Cincy 360 Hour 1 -- 10/1/25

Tony and Austin talk about the Reds loss to the Dodgers, talk some Bengals, and more on ESPN 1530!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Skyline Chile. Since he three to sixty about
Cincinnati from Cincinnati, sponsored in part by Skyline Chile. Stop
by Skyline Chili for a three way or cheese coney Today.
Feeling good, It's Skyline Time. This is ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good afternoon, Happy Wednesday. Welcome into the latest edition here
since he three sixty on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station,
a service of our good friends at Skyline Chili. Anytime
you're feeling good and hungry, it's always Skyline Time.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Awesome. Is tomorrow Bibblehead Day?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Uh, it might be Higgins Babblehead Day Tomorrow it's Skyline
Chis and tom Orice.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Higgins all rightyeah, yeah, wow t Higgins Time. Okay, down
into the last two tea time. Hope you're having a
great Wednesday. Hope you're enjoying this weather outside, and uh,
thank you for spending part of your afternoon with us
here on the SPA fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. We
have a lot to get to today.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Obviously, before we get to anything today, Austin, can we
talk a little bit about what's going on the end
of this week.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
We got to tell you about Friday.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, fridayah is a big deal because we get to
take our show on the road and we've talked many times,
many times about the joy that we feel being able
to take our show on the road and Friday, thanks
to our friends at Pellow Windows and Doors, we will
be live from the twenty twenty five Home Marama at

(01:35):
Foundry Park at three Oaks in Oakley. Let's go me
you yeah, from the rooftop of a beautiful heritage homehouse.
This is going to be Friday from noon to three.
We're going to talk as we normally do Friday Football Frenzy,
all things sports and all things home Marama, and we'll
get to do so Austin with current Home build Association

(01:58):
President and for NFL great and bear Cat great Andre Fraser.
Let's go phrase, big phrase is going to be in.
It is going to be a ton of fun. I'm
told there's a golf simulator somewhere. There's a golf simulator.
I think in the basement of this.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
I need to get some swings in.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
We'll get down there and get some swings. If you're
not familiar with Home Rama, it's a luxury home showcase,
so These homes are going to feature Pellow Windows and Doors,
seven custom homes, seven custom homes in that foundry Park
at three y Oaks Development in Oakley. The event itself
runs from September twenty seventh to October twelfth.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Austin.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Homes are priced between about one point four and one
point seven mil any bad. Visitors can tour the homes
and see the latest in design, smart technology amenities, and
also have some nice food, drinks, live music.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
And us.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Let's do it on Friday. Can't wait, Let's do it
thanks to our friends at Pellow Windows and Doors. I'm pumped.
I am too. It looks like a really really cool thing,
Oh my gosh. And to be able to do it,
are we actually on a rooftop?

Speaker 3 (03:07):
I believe. So let's go. I'm gonna need to bring
some Is this our first rooftop show? I think so.
I was out in the sun this weekend in my
head h fried Yep, yep. We also do I go hat?
Do I go sunscreen? I just shaved the other night.
I don't know good problems to have rooftop problems rooftop rooftop.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
That's where we'll be on Friday. We'll get today in
just a moment. Also news for tomorrow Austin, the quarterback
of the Cincinnati Bearcats, Brendan Soarsby will join the program.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
Let's go Brandon at twelve thirty. All right, so some
people in this some people call him Brandon Soarsby. Yeah,
I've heard that it's Brendan, though it is Brendan.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Brendan Soarsby right now, viewed as one of the best
quarterbacks at all of college football. He's going to join
us tomorrow at twelve thirty. So you've got the schedule
coming up. Let's get into today. Zach Taylor speaks to
the media.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
I'm curious to know what Zach's gonna say. Zachi ballgame.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
I think there are three things that can happen with
the Cincinnati Bengals right now. I think they can go rebuild,
and they could sell some pieces that they have. I
think they can lean into making an addition and trying
to get this locker room rallied that they are still
trying to make a run at this thing at two

(04:25):
and two, or they come out and they just pitch
status quo. We still believe in Jake, locker room is
still behind him, which if you watch the film. I
don't know how you can think that, but we'll hear
something like that. I'm sure today when we play Zach
Taylor's press conference, out of all three of those options, Austin,

(04:46):
I think status quo would be the most worriesome. I
just don't think that that's the way to go. We'll
expand on that as we go. Today. We have NFL
Week five and College Football Week six that we can
start to look ahead to. FC Cincinnati is at New
York on Saturday to take on the Red Bulls. There's

(05:10):
a new quarterback in Cleveland. It's not Sador Sanders, it's
not Joe Flacco. It's Dylan Gabriel. Dylan Gabriel is your
new quarterback of the Cleveland Browns.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
Last night.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yesterday, Tigers win, Cubs win, Red Sox win. Did you
see what happened in the top of the ninth in
the Cubs game with.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
The clock, Yes, I did. I was watching that. Two outs.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Xander Bogarts is up to the bat and Keller, the pitcher, steps.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Off the rubber. Yeah, he can't do that when nobody's
on base. So Xander steps out of the box. Keller
then steps back on and goes to pitch and the
yump didn't grant a reset and gives a strike to
Xander Bogart's madness madness in the night. Well, and then
they they convened, all the umpires convened and they realized,

