October 16, 2025 • 43 mins
Austin talks Bengals/Steelers on TNF, chats about the pivot point, the narrative around the franchise, and more on ESPN 1530!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Skyline Chile. Since he three to sixty about
Cincinnati from Cincinnati, sponsored in part by Skyline Chile. Stop
by Skyline Chile through a three way or chee Coney today,
feeling good, It's Skyline time. This is ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Come on now, it all comes down to tonight, the
season on the line, with the entire world, at least
those with streaming services watching Thursday Night football. It's the
(00:45):
Bengals and the Steelers right here on ESPN fifteen thirty. Hi, Hello,
and welcome in ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm Austin Elmore, and
(01:06):
our live coverage goes for the next twelve and a
half hours right here on ESPN fifteen thirty, starting with
Cincy three sixty. I'm here until three o'clock. From three
to six thirty this afternoon, it'll be Lance McAllister moe Egger,
and Rocky Boyman live from the Holy Grail ahead of
(01:27):
Bengals Steelers tonight, the White Bengal game at pay Corp Stadium.
We'll turn things over to network coverage beginning at six
thirty with Wayne box Miller, Dan Hoor Dave Lapham for
Bengals Steelers, and then after the game from twelve thirty
am until two thirty am, yours truly is right back
(01:47):
in the seat, getting you set with all the postgame coverage,
all the postgame coverage of Bengals Steelers on Thursday Night Football.
Then right back here tomorrow at noon for a typical
Friday show Charlie Goldsmith at one o'clock he'll be breaking
it all down with us as well. So the next
twenty four hours are gonna be fun. The next twelve
(02:08):
and a half especially, are gonna be fun, and I
hope we have a lot of fun for the next three.
Phone lines are officially open as of right now five
p one three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty. I'm asking
for your participation in talkbacks today. I want to know
your official prediction. How are you feeling about this game?
(02:28):
Are you confident? Are you not confident? What do you
think happens tonight at pay Corp Stadium? And based off
of that outcome that you predict, what's going to be
the fallout if they lose? What happens? Does Trey Hendrickson
get traded? Does Zach Taylor get fired? If they win,
do the Bengals become buyers. Are they all of a
(02:48):
sudden back? What are you looking for tonight at pay
Corp Stadium. Go to the iHeartRadio app, tap that little
microphone next to the play button on ESPN fifteen thirty
and leave me a talk back. We'll get to our
talkbacks at one twenty this afternoon, as we normally do.
Show set up for today one o'clock every Thursday. John
(03:09):
Sheeran eight of Z Sports in the Orange of Black
Insider podcast, he's going to join us. He wrote about
the Bengals report card so far through the season. We'll
talk to him about that. And then at two o'clock
ESPN NFL reporter Brooke Pryor covering the Pittsburgh Steelers is
in town and she's going to join us to give
us the Steelers perspective ahead of tonight's game. But the
(03:32):
biggest news I think happened an hour or two ago,
maybe three, on Good Morning Football, when Ian Rappaport was
giving the injury updates ahead of tonight's game. And here
is what Ian had to say about the Steelers injuries
and the Bengals injuries going into Thursday Night Football.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Calvin Austin, one of the young young receivers for the
Pittsburgh Steelers. He is not going to play tonight. He's
doing his shoulder and he has not practiced at all
this week. He has been ruled out no surprise. Probably
means you're gonna see obviously, you're gonna see plenty of
dk Metcal, plenty of Roman Wilson, Scottie Miller also there
as a depth piece of the Steelers should be fine.
(04:13):
On the other side, another I would say mildly young
player Mikeasicki, one of their tight ends who has been
dealing with a pectorial injury, a torn peck. He was
placed on injury reserve this week. He is out for
this game and he is out the next four weeks.
We'll see if he's able to come back. Sounds like
the mrin maybe came back a little better than they expected,
so time will tell if he is able to return
(04:35):
this season and then the big one for tonight. Trey Hendrickson,
the star pass rusher for the Cincinnati Bengals, one of
the best pass rushers in the NFL and certainly one
of the.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Big stories of the offseason. He is eventually.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Questionable with a hip injury, was ruled out of the
game with a back injury, now questionable with a hip injury.
My understanding is, despite the fact that he is really
pushing to play, he's considered a bit of a long shot.
It's just such a quick turnaround from Sunday to Thursday.
I'm not saying he's got no chance, but it's not
a great chance. If no, tre Hendrickson well is absolutely
(05:10):
dying to be out on the field.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
So we'll see.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
So we're starting the day a little bit behind the
eight ball. Trey Hendrickson, according to Ian Rappaport, a long
shot to be able to play tonight. That obviously hurts
the Bengals chances. Especially hurts the Bengals chances when you
consider Aaron Rodgers, who's playing fine so far this season,
has not been good against pressure, and especially when you
(05:35):
look at the beginning of that update when they talked
about how Calvin Austen is not going to be playing tonight.
So if you remove one of Aaron Rodgers' top targets,
the number two receiver in Calvin Austin, and you add
to the equation Trey Hendrickson being able to play, that
makes things considerably tougher on the Pittsburgh offense, and obviously
(05:56):
Shamar Stewart, coming off of an ankle injury, hasn't played
in a few weeks. Don't know exactly what you're going
to get. And it goes without saying that the rest
of the guys in that position group, Miles Murphy, Joseph
Osai cam Sample and others have been pretty hit or miss.
Everybody knows a game without Trey Hendrickson is not going
to be an easy one to win. He's your best
(06:18):
defensive player. He causes the most havoc. He creates opportunities
for the defense if nobody else will. Trey is at
least going to put pressure on Aaron Rodgers, and so
that becomes quite a problem for Al Golden to try
to figure out how to solve. And you know, a
lot of times with these great quarterbacks, you don't want
(06:41):
to pressure them because they're fast, they process, they get
the ball out quickly, and you can easily kind of
pick a part of defense if you're bringing multiple guys
to blitz well. The Steelers offensive line has not been
wonderful this year. They've been just okay. They haven't run
the football very good either. But Aaron Rodgers is starting
(07:01):
to trend in the right direction. And last week against Cleveland,
with a great pass rusher and Miles Garrett coming at him,
Aaron Rodgers got the ball out extremely, extremely quickly, and
that kept the Steelers offense ahead of the chains. How
is Al Golden going to defend Aaron Rodgers and that
Steelers offense without Calvin Austen and without Trey Hendrickson, That
(07:26):
to me becomes the matchup of the night. Because if
you want to win these games, you have to get
to the quarterback period, point blank. You can throw everything
else out the window. You can throw the Steelers record
out the window, the Bengals record out the window, what
DJ Turner has been doing. You can throw Joe Flacco
in the second half out the window. Mike Tomlin on
(07:47):
Thursday nights. You can get rid of all of it,
because if you don't put pressure on the quarterback, Aaron
Rodgers will eat you alive. We've seen it plenty of
times over the course of his career. Rogers is that
good and he can do that. On top of that,
the other note that Ian Rappaport had in that update
(08:08):
was that the MRI on Mike Giseki came back a
little bit better than they expected. Now, we haven't heard
this anywhere else. This is the only time I've heard
this came from Rapaport So seems like maybe it's not
going to be a season ending injury for Mike Gaziki.
He is on the injured reserve list for at least
four weeks with that peck injury. Hopefully that's something that
(08:30):
he can come back from sooner rather than later. Although
Kaseki wasn't having that much of an impact on the offense,
we all know the Bengals offense has been atrocious, but
he does at least give you some opportunities in some
matchup problems. I'm curious to see what the offense looks
like tonight without him, and no offense has been pretty good.
(08:52):
Are you able to add some wrinkles into the offense
where Nofan is in that Mike Gaziki role is as
good as a receiver as Mike GIESICKI I think, and
you can still be productive from that position. The other thing, though,
is the drop off because Tanner Hudson is not going
to play in this game. He suffered a concussion against
(09:12):
the Packers last week, so he's already been ruled out,
which means your tight ends are going to be Drew Sample,
Noah Fan and Cam Grandy. You get ugly quickly right there,
especially the way that Sample and Grandy have played this season,
which is not good at all. Who else on the
injured list injury report from yesterday Tanner Hudson, As I mentioned,
(09:36):
Charlie Jones is officially listed as questionable with a rib injury,
and Lucas Patrick, who is still technically on IR, is
listed as questionable with that calf injury that he suffered
in Week one against the Cleveland Browns. There is a
developing situation with the Pittsburgh Steelers. We'll talk to Brooke
Pryor about this coming up at two o'clock, and that
(09:57):
is that star safety to Sean Elliott missed practice yesterday
and did not travel with the Steelers due to a
personal injury in a family situation that's going on with
the sewn Elliott and his family. He is a huge
part of their defense. He's one of those tone setter guys.
