankly play better than they have over any
of the last three games. Have to not fall behind,
have to keep Joe Burrow up right. I mean, there's
lots that they have to do. Bo Nicks is a
guy who to me has a very bright future in
the NFL. This is not Cooper Rush, this is not
Will Levis. This is not Dorian Thompson Robinson. This is

(07:35):
a guy who certainly has often looked the part this
season like a bona fide franchise guy in Denver. But
let's say that Week eighteen matters, and it matters to
the Broncos, and it matters to the Bengals, and there
are still other things that have to happen. The head
coach of a football team has one responsibility. It's to

(07:56):
act in his football team's best interest. That football coach
could be Zach Taylor. It could be Mike Tomlin. It
could be Sean Payton, it could be Andy Reid. Whoever
it is, So whatever Andy Reid chooses to do, and
I'm I would play some of the guys just because
of the long layoff we're dealing with here, But whatever
Andy Reid chooses to do. When you win, when you've

(08:20):
wrapped up the number one seed, when you've wrapped up
a bye, you have earned the right to handle Week
eighteen however you want. And if they view it as
being in their best interest to not play Patrick Mahomes,
or not play Travis Kelcey, or not play Chris Jones,
or not play any number of key guys on either
side of the football. They are within their rights. And

(08:40):
if you're a Bengals fan, tough like legitimately, man, I
certainly hope if that game matters, they play all their
main guys, and I hope their main guys play great
and they blow the Broncos out. The Bengals take advantage,
and they get a Miami loss, and they get an
Indianapolis loss, which frankly, I don't think is gonna happen,
and they take they will have taken care of business
against Denver. But let's just head this part off now.

(09:04):
Andy Reid's responsibility is to the Kansas City Chiefs. It's
not to the Bengals, it's not to the other AFC
playoff contenders, it's not to the quote integrity of the league.
His responsibility is to do what he believes is right
for his team. I'll be honest with you, I don't
know what's right. It's a huge layoff. It's a long

(09:24):
time without your guys. My guesses we see at least
a little bit of Patrick Mahomes in that game. But
if we don't, and if we don't see Kansas City play,
a lot of the guys who matter most from a
Cincinnati perspective. Oh, well, shouldn't have put yourself at the
mercy of needing another team to win a game that
doesn't matter to them. Quarter after three on ESPN fifteen thirty.

(09:49):
There could be this season a lot of lessons learned
about team building, about how to handle the offseason, about
the personnel the Bengals have, personnel the Bengals meet as
just talking with Austin, who discussed at length today on
since three sixty uh the evaluation process that the Bengals
front office is going to go through once the offseason

(10:11):
gets here, and the evaluation process they're going through right now,
and how how fearful we should be that the Bengals
will allow late season results to affect how they make
decisions and maybe ignore some of the wards the Bengals have.
I'm not worried about that. I'm not worried about that.
I have one chief concern when it comes to twenty

(10:33):
twenty five one. We'll talk about it when we come back.
We're here at Buffalo Wild Wings Harperstation. By the way,
our phone lines are open five win three seven four nine,
fifteen thirty eight sixty six seven oh two three seven
seven six show preview video is on x thanks to
our friends at Emery Federal Credit Union, York Credit Union
with hard since nineteen thirty nine. A little bit later on,

(10:55):
I got pushed back to two things that Tony Pike
and I talked about on Monday. We'll get to those.
Look ahead to a conference play for area college basketball teams.
Chad Brundle joins this his hour as he does everything
every single Thursday. That's coming up at three forty five,
and I have a Reds question as well. They have
a lot of ground to cover between now and six,

(11:15):
and we're given away Bengals Broncos tickets here at Buffalo
Wild Wings Harper Station on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
Time to get to business.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
Spikes them all in the back of the outside.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Joe burrowing his big bad Bengals put it pull on
the line when they face Phone Nicks at his.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
Broncos covahak chops up to the ground.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
Can the Orange and Black break these.

Speaker 3 (11:38):
Bronx execute it too? Perfection?

Speaker 2 (11:41):
Find out when you get the core from the dangerous
Dan Horde at Mighty Dave Leffert. Coverage starts Saturday at
noon on ESV and fifteen thirty the official both of
the Bengals.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
You ever gone in for a doctor's visit or a
hospital visit, and maybe it's preventative, and maybe it's an
emergency visit, being something involving one of your kids, and
you've got your health insurance card and you hand it
over and you're not really sure what the person you're
handing into is gonna do. Or you get a bill
months later and you say to yourself, I thought my

(12:13):
insurance was gonna handle this, and he you call and
you don't talk to anybody, and it's confusing. It's a
pain in the neck. John Roulman with Cover since he
and his team what they do all day is represent
folks who need help with their health insurance. Maybe it's
picking out a plan. Maybe it's picking out a plan for,
you know, a newly married couple or somebody who's adding

(12:36):
a dependent for the first time. Maybe it's i'd want
my health insurance to work for me, and I'm getting
a bill and I'm not sure I should be paying
for this. It's kind of cool to have an expert
on your side, right John Ruman is that expert. He
and his team are experts when it comes to health insurance,
they have an entire health care team, so they know

(12:56):
the best plans for you. Know that the best way
is to make sure that you're not spent on things
you shouldn't be spending on, and they're gonna fight for
you when it comes time to make a claim. It's
great to have an advocate on your side. Why not
let John be that advocate? Coversincey dot com the website
coversincy dot com. Since he can be spelled with an
I or a Y, it doesn't matter. Or give John

(13:17):
a call at five one three eight hundred twenty two
fifty five. That's five to one three eight hundred twenty
two fifty five. We're going to cover since dot.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
Com ESPN fifteen now twenty four.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
Minutes after three o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty. Reading o'clock
is hard. Okay, we're at Buffalo Wild wins Harper Station
here until six o'clock. Our friends at bud Light have
given us a pair of Bengals Broncos tickets to give
away Saturday's game at four thirty. You could be there
if you get here and sign up before six o'clock tonight.

(13:52):
Chad Reydl's going to join us in about twenty minutes.
On UC basketball, the Bearcats winning their final non league
game on a Sunday afternoon blowout fashion over Grambling. I think,
all in all, a successful early portion of the season
for UC. They get I don't want to say a break,
but Arizona this season has not been anywhere close to

(14:13):
as good as expected. With Caleb Love back for what
feels like his twenty second college basketball season, that's gonna
be their first home game on the fourth of January.
Arizona already has five losses. They've played a tough national schedule,
five losses all Q five losses, but still five losses.
In Kansas State this season has been a little bit

(14:33):
of a mess as well. And that's who use plays
on the road on Monday night in the Big Twelfth opener,
And so you know, we talk about the Big Twelve Gauntlet.
We talked about starting from ahead, We talked about getting
off to a good start, you see, as a chance
before some of the tougher teams on their schedule show
up in later in January and in February. Speaking of
US low starts, you know, I think if there's if

(14:56):
there's nothing else that this season has accomplished. It's it's
it's made, I believe everybody, it's made. It's made everybody
stop be so dismissive about getting off to a slow start.
Bengals are seven and five in their last twelve games.
If if the Bengals started the season seven and five,
that's pretty good, not great, and it probably wouldn't have

(15:17):
them in the division lead, but you'd say, okay, through
twelve games, they put themselves in a position to make
the playoffs. Seven and five is not bad. They are.
They are seven and five in their last twelve games. Now,
they've they've needed this run here, these last three wins,
to be twelve, to be seven and five over the
last twelve games. But they're seven and five over the
last twelve. That is good. It's not great, but it's good.

(15:40):
The problem is they're seven and eight overall because they
started oh to three. Now, not every oh and two
or oh and three start is the same. I think
we all know that the Bengals have taken a lot
of heat for how they've handled the the training camp
and how they've handled the preseason, and this past year
things were different. We saw starters play in the preseason.

(16:02):
It was a little bit more of a physically demanding
training camp. I think they they did things differently in
their run up to the season to help ensure that
they would avoid the O and two or, in this
year's case, the oh and three start. Still, they weren't
able to do it, and that that start reverberates to

(16:22):
this day. This team is where it is because it
started h and three. It has spent the entire last
thirteen weeks playing catchup. Uh and so they may win Saturday,
and they may win their last game of the season
and still be on the outside looking in, and you
know if they are. Tony has talked with me often
about all the different what ifs you ask with this

(16:43):
team this year. I'll think back to the oh and
three start to the season. They've gotten off to oh
and two starts in each of the last three years,
and in each of the last three years, that OH
and two start has caught up with them. In twenty
twenty two, the OH and two start is why they
had to go on the road twice in the playoffs.
They finished the twelve and four record. They won their
last eight regular season games. They had to spend half

(17:04):
the season playing ketchup just to get back to five hundred,
and they still had to go on the road, and
they still had to go win at Arrowhead Stadium, which
is not easy to do. Last season, Yeah, Joe Burrow's
injury against the Baltimore Ravens sunk their championship hopes, but
they were eliminated week seventeen against Kansas City. They finished
with more wins than losses. The OH to two start

(17:25):
caught up to him. This year's OH to three start
has caught up to him. This team is playing for
its life, so to speak, and they need a lot
of help, and they need help from bad football teams
over the final two weeks because they've gotten off to
the oh and three start. So we've talked about heading
things off. I'm heading off the narrative next week that

(17:48):
like the Chiefs owe it to the Bengals or something
to play their main guys in the game that doesn't
count for them. What the Bengals do with T Higgins
this offseason is going to be really fascinating, truly fascinating.
And how they navigate this offseason and try to to
plug so many different holes is going to be really
interesting and how they utilize free agency and who they

(18:09):
bring back, and which players on Saturday will be playing
in their final home games in a Bengal uniform, and
and how they replace the players they move on from
like all that stuff. Deeply, deeply interested. This is a
pivotal off season for this franchise. It's also a different
type of offseason than they've had in in quite a while.

(18:29):
And yet question number one for me, how do they
avoid getting off to a terrible start? How do they
get how do they avoid getting off to the the
and two or the oh and three start that has
sunk their prospects this season? Because until these slow starts stop,
this team ceiling will never be as high as it

(18:50):
should be. And until they start avoiding the O and
two and the oh and three start. By the way
Baltimore got off to ANH and two start, I know
in that time they're still kicking themselves for sinking themselves
and essentially destroying whatever chances they had of getting the
top seed in the AFC. Now that Kansas City has

(19:11):
only lost one game and so that would have been
a tough mountain for any other team to climb. But
the OH to two start is caught up to him.
That's the question of the offseason, and it's the same
as last year, but all right, now, what can they
do even more different than last offseason because it was
easy to say against the Patriots, well, Joe Burrow didn't
look like he was completely comfortable. They also missed a

(19:34):
thousand tackles and couldn't tackle Raman j Stevenson. They then
lost the next two weeks. They had a guy on
the field in John Anthony who probably shouldn't have been
on the field with a game hanging in the balance,
and they had no answer for Jade and Daniels week three.
So you know, maybe this is the year where we
can finally stop being so cavalier about those first couple

(19:55):
of games, and maybe next season, instead of playing September
like it's the preseason, the Bengals can actually play from ahead.
Until they do. The ceiling for this team is always
going to be lower than it should be. It's low
this year. Thirty thirty sports headlines and Tony and I

(20:15):
got pushback. We got pushback on Monday. I like the
two things we got pushed back to. Next We're Buffalo
wild Wings. By the way, today's show is a service
of Orthos Cincy Orthopedics and Sports Medicine. Good orthosinci dot com.
We're a Buffalo wild Wings Harper Station on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
Cincinnati's ESPN Bengals Battle of the Broncos coverage starts Saturday
at noon on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home of
the Bengals.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet, Home of
lifetime powertrain protection and guarantee credit approval from their family
to yours for life, Kelsey chev dot com. Orlando Brown
is set to make his return on Saturday, Bengals hosting
the Denver Broncos. You just heard the guy with the
deep voice. Game is live on ESPN fifteen thirty. Cornell

(21:02):
Vohlson's not going to go. Instead, Cody Ford is going
to spell him. And I would argue that's a good thing.
That's a good thing. What else do we have? We
have a Thursday night football game tonight Seahawks and Bears.
Obviously that game doesn't have any importance as it relates
to the Cincinnati Bengals. There are if if you're into

(21:25):
such things, there are three bowl games happening right now
college football bowl games. So right now we have Pittsburgh
playing Toledo in one bowl game. They are in the
game above Sports Bowl. The Rockets of a twenty to
twelve lead in that game late in the second quarter.
Coming up at Chase Field, which is the home of

(21:45):
the Diamondbacks. It's the Rate Bowl. Used to be the
Guaranteed Rate Bowl. I guess they got rid of a guarantee.
Kansas State taking on Rutgers and the sixty eight Ventures
Bowl which is in Mobile, Alabama. Pitts Arkansas State, which
is a coach by Butch Jones against Bowling Green. So
I've never wanted the Falcons to win a game more.

