October 16, 2026 • 12 mins
Robert Weintraub writes a weekly Bengals column for Cincinnati Magazine. He joined us to discuss the team he writes about.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bengals don't play this week, but we have spent the
week asking a lot of questions about the way they
played against Miami, the way they played over the first
five games, why they can't do certain things well that
we thought they would do better. They've been fun conversations,
and we'll have one of them right now with our
guy Robert Weintraub, who writes a weekly Bengals column at CincinnatiMagazine.com.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
No bye week for Robert. He's with us now. How
you doing?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
365 days a week, my friend.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
I never take it. I don't take a day off,
much less a Sunday, a week off. Come on. These
guys in the NFL are soft. I think we all
know that.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well, I appreciate your dedication and you coming on. What's
wrong with Chase Brown? I wouldn't say anything is really
wrong with him.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
I mean, think about if only two plays are different,
the fumble against the dolphins and that fourth and 10
against the Jags, when really he may, the safety on
the Jacksonville made an incredible play to stop him short.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
He probably should have scored on that play.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
And if he does, and if he takes the ball
in against Miami, we're thinking about entirely differently. So, you know,
I think one of the things that first football outsiders
and now FTN fantasy that we used to look at
in terms of a running back, actually losing effectiveness might
sound counterintuitive, but it's actually, it's, when you don't.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Catch your targets out of the backfield at a good rate.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
He's killed 24 out of 28 so far this year.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
He's just been the player he always has been.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Maybe you could argue that he's trying to do a
little bit too much because the contract year is looming
over his head.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
But I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
I find it hard to believe when you're actually in
the hole and you bounce something outside, your contract.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Situation is running through your mind.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
It seems like that's a little slowing down time aspect
that I'm not sure I believe in. Generally speaking, I mean,
even while we say what's wrong with the guy, his
numbers are not that far really off at a prorated pace.
What he's been over the last couple of years in
terms of total yardage, just about 100 yards shy in
the end of his 17 game rate. And he's always
(02:07):
been a second half player. I don't know if it's
because he likes the cold weather.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
He's from Canada.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Maybe that has something to do with it. But, you know,
he's always been a guy who's better off in the
second half.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
He gained steam. And the Bengals figure out how to
use them better. I think that's part of it, too.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
And I think, you know, some of the experimentation that
we've seen been going on is affected his numbers a
little bit.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
But I don't think there's anything truly wrong with him
at this point.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
And, you know, if we get a little bit more
of Samajay Piran in the game as a result, just
to balance out the carries, that's not a bad thing
in the end.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I would agree with that. You write this in your
column this week. For all the usual moaning about the attack,
where are the explosive plays?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Why can't they run it? Why is everything pulling teeth?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Cincinnati is in the top 10 in yards, points, DVOA,
and drive success rate.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
That's all of the content I will give away.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
But I will ask, not so much why is it
pulling teeth, but why does it seem like, just operationally,
it's not as smooth as it should be.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
It still feels and looks at times really clunky.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Yeah, I think that's fair. I think there's a couple
of reasons for it. And as you said, it's.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Not exactly like it's been a desert out there. I mean,
they're doing the job right there. They're scoring 26 points
a game. There's a lot of teams that would take that.
You know, I think part of it so far has
been the penalties. Zach Taylor's teams have usually been very
penalty free over the years. And this year, that's not
the case so far. Anyway, that's been a big part
(03:33):
of it. And just, you know, it's sort of a general.
As you put the clunkiness, that's when you get those
pre-motion and pre-snap penalties. Those are the kind of things
that just make you grind those teeth, and it's not.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Necessarily being pulled, but they get loosened at that point.
It's irritating. We haven't really seen.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
The classic Jamar Chase shrug off five guys and go
70 yards for a touchdown or even just the bubble
screen that's well-blocked and he goes the distance.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
And, you know, I think there's a perception.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Issue, too, where you're paying Jamar and T to be
these big explosive guys that we all have come to love. And,
you know, you don't expect a bomb touchdown to one
of those two on every drive, but every third drive
would be nice. Right.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
But I don't think. In general terms, I mean, it's
still a very small sample.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
And part of it is, you know, in the NFL,
they talk a lot about trying to be, ironically enough,
a CFL offense, a Canadian Football League offense, meaning you
want to get the first down in two plays, not three.