He flies around the field, has a knack for the
football is really really good, and so if he's unable
(10:20):
to go based off what we've seen from the Bengals,
at least in the second half against the Packers, that
could work to their advantage. It really could. The other
thing that has stuck out to me as I'm going
through all the numbers, and today is going to be
a big day about numbers. We're going to try to
give you as much context as you possibly can going
into this game tonight between the Bengals and the Steelers.
(10:43):
When you think of Pittsburgh Steeler football, you often think
of defense and running the football, and that's really what
you're supposed to think about when you think of the
AFC North as a whole right, defense and run the
football well. The Bengals don't play defense or run the
football well, and the Steelers don't run the football well
at all. How about this, Pittsburgh is ranked twenty ninth.
(11:06):
Let me make sure I got this stat correctly with
my handy notebook here. Pittsburgh is ranked twenty ninth in
yards per game rushing the football eighty four yards per game. Now,
the Bengals are dead last. There are thirty second in
the NFL, averaging fifty six yards per game. I saw
(11:28):
a stat yesterday that the Bengals are on pace as
a team to rush for less than a thousand yards.
That is absurd, right, Like, that can't possibly happen. Somebody's
gonna have a one hundred and fifty yard game on
accident at some point, wouldn't they break an eighty yard run.
That's gonna happen eventually, Right, Well, Pittsburgh is averaging eighty
(11:50):
four yards per game on the ground. That's twenty ninth.
The Bengals are averaging fifty six. That's thirty second. Even
that is a pretty significant difference twenty eight yards between
the two, So that's something to keep an eye out on.
And then when it comes to defending the run, Pittsburgh
is right in the middle at sixteenth in the NFL,
(12:11):
but they're still giving up over one hundred and ten
yards per game on the ground. So if there's ever
been a time for the Bengals to get their run
game going, it would be tonight. You've got to be
able to understand Pittsburgh sixteenth in the NFL. That's not
a pushover by any stretch of the imagination. But if
you're averaging one hundred and ten yards on the ground,
(12:32):
at the very least you've got to be able to
get something going to control the clock, to give your
defense a chance if you're going to beat the Pittsburgh
Steelers tonight.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
I'm fired up about it.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
I mean, I know everybody's calling it a bunch of
different things, the Unk Bowl, the unctionin the Icy Hot
Bowl between Aaron Rodgers and Joe Flacco. But I do
think there's a chance that this could be a track meet.
I'll give you some more numbers on that a little
bit later on Pittsburgh's four and one will go over
there schedule shortly. This line opened up at five and
(13:04):
a half in favor of Pittsburgh. It is now down
to four and a half in favor of Pittsburgh, so
a full point has dropped. The over under opened at
forty two and a half. It's now up to forty
four and a half. And the Bengals were minus one
fifteen at the or excuse me, the the Bengals were,
I believe, at one point minus one ninety eight money line,
(13:26):
now up to plus two hundred money line are the
Bengals for tonight's game at eight to fifteen. White Bengal,
White Bengal is the theme for tonight and I think
for a lot of fans, this is the last shot.
I talked about this a little bit earlier. This week
is like, Okay, with all the stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Going on with.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Season ticket renewals and players being hurt like Joe Burrow,
and the national spotlight being on the Bengals and all
that going into the hollow season, It's like, Okay, this
is the last chance the Bengals have to legitimately compete
this season, and I think it's the last chance a
lot of fans will give them this season as well,
(14:11):
because understandably, there's doubt about their abilities without Joe Burrow,
and there would be doubt about their ability if they
lose this game to be able to recover and even
make things interesting if Joe were to come back in
the second half of the season or late in the
(14:31):
season and potentially for the playoffs. It starts with tonight,
and the way the dominoes would fall afterwards if they
were to lose or if they were to win, creates
a really interesting stretch for the Bengals with the Jets
and Bears coming before the bye week. What's going on tonight, Well,
they're going to light it up. They're going to light
(14:52):
up the jungle during the player intros. Should be an
awesome environment there. When I was coming home Monday night,
I landed in Cincinnati and I'm driving through the cut
in the hill and they're doing the light test at
pay Course Stadium. It was really cool to see that
from that angle and to drive by it. So that
should be cool and if you've never been, it's worth it.
(15:15):
Craig Morgan country music singer, is going to be the
national anthem singer. Andrew Whitworth will be the Ruler of
the Jungle, and Eli Mamon I think I'm saying that correctly,
will be the rock and rule guitarist. Eli, of course
from Walk the Moon Cincinnati band. I had the idea
that the Bengals should have Joe Burrow be the surprise
(15:36):
ruler of the Jungle tomorrow night or tonight. I would
expect to we'll see Joe Burrow today at the stadium.
I would assume we've reached that point where Joe will
be there, especially on a short week game like this.
Don't know if he's going to be on the sideline
or in the booth or what exactly, but I would
assume we'll see Joe I've been a little bit surprised
how much people care whether or not he's there or
(15:59):
on the sideline or in the booth, or what his
whereabouts are. I know he's there, I know he's participating
in meetings, I know he's also rehabbing. I know he's
doing his part. But whether or not you see him
on game day, whether he's in the locker room or
in the booth, or in his suite or on the sideline,
(16:21):
I'm not sure why people get so bothered about that.
It doesn't really matter to me if he's doing all
the stuff throughout the week, especially if there's not that
much he could do during the game. I do get it, like, yeah,
you want him there and you want him to be helpful,
but also if there's any risk of him getting rolled
up on or anything happening to him, why he's on
(16:42):
the sideline.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
What's the point.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
If you are going to have a chance to come
back later on this year, you want to prevent any
of those situations at all from happening. So that's the
itinerary for the Bengals and Steelers tonight, with kickoff set
for eight fils. Phone lines are open five point three
seven four nine, fifteen thirty. If you want to talk
(17:04):
about the game, and I'm excited, I'm getting fired up now.
I love it when the Bengals play on Thursdays. I
generally don't love Thursday night games, but when the Bengals
play on Thursdays, you don't have to wait, especially get
that bad taste out of your mouth after a loss, like,
let's just.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Get right to it and get it over with.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
And especially when you have a home inter division primetime game,
you should be excited about that. Well, take a break,
we'll come back. Hour one of Sincy three to sixty
brought to you by our friends. It's Skyline Chili, by
the way, gotta drop yesterday. The Skyline Chicken Chili sensational.
Speaker 5 (17:42):
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Speaker 2 (17:42):
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Speaker 2 (18:01):
Highly recommend getting the Chicken Chili New Chicken Chili from Skyline.
Take a break, We'll come back. This is Sincy three
sixty on the Home of the Bengals, ESPN fifteen thirty.
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This is Football in the NATI, brought to you by
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the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Ah. Yes, indeed, it is Football in the NATI, the
first of three Football in the natties that we have
today scheduled. Jumbled up a little bit with Moe and
Lance and Rocky on this afternoon from the Holy Grail
for pregame sports Talk. Looking forward to listening to that.
(18:54):
Andrew Whitworth is the ruler of the Jungle tonight. He's
a part of the Amazon Prime. He does pre and
post game with them. And not the first time that
Big Wit has been back in Cincinnati with the Prime crew.
But you know, I appreciate how Andrew Whitworth is not
afraid to tell it like it is. He's been very
critical of the Bengals. We've played the audio here not
(19:17):
that long ago about the way he viewed their offensive
line and the way that they do business, and he's
not been afraid to share his side of the story
with a lot of things in recent years. And I've
always really appreciated that about Andrew Whitworth, because the more
(19:39):
people you know, have that mentality and not being afraid
because you know, I had the conversation last week, or
it might have been earlier this week, and I remember
about how there's so many we's and uses and like
that former player bias that happens that I'm not a
(19:59):
huge fan of. In sports media these days, it's not
often that you get the raw, clear honesty and truth
coming from a former player about an organization, especially an
organization that they hold in high regard. And while I
will always believe that Andrew Whitworth felt slighted by Mike
(20:25):
Brown and by the Bengals, he has at least been
consistent and fair in the criticism of them. And when
a legendary player has things to say about your organization,
it makes that it carries more weight, especially if they're
being critical, because everybody can get up there and be
(20:45):
positive and say, oh, I love the Bengals, and I
love the city and the fans are great and blah,
blah blah blah blah. But it's a different level if
you're out there and you're saying they aren't good enough,
their style of team building is flawed, this isn't working.
I don't know why they keep doing this, and that
can sometimes make those relationships complicated. It can sometimes create
(21:10):
some tension. It can make it a little bit awkward.