(06:05):
yep I screwed up. I don't know, they should have
allowed him to do that. So instead of charging Xander
Bogart to strike, they just charged him his time out,
so he didn't have any timeouts left in the at bat.
So they did rectify their wrong. They don't know what
they're doing, but not a surprise for Major League umpires.
How about last night getting ready for the Reds and
Dodgers to start, and the Red Sox have a three

(06:28):
to one lead, and here comes the rold As Chapman
for a four out save and he allows the first
three base runners in the top and the bottom of
the ninth to reach base. What does Chapman then do.
He remembers Austin that he now locates his pitches. He
doesn't just throw him anymore, He locates him, got the
strikeouts necessary, ends the game. Does not allow one of

(06:50):
the runners to score when the bases were loaded with
no outs. Yeah, Chapman is so good. Aaron Boone rough
night for him, pulling Max Frey up a little bit
early and then they give up the go ahead run
there to Boston and then Eraldus Chapman to figure it
out after going bases loaded, nobody out bottom nine and
Yankee Stadium waiting to erupt. Was pretty dagon impressive for

(07:15):
uh eraldist chats. He's so good. We saw a lot
of former Reds kind of pitch into trouble yesterday, including
but not limited to Luke dream Leaver Eraldis Chapman. I
feel like there was one other guy too that was
pitching a former Red that I'm do you know, anking
on at the moment. You know off the top of
your head what eeraldesst Chapman's gr was in the regular season.

(07:38):
It was something like two one point. Oh, that's bad.
That's not bad. Pitched in sixty five games or sixty
seven games and gave up eight runs. It's pretty good.
Unbelievable from the Cuban missile. Garrett Crochet was awesome. Unbelievable,
fantastic Red Sox are fun to watch. Man that sets
up obviously for elimination game today. Yeah, Tigers, Guardians Guardians

(08:02):
gotta win that one to stay alive. Padres have to
beat the Cubs to stay alive. Yankees have to beat
the Red Sox and then Austin. It was fun to
see the way Cleveland lost yesterday. Yeah, because they got
a leadoff runner on third in the bottom of the ninth,
contact tying run and then they lost on the contact
play on a ball back to the pitcher. That was
pretty cool. And and for it to be Jose Ramirez.

Speaker 4 (08:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
Do you have an athlete that you just dislike and
you don't have a good reason. I've always disliked the
Audio Molina Jose, Well, there's good reasons for that. Jose Ramirez,
by all intensive purposes, is a great guy, fun teammate.
He's beloved in Cleveland. For whatever reason, I cannot stand him.

(08:44):
I root against him openly, okay, And it brought me
a lot of joy to see him have a big
mental blunder like that yesterday. Ye gotta love the contact play.
I admit I have no real reason for disliking Jose Ramiroz,
but I do.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
Gotta love the contact play. We will obviously dive into
what happened, like.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Can we talk about it with the Reds nine minutes
into the show, we haven't.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yeah, normally, the first segment we just kind of tease
what's happening in the show today, and then we dive
into I need of it.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
I'm itching to talk about it.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Well, a lot of people were riching for the game
to start, a lot of people would wait a long time, Austin, years, months, days,
minutes for the Reds to be back in the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
Did you know teams that have lost the first game
since they've gone to this wild card format have never
won the series. Oh oh, well, that's not ideal. Opportunity
to change history. Opportunity knocks to make history. Actually, opportunity
knocks for check my notes, Zach Lttel.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
We'll get to that. We'll talk about today's matchup before
we do that. Austin, last night, I am shocked, hand
up that the Dodgers were able to win that game
last night while hitting so many rally killing home runs.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
That's what it was last night. It was home run
derby in Los Angeles. The defensive metrics of the players
you have on the field don't matter much when they
hit the ball over the fence.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, sho Heyo Tani did it twice. Ti Oscar Hernandez
did it twice, and the Reds got themselves in a
one nothing hole after Otani led the game off with
a home run that went to a five nothing deficit
after Taoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edmund homer in the third inning.

(10:37):
Hernandez did it again in the fifth, Otani did it
again in the sixth, and the Reds, after six innings,
faced an eight run deficit. They did fight, They did
scratch and claude. They did get the tying run to
the on deck circle twice last night, all for nothing,
though they end up losing the game ten to five.