And the Bengals, whether by design or whether.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
By, you know, I always say that they take the
first part of the season and it's kind of an
R & D.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Uh aspect you know they experiment a lot and i
think they're trying to see whether or not they can
grind games out if they have to which oftentimes they
might especially you know as the weather sets in the
bad weather and when the playoffs come and you know
they're they're getting the third.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Down not more than they did last year.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Basically about 13 first downs again and they're converting better
but you look at the really explosive offense who's who
are the teams that are tied for the fewest number
of third down space so far this year. Well, it's Buffalo,
it's Baltimore and it's San Francisco, three elite offenses. And
I think, you know, part of that is in two
of those cases, you have quarterbacks who can, you know,
take plays that are taken out of their original design
(05:19):
and get a lot of yards and convert first downs
early because of their legs.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
And, you know, Joe Burrow doesn't really do that. And
I think we're all happy with that.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
And, you know, I also think they're, they're happy to
see that they're doing a good job converting third downs and,
If they have to go on 10 play.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
You know, 80, 75, 80 yard drives, they can do
it when they need to. So I don't think it's necessary.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
They view it as a bad thing, but it is
certainly less entertaining or intoxicating for the fan who wants
to see the big plays.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
That's for sure.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
You know, since you mentioned the CFL where they, you know,
they only have three downs.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Do you agree as I do?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Do you believe as I do that the NFL should
adopt the CFL Rouge strategy? did we lose Robert or
did I, is it looking at where Robert, are you there?
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Yeah, I'm here. All right.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Do you, do you believe as I do that the
NFL should adopt the CFL Rouge?
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
I took a quick trip to Saskatchewan while we were
having connection issues there to research that.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And, uh, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
I listen, I'm all for any kind of obscure weirdos.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
I love the score of Gami.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
When you get those bizarre scores that have never been
seen before, the Rouge can only help that.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
And it's a little extra layer strategy. Who doesn't want
to see that?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
It's one more thing that we could, you know, complain
about Zach Taylor's acumen about in that case, not going
for the Rouge.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Right. Well, and you know, they've modified the Rouge rules
in the CFL, but you can still find games sometimes
where the score will be like 21 to one.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
And I enjoy it when that happens.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Anytime you get an odd score, it's always great in
my book. So you're right about that. And especially when
it comes, you know, I'm.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
A guy who believes in special teams and, you know,
giving more, uh, more love.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
To the kickers. Um, very, I know I'm alone on
that Island, but Uh, in this case, if they could
roll up a few Rouge points, that'd be nice too.
Why is you?
Speaker 1 (07:20):
And I, I said, I wasn't going to give away
any more of your content, but I lied. You, you
call the run defense, a bugaboo. Why is the run
defense of bugaboo?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Well, you know, it's getting close to Halloween, right? We
like to say boo. And I guess, uh, what would
be a bugaboo is like a murder Hornet. Maybe is
that what they would consider a bugaboo?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I mean, again, there's a little bit more perception than
reality in this case, they're 15th in efficiency overall against
the run by our numbers so far, not, not elite,
but certainly good compared to the last couple of years.
And we also, what we, what we do is separate
and try to separate as much as possible into sort
of the units and you know, put the, put the
(08:01):
line yards up front and then second level and, and
open field yards and try and separate your efficiency that way. And,
Right now, the Bengals are 11th up front, 24th in
the second level and 28th in the open field.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
I think that says a lot.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
You know, it's hard to have a good, really elite
run defense in the NFL without your cornerbacks in particular
being really good run defenders.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
And, you know, for all that.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
DJ Turner and Dax Hill in particular do well in
pass coverage, they're not, you know, super run defenders.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
They're not physical enough for that. uh you know brian.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Cook was brought in to alleviate a lot of those
but he's been banged up and at best when he's
played he's been what 75 you know kyle ducker we've
hardly seen jalen davis has been out the whole time
they're better tacklers in the in the secondary have either
been limited or or not out there that's part of
it and uh you know teams are running away from
dexter lawrence too so you're seeing a lot of the
(08:54):
yardage being piled up on the perimeter on the edges
that's that's always been something that the bangles have struggled
with and Part of that is because the defensive ends
aren't really setting the edge great. On the other hand,
they're getting good pass rush. They're top 10 in pressure percentage,
and they're dead last in the league by a large
margin in blitzing. So they're doing what they want to
(09:16):
do in terms of defending the pass by getting pass
rush without the blitz. But on the perimeter, on the edges,
they can use some work right now in the bye week,
especially with Lamar Jackson coming up against them. That's going
to be a place you figure the Ravens will attack
Cincinnati for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
How do we feel about the current level of play?
The Bengals are getting from their linebackers.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Well, as after mentioned, it's, you know, it's still not great.