Hell boomer a siasin a couple of I was out
this day. I forget exactly what day it was, but
aired the dirty laundry of the Bengals not paying for
airfare and hotel rooms for the Ring of honor people
and eventually got changed. This is a good thing when
(21:32):
you hold your organization, whether you're a former player or
a fan or a sports talk radio host or whatever
it is, when you hold that organization to a standard
into an account and you hold that accountability like these
are the easy things that they should be able to
get right, and sometimes you need to embarrass them to
(21:57):
get the message across, because if not, you just kind
of sleep walking through it. And I've said this before,
the Bengals care more about the external perception of them
at this point than they ever have in the history
of the franchise. And I think a lot of that
has to do with Elizabeth and Caroline Blackburn and the
(22:18):
marketing and the relationship and the partnership activation and all
the stuff that those girls are working on. Those women
are working on to make the Bengals a top of
the line franchise. And they've done a wonderful job with
a lot of it, but there's still parts that they
need to fix. And when your best players and your
historic players and your Ring of Honor players are out
(22:42):
there and not afraid to tell you you screwed this up,
that's a good thing. That's what holding an organization to
a standard and to an account looks like. And good
on the Bengals for still inviting Andrew Whitworth to be
the ruler of.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
The Jungle now? Is what he said? That bad? No?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Probably not, but he's not been afraid to talk about it,
and that's important. And the Bengals saying, yeah, we still
want you here, we want to celebrate your eleven years
here with Cincinnati, and we know the fans love you
and you're gonna be here.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
And so I had posted earlier this week on my
Twitter at audio More that Andrew Whitworth was gonna be
the Bengals ruler of the jungle. And instead of people saying, oh,
that's cool, that's exciting, like love that good to see
big Wit, that's gonna be lit, I said, despite being
very publicly critical of the Bengals shortcomings, Whitworth will be
(23:43):
the ruler of the jungle. That's a good thing. All
of the replies are saying, oh, well, the Brown family
just gets to save a few bucks on a plane
ticket because he's already traveling here. That's the first reply.
Big game legend, coming back, new tradition that most people
(24:05):
seem to love, trying to get the fans fired up,
huge game against a division rival. Conversation remains, Bengals are
cheap if you're the Bengals. Do you not want to
dispel that narrative? Like, I get it, it is part
of it. In his schedule, I'm sure is difficult. And
(24:28):
I would assume this is the only time it made
sense for him, who lived you know, lives out on
the West Coast, the only time it makes sense for
him to be able to do it while he's already
here working the game. And yeah, I'm sure they do
save a few bucks on hotel and airfare if it's
under Amazon's dime, But who cares. If they're getting the
guy here to do what they're asking him to do,
(24:51):
it doesn't matter whether or not they paid for it.
But again, the narrative around the Bengals is not that
they are an elite football operation that is an aggressive
pursuit of a championship. It is instead ah same old
cheap Bengals. And doesn't that if you are the Bengals
drive you insane? It would drive me insane if I'm
(25:14):
trying to build a brand, if I'm trying to get
this organization leveled up, if I was Elizabeth and Caroline,
it would drive me nuts that even though we've done
all these good things, and you understand you have a
long way to go, still the only thing people care
about is this perception that we are cheap. Meanwhile, there
(25:36):
are things happening in the way that the football team
is being built and operated that suggest we have turned
a corner. Moe was talking about this yesterday, the benching
of Logan Wilson. It's very Unbengal like we're Moe's words,
He's exactly right. It's a good thing. When the Bengal
(25:56):
like things start happening that are Unbanngal like. When that
starts happening, that's a good thing. That's an indication that
the organization has turned a corner. What do we always
say about in season trades, Ah, Bengals just don't do that.
They never do that. Nope, never do it. Well, they've
done it twice in the last two seasons. They traded
(26:17):
for Khalil Herbert and they traded for Joe Flacco. And
whether or not those moves worked out, and Khalil Herbert
was fine. He fumbled his first carry, but he was fine,
and they needed to do it, and they needed to
do this for Joe Flacco. The fact of the matter remains,
they did something instead of sitting on their hands and
(26:37):
watching the thing fully explode, they did something. And while
they screwed up the way they went about the Chase
and Higgins contracts, they did something. They signed those players,
they gave them that money, they met those guarantees. They
added a void year to the Trey Henderson contract, which
(26:57):
they never do. The first time they ever put a
void year in a contract was Riley Reef a few
years ago. The offensive tackle they signed from Minnesota. They're
so slowly starting to get with the rest of the league,
and yet the narrative remains that they're cheap and that's
all people ever want to talk about. And I get it,
(27:18):
and there is a long history of such to tell
you that and for people to bank on in the
stadium deal and all of it. Like I hear you
one hundred percent. The Bengals objective in two operations, two
different parts of the operation here in football operations is
and should be to be aggressive in the pursuit of
a championship and to not sit on their hands under
(27:39):
any circumstances. And on the business side of things should be, hey,
look at what we're doing over there. We're trying our
ass off and we've turned the corner to be an
elite organization. Now, those two things have to work together.
And as I said yesterday, when you do stuff like
the White Bengal and your team isn't good enough and
you get embarrassed on national television, it shouldn't mean that
(28:03):
you stop doing the White Bengal. It should mean that
the product on the field has to meet the business
off the field, because if the product on the field doesn't,
it hurts the business more than anything else. Fans go running,
season tickets don't renew, nobody starts to take you seriously,
(28:26):
and all that talk about all the good stuff you've
done in the last couple of years is just to
flash in the pan. And the same can be said
about employing coaches or gms or front office members for
too long. Nobody thinks the Bengals are going to fire
Zach Taylor. Why Ah, the Bengals don't do that. Marvin
(28:47):
Lewis was here for sixteen years now. There's a couple
of times they should have fired Marvin and they didn't.
The narrative is that the organization is too stubborn and
too cheap. And while while I have been touting for
a long time now that that narrative has started to
shift and the Bengals are doing a lot of things
the right way, I still acknowledge that they're further away.
(29:09):
They're still far away from where they need to be.
And while you know, Whitworth being the ruler of the
jungle maybe is not really that indicative of where they're at,
nor does it have that much bearing on what happens
on the field. I understand that it is at least
an acknowledgment. Acknowledgement from the Bengals is like, hey, just
because you're mad at us, or just because you've criticized us,
(29:32):
we're not going to shun you. That's smart, that's a
good thing. They should not do stuff like that, and
I'm glad they aren't. And to circle back just to
the point I made just a second ago, the narrative
around the coaching staff and around the organization and all
(29:53):
of that, I've said, and I stand by that, I
don't think Zach Taylor should be the head coach of
the Bengals anymore. I think that you know it's finished.
I don't know that there's going to be something that
happens between now and the end of the year that's
going to change my mind. But I also acknowledge that
that's not entirely Zach's fault. And if you really want
(30:17):
the narrative to shift, you'll can the guy who's been
there for twenty years and accomplish nothing in Duke Tobin.
If you are serious about being all in in the
window that Joe Burrow has offered you in his career,
you need desperately a breath of fresh air in the
personnel department. Duke Tobin, while I think is a relatively
(30:43):
good guy, and I don't know him personally, but I
do know that he doesn't talk, he doesn't answer for
what he does, and he has failed miserably over and
over and over and over again. And if you want
the narrative to change and to let people know that
you're serious about winning, it's not just firing a head coach.
(31:07):
It's not just trading for a forty year old quarterback.
It's holding the people within the organization to a standard
as well. Much like you hold a player to a standard,
you hold your own people to a standard as well.
And tonight and today is not about firing Zach Taylor
and firing Duke Toben. But these are the points in
(31:29):
the season where you start to investigate. And you're not
really investigate, but you really start to look at where
the organization is at. Because, as I've said several times before,
this is a turning point. This is when the magnifying
glass comes out. This is when all the eyeballs are on.
How does the team respond, how do they perform? And
(31:50):
based off the result, how do you pivot? This is
a big, big moment. For this organization starting tonight. Phone
lines open five point three seven four nine, fifteen thirty.
I'm Austin Elmore. This is our one since he three
to sixty. Right here on the Home of the Bengals,
ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 6 (32:07):
You've been listening to football in the NATI on ESPN
fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. Fay
shuddon ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Welcome back since e three sixty, since beautiful day in Cincinnati.
Gonna be a beautiful night for football. Feels like football
weather at pay Corps Stadium tonight Bengals Steelers eight fifteen.
Phone lines open at five one three seven four nine,
(32:50):
fifteen thirty. Let's go to the phones. Let's start with
our old friend John Michael. Hi, John, How are you?
Speaker 7 (32:57):
Hi?
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Often? How you doing?
Speaker 4 (33:00):
Wonderful man? How have you been.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Well?
Speaker 5 (33:04):
I'm going through a little little Spotter depression. I don't
really need to say why, but I think we all know.