(10:58):
I think even I think even more Austin harmful to
the Reds yesterday is that they got beat like that
with their ace on the mound. Yeah, everything was made
about getting Hunter Green to game one, because as long
as you got Hunter you got a chance. And as
long as you're in and you got the Reds starting pitching,

(11:18):
you got a chance. Hunter Green did not live up
to the moment last night for the Cincinnati Reds.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
Didn't live up to it. Didn't show up whatsoever. Nope,
And that's disappointing. And as somebody that has long been
a fan of Hunter Green and want him to be
that guy and to have that moment and to emerge
as a Reds legend. The moment was too big for
him last night felt like it. That's what it felt like.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
And I was told by a lot of people and
with Mo yesterday we talked to Doug Lanville. Doug Lanville said,
the moment will never be too big for Hunter Green.
It call it what it did. It felt too big
for him last night.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
And you know, it's really not the first time either,
if you I mean any time it feels like like
in the biggest of moments that the Reds have needed
Hunter Green, it hasn't really been there. And that's disappointing.
Even go back to when he appeared in the All
Star Game last summer, gave up a bomb immediately and
did not look like himself whatsoever. So I don't know

(12:15):
if there's something there with with Hunter in the big moment,
I don't know, And like he not being up to flow,
his heart rate down or whatever. But that was that
was difficult.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
There was a video Charlie Clifford posted a couple of
days ago. It was Hunter Green walking on the field
and he goes up to the mound and he bends
down and he kisses the mound.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
Did you see the video.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
It's like he's he's building for the big moment, but
when the big moment got there, he just he didn't
show up. And you could tell Austin when a picture
is pressing because he wasn't close with his missus. Right,
if you're if you're just missing the zone, maybe you
can get somebody to chase. His misses were bouncing, his
misses were hitting the backstop.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
He just wasn't close. Yep.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
And with a group of hitters like the Dodgers, good luck.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
Yeah, they're sitting there and they're saying, okay, well this,
if this dude comes in the strike zone, I'm gonna
hammer it. Yep. And he did, and once he came
in the strike zone, they hammered him.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
Shout out to Scott Barlow who came on last night
and two thirds four strikeouts. Connor Phillips did not have
a great outing. Brent Soudter did not have a great outing.
Graham Ashcraft worked around two hits late in the game.
But yeah, they I don't know how much they were
going to get to Blake Snell Austin. They had a

(13:34):
moment early McClain doubled, freedom walked, and Noelve Marte waved
as bad as you could at three balls outside of
the zone, but he wasn't close on it. Just they
missed the early opportunities, and by the time the third
inning ended, you felt like it was already done well.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
As we talked about yesterday, there there's gonna be this
balance between the approach of being aggressive against Blake Snell
when you know he's gonna fill up the zone because
he needs to keep his pitch count down and he
doesn't want to get to the bullpen, and also putting
together a good at bat while also being aggressive. And

(14:12):
so what happened He threw some early fastballs the red
swung at them, which is partial like he was gonna
go nine innings and pitch seventy pitches. And he adjusted,
and so he started a lot more, especially to right handers,
a lot more off speed away, off speed down in
a way, and the Reds didn't feel like we're trying
to take those pitches the other way. They were still

(14:34):
trying to kind of pull them right over the shortstop,
not really trying to slap them over the first baseman,
slap them into that right center field gap and you're
just gonna miss those, and he's just gonna keep going
outside if you keep swinging at them. Noelvie Marte terrible
approach of the plate has had a terrible approach to
the plate for the last couple of weeks. Austin Hayes
did not look great, Miguel and Oharr was not great,

(14:55):
and Blake Snell did a masterful job of Hey, if
the Reds are gonna keep swinging at these, go away,
I'm gonna keep throwing them. And it wasn't until later
on where the Reds started to wait him out a
little bit. Then got to the bullpen and they were
extremely patient and they mounted a little bit of a comeback,
but by that point it was too late.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yep, you closed the book on last night. And the
one thing now about this wild Card series. You are
immediately back tonight, and this team has had their backs
against the wall for much of the season. They're gonna
have to find a way to come out fighting. If
they want to extend the season, They're gonna have to
do it against to Austin Yoshi, Nobu Yamamoto.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
That's right, Yoshi Nobu Yamamoto.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah, pitching Sensation Yoshi Nobu Yamamoto.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
He's from Japan, Yes, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (15:47):
And he's pitching Star Yoshi is Yoshi, Yoshi, Yoshi Nobu Yamamoto.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Thank you, SEG.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
That's the guy. Thank you, SEG. That's who's pitching tonight.
Let's take our first break when we come back.

Speaker 5 (15:59):
Austin's pitched Star yoshim Is Yoshi Yoshi Yoshi Nobu Yamamoto.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
That's him. Thank you, that's him.

Speaker 2 (16:07):
We'll talk tonight's game and welcome in your phone calls next.
Since he three p sixty ESBN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
Thanks to our friends at Skyline Chile. Now your chance
to win one thousand dollars. Entered this nationwide keyword on
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Speaker 6 (16:26):
On Otanni green pick and Frank's a right.

Speaker 3 (16:29):
Field by o'tanni. It is deep and it is.

Speaker 7 (16:32):
One nothing dobbery, one hundred mile an hour fastball right
on the inside corner and Otani turned on it drives
it out of here, just over the right field wall.
One nothing.

Speaker 6 (16:44):
La Philip sets throws the pitch and Otani cranks it
this ball hammer hi deep and I mean way deep
to the fact of the bleachers out in right center field.
Otani has his second home tonight. That's one, a two
run shot.