I think, you know, I, as we've said all along,
you know, that it's funny because all the guys we
talked about all summer long, like the Bobby Wagner's, et cetera,
those guys still don't have homes.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
It's not like they were in high demand or anything.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
So I suppose they could still pull one of those
guys in for a little skull session, but generally speaking, I.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Mean, I think, you know, they've gotten better. Demetrius Knight
and Barry Carter are better than they were last year.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
I mean, I think the original sin maybe was thinking
that Logan Wilson was going to be the centerpiece of
your defense. And then you had to get rid of
him because he was so bad halfway through the season.
And then you forced the linebackers into playing more than
they should have. And, you know, we all know what's
happened since then.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
They're better.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
They've taken, you know, small steps forward. And it's only
been five games into their second season. It's still not great,
but I think we all agree they've been better.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Than they were last year.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
And, you know, sort of overall, when you have, you know,
big money going to your offense and to several players
on your defense right now, well spent with Dexter Lawrence
and Boye Mappe, for example, so far, you're going to have,
you know, positions and units on your team that are
not lesser than, they're going to be certainly less pricey than.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
And sometimes you have to take the good with the
bad when it comes to that.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
You're going to have elements of your team that are
not as good.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
As the others.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
And the linebackers are certainly a portion of that right now.
But I think you're seeing improvement. They're not actively killing
the team on a week-to-week basis.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
That's faint praise perhaps, but it's better than it was
last year for sure.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Does the CFL still have the goal post on the
front of the end zone where guys can run into it?
Speaker 4 (11:17):
I'm not sure about that. I know they have the goal.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
The end zone itself is like 20 yards long or.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
15 yards long. It's a supersized end zone.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
The NFL is always looking for ways to artificially bump
up offensive numbers.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
That could be an element they could steal from Canada.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Basically, taking anything from Canada is good. I know they're
not a uh, our best friends in Washington right now, but, uh,
certainly from the CFL, I'm all in favor of taking, uh,
any elements of the game, moving the, uh, having the pad,
the wide receivers go after pass and be in motion,
multiple guys in motion and heading toward the line of
scrimmage before the snap.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
That's all good. You know, and it wouldn't feel quite
so clunky.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Maybe I'm not going to say all the guys can
be moving around before the snap.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Might try to add the entertainment value, bump it up
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah. I, for folks who haven't watched the CFL game, it's, uh,
It can be quite wild. We'll talk again next week.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Robert, thanks so much.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
I look forward to it. Enjoy the bye week, everyone.
Bengals don't play this week, but we have spent the
week asking a lot of questions about the way they
played against Miami, the way they played over the first
five games, why they can't do certain things well that
we thought they would do better. They've been fun conversations,
and we'll have one of them right now with our
guy Robert Weintraub, who writes a weekly Bengals column at CincinnatiMagazine.com.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
No bye week for Robert. He's with us now. How
you doing?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
365 days a week, my friend.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
I never take it. I don't take a day off,
much less a Sunday, a week off. Come on. These
guys in the NFL are soft. I think we all
know that.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well, I appreciate your dedication and you coming on. What's
wrong with Chase Brown? I wouldn't say anything is really
wrong with him.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
I mean, think about if only two plays are different,
the fumble against the dolphins and that fourth and 10
against the Jags, when really he may, the safety on
the Jacksonville made an incredible play to stop him short.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
He probably should have scored on that play.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
And if he does, and if he takes the ball
in against Miami, we're thinking about entirely differently. So, you know,
I think one of the things that first football outsiders
and now FTN fantasy that we used to look at
in terms of a running back, actually losing effectiveness might
sound counterintuitive, but it's actually, it's, when you don't.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Catch your targets out of the backfield at a good rate.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
He's killed 24 out of 28 so far this year.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
He's just been the player he always has been.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Maybe you could argue that he's trying to do a
little bit too much because the contract year is looming
over his head.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
But I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
I find it hard to believe when you're actually in
the hole and you bounce something outside, your contract.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Situation is running through your mind.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
It seems like that's a little slowing down time aspect
that I'm not sure I believe in. Generally speaking, I mean,
even while we say what's wrong with the guy, his
numbers are not that far really off at a prorated pace.