(22:08):
We're a Buffalo Wild Wings a Harper Station. Thanks to
our friends at bud Lighte, we have a couple of
Bengals Broncos tickets we are gonna give away shortly before
six o'clock. If you miss anything on this show, go
get it on the iHeartRadio app of ipage at ESPN
fifteen thirty dot com. That includes Monday's Tony and Mo
Football Show. That was a fun show. It was Festive

(22:29):
Monday before Christmas. Bengals had won. There were a few
things we discussed the two things I got the most
pushback on. I'll give you one later on, but one
was about those who look at the bengals recent success
through the lens of this is bad because it's going
to hurt draft positioning. Now, if that's your point of view,

(22:50):
you're certainly entitled to it. I just for me, cannot
relate to it. I can't relate to that as a fan.
I can relate as a fan to watching a miserable
team wanting to see it lose when there's like a
prize like Joe Burrow. I'm the first to admit. Twenty
nineteen from Yeah twenty nineteen December twenty second, Bengals were

(23:13):
beaten by the Dolphins in a game where they stormed
back from down twenty two points, Andy Dalton's final start
with the team, and I actively rooted for Miami because
there was an obvious prize. The prize that I wanted
was Joe Burrow. Now could have slid to the second
pick and taken maybe justin Herbert or to atteger I low,

(23:33):
but there was an obvious prize. I badly wanted that
obvious prize. There's no obvious prize now, we're talking about
them falling from thirteen to I couldn't even tell you
as of today, where the Bengals would draft in the
first round. Will I care? Eventually, absolutely, But when there

(23:53):
is still an opportunity to watch the Bengals play in
the postseason, a team that would have a puncher's chance
on the postseason against almost anybody, I'm rooting like hell
for that to happen. I simply cannot relate to someone
who is watching this through the lens of OMG, it's
going to hurt their draft positioning. I don't relate to it.

(24:16):
I don't share the same point of view. And it
was remarkable to me. We posted a social media clip
about this after Monday show, Tony and I discussing this
was remarkable to me. The pushback I got this is
all for not They're just screwing themselves, Like I'm sorry,
Maybe they are. I do not expect the players to care.

(24:37):
I do not expect the organization to try to not win.
And as a fan like I think these scenarios are fun.
It's a lot more fun to be in Kansas City shoes.
It's a lot more fun to be in Buffalo shoes.
Hell it's a lot more fun right now to be
in Denver shoes, and maybe that'll change. But sign me
up for meaningful Football Week seventeen and discussing different things

(24:58):
that have to happen, versus walking into the eleventh overall
pick and starting to pay attention to mock drafts. Chadbrendle,
Bearcat Journal dot com. Next, we're a Buffalo Wild Wings
Harper Station on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station, four o'clock.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty broadcasting from Buffalo Wild Wings
Harper Station. Here till six o'clock. We've got Bengals Broncos

(25:22):
tickets to give away thanks to our friends at bud Light.
Our guy, Chad Brendle's with us on Thursdays Bearcat Journal
dot com, and tomorrow you'll hear him hosting since he
three sixty filling in for two people at once from
noon to three tomorrow on ESPN fifteen thirty. That's pretty
good doing that. We get paid to fill in for
two people.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
I'm gonna put it on the timesheet that way and
see how it goes.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
Let me know.

Speaker 4 (25:49):
So I'm gonna have to talk to myself a lot during.

Speaker 1 (25:51):
The show, yeah, do that to myself. Almost every single
day non conference play is over, the Bearcats turn their
attention to a Monday night game against Kansas State the
start of Big Twelve play. What is UC's conference ceiling.

Speaker 4 (26:10):
That's so hard to tell because we haven't had a
twenty game sample size in the Big Twelve, So I
don't know what I think wins the league to like
set you know what I mean to set the bar,
Like in an eighteen game schedule, you think like fifteen
and three, fourteen and four, but you go out to

(26:31):
twenty and then you take away the bye weeks, so
you know, depth is going to be ultra important. I
think fifteen and if I had to guess, fifteen and
five probably wins the league. Just a rough assumption. With
how much it feels like there's a pretty good amount
of balance. I think this is at the high end,

(26:54):
maybe a thirteen to fourteen win Big twelve team if
everything you know, goes according to plan, if not eleven, ten, eleven, twelve,
somewhere in there. So I think there's certainly one of
the you know, upper third portion of the league. I

(27:15):
think it would be a little disappointing if it was
any lower than that?

Speaker 1 (27:20):
Should they be two and oh after their first two
Big Twelve games?

Speaker 4 (27:28):
They should beat Kansas State. Beating Kansas is.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
That home or away?

Speaker 4 (27:34):
That is that is not an easy task. So can
they be two and oh? Yes? Should they be? I
think that's a little difficult to say. You know, I
think if you if you take it out, I think
you need to get to two and two through the
first four, right, you know, Kansas State, Kansas, Baylor, Arizona.

(27:56):
So flip that they play a face in the conference.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
They play Arizona the first home game and then Kansas
a week later. So Arizona has my bad Yeah, so yeah,
that's what that's Okay, I've done the same thing. So
so Arizona has kind of underachieved. No, they they've played
five Q one losses and so you know, not everybody
six and five is the same. But if you look
at the Big Twelve right now, the teams with the

(28:22):
two teams with the worst non conference records are the
first two teams you see has played. So that's kind
of why I framed it that way, because then things
get a lot more difficult starting with that third game
against Bailey.

Speaker 4 (28:33):
Yeah, now that you say that I think. I think
you would like to absolutely be two or no. I
think the problem is again like if you lose at
home to Arizona your first home game, all of a sudden,
the math to get to where you want to be
starts getting a little tough. You know that Kansas State team,

(28:53):
things have just not clicked for them, But they still
spent a boatload of money and have a talented roster.
They just haven't played well so far. You just don't
want to be the team that all of a sudden
that's where they figured out, but they should beat them.
Arizona is still a very talented team. I just for
whatever reason, it hasn't clicked for them in some of

(29:15):
those higher level games. But I think fifth third Arena
is going to be uh rather rockous for that event.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
Yes, I would agree. What was your main What was
your main takeaway from how UC played against Dayton.

Speaker 4 (29:31):
I was really impressed. I mean, that is an excellent
Dayton offense. They did over the final eight to ten
minutes like start to find the rhythm, but for thirty
minutes Cincinnati suffocated them. And you know that now, I
think now we're starting to that team is rounding into

(29:53):
the form as the team we expected to start the season,
but then you you took out Dan Skillings for the
equation and they're not as good at Dan Skillings isn't
on the floor, and I think what they were able
to do over the large majority of that game is
very encouraging going forward because those are you know, things

(30:17):
you can control, you can defend, you can rebound, you
can hustle, you can you know, you can do the
things that they did against a really good Dayton offense
night in and night out. So I think that was
a good sign. I think the offense still needs a
little bit of work working Dan back in and finding

(30:38):
the flow. They haven't looked totally in sync since he
came back, but you hope that's, you know, just a
continuation of their upside as they get into conference play.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
Is the work that needs to be done offensively simply
shooting or is there something else?

Speaker 4 (30:57):
I think that's a lot of it. I mean, you know,
I think there is an adjustment that has to be
made to when you start going up a class in
the defenses that you're playing against, because you play the
buy games, and I know people get frustrated with with
that portion of the schedule, and the reason is you

(31:19):
can get to where you want to get to with
the ball, or get the ball where you want it
pretty easily. In by games you start playing high major opponents,
they started having, you know, better laying more athleticism, a
better defensive system and game plan. All of a sudden,
it's a lot harder, you know, to get your desired

(31:40):
look offensively. I think there's an adjustment that needs to
be made there. The one thing I do like Mo
that does give me some hope. They drew fouls at
a much higher clip against both Dayton Man behavior and
they just weren't drawing fouls at all through the first
ten games of the non you know, eight games of

(32:02):
the non conference. So to see that starting to come around,
that gives you a little bit of hope that you
can grind out some poor shooting nights. But you need
to get Simos Lacosta's back on track, and you know,
I think the shooting will come around because I think
they've got enough guys that can shoot it pretty well.

(32:23):
But yeah, that part hasn't been where it needs to
be since Dan came back.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
There's there's a part of me that looks at the
non league schedule and goes, well, they played three true
road games, they played two Big E schools, they played
a very good team on a neutral floor, like that's
that's not bad. They played they they scheduled with intent,
and look, some of that stuff was built in the
NKU game, the Big East Big twelve game, I guess,

(32:49):
is effectively scheduled for you and and and yet you know,
from a metrics standpoint, it's not great. It's not their
fault that Georgia Tech isn't great. Maybe not their faulted
Xavier this season isn't great. How fair are the criticisms
of this year's You see non league schedule, but.

Speaker 4 (33:11):
They're fair enough. But look, there's gonna be six or
seven by games. If you want to make the argument
that they should play a little bit higher level of
a bye game, I'm not going to snap back. The
only thing I would say is those games cost a
lot more money than the teams that they played, and
until that full revenue check from the Big Twelve kicks in, yeah,

(33:35):
you're gonna have to make some tougher decisions like that.
I maybe would have liked one more home and home
series or a better situation for the mt where they
went and played you know, two games. You get two
higher level opponents in a weekend, and I think that
would have, you know, jumped the numbers up substantially. It'll

(33:56):
be interesting to see next year. The NKU game is
off the books, are not going to have the uh
the Georgia Tech game on the books, So what does
the MTE look like? And then the Big East Big
twelve Challenge end, so you're not going to have that
as well. I've also heard my others there's some rumblings

(34:18):
behind the scenes that they're going to go back to
eighteen conference games from twenty and if that happens, you've
got thirteen non conference games and then you would need
to beep it up a little bit more. I don't
worry about this year at all because of those twenty
Big twelve games, Like you've got enough tough games coming.

(34:38):
The strength of schedule is going to work itself out quick.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
Good stuff has always enjoyed the show, Tomorrow Man, thanks
so much.