I mean, you know, I took that all that stuff
really hard and everything. But you just said about Duke Tobin,
who has been the face of the franchise for like,
not the face, but the decision maker for twenty years,
(33:25):
and he doesn't have to. He doesn't have to like
like people are asking, like what's going on, he doesn't
have to speak for it. And it kind of sounds
like I've got this new thing I'm doing.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
I'm going to give you a promo here.
Speaker 5 (33:39):
It kind of sounds like Dick Tuban is like the
same guy that runs iHeartMedia. Here it goes back back back, Moode.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
I don't know how to respond to that, John Michael.
Speaker 5 (34:01):
You think I was pretty good now the.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Air horn specifically, you did a great job, did you
did you say did.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
You say fax mode F A C T S fax mode?
Speaker 5 (34:15):
Yeah, facts mad machine. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
I was just making sure everybody was clear on that.
Speaker 5 (34:21):
Yeah, because the people at a Heart don't have to
answer for their miscalculations either.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
I hear what you're saying.
Speaker 5 (34:28):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
I hear what you're saying.
Speaker 6 (34:30):
But you you went up to that.
Speaker 5 (34:32):
Green Bay and everything I was there, like I don't know,
like eight years ago. It was like the hottest game
ever in green Bay history. And they is the most gentle,
nice people of all time, the green Bay fans, and
it's like a it's like a little community. I mean
when you say it's right in the middle of a neighborhood,
(34:52):
people are like, oh, that's kind of weird. It's like
it's elder or is that Lasal No, it's it's the
Green Bay Packards Lamby.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
Like we was just walking through. Me and my mom
was walking through, and people was like, hey, you guys
are mangles fans. My mom was like, yeah, Wes bangle
fans and I was like, yeah, we use mangle fans.
She spoke for both of us, and there was like
would you like to hold my baby? And I was
like I've never held a baby in my life. And
they wanted to picture all my mom and I was like,
(35:22):
this is weird. But I look like somebody that would
hold somebody else's baby. I mean, you've seen me.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
I look approachable that.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Way, right, Oh yeah, And that's just how the good
folks of Green Bay are man and nicest people I've
ever met.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
Well, I appreciate that. You know who's not nice?
Speaker 5 (35:42):
Those dudes up there in ann Arbor.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
No bad people, really mean people.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I mean that's it. I was not treated well when
I when I went up there wearing some some scarlet
and gray.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
Well, it's just a T shirt. Man, it's laundry, right.
I don't, I don't, I don't. I don't do a
whiz on somebody just because they're at the laundromat and
they it's like, man, that's your somebody else's underwear. Man, like,
get out here. But I love you so much and
you're doing a great job and I think he's gonna
take off and everything like that with this program, and
(36:17):
you has always been really calm to me. I've sent
you some side texts even though you haven't answered in
the last like two and a half months.
Speaker 7 (36:25):
I get that.
Speaker 5 (36:26):
I understand that, like maybe like a thumbs up emoji,
whether it's a yellow hand or just like a you know,
but I appreciate that, and I understand what you're going
through working with that guy side by side for as
long as you did. And you, you guys built this program,
(36:46):
not that that James Rapping guy. You guys built this program.
And I appreciate everything you do for us as listeners.
And when you talk about green Bay being the nicest
fans in the world since the three sixties, community has
been the absolute most amazing community I've ever been a
(37:07):
part of.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
In my entire life.
Speaker 5 (37:09):
And I thank all the callers, all the tallbackers, everybody,
even Mike in la Hey School.
Speaker 4 (37:16):
I love that guy too. Well.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
That is unbelievably kind of you, John, and I appreciate
all your support over the years. I appreciate your text
even if I don't always respond to them or give
you a thumbs up, but uh, thank you.
Speaker 5 (37:30):
And just to all the callers now, I've been on
hold for three and a half weeks.
Speaker 7 (37:34):
I love you guys.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
Thank you John. It's uh John, Michael.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
You know, as we were talking to John there, I
got a little bit of breaking news here. I'm gonna
have to investigate this. Kay Adams was apparently just talking
to Chris Collinsworth on her show, and Collinsworth apparently said
that Michael Jordan, the Great, Michael Jordan, the basketball Michael
(38:01):
Jordan is a Bengals fan. This would be news to me.
I know when Mike was was growing up in North Carolina,
there was no NFL team over there. I don't know
if there would be any connections to Michael Jordan on
the Bengals, and don't know that there's any Jordan athletes
(38:23):
on the Bengals. He was at an Eagles game earlier
this year. Jalen Hurts is kind of the face of
Jordan in the NFL. Does anybody know anything about this?
Because this would change my life significantly. There may not
be an athlete that I adore more than Michael Jeffrey Jordan.
If anybody knows anything about this, let me know. Five one, three, seven, four, nine,
(38:44):
fifteen thirty. We got time for another quick phone call.
Let's go from John Michael to Dick in Dayton. What's up, Dick?
Speaker 7 (38:51):
Where do you say, Austin?
Speaker 2 (38:52):
You know what, It's a beautiful day. It feels like
football outside Richard.
Speaker 7 (38:57):
Yes it does, Yes, it does.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Did you ever play football growing up? Dick?
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (39:02):
I did one year and never again.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
I start.
Speaker 7 (39:05):
You know, I played in the Centerville Marching Band, but
I played Clarnet, but I'd rather played what remember one, David?
I saw you. But Austin, I don't think we realized.
You know what happened about Joe Burrow. That's so sad.
But Flacco last week for coming in there, Austin, I
thought looked pretty good on those drives. You don't yeah
(39:28):
any good.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
He took care of the ball, he didn't turn it over.
And in the second hand he started throwing it. Our
second half, he just started throwing it up to Jamar Chase.
Speaker 7 (39:38):
Yeah. And I know over the years, Austin, I could
remember in college, I don't I forget. I know, the
Bengals beat them one year and they were like, oh,
I forget when they kidding. They never had back in
the seventies eighties much luck. So I think Boomer came
because they lost, like the Browns did so many in
(39:59):
that stadium. But the defense has to play good tonight, Austin. Yeah,
the defense has to play pretty good, don't you think.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
Yeah, I'm right there with you.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
I mean you got to be able to slow down
Aaron Rodgers a little bit and get off the field
a little bit.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
Dick. Do you have a prediction for tonight's game.
Speaker 7 (40:16):
Yeah, I'm going to take the Bengals twenty seven to
twenty four.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
All right, perfect, Dick, I will write that down. Thank
you for the phone call.
Speaker 7 (40:24):
Yeah, good talking to you.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
Likewise, a bit of a Friday field here on a
Thursday on Sincy three to sixty Sekiincinnati.
Speaker 4 (40:34):
He's going on in the NFL.
Speaker 6 (40:36):
Getting ESPN fifteen thirty from iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Since a three sixty ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm Austin Elmore
just a couple of minutes before we take a break
and start our number two with John Shearon from a
hiss E Sports and the Orange and Black Insider podcast.
John gave his report cards and talked about a couple
of players that I'm interested in talking to him about,
including DJ Turner, who quietly has turned his season around
(41:09):
and hopefully his career around the way he's played over
the last month or so and had a wonderful performance
on Sunday in Green Bay. Going to be a bit
of a different challenge tonight against DK Metcalf, who is
just a bigger, more physical wide receiver. And one of
the things I'm going to be looking out for tonight
(41:30):
is YAK that would be yards after catch. This is
where the Bengals and the Steelers are polar opposites in
a way. The Bengals. No team in the NFL has
allowed more YAK than the Cincinnati Bengals. That's not a
surprise because number one, they're not good tacklers, and number two,
(41:51):
the defenders are normally nowhere near the wide receiver when
they catch the pass. There's a lot of open runners
and easy separation in the Bengals defense. And secondly, the
Pittsburgh wide receivers number one in the NFL in YAK.
Pittsburgh receivers are averaging seven point seven yards after catch
(42:13):
per catch. That's the best in the NFL by far. Now,
one of those was a long eighty yard touchdown to
DK Metcalf and that obviously will skew the numbers a
little bit, but goes without saying one of the Pittsburgh
strengths is their ability to create separation and catch the
ball and get yards after catch, and one of the
Bengals weaknesses is allowing said yards after catch and the
(42:39):
inability to tackle. So gonna be curious to see how
that shakes out tonight and if the Bengals are able
to be a little stickier in coverage, and if so,
if that's gonna cut down on some of that YAK
and maybe improve some of the tackling issues that the
Bengals have had over the last couple of weeks and
really all season long. When we come back, John Shearon
(43:01):
joins us as he does every Thursday at one o'clock
to talk Bengals and Steelers. This is the home of
the Bengals, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
WCKY, Cincinnati. Make us the number one preset on your
car radio and on the free, new and improved iHeartRadio
app Free never sounded so good.