Speaker 3 (17:05):
Yeah, I thought that second one might leave the stadium
for a moment. The sound off off his bat is
just it's different.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
What I learned last night. And he's a good baseball player.
He's pretty good, that Otani guy. That, speaking of good,
is our Win Shulers call of the day. Otani is good.
I don't know if he's as good as win Schuler's
delicious cheese spreads.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
He's not that good.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
So go taste go Win Shulers. Four awesome flavors for
you to try from our good friends at Win Shulers.
Winning teams are the ones who always come prepared, and
winning the tailgate party is no different. That's why you
want to make sure you've got plenty of win Schulers
cheese spreads on hand thanks to Win Shulers.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
That's our call of the night.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yoshi Nobu Yamamoto takes the mound for the Dogs tonight, Austin.
He saw the Reds one other time this year. Yes,
do you remember the game?

Speaker 3 (18:06):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
July twenty eighth, do you remember who went against him? No,
Chase Burns. Oh remember that that string of starts Chase
Burns had to start his big league career.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
I do.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Yamamoto went seven, four hits, one earned run. The Reds
had a chance to to do some damage in the
top of or in the bottom of the first, but
they did not hit with runners in scoring position, which
has been a problem for much of the year. Really,
the Dodgers won that game five to two. Yamamoto was

(18:38):
really good in that one. But they haven't seen the
Reds with Zach Lytel yet. That's true, So take with
that what you will. Okay, what do you make.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
Of I like everybody in the Reds Basically everybody in
the lineup had a hit that day. Friedel doubled off
of Yamamoto. That was a rare Will Benson starts, so
maybe we'll see him start tonight. Okay, what do you
make of Zach Lateel being the guy tonight? I don't

(19:11):
love it, but I understand it. I mean, your bullpen
is very fresh. You didn't have to use Santian or
Pagan last night. You went down so badly that Brent
Souter got some time to try to save you a
couple of innings. I mean, I've never thought that this
game was, Hey, let's see how long Zach Lateel can pitch,

(19:34):
because you know, Francona basically said that yesterday and I
played that at the end of the show that you know,
I think it's kind of going to be a bullpen day, yeah,
and I would imagine that the the leash for Zach
Ltel is very very short. Yeah, tonight, just because of

(19:56):
how fresh that bullpen is. Zach ly Tel.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
Is worrisome to me, Austin because of the amount of
times he's given up home runs. Sure right, gives up
a lot of them. He gave up thirty six this
season in only thirty two games that he appeared in,
So that to me is worrisome when he does give
up and he is susceptible to giving up the long ball.

(20:25):
And I understand, and we talked him about this today,
and I get MOS's point as well of you know,
if you're going to win the series, you would still
have to win tomorrow as well. I would just like
to find a way to get to tomorrow, right, And
I think it's going to be hard for some people
to fathom if you lose with Lttel and your all

(20:46):
star pitcher didn't even get a chance to pitch in
the wild card round in Andrew Abbot, Right, Like, I
get if you find a way to win tonight and
you get Abbot tomorrow, that might give you an advantage,
But can you get through tonight if you're not throwing
Andrew Abbit Especially it gets a lineup with some really
good lefties.

Speaker 3 (21:02):
It's gonna be a tough pill to swallow if they
get eliminated. And Andrew Rabbitt never pitches in the postseason, right,
And I understand the whole process here of you know,
we're gonna throw everything we can at them tonight, obviously
because it's an elimination game, and then we're gonna trust
our guy in Game three. I hear that. I know

(21:22):
it would be three days rest for Abbot if he
were pitching tonight, but that's not uncommon in the postseason.
We've seen guys do that on three days rest several
times in the past, and then it's all hands on
deck for tomorrow. So it appears that the way that
Terry Francono is gonna do it is similar to the
mindset of, well, we're gonna have Hunter Green for game

(21:43):
one when we make the playoffs and play the Dodgers. Now,
clearly it didn't work because Hunter Green didn't have it.
Hopefully Andrew Rabbit gets a chance to do it tomorrow night.
But it is certainly a risk. But if anything, your
bullpen is fresh and that does give you a chance.
And I think we'll see a lot of Nickelodolo tonight
against those lefties, And you know that's going to be

(22:03):
interesting because Dolo came out of the bullpen Sunday and
did not look great. He was on short rest after
being nasty, I believe the previous Thursday. So it will
be short rest for him as well. But I believe
they've been kind of preparing him for this and that's
kind of the plan. And I would imagine his sample
size is going to be relatively short, and it'll be
going up against Freddie Freeman, Max Munci and show Heyo Tommy.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
I went back his last start against the Brewers. He
only threw eighty five pitches, did have it, so it's
not like he was taxed for one hundred and ten pitches.
He went five and a third. I find it hard
to believe. If you want to him and said I
we need you today, he'd say I can't do it today.

Speaker 3 (22:41):
Yeah. And I don't think that's what's happening, right. I
don't even think there's an approach. I don't either.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
I just think this is what we're going to do.
This is what we set out to do them, We're
going to stick with it regardless of that. How different
in your opinion you expect the lineup to look like
against now a right hander and Yama Modo, I mean
moboyed the point last night? How and in what world

(23:07):
does Key Brian Hayes bat and then the next Daying
south Stewart replaces him defensively?