Speaker 4 (34:46):
All right, thanksbu, I appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
It's our guys. Chad Brendel Bearcat journal dot com. You
see is off until Monday night to open up Big
twelve play with the game against Kansas State in Manhattan.
We are here at Buffalo Wild Wings Harper Station for
two more hours. We've got some awesome Bengals swag thanks
to our friends at bud Light, and we've got tickets
to the game on Saturday we're giving away as well.
It's coming up on four o'clock on Malllegger. This is

(35:11):
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station. Hey, if you review first.

Speaker 5 (35:19):
Up, the end of an era in college basketball. Miami
coach Jim Laernega has stepped down as head coach of
the Hurricanes and we replaced for the rest of the
season by associate coach Bill Courtney. To the NFL or
Jalen Hurts to not practice today.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
For the Eagles. He remains in concussion protocol.

Speaker 5 (35:34):
Bengals starting left tackle Orlando Brown Junior will play on
Saturday against Denver after missing time and a leg injury.
Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson did not practice today as he
continues to deal with foot and back problems. Team source
told Esbon the Colts are copenter. Richardson will play against
the Giants on Sunday. The Chargers have ruled out running
back Gus Edwards for Saturday's game against New England. The

(35:55):
NBA team president pat Riley of the Heat says Miami
will not trade Jimmy Butler as comes out after report
from ESPN, Sham Sharani is saying Butler will requerre trade
for the February sixth deadline. Lazier's coach, Chauncey billet Fill
missed his team's next two games, probably the death of
his grandmother.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
NHL.

Speaker 5 (36:11):
The Red Wings have fired coach Derek lallan and replaced
him with Todd Mccollin College Bowl action on ESPN at
the half the game above, Sports Bowl Toledo leading pick
twenty to twelve. Coming up on ESPN radio coverage at
five eastern the Rate Bowl between Rutgers and Kansas States.

Speaker 3 (36:25):
Hey, what's up? And Terry Goldhammer coming up on Friday.

Speaker 6 (36:27):
We're gonna get you ready for a loaded week seventeen
slate in the NFL. It's unsportsman like six am Eastern right.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
Here on ESPN Radio, ESPN two and ESPN.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
US coverage starts Saturday at noon on the ESPN fifteen thirty,
the official home of the Bengals.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
All right, that's us six after four ESPN fifteen thirties
of that year, and I'm ole, hope you had a
great Christmas and holiday season is treating you well? We are,
We're going to be treated well here at Buffalo Wild
Harper Station, very close to I two seventy five. If
you're working today, well it's it's nice to have company

(37:10):
here at Buffalo Wadle because I'm working today. Mike Mills,
my producer on site here, is working today. Austin, Austin
Elmore working like he Sincy three sixties solo today and
then he is producing this show today. It's great to
have Austin filling in for Tern and then he is
going to be on the Round Table show tonight with
Lance McCallister. That's a hard working young man. So if

(37:33):
you're like Austin and working today, if you're in the
Montgomery area when you get off work, come on out
and hang out with this or if you're off work today,
well there's no excuse for you to not be here,
and we'll sweeten the deal by giving you a chance
to win Bengals Broncos tickets thanks to our friends at
bud Light by the way, Buffalo Wild Wings, The Wings
speak for themselves. But we've come to one of these locations.

(37:57):
This is our second time here at Harper's Point. We've
come to one of these every week since before the
first Bengals game. So this is week seventeen. This is
our seventeenth straight week. Well, we've done a show at
Harper's at Buffalo Wildi's Harper Station today and every week
I talk about how good the burgers are. And finally

(38:19):
my guy, Mike Mills took me up on it and said,
I'm getting a burger and he has just polished it
off and I think he is now going to go
take a nap. The burger is that good. Also have
the six for nineteen ninety nine deal, which is awesome.
You get two entrees, you get two sides, and you
get two Fountain drinks for nineteen ninety nine. Pretty good
right there. So in five dollar bud Light talls as well.

(38:42):
I can't wait to have one of those. So here
till six o'clock and again we're giving away Bengals Broncos tickets.
Speaking of Austin and his hard work, he and Tony
and myself and Lance McAllister did a show on Christmas
Eve morning that air yesterday the annual Sports Talk Year

(39:02):
in Review show, where we look back at the year
that was in Cincinnati sports and look ahead to twenty
twenty five. It's it's always fun to be on with
those three guys together. I've been asked, is it up there?
Is it up on the website? Lance has it on
his website that if you get a seven hundred WLW
dot com, also get it on the iHeartRadio app and

(39:25):
you can listen to it. And I thought it was
a lot of fun, very good. We spent obviously a
lot of time on the Bengals, but also the Reds
and FC Cincinnati and the local colleges. The Reds are
right now in a weird spot right the offseason is old,
it's now past Christmas. They've gotten their manager, They've made

(39:47):
some moves. It doesn't feel like they're significantly better just
from a roster standpoint than they were when the season ended.
And you'll be told often like, well, there's lots of
there's lots of guys still out there. Unsigned if you're
a Reds fan, your life has been all about being
asked to be patient. You're out of patience. Anything that

(40:08):
involves telling you to wait even longer isn't going to
be met with much enthusiasm, and so maybe the next
couple of months. I think what I saw today on
social media, somebody posted forty six days till the start
of spring training, so essentially six and a half weeks
before pitchers and catchers report. There's time, but I don't know. Man.

(40:30):
When they hired Terry Francona, we were all thinking, like,
all right, this means they're going to do something big
and bold this offseason. They haven't. We'll see if they do.
On mondays Tonya Mo Football Show, we had a good
conversation about the Joe Burrow MVP discussion. I saw Dan Orlowski,
the highly respected ESPN NFL analyst, says, if Joe Joe's

(40:52):
the MVP, or Joe has an MVP case if the
Bengals make the postseason. I agree with that he's got
a case. He's got a case even if the Bengals
don't make the postseason because he has been that good statistically. Now,
you and I both know a couple of things. Number One,
quarterback always wins the award, has since twenty twelve. Number Two,
the quarterbacks who win that award are typically from teams

(41:13):
that had excellent regular season records coasted into the postseason,
often number one overall seeds. That's been the overwhelming majority
of MVP since twenty twelve. They've all been quarterbacks, and
pretty much not even overwhelming majority. They've all been from
teams that had very good seasons. There's not a quarterback
who had an eight to eight back when we had
sixteen games. So you and I both know that there

(41:37):
are gonna be people that if Joe and the Bengals
don't make the postseason, he's automatically gonna be disqualified because
he's not a playoff quarterback. That's how it works. You
and I also know there are gonna be a lot
of people who vote for Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen
simply because their teams are better. And I'll be the
first to admit that's if I'm looking at this objectively,

(41:57):
that's where I would go. Has had an unbelievable season,
Lamar Jackson has beaten him twice head to head. He's
on a better team right now that has the inside
track on the AFC North title, and Josh Allen's had
to overcome a bad defense team, trading his way as
top receiver. He has proven his value over the course
of the season. I would have no issue with voting

(42:19):
for Josh Allen, and I certainly wouldn't take any issue
with somebody who looked at Joe Burrow's statistics and then
applied the context of he's on a team with a
terrible defense, He's now playing behind a great offensive line,
and so I'm giving him my vote. He is proving
his value with how he has played, and how he
has played has kept an otherwise bad team afloat. But

(42:42):
I would probably vote for Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen.
I'm the first to admit that the larger point to
this is Joe Burrow is having an MVP Calimber season,
and you can make the case that he should win
the award if they finish in the You can make
that case, and that case is made just based on

(43:05):
the numbers. He's got thirty nine touchdown passes Leeds League
in a bunch of different categories, is gonna finish possibly
with forty four forty five TV passes, and yet his
team at best is gonna finish nine and eight. The
more you make the case for Joe Burrow to be MVP.

(43:25):
The more that others make the case for Joe Burrow
to be MVP, the more it highlights the glaring shortcomings
of this team. Like That's that, to me is the
most important part of this conversation. You can make a
Joe Burrow MVP case and yet the team is still
under five hundred. You can make the Joe Burrow MVP

(43:49):
case if they finished with nine wins, and yet they
still have had to have won their final five games
and get a bunch of help just to make the postseason.
That's the bigger issue. He's not gonna win the award,
and if he did, it'd be an interesting story. We
haven't had a player from a non playoff team win
the MVP since nineteen seventy three, and that's back when
we had only a handful of playoff teams. If you're wondering,

(44:11):
it was OJ Simpson in nineteen seventy three. Johnny Unitus
also did it in nineteen sixty seven. We didn't have
wildcard teams. His team lost one game all season long,
but they had a couple of ties and so they
were on the outside looking in. We typically don't even
vet the candidacy of quarterbacks from teams that finish close
to five hundred, or below five hundred, or barely above
five hundred. The fact that we can do that with

(44:32):
Joe is a statement about his greatness. It's also an
indictment against his team, because if the Bengals are twelve
and five, he's probably running away with the award. The
Bengals are leading their division, he's open and shut the
National Football League MVP. If they have the number two seed,
as Josh Allen's team does right now, the case is

(44:53):
made for Joe Burrow. The fact that you have to
bend over backwards to make a case for him is
as damning an indictment against the Cincinnati Bengals as you
can make. That's a problem, talk about it all the time.
Wasting greatness? Are the Reds gonna waste having Eli de
la Cruz? Are the Bengals gonna waste how many excellent,
superlative MVP caliber seasons of their quarterback so far? At

(45:15):
least especially if they don't finish this off and make
the postseason, The answer is at least one. Jay Morrison's
next It's quarter after four ESPN fifteen to thirty, Cincinnati
Sports Station.

Speaker 7 (45:28):
Cincinnati's ESPN thing.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
This is Football in Thenetti on the official home of
the Bengals, Cincinnatis, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
Twenty minutes after four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty
on Moeggar broadcasting from Buffalo Wild Wings. On Thursdays, we
spend a few minutes with our friend Jaymorrison from Bengals
Talk dot Com on x at by Jay Morrison. Bengals
are playing their final home game. Jay loves this because
it gets him a chance to write about how awesome
the Bengals are in home finales. Hopefully they are again

(46:00):
on Saturday.

Speaker 8 (46:01):
Hi Jay, Hey Mo. It is fun to write about it.
If it's remarkable, that's the reason it's so fun to
write about.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
Yes, it doesn't matter if the team is good, they're
good in the final home game. If they're bad, they're
somehow good in the final home game. And in some
of those dark years of the nineteen nineties, my only
pleasant memories are of home finales.

Speaker 8 (46:22):
Yeah, I mean seventeen and two in their last nineteen
home finales when they went into the game with a
losing record, which they have a losing record going in
into this one, so it is. It's remarkable. You think
about those back to back Christmas Eve games in ninety
four and ninety five. They weren't playing bad teams all
the time. Sometimes they were playing teams with a lot
on the line, and they just find a way to
win that final home game in Snemo Lappey.

Speaker 1 (46:42):
They sure do. I remember James Joseph for the Eagles
fumbling setting up the game winning kick in nineteen ninety five.
That was that was a blast, all right from Orlando.
Brown's gonna come back. It feels like they're dare I say,
reasonably healthy going into Saturday.

Speaker 8 (47:01):
Yeah, I guess for this time of year. I mean,
you look at Denver's They've got a clean sheet. That's unreal.
The Bengals have five guys. Listen is questionable, one is doubtful,
Tanner Hudson, So it's you know, T Higgins is questionable.
I don't I think that's more they had. Listen is questionable.
He's been nursing the knee injury for a while and

(47:22):
he's been having some rest. Now you add the ankle
in there. I just think with knee flash ankle on
the injury report, you have to put a designation on there,
but this is too big of a game. I expect
him to play. Marius Mims is going to play. I
Joseph Asai has an illness. You know, Stone has an illness.
We know how sometimes those things are unpredictable. Effecting to

(47:44):
be pretty confident that those guys are going to be
able to go. So yeah, I would think for week seventeen,
you you'll take this kind of an injury report.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
Yeah, I would. I would agree with that they have
played three less than average defenses. They have played three
less than good quarterbacks over the last couple of weeks,
and so it's easy to attribute what they've done defensively
to the caliber of opponent and the caliber of quarterback.
I kind of look at it, though, and I see
a lot of young guys making contributions on defense. Are

(48:14):
we starting to see some building blocks form for what
this defense is going to be beyond twenty twenty four?