What he's been over the last couple of years in
terms of total yardage, just about 100 yards shy in
the end of his 17 game rate. And he's always
(02:07):
been a second half player. I don't know if it's
because he likes the cold weather.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
He's from Canada.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Maybe that has something to do with it. But, you know,
he's always been a guy who's better off in the
second half.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
He gained steam. And the Bengals figure out how to
use them better. I think that's part of it, too.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
And I think, you know, some of the experimentation that
we've seen been going on is affected his numbers a
little bit.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
But I don't think there's anything truly wrong with him
at this point.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
And, you know, if we get a little bit more
of Samajay Piran in the game as a result, just
to balance out the carries, that's not a bad thing
in the end.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I would agree with that. You write this in your
column this week. For all the usual moaning about the attack,
where are the explosive plays?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Why can't they run it? Why is everything pulling teeth?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Cincinnati is in the top 10 in yards, points, DVOA,
and drive success rate.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
That's all of the content I will give away.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
But I will ask, not so much why is it
pulling teeth, but why does it seem like, just operationally,
it's not as smooth as it should be.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
It still feels and looks at times really clunky.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Yeah, I think that's fair. I think there's a couple
of reasons for it. And as you said, it's.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Not exactly like it's been a desert out there. I mean,
they're doing the job right there. They're scoring 26 points
a game. There's a lot of teams that would take that.
You know, I think part of it so far has
been the penalties. Zach Taylor's teams have usually been very
penalty free over the years. And this year, that's not
the case so far. Anyway, that's been a big part
(03:33):
of it. And just, you know, it's sort of a general.
As you put the clunkiness, that's when you get those
pre-motion and pre-snap penalties. Those are the kind of things
that just make you grind those teeth, and it's not.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Necessarily being pulled, but they get loosened at that point.
It's irritating. We haven't really seen.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
The classic Jamar Chase shrug off five guys and go
70 yards for a touchdown or even just the bubble
screen that's well-blocked and he goes the distance.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
And, you know, I think there's a perception.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Issue, too, where you're paying Jamar and T to be
these big explosive guys that we all have come to love. And,
you know, you don't expect a bomb touchdown to one
of those two on every drive, but every third drive
would be nice. Right.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
But I don't think. In general terms, I mean, it's
still a very small sample.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
And part of it is, you know, in the NFL,
they talk a lot about trying to be, ironically enough,
a CFL offense, a Canadian Football League offense, meaning you
want to get the first down in two plays, not three.
And the Bengals, whether by design or whether.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
By, you know, I always say that they take the
first part of the season and it's kind of an
R & D.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Uh aspect you know they experiment a lot and i
think they're trying to see whether or not they can
grind games out if they have to which oftentimes they
might especially you know as the weather sets in the
bad weather and when the playoffs come and you know
they're they're getting the third.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Down not more than they did last year.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Basically about 13 first downs again and they're converting better
but you look at the really explosive offense who's who
are the teams that are tied for the fewest number
of third down space so far this year. Well, it's Buffalo,
it's Baltimore and it's San Francisco, three elite offenses. And
I think, you know, part of that is in two
of those cases, you have quarterbacks who can, you know,
take plays that are taken out of their original design
(05:19):
and get a lot of yards and convert first downs
early because of their legs.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
And, you know, Joe Burrow doesn't really do that. And
I think we're all happy with that.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
And, you know, I also think they're, they're happy to
see that they're doing a good job converting third downs and,
If they have to go on 10 play.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
You know, 80, 75, 80 yard drives, they can do
it when they need to. So I don't think it's necessary.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
They view it as a bad thing, but it is
certainly less entertaining or intoxicating for the fan who wants
to see the big plays.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
That's for sure.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
You know, since you mentioned the CFL where they, you know,
they only have three downs.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Do you agree as I do?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Do you believe as I do that the NFL should
adopt the CFL Rouge strategy? did we lose Robert or
did I, is it looking at where Robert, are you there?
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Yeah, I'm here. All right.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Do you, do you believe as I do that the
NFL should adopt the CFL Rouge?
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
I took a quick trip to Saskatchewan while we were
having connection issues there to research that.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And, uh, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
I listen, I'm all for any kind of obscure weirdos.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
I love the score of Gami.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
When you get those bizarre scores that have never been
seen before, the Rouge can only help that.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
And it's a little extra layer strategy. Who doesn't want
to see that?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
It's one more thing that we could, you know, complain
about Zach Taylor's acumen about in that case, not going
for the Rouge.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Right. Well, and you know, they've modified the Rouge rules
in the CFL, but you can still find games sometimes
where the score will be like 21 to one.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
And I enjoy it when that happens.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Anytime you get an odd score, it's always great in
my book. So you're right about that. And especially when
it comes, you know, I'm.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
A guy who believes in special teams and, you know,
giving more, uh, more love.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
To the kickers. Um, very, I know I'm alone on
that Island, but Uh, in this case, if they could
roll up a few Rouge points, that'd be nice too.
Why is you?