Speaker 3 (23:12):
Yeah, that to me was the biggest ERA two.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Runners on base last night, Key Brian Hayes coming up,
Tito Francona let Hayes hit and then puts south Stewart
in for Hayes.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
Yeah, on defense. Yeah. And if you think about it,
so we're talking about the seventh inning, Austin Hayes, Hayes singled,
Spencer Steers singled, Ellie de la Cruz had an RBI
on a fielder's choice, and Tyler Stevenson doubled, so the
Reds were now down six. It was eight to two.
At this point there were two runners on Ellie de

(23:43):
la Cruz and Tyler Stevenson, and Key Brian Hayes coming
to the plate. This would have been a perfect time, yeah,
to go to South Stewart on the bench, still going
up against Blake Snell at that time, to go left
the on righty and keep Brian Hayes, as we all know,
has returned offensively to the level he was at when

(24:04):
he was at Pittsburgh, which is atrocious. And instead, for
some reason that I still do not understand, he allows
Key Brian Hayes to hit and then in the bottom
of the seventh inning replaces Austin Hayes with Spencer Steer
and Spencer Steer with Sal Stewart. So, if you're going

(24:29):
to put Sal Stewart into the game the next inning anyways,
why would you not put him in in that situation?
And what makes it even more maddening is that later
in the game, with the bases loaded, who comes to
the plate, Key Brian Hayes and he pops out to

(24:52):
end the Red's threat when they got within five. Yep,
they did.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
Have chances that Tyler Stevenson swings at four bad pitch
or three bad patch with the bases.

Speaker 3 (25:01):
Look, they had some chances late.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
They worked their offense better than I thought they would.
Willie Cunningham came in today and said, if I told
you last night that the Hunter greens on the mount
and the Red score five runs, you thought you had
a good chance of winning. It worries me with a
team that's seen the ball really well. Obviously, with the
Dodgers against the pitcher and Lattel who gives up the
long ball. It worries me about an early deficit and

(25:24):
what pressure that puts on tonight.

Speaker 3 (25:26):
And you know the other thing too, with Terry Francona.
He revolutionized the way that teams handle pitchers in the postseason,
and specifically a bullpen. And that's how Francona made a
name for himself and that's how he won World Series
in Boston, and he deserves a ton of credit for that,
and it's why he has pelts on the wall. That

(25:47):
being said, however, there needs to be a similar type
of urgency when you have an offensively deficient team, and
that's what the Reds are. They are not good enough
offensively to hang with the Dodgers, and so his idea
of defense early, offense late, I think is backwards. It

(26:07):
needs to be offense early, defense late and try to
protect the lead, especially against that offense. And I have
a hard time grasping why he chooses to do this.
And I don't know if it's strictly Francona. I don't
know if Nick Krawl is involved in these decisions. I
know that historically Krawl puts his nose in a lot

(26:28):
of this stuff when it comes to the game by
game stuff. So I can't imagine he's second guessing Terry Francona,
but I just disagree with the way that he has
approached it so far. Yeah. I had a chance to
talk to Doug Glanville with Moagar yesterday, who said the
same thing Austin. In his opinion, you go offense early,

(26:48):
defense late against the team as powerful offensively as the Dodgers. Yeah,
we'll take a call here. Mike is calling in. What's up, Mike?

Speaker 8 (26:57):
Well, yeah, Japanese jack Hammer put the Reds in shelf
shock after that first blast, and from then on it
was downhill.

Speaker 3 (27:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
Yeah, Like I said, I if you tell me last night.
You get Hunter Green in five runs, you might have
felt okay going in. Uh, Hunter Green obviously was not
ready for the moment and the bats for Los Angeles.
We've been told a couple of times this year that
home runs are rally killers. Those are not rally killers
for the Dodgers.

Speaker 8 (27:28):
They if you'll notice, they didn't even play Will Smith,
who's the best hitting catcher in Major League Baseball by
batting everage, he didn't even play. He's a regular catcher.
He had a backup catcher. They played Key k Hernandez
up the bench, little Tommy Edmonds that they stole from
Saint Louis to want out. He's about he's smaller than Austin.
He can hit for a little guy. And uh, that

(27:52):
just goes to show you the strength of a bench
is critically important.

Speaker 3 (27:56):
Yep.

Speaker 8 (27:57):
And those are not big high price guy like he said, Oh,
the Dodger's just five billion dollar players. That's bull full crip.
But I am interested about your Uh, well, okay, tonight.
Yamamoto two point four nine thirty starts, one hundred and
seventy three point one innings pitched, with two hundred and
one k's Yep.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
Not that.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah, and against a team in the Reds who swings
and misses a lot. It's it's not a it's not
an ideal matchup on any sense.

Speaker 8 (28:25):
I've got a kind of not a trivia, but a
kind of a question for you about the NFL, just
to break it up, But first, I'm impressed with your
rooftop show Friday.

Speaker 3 (28:33):
How about that?

Speaker 8 (28:34):
It would be the biggest roof It'll be the biggest
roof shop top show since the Beatles cut their final
album on the rooftop at Apple Studios in London, England
in nineteen sixty nine. This is big focus ball.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
It's what a lot of people are saying, Mike. It's
what a lot of people are saying.