Speaker 8 (48:23):
Yeah, I think absolutely. I mean you look last week
they had three sacks from rookies, with Chris Jenkins getting
too and ni Kenny Jackson getting on. Josh Newton is
playing better, Jordan Battle is really coming along and starting
to play better on the back end, the safe position
has been such an issue the last two years, so
that's a really encouraging sign. Joseph said, we don't know.

(48:45):
You know, he's gonna be free agent. We don't know
if he's going to be back. He's been playing well
that there's still a lot of questions about Miles Murphy,
but you're seeing it it start to kind of come together.
But you're right, a degree of difficulty has not been
that great when you're playing Cooper Rush and will have
it some dt R and this is gonna be a
bigger test, but it's still a rookie quarterback and and

(49:07):
and the Broncos have not been electric offensively. They're functional
and they do things. They do things well running the ball,
but I don't think it's a it's an offense that
scares you.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
Who's playing their final home game on Saturday.

Speaker 4 (49:23):
Wow.

Speaker 8 (49:25):
I mean maybe Joseph Osai that I don't know if
they bring him back. There's probably a lot of guys
that I wish I had the roster he in front
of him, trying to piece him together. In my mind,
the guys that are gonna be gone, and maybe Mike Gasicki,
he's only on a one year deal. He may not
be back.

Speaker 4 (49:43):
Maybe Alex Kappa.

Speaker 8 (49:45):
There's there's some cap casualties possibilities out there too. I mean,
Sheldon Rnclins, I would think is gone. He's not gonna play.
He's already been ruled out. But there's some guys that
I don't think we're going to see again next year.
What about Mike Hilton, Yeah, that's a good one. I
know he wanted he really wanted to get another year
this year, and the Bengals were reluctant to do that.

(50:07):
He's he's kind of defined by the time he's playing
really well. He's kind of accepted this new role of
not playing on third down. I could see him coming back,
and you know, I think anybody that's here would want
to come back and have a shot at a ring.
Knowing how this offense is playing now, figureing making fix
the defense next year, you're going to have a real shot.
And I don't know what his market's going to be

(50:28):
outside of Cincinnati, so I could see him going back
on kind of a friendly contract, a little bit less
than what he's making right now.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
Yeah, I think I think among the guys who could
be playing their last home game, he is beyond t
Higgins of course, maybe the most interesting. Well enjoyed the
home finale. Thank you as always, Jay, all right, thanks Moe,
you got it. Twenty five minutes after four o'clock, J
Morrison covering the Bengals for Bengals Talk dot Com and

(50:55):
on x at by Jay Morrison, also part of the
Growler Podcast with our friend Paul Dayner Junior. We are
broadcasting this afternoon from Buffalo Wild Wings Harper Station in
the Montgomery area. Right off, pretty close at least to
I to seventy five. We had a gentleman during the
break say where can I sign up for tickets? We've
got a registration box. We're giving away tickets to the game,

(51:18):
and I have an All American burger being delivered to
me as we speak. There's a lot of injuries to
talk about. Orlando Brown is coming back. I'm interested in
Sam Hubbard. A lot of us have wondered if, if,
if Sam has played his final down as a Bengal,
if the Bengals make the postseason, could he somehow come
back and play. We'll spend some time on him. Also

(51:40):
tanked Dell of the Houston Texans with the double injury.
The dislocated kneecap and an mcl ter. We'll spend some
time on that as well, and Zach Fremantle's injury and
the uncertainty hovering over his status for the remainder of
Xavier season. As the Musketeers get said to continue Biggie's play,
still looking for their first league win, We'll chat with

(52:01):
one of the experts from Orthos since the Orthopedic Sports
Medicine when we come back later on this hour Fantasy
Football with our guy, Dan Glaskins. We're a Buffalo wild
Wings Harper Station on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
You've been listening to football in Thenetti on the official
home of the Bengals, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
To get to business, who spikes the ball in the
back of the abside?

Speaker 2 (52:25):
Bo and his big bad Bengals put it pull on
the line when they faced bone Nicks and his Broncos.

Speaker 3 (52:30):
Right Tavahawk chops up to the ground.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
Can the Orange and Black break these.

Speaker 3 (52:35):
Bronx execute it?

Speaker 2 (52:37):
Too perfection id when you get the goal from dangerous
Dan Horde at Mikey Dave Leffer Coverage starts Saturday at
nod on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home of the Bengals.

Speaker 1 (52:50):
To Buffalo Wild Wings Harper Station until six o'clock. Our
friends at bud Life have given us Bengals Broncos tickets
to give away. So if you just heard that promo
and that deep voice guy and you're like, man, that's awesome.
I'd love to go to that game, we look, we're
giving away a pair of tickets here a little bit
before six o'cox, so you have it's him in an
hour and twenty minutes to get here to a b dubs.

(53:12):
Get a nice cool bud light while you're at it.
And I just destroyed an All American Burger so you
can get one of those as well. You will thank me.
We do this typically on Wednesdays, but we didn't have
a show on Christmas, so we're doing it today. We
talk injuries with one of the experts from Ortho Sincey
Orthopedics and Sports Medicine orthos Since he has specialist locations
and services across the tri State and this includes walk

(53:36):
in orthopedic urgent care at five locations and they've got
extended evening and weekend hours in Edgewood and Anderson. You
can learn more at orthosinc dot com. That's orthos ci
NCY dot com. Doctor Trevor wilkesrom Orthosinci is with us.
Let's start by talking about Sam Hubbard, who suffered a

(53:56):
PCL injury. They're calling it a tear in that game
against the Titans a couple of weeks ago where he
scored a touchdown and then never stepped back onto the field.
The good news is the diagnosis here does not involve surgery.
That is great, likely out for the season. So let
me begin with this. What for Sam does the non
operative course of action look like?

Speaker 9 (54:18):
Yeah, yeah, a tough in you're a fan favorite there,
but typically mo one quick point. PCL's a different ligament
than your ACL, and interestingly often can heal and do
well without surgery, so a pretty big contrast to acls.
But nonoperative treatment typically looks like some form of bracing,
So you want to protect the ligament, let the blood

(54:39):
flow come in, let healing start. There may be a
short period of crutches after bracing progresses, then they'll get
him into range of movement, some rehab, you know, six weeks. Obviously,
these injuries occur on a spectrum, and you don't know
exactly where Sam is, but six weeks is kind of
a roundabout number that we often put on these things. So, yeah,

(55:02):
initial bracing, let it start to heal, functional rehab. Six
weeks is a round number.

Speaker 1 (55:08):
So if they could pull this off and get to
the postseason, and a million things have to happen for
that to be the case, are we talking about the
possibility that he could at least come back for a
late postseason run. I mean it is a possibility.

Speaker 9 (55:22):
I mean, if he's had a low grade injury, if
his rehab is going well, there's the potential to brace
it and potentially play. I know, I know it's complex
with his contractual situation and everything, but it is a possibility.

Speaker 4 (55:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:38):
I want to ask you about a Marius Mims who
suffered an injury to his left ankle in the game
last week, came back after suffering it, then left the game.
We saw that he wanted to go back. In heated
exchange with his offensive line coach Frank Pollock, he says
he's good to go for this Saturday's game. When a
player is likely to be able to play through pain
with time to prepare, how do you balance treatment with

(55:59):
his preparation to play.

Speaker 9 (56:01):
Yeah, it's a great question, though I thought there was
a really good one for you to bring up this week.
But you know, as a as a doct that covers
a lot of sideline football and events, there's a tough
balance between. Some of these athletes are such competitors, have
great pain tolerances and can play through a lot, and
when you have to assess whether you think they're going

(56:22):
to hurt themselves further, you think they're going to put
themselves in further jeopardy. And it's an interesting topic because
I know the thought out there is that doctors, you know,
they're hired by the NFL teams and maybe they have
the franchise's best interest at heart. But you know, really
with the oath that we take, we're supposed to put
the athletes best interest at heart. So directly to your question,

(56:43):
you know, if you feel like functionally he's safe, that
you can tape embrace him and he can play without
risk of putting his career at injury, then then typically
we'll let him play.

Speaker 1 (56:53):
I want to stay local. I do have a couple
of other NFL players want to ask you about, but
let's talk about Zeg Freemantle, the Savior Musketeer, who has had,
unfortunately for him, just an extraordinarily long list of injuries
that have put him on the sidelines during his Xavior career.
So he's playing in the Skyline Chili Crosstown shootout. He
was awesome in the first half, and then he lands

(57:14):
awkwardly trying to break up a lot in the second
half finish the game. We all saw his his three
point try at the end of the game that didn't
go finishes the game. And then two days later we
find out that he is dealing with a knee injury
and he is dealing with significant swelling. Now they're still
trying to arrive I guess at a conclusion as to
what the specific injury and course of treatment are going

(57:35):
to be here, Why is there still so much injury
or why could there be so much uncertainty after an
injury like this.

Speaker 9 (57:42):
Yeah, that's a that's a tough one, and so I
hate to be a little evasive on this one, but yeah,
it's tough because he's been having a great season, and
you know, typically typically if you're if you're struggling with
a lot of swelling right in your knee, then there's
some kind of a cause of that, something inside of
the knees driving that that swelling and inflammatory process. And

(58:07):
so you know, for a big time program and a
and a really great athlete like him, typically he would
have an MRI fairly quickly. You know that there's the
possibility there being somewhat maybe koy and not releasing a
lot of information about it, but it is You're right,
it is unusual if that inflammation persists for you know,

(58:28):
if it doesn't go down in the first you know,
five to seven days, we typically be looking at an
MRI to find out what the cause was.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
So and you know it's it's college basketball, so programs
are not under the same requirements that say, in an
NFL team is to disclose injuries or reveal a player's status.
I guess the thing that stood out to a lot
of us is he finished the game and then two
days later we find out he's going to miss a
significant amount of time. Is this is I know, probably
a stupid question. Is that sort of thing typical?

Speaker 9 (58:58):
I mean, I wouldn't they typical? No, So it's not
a stupid question. But just because an athlete can finish
the game. Sometimes the inflammatory process may kick in in
that first seventy two hours after the game, and then
all of a sudden, the poor kids got a large
effusion or a knee full of fluid, And now you're

(59:19):
reassessing why that's occurred and what's best for his long
term care and the rest of the season. And it's
a separate issue than just could he finish that game out.
So it's not common, but definitely happens.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
Doctor Trevor wilkeson Orthos Cincia is with us right back
to the NFL. The Detroit Lions have obviously been one
of the best teams in the NFL all season long.
David Montgomery from Mount Healthy High School is one of
the reasons why. Terrific running back who was injured in
their Week fifteen loss to the Buffalo Bills dealing with
an MCL injury. This was originally believed to be a

(59:52):
season ending injury requiring surgery. He has had a second
and third opinion and the result of that has been
that surgery now is not being deemed necessary, which is good,
and he could perhaps be back by the postseason. Let's
talk about the MCL specifically, what is it and how
does it work in relation to the ACL and the meniscus.