Speaker 1 (07:20):
And I, I said, I wasn't going to give away
any more of your content, but I lied. You, you
call the run defense, a bugaboo. Why is the run
defense of bugaboo?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Well, you know, it's getting close to Halloween, right? We
like to say boo. And I guess, uh, what would
be a bugaboo is like a murder Hornet. Maybe is
that what they would consider a bugaboo?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I mean, again, there's a little bit more perception than
reality in this case, they're 15th in efficiency overall against
the run by our numbers so far, not, not elite,
but certainly good compared to the last couple of years.
And we also, what we, what we do is separate
and try to separate as much as possible into sort
of the units and you know, put the, put the
(08:01):
line yards up front and then second level and, and
open field yards and try and separate your efficiency that way. And,
Right now, the Bengals are 11th up front, 24th in
the second level and 28th in the open field.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
I think that says a lot.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
You know, it's hard to have a good, really elite
run defense in the NFL without your cornerbacks in particular
being really good run defenders.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
And, you know, for all that.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
DJ Turner and Dax Hill in particular do well in
pass coverage, they're not, you know, super run defenders.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
They're not physical enough for that. uh you know brian.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Cook was brought in to alleviate a lot of those
but he's been banged up and at best when he's
played he's been what 75 you know kyle ducker we've
hardly seen jalen davis has been out the whole time
they're better tacklers in the in the secondary have either
been limited or or not out there that's part of
it and uh you know teams are running away from
dexter lawrence too so you're seeing a lot of the
(08:54):
yardage being piled up on the perimeter on the edges
that's that's always been something that the bangles have struggled
with and Part of that is because the defensive ends
aren't really setting the edge great. On the other hand,
they're getting good pass rush. They're top 10 in pressure percentage,
and they're dead last in the league by a large
margin in blitzing. So they're doing what they want to
(09:16):
do in terms of defending the pass by getting pass
rush without the blitz. But on the perimeter, on the edges,
they can use some work right now in the bye week,
especially with Lamar Jackson coming up against them. That's going
to be a place you figure the Ravens will attack
Cincinnati for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
How do we feel about the current level of play?
The Bengals are getting from their linebackers.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Well, as after mentioned, it's, you know, it's still not great.
I think, you know, I, as we've said all along,
you know, that it's funny because all the guys we
talked about all summer long, like the Bobby Wagner's, et cetera,
those guys still don't have homes.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
It's not like they were in high demand or anything.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
So I suppose they could still pull one of those
guys in for a little skull session, but generally speaking, I.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Mean, I think, you know, they've gotten better. Demetrius Knight
and Barry Carter are better than they were last year.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
I mean, I think the original sin maybe was thinking
that Logan Wilson was going to be the centerpiece of
your defense. And then you had to get rid of
him because he was so bad halfway through the season.
And then you forced the linebackers into playing more than
they should have. And, you know, we all know what's
happened since then.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
They're better.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
They've taken, you know, small steps forward. And it's only
been five games into their second season. It's still not great,
but I think we all agree they've been better.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Than they were last year.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
And, you know, sort of overall, when you have, you know,
big money going to your offense and to several players
on your defense right now, well spent with Dexter Lawrence
and Boye Mappe, for example, so far, you're going to have,
you know, positions and units on your team that are
not lesser than, they're going to be certainly less pricey than.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
And sometimes you have to take the good with the
bad when it comes to that.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
You're going to have elements of your team that are
not as good.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
As the others.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
And the linebackers are certainly a portion of that right now.
But I think you're seeing improvement. They're not actively killing
the team on a week-to-week basis.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
That's faint praise perhaps, but it's better than it was
last year for sure.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Does the CFL still have the goal post on the
front of the end zone where guys can run into it?
Speaker 4 (11:17):
I'm not sure about that. I know they have the goal.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
The end zone itself is like 20 yards long or.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
15 yards long. It's a supersized end zone.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
The NFL is always looking for ways to artificially bump
up offensive numbers.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
That could be an element they could steal from Canada.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Basically, taking anything from Canada is good. I know they're
not a uh, our best friends in Washington right now, but, uh,
certainly from the CFL, I'm all in favor of taking, uh,
any elements of the game, moving the, uh, having the pad,
the wide receivers go after pass and be in motion,
multiple guys in motion and heading toward the line of
scrimmage before the snap.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
That's all good. You know, and it wouldn't feel quite
so clunky.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Maybe I'm not going to say all the guys can
be moving around before the snap.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Might try to add the entertainment value, bump it up
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah. I, for folks who haven't watched the CFL game, it's, uh,
It can be quite wild. We'll talk again next week.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Robert, thanks so much.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
I look forward to it. Enjoy the bye week, everyone.
Mo Egger News
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