Speaker 8 (28:51):
Are they coming in from all over the world. What
lungs in.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
The country flying in everywhere?

Speaker 8 (28:57):
How many thousands do you think you can handle up there?

Speaker 3 (28:59):
Hundreds hundreds of thousands?

Speaker 8 (29:02):
Ten?

Speaker 3 (29:06):
Right?

Speaker 8 (29:06):
Okay? Quick? NFL? Yeah, that was just that was the
game was over after the first inning.

Speaker 6 (29:12):
Really, But.

Speaker 8 (29:16):
Who's leading who's tied for the NFL lead in sacks
at this point? Uh?

Speaker 3 (29:21):
Player or team?

Speaker 8 (29:24):
In the two individual players that are tied for most sacks.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
I'm saying I don't know the player.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
I know the team is the Denver Broncos that leads
the NFL in sacks.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
So I would assume it's Nick Benito Nio yep.

Speaker 8 (29:39):
So the two guys side for first place or brought
or Byron Young from the from the Rams the outside
linebackers from your school, tenning Tony University of Tennessee. Two
thousand to twenty three third round, third round pick Bengals.
You hear that third round pick John McVeigh is smarter
than you Jack Taylor all day long. The second guy

(30:02):
is Bryan Burns from the New York Giants.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
Yeah, Burns is a stud.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
People forget they essentially stole him from the Carolina Panthers
at the end of the season, and that is a
He's a good player. I hate to see that the
Giants lost my leak neighbors because I wanted to see
him with Jackson Dart. But I mean, we've talked a
lot about the Rams and how good they are defensively.
The unfortunate thing for the Bengals, after they just got

(30:26):
done with the Denver Broncos, who lead the NFL in sacks,
they now go against a team who is second tied
for second the NFL and sacks and the Detroit Lions,
So does not get any easier for the Bengals this week.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
You want to know my favorite stat in the NFL
right now? What is it? Puka Nakua through four games
has forty two receptions on fifty targets. Unreal, forty two
catches on fifty targets through four games. Andy's ran the
ball a few times.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
By the way, the second closest is Jake Ferguson, who's
got thirty four. And then McCaffrey has thirty one.

Speaker 8 (31:04):
That's crazy, that's greaty wow, So Stafford can still spin it,
Canny Tony.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
Stafford can spin it. They Puka aku is fifteen receptions
clear of the of the next closest receiver, who's Alman
Ross Saint Brown, who might get fifteen this Sunday. So
Puka is gonna have to put up big numbers.

Speaker 4 (31:22):
He might.

Speaker 8 (31:24):
The guys that are tied for third and fourth, they
have four and a half sacks or oddly enough, Cameron
Granderson from the Saints and Rashawn Gary from the Packers. Yeah,
and who leaves who leaves in pressures? It kind of surprising,
but Michaeh. Micah leaves in pressures with twenty five.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
I mean that's what he gets in on those third
down situations, and he gets after the quarterback. I think
Rashan Gary is one of the major beneficiaries of of
Micah Parsons being on that team as well, because he's
not getting any of the double teams.

Speaker 8 (31:55):
And I did notice that the Eagles had they did
draft the Hog Campbell, remember was yeah, talk about him, yep,
Well took the Eagles and look what he's doing.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
Well.

Speaker 8 (32:07):
Thanks, thank you, Mike.

Speaker 2 (32:09):
Yes, sir, that could have been our Football in the Natti,
but we got that coming back next on the Home
of the Bengals, ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station, thanks
to Skyline Chili.

Speaker 9 (32:20):
This is Football in the Natti, brought to you by
Postman Law on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home of
the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
Welcome back since he three to sixty thanks to Skyline Chili.
We're gonna hear from Zach Taylor this afternoon Austin. We'll
play his press conference at two o'clock.

Speaker 3 (32:42):
I'm excited about that. I uh, you're what Zach has
to say. Can't wait can't wait.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
We talked about this a little bit earlier today, and
I think it's the state of of where the team is.
I saw James Rapene posted this video earlier today talking
about just how good Joe Burrow is and and I
thought going into the year he was a top three,
maybe even top two quarterback in the NFL. When you
look at how this team is a complete and utter

(33:11):
failure in operating without Joe Burrow, it shows you very
quickly how much Joe Burrow can mask and how much
he probably didn't mask even last year for this team.
But it also begs the question about the roster itself.
I watched him every day of training camp. I didn't

(33:32):
leave ever a training camp practice and think this is
going to be the one of the worst teams in
the NFL, and yet watching them operate, they very well
might be one of the worst teams in the NFL.
And it got us to having a conversation just how
bad is it? How bad has this roster been assembled?