Speaker 9 (01:00:11):
Yeah, yeah, good question. So the MCL so acronym medial
collateral ligament, So big, strong ligament on the inside of
your knee, so we say medial. It helps prevent your
foot from going outwards. So common injury in football if
you're hit on the outside of your knee. And the
big difference between the MCL and the ACL is that

(01:00:33):
the MCL is outside of your knee instead of inside
your knee. As such, it has a really rich blood supply,
which is how stem cells and healing agents can get
in there. And MCLs typically have a pretty good track
record for healing well without surgery. We will brace them,
crutch them, put them on a rehab protocol. Most you know,

(01:00:53):
athletic trainers and therapists are very good treat a lot
of MCL injuries. Now, there are really high grade grade
three MS tears that sometimes will do better with surgery
and really elite athletes, but the majority can do well
without surgery.

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
All right, One more to ask you about Tank Dell,
the wide receiver of the Texans, is dealing with a
double injury, a dislocated kneecap which sounds very painful, and
a torn ACL. So two injuries and one to basically
the same body part. How does a double injury like
this complicate his return?

Speaker 9 (01:01:26):
Yeah, I mean poor guy again, just injury riddled and
been a tough year for this guy and tough injury
to watch. But so number one, it's it's not that common,
although it does occur. MO so the same mechanism can
create both injuries. So most ACL tears occur with with
what we call a pivot shift or a twist in
the knee. Most of the time, the femur or the

(01:01:49):
thigh bone will rotate inwards. The foot or the shinbone
will stay fixed or rotate outwards, and it's that twisting
motion that tears your ACL. And it's that same rotation
that can make your kneecapped, your patella pop to the
outside or dislocate.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
So I have seen it.

Speaker 9 (01:02:08):
It's not common, but they do go together sometimes because
the mechanism can be the same. But your tough rehab
because now you're rehabbing, you know, both things typically are
gonna need surgery. In an athlete like him, Now you're
rehabbing two two procedures all at once. So it's a
tough rehabit head for him.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
Does does he have both surgeries at the same time?
Does I mean, can can one operating procedure take care
of both?

Speaker 9 (01:02:34):
Yes, sir, Yeah, it's it's reasonably straightforward to fix both
in one sitting, and I'm almost certain plan on doing that.
But it does make his rehab tough. Fore he's gonna
be a little more prone to stiffness quad muscle loss.
I don't think it's going to increase his time frame,
so I think he's you know, he's still going to
be on a standard kind of ACL rehab time frame,

(01:02:55):
but it's definitely gonna be more intense for the poor I.

Speaker 1 (01:02:57):
Yeah, no, he You're right. He's had a long list
of injuries that he's had to deal with just this season.
Doctor Trevor Wilkes, Ortho Sinsey. I appreciate it, man, Thank
you so much. Thanks for having me appreciate good stuff,
Doctor Trevor Wilks from Orthos. Since I say this every
single week, because it's true. The great thing about Ortho
Sincy is they have specialists of locations all over the
Tri State. This includes walk in orthopedic urgent care weekdays

(01:03:20):
nine eight to nine p and Saturday's nine eight to
one p at both Edgewood and Anderson. It's easy because
you don't need an appointment, and it's definitely cheaper than
going to an er when you have an urgent orthopedic injury.
Go to Orthosincy dot com. That's Ortho c I n
Cy dot com. We're a Buffalo wild Wings Harper Station.
Dan Klaskins next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 3 (01:03:41):
Threw about this.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
Dan Klaskins has helped us all season long as it
relates to fantasy football, and it's it's championship weekend for
fantasy owners who are lucky enough to still be playing.
Dan's website get sportsinfo dot com. Dan, it's been awesome
having you every single Thursday. Already can't wait for next year.
It's good to have you for one more go around

(01:04:08):
this season. What's going on?

Speaker 10 (01:04:11):
Oh, just trying to win some fantasy championships. Mo, it
is the season for that, and I've only got one.
I'm playing for it, but hopefully some others out there
with lives ahead as well.

Speaker 1 (01:04:23):
Nope, not me. I've paid my league fees. I'm done
till August. It's it's quite sad. But at the end
of every sports season we hand out hardware. You've got
some Fantasy awards you want.

Speaker 4 (01:04:35):
To hand out, Yes, we always wrap up with them
a little bit of that.

Speaker 10 (01:04:39):
And let's start with Fantasy's MVP this year. I mean
no doubt for me, it's been say Kwam Barkley, nearly
three PPR points per game ahead of the next guy
on the list enter in this week's action, double digit
PPR points in twelve this fifteen contests. Seven of those
games he went over twenty five points, and man, he's
a big reason the Eagles are a big contender over
there at the NFC and the nfcas is exactly where

(01:05:02):
we'll find our Rookie of the Year as well. Jade
and Daniels lighting it up. QB six on the season,
eight of his fifteen starts with twenty five plus Fantasy points.
Of course, he had forty one Fantasy points last week
to help many of his owners into that championship round.
And the best value picked Chase Brown drafted is RB
twenty nine and the High Stakes NFC. He's RB twelve

(01:05:23):
on the season RB five. Since Zach Moss went down
at our biggest bus, we was on display yesterday, though
c J. Sprout, excuse me, c J. Stroud such a
sophomore of Jinks here, but top five quarterback, top sixty
pick drafted in that NFC, and even after today's fantasy
points rather than he's still not a top twelve quarterback
this year.

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
As a CJ. Stroud owner, I could attest the letdown
was severe year two, especially for fantasy owners. Give me
an update on some injuries we should be paying attention to.

Speaker 10 (01:05:54):
Oh, big injury news, Big injury news. Let's start with
tonight's game Seattle in Chicago. The Seahawks have placed running
back Kenneth Walker on injured reserve. His fantasy season's over
unless they make a playoff run. We won't see him
again this year, so fire up Zach Charbonet. Love him
tonight versus the Bears. F he's available to you elsewhere.

Speaker 4 (01:06:15):
JK.

Speaker 10 (01:06:15):
Dobbins this Saturday's game could return for the Chargers. This
is the good news because they've ruled out because Edwards.
If Dobbins can't make it back to Monnie, the Dog
becomes an interesting sleeper. All eyes will be on Eagles
quarterback Jalen Hurts. He yes to practice this week after
leading last week's game any concussion. He's still in proto
call if he's unable to goll be Kenny Pickett for
the Eagles in week seventeen. James Conner, there's some optimism

(01:06:38):
we'll see they play Saturday. The Cardinals running back dealing
with the knee issue. They're at the rams and down
their top all two offensive tackles. Alvin Kamary didn't play
last week, with it growing up to why you play
this week? We'll wait and see is the corendo was
limited for the forty nine ers at the Hampstein Tyron
Tracy didn't practice today for the Giants with an ankle.
The big news of the day right before I came

(01:06:59):
on here, but then the hour here most CD Lamb
has been shut down for the season, so fantasy managers
hoping to have him this week will need a backup plan.
He will not play again in twenty twenty four with
his shoulder injury. Malik Neighbors hasn't practice with a foot
injury this week with the Giants. Will see if he
can go. Drake London still dealing with the hamstring jail
and model leg Titan Kate Otten with a knee injury

(01:07:22):
in danger of missing his second straight week for the Bucks.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
Dan Klaskins get Sportsinfo dot Com on x at Dan Klaskins,
I need one more time your weekly Studs, Douds and sleepers.

Speaker 4 (01:07:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:07:34):
Well, let's go to the kitchen with good old the
baker Baker Mayfield. He has been on fire most of
the season. It's one of my favorite spots of this
week for fantasy Tampa Bay versus Carolina. I think it's
going to be good on both ends of it. I'm
looking for Mayfield through multiple touchdowns and push three hundred yards.
Tyler Terry McLaurin my stud receiver of the week. I

(01:07:56):
got him at number eight on my board. Washington is
at Atlanta at the Sunday night game. Daniel's coming off
a big game. The Eagles are tuming the Commanders with
a chance to beat the Eagles now and run away
with that division that they can win out and the
Eagles lose one. More so overmondre Stevenson, he is my dud.
He was already on my dud list just because of
his performance a tough matchup, but now the Patriots coach

(01:08:20):
basically talking about potentially benching him for the game because
of the fun league issues that didn't help matters. Jerry Judy,
I'm not starting any Cleveland Brown, let's be clear, but
he was actually viable up until a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
With dcr under.

Speaker 10 (01:08:33):
Center, I can't trust it and my sleepers other week, right,
Young I mentioned I love that Panthers Bucks game. I
think he could be a back end top twelve quarterback
this week. I think he'll get a few touchdowns, at
least a couple of touchdowns on the board.

Speaker 4 (01:08:46):
And ty J.

Speaker 10 (01:08:47):
Spears, he's been eating up for Tennessee. Tony Pollard's a
little dinged up. It's a terrible matchup of two three
win teams battling the halt here, but I think Spears
could get some garbage time and end up being a
top twenty.

Speaker 4 (01:09:00):
Running back this week.

Speaker 1 (01:09:01):
All right, what's happening at get sportsinfo dot com, Tame Old.

Speaker 10 (01:09:06):
Table, As you mentioned all the great content there, fantasy podcast,
everything you listen to, and if you need me, hit
me up on x Dan Klaskins.

Speaker 1 (01:09:13):
I'll help you set that line a good stuff. I
appreciate everything.

Speaker 11 (01:09:17):
This year.

Speaker 1 (01:09:18):
We'll chat again on air at least in August. Thank you.
So much.

Speaker 10 (01:09:22):
Yeah, hopefully happy New Year to all. Appreciate it as always,
joining you here and certainly wish you the very best.

Speaker 1 (01:09:30):
My friend likewise, enjoying good luck this weekend. Dan Klaskins
get sportsinfo dot com. We're here for another hour at
Buffalo Wild Wings Harper Station. If you're on your way,
you have time to win Bengals Broncos tickets. If you're
not on your way, get here. Just forget where are
you going? That's so important. Come on out hanging out

(01:09:51):
and have a nice cold bud light, win tickets. Our
buddy Sean Say at Stats and Scheme podcast is going
to join us, coming up at five oh five on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati.

Speaker 7 (01:09:59):
Sports Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:10:04):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center with U see help.
The future of care is happening now through clinical trials
and innovative treatments so that give patients a chance for
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Avenue East found Norwood Lateral. A disabled vehicle that off

(01:10:27):
onto the right shoulder after I seventy five in State
Route seventy three water main work between Smith Road and
Williams Road. I'm at zelik with.

Speaker 10 (01:10:36):
This report is sponsored by Progressive Insurance.

Speaker 1 (01:10:40):
This is fifteen thirty.

Speaker 7 (01:10:42):
WCQ line the fifty thousand Orange and Black home of
the Cincinnati Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 6 (01:10:55):
From the UC Health Traffic Center with U see help.
The future of care is happening now through clinical trials
and innovative treatments so that give patients a chance for
better outcomes. Visit uce health dot com. Earlier accident has
been cleared away on Clifton Avenue, that over near Ludlow
Avenue once found two seventy five after five mile road

(01:11:16):
getting reports of police activity and on Paddock Road use
caution south of Tennessee Avenue reports of downed wires on
that ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
Hey, it's moweger I just found out spikes the ball in.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
The back of the abject and his big bad Bengals
put it pull on the line when they face Ponix
and his.

Speaker 3 (01:11:34):
Broncos havahak chops up to the ground.

Speaker 2 (01:11:38):
Can the Orange and Black break these.

Speaker 3 (01:11:40):
Bronx executed too perfection.