Speaker 4 (43:17):
ESPN fifteen thirty at Genesis time,
This is Skyline Chile. Since he three to sixty about
Cincinnati from Cincinnati, sponsored in part by Skyline Chile. Stop
by Skyline Chile through a three way or chee Coney today,
feeling good, It's Skyline time. This is ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Come on now, it all comes down to tonight, the
season on the line, with the entire world, at least
those with streaming services watching Thursday Night football. It's the
(00:45):
Bengals and the Steelers right here on ESPN fifteen thirty. Hi, Hello,
and welcome in ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm Austin Elmore, and
(01:06):
our live coverage goes for the next twelve and a
half hours right here on ESPN fifteen thirty, starting with
Cincy three sixty. I'm here until three o'clock. From three
to six thirty this afternoon, it'll be Lance McAllister moe Egger,
and Rocky Boyman live from the Holy Grail ahead of
(01:27):
Bengals Steelers tonight, the White Bengal game at pay Corp Stadium.
We'll turn things over to network coverage beginning at six
thirty with Wayne box Miller, Dan Hoor Dave Lapham for
Bengals Steelers, and then after the game from twelve thirty
am until two thirty am, yours truly is right back
(01:47):
in the seat, getting you set with all the postgame coverage,
all the postgame coverage of Bengals Steelers on Thursday Night Football.
Then right back here tomorrow at noon for a typical
Friday show Charlie Goldsmith at one o'clock he'll be breaking
it all down with us as well. So the next
twenty four hours are gonna be fun. The next twelve
(02:08):
and a half especially, are gonna be fun, and I
hope we have a lot of fun for the next three.
Phone lines are officially open as of right now five
p one three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty. I'm asking
for your participation in talkbacks today. I want to know
your official prediction. How are you feeling about this game?
(02:28):
Are you confident? Are you not confident? What do you
think happens tonight at pay Corp Stadium? And based off
of that outcome that you predict, what's going to be
the fallout if they lose? What happens? Does Trey Hendrickson
get traded? Does Zach Taylor get fired? If they win,
do the Bengals become buyers. Are they all of a
(02:48):
sudden back? What are you looking for tonight at pay
Corp Stadium. Go to the iHeartRadio app, tap that little
microphone next to the play button on ESPN fifteen thirty
and leave me a talk back. We'll get to our
talkbacks at one twenty this afternoon, as we normally do.
Show set up for today one o'clock every Thursday. John
(03:09):
Sheeran eight of Z Sports in the Orange of Black
Insider podcast, he's going to join us. He wrote about
the Bengals report card so far through the season. We'll
talk to him about that. And then at two o'clock
ESPN NFL reporter Brooke Pryor covering the Pittsburgh Steelers is
in town and she's going to join us to give
us the Steelers perspective ahead of tonight's game. But the
(03:32):
biggest news I think happened an hour or two ago,
maybe three, on Good Morning Football, when Ian Rappaport was
giving the injury updates ahead of tonight's game. And here
is what Ian had to say about the Steelers injuries
and the Bengals injuries going into Thursday Night Football.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Calvin Austin, one of the young young receivers for the
Pittsburgh Steelers. He is not going to play tonight. He's
doing his shoulder and he has not practiced at all
this week. He has been ruled out no surprise. Probably
means you're gonna see obviously, you're gonna see plenty of
dk Metcal, plenty of Roman Wilson, Scottie Miller also there
as a depth piece of the Steelers should be fine.
(04:13):
On the other side, another I would say mildly young
player Mikeasicki, one of their tight ends who has been
dealing with a pectorial injury, a torn peck. He was
placed on injury reserve this week. He is out for
this game and he is out the next four weeks.
We'll see if he's able to come back. Sounds like
the mrin maybe came back a little better than they expected,
so time will tell if he is able to return
(04:35):
this season and then the big one for tonight. Trey Hendrickson,
the star pass rusher for the Cincinnati Bengals, one of
the best pass rushers in the NFL and certainly one
of the.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Big stories of the offseason. He is eventually.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Questionable with a hip injury, was ruled out of the
game with a back injury, now questionable with a hip injury.
My understanding is, despite the fact that he is really
pushing to play, he's considered a bit of a long shot.
It's just such a quick turnaround from Sunday to Thursday.
I'm not saying he's got no chance, but it's not
a great chance. If no, tre Hendrickson well is absolutely
(05:10):
dying to be out on the field.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
So we'll see.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
So we're starting the day a little bit behind the
eight ball. Trey Hendrickson, according to Ian Rappaport, a long
shot to be able to play tonight. That obviously hurts
the Bengals chances. Especially hurts the Bengals chances when you
consider Aaron Rodgers, who's playing fine so far this season,
has not been good against pressure, and especially when you
(05:35):
look at the beginning of that update when they talked
about how Calvin Austen is not going to be playing tonight.
So if you remove one of Aaron Rodgers' top targets,
the number two receiver in Calvin Austin, and you add
to the equation Trey Hendrickson being able to play, that
makes things considerably tougher on the Pittsburgh offense, and obviously
(05:56):
Shamar Stewart, coming off of an ankle injury, hasn't played
in a few weeks. Don't know exactly what you're going
to get. And it goes without saying that the rest
of the guys in that position group, Miles Murphy, Joseph
Osai cam Sample and others have been pretty hit or miss.
Everybody knows a game without Trey Hendrickson is not going
to be an easy one to win. He's your best
(06:18):
defensive player. He causes the most havoc. He creates opportunities
for the defense if nobody else will. Trey is at
least going to put pressure on Aaron Rodgers, and so
that becomes quite a problem for Al Golden to try
to figure out how to solve. And you know, a
lot of times with these great quarterbacks, you don't want
(06:41):
to pressure them because they're fast, they process, they get
the ball out quickly, and you can easily kind of
pick a part of defense if you're bringing multiple guys
to blitz well. The Steelers offensive line has not been
wonderful this year. They've been just okay. They haven't run
the football very good either. But Aaron Rodgers is starting
(07:01):
to trend in the right direction. And last week against Cleveland,
with a great pass rusher and Miles Garrett coming at him,
Aaron Rodgers got the ball out extremely, extremely quickly, and
that kept the Steelers offense ahead of the chains. How
is Al Golden going to defend Aaron Rodgers and that
Steelers offense without Calvin Austen and without Trey Hendrickson, That
(07:26):
to me becomes the matchup of the night. Because if
you want to win these games, you have to get
to the quarterback period, point blank. You can throw everything
else out the window. You can throw the Steelers record
out the window, the Bengals record out the window, what
DJ Turner has been doing. You can throw Joe Flacco
in the second half out the window. Mike Tomlin on
(07:47):
Thursday nights. You can get rid of all of it,
because if you don't put pressure on the quarterback, Aaron
Rodgers will eat you alive. We've seen it plenty of
times over the course of his career. Rogers is that
good and he can do that. On top of that,
the other note that Ian Rappaport had in that update
(08:08):
was that the MRI on Mike Giseki came back a
little bit better than they expected. Now, we haven't heard
this anywhere else. This is the only time I've heard
this came from Rapaport So seems like maybe it's not
going to be a season ending injury for Mike Gaziki.
He is on the injured reserve list for at least
four weeks with that peck injury. Hopefully that's something that
(08:30):
he can come back from sooner rather than later. Although
Kaseki wasn't having that much of an impact on the offense,
we all know the Bengals offense has been atrocious, but
he does at least give you some opportunities in some
matchup problems. I'm curious to see what the offense looks
like tonight without him, and no offense has been pretty good.
(08:52):
Are you able to add some wrinkles into the offense
where Nofan is in that Mike Gaziki role is as
good as a receiver as Mike GIESICKI I think, and
you can still be productive from that position. The other thing, though,
is the drop off because Tanner Hudson is not going
to play in this game. He suffered a concussion against
(09:12):
the Packers last week, so he's already been ruled out,
which means your tight ends are going to be Drew Sample,
Noah Fan and Cam Grandy. You get ugly quickly right there,
especially the way that Sample and Grandy have played this season,
which is not good at all. Who else on the
injured list injury report from yesterday Tanner Hudson, As I mentioned,
(09:36):
Charlie Jones is officially listed as questionable with a rib injury,
and Lucas Patrick, who is still technically on IR, is
listed as questionable with that calf injury that he suffered
in Week one against the Cleveland Browns. There is a
developing situation with the Pittsburgh Steelers. We'll talk to Brooke
Pryor about this coming up at two o'clock, and that
(09:57):
is that star safety to Sean Elliott missed practice yesterday
and did not travel with the Steelers due to a
personal injury in a family situation that's going on with
the sewn Elliott and his family. He is a huge
part of their defense. He's one of those tone setter guys.