(33:53):
You and I, Austin, we sat here today and we
tried to come up with a list of players that,
if you're going into next year, are must haves on
the roster, like you could not part ways with them.
They have to be on this roster next year, and
we had to work extremely hard to get to double digits.
We had to work to get to ten players that

(34:17):
would be must going forward.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
On this roster. There are how many active players each
week austin six, yeah, forty six or active six fifty three?
Has it really gotten that bad? Is this roster really
that bad? That's the thing. Going into the last couple
of years, you knew there was a lot of potential,

(34:43):
but guys needed to be coached, Guys needed to improve,
There needed to be progression, And to me, one of
the biggest indicators of the failure of Zach Taylor is
that this team is regressing. They feel like they're going
back now. The riding was on the wall with defense right.

(35:03):
Nothing from Joseph o'side, nothing from Miles Murphy, McKinley Jackson
was nowhere. Jeraane Pratt continually got worse. The cornerbacks after
the first year nowhere to be found. And so lou
Anroumo kind of took the blame for all that. We
blamed him and he got fired because of it. And
here we are still nobody really taking a step forward

(35:27):
on defense, Dax Hill coming off of an ACL injury,
looks really good. We know the Bengals are high on him.
Shamar Stewart has barely played due to his injury, but
I think you stick with him moving forward. But outside
of that, there's nobody on defense that you feel comfortable with.
And that's grazy And maybe Demetrius Knight you could put

(35:48):
in there because he's had some moments and is going
to grow as a linebacker. But still so that's the.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
Case, and that's where we are right now, and Zach
Taylor is and will take a fair amount of criticism.
The players are going to take a fair amount of criticism.
If that's the case, and this is the conversation we're having,
Duke Tobin will have to take a fair amount of criticism.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
Call it what it is.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
We talked yesterday about the step backwards Marius Mims has taken.
Jermaine Burton can't show up to practice on time. He's
not been active this year. McKinley Jackson, a fourth round
pick from last year, is yet to be active this year.
We've talked about this team's failures to draft players. They
also Austin made decisions to re up b J. Hill,

(36:39):
who I couldn't tell you is on the field or
not right now. They extended Ted Krris, who's been awful.
Their evaluations on free agents have not seemed to pan out.
They asked Gino Stone to take a pay cut, and
they still have him out there.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
Starting.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
If the criticism and the fair criticism is there for
Zach Taylor and the other coaches and this roster, that
same criticism has to be true for Duke Tobin as well.
It's it's clear that there is, and we said it
last year, there is a clear disconnect at some level

(37:23):
on scheme and identity verse personnel. Yeah, you can't tell
me otherwise. Spent all off season talking about twelve personnel,
and then last week I heard Zach Taylor say, well,
the reason we haven't really got Tea involved much is
we've been out of so much twelve personnel. Well, then
why'd you sign T Higgins? And are you telling me

(37:46):
in twelve personnel where you have a back, two tight
ends and two receivers that you can't draw up plays
to still get T Higgins touches in twelve personnel, then
why sign him and then want to be a twelve
personnel team. Those don't make sense. The roster additions versus

(38:09):
the scheme, they clash. We're seeing this in the run
game too, right, they don't have a run blocker on
the offensive line yet, so much of the conversation is
you got to establish a run game. Well, they haven't
been built that way. So there's a disconnect there that

(38:30):
Duke needs to be held accountable for, that Zach needs
to be held accountable for, and that the players themselves
had to hold They have to hold themselves accountable.

Speaker 3 (38:37):
And I do want to clarify because you know, Zach
and the coaching staff in Cincinnati is more involved in
the draft process than nearly anywhere else in the NFL.
So it's not to say that Zach and company are
not without blame, especially when you consider these recent draft classes.

(39:00):
And if you know the way your roster is being
built and what you're good at and not good at,
and you're still not good getting players that really fit
what you're trying to do. Like maybe Lucas Patrick was
more of a scheme fit than we all realized because
of his ability as a run blocker, because those seven
plays in Cleveland looked pretty good and he's been hurt

(39:21):
and and hopefully he comes back soon. But you're right,
for guys that have been working together as long as
Duke and Zach have, doesn't seem like that the disconnect
should not be happening. And I'm kind of just wondering
if these are two people that aren't that good at
their job. I mean, if you look back at the
three drafts prior to Zach getting here, the only people

(39:45):
that are still active on NFL rosters are Andrew Billings,
Jake Elliott, Joe Mixon, and Jesse Bates. No one knows. Yeah,
he's hurt right now, and Jesse Bates that's it, yep.
Everybody else is either. I mean Sam Hubbard was on there,
so I'll give you that he was had a successful

(40:07):
NFL career. Most people would say Tyler Boyd was on there, Okay,
that's it. Yeah, and that's Duke Tobin prior to Zach Taylor. Correct.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
It's just I mean, I'm there. It can't all be
on Zach. The finger has to point to Duke Tobin
as well. He's been a he's been the constant even
before Zach Taylor was here. And to me, that the
most concerning part is those two not being on the
same page.

Speaker 3 (40:40):
Yep. I don't know how you can operate successfully if
you're not on the same page, right, And you know,
I think it's also fair to say that there is
blame beyond just Zach and beyond just Duke, because Mike
Brown and the family are still involved in those decisions.