Speaker 2 (01:11:42):
When you get the call from Dangers Dan Horde at
Mighty Dave Leffert coverage start Saturday at Node on ESPN
fifteen thirty Official all of the Bengals.

Speaker 1 (01:11:53):
All right, it's seven after fifteen. Thank you so much
for joining us. It's it's not Tuesday, but we're still
broadcasting from Buffalo. Wataway. He's worth the Harper Station location.
And we've got tickets to a Sunday's game that we
will be giving away. I said, Sunday and Saturday games.
On Saturday game is on Saturday four thirty. It's on

(01:12:17):
ESPN fifteen thirty, So Saturday's game and we're giving away tickets.
So I mean, if you can go to the stadium
on Sunday if you want, but they're not gonna let
you in, So go on Saturday if you win the tickets.
You can't win the tickets if you're not here. I
don't want to waste any more time of our guest,
our buddy, Sean Side. I did very few things right
in twenty twenty four, but one of the few good

(01:12:37):
decisions I did make was I got Sean on the
show and he was really good. We had him on
I think before the first game and then I don't
know if it was like his agent or his guest booker.
I'm like, hey, can we just talk to him every
week because he was good at Loobeahol And he said yes.
And so Sean has been a part of this show
every single week during the Bengals season, and I've learned

(01:12:59):
a lot from him. We've gotten great feedback from his appearances.
He is with sumersports dot com. He is the host
of these Stats and Scheme podcast and is with us
to talk Bengals Broncos. It's good to have you, Sean.
How are you well?

Speaker 12 (01:13:14):
It's so kind, you know, it really has been a
special part of Mayer as well. For so everyone's had
a happy holidays.

Speaker 13 (01:13:20):
And you know, we may wish that the Bengals season
have gone a little bit different, but I don't regret
it any bit because you've been able to talk every week.

Speaker 1 (01:13:26):
You've made it bearable. You've made it bearable, there's no
doubt about that. What's the key to beating the Denver Broncos.

Speaker 12 (01:13:34):
So the Broncos are just an interesting team overall because
their defense is so so good.

Speaker 13 (01:13:39):
They're really a top three unit in this league.

Speaker 12 (01:13:42):
When you think about their four man pass ruts, they
can really get after you. They can really make you
uncomfortable while still maximizing their whole entire coverage unit.

Speaker 13 (01:13:50):
You know, they're going to have the situations where they
rotate their safeties in different ways and cause problems. And
they do have two good cornerbacks, but not every team
has Higgins and chased those guys on the outside.

Speaker 12 (01:14:01):
So I think from a Bengals offense or a Bronco's
defense perspective, it's really one of the most fun matchups
that we're going to see across the league this week.

Speaker 1 (01:14:08):
I watched bow Nicks early in the season and thought,
I'm not sure this guy's ever played football before. And
then I've watched him in you know, I mean even
early in the game against the Chargers, but I watched
him against the Falcons. I've seen him here in the
second half of the season where he's looked the park.
He's looked like the kind of quarterback that defamed Denver fan.
I'm really excited about moving forward. When you watch him

(01:14:30):
a little bit more critically, what do you see?

Speaker 12 (01:14:33):
You know, I do think Nix has had some ups
and downs. I think he maybe started the season a
little bit slow. I think that Sean Payton has done
a good job finding ways to get him in rhythm
where he is. You know, it's it's not that he's
holding all to the ball too long. You take your
shots down the field, you're.

Speaker 13 (01:14:47):
Able to push and attack a defense that way.

Speaker 12 (01:14:50):
And then sometimes when defenses are able to either muddy
up the picture just a bit or force Knicks to
hold onto the ball longer.

Speaker 13 (01:14:56):
You know, he can get.

Speaker 12 (01:14:57):
Himself into some tough situations, but can move. He really
is a positive, scrambling quarterback. So you want to find
the balance between, you know, getting him to move around
in the pockets, him to pack the ball a few times,
and making sure that you're still not able to just
let him kind of run all over you.

Speaker 1 (01:15:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:15:12):
I know.

Speaker 1 (01:15:13):
There's a lot of folks who watched Denver a little
bit more closely last week because of that game's importance
to what the Bengals are trying to do. So when
they played the Chargers in the second half, boyd defensively,
they made a lot of mistakes, a lot of penalty issues,
looked really undisciplined. As a general rule how good is
Denver's defense?

Speaker 12 (01:15:33):
Now, I really enjoy watching Denver's defense on a week
to week basis.

Speaker 13 (01:15:37):
Again, I think that you could make the argument that
it is the best unit in the league. I think that,
you know, even within the top three, that's really probably
where they want.

Speaker 4 (01:15:45):
To be at.

Speaker 12 (01:15:46):
I think if they understand how to attack an offensive
weakness on the offensive line, whether it you know, sometimes
you have to send a linebacker out of guard and
kind of play your best in that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:56):
Sort of way.

Speaker 12 (01:15:57):
I do think that when the balls in the air,
they have positive coverage situation where I mean, one of
their safety is Brandon Jones has had to take a
phenomenal season all throughout this year, and whenever you're a
defensive unit that can just rush for and generate a
pass rush, that is just a really really big problem
for teams overall. So even you know, in that second
half of that Chargers game, I think that you definitely

(01:16:17):
don't get the best performance for the Broncos defense. I
think a lot of that also had to do with
some of their issues on offense as well. So I
think that that together that makes it a really really
fun Week seven team matchup.

Speaker 1 (01:16:28):
On that middle of the day on Saturday from a
defensive perspective, and you and I have talked about this
as the last couple of weeks have unfolded, that the
Bengals have played bad quarterbacks and bad offenses, and yet
I still feel like, especially with some of the younger
players they have on defense, there are some encouraging things.
I think specifically from guys like Chris Jenkins and McKinley
Jackson up front. Are you starting to see maybe not cornerstones,

(01:16:52):
but some building blocks emerged for the Bengals on that
side of the football.

Speaker 12 (01:16:57):
You know, I am, because in that last game against
the Browns, and as you mentioned, you know you're playing
not even just the backup.

Speaker 13 (01:17:02):
Quarterback, really a third string quarterback. At the same time,
like seeing Josh Newton just being a willing tackler on
the outside making that pass.

Speaker 12 (01:17:08):
Ruck break up late in the game. You have Von Bell,
you know you're able to force that huge funble you have.
Of course, we're all used to seeing Hilton off the edge,
and then even you know, Cam Taeller finding nice ways
to just be comfortable and coverage and passing off routes.
Then we get another Genostone interception. So it feels like
that everyone is it's kind of streamlining jobs or actually
think for the Ravens have had a lot of success

(01:17:29):
with this where sometimes you don't have to be super complicated.

Speaker 13 (01:17:32):
It's executing you know, the direct call as well as
you can. And it feels like the Bengals are doing that.
So in that Brown game, I was really really happy,
I think.

Speaker 12 (01:17:40):
Overall with what I saw in the secondary, which you know,
throughout the year I think the Bengals would tell you
themselves they haven't been always happy with their secondary play.

Speaker 13 (01:17:47):
So you're hoping that you can continue to push that forward.

Speaker 12 (01:17:50):
You're hoping that you can able to build on that
obviously to the last two games in the season you
hopefully sneak into the playoffs, but also just going forward,
you know into next season where you can look at
some of.

Speaker 13 (01:17:59):
Your pieces and say, you know what, like we do
see a little bit more comfortable with how our stafeties
and how our cornerbacks are playing going forward.

Speaker 1 (01:18:05):
Sean side is with US Stats and Scheme podcast and
writing for Summer Sports dot Com. Obviously, a lot has
to happen for the Bengals. They need to win on Sunday,
they need help. They would also still have to go
to Pittsburgh and win their final game of the season.
The Steelers offensively at least look broken. Did they peak
too early?

Speaker 13 (01:18:26):
You know, it's maybe not even a peak too early
or peak too lake type thing. I think when you
look at some of.

Speaker 12 (01:18:31):
The successes that they have had this year, at the
team just wasn't always sustainable. Because when you look at
the Bengals and you see how they're able to attack
people on the outside and come now with those vertical throws,
that is something that you can kind of expect happening
over and over because of the way that they move
case around, because of the way.

Speaker 13 (01:18:47):
That they manufacture one on ones with Key Higgins.

Speaker 12 (01:18:50):
But for the Steelers, you know, to have George Higgins
who makes just some absurd catches, like there's no reason
that he should be able to catch these balls. If
that doesn't always happen, you know, you fall flat at
a different time. And I do think that I'm actually
okay with how Russell Wilson has been playing. I think
he's been able to move around a little bit more,
He's been able to throw over in the middle of

(01:19:11):
the field a little bit more. Actually had a little
bit more surprised with the defense and the secondary. It
feels like they've been falling off a little bit, whether
it's simple communications or playing the.

Speaker 13 (01:19:20):
Ball in the air.

Speaker 12 (01:19:21):
And when you drop off and you're a team that's
so built from that defensive end, I'm just taking a
small step back.

Speaker 13 (01:19:26):
It really leads to a lot. So it certainly seems
like the Ravens are gonna win the AFC or I
think if it.

Speaker 12 (01:19:31):
Comes down to it, you know, a Bengals Steelers game,
I would feel, you know, relatively positive.

Speaker 13 (01:19:35):
I think being a Bengals fan.

Speaker 1 (01:19:36):
All right, I like that. Do you think that the
Colts will lose to either the Giants or the Jags?
Because we need them to lose one, So that is a.

Speaker 13 (01:19:45):
Tough one, mo.

Speaker 12 (01:19:46):
I do think that just thinking about what's going on there.
The Giants of Courts are having Drew Locke at quarterbacks.
The Giants seem like they're kind of lost into getting
that number one pick. I will say, though he seemed
like Anthony Richardson was on the injury report the last
two days.

Speaker 13 (01:20:00):
That's always a big thing.

Speaker 12 (01:20:01):
And even when Richardson has been playing, he's had some
times where you know, you have days where you have
under thirty percent completion percentages.

Speaker 13 (01:20:07):
So I don't I haven't closed the door pull yet knowing,
And it may just be because I want to talk
to you for one extra week or hopefully three extra weeks.
Yeah that's the regular season.

Speaker 12 (01:20:15):
But I do I do think that it is potentially
in the cars when you think about Anthony Richardson potentially.

Speaker 13 (01:20:20):
Missing in the game. Now the Colts have to go
to a backup.

Speaker 12 (01:20:23):
They're going to handle all the Dons and Taylors more
time than we can count, So I think that there
is a possibility. And then of course you look at
the Dolphins as well, who have the Browns and the jetson.
I mean, the Jets are still playing football games. They
don't want to keep on losing, so it even could
come down to that. Of course, a Week eighteen game
with the Chiefs against the Broncos, and hey, you know
it will be the Broncos anout this week, then maybe
Carson Wentzin pulling out because it's Satty next week.

Speaker 1 (01:20:45):
All right, Well regardless, we're gonna talk next week. I
look forward to it already. Thank you very much, thanks
so much, and I forgiet it that's our guy. Sean Sayed,
host of the Stats and Scheme podcast and columnists for
sumer sports dot com. Speaking of a columnist Robert Wine
trout Wright, sayo weekly Bengals column for Cincinnati Magazine. He

(01:21:06):
always joins us on Thursdays. Today is Thursday, so he'll
join us when we come back. We're here at to
Buffalo Wild Wings Harper Station till six. You got time
to get here to sign up to win Bengals Broncos
tickets for Saturday's tilt on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 7 (01:21:21):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:21:26):
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Speaker 3 (01:21:58):
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Speaker 2 (01:22:03):
This is football in Thennetti wrote to you in part
by blood Light and by Skyline Shilly on the official
home of the Bengals, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty twenty.