He flies around the field, has a knack for the
football is really really good, and so if he's unable
(10:20):
to go based off what we've seen from the Bengals,
at least in the second half against the Packers, that
could work to their advantage. It really could. The other
thing that has stuck out to me as I'm going
through all the numbers, and today is going to be
a big day about numbers. We're going to try to
give you as much context as you possibly can going
into this game tonight between the Bengals and the Steelers.
(10:43):
When you think of Pittsburgh Steeler football, you often think
of defense and running the football, and that's really what
you're supposed to think about when you think of the
AFC North as a whole right, defense and run the
football well. The Bengals don't play defense or run the
football well, and the Steelers don't run the football well
at all. How about this, Pittsburgh is ranked twenty ninth.
(11:06):
Let me make sure I got this stat correctly with
my handy notebook here. Pittsburgh is ranked twenty ninth in
yards per game rushing the football eighty four yards per game. Now,
the Bengals are dead last. There are thirty second in
the NFL, averaging fifty six yards per game. I saw
(11:28):
a stat yesterday that the Bengals are on pace as
a team to rush for less than a thousand yards.
That is absurd, right, Like, that can't possibly happen. Somebody's
gonna have a one hundred and fifty yard game on
accident at some point, wouldn't they break an eighty yard run.
That's gonna happen eventually, Right, Well, Pittsburgh is averaging eighty
(11:50):
four yards per game on the ground. That's twenty ninth.
The Bengals are averaging fifty six. That's thirty second. Even
that is a pretty significant difference twenty eight yards between
the two, So that's something to keep an eye out on.
And then when it comes to defending the run, Pittsburgh
is right in the middle at sixteenth in the NFL,
(12:11):
but they're still giving up over one hundred and ten
yards per game on the ground. So if there's ever
been a time for the Bengals to get their run
game going, it would be tonight. You've got to be
able to understand Pittsburgh sixteenth in the NFL. That's not
a pushover by any stretch of the imagination. But if
you're averaging one hundred and ten yards on the ground,
(12:32):
at the very least you've got to be able to
get something going to control the clock, to give your
defense a chance if you're going to beat the Pittsburgh
Steelers tonight.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
I'm fired up about it.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
I mean, I know everybody's calling it a bunch of
different things, the Unk Bowl, the unctionin the Icy Hot
Bowl between Aaron Rodgers and Joe Flacco. But I do
think there's a chance that this could be a track meet.
I'll give you some more numbers on that a little
bit later on Pittsburgh's four and one will go over
there schedule shortly. This line opened up at five and
(13:04):
a half in favor of Pittsburgh. It is now down
to four and a half in favor of Pittsburgh, so
a full point has dropped. The over under opened at
forty two and a half. It's now up to forty
four and a half. And the Bengals were minus one
fifteen at the or excuse me, the the Bengals were,
I believe, at one point minus one ninety eight money line,
(13:26):
now up to plus two hundred money line are the
Bengals for tonight's game at eight to fifteen. White Bengal,
White Bengal is the theme for tonight and I think
for a lot of fans, this is the last shot.
I talked about this a little bit earlier. This week
is like, Okay, with all the stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Going on with.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Season ticket renewals and players being hurt like Joe Burrow,
and the national spotlight being on the Bengals and all
that going into the hollow season, It's like, Okay, this
is the last chance the Bengals have to legitimately compete
this season, and I think it's the last chance a
lot of fans will give them this season as well,
(14:11):
because understandably, there's doubt about their abilities without Joe Burrow,
and there would be doubt about their ability if they
lose this game to be able to recover and even
make things interesting if Joe were to come back in
the second half of the season or late in the
(14:31):
season and potentially for the playoffs. It starts with tonight,
and the way the dominoes would fall afterwards if they
were to lose or if they were to win, creates
a really interesting stretch for the Bengals with the Jets
and Bears coming before the bye week. What's going on tonight, Well,
they're going to light it up. They're going to light
(14:52):
up the jungle during the player intros. Should be an
awesome environment there. When I was coming home Monday night,
I landed in Cincinnati and I'm driving through the cut
in the hill and they're doing the light test at
pay Course Stadium. It was really cool to see that
from that angle and to drive by it. So that
should be cool and if you've never been, it's worth it.
(15:15):
Craig Morgan country music singer, is going to be the
national anthem singer. Andrew Whitworth will be the Ruler of
the Jungle, and Eli Mamon I think I'm saying that correctly,
will be the rock and rule guitarist. Eli, of course
from Walk the Moon Cincinnati band. I had the idea
that the Bengals should have Joe Burrow be the surprise
(15:36):
ruler of the Jungle tomorrow night or tonight. I would
expect to we'll see Joe Burrow today at the stadium.
I would assume we've reached that point where Joe will
be there, especially on a short week game like this.
Don't know if he's going to be on the sideline
or in the booth or what exactly, but I would
assume we'll see Joe I've been a little bit surprised
how much people care whether or not he's there or
(15:59):
on the sideline or in the booth, or what his
whereabouts are. I know he's there, I know he's participating
in meetings, I know he's also rehabbing. I know he's
doing his part. But whether or not you see him
on game day, whether he's in the locker room or
in the booth, or in his suite or on the sideline,
(16:21):
I'm not sure why people get so bothered about that.
It doesn't really matter to me if he's doing all
the stuff throughout the week, especially if there's not that
much he could do during the game. I do get it, like, yeah,
you want him there and you want him to be helpful,
but also if there's any risk of him getting rolled
up on or anything happening to him, why he's on
(16:42):
the sideline.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
What's the point.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
If you are going to have a chance to come
back later on this year, you want to prevent any
of those situations at all from happening. So that's the
itinerary for the Bengals and Steelers tonight, with kickoff set
for eight fils. Phone lines are open five point three
seven four nine, fifteen thirty. If you want to talk
(17:04):
about the game, and I'm excited, I'm getting fired up now.
I love it when the Bengals play on Thursdays. I
generally don't love Thursday night games, but when the Bengals
play on Thursdays, you don't have to wait, especially get
that bad taste out of your mouth after a loss, like,
let's just.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Get right to it and get it over with.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
And especially when you have a home inter division primetime game,
you should be excited about that. Well, take a break,
we'll come back. Hour one of Sincy three to sixty
brought to you by our friends. It's Skyline Chili, by
the way, gotta drop yesterday. The Skyline Chicken Chili sensational.
Speaker 5 (17:42):
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I know a lot of people are like, wait a minute,
chicken chili. Yes, yes, and it does taste like Skyline.
I think it's got a little bit more of a
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Speaker 4 (18:00):
It's sensational.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Highly recommend getting the Chicken Chili New Chicken Chili from Skyline.
Take a break, We'll come back. This is Sincy three
sixty on the Home of the Bengals, ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
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This is Football in the NATI, brought to you by
Hey Door and Window Company on ESPN fifteen point thirty,
the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Ah. Yes, indeed, it is Football in the NATI, the
first of three Football in the natties that we have
today scheduled. Jumbled up a little bit with Moe and
Lance and Rocky on this afternoon from the Holy Grail
for pregame sports Talk. Looking forward to listening to that.
(18:54):
Andrew Whitworth is the ruler of the Jungle tonight. He's
a part of the Amazon Prime. He does pre and
post game with them. And not the first time that
Big Wit has been back in Cincinnati with the Prime crew.
But you know, I appreciate how Andrew Whitworth is not
afraid to tell it like it is. He's been very
critical of the Bengals. We've played the audio here not
(19:17):
that long ago about the way he viewed their offensive
line and the way that they do business, and he's
not been afraid to share his side of the story
with a lot of things in recent years. And I've
always really appreciated that about Andrew Whitworth, because the more
(19:39):
people you know, have that mentality and not being afraid
because you know, I had the conversation last week, or
it might have been earlier this week, and I remember
about how there's so many we's and uses and like
that former player bias that happens that I'm not a
(19:59):
huge fan of. In sports media these days, it's not
often that you get the raw, clear honesty and truth
coming from a former player about an organization, especially an
organization that they hold in high regard. And while I
will always believe that Andrew Whitworth felt slighted by Mike
(20:25):
Brown and by the Bengals, he has at least been
consistent and fair in the criticism of them. And when
a legendary player has things to say about your organization,
it makes that it carries more weight, especially if they're
being critical, because everybody can get up there and be
(20:45):
positive and say, oh, I love the Bengals, and I
love the city and the fans are great and blah,
blah blah blah blah. But it's a different level if
you're out there and you're saying they aren't good enough,
their style of team building is flawed, this isn't working.
I don't know why they keep doing this, and that
can sometimes make those relationships complicated. It can sometimes create
(21:10):
some tension. It can make it a little bit awkward.