(41:04):
So you have to have people that can work. You
have three different sides of people putting in towards roster building,
and I just don't know if that's gonna work. And
if it is, you have to have a head coach
that can maximize And I thought for a couple of

(41:25):
years Zach did. I really did, And I stand by
everything I said about Zach. But I've looked at it
now and I'm wondering can he still withstand this part
of this phase of being a head coach? And I
don't know that he can maximize the talent? Yeah, And

(41:45):
I don't know that you're gonna find somebody that Will's
that's the issue. If not here, then who? So plenty
more we can discuss. Well, here's Zach Taylor's press conference
at two o'clock. We'll play that at two o'clock today.

Speaker 2 (41:59):
We have some folks from NKU coming by for hoops
and scoops at one o'clock.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
Not just some folks, man, we got some some hoopers.
We got Tay Dozer, Okay, Tay and Donovan. O day
all right, Donovan, Donovan, gonna be a good day, Oh day,
all day. A couple of guards for NKU. They're coming
in first, they're coming coming in from Georgetown, one coming
in from cal State Fullerton, and they're gonna tell us
about what's going on at Truest Arena next next week.

(42:24):
Hoops and scoops. You already know before that. Are they
going to bring in ice cream? I hope so it'd
be cool if they did. We'll put a bow on
hour number one. Next. ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 9 (42:35):
You've been listening to football in the Natti on ESPN
fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
Fifteen thirty from iHeartRadio. Welcome back sincey three to sixty
thanks to Skyline Chili. ESPN fifteenth already Cincinnati Sports Station.
A couple of minutes here to get to the bottom
of the hour, Let's grab a phone call. John is
calling in right now.

Speaker 3 (43:07):
What's up?

Speaker 4 (43:07):
John, How you doing, guys?

Speaker 3 (43:10):
Good? How are you boy?

Speaker 4 (43:13):
A little bit of humble pile last night?

Speaker 5 (43:16):
Just you just you just.

Speaker 4 (43:17):
Wonder with Hunter, and we've seen this before with him.
I just think sometimes when he gets amped up to
a certain degree, it just seems like his pitches, I
don't know, think they kind of straightened out a little
bit if you can, if you can understand that, it
just he can throw it up there hundred and one,
but it seems like it's for good hitters. It's it's

(43:40):
still pretty hittable.

Speaker 3 (43:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
The the thing is now you have so many pitchers
in Major League Baseball that can throw at one hundred
hundred and one hundred and two. The key is your location,
and the key is the ability to get any movement
on that pitch. Far too many times last night because
Hunter was struggling so much to find the strike zone,
he wasn't locating his fastball very hitable locations, and he

(44:03):
just didn't have the movement on it. When you don't
have that, and you don't have the secondary pitch working
against the lineup who mashes like the Dodgers, you're going
to be in for a long night.

Speaker 4 (44:13):
Yeah. Yeah, And and and I mean, Blake Snell. I
mean it really you really get a chance to see
in the playoffs when you see elite pitching. I mean,
how good was he? I mean he was just he
was hitting corners, he was I mean, we were waving
at those change ups away and it's just like, I
just we got to him eventually. But I'm sure in

(44:36):
his own mind, when you're when you're up six or
seven runs, I'm sure it changes you a little bit.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
Well, you look what happened yesterday. Crochet was unbelievable. For
the Red Sox. They win a game three to one.
Scow Ball was dominant for the Tigers, they win a
game two to one. Cubs got really good pitching all
the way around. That's a three to one game. You
are going to have to pitch like Crochet, likes like
Skewball if you want a chance to win in the postseason.

(45:03):
And unfortunately for the reds they thought they had their
guy Hunter Green lined up and he did not deliver
last night.

Speaker 4 (45:10):
Yeah yeah, And I mean I think you've got a
Hunter for still several years now. But you just kind
of wonder if eventually we have to change our mindset.
I mean, obviously we've got Burns and Louder and some
other guys that we hope to be top end of
the rotation, guys that we really need Hunter Green to

(45:31):
become what we think he's gonna be rather than just
this talk yeah being great.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
Yeah, that's the moment last night. You need Hunter Green
to be his best, and he was. He was the
furthest thing from it.

Speaker 4 (45:42):
Yeah, and but all things aside doing and who knows,
I mean, the way this season's gone. Yeah, I mean
you figure you lose last night, Ret's come back and
win tonight, whin DeMar and take the series, because that's
what it's been the last couple of months. So who knows.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
They've been backed up many times, thank you, John, They've
been backed up a ton of times this year. But
you won't win in the postseason giving up fifteen hits
in a baseball game Tigers, Guardians combined for nine, Cubs
Padres combined for ten, Red Sox, Yankees combined for fifteen,

(46:17):
Dodgers themselves head fifteen. You're not gonna win baseball games
in October. Giving up ten runs and fifteen hits just
doesn't happen. Let's talk hoops and scoops big event going
on at truest Arena Tuesday, October seventh. We'll discuss that
when we come back to get our two started on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station KWISE Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 (46:41):
Make us the number one preset on your car radio
and on the free, new and improved iHeartRadio app. Free
never sounded so good, ESPN fifteen

Speaker 3 (46:49):
Thirty Mullegger Here schools are back school injuries