Speaker 1 (01:22:15):
Two minutes a half for five o'clock. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty on Moegger broadcasting from Buffalo Wild Wings Harper's station.
We're typically at one of these on a Tuesday. What
we typically do on Thursdays, though, is we chat with
our guy. Robert Winstrop Cincinnati Magazine writes a weekly Bengals column.
This week, he wrote it from the comfort of the

(01:22:35):
press box at the venue originally known as Paul Brown's Statenum.
Go read it now at Cincinnati Magazine dot com.

Speaker 14 (01:22:41):
Hi, Robert, Hey, you know that was an outstanding game
to appear in person, as you say in the press box.
And Joe Burrow actually dedicated his diving touchdown pass to me,
which I thought was very nice as a gift for
coming up there and seeing the game. And you know,
another w in the books almost at five hundred, who

(01:23:01):
would have thought it.

Speaker 1 (01:23:02):
It's not as cool of a gift as a Japanese sword.
So could have done better. I told him I already
had one. You know, I spent a lot of time
in Asia.

Speaker 14 (01:23:12):
They were mostly Chinese, but you know I said, I'll
take the CD pass instead.

Speaker 1 (01:23:16):
It was well, you know, I'm glad. So they're still alive.
But now they have to beat a team that has
a winning record. Can they finally do that?

Speaker 14 (01:23:27):
They also have a quarterback who's halfway decent. I mean
the common denominator of teams that the Bengals have beaten
this year, not just bad teams with losing records, but
with really poor quarterback play.

Speaker 3 (01:23:38):
I think Cooper Rush is actually at the top of
that list. And you know he's not Peyton Manning.

Speaker 1 (01:23:42):
So they have to prove the communement. Po Nicks is
not exactly a great player.

Speaker 3 (01:23:47):
You know, he's a rookie.

Speaker 14 (01:23:48):
He's had his ups and downs, like most rookies. He
ranks near the bottom of the league in several advanced stats.
He's certainly had his moments and has played well. And
you know, it's one thing to consider is that Denver
is their roster have a lot of guys who have.

Speaker 3 (01:24:02):
Not played in any big games. The Broncos have not
been good for a while, and.

Speaker 14 (01:24:06):
They have a very young team full of players who
are also kind of stepping up for the first time
and playing a team obviously that has a lot of
veterans who have played in some very big games, including
the biggest game, so that that's a potential advantage for Cincinnati.
The key will be obviously making some hay, especially on
the ground.

Speaker 3 (01:24:23):
It gives that Broncos defense.

Speaker 14 (01:24:25):
Which is forced by efficiency in our stats and the
first run defense number one in the league. They also
lead the league in sacks, so you know, players like
Nick Bonito of had a fantastic year. Can the Bengals
get enough yards to you know, have the passing game
do what it does and just it doesn't have to
dominate the game on the ground, but they have to

(01:24:45):
at least provide something that really they have for the
past six weeks since really since Chase Brown has taken
over as the wead dog back there. And I think
if they do that, you know, the weather forecast not great.

Speaker 1 (01:24:58):
I think there's a call for.

Speaker 14 (01:25:00):
Rain and wind, which obviously will hurt the passing game.
So the game might come down to which team can
really be most effective on the ground, and the Broncos
have been under fire in Denver a lot for getting
away from the run in their past few games, and
Sean Payton is certainly a pass first kind of guy.
So it'll probably come down to which team can be
most effective in their ground game.

Speaker 1 (01:25:20):
Can the Bengals find any.

Speaker 14 (01:25:22):
Room against that really good Denver run defense, and can
the Bengals run defense, which just not been very good,
find a way to stop Denver and force them to throw.

Speaker 1 (01:25:31):
Let's talk about the first part of that equation, which
if you would have said to me early in the season,
the Bengals might have to lean on Chase Brown in
a game that they have to have, I guess I
would have been totally opposed, but I would have had
some skepticism. Now, if you're telling me the key is
Chase Brown, signed me up. I'm not sure that over
the last six seven games you could have asked that

(01:25:52):
kid to do it any more than he's done.

Speaker 14 (01:25:55):
Yeah, he's been everything they really wanted him to be
when they drafted him, and considering where they drafted him,
he's looking like a bigger bargain every single week. You know,
we always compare him to Joe Mixon. Of course, we've
had this discussion all year, and it's a natural point
of conversation.

Speaker 1 (01:26:09):
He's well ahead of.

Speaker 14 (01:26:11):
Mixing in terms of advanced stats, you know, he's and
it's certainly when you factor in his yards through the air.

Speaker 3 (01:26:17):
One thing that's been most impressive is that he's you know, he.

Speaker 14 (01:26:20):
Took basically the first month of the season off, and
if you take out just his first two games.

Speaker 11 (01:26:24):
This goes for Jamar Chase too, who really didn't.

Speaker 14 (01:26:27):
Do much in the first two weeks of the season,
and then you know, have exploded. And if you divide
their stats on a per game basis by thirteen instead
of fifteen, they look even better. And Brown is up
near about ninety yards per game if you do that
between scrimmage, yards, running and receiving.

Speaker 1 (01:26:42):
And the Broncos this year.

Speaker 14 (01:26:44):
Have had a real hard time covering wide receivers in
catching running backs rather than catching passes. They're thirtieth in
the league. That leads even more importance to Brown's game
on Sunday.

Speaker 15 (01:26:55):
It's not just what he does on the ground at
conventional handoff situations, but I think the going to look
to throw him the ball and take advantage of the
linebacker play, which is really the weak point of the
Denver backfield, and yeah, Brown has really, you know, he.

Speaker 14 (01:27:09):
Stepped forward and been just the kind of player they need.

Speaker 3 (01:27:12):
He runs the inside zone.

Speaker 14 (01:27:14):
Much more effectively than Mixon never did.

Speaker 4 (01:27:16):
Here.

Speaker 11 (01:27:16):
He fits what the Bengals try and do offensively, and
you know, you just hope going forward he can maintaining
You never really know with running backs, they're really a
year to year proposition outside of the great Ways, So
hopefully Chase will be doing his.

Speaker 1 (01:27:29):
Thing for at least a couple more years to come.
Robert Weintraub Weekly Bengals column at Cincinnati Magazine Read it
now at Cincinnati Magazine dot com has has the defensive
The defensive performance of the last three weeks combined caused
you to re calibrate or reassess how you feel about
some of these guys on defense.

Speaker 3 (01:27:52):
Yeah, I think a little bit.

Speaker 14 (01:27:53):
I mean, again, we talked about how the opposing quarterback
play has not exactly been lights out, so you have
to take that with a bit of a grain of salt.
But I think we're seeing some of the young players
Chris Jenkins and and Jordan Battle deep to mind for sure,
as being guys who now are being asked, you know,
they're got their feet under them, they kind of know

(01:28:14):
where they're where they're supposed to be in the defense.
I think it's obviously even lou N Rumo said himself,
you know, he simplified things a lot, and you could ask, hey,
how come he didn't do that with a really young
defense at the beginning of the season. You know, he
was sort of caught in between wanting to do, you know,
his usual standard with what the the veterans knew how
to do, and with a team that was trying to

(01:28:36):
transition to a bunch of young players who just didn't
comprehend that defense and its complexities. I think that cost
the Bengals early on and maybe cost him a playoff
for But you know, for the moment, we're looking around
and at the defense he's certainly on Sunday, they were
flying around making a lot of plays. Guys like Joseph
Osai and Miles Murphy who haven't really done much all year,

(01:28:57):
we're in the backfield consistently, and I think some of
that is due to the fact that Sam Hubbur is
out and these are young kids, and you know, just
like a player like bo Nicks, you know, these guys
have to learn by playing. They can't you know, developed
on twelve to fifteen snaps a game, and then you
expect them when they have to step in, let's say,
for injury or just in general, to make an impact

(01:29:19):
unless they've been out.

Speaker 11 (01:29:20):
There and get a lot of play underneath them.

Speaker 14 (01:29:22):
And I think they're you know, at the time of
the season where you're seeing that much more now and
they're playing much better now.

Speaker 8 (01:29:29):
Is it too little, too late?

Speaker 14 (01:29:30):
Possibly, But at least it does give you a little
bit of hope for next year that this year's defense
was not a complete waste and that you don't have to,
you know, swap out the entire roster defensively because of
some of the steps forward these guys have taken.

Speaker 1 (01:29:44):
This will be the Bengals final home game. Who on
the team should be playing the final home game? It's
a great way to put it.

Speaker 14 (01:29:55):
I mean, obviously we don't want to see t Higgins
playing in this final home game. We all want to
see Alex Kappa playing in his final home game, you know,
and I think that's a guarantee. So many other guys
you can, you know, make a bit of a case
for either way. I think the Bengals would like to
see Mike Gseki come back at tight end.

Speaker 13 (01:30:13):
I think he adds something to.

Speaker 14 (01:30:15):
The offense and almost sort of a big slot role.
You know, he doesn't give you much from a blocking perspective, obviously,
but he seems to be in line.

Speaker 1 (01:30:23):
With what the overall offense.

Speaker 11 (01:30:25):
Wants to do if it's not Grady.

Speaker 14 (01:30:26):
So I think the Bengals would be interested in having
him back, and I would too.

Speaker 8 (01:30:31):
Certainly, DJ Hill is a player that you know, you.

Speaker 14 (01:30:35):
Take for granted, and he's not a dominant player by
any means. But if he does leave, which is certainly
possible considering how much money he might be offered in
the offseason, you know, you suddenly find yourself with another
voy the defensive tackle, and you say to yourself, boy,
if only we could have a player like BJ Hill
in there. So it's, you know, another guy who's tough

(01:30:55):
to replace with another draft take.

Speaker 3 (01:30:58):
Let's say, you know, it'll.

Speaker 14 (01:30:59):
Be a maybe that draft pick eventually gets to the
point where he plays a lot as well as Hill does,
but it's gonna take a while, So I'd be interested
in seeing him back.

Speaker 8 (01:31:09):
Obviously.

Speaker 14 (01:31:09):
Mike Hilton is the case where he's done a lot
in the Cincinnati uniform, and it's arguable.

Speaker 8 (01:31:15):
Whether or not he'll be back. He probably would want
to go to Tennessee, where he's had a.

Speaker 14 (01:31:19):
Lot of great games as a Bengal. But you know, again,
a valuable player who knows the defense, knows the system,
and makes a lot of slot date plays, a lot
of big plays, splash plays out of the slot corner position. Again,
not a perfect player, but a guy who'll be tough
to replace.

Speaker 3 (01:31:36):
And it really all depends on whether or not they can.

Speaker 14 (01:31:40):
You know, allocate the resources and sign a bunch of
guys back as well as get some new players in here.

Speaker 8 (01:31:45):
And of course the big.

Speaker 3 (01:31:46):
Ticket item T Higgins.

Speaker 2 (01:31:48):
We'll see how that plays out.

Speaker 14 (01:31:49):
But you know, other than Kappa and maybe a Jermaine Pratt,
I think he'll see that.

Speaker 8 (01:31:55):
You know, they will be sniffing.

Speaker 13 (01:31:56):
Around and try and keep at least be in the
mix for a lot of.

Speaker 14 (01:31:59):
These players who will be free agents at this after
the season.

Speaker 1 (01:32:02):
Knowing the league the way you do, do you believe
that both the Colts and Dolphins will lose a game?