Hell boomer a siasin a couple of I was out
this day. I forget exactly what day it was, but
aired the dirty laundry of the Bengals not paying for
airfare and hotel rooms for the Ring of honor people
and eventually got changed. This is a good thing when
(21:32):
you hold your organization, whether you're a former player or
a fan or a sports talk radio host or whatever
it is, when you hold that organization to a standard
into an account and you hold that accountability like these
are the easy things that they should be able to
get right, and sometimes you need to embarrass them to
(21:57):
get the message across, because if not, you just kind
of sleep walking through it. And I've said this before,
the Bengals care more about the external perception of them
at this point than they ever have in the history
of the franchise. And I think a lot of that
has to do with Elizabeth and Caroline Blackburn and the
(22:18):
marketing and the relationship and the partnership activation and all
the stuff that those girls are working on. Those women
are working on to make the Bengals a top of
the line franchise. And they've done a wonderful job with
a lot of it, but there's still parts that they
need to fix. And when your best players and your
historic players and your Ring of Honor players are out
(22:42):
there and not afraid to tell you you screwed this up,
that's a good thing. That's what holding an organization to
a standard and to an account looks like. And good
on the Bengals for still inviting Andrew Whitworth to be
the ruler of.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
The Jungle now? Is what he said? That bad? No?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Probably not, but he's not been afraid to talk about it,
and that's important. And the Bengals saying, yeah, we still
want you here, we want to celebrate your eleven years
here with Cincinnati, and we know the fans love you
and you're gonna be here.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
And so I had posted earlier this week on my
Twitter at audio More that Andrew Whitworth was gonna be
the Bengals ruler of the jungle. And instead of people saying, oh,
that's cool, that's exciting, like love that good to see
big Wit, that's gonna be lit, I said, despite being
very publicly critical of the Bengals shortcomings, Whitworth will be
(23:43):
the ruler of the jungle. That's a good thing. All
of the replies are saying, oh, well, the Brown family
just gets to save a few bucks on a plane
ticket because he's already traveling here. That's the first reply.
Big game legend, coming back, new tradition that most people
(24:05):
seem to love, trying to get the fans fired up,
huge game against a division rival. Conversation remains, Bengals are
cheap if you're the Bengals. Do you not want to
dispel that narrative? Like, I get it, it is part
of it. In his schedule, I'm sure is difficult. And
(24:28):
I would assume this is the only time it made
sense for him, who lived you know, lives out on
the West Coast, the only time it makes sense for
him to be able to do it while he's already
here working the game. And yeah, I'm sure they do
save a few bucks on hotel and airfare if it's
under Amazon's dime, But who cares. If they're getting the
guy here to do what they're asking him to do,
(24:51):
it doesn't matter whether or not they paid for it.
But again, the narrative around the Bengals is not that
they are an elite football operation that is an aggressive
pursuit of a championship. It is instead ah same old
cheap Bengals. And doesn't that if you are the Bengals
drive you insane? It would drive me insane if I'm
(25:14):
trying to build a brand, if I'm trying to get
this organization leveled up, if I was Elizabeth and Caroline,
it would drive me nuts that even though we've done
all these good things, and you understand you have a
long way to go, still the only thing people care
about is this perception that we are cheap. Meanwhile, there
(25:36):
are things happening in the way that the football team
is being built and operated that suggest we have turned
a corner. Moe was talking about this yesterday, the benching
of Logan Wilson. It's very Unbengal like we're Moe's words,
He's exactly right. It's a good thing. When the Bengal
(25:56):
like things start happening that are Unbanngal like. When that
starts happening, that's a good thing. That's an indication that
the organization has turned a corner. What do we always
say about in season trades, Ah, Bengals just don't do that.
They never do that. Nope, never do it. Well, they've
done it twice in the last two seasons. They traded
(26:17):
for Khalil Herbert and they traded for Joe Flacco. And
whether or not those moves worked out, and Khalil Herbert
was fine. He fumbled his first carry, but he was fine,
and they needed to do it, and they needed to
do this for Joe Flacco. The fact of the matter remains,
they did something instead of sitting on their hands and
(26:37):
watching the thing fully explode, they did something. And while
they screwed up the way they went about the Chase
and Higgins contracts, they did something. They signed those players,
they gave them that money, they met those guarantees. They
added a void year to the Trey Henderson contract, which
(26:57):
they never do. The first time they ever put a
void year in a contract was Riley Reef a few
years ago. The offensive tackle they signed from Minnesota. They're
so slowly starting to get with the rest of the league,
and yet the narrative remains that they're cheap and that's
all people ever want to talk about. And I get it,
(27:18):
and there is a long history of such to tell
you that and for people to bank on in the
stadium deal and all of it. Like I hear you
one hundred percent. The Bengals objective in two operations, two
different parts of the operation here in football operations is
and should be to be aggressive in the pursuit of
a championship and to not sit on their hands under
(27:39):
any circumstances. And on the business side of things should be, hey,
look at what we're doing over there. We're trying our
ass off and we've turned the corner to be an
elite organization. Now, those two things have to work together.
And as I said yesterday, when you do stuff like
the White Bengal and your team isn't good enough and
you get embarrassed on national television, it shouldn't mean that
(28:03):
you stop doing the White Bengal. It should mean that
the product on the field has to meet the business
off the field, because if the product on the field doesn't,
it hurts the business more than anything else. Fans go running,
season tickets don't renew, nobody starts to take you seriously,
(28:26):
and all that talk about all the good stuff you've
done in the last couple of years is just to
flash in the pan. And the same can be said
about employing coaches or gms or front office members for
too long. Nobody thinks the Bengals are going to fire
Zach Taylor. Why Ah, the Bengals don't do that. Marvin
(28:47):
Lewis was here for sixteen years now. There's a couple
of times they should have fired Marvin and they didn't.
The narrative is that the organization is too stubborn and
too cheap. And while while I have been touting for
a long time now that that narrative has started to
shift and the Bengals are doing a lot of things
the right way, I still acknowledge that they're further away.
(29:09):
They're still far away from where they need to be.
And while you know, Whitworth being the ruler of the
jungle maybe is not really that indicative of where they're at,
nor does it have that much bearing on what happens
on the field. I understand that it is at least
an acknowledgment. Acknowledgement from the Bengals is like, hey, just
because you're mad at us, or just because you've criticized us,
(29:32):
we're not going to shun you. That's smart, that's a
good thing. They should not do stuff like that, and
I'm glad they aren't. And to circle back just to
the point I made just a second ago, the narrative
around the coaching staff and around the organization and all
(29:53):
of that, I've said, and I stand by that, I
don't think Zach Taylor should be the head coach of
the Bengals anymore. I think that you know it's finished.
I don't know that there's going to be something that
happens between now and the end of the year that's
going to change my mind. But I also acknowledge that
that's not entirely Zach's fault. And if you really want
(30:17):
the narrative to shift, you'll can the guy who's been
there for twenty years and accomplish nothing in Duke Tobin.
If you are serious about being all in in the
window that Joe Burrow has offered you in his career,
you need desperately a breath of fresh air in the
personnel department. Duke Tobin, while I think is a relatively
(30:43):
good guy, and I don't know him personally, but I
do know that he doesn't talk, he doesn't answer for
what he does, and he has failed miserably over and
over and over and over again. And if you want
the narrative to change and to let people know that
you're serious about winning, it's not just firing a head coach.
(31:07):
It's not just trading for a forty year old quarterback.
It's holding the people within the organization to a standard
as well. Much like you hold a player to a standard,
you hold your own people to a standard as well.
And tonight and today is not about firing Zach Taylor
and firing Duke Toben. But these are the points in
(31:29):
the season where you start to investigate. And you're not
really investigate, but you really start to look at where
the organization is at. Because, as I've said several times before,
this is a turning point. This is when the magnifying
glass comes out. This is when all the eyeballs are on.
How does the team respond, how do they perform? And
(31:50):
based off the result, how do you pivot? This is
a big, big moment. For this organization starting tonight. Phone
lines open five point three seven four nine, fifteen thirty.
I'm Austin Elmore. This is our one since he three
to sixty. Right here on the Home of the Bengals,
ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 6 (32:07):
You've been listening to football in the NATI on ESPN
fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. Fay
shuddon ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Welcome back since e three sixty, since beautiful day in Cincinnati.
Gonna be a beautiful night for football. Feels like football
weather at pay Corps Stadium tonight Bengals Steelers eight fifteen.
Phone lines open at five one three seven four nine,
(32:50):
fifteen thirty. Let's go to the phones. Let's start with
our old friend John Michael. Hi, John, How are you?
Speaker 7 (32:57):
Hi?
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Often? How you doing?
Speaker 4 (33:00):
Wonderful man? How have you been.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Well?
Speaker 5 (33:04):
I'm going through a little little Spotter depression. I don't
really need to say why, but I think we all know.
I mean, you know, I took that all that stuff
really hard and everything. But you just said about Duke Tobin,
who has been the face of the franchise for like,
not the face, but the decision maker for twenty years,
(33:25):
and he doesn't have to. He doesn't have to like
like people are asking, like what's going on, he doesn't
have to speak for it. And it kind of sounds
like I've got this new thing I'm doing.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
I'm going to give you a promo here.
Speaker 5 (33:39):
It kind of sounds like Dick Tuban is like the
same guy that runs iHeartMedia. Here it goes back back back, Moode.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
I don't know how to respond to that, John Michael.
Speaker 5 (34:01):
You think I was pretty good now the.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Air horn specifically, you did a great job, did you
did you say did.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
You say fax mode F A C T S fax mode?
Speaker 5 (34:15):
Yeah, facts mad machine. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
I was just making sure everybody was clear on that.
Speaker 5 (34:21):
Yeah, because the people at a Heart don't have to
answer for their miscalculations either.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
I hear what you're saying.
Speaker 5 (34:28):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
I hear what you're saying.
Speaker 6 (34:30):
But you you went up to that.
Speaker 5 (34:32):
Green Bay and everything I was there, like I don't know,
like eight years ago. It was like the hottest game
ever in green Bay history. And they is the most gentle,
nice people of all time, the green Bay fans, and
it's like a it's like a little community. I mean
when you say it's right in the middle of a neighborhood,
(34:52):
people are like, oh, that's kind of weird. It's like
it's elder or is that Lasal No, it's it's the
Green Bay Packards Lamby.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
Like we was just walking through. Me and my mom
was walking through, and people was like, hey, you guys
are mangles fans. My mom was like, yeah, Wes bangle
fans and I was like, yeah, we use mangle fans.
She spoke for both of us, and there was like
would you like to hold my baby? And I was
like I've never held a baby in my life. And
they wanted to picture all my mom and I was like,
(35:22):
this is weird. But I look like somebody that would
hold somebody else's baby. I mean, you've seen me.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
I look approachable that.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Way, right, Oh yeah, And that's just how the good
folks of Green Bay are man and nicest people I've
ever met.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
Well, I appreciate that. You know who's not nice?
Speaker 5 (35:42):
Those dudes up there in ann Arbor.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
No bad people, really mean people.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I mean that's it. I was not treated well when
I when I went up there wearing some some scarlet
and gray.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
Well, it's just a T shirt. Man, it's laundry, right.
I don't, I don't, I don't. I don't do a
whiz on somebody just because they're at the laundromat and
they it's like, man, that's your somebody else's underwear. Man, like,
get out here. But I love you so much and
you're doing a great job and I think he's gonna
take off and everything like that with this program, and
(36:17):
you has always been really calm to me. I've sent
you some side texts even though you haven't answered in
the last like two and a half months.
Speaker 7 (36:25):
I get that.
Speaker 5 (36:26):
I understand that, like maybe like a thumbs up emoji,
whether it's a yellow hand or just like a you know,
but I appreciate that, and I understand what you're going
through working with that guy side by side for as
long as you did. And you, you guys built this program,
(36:46):
not that that James Rapping guy. You guys built this program.
And I appreciate everything you do for us as listeners.
And when you talk about green Bay being the nicest
fans in the world since the three sixties, community has
been the absolute most amazing community I've ever been a
(37:07):
part of.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
In my entire life.
Speaker 5 (37:09):
And I thank all the callers, all the tallbackers, everybody,
even Mike in la Hey School.
Speaker 4 (37:16):
I love that guy too. Well.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
That is unbelievably kind of you, John, and I appreciate
all your support over the years. I appreciate your text
even if I don't always respond to them or give
you a thumbs up, but uh, thank you.
Speaker 5 (37:30):
And just to all the callers now, I've been on
hold for three and a half weeks.
Speaker 7 (37:34):
I love you guys.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
Thank you John. It's uh John, Michael.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
You know, as we were talking to John there, I
got a little bit of breaking news here. I'm gonna
have to investigate this. Kay Adams was apparently just talking
to Chris Collinsworth on her show, and Collinsworth apparently said
that Michael Jordan, the Great, Michael Jordan, the basketball Michael
(38:01):
Jordan is a Bengals fan. This would be news to me.
I know when Mike was was growing up in North Carolina,
there was no NFL team over there. I don't know
if there would be any connections to Michael Jordan on
the Bengals, and don't know that there's any Jordan athletes
(38:23):
on the Bengals. He was at an Eagles game earlier
this year. Jalen Hurts is kind of the face of
Jordan in the NFL. Does anybody know anything about this?
Because this would change my life significantly. There may not
be an athlete that I adore more than Michael Jeffrey Jordan.
If anybody knows anything about this, let me know. Five one, three, seven, four, nine,
(38:44):
fifteen thirty. We got time for another quick phone call.
Let's go from John Michael to Dick in Dayton. What's up, Dick?
Speaker 7 (38:51):
Where do you say, Austin?
Speaker 2 (38:52):
You know what, It's a beautiful day. It feels like
football outside Richard.
Speaker 7 (38:57):
Yes it does, Yes, it does.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Did you ever play football growing up? Dick?
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (39:02):
I did one year and never again.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
I start.
Speaker 7 (39:05):
You know, I played in the Centerville Marching Band, but
I played Clarnet, but I'd rather played what remember one, David?
I saw you. But Austin, I don't think we realized.
You know what happened about Joe Burrow. That's so sad.
But Flacco last week for coming in there, Austin, I
thought looked pretty good on those drives. You don't yeah
(39:28):
any good.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
He took care of the ball, he didn't turn it over.
And in the second hand he started throwing it. Our
second half, he just started throwing it up to Jamar Chase.
Speaker 7 (39:38):
Yeah. And I know over the years, Austin, I could
remember in college, I don't I forget. I know, the
Bengals beat them one year and they were like, oh,
I forget when they kidding. They never had back in
the seventies eighties much luck. So I think Boomer came
because they lost, like the Browns did so many in
(39:59):
that stadium. But the defense has to play good tonight, Austin. Yeah,
the defense has to play pretty good, don't you think.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
Yeah, I'm right there with you.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
I mean you got to be able to slow down
Aaron Rodgers a little bit and get off the field
a little bit.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
Dick. Do you have a prediction for tonight's game.
Speaker 7 (40:16):
Yeah, I'm going to take the Bengals twenty seven to
twenty four.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
All right, perfect, Dick, I will write that down. Thank
you for the phone call.
Speaker 7 (40:24):
Yeah, good talking to you.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
Likewise, a bit of a Friday field here on a
Thursday on Sincy three to sixty Sekiincinnati.
Speaker 4 (40:34):
He's going on in the NFL.
Speaker 6 (40:36):
Getting ESPN fifteen thirty from iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Since a three sixty ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm Austin Elmore
just a couple of minutes before we take a break
and start our number two with John Shearon from a
hiss E Sports and the Orange and Black Insider podcast.
John gave his report cards and talked about a couple
of players that I'm interested in talking to him about,
including DJ Turner, who quietly has turned his season around
(41:09):
and hopefully his career around the way he's played over
the last month or so and had a wonderful performance
on Sunday in Green Bay. Going to be a bit
of a different challenge tonight against DK Metcalf, who is
just a bigger, more physical wide receiver. And one of
the things I'm going to be looking out for tonight
(41:30):
is YAK that would be yards after catch. This is
where the Bengals and the Steelers are polar opposites in
a way. The Bengals. No team in the NFL has
allowed more YAK than the Cincinnati Bengals. That's not a
surprise because number one, they're not good tacklers, and number two,
(41:51):
the defenders are normally nowhere near the wide receiver when
they catch the pass. There's a lot of open runners
and easy separation in the Bengals defense. And secondly, the
Pittsburgh wide receivers number one in the NFL in YAK.
Pittsburgh receivers are averaging seven point seven yards after catch
(42:13):
per catch. That's the best in the NFL by far. Now,
one of those was a long eighty yard touchdown to
DK Metcalf and that obviously will skew the numbers a
little bit, but goes without saying one of the Pittsburgh
strengths is their ability to create separation and catch the
ball and get yards after catch, and one of the
Bengals weaknesses is allowing said yards after catch and the
(42:39):
inability to tackle. So gonna be curious to see how
that shakes out tonight and if the Bengals are able
to be a little stickier in coverage, and if so,
if that's gonna cut down on some of that YAK
and maybe improve some of the tackling issues that the
Bengals have had over the last couple of weeks and
really all season long. When we come back, John Shearon
(43:01):
joins us as he does every Thursday at one o'clock
to talk Bengals and Steelers. This is the home of
the Bengals, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
WCKY, Cincinnati. Make us the number one preset on your
car radio and on the free, new and improved iHeartRadio
app Free never sounded so good.
Speaker 4 (43:17):
ESPN fifteen thirty at Genesis time,
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