Speaker 16 (01:32:11):
I mean, here's how I think of it, is that
those teams, even with the level of opposition, that they have.

Speaker 11 (01:32:18):
Which is weak of course, in the next two games.

Speaker 14 (01:32:21):
It's hard to see either one of those teams winning
with three games in a row, right, I mean, it's
just not the NFL in general. Now, you could have
argued it's hard to see Cincinnati winning five in a row,
which they'll have to do, but the Bengals are obviously
much more talented, especially at the quarterback position.

Speaker 2 (01:32:35):
In either of those teams, it'll.

Speaker 8 (01:32:38):
Be a difficult ask.

Speaker 14 (01:32:40):
I thought the Colts most likely chance to lose might
have been this past week in Tennessee, you know, funnily
enough division opponent, and they almost flew a big lead.
And obviously, you know, the forty nine ers were a decent,
if not a shadow of their former sales, but a
team that you would hope would have beaten Miami.

Speaker 8 (01:32:58):
But I still think it's possible.

Speaker 3 (01:32:59):
I hold out hope.

Speaker 8 (01:33:00):
That's what being a Bengal fan is all that.

Speaker 16 (01:33:02):
As you know, mo, hear unbridled optimism, even in the
face of long, long odds. And let's face that, the
most obvious Bengal thing in the world to do would
have all these things fall into place and then lose
to Pittsburgh anyway, and not haven't mean anything.

Speaker 1 (01:33:17):
Yeah, no, I've prepared myself for that. I'm prepared for myself.
I mean, it happened. If you go back to two
thousand and six, you know, they had like a thousand
things that had to happen, all of them in they
blow a lead and lose an overtime to the Steelers
Bill Towers last game. So there is at least to
a degree precedent. I'm waiting and almost anticipating that outcome.

Speaker 14 (01:33:40):
I like to think that in the holiday season we'd
see a little bit more rosie about the cantus for
our team to pull off a laite season miracle.

Speaker 1 (01:33:48):
But you know, the years have beaten us.

Speaker 14 (01:33:50):
Down all this time to where we don't expect the best,
but we hope. I still have my fingers crossed and
I think that, you know, if nothing else, Cincinnati has
a decent chance, if not better than fifty to fifty
of winning this weekend and making the last game of
the season means something. If not an actual playoff first,
at least they'll be playing for one on the final

(01:34:10):
Sunday of the regular season.

Speaker 1 (01:34:12):
Let's hope. So awesome stuff. As always, man, Thank you very.

Speaker 2 (01:34:15):
Much, Thank you and have a great New year.

Speaker 8 (01:34:17):
Guys, everybody out there, I appreciate.

Speaker 1 (01:34:18):
It most definitely. That's our guy. Robert Wintroum read his
weekly Bengals column at Cincinnati Magazine dot com. It is
twenty six away from six o'clock. We're late, but we're
here in Buffalo Wild Wings. Ayead about twenty minutes to
get here and sign up to win tickets to US
Saturday's Bengals Broncos game. Thanks to our friends, said Bud
Light on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (01:34:41):
You've been listening to football in Theinnetti on the official
home of the Bengals, Cincinnatis ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 7 (01:34:50):
Cincinnatis ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:34:53):
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(01:35:15):
water main work causing possible lane restrictions between Smith Road
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I'm at Ezelek with traffic. This report is sponsored by eBay.

Speaker 2 (01:35:28):
At noon on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home of
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Speaker 1 (01:35:34):
Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet Home Up
lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family.
Be yours for life at kelseyshev dot com. Orlando Brown
is good to go for Saturday Bengals and Broncos. The
game is at four thirty on ESPN fifteen thirty. Our

(01:35:55):
pregame coverage we'll start at twelve now. Cody Ford is
set to start for Cordel Volson in that game. Joseph
Osai is still dealing with an illness, same for Geno Stone.
Cincinnati needing a win and then a Miami loss and

(01:36:15):
an Indianapolis loss and then a win next set next
week against the Steelers. Look busted right now, they look.
I mean, I'm be the first to admit. A month ago,
I don't want to say I declared, but I Tony
and I were having a conversation about who the best
team in the AFC is, and I said Pittsburgh, and
I do not feel that way right now. They were

(01:36:36):
not good yesterday. They've lost three consecutive games. They haven't
looked good and really in anything. And so now all
that being said, going to Pittsburgh and needing a win
against a Steelers team that will be playing for something
is not going to be easy if the Bengals can't
get to that point. First things, first game on Saturday
against the Denver Broncos. Thursday night football tonight. It might
not necessarily feel like a Thursday, but it is, which

(01:36:59):
means we have football. We have the Bears and the Seahawks,
and you can hear that game live on Fox Sports
thirteen sixty. The Round Table show tonight at six o'clock
from Long Necks and Wilder will feature obviously our friend
Lance McCallister, but second half of that show, joining Lance,
our guy Austin Elmore, who is a producing this show

(01:37:20):
here today. Busy busy man. So that's that tonight from
six to nine on a seven hundred WLW. Anything that
you may have missed on this show, including the Tony
and Moe football show, you can go get on the
iHeartRadio app. Also fined on my page at ESPN fifteen
thirty dot com. As it relates to the Bengals, What's

(01:37:42):
happened in the NFL this week so far? Let's face it,
not great. We were, I think, all hoping that Pittsburgh
would beat Kansas City so that the Chiefs needed to
go and beat the Broncos week eighteen in order to
secure home field advantage. Their win. Their decisive and one
sided win yesterday over Pittsburgh sealed the top overall seed

(01:38:06):
for KC. I do think it's really interesting to see
how they handle this. Andy Reid's history with Kansas City
when they have had their playoff seeding locked in, whether
it's been the one seed or a lower seed like
last year when they were the three, he typically doesn't
play his main guys. Now he wins some of those games.

(01:38:28):
I gave this before. If you go back since his
time in Kansas City started, which was the twenty thirteen season,
there have been four instances where they have played their
last game with their playoff seeding locked thirteen, seventeen, twenty
and twenty three. One of those games was Patrick mahomes

(01:38:49):
first NFL start, because remember his rookie season, he didn't
start Alex Smith did. In twenty seventeen, Kansas City went
into the final game of the season, they were locked
into their seed. They benched Alex Smith that they played
Patrick Mahomes. They've also in three of those games seventeen,
twenty and twenty three, they've rested Travis Kelsey. So we'll

(01:39:09):
see what they do with Mahomes. We'll see what they
do with Kelsey, We'll see what they do with Chris Jones.
Those four games I mentioned, though, they did win two,
so it's not like they've totally laid down, but it
is a little bit of a different dynamic because of
the timing of the game this week, Kansas City played
on Christmas. The AFC Divisional Round will start on either
January eighteenth or nineteenth, which means more than three weeks

(01:39:35):
will have gone by since their main players played against
the Pittsburgh Steelers. Do you really want to go that
long without your main guys playing? This as it relates
to the Bengals, may be a totally moved point, because hell,
maybe they lose to the Denver Broncos, which you know,
I will admit to you I'm not expecting, but wouldn't

(01:39:55):
be a total shock. But I think it's gonna be
interesting to see how Kansas City handles this. I've made
this point at the top of the show, and like,
I know that the Bengals and Chiefs have turned into
has turned into a great rivalry. The Kansas City Chiefs
don't owe the Bengals or anybody else anything. Andy Reid's

(01:40:16):
job is to make decisions based on what he feels
his best for his football team and make those decisions
in concert with the people that he works for, with
what's best for the organization in mind. Now, if I'm
a Chiefs fan, I'd love to eliminate the Bengals at
some point over the next couple of weeks, because I

(01:40:37):
view a potential Divisional round home game against the seven
seeded Bengals as more difficult than a potential division round
home game against the Broncos or Dolphins or Indianapolis Colts.
I'd rather play any one of those teams than Joe
Burrow and the Bengals and so, but I think this

(01:40:59):
year is a little bit different because of the timing
involved here. Do they really want to go more than
three weeks without giving Patrick Mahomes game reps? Do they
really want to go more than three weeks without giving
some of their better players game reps. It's not your
typical rest versus rust thing. We're talking about a long
time between games that matter. For Kansas City. The Bengals

(01:41:21):
are in this position where they have to rely on
other teams because they got off to a slow start
this season. And as as much as we can look
ahead to Saturday and focus on all the different playoffs scenarios,
what I have found myself doing the most is not
so much playing what if as it relates to individual games,
but what if as it relates to those first three

(01:41:42):
games in the season. A game against New England they
should have won, a game against Kansas City they very
easily could have won, and frankly one against the Washington
Commanders week three they easily could have won as well.
If they win two of those, this team is set. Instead,
not only do they have to win their last two,
they have to end the game, end the season on
a five game winning streak and still need help from

(01:42:04):
bad teams. Against Miami and Indianapolis. It's fourteen minutes away
from six o'clock. We're at Buffalo wild Wings Harper Station.
If you're in the area, you still have a few
minutes to a sign up for Bengals Broncos tickets on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. The answer to that
question is Sam Hubbard is likely out for the season.

(01:42:26):
Time will tell, Time will tell. We're here at Buffalo
Wild Wings. We want to thank the folks here for
their incredible hospitality. Our second time here at the Harper
Station Buffalo Wild Wings. We have one more show from
B Dubs to do. It's going to be next Thursday
home game for us back in Kentwood. We've been at

(01:42:46):
the Kenwood location earlier this year, and we're not going
to do the show on Tuesday, not simply because it's
New Year's Eve, but there is a UK basketball game
and I think tips off at like three o'clock. We
don't have a show on Tuesday. So instead of sitting

(01:43:07):
at Buffalo Wild Wings and not broadcasting, we're going to
go on Thursday, the second week from today, will be
at the Kenwood location right there on Montgomery Road, very
very easy to get to. We look forward to being
there and hopefully you'll join us for that one. But
the staff here has been unbelievable. We have loved all
year long, working with the folks with Buffalo Wild Wings.

(01:43:30):
This is my last solo show of twenty twenty four.
We do have the Tony and Mo Football Show on Monday,
Tony Pike and I we will be in Florence, Kentucky
on Monday, and looking forward to that and hopefully a
Bengals victory to talk about. But at the end of
the year, I feel like it's always appropriate to say
thank you. We have done this show now for seventeen years,

(01:43:54):
and I'd never take for granted the opportunity that we
have and that I have to do a show. And
it's awesome, but it really would only work if folks listened.
And so like I say this every year that I
think the most important commodity that you could give someone

(01:44:15):
is your time. And whether you listened on a daily basis,
a regular basis, a semi regular basis, whether you hate listened,
whether you listened and disagreed with everything that I said,
whether you listened because there was just nothing else, whatever
your motivation, if you gave us time. I've never taken

(01:44:35):
that for granted, and we've never tried to waste it.
We often do. One might argue we've wasted three hours
of it today. So I do appreciate you for listening
at all in twenty twenty four, hopefully on a very
regular basis, but even if just for a few minutes
here and there. Thank you enough. We are done. Mike
Mills producing on site, We thank him. Austin Elmore producing

(01:44:56):
back in Kenwood. Nice treat to have Austin part of
our show today. You can hear him some o in
the round Table Show with Lance, second half of that
at seven thirty. That show starts in mere minutes at
six ZHO five. Bengals pep rally tomorrow in our spot
at three o'clock. Chad Brendle is hosting the Friday Football
Frenzy from noon to three, and we're done for the weekend.

(01:45:17):
We'll talk to you Saturday before the Bengals Broncos game
from noon to three. We're looking forward to that. Have
an awesome night, have a great weekend, and enjoy the
rest of your night. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